Indo-American News: October 29, 2021

Friday, October 29, 2021 | Vol. 40, No. 44

Indo American News

October 29, 2021

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Published weekly from Houston, TX

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Special Reports Community Briefs Local Politics South Asians in the News

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Another Successful Year for Indian Film Festival of Houston Shah is Ekal CEO

Board Members of Indian Film Festival of Houston (IFFH): Leda Burkle, Parul Fernandes, Sutapa Ghosh, Atul Badwal, Amey Prakash, Ellen Goldberg, Arzan Gonda and Jose Grinan.

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Ramesh Shah is new CEO of Ekal Abhiyan.

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WEDDINGS, SPECIAL EVENTS, TENTED EVENTS, OUTDOOR COURTYARD

3 3 3 0 F M 1 4 6 3 | K a t y, T X 7 7 4 9 4 | 8 3 2 . 8 5 5 . 5 5 2 0 | p a l m r o y a l v i l l a . c o m

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2 October 29, 2021 COMMUNITY Another Successful Year for the Indian Film Festival of Houston

Sutapa Ghosh, Founder and Executive Director, IFFH Jose Grinan, Amey Prakash, Indian Consul Sandeep Chaudhary, Sutapa Ghosh and and Apoorva Bakshi, producer for the Film “WOMB” Atul Badwal.

Women of My Billion.

the Q & A. The 13th Indian Film Festival of Houston Award Winners were announced as the evening came to an end. They were: Best Feature Film, Bittersweet, directed by Ananth Mahadevan; Best Short Film, Coldfire, directed by Riddhi Sen; and Best Documentary Film “WOMB” Women of My Billion, directed by Ajitesh Sharma.

Apoorva Bakshi accepted the award for the film.

Please join us next year, so that you, too, can enjoy India cinema at its best.

By Ellen Israel Goldberg

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Houston: The 13th Indian Film Festival of Houston lived up to its promise at the Asia Society Texas Center on Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23. Excited to be able to attend the event in person after missing it last year due to COVID restrictions, everyone was pleased to see old friends and meet new ones. Apart from Texas, guests attended from other parts of the United States and Europe.

A short film, documentary, and feature were screened each of the two nights. Several socially significant ones concerned women’s issues, and viewers came away being more aware of conditions in India.

Additional aspects of the country included Ghar Ko Pata (Home Address), a biographical narrative of a woman who sought to reconnect with Kashmir, the home from which she and her family had been exiled.

Not all films were serious; Coldfire was a dark comedy about a salesman who promotes a new product to change the Hindu funeral system to serve elite classes of society, Rickshawala reflected on the life of a rickshaw driver, and For Each Other told of two people who tried to bridge an Assam neighborhood to the outside world.

Although several of the filmmakers were scheduled to attend in person, they were unable to come into the country due to the Delta variation. By the “magic” of Zoom, Director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan was able to conduct the Q & A for his film Bittersweet, a true story about a young woman working in the sugar cane industry.

She, like others, was condemned to having her womb removed, so that she could be more productive in the fields. Mahadevan, is a famous actor, director, and writer who appeared in 68 films and TV serials, in addition to being involved in English and Hindi theatre. He spoke of his evolution from actor to director because he wanted to present more serious subjects to audiences. He’s currently working on another meaningful film.

The music of Moodafaruka provided a wonderful atmosphere for the reception where food from Verandah Restaurant was served. The break provided time for people to meet each other and discuss the films. Several women were so inspired by the music that they spontaneously danced, much to the delight of the crowd.

Following the reception the second night, “WOMB” Women of My Billion, a documentary about the plight, dreams, rights, and fight against all forms of violence against women, was shown. Although the stories were difficult to hear and watch, there was a hopeful message.

Srishti Bakshi was so moved by the stories of the women, that she undertook a 3800 km/240 day journey by foot. Along the way, she talked to groups of the victims as well as to girls and other women, giving them hope and ways to assert themselves. She also spoke to boys and men about the way to respect women and treat them as equals. The producer, Apoorva Bakshi, was at the theater in person to give

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October 29, 2021

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October 29, 2021

40th AAPI Convention in San Antonio

San Antonio: “Physician, heal thyself,” especially when there are growing signs of burn out among physicians, by offering positive remedial resources as part of a first ever Wellness Program being offered to participants at the 40th Annual Convention of AAPI to be held in san Antonio from June 23rd to 26th, 2022.

