Indo-American News: June 26, 2020

Friday, June 26, 2020 | Vol. 39, No. 26

Indo American News

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June 26, 2020

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Published weekly from Houston, TX

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6th International Day of Yoga in Houston

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At Pralaya Yoga Studio: 1st row: Marlon Hall, Jazmin Porter, Robert Boustany, Alexandra Charles, Autumn Kiskinis. 2nd row: Lillian Curbeira, Laura DeLaFuente, Kyle Krueger, Austin Dunhill, Photo credit: Saumil Manek.

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BUSINESS

June 26, 2020

Amazon, Tramell Crow to Build Massive Warehouse in Fort Bend County

By Nancy Sarnoff

Richmond: Construction has started on another massive Amazon e-commerce warehouse in the Houston area, a building that will span nearly 15 football fields where employees will work alongside robots that pack and ship books, toys, electronics and other small items.

The facility, underway in Richmond, just southwest of Houston in Fort Bend County, will bring 1,000 jobs to the area when it opens next year, the Seattle-based retailer and Texas developer Trammell Crow Co. announced Thursday. The 850,000-square-foot fulfillment center is being built on a 93.5-acre site at 10507 Harlem Road.

This will be the third such facility for Amazon in the Houston region, as the retail giant expands amid feverish demand for online goods. The expansion also offers a glimmer of hope for Houstonians looking for work after losing jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Reopening Houston: How the owners of Kirby Ice House are opening a new location during the pandemic “It is something people can see as a tangible opportunity,” said Susan Davenport, chief economic officer for the Greater Houston Partnership, citing crushing job losses caused by the pandemic.

“Our team is working diligently on trying to find those new opportunities and to help people get back to

two other large fulfillment centers in the region: one in Waller County and another in Harris County. The company, which received generous tax incentives to develop those properties, did not, however, receive an incentive package from Fort Bend County, according to the county’s economic development group.

“Significant planning has gone into this facility’s design, which allows for extensive use of robotics to further enhance Amazon’s robust fulfillment capabilities,” Jeremy Garner, a principal with Trammell Crow, said in a press release. -- The Houston Chronicle work. It’s our greatest concern.”

Fort Bend County Judge KP George said the fulfillment center will add tremendous value to the area’s commercial sector.

Amazon did not release a development cost for the project, but a previous facility of comparable size was a $136 million project.

Amazon has

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New Delhi: Amazon.com Inc has secured clearance to deliver alcohol in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, according to a document seen by Reuters, signalling the US e-commerce giant’s first foray into the country’s multi-billion-dollar sector.

In a notice on Friday, West Bengal State Beverages Corp, the authorised agency to carry out online retail of liquor trade in the state, said Amazon was among the companies found to be eligible for registration with authorities.

Alibaba-backed Indian grocery venture BigBasket has also won approval to deliver alcohol in the state, the notice said.

West Bengal is India’s fourth most populous state, with a population of more than 90 million people.

Amazon has been invited to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state, said the notice, which has not previously been reported.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. BigBasket also did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon’s interest in delivering alcohol in West Bengal marks a bold move to make inroads into a market that is worth $27.2 billion, according to estimates by IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

Over the years, Amazon has expanded its e-commerce operations in India as more and more people go online to shop for everything from groceries to electronics. The company has committed $6.5 billion in investments in India, one of its key growth markets.

Each state sets its own alcohol sales policy. West Bengal last month invited companies to express interest for “handling electronic ordering, purchase, sale and home delivery of alcoholic liquors from licensed retail outlets” to eligible legal-age consumers in the state.

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INDIA

June 26, 2020

Families Separated by New Trump Visa Order Frantic for Answers

By Vidya Totalanpur

Mumbai: In early March, Poorva Dixit rushed to buy a ticket to India from the United States, her home for more than a decade, after she learned her 72-year-old mother had fallen from her bed and was in critical condition.

She decided to leave her two young children and husband in California because of the risks of the novel coronavirus spreading around the world.

Dixit and her husband are both Indian nationals while their children are U.S. citizens.

A software developer with a temporary permit to work in the United States, Dixit knew that to return home she would have to go to the US consulate in Mumbai to get a new visa stamped in her passport, a requirement for some visa holders when they travel abroad.

On March 16, a day before her visa appointment, the consulate shut down due to coronavirus restrictions. Eight days later her mother passed away.

Now a new immigration order issued by President Donald Trump on Monday that bars the entry of holders of certain temporary work visas, could leave Dixit trapped in India, far from her children, until

Poorva Dixit with her husband Kaustabh Talathi with their two daughters in San Francisco.

at least the end of the year.

“I’ve already lost my mother and I am being kept away from my motherhood as well,” Dixit, who is staying with relatives in the outskirts of Mumbai, told Reuters.

“At this point my brain is just a fog.”

Dixit is one of nearly 1,000 people in India trapped in similar situations who joined a private group on the messaging app Telegram.

Many like her have lived and

worked in the United States legally for years but were in India when Trump made his announcement on Monday. They are confused and worried about their options for return, the administrators of the group told Reuters.

Trump’s proclamation temporarily suspends the entry of people arriving on a range of work visas including the H-1B for skilled workers, often those in the tech industry, such as the visas Dixit and

her husband have. The ban, which comes into force on Wednesday, also applies to L visas used for international transfers of high-level employees, as well as different categories for seasonal workers and intern and trainee programs, in addition to accompanying family members.

