15_vol4_epaper

Op Ed 19

Diaspora 21

Religion 24

Spiritual Awareness 30

NEW YORK EDITION Vol.4 No.15 July 30-August 5, 2011 60 Cents Anshu Jain is the new co-CEO of Deutsche Bank

Karnataka CM resigns over graft charges

National Community, Page 7

India Newswire, Page 11

TheSouthAsianTimes.info Bachchan starrer ‘Aarakshan’ criticized as antiDalit film Bollywood, Page 17

Lacking votes, Republicans postpones debt vote Democrats will kill GOP plan, even as Aug 2 deadline looms Washington: After a few hours of attempted persuasion, House Speaker John Boehner dropped the planned vote on his debt-ceiling plan Thursday evening. He didn't have enough support from his own Republican caucus. Boehner’s plan would cut about $1 trillion off US deficits over 10 years, and raise the debt ceiling for six months. There was no indication of whether a vote might still come on Friday. Senate Leader Democrat Harry Reid has any case promised to kill the plan upon arrival, and is pushing his own plan to cut more than $2 trillion from deficits while raising the debt cap through 2013. President Obama would veto it too.

The postponement continued confusion over debt-limit. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders were for the House to act before making their next move with an eye on the Tuesday deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the debt ceiling or facing the possibility that the government would not be able to meet all its financial obligations.

Meanwhile, failure to pass his own meas-

House Speaker John Boehner, President Obama and Senate Leader Harry Reid: stalemate on raising debt ceiling ure in the House would represent a huge defeat for Boehner, who has invested significant political capital in trying to get his fractious majority behind the legislation. His problem is that many House Republicans object to an increase in federal borrowing power.

As for Obama, he wants an increase in the debt limit through 2012 to avoid a repeat months from now of “this kind of circus,” as his press secretary, Jay Carney, said Thursday.

Hina pitches for Indo-Pak cricket series New Delhi: Pakistan's young Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was quickly on to the front foot as she broached the topic of sports diplomacy during her meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Wednesday. Batting for resumption of cricketing ties, she said that the game had the potential to bring closer the two countries at a time when people were keen on peace.

Khar said the time was particuContinued on page 4....

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited the Sufi shrine ofAjmer Sharif in India Thursday where she reportedly prayed to improve ties between the two countries..

Indian political leaders go fashion forward Fashion, Page 18

Cabinet okays Lokpal draft with PM off limit, Hazare to fast New Delhi: The Manmohan cabinet Thursday approved the draft of an anti-corruption Lokpal bill excluding the prime minister from its ambit, fueling opposition criticism.

An upset Gandhian Anna Hazare pledged to make the government bend with an indefinite hunger strike from Aug 16.

“Overall, the task has been to ensure greater accountability and transparency in public life,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told the media, outlining the purpose behind the bill.

The draft bill, to be introduced in parliament’s monsoon session starting Monday, also excludes the judiciary but covers ministers and MPs. Minister of State V. Narayanasamy said the actions of MPs in the

Gurumaa in America

Before starting her tour of US and Canada, modern day mystic Anandmurti Gurumaa gave an exclusive interview to The South Asian Times - read it on pages 14-15.

Faceoff between the government and Civil Society in the offing house would have to be decided by the presiding officer.

The announcement triggered a volley of protests.

The BJP, reeling under corruption charges that have enveloped its Karnataka government, said the prime minister should be covered by the Lokpal. This was echoed by Brinda Karat of the CPM. The most vociferous criticism came from Hazare,

whose five-day fast in April triggered nationwide protests and forced the government to set up a 10-member team to draft a strong Lokpal bill. The effort collapsed following major differences between the ministers in the team and civil society representatives led

by Hazare.

On Thursday, Hazare accused the government of cheating while his associate Continued on page 4....

Clamor in Harvard for Swamy’s ouster over his article on Muslims New Delhi/Washington: Hindutva advocate Subramanian Swamy’s recent article in an Indian daily — in which he suggested revoking the voting rights of Indian Muslims — has prompted demands to have him fired from Harvard’s faculty for bigotry. Swamy teaches economics at the Harvard Summer School, where he is currently stationed. In India, he leads the Janata Party.

Continued on page 4....

Subramanian Swamy

Tristate Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

India to preside over UN Security Council after 19 years United Nations: After a gap of 19 years, India will assume the monthly presidency of the UN Security Council on August 1.

India, which is a temporary member of the Council, last held that position in December 1992.

Besides the regular work of Council, India will organize a debate on peacekeeping.

August, however, is also what is informally called the vacation period at the UN when many diplomats take a break.

Amb. Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, noted that it could be a "relaxed" month but India would have to deal with the normal agenda of the Council as well as organize the 15-member body, if a crisis was to occur.

On the normal agenda, Puri stressed that the conflicts in Sudan

July 30-August 5, 2011

Indian-born Canadian buying major stake in Bank of Ireland

Prem Watsa, who controls Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, with assets of $32 billion Indian envoy to the UN, Amb. Hardeep Singh Puri and Libya needed attention of the international community.

"Military operations continue in Libya," he said, adding that the Council would have to observe how the situation develops during the month of Ramadan. The thematic debate, he added, would "take stock of peacekeeping operations and how they are headed".

3

Toronto: Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, which has assets worth about $32 billion and is controlled by Hyderabad-born Prem Watsa, is buying a big stake in the troubled Bank of Ireland to avoid its nationalization.

Reports here quoted sources close to the property and insurance management company as saying that Watsa’s company has roped in Fidelity, Capital Research, Cardinal Capital Group and US billionaire Wilbur Ross to pump $1.5 billion into the Irish bank.

The deal will give Watsa’s consortium about 35 percent stake in the oldest bank in Ireland.

In its month-end deadline to the bank, the Irish government had warned it to raise money to deal with the consequences of the bursting real estate bubble or face nationalization.

But the bank resisted nationalization as it would have raised the government’s stake to 70 percent.

After bank shareholders okay the Watsa-led deal, the Irish government’s stake in the bank will be halved to just 15 percent. The Bank of Ireland has been quoted as saying that the ‘long-term value investors’ led by Watsa have ‘recognized how the bank has faced up to and focused on dealing with its challenges.’

Ireland had received an 85-billion pound EU-IMF bailout last year to tide over its financial crisis which led to the closure of two of the country’s six financial institutions and merger of two others.

Called the Warren Buffett of Canada, Prem Watsa, 62, is a chemical engineer from IIT Chennai. He moved to Canada after his graduation in 1972. Watsa founded the Fairfax Financial Holdings Group Ltd. in 1985 and has been its chairman as well as CEO since then.

He is cited in financial circles in North America for having forecast the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis in the US. An MBA and a chartered financial accountant by training, Watsa not only heads one of Canada’s top financial groups, but is also chancellor of the prestigious University of Waterloo.

A revenge plot so bizarre, prosecutors became pawns New York: Soon after Seemona Sumasar started dating Jerry Ramrattan, she had inkling that something might be wrong.

He said he was a police detective, but never seemed to go to work. He seemed obsessed with ‘C.S.I.’, ‘Law & Order’ and other television police dramas.

About a year after he moved into her house in Queens, their relationship soured. One day, he cornered her, taped her mouth and raped her, she said. He was arrested.

But he soon took his revenge, the authorities said. Drawing on his knowledge of police procedure, gleaned from his time as an informer for law enforcement, he accomplished what prosecutors in New York called one of the most elaborate framing plots that they had ever seen.

One night, Sumasar was pulled over by the police. Before she could speak, detectives slapped handcuffs on her. “You know you did it,” she said one later shouted at her. “Just admit it.”

Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst who was running a restaurant, said she had no idea what that meant. Yet suddenly, she

Seemona Sumasar was set up in fake crimes cases by her ex boyfriend Jerry Ramrattan. was being treated like a brazen criminal. She was charged with carrying out a series of armed robberies, based on what the police said was a host of evidence, including credible witness statements and proof that her car was the getaway vehicle.

They released her from jail last December after seven months, acknowledging that the entire case against her had been concocted by Ramrattan, officials said.

And so even as Ramrattan remained free on bail in the rape case, Sumasar, who had no prior criminal record, was facing up to 25 years in prison. Worse, after her arrest, she lost her restaurant franchise and her house in Far Rockaway went into foreclosure. She was separated from her daughter, 12.

Ramrattan never worked as a law enforcement officer, prosecutors say, but he often presented himself as a private investigator. Now being held at Rikers Island, he appeared this month in a Queens court, where a judge refused a request for bail and set his trial date on the rape and conspiracy charges for Oct. 3.

Prosecutors say the setup by him began in September 2009. An illegal immigrant from Trinidad told the police that he had been handcuffed and robbed of $700 by an Indian woman who was disguised as a police officer and had a gun. Prosecutors claim Ramrattan had persuaded the immigrant to lie, telling him that he could receive a special visa for victims of violent crimes.

The final fake crime was conjured in May 2010, officials said, when an acquaintance of Ramrattan said she had been held up by a couple posing

as police officers. She said they were driving a Grand Cherokee, but she gave a full Florida license plate number. She said she heard the pair call each other by name — “Seem” and “Elvis.” Elvis was the nickname of another former boyfriend of Sumasar, who owned the Jeep.

The police arrested her. Bail was set at $1 million. Prosecutors said the scheme unraveled in December 2010 — just weeks before Sumasar

was to go on trial — when an informer told the police that Ramrattan had staged the plot. The informer gave detectives a number for a cellphone owned by Ramrattan.

When they checked phone records, they discovered multiple calls to the false witnesses, who confessed to the police. They were charged with perjury.

Today, Sumasar is trying to rebuild her life.

Indian couple among hundreds of gays who wed in NY Sunday New York: On Sunday, July 24, jubilant same-sex couples across New York state began marrying under a new law that took effect that midnight. From Niagara Falls to Albany to New York City hundreds of gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage licenses – and wed.

New York has become the sixth state to permit same-sex marriage after Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ver-

mont, as well as the District of Columbia.

In New York City alone, all 823 couples who registered through a lottery system were granted marriage licenses. Among them wer Navin Miglani and Navin Dargani. They have been together for six years already. Both men are in their 30s, Miglani is in real estate after selling his family business in the garment district and Dargani is a doctor.

4

Community

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Community groups seek relief on IRS penalties on foreign accounts New York: Major Indian American civic and professional organizations have joined together to campaign with the US administration seeking relief on penalties stipulated by US tax rules on foreign bank accounts.

Representatives of four community groups GOPIO, NFIA, AAPI and AAHOA, under the aegis of a National Coordinating Council sent a letter on July 19, 2011to President Barak Obama seeking help in this matter of urgent concern to the new US immigrants of Indian origin who are facing unfair and unprecedented penalties for failure to disclose and do tax filing of foreign bank accounts by August 31, 2011. Copies of the letter were also sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The joint letter affirmed the community’s recognition of the necessity for the IRS to take needed actions and enact rules to track money flowing to terrorists, drug transaction and money laundering in safe havens outside the US. The groups have requested that the IRS

review and reconsider the rules towards more practical and prudent application.

The IRS announced on February 8, 2011 a special voluntary disclosure initiative designed to bring offshore money back into the US tax system and help people with undisclosed income from hidden offshore accounts get current with their taxes. The new voluntary disclosure initiative will be available through August 31, 2011. The first special voluntary disclosure program closed with 15,000 voluntary disclosures on Oct. 15, 2009. Since that time, more than 3,000 taxpayers have come forward to the IRS with bank accounts from around the world. These taxpayers will also be eligible to take advantage of the special provisions of the new initiative.

“For the 2011 initiative, there is a new penalty framework that requires individuals to pay a penalty of 25 percent of the amount in the foreign bank accounts in the year with the highest aggregate account balance covering the 2003 to 2010 time period. Participants also

must pay back-taxes and interest for up to eight years as well as paying accuracy-related and/or delinquency penalties of 2 percent”.

(Ref IRS News Bulletin IR-2011-14, Feb. 8, 2011).

While the US has a rapidly increasing population of Indians and persons of Indian origin who are contributing significantly in all areas of the US economy and society, many in the community were not aware of the first voluntary disclosure program which ended in 2009.

The Indian American media also was not aware of this program. Many people holding foreign bank accounts were unaware of these rules simply because these rules were never publicized by the IRS to the general public.

Even most accountants preparing and filing the annual individual tax returns did not inform or alert their clients about this requirement. It also appears that certain communities have been singled out for investigation which is highly damaging to the multi-ethnic ethos of our country.

Lok pal draft Story Continued from page 1

828 K

and lawyer Prashant Bhushan dubbed the bill “a cruel joke on the people of the country”. “If they (government) think they can fool the people, they are sadly mistaken.

They have played a cruel joke on the people.”

Hazare also found fault with the bill for not covering the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and for not setting up a Lokayukta (ombudsman) in each state.

Narayanasamy, who is attached to the PM’s Office, said Manmohan Singh had offered to be included in the bill but the general view was against it.

But the prime minister can come under the purview of the bill after he leaves office, according to the provisions of the draft bill.

Minister Soni said the government was also working on a Whistleblowers’ Protection Bill, a Central Vigilance Commission bill and a Judicial Accountability Bill.

Swamy’s Story Continued from page 1 Over 260 Harvardians — among them faculty and non-faculty members, students and even parents — have called for Swamy’s ouster in a petition to be submitted for investigation Monday.

“We will give this matter our serious attention,” dean Donald H Pfister said in an emailed statement.

In a July 16 article on combating terror in the newspaper, DNA, Swamy proposed disenfranchising Muslims unless they proudly declare their alleged Hindu ancestry and declare India a “Hindu Rashtra (state)”, apart from demolishing 300 mosques. “Swamy breaches the most basic standards of respect and tolerance,” said a petition initiated by Umang Kumar, a Harvard Divinity School student, and Sanjay Pinto, a PhD candidate. Swamy couldn’t be reached for comment, but the Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, quoted him as saying: “Back in India, there has been wholesale support (for the article).”

Swamy earned his PhD in economics in 1965 from Harvard, where he has held several faculty positions. If the bigotry charges are established, he could be barred from the US.

She said the Lokpal will have eight members, half from the judiciary. The chairman will be a judge.

Minister Salman Khurshid said the government had accepted 34 of 40 provisions given by civil society members.

Asked about Hazare’s threat to fast from Aug 16, he said once the bill was introduced in parliament, it would become the property of the house.

Hina Story Continued from page 1 larly ripe for resuming Test series between the two nations. There has been no bilateral series since the Mumbai attacks in 2008. In fact, no international team has toured Pakistan since March 2009 when the Sri Lankans were attacked inLahore by terrorists.

Krishna responded, saying India was keen on resuming sporting ties and hoped India would soon host the Pakistani cricket team and vice versa. While cricket did not find specific mention in the joint statement,

it said the two ministers emphasized on holding sports tournaments. Khar is also learnt to have pitched for cricket matches between the women's teams of the two countries. The idea played on throughout her visit. At Wednesday's dinner in the Pakistan high commission, she asked BCCI vice-president and MoS for parliamentary affairs Rajeev Shukla to work towards initiating an India-Pakistan cricket series.

BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla is learnt to have assured Khar that resumption of an Indo-Pak cricket series would be discussed at the BCCI meeting scheduled for next month. A series is said to be tentatively scheduled for next year but it has not been confirmed yet.

Khar, a polo enthusiast herself, may have taken some tips from her 11-year-old son, a cricket enthusiast who accompanied her to India. In India though, it is likely to be seen by many, including opposition parties, as a major concession to Pakistan. They maintain that cricket ties should be revived only if there is a change in Pakistan's attitude towards terror.

Tristate Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-August 5, 2011

Fai under house arrest Alexandria: A court on Tuesday ordered Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, the Kashmir lobbyist accused of being an ISI agent, to be released from jail but put him in house detention under round-the-clock electronic surveillance pending trial.Fai will also sign a personal bond of $100,000 and will have no contacts with foreign government functionaries unless accompanied by his lawyers. He cannot leave the US. He will wear a GPS enabled bracelet around an ankle for tracking.