The Covid pandemic has impacted all aspects of human life as never been before. The past two years have been challenging to everyone, particularly those are assigned with the responsibility of caring for the sick, especially as hundreds of Millions were affected by the big pandemic. Over 115,000 health care workers died from Covid-19 from January 2020 to May of this year, according to a new World Health Organization estimate.

“The backbone of every health system is its workforce — the people who deliver the services on which we rely at some point in our lives,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The pandemic is a powerful demonstration of just how much we rely on health workers and how vulnerable we all are when the people who protect our health are themselves unprotected.”

Some have argued that governments have forsaken their duty to protect health care workers and warned that pandemic would have long tail effects, with many healthcare professionals considering leaving the workforce. At this critical juncture in human history, American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) the largest ethnic medical organization in the country, representing the interests of over 100,000 physicians

of Indian origin, is focusing on themes such as how to take care of self and find satisfaction and happiness in the challenging situations they are in, while serving hundreds of patients everyday of their dedicated and noble profession, Dr. Anupama Gotimukula, President of AAPI said.

“This year AAPI Convention team from San Antonio is very much motivated on focusing on addressing physician burnout and we have planned these wellness packages. As we are seeing in our daily lives the physician burnout has increased significantly.

IndoAmerican News Founder: Dr. K.L. Sindwani Publisher: Jawahar Malhotra Editor: Pramod Kulkarni Correspondent: Sanchali Basu ®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. Deadline for advertising and articles is 4 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 2470 Dairy Ashford, Houston, Texas 77077.

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SPORTS

October 29, 2021

Kohli: Pakistan’s Powerplay Bowling Too Much Ahmedabad, Lucknow Join IPL

Dubai: After India suffered their first defeat to Pakistan in World Cups, losing by ten wickets, Virat Kohli admitted that his side was outplayed. In response to India’s 151 for 7, Pakistan rattled off the target in 17.5 overs with both their openers, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, hitting unbeaten half-centuries. It was India’s first ten-wicket defeat in T20Is. “They [Pakistan] definitely outplayed us. There’s no doubt about that,” Kohli said. “You don’t win by ten wickets if you don’t outplay the opposition. We didn’t even get any chances - they were very professional and you definitely have to give them credit.

We tried our best and we tried to create enough pressure on them, Kohli reckoned that the onset but they had the answers. There is no shame in accepting that a team of dew later in the night made life difficult for India’s attack. Earlier played better than you.

“When you step onto the field in the evening, Babar had opted to as 11 players from either side, you bowl first, citing concerns around have an equal opportunity to win dew.

“I wouldn’t say that it [condithe game and there’s no guarantee that you will go out there and win tions] became very, very difficult every match. But, having said that but if the pitch becomes a little betyou also don’t go out there being ter to bat on, you get off to a start, casual, right? So, we tried our best, you start feeling more confident we made a decent total out of our about the chase and that’s what situation and we thought we could happened,” Kohli said. “The more put them under pressure, but they dew came in towards the second didn’t let us come into the game at half of the Pakistan innings, ten any stage. They definitely deserve overs onwards and they were able the credit for finishing off the to rotate strike. We weren’t even

game very strongly and not allow- able to get dot balls in because the

ing us to put any pressure on them pitch was obviously providing a bit more pace for the batsmen to through the innings.”

work with. The slower balls were not holding up as much.

“So, these small little factors, they make a massive difference and as a team you need to understand what was the reality of the situation out there in the middle and that’s where those 20-25 extra runs would’ve been good. But brilliant bowling in the first six didn’t allow us to get those extra runs. We know how exactly the game went and where it went wrong and we have absolute clarity of that. That’s a good thing to know where you went wrong so that you can work on it and try and correct it and move forward. We still have a lot of matches in this tournament and if we stick to the processes we follow we definitely feel like we can overcome these mistakes.”

India will next face New Zealand at the same venue on Sunday.

Kohli welcomed the week-long break, saying it will help the side reflect on their opening loss and fine-tune their plans for the rest of the tournament.