There are some exemptions to the ban, including those working in the food supply industry and some medical workers involved in combating the coronavirus. But while the proclamation exempts spouses and children of US citizens, it is silent on parents of children who are US citizens.

Dixit’s husband, Kaustubh, has been trying to juggle his full-time job with child care for their 6- and 3-year-old daughters.

Dixit calls her children, sometimes for hours a day, trying to keep them occupied by reading books and singing songs so her husband can work. But she fears the separation will cause longterm psychological damage, especially for her younger daughter, who has grown frustrated with the phone calls. Her older daughter

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wrote above a family portrait on the fridge, “living sadly ever after.”

The White House said the visa measure is necessary to make jobs available for Americans when millions are out of work due to the pandemic. But six Indians, including Dixit, in the Telegram group told Reuters they have held on to their US-based jobs during the pandemic.

Vinod Albuquerque, a 41-yearold business consultant has continued working remotely for his company in Atlanta since he had to make an emergency trip to Mangalore, on south India’s west coast, when his father had a stroke in February.

He left his pregnant wife, due in September, and 6-year-old son in the United States. He, too, was not able to get to a visa appointment before the consulate shuttered and is now stranded.

“It feels so unfair,” Albuquerque told Reuters. “We understand maybe something like this for new H-1Bs that have never been to the US, but people like us are collateral damage.” -- Times of India

IT Companies to be Hit with Trump Work Visa Ban visas.

As of April 1, 2020, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received about 2.5 lakh H-1B work visa applications, according to official data. Indians had applied for as many as 1.84 lakh, or 67 per cent of the total H-1B work visas for the current financial year ending March 2021 The US government has a cap of 85,000 total H-1B visas for each year. Of this, 65,000 H-1B visas are issued to highly skilled foreign workers, while the rest 20,000 can be additionally allotted to highly skilled foreign workers who have a higher seeking another person for its IT Dept education or masters degree Position is responsible for all IT related hardware, from an Amerisoftware and process related control systems Computer Science degree required w/2 yrs. experience can university.

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Washington DC: The Trump administration Tuesday extended the 60-day ban on immigration and non-immigrant worker visas till the end of 2020, and said some work visas including the much coveted H-1B and H-2B visas will remain suspended. Certain categories of H-4, J, and L visas will also remain suspended till the end of the year, an official release stated.

“Many workers have been hurt through no fault of their own due to coronavirus and they should not remain on the sidelines while

being replaced by new foreign labour. With some exceptions, we should not permit large numbers of foreign workers to enter the United States at a time when so many Americans are out of work,” an official statement by the White House read.

The suspension of H-1B and other work visas by US President Donald Trump is likely to have a severe impact on majority of Indian information technology (IT) companies, which corner the lion’s share of most of these work

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June 26, 2020

Surendran Pattel Brings International Flair to Runoff

Pearland: Attorney Surendran K. Pattel has launched the runoff phase of his campaign to become Fort Bend County’s only AsianAmerican district court judge. As one of the major vote recipients in his race in the Texas Primary, Mr. Pattel qualified for a runoff that will determine the Democratic Party’s nominee for judge of the family-oriented District Court 505. The runoff election will be on July 14, with early scheduled June 29- July 10.

“I am excited and humbled that voters have decided that my campaign should move forward,” Mr. Pattel said as he began to plot his runoff strategy. He pledged that he will continue to promote diversity and the theme “Justice With Compassion,” with special attention given to reducing case backlogs that can result in costly inefficiency for litigants and taxpayers alike.

Observers note that Mr. Pattel is unique in the skills and experience that he brings to the ongoing campaign. First, in the weeks since the primary, the candidate has earned two certifications for mediation, one specially for family issues.

These should prove to be invaluable additions to the resume he has built in more than two decades of courtroom experience as both a trial lawyer and an appellate attorney.

Second, having pursued his education in both Indian and American universities, as well having practiced law on two continents, Mr. Pattel has a background and credentials that are international in scope. As a proud naturalized American, he is eager to put his skills and experience to the service of Fort Bend’s diverse population.

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“We cannot forget that many of our Fort Bend friends and neighbors have ties to other countries and cultures,” Mr. Pattel said.

“Even ostensibly straightforward wills and divorces can have international implications that our local courts must be prepared to address.”

As a devoted family man, Mr. Pattel is naturally drawn to family law, but he also has a demonstrated mastery of real estate law, civil litigation and international law. In his native India, he argued cases before the Supreme Court of India in Delhi. As a licensed Texas attorney, he has been involved in cases in Fort Bend, Harris,

and Brazoria counties. His Fort Bend-based practice is the PKS Law Firm PLLC, with an office at Arena Place on the Southwest Freeway.

Born in the State of Kerala in South India on May 29, 1971, Mr. Pattel earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Payyannur College, an affiliate of the University of Calicut, in 1992. He received his law degree in 1995 from the Government Law College Calicut, another affiliate of the University of Calicut in Kerala. Mr. Pattel started his professional career as a trial lawyer in 1996 in Hosdurg, Kerala. In 2005, he relocated to Delhi.

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COMMUNITY

June 26, 2020

5

Houstonians Turn Living Rooms into Yoga Studios for 6th Internationl Day of Yoga

By Manu Shah

Houston: Living rooms turned into yoga studios as family members stretched out their mats to flex and breathe together in keeping with the theme “Yoga at home and Yoga with the family,” during the 6th International Day of Yoga on June 21.

