India Herald 122116 by India Herald

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India Herald

VOL. 22 NO. 51 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • P.O. BOX 623 • SUGAR LAND,TX 77487 • PERIODICAL PERMIT USPS 017699 • 25 CENTS

Indian Doctors Charity Clinic adds more services

Chamber hosts ‘Women Mean Business’ event

Indian Doctors Charity Clinic oﬃcers Dr. Suresh Moonat, left, Dr. Sunita Moonat, Dr. Subodh Chauhan, Dr. K.T. Shah, Dr. Jay K. Raman, Dr. Manish Gandhi and K.C. Mehta.

Shell Projects and Technology CIO Amy Sulz left, Wood Group CEO Michele McNichol, HMSDC President Ingrid Robinson, IACCGH President Joya Shukla. Photo by BIJAY DIXIT. By MANU SHAH Wood Group CEO Michele McNichol was once told she could never lead a project because she was a woman. Ingrid Robinson was singled out of 200 applicants for the position long held by Houston’s father of Diversity - former HMSDC President Richard Huebner. These remarkable women not only beat the odds to succeed but proved that they could do so without compromising on their personal values and putting family first. At the Women Mean Business event held on December 13th at the Junior League of Houston, the two Keynote speakers shared their remarkable journey and the guideposts that guided them to a gathering of over 60 IACCGH members and guests who as President Joya Shukla remarked must be lauded for “fighting the traffic” to make it

to the event. In his remarks, IACCGH Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia recognized Gitesh Desai who represented Wood Group, one of the sponsors of the 2008 Trade Mission to India led by Judge Ed Emmett. The delegation’s eﬀorts led to Mahindra & Mahindra, the world’s largest tractor company expanding their facility in Harris County creating local jobs and boosting Houston’s economy. He also acknowledged Vibhu Sharma’s role in connecting the Chamber with Michele McNichol. President Joya Shukla welcomed the gathering and thanked Shell’s senior leadership not only for sponsoring the Chamber’s events but also giving up their “personal time to coach, mentor, strategize and share ideas” for the Chamber’s continual success. See CHAMBER, Page 3

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By SESHADRI KUMAR The Indian Doctors Charity Clinic board of directors hosted an appreciation luncheon at the BAPS Mandir in Staﬀord on Dec. 11 to thank the community organizations, donors and volunteers who helped make the clinic successful over the past 17 years. The charity clinic, a brain child of the Indian Doctors Association of Houston, was established in 1999 when Dr. Sunita Moonat was the founding president to provide helathcare for uninsured people. Dr. K.T. Shah has been the medical director of the clinic for over a decade now. K.C. Mehta, secretary and

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treasurer of the charity clinic, said the board decided to hold its second annual appreciation luncheon to convey the board’s gratitude to individuals and organizations and recognize their contributions. Dr. Shah, chairman of the board, said the clinic is open on Saturdays form 8 a.m. to 12 noon at 6550 Mapleridge, #229 in Houston. About 25 to 30 patients are seen during the four hours and the clinic has plans to expand and have 10 more patients. Recently, a free eye clinic was added to the charity clinic, thanks to Dr. Ravi Chundru, an opthalmologist. He has procured free eye drops and eye glasses and provided

medical equipment as well, Dr. Shah said. Thanks to volunteer doctors, soon neurology patients will also be seen at the clinic, once a month. Dr. Satish Jhingran is providing almost free radiology services to patients referred by the charity clinic and Dr. Nat Bala, gastroenterologist, is providing endoscopy services at a very subsidized cost. Dr. Pulin Pandya, urologist, has also oﬀered his services and patients will be referred to his clinic. Memorial Hermann Southwest is providing free blood tests for the patients from the clinic. See CLINIC, Page 11

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PAGE 2 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

HERE ARE 51 REASONS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS

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We’ll keep you entertained with our top-ranked museum district, our renowned theater district and one of the nation’s best ballet companies. We’re home to top-notch Tex-Mex, the best BBQ and over 10,000 other restaurants serving the food of more than 70 countries and American regions. You may have heard we’re the most diverse region in the U.S. and speak over 145 languages. We have the world’s largest medical center, including the premier hospitals in the country. We have the award-winning Buffalo Bayou Park, the massive Memorial Park (3X the size of Central Park), the beautiful Discovery Green and more golf courses than you can shake a putter at, making us one of the 10 greenest cities in the U.S. Galveston beach is a short drive away. So is the San Jacinto Monument, Battleship Texas, The Woodlands Waterway and the Kemah Boardwalk. If you’re looking for a job, we’re a top city for young professionals, with the most Fortune 500 companies outside of NYC. And even better, our paychecks stretch further than anywhere else.

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41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

As the nation’s fourth-largest city, we’re the Energy Capital of the World and have a nightlife full of energy. We’re the birthplace of NASA, Dennis Quaid (and brother Randy), Jennifer Garner (Golden Globe winner), Jim Parsons (AKA Sheldon Cooper), ZZ Top (formed here in 1969) and, of course, Beyoncé. Ever heard of the rodeo? Ours is the world’s largest. And our Port of Houston is a pretty BIG deal, too (it’s #2 in total tonnage). We’re passionate about the Houston Zoo, the Houston Texans and everything about J.J. Watt. Don’t forget our outstanding bar scene, the Anheuser-Busch brewery and nearly a dozen craft breweries with arguably the best beer in the country. Our 655 square miles could contain NYC, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle, which gives us plenty of space for our 15 million visitors each year. (It helps to have two major airports, including one of the nation’s largest.) So clear your schedule, and get your gear from The Galleria. Gather the whole entire family for 10 free days of Super Bowl LIVE. Get pumped for live music, some good ol’ Texas eats and football at its ﬁnest, because the Super Bowl is coming to Houston, y’all!

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2015 • PAGE 3

NEWS

AJC honors Sanjay Ramabhadran

Since 1981, AJC Houston has presented The Human Relations Award annually to a civic or business leader demonstrating exceptional work in making a diﬀerence in Houston and in preserving America’s democratic heritage. On Dec. 12, AJC honored Tony Chase, Gilbert Garcia and Sanjay Ramabhadran with the Human Relations Award celebrating Houston’s diversity. The Distinguished Public Service award was presented to Dr. Stephen Klineberg for his pioneering work on the Houston Survey. The event at the Houstonian featured over 200 guests - the Who’s Who of Houston including Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen, former Mayor Annise Parker, former Sheriﬀ Adrian Garcia, Ambassador Schechter, Consul General of India Dr. Anupam Ray, METRO Chair Carrin Patman, Houston First Chair David Mincberg, State Representative Elect MaryAnn Perez, IACCGH President Joya Shukla, IACCGH Executive Director Jagdip

Chamber From Page 1 The economic impact of diversity in Houston is a staggering $22.8 billion. Ingrid Robinson, President of HMSDC, an organization that provides certification for women owned enterprises shared several statistics that highlighted the phenomenal growth and leadership of firms owned by women of color over the last decade. Women, she noted, are not only leaders in Corporations but are increasingly embarking on an entrepreneurial path. Houston, she continued, is far ahead of its times and is showing “other cities the impact of encouraging diversity.” She wrapped up her talk by emphasizing that every woman who aims to be a successful entrepreneur must “set their own value, communicate that value to the world and not settle for less.” In an equally thought provoking address, Keynote Speaker and CEO of Wood Group Mustang Michele McNichol underscored the importance of “Finding Your Purpose” – a practice which involves defining your life and vision. Her advice: Look deeply into what inspires you, define your best qualities and never lose sight of personal values which can be found by “digging into your soul.” As women and “nurturers,” she continued, we tend to neglect ourselves but it is important to invest time in any activity that is energizing, which for her, was as simple “as watching the waves on the beach.” These are questions that may take a bit of “soul searching” but when applied to life’s challenging moments can help you make conscious decisions that lead to success.

Ahluwalia, IAPAC President Dr. Karun Sreerama. Past recipients of the award include Shell Oil, Governor Ann Richards, Ambassador Schechter, Mayor Whitmire, Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, Ric Campo and Welcome Wilson Sr. The American Jewish Committee - Houston, founded in 1946 is a respected voice in the local, political, religious, and academic arenas. As it works to protect human rights around the world, it is equally committed to strengthening the community and enriching the quality of life for all of our residents.

Sanjay Ramabhadran, left, Gilbert Garcia, Tony Chase and Dr. Stephen Klineberg.

PAGE 4 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016

VIEWS Why cultural appropriation is unethical By KRISHNAVENI SIGIREDDI Imagine an individual stealing an idea that you came up with on your own for and using it as his or her own idea and robbing you of the credit you deserve. Instead imagine this being done with your culture. That is what is like to have your culture appropriated by another individual. Cultural appropriation is the adoption of one culture by another culture. Cultural appropriation is robbing a minority group of the credit the group deserves for their own culture. It is important to not appropriate another culture because it robs individuals the credit that is unique to his or her culture, but it is important to appreciate individual’s cultures and cease the appropriation of cultures. Being Indian, I see the South Asian culture being appropriated. One day as I walked into Urban Outfitters I noticed the store was selling DIY henna kits. Henna is a temporary tattoo that is typically worn for religious ceremonies and weddings. To see Urban Outfitters sell these kits to the general public was appalling to me. It hurts and confuses me to see individuals adopting my culture for the wrong reasons. We should not appropriate other cultures, instead we should appreciate other cultures. There is a fine line between the two. It is important that we understand what cultural appropriation is, what cultural appreciation is, and cease cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is found everywhere almost such as bodily adornment for the wrong reasons.

Cultural appropriation can be found at music festivals such as Coachella. Many individuals get henna done for the festival. Getting henna done is culturally appropriating the South Asian culture because henna is typically worn for weddings and holidays and essentially represents celebration. Getting Henna done for Coachella does not qualify for any of these reasons therefore is considered cultural appropriation. Another example of appropriating the South Asian culture was in 2016 when Perrie Edwards, a British pop singer, got henna done for her birthday party. There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Cultural appreciation is honoring the elements of different cultures. Different events or situations call for cultural appreciation. For instance, an individual of a different culture could appreciate the elements of another culture if he or she was invited to a religious wedding ceremony. For example, my best friend is not from the same culture as me, but for my sister wedding, my friend got henna done and wore a traditional Indian outfit in order to honor my culture. By doing such she appreciated my culture where as Perrie Edwards’ situation was completely different and unethical. It is understood that there are differences between the two it is important that we promote the idea of ceasing cultural appropriation and making changes within our communities. In 2014, Houston Independent School Districts super-

intendent, Terry Grier made it mandatory that any school that had a culturally insensitive mascot were to change them. Four schools in HISD were to change their mascots and logos because they were culturally insensitive. In an editorial, Grier stated, “The time has come for the Houston Independent School District - the most vibrantly diverse school district in the nation - to acknowledge that some decisions made generations ago need to be reconsidered. Traditions are important. But respect for cultural diﬀerence and sensitivities matters more.” One of the schools was Lamar High School. Prior to the change Lamar High Schools mascot was a red skin, which is also a derogatory term for Native American. After the change, the high school’s new mascot is a Texan. It is important that we are more aware of cultural appropriation and cease the appropriation of cultures. In order to do such, it is important that we understand the ﬁne line between appropriating and appreciating a culture. It is important that we do not adopt elements of another culture for any given reason but it is important that we adopt them when the time is right. Zendaya Coleman once stated, “You have to be very careful. Some things are really sacred and important to other cultures, so you have to be aware, politically, about those things before you just adopt them.” (Krishnaveni is a sophomore at the Houston Baptist University.)