Kohli had also raised concerns around player burnout in trying to cover-up for cricket lost to Covid19 on the eve of the match. India have had a particularly busy schedule, home and away, in bio-bubbles of varying elasticities, in the past year. “I think it [break] works really well for us from all points of view, knowing that we’ve played a full-fledged season already,” Kohli said.

-- ESPN Cricinfo.

Dubai: In what will be seen as a watershed moment in the business of cricket, two corporate giants RP Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) and CVC Capital Partners (Irelia Company Pte Ltd) - have bid a staggering sum of money, running over USD 1.6 billion, to buy the two new IPL franchises.

On Monday, at a walk-in bidding event in Dubai, RPSG paid INR 7090 crore (USD 940 million approx) to buy the Lucknow franchise while CVC, a private equity fund, bought the Ahmedabad franchise for INR 5625 crore (USD 750 million approx).

The RPSG bid was about 250%

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more than BCCI’s base price of INR 2000 crore (US$270million approx). The corresponding figure for CVC was over 160%. In all, 22 companies had purchased the tender document but only nine were eventually present at the walk-in bid event held in Dubai that lasted over six hours on Monday.

The bids, enclosed in a sealed envelope, were opened after a lengthy technical evaluation process. The entire process was overseen by the IPL governing council as well as the BCCI top brass led by board president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, treasurer Arun Dhumal.

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Indo-American News • Friday, october 29, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

ENTERTAINMENT ‘Bhavai’: Loud and Dated

October 29, 2021

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National Awards: Ranjnikanth, Manoj, Kangana

Award winners included Manoj Vajpayee (left), Kangana Ranaut, Rajnikanth, and Dhanush for Priyadarshan’s Malayalam period epic Marakkar.

By Shubhra Gupta What is the point of re-creating Ramlila on screen unless there’s going to be something in it that we haven’t seen before? At the heart of Bhavai is a great idea, which has been explored by versions of the Ramayan. What if Sita develops a soft spot for Raavan? Would it change everything? Would one of the greatest epics ever written have been read differently? What if Purushottam is not automatically affixed ahead of Ram? It’s a smart idea to cast Pratik Gandhi as Raavan in a small-town Ramlila, set in a tiny village in Gujarat.

The traveling troupe is in search of a Raavan, and a young man who has his heart set on becoming a performer gets his big chance. The irony of him being named Raja Ram Joshi is not lost on anyone, least of all the young woman who plays Sita (Aindrita Ray).

An interesting bunch of actors – Abhimanyu Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Rajesh Sharma- are part of the

cast. By rights, this should have been an entertaining, thought-provoking watch, especially because it is done in the colourful folksy Bhavai style. But the whole thing is so dated, with everyone being made to declaim loudly, that the tone the film wishes to achieve gets lost.

Gandhi, who grabbed our eyeballs in Scam 1992, manages to break free occasionally. Some of his lines are powerfully rendered.

But Ray doesn’t make a worthy Sita, and the other performers get stuck too.

Certain dialogues have been muted: you can see the lips move but no sounds emerging. The film’s original name was ‘Raavan Leela’: how delicious would it have been if the filmmakers had stuck to it, and given us the right dollop of subversion while at it?

Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Aindrita Ray, Rajesh Sharma, Rajendra Gupta, Abhimanyu Singh Director: Hardik Gajjar Rating: 1.5 stars

‘India Sweets and Spices’ Bleecker Street acquired Geeta Malik’s India Sweets and Spices after its premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Now it is prepping for a November 19 theatrical release of the coming-of-age comedy starring Sophia Ali and Rish Shah with the official trailer that dropped Thursday.

Ali stars as Alia Kapur, who returns to her Indian American family’s posh suburban New Jersey home after a year away at college and upends their well-ordered life with her brash independence.

Manisha Koirala, Adil Hussain, Deepti Gupta, Ved Sapru and Anita Kalathara also star.

New Delhi: Presentation ceremony of the 67th National Film Awards was held at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan on Monday. The awards were presented by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. The awards included the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which was presented to Rajinikanth.

In a statement on Sunday, Rajinikanth wrote: “Tomorrow is an important occasion for me with two special landmarks. One, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, being conferred upon me by the Government of India because of the love and support of the people.”