Organized by the Indian Consulate in Houston in partnership with community organizations, the virtual event brought home the message that yoga is the best way to achieve physical fitness and mental well-being.

Yoga enthusiasts created a sense of community by participating virtually in the session that was live streamed from India House Houston’s Facebook page as well as Indian Consulate’s Facebook page.

Patanjali Yogpeeth USA President Shekhar Agrawal opened the program by delving into the purpose of yoga and translated some yoga sutras from Sanskrit to English with a brief explanation of its essence.

This was followed by a message from the pioneer of the International Day of Yoga and an ardent yoga practitioner himself – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yoga, he observed in his message “provides multi-dimensional solutions to multiple challenges COVID-19 has brought. Yoga gives you the opportunity to know your immune system better.”

Alluding to the social distancing measures, he noted that “Yoga ends various kinds of distance...distance between our mind and body which is the root cause of many problems. Distance between the life we have and the life we want to have.

Distance between our expectations and reality.”

India’s Consul General in Houston, Aseem Mahajan, joined a small group of community members at India House for the session.

He welcomed the participants from various cities in the southern states of the US and stated that the growing number of participating organizations “reflects the enthusiasm and popularity of Yoga, despites the challenges of putting this together digitally to enforce social distancing norms.”

Invoking yoga’s holistic approach to wellbeing and health in these challenging times,” he described yoga as a binding force for humanity that goes beyond race, language, culture and gender.

Col. Vipin Kumar (retired), Executive Director of India House, was instrumental in promoting the 6th IDY to all the organizations and participants throughout Houston and in staging the live event at India House.

The 6th IDY was commemorated with a celebratory video of the “Spirit of Yoga” produced by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The well-crafted video based on the yoga sutras of Patanjali captured various yoga poses by

My mantra is “When you silence your mind, you awaken your soul”. IDY has brought many organizations together around the world, to awaken our hearts and our minds. As we bring unity and peace throughout our lands, we understand the importance of equality. By opening our hearts we are able to focus our minds to the future by allowing us to stay present. IDY is an event everyone can enjoy, regardless of age, physical condition, and social status.

-- Saumil Manek

IDY Supporting Organizations

Baba Ramdev presented asanas via Zoom.

Shekhar Agarwal, Col. Vipin Kumar, Sharad Amin and CG Aseem Mahajan inaugurate the live session. Right: Father with son.

Aga Khan Council of USA- Houston Anu Yoga Houston Arya Samaj of Greater Houston Bohra Community Mosque Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Meditation Center Cherry Blossom Yoga Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation Goza Dance Fitness Gujarat Samaj of Houston Gurudwara Sahib of Southwest Houston Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangh Hindu Temple Of Woodlands Hindu Worship Society Hindus of Greater Houston India Culture Center India House Indian Muslim Association of Greater Houston Isha Foundation Meenakshi Temple Society-Pearland Patanjali Yog Peeth (PYPT-USA) Pralaya Yoga Sanatan Hindu center Sewa International The Art of Living Vallabh Preeti Sewa Samaj (VPSS) VT Sewa VYASA

YOUniverSOUL

The theme of IDY 6 was “Yoga at home and Yoga with the family”. Seen here are Pallod and Agarwal families doing yoga together on Fathers day and International Day of Yoga.

yoga enthusiasts around the world and was created without any-faceto face interaction.

A series of warm up exercises were led by Amit Khanna from the Indian Consulate and Srinivasan from S-Vyasa Yoga. This was followed by the event’s highlight - a virtual hour long yoga session from Haridwar, India by world renowned yoga guru Swami Ramdev.

Participants followed easy verbal instructions and demonstrations of postures (asanas) and breathing techniques (pranayama).

Infusing the session with encouraging words and the benefits of yoga, Swami Ramdev motivated participants to activate their hardware (body) and software (breath) for greater health and in-

ner peace. Yoga postures are highly beneficial for structural balance and fitness but it is pranayama or 11 breathing techniques that can help people build immunity and protect themselves from the risk of COVID-19.

Swami Ramdev stressed the importance of practicing a minimum of two breathing techniques every day. The yoga guru livened up the session and awed his viewers with some extremely challenging poses, all without breaking into a sweat. In a reference to the power of yoga, he revealed that he has been leading back-to-back yoga sessions for 18 hours a day for the past three days while subsisting on a frugal diet of milk and fruit.

Swami Ramdev also lauded the efforts of Sewa International,

USA for their COVID-19 relief efforts. With over 3000 volunteers on the ground across the US and over a million dollars raised, Sewa has been helping communities hit hard by the pandemic through food drives and PPE supplies.

In a first of its kind initiative, Hindus of Greater Houston marked the 6th International Day of Yoga by providing scholarships to four students from the African American community. The scholarships will support their training to become certified Yoga teachers.

Yoga enthusiasts from Austin, Denver, Dallas, Tulsa, Kansas, New Orleans, San Antonio and several other cities across the US came together on the digital platform. San Antonio held a successful 12 hour Yogathon on June 20

Indo-American News • Friday, JUNE 26, 2020 • www.indoamerican-news.com

and raised more than $15,000 for yoga teachers impacted by the pandemic. The funds will be used to award grants of $500 to 30 local yoga teachers who make their living teaching yoga.

Appreciative comments poured in from prominent Houstonians: Secretary of the Indian Muslims Association of Greater Houston Saeed Pathan said: “It’s always a pleasure to be a part of IYD. This year, COVID-19 didn’t deter us and we all enjoyed watching and practicing yoga virtually.”

In another message, Robert Boustany from Pralaya Yoga stated that “The IDY is an opportunity for all people to unite in peace, brotherhood and health for the welfare of our entire planet and that of future generations while preserving the vital ancient wisdom and the rich heritage of the yogic traditions.”

Director Integrative Medicine Program at the MD Anderson Cancer Center Dr. Lorenzo Cohen noted, “This is such an important day to recognize and more important is that we start to spread this day out to every day of the year.

The evidence is clear that those who lead a yogic lifestyle in the fullest sense of the word will not only lead longer lives but they will lead happier, more fulfilling lives….”

In a nod to yoga’s soaring popularity, Apple Watch users were invited to complete a 20 minute yoga workout on IDY by tapping a yoga icon on the Workout Watch App.

6

COMMUNITY

June 26, 2020

“Yes! to Census 2020” Mural Debuts in Aldine White Supremacists Vandalize A : Judge Lina Hidalgo and sus 2020” mural at High Meadows like its predecessors, was designed Sikh-owned Diner in Santa Fe Harris County Public Library Di- Library, 4500 Aldine Mail Rte. to convey the important Census ldine

rector Edward Melton along with Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis and Representative Armando Walle, are hosting the debut of the fourth “Yes! to Cen-

Rd, Houston, TX 77039, on Tuesday, June 23 at 10:30 a.m. With the Aldine neighborhood currently at a 40.7% response rate to the census questionnaire, this mural,

message: completing the census online, by phone, or by mail is vital to the future of our communities, safe and easy to do.

Comissioner Adrian Garcia, State Representative Armando Walle, Commisioner Rodney Ellis speaking on Yes! To Census 2020.

Comissioner Adrian Garcia Painting the final logo.

Santa Fe, NM: Baljit Singh, a Sikh American owner of India Palace walked into his restaurant on June 22 to find it broken in, ransacked, and vandalized with white supremacist obscenities and hate speech with an estimated $100,000 in damages. Mr. Singh, who has owned the restaurant since 2013 and has never experienced this type of racism or harassment, immediately notified the police and the FBI, with the police arriving 2.5 hours later.

“Santa Fe is a peaceful town, and the Sikh community has lived here, beautifully integrated, since the 60s,” said SALDEF Board Member Simran Singh, who lives minutes away from the restaurant.

“Tensions have flared recently with the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement and the removal of statues associated with Spanish colonizers of this area, who committed a num-

ber of atrocities. Nevertheless, we are seeing an outpouring of love and support around the city and in my experience, our neighbors love and appreciate us, as we love and appreciate them.”

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Indo-American News • Friday, JUNE 26, 2020 • www.indoamerican-news.com

COMMUNITY

June 26, 2020

7

Sewa’s Houston Chapter Distributes 100,000 lbs of Food to the Needy

By Vidya Tontalapur

Houston: Entering the second phase of the COVID-19 relief efforts, Sewa International’s Houston Chapter has distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food in the Greater Houston area partnering closely with 15 community organizations.

“Sewa organized 15 food drives in the past seven weeks in Houston’s various low-income neighborhoods and served more than 3,400 families by giving them food kits containing 30 pounds or more food. We are conducting our food drives in the apartment complexes where the most vulnerable communities live,” said Gitesh Desai, Sewa’s Houston Chapter President.

“Sewa is planning to have these drives every weekend for the next few weeks. On Saturday, June 27, food & mask distributions are planned from 10 to 11 AM in Shri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha on Kieth Harrow Blvd, Arrowood Apartments on South Course Drive, and Villa Adora Apartments on Beechnut St in Houston,” said Rashmi Singh & Yash Havalimane, Sewa’s Lead for Food drive.

Phenomenal Support “The kind of support we are getting from other Indian American community organizations for the food drive is phenomenal. Reflecting the age-old Hindu tradition of “Anna Daan” (providing food to

Sewa volunteers distributed food kits at Catalina Apartments in Houston.

the needy), many Hindu Temples, religious and cultural organizations and altruistic individuals from the community have joined hands with us to serve the underserved,” said Nikhil Jain, Sewa’s Houston Chapter Coordinator.

“Nationally, Sewa has distributed more than 635,000 masks and other protective materials to physicians, healthcare staff and to the first responders such as police officers and firefighters in the last 12 weeks. As hunger spreads through the communities due to the economic impact of the pandemic, we are moving into the next stage to ensure that people do not go hungry,” said Achalesh Amar, Sewa’s Director of Disaster Relief.

Sewa conducted the biggest drive at Catalina Apartments in association with International Management District, Shree Nathji’s Haveli VPSS and Brighter Bites on Saturday, June 21 and distributed 400 food kits containing beans, pasta, sauce, rice, sugar, etc. Hubert Vo, Member, House District 149, Texas House of Representatives, and Houston Council Member Tiffany D. Thomas (District F) participated in the drive.

In the drive held at the Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, 250 families received food kits. At the Sri Meenakshi Temple event, 250 food kits were distributed, and India’s Consul General in Houston, Aseem Mahajan, and Texas

House Member, Ed Thompson, participated. In Richmond, TX food drives in four apartment complexes were conducted by Sewa and Katy Youth Cricket. Fort Bend County Judge, KP George, visited these complexes and motivated residents.

Gujrati Samaj, Shree Nathji’s Haveli VPSS, Chinmaya Mission,

and Vadtal Dham Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple joined hands with Sewa to distribute 16,500 pounds of food in three apartment complexes and in a drive-through event. In all of these drives several hundred pounds of vegetables and fruits and hundreds of gallons of milk and masks was distributed.

Many organizations from Houston -- Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Shree Nathji’s Haveli VPSS, Sri Meenakshi Temple, Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, Chinmaya Mission, Vedanta Society, Vadtal Dham Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple , Hindu Worship Society, Gujarati Samaj, Katy Youth Cricket, Brighter Bites, Hindus for America, Maheshwari Mahasabha of North America (MMNA), Sant Nirankari Mission, Sneha Hastham, Southwest District, International Management District , Telica, Umang Mehta of Deep Foods, Pankaj & Rupali Maheshwari, Mrugesh & Pallavi Parikh – sponsored and worked closely with Sewa International to conduct these food drives.

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8 June 26, 2020 ENTERTAINMENT “Aarya”: A Slick and Enjoyable Web Series with Sushmita Sen

By Shubhra Gupta Cast: Sushmita Sen, Chandrachur Singh, Vikas Kumar, Ankur Bhatia, Sikander Kher, Namit Das, Manish Chaudhary, Jayant Kriplani, Sohaila Kapur, Maya Sarao, Priyasha Bhardwaj, Sugandha Garg, Alexx O’Neil, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Jagdish Purohit, Flora Saini, Virti Vaghani, Viren Vazirani, Pratyaksh Panwar, Joy Sengupta Directors: Ram Madhvani, Sandeep Modi, Vinod Rawat Rating: 3 stars Watching Aarya reminds you of how well it incorporates that classic phrase, ‘even in the best families’. From the outside, Aarya Sareen, a supremely fit, still-stunning mother of three, seems to have everything: loving husband, luxe life, no problems other than to choose the outfit of the day from a seriously classy wardrobe. Scratch a little, though, and out spill several cans of wriggly worms, which keep us busy watching through the nine episodes of the web series, co-created by Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi. Yes, there’s dirt and grime under all that glitter, and that happens in the best of families.

Based on Spanish series Penoza, Aarya gives us the story (co-written by Sandeep Srivastava and Anu Singh Choudhary) of a woman who is catapulted into the hotseat of her dodgy family business.

After initial reluctance, she takes charge, growing in confidence and aplomb, facing down one challenge after another: how do you react when what you thought was a pharmaceutical concern has a dark underbelly? (‘Afeem se dawaai banti hai, aur heroin bhi’ is the adage the family lives by) How

do you respond when your near and dear ones, people whom you thought had your back, turn out to be snakes? Simple. When you are a woman whose sole concern is to protect her family, you steel yourself, and step up to the plate. Or, as in this case, you pick up a gun.

Fashioned as a crime thriller with a strong emotional core, Aarya sets up quite a pace. It moves swiftly, and that is its best quality because while the solidly written plot, detailed characters and smooth storytelling are all to the good, there are also the dips, contrived scenes, and loose ends, which we don’t quite have the time to dwell on.

By the time we notice a flat register, we are already on to the next thing.

Through it all, we see just how atmospheric the whole is: the design is terrific. The background score stays in the background, thank the almighty. It’s set somewhere in Rajasthan, so we get beautifully appointed homes, ornate havelis, polo team-owning crime lords, liveried staff, factories as big as barnyards, fancy cars, fancier shades.

That’s the rarefied setting of the rich people. There’s also the par-

allel stream of cops stations, jails, courtrooms, and grungy godowns perfect for dubious purposes. As well as the more regular spaces like beauty salons, neighbourhood eateries and homes which aren’t museums.

But the series never really takes its eyes off Aarya, and the never-ahair-out-of-place, always immaculate Sen, clad in elegant pastels and huge solitaires, fills the titular character. You wish that she would get a little rumpled, a little ruffled, especially when everything around her seems to be falling to pieces, and more so when you see her with best friends, Sarao and Garg, who are both such naturals.

But it’s good to see Sen back in the grid, and grow into her part, especially when she begins breaking through to a woman who discovers her innate toughness, and learning to stay a step ahead of her sneaky, heavy-handed father (Kriplani) and too ambitious-for-his-owngood brother (Bhatia).

A big pleasure of this series is being able to watch so many good actors, all getting something substantial to do. Namit Das as a cocaine-sniffing business partner,

Jayant Kriplani as the randy I-memyself patriarch, Sohaila Kapur as the vodka-tippling, long-suffering matriarch, Manish Chaudhry as the cigar-smoking mob boss, Bharadwaj as Soundarya, Aarya’s younger sister, O’ Neill as her firang musician husband who loves the Bhagwad Gita. Even the relatively smaller parts are handled with care: Vishwajeet Pradhan as an honourable goon, Joy Sengupta as a vulnerable worker, Flora Saini as arm-candy with feelings, all fit in.

Props to Vikas Kumar, who plays ACP Khan, the cop investigating the case, who makes a worthy, dogged antagonist. Not just Sen, Chandrachur Singh returns too.

As Sen’s Hindi film-song-loving caring spouse, he wears his expansive middle with as much ease as he inhabits his supporting role: I hope he sticks around. If the movies won’t have him, the web series will.

The children, Vir, Aru and Adi (Vaghani, Vazirani, Panwar), are written with welcome detail: Aarya is not just a designer mom but involved with their well-being.

They are not two-dimensional flatties. Teenagers in our movies and

television are never given their natural strong pubescent desires; we almost never see them experience their first sexual stirrings. A strand involving Vir and his equally young ‘girl-friend’ becomes squelchy but it’s also real: it feels like two horny teenagers wanting to get it on. It’s unclear whether this is borrowed from the original, but it gives the series weight. A detail involving a dead animal, in a very Godfather-like scene, makes you wince, though, even if it’s used as a plot device to drum up sympathy for a little tyke.

A few of these bits and bobs stay in the realm of either a very Western conceit, especially the too-brisk candences of the conversations, or more than a trifle unbelievable. There’s a little personal detail about Khan, which is left hanging. And Sikander Kher strides through the series without quite getting a clear motif: he’s a striking actor, but here his character stays fuzzy. Another irritant, something even the most creaky movies have stopped doing: why does a line in English need a Hindi repeat immediately after? I counted several instances in the first episode itself. Sample: ‘Don’t do this. Aisa mat kariye’. This sticks out in a series aiming at finesse.

What saves it is no excessive use of ‘naani sa’, and ‘khammaghani’ and in-your-face-leheriya saris: these done-to-death-in-bad-TVserials elements are around, but just to the right degree.

But not one of these things is a deal-breaker. For the most part, Aarya stays on course, slick, unpredictable, pacey and enjoyable.

I was eager to know what’s going to happen next, and that’s straight away a win. All set for the second part. -- Indian Express

A Terrorist Attack Sparks the Plot of Megha Majumdar’s Powerful Debut Novel

By Parul Sehgal “If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean that the government is also a terrorist?”

Megha Majumdar’s propulsive debut novel, “A Burning,” is set in motion by this single sentence: a Facebook post by a young Muslim woman named Jivan, living in a Kolkata slum. She has just witnessed a group of men torch a stalled train, killing almost 100 people, while the police looked on.

When Jivan shares this message online, sorrowing and outraged (but also, she confesses, hoping for a robust number of “likes”), she has no way of knowing that she is about to be arrested for the crime, and that her post will be entered as evidence.

It is a baldly, horrifyingly plausible premise. The story is set in modern-day India, where scores have been arrested for writing social media posts critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu

“A Burning” book cover with author Megha Majumdar.

nationalist government, for merely forwarding a cartoon or a meme.

Lynchings are on the rise, and a notorious new citizenship law enshrines discrimination against Muslims. In February, the country suffered its bloodiest outbreak of sectarian violence in years. Mobs freely targeted mosques, Muslim homes and businesses. The police

joined the attacks. More than 50 people died, including an 85-yearold woman who was burned alive in her home while a crowd outside sang Hindu devotionals.

Majumdar follows the lives of three characters: Jivan, languishing in prison; her former physical education teacher, referred to as PT Sir, who is recruited into the local right-wing political party;

and Lovely, a hijra (a third gender recognized in India), who dreams of stardom.

The director Akira Kurosawa famously used three cameras to shoot each scene. The A camera he placed in the most conventional position. The B camera provided swift, impressionistic shots. The C camera, he described as a “guerrilla unit.” Rolling simultaneously, the three-camera system ensured that no detail would go missing.

Majumdar employs a similar strategy. The narration swivels from the perspective of one character to the next, each of whom, by dint of status or sensibility, knows something the others cannot. Only Jivan knows the truth of what happened the day the train burned.

But it is PT Sir who reports to us the larger context, the workings of the party that holds Jivan’s fate in its hands.

Lovely is the guerrilla unit, the novel’s most exuberant creation.

Deprived of conventional education — aside from occasional acting classes — she is a student of

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street life, conjuring the inner lives of everyone she sees, filing away their expressions and gestures to better inhabit her roles. The texture of the novel — its amplitude, tenderness, commotion — comes to us from her curiosity and habit of attentiveness. Looking up at the moon, noticing the craters, she is struck by a friendly feeling: “The moon is having pimples also.”

This is a book to relish for its details, for the caress of the writer’s gaze against the world, the way it dawdles over all that might be considered coarse or inconsequential — the varicose veins of Jivan’s cellmate are evoked as “crooked, like flooding rivers.” In their specificity and cool bluntness, Majumdar’s descriptions of life, of stench and bodies, of stifled ambitions and stoked resentments, feel instructive, a rejoinder to the ways reality is so commonly distorted, whether by the nationalist project to rewrite history or by sentimental and sensational media narratives, all of which come in for tart critique.-New York Times

June 26, 2020

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EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY

June 26, 2020

On India’s Security Council Win

Ending Casteism Doesn’t Require Eradicating Hinduism. To suggest Otherwise is Itself Bigotry.

By Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria

India’s election to the U.N. Security Council as a non-permanent member is a significant diplomatic victory for the country, which has long been pushing for reforms at global institutions.

The victory wasn’t unexpected as India was the only contestant for the Asia Pacific seat. But the Indian foreign policy establishment took no chances as the election would be done by secret ballot at the UN General Assembly and two-thirds of the votes were needed for victory. India secured the seat with 184 votes in the 193-strong General Assembly. Mexico, Norway and Ireland were also elected as non-permanent members.

While Mexico won the Latin American seat uncontested, Norway and Ireland emerged victorious from a three-way contest for the Western Europe and Others Group seat. Canada failed to win enough votes in this group. Neither Kenya nor Djibouti, which were contesting the seat from Africa, won a two-thirds majority. They will face another vote. India sought the support of member countries by highlighting its commitment to multilateralism and reforms. Ahead of the vote, India had launched a campaign brochure which highlighted its demand for transparency in mandates for UN peacekeeping missions and push for the India-led Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, and called for joint efforts for UN reform and expansion of the Security Council. A “new orientation for a reformed multilateral system” (NORMS), as laid out by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, would be India’s overall objective during the two-year tenure that will begin next year.

Achieving this would depend on how India will conduct diplomacy in the global body, build alliances and raise issues that go beyond the interests of the big five. India has long been of the view that the structure of the UN Security Council doesn’t reflect the realities of the 21st century. It has also got increasing support from member countries for its push for reforms. But the five permanent members of the Security Council have resisted these attempts. The COVID-19 pandemic has already shaken up the global order and sharpened the rivalry between the U.S. and China. It has also opened up fresh debates on strengthening multilateralism and multilateral institutions. In this context, the challenges before India are many. The Security Council is one of the most important multilateral decision-making bodies where the contours of global geopolitics are often drawn. India should avoid the temptation of taking sides at a time when the Security Council is getting more and more polarised. To serve its interests and push for its agenda of multilateralism and reforms, India should adopt value-based positions that are not transactional, aspire for the leadership of the non-permanent members of the Council and be the voice of the weaker nations.- The Hindu

Part 2. The most widely revered sacred texts by Hindus are attributed to sages who today would be considered born to “low caste” parentage.

Even in the handful of stories that tell of discriminatory interactions, it is made abundantly clear that it is the individual who discriminates that is the one acting against dharma.

The teachings are as resolute as the problem is real: all beings are inherently divine, and all unjust thoughts, words, and actions are wrong and will reap karmic punishment either in this life or in a future one.

This is why every major Hindu spiritual leader today has called caste-based discrimination a violation of dharma and why some of the most powerful movements to counter the oppressive forces of discrimination have been led by Hindus.

Even B.R Ambedkar, the monumental figurehead of the movement to challenge the systems of caste-based oppression and author of India’s Constitution, who is often quoted by those who seek to annihilate Hinduism, had this to say when reflecting on whether a birth-based hierarchy was intrinsic to the Hinduism: “Particular attention has to be paid to the fact that this (the varna system) was essentially a class system, in which individuals, when qualified, could change their class, and therefore classes did change their personnel.” (Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1, P.18).

It’s undeniable that castebased discrimination is practiced throughout South Asia, and it is practiced by members of all religious communities.

This confirms that the inhumanity of caste discrimination is not grounded in Hinduism, but our inherent weaknesses as human beings.

One need only look at other social evils that have often been perpetrated in the name of religion to acknowledge why targeting just

Hindus is Hinduphobia.

Christianity was used to justify slavery by white Christians and continues to be used to prey on vulnerable and impoverished indigenous communities through aggressive, predatory, and unethical evangelzing around the world.

Wouldn’t the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King object to anyone saying that the only way to address the current systemic injustices faced by Black Americans in the United States (and marginalized communities globally) is to dismantle Christianity?

Islam has also been wielded by some to oppress women and carry out terrorist attacks.

Has Malala Yousafzai ever attributed the horrific assault that she faced to Islam, or insisted that gender equality and peace can only be achieved if every Muslim denounced their faith?

Indeed, South Asian progressives would (fairly!) consider this particular line of rhetoric hateful, unnecessary, and Islamophobic.

We have found ways to acknowledge the trauma and experience of other people who have been oppressed in the name of religion, to give their voices the power and support to bring about awareness and change, without insisting that the solution is to “dismantle” a faith.

Why then do South Asian activists see no hypocrisy in demanding, not that Hindus simply examine their privilege, but that they dismantle their religion?

When did it become okay, nay woke, to openly call to destroy an entire religion? For Hindus, Hinduism, with its emphasis on the universality of divinity and its ability to lift us above our base weaknesses, is in fact the philosophy to move us forward towards social justice, not a cancer to be cut out

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of the movement entirely.

Those who amplify Hinduphobic rhetoric, are asking the destruction of Hindu spirituality without offering compelling evidence that this is good for us, for lower caste individuals, or for the world, and are ignoring that the most impactful movements towards change have not come from those who reject spirituality, but by those who have embraced it.

Asking Hindus to sit with the idea that their tradition is inherently exclusionary, rather than inherently, intimately, and inextricably grounded in the idea that all are divine, is NOT the same as asking someone to grapple with and confront their privilege. It is telling them to reject the central value that grounds their relationship with themselves, with everything around them, and with their relationship with that which is greater than them. We are not being asked to reflect on our actions or on our ignorance. We’re being told that we need to see that we are evil by virtue of our spirituality. There is no space to be a good person here.

Being told that my religion is oppressive, is oppression. It is Hinduphobia. It is anti-Hindu hatred.

The response from this segment of activists is predictable: “Kavita is using her privilege to silence the real, painful experiences of a traumatized people by raising her own, and exceptionalizes why savarna voices must go.”

If you’ve made it this far though, hopefully you’ve understood that that’s not what’s happening here.

We have a long way to go in hearing, raising, highlighting the voices of the oppressed, and we must be willing to do this work and transform our world and our societies, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. We have both the ability and the duty to use our Hindu dharma to do this very work — to follow a long tradition of using an understanding of universal and shared divinity to challenge not just our personal weaknesses, but to address systems of oppression.

-- Hindu American Foundation

SUDOKU/RECIPE Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Send us the correct answer before June 31, 2020.

Email us at indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Please send us your solved Sudoku for your name to be published.

Solution Next Week

June 26, 2020

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Mama’s Punjabi Recipes

In the cold, rainy weather that we’ve been having lately, nothing tastes better than some warm breakfast full of wonderful aroma to brighten up the morning! And this super-easy recipe can do just that as it enhances plain bread into a cross between a French toast and a donut. Below is a reprint of Mama’s Mitthi Bread or Shahi Tukdre recipe, which is a favorite treat made and eaten in the winter months. It is reprinted with some

Mitthi Bread or Shahi Tukdre (SWEETENED FRIED BREAD)

Most people think that Punjabis enjoy their paranthas the most of all types of breads, but the truth is that they enjoy breads cooked in many ways. And when they can’t get any kind of cooked roti, they will just as easily turn to regular bread with sabzi, toast with butter and jam or the crispy ready-made husks eaten dipped in a cup of milky tea.

Sometimes when there isn’t enough time to make a delicious sweet dish, an imaginative Punjabi will turn to this easy recipe, which uses bread and is not only simple but also greatly appreciated by guests. If you happen to have some left over chasni (sugar syrup), then this dish is even faster to make.

Mitthi bread, better known as shahi tukde, is also popular in Rajasthan and Hyderabad, but some say it is best connected to a region called Awadh in Uttar Pradesh. This region was sometimes referred to as Oudh (derived from the Hindi name Ayodhya) whose capital was Lucknow.

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The other ingredient in this dish is rabdi or thickened, evaporated milk that is poured all over the bread which soaks it up. When served chilled sprinkled with chopped almonds, pistachios and saffron, the taste is just fantastic.

Ingredients: • 6 slices of bread - (bleached white and sliced) • 1 ½ cups chinni (sugar) • 1 cup pani (water) • ½ gallon doodh (milk) – whole milk is best • Vegetable or sunflower oil for frying • Condiments to your taste: kishmish (raisins); saunf (fennel seed) • Dry fruits to your taste: badam (almonds – peeled and slivered); piste (pistachios – halved or pieces) Directions: 1. To make the chasni, pour sugar into a bowl and slowly add warm water while mixing thoroughly with a spoon.

2. Meanwhile, pour the milk into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat down to medium and

keep stirring to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom otherwise it will give a burnt smell. Keep stirring till the milk is thickened and only ¼ remains, take off the heat and set aside.

3. Cut the slices of bread into four squares, then fry in the oil till each side is golden brown.

4. Dip the hot pieces into the chasni and take them out with a strainer to drip.

5. Spread the pieces in a large flat pyrex baking dish and arrange in two layers.

6. Pour the rabdi, covering the layer of fried bread.

7. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds, pistachios, raisins and fennel seeds. Place in the fridge to chill before serving. .

Shakuntla Malhotra is a skilled cook of Punjabi dishes made in the old-fashioned style that she learnt as a young woman in her ancestral home in Lyallpur, India (since renamed Faisalabad) before it became part of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947.

People have often admired her cooking for its simplicity and taste that comes with each mouthful. Even in her early-nineties, she continues to cook daily and agreed to share her delectable Punjabi recipes for future generations.

MAMA’S TIP O F THE

WEEK

REUSE EXTRA CH ASNI FOR ANOTH ER D ISH Several Indian sw eet di

shes are made with which is water ba chasni handy makes it eased. Though it is not hard to make,(sugar syrup), sy having some to make another a hurry or get caug ht by surprise guessweet dish should you be in ts.

Usually when cook sugar syrup is left ing gulab jamun or jalebis so container in the fri over. Take this chasni and store me chasni or turn to another re dge. If you are short on time, yo it in a plastic cipe, like shahi tukd u e, and make a deliccan quickly ious sweet

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June 26, 2020

हमारी कम्युनिटी के लिए 2020 की जिगणिा पूरी करें। जनगणना 2020 के तहत अमेरिका में िहने वाले हि व्यक्ति की गगनती की जाएगी। आज ही जनगणना पूिी किें औि सिकाि को अगले दस वर्षों तक यह सुगनश्चित किने में मदद किें, गक अिबो डॉलि की सिकािी फ़ंडडंग सवास्य केंद्र, आपातकालीन सेवाओं औि क्िक्ा जैसे क्ेत्रों में गवतरित की जाए। जिगणिा का फ़ॉम्म ऑि​िाइि अथवा डाक द्ारा पूरा करें। फ़ॉम्म पूरा करिे की जािकारी इस वेबसाइट पर प्ाप्त करें: 2020CENSUS.GOV/hi

2020CENSUS.GOV/hi इस सेवा का भुगतान यू.एस. जनगणना बयूिो (U.S. Census Bureau) द्ािा गकया गया है।

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