Fai and his supporters took this as proof of his innocence. That judge John Andersen the court disregarded prosecutor Gordon Kromberg's plea to keep Fai in jail, and set him free to go home, though with several restrictive conditions.

The diminutive activist turned to his supporters in the courtroom with a triumphal wave and his wife burst out of the courtroom announcing a celebratory dinner for everyone. She is

said to be of Chinese descent, but refused to give her name.

"I am very proud of him," she said.

Fai might be released on Wednesday, said his lawyer Nina Ginsberg.

Fai was arrested by FBI agents outside his home in Fairfax, Virginia on the morning of July 18. He is accused of acting as an agent of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI and making false statements.

Kromberg said in court that immediately after his arrest, Fai had admitted to working with the ISI for the last 15 years and that his budgets were partially or wholly approved by the agency.

Fai ran a Washingtonbased non-profit organization called the Kashmiri American Council - better known as the Kashmir center - for decades using, said an FBI affidavit, money routed to him through the hawala network by the ISI. "Fai has led a life of lies," said Kromberg in court while

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai is accused of being ISI agent arguing for the accused to be kept in jail. His council board members didn't know he was taking money from the ISI and nor did US politicians lobbied by him.

The high-flying Kashmiri activist donated generously to the campaign of some US lawmakers, some of whom have since his arrest announced they were giving away a sum of money equal to the donations to charity.

Fai also invited Indian journalists and politicians to these conferences funded by his ISI supplied money to give his plainly partisan campaign a non-partisan look.

Court allows suit against Moghul Express New Jersey: A popular restaurant in Edison, N.J., is facing the wrath of a group of devout Hindus who are vegetarians but were accidentally served meat last year. A state appellate court has ruled that the 16 New Jersey residents can sue Moghul Express.

The group has claimed that even though the action was committed unknowingly, the consumption of meat, not permitted by the Hindu religion, has harmed them spiritually and monetarily, The Star- Ledger reported. The court ruled July 18 that the residents can sue the restaurant for money to travel to India, where they said they must purify their souls with a dip in the Ganges River after consuming the samosas stuffed with meat.

Last year, during the India Day parade in Edison, the group reportedly placed an order for vegetarian samosas.

The restaurant assured them the samosas

were vegetarian, the paper said. But, after tasting the samosas, the residents found that they were indeed stuffed with meat, the report said.

The court also noted that the restaurant eventually acknowledged it had confused the order with one for meat-filled samosas. The group sued in Superior Court, alleging negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, consumer fraud, products liability and breach of express warranty. But the judge dismissed the allegations last year, and the diners appealed, the paper said.The appellate court panel said that the case could still go forward as breach of express warranty claim because of the restaurant's assurance that the group was getting vegetarian samosas.

K. Raja Bhattacharya, the lawyer for the diners, and David Novack, an attorney for the restaurant, both declined to comment while the case is pending, the Star-Ledger said.

Shailen Bhatt sworn in new secretary of Delaware Dept of Transportation Dover, Delaware: Shailen Bhatt has been sworn in as the new head of the Delaware Department of Transportation.

Governor Jack Markell officiated at the recent ceremony, held in the DelDOT Administration Building here, with members of Bhatt's family, including his wife Neelam, as well as officials from the Federal Highway Administration joining management for the event. Bhatt had been nominated by Governor Markell May 27 and confirmed by the state Senate June 8. He becomes the ninth Secretary of the Department of Transportation, and most recently served as associate administrator for FHWA in Washington, D.C. In his initial statement upon being nominated, Bhatt noted that while the department faces challenges, he emphasized that opportu-

5

Gov Jack Markell officiated the ceremony nities are also ahead of DelDOT. At the FHWA, Bhatt was responsible for setting policy and building relationships with members of Congress. Prior to joining FHWA, Bhatt was deputy executive director of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. He holds a degree in economics from Western Kentucky University.

New Jersey gets its first Indian-American judge New Jersey: Lawyer Sohail Mohammed was sworn in Tuesday as a Passaic County Superior Court judge at a ceremony that attracted a standing-room-only crowd including Gov. Chris Christie making him the first Indian-American and the second Muslim to become a state Superior Court judge in New Jersey.

"The American dream is alive,” Mohammed told some 300 friends and family who packed the courtroom. “There are those who don’t think so,” he added. “But I am living proof. If you have a dream that dream can come true.”

The moment capped a long journey that began when Mohammed became a U.S. citizen in November 1986.

It took a significant turn when Mohammed trained as an engineer - served as a jury foreman and stuck around after the trial for a long talk with Judge Robert J. Passero.

That conversation led him to pursue a career in law and to obtain a degree at Seton Hall University and go on to a career as an immigration lawyer.

It took another significant turn in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie turned to Mohammed to serve as a bridge between law enforcement and the state’s Muslim community.

First considered as a judge by Gov. Jon Corzine in 2006, Mohammed was nominated

Lawyer Sohail Mohammed

Governor Chris Christie hugs Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed while Senator John Girgenti looks on at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson, N.J. on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. (Governor's Office/Tim Larsen)

by Christie last September but got tangled up in Passaic County judicial horse-trading, as well as intense, speculative opposition by conservative bloggers.

6

Tristate Community

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Long awaited Buddhist exhibition to open at Asia Society in August New York: Despite worsening AmericanPakistani relations, the much awaited exhibition of nearly 70 pieces of Buddhist art from Pakistan will finally open at Asia Society on Aug. 9. The deepening political rift in aftermath of Osama bin Laden killing, arrest of Raymond Davis, bureaucratic hurdles, death of senior diplomat and former Asia Society chairman Richard C Holbrooke, killing of longtime local ally in organizing the show, the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer were quoted as some of the major reasons that prevented Asia Society from getting the antiquities for the exhibition from Lahore and Karachi museums.

The last exhibition devoted to Gandhara

One of the exhibits. A standing bodhisattva Maitreya from 3rd–4th century. art in the United States was at Asia Society in 1960.

The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of

New laws to benefit Indian engineers, architects

SIAEA President Nayan Parikh presenting a plaque to NY Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson. Also seen in the picture are (from left) Uday Durg, Program Executive, MTA Capital Construction, Society’s PastPresident Ravi Shenoy, President-elect Mihir Patel and Past President Bansi Shah (extreme right). (Photo: Gunjesh Desai) New Jersey: With the enforcement of various legal provisions for providing fair share of contracting opportunities in construction, demolition and leasing of real property for women and minority-owned businesses in New York State, the members of the Society of Indo-American Engineers and Architects are enthusiastic about a brighter future for their businesses.

New York State Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson, who played a major role in drafting the legislation, invited minority and women business entrepreneurs to avail the opportunities unleashed by the passage of the legislation in the State Senate. She asked them to work as equal partners in construction, purchases and investment areas. Addressing an annual gathering of engineers and archi-

tects aboard World Yacht Princess over the Hudson River in New York City, Senator Hassel complimented the Society for building bridges between its members and government agencies. She urged minority and women entrepreneurs to work hard to improve the economy of New York State. In her key note speech, Veronique Hakim, Executive Director, New Jersey Turnpike Authority emphasized the common goal shared by the entrepreneurs and government agencies.

“Let us focus our energy over commonalities and not the differences among us”, she commented.

Commenting on the spirit of team work among committee members, Nayan Parikh, President of SIAEA, said that his organization was surging ahead with enthusiasm and vigor.

Gandhara reveals the complex cultural influences — from Scytho-Parthian to GrecoRoman traditions — that fed the extraordinary artistic production of this region from the first century B.C.E. through fifth century C.E. At its height, Gandhara — whose center was situated in present-day Peshawar in northwest Pakistan — encompassed Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Bactria, the Hindu Kush, and the Punjab region of northwest India.

Buddhism reached Gandhara as early as the third century B.C.E., and began to flourish in the first century C.E. as Silk Road trade and cross-cultural connections from the Mediterranean to China fostered its spread.

The majority of works in the exhibition are on loan from the National Museum in Karachi and Central Museum in Lahore.

Comparative works are included from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asia Society Museum, and private collections. The display is organized by Adriana Proser, Asia Society Museum's John H. Foster Curator for Traditional Asian Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a fullyillustrated catalogue published by Asia Society in association with the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik in Bonn, Germany. The book includes essays by scholars Christian Luczanits and Michael Jansen.

2011 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee concludes 10-city tour New York: The 2011 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee concluded its 10 city tour this past weekend with two events in the New York & Boston areas. With a huge turmout, the bee attracted some top talent as well as young and new spellers that competed for the coveted prizes and titles.

The winners received cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 respectively.

Children upto 14 years of age are eligible to participate and the contest saw spellers of even 6 years of age compete and make it past a few rounds. There are 8 more cities on the anvil and for more information and to register your child, visit www.southasianspellingbee.com.

The top two winners plus one parent each from every city will be given an all expenses paid trip to NJ on August 12 for the finals.

(L to R) Niteka Mokal, Director – PR & Media Services, Touchdown Media Inc.; Regional Champ Arvind Mahankali of Forest Hills, NY; First Runner Up Nabeel Rahman of Williamsville, NY and Second Runner Up Sanjana Malla of Haverstraw, NY with Rahul Walia, Founder of the South Asian Spelling Bee.

Nirav Shah to kick off campaign to encourage minority organ donation New York: On Thursday, July 28, at 11 a.m. at the New York Organ Donor Network, 460 W. 34th Street (at 10th Avenue) in Manhattan, State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah will be joined by minority organ donor families and transplant recipients along with federal, state and local officials to recognize National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Day and kick-off a new campaign to encourage organ donation.

Each year more than 1,500 New Yorkers receive transplanted kidneys, livers and hearts. But with more than 8,000 New Yorkers on waiting lists, the need is great, especially among minorities who account for half of all persons on the national waiting list. Minority donor families and recipients will highlight the critical need for donated organs, and state officials will announce a new campaign to encourage enrollment in the NYS Organ and Tissue Donor Registry.

National Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-August 5, 2011

Naveen Jain big time into private moon exploration California: With the last space shuttle back to earth for good, a bunch of space entrepreneurs are keen on exploring the prospects of returning to the Moon. Some 29 teams have signed up for a $30 million Google competition to become the first private venture to land on the Moon. And leading the pack is an Indian American co founder of a Silicon Valley venture, Moon Express, which is positioning itself as a future FedEx for Moon deliveries.

Naveen Jain, an Internet billionaire and a founder of Moon Express, says the company will spend $70 million to $100 million to try to win the Google Lunar X Prize but could recoup its investment on its first flight.

According to a New York Times report he envisions selling exclusive broadcast rights for video from the Moon, as well as sponsorships, à la Nascar, for companies to put their logos on the lander. Or, perhaps, a tie-in to reality television.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a ‘Moon Idol,’ just like ‘American Idol?’ “ suggested Jain, who previously founded Infospace and Intelius. “You take the top 10 contestants and play their voices on the Moon, record it and see who sounds the best.”

While NASA had wanted to send astronauts back to the Moon, its program was canceled last year, a victim of budget cuts and shifting priorities. But it has awarded $500,000 each to Moon Express, Astrobotic and a third competitor, Rocket City Space Pioneers, the first installments of up to $30

Naveen Jain, co founder, Moon Express million that it will contribute to the X Prize efforts.

“It’s probably the biggest wealth creation opportunity in modern history,” said Barney Pell, a former NASA computer scientist turned entrepreneur and now a co-founder of Moon Express. While Moon Express might initially make money by sending small payloads, the big fortune would come from bringing back platinum and other rare metals, Dr. Pell said.

Meanwhile, at Moon Express, Jain’s imagination runs wild. A robot could scrawl a marriage proposal in the lunar dust, take a picture and send it to the customer’s beloved back on Earth. A time capsule filled with mementos or a strand of someone’s hair — and DNA — could be sent to the Moon, where it would persist, pristine in the airless environs.

“People become part of moon exploration,” Jain said, “and that has never been done before.”

Chef Vikas Khanna to cook at White House Washington, DC: Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna has been invited by the White House to rustle up a spiritual meal at the upcoming Hindu American Seva Conference, to be held at the White House on July 29, 2011.

India-born Vikas Khanna has also been voted New York’s hottest chef.

The multi-talented chef will be cooking a simple, spiritual fare, consisting of “Vada Pao”, “Dry Yellow Dahl”, “Aloo Tamatar”, “Tawa Roti” and “Seviyan.”

The meal will be inspired by the food beliefs of ISKCON, Sikh langars and simple street foods of Mumbai. “Over the years of my research … it has made me understand the spiritual power of foods. I want to bring that same energy to the White House event,” Khanna said in a statement.

The meal is part of a program created by Anju Bhargava, founder of the Hindu American Seva Charities and a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith Based and

7

Vikas Khanna will prepare a spiritual meal for Hindu American Seva Conference Neighborhood Partnerships. “ HASC has such a wonderful message of peace and harmony, so to honor that I am representing the common man of India through these simple Satvik meals,” said Khanna.

The theme of the event is “Energizing Dharmic Seva: Impacting Change in America and Abroad,” and the conference is designed to inspire all towards community service.

Khanna, who dabbles in a lot of activities ranging from

cooking, writing, film making to working for humanitarian causes, while talking to media after the announcement, said, “It is a great honor for my family, my city and my motherland India.”

Vikas Khanna was raised in Amritsar, India where he grew up surrounded by large family feasts, the seasonal produce fresh from the fields of Punjab, and his grandmother’s traditional home cooking. It was at his grandmother’s side that he began to learn the intricacies of Indian cuisine.He has studied at the Culinary Institute of America, Cornell University and New York University and the prestigeous Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. He has worked with some of the most honored chefs in America in New York. He has received glowing reviews from the press, his gastronomic peers, and recognition from the James Beard Foundation. He has authored several books, including “The Spice Story of India” ,“Modern Indian Cooking” and “Flavors First.”

Anshu Jain is the new co-CEO of Deutsche Bank Berlin: Deutsche Bank has appointed Anshu Jain as the co-CEO to succeed Management Board Chairman Josef Ackermann, who leaves office in May next year. Jain, 48, the head of Deutsche Bank's highly successful investment banking division based in London, will take over the leadership of Germany's largest bank together with his management board colleague, Juergen Fitschen, when Ackermann makes way for them one year ahead of his current term expiring in May, 2013. The two members of the management board were appointed as equal co-chairmen of the board and co-chairmen of the group executive committee of the bank, it said in a press statement.

Fitschen, 62, who manages Deutsche Bank's domestic business, will serve in his new capacity for three years until 2015, while Jain has a fiveyear contract until March, 2017.

This raises the possibility

Anshu Jain for Jain to take over as the sole head of the world's fourth largest investment bank when Fitschen's term expires. "I am greatly honored to lead this wonderful institution together with Mr Juergen," Jain said, responding to the supervisory board's decision.

Born in Jaipur, Jain began Wall Street career at Kidder Peabody (now part of UBS) as derivatives analyst in 1985.

He moved to Merrill Lynch three years later. Became a managing director at the age of 32 and ran the hedge fund

coverage unit. He left Merrill Lynch and New York in 1995 to join Deutsche Bank in London along with his boss and mentor Edson Mitchell.

Mitchell died in a plane crash in 2000. A few days later, Jain took over most of the global markets business built by his mentor. He was appointed to the group executive committee in 2002. Two years later, was named co-head of the investment banking business.

The investment banking business suffered heavy losses tied to subprime mortgages, pushing Deutsche Bank into the red in 2008.

Jain revamped the division, returning it to profits the very next year.

This led to his induction into the expanded management board. He was made sole head in 2010 of the corporate and investment bank, businesses that account for most of Deutsche Bank's revenues and profits.Deutsche wins the Euromoney award for best investment bank in 2010.

8

National Community

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

No terror attack can damage Bhakra, says dam builder New York: No terror attack can damage India's Bhakra dam, an Indian American engineer who built one of its two powerhouses has asserted after intelligence reports indicated the 225-m high structure was on the hit list of Pakistan-based terrorists.