He then wrote about his daughter

Job Posting

Soundarya’s app. Rehearsals for the awards were held on Sunday.

The 67th National Film Awards were announced in March this year. They honoured the best in cinema in 2019, and were supposed to take place last year, but were postponed due to the pandemic. The jury chose from 461 films in the feature category and 220 films in the shorts category.

The Best Feature Film went to Priyadarshan’s Malayalam period epic Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea. While Kangana Ranaut won Best Actress for her performances in Manikarnika and Panga, the Best Actor went to Manoj Ba-

jpayee for Bhonsle and Dhanush for Asuran. Vivek Agnihotri’s The Tashkent Files got Best Dialogue and his wife Pallavi Joshi got the Best Supporting Actress award for the same film. Best Hindi Film went to Chhichhore, starring the late Sushant Singh Rajput. B Praak got the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer for the patriotic song Teri Mitti from his war-drama Kesari.

Documentary Wild Karnataka took home two awards Best Exploration Film and Best Narration for Sir David Attenborough, who was the film’s English narrator. -Indian Expresd

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Indo-American News • Friday, october 29, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

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HEALTH

October 29, 2021

Houston Methodist Hospital Sugar Land Recognized as Top Performer

Sugar Land: Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital has been recognized as a top performer in the 2021 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Annual Ranking by Vizient, Inc. Houston Methodist Sugar Land was ranked 4 out of 117 Vizient members in Large, Specialized Complex Care Medical Centers cohort to be nationally recognized for demonstrating excellence in delivering high-quality care based on the Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking, which has been conducted annually since 2005.

“It is an honor to be recognized,” said Chris Siebenaler, regional senior vice president and CEO of Houston Methodist Sugar Land.

“Our physicians, nurses and staff work incredibly hard to provide unparalleled care to our patients and this award is a tremendous public acknowledgment of that effort.”

This year, 565 participating hospitals were segmented into four cohorts for the Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking. The ranking measured performance on the quality of patient care in five domains: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency and patient centeredness. The ranking factors in measures from the Vizient Clinical Data Base and includes performance in core measures data, the HCAHPS survey and the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network.

The Vizient Quality and Accountability Ranking helps participating hospitals and health systems understand their performance against their peers and identifies structures and processes associated with high performance in quality and safety across a broad spectrum of patient care activity. The recognition period is for work spanning July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.

“As hospitals and health care systems continue to provide patient care during these unprec-

edented times, it’s important to recognize their accomplishments,” said David Levine, group senior vice president, analytics and data science for Vizient. “This year, all Vizient member accomplishments will be celebrated in November at the Vizient Connections Education Summit.”

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital brings the expertise, skill and the latest technology of Houston Methodist to Fort Bend and surrounding counties. Houston

Methodist Sugar Land has changed what it means to be a community hospital by performing the most advanced surgical and diagnostic techniques available in Fort Bend County, including brain surgery, open heart surgery and joint replacement surgery — all backed by a healing focus on compassion, hands-on care and outstanding service.

Visit houstonmethodist.org/sugarland to learn more about Methodist Sugar Land Hospital.

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October 29, 2021

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People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan

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October 29, 2021

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SUDOKU/WEDDINGS 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.

October 29, 2021

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Ramesh Shah Appointed CEO of Ekal Abhiyan

Send us the correct answer before November 3. 2021 Email us at indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Please send us your solved Sudoku for your name to be published.

Solution Next Week

Ramesh Shah (center in orange) is now the CEO of Ekal Abhiyan, umbrella organization for all Ekal branches.

By Prakash Waghmare

Last Week’s Solution

Last Week’s Winners

Sanchali Basu, Krishna R. Vuddagiri, Ramana Vadrevu, Kanubhai Patel

There is historic new dawn at “Ekal Abhiyan” (‘Ekal Mission’), an umbrella organization for all the ancillary ‘Ekal branchlets’, as ‘Diwali’ festivities approach. After the departure of former CEO of “Ekal Abhiyan”, Bajrang Bagra, to tackle another assignment of national importance, Ramesh Shah, the former President and Chairman of ‘Ekal-USA’ has been unanimously appointed as the new CEO of “Ekal Abhiyan”.

What makes this a historic moment is the fact that, he is the first Indian American who rose from a foot-soldier level to this distinctive honor, whose sole focus and establishment is not United States (U.S.) but rural India. Rameshbhai, as he is popularly known, has been a founder member of ‘Ekal-USA’ and credited with building a modest ‘one-teacher-school’ project, 32 years back into a national brand in U.S. for ‘selfless social work’, with over 60 widespread chapters in U.S., Canada and beyond.

While endorsing his successor, Bagraji - a highly admired visionary possessing leadership acumen – expressed nothing but confidence and admiration for the new CEO. In a statement he said,” Rameshbhai will improve upon working of Ekal in fields of operational efficiency and organizational growth. He was my guide and supporter for all matters related to foreign chapters. Moreover, his we unmatched passion and long experience in serving the community in multiple sectors, including VHP & Ekal, has always been a great asset”. Dr Mahesh Mehta, former Chairman of ‘VHP of America’ commenting on Ekal’s trailblazing success across the continent, communicated that,” I am excited and proud that Rameshbhai fulfilled the task he was entrusted with in such a monumental way.”

Coming from a very humble ru-

ral background, Rameshbhai with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a brief stint as an engineer in an Indian industrial corporation, arrived in U.S. in 1970, with a dream to excel like all immigrants.

He subsequently obtained degrees in MBA-Finance and MA in Economics.

When the national emergency was declared in India 1975, he actively participated in ‘Indians for Democracy’ and ‘Friends of India Society International’ that demanded the restoration of the Indian constitution. He has been a lifelong ‘Swayamsevak’ (volunteer) of H.S.S. While at ‘V.H.P. of America’, he took the responsibility of floating ‘Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation’ in 1988 and worked tirelessly and diligently to make it a great success. In the initial days of ‘Ekal’ he used to carry box-load of self-prepared information-publicity material to various community events in the hope of getting an opportunity to talk about rural illiteracy. With amicable nature and deep convictions assisting his hard-work, he soon found access wherever he went. Over the years, Rameshbhai, with his dedication and tenacity has brought in numerous donors, volunteers and thinkers to Ekal fold and motivated diverse groups to join hands with Ekal.

Besides Ekal, he is responsible for establishing ‘Gujarati Samaj of Houston’ and spearheading countless projects related to ‘eyecare’ in India. During this entire community-centric journey, he was assisted by his soulmate, wife-Kokilaben.

They both have been felicitated number of times by the Indian diaspora in U.S. The high points of Rameshbhai’s community involvement came in 2014 and 2019 when he successfully planned and coordinated public reception for the newly elected Indian PM Modi at huge arena-filled gatherings in New York City and Houston. This

Indo-American News • Friday, october 29, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com

was unprecedented in U.S. for any foreign dignitary. For this herculean task, to everyone’s amazement, he ensured that every thread of Indian community was part of it. In January 2017, Rameshbhai was bestowed with the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA)’ by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee - the highest honor conferred on overseas Indians by the Government of India in recognition of achievements, both in India and abroad. Therefore, it is no wonder that Bagraji called him ‘the most suited candidate to be the CEO of Ekal Abhiyan’. Basically, as CEO, he is going to be the bridge between Ekal-India and Ekal-Global; a point-man for all Ekal activities; an accountability administrator; a success assessor of various rural projects; and the strategic planner for Ekal’s future.

Asked about his immediate goal, Rameshbhai, taking inspiration from ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyayji, said,”it is twofold - First, I would like to bring in more dedicated, committed young people to Ekal because they are the future. Secondly, I believe that we have not yet explored the full potentials of all our chapter members.

So, collectively, we need to find ways and means to bring their dormant skills to the surface and utilize them for everyone’s benefit”. The first mega event happening under his watch is going to be “Future of India’ gala of November 13 which will be virtual and co-chaired by Kamlesh Shah and Mohan Wanchoo. The distinguished speakers who are lending their eagerly awaited presence to this magnificent event are Renu Khator, Chancellor of University of Houston; Niren Chaudhary, CEO of Panera Bread and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & Founder of Biocon. Rameshbhai is confident that the funds raised would set a new record for the special-projects.

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October 29, 2021

Indo-American News • Friday, october 29, 2021 • www.indoamerican-news.com