An ode to words (For one word a man is often set down as wise. And for one word he is as often set down as fool) “What is the greatest invention of them all?” Some say ‘Wheel’, some others say, “Control of Fire” Yet others say, “Organized Agriculture” No doubt, the Wheel, Fire and Agriculture revolutionized the civilizations But I say, “The Words” Imagine a world without

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words. What could have been the “First word’ invented by Man? Certainly it is not, “Word’ Words musts have come before ‘word’ came! Meanings must have been there as much as thoughts. Are words necessary for thoughts? “I very rarely think in words at all”, said Albert Einstein and goes on, “A thought comes and I try to explain in words afterwards”

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Words can be lovely and comforting They can also be seductive and alluring. Some words are sweet and gentle In contrast to others that are angry and oﬀending. Bitter and biting You have wise and witty words as much as impolite and inane Then there are words of saints, Pious and principled Grammarians classify words with ‘words’ ‘Synonyms’ are words with similar meaning ‘Antonyms’ are those with meanings opposed Needless to say ‘Antonym’ is the antonym of ‘synonym’ ‘Acronym’ is formed from letters initial ‘Anagram’ is a word rearranged from letters of another. By ’euphemism’ one converts an embarrassing word into a polite one. Instead of, “you have missed

Inspiring essay on volunteerism By MALLIKA TRIPATHY Albert Schweitzer once said, “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” Currently, I am a senior at Clear Lake High School. I participate in debate, DECA, Red Cross, and many other clubs at school. I’ve grown up hearing about the importance of leaving your own mark on the world by creating an environment of positivity with a smile on your face wherever you go. It is this belief that has led me to want to create change in society to make the lives of all individuals better. I have always found great interest in pursuing my own talents to help others. One source of inspiration was hearing about the Indian Doctors Charity Clinic while my father was the President of the Indian Doctors Association. I remember learning about how different doctors and volunteers come on Saturdays to provide free services to various patients at the Indian Doctors Charity Clinic (IDC clinic), regardless of who they are. I was astounded to hear how dedicated these doctors were to helping others as they took time out of the only free days they get in the week (Saturday Clinic). Seeing the efforts on their part, I understood the importance of other individuals in the community helping out to ensure that the services can always be provided, which made me want to donate money to this charity organization. Three years ago, I started a business alongside my sister where we make handmade beaded jewelry and sell it at different forums. The money we have made has been donated to various charities including the Indian Doctors Charity Clinic and many other nonprofit organizations. In the month of March in 2014, I organized a bake sale at school and donated over $150 to the Indian Doctors Charity Clinic. I was overjoyed to hear the appreciation from the

members of the organization. This pushed me in wanting to give back to the community I grew up in, before I embarked on to college. As President of the Youth Committee in the local Indian Cultural Center of Clear Lake, I went into the year with a desire to bring a balance between cultural activities and community service projects done by the youth. We organized various events including canned food drives, clothing drives, socials, and a car wash. Using the $840.75 we ended up making throughout the course of this year, I decided I wanted to further our community service work by donating a portion of the revenue towards an organization that stood out in its eﬀorts in giving back to the local Houston community. In my mind, the one that stood out above all was the Indian Doctor’s Charity Clinic because of its deeper meaning for me in terms of my heritage paired with its core values of kindness and selﬂess service. At our ICCL year-end review meeting, I was proud to announce our donation of $471 to this charity organization (Indian Doctors Charity Clinic). Nothing makes me happier than seeing smiles on individuals’ faces because of something that I have contributed towards. I am more than overjoyed to have been able to help someone else through my own actions and hope I can help many more in the years to come.

the history lecture”, if you say “You have hissed the mystery lectures!” that is Spoonerism for you. ‘Malapropism’ is wrong use of similar sounding words When spelled same both forward and backward it becomes palindrome, WOW! And now to some idioms on words ‘Have a word’, ‘Word of honor’, word of mouth’,’ put words in someone’s mouth’ When we use too many words it becomes ‘wordy’ I leave it to you to guess, whist is ‘gobbledygook.’ “Better throw a stone at ran-

dom than a word” says an old adage Add ’s’ to word and it becomes ‘sword’ A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword Spoken words and shot arrows cannot be called back! But, Cut, Gut… hut and nut and more are pronounced one way But ‘Put’ is the odd one pronounced in a peculiarly diﬀerent way. “Why is that?” one wonders.

(Mallika Tripathy is the daughter of Dr. Ashok Tripathy in the Clear Lake area.)

See WORDS, Page 5

INDIA HERALD â&#x20AC;˘ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 â&#x20AC;˘ PAGE 5

NEWS HAF leaders condemn German deportation of Afghan Hindu asylum seeker Washington, D.C. Leaders at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) on Dec. 15 condemned the deportation of an Afghan Hindu asylum seeker, Samir Narang, from Germany yesterday. Despite eďŹ&#x20AC;orts by the Central Council of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in Germany to stop the deportation based on hardship and humanitarian grounds, including a petition to government oďŹ&#x192;cials, Mr. Narang was put on a plane from Frankfurt airport at approximately 6:40pm local time on December 14. HAF also wrote to German government oďŹ&#x192;cials with an emergency request to stop the deportation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re extremely disappointed that the German government failed to recognize the legitimate asylum claim of Samir Narang, who ďŹ&#x201A;ed to Germany to escape religious persecution in Afghanistan,â&#x20AC;? said Samir Kalra, Esq., HAF Senior Director and Human Rights Fellow. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We urge the German government to approve the asylum

claims of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, who would face extreme risk to their life and liberty if forced to return to Afghanistan.â&#x20AC;? According to the Central Council of Hindus and Sikhs, Mr. Narang was being held at a detention center in the city of Buren prior to his deportation. He ďŹ&#x201A;ed Afghanistan four years ago and sought refuge in Germany, where he had fully integrated into German life. His entire family similarly ďŹ&#x201A;ed to the safety of Germany. Afghan Hindu leaders in Germany fear that there may be more such deportations in the near future. The small Hindu and Sikh community left in Afghanistan (estimated at between 2,500 and 3,000) remains marginalized and is subjected to violence, discriminatory laws, and social prejudice and harassment. Hindus lack the ability to publicly express their religious beliefs and must hide their religion almost entirely to avoid persecution by the Muslim majority.

They have consistently faced intolerance of their customs and harassment during religious festivals, and they have encountered signiďŹ cant obstacles to conducting their religious ceremonies, most notably cremation rites. Government authorities and law enforcement oďŹ&#x192;cials have failed to protect Hindus and Sikhs from harassment, violence, and discrimination. Moreover, the Taliban and other insurgent groups continue to threaten the security and stability of Afghanistan, and the central government lacks the ability to implement the rule of law or defend its citizens, particularly religious minorities, as noted in HAFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual human rights report. When the Taliban was previously in control of the country, it forced Hindus to wear a yellow stripe or other marking to distinguish them from the Muslim population, and was responsible for the destruction of the sacred world heritage site of the Bamiyaan Buddhas.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice lauds bipartisan eďŹ&#x20AC;ort to protect DACA recipients Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), applauds Senator Dick Durbinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (D-IL) and Senator Lindsey Grahamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (RIL) introduction of the Bridge Act and their support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative (DACA). President-Elect Trump has promised to terminate the DACA program, which allows certain undocumented people who came to the United States as children to obtain temporary protection from deportation and work authorization. Mee Moua, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice made the following statement: â&#x20AC;&#x153;As President-elect Trump toys with the lives of 740,000 youth with DACA, it is vital that Congress decisively resolve the uncertainty that these

individuals live with every day. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Bridge Act is a limited measure to resolve an urgent situation for those with DACA, over 18,000 of whom are from Asian countries. Ending DACA would result in many people losing their jobs, driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; licenses, and health insurance. It will cause anxiety and place people at risk for deportation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While we strongly support these eďŹ&#x20AC;orts to save DACA, we have grave concerns about placing anyone in permanent second-class status. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Asians Americans were the ďŹ rst immigrants to be excluded from the U.S. based on race and national origin. Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, Asians were eďŹ&#x20AC;ectively barred from immigrating to the U.S. and ineligible for citi-

From Page 4

Again, in wrong combination may lead to bickering and cannon shots. A harsh word may end friendly relations A bitter word may make friends into rivals. A careless word may lead even to world war. Now to the last word on words! What is the singles word when you say will include all? â&#x20AC;&#x153;UNIVERSEâ&#x20AC;? When you utter Universe it includes them all And if you can see the oneness of all, you have it all! â&#x20AC;&#x201D;V.S.VENKATAVARADAN

Well, they put it that way. Of course, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;outâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; beats them all, pronounced neither like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;putâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; nor â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;butâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Now to singular and plural Cow becomes cows, but poor ox becomes oxen. Proof and roof turn into proofs and roofs. But loaf and shelf become loaves and shelves. Life and Wife transform to Lives and wives! Plural of child is not childs but children. More strangely foot becomes feet and goose to geese! Words in right combination can elevate and ennoble

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PAGE 6 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016

INDIANS ABROAD Indian American Community of Chicago to host 1st ICAN Awards Night Rolling Meadows, Chicago, December 20, 2016: Indian American Community will host 1st ICAN Awards and Gala on March 18th2017, northwest suburbs of Chicago. The event will be attended by not for profit organization leaders, Indian American business leaders, State & Local Government officials, and several hundreds of people from Chicago and the suburbs. Jassi Parmar, Professional MC, Radio Jokey, and ICAN Concept & Entertainment Head, while addressing the press conference on December 10th 2016, said that ICAN’s Awards Night will honor individuals from Indian American Community who have been making extraordinary contributions in different fields. “ICAN’s vision is to unite community organizations, build Indian American cultural image, highlight the community’s role models for next Generation,”, Parmar added. Ravi Rawat, a Leading Business Leader and Head, ICAN Sales & Marketing said that Indian Americans from Chicago have been witnessing the awards functions on television. “ICAN Awards Function will bring them face to face with “Real Awards to Real People”.

Bhavesh Patel, a well-known Business Leader, Bollywood Promoter from Chicago, and Head, ICAN Promotions said that he is proud to be part of the energetic and enthusiastic team of ICAN in bringing this first of its kind event to the US. “Considering the great social relevance of the event, I will contribute my best efforts to ensure that it will turn out to be a great success”, he added. Girish Kapur, IT Professional and Head, ICAN Technology said that over 40 Awards in such categories as Business, Entertainment, Fashion, Community Service, Education, Social Media, etc. will be presented at the function. Rita Singh, A successful women entrepreneur, and Head ICAN Public & Media Relations said that Indian Americans have been making spectacular contributions in different fields. “Giving recognition to them will go a long way in sustaining their efforts”, she added. Neil Khot, Community Leader, Businessman and Head, ICAN Branding & Strategy said that the event will be a source of inspiration for Indian Americans to take up similar activities across the length and breadth of the US. Sanjeev Singh, Senior IT Professional and Head, ICAN

Bhavesh Patel,left, Girish Kapur, Hemant Brahmbhatt, Ninad Daftari, Nilesh Topiwala,Ashfaq Syed, Neil Khot, Khaja Moinuddin, Ravi Rawat, Jassi Parmar; Seated, Haribhai Patel, Dr.Preeti Poindexter, Rita Singh, Dr. Anuja Gupta and Sanjeev Singh. Awards & Process said that nominations will open on December 12th 2016 and the ﬁrst round will close on December 31st. The Process team will evaluate and publish list of Nominees on the Website. The Nominations will close on February 5th 2017 at 12.00 am. “Indian American Community will declare the Final List of Nominations on Febru-

ary 12th 2017 at 1:00 PM. The Voting will start on the Valentine’s Day Feb 14th at 9: 00 AM and will close on March 12th 2016”, Singh added. Haribhai Patel, Eminent Community Leader for Senior Citizens and ICAN Brand Ambassador urged the community members to nominate their heroes so that deserving people get the awards.

Nilesh Topiwala, Community CPA and Head, ICAN Budget & Finance said that proceeds of the event will be utilized for charitable purpose. “IHOPE has done multiple charities in the past and now, with the community support and cooperation, it will be able to help many more needy persons”, he added.

See AWARD, Page 7

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 7

INDIANS ABROAD

Sanjeev Singh, Bhavesh Patel, Rita Singh, Jassi Parmar, Prabh Khaira and Dr.Preeti Poindexter.

Award From Page 6

Earlier, Jag Mohan Rawat, Radio Host, and Committee Member of ICAN welcomed the representatives of the Print, Electronic, and Internet media. He also gave an overview of the event, which was broadcasted live through Facebook and viewed by over 4,000 viewers across the globe. The team has made the Nomination processes very simple, any person can nominate any deserving candidate as long as he/she fits one of the 9 Award Categories listed on ICAN Website (https:// icanaward.com ). Here are 2 Simple Steps 1 Review award categories and choose the best nomination category that fits the nominee. 2 Fill the online nomination form and submit nomination in appropriate category. 3 Nomination can be recorded and uploaded on ICAN Facebook page( https://www. facebook.com/iCanAwards/), When uploading the video the nominator must Say the Name of Nominee, ICAN Award Category and the reason for nominating the person. The Nominations should be uploaded on Facebook with Social Media Hash Tags #iCanAwards #iCanNomination etc. The Awards Function is being held under the banner of the iHope Sewa Organization, which is a Chicago based, humanitarian, and not for profit organization registered under Internal Revenue Code 501 (c) (3). Founded in 2016, it is

Get the Digital Edition of India Herald? Visit www.Indiaherald.com Sign up for News via email.

part of an initiative started by Desi Junction. Those who are interested in having more details about the evet may visit Rajeshwari Rawat, Hema Shastri, Payal Shah, Laddi Singh, Rita Singh, Prabh Khaira, Tulsi the following websites: www. Arya, Ratna Kapur, Priyanka Mathur, Dr. Preeti Poindexter, Dr. Anuja Gupta, Shital Daftari & icanaward.com and register Hemi Patel. your nomination too.

PAGE 8 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

COMMUNITY

Akshaya Patra Tampa Bay to build kitchen in Gujarat Tampa Bay community along with Philanthropists Dr. Kiran Patel, Dr. Vijay Patel and Businessman Vijay Patel pledged to raise $3.1 million. The Akshaya Patra Foundation USA’s Tampa Chapter raised $2.5 million to build a new kitchen in Mota Fofalia, Gujarat, at its annual beneﬁt on Saturday, November 19th. Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest NGO-run school meal program, and provides school meals to 1.6 million children in 13,210 government schools across India. Dr. Kiran Patel, a local Tampa doctor and community philanthropist, galvanized the event supporters with a $1 million pledge to build a new kitchen in Mota Fofalia, a rural

village south of Vadodara. Dr. Kiran Patel, says, “The gift of education is the best that somebody can give to anyone. Imagine a holistic approach where you also provide nourishment for the needy so you are providing health and education together”. Dr. Vijay Patel, a local Tampa doctor, community philanthropist, and a member of Volunteer Committee pledged $500,000. Dr. Vijay Patel, says, “I feel pride in joining with Tampa community and Dr. Kiran Patel to take the path of Akshaya Patra and build a kitchen in Gujarat in where over 50,000 children will be fed.” Local businessman, Mr. Vijay Patel pledged $250,000 with an additional $250,000 pledged by Tampa bay community members. Akshaya Patra Director of Development, Manisha Gandhi says, “It has been a remarkable experience to develop Tampa Bay Chapter. This was only the second event but the community is very passionate and came together to fund a

Desh Deshpande, left, Piyali Dutta, Manisha Gandhi, Emily Rosenbaum, Dr Kiran Patel, Dr Pallavi Patel and Omi Vaidya. kitchen in Gujarat. “Dr. Kiran Patel, Dr. Vijay

Sri Hari:

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Patel, and businessman Vijay Patel are leading the project with highest in contributions. Dr. Kiran Patel is an inspiration for many in the USA with his Philanthropic eﬀorts. It is heartwarming personally because this kitchen will provide meals for children in my home town of Dabhoi, Gujarat also.” The Tampa Volunteer Chapter plan to raise a total of $3.1 million. Dr. Kiran Patel, Dr. Vijay Patel, and Mr Vijay Patel created an appeal video for the Mota Fofalia fundraiser, which can be viewed here: https:// youtu.be/dStQtsTSn0E Desh Deshpande, Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation USA and the event’s keynote speaker, congratulated the Tampa Chapter, saying, “The Tampa Chapter is an example of what a community can accomplish when they come together to improve the futures of children in a community a world away”. Dr. Kaushal Chari, Chair of the Tampa Chapter, “I would like to thank Dr. Kiran Patel, Dr. Vijay Patel, Mr. Vijay Patel and the Tampa Chapter for bringing the Mota Fofalia kitchen to fruition. When completed, the Mota Fofalia will nourish the dreams of the 100,000 children the kitchen will serve every day. Their outstanding generosity and continued dedication to reaching their $3.1 million goal inspires our organization to reach greater achievements of impact and scale. For every $15 they raise, they are providing food for education”. The 2016 Tampa Event Volunteer Committee was led by Dr. Kaushal Chari, Mr. Fazal Dasankop, Dr. Dilip Mehta, Dr. Ashok Modh, Dr. Vijay Patel, Mr. Vijaya Prakash, Dr.

Raju and Anita Rao, Dr. Madhavi Sekharam and Mr. Sri Sridharan. Akshaya Patra operates 26 kitchen facilities across India. Each of the 24 centralized kitchens utilizes state-of-theart technology to freshly prepare 100,000 hot, nutritious meals daily. Each of the kitchens follows the highest standards of hygiene and food safety, and 13 of the kitchens have received already been certiﬁed as FSMS ISO 22000:2005 compliant, which means they meet the standards of the International Food Safety Management System (FSMS). The International Organization for Standardization established the ISO 22000 certiﬁcation to ensure the safety of the global food supply chain. Akshaya Patra operates three other kitchens in Gujarat in Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Surat. These kitchens prepare meals for 407,992 children in 1,475 government schools. To support the Akshaya Patra Tampa Bay Mota Fofalia campaign, please visit: https:// www.foodforeducation.org/ campaign/mota-fofalia-kitchen

Visit www. India-herald. com. Email: editor @india-herald.

com

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 9

COMMUNITY

Surangan School of Music holds student appreciation day

By SANCHALI BASU The aim of Surangan Music School is to nourish, nurture and carry forward the rich Bengali heritage. The evening of December 4 proved that fact to a tee, when the school held their annual student appreciation day at the HDBS Sur Auditorium. The school in its 6th year under the dedicated eﬀorts of founder director Rupa Ghosh has grown in size, maturity and professionalism. The school trains students in the classical, semi classical, Rabindra and Nazrul songs. It also takes pride in conducting periodic workshops with eminent artists from Bangladesh, India and the US and participates in several live stage shows, some in collaboration with other performing cultural organizations of the diverse, vibrant city of Houston. December 16, also being the Victory Day of Bangladesh was commemorated in the program and participants were all dressed in shades of red and green representing the Bangladeshi national ﬂag. The evening started with a brief introduction by emcee Sanchali Basu and Rupa opened with her melodious rendition of Rabindra Sangeet “Jagate ananda jogge” and captivated the audience’s attention. Three group songs were sung by her entire group of students and they included Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Sangeet and a

Bangladeshi patriotic song. Each individual student namely Sarat, Tansin, Sadaf, Shyon, Naiza, Mehenaz, Joti Priya, Prithika, Sharoni, Prova Joti, Pritha, Seeryn, Mohd Ali, Aryan, Sedra, Sreya, Puja, Dona, Mukta and Fareeha then took the stage and sang beautifully with very little help from the Guru. They ranged in age from 4 to anywhere over 30. Each one of them had the lyrics memorized and most of them played the harmonium while they were singing. As if this was not commendable enough, there was hardly any American accent in their Bengali pronunciation. Even the non Bengali mother-daughter duos of Vanini-Sheena and Dipika-Sonia sang, “Kothao aamar” with perfect Bengali diction. A dance performance by Shawon to “Mor bhabona re” brought some variety to the evening’s show. As is the tradition, Raja Banga, director of the Prana School of Music, an eminent music school of Katy along with a few of his disciples joined in the evening’s celebrations. His students also hailed from different age groups and delighted the audience with various percussion instruments including tabla, djembe, Cajon box drum, drums and keyboard. Rupa in her inimitable style delighted the audience with a Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul songs. The highlight of the evening

was the mesmerizing renditions of Rabindra Sangeet by guest artists Kamalpriya Roy and Amit De with the impeccable accompaniment of Biplab Samaddar on the violin, Alok

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for the last. Biplab Samadder and Raja Banga drew much appreciation from the crowd with their jugalbandi on the Raga Chhhaya Nat. A vote of thanks was offered by Rupa and all guest artists were presented with uttoriyo and flowers. Appreciation certificates were handed out to students. Visit www.surangan. org for further information. OLD

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Roy on the mandira and Raja Banga on the tabla. Both have been trained in the traditional Rabindra Sangeet style from Santiniketan and the former is a faculty member at Kala Bhavan, HDBS. Shudhu tomar Bani sung by Kamalpriya deserves special mention. The audience wanted to hear more but the request could not be kept since the organizers were saving the best

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PAGE 10 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

CLASSICAL ARTS SOCIETY OF HOUSTON Presents t h 40

Sadguru Sri Thyagaraja Aradhana Saturday, January 28, 2017 (8.30 am to 5.30 pm, MTS Kalyana Mantapam)

Unchavritti Pancharathna rendition Individual sangeetha seva Dance//Special Program/Mini Concert

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INDIA HERALD â&#x20AC;˘ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 â&#x20AC;˘ PAGE 11

ISKCON

Long time employee of the clinic, Chief Nurse Debbie Ray, is felicitated by Anjali Patel, left, and Bharati Desai, right. K.C. Mehta, is far right.

Clinic

From Page 1 In view of his failing health, Dr. Shah intends to pass on the mantle to Assistant Medical Director Dr. Kiran Gandhi, who is also chair-elect of the charity clinic board. Dr. Shah said the clinic has a good future and will survive and prosper. He hoped the scope and services oďŹ&#x20AC;ered at the clinic will increase soon. K.C. Mehta in his remarks pointed out that the Indian Doctors Association and the Indo American Charity Foundation jointly organized a walkathon and raised $25,000 for the charity clinic in 2016. The walkathon will be held

again in April 2017. Dr. Jay K. Raman, who has been a doctor on call for the past six or seven years, was among those recognized. Dr. Sunita Moonat said the clinic is an Indian community clinic, not Indian Doctorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Clinic. However, the clinic sees patients from all ethnic groups and communities. Patients of all ethnic groups are seen â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Asians, Hispanics, Caucasians and AfricanAmericans are given this service free of charge if they have no insurance and are indigent. Dr. Jhingran, who has been in Houston for 48 years, said a lot of money goes to charitable causes in India from

Dr. Kiran Gandhi, assistant medical director and chairelect of the Indian Doctors Charity Clinic, speaks.

Houston and with that money the community could build a hospital, he said. Dr. Kiran Gandhi expressed the hope she will soon have a long list of voluntary doctors and specialists oďŹ&#x20AC;ering service at the clinic. She also would like to expand the clinicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s service for more than one day a week. The clinic phone number is 713-771-2255.

Indian Doctors Association of Houston President, Dr. Manish Gandhi, left, felicitates Dr. Jay K. Raman for his services to the charity clinic.

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 13

RELIGION CRICKET IN THE U.S.

Sathyanarayna Puja at Sri Meenakshi Temple

The volunteers and temple silpis and staﬀ worked tirelessly to make sure that the puja materials were distributed to more and more devotees that joined. One of the most important aspects of the puja is the recital of the Sathyanarayana story. Eager volunteers lined up to read the ﬁve chapters, while all the devotees listened to it intently. There are many great les-

Ardent devotees look forward to the Maha Sathyanarayana Puja at Sri Meenakshi Temple every year. This year, a record 200 families sponsored and participated in the puja conducted at the Ganesh Temple, with great enthusiasm, even though the event had been postponed by a week due to inclement weather warnings. This surge of devotion can be attributed to only the greatness of the God who is the embodiment of Truth. The word “Sathya” means “Truth”, and “Narayana” means “that which is abiding in everybody and everything”. Lord Sathyanarayana, who is none other than Lord Vishnu himself, recommends that in order to overcome diﬃculties and problems in this world either caused by this life or previous births, one has to begin worshipping truth. Worshipping truth means being truthful to oneself and to others. The reasons for the popularity of this puja are many. First

of all, it is very simple and easy to perform, and secondly, it can be performed by anyone; young or old, man or woman, belonging to any caste or creed. It thus proves that as far as God is concerned, all are equal. It is only the sincerity, faith and devotion of the bhakta (devotee) that counts. This puja can be performed on any day and at any time, although full moon day evenings are considered more auspicious. The temple Religious Activities Committee with its volunteers were very active planning weeks in advance which helped in executing this event so smoothly. The participant families were seated in neatly laid out rows, each of them being provided with a picture of the Lord and puja materials such as rice, kumkum, ﬂowers, deepam, prasadam etc. Priest Pawan Kumar led and guided the devotees through the puja and was well supported by Priest Sreedharan Raghavan.

sons to be learned from the stories such as one should never forget to fulfil one’s promise, or not be ungrateful to the Lord and respect all and not feel superior and look down upon others. The Sathyanarayana puja is not complete till the final arathi, and so it was such a beautiful arathi sung to the bhajan Jai Jagdeesh Hare. Nor it is final till the Lord’s blessing in the

form of ‘prasad’ is distributed to and eaten by each and every one. Finally, the devotees were fed a sumptuous lunch by the temple, thanks to a most generous donor’s contribution. Chairman Narayanan thanked the priests, staﬀ , all the volunteers and the event coordinators Chandrakala and Karunakar —By M.K.Sriram

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PAGE 14 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 15

CINEMA Apprehensive about making Wajah Tum Ho: These onions are making me cry comeback to Tamil cinema: Kajol

Danush & Kajol Kajol is excited as well as apprehensive about returning to Tamil films after a gap of 19 years, with actor Dhanush’s next movie. Noted actress Kajol is excited as well as apprehensive about returning to Tamil films after a gap of 19 years, with actor Dhanush’s next movie. Kajol is set to star in Velaiilla Pattadhari 2, which will be directed by Tamil superstar Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya. The movie is being co-produced by Dhanush under his banner WunderBar Films. When asked about the film, Kajol told reporters here, “I am a little apprehensive. But I love the fact that I am going back to Tamil (cinema) after a very long time and I am also extremely excited.” The actress’ last Tamil movie was Minsara Kanavu, the 1997 musical rom-com which also starred Arvind Swamy and Prabhu Deva. Interacting with the media at the red carpet of SansuI Colors Stardust Awards here last night, Kajol also talked about Dhanush and Soundarya. “Dhanush is a very fine actor. I haven’t seen Soundarya’s work but she looks like she knows what she is talking about and we get along very well. So, things will be good,” she said. After two decades, Kajol is making her comeback in Kollywood with Dhanush’s upcoming film Velaiyilla Pattathari 2, which recently went on floors in Chennai. The Bollywood actor took to Twitter to share a picture from the photo-shoot of her upcoming south Indian film. The picture shows Kajol dressed in black showing off her age-defying looks along with her co-star Dhanush and director Soundarya Rajinikanth. “Finally 1st day photoshoot! #backtotamilafter20yrs#thenewteam,” she wrote on her Twitter page. —Indian Express

Veera Sivaji: Lost in headspace

Shamili and Venkat Prabhu By Baradwaj Rangan In a film named after his illustrious grandfather, Vikram Prabhu gets a mass-hero entry. He sends someone flying through the air, and that someone crashes through the windshield of a car. Who is this man? A petrified Frenchwoman looks on. Maybe the man kidnapped her. Maybe he assaulted her. Maybe he Eveteased her. And how did this

call-taxi driver named Sivaji (Vikram Prabhu) stumble on this scene? According to the director, Ganesh Vinayaac, the details aren’t important. All we need to know is that Sivaji saves her. Later, as he drives her home, she punch-dialogues, “This sort of thing happens everywhere in the world, but only a Thamizhan has the guts to stand up to it.” Soon,

By Namrata Joshi Packed with one inane twist too many ‘Wajah Tum Ho’ just goes on and on and on. Somewhere in the middle of this purported mysterythriller, the cop in charge of a murder investigation, Kabir Deshmukh (Sharman Joshi) talks about how the case was like an onion, unravelling peel by peel. Well, that’s just a polite way of justifying a prolonged script in which one thing leads to another and the film keeps stretching on what with one inane twist too many. By the end of it almost everyone on screen seems complicit in the crime so much so that you are sure that even the chaiwala on the fringes of one of the frames would eventually get implicated in the murders committed live on GTN TV channel. However, most of all, this onion-peel theory is actually a pointer to the utter ineptitude of the inspector himself who couldn’t join the obvious dots at the start of the case; instead the significant details come to him at the fag end of it. But then this is a true blue B (or is it C) grade Hindi film and ours is certainly not to reason why. So we have the cop who lives with an irritating little daughter in Peace Haven

— the landmark Heritage bungalow at Bandra’s Perry Cross Road. There’s the media moghul Rahul Oberoi (Rajneesh Duggal) whose TV channel gets hacked for telecasting real-time murders. Siya (Sana Khan) and Ranvir (Gurmeet Chaudhary) are lawyers, who, when not arguing against each other in court are cavorting in colour coordinated costumes to remixed versions of songs like Pal pal dil ke paas from the 1973 Dharmendra-Rakhee starrer Blackmail. Incidentally, these love birds even coordinate colours for a dinner date. He, for some strange reason lifts a tyre in one love song and she puts their cozy, together photos on the wall with schmaltzy messages like: “Don’t judge me”, “Realise I am not perfect”, “Love me for who I am”, “Don’t let me walk away”. Well, if I were him I’d have surely walked far, far away from her. She claims that as the legal head she gets a six ﬁgure salary from the media moghul. What she seems to get actually are terrible passes. “You are sick,” she says. “Your love is my cure,” he comes back. Meanwhile, the camera keeps moving exploitatively on the female anatomy, especially in item songs like Mahi Ve

(Kaante, 2002). Women are defined by heaving bosoms and bare midriffs; almost all the men come with severely gelled hair. Meanwhile, gems in the name of dialogue keep flowing on. So, in the finale, in which a lot of glass is broken and some blood split, the cop, for some strange reason, advises one of the characters: “Ab tumhein dard leke jeena padega (You will have to live with pain).” What of the pain inflicted on the audience, you wonder. Most actors, save Sharman, are in urgent need of voice training and guidance in enunciation. Bachcha (child) gets pronounced as bacha (save), kabr (grave) sounds like a mix of kabaad (junk) and cupboard. To make matters worse there are glaring errors in the language itself. It could be “more clear” or “clearer” but not “more clearer” as the film has it. And pickpocket is just fine, why pickpocketeer? Logicless, well what is that? A word used in the court proceedings in the film that could well define the film itself. Illogical! Director: Vishal Pandya Starring: Sharman Joshi, Sana Khan, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Rajneesh Duggal Run time: 136 minutes —The Hindu

Sivaji gets a punch of his own. A beggar comes up. He gives her a couple of hundreds, and tells his friends, “Yosikkaama kudutha dharmam. Yosichu kudutha pitchai.” It sounds good in a vague, motivational poster kind of way. The film is equally vague. It has a couple of comedians in Robo Shankar and Yogi Babu. It has a villain in John Vijay (who seems unsure whether he’s supposed to play a comic villain or a real villain). It has a heroine in Shamili. It has the same backup dancers we see in every film. It’s scary, really, when you realise you watch so many films that you recognise

the backup dancers. These ingredients are sprinkled like spice on the main course, a plot about a little girl who needs brain surgery. And then, Sivaji becomes an amnesiac. Say what? You get the feeling the director is making things up as he’s going along. Let’s have an item number. Let’s have a duet in Turkmenistan. Or wherever. Let’s lose the heroine for an hour. Okay, enough of the villain now. Let’s lose him and bring the heroine back. It’s all head-spinningly awful, and the bad beer I had last night didn’t help. (I couldn’t decide where the queasiness

was coming from.) Why is the average Tamil film so underwhelming in terms of form? Things can go wrong with the storyline or characterisation, but shouldn’t there be at least some basic technical competence? I’m talking about finesse, finish. Why do only a handful of our filmmakers care about these things? Take the world of writing. You can lose your way in a novel or an essay, but if you end up getting published and I pick up your book, I expect you’re going to have your spelling, grammar, punctuation right. Otherwise, why bother? —The Hindu

PAGE 16 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

NEWS

Nagpur does not control Delhi, says RSS chief

Mohan Bhagwat

Poll panel lists 200 parties that exist mostly on paper The Election Commission of India (EC) will soon write to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) informing it about its decision to delist 200odd political parties. A list containing details of the delisted parties will also form part of the communique that the EC will send to the CBDT in “the next few days” for action. These political parties, many of which, EC officials suspect, could be nothing but moneylaundering operations, are parties which have not contested any election since 2005 and exist mostly on paper. “This is just the beginning. We expect to weed out all nonserious parties. There are many that don’t even bother to file Income Tax returns or, if they do, they never send a copy to us,” said a source. The idea behind sending a communication, sources told The Indian Express, is that the country’s election regulator hopes that CBDT will look into the financial affairs of these political parties since they are no longer entitled to any tax benefit that accrues to registered political parties. Sources said the EC hopes the CBDT will have a “close look” at the financials of these delisted parties so that a clear message can go out that forming a political party for “turning black money into white” is no longer a good idea. Source said that after having waited years for successive governments to act on its proposal to make changes to relevant laws to ensure that there is adequate transparency in the

Steering clear of making political comments, Rashtriya Swayam sewak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday addressed a gathering of swayamsevaks in Vadodara, and asked them to clear the misconception among public that the Sangh “controls everything with a phone call from Nagpur”. “Today, the Sangh is a well-known organisation. The entire society knows that the Sangh does public service. However, this is a conclusion people have drawn watching the work done by swayamsevaks. They still don’t know what the actual nature of the organisation is… There are fables that Nagpur (RSS headquarters) makes phone calls and controls everything. It is not possible and it doesn’t happen. We have prepared a wise person to fulfill certain responsibilities, and he will do it,” Bhagwat told the gathering during the closing ceremony of the four-day RSS convention here. He met several sanchalaks and pracharaks from the western zone of the organisation, which covers Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat. Bhagwat stressed the need for “creating” swayamsevaks, who dedicate their lives to build the society and the nation with “selfless spirit of nationalism.” “The Sangh is responsible for creating swayamsevaks who work to resolve problems. There are many problems before our country and also the world. People discuss problems, but not solutions. There are even lesser people who get involved in implementing resolution… You need an able person to work for resolution of those problems. It is not a job of one person or two people. One has to create a conducive environment… Swayamsevaks have been created to serve the nation and they are successfully doing it across the country,” he said. Bhagwat said that swayamsevaks must work to “transform” the country by putting everything at stake. “People working in the Sangh do not ask people about their caste, gods they pray or about their creed… they just chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai. We do not have to salute the founders of the Sangh… devotion to Bharat Mata is enough.” Bhagwat added that the concept of religions was misunderstood, leading to blood shed. “Every messenger of different religions preached peace, but today, in the name of religion, there is fanaticism and blood shed. This is because the concept of religions is misunderstood. The world is looking for a new way… We have a way to embrace diOver Rs 3,185 crore of undisversity as everyone is a part of the same almighty. Everyone can closed income has been detectwalk together on the path of humanity with each other’s support. ed while Rs 86 crore worth new Stifling one cannot develop another,” he said. notes have been seized by the Income Tax department as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders post the demonetisation of two

manner in which funds ﬂow to political parties and are spent by them, the EC sometime back decided to resort to its inherent powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, which empowers it to “control the conduct of all elections.” It’s under this that it has decided to delist the 200-odd political parties. EC data shows there are currently seven National Political Parties, 58 State Parties and a whopping 1786 Registered Unrecognised Parties. Under existing laws, the EC has the authority to register a political party but there is no provision to allow it to deregister any party that has been given recognition. The EC has written to many governments in the past, seeking the power to deregister “non-serious” political parties, but nothing has been done. On the issue of funding, in 2004, the then Chief Election Commissioner (CE) T S Krishna Murthy had written to then Prime Minister, recommending that political parties should be asked by law to keep details of all donors even if the amount of donation is below Rs 20,000. Under existing law, parties are expected to ﬁle their income-tax returns containing details of donors who have made contributions above Rs 20,000. A copy of this report has to be sent to the EC every year. However, most political parties declare most of their funds as having come from unnamed donors who donated less than Rs 20,000 each, thereby getting away without having to name

the source of their donations. Last week, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s announcement that political parties depositing now-scrapped old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in their accounts will be exempt from income tax provided the donations taken are below Rs 20,000 per person led to an outcry. The next day, the government, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, clariﬁed that Adhia had only stated the existing provisions of law and the NDA government had not tinkered with the law. But there was no explanation on why the NDA government, despite being in oﬃce for over two and a half years, hadn’t acted on the EC recommendation — supported by the Law Commission of India — to change the law to make it mandatory for political parties to also disclose contributions less than Rs 20,000. In fact, the Narendra Modi government amended the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, 1976, to allow political parties to accept donations from foreign entities, including companies with foreign shareholding. “Since neither the previous government nor the present one acted on our recommendations about changing relevant provisions of the law to make donations to political parties more transparent, the EC acted on its own, using its inherent powers. We are sending the names of the delisted political parties to the CBDT. It is for them to act now,” said an EC source. —Indian Express

high value currencies by the government. Oﬃcial sources said the taxman carried out a total of 677 search, survey and enquiry operations under the provisions of the Income Tax Act since the note ban was declared on November 8, even as the department has issued over 3,100 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings. The department, they said, has seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 428 crore during the same period even as the new currency seized (majorly Rs 2000 notes) is valued at about Rs 86 crore. “The total undisclosed income admitted or detected as part of this action, till December 19, is more than Rs 3,185 crore,” they said. The agency has also referred over 220 cases to its sister agencies like the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe other ﬁnancial crimes like money laundering, disproportionate assets and corruption as part of their legal mandate.

Officials said various tax offices in the country and it’s policy-making body Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) are also coordinating with banks and their regulator RBI as part of these investigations, being carried out to check tax evasion and illegal profiteering leading to black money. Meanwhile, the headquarters of these probe agencies have issued orders to all their field formations to deposit the new currency, being seized by their officials in operations, in bank accounts rather than keeping it in strong rooms. “This way the new currency can come into circulation and help banks dispense it to the public,” they said. The I-T department has also asked its field formations to coordinate with local police, also making huge cash and jewellery seizures, to understand the complete modus operandi of black money generation post demonetisation.

I-T dept detects Rs 3,185 cr black income; seizes Rs 86 cr new notes

Rahul Gandhi levels corruption charges against Narendra Modi

Days after saying that he has proof of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi gave details of his claims during a rally in Gujarat’s Mehsana. Hitting out at Modi on his home turf, the Congress leaders alleged he was paid Rs 40 crore by Sahara before he became prime minister. Gandhi claimed that that as per the Income Tax record, during a period of six months from October 2013 to February 2014, nine payments were made to Modi by Sahara when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. Here are the details of payment made to Modi allegedly by Sahara October 30, 2013: Rs 2.5 crore

November 12, 2013: Rs 5 crore November 27, 2013: Rs 2.5 crore November 29, 2013: Rs 5 crore December 6, 2013: Rs 5 crore December 19, 2013: Rs 5 crore January 14, 2014: Rs 5 crore January 28, 2014: Rs 5 crore February 22, 2014: Rs 5 crore During the Parliament Winter Session, that was washed out due to continuous protests over demonetisation, Rahul had claimed that he had evidence linking PM Modi directly with corruption. He also claimed that if he was allowed to speak in the Parliament it would cause an “earthquake” in the country. Gandhi said he was raising the issue on behalf of the country which needs answers over

the questions raised against the Prime Minister. “PM Modi takes bribes and then shamelessly foists Demonetisation on Indians under the garb of ‘ﬁghting Black Money,” Congress tweeted after the rally quoting its VicePresident Rahul Gandhi. “Rahulji asks if Modiji received this money from Sahara or not? If this document is with Income Tax, will Modi now investigate it?,” tweeted party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. The BJP, however, rubbished the allegations of Rahul Gandhi calling him a non-serious political leader.

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India defeats England 4-0; Remains No. 1 test team India had the last laugh at an iconic venue. It is not often that a team scores 477 in the first innings and still loses a game but such was England’s fate. When Virat Kohli’s men secured an innings and 75-run victory over England in the fifth and final Test at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Tuesday, it helped them clinch the series 4-0, an outcome that capped a wonderful stint in cricket’s longest format. Exactly at 4.32 p.m., 35 minutes after left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja nailed his seventh wicket to gift India a much-savoured triumph, a mail from the International Cricket Council landed in the in-boxes of cricket correspondents. It was official, India has ended the year as the number one Test team. An impressive finish to a young squad that is busy forging a bright path.Coming as it does after disastrous results against England — losses away in 2011 and 2014 and at home in 2012, the current golden run offered overwhelming relief and joy to Kohli and company. The nation’s cricket team is on a roll and the hot streak it nurses now is the best it ever had. India has remained undefeated for 18 consecutive Tests and has won 14 of those games. Its earlier fine show was from 1985 to 1987 when in 17 Tests, it had four wins, 12 draws and

Signing off on a positive note, in what has been an exceptional year for the Indian cricket team, star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Tuesday promised that they will try to shed the “poor travelers” tag in 2017. “Me and my team want to promise our fans around the world that India will put up a good show overseas in 2017. We are keen shed the poor travellers tag,” Jadeja told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by Zeven, a sports apparel company. Jadeja, who had returned with impressive figures of seven for 48 to help India outclass England in the fifth and final Test in Chennai, said the current year has been very good for the national cricket team as they had won series after Leap of joy: Captain Virat Kohli celebrates India’s victory in the series. fifth Test against England in Chennai on Tuesday. India have won nine Tests out of 12 played this year, Kumble, India is chasing higha tie. thereby bettering their previWearing whites and plying er benchmarks and rivals are ous record of most wins in a their wares in Tests, India’s wary. calendar year — eight wins, A vanquished England skipcurrent generation of players three losses and three draws have humbled Sri Lanka, South per Alastair Cook said: “When out of 14 played in 2010. Africa, West Indies, New Zea- you lose games of cricket, it Jadeja said the current Inbecomes very hard and it can land and now England. dian test team have been perThe playing eleven is al- be quite a lonely place. You most set with solid openers, have got to give credit to In- forming exceptionally well a strong middle-order, a tail dia. They have played some because they are very good that lasts and an attack, omi- good cricket on the way. We fitness-wise. “Nowadays, the nous especially at home. Kohli just haven’t been good enough boys are very fit and spend a and R. Ashwin have been out- to put India under pressure for lot of time in gym and that is the reason why we are able to standing and new heroes have long periods.” Appraising his men, skipper give our best on the field,” he been found. If this Test was about K.L. Rahul, Karun Nair Kohli said: “I am proud to be said. “My main focus is to play and Jadeja, in the previous part of such a good year, espegood cricket and if I do that I weeks, men like Murali Vijay, cially with the team in transiknow many more brands will Cheteshwar Pujara, Moham- tion. But this is just the founapproach me in future,” he med Shami and Jayant Yadav dation that’s been laid for us to signed off . carry on for a lot many years. have sparkled. Under Kohli and coach Anil It’s just the beginning.”

Indian on top in ICC rakining

The series win has helped India gain five points and it has moved to 120 points in the last Test team rankings update of 2016, 15 points ahead of second placed Australia. In contrast, England, which started the series tied with Australia on 105 points but was ahead on decimal points, has slipped from the second position to fifth. England is now on 101 points, one point behind Pakistan and South Africa, who are both on 102 points each, with Pakistan ranked third on decimals points. This means that four teams are now within four points of each other with the annual cutoff date of April 1, 2017 for the ICC cash awards not far away. The side at the top of the rankings on that date will receive $1 million. The second placed side will be awarded $500,000, while the third and fourth placed sides will receive $200,000 and $100,000 each respectively. The ICC Test Team Rankings have seen an interesting year, with Australia, Pakistan and India holding the top ranking between August 21 and October 11 . The Virat Kohli-led side, which was awarded the ICC Test Championship Mace on October 11, following a 3-0 home series sweep over New Zealand, can’t be overtaken this year since the team rankings are updated only at the end of each Test series.

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 19

NEWS I-T dept. seizes Rs 30 lakh, in new currency notes from Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary’s house

P. Ramam Mohan Rao, inset, as CRPF personnel guard his house during the raid. The Income Tax department on Wednesday conducted a raid on the premises of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao. I-T officials conducted raids in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat as well. Sources said the name of Mr. Rao cropped up after officials questioned Shekar Reddy, a businessman and former member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board. Crores of money and gold bars were recovered from Mr. Reddy recently. Income tax dept. seized Rs 5 crore of undisclosed income from Vivek, son of Mr. Rama Mohana Rao. Rs. 30 lakh cash (in new currency) and 5kgs gold seized from the house of Mr. Ram Mohana Ra. The I-T dept says it has seized Rs 18 lakh in new currency and 2 kg of gold bars from the hunt at Ram Mohana Rao’s house and his relatives places BJP State president Tamilisai Sounderrajan said I-T authorities were conducting searches in the State of late, with lots of seizures being made from Shekhar Reddy. “And today, searches are being conducted at the Chief Secretary’s residence. This is a usual procedure undertaken by the Income Tax department. So how is it acceptable if those like Mamata Banerjee call it vindictive action,” she said. “The taxmen raid a place on suspicion or on information of ‘movement of money’ and “they will say there was nothing [incriminating available] if that is the case,” she told reporters. “The raids are done to see if any [illegal] cash is present. If there is nothing [incriminating available], they will say it. Therefore, I completely deny that this is vindictive action,” she said. Shekar Reddy and Sreenivasulu were arrested and produced before the Madras High Court . The State government was not aware of central paramilitary forces being deployed at the residence of Mr. Rao, according to a senior police officer, who preferred not to be quoted. DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin tweets that such a raid is “shameful. Authorities who are corrupt should not be allowed to escape.” Even as the raid was on at Mr. Rao’s residence, a senior investigating officer told The Hindu that the Chief Secretary had been under the scanner for quite some time now.. Mr. Rao was appointed Chief Secretary in June this year. He also holds full additional charge of Vigilance Commissioner and Commissioner for Administrative Reforms. In June 2016, in a surprise move, he was appointed as the Chief Secretary superseding some seniors and replacing K. Gnanadesikan (since suspended), when Jayalalithaa retained power. The I-T department on Wednesday conducted searches at over a dozen locations in connection with its tax evasion probe against the son and few other relatives of Mr.Rao. The searches that began as early as 6:00 a.m. were on at various places in the State and in the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh. “A total of 13 premises are being searched,” a senior official said, adding the premises connected to Mr. Rao’s son and other relatives were part of the operation. Rama Mohana Rao first shot into prominence when he was appointed Private Secretary to then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa when she assumed office in 2011. He served as her Secretary till mid-2016. In June 2016, in a surprise move, he was appointed as Chief Secretary superseding some seniors and replacing K. Gnanadesikan (since suspended), when Jayalalithaa retained power. Rama Mohana Rao first shot into prominence when he was appointed Private Secretary to then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa when she assumed office in 2011. He served as her Secretary till mid-2016. In June 2016, in a surprise move, he was appointed as Chief Secretary superseding some seniors and replacing K. Gnanadesikan (since suspended), when Jayala-

lithaa retained power.

Hospital provides asylum to convict, lands in court NEW DELHI A former Indian National Lok Dal MLA stayed in a private hospital for close to 18 months without being administered any medicine or treatment. The ploy was to avoid his arrest in a murder case. Finally, a court-monitored CBI probe cooked his goose and also landed hospital authorities in a soup for collusion. The case goes back to October 24, 2013, when the SC had ordered the arrest of former Haryana MLA Balbir, alias Bali. The SC order and Non-Bailable Warrant issued by the trial court could not be complied with since the former MLA got himself admitted to a hospital in Gurugram. When the MLA continued to evade arrest, the apex court asked the CBI to look into the matter. The CBI report revealed that the former MLA had faked his illness and was staying in hospital without undergoing any treatment or taking any medicines. The court has now started contempt proceedings against him. The court has not spared the private hospital, either. Finding material against the owner of the hospital and its Medical Director, both professional doctors, the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices R Banumathi and UU Lalit directed them to appear on January 2, 2017 and explain their conduct in obstructing the judicial process. What the court found out from the CBI was interesting.

Balbir was a heart patient. He was admitted at the private hospital for a week in Gurugram from September 4 to 10, 2013. Soon after the apex court cancelled his bail, the accused rushed to another hospital in Gurugram on November 15, 2013. He refused to undergo an Angiography, instructed hospital for conservative treatment through medicines, and remained in hospital for 527 days from the day of his admission till May 1, 2015, the date of his discharge. The waiting team of Haryana Police arrested him from hospital the same day and he has since been lodged at Rohtak District Jail. Not content with his re-arrest, the Bench dug deep to find how he could defy an order passed by the highest court and that too in brazen connivance with a hospital. Continued on Page 4In fact, his notoriety was not something new for the apex court which had noted while cancelling his bail that he is “influential” and his release on bail could hamper fair trial. He was accused of killing a man point blank by firing a shot from his revolver. The victim’s family had approached the apex court alleging contempt of court’s order. Throughout his stay at the hospital, the police paid several visits armed with a warrant of arrest issued by the trial court. Every time, the hospital administration and doctors dissuaded the police claiming his life was under threat. At the same time,

two medical certificates issued by the hospital claimed that he was fit for discharge and will be discharged in few days. The conduct of the hospital puzzled the court as much as the police. The CBI team, which went for enquiry, found out an interesting fact. The accused was first admitted to hospital from November 15 to December 25, 2013, then from December 31, 2013 to April 9, 2014, and lastly for close to 386 days (April 11, 2014 to May 1, 2015). No treatment was administered to the accused and for a good period of over one year (February 25, 2014 to May 1, 2015) no laboratory tests of the accused was conducted. This proved there was no change in his medical condition. But in return, the hospital was getting close to Rs 9,500 per day that would mean a total of Rs 50 lakh for 527 days. More than half this sum had been paid to the hospital which explained their conduct to keep the accused admitted against the order of the court. Holding the hospital owner -- KS Sachdeva and Medical Director Munish Prabhakar, equally guilty of contempt, Justice Lalit, who wrote the judgment said, “The inescapable conclusion is that the hospital extended protection and asylum to the accused to defeat the order of this court as well as those passed by the trial court and thereby obstructed administration of justice.” —The Pioneer

Yasin Bhatkal, 4 IM terrorists get death for Hyderabad blasts A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday sentenced ﬁve Indian Mujhideen terrorists — including Yasin Bhatkal — to death in the twin bomb blasts case. One of those handed down capital punishment Zia-ur-Rahman, alias Waqas, is a Pakistani while other three hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. Special Court judge T Srinivas Rao pronounced the death sentence on Monday evening after hearing arguments of the defence counsel and the prosecution on the quantum of punishment. The special court had found the ﬁve accused guilty in the case of two bomb blasts in crowded area of Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad on the evening of February 21, 2013, killing 18 people and injuring 131 others. Yasin Bhatkal, alies Mohammed Ahmad Siddi-bappa, hails from Karnataka and was one of

the key members of the IM. However the accused number 1 in the case and the founder of IM Riyaz Bhatkal is absconding and the Government believes that he is hiding in Pakistan. Others who have been sentenced to death include Mohammed Tahseen Akhtar, alias Hasan, Asadullah Akhtar, alias Hadi, and Aijaz Saeed Sheikh, alias Samar Armaan Tunde. This is the ﬁrst case in which the members of shadowy organisation IM were found guilty by a court of law in India. Indian investigation agencies said IM was a home-grown outﬁt conspiring and carrying out terror attack and waging war against the nation. In the twin blast case, the prosecution had told the court that the accused had conspired and executed the terror attack to avenge various incidents of “atrocities against Muslims in India”. The court had found all the

six convicts, including Riyaz Bhatkal, guilty under the arms and explosives Act and Prevention of Unlawful activities Act on December 13 and sentenced was decided after arguments in the special court in the Charalapally Central Prison on the outskirts of Hyderabad amid tight security. Special public prosecutor in his argument before the court sought capital punishment on the ground that what they had committed was a heinous crime. However the door was open for the convicts to move the High Court against the verdict. While Yasin Bhatkal was arrested in Bihar near IndiaNepal border, the other four accused were picked up from diﬀerent places across the country. The Indian Mujahideen, which was charged in several other bomb blasts in the country, was banned in 2010 by the Indian Government.

PAGE 20 â&#x20AC;˘ INDIA HERALD â&#x20AC;˘ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

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7:30 AM to 12 Noon and 4 to 7 PM, and Sat, and Sun from 8 AM to 6 PM. Jain Society of Houston invites Jain scholars all year round. Please call Urvashi Jain 713 789 2338. Visit www.jainsocietyhouston.org for calendar of events and other detailed information. Shiv Shakti Mandir Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, 6640 Harwin. Open daily 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. All major festivals, as well as birthdays, naam karan, engagement and other ceremonies. Call Pandit Virat Mehta 713-278-9099 or Hardik Raval 361-243-6539 for puja or other ceremonies. Heartfulness Meditation Heartfulness Meditation is a practical technique of tuning inwards to experience our higher selves. Meditation with someone who has the capacity of yogic transmission can help you explore the Heartfulness practice more deeply. There are no charges for this, and we invite you to experience the unique beneďŹ ts of this transmission. Workshops on Heartfulness relaxation and meditation are held weekly throughout Houston, including Saturdays at 11 am at India House. Web: www. heartfulness.org; Email: houston. heartfulness@gmail.com. Cell: 713-929-0040. Heritage Classes Ashirwadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heritage Classes in Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land for kids 4 to 18 yrs - meditation, Yoga, slokas, stories from scriptures, Vishnu Sahasranam, bhajans, competitions and fun activities. Adult meditation classes. Register at www.ashirwada-blessing.org or Sri Ravula 281-995-0930. Hare Krishna Dham Houstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original Vedic temple, ISKCON of Houston. At 1320 W 34th St. (77018). Daily Darshan & Arati Times: 4.30 a.m, 7 a.m, 8.30 a.m, 12 noon, 4.30 p.m, 7 p.m, 9 p.m. Sunday Festival: 5.30 pm to 7.30 p.m. Weekly Gita classes for adults; call 281-433-1635 or harekrishnadham @gmail.com Houston Namadwaar A prayer house where the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Maha-mantra is continuously chanted. Weekends: 8-11 AM & 4-7 PM, Weekdays: 7-8 AM & 6-7 PM. Weekly â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gopa Kuteeramâ&#x20AC;? childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heritage classes and Srimad Bhagavatam classes. Call 281-402-6585; visit www.godivinity.org (Global Organization for Divinity). Saumyakasi Sivalaya Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya is located at Chinmaya Prabha, 10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478. Temple timings: Monday to Friday: 9 a.m.- 12 Noon and 5 p.m. 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Call Bharti Sutaria 281-568-1690 or Jay Deshmukh 832-541-0059 or visit www.saum yakasi.org. Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple Darshan from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. All major festivals as well as birthdays, naam karan, engagement and other ceremonies. Call Pandit Pradip Pandya 832-4669868 for puja and other ceremonies. At 5645 Hillcroft Ste 701, Houston, TX 77036. Veerashaiva Samaja VSNA Houston is a group of families who believe in Veerashaiva dharma (Basava dharma). Monthly Mahamane program for prayer and discussion on Vachana Sahitya followed by Prasada. Contact: vsnahous ton@gmail.com or Jagadeesh Halyal 832-744-4166. Mar Thoma Church Trinity Mar Thoma Church every Sunday at 5810 Almeda Genoa Rd. Sunday School at 9:15 a.m. Malayalam service at 9:30 a.m. on 1st & 3rd Sunday. Adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. English service at 10:30 a.m. on 2nd & 4th Sunday. Call 713-991-1557 or 281261-4603. Telugu Christian Fellowship Telugu Christian Fellowship meets every third Saturday of the month at Triumph Church, 10555 W. Airport Blvd., StaďŹ&#x20AC;ord TX 77477 at 6:30 p.m. Join us for a time of praise, worship and fellowship. Worship is in English. For information call Chris Gantela 281-344-0707, or Rev. Vijay Gurrala 281-997-0757. Sri Guruvayurappan Temple Hours: Mon to Fri 6 a.m. -8 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Weekends & Holidays: 6 a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Bhajans Saturdays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Special poojas (weekends and holidays) Choroon (Annaprasam) for kids, Thulabharam, Vahana Pooja, Nirapara. Temple is located at 11620 Ormandy St. (77035) Tel: 713729-8994 email: temple@ guruvayur.us Preksha Meditation JVB Preksha Meditation Center conducts weekly Meditation, Yoga and Swadhyay sessions inside its unique Pyramid hall under the auspicious guidance of Samanijis, and runs special events and programs like I-Choose, Meditation Camps and Gyanshala program for children ages 4-14 yrs. JVB is located at 14102 Schiller Rd. Houston 77082. Every Tuesday, 9:30 am-11:30 am, Samaniji has pravachan for all adults interested in learning about Jainism. Every Wednesday there is Swadhyay class from 7-9 pm and every Thursday from 9:30-11am there is special Yoga class for Ladies only. Call Seema Jain at 281-575-0575 for further information. Visit www.jvbhouston.org or send email at info@jvbhouston.org for more details.

Patanjali Yogpeeth Free Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun at Arya Samaj from 8 am to 9:30 a.m. Call Anil 281-579-9433. For other free classes, call Indra 281537-0018. For Yoga/Herbal products, call Shekhar 281-242-5000. Web: www.pyptusa.org and www. DivyaProducts.com. Hindu Temple of The Woodlands 7601 S. Forest Gate Dr, The Woodlands, TX 77382 Temple Hours, Weekdays: 7:30 AM - 9:30 AM 5:30 PM - 8.30 PM Aarti @ 7:30 PM Saturday and Sunday 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM Aarti at 12:00 PM 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Aarti @ 7:30 PM; Contact 832-585--0001 or temple@myhtw.net Sathya Sai centers Sunday program held at two locations (North Houston: 12127 Louetta Rd, Houston; South Houston: 246 Fluor Daniel Dr, Suga Land, from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Sai Spiritual Education classes for children; study circle for adults. Service programs - food distribution & food drives; nursing home visits, tutoring at schools etc. Contact Sanjay Gupta (North) 832-687-6766 or Sondip Mathur (South) 832-215-8675 www.sairegion10.org. Sadhu Vaswani Center Sadhu Vaswani Center of Houston holds regular Satsang on 3rd Thursday of the month and daily Arti at 7.30 p.m. Call 281-4630379 or e.mail ramolaj@aol.com Gaudiya Math Sri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd., Houston 77084. Satsang Sundays 5 to 7 pm. Mantra meditation, kirtan, Sanatan Dharma classes. Vedic Education and Hindi classes for kids. Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wed. Hanuman Chalisa and Ramcharit Manas on Tue. 7:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8:30 p.m. info@sggm.org or 281-499-3347. Swaminarayan Temple Hindu Satsang at Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple, under Shree NarNarayan Dev Gadi kalupur. Opens daily from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Daily aarti at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday sabha from 5p.m to 7 p.m. followed by aarti at 7 p.m. and Maha-Prasad (free dinner). www.issotx.org. (281) 530-2565. Sanatan Dharm Maha Sabha West Indian Religious Organization called Sanatan Dharm Maha Sabha Branch # 377 is located at 26100 Tina Lane, Katy, TX 77494. Durga Mata Pooja is held every Friday from 7 pm to 9.30 pm. Contact Ram Sharma @ 713-4129985.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016 • PAGE 21

PHILOSOPHY

The False Elephant and the False Ego

By Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. (Serving Director, Bhakti Vedanta Institute of Spiritual Culture and Science) When we look at the world through a microscope we see only cells and their internal moieties - we never see people, clouds, trees or elephants.

Even the macromolecular vision of such separated entities does not show us the purpose or whole of that-for-whicheach-exists. Such is the nature of the analytic thinking of ﬁnite cognition that we call modern science. The blind men who could only feel the diﬀerent limbs

of an elephant they were blind to (ignorant of) concluded the legs were tree stumps, the side was a wall, the tusks were spears, the trunk a serpent, the ears a fan, and the tail a rope. Not knowing the unity of the whole they could not know the relation of each part to it. Without that knowledge they could

not have a proper understanding of the parts in isolation from the whole. Even simple understanding of the function of each part in isolation could not reveal the relation of the functions to each other what to speak of their relation to the unity of the whole of which they had no clue. Aristotle said there are four factors that had to be comprehended in explaining things: material, efficient, formal, and final (end or purpose). These four represent what a thing is made of (material), what modifies it (efficient), what plan/design guides its progressive modification (formal), the goal - what end the plan of action or modification aims for in order to cease when it is in conformity with the fin-

Is telepathy real or a hoax?

Alex Hanky responds to the statement that there is absolutely no evidence for telepathy.

ers move out of the danger zone during the 2004 Tsunami shows a not unrelated ability in pets. The best story in that series was of an African Gray (Grey) Parrot named ‘Nkosi with a 1,500 word vocabulary, who could hold meaningful exchanges (conversations?) with her mistress. ‘Nkosi was known to call out the names of objects in pictures in books that her owner was looking at out of sight in another room. On one occasion she woke her mistress up by calling out the names of objects in her dream! None of the above constitute ‘quantified’ scientific evidence, though dogs have been put under test-like conditions and passed the tests. 5. Telephone Telepathy: the name for the phenomenon experienced by many people of either: 1. hearing their phone ring, and correctly ‘knowing’ who is calling, or 2. thinking of a person, whose call is then received almost immediately. This phenomenon has been quantitatively tested and even now statistics are good. However, some ‘scientists’ say that ‘They will believe nothing that has to be established using statistics.’ Would you count yourself among their number? The trouble is that scientific validity of propositions that require repeatable experiments to establish them have to use statistics. Scientific ‘truth’ does not belong to that of the Category of Sets. It is not simply Black or White Empirical scientific validity obeys the laws of Fisher Information, and possesses a continuous measure running from 0 (Completely Invalid) to 1 (Totally Valid ). It may have any value in between the extremes. You might prefer to maintain that the evidence for ‘telepathy’ is zero, that there is Absolutely No Evidence and that it is Black. But that is against the principles of Bayesian Logic, which as you no doubt are well aware, many

scientists currently consider the best way to estimate the validity of testable scientific statements. One does not assume Boolean Logic Truth values given above, but accepts that truth values have a continuous measure from Zero to One , and that each experiment moves the estimate of that value in one direction or the other. Different experiments can be differently weighted - as in Cochrane criteria for the level of validity to be given to Randomized Controlled Trials of various kinds of medical treatment. So what would you bet against it? If I offer you a (putative) One Rupee, would you feel secure in betting me 100-to1 against, or 1,000 to one, or 1 Lakh, or even Rs one Crore, that in 20 years time there would not be any evidence up to that level of (un)certainty? For if you really stand by your words that, there is Absolutely No Credible Evidence for telepathy (with the implication that there never could be!), in the face of what I have quoted, then, in the kind of empirical world in which we find ourselves, you also need to be able to back your statement with statistical commitment! I fully realise that you do not know me. Allow me to introduce myself. I gained a scholarship to Trinity College Cambridge at age 17.3, and graduated with straight firsts in Natural Sciences. I spent the summers of 1965 and 1968 immediately before and after my time at Cambridge engaged in scientific research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (where some senior Professors sit on the Nobel Prize committee for Physiology and Medicine) I completed my PhD at M.I.T. where my advisers were Steven Weinberg and H.E. Stanley, who supervised by writing about 10 papers. I did a Post Do at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and then joined Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s university, and worked for his organisation for about 30 years. I started research on Ayurveda

Is telepathy active in present age? How a mother communicates with a new born child,to which they respond to? There is absolutely no credible evidence for telepathy. Therefore, discussion on how it happens is irrelevant. The wide spread depression in all societies is due to the evolutionary history of the human race. Our character (or traits) were shaped over millions of years when our ancestors had to survive in a hostile environment (combating other tribes and predators). Human societies have changed dramatically after the discovery of agriculture and development of technology. However, we still retain the traits that had survival value for our ancestors but are unsuitable for modern society. We are still grouping unsuccessfully to catch up with rapid technological advancements. It is easy to illustrate this conﬂict between our inherent nature and present day demands by several examples from every day life (that would make the mail long and boring). The conﬂict of inner personality and external societal demands leads to most of the ills in our society today. It is a problem that is not going to vanish in the near foreseeable future. —M. R. N. Murthy mrn@mbu.iisc.ernet.in

These are excerpts from an online discussion of a Google group called “Online Sadhu Sanga.”

There are four or five lines of research which have produced increasingly good scientific quality of evidence, but you may be disposed to turn your back on them. 1. The best anthropological evidence comes from those intimately familiar with the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Colonel Laurens Van Der Post was nothing if not a highly respected human being valued for his innate integrity. 2. The most convincing single case comes from Lawrence Anthony, in his accounts of communicating with a herd of wild elephants, and persuading them to change their ways. When he died, the herd travelled 20 miles to stand vigil for 48 hours at his home, just as they do for one of their own number. How did they know? Why did they do it? 3. Animal Communicators are increasingly accepted. The story of Anna Breytenbach and the black leopard involved communicating details of ideas at a subtle level of communication, known in Sanskrit as Pashyanti. The level itself can be easily given a scientific explanation by analyzing how ideas rising in the mind are transformed into verbal thoughts, and then into speech. My own theory of experience - more accurately, cognitive states with self-awareness, very precisely explains how ideas precede digital and digitizable forms that we use in outward speech. 4. The Book, ‘Dogs that know when their owners are coming home’, tells the story of a phenomenon that is very wide spread and which implies forms of presentience and telepathic awareness of owners circumstances in many species of pet - not just dogs. The cases of dogs trying to make their own-

ished product (final end or purpose). In reality it is the final end that determines and guides all the other factors. When the unity of the whole is sentient or self-conscious even a systems approach will not be sufficient to explain its existence. Systems are not selfconscious. Without knowing the purpose for an individual’s own self-conscious existence one has only a false conception of self, or false ego. One’s true identity is established only when it is comprehended in relation to a proper concept of the Complete Whole as the all accommodating, all pervading, all unifying/ attracting self conscious, selfknowing Absolute Truth Who is known by many Names. in 1992, and published my first paper in 2001, returning to full time research in 2002, and starting work in India in 2006. My Head of Department at SVYASA Yoga University (UGC Grade A) is IISc Professor Akhilesh, and my nearest collaborator is NIAS Professor Sisir Roy. My own theory of self-aware cognitive states integrates information theory, control theory, complexity biology and critical phenomena to yield a new information theory, with a double aspect information structure, as predicted by David Chalmers, which contains, A. A ‘perfectly self-observing’ internal information loop that provides self-awareness., and B. A highly coherent vector mixture that contains singularities of the kind identified by Rene Thom in ‘Structural Stability and Morphogenesis’, the work, for which he received the Fields Medal. As I have explained in several well received conference presentations, it is because of the topological singularities that ‘forms’ (i.e. ideas) can be encoded (as experienced at the Pashyanti level), because of the high levels of critical point coherence that under appropriate circumstances they can be ‘transmitted’ between subjects with adequate levels of mutual coherence, and because of the internal self-observing information loops that the ideas are subjectively experienced. If this in any way touches you, I would be happy to send you copies of my 2014, 2015, 2016 papers on the subject. But if it leaves you cold (which I would quite accept) then so be it. I would also be happy to talk during one of my visits to Professor K.P. Sinha, who finds parallels between my perspective and earlier work of his own, around the turn of the millennium or even earlier. Would the opinions of my friend Professor E.C.G. (George) Sudarshan be of any value to you?

PAGE 22 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016

MUSINGS by Gadﬂy

The spirit of Christmas In the spirit of Christmas, this is about a man & his wife both of whom I met thirty years ago. They not only symbolized the spirit of Christmas but lived it. He repeatedly asserted his work would not have been possible without his wife. To them charity, dedication, social service were lifelong commitments than once a year Christmas spirit. The man died in February of 2008 & I wrote four columns about him. But an aspect of his work, that for lack of space, was excluded then. Back in December 1986, I remember him saying to me (as he said to many others), “It is better to give than to receive.” At my young, ambitious age then, I didn’t find it particularly appealing. Preferring giving to receiving did not interest me then. Full of ambition, I had a lot of wants that I was eager to receive. I also didn’t think I had anything to give, not even money (beyond a certain small amount). More importantly, my mind was questioning the propriety of giving when I had not received much from life or from the world. It’s not that life/the world owed me anything. It’s just that I ‘wanted’ to see the fruits of my efforts till then. In short, I was not in a charitable mood, literally. I wanted to say, “I will give when I have something to give. Right now, I have not received enough in life. So my balance sheet on the receiving side is very light. You give something when you have something. You have something when you receive something. Since I haven’t received anything from this world, I can’t think of giving anything.” But saying that to him would have been disrespectful & inappropriate. His big heart, his convictions & dedication had turned him into a quotation machine. One could understand his inspired words in the context of the very noble calling he had answered. To him, it wasn’t a calling but a dream fulfilled. As for Christmas spirit, I have seen its many colours and I don’t mean Christmas décor. From a Protestant school to Protestant college to (postgraduate) Catholic college, I’ve seen celebrations, moods and hues more varied than actual Xmas decorations. One thing that stood out (& still does) was that it was the birth of Jesus Christ that the world was celebrating. It went from a religious story to a spiritual parable that grew in meaning despite the modern commercial hoopla around it. Then in 1986, I visited Baba Amte’s Anandwan, the ‘leper’ colony he began in 1951 after a ‘chance’ encounter with a ‘leper’ one June night in 1949. I spent 48 days there from Dec. 2, 1986 to Jan. 18, 1987. That stay in Anandwan (Garden of Joy), seeing the canvas of his work

& its scope ﬁrst hand, walking through the leprosy wards with Baba & his wife, Sadhanatai, was one of the most signiﬁcant events of my life. Since then come Christmas when revelries begin, my mind inevitably goes back to Baba Amte & his work because he was born on December 26 (1914). The four columns I wrote in 2008 barely covered the width of the spread of his work. And though I think of his work more often than every Christmas, the world could use a reminder of his work at least every eight years. In one of my conversations with him during my visit, he said to me, “This is not my place of work. This is my place of worship.” Like I said, he was a walking quotation machine. ‘The joy in Anandwan is more infectious than the disease in Anandwan’. ‘The disease (prejudice) against leprosy patients is more disabling than leprosy itself. It was his two sons, Dr. Vikas & Dr. Prakash & their doctor wives who were carrying on his work when I visited in 1986/87. Now nearly thirty years since my visit, Baba’s grandchildren are carrying the torch forward, a testament to his work that not only inspired his sons & grandchildren, but many, many patients who were cured over the years and stayed back to join his work when they had the option (in 1986/87 when I visited) to go back to the outside world. Instead they brought their families there or married other cured patients. It began as a leper colony & expanded to include an orphanage, a home & workplace for the disabled and a senior citizen home. Before visiting Anandwan, I had seen a PBS documentary about Father Damien & his leper colony in Hawaii. That was the only leper colony in the US that I was aware of. After 16-years of caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien realized he had also contracted leprosy and succumbed to the disease on April 15, 1889. Unlike Father Damien, however, Baba, his wife, Sadhanatai & their two sons (4 & 3) or the grandchildren never contracted leprosy. Back in the US in 1987, when I talked about a ‘leper’ colony in America, the informed ones immediately responded ‘Oh, yes, Father Damien. Hawaii. I know. I saw the PBS documentary’. When I mentioned the name of Carville, Louisiana, I met blank faces. A White American friend, Denise (not her real name) who was born & raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, worked for the same company where I did. We continued our friendship over the phone after she moved back to New

Orleans a few years later. She knew about my visit to Anandwan. On my return I called her to ask her about this town named Carville in Louisiana. She told me conﬁdently that there was no town named Carville in Louisiana. No Wikipedia at the time. In Carville, Louisiana was The Gillis W. Long Hansen’s Disease Center in. Hansen’s disease was the new name given to leprosy to take away the stigma attached to the dreadful disease, named after Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian physician for identifying the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1873 as the causative agent of leprosy. Most people even today don’t know that 95% of Leprosy is not contagious & 100% is curable when treated in early stages like any other disease. Since even a New Orleans resident couldn’t tell me where Carville was, I dug up the copy of a letter from Dr. Brand (the director of Hansen’s Disease Center) to Baba Amte I had brought with me. I called (early 1988) the number on that letter & asked the receptionist to connect me to Dr. Brand. She turned out to be Dr. Brand’s secretary. Next minute I was talking to Dr. Brand. He told me Carville was/is about 33 miles from Baton Rouge, and 60-some miles from New Orleans. Upon hearing that I had just returned from Anandwan a year earlier, he said ‘you’re a lucky man’ (for having had the privilege of meeting Baba). I told him of my interest in visiting his center to do a comparative study of the two ‘leper’ colonies – one in America and one in India. He invited me to visit the Center sooner than later because he was retiring in a few months. I couldn’t wait for the ‘compare & contrast’ experience either. So I arranged with him for a visit around May 1988. During my visit, I discovered the quarterly - Star – that they publish with a worldwide mailing list of all such centers including Anandwan. The ex-patient who gave me a guided tour of the Center, heard me talk about Anandwan to the Star editor, about how the ex-patients in Anandwan together produce everything except salt, sugar, oil & paper & make a living there, said, “People are cured here also and we also continue to stay here, like in Anandwan because society and our families won’t take us back but we don’t PRODUCE anything here. The cured patients in Anandwan are productive part of society. They earn a living. We here are also cured and able but we live on government dole, an idle life watching TV, playing volleyball, tennis, basketball, eating three healthy & delicious

meals a day, a church made of mahogany. Our recreational facilities are as state-of-the art as the treatment here but there is nothing meaningful to do. Those patients in India are lucky they have someone like…… (He stumbled over the name, which I added for him) Baba Amte.” That was music to my ears. I told him (in 1988) that cured patients in Anandwan are now accepted back in their families & the society. They even get married & have children. The Star’s editor was listening. He said Dr. Brand had written about Anandwan after his visit there some years ago but it was a medical piece. Now he wondered if I’d write a humint (human interest) piece which I did. What the tour guide in Dr. Hansen’s’ Institute said reminded me of Baba’s words. “Give them chance, not charity. Charity destroys. Work builds.” He wanted to give them their life back, their dignity back. So he created a comfort zone for them. A place they could call home with dignity.

As for why’ it is better to give than to receive’, it took me almost a decade to tap into my dormant spirit of generosity inherited from my parents buried beneath the debris of self-absorbed self-interest. It was as simple. When you don’t have anything, you can’t give anything except perhaps in kind. If you’re in a position to give it means you have more not less. When you give more than you receive it means you have more to give & need less.to receive. Also I had put cart before the horse. Often you can’t receive something unless you give. You work ﬁrst and then get paid. You sell something in the market by taking something to give & then get paid for it. As for me, I’m still trying to match what I have received in life. So my magic wand turns Christmas into Thanksgiving. Send responses to gadﬂy7_7@yahoo.com; editor@india-herald.com;

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