Los Angeles-based Awtar Singh said:"No possibility. Nothing short of atom bombs can damage this dam. It is so solidly built. Terrorist groups don't have any power to damage it."

In its report to security agencies, India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) has alerted them that Pakistan-based terror outfits like the Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) and the Jamaat-udDawa (JuD) are training their cadres in cliff-climbing, swimming across water channels and handling explosives with the intention to attack the dam, located near the border between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Singh said terrorists could possi-

The 225-m high structure is on hit list of Pakistan based terrorists as per India’s Intelligence Bureau bly damage only the powerhouses. possibility of that ever happening."

"But the two powerhouses are Asked whether future threats hidden. To damage them, any ter- were taken into consideration when rorist attack should be huge and they designed the dam, which is very very accurate. Considering the India's highest, Singh said, "No, no location of these powerhouses, I such possibilities were taken into don't think there is even remote consideration because this dam is

Indian Americans honored by Society of Safety Engineers Chicago: In recognition of his outstanding service and dedication to the safety profession, the American Society of Safety Engineers recently named Professional Member Emeritus Jitendra C. Patel a Society Fellow, while Ashok Garlapati was recognized as the 2011 Edgar Monsanto Queeny Safety Professional of the Year.

Patel and Garlapati received their honors here June 14 during ASSE’s annual Professional Development Conference and Exposition–Safety 2011 as part of ASSE’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Society Fellow is the highest honor granted by ASSE, recognizing professional members who have displayed life-long excellence in health and safety and community service globally.

Nominated by their peers, region or chapter, candidates for the Society Fellow honor are selected based upon their work, involvement in ASSE and longterm contributions in advancing the safety profession.

Patel was honored with a gold medallion and a grand personalized plaque in the presence of nearly 4500 HSE professionals and the society’s past presidents and Fellows.

The Indian American is a

Professional Member Emeritus of ASSE and senior board advisor of the Arizona chapter of ASSE. He founded ASSE’s first and only foreign chapter in 1982 in the Middle East, building strong relationships with government and industry officials and communities.

Patel is an international safety consultant with a B.S. degree in chemistry and an M.Phil degree in energy and fuel science. He has provided technical training and conducted research for 15 years on fires, explosions, health, safety and environment issues at a heavy chemical manufacturing company owned by U.K. oil companies.

The annual Safety Professional of the Year award is given to an outstanding ASSE member for accomplishments and contributions in the occupational safety, health and environmental field.

Garlapati has over 22 years of health, safety and environmental management experience in the oil and gas industry. He received his bachelor’s degree from KIT College of Engineering at Shivaji University in Kolhapur and his master ’s degree in business management from Madurai Kamaraj University in Tamil Nadu.

so strong and full of concrete that nothing can damage it."

The octogenarian engineer added, "The lifetime of such dams is 100 years or so, but nothing will happen to the Bhakra Dam except silting. So this dam has unlimited lifetime."

Though he ruled it out, Singh agreed that if the dam is ever damaged, its waters could cause huge damage in north India. "Because there is a huge amount of water behind the dam."

Work on the dam - India's first and biggest hydroelectric project that Jawaharlal Nehru called the "temple of resurgent India" - started just after the country's independence in 1947 and was completed in 1963. The nearly 90-km long reservoir, Gobind Sagar, created by the dam can hold over 9,300 million cubic metres of water. This is enough to flood major parts of north India, including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh

and Delhi.

Singh, who did his BE from Punjab Engineering College (then located in Roorkee) in 1949, was a member of the original Bhakra dam construction team in 1951. "I was sent to the US to get training before I was put in charge of one of the powerhouses. We visited various powerhouses in the US for six months before going back to take charge of the project. For six years, we worked our backs off."

Singh, who left for the US after the completion of the dam to earn his Ph.D and teach at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), is credited with setting up the first Indian fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley given each year to the civil engineering topper from his alma mater Punjab Engineering College.

He may be the only surviving member of the core Bhakra dam team.

Atlanta radiologist found guilty of fraud Georgia: A 41-year-old Atlanta radiologist has been found guilty in federal court of fraud charges.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Georgia said July 7 that Dr. Rajashakher P. Reddy was found guilty of 20 counts of wire fraud, five counts of mail fraud, four counts of health care fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted of five counts of wire fraud.

Reddy ran Reddy Solutions Inc., which provided services to hospitals that do not have full-time radiology coverage.

“He produced tens of thousands of reports claiming to include his medical findings and diagnoses based on radiology studies that had

been performed, when in fact all those interpretations had been performed by non-qualified medical assistants,” United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

From May 2007 through January 2008, Reddy signed and submitted thousands of reports without even reviewing many of the X-rays, mammograms, CT scans and other films, according to evidence presented during the trial. He sometimes had employees sign reports for him using his electronic password, authorities said.

Facilities that may have received fraudulent reports include Mountain Lakes Medical Center in Clayton, Ga.; Upson Regional

Medical Center in Thomaston, Ga.; Bullock County Hospital in Union Springs, Ala.; Crenshaw Community Hospital in Lucerne, Ala.; and Columbus Diagnostic Centers in Columbus, Ga., authorities said.

Reddy, who was indicted in November 2009, also was convicted of obstructing the investigation by instructing his employees to destroy records subpoenaed by the government and create new ones.

He also asked employees to lie to investigators, authorities said.

He could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the fraud and obstruction counts. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

USINPAC welcomes $800m military aid cut to Pakistan Washington DC: The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) has welcomed the suspension of $800 million in US military aid to Pakistan.

USINPAC has long been advocating conditional funding to Pakistan and basing it on the latter’s ability to dismantle the terror infrastructure within Pakistan.USINPAC supports aid to Pakistan that will allow for economic and social reforms in that country.

The suspension of military aid by the Obama administration comes in the wake of deteriorating US-Pakistan relations particularly after the Abbotabad raid, Pakistan’s decision to expel US military trainers from Pakistan and the slow pace of targeting militants in North Waziristan.

Pakistan has issued contradictory statements in reaction to the aid cut and while the Pakistan military states that it can fight terrorists without the aid, the Defense Minister has said that Pakistan cannot sustain efforts in trial areas for too long in the absence of aid.

USINPAC Chairman Sanjay Puri hoped that the military aid cut would not be rolled back and said, “Some Pakistani voices are warning that suspension of aid would decrease US influence in Pakistan, and make Pakistan less cooperative.

However, after spending billions of dollars in aid, the US reserves the right to demand concrete results in fighting insurgents, and not hostile actions such as the expulsion of US military trainers.”

US Affairs TheSouthAsianTimes.info

9

July 30-August 5, 2011

US likely to lose AAA rating: economists Also a 20% chance of a new recession over the next year Washington/London: The United States will lose its top-notch AAA credit rating from at least one major rating agency, according to a Reuters poll that also found wrangling over the debt ceiling has already damaged the economy.

A small majority of economists -30 out of 53 -- surveyed over the past two days said the United States will lose its AAA credit rating from one of the three big ratings agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch.

Respondents saw a 20 percent chance of a new recession over the next year, a prospect that some economists say has been compounded by the acrimonious political fight over what is normally a procedural legislative vote on the debt.

Lawmakers have one week left to hash out a deficit-cutting plan without which Republicans in Congress have said they will not raise the legal $14.3 trillion debt limit, risking a potentially devastating government debt default in August.

"We believe that Congress will act with an 11th hour deal to raise

been under stress in recent months.

GDP expanded just 1.9 percent in the first three months of the year, and the second quarter is not expected to have fared much better.

Stocks fall as lawmakers remain at odds over debt

the debt ceiling. However, the risk of that deal failing increases with each passing day," said Guy LeBas, director at Janney Capital Markets.

"I would say that the chance of a U.S. ratings downgrade is now more likely than not."

Economists still see the probability of an outright default on U.S. Treasury bonds as remote -- 5 percent on median.

Downgrade and default would have vastly different consequences.

A ratings cut might raise the risk of recession by hurting confidence,

DSK maid speaks out, wants him jailed New York: A Guinean woman who has accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in a New York hotel has broken her silence, saying she wants him to go to jail and to clear her name.

"Because of him, they call me a prostitute," the hotel maid told Newsweek magazine in her first public interview since the alleged attack by the former French politician in May. "I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money."

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, has spoken out in a Newsweek cover story posted online on Sunday, and America's ABC network also broadcast an interview with her on three of its programs on Monday, including Good Morning America.

"God is my witness. I'm telling the truth. From my heart. God knows that. And he knows that," she said, according to excerpts released on Sunday.

Industrial production has slowed and employment nearly ground to a halt in the last two months. The jobless rate climbed to 9.2 percent in June.

In the interviews, he 32-year-old Guinean immigrant gives new details about the alleged attack in Strauss-Kahn's Manhattan hotel suite, and says she wants him held accountable.

Strauss-Kahn has denied the attempted rape and other charges, and on Sunday his lawyers said Diallo was looking for money and called the interviews "an unseemly circus" designed to inflame public opinion.

Diallo was fighting back against allegations that appeared in the US media, after New York prosecutors openly questioned her credibility, saying she had changed her story and lied on her asylum application.

but might allow financial markets to muddle through the next few months without incident.

A default, however, would send shockwaves through the global financial system that could kickstart a new financial crisis, analysts say.

Even if this worst-case scenario is not borne out, a firm majority of respondents -- 38 out of 54 -- said the uncertainty brought about by the political acrimony over the debt has already hurt economic growth.

The U.S. economy had already

New York: Stocks plunged Wednesday as the US edged closer to an unprecedented default on its debt. The Dow Jones industrial average was headed for its worst weekly decline in nearly a year.

The Dow fell 207 points, or 1.7 percent, to 12,292 in afternoon trading, its biggest one-day drop since early June.

The S&P 500 fell 25 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,307. The Nasdaq composite index fell 71 points, or 2.5 percent, to 2,769.

Stocks traded lower all day.

The declines worsened in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve released a survey showing that the economy deteriorated in much of the country this sum-

mer. The economy slowed in seven of the Fed's 12 regions because of weak home sales and a slowdown in manufacturing.

The declines in small-company stocks were even worse than those of large companies like the 30 industrial giants that make up the Dow average. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller U.S. companies, fell 2.8 percent.

House Speaker John Boehner had planned to hold a vote on his debt-limit plan Wednesday. That was postponed after conservative lawmakers balked at the proposal and congressional budget officials said it would have cut spending less than advertised.

The White House had also threatened to veto Boehner's plan.

Another Congressman falls to sex scandal Washington: Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon has announced that he is resigning in the wake of allegations that he had a sexual encounter with an 18-year-old girl.

Democratic leaders had called for a House Ethics investigation after the initial reports of the allegation.

Wu had said that whatever occurred was consensual.

Wu said Tuesday the well-being of his children should come first, so he will resign after Congress resolves the debate over the debt ceiling.

Wu, 56, has won seven terms. In 2004, he won despite acknowledging a decades-old college incident in which he tried to force a former girlfriend to have sex. Voters said they disliked an opponent's attempt to use that against Wu as part of a political campaign.

Last month Rep. Anthony Weiner from New York resigned over scandal that he sent his lewd pictures over Twitter to a woman.

Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon

Hispanics and blacks worst hit by recession Washington: Wealth disparities between white households and black and Hispanic households are greater than they’ve been in the past 25 years, a new study from the Pew Research Center has found.

The report, released Tuesday, shows that median wealth declined by 66 percent among Hispanic households between 2005 and 2009.

For black households during the same time period, median wealth fell by 53 percent, while white households experienced a decline of only 16 percent.

The changes in median wealth over the four-year period measured mean that as of 2009, the average

black household had only $5,677 in wealth -- that is, assets minus debts - and the average Hispanic household had only $6,325. The average white household had $113,149 in wealth -- 18 times that of Hispanic households, and 20 times that of black households.

The Pew study is only the latest in a series of reports indicating that the recession took a greater economic toll on minorities than on whites. In 2009, the Center for American Progress examined the effects of the downturn on minority employment and earnings. They found that unemployment rates rose faster for blacks and Hispanics than for whites

during 2008, and that median family income declined more for blacks and Hispanics than whites during the same time period.

A 2010 Congressional report found that the recession had hit especially hard in industries that employ a high percentage of Hispanics, like construction and manufacturing, and in parts of the country with large Hispanic communities, like California, Nevada and Florida.

That same year, a report from the National Urban League concluded that blacks and Hispanics were three times as likely as whites to live below the poverty line.

10

India Newswire

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

New cross-Kashmir CBMs unveiled New Delhi: Moving beyond their post-26/11 rancor, India and Pakistan sought to open "a new chapter" of "peaceful and cooperative" ties by pledging to intensify counter-terror cooperation and unveiling a host of initiatives to spur trade and travel between the divided halves of Kashmir.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna held nearly two-and-a-half hours of discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, who is 45 years his junior that covered a wide gamut of issues, including terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, liberalization of trade and simplification of the visa regime. Cross-Kashmir confidence-building measures (CBMs) were the centerpiece of the joint statement issued after the talks.

"They agreed to simplify travel procedures and increase the frequency of bus services for people of the divided Jammu and Kashmir across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides the state between the two countries," said a joint statement issued after the talks.

The enhanced travel across Kashmir would now "include visits for tourism and religious

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna with his counterpart from Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar. Terrorism figured prominently in the discussions, with India asking Pakistan to bring the culprits behind 26/11 to justice. pilgrimage". Earlier, the bus service was only for families that separated after the 1947 war during which Pakistan occupied a

Indo-Pak diplomacy avoids media trap New Delhi: No rhetorical fireworks on Kashmir or 26/11 terror! Grandstanding is out; a new shared feeling of bonhomie and feel-good diplomacy has subtly crept in the India-Pakistan engagement as the foreign ministers and foreign secretaries of the two countries Wednesday consciously refrained from making any provocative statements.

In a leap of faith, or compelled by circumstances, as cynics would say, both sides struck positive notes and hinted at the possibility of "a new chapter" opening in post 26/11 bilateral ties, based on taking gradual, incremental steps to reduce trust deficit and to insulate this accident-prone relationship from cynics and a sensation-seeking media.

After wrapping over two-hour talks with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna, the 34year-old Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's youngest and first woman foreign minister, spoke about a new era in bilateral ties.

"This is indeed a new era of bilateral cooperation between the two countries and it is

In a leap of faith, or compelled by circumstances, as cynics would say, both sides struck positive notes. our desire and I believe after having spoken to you (Krishna), that it is the desire and commitment of both the governments to make it an uninterrupted and an uninterpretable process," Khar said.

Krishna, too, struck a positive tone, saying the revived peace process is "on the right track" and hoped for a "friendly and cooperative relationship."

portion of Jammu and Kashmir. They also decided to relax travel conditions by having a system of six-month multiple entry per-

BJP protests Hurriyat meeting New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conveyed to Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan its protest over her meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders when she called on party leaders L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj.

"She (Sushma Swaraj) conveyed her protest over Khar's meeting...with the separatist leaders of Kashmir during her first visit to India as foreign minister," a BJP statement said.

"The other important point conveyed by her was about the dismal progress over the trial of the accused terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack currently undergoing in Pakistan," it added.

The statement said there was virtually no progress in the 26/11 trial in Pakistan.

"Four presiding judges have

Hina Rabbani Khar - a style icon New Delhi: Pearls, Roberto Cavalli shades and a Birkin bag, speculated to be worth Rs 17 lakh — Pakistan’s youngest and first woman foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar has got people talking about her impeccable style sense during her ongoing Delhi visit.

The 34-year-old is quite a style icon back in her own country, reveal Pakistan’s noted fashion designers.

“She dresses conservatively, conscious of the fact that she represents a Muslim state. Her brief to the designer is not to make body-hugging dresses. But she’s extremely stylish,” says Lahore-

based Honey Waqar, who has designed for Khar.

Ten things you didn’t know about her.

1. Hina Rabbani Khar is the niece of one of Pakistan Peoples’ Party founders, Ghulam Mustafa Khar. He made headlines when Tehmina Durrani, one of his seven wives, wrote the famous book on him, My Feudal Lord, in 1991 2. A polo enthusiast, she has a stable of horses.

3. She also owns a restaurant in Lahore called Polo Lounge 4. She has more than 20 Facebook fan clubs

mits.

Unlike earlier such occasions when the talks ended in a volley of mutual recriminations and rhetorical grandstanding on issues like Kashmir and terror, there was hardly any discordant note except for Khar's meeting with separatist Hurriyat leaders over which India expressed "concerns."

"This is indeed a new era of bilateral cooperation between the two countries and it is our desire and I believe after having spoken to you (Krishna), that it is the desire and commitment of both the governments to make it an uninterrupted and an uninterpretable process," Khar said at the media stakeout with Krishna.

Krishna, too, struck a positive tone about the course of revived ties, saying the relations are "on the right track."

"We have some distance to travel, but with an open mind and a constructive approach, which has been demonstrated in this round of dialogue, I am sure we can reach our desired destination of having a friendly and cooperative relationship between the two countries," he said.

5. A trekking enthusiast, she’s been to K2 and Nanga Parbat 6. Her Wikipedia page labels her a ‘Pakistani fashionista’ 7. She mostly carries a Hermes Birkin bag on official visits 8. She became the first woman to present Pakistan’s budget in 2009 9. She eats healthy and preferred green tea over other beverages during her stay in Delhi’s ITC Maurya Hotel 10. She is mother to two sons and a daughter.

The ‘Pakistani fashionista’ mostly carries a Hermes Birkin bag on official visits.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar shares a light moment with Opposition leader L.K. Advani. already been transferred and the fifth judge has joined recently. Three prosecutors have also been changed and of 100 named witnesses till date only one has been examined," it said.

Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj told the visiting Pakistan minister that

satisfactory progress in the trial of 26/11 Mumbai terror accused was the most important confidence building measure (CBM) as far as India was concerned, and in the absence of any worthwhile progress on this front, other CBMs did not have much relevance.

India Newswire TheSouthAsianTimes.info

11

July 30-August 5, 2011

Karnataka CM resigns Bangalore: Finally chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has tendered his resignation saying that he was abiding by the party's decision. He however, has sent his resignation letter to BJP national president Nitin Gadkari instead of the Governor.

According to sources close to him, Yeddyurappa would officially resign on July 31.

Yeddyurappa, a stronger believer of astrology has been advised by a known astrologer to resign on July 31 so that he has bright chances to come back to power some time later.

Sending his resignation to Gadkari is seen as a ploy by Yeddyurappa to buy some time before tendering it to the governor.

Earlier, the BJP parliamentary

Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has been indicted by the Lokayukta over illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh.

How Yeddyurappa landed in trouble Bangalore: The land at Rachenahalli in Bangalore, which landed CM BS Yeddyurappa in trouble, was denotified BDA land. The one-acre plot, which was sold to a mining company by the CM's family for a whopping Rs 20 crore, was purchased for a meagre Rs 40 lakh.

The Lokayukta report indicted the CM and recommended his prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act over this land deal. The Lokayukta report said it had been sold to South West Mining Limited for Rs 20 crore, as quid pro quo.

The CM's sons, BY Vijayendra and BY Raghavendra, and son-in-law RN Sohan Kumar had purchased the property - survey number 55/2, Rachenahalli, Krishnarajapura hobli, Bangalore East taluk - from former minister and MLA Ess En Krisshnaiah Setty.

Vijayendra and Sohan Kumar had purchased 20 guntas of land from Krisshnaiah Setty on March 22, 2006, got it denotified and converted from agricultural purpose to residential on March 7, 2009. They sold it to South West Mining Limited for Rs 10 crore.

Similarly, BY Raghavendra purchased 20 guntas from Krisshnaiah Setty on April 21, 2006, and got it converted from agricultural purpose to residential on March 7, 2009.

He also sold it to South West Mining Limited for Rs 10 crore.

In both cases, the sale deed was registered on November 22, 2010, at the

board asked tainted Karnataka chief minister to tender his resignation immediately, following the indictment by the Lokayukta over illegal mining in the state.

Briefing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that the party has decided that it was time for a change in the Karnataka BJP leadership.

He also said that Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh were schedued to go to Bangalore to choose an alternative leader.

Former state BJP president D V Sadananda Gowda is seen as a dark horse.

Even as BJP bosses have officially asked Yeddyurappa to step down, the Karnataka chief minister is defiant and is threatening to play spoil sport for the party.

India a difficult place to work: US report Washington: Although Indo-US ties are on a positive trajectory, India remains a difficult place to work, with employees of the American mission there facing "health and security risks, including the threat of terrorism," says an official report.

"US diplomats' access to

The Lokayukta report by former justice Santosh Hedge indicted the CM and recommended his prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act over this land deal.

Banaswadi sub-registrar office. The fact is that the CM's sons and son-in-law bought these lands, though it was in possession of the BDA. Gowramma and Panduranga owned 1 acre 12 guntas at survey number 55/2 at Rachenalli. The BDA acquired it through a preliminary notification on February 3, 2003, and final notification on February 23, 2004, for the Arkavathy Layout.

But the land's GPA holder Ess En Krisshnaiah Setty violated rules and sold 20 guntas of the land to Vijayendra and Sohan Kumar on March 22, 2006. On April 21, 2006, Setty sold another 20 guntas to Raghavendra. This was despite the fact that the land was in possession of the BDA.

Soon after his abrupt return from New Delhi, Yeddyurappa convened a meeting of MLAs at his residence and also announced he would go ahead with scheduled plans of his cabinet meeting.

State BJP unit KS Eshwarappa, who is also in Delhi issued stern warning to MLAs not to attend the meeting called by Yedddyurappa.

Though there are 25 MLAs and 6 ministers attending Yeddyurappa's meeting, party sources said it was just a courtesy call and many would side with the party once an alternative leader was announced.

Senior leaders Ananth Kumar, KS Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar are the frontrunners for the post of chief minister.

Indian officials is tightly controlled. The process by which the Indian government coordinates contacts internally can at times be an obstacle to broadened government-togovernment activity that often requires high-level intervention to expedite progress," said the 90-page report of the Office of the

Inspector General on the US diplomatic posts in India.

"Decision-making is cumbersome, and many influential officials and politicians are wary of a closer relationship with the United States.

Mission employees face health and security risks, including the threat of terrorism," the report said.

Big B, Amar Singh part ways New Delhi: Former Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh and Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan have quit from each other's companies, making their estrangement official.

Bachchan resigned from the board of Amar Singhpromoted Energy Development Company and Singh simultaneously resigned from Bachchan's AB Corporation. Once considered Bachchan's white knight in shining armor, Singh's relationship with the star had strained after he was expelled from the Samajwadi Party.

IN HAPPIER TIMES: Amitabh Bachchan and Amar Singh.

"I have resigned as Executive Chairman of EDCL due to time constraint.... Since I have resigned from the post of my own company, I thought it was not prudent to continue

as vice-chairman ofAB Corporation, therefore I have stepped down from that post as well," Singh told a news agency. He informed Bachchan too had resigned from the board of EDCL.

12

India Newswire

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Nileema, Harish win Magsaysay Award Manila: Two Indians, Nileema Mishra and Harish Hande, are among the five individuals and one organization cited for the Magsaysay Award, it was announced here.

Nileema Mishra, 39, was recognized for "her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives".

Harish Hande, 44, was recognized for "his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customized, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India's vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators".

The awards, considered the Asian version of the Nobel Prize, were

sations in Asia who manifest the same sense of selfless service of the late Filipino leader.

The one thing the Magsaysay awardees share are a "greatness of spirit which infuses their leadership for change. They all build collaboration and seek consensus wherever Harish Hande. announced by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.

Mishra has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pune. She is the founder of the Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan in the village of Bahadarpur in Maharashtra.

Hande has a PhD in energy engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He previously studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He works as the managing director and

No cow killings for Army sneakers: Maneka

Animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi New Delhi: Animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi has come in the way of our soldiers getting trendy and comfortable leather sports shoes. She says thousands of cows will have to be slaughtered to make sneakers for 1.1 million jawans.

But the Army believes that Maneka's objection is a ploy to "derail the process of procurement".

Some weeks ago, the central government announced the decision to award contracts for eight lakh pairs of high-quality sneakers replacing the no-frills brown canvas PT shoes that jawans use. But with

Maneka throwing the spanner in the works, the project is stillborn.

The shoe project is worth Rs 100 crore only in the first phase, when sneakers will be provided to eight lakh soldiers. More orders would follow.

Maneka told TOI that defence minister A K Antony had confirmed in writing that the contract was being canceled. Army sources, though, cannot fathom why the smart sneakers project got stalled.

In any case, they insist, several other shoes and items procured by them, the Navy and the Air Force are made of cow leather.

Nileema Mishra was the co-founder of the SELCO Solar Light Private Ltd. in Bangalore. The other awardees are Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI) from the Philippines, Hasanain Juaini from Indonesia, Koul Panha from Cambodia and Tri Mumpuni from Indonesia.

Established in 1957, the Magsaysay Award celebrates the memory and leadership of the third Philippine president, and is given every year to individuals or organi-

possible. They all refuse to give up, despite adversity and opposition".

The six awardees will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late president, and a cash prize. They will be formally conferred the award during a ceremony to be held Aug 31 in Manila.

Nileema Mishra to donate Magsaysay prize money ileema Mishra, one of the Magsaysay Award winners this year, has decided to donate the entire prize money to her rural microcredit project, her family member said.

"In the past, she has got around half a dozen small awards, and every paisa she donated to her cause. Even the prize money from Magsaysay Award will go to Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan

N

Niketan (BNGVN)," an elated father Chandrashekhar Mishra declared.

The award carries a purse of $50,000 (Rs.22 lakh).

The third of his four children, Mishra said that the family and the entire town of Bahadarpur with a population of around 10,000 is 'proud that her selfless social service has been accorded international recognition'.

‘Govt responsible for 2G mess’ New Delhi: The government is responsible for the 2G "mess", jailed former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura said, accusing the powers that be of not listening when he raised an objection.

"The entire government is responsible for the mess. My client raised the objection publicly and the government didn't listen to him. He was bound to follow policies made by the government...he did his work as a public servant to implement policies of the government. He didn't do anything wrong," Behura's counsel Aman Lekhi told CBI special judge O.P. Saini.

Former telecom minister A. Raja had asked why Manmohan Singh had not constituted a group of ministers (GoM) for 2G spectrum allocation and said Chidambaram should be called as a witness in the case. A day earlier, his lawyer said the spectrum transactions were approved by Chidambaram, who was then finance minister, in the presence of the prime minister.

Behura began his arguments in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court by opposing the framing of charges against him in the 2G spectrum case.

"If any minister does not agree with the decision taken by the council of ministers then the only choice left with the minister is to either resign or accept the majority decision," his counsel said.

"A civil servant cannot oppose the decision, since at that point of time he will be accused of being a face of a political party," Lekhi told the court.

"Behura had no choice but to implement policy.

Let down by the government, where will he go," asked his counsel.

Behura's statement on the government came a day after former communications minister A. Raja

Former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura. dragged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram into the imbroglio for the second time.

The counsel also raised questions on the role of Manju Madhwan, then member secretary (finance) telecom commission, and Dinesh Mathur, who was telecom secretary before Behura.

"Manju Madhwan was a part of the conspiracy as she did not place objections in the policy which was discussed on Dec 4, 2007.

She kept quiet and did not object when she could have done that.....while Mathur also defended the policy on the same date and did not oppose it," Lekhi said.

Behura was arrested on Feb 2 for alleged involvement in the 2G scam. In the chargesheet filed on April 2, he is accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct by a public servant.

14

Interview

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

People everywhere are suffering because guidance & wisdom is missing -- Gurumaa An exclusive interview with the modern day mystic, Anandmurti Gurumaa, now touring the US and Canada.

By Parveen Chopra alking to Anandmurti Gurumaa—or interviewing this modern day mystic in my case—is both a chastising and an ennobling experience. In her own gentle and witty but firm way, she reiterates the folly of most of us wasting our precious lifetimes pursuing trinkets and worrying over triflings at the cost of our spiritual evolution. Not paying heed to the time-tested wisdom and guidance available particularly in the eastern tradition, we remain unhappy, flailing for peace of mind.

Born in 1966 in Punjab, Gurumaa herself is said to have attained enlightenment at age 16.

She has since being guiding her growing number of followers from his ashram in Sonepat district in Haryana and centers elsewhere in India and some other countries.

She considers herself oceanic and can quote as easily from Rumi, Buddha, Guru Nanak and Jesus Christ as from the Bhagavad Gita.

Travelling widely, she gives discourses and holds meditation retreats, having simplified meditation for the masses. She professes that no guru can grant you enlightenment, no master can awaken your kundalini. One has to toil hard oneself in the presence of the master - but without making the effort seem a strain.

Besides writing several books, Anandmurti Gurumaa has penned hundreds of mystical / devotional poems. She has also set them to music and sung them in her mellifluous voice.

Just beginning her month long tour of US and Canada -- which will conclude with an intensive workshop August 26-28 in Iselin, New Jersey--Gurumaa gave an interview to The South Asian Times last Sunday at a devotee’s house in Long Island. Speaking fluidly in both English and Hindi, she readily answered questions -on the changes in the spiritual landscape in our time, on the need to change presentation of the teaching depending on the audience ,and on not making franchises like some other gurus.Excerpts from the exclusive interview:

T

The South Asian Times: During the US tour this time, what is the focus of your teaching?

Anandmurti Gurumaa: As usual, to alleviate people’s suffering—there is too much suffering.

Those who do not have money are happy, and those who have are

also unhappy. The ones who are married are unhappy, and the ones unable to get married are also unhappy…. (Laughs).

SATimes: Are people more unhappy here in America or in India?

Gurumaa: Everywhere. As they say, whether you take a donkey to America or Africa, a donkey will remain a donkey. The human mind is like a donkey. Guidance, wisdom, training is missing. Is it

would be only about 300 plus people attending. And it is very easy for me to deal with 300 people—a small number--after dealing with 10,000 people. Moreover, when you seat an ailing man in a natural spring, the healing properties of the water, and even the water vapor will make him well.

Similarly, at Anand Utsav we will create a kind of spring where it will become very easy for the participants to relate to and experi-

“If you have a car but do not know how to drive, you’d either damage the car, yourself or others. Similarly, people have been given a life, but they don’t know how to lead it. So they keep getting hurt, and keep hurting others too. I am here to give first aid to such wounded persons.” inherited or societal training that people are more bothered about what I’d call nothings. They are more worried about triflings but not concerned about something which is important or prudent. It is like having a car but not knowing how to drive - so you’d either damage the car, yourself or others.

Similarly, people have been given a life, but they don’t know how to lead it. So they keep getting hurt, and keep hurting others too. I am here to give first aid to such wounded persons.

In the last leg of my tour we will hold a 3-day intensive workshop about all the things which I will be talking—the practical aspect of how to bring all those changes into life. Because when I speak, it is very easy to listen, but not when it comes to implementation. That three-day program called Anand Utsav is scheduled in New Jersey.

It will offer the practical aspect of all the sutras, methodologies and techniques I would have been talking all month.

SATimes: With numerous followers and large gatherings, where is the place for one-onone?

Gurumaa: Actually Anand Utsav is one-to-one. Because there

ment in. And then, I will be there –it is an all day interaction, so they will get enough chance to come up with their issues and get guidance about.

SATimes: Over the two decades plus you have been teaching, did you change or tweak your teaching in any way?

Gurumaa: It is not tweaking, it is not changing, it is the presentation which is going to change because the audience has changed.

Their intellect level has changed.

The society as a whole is changing every day. The Truth is eternal, non-changeable, but the minds which are interested on this path, they are very changeable. Hence, the style of teaching has to be very flexible. You can’t do the same kind of teaching, because you don’t have the same kind of audience which I had say 25 years ago.

People have changed, they have become more confused, more complicated, more full of psychic issues. There are more lies and impurities. With passing time, people are becoming more deceitful, more greedy, more lustful.

Because the exposure has grown, the amount of information available through TV, through the Internet and the media is so much

that even a person living in a village in Bihar knows that there is a company called Gucci and I should own a Gucci watch. Such labels have become a talking point and attraction even among villagers. Whether that person will be able to afford or not, but the dream has formed. To fulfill that dream sometimes they use an easier way, illegal activities to make money, to be able to buy such stuff..

SATimes: So how have you changed the presentation of your teaching?

Gurumaa: Presentation depends on who is sitting in front of me. If you pour water in a glass or a cup or a plate, water is going to take that shape. Water isn’t going to pre-decide what shape it is going to be. It is going to take the shape of whichever vessel it is poured into. Similarly, depending on the level of the person sitting in front of me, I am going to talk only that much which can be absorbed by that person.

SATimes: What percentage of people coming for your programs is non-Indian?

Gurumaa: It is mostly Indians.

There is a certain percentage of Hispanics, and Americans do trickle in, particularly when I’m speaking in English.

SATimes: Has your audience changed over the years?

Gurumaa: (laughs) I am hoping that they ‘change’.

SATimes: Is the pattern same in India—that you give talks and then hold workshops?

Gurumaa: Right. Over there because we have the ashram (in Gannaur, Haryana), the approach and need of the people are taken into consideration. For example we just finished our annual youth camp there– for the 14-22 age group. Programs for different age groups are undertaken because their requirements are different and their approach and their understanding are very different.

Sometimes it is a health based shivir (camp) happening, for health problems like cardiovascular, obesity, hypertension and insomnia, which can be easily handled with yoga and pranayam and with right lifestyle which people have forgotten. Other times it is scriptural commentaries also.

SATimes: Like some other gurus did you not think of multiplying yourself – training teachers who further train teachers who go out in the field?

Gurumaa: With all due respect to them, I am not an ambitious person. This is a kind of greed,

where people wish to open franchises. There can’t be a franchise of Shakespeare, of Tagore, of Einstein. So I believe that a guru can maybe train some people to impart a certain level of knowledge to others, but I don’t think that these things are franchiseable.

It is not McDonald to give a recipe and everybody can do that. It is another type of commercialization which has happened, which is unfortunate because the intention of the Buddha when he commissioned some of his bhikkus to travel far and wide to impart his teaching, at that time it was more for dissemination of the Truth, but today it is more to make more money. Especially in the US there are certain people who design a yoga studio, run it for six months, and once it becomes popular, they sell it and open up a new one, or they keep on opening franchises, for which they need to do patenting. Who the hell they think they are! Nobody in America or in any part of the world has a right to get yoga patented. But that is another incredulous thing that is happening.

SATimes: In your teaching which is the more dominant strain or influence?

Gurumaa: You cannot sum up my teaching, I am too oceanic.

You cannot cup the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific.

SATimes: Still, which is your personal favorite?

Gurumaa: You are asking an ocean which drop is favorite.

SATimes: What are your future plans?

Gurumaa: I don’t plan for future, I live in the present. And in the present I am talking to Mr Parveen Chopra and that is my plan. Future is just a fiction. Have you ever seen tomorrow? Nobody has seen it. Has yesterday happened, is there any proof? It is always today, it is always THIS MOMENT which you have. So, we should be in the moment. The moments are flowing, flowing in one direction. One should just allow this flow to happen. Observe and witness this flow.

SATimes: Incidentally, the main message of a Hindi film just released, Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara, is also ‘living in the present’. You too think there is only life to live, so no reincarnation?

Gurumaa: Incarnation happens in today. Every birth and every death is happening in today. There is no past, there is no future, yes, Continued on page 15...

Interview TheSouthAsianTimes.info Continued from page 14 but today is always there. So there are births happening in today, life happening in today, death happening in today. Forms are changing, from subtle to gross to subtle to gross in today. Reincarnation is not a matter of belief. It is just like the phenomenon of gravity. It is working, it is happening. You don’t wish to believe, don’t believe. If you wish to believe, good. Similarly, forms are going to change, forms are going to one day melt down to their subtler element and that subtler element is again to change form, and that is how nature is working. The consciousness is always going to linger on. It isn’t going to die.

And as such no energy is ever dying, form of energy is going to just change. That is a not fiction, that is a fact. Anybody who says I am a logical, thinking person should go for the fact. He should not believe that reincarnation happens, nor believe that reincarnation doesn’t happen.

SATimes: But there is no way of proving or disproving it.

Gurumaa: It is not a question of proving or disproving it. It is a question of knowing. Either you know it or you don’t know it.

Those who don’t know it go on proving or disproving it. And those who know it don’t wish to go into this silly debate.

Till about the 1940s, western psychologists said there is no mind, there is only the brain because they don’t have proof. So the day you prove to me that you have a mind, I’ll prove to you reincarnation happens. Next, how will you prove you have intellect or the amount or level intellect.

The mind is subtler than the body.

Intellect is still more subtle than the mind. Consciousness is far more subtler than the intellect, and your Self is far more subtler than even your consciousness. These questions are to be explored, they are not about an object, you cannot objectify your own mind. How can you objectify the self, or reincarnation? So be an explorer. That is why I am totally against the belief systems. One says God is, the other says God isn’t. One says reincarnation happens, the other says it doesn’t. They are just debating and discussing and wasting their time. None of them have actually explored it, something that is above and beyond the periphery of debate. That is why

15

July 30-August 5, 2011

“You cannot sum up my teaching, I am too oceanic. You cannot cup the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific. Asking me to name my personal favorite is like asking an ocean which drop is favorite.” what I speak is more difficult for the masses to understand. So I am the most unpopular guru, because I make people think and they don’t think, and they don’t want to think.

SATimes: You have devised many techniques…

Gurumaa: No technique is complete in itself, because every technique cannot be standardized for everyone, for, each individual is different and each person needs to be evaluated and as per his level of understanding, a method is designed. I’d call guru a great designer who is going to design a device for that individual which will be absolute.

SATimes: But that requires one-on-one…

Gurumaa: One-one-one is very much happening. Those who truly seek are given the opportunity of one-on-one. But I don’t give oneon-one to those who ask me frivolous questions. I owe my time and energy to anyone who is seeking.

But it is hard to find a seeker, that is what I am seeking (laughs).

SATimes: Over the years, have you noticed your followers changing?

Gurumaa: Definitely, they grow one millimeter every time!

That is a different story that after I leave, they go back to the same size they were. So they keep on slipping back and forth. Because it is hard to fight with your own ignorance, with your own unconsciousness. And there is so much unconsciousness around you that you get drowned in that unknowingly.

I read a story once of a washerman, who finds a big diamond in a jungle, but thinking it to be a piece

of glass, ties it around the neck of his donkey. Passing through town, he starts getting offers to purchase it, and the bids get higher and higher, the highest coming from a diamond merchant, and then the king himself. For the donkey, it does not matter whether it is a piece of glass or diamond, but the washerman gradually understood the value of that diamond. So, the donkeys of the world do not appreciate the diamond of my knowledge. However, I do find sometimes the washerman types who slowly begin to realize the worth and preciousness of this wisdom.

Then they begin to raise their bar, then I also raise my bar.

SATimes: What keeps people from understanding the worth of this wisdom?

Gurumaa: Their stupidity.

Have you observed small kids fight for cookies, yelling and fighting to have nothing but the yellow or the red cookie. The mother cannot understand this fighting—for her they are all sweets, yellow or red. It could be toys, kite, marbles, or sand castle.

Similarly, people have not grown in their intellect - they are still like a child. First they fight for dolls, toys, now they are fighting for houses, cars and businesses.

Because they don’t have that ability to understand the worth and value of the life and time they have, which is much more precious -- all the wealth of the whole world cannot buy you one minute of your life. We waste our life and energy on small trinkets, on something which will not be of any value ultimately. For example, to a person on his death bed, you ask, “How many times did you flirt,

how many girlfriends you had, how much money did you make?”

That person, who is gasping for his last breath, will say, “Are you nuts. What are you taking to me.”

It is then that a person realizes that this breath was the most important thing which he or she wasted on those things which were meant to be lost one day. Sometimes, I feel that a hard blow, which people call unfortunate times, like an accident, disease, loss of property or near or dear ones, gives them a perspective to see life in a different way.

SATimes: Do you get disappointed with slow evolution in your followers?

Gurumaa: It is never disappointing for me. It is just like when a child is trying to learn to walk, he fumbles, he falls down.

Yet, the mother is never disappointed, because she knows that today or tomorrow the child is going to walk. Moreover, if I get disappointed, what kind of a guru am I. Gurus are appointed to never be disappointed.

SATimes: A few decades ago, in this so-called New Age movement, there was talk that society as a whole is changing for the better…

Gurumaa: That is a utopian idea. It is always the flight of the individual, you cannot say that society at large or masses are going to change. The task is set for an individual, who in every era will be evolving. And there will always be a majority of fools, who would not be interested in this or they’d be writing down state-

ments, even great statements but will remain fools. That is how society is.

SATimes: Yet the change is that access to spiritual systems and techniques has become easy.

Gurumaa: This is a nice thing of this era. That there is too much of information—that is confusing people a lot also, which is also a nice thing. People are now more confused because there are a hundred techniques and one thousand gurus and they don’t know which one to follow. But in a way, it is good that information is available.

Because if I reflect back, there would be one master who after being served for years, and after testing the disciple for years, would give one sutra. Today, you google and you find millions of sutras, although you are not going to use those millions. Those people in olden times, after getting that one sutra, would use it and change their life. Today even with those million sutras, people are not changed. It is because even before becoming a good, sincere, practicing student, they become teachers.

So we have a humongous growth of teachers, making it difficult to identify who the real guru is. I had to write on the subject in a book titled ‘Sadguru Kaun?’

SATimes: Do we need a guru in the first place?

Gurumaa: The one who is asking this question certainly does not need the guru. And the one who needs will not ask this question, he will be searching here and there.

Only if you have an ache or pain you look for a doctor.

“There is a kind of greed in gurus wishing to open franchises. There can’t be a franchise of Shakespeare, of Tagore, of Einstein. I believe that a guru can maybe train some people to impart a certain level of knowledge to others, but I don’t think that these things are franchiseable.”

16

Ultimate Bollywood

July 30-August 5, 2011 his cop is a killer. He implements the laws applicable to the khakivardi with a passion that makes corruption seem like a mosquito that a human repellant can exterminate. His ways are unconventional. And he seethes and fumes when faced with diabolic corruption.

Last we saw, it was Rajeev Khandelwal playing the antiestablishment cop's role in the brilliant "Shaitaan". This time it's a huge star getting into khakee.

Meet Ajay Devgn as Bajirao Singham an honest-to-goodness cop who believes he has been given the law-enforcer's job and he better take it seriously.

Hurling through a cavalcade of regionally-flush references "Singham" is the kind of rustic boorish kinetic action thriller where a cleaner social order is seen to be brought about by the power of the fist. Give or take a gun. Or a Devgn. Devgn playing the one-man army invests the clichéd role with a kind of cultural specificity which allows him

T

TheSouthAsianTimes.info the leeway to get verbally regional without losing a pan-India flavor. That's the magic of mass entertainment cinema that this film celebrates with panoramic verve.

We don't need to comprehend Marathi to get the powerful subtexts of Devgan's virulent attack on corruption. Fortunately Devgn isn't the kind of actor who needs to scream to make himself heard.

He effectually offsets Prakash Raj's theatrical villainy bordering on bigtime hamming.

"Singham" is frustrated and embittered by the corruption that's crept into the socio-political system. But he lacks the vitality to transmute the cop's impotent rage into a potent cinematic language. We don't feel for his concern for a clean social order.

We just wonder whom he will thrash next, and how.

Partly, it is to do with the kind of shallowness that "Singham's" love interest portrays. Jaya Bhaduri in "Zanjeer" and Smita Patil in "Ardh Satya" made a brief but telling impact on the

way the enraged hero looked at the seedy world. Newcomer Kajal Aggarwal is a bundle of shallow take-away expressions, the cinematic equivalent of a home-delivered pizza, without the spicy toppings.

What sustains the narrative's velocity is Devgn's uncalculated moves as an action hero. He brings a kind of reckless inevitability into every blow that he delivers on the goons. There are some entertaining supporting performances, Sachin Khedeker as the heroine’s cellphone-fixated father is a hoot.

In all fairness the action sequences (Jai Singh Nijjar) are entertaining and humorous. The fights don't take themselves seriously. However, the homilies on a need for integrity in the civil services seem like unwanted concessions to self-importance in a film that seems to revel in a kind of free-floating message on how to stay clean in a cesspool of corruption. Yup, Rohit Shetty packs in a punch.

I’m not dating Ranbir: Shraddha ctor Shraddha Kapoor, who made her acting debut with ‘Teen Patti’ (2010) is in news, not just for bagging some important projects with Yash Raj banner but also for her recent link-up rumors.

The buzz is that Shakti Kapoor’s daughter is in a relationship with Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor.

The actor, who walked the ramp for the first time in recently concluded Delhi Couture Week, for designer Anju Modi, however, was in a denial mode. “I don’t want to talk about my personal life. Ranbir is a fantastic guy. I don’t know from where these rumours have come up. I am not dating him,” she says.

Apparently, Ranbir has also asked his close friend director Ayan Mukherjee, to cast Shraddha in his coming project. Shraddha, however rebuffs the rumor, “Ayan (Mukherjee) is my good friend. If he comes up with anything interesting, I would love to be part of it.” But Ranbir tops her wish list of actors’ she would want to work with, “I would love to work with Ranbir (Kapoor), Imran (Khan) and Hrithik (Roshan).

The actor further says that she is not wary of rumors and controversies, “They are part and parcel of our lives. We have to deal with it, there’s no escape.” Shraddha also consults her father when it comes to making film decisions. “I do consult him about my upcoming projects. But at the end, decision is mine,” she adds. The self-pro-

'Singham': Ajay plays a one-man army

Ajay Devgn's uncalculated moves as an action hero, sustains the narrative's velocity.

Kareena is insecure: Deepika e all know that Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor do not get along. The catfight hogged limelight when Imtiaz Ali chose Deepika Padukone over ‘Jab We Met’ star Kareena Kapoor for Love Aaj Kal. Till date, the actors don't see eye to eye.

When Deepika was asked in an interview about Bebo not bonding with female co-stars, this is what she had to say, "Well that’s her insecurity I can’t do anything about that. But we’ve had no problems."

Kareena was also reportedly upset with Dippy for spreading rumors that she was the original choice for ‘RA.One’ item song ‘Chammak Challo’.

A source was quoted telling a tabloid: "Bebo threw a fit when she heard of it. Kapoor is upset and feels Dippy is only doing this to gain mileage from the ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ title track."

W

A

Dippy and Bebo don't see eye to eye.

Sanjay Dutt wants to stay away from politics ollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was associated with a political party for a brief period, wants to stay away from politics as he finds "acting in Bollywood is better."

"Keep me away from politics. I will never think of getting back to politics," 51-year-old Sanjay said in an interview.

"I had gone to UP for three months. But after seeing all that, I think acting in Bollywood is better than the acting on the dais," Dutt said.

The actor had entered politics as a Samajwadi Party candidate for the Lucknow Parliamentary constituency. The Samajwadi Party later appointed the Bollywood actor as its general secretary.

However, barely a year after, expressing sadness over the way

B

The buzz is that Shakti Kapoor’s daughter is in a relationship with Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor. claimed Priyanka Chopra’s fan, says, “I’m not jealous of anyone in the industry. Infact, I admire the way PC conducts herself and the roles she essays.”

The actor had entered politics as a Samajwadi Party candidate for the Lucknow Parliamentary constituency. his 'mentor' Amar Singh was treat- the post and subsequently quit the ed in the party, Dutt resigned from party.

Ultimate Bollywood Thesouthasiantimes.info

17

July 30-August 5, 2011

‘Aarakshan anti-Dalit film’ T

h e N a t i o n a l Commission for Scheduled Castes dubbed upcoming Amitabh Bachchan- starrer film Aarkashan as "anti-Dalit" and said it will not allow it to hit the screens till it is satisfied after watching it.

"Aarakshan is anti-Dalit and against the depressed class and the portrayal is unfair," Commission chairman P L Punia said.

He said the Commission had written to the Film Censor Board that it wanted to watch this film before it is released next month.

"The release date of the film had been deferred as the Commission wanted to watch it with the censor board," he said.

Punia said a meeting of the Commission with the censor board is fixed for July 25 on the issue of Aarakshan.

Taking a dig at the film's director Parkash Jha, Punia said, "Jha says he will not show the movie to the Commission but we have not even asked him as the matter is between us and the Censor Board." When his attention was drawn towards the Censor Board's certificate to the film, he said that "the Commission had enough powers to intervene in the matter."

The team of upcoming Amitabh Bachchan-starrer film ‘Aarkashan’.

RGV's ‘Shabri’ will release soon early five years ago, Ram Gopal Varma produced ‘Shabri’, a story about the first female crime lord in Mumbai, but his apprehensions about the subject prevented him from releasing the film.

However, now that director Vishal Bhardwaj has announced his upcoming project ‘Daayan’, which is also based on a female gangster, RGV has decided that it's the right time to release ‘Shabri’.

When contacted, director Lalit Marathe confirmed, "The film will be releasing on August 26. I am elated. It has been a long wait. I was never given any reason as to why the film was held back. I tried

N

John, Priyanka and Abhishek played the main leads in ‘Dostana’

More trouble for ‘Dostana 2’ s we all know the sequel of Dostana has been delayed since quite some months but now we hear that the Dostana 2 has been shelved for some reasons.

It is believed that director Tarun Mansukhani reworked on the script as producer Karan Johar wasn't much happy with his earlier draft.

But according to sources the main leads Abhishek and John weren't impressed with the reworked script either. Apart from that the makers are finding difficult to cast actors

A

to play gay characters. It is believed that actors like Abhay Deol, Riteish Deshmukh, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal were approached to play real gay characters opposite Abhishek and John.

But all of them flatly denied.

Dostana 2 stars Katrina Kaif as the female lead. The director who was looking forward to start the film by end of this year has been advised to work on the script yet again. Hope this time things work out in his favor

S

really hard to get it released. Ramu will also be involved in the promotions of the film."

Considering that RGV did not

No B-town beauty for Kamal Haasan? amal Haasan's search for a Bollywood beauty to play his young love interest in ‘Viswaroopam’ continues.

Sonakshi Sinha neither confirms nor denies if she is doing the project, but her dates for the next few months have been allotted to ‘Joker’, ‘Race-2’ and ‘Rowdy Rathore’. So, there is no way she can fit in ‘Viswaroopam’, say sources.

Vidya Balan turned down Kamal's offer without much ado. And, though rumors say that Sonam Kapoor was also considered, the young actress says she hasn't even been approached by the legendary actor. Asin, who romanced Kamal in ‘Dasavatharam’, has given bulk dates in August to Rohit Shetty for his Bol Bachchan. So everyone is wondering which lucky girl will romance Kamal.

K

Freida not for desi scripts lumdog’ star Freida Pinto’s recent comments suggesting that Indian scripts aren’t exciting enough for her to take up, have come under fire from the desi film fraternity. Pinto, 26, told the American magazine Interview that she continues to opt for Hollywood movies over Bollywood because she hasn’t come across a good Indian script yet.

“I haven’t done a film in India because I haven’t found a script that’s completely gotten my attention and made me passionate to get it made ... I guess everybody in India has tried

Actor Eesha Koppikhar in a still from the movie.

think the film was suitable for release five years ago, the industry is abuzz with speculations about the influences on the script.

However, the director dismisses all the speculations and said, "The film is a fictional account of a female gangster. It will not be similar to the one Vishal Bhardwaj is going to make, which I believe is based on a story from Hussain Zaidi's book. I hope the delay works in favor of the film rather than against it."

The film starring Eesha Koppikhar and newcomer Raj Arjun will be released by co-producers Reliance Pictures, formerly known as Adlabs.

really hard to do what they do and then move into the West,” she said during the interview.

Filmmaker David Dhawan lashes out, “Woh kaun si achhi filmein kar rahi hai (as if she is doing good films in Hollywood)”.

Pritish Nandy says she must not make such remarks if she doesn’t know the scene here.

“If an actor wants to get the best scripts, he or she must make an effort to chase them down too. Has Freida made any sincere attempt to reach out to producers here and tell them that she wants to work in Bollywood? She can’t complain if she hasn’t,” he says.

Freida Pinto shot to fame with her very first movie ‘Slumdog millionaire’.

Sonakshi Sinha neither confirms nor denies if she is doing the project.

18

Fashion

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info Indian politicians are leaving behind their shabby, socialist look to make fashion statements before a new and demanding generation of voters, albeit in native cultural style.

Indian politicos go fashion forward

Thanks to a changing society, muted colors like white, beige and cream have given way to more vibrant hues even for a supreme leader like Sonia Gandhi. She has an impressive array of Paithani cotton saris and handloom silks. nder constant media glare, Indian politicians are leaving behind their shabby, socialist look to make fashion statements before a new and demanding generation of voters, albeit in native cultural style.

From the elderly Sheila Dixit to the graceful Sonia Gandhi to the dashing Omar Abdullah, they do not hesitate to dress well in their own crisp cotton-and-silk way.

There was a time when Indian leaders would wear crumpled saris and un-ironed white kurtas on their sleeves to project an image of being one with the masses. But thanks to a changing society, these have faded to a large extent along with muted colors like white, beige and cream.

Designer Sunil Mehra of Study by Janak, who designs for politicians like Ghulam Nabi

U

A client of couturier Diwan Saheb, J&K CM Omar Abdullah is so well groomed to have appeared on the cover of GQ magazine.

Azad, Salman Khurshid and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, says it’s important for political leaders to dress well these days.

“Politicians today opt for different looks.

For instance, if they are going for a meeting they would like to have formal wear, according to the theme of the conference. Again for a party, he or she would like to party, but with a somber look,” Mehra said.

“I strongly believe that a leader should be impressively dressed as he or she represents a society or a community. If they are dressed smartly, half the battle is won. One should go for smart cuts and fine textures to look different and smart,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are keenly watched for their crisp kurta-pyjamas and

carefully chosen saris respectively.

Indian leaders may not be as daring as French politicians when it comes to fashion couture houses of Paris are reportedly being inundated with requests from France’s female politicians - but they do flaunt a variety.

In terms of fabric, it is mostly cotton, silk, linen and synthetics and in terms of clothes, from the basic white starched kurta-pyjamas to designer wear in the corridors of power.

The young breed of politicians is initializing the whole idea of looking good, says designer Sudhir Diwan of the store Diwan Saheb.

“Upcoming generations of politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia prefer wearing simple clothes with a very different style,” Diwan old IANS. Diwan Saheb supplies clothes to politicians like Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah, Abhay Chautala and Ram Vilas Paswan.

“Some go for suits and bandhgalas in fabrics like linen, silk and cashmere. The reason why these politicians want to explore their attire is because they are travelling a lot and experience different cultures where they find themselves getting inspired by many new things,” Diwan said.

Even the not-so-young make an impression.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit is seen wearing ethnic saris every day - a collection many would die for. The same goes for Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s impressive array of Paithani cotton saris and handloom silks.

Designer Neeti Aggrawal believes Bollywood is also helping change the image of politicians in terms of looks.

“In Prakash Jha’s ‘Rajneeti’, Ranbir Kapoor sported waistcoats, smart-fitted suits and designer glares, which no doubt personifies the modern leader who wants to be considered not only intelligent but also smart and appealing. Bollywood seems to have changed the perception of how politicians were portrayed on-screen a few decades back,” said Aggrawal.

As far as the prices are concerned, the designer says it depends on the product.

A designer kurta-pyjama set could cost anything between Rs.7,000 and Rs.100,000. A bandhagala suit could range from Rs.30,000 to Rs.300,000 whereas a heavily embroidered sari would be priced from Rs.30,000Rs.80,000.

So how difficult is it to design clothes for high profile politicians?

It doesn’t require much effort, says Sunil Mehra, as the politicians completely go for their designers’ choice when it comes to selecting their wardrobe.

“I actually won’t call it an effort as they are very grounded when it comes to the selection of clothes. They actually visit our stores to give measurements unlike film stars who want designers at their doorstep,” Mehra said.

He also said it is necessary to keep basics in mind as politicians carry an image.

“We just keep the basics in mind as politicians altogether carry a status and want to maintain the same in their looks. With different occasions, looks also differ but the image they want to maintain has to be taken care of throughout,” he added.

Who is imitating whom? Katrina Kaif played an immaculately dressed politician in Rajneeti.

Upcoming generations of politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia (not pictured) prefer wearing simple clothes with a very different style.

BJP leaders Arun Jaitley (not pictured) and Sushma Swaraj are keenly watched for their crisp kurta-pyjamas and carefully chosen saris respectively.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit is seen wearing ethnic saris every day - a collection many would die for.

Op Ed TheSouthAsianTimes.info

19

July 30-August 5, 2011

Corruption hits BJP now

By Barkha Dutt t's a matter of some irony that this was the week in which the Karnataka government sought to propagate the mandatory teaching of the Bhagavad Gita in schools across the state. The minister for primary and secondary education went so far as to argue that those who opposed this and embraced "western" influences instead should simply leave the country.

Now, one has to wonder whether the morality and philosophy lessons need to first begin at the state secretariat.

In a week when Karnataka's main anti-corruption watchdog has said it has "substantive evidence" to implicate chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and key colleagues in the multicrore illegal mining scam, the state government has continued to hide behind opaque excuses and obfuscation that seek a tenuous distinction between "illegality and immorality."

Neither disgrace nor dishonor seem to dent the stubborn survival instinct of the Yeddyurappa govern-

I

ment. Even more startling has been the BJP's reluctance - rather its abject inability - to make a clear intervention in Karnataka.

It seems commonsensical that the sullied governance record of the Yeddyurappa government is the weakest link in the BJP's otherwise hugely successful anti-corruption political crusade against the Manmohan Singh-government. But if perception problems and prima facie proof was enough to demand and secure the scalps of a slew of leaders from A Raja to Ashok Chavan - why aren't the same parameters applicable to Karnataka?

Ironically, it's the BJP patriarch LK Advani who first went on record to say that he was deeply concerned about the "state of affairs in Karnataka." But when I asked party president Nitin Gadkari to react to those comments, he sidestepped the controversy, insisting that that there were no corruption charges against the government and the recent byelections were proof of "victory and popular support".

The BJP is no longer left with too

many reasons to protect either Yeddyurappa or the 'Bellary brothers' who stand charged of running the mining mafia with a 'zero-risk strategy'. Sure, the BJP can and will call out the double standards of the Congress in failing to react with similar urgency to the lokayukta's findings against members of the Delhi government. And yes, no one looks upon the Karnataka governor as an effective or honest arbiter of public morality. If anything, his clumsy and extra-constitutional efforts to push president's rule in the state is what has given Yeddyurappa the most ironic halo of a victim in the past.

But the hypocrisy of others is no excuse for the misdemeanors of the BJP. The report virtually accuses its chief minister of taking a bribe by arguing that mammoth donations to Yeddyurappa's family trust by a mining company were clearly part of some "collateral" arrangement for getting a license. So was the audacity with which the chief minister's son and son-in-law sold land to another mining company at 20 times the market value.

Neither disgrace nor dishonor seem to dent the stubborn survival instinct of B.S. Yeddyurappa in Karnataka.

Justice Hegde says if he were the read the writing on the wall. It's time chief minister he would stop going to say Goodbye and Good Luck to to work. The BJP doesn't even need BS Yeddyurappa. to turn to the philosophical com(The views expressed by the plexities of the Bhagavad Gita to author are personal)

Lull before govt takes on civil society?

By Amulya Ganguli here is an uneasy sense of foreboding in India at present despite the surface calm.

The prevailing stillness in the air seems to have affected nearly all aspects of life, especially politics and diplomacy.

Among those who have noted the drowsy torpidity are Maoists. According to an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, they are planning to use the current political inertia and the consequent lethargy among the security forces to resume their offensive.

One possible reason for the somnolence is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's denial that he is a lame duck, which he made twice in four months, suggesting the charge had struck home. Home Minister P. Chidambaram too had spoken of the government's ethical and governance deficits.

More recently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the view

T

If the Congress had all along been lackadaisical about the corruption, the reason was the realization that the BJP was not in a position to threaten its position at the centre. that "nothing is moving, that we have given up" underlined the realization among politicians of the perception of drift.

This opinion was reinforced dur-

ing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit, which produced little of substance by way of policy decisions and aroused little interest in the media. As a television com-

mentator observed, India-US ties appear to have attained the soporific characteristics of a "good marriage".

Related to the pervasive slackness is the fact that as many as 81 bills are pending before parliament. Yet, there is little chance of even a small percentage of them being passed during the monsoon session since most of the time of the house is likely to be taken up by the debate on the Lokpal bill.

Even if the government succeeds in pushing it through on the basis of the support of most political parties since none of them wants a powerful ombudsman scrutinizing their action, the furor which civil society activists will create outside the house is bound to cut into parliament's time.

At the moment, however, even the activists seem to have been infected by the government's sleepiness. Except for their leader, Anna Hazare's threat of going on fast from Aug 16 - evidently because he

The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.

is convinced that the bill will not reflect his views - the social workers have been quietly biding their time.

It is perhaps necessary to point out that if the Congress had all along been somewhat lackadaisical about the corruption charges against its ministers and party men, the reason was the realization that the BJP was not in a position to seriously threaten its position at the centre because of the sleaze in its own house and because of the unresolved leadership tussles at the top.The expected storm, however, after the present lull may not relate so much to high prices or Maoist depredations as to two things. One is the ability of civil society activists to revv up their anti-corruption agitation. And the other is the looming confrontation between the government and the Supreme Court over the latter's perceived encroachment on the executive turf.

(The views expressed by the author are personal)

20

Op Ed

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Replaced by a woman!

By Anjum Niaz otice that women billionaires are rare. The world’s gilded have mostly been men. Some lucky dogs are born billionaires; others become billionaires through robbing the state; while some others earn the prize by sheer genius and sweat. You and I know well how the Third World leaders, dead or alive, own Swiss accounts that legends are made of. The World Bank estimates that the corrupt regimes steal $20–$40 billion from the national kitty each year; only $5 billion has been returned over the past 15 years.

But the men who stole to become

N

ill Abramson is the first woman to replace a man as the editor of the world’s most influential newspaper, the New York Times.

Bill Keller, the present editor will move to a full time writing job at the Times Sunday Magazine which is already giving a new look of vibrancy and sauciness with cover stories like ‘Infidelity keeps us together.’

Keller’s column appears at the beginning of the magazine every week.

His recent column on Sarah Palin as a lightheaded female with no chances of ever becoming the US president earned him four-letterword abuse from Palin’s admirers.

Writes one reader: “As a man, replaced by a woman, you (Bill Keller) might think you were bitter.” Says another: “I would recommend any journalist, before looking at diversity outside our borders and in our

billionaires are being put to shame just by one woman who has joined the billionaire’s club and is fast moving to the first position. J.K. Rowling, a single-mom is today cashing in six billion dollars with her Harry Potter movies alone. Just by using one tool — her pen-- the cashstrapped mother who began by writing in public toilets because they were heated while her baby Jessica slept in the stroller, has left all other novelists behind. In 1990, while traveling on a train from Manchester to London, the story of Harry Potter hit her. It arrived “fully formed” into her mind. “I really don’t know where the idea came from. It started with Harry, then all these characters and situ-

ations came flooding into my head.”

What is so unique about Harry Potter series? It’s the story of good versus evil. Harry Potter’s final battle between his mortal enemy Lord Voldermort is currently being screened in the theaters in America. It is a boxoffice hit just like the previous ones.

So how did an ordinary woman with no fancy college degree in creative writing (these days it’s virtually mandatory for fiction writers to attend intensive creative writing workshops) beat everyone to it? Rowling may not have studied at Harvard, but she was invited to give the commencement address in 2008. She told the fresh Harvard graduates how she considered herself “the biggest fail-

J

serial predator at the IMF finally shuffles off to fight charges of rape/sexual assault on a hotel maid in New York, leaving the chief’s chair to be filled by a woman who is a good five inches taller than her predecessor Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK)! The former French finance minister Christine La-

A

Jill Abramson (left) is replacing Bill Keller as New York Times Editor cities, look at the diversity at their own people. Take a year off… become immersed in conservative culture, and you just might find your ivory tower is a rather lonely place to live. Martin Fee of Florida asks the garde is a divorced mother of two who did not “clamber into the cabinet room of the Elysee Palace via the narrow, winding, stairs of the ‘grande ecoles’ or tribal, party allegiance. She did it her own way, albeit with a touch of Gallic flair. She values her femininity as much as she does the brain that has helped her outcompete so many men.”

Christine Lagarde (left) who is replacing Dominique Strauss Kahn as IMF chief is a good 5 inches taller than him

Times editor whether “liberal pseudo-elite” journalists (like Keller) are that stupid or has he just deluded himself into thinking the American people are the stupid ones?

Keller is a brave man who has the

ne more upset for a male whose sister has won by popular vote in Thailand to become the next prime minister! “She’s my clone,” said the exiled Thaksin in a disparaging tone, hoping to return after she led his party to victory. But Yingluck Shinawatra has been elected by her people. They want her instead of the brother. A triumphant Yingluck said: “People are giving me a chance and I will work to my best ability for the people.” Only two months ago, she was unknown to the Thais. The politically inexperienced businesswoman upstaged the ruling elite and militarybacked Prime Minister Abhisit.

So here’s the story of four women, world’s most influential in their own spheres — cinema, newspaper, finance and politics. They have recently replaced men. How come? Here’s the new IMF president’s response: “Based on my own experience, women will tend to be inclusive, to reach out more, to care a little more.”

ure” seven years after she graduated.

Her life was a mess – a failed marriage, no job, and a kid to take care of. “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential,” she told her hushed audience. “I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised…I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

JK Rowling: The self-made woman joins the male-dominated billionaires club

guts to stick out his neck and give his measured opinion in his columns knowing that he’ll invite backlash from certain quarters. He also has the courage to print even the most negative criticism against him in his paper. How many editors of newspapers and journals, do you know of, back in Pakistan, who put themselves in the forefront of readers’ attacks? I can’t think of any. It is not the custom for our editors to express their personal opinions; they merely oversee the newspaper and its dayto-day publication. But the 160-yearold New York Times is unique. Not only does it have a public editor who scrutinizes and censures the Times’ content, often with critical comments, holding the writer, reporter and the editor responsible for the errors and lapses, but also openly endorses political contestants starting

from the president of the USA. It declared its support for Obama against McCain quite early in the last presidential race.

But not all of Times readers are impressed by its “elitist, pseudo-intellectuals” as the editors including Keller are accused of. “You or your ilk,” writes another very angry reader, spew “pointless, nonproductive words” which has no worth ochzero, nada, nothing.” The opinion of the New York Times does not create jobs, it solves none of the problems of humanity, the reader continues.

“You’re a propagandist. You write fiction designed to dupe imbeciles. I find you to be a mindless Liberal robot and a bit of a joke. Have a nice day.” Jill Abramson, 57, slotted to take over from Keller on September 6 will indeed make history.

She’ll replace a man!

O

The column has enough meat for our male chauvinists in Pakistan to chew on. Here’s hoping they’ll reform or else get replaced by women!

Thaksin, the exiled former prime minister of Thailand, is upset that her own sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led his party to victory, has accepted the challenge of running the government herself.

Anjum Niaz is a freelance journalist with 25 years of experience in national (Pakistan) and international reporting. Currently, she writes weekly columns for two Pakistani newspapers, the Dawn, and The News International.

The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.

Diaspora TheSouthAsianTimes.info

21

July 30-August 5, 2011

Indian envoy to receive Liberia's highest award Monrovia: India's Honorary Consul General to Liberia Upjit Singh Sachdeva will receive the West African nation's highest award, the Knight Grand Commander, from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during its 164th independence day celebrations Tuesday.

Sachdeva, a prominent businessman and humanitarian, was selected for the honor by the president.

He will become the first Indian to receive the award from a Liberian president in recognition of his contributions towards the country's reconstruction programs. He is also being honored for his commitment to philan-

(left) President of Liberia, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and awardee, Hon. Consul General of India in Liberia, Upjit Singh Sachdeva, after conferral of Knight Grand Commander Award

Hope for Indian men on death row in Sharjah Chandigarh/Dubai: There is hope for the release of 17 Indians, who are on the death row in Sharjah for the murder of a Pakistani national, after the victim's family agreed to 'pardon' them after accepting compensation.

The 17 men, 16 from Punjab and one from Haryana, had been sentenced to death by a Shariat court in Sharjah, March 2010. They were convicted of murdering a Pakistani man and injuring three others January 2009, following a fight over illegal liquor business.

The murder took place in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The victim, Misri Nazir Khan, died of stab wounds and also suffered brain damage, police had said.

Dubai-based businessman S.P. Singh Oberoi, founder member of the Indian Punjabi Society (IPS) and president of voluntary group 'Sarbat Da Bhala', through a communication released by Punjab Congress presi-

dent Amarinder Singh, said that the efforts to save the youth had proved successful.

'It is with the greatest sense of pride and hard earned accomplishment that we are today able to communicate to everyone back home in Punjab and India that all 17 of our compatriots who were condemned to the gallows in Sharjah will now finally be freed and return to their loved ones,' the communication said.

Oberoi said that Mishri Khan's father, mother, widow, daughter and all four brothers, had agreed to a monetary compensation of eight crore Pakistani Rupees. This amount includes Dihrams 442,000 as 'blood money' and the balance as 'compensation' for the family.

He said the breakthrough in the case was achieved through the efforts of Amarinder Singh and other Indian community members based in UAE. Amarinder Singh had met the 17 Indian men in a Sharjah prison last

year and assured help. He later met the Shiekh of Abu Dhabi and the police chief of Sharjah.

'The late Mishri Khan's brother, Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan accepted the 'token' amount of one million Pakistani Rupees and gave a written legal undertaking that he and his family will submit an official letter legally pardoning the accused on receipt of the full monetary compensation,' the communication said.

'The 'undertaking' was submitted during today's (Wednesday) court hearing at Sharjah, duly acknowledged by Mohammad Ramzan, the official 'negotiator' for Mishri Khan's family. 'Accepting the arrangement, the court has granted us a week to finalise all paperwork and deposit the balance blood money and compensation on Wednesday, July 27.

Following that, the honorable judges are expected to announce an early judgment date to 'pardon' all the 17 accused men,' Oberoi said.

Toronto girl is Miss India-Canada, Lisa Ray honored Toronto: Nineteen-year-old Akhina Mooken has been crowned as Miss India-Canada 2011.

The Toronto-area girl defeated 15 contenders from across Canada to win the crown at the 21st annual Miss India-Canada Pageant here.

Actress Lisa Ray, who was the guest of honor at this year ’s event, was presented with the Special Achievement Award for her contribution to cinema.

Toronto-born Ray, who has just recovered from a cancer of white blood cells, thanked the organizers for the award.

One of the major cultural events of the Indo-Canadian community across Canada, the annual beauty pageant draws a huge response as it features high-voltage musical performances, songs, catwalks and quizzing of the contestants.

Many of the past winners, including Kamal Sidhu, Ruby Bhatia and Gita Bali , went on to make a name for themselves in Bollywood, music and television.

During more than four hours which involves cocktails, dinner, dances and music, contestants were first put through three segments of the pageant - Indian Dress, Evening Gown, and Talent.

They were then shortlisted to five. After intervals of music and dance, the five finalists were put though the final question-and-answer session.

thropic causes as well as contributions to the betterment of IndiaLiberia relations.

He was appointed honorary consul general by the Indian president in 1998.

Liberia declared independence July 26, 1847. This year's celebration will be held in the northern city of Voinjama in Lofa County, 400 km from Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

'This investiture is therefore a matter of extreme pride and delight for all Indians, both within and outside Liberia,' Sachdeva, who is also popularly called Jeety, told the Daily Observer, the country's oldest independent daily.

On Jan 9 this year, Sachdeva

was honored with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by Indian President Pratibha Patil.

Along with Sachdeva, Liberian Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and Legislature Speaker Alex Tyler, among others, will be honored at the special event.

The presidents of Nigeria and Sierra Leone are among the foreign guests expected to attend the celebrations.

The Knight Grand Commander of the Liberian Humane Order of African Redemption was set up on Jan 13, 1879, during the presidency of Anthony W. Gardiner.

It is awarded to individuals for their meritorious humanitarian work.

India moves to give long term visas to Goans settled abroad London: India’s Union home ministry has advised Indian missions abroad to extend long-term visas to Goans settled abroad, NRI commissioner Eduardo Faleiro has said.

Inaugurating a two-day global Goans Convention at the Indian Gymkhana near Osterley here, Faleiro said he had taken up the issue with the Union home minister after receiving "several complaints from Goans holding foreign passports that some of our Embassies and High commissions abroad issue them tourist visas, lasting three to six months."

Faleiro, a former Union minister of state for external affairs, said that the Union Home Minister agreed that the procedure being followed is not correct and that Goans settled abroad must be given long-terms visas or X (extendable) visas.

"The minister informed me that his ministry is advising the missions concerned as well as the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, Goa to ensure that long term visas are issued to them and these visas are extended from time to time," Faleiro. He advised all NonResident Goans holding foreign passports to apply at the earliest for a PIO (Person of Indian Origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card. "This will entitle them to stay in India for 15 years or 30 years

respectively without any need for a visa. The PIO and OCI cards are renewable."

"In order to redeem the grievances of non-resident Goans, we have decided that every goan organization abroad should nominate one representative based in Goa of each country with substantial Goan population and this representative should submit the grievances of Goan expatriates to our office.

Our office will then forward these complaints to the concerned department and we expect redressal within a month. When this is not possible, status reports will be issued to the concerned individual every month indicating the progress in the settlement of his grievances until the matter is finally settled."

He said youth of Goan origin who are not Indian nationals should have an opportunity to discover Goa in particular and India in general so that they may contribute to and promote understanding, goodwill, and cooperation between their country of adoption and the country of origin which is India.

For this purpose, Know Goa Program has been formulated. He said under the program, 10 youths from Goan diaspora, professionals and students in the age group of 18 to 26 years, will be selected every year to participate in the program.

A VA I LA B L E Lisa Ray being honored at the event Nineteen-year-old Akhina Mooken, who was finally crowned Miss India-Canada, will have a free trip to India, apart from various awards. Bestowing the crown on her, event organizer Sanjay Agnihotri said Mooken will work with with various social organizations in Canada and India.

Started by the late Punjabi businessman Kush Agnihotri, the Miss India-Canada pageant is the biggest and oldest Indian beauty show in North America.

* PRIME LOCATION DOWNTOWN NEWARK* Building + Sneaker store for sale

ONLY $1.5 Million for The Building & Business All major accounts ready to transfer Contact: Michael 201-253-7277 Joseph 201-838-3584

22

International

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Oslo killer warns of more attacks London: Norway's mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik was sent to a solitary confinement by a court after he boasted about his crime and warned of "two more cells" prepared to carry out attacks, a media report said.

Judge Kim Heger said Breivik had admitted to perpetrating the twin attacks in Oslo and Utoya but had not pleaded guilty.

Breivik said he was defending western Europe from "Muslim takeover" and making the ruling Labour Party pay for "failing" the country, The Telegraph reported.

Heger said Breivik has been charged with terrorism after the attacks that left 93 people dead, and ordered that he be held in custody for eight weeks because there was a risk he might "tamper with evidence" if released.

The 32-year-old will be held in solitary confinement until at least Aug 22 and will be banned from seeing visitors, receiving letters

orway's mass my base and rising m u r d e r e r above my humble Anders Behring means. But let me tell Breivik, whose bombing you, the whole exerand shooting spree in cise was very disapOslo left at least 76 peopointing as other than ple dead, has a remote the two samples Indian connection. The ordered by the combat badges of the Anders Behring Breivik Norwegian client, I 32-year-old's militant outfit were received no other order," he added. supplied by a weaver in Varanasi.

The badge shows a white skull, Breivik, a self-proclaimed anti- marked with the symbols of comMuslim fundamentalist, placed an munism, Islam and Nazism on the order for preparing an embroidered forehead, impaled on the cross of insignia for his militant outfit the martyrs. The badge projects 'Justiciar Knight' through the inter- opposition against Islam, net with a weaver in the narrow Communism and Nazism. bylanes of Pathani Tola locality.

"After an exchange of around 10"Yes, the order for preparing two 12 mails, I was instructed to first samples was received by me in my manufacture just two samples of e-mail account about 11 months the badge - one metallic and the back," said 45-year-old other of silk. In his mails, Anders Mohammad Aslam Ansari, who also sought a quotation from me for runs his traditional family business manufacturing of 200 such of weaving brocade silk sarees badges," added Ansari, whose famunder the Indian Art Company ban- ily has been involved in weaving ner. "The order came in response to since 1933. Ansari said he waited an advertisement I had put out on a for the order of 200 badges, but it website in the hope of expanding never came.

N

Rescue operations underway at the site of attack.

and reading newspapers or watching television for the entire remand period up until Sep 26.

During the hearing, which was closed to both the public and the media, Breivik warned there were "two more cells in our organization" that would continue his work, the daily said.

In a televised statement, Judge Heger said: "He has not pleaded guilty. The accused believes that

he needed to carry out this act in order to save Norway and western Europe from cultural Marxism and Muslim take-over."

"The operation was not to kill as many innocent people as but to give a signal that could not be misunderstood. As long as the Labour Party keeps driving its ideological line and mass importing of Muslims, it must assume responsibility for this treason."

Morocco plane crash kills 80 Rabat: A military transport plane slammed into a mountainside in bad weather in southern Morocco, killing all 80 persons on board, hospital and military sources said.

The army said 78 persons were killed on the spot and two rushed to hospital after the Hercules C130 crashed on the edge of the Sahara desert in Morocco’s worst military aviation disaster.

A hospital source later said that the injured died of their wounds.

The plane crashed into a mountain northeast of Guelmim, located about 830 kilometers south of the capital Rabat, the army said in a statement.

Most of those onboard the aircraft were soldiers flying from Laayoune in Western Sahara to the coastal city of Agadir.

Norway killings: The India connection

The Hercules C-130 crashed on the edge of the Sahara in Morocco’s worst military aviation disaster.

But the army said civilians, including family members, were also on the flight.

The army statement blamed the accident on "bad weather conditions".

Al-Qaeda coming for your kids!

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri.

London: Al-Qaeda activists are making an animated cartoon film that would show "heroic acts" like "armed engagements" to inspire children to take up

jihad. Stills were published on the Arabic-language al-Shamouk jihadist website, BBC reported quoting Qulliam, a London-based "counter extremism" think tank.

The post on the al-Shamouk website was authored by someone calling himself Abu al-Laith al-Yemen, Quilliam said.

It quoted him as saying: "The cartoon movie alQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a very exciting story that tells the facts about who let down the Islamic religion and the Prophet... It aims to catalyze the youth and the children to follow the steps of Islamic jihadist figures. It includes real incidents and features heroic actions by the mujahideen in the Prophet's peninsula. These incidents include raids, armed engagements and assassinations."

The film was an "alternative to the poison that is broadcast by other TV channels to our children and youth", he said.

China rescues 89 trafficked children, arrests 369 Beijing: Chinese authorities have rescued 89 trafficked minors as young as 10 days and the oldest 4 years and arrested 369 suspects after uncovering two child trafficking gangs, authorities said Wednesday.

The busts highlighted China's thriving black market in children — mostly involving buyers who want more children or those who want them as slave labor — that endures despite harsh penalties for traffickers, including death.

It was not clear from the reports posted Wednesday on the Ministry of Public Security website if sex abuse also might have been a motive. Calls to the ministry went unanswered.

One case stretched across 14 provinces in China and the other involved a trafficking ring that mainly sold children in Vietnam through neighboring Guangxi province.

A report by the People's Daily, posted on the ministry's website, said raids were carried out on July 20 in 14 provinces in the south, east and north of the country.

The operation involved 2,600 officers and the People's Daily said the youngest child was 10 days old and the oldest 4 years.

A separate People's Daily report that wasn't published on the ministry's website said the Vietnam operation on July 15 resulted in

the rescue of eight infants aged 10 days to 7 months. Thirty-nine people, of which at least four were Vietnamese, were detained.

A total of 89 minors were rescued and 369 suspects arrested in both operations, the reports said.

Police sent the rescued children to orphanages as their parents had not been found.

It is often difficult to trace the parents of trafficked children and the law has not clearly defined the circumstances in which a buyer of a child should be punished. While many babies are stolen, some are sold by their parents.

Liu Ancheng, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security Criminal Investigation Bureau, was quoted in the People's Daily report as saying that if the buyers have not abused the children, they cannot be held criminally responsible. Liu said the "dreadful practice of buying and selling children" is a result of ignorance of the law in rural areas as well as traditional Chinese social norms that call for people "to have both sons and daughters" and children who will look after a parent in old age. China's traditional preference for male heirs means some families sell their female babies in order to try for a boy, since the country's one-child policy limits most urban couples to one child and rural families to two.

Business TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-August 5, 2011

BlackBerry job cuts stun nations Toronto : In a massive layoff, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) announced it was axing 2,000 employees. The unprecedented decision comes a month after the top Canadian technology company issued pink slips to 200 'manufacturing' employees at its headquarters at Waterloo near Toronto.

The lay-offs account for over 10 percent of RIM's total workforce around the world.

It is the biggest lay-off in the history of the company which invented the smart phone. With this job cuts, RIM's global employees will now number about 17,000.

The decision come amid RIM's declining market share, shrinking revenue, profit warnings and delays in replacing the aging handsets.

RIM stock has sunk about 60 percent this year, reducing its market worth to less than $14 billion from a whopping $83 billion just over two years ago.

"The work force reduc- in North America. RIM said tion is believed to be a pru- the affected employees will dent and necessary step for be notified later this week the long term success of the according to local laws and company. hefty severance packages It follows an extended will have to be paid to period of rapid growth them. within the company, whereThe company said the by the work force had near- layoffs are part of its cost ly quadrupled in the last optimization program. five years alone," The whole restructuring BlackBerry said in a state- may cost RIM $200-250 ment. million, according to estiMost of those laid off are mates.

Amazon set to launch services in India Chennai: World's largest online retailer, Amazon. com is set to enter India, riding on the second wave of e-commerce boom in India. Amazon is in discussions with leading Indian ecommerce players like Flipkart.com, LetsBuy.com and Exclusively.in, among others and may enter the market as early as the first quarter of next year.

Acquiring Indian players has been the dominant theme for foreign majors looking to enter Indian market with eBay acquiring Baazee.com and Groupon picking up SoSasta.com to enter the market. But sources say that Amazon is looking to set up operations on its own as its discussions with many players on acquisition front haven't seemed to work out.

"Indian players see the huge potential in the e-commerce segment here and so

Euro debt crisis festers with Greece he eurozone debt crisis fears continued to fester as Moody's downgraded Greek debt saying it is "almost certain" to default following last week's bailout deal and yields on Italian and Spanish bonds widened again.

The credit rating agency cut the country's bond ratings three notches to Ca - one above a default rating - and said that once

T

private holders of Greek bonds "incur credit losses" it would define this "as a default by the Greek government on its public debt". A default rating could have unforeseeable domino effects on financial markets, but the ISDA organisation which oversees CDS default insurance contracts said the rescue terms would probably not trigger payout clauses.

Averting a default, and trigger-

Amazon is also establishing a warehouse in Mumbai, a standard step before entering the e-commerce space going by what Amazon has been doing globally. have so far been resistant to source. Amazon is also being bought out easily," establishing a warehouse in said another source. Mumbai, a standard step Amazon is likely to ramp before entering the e-comup through inorganic ways merce space going by what later, depending on market Amazon has been doing growth and their perform- globally. ance relative to competiAnother interesting develtion. Hiring is currently on opment has been the buying in Hyderabad, Bangalore of 80,000 sq ft by Amazon and Chennai to fill up the at SP Infocity, promoted by various positions in this Shapoorji Pallonji & Co team, say sources. "A team Ltd, in Perungudi in of over 200 people is being Chennai. built, though all of them The company already has might not end up in the core a development centre in retail arm," said another Chennai.

India ranks 14 on FDI inflow index

ing CDS turmoil, was a key obstacle in the rescue talks, but eventually eurozone governments resigned themselves to this possibility.

The cost of insuring most peripheral eurozone government debt against default rose on Monday on market doubts that the fresh aid package for Greece agreed last week will protect bigger economies from contagion.

Murthy is Bengal IT Chief Mentor Kolkata: Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy has given his nod to become the chief mentor of the IT panel being formed by the West Bengal government to prepare a roadmap for the industry and attract more investment in the sector.

State Industries and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee said that the state government had written to Narayana Murthy earlier this month requesting him to be the chief mentor of the state IT panel and he has sent his consent letter accepting the proposal.

Chatterjee said, "We expect that under his mentorship best practices of the industry available in the country and abroad will be followed in the state."

He said Narayana Murthy was all praise for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the initiative being taken to develop IT industry in the state. Murthy said he would take part in meetings through video and teleconference in case he was unable to attend in person due to his busy schedule, the minister said.

Sam Pitroda, the head of the National Innovation Council, is the chairman of the state IT panel.

23

Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.

The US tops the list of countries with overseas fund inflows at $228 billion.

New Delhi: India's ranking on the list of countries attracting the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2010 fell to 14th position with inflows declining to $25 billion as against $36 billion last year, according to a UN survey.

The US tops the list of countries with overseas fund inflows at $228 billion, followed by the Chinese mainland, which attracted inflows of $106 billion, and Hong Kong at $69 billion. Belgium was the fourth largest FDI inflow destination at $62 billion.

According to the UNCTAD's annual investment survey -- World Investment Report 2011 -- the FDI to South Asia declined to $32 billion, reflecting a 31 percent slide in inflows to India and a 14 percent drop in flows to Pakistan. India

ranked fourth on the list of top 10 recipients and sources of FDI inflows in developing Asia in 2009 and 2010 behind China and Singapore.

In contrast, inflows to Bangladesh, a rising low-cost product location, increased by nearly 30 percent to $913 million. "The desire to invest in India is still there but we need to put in a system to ensure that the deal that is given will stand for sometime," said Biswajit Dhar, director general, Research and Information System for Developing Countries.

India was also the fifth largest source of funds (FDI outflow) in developing Asia, helped by a string of major acquisitions in countries across the globe between 20072011.

24

Sports

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

India lose Lord’s Test London: Pacer James Anderson led with five wickets as India, save Suresh Raina's resolute 78, failed to defy the strong England attack and lost the first cricket Test by 196 runs at Lord's.

Chasing a record victory target of 458 runs, India folded up for 261 in the final session of the fifth day with 28 overs still left.

There were jubilant scenes all around as Stuart Broad, who played an important role with the bat and ball, trapped Ishant Sharma plumb lbw. In all the five days, the stands were packed with fans relishing every moment of the 2000th Test of cricket's history -- and the 100th between the two nations, that saw both teams produce exhilarating cricket.

The victory gave England a 1-0 lead in the four-match series with the next Test scheduled to start at Trent Bridge from July 29.

It was a brilliant performance by England.

They piled up 474 in the first innings with Kevin Pietersen scoring a double century under cloudy conditions. Broad, who had to fight for his place in the team, swung the

ball prodigiously to take four wickets as India were bowled out for 286 in the first innings.

To be fair to India, they were dealt a serious blow on the very first day when pace spearhead Zaheer Khan strained his hamstring and did not bowl again. India bowled with three bowlers which forced Mahendra Singh Dhoni to leave his keeping gloves and bowl eight overs of gentle medium pace to give rest to his pacers.

If that was not enough, they had Sachin Tendulkar suffering a viral infection and Gautam Gambhir hurting his elbow.

Handicapped, India fought back through Ishant Sharma in the second innings when they reduced England to 62/5 on the fourth morning, the best period they enjoyed in the Test. But Matt Prior (103) and Broad (74) made sure that England held the advantage.

First innings centurion Rahul Dravid (36) and V.V.S. Laxman (56) began strongly to see off 27 overs Sunday, batting with sublime ease.

An ailing Tendulkar looked a pale shadow of himself. He survived two close chances

Dravid rises in ICC rankings London: Rahul Dravid, courtesy a brilliant hundred in the first Test between India and England at Lord's, has gained seven places to be 15th while teammate Sachin Tendulkar lost two places to be fourth after an ordinary show in the 2000th Test, in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings.

England batsman Jonathan Trott and fast bowler James Anderson have risen to second place in the rankings following their team's emphatic victory.

Trott has climbed two places, above Tendulkar and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, to the second spot in the batting rankings, after his innings of 70 and 22 in the opening game of the four-match series.

Kevin Pietersen, whose magnificent unbeaten double-century earned him the Man of the Match Award, has returned to the top 20, climbing 14 places to joint 15th in

Rahul Dravid. the rankings alongside Dravid.

The other centurion in the match, England wicket-keeper Matt Prior, has also achieved a new career-best rating, rising 10 places to 21st.

M.S. Dhoni has scored 638 runs in his last 23 innings which is under-par. On the other hand, Matt Prior (right) has turned out to be the most complete batsman at number seven in world cricket. and took 40 balls to reach his 12th run before being dismissed lbw by Anderson.

Tendulkar was lucky to be dropped by Andrew Struass at second slip and survived a close leg before call off Broad.

The maestro, who came to bat amidst a rousing welcome from a packed stadium, was widely tipped to score his maiden century at Lord's and also complete his hundred international centuries. But it was not to be.

‘Indian team didn’t skip Envoy’s reception’ Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) denied a media report that the Indian High Commission had reported the touring Indian team to the external affairs ministry (MEA) in New Delhi for skipping its reception July 18.

In a press release, the BCCI stated that though the team did get an invite from the Indian High Commission in London for the reception, they had communicated their inability to attend as they had already committed to another function on the same day six months ago.

"The BCCI would like to make it clear that this story is baseless," BCCI secretary Narayanaswamy Srinivasan said in a statement.

"The Indian High Commission had extended an invitation to the Indian team to attend a reception on July 18.

However, the Indian cricket team had already committed itself

The Indian cricket board said the reception will now be arranged in August when the Indian team returns to London. to another function on the same day, six months in advance.

The BCCI had accordingly communicated the same to the Indian High Commission, and suggested that the reception be

organized on July 25 instead," it said.

The board said the reception will now be arranged in August when the Indian team returns to London.

Injuries cost us dear: Dhoni Khade qualifies for 2012 Olympics

London: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said loss of key players to injuries midway through the first Test did not allow them to play to their full potential against England.

"It was a very good Test match. Pevin Pietersen and Matt Prior came up with brilliant knocks and then there were couple of good knocks from Indian batsmen as well. Overall, it was a satisfying Test match."

"Zaheer's injury was a big blow for us. We had to play with three bowlers. The conditions were more suited for the fast bowlers and it was not spinning much. So it was tough for Harbhajan. The remaining bowlers had to bowl longer spells. I was pleased with how the bowlers stuck to it."

"Unfortunately, Sachin was also unfit and had viral infection and Gambhir got injured which means that the the batting order had to be shuffled in the second innings. Batsmen were not batting at their usual position."

Asked that India always gets off to a sluggish start overseas, Dhoni said: "Had we known the reason we would have ensured it does not happen again. It is a long series and there is a lot more exciting cricket in store."

A lot of important players were not playing in West Indies. Tendulkar, Gambhir and Zaheer missed the series in the Caribbean and joined the team here. They played only one three-day warm up match before the first Test.

New Delhi: Indian swimmer Virdhawal Khade has qualified for the 2012 London Olympics in the 100-metre freestyle event at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai.

Khade clocked 50.34s and is the second Indian to qualify for the Olympics.

Sandeep Sejwal was the first swimmer to qualify for the 2012 mega event in the 100 metres breaststroke event.

Following their phenomenal performances at the World Championships, Khade and Sejwal now continue to be part of the Top 150 list.

Khade is ranked 122 in the 50m butterfly event while Sandeep is 128th in the 100m breaststroke event.

Sharath Gayakwad earlier qualified for the London Paralympics 2012 in the 100m breaststroke event.

Health TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-August 5, 2011

Blood in Urine - Hematuria rine is normally pale yellow or straw colored and normally should not contain blood.

Presence of blood in the urine is called hematuria which will turn the urine pink, red or coca cola in color. Frequently the urine will appear clear to the naked eye but on examination under a microscope will reveal several red blood cells. This is known as microscopic hematuria. This as well as frank blood in urine needs further evaluation. It takes about 1/5th of a teaspoon of blood in half a quart of urine to be visible. The amount of blood in the urine does not indicate the seriousness of the disease.

Hematuria is a symptom not a disease in itself. Besides blood some medicines like rifampicin, phenytoin, foods such as beets, rhubarb may also change the color of urine to red. Several causes of hematuria are known, some are benign, that is, there is no serious underlying condition and are usually transient like after strenuous exercise. Since this may also be a sign of more serious problems all hematuria should be evaluated by a physician.

About 10% of people have hematuria while about 3% have gross hematuria.

Women have higher incidence of hematuria since they also tend to have more frequent urinary tract infections, a common cause of hematuria.

Urine is produced by the two kidneys in humans which drain into the urinary

U

bladder (the reservoir of urine) by two tubes called ureters. The bladder empties out through another tube called the urethra. Any abnormality in this passage can cause hematuria. In men the prostate gland surrounds the urethra, and disease in the prostate can frequently cause hematuria in men especially older men.

Causes of hematuria * UTI/STD * Kidney or ureteric stones * Hereditary diseases- polycystic disease of kidneys, Alport's disease, thin membrane disease * Benign prostatic enlargement (BPH) - especially in men over the age of 50 * Trauma- blow to the kidney during car accidents or fall on the back * Tumors of any organ of the urinary tract - kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra or prostate in men * Kidney disease like glomerulonephritis – Ig A nephropathy, or renal manifestations of systemic disease like lupus or other vasculitis * Urinary schistosomiasis seen mostly in African and Middle Eastern countries * Sickle cell disease Urine can be red, brown colored, which has nothing to do with blood in the urine. These causes include but are not limited to foods such as beets, rhubarb, some commonly used medicines such as blood thinners like Coumadin, rifampin, phenytoin, aspirin,

25

and quinine. In women menstrual blood and serious illnesses like liver disease may also discolor the urine.

Signs and symptoms associated with hematuria will be those of the disease causing the hematuria. In case of urinary tract infection, in addition to hematuria patient may complain of pain in lower abdomen or back, fever and burning urination. With kidney stones patient will have loin to groin pain, frequent urination, dysuria, nausea and vomiting.

See your health care provider if you see any blood in the urine. If blood in urine is associated with significant symptoms of pain, fever, nausea, or vomiting, seek medical attention in an emergency room.

Diagnosis Diagnosis is made mostly by history and some common tests. Physician will base his/her diagnosis on your medical and surgical history. Questions asked will include nature and frequency of hematuria, use of prescription or illicit drugