March 2015 Washington D.C. edition by India Currents

The Art of Shaming by Rupande Mehta

Bountiful Balinese Cuisine by Vivienne Kruger

Sheesh! So Much Bakshish! by Kalpana Mohan

INDIA CURRENTS D.C.Edition

Celebrating 28 Years of Excellence

Indian theater in America by Sujit Saraf march 2015 • vol. 28 , no .11 • www. indiacurrents.com

Are You One of Those? Late one snowy evening, three girls and three boys were sitting in a New York dorm room casually conversing over insomnia cookies. All was cozy till the boys, in a burst of camaraderie, began to share what parts of the female anatomy they preferred. One of the girls warned that the conversation had begun to make her uncomfortable. To which, one of the boys turned to her and asked, “Oh, are you one of those?” On discussing the incident later with the girls, two of whom are my daughters, I gathered their indignation at the boys’ remarks. They felt that the boys had trampled over gender boundaries by fetishizing women’s bodies and then compounded their miscalculations by slapping a “pseudo-alienating” label on them. The youth have their own dialog and often their casual speak is an interpretation of the punch lines they encounter along hallways that they traverse most frequently. It is more than likely that the boys did not mean what they said maliciously, but merely to provoke a reaction. What is surprising is that they had not expected the reaction they received. This situation gave rise to many questions in my mind. How do young men and women experience gender? How much has changed since the advent of women’s rights?

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How should we navigate the complex currents of other, them and those, words of distance and disregard? It is disconcerting to believe that the views of the young men in the situation cannot be modified. Or that outrage, while warranted, is the only reaction possible for women. The New York interaction concluded that evening when one of the girls remarked: “Shouldn’t everyone be one of those?” Nicely put! Just as actress Patricia Arquette did in her Oscar 2015 speech, it’s critical to seize our moments. It does not matter if those moments are in front of the world or facing three young men who are still negotiating ideas of equality and inclusion. In order to turn the corner on eliminating the label of feminism, it seems to me that we must make the argument of feminism as inviting, engaging and available as patriarchy. Let’s say it now and say it again, without the noise of anger: Yes, we are one of those.

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Deadline: 20th of every month March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 1

2 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

INDIA CURRENTS March 2015 • vol 28 • no 11

PERSPECTIVES 1 | EDITORIAL Are You One of Those? By Jaya Padmanabhan

Washington, D.C. Edition

LIFESTYLE

www.indiacurrents.com

Find us on

27 | RELATIONSHIP DIVA Cheesy Pick-Up Lines By Jasbina Ahluwalia

6 | A THOUSAND WORDS Cutting the Umbilical Cord By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

28 | BOOKS Reviews of Geek Sublime and A Moment Comes By Raj C. Oza, Hemlata Vasavada

8 | IMMIGRATION What Obama’s Immigration Action Means for Indian Americans By Prerna Lal

31 | FINANCE Energy Sector Poised for Revival? By Rahul Varshneya

10 | PERSPECTIVE Dadaji’s Easy Chair By Sunita Upadhyayula

34 | MUSIC Stringing and Connecting By Priya Das

17 | SCIENCE Sounding the Alarm on Artificial Intelligence By P. Mahadevan 20 | FEATURE Guilty of Walking While Brown By R. Benedito Ferrao 22 | VIEWPOINT The Art of Shaming By Rupande Mehta 24 | OPINION Waiting for 2050 By Sarita Sarvate 36 | YOUTH Then Where You Are From? By Sagaree Jain 46 | ON INGLISH Sheesh! So Much Bakshish! By Kalpana Mohan 48 | THE LAST WORD Am I a Goddess or a Crone? By Sarita Sarvate

12 | Art or Activism? Indian Theater in America By Sujit Saraf

37 | TAX TALK Paying Rent for the Home Office By Rita Bhayani 38 | RECIPES Bountiful Balinese Cuisine By Vivienne Kruger

9 | Commentary Fifty Shades of Why?

42 | HEALTHY LIFE Homeopathy for Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome By Daxa Vaishnav

By Priya Das

45 | DEAR DOCTOR Lost in Thought By Alzak Amlani

32 | Films Reviews of The Second Best Marigold Hotel and Baby

DEPARTMENTS 4 | 16 | 18 | 30 | 47 |

By Aniruddh Chawda

Letters to the Editor Ask a Lawyer About Town Popular Articles Bits and Tweets

43 | Travel Love and Lord Krishna in Mathura

WHAT’S CURRENT 4o | Cultural Calendar

By Kavita Kanan Chandra March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 3

letters to the editor

Stand Up and Speak Out

I completely concur with Sarita Sarvate’s stance concerning Charlie Hebdo (Was Charlie Hebdo Funny? India Currents, February 2015). Bravo for standing up and speaking out. I just want to clarify that 1.6 billion Muslims, about 23% of the world’s population, can hardly be referred to as one of the “minority ethnic groups.” By the way, there are about 7.2 billion people on this globe of whom only 2.2 billion are Christians. Andrea Gleason, San Carlos CA Whether Charlie Hebdo cartoons are funny or not is ultimately to be decided by readers and subscribers of the magazine. The protest over killings of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists was not because Sarita Sarvate did not find them funny, but because cartoonists were killed for drawing cartoons that offended some people. While it is always desirable to be sensitive to other people’s views and feelings, it is equally important that one should be able to freely express their opinions without any fear of violent repercussions and that was not the case in the murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. Sarvate herself offers examples where people’s sensitivities were hurt, but their sensitivities were soothed by peaceful actions in an orderly manner and not by violent confrontations. She brings up the issue of racist comments of one NBA owner. People hurt by these comments did not riot in the streets or kill the owner, but raised the issue with NBA Commissioner and the owner was punished in accordance with NBA rules. She also talks about a recent exhibition in France which depicted French atrocities during the Algerian Freedom Struggle. While some Frenchmen were offended by the depiction of these atrocities, there were no violent protests in the streets and the organizers of the exhibition were not attacked violently. Sarvate either fails to appreciate this difference or chooses to ignore that by trying to question the humor in those cartoons. Perhaps Sarvate herself is confused about the issue. She questions whether or not it is good art, but does not answer the question of why the cartoonists were killed for their opinions or art? Hemendra Acharya, email

Desire in Many Guises

In the cover story, (Rules of Desire, India Currents, February 2015) Nirmala Nataraj looks at desire as only sexual desire. I believe 4 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

that desire comes in many guises: desire to eat, play, walk, socialize, or even go to sleep. We, as human beings, are full of desires for things or beings, and when these desires do not get fulfilled, we get angry and anger leads to delusion and ultimately delusion leads to forgetfulness and our mental destruction, according to Shri Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita. After reading the February issue of India Currents, I have to ask: Where is the rage of the so called “peace-loving” Muslims or Islamists for the beheading of the two Japanese journalists and the live burning of the pilot from Jordan? There is an article on PK, the movie in which Aamir Khan acts, and the movie attacks the Hindu religion. I am just completely surprised that Aamir Khan does not act in movies where the teachings of the mullas in Madrasa schools are showcased. Mekhala, email

One-Sided?

In my opinion, Shashi Tharoor’s article (Modi’s Dilemma, India Currents, February 2015) is one sided and biased. How come I never found any Congress bashing articles in your publication in the last 15 years, when Sonia was in charge of India? Prakash Deshmukh, San Jose, CA

A Checkered Background

Many interesting questions are raised in Jessica Faleiro’s article (Well Then, Where is Your Home? India Currents, February 2015) Indeed where is home? Or better still, or worse depending on how you take it, where are you from? Because I live between Canada and the United States, my answer is very simple: if I am asked this question in America, my home is in the United States or the city I live in. If this question is asked in Canada, the same principal applies. I come from America when I am in Canada and vice versa when in America. My background is checkered like Jessica’s. I was born in Nairobi, Kenya; moved to England and then Scotland after which I went to Canada. After almost thirty years in

SPEAK YOUR MIND!

Have a thought or opinion to share? Send us an original letter of up to 300 words, and include your name, address, and phone number. Letters are edited for clarity and brevity. Write India Currents Letters, 1885 Lundy Ave. Suite 220, San Jose 95131 or email letters@indiacurrents.com.

Canada, I moved to the United States about fifteen years back. My parents had migrated a long time back from the Middle East to the then British India, and on to Africa. So I am British by birth, Canadian and American by life. I must add that it is extremely rare that I get asked this question, What are you and where is your home? And then only during general conversations on travel. The article by Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan (Notes on a First Winter, India Currents, February 2015) is another very well written article. I enjoyed reading it a lot. Particularly since I have enjoyed two winters in Winnipeg, Manitoba, almost thirty winters in Calgary where the cold spells get broken by chinooks from over the Rockies. I have also enjoyed the humid cold in Vista, California for nearly fifteen years. All this after growing up in Nairobi, Kenya where it is a beautiful summer all year around, almost. Ragini, where did you learn about whiteouts, black ice, and what are chinook winds? On a serious note, I enjoy reading India Currents and you write very well. AkramDin Hencie, website

American Hypocrisy?

Flags flying at half-mast; heads of State descending on Riyadh to honor King Saud who was arguably one of the greatest purveyors of terrorism in the world. President Obama praised Abdullah “as a force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.” What mind-boggling hypocrisy! I wonder how Raif Badawi and his family would respond to this. Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, a 10 years prison term and a one million Saudi Riyal fine for his temerity in voicing his opposition to the government’s authoritarian rule. He is still suffering from enormous pain after his first 50 lashes. How would Saudi women respond who are forced to be completely subservient to their menfolk? We sell billions in military weapons (some of which are routed to terrorists groups like ISIS) and provide them a military umbrella to ensure their continued rule. In 2010, WikiLeaks published U.S. diplomatic cables which identified Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups. In 2011 Saudi tanks rolled into neighboring Bahrain to crush the prodemocracy movement accompanied by a deafening silence form Washington. Like Israel, the Saudis relish the split between Congress and the White House and are eager to torpedo the rapprochement with Iran. It is time we re-calibrate our much touted values that we flaunt so much to the world. Clearly our addiction to oil has trumped our concern for human right and the rule of law. Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA

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March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 5

a thousand words

Cutting the Umbilical Cord By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

friend once told me that the hardest thing about sending her young daughter to daycare was realizing that she, the child, was having a wide range of independent experiences—eating, playing, sleeping, crying, laughing—that she, the mother, would never know about, never see, and never share. The child was her own person now, forging relationships with classmates and teachers, making mistakes and learning the consequences of her actions, and developing preferences, routines, and habits. For most new parents, cutting the umbilical cord is just the first of many acts of severing ties with a child whose destiny is to become his or her own individuated self. It’s an intensely symbolic act, whether undertaken in an adrenaline and sweat-drenched haze, with shaky hands, or by a nurse-proxy. Even those who refuse to cut the cord, who opt for something called a “lotus birth,” which is premised on the principle of “umbilical nonseverance,” eventually have to acknowledge the child’s autonomy. The cord dries up and falls off. The child moves on. We’ve been sending our daughter, Mrinalini, to daycare for about four months now, which is another form, another stage, of umbilicalcord cutting. We drop Mrinalini off between 9 and 9:30 and pick her up between 4 and 5, depending on the day. This is the minimal amount of time that we—two working parents—require in order to feel like we’re doing justice to our research, teaching, and selves as fulltime graduate student (me) and junior faculty (my husband). For a number of reasons—the flexibility of our respective jobs being one—Mrinalini didn’t start going to daycare until she was nearly eighteen months old. Until then, we did a complicated juggling act with part-time nannies and alternating morning and afternoon shifts. Other friends with kids, all in daycares or nanny-shares, thought we were crazy to keep her home, to try to take care of her ourselves while also attempting to forge academic careers. I admit: I felt a little righteous about not exposing my child to the cesspool of germs that is daycare. I admit, too, that I felt a little competitive with my mother, who worked part-time throughout my childhood, which meant she was always there when we came home from school, always ready with a home-cooked meal, always with us when we woke up. We never went to daycare. I think it was unthinkable. In fact, my brother and I never even had baby-sitters. (I remember only one, a popsicle-thieving teenager from the neighborhood, who seemed always to be raiding our freezer.) In retrospect, I wonder what my parents were thinking. How did my mother, who had just years before been a Ph.D. student in English, spend all that time with us without going absolutely raving mad? Little children are amazing, but they’re also exhausting, and few people of my generation are about to sacrifice their adult lives to stay at home, tethered to their children by the guilt-ridden equivalent of an unsevered umbilical cord. Not to mention the simple fact that the “traditional” division of labor in which one parent (doesn’t matter which one) makes home while the other wins bread is not really a feasible option for families in this economy. So outside childcare it is, for many of us. We’ve got Mrinalini in one of those expensive, yuppie daycares with organic, locally-sourced 6 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

Little children are amazing, but they’re also exhausting, and few people of my generation are about to sacrifice their adult lives to stay at home, tethered to their children by the guilt-ridden equivalent of an unsevered umbilical cord. (when possible; this is Chicago, after all) catering for little people who’d be just as happy on a diet of cheerios and Kraft mac ’n’ cheese. The kids snack on zucchini bread; they finger-paint and have dance parties. Mrinalini comes home to teach us yoga poses (dolphin is a favorite) that she has mastered at school. She is learning a lot: numbers, colors, letters, Spanish, sign language. She loves her friends; last month, she made Valentines for all the kids in her class and distributed them with genuine glee and affection. There’s no believer like a convert. If ever I was ambivalent about allowing my child to be taken care of by someone else, I’m not anymore. Daycare is great. Plus, to two people who’ve been in academic settings for basically our entire lives, our particular daycare looks and feels a lot like a school. School, we’re comfortable with. School, we can wrap our heads around. School, we love. The best part, of course (actually, the only thing that matters), is that Mrinalini thinks so, too. This morning, a Saturday, she woke up with big, wet eyes, saying, “I wanna school-day!” The thought of an entire weekend at home with her parents literally brought the girl to tears. Of course, it can be hard, too. In little and big ways. Hard when she falls down, and I have to sign an “accident report” when I go to pick her up, and her cheek is still smarting red from the accident, and somebody else has wiped her tears. Hard—in a good way—when I’m driving her home, and she starts singing a song to which only she and her friends know the words. In the second volume of My Struggle, Karl Ove Knausgaard reflects on his daughter, Vanja’s, independence at barely three years of age. “But most of all she loved to play with other children,” he observes, noting how Vanja delights in bringing friends, like Benjamin, home to play. One day, Benjamin’s parents tell Karl Ove how much their little son likes his little daughter. It’s the sort of thing I tell the parents of Mrinalini’s classmates all the time. “Mrinalini is always talking about Caroline,” I say. “Mrinalini just adores Raffi.” “[Benjamin] said you were the nicest girl in the nursery,” Karl Ove tells Vanja. Then: “I had never seen her filled with such light. She was glowing with happiness. I knew that neither [her mother] nor I would be able to say anything to make her react like that, and I understood with the immediate clarity of an insight that she was not ours. Her life was utterly her own.” n Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 7

immigration

What Obama’s Immigration Action Means for Indian Americans By Prerna Lal

hen President Obama announced in November 2014 that he would use his executive power to help many immigrants stay in the United States with their families, we immediately heard about the positive impact that this change would have on Latinos and their families. It was well-reported that up to five million immigrants would benefit from the President’s bold action, but little was shared about the impact on the 400,000 Asian immigrants, including South Asians, who also received relief under this executive action. Two of the new programs announced—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA)—will allow some immigrants to live and work legally in the United States in three-year increments without fear of deportation and separation from their loved ones. Undocumented immigrants from India are among the largest beneficiaries of this executive action, with an estimated 171,000 people eligible to benefit from these two programs. Many Indian American families are unable to access immigration options available through the family-based legal immigration system because they are unlawfully present in the United States, and require a waiver for this technical violation before they can be granted lawful status. Generally, the waiver requires that applicants undergo prolonged family separation by going back to U.S. consulates in their countries of origin without any guarantee that a waiver would be granted. Once outside the United States, applicants who fail to get a waiver trigger the 10 year bar for unlawful presence and can no longer immigrate lawfully. To remedy this, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will expand an existing program that allows certain family members of lawful permanent residents and United States citizens to apply for the waiver and gain approval in the United States before they have to depart to attend visa interviews at U.S. consulates abroad. Thousands of Indian citizens also stand to benefit from the changes made to the employment-based immigration system. Per8 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

A Creative Commons Image

Undocumented immigrants from India are among the largest beneficiaries of this executive action ... sons on H-1B visas would soon be allowed greater flexibility to change jobs without losing legal status, which would reduce the uncertainty and fears that prevent many qualified foreign nationals from seeking better job opportunities and promotions. Additionally, the DHS is finalizing new rules to give certain H-1B spouses, who are on H-4 visas, employment authorization to work in the United States, a step that will benefit thousands of Indian women, who are currently unable to work outside the home in the United States despite the fact that they have legal status. Moreover, under the President’s plan, DHS will expand options for foreign-born entrepreneurs to immigrate to the United States which should also benefit Indian investors. Taken together, these ongoing changes provide more financial security to South Asian immigrants and their families in the United States. The changes will also benefit many young Indian students who come to the United States to pursue their education and acquire the skills they need to advance their careers. Approximately 79% of Indians on F and M student visas pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

(STEM). The Obama Administration plans to propose changes to expand and strengthen the existing Optional Practical Training (OPT) program in order to allow these students to remain in the United States for a longer period to receive the skills they need to further their education. These executive actions are welcome changes to the broken immigration system but they leave out many, including undocumented immigrants who do not have family members in the United States that can sponsor them, previously deported family members, persons with minor criminal records, mothers and children in detention, and community members who are still at risk of deportation. The action also failed to address a priority issue for Asian Americans: the decadeslong visa backlog. More than 1.8 million people from Asian countries, especially the Philippines, India, Vietnam and China, are waiting 20-plus years for a family-sponsored visa to unite with loved ones in the United States. While Congress has to ultimately act on some sort of immigration package, as it turns out, under existing laws, the President can continue to take broad executive action to provide some relief for those trapped in the family-visa backlog. As such, the White House has established a taskforce to study what changes can be made to the legal immigration system administratively. President Obama’s action on immigration is a historic victory for immigrants and their allies. It is the result of courageous individuals who fasted, prayed, stopped buses and organized to pressure the President to stop deportations and otherwise take action to reform our broken immigration system. Our fight is not over. We continue to work with the Obama Administration to ensure that those who are left out of these reforms can be helped by less aggressive detention and deportation policies, and modernizing the legal immigration system. n Prerna Lal is an immigration staff attorney and the 2014-2016 NAPABA Law Foundation Partners and In-House Counsel Community Law Fellow at Advancing Justice | AAJC based in Washington D.C. She can be reached at plal@advancingjustice-aajc.org.

commentary

Fifty Shades of Why? By Priya Das

o, this is not a review of the book Fifty Shades of Grey nor is it of the movie that was released in February 2015. This is about my sheer disbelief that a movie was made at all. (For the innocent, here is a catchup: Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic/sadomasochistic romance book, part of a trilogy that has sold 100M copies world wide.) I was curious about the book, so I did attempt to read it. It was a hopeless exercise not because I was shocked by it, but because, it was super unidimensional and a cognitive overload to continue reading it. Why would anybody want to read a few hundred pages of extreme-erotica? Why would the female lead in the book agree to such a binding (literally) contract? Why would a person in the Free World want to explore and discover her sexuality through an initiation of sorts? Will the last book balance it out or make it worse? Why does it need a trilogy to reverse the roles? I was not the least bit interested in finding out. And I was not alone. “I read the reviews and was not at ALL interested in reading the book. It seemed boring and I cannot understand how somebody would enjoy continued subjugation,” says Srividhya from Palo Alto, California asserting, “I will not be watching the movie.” Someone who has read the book and seen the movie, and who prefers to stay anonymous, declared “I liked the book better, because it’s from her point of view. The film does not allow access to her interior dialogue.” Speaking of, there have been movies made about people expanding their experiential palette through sexual encounters, for example, the Kim Basinger movie, 9 and ½ Weeks. And that is exactly my point, we have gotten used to watching blatant acts on the big screen, complete nudity, people using the bathroom, bloody cadavers, ... Fifty Shades will get the masses used to another level altogether in what is essentially a private act. There’s the whole next wave to consider too: The other two books in the trilogy, YouTube,

On Demand and Netflix maybe. Once it’s a movie, exposure has only just begun. On opening day, news reports had the terror attacks and previews of the movie back-to-back. Was the irony of this lost in print? Why has violence become the theme in our society: politically, culturally (honorkillings), in our homes (domestic violence), and now sexually too? We are a race with adaptive DNA and cumulative intelligence that gets passed from generation to generation. That’s the reason we have survived longer than many other species. If we celebrate the enjoyment of violence by making a mainstream movie, what then happens to future generations? Will more of them be genetically inclined to impart or enjoy violence? Yes, I understand that both parties are consenting in Fifty Shades of Grey, so it’s not really “violence.” But I’d rather that such stretching of the envelope stay as a media outlier! Doesn’t mainstreaming extreme erotica as a sensual act glamorize it, much like showing the actors smoking?

Intellectually speaking, it is possible to explain sado-masochism. To somebody who is into sex as a form of excitement, inspiration, relaxation, or simply as a form of getting adrenalin-high, extreme forms of it are possibly a natural progression. Like extreme adventure sport, it could be an evolutionary outcome for those who have sex as the sole pursuit and goal in their personal lives. My question is, why not just let it stay in the private domain; why drag it into the public domain? It is NOT a rite of sexual passage that must be celebrated en masse! Let’s explore yet another dimension. Sadly, there is a notion believed by both sexes, that women like “macho,” like the idea of a dominating man and that the prospect to dominate turns on men. But is that nature or something that a patriarchal society has nurtured over centuries? In any case, I challenge it. Has anybody stopped to think that the real turn-on for women is when the macho man shows his sensitive side to her? That the actuality of domination is a turn-off? Sure, there will be a percentage of both men and women who will enjoy this movie because of their own sensibilities, but WHY has it been unleashed in every neighborhood theater? Why was this movie made? To make money? There is enough controversy to meet this goal. The story needs to be told? I don’t think so. Commentary on our times or a precursor to the future? Definitely not. Get audience to have a good time? Well, here are some comments from Indian women who watched the movie: “He has all the power. Why does only she have to sign a contract?” “Made me think about my daughter ... keep away from these sick guys!” “Yuck. Disgusting. Porn. I had no idea what the film was about. I just came because all my girlfriends told me not to be a prude. I did not like it.” It is astounding that this movie is considered to be a “chick-flick.” n Priya Das writes about extraordinary nuances of everyday life, reporting on stories of personal courage and uncommon experiences.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 9

perspective

Dadaji’s Easy Chair By Sunita Upadhyayula

lmost 26 years ago, I landed on the steps of my grandparents’ house, my luggage in tow. My dad had been transferred to a rural area that lacked a good school. So I was to stay with my dad’s parents until mine moved to a town with a better school. I had visited my grandparents many times before that point of time, of course. Many summer vacations, many festivals were spent at their house. But I always had my parents with me and I didn’t have to pay much attention to my grandfather then. I only remembered that he was a strict person, a man of very few words, a man whose grown up children spoke to him in, what seemed to me, frightened voices. The only memo I got from my dad was that there shouldn’t be any complaints about me. I had no clue what the following days, months and years would be like. The first few days, I exchanged very few words with my grandfather, Tatagaru, as we grandchildren called him, not sure how to talk to him or what to talk to him about. One day, we were watching TV together and there was an Amul ad, in which a kid, roughly my age, comes up to his grandpa and says “Dadaji, badminton?” Tatagaru, Dadaji, they all mean the same thing, but still Dadaji sounded very appealing to me. Would addressing him in a different language make any difference, I wondered. Dadaji meant grandpa in Hindi, but my grandfather didn’t speak Hindi. For some reason, maybe the way the kid in the ad seemed to bond with his grandpa, the word Dadaji appealed to me. Hesitantly, I addressed my own grandfather as Dadaji. He responded with a bright smile. Ice broken! From that day on, he became my Dadaji—a very approachable, huggable, lovable grandpa. He woke me up every morning; checked to see if my bicycle tires needed air, or any other repairs; got my bicycle down from the porch, and held it ready for me. He stayed at the gate until I turned the street corner; asked me to explain my lessons to him; checked my homework and tests, and analyzed my handwriting. Any time there was a new pen advertised on TV, I’d bug him to get me one. He carefully put his money wrapped in a plastic bag in his front pocket, got out his two-wheeler and we went all the way to the town center to buy the newest pen on the market. When my 10 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

A Creative Commons Image grandma went out of town, he even cooked for me: rice, rasam (soup) and a vegetable. The vegetable dish would be either potato, okra or eggplant, fried crisp. No surprises there! I ended up staying two years with my grandparents, over the course of which I collected countless memories. My most vivid memory of Dadaji is of him sitting in his easy chair, devouring The Hindu newspaper endto-end. The fabric on the chair turned black where his head rested, but he never replaced that chair. On Sundays, I would race him to his easy chair and refuse to get up from it. Dadaji read The Hindu religiously. It was thanks to him that I first read Reader’s Digest, my most favorite magazine to date. He was a hard-working guy even in retirement. There was a schedule to be followed each day without fail. His source of pride was his garden. He used a tape measure and a level to make sure the plants were all evenly spaced and growing in a straight line. When I eventually moved to the United States, I wrote to him as much as I could. I took care to use my best handwriting and double-checked my grammar and spelling. It wasn’t because I was afraid he would judge me, but because I wanted him to be proud of me. He always wrote back in detail, also telling me that my handwriting was getting to be lazy, that my S’s should stand straight.

The first time he came to our house, he went to work in our backyard and planted roses. He investigated our lawn, taught us how to fertilize and water it. As the years went on, the letters became fewer. I got very emotional once when he wrote that he no longer had the right to comment on my handwriting because his own was getting messier as he got older. Dadaji lived to be 92, saw all his grandkids get married, met his great-grandkids and died peacefully. What I learned from him in those two years are lessons that he never sat down to teach me. I think of him fondly when I work in my own yard and realize that he would probably disapprove of the plants not growing in one straight line. When the persimmon tree yields a lot of fruit, I think of how proud he would be. While handwriting these days is rare, when I do pick up a pen, I wonder what he would say about the state of my handwriting. And when I sit on the recliner to read the month’s Readers Digest, I picture Dadaji in his easy chair, content with his newspaper. n Sunita Upadhyalula lives in the Bay Area, Thanks to Dadaji, she continues to approach people with a smile. She still struggles to get her plant to listen to her and grow in an orderly fashion.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 11

cover

Art or Activism? Indian theater in America By Sujit Saraf

In 2004, I staged a play that spoofed the Bhagavad Gita. Having studied the Gita closely for years, it had occurred to me that its subtle argument had been clothed in a theism that was completely unnecessary. I set out to correct the problem with a play that re-wrote the Gita, first by killing Krishna, then by having an atheist recite 16 new lines that captured the main argument without the religiosity that, to my mind, confounds the book.

he reaction was predictable. A professor at San Jose State in California sent around an angry letter, calling us “communists” and exhorting the world to put an end to our blasphemy in ways he was careful not to specify. A campaign was launched. Protesters gathered in the parking lot to hand out flyers saying “do not watch this play because it insults Krishna.” There were heated arguments in the lobby. The police were called. The protesters dispersed. The play was staged. Our audience went home. We went on to do other plays. Our activism, as well as our protesters’, sparkled and died like a shooting star. I cite this incident because the question of how seriously we should engage with “the 12 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

issues” keeps coming up in my own theater company, Naatak. A Spanish-language magazine once asked me what we thought of the raging immigration questions of the day. Pete Wilson’s Prop 187 had recently made news, as had demands for amnesty and border fences. What was Naatak’s opinion? she asked. It has none, I answered, because ours is a theater company and not an activist group. Is there a difference between the two? she asked. There is.

Rousing Passions

Theater activism is as old as theater, and is often conflated with it. I have indeed been a theater activist, of a sort. During the Nar-

mada Bachao Andolan days in India, there was no dearth of street plays by activists. We gathered a crowd in the street by beating a drum and then played a middle-class family extolling the promise of the Sardar Sarovar dam—it would irrigate this many hectares, bring that much prosperity and create this many jobs, and the objection of a “few tribals” who would be displaced was mere posturing. Then we’d be informed that our own house was to be demolished to make way for a new highway, and we would rise up in vehement opposition. The point of the play was that many supporters of the Sardar Sarovar dam were NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)-style hypocrites. It brought cheers from the audience. For that moment,

they were united in opposition to the dam, however much their passions cooled after they went their way. But of course that is not the whole story. Anyone who dwelt on the matter seriously would have to confront the nuances of the issue, such as the fact that all “development” lay more heavily on some than others and perhaps the solution lay in fair compensation to the ones affected more, combined with the near certainty that the compensation given to poor tribals would be unfairly low. I don’t presume to know the answer, but I do know that a street-play could not begin to capture the complexities of the problem, let alone approach a solution. At best, it highlighted the problem in a simple-minded manner, roused a few passions that were quickly cooled when its casual audience dispersed, and struck a small, very small, blow for fairness.

Shock and Awe

This suggests a simple fact: activism is not art and activists aren’t artists. Activism has no room for nuance because it seeks to effect change through shock and awe, and an examination of both sides of the coin will dilute the activist’s commitment to her cause. Art, on the other hand, cannot afford to ignore nuance. It despises simple-minded shock and awe and is quite comfortable with half-loyalties and half-truths even if they render it toothless as an agent of social change. However effective The Communist Manifesto may have been in rousing the masses, it was not art. And so it is for theater—bad plays are often written with good intentions. With this in mind, we chose art over activism in our theatrical productions. To some extent, the choice was made for us because of where we stage our plays and whom we show them to. The limited impact of Indian theater activism is further reduced once it is removed from India. When the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya in December, 1992, I was in Massachusetts. A long meeting was held at the university by students and professors from India. Essays were written in local newspapers about “Hindu fanatics in India.” In the evening we took out a candlelight procession in the town square, marching silently in coats and mittens and caps, holding placards denouncing the demolition and shaking snow off our boots. Some passersby stopped, some did not. None knew who

we were, why we were marching, or where in the world Ayodhya was. And it did not matter. For all its theatrics, our activism was a harmless storm in a far-away tea cup. The issues that animated us for a day mattered not to our audience, and barely mattered to ourselves. When we staged Vijay Tendulkar’s Kamla, a blogger wrote that Naatak “tackles sex trafficking.” When we staged Asghar Wajahat’s Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai, some said we were “tackling” the post-partition violence in 1947 India. When we staged Sakharam Binder, some thought we were making a feminist point.

Photo Credit: Swagato Basumallick

This suggests a simple fact: activism is not art and activists aren’t artists.

From time to time, theater companies should provoke, incite, highlight an inconvenient truth as long as their activism is understood to be transient, which means it is not activism at all. The Presumption of Influence

In all these cases, we were doing nothing of the sort. It would be silly and hypocritical to pretend that theater companies like ours had suddenly woken up to these causes and were exercised by them, after having given them little thought for much of their lives; it would be presumptuous to claim that a simple play, staged once and forgotten promptly, constituted an act that might change society for the better, or change it at all. Even the Dandi March, after successfully focusing the attention of millions on the salt tax, had to be followed by tortuous negotiations between Irwin and Gandhi to mean anything at all. Our plays were but feeble imitations of the Dandi March, and we had no desire or interest in following up. In September this year, we will stage a play set amidst the widows of Vrindavan

A Scene from Kamla

who find their lives upended by a sudden announcement that they will be repatriated to their homes in Bengal, in a misguided effort to “uplift their lot.” The play uses as its starting point a recent comment by Hema Malini, once Bollywood’s Dream Girl and now a Member of Parliament from Mathura. Visiting a widow-home in Vrindavan soon after winning the election, she said that there was over-crowding among the widows, and it would be nice if the states where they come from, primarily Bengal, could make arrangements to keep them there. The uproar that followed was vicious, partisan and short-lived. For about two weeks, the widows became everyone’s cause célèbre. They had the right to live in Vrindavan or anywhere

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March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 13

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on it for their livelihood, and whose “causes” must necessarily change from one play to the next. Indeed, a guiding principle for an Indian theater company in America can be stated quite simply: think small.

A Natural Speak

A Scene from Sakharam Binder

else in India, said assorted NGOs. They had been coming to Vrindavan for 500 years, said activists, so who was this newbie Hema Malini to question their residency? Left-wing politicians and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee competed with each other in expressing concern. Some widows were taken to Kolkata to see Durga Puja and to meet the chief minister. Then the news cycle turned over and the widows were consigned back to their five-century oblivion. Now, when we stage the play, some will think that we have “taken up the cause” of Vrindavan widows. This would be utterly hypocritical of us. Who are we to presume to do anything for these women when hundreds of activists are hard at work in Vrindavan? And where were we for 20 years while these activists were toiling away? Will we still be taking up this cause after our play has been staged and the next play is being planned? But of course not. Like all our plays, this is a work of art, not an instance of theater activism.

Think Small

This is not to say that I believe in “art for art’s sake”—or the kind of artist mocked by Sartre as “not satisfied with being useless, but wanting to trample on all utilitarian work.” From time to time, theater companies should provoke, incite, highlight an inconvenient truth as long as their activism is understood to be transient, which means it is not activism at all. So, when we staged Mataji, our send-up of Ammachi, the “hugging saint,” we weren’t launching a campaign against her empire of infantilism; we were merely pointing out what was obvious to us but somehow not to others. This retreat from big pretensions is essential for an Indian theater company whose themes are often drawn from the other side of the world, whose members do not depend

There is another pressing A Wikipedia image question that Indian theater must answer before it spreads its wings in America: which languages A street play (nukkad natak) in the Dharavi slums should we stage our plays in? of Mumbai. During my theater days in India, it was fashionable to do American and British plays, in English—we staged Sam Shepard’s to America to be truly ours? True West and Tennessee Williams’s A Street-

There is the additional challenge of finding “our scripts” when we don’t really know what that means— is a historical Hindi play “our play” or ... must it be transplanted all the way to America to be truly ours? car Named Desire, neither realizing nor being told that, as Indians who had never left India, we could not possibly make sense of such stories, nor play those roles with any authenticity. I believe that a play should always be staged in its “natural language,” by which I mean the language its characters speak offstage. This is not always easy to figure out. Why was Girish Karnad’s The Dreams of Tipu Sultan being staged in languages like Kannada and English? I asked him this over tea at his home in Bangalore. Tipu himself would have spoken Dakhani, he replied, an Urdu-like language heavily influenced by Kannada, Telugu, Konkani and Marathi. Karnad could have written the play in Dakhani—he knows it well—but chose Kannada and English partly because the source material for the play, drawn from notes kept by a professor in Britain, was already in English. So it isn’t always clear what the natural language of a play is, aside from the challenge of finding scripts that meet this narrow definition. There is the additional challenge of finding “our scripts” when we don’t really know what that means—is a historical Hindi play “our play” or a play set in modern Delhi? Or, must it be transplanted all the way

The Future of Indian Theater

After 20 years of staging plays, I wonder: what might happen to Indian theater in America in the next 20 years? There are Indian theater companies, large and small, all over the country. Which of these will be around in 20 years? When San Jose Repertory Theatre collapsed last year, James Reber, its founder, cited changing demographics as one of the reasons. When the Rep was founded in 1980, said Reber, San Jose was 74.1 percent Caucasian and 22.3 percent Latino, and its Asian population was miniscule. In 2010, the city was 28.7 percent Caucasian, 33.2 percent Latino and 31.7 percent Asian. This makes me wonder, perversely, if the same storms that sank the Rep might fill the sails of Indian theater companies in America and if they might evolve into mainstream organizations. If they do, will they be able to avoid the pitfalls of professional theater? After all, there are reasons other than demographics—such as an over-bloated budget—for the Rep’s demise. Laurence Olivier once said that acting was “not quite the occupation of an adult.” Twenty years from now, I hope Indian theater in America remains stubbornly in the Brahmacharya station in life, refusing to grow up or get married or settle down, anticipating instead of reminiscing. As for the future Sannyasis of Indian theater, they could do worse than spend their days in an activity that is not quite the occupation of an adult. n Sujit Saraf is the founder and Artistic Director of NAATAK. Over the last 25 years, he has written 10 plays and directed more than 20. His novel The Peacock Throne (Sceptre, 2007) was nominated for the Encore Award in London, and his third novel, The Confession of Sultana Daku (Penguin, 2009), is being made into a motion picture.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 15

ask a lawyer

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iv) Not rent any land or buildings (except for where you now live, as long as you do not have a one-year lease or option to buy) v) Not owe more than $6,000 for debts acquired since the date you got married (called community obligations), not including car loans vi) Have less than $40,000 worth of property acquired during the marriage, not including cars vii) Not have separate property worth more than $40,000, not including cars viii) Agree that neither spouse will ever get spousal support ix) Have signed an agreement that divides your property (including your cars) and debts. In addition, if you are married, either you or your spouse must have lived in California for the last six months and in the county where you file for summary dissolution for the last three months. If you do not

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science

Sounding the Alarm on Artificial Intelligence By P. Mahadevan

n a fight between two robotic systems embedded with super computer drives, the human interventionist, as in the famed fable of the fox caught between two rams, eager to get a lick of fresh blood, gets annihilated. The robots, of course, can refuel themselves somehow from thin air, regenerate damaged parts and keep on fighting until the end of human civilization. So say the celebrities in their other role as doom and gloom predictors. Nobel laureates, William Shockley ( transistors) and James Watson (DNA molecular structure), decades ago, at the height of their popularities, proclaimed that the black population of the world is sub-human in intellectual development. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking proclaimed that the Higgs Boson would never be found. (He was reportedly disappointed when it was detected.) Hawking also predicted recently that the human race would be annihilated with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). There is luckily one commonality between all three. They were all specialists in something else. More recently, however, two prominent technologists with excellent credentials have also expressed alarm and alert signals over the matter: Bill Gates and Elon Musk. AI is the process by which we, humans, will develop a super computer system to mimic the human brain, the most advanced computer in the world. Theoretically, it can only approximate the capabilities of the brain at a given moment when the system design group has embedded all it knows into it. From the moment the design is frozen to start manufacture, it is an “advantage brain” in tennis jargon, because upgrades are being thought of already. The principal questions to consider are: whether the computer brain is able to retrain itself technically, to higher levels than those built in, and why would we design machines with the emotional flaws of us humans? To those of us who envisage a massive, weird looking robotic contraption threatening human civilization, I have bad news. One such device is now being tested in California. It is the Driverless Car, the brain child of Google. It is a robot all right in the configuration of a small car, the Toyota Prius. This commercially manufactured vehicle is modified with the addition of a major super computer, a laser range finder, four radars

The principal questions to consider are: whether the computer brain is able to retrain itself technically, to higher levels than those built in, and why would we design machines with the emotional flaws of us humans? to “see” way out in front, a GPS tracker and possibly a recording device, the equivalent to the Black Box in an aircraft. These driverless cars have apparently logged more than 190,000 road miles, including city streets, highways and mountainous roads. Other auto manufacturers are reported to have their own prototypes under tests. Very recently, a self-drive car, the A-7 Sportback by Audi completed a 550 mile trip from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas. More traffic accidents are caused by human error than anything else. Driver distractions such as texting, telephone, loud music, sleep deprivation, etc. None of these applies to driverless cars. Navigational aids are aplenty such as front and rear cameras, sensors for battery charge, tire pressure and so on. Imagine the traffic confusion in a downtown area if someone releases several hundred AI cars into the area! Questions to ask are: Do AI systems embedded with a brain, in parity with the best from humans, also have the ability to distinguish right from wrong? Will it be able to make the correct decision at a fork in the road more efficiently than humans? If so, could it also make the wrong decisions consistently? That would be like a criminal who repeatedly leaves a time bomb in the public square. The machines are not obviously criminals, but the men behind them could be. No wonder, Elon Musk calls for a universal regulatory oversight when this scenario develops. Regulatory oversight is a powerful weapon. In the early 1960s, General Motors (GM) built and sold a car model called the “Corvair” with a rear mounted engine. This

model was disastrous. The major activist to take on GM was Ralph Nader, who published a very popular book Unsafe at Any Speed to alert the public about this vehicle. The results are well known. The Corvair disappeared and the manufacturers started to get scrutiny. Nicholas Carr, in his new book: The Glass Cage identifies a form of anti-humanist technology. Its purpose will be to replace the human effort, not to enhance it. This will lead to more and more automation. He admits that to ensure human well-being, we may have to impose restrictions on the extent of technology as suggested by Elon Musk. Increased automation through the use of robots is the current process in manufacturing. Whether this has affected employment slots for humans is probably not clear yet. In the auto industry, for instance, it has done one thing for sure. Quality control has advanced appreciably. In the old days, the American auto was “put together.” Now, it is built. There is a distinction. But human input in design and development are responsible for this improvement. In general, automation calls for specific stimuli to trigger them. Human decisions are not made this way. The Martian robot rover Curiosity is on its own up there. But all of its moves are triggered by man/men from down under. If this argument is extrapolated to the limit of capability of the robotic system, I believe that the qualifier, Advantage Brain, persists. The fear of the unknown encourages us to expect the worst scenarios from any given system. With an abundance of caution and some trepidation, I feel that we are more prone to accept the worst scenario before thinking through to the reality. At different shades of grey below the arch bigot Archie, from the Archie Bunker TV series a few decades ago, we may all be alarmists and bigots. n P. Mahadevan is a retired scientist with a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics from the University of London, England. His professional work includes basic and applied research and program management for the Dept. of Defense. He taught Physics at the Univ. of Kerala, at Thiruvananthapuram. He does very little now, very slowly.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 17

Wharton India Economic Forum

ep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Punit Goenka, managing director and CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, were among the headliners at the 19th Wharton India Economic Forum, held at The Union League of Philadelphia on February 20 and 21. In her keynote address, Gabbard, the first Hindu American congresswoman, stressed the importance of business-to-business and people-to-people relationship in advancing US-India ties. The theme of this year’s conference was “India: Delivering the Dream.” Goenka, another keynote speaker, said a number of new initiatives by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have changed the business climate in India. “Widespread technological advances in the ecosystem and the digital experience driven mainly by aspects like digitization of cable industry, has brought a new mindset to make business—quicker, targeted, transparent, and collaborative,” he said. “This industry is certainly a sunrise sector for the nation’s economy. Proving its resilience to

Photo credit: Wharton India Economic Forum the world, the Indian M&E (media and entertainment) sector is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth.” Despite the snowstorm on the East Coast, this year’s Forum, an annual studentrun, India-focused conference hosted by the Wharton School of UPenn, attracted tremen-

dous interest among academics, businessmen, professionals and Indophiles. A popular feature of the Forum was a startup competition. The winner this year was Flintobox, which makes creative products that address developmental needs of children.n

How Well Do We Know Sikhs?

ost Americans know very little about Sikhs and many feel uncertain or anxious when in the presence of one, according to a study by Hart Research Associates, in conjunction with the National Sikh Campaign. Geoff Garin, President of Hart Research, and Gurwin Singh Ahuja, co-founder of the National Sikh Campaign disclosed in a webinar on February 17, that during one portion of the study, Hart researchers exposed participants to a series of photos showing Sikh men and women in order to better understand how Americans react to individuals 18 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

of Sikh descent. The common assumption was that the individuals in the photos were of Indian descent; many assumed they were Middle Eastern. “I’ll say it — you just think they’re Muslim. I do,” said one participant. Others admitted to feeling “wary,” “nervous,” or “cautious” of men or women adorned by turbans. According to Ahuja, the data extrapolated from the study will be used to shape an upcoming media campaign to improve the public’s knowledge of Sikhism. The research demonstrated that Americans are receptive to learning about Sikh cul-

ture, beliefs, and people. Knowledge about Sikhism “significantly enhances warm feelings … and substantially increases the degree to which Americans believe Sikh Americans possess positive qualities.” When asked whether he believes a communications campaign could generate backlash, Ahuja responded resolutely, “No, I really don’t.” Ahuja also told the assemblage reporters that that AKPD, a media consultancy founded by President Barack Obama’s top campaign managers, has been hired to facilitate the National Sikh Campaign’s future PR maneuvering.n

Interfaith Leadership Summit

Young leaders who attended the 2015 DC Interfaith Leadership Summit, held in Washington, DC, on February 7, pose for a photo. More than 150 youths, representing more than a dozen faith traditions and communities, attended the summit, which included workshops on a number of topics ranging from economic justice and environmental sustainability to interfaith marriage and religious freedom.

month after announcing her engagement, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (DHawaii) has finally revealed the identity of her fiancé. Until now, the only nugget of info gleaned by the media has been that Gabbard’s future husband is a cinematographer. On February 16, the groom was revealed to be 26-year-old Abraham Williams, who was born in New Zealand but raised in Hawaii. According to Hawaii News Now, Williams popped the question with a 1.17-carat diamond ring during a sunset surfing session when Gabbard was visiting during Thanksgiving. Since both Gabbard and Abraham consider the Hawaiian archipelago their mutual home, they are planning to tie the knot there in April. “Now who are we to refer to as Congress’ ‘most eligible’ if not Gabbard?” asked The Washington Post. The political website The Hill had dubbed the 33-year-old

Gabbard to Wed Soon Democrat “the Hawaiian Heartbreaker,” putting her No. 6 on its list of 50 most beautiful people on Capitol Hill. “I don’t understand that, I don’t pay attention to that noise,” Gabbard, who will keep her maiden name, told the Honolulu Star Advertiser. “Both Abraham and I are generally kind of private people. He has nothing to do with politics. He’s a humble, great guy who doesn’t want to be in the limelight, so this is something new to the both of us.” The 33-year-old congresswoman was married once before but divorced shortly after she returned from a tour of duty in Iraq as part of the Hawaii National Guard. Gabbard told the Honolulu Civil Beat that the divorce was a result of “the stresses war places on military spouses and families,” adding that her deployments led to her changed views on abortion and same-sex marriage. n Tulsi Gabbard. Photo credit: Shahi Prabhakaran March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 19

feature

Guilty of Walking While Brown Sureshbhai Patel learns about police brutality By R. Benedito Ferrão

n February 6, 2015, an elderly Indian man was left partially paralyzed following an encounter with the police in Madison, Alabama. News of the event spread virally on social media and elsewhere online. When it became known that a police car had captured video of the incident on its dashboard camera, an online petition was circulated to exert pressure on the Madison City Police Department to release the footage. But even before the petition hosted by the website 18millionrising.org had acquired the threshold of 1,600 signatures it had set itself, the police had made the video public. Watching the video for the purposes of writing this article was difficult. At the edge of the screen, one sees Sureshbhai Patel (57), with his hands behind his back, possibly handcuffed, being thrown to the ground by officer Eric Parker. Later, when Parker, along with one of the other officers on the scene, attempts to get Patel to stand up, it becomes apparent that the “suspect” is unable to, and is literally hauled onto his feet before sagging back down. Patel, it was discovered, had suffered a neck injury that would cause him paralysis in some parts of his body. As the video spread virally, the indignation, particularly of South Asians, was instantaneous, and rightly so. It would be revealed that Patel, a citizen of India, had come from that country to help care for his grandson, born prematurely and, to do so, was living in his son’s home in Alabama. As more of the story became known, perhaps we likened Patel to members of our own family. We saw in this grandfather our own parents and grandparents, those transnationals and migrants who connect our lives between continents. In fact, I had heard of this case of police brutality from a cousin whose children my father took care of in Texas. Like Patel, my dad, and other relatives like my aunt and uncle, had come to the States to temporarily help out with childcare. And while I appreciate how much coverage the event has received, there is something about the nature of the conversation around the incident that leaves me dissatisfied. This is not an isolated event of police brutality. To regard it as such runs the risk 20 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

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of reducing it to a sign of South Asian American exceptionalism. Consider that the police had been alerted by a resident of the neighborhood who claimed that a “skinny black guy” they had “never seen … before” was “just wandering around,” and who was estimated to be in his thirties. That the police would be compelled to respond to such a call should make one question who and what they wished “to Serve and Protect,” as the police motto goes. It is no stretch of the imagination to believe that the call originated from a white household and that the police reacted precisely because the person being reported was believed to be black. Evidently, it was unfathomable to both, the caller and law enforcement, that a young black person should have any business in such a neighborhood. “This is a good neighborhood. I didn’t expect anything to happen,” Chirag Patel, the victim’s son told the press, possibly explaining why he had thought it would have been all right for his father to walk around in broad daylight as he had become accustomed to doing in their town. Speaking to the The Washington Post for their February 12 report, the younger Patel had said: “It is a dream for

me [to live here] because I came from a very poor family and I worked so hard … I’m totally devastated that I might have made a big mistake.” Even as middle class aspirations and immigrant desires to live the veritable American dream prove to be no protection against racism, there is no doubt that the Patels—just as anyone living in the United States—should not have had to feel that the commonplace act of walking out one’s door would put one’s life at risk due to the pervasiveness of racism. Nonetheless, it is specifically because of the assurance felt by a community that is often emblematically deemed the upwardly mobile model minority, that South Asian Americans can believe themselves to be immune to systemic racism. Moreover, this extends itself to the notion that the police, rather than being embedded within such systems, are testament to the protection of those who are considered ideal subjects in the multicultural civil society of the United States. To cut to the chase, Sureshbhai Patel, who speaks very little English and is an Indian farmer who was visiting this country, was severely injured by a white policeman

because Patel was identified as being black. Following the recent verdicts in the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases, where the white policemen who were responsible for the deaths of these two black men were tried and found not guilty, I would argue that the incident involving Patel received as much attention as it did because of the growing inescapability of questions surrounding abuses of power. As crystallized in the trending hashtag “Black Lives Matter,” these questions center on how racial difference is perpetuated by such abuses, both by the police and laws that protect them over minorities. While Parker was swiftly charged with third degree assault, the attack on Patel should not be seen as an outlier to forms of racialized violence that have been manifesting increasingly through the involvement of the state, be it in the form of the police or even politicians. Note the lack of irony in Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s declaration in a January radio interview with the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch that the United States was under threat of a Muslim invasion because immigrants of that faith background “want to use our freedoms to undermine that freedom in the first place.” An Indian American who converted to Christianity from Hinduism, Jindal’s opinions are those of the garden variety Republican, but the danger lies in those views emanating from a politician of minority racial origins. They serve to obfuscate the very real threat to the lives of Muslim Americans, such as Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha, the three young relatives who were executed by a white gunman in Chapel Hill a week after Patel was attacked by Parker. In that South Asian American immigrants are of many faiths, Jindal’s callous statement, made for political gain, diminishes the post-9/11 Islamophobic violence his own community faces, let alone those other Americans who just so happen to be Muslim. Being deliberately oblivious to xenophobia, coupled with a sense of insulation that can emanate from being considered a model minority, especially because one is not black, can easily lull one into being complacent about institutionalized racism. But are you sure “they” know who you are when you take a walk around your neighborhood? n In the August 2013 issue, R. Benedito Ferrão wrote about his own experience with being stopped and handcuffed by law enforcement. For more of his writing, visit thenightchild.blogspot. com or The Nightchild Nexus on Facebook.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 21

viewpoint

The Art of Shaming By Rupande Mehta

en in India have a notorious reputation for harassing women, especially when they are alone, or unobserved. So, it was no surprise, when a man on an Indigo flight from Mumbai to Bhubaneshwar in India, taking advantage of the turbulence, groped a woman sitting in front of him, through a gap in the seats. What followed, however, was totally unexpected by Indian standards and shocked him into silence. The woman whipped out her smart phone, and proceeded to confront and shame him in front of the other passengers, taping his reactions in a video, which she subsequently posted on YouTube. The video went viral. In the video, the man believing that he could quash the incident mumbled an apology: “I’m sorry about it. Please ..” when the woman interrupts and responds heatedly: “Why, why please? I’m sorry, please, I’m sorry I’m a girl, please, forgive me ki mein akeli ladki akele travel karne ki himmat rakh rahi hoon (I am sorry because being a girl I have the courage to travel alone). I’m sorry for that.” The incident got me thinking back to the days when I was living in India. The list of men who took advantage of me and touched me is long. Men like my tutor who blamed my math skills as being so rudimentary as to require individual attention and so, on the pretext of teaching me alone, he touched and rubbed up against me. Men like a friend’s husband who, because he was drunk, cornered me and tried to kiss me. And men, like the 60-year old neighbor, who was always on the lookout for me alone so he could fondle me. I know I am not alone in living these experiences. Many women in India will have wild stories of how they are inappropriately touched by, both, strangers as well as men they know. Many women also accept these experiences as part of their daily life and do not complain about it for fear they will be held responsible and/or disgraced. That is the saddest part of this debacle: the fear of being blamed. The woman in the video had the guts to stand up and shame the man who wronged her, but most of us, from an early age, are told to be quiet, not draw attention to the “experience” and forget about it like a bad dream because we may be held responsible, maybe called names and chastised as someone who invited the expe22 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

A screenshot of Youtube video

... every 107 seconds another American is sexually assaulted and only 32% of the crimes are actually reported. Of the crimes that are reported, only 2 out of 100 rapists will ever be held accountable for their actions and serve a day in prison. rience, perhaps, because we were wearing inappropriate clothing or spoke in an inviting way or simply gestured in a manner that girls from good families do not. The reasons are all created to put the victim to shame and lift the onus of responsibility from the party perpetrating the attacks. In instances where victims are given some credulity, there is usually the problem of finding the attacker at fault or taking the issue of assault seriously. Take the case of Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University senior, who is carrying a mattress, like the one on which she was sexually assaulted, around campus as a statement of protest until her alleged rapist is expelled. After an investigation, the school did not find her alleged rapist responsible but Emma claims there were numerous flaws in the investigation and has now filed two federal complaints against the university. In 2004, while at university, I was attacked by my ex-partner and after reporting the incident to the school, the President of the International Office encouraged me to withdraw the complaint asking me to consider the “young man’s future.” Undeterred,

I took the case to court, but the charges were dismissed within seconds without the judge taking the incident too seriously. Events such as mine and Emma’s not only belittle the victim but also discourage additional victims from coming forward and reporting their alleged abuse. According to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), every 107 seconds another American is sexually assaulted and only 32% of the crimes are actually reported. Of the crimes that are reported, only 2 out of 100 rapists will ever be held accountable for their actions and serve a day in prison. Such paltry conviction rates send a message that attackers can commit horrible crimes and get away with them, further discouraging victims. In India, the National Crime Records Bureau reported in 2014 that everyday 93 women are being raped. This is, of course, a measure of the cases that are reported. Hundreds go scot free, un-reported, unmarked and unpunished. The way the young woman on the Indigo flight stood up for her rights and faced her abuser is a mark of how the fairer sex in India are outraged by a pervasive societal evil, one that has little scope for redress unless more women find the strength to take on sexual violence on public forums. Victim blaming is a serious issue and women assaulted all around the world have suffered it in the form of families not acknowledging them or husbands casting them out because they have been “dirtied” or blamed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The victim is often punished and the attacker usually goes free to commit more crimes and ruin more lives. Standing up for yourself is difficult; especially when you know you will most likely be alone and put to shame. But if we cast aside the veil of blame and join forces in supporting those who have been wronged, we can create a world where crimes against women are believed and taken more seriously. I laud the woman on the plane who stood up for herself and asserted her rights. More of us need to join her. n Rupande Mehta is a writer passionate about women’s rights and equality. Her aim is to bring change in the way women and men are treated around the world and especially in India. You can follow her on Twitter @rupandemehta or Tumblr at http://rupande-mehta.tumblr.com/

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opinion

Waiting for 2050 Politics and ageing By Sarita Sarvate

he Indian comedian Hari Kondabolu is waiting for 2042, because, in that year, white people will become a minority in the United States. I, on the other hand, am waiting for 2050. That is the year people 65+ will become a majority in our country. I may or may not be alive then but the prospect is nevertheless enticing as well as staggering. Just imagine that in a country that worships youth and vitality, old people will dominate. Even more intriguing is the thought that two out of five elders will be of color. In fact, in some states like California, the proportion of Latinos will be greater than that of whites. By 2040, the baby boomers, that seminal generation which protested against the Vietnam war, heralded free love, and brought Eastern spirituality into the mainstream, will be 85 years old. But don’t lose heart. There are some positive consequences associated with this grim statistic. While, currently, the over-65 population is majority Republican, the percentage of Democrats in that population will continue to rise. In twenty years, Texas will be a blue state. As the proportion of Hispanic and other minorities increases among the younger population, the Republican Party will not be able to win elections as easily in the future. Does that mean we will just have to suffer through another Bush presidency or two before sanity reigns? That is the good news in any case. When it comes to bad news, there will be lots to worry about. Contrary to popular perception, baby boomers are less healthy than their parents. In spite of the prevalence of yoga, meditation, and gym memberships, baby boomers suffer from health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. While the share of people 65 or over living in nursing homes has declined over the years, from 4.6% or 1.6 million in 2000 to 3.1% or 1.3 million in 2010, the trend will soon reverse. Over two thirds of 65+ adults in America will need long term care. More older people will need to work. There will also be a voting gap, because older adults vote more regularly than younger ones. I learned these fascinating facts at the annual conference of the Gerontological So24 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

In 2005, 11 percent of the senior population or 5 million people over 60 faced hunger; in 2012, 15% were threatened with what economists elegantly call “food insecurity.” ciety of America, which I attended in November 2014 in Washington, D.C. under the auspices of a journalism fellowship from New America Media. The meeting was a revelation. I had no idea that so many reporters around the country were devoted to the subject of aging. In fact, before print media began to shrink, the aging beat was the mainstay of newspapers. Even now, while Fox News and other television outlets concentrate on the millennial generation, it is print journalism that carries the baton for reporting on our aging nation. And on what issues will they be reporting in the future? It turns out there is plenty to worry about. So far, the older population has been less poor than the younger population in our country, thanks to a little thing called Social Security. But that might change if the right wing gets away with its pet proposals, one of which is a revised way to calculate inflation for Social Security, called the Chained Consumer Price Index (CPI). What the chained CPI does is it assumes that when prices go up, people will consume lower cost substitutes in place of pricier items. If the price of beef rises, for example, people will eat chicken. Now, this particular example may make the idea look like a good one, but you quickly realize that this logic does not apply to everything we consume, including healthcare and nutritional food. Substituting organic veggies with Mcdonald’s is obviously a bad idea and as to substituting apples for oranges, well, that is an economist’s no-no. The chained CPI has been endorsed by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, and supported by such groups as the Gang of Six and the Simpson-Bowles Commission, bodies tasked with reducing the federal budget. What is even more trou-

bling is that during the “budge cliff ” crisis of 2012, President Obama himself proposed shifting to this method of calculating inflation. The president’s budget for 2014 also contained this provision. Ironically, the Republicans, who oppose everything President Obama proposes, reacted negatively, saving the seniors. The bad news is that the specter of the chained CPI, opposed by the AARP and many Democrats, now looms large on American elders. With both houses of Congress in the hands of the Republicans, Democrats may well be coerced to agree to it under duress. Studies show that over time, the new CPI will erode Social Security payments and other benefits, making it harder for elders to survive. The average earner retiring at age 65 will lose $658 each year until he or she turns 75; the cuts will add up to $1,147 each year by age 85. The cumulative cuts to people on Social Security will reach $28,000 by the time a retiree is 95. Since the Internal Revenue Service uses the COLA or Cost of Living Adjustment to ensure that people aren’t pushed into higher tax brackets because of inflation, the chained CPI will also effectively increase tax rates, particularly for middle-income earners making between $30,00 and $40,000 a year, who will face six times the tax increase for millionaires. As I sat in the conference hall, listening to these troubling facts, I realized that at middle age, I myself faced an uncertain future. I also learned that programs like Meals on Wheels, which were authorized in 1965 as a part of the Older Americans Act, are now threatened. The Budget Control Act of 2011 imposed cuts in non-defense discretionary spending and resulted in dramatic reductions in senior nutrition and other programs. Only Republicans and right-wingers would label nutrition as discretionary, you might think. But sadly President Obama’s 2015 budget submission also proposed level funding for many programs, which means that over time, they will not be able to meet rising need. What does this mean for real people? For Eva Perdue, a 64-year old widow in Georgia who suffers from high blood pressure and

liver disease, it means having only $98 left per month in addition to the $68 in food stamps she receives after paying bills out of her $848 monthly Social Security check. On a typical day, Purdue eats breading from two corn dogs for breakfast, the meat from which she gives to her 18-year old grandson. She cannot eat a healthier breakfast of cereal because she cannot afford milk, a gallon of which costs three or four dollars, money Perdue does not have. Lunch is a small salad with rust-tinged cabbage and carrots from a convenience store up the street. What is even more tragic is that Purdue is not sure if or what she will eat the next day. Purdue applied to Meals on Wheels but was put on a waiting list for over a year. Purdue’s story, outlined in an article titled the “Real Hunger Games in the Nation,” highlighted for me the real danger seniors face in the United States today. The facts are staggeringly dismal. In 2005, 11 percent of the senior population or 5 million people over 60 faced hunger; in 2012, 15% were threatened with what economists elegantly call “food insecurity.” Between 2001 and 2010, there was a 78 percent growth in the number of seniors facing starvation. While blacks and Hispanics have tradi-

tionally been the victims of this hardship, rising numbers of whites, particularly white women in rural areas, are experiencing hunger. But the biggest con job perpetrated on the American citizen by the Republicans is the myth that social security is the cause of our federal deficit and that it is broke. Nancy Altman, co-founder of Social Security Works, while acknowledging the real danger of abolishment the program faces under a Republican Congress, challenges many such myths. Social Security is far from broke, she notes, with a surplus of $2.7 trillion, expected to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2020. Social Security is not the cause of the federal deficit because 97% of it is funded by contributions from workers and employers, or interest on these contributions. Even if Congress takes no action, Social Security can pay 100% of promised benefits for the next two decades. Around 2033 there will be a modest funding gap requiring modest increases in revenues. But what Republicans like Paul Ryan do not want you to know is the fact that most of the funding gap can be closed by eliminating the cap on payroll tax, which lets millionaires and billionaires pay Social Security only on the first $117,000 of their income. I must admit that by the end of the very

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first day of the conference, I began to feel depressed. But then I imagined what our world will look like in 2050. In 2050, no politician will be able to ignore the needs of the new, 65+ majority. With so much ongoing research on healthcare for seniors, new programs and technologies will become available. Corporations will rush to provide affordable senior housing, including assisted care facilities and nursing homes. Perhaps innovative types of co-housing will also be available. And who will pay for all this? I recall a remark my brother made the last time I was in India. “We have the youngest and the most technically qualified workforce,” he said. “We will take over the world.” Yes, young immigrants from India will enter our economy and pay new Social Security contributions to the system. But we do need to make sure that they have the right education and mindset to resist propaganda. So perhaps it is worth waiting for 2050. n Sarita Sarvate wrote this article supported by a fellowship from New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America, sponsored by AARP.

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relationship diva

Cheesy Pick-Up Lines By Jasbina Ahluwalia

I’m writing on behalf of my younger brother, who, l believe, would never consider submitting a question himself. He’s begun approaching women, and I was horrified to overhear him use a cheesy pick-up line recently— any suggestions? I have no idea how he’s coming up with these lines. I’m not sure he’ll listen to his big sister, but I have to try something!

Your brother’s lucky to have a sister who can give him the inside scoop as to a woman’s point of view. Consider positioning it that way, and letting him know that women are far more likely to be receptive to any of the following four approaches than cheesy pick-up lines. 1. Is This Seat Taken? This line tends to work because it doesn’t automatically come across as a pick-up line. Instead, it’s seen as a respectful gesture. After all, you don’t want to assume that a person sitting next to an empty seat is at the venue alone. By asking if the seat is taken, you’re

acknowledging that while also opening up the opportunity for conversation. If the seat is taken, you might consider asking, “By whom?” to get a feel for whether or not the person is there with a significant other or just a friend.

you’re just trying to get her drunk. However, offering to buy another drink shows that you’re trying to be polite and that you’re attentive enough to notice what the person was drinking.

2. I Really Like That ____ Another effective way to strike up a conversation with somebody is to pay them a respectful and sincere compliment. Notice: The key to a lot of these pick-up lines is respect. Maybe the girl he’s been eyeing is wearing a really nice necklace. By pointing this out, he can start the conversation off on the right foot.

4. Will You Help Me With This? Asking a potential love interest to help you with something—something simple, of course—can be a great way to kick things off. For example, your brother could ask that cute girl at the next table if she knows the name of the song that’s playing. By opening up a conversation this way, you show the person that you value her opinion. What better way to get things off on the right foot? n

3. Could I Get You Another Drink? If he’s at a lounge, concert or other place that serves drinks, he might consider taking note of what a woman is drinking and asking if she would like another after finishing it. It’s best to wait a few minutes after the woman has finished her drink to approach, because you don’t want the person to assume

Jasbina is the founder and president of Intersections Match, the only personalized matchmaking and dating coaching firm serving singles of South Asian descent in the United States. She is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio. Jasbina@intersectionsmatch.com.

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books

Schrödinger’s Cat and Shiva’s Dance By Rajesh C. Oza GEEK SUBLIME: THE BEAUTY OF CODE, THE CODE OF BEAUTY by Vikram Chandra. 2014. Graywolf Press. 236 pages.

n the closing paragraph of the thoroughly researched, magnificently integrated, (and awkwardly titled) Geek Sublime, Vikram Chandra writes, “My writing life and my life with computers, in spite of their differences, seem mirrored, twinned. Both are explorations of process, of the unfolding of connections. Both reward curiosity, dogged patience. And perhaps it is just the double presence that I cherish, of art and logic, of deep historical roots and newness ... It has been pointed out to me that my fiction proliferates doubles, couplings, alter egos, layers within layers.” This ambitious book is actually two books in one, twins of mixed parentage, midwifed by an author who epitomizes the “Yes, and” ethos. Not content with an exploration of how computing software is developed and deployed in our hyper-networked world connected by layers and layers of programming code, Chandra pre-figures the modern state of coding with the palimpsest that is Sanskrit, the undying language of the ancients. YES, software drives so much of the world we live in, AND there is a beauty to how the underlying code is designed. YES, Sanskrit was designed by linguists and poets as a beautiful devavani (“language of the gods”), AND it was coded as a systematic structure that on crumbling palm-leaf manuscripts would be “eternal, uncreated.” The first third of Geek Sublime is focused on software development. But these pages will not teach you how to set up a website. Instead, they explore the innards of the system that enables the website (including a helpful set of binary logic gate diagrams that serves as a primer on how the digits “0” and “1” compute based on Boolean logic operators). More importantly, this introductory part of the book explores what makes the computer’s interior software landscape ugly or beautiful. Donald Knuth, the so-called “father of algorithms,” who wrote a wide-reaching, multi-volume, series titled The Art of Computer Programming, helps to contrast two types of code: “Knuth remarked about the code of a compiler that it was ‘plodding and excruciating 28 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

to read, because it just didn’t possess any wit whatsoever. It got the job done, but its use of the computer was very disappointing.’” “ To get the job done—a novice may imagine that this is what code is supposed to do. Code is, after all, a series of commands issued to a dumb hunk of metal and silicon and plastic animated by electricity. What more could you want it to do, to be? Knuth answers: code must be ‘absolutely beautiful.’ He once said about a program … that ‘reading it was just like hearing a symphony, because every instruction was sort of doing two things and everything came together gracefully.’” For those who earned their programming chops in the last century (as I did), the references to The Art of Computer Programming, (as well as Kernighan and Plauger’s The Elements of Programming Style, Wirth’s Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, and others) are a trip down memory lane. There are even a few lines of code from computer languages such FORTRAN. Although this bit of nostalgia is a bit of a kick for old-timers, perhaps the most important part of the first part of the book is the myth-busting section about computing’s macho culture. This anthropological history opens innocently enough with a contrast of the singularly heroic “Einstein” programmer/priest

who “understands the machine so well that he programs in machine code” and the plebian “millions of Morts who have benefitted from the computer revolution [and] produce awful, bloated, buggy software because they don’t know how the machine really works. It’s as if Chandra is asking the reader to suspend disbelief and accord software and Sanskrit the “brother of another mother” sibling relationship. The second third of the book, which superficially seems best suited to grammarians, slyly argues for a god-like machine metaphor driving both Sanskrit and software aesthetics: “The systematic, deterministic workings of these rules may remind you of the orderly on-and-off workings of logic gates. The Ashtadhyayi [a 500 BCE text authored by Panini, who in influential ways, was the father of ancient and modern linguistic theory and thus indirectly the father of computer languages] is, of course, an algorithm, a machine that consumes phonemes and morphemes and produces words and sentences. Panini’s machine— which is sometimes compared to the Turing machine—is also the first known instance of the application of algorithmic thinking to a domain outside of logic and mathematics.” While few will confuse Panini and Turing as brothers, their fraternity has enabled the creation of a seemingly infinite number of Sanskrit words and an infinite number of lines of code. Like Srinivasa Ramanujan, these were truly men who knew infinity, and yet, unless we take time to read about their contributions, we hardly know them. While a select population of readers would have known of Turing’s contributions to computing (the recent Hollywood biopic, The Imitation Game, is sure to have grown that small population size), few outside of India would have heard of Panini, (indeed, a Google search suggests that the panini grilled sandwich is more prominent than Panini’s grand Sanskrit). Chandra introduces two more names into this fraternity of amazing anonymity: Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta. The chapters on Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta are masterful. The contributions of these two men are what A. K. Ramanujan would have called a sangam, or scholarly Sanskritic confluence. While it

can be a bit of a challenge to keep these two polysyllabic names straight, both beginning with the letter “A,” it helps to think of Anandavardhana as having produced the original code and Abhinavagupta as having done a code review: the former had written Dhvanyaloka to get at dhvani, the “soul of poetry,” and rasa, the “taste;” and the latter commented on Dhvanyaloka through the “role of memory.” “Abhinavagupta asserted that all minds contain … ‘latent impressions’ left by one’s experiences and past lives; it is these impressions that are brought alive or manifested by dhvani.” Just as a great chef ’s food must be relished by a gourmand, the aesthetics of a poem are brought to life by a poetry aficionado. Chandra uses his own twin lens as a software programmer who is also a writer of literary fiction to suggest that the confluence of technology and art is not only possible in this post-Renaissance-person age we live in, but also vital to life itself: “So the locus of code’s dance is not only logic gates or the gleaming fields of random-access memory; code also moves within millions of humans who encounter its effects, not just programmers. Code already shapes the world of the non-programmers and embeds itself into their bodies, into their experience of themselves, into lived sensation and therefore the realm of experience and aesthetics.” Although the generalist of yore has, in large part, been replaced by modernday specialists of particular nano-fields, the polymath can still bring together seemingly unconnected threads to make sense of what in the end is one system. Those who will thrive in a world that is now analog, digital, AND increasingly quantum, will have learned to appreciate multiple states of being, simulating Schrödinger’s Cat who is both dead and alive at the same time, and channeling Shiva’s Dance of simultaneous destruction and creation Now about that title: having written that “the very sounds and rhythms of language—which preexist meaning— contribute to our experience of rasa,” Chandra might have (re)considered the sound of Geek Sublime. To this reader’s ear, the “k” in “geek” is rather harsh sounding, and when conflated with the second word, foretastes a kind of slimy engineering lubricant—just the opposite of the delectable dishes served up by this very palatable book. n

Rajesh C. Oza is a Change Management consultant who also facilitates the interpersonal development of MBA students at the Stanford Graduate School of Busines

A Moment Comes By Hemlata Vasavada

A MOMENT COMES by Jennifer Bradbury. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster: New York, NY. 288 pages.

n 2005, Jennifer Bradbury participated in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program and traveled to Chandigarh, India. She “fell in love with Punjabi culture and food.” This she had expected, but she had not anticipated a story until a friend drove her to Wagah for the border closing ceremony. In spite of tensions between the Indian and Pakistani governments and their citizens, the ceremonial lowering of the flags at the gates marking the boundaries of both countries was a splendid display. According to Bradbury, the soldiers performed a series of drills, and participants from both sides cheered, sang and danced, like rival fans rooting for their favorite sports team. Even in this joyful environment, images of what the author had heard of partition, relocation, death and devastation, stayed in her mind and the seeds for her novel were planted. South Asian Americans celebrate Independence Day of Pakistan on August 14 and of India on August 15. However, not many young South Asians are aware of the events before the partition and the resulting carnage. Some Muslims had started to move from the Indian, Hindu-majority side to the proposed Islamic country, Pakistan. Hindus and Sikhs had also started their journey from the future Pakistan to the secular India. Most of migration happened after the borders were established by the British cartographer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. There is no exact account but between 10 to 14 million people died as riots broke out during the “largest population exchange in history.” In her young adult historical novel, A Moment Comes, Bradbury has described this turbulent time. The story is set in 1947, when the British Raj carved Pakistan out of India, thus creating a new country. It unfolds from the perspective of Tariq, a young Muslim, Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British cartographer’s teenage daughter.

Tariq takes a job as a translator for the cartographer, in hopes of fulfilling his goal of going to Oxford. He is soon attracted to Anupreet, who is hired by the British family as household help. Tariq realizes that he can’t get close to Anupreet in the face of the conflict. Although Muslims and Sikhs were friendly in the past and even married each other, now they are killing one another. Margaret, a typical British teenager, hates being in India, dislikes its smell, heat and dirt, but likes wearing saris and playing the harmonium. She tries to get Tariq’s attention, which he gives at times, hoping Margaret’s father might help him get to Oxford. Against the backdrop of the impending partition, snobbish British executives, hatred between Muslims and Sikhs (and Hindus), the three teenagers help each other. The characters grow as they struggle to survive. The biggest change is in Margaret. The self-centered girl gains new insights and takes risks to save others. “I sit on my father’s desk and place my fingers across the keys of the Corona ... I play a new kind of song on this typewriter. A song I know I’ll never repeat, never even hear again, but I’m dead sure I’ll never forget.” The reader, too, would echo these senti

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 29

ments, as this powerful story lingers after the book ends. This novel is Bradbury’s third book. Her first two novels, Shift, and Wrapped, were well received by librarians and educators. Shift was picked as an American Library Association’s “Best Book for Young Adults.” Her novel, A Moment Comes, is named by the South Asia National Outreach Consortium as the winner of the South Asian Book Award for 2014. The author is a former school teacher and a Jeopardy champion. I asked her about her research of Indian history, the writing process, and the events that inspired her to write this historical novel. According to the Author’s Note in your book, the images of the boundary closing ceremony in contrast to the present tensions between India and Pakistan, and the turbulent time during the partition, stayed with you and led to this story. What made you decide on Muslim and Sikh characters? A great deal of it had to do with the fact that I was writing across cultures, and writing as a way to build my own understanding of the history, the stakes and the events. So writing from three points of view seemed like the best way to do that. There are always many sides to any story, and I wanted to give equal voice to all the sides with this story. How were you able to vividly describe the city of Jalandhar, the refugee camps, and the emotions and reactions of Muslims, Sikhs, and British residents in 1947? Thank you for saying I did! A lot of those scenes and descriptions drew heavily on my own impressions of India while we lived there in 2005. There’s a scene with Margaret shopping in the markets that was really fun and really easy to write because I was reliving my own first wide-eyed experiences. I also did a lot of reading about the period and the partition itself (some of the books I relied on are listed in the author’s note at the back of the book). One of the sources that led me a long way to digging into the emotions and reactions were Margaret Bourke-White’s photos from Life magazine. But above all, I’m writing first about people—male, female, young, old—and as such I try to tap into those feelings we all share about justice, loss, hope and friendship. In A Moment Comes, you have described the emotional conflicts of a Muslim young man, a Sikh girl and a British teenager extremely well. How did you get voices of these characters? The voices were really difficult to get right. I’d written two or three drafts of the book and had sold it to my publisher before we 30 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

got down to the work of fine-tuning those voices. And it was less about getting them to represent their cultures and backgrounds at that point as it was about making them unique, compelling characters. So the real answer to your question is revision. Lots of it. And lots of prodding from my editor. I also was lucky enough to have some friends who still live in India vet some of the language and references for me, which was extremely helpful. All three of your novels have young adult characters. Do you have a special understanding of the likes and dislikes of young adults because of your association with students? I do think having worked as a teacher and having read so much young adult fiction put me on the path to writing. And I know from time spent with students how discerning they are. But I don’t think I have any special understanding of what they like and don’t like beyond what’s universal: everyone, of every age, loves a good story and loves it well told. I try to hold on to that and forget about the rest. Do you decide on a plot first and then imagine your characters or do you weave the plot to suit your characters? I actually always begin with setting. The story began with the time and place and my need to know more about both. Then the characters showed up, and then I figured out the plot. My first two books followed the same pattern. I began with setting, then moved to character and finally plot. I find that works well for me. Is another book in the offing? Yes! And the setting is a beauty! The book is set in a tuberculosis sanitarium inside Mammoth Cave in 1842. It’s my first book set in my home state of Kentucky, and Mammoth Cave has long been a place that’s fascinated me. I’m very excited about this book and look forward to sharing it with readers in 2015. I’ll also have a picture book out that year, and I’m working on some other projects as well, including another novel set in India. The setting of Mammoth Cave has already captured my attention. We look forward to reading that as well as the picture book and your next novel set in India. Thank you, Jennifer. n Hemlata Vasavada is the author of a novel: The Cascade Winners. Her articles and humor pieces have appeared in magazines and newspapers.

India Currents is now available on the Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/India-Currents/dp/B005LRAXNG Follow us at twitter.com/indiacurrents on facebook.com/IndiaCurrents Most Popular Articles Online February 2015 1) Unearthing Shakti Kalpana Mohan 2) Notes on a First Winter Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 3) Plunging Necklines, Gaping Armholes, Low Risers Sujatha Ramprasad 4) Are We Aging Faster? Ronesh Sinha 5) Rules of Desire Nirmala Nataraj 6) Modi’s Dilemma Shashi Tharoor 7) Brother, Brother Aniruddh Chawda 8) Was Charlie Hebdo Funny? Sarita Sarvate 9) Freedom to Walk Away Jaya Padmanabhan 10) Well Then, Where is Your Home? Jessica Faleiro

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finance

Energy Sector Poised for Revival? By Rahul Varshneya

ost experts would agree that our economy is out of danger, if not on the road to recovery. From 2013-2014 we saw the broad market move upwards due to the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve. Now with the market recovering well, most believe that the Fed will start raising interest rates mid-2015 and the market has responded accordingly. We must recognize that investment in the stock market must be done much more strategically because this year—every sector will behave differently. The sector that has suffered the most severely in the past 12 months and consequently most poised for a rebound is the energy sector.

Understanding the Movement

The energy sector consists of all players in the various sectors of crude oil, solar, wind and water. As more than 60% of this sector is dominated by crude oil related companies, our analyses refer to energy and oil interchangeably. It won’t come as a surprise that gas prices are and have been going down for the past 12 months. This is because the price per barrel of oil has gone from around $95 per barrel in January 2014 to $60 per barrel in one year—a 37% drop! It is a common adage in investing circles to “buy low-sell high”—the art is in recognizing when the bottom is. To put things in perspective at the height of the last market peak in September 2007, Brent Crude (a major oil price index) was at $76 per barrel. Based on market and historical behavior, energy is poised for a revival—it’s just a matter of time.

Political Implications

Energy prices play a large part in the international political arena. As mentioned before, crude oil being the majority of this sector makes it a hot commodity on the world scene. The price of every single thing in this world is derived from the simple economic principle of supply and demand. The oil industry is no different, deriving most if its price movement from the supply side of the equation. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) draws significant

political and economic influence from the fact that the hegemony controls the majority of the world’s oil supply. The oil prices recent downward movement suggests that OPEC is allowing a much larger supply of oil into the world market. The prevailing (yet unproven) theory is that the United States established a backdoor deal with OPEC countries to reduce oil prices in an indirect method to combat Russia’s aggressive political and military decisions in the last 18 months. The theory conjectures that the United States doesn’t want to directly engage Russia in its latest moves into Ukraine and has indirectly placed sanctions on the nation (oil being Russia’s #1 export). With oil prices severely depressed, Russia’s already failing economy is put under further pressure as it receives significantly less for its exports. It remains to be seen whether this theory is just pure speculation, coincidence, or the truth.

Moving on Up

All this being said, the energy sector is poised for a revival. While increased supply from OPEC is temporarily lowering prices, there are both supply and demand effects that will eventually raise energy prices again. First, with oil prices lower, oil production is going to reduce. Oil drillers are receiving less for the oil they sell so they will adjust by drilling less till it rebounds. Less oil worldwide means higher prices, which will lead to more oil production. As such oil prices continue to move up and down in cycles. As it is currently in the trough of a cycle, it is expected that eventually it will rise up again. The second effect at play in this discussion is the consumer demand aspect of oil (through gas for cars etc.). With gas prices down, individuals like you and me are more likely to buy and use gas. For example, the trip from San Fran-

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cisco to Los Angeles is one hour by plane and approximately six hours by car. The biggest factors in comparing the modes of transportation against one another is time and fuel cost. In the past, individuals would have chosen to fly because gas prices are high. Now, with low gas prices, people are more likely to make the drive. Obviously there is a point when time spent traveling becomes the more important factor—one is not going to drive from New York to Los Angeles just because gas prices are down. As individuals are more likely to consume gas, demand on oil increases leading to a rise in its price. The average investor at this stage can explore different companies that would benefit from increasing oil prices—oil companies such as Exxon-Mobil, oil and gas drilling companies, and energy efficient car companies like Toyota. n This article is the opinion of the author and is not shared by India Currents or any of its staff. All investors should conduct their independent analysis before taking any actions and should not make any decisions on the information provided in this article alone. Rahul Varshneya graduated from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University with a degree in finance and works in the tech industry as a financial analyst. If you have feedback or have a topic you would like addressed please contact Rahul at rahul89@gmail.com.

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 31

films

Wrinkles in the Raj By Aniruddh Chawda

THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL. Director: John Madden. Players: Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Richard Gere, Lillete Dubey, Ronald Pickup, Tamsin Greig, Celia Imrie, Diana Hardcastle, Tina Desai. English with some subtitled Hindi. Theatrical release (Fox)

erhaps the most difficult aspect of roping in a well-known, near all-star cast for a movie is avoiding sizable overlaps or the sometimes inevitable clash within the pecking order that can easily derail any and all lofty ambitions. The success that Madden and company had with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and riding that from a meager $10 million budget to a $130 million-plus global phenom movie was in no small part because of how well some of the biggest names in Hollywood came together to deliver a first-rate small budget film. Madden cashed in those chips and now returns with the sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, again pulling the same sentimental strings and once again pretty much succeeding in having us become all sappy. A few years after setting up the titular Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, Sonny (Patel), the enterprising, though not always polished, co-owner is looking to add another location somewhere in the city. Expanding his “chain” of one hotel will, of course, require funding. Any chance of financing from possible sources in California, where Sonny travels to with the other co-owner Muriel (Smith), hinges on Sonny and Muriel’s current hotel passing a secret inspection to be carried out by a spy that the financing company is sending. Since the hotel is already booked with cranky mostly-British retirees and only limited rooms are available for new guests, Sonny jumps to the conclusion that the new American guest Guy (Gere) must be the spy. The will-they-won’t-they find financing comic suspense unfolds even as Sonny prepares for his pending nuptials to the vivacious Sunaina (Desai). Most of the previous lodgers roped in from Marigold Un are still holed up tight in Marigold Deux. Muriel (Smith) still likes to keep tabs on what each guest is up to. Evelyn (Dench) has taken up part time 32 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | March 2015

work buying textiles to be exported. Douglas (Nighy) somehow gives walking tours of Jaipur’s many historic landmarks even though his knowledge of the tourist sites is monumentally inept and the womanizing barfly Norman (Pickup) might possibly have met his match in woman-about-town Carol (Hardcastle). Released from the trapping of Hollywood tradition and instead steeped into a chaotic old-world atmosphere proves to be a remarkably carefree juxtapose for Ol Parker’s script. As if we didn’t know already, abnormal is the new Indian normal when it comes to following social dictates on matters as inconsequential as speaking in turn, not staring or sometimes even communicating with non-Indians. The hotel’s daily rituals are nothing if not a mini-circus of everyone minding everyone else’s business. It is as much a comedy Ferris wheel as it is a lesson in sociology. While just about everyone appears caught up in cross-cultural crossfire of relationships, living arrangement, business deals, wedding planning, jealousies or setting marital boundaries, two vignettes stand out. Madge (Imrie) is carrying on with not one but two well-meaning and fabulously wealthy local Indian men and yet can’t decide who to choose as she gets chauffeured by her Indian driver for her daily trysts. Madge’s decision eventually turns out to have so little to do with the fact that the Indian suitors are rich or that both have asked

for Madge’s hand in marriage. The other, more showy and yet nonetheless sentimental romance is the link between Guy’s first world dapper professional being attracted to Sonny’s mother Mrs. Kapoor (Dubey), a striking-looking, taut, sari-wearing beauty of a certain age who must overcome multiple cultural taboos if she were to accept Guy’s offer. This depiction of an Indian widow from an upper middle class Jaipur home perhaps finding romance with a distinguished-looking, white-haired American man attests to a change in the portrayal of ethnically Indian characters in western movies. The grandest preoccupation in this vista is preoccupation with sex. As portrayed here, it is handled reassuringly enough for anyone worried after getting a little sumpin sumpin after eventually cashing in their 401(k). Given the story’s sexual frankness, delivered subtly and yet all the more powerful because of the subtlety—these septuagenarian pensioners might as well be randy teens bartering affection in post hormonally-charged dating walkabouts. Considering that Audrey Wells’ Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), based on the real-life memoir of American writer Frances Mayes’ self-imposed exile in Italy led to an increase in American tourists heading for that Italian region, it is quite possible that Marigold ignites a new tourist beeline for Jaipur. n EQ: A

Storm in the Dunes BABY. Director: Neeraj Pandey. Players: Akshay Kumar, Danny Denzongpa, Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Madhurima Tulli, Rasheed Naz, Mikaal Zulfikar, Hasan Noman. Music: Meet Bros. Anjjan, M.M Keeravani. Hindi with Eng. sub-titles. Theatrical release (T-Series)

un action thrillers never go out of fashion. The techie gizmos, shoot-em ups and pinpoint precision outcomes allow vicarious comeuppance from news cycles saturated with unpredictably violent and dangerous outcomes. This sweet spot is exactly what filmmaker Pandey has zeroed in on to take to the film bazaar. Pandey’s movies so far—A Wednesday (2008) about a scary homegrown bomb maker and Special 26 (2013) about robbers who pose as cops to commit day light robberies—were credible edge-of-the-seat suspense entries that very loosely borrowed from real-life headlines. With Baby, Pandey extends the same wavelength and comes up an awesome actionthriller that offers escapism at its best. We don’t mind for a minute that the parts of the plot line track through Mission: Impossible or James Bond movies. To extract an arch-terrorist from his deeply entrenched Middle Eastern lair, a team of elite Indian commandos is secretly sanctioned by higherups sworn to disavow all knowledge of … well, you know the drill. Led by the steadfast Ajay Rajput (Kumar), the team also includes tech guru Shukla (Kher), brawny enforcer Rathore (Daggubati) and charmingly coy femme fatale Priya (Pannu); all coordinated by homeland bound Firoz Ali Khan (Denzongpa), Ajay’s Indian spy agency handler. The team’s mission is to extract, alive if at all possible, one Maulana Rahman (Naz), a mischief maker from the Pakistan-Kashmir border who is fond of spectacular, highvisibility bombings in India. Traveling first to Istanbul and then to Kathmandu to help connect the dots of the nearly-invisible paw print trail left by the bad guys, the team— christened BABY from an operational acronym—against high odds must travel to the Middle East based on satellite data showing a narrowing triangulation somewhere in the region. As fluid as the chase sequences, fight

scenes and high-stakes drama are, what truly keeps the course steady is Kumar’s steely Ajay. As business-like Ajay neutralizes perps, his only vulnerability is juggling a breakneck career while being bound to a dutiful wife (Tulli) and their two kids. The specter of implied and actual terrorist threats to civil society cut to scenes of domesticity played out with Ajay’s wife and kids work especially well. In addition to humanizing what motivates the team’s dedication the scenes are also testament to the sicko fundamentalist mindset at the other extreme. A case in point for fluid action dynamics, Commando Priya’s encounter with a wouldbe terrorist courier (Singh) in an upscale Kathmandu hotel room is one of the best choreographed action sequences in memory. Any concerns that we may have of a man and woman in a bare knuckles brawl battling each other mano a mano quickly disappear when she unleashes her fury. Her superior training, martial arts instincts and anticipation of her opponent’s chops before they fall make this a fun scene to watch if we overlook the fact that we are witness to general mayhem and the destruction of some sumptuously posh hotel furniture along the way. Kumar is very much at ease as an adrenaline-junkie with a softer family-centric core. He is smartly counter balanced by Kher’s bumbling side-kick. As the duo did with Special 26, their one-line zingers back and forth provide good comic relief. In addition to Zulfikar as Ashfaq, an Indian sleeper spy in the Middle East there is also Noman as Hani Mohammad, a wise Arab police chief who may be on to Indian commandos’ plans. Finally, there are two highly effective villain turns by Menon as Bilal, a jail-bird bomb maker for the bad buys and also Naz as Maulana, so apt at transforming distrust

of government into a sick end game. Newcomer music trio Meet Bros. Anjjan stormed the charts with the “Baby Doll” number from Ragini MMS 2 (2014) and then cemented that with the huge “Hangover” ditty from Kick (2014). Their “Beparwah” in Baby with Apeksha Dandekar’s torchy vocals is a sultry and appealing Bondesque lounge anthem. Adding this to their Bhangra-infused “Chitthiyan Kalaiyaan” from the sensational Roy (2015) soundtrack has already put the competition on notice early in the year. Pakistan’s banning of Baby created buzz and yet only slightly dampened the box office for Baby. Not counting the once-in-adecade box office spillover from 2014 release PK, Baby is the biggest box office hit for a 2015 Hindi-language release so far. One suspects that Pandey-Kumar will be back with similar entries in the future. n EQ: A Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

L ATA’S

FLICK PICKS

Alone Baby ki Doli Dolly iyan Khamosh Mr. Riight r u A Main PK Easy Take It Tevar Ugly Ungli

March 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 33

music

Stringing and Connecting By Priya Das

Sultan Khan Lives On THE MASTER. Sultan Khan and Warren Cuccurullo Six Degrees. Album and tracks available on iTunes and amazon.com. $9.99

n 2011, the world lost a great artist, master sarangi player and unforgettable vocalist Ustad Sultan Khan. Khan was known in the classical circles as the force to keep the sarangi in mainstream and popular circles as the vocalist for, among others, Bollywood’s Jab We Met (the haunting folk refrain in the track “Aao Milo Chalo”) and the soundtrack for the Tamil movie Yogi. It was therefore a great surprise to the music world earlier this year, when The Master by Six Degrees Records, featuring Khan and rock guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, surfaced. Cuccurullo is best known for being part of the popular pop band Duran Duran. The two had apparently jammed in 1997-98, but the album was on hold because Cuccurullo needed to finish one particular track. Says Cuccurullo, “One day I typed in my

name and Sultan Khan’s name to see where he was at. A Times of India article came up with an obituary. I had no idea. I realized I have to get these tapes, I need to make his family aware of them, and I had to finish 4D.” The first track, “The Holy Man’s Plea” has Khan’s lilting “Babul mora naihar chooto jaiye,” the sarangi reaching forgotten places

in your heart. The 12-minute “4D Suite” was recorded in one day and the soulful sarangi is offset by Cuccurullo’s lighthearted guitaring with drums crescendoing in the background. Interestingly the bass and drums were added later to the album, the original tracks were recorded with just the sarangi and guitar. Cuccurullo infuses drama in “Mirror Margana,” inducing the illusion that you are watching flitting images from a blackand-white era movie. “Sikar” is mostly aalaap (melodic intonation of notes)—“The first time I ever saw the actual instrument (sarangi) played live it was on stage in 1991 at Royal Albert Hall,” says Cuccurullo, speaking of a Duran Duran benefit concert featuring Sultan Khan. In 1996 while working on the song, “Buried in the Sand,” he remembered an aalaap by Khan that he thought would fit perfectly. That was perhaps the first time the sarangi was heard in American pop music. This album is perhaps the last of Khan’s original work to come to track. n

New Jazzsey Violin JAZZ CARNATICA. Arun Ramamurthy— violin, Perry Wortman—bass, Sameer Gupta— drums Available on iTunes. $8.91

run Ramamurthy, raised in New Jersey, was gifted a violin by his grandmother when he was a child. He was urged to play it. He did. And grew up to form The Arun Ramamurthy Trio comprising, apart from himself, noted drummer Sameer Gupta, and bassist Perry Wortman. Their album, “Jazz Carnatica” was released in October 2014. “We’re playing from within. I learned that approach from my gurus in India, and it is still very upfront in my head,” Ramamurthy reflects. “You can play in front of 20,000 people or a handful, in any setting. It doesn’t matter; you center yourself and play from within—and nothing gets in your way.” “Maha G” is the ageless Karnatik “Maha Ganapathim” set to a Western ethos. Ramamurthy pays homage to Indian composer Swati Thirunal in his jazz-remixed “Dha34 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

nasri.” The fourth dimension in “4th Dimension” is brought by Wortman with the violin at times rounding off the rough sounds of the bass, at times giving them a tonal height. This track comes closest to conventional jazz than the others. “Simple Joys” has interludes of the deliberate karnatik rhythm, but the result is simple joy, not cacophony. “Delusions” gives us a glimpse into the

soul of the Trio. “The piece is in Adi tala [a 16-beat cycle akin to 4/4] but I wanted the melody to pop,” explains Ramamurthy. “I wanted the bass to counter my line, and the drums to hold down the down beats. Sameer crashes right on the one, but my melody leaps off him. You can feel the dynamics at play.” The album has several guest contributors such as keys player Marc Cary, fiddler Trina Basu, and mridangam player Akshay Anantapadmanabhan Indian classical music is grounded in rigor, but only to empower as its musicians seek an unbounded musical landscape. Jazz is a free synthesis of immersed melody, notes, and emotion. They just go together. Or as Ramamurthy says, “It’s about connecting in the moment.” n Priya Das is an enthusiastic follower of world music and avidly tracks intersecting points between folk, classical, jazz, and other genres.

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youth

“Then Where You Are From?” What I learned when I went to teach

“T

hen where you are from?” I was asked this question on my second day with Etasha Society, as I observed a class on Spoken English at the Mori Gate center in North Delhi. Eight or nine trainees, probably around my own nineteen years, sat around the edges of the room in wicker chairs that are called, as I would later learn, modhas. The floor was scuffed with mud from the rain outside, and the center was gray to match the overcast sky, but the trainees, as always, were bright, energetic, and delighted. I introduced myself as Sagaree. I told the trainees that I lived and studied in the United States, and that I was here in Delhi only for a few weeks, and so I wanted to spend time teaching English and writing for Etasha. When I spoke, my mouth creaked from disuse, and my American accent broadened and then cut off my English. I looked, I think, much like a Dilli-wallah, I followed Hindi, but my speech had immediately marked me as an NRI (non-resident Indian). “I’m from A-mer-i-ca, I sup-pose,” I enunciated as I had been instructed. “But my family, my grandparents, my cousins, my aunts, they are all here, so I come to India when I can.” The boy who had asked the question was named Vicki, and his hair was puffed upwards to frame his quick face. At my small speech, he settled backwards, leaning against the wall to indicate that the issue had been resolved. “So, you are native Indian!” Native Indian. This was my first response. In my time in Delhi, outside and inside Etasha, I got many more new responses, some impressed, some derisive. One time, a 22-year-old relative asked me if American college was anything like the movie American Pie. Another, a man selling leather chappals (sandals) rolled out that his cousin was a doctor in California, and did I know him? I fielded these questions with some fascination, but mainly, I was fully involved in trying to understand this city, and how to fit with the rolling, weaving, flood of energy that is Delhi. I altered my speech to make it higher and sweeter. A hand extended to join the joke. A question and a shrug at the end of each sentence. I learned to pick up the gaps in conversation like the lulls between 36 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

By Sagaree Jain

Image courtesy Etasha Society

One time, a 22-year-old relative asked me if American college was anything like the movie American Pie. Another, a man selling leather chappals (sandals) rolled out that his cousin was a doctor in California, and did I know him? honks on the overpass. I enunciated my Ts. I fell into a web of extended family. I learned to fiercely depend on chai twice a day, cheeni alagh (sugar on the side). I enjoyed that when I ordered onion rings at an Americanthemed restaurant, they were pakoras (fritters), when I ordered Mexican fajitas, they had paneer (Indian cheese). Even the dust in Delhi moved stubbornly, demanding its own flavor. I became a buzzing collection of “Woh kya hai?”s (what is that?). I gained a whole new set of vocabulary: NGOs (non-governmental organizations) instead of non-profits, standards instead of grades, batches instead of graduating class. I learned that I am an NRI, or less politely put, an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi). But even so, it was ridiculous that I had not heard of Sachin Tendulkar or Honey Singh. Much of what I learned was from the Etasha Society trainees. The organization takes vulnerable youth from Delhi, students who are educated through tenth or twelfth standard but have no formal job prospects. Etasha then fills gaps in the trainee’s educa-

tion so the trainee becomes the kind of employee needed in Delhi’s developing office world. At the end of most training programs, the trainees are placed with companies Etasha works with, and sent to interview for salaried work. Even in the short time I spent at Etasha, I saw the students, my own age, open up and communicate confidently, learn to assert themselves, and I saw the earnestness with which they practiced English and asked about the world outside Delhi. The trainees’ stories were unfamiliar. They were from neighborhoods I had never heard of: Seemapura, Madhanpur Khadar, Tigri, Dakshanpuri. They had stories of farming in Uttar Pradesh and grocery businesses in Haryana, or of growing, schooling, and becoming an adult in one Delhi neighborhood. They told me about how Etasha was helping them deal with their anger, or pass on important knowledge to their family. One trainee was called Bhagwan, his father painted houses, and he wanted to be a consultant. Vipnesh, meanwhile, had tried to join the army, and was at Etasha finding another way to help people. Deepak dreamed of being a manager, like his father in the railways. Durga was twenty two and married, had a daughter, and was learning English to teach it to her. Every single one was chipper, happy to share, happy to be sitting in a marble floored classroom with bare feet. In the last week, I held a conversation class with a batch that had been in Etasha for a few months. From the first week to the twelfth, there is always a huge difference in the confidence and expression of the batch as a whole. The trainees wanted to pick a topic of conversation. They settled on “India.” We drew up categories: food, history, festivals, culture, sports, geography, and brainstormed words to fit under them. We started with culture, and I scrawled the words they threw out on a whiteboard just a little too small for the endeavor. “Ma’am, food!” “Ma’am, clothes!” “Different. Ma’am, culture is very different.” “Music, Ma’am?” “Ma’am, personality.” “Greeting!” “Greeting is good!” I said, scrawling, and scrawling, and then turning back to the room

full of students. I pieced together some Hindi, so that I could practice too. “You know, the first day I was here in India, I met my Dadu’s sister, and I said,” putting out my hand to indicate I had tried to shake hands with my wizened Dadiji, “Hello!” The whole class laughed on cue, kindly, as a small nod to the poor American girl who didn’t quite understand. We kept writing, and I learned that you make pakoras (fritters) for Holi, that the Old Fort is beautiful, that the Yamuna River has serious pollution problems. After class, in the lobby of Etasha’s second Centre for Career Development I heard sounds of Maggi noodles being made and the staff good-heartedly mocking one another. I told the trainees, all in cut-cut-cut fractured Hindi that the trainees praised absurdly, that I was there because I wanted to teach. “Me as well,” said Vikram, who lovingly wore a green zip-up hoodie every day. He said he wanted to teach English, some day after the data entry job Etasha would place him in. “Where you will teach?” he asked. “America, or back to India? India is very good.” It was the trainees who immediately assumed that I belonged in Delhi’s lovely chaotic song, without my asking for it, maybe without my deserving it. I didn’t have the words in Hindi to tell him that my whole heart was heavy with mismatched language, or that every style of speaking my tongue found felt just a little wrong. I was all filled up with longing and dust and waiting for a place to settle. I told Vikram I hadn’t decided yet. n Sagaree Jain is an undergraduate student at the University of California at Berkeley. She studies South Asian History and minors in English. Etasha Society is based in New Delhi and often takes international volunteers to conduct Spoken English classes and other operations around the office. For information about Etasha and how to get involved, go to etashasociety.org. Image courtesy Etasha Society

tax talk

Paying Rent for the Home Office By Rita Bhayani

hould I have my Limited Liablility Corporation (LLC) or S-Corp pay me rent is a common question posed. The answer is typically no. When you own 2% or more of an S-Corp, the rules dramatically change when it comes to paying rent for shareholder assets and home office deductions. These fringe benefits can be considered not so fringe, and therefore income. Prior to the IRS making a recommendation to use the Accountable Plan and subsequent reimbursements to the employee (or shareholders), taxpayers would charge their corporations rent and declare the rent as income on Schedule E. That’s ok, but it’s not elegant. In the garden variety LLC world, the beauty of this was to take money out of the company as passive income, sidestepping self-employment taxes. In the S-Corp world, the beauty was to reduce the S-Corp’s overall income, and therefore reduce the reasonable salary thresholds for shareholders while still taking money out of the company as passive income (again side-stepping selfemployment taxes). The IRS got sick of this (among other things of course). The new school way is to use an Accountable Plan and reimburse the shareholder for expenses associated with the home office. And the basic housekeeping must be satisfied which means that the home office is exclusively and regularly used for business. You can have multiple work locations. The IRS states that if you use a home office as your primary location for substantial

administrative activities you are allowed to essentially have two work locations. For example, you own a landscaping company and you have an office in your shop. If you perform all your administrative activities such as hiring and firing employees, accounting, balancing your checkbook, talking to your attorney, chatting with Rita CPA in your home office, that office counts as a work location along with your office in your shop. The expense report should detail the space used as a home office or storage of business items (inventory, supplies, etc.) as a percentage of overall square footage of the home. This percentage is then applied against rent, mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, home phone, insurance and repairs to determine the expense amount to be reimbursed. The reimbursement can be monthly or quarterly or annually—your choice. There is a safe harbor provision for home office deductions were you can deduct $5 per square foot. There are some real advantages such as still being to use all mortgage interest on Schedule A instead of a proration. No home depreciation deduction or later recapture of depreciation for the years the simplified option is used. But there are also some limitations that need to be considered. We typically optimize for both methods. n Rita Bhayani is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant practicing at Pleasanton, CA and she protects the clients from the IRS. For more information log on to www.ritacpa.net.

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recipes

Bountiful Balinese Cuisine By Vivienne Kruger

equestered eight secret—and sacred degrees south of the equator—Bali is the shining green jewel in the lush, verdant Indonesian archipelago. Bali is blessed with fertile rice fields, rich volcanic soil, lush coconuts and bananas, flourishing fruit trees, edible wild greens, plentiful fish, and a seductive natural supply of fragrant herbs and spices. Born and bred in tropical equatorial abundance, Balinese food evolved into an energetic cuisine full of exotic aromas, flavors, textures, and ingredients. It also plays a pivotal role in Balinese religion, ritual, and society: the Balinese cook in order to eat, as well as to honor, please, welcome, and serve the gods. To understand Bali’s cuisine, we must appreciate the tripartite role of food as vital human sustenance, sacrificial offering to respect the gods, and essential ritual component of Bali-Hindu religious ceremonies. Food is inextricably intertwined with faith: behind high, family compound walls and on bale banjar (neighborhood meeting

hall pavilions), entire communities make sacred ceremonial quantities of yellow-colored rice, sweet rice cakes, meat-filled banana leaf offerings, and rows of skewered chicken saté offerings for the gods. In the Bali-Hindu religion, the making of ceremonial food and offerings is, in itself, an act of worshipping and honoring the gods. Balinese food is singular among the leading cuisines of the world. Dedicated to the gods and fueled by an aromatic array of achingly fresh spices, this time-consuming, manual culinary art is inextricably bound to this one island’s religion, culture, and village life. Large-scale rituals and ceremonies escalate into large-scale ceremonial feasts. Exquisitely embellished ritual foods—a sumptuous spread of Bali’s most spectacular dishes— are prepared for life cycle rituals (groundtouching ceremonies, weddings, toothfilings, and cremations), temple anniversaries, and important religious holidays like GalunganKuningan. Food artistry reaches a crescendo in

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amazing, six-foot-tall, banten tegeh fruit offering towers borne on the heads of magnificently dressed local women. They carry the heavy, multi-layered, “fruit skyscrapers” throughout village streets in colorful, trafficstopping, single file processions to their nearby temples. Once it is blessed by the pemangku (village priest), the family then takes it home to eat. The Balinese create and eat purified, blessed food—a source of both spiritual and physical nourishment. Theirs is the elaborate food of the gods. n

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Gado-Gado (Mixed Steamed Vegetables in Peanut Sauce)

ado-gado (in Bahasa Indonesia) or jukut mesantok (in Balinese), is found all over Indonesia in many different versions--and varies from island to island. Gado-gado means “mixed,” or consisting of many elements: the dish characteristically consists of an assorted potpourri of very lightly steamed (or par-boiled) fresh vegetables served with a tangy peanut sauce. It is normally eaten lukewarm or cold. The favorites are long green beans, cabbage, kangkung (water spinach), carrots, cauliflower, and bean sprouts. It will always be accompanied by hot, steamed white rice. The stunning, full presentation usually includes crispy fried tempe, tahu (tofu), slices of ketupat rice cake, a boiled potato, a boiled egg, sliced cucumber, fried shallots, and crunchy krupuk crackers. The Balinese rarely eat gado-gado at home, but it is lovingly ladled out (very inexpensively) at most small warungs in Bali or by street vendors (with aromatic, made-and-mixed-to-order peanut sauce, wrapped in a banana leaf to go) Recipe courtesy of Ni Wayan Murni, Murni’s Warung, Campuhan-Ubud, Bali. Ingredients (Serves 4-6) 250g cabbage, sliced 250g carrots, sliced 250g green beans, halved 250g Chinese cabbage, sliced 250g bean sprouts 250g water spinach or spinach 5 boiled eggs, sliced or quartered 30 bite sized pieces of fried tofu (tahu, or bean curd) 30 bite sized pieces of fried tempe 20 slices cucumber florets of cauliflower krupuk (crunchy fried cassava, taro, or sweet potato crackers) fried shallots, handful sliced tomatoes, to garnish Method i) Steam the cabbage, carrots, green beans, Chinese cabbage, water spinach (or spinach), and cauliflower lightly and set aside. ii) Fry the tofu in a little oil. iii) On a serving plate, layer the steamed vegetables with the tofu, bean sprouts, tempe and cucumber. iv) Decorate with eggs and sliced tomatoes. Serve the fragrant peanut sauce on the side or in a separate bowl. v) Sprinkle fried shallots on top and garnish with a circle of crackers.

Bumbu Kacang (Peanut Sauce)

Peanut sauce is one of Bali’s favorite condiments: varying in subtle, gradual degrees of spiciness and sweetness, it routinely accompanies gado-gado and satay stick presentations. The secret is to use the best quality peanuts. One-inch-long kacang tanah (earth beans) grow under the soil, and are used to make peanut sauce. The red-colored beans can also be fried or sautéed and eaten as a snack. Recipe courtesy of Ni Wayan Murni, Murni’s Warung, Campuhan-Ubud, Bali. Ingredients (Serves 4-6) 400g raw, unsalted peanuts 50g tomatoes, chopped 4 garlic cloves 2 tsp taucho sauce (fermented bean sauce) 2 tsp fried shallots lime or lemon juicea squeeze (lime juice is better) 1 tsp salt (sea salt is best) 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp kecap asin (salty soy sauce) 1 tsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) Method i) Fry the peanuts, a handful at a time, until brown. i) Place all the ingredients in a blender and push the pulse button until smooth or, for even better taste, grind by hand with a traditional mortar and pestle. The quantities of salt, pepper and the two kecaps can be varied to suit individual taste.

Sambal Matah (A Raw Side-Dish)

Sambal matah is one of the signature foods of Bali. It is the island’s most frequently eaten, sparkling clean, delightfully fragrant sambal (sauce)—adding extra pleasure and taste to almost any meal. Easy to prepare and healthy, it is always eaten raw, and is always made completely fresh—right before serving. I always request it with every meal I eat on the island of the gods— from gado-gado to grilled mackerel or boat-fresh grilled tuna. Most dishes in Bali are served with a delicious round mound of nasi putih (traditional, Balinese white rice) and magnificent sambal matah on the side. Recipe courtesy of Made Janur and Iloh, Janur Ingredients (Serves 1-2) 3-4 small red onions (shallots)—cut into little, thin slices 1 small red chilli, thinly sliced small pinch of Masako chicken stock (bouillon) powder pinch of sea salt 3 to 4 tbsps of coconut oil 1 small (1 inch diameter) kaffir lime Method i) Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. ii) Drizzle the fresh lime juice over the sambal matah and toss its bright green rind into the mixture as well. Combine everything together by hand and serve on a small plate. n

March 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 39 |

events MARCH

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events Edited by: Mona Shah List your event for FREE! APRIL issue deadline: Friday, March 20, To list your event in the Calendar, go to www.indiacurrents.com and click on List Your Event

Check us out on

special dates Holi

Now Roz

April 12

Ugadi

Gudi Padva

March 6

March 21 March 21

Ramanavami

March 28

Mahavir Jayanti

April 2

Hanuman Jayanti

April 3

Good Friday

April 3

Easter

April 5

Baisakhi

April 14

Tamil New Year

April 14

CULTURAL CALENDER March

1 Sunday

Dulhania Bazaar Asian Bridal Expo.

One stop wedding & event shop with over 100 vendor booths. Organized by Shy Khan. 12 p.m. Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, 201 Waterfront St, Fort Washington, MD 20745. $5. (602) 770-4066.

March

8 Sunday

40 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

Zakir Hussain performs, March 17

Shaadi Showcase Spring 2015. Over

50 vendors with welcome bags, vendor discounts, tasting samples, decor displays, henna designs, fashion collections, live entertainment. Organized by Dream Shaadi. 1 p.m. Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, 2800 S Potomac Ave, Arlington, VA 22202. Free. (571) 477-1605.

March

17 Tuesday

Zakir Hussain Celtic Connections Live in Concert. Exploring diverse

cultures and sounds with a fusion of lively, flowing melodies and rhythms of Celtic

music—represented by the bodhran (frame drum), violin, pipes, flutes and voice—with the tabla, bamboo flute, and karnatik violin. Organized by Washington Performing Arts. 8 p.m. GW Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St., NW | Washington, D.C. (202) 785-9727. www.washingtonperformingarts.org/calendar/ view.aspx?id=2646.

March

28 Saturday

Talent Time 2015. Organized by Kerala Association of Greater Washington. 9 a.m. Kilmer Middle School, 8100 Wolftrap Road, Vienna, VA 22182. (732) 693-3810.

events Festival Of Colors and Kites. Orga-

nized by InetenseDMV Radio. 12 p.m. Bull Run Park, 7700 Bull Run Drive., Centreville, VA 20121. $5.

March

29 Sunday

GujjuBhai Banya Dabang—A Gujrati Play. Organized by Udeshi Inc. 5 p.m. High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 20705. $30, $50. (571) 4450123.

April

3 Friday

Adnan Sami Live In Concert. Orga-

nized by Events Worldwide. 8:30 p.m. Warner Theatre, 513 13th St NW, Washington, DC 20004. (703) 989-1289.

April

10 Friday

Indian Ethnic Wear Fest. Latest styles, authentic fabrics and superb workmanship. Gorgeous sarees, salwar kameez, and IndoWestern tunics. Organized by Utsav Fashion. 10 a.m. Executive Conference and Training Center, 22685 Holiday Park Drive., Sterling, VA 20166. (800) 824-9156.

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events SPIRITUALITY & YOGA

Saturdays

Sundays

Balaji Suprabhatha Seva. Group

chanting of Balaji Suprabhatam. Vishnu Sahasra Namam, Balaji Astothram, Lakshmi Astothram and Balaji Govinda Namam. Followed by prasad. 9:45-11 a.m. Rajdhani Mandir, 4525 Pleasant Valley Road, Chantilly, VA 20151.

Yoga Classes. Self-guided and instructor assisted. 7-9 a.m (Self-Guided), 9-10 a.m. (instructor assisted). Rajdhani Mandir. 4525 Pleasant Valley Road, Chantilly, VA 20151. (703) 378-8401.

Balgokul. Help children learn and

appreciate Hindu values through participation in Hindu festivals held at the temple, yoga, games, bhajans and shlokas. 10:30 a.m. Sri Siva Vishnu Temple, 6905 Cipriano Road, Lanham, MD 20706. (703) 338-5637, (703) 732-4732. ssvt.balgokul@gmail.com. www.ssvt.org.

Yoga Classes. Organized by Dahn Yoga. 10 a.m. 700 14th Street NW,

Washington, DC 20005. (202)393-2440. washingtonDC@dahnyoga.com. http:// www.dahnyoga.com.

Bhajans. 6-7:30 p.m. Mangal Mandir, 17110 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20905. (301) 421-0985.

60+ Senior Citizens Club. 3 p.m.

to 5:30 p.m. Mangal Mandir, 17110 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20905. (301) 421-0985.

Geeta Discussion. Explanation of various chapters of Karma and Bhakti Yoga. Organized by Rajdhani Mandir. 4:15-5:30 p.m. 4525 Pleasant Valley Road Chantilly, VA 20151.

Gita Study Group. Organized by

Chinmaya Mission. 10 a.m. Vision Learning Center, Grove Park Square 11537A Nuckols Rd, Glen Allen, VA 23059. (804) 364-1396. http://www.chinmayadc.org.

Sanskrit Class. Emphasis on Sanskriti

(culture). Taught by Moti Lal Sharma. Organized by Rajdhani Mandir. $60. 3-4 p.m. 4525 Pleasant Valley Road, Chantilly, VA 20151.

Yoga Classes. Self-guided and instructor

assisted. Organized by Rajdhani Mandir. 7-9 a.m (Self-Guided), 9-10 a.m. 4525 Pleasant Valley Road, Chantilly, VA 20151. (703) 378-8401.

Prarthana, Satsand, Prabachan. Fol-

lowed by prasad and Priti Bhoj. Organized by The Hindu Temple of Metropolitan Washington. 5 p.m.10001 Riggs Road, Adelphi, MD 20783. (301) 445-2165. http:// www.hindutemplemd.org.

Balagokulam. Learn and appreciate

Hindu values through games, shlokas, story-telling, music, and group discussions. Organized by The Hindu Temple of Metropolitan Washington. 5:30 p.m. 10001 Riggs Road, Adelphi, MD 20783. rsdiwedi@ comcast.net. (301) 345-6090. http://www. hindutemplemd.org. © Copyright 2015 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited. Adnan Sami live in concert, April 3 March 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 41 |

healthy life

Homeopathy for Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome By Daxa Vaishnav

oly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is usually thought to be a lifetime female hormonal imbalance where maturing eggs fail to be expelled from the ovary, creating an ovary filled with immature follicles (somewhat misleadingly called cysts). These cysts then contribute to the hormonal imbalance that causes more cysts. In PCOS, inappropriate levels of both female and male hormones probably cause oligomenorrhea (infrequent menstruation). All women produce male hormones in small quantities, but in women with PCOS, levels of male hormone are slightly higher than in other women. PCOS affects approximately 5-7% of women specially in the young reproductive period (second and third decade of life). Approximately 40% of these patients have insulin resistance that is independent of body weight. These women are at increased risk for adult-onset diabetes mellitus and consequent cardiovascular complications compared to healthy women. When I graduated from the homeopathic medical college in Mumbai, nobody had heard of the Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome because at that time it did not even exist in textbooks. There was a short description of the Stein Leventhal syndrome (which was first described in 1935) in the books of gynecology as a symptom-complex associated with raised LH (Leutinizing Hormone) levels and oligomenorrhea, absence of ovulation, hirsutism (excessive hair growth, especially on the face and other parts), infertility and recurrent miscarriage. However, it was not until 1990 that the key features necessary for the diagnosis of PCOS were detailed at a conference convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I have been actively involved with homeopathy and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health since 1986. I was a Professor and Head of the Deptartment of OB-GYN at a Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital in Mumbai till I migrated to the United States in 2011. Over the past 15 years, I have

42 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

seen a sudden rise in the number of people with complaints of oligomenorrhea, irregular menses, meno-metrorrhagia, polymenorrhea (frequent menstruation), primary infertility or secondary infertility due to repeated abortions. Further examination and investigations of many of these cases have confirmed the clinical diagnosis of PCOS. As I started treating more and more cases of PCOS, it became apparent that the life situation of many of the people showed a

traumatic (stressful) condition during puberty or at adolescence. If your doctor suspects PCOS, a battery of investigations will be ordered for you. The goal is to assess the severity and source of androgen excess and to rule out an adrenal or ovarian tumor. Some of the common tests are FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone), LH (Luteinizing Hormone)- the ratio of 3:1 of LH:FSH is diagnostic, Serum testosterone, DHEA and DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone). A pelvic ultrasound is also usually needed. It may show 10 or more follicles, 2-10 mm in size per ovary. I have found homeopathy to be very useful in the management of PCOS. Homeopathy is a holistic system of medicine that assists the natural tendency of the human body to heal itself. Homeopaths do not treat physical, emotional and mental illnesses separately, but regard them as intimately connected. These are all aspects of the whole personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suffering. So you may be asked questions about

all sorts of apparently minor deviations from health and about character and personality traits. It may appear that the homeopath is interested in matters that have little to do with the particular complaint about which the person is most concerned. This is because, before prescribing, the homeopath wants a complete overview of the person. A remedy is then prescribed for that individual and not for his or her disease. However, the homeopath also looks at the investigations to complete the picture. This holistic approach is also called constitutional homeopathic treatment and has led to many success stories in PCOS and unexplained infertility. Apart from homeopathic constitutional treatment, I ask the client to exercise regularly. Regular exercise helps control insulin levels. What is required is just a 30 minute walk, 3-4 times a week. Aerobics, weight training and swimming are also encouraged. Certain life style modifications are also necessary to control PCOS. A proper diet, reducing alcohol and quitting tobacco smoking are very important. Early diagnosis of PCOS makes managing the disease easier. The response to homeopathy is seen in the regularization of menstrual cycles. Regularization of cycles may mean more ovulatory cycles. These women thus have a higher chance of conceiving naturally. Women who are thin, younger, with less hirsutism and who do not have very high levels of testosterone respond better to homeopathic treatment. Hence homeopathic treatment along with modification of diet and lifestyle patterns can have benefits in terms of regularization of menstruation, fertility promotion naturally (or by assisted reproduction with better results), risk of type-2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia are ameliorated and musculoskeletal and metabolic side effects are reduced. n Daxa Vaishnav has been practicing homeopathy for over 29 years. She has several offices in the Bay Area. She is a Faculty and Academic Affairs Consultant at the American Medical College of Homeopathy in Phoenix, Arizona. She blogs at http://homeopathicure.wordpress.com.

travel

Love and Lord Krishna On the Temple Trail from Mathura to Vrindavan By Kavita Kanan Chandra

Sculptures depicting events from Krishna’s life at Prem Mandir garden in Vrindavan

ny person who has grown up listening to stories of the lovable Krishna from Hindu mythology, the bluefaced one sporting a naughty smile and holding a fistful of butter, will know that Mathura and Vrindavan were Krishna’s stomping grounds. The numerous temples and the flow of devotees into the towns of Mathura, Vrindavan and and the adjoining hamlets of Gokul, Barsana, Nandgaon that constitute Brajbhoomi tell the story of how Lord Krishna is loved as much as revered. The colorful stories of the innocent pranks of adolescent Krishna vanquishing demons as a child and his playfulness as a youth and of his teasing and frolicking with gopis and ardently wooing his beloved Radha with a peacock feather tucked in his hair-band and a flute in his hand ensure that the Krishna legend continues from Dwapar Yug (epoch) to Kali Yug. It was on a sunny spring morning that we drove on the Yamuna Expressway from Delhi to the twin towns of Vrindavan and Mathura. It was just a week prior to the celebrated festival of Holi and a joyous mood pervaded the towns. As we got off the Expressway on to a

narrow road snaking through the cultivated fields towards Vrindavan the soothing rays of the sun warmed the cockles of our hearts. Spring was in full bloom and cheerful flowers set the mood while vast fields of potato cultivation spread a verdant hue. Harvesting of the tubers had commenced and heaps of potato lay on the roadside. Bullock carts trudged past and farmers walked to work while stray dogs roamed around. The laid back charm was soon replaced by the cacophony of a pilgrim town as we entered Vrindavan. Once known for its fragrant groves it now resembled any other dusty mofussil town from the Gangetic plains. With signboards showing the direction to Vrindavan’s most famous Banke Bihari temple we reached the site before the Lord retired for his afternoon siesta. The roads were all spruced up and the lanes cleaned for Holi. Rahul, a local student who doubled as a guide in his free time was awaiting the festival during which hordes of devotees and curious foreigners flooded the town. “Everything is awash in color and on the day of Holi. ‘Lathmaar Holi’ is played and then beats of dholaks rend the air as the partici-

pants enthrall everyone with mellifluous folk songs,” he described.

Banke Bihari Temple

As we walked down the lane leading to the temple, hawkers were arranging peacock feathers, shop owners were displaying Radha-Krishna pictures for sale, and sweets were being arranged at mishthan bhandars or sweetmeat shops. Sadhus with their weird hairdos and saffron robes sat whiling away time as monkeys pranced around causing commotion. It was hilarious to watch devotees struggling to hide their spectacles and prasad from the monkeys. The only sight that unsettled us were those of widows clad in white sitting quietly by the roadside. It was ironical for a town known for the youthful shenanigans of Krishna and his gopis to be so cruel to its widows who are driven away from their own homes to live in penury. Inside the temple there was much jostling and without much effort we were pushed to the front. The black luminescent idol of Banke Bihari draped in shimmering brocade and silk and adorned with jewels looked awesome. The aura of the divine deity had a calming effect on us as we fervently

March 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 43 |

his friends away with sticks. Krishna later came back with his friends from Nandgaon to play Holi with Radha. The modern festivities ensure a playful enactment of the scene when women in ghunghat (head covering) chase the menfolk with sticks while the men protect themselves with shields.

Nidhivan and ISKCON

A sweetmeat stall

prayed. With prayer on our lips and hope in our hearts we looked around for the famous “Mathura ke lal pede” or the famous red sweets made from evaporated milk in Mathura. Outside the temple there were stalls that dated back a century. We bought some delicious pede from Lakhan ki Dukan (Lakhan’s store).

Holi Celebrations

Janmashtami and Holi are two festivals that are celebrated with much fanfare in Vrindavan and Mathura. The Holi celebration, the rite of spring heralding the New Year, starts almost a week before the actual date (March 6, 2015). The devotees play Holi inside the temple. As fistfuls of abeer and gulal fly, they create a haze of pink, red, yellow and saffron hue. The Holi festival is strongly associated with Lord Krishna and Brajbhoomi comes alive with frenzied celebrations during the period. For a week, priests and devotees partake in the celebration as colored water and powder cover everyone.

Games People Play

In the afternoon the Banke Bihari temple organizes Huranga (a game played between men and women using liquid colors) or Lathmaar Holi (a game where women chase men away with sticks) on its premises. Hordes of tourists throng to the temple to soak in the mood of joy and gaiety and hundreds of photographers vie for a perfect shot. After the games the women and men sing folk songs inside the temple and immerse themselves in devotion to the deity to seek his divine blessings. The tradition of playing Lathmaar Holi has an interesting genesis too. The legend says that Krishna once went to see Radha in Barsana when her friends chased him and 44 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

Listening to all these colorful tales we decided to pay a visit to Nidhivan, where Krishna indulged in RasLeela (a dance) with the gopis in the forest. It was here in a secluded spot that Krishna’s devotee Swami Haridas meditated. Legend says that Lord Krishna transformed himself into an idol on Haridas’ request and the black luminescent idol was installed in the temple in 1864. The aura of the idol is such that no one can continuously look at it. This is the reason why a curtain is drawn every few minutes over the idol in the temple. From there we headed to the Krishna Balram temple of ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) that has made “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” chants an anthem for foreigners and Indians alike who are drawn to Krishna’s allure. The society is also credited to have taken up a number of social projects including feeding the poor.

Spaghetti Anyone?

It was post noon and the rumble in our tummies signaled that we too needed some succor. We ate at the Shri Govinda restaurant on the premises. They are known the world over for delicious vegetarian food prepared sans onions and garlic. Besides the Indian cuisine we also loved the Italian spaghetti and macaroni and coaxed the manager Balram Das to tell us the secret to his sauce. He explained that it was the addition of a specially made organic sauce that gave the unique taste to the dishes.

Love Temple

In the evening our next stop happened to be the current hot favorite of tourists, the Prem Mandir (Love Temple) built entirely of white marble enticing the public with a colorful musical fountain (7pm-7:30pm) and a bedazzling display of lights. The grandeur of the temple, its vast garden with statues depicting events from Krishna’s childhood and the intricate carvings inside draws old and young alike.

Delectable Desserts and Savory Selections

Next day as we continued our temple trail from Vrindavan to Mathura, we noticed that modernization had brought newer chains of eating outlets. But North Indian cuisine still predominated in the region and most restaurants served vegetarian food even without onions and garlic in both Vrindavan and Mathura. The bylanes of Mathura are the places to go to gorge on delectable sweets and savory snacks from the umpteen hole-inthe-wall shops and kiosks. My morning stroll in old Mathura from Chowk Bazaar to Holi Gate was a sensory and culinary experience. As the street stirred to life the tea stalls were first to light the stoves with hissing kettles letting off an inviting aroma and I could not resist a piping hot kulhad (terracotta cup) of sweet milk tea. A little later the Mishtan Bhandars and bhojnalayas (eating places) would also become busy frying hot kachoris to be served with delicious aloo ki sabzi, syrupy jalebis and chhena ki mithai. After breakfast it was time to visit one of the oldest temples that was built as a haveli (historical mansion) in 1814. Here Lord Krishna is depicted as the King of Dwarka so his idol is flanked by his queens Rukmini and Satyabhama. The temple is famous for its annual 13 days Jhulan Yatra (swing festival) celebrated with grandeur in the month of August. In the evening as we walked towards Vishram ghat on the banks of the river Yamuna from Holi gate to Chatta bazaar the tangy chaat, aloo tikki, pani-puri, hot samosa with chutney, chana chivda, moong dal pakode, stuffed parathas and dal vati vendors eateries could be seen doing brisk business. We gorged on some hot and spicy treats before settling down for the evening aarti at the ghat where once Lord Krishna and Balram rested after killing the cruel king Kansa. In the birthplace of “Makhan Chor” (another playful term for Lord Krishna) one is spoilt for choice of food and drinks and dessert with lassi, rabri, badam (almond) milk, pede being sold at every nook and corner.

dear doctor

Lost in Thought By Alzak Amlani

A shopkeeper selling paintings of Lord Krishna and Radha in Vrindavan

So what better place to have lassi and rabri than the temple of Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi itself? This temple holds great significance as Krishna is said to have been born here and a jail has been erected in the temple to get the feel of the captivity of Vasudev and Devaki (Krishna’s parents) by the evil king Kansa. As legend goes a lot of miracles happened when Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, was whisked away to the cowherd village of Gokul on that stormy night when the river Yamuna swelled with heavy downpour. When we drove to the Gokul Barrage over the river Yamuna, I couldn’t help getting down and watching the river that appeared so calm. I could visualize, many centuries ago, a naughty Krishna being chased by a loving Yashoda in Gokul after breaking the pot full of butter. Truly Krishna still resides in Brajbhoomi, his presence can be felt everywhere.

Famous Mathura Eating Joints:

Om Pahalwan Kachoriwala (Holi Gate) and Brijwasi Chaat Wala (Tilak Dwar) are good for Indian street food. Brijwasi Mithaiwala has seven outlets and is famous for mawa sweets. The Mathura ke pede, Meva vati peda and export quality special peda last for three months after purchase. At this store, you get Mathura specialities like Khurchan, Rabri, Ghewar, Faini, pista sweets and lots of namkeens. Shankar Mithaiwala (Tilak Dwar in Holi Gate) is an institution in itself where traditional food is prepared in shudh Desi Ghee. Their pede, sugar free moong dal burfi, creamy lassi, sumptuous breakfast of chhole bhature, khasta kachori and dahi bhalla will keep you full for a long time. n Kavita Kanan Chandra is a freelance journalist and travel writer based in Mumbai. She has lived and worked in different parts of India and understands the pulse of her country.

We have a seven year old boy who is very smart, but lacks focus, and gets distracted easily. Often, he seems to be living in the moment, not remembering what comes next and losing track of time. This sometimes results in him sitting in the restroom for as much as 45 minutes or getting so immersed in reading books that he doesn’t pay attention to what we ask him to do. Even in the classroom, he falls into a reverie and stops paying attention to the teacher who has moved on and is asking everybody to write notes. The feedback from the teacher is that he is very smart in math and problem solving, but he “zones out” and can easily get distracted. It is difficult for us to see whether his focus is good or bad. We guess the problem is his ability to remember sequences of events and do it effectively and fast and be mindful of surroundings and what is expected out of him.

I am glad to hear that your son is smart and can immerse himself in something of interest. However, I hear that he becomes unaware of time and his environment. When he does get absorbed, evaluate his comprehension. Does he remember what he reads or can he articulate what he is lost in? When he is lost in thought, ask him what he was thinking about with curiosity and try and be non-judgmental about it. He ought to be able to share what he is learning and reflecting upon with you. If he cannot do that, then he is most likely dissociating to get away from his feelings, family or environment. This may be his way of coping with some inner or relational challenge. How long has it been since he retreated into his

inner world? Has something happened in his life that has been traumatic or overwhelming in some way? If so, he needs to get some psychotherapy from a child therapist who can help him work that situation through, so he can reconnect with others and his environment in a supportive and responsive way. Although some children don’t do well with a lot of structure and actually need more independence, it sounds like he could use some coaching and supportive training. While giving him freedom to explore himself and interests in his own way, it might be helpful for him to have more structure. Setting a timer when he goes to the bathroom, or reading or doing other activities can help him transition. If he doesn’t respond, ask him why he is not responding. Do your best to draw him out without getting impatient or critical. Be careful to not overwhelm him or be invasive. Rather be warm, interested, while respecting his style. This is not an easy way to approach him, for he may be sensitive. If these approaches do not work, talk to the school psychologist about some testing to understand more about his attentional style or issues. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com

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On Inglish

Sheesh! So Much Bakshish! By Kalpana Mohan

bakshish [bak-sheesh]: noun 1. money given as a tip, a present, or alms verb 2. to give such money to (a person) Origin: from Persian bakhshish, from bakhshidan to give; related to Sanskrit bhaksati he enjoys

he last time I was at a restaurant in lower Manhattan, our daughter was peering over her father’s shoulder after the waiter slid the bill for our dinner onto our table. She seemed anxious that her father’s concept of a tip hovered as a single digit percentage, somewhere right around the US Treasury Index. “Ugh. No one tips like that!” she said, rolling her eyes as he suggested a number as a potential tip. “Let’s not be cheap now, this is New York.” Tipping, as far as I’m concerned—and we’re very concerned, my husband and I—is now taking a flavor all of its own, from tea and coffee shops to curbside check-in and restaurants. It’s not simply “expected” anymore, like a gratuity given for a courtesy received. Quite often, the tip is “demanded” in both covert and overt ways. I notice how the hectoring for a tip or bakshish in the western world is merely a sophisticated counterpart, a less unruly version, you could say, of what happens in the streets in India or in the developing world. During his maiden voyage to India in 1962, right as Sir V. S. Naipaul disembarked at the seaport of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the first sounds he claims to have heard was the hounding of customers for a tip: “And in the streets there was the East one had expected: the children, the dirt, the disease, the undernourishment, the cries of bakshish, the hawkers, the touts, the glimpses of minarets.” In this port, he experienced, firsthand, the onslaught of squalor and deprivation that would haunt him a few weeks afterward when he disembarked at Bombay; the crude truth of poverty and caste would rattle his bones. Just as Naipaul saw the beginnings of the eastern experience in the west, we too get an idea of how this Persian word bakshish might have bobbed over the seas or trekked eastward over land into India to stain its soil. Bakshish originates from the Persian bakhshish whose roots lie in the Pahlavi (Middle Iranian) language. I found out that this word might also trace back to the Sanskrit biksha which alludes to alms or gratuity. When I traveled in northern India, bakshish was one of the first words I often heard as my train rolled into a station. Porters in red turbans and tunics sprung into the compartments peddling their service. They nagged for a bakshish just as they loaded our taxi. “How about you add something on top of the amount, say, a little for my chai or coffee, you know?” That little “something” for a drink might account for why the French refer to the tip as a pourboire which, literally, translates to “for drink.” I had grown up with the notion of bakshish everywhere around me. On the roads in Chennai, then and now, I saw the “squeegee bandit.” He was a fixture. The squeegee bandit, as he’s known in Canadian cities, wipes the windshields of cars while they are stopped at traffic lights and then presses the occupants to part with some cash. The precursors to these cleaners were the crossing sweepers on the streets of metropolises during the 19th century. Horse drawn vehicles littered cities in the olden days; while crossing intersections, the long, trailing skirts of wealthy women were soiled by horse droppings and other garbage. Crossing sweepers offered a service by clearing excrement from their paths and begging pedestrians for a pittance. Mostly, however, they went unnoticed unless they were persistent, like my late father’s night 46 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

watchman. My father grumbled that watchman stood by the door almost every other day squeezing another note out of him, “for a coffee, a tea or a cigarette.” Vinayagam, my father’s manservant of two decades, was stealthier about lusting after a tip but he too gazed at my father’s right hand whenever he stayed late or took on another chore. “Your father has given me the same 20 Rupees (~30 cents)for the last 10 years. The tip hasn’t ever increased, see?” he said to me with a snort, waving the note in my face. When his valet’s back was turned, my father muttered that the fellow didn’t know to ever say “thank you” after pocketing his bakshish. My father discouraged his daughters and sons-in-law from going overboard with bakshish. He would tell us to never tip beyond what the norm was in a place because it made life difficult for locals like him who could not afford to tip more. It also tended to switch allegiances, he said. He lamented that the recipient changed his behavior towards people according to the size of his tip instead of focusing on doing due diligence to his job. In recent times, even in more upscale circles, the idea of the tip is morphing into a mild threat. A recent article in The New York Times laments the “proliferating tablet-based point-of-sale systems that force the issue by presenting consumers with a slate of generous gratuity options before the transaction can be completed.” The last time I was expected to pay about 50% in bakshish for my gourmet cappuccino (which, if I considered the height of the foam, was really 75%), the barista thrust an iPad under my face. I really didn’t see any difference between the squeegee bandit and the coffee specialist as I gathered that the iPad offered three possibilities for a gratuity: 20%, 25% and 30%. The subject of tipping will continue to invoke angst-ridden gasps between people of different generations. I believed my father could have been a more generous tipper. My daughter believes her father needs to loosen his purse strings. And hence, that evening in New York, she grabbed the receipt to compute the tip herself. She fished out her iPhone. Her pointer finger, whose nail, as usual, was unclipped, pranced about the numbers, subtracting this and adding that. “There, that’s the total amount you must pay, Daddykins. I factored 20% before taxes.” Her nose stud glinted scornfully in the light above our heads. “I hope you both know that you don’t include the tax in your tip. Never do that.” Sheesh, I thought. Why so much bakshish? n Kalpana Mohan writes from Saratoga. To read more about her, go to http://kalpanamohan.org and http://saritorial.com.

bits and tweets

Best foreign film? India, world’s largest film industry, shut out of #Oscars nomination for 10th year in row. Should Bollywood care? #hbxchat. — Bharat Anand, Feb 22, 2015. Professor, Harvard Business School

Please control yourself.

Dressing up for a Gentleman’s game today. #BleedBlue — Roger Federer, February 14, 2015. Federer’s Facebook post supporting the Indian cricket team got a quarter million likes. Now, that’s celebrity.

A Youtube video critical of Air India’s insensitivity went viral. Ticketed passengers who showed up 55 minutes before departure, were not allowed to board. One customer, visibly upset, begged impassive Air India staff, claiming her mother was in the ICU and in critical condition. Air India staff remained unmoved.

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World leader Modi’s suit, hand-woven with a special jacquard technique that spelt out Modi’s name, estimated at a Rs 10 lakh (16K) price tag, was finally auctioned for Rs 4 crore ($694K). The Midas touch?

That’s the way you do it, I wonder if the fabric was made from 100% worsted wool? —j paul @carisbrook5 Feb 20, 2015 The ‘worst’ed joke on the Emperor’s new clothes? Modi donated proceeds of the auction of his extravagant suit, to clean up the Ganges, deftly deflecting critics. March 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 47 |

the last word

Am I a Goddess or a Crone? By Sarita Sarvate

he first time I heard someone refer to me as a “Goddess,” I was at a new-age workshop in California. I must confess the appellation created a pleasant feeling in me. I had grown up in India, so perhaps deep in my subconscious was a desire to be one of the many goddesses people worshipped back home, like Kali the warrior goddess, or Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. But the western goddesses, I soon discovered, were derived from the pre-Christian, pre-patriarchal icons of the so-called pagan civilizations of ancient Europe, where women were not treated as the weaker sex. Looking back on my life, I wonder if I have ever felt like a goddess. Sure, men who were in love with me sometimes seemed to worship me, trying to fulfill my every wish. After I fell in love, my partner made me a cup of tea on a camping stove by the roadside while traveling making me feel like a goddess. But when it came to Women, day-to-day decision-making, I I suppose, are did not rule the roost. In my generation men came with the worst victims their own baggage. They perhaps been favored of this kind of sub- had over their sisters by their conscious ageism. I Indian mothers, or raised by their 1950s suburban feel so hip and cool American moms who were supposed to worry inside that it is hard about the gloss on their for me to imagine appliances rather than the shine on their curriculum that the young per- vitae. So I admired the newson I am facing age goddess worshippers, does not pick up until I realized that the word “goddess” conjured up for on the vibe. many ex-hippies the vision, not of Saraswati, the goddess of learning, cradling her veena, but tantric goddesses from the sculptures of Khajuraho, adapting posture out of the Kamasutra. Their goddesses, I noticed, often had young bodies, blonde hair, long legs, and navel rings. Still, I was not troubled. I had never relied on physical attributes for validation anyway. But when I was called a “crone” recently, I felt insulted. The label came, not from a man, but a female friend. When I objected, she explained that older women often preferred to be addressed as wise women, or crones. In what universe would a woman describe herself in such a demeaning way, I asked. In Berkeley, was the reply. I should have known. What else could I expect from that bas48 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| March 2015

tion of feminism? But then I began to wonder, is it preferable to be a crone than to be invisible? When one gets to middle age, one encounters a certain patronizing attitude from the young people one meets. At the Apple store, for example, the young techie assumes I am a Luddite, and talks down to me, explaining basic concepts like an operating system. “I get it, I have a graduate degree in physics,” I want to say. Women, I suppose, are the worst victims of this kind of subconscious ageism. I feel so hip and cool inside that it is hard for me to imagine that the young person I am facing does not pick up on the vibe. When I show up at social gatherings like Spanish Meetup, I have the eerie feeling sometimes that not only do I not belong, but that I don’t even exist. In the Bay Area, whenever one goes to study painting, or yoga, or meditation chances are the class will be full of older women. What the men are doing I don’t know. Perhaps they are still bringing home the bacon. I did not notice this when I had a full-time professional job because I naturally came across people of all genders, ages, and ethnicities. But recently, I asked a woman who had moved into the retirement community of Rossmoor, “How can you stand to see only old people?” When I decided to study video production and discovered that it was one field in which young men dominated, I was glad. It is not that I am romantically interested in them, I just enjoy their company. When my sons help me with the street slang in a TV show like The Wire, I feel grateful that I am still in touch with the younger generation. When my mother was dying, I took one last picture of her. When she saw it, she was shocked at how her once ethereal face had withered. Never had I felt so moved by her. I never thought of myself as a beauty, still, I am not sure that one day I will not be equally shocked by my picture. It is the natural order of things for the baton to pass to the younger generation. Old age is something one always imagines will happen to someone else. The poet laureate Donald Hall recently published a book of essays about aging. In it, he recounts visiting an art museum in a wheel chair and being asked by a guard, “Did we enjoy our dindin?” The poet was tempted to point out that he had not lost his mind, only the use of his legs. The story moved me, and yet, a part of me was relieved. Perhaps in old age, I thought, men and women became equal. Or better yet, in old age, women became goddesses, living longer and healthier than men, and enjoying all the physical and mental activities men have long given up. I began to look forward to getting older. n Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has published commentaries for New America Media, KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, and many nationwide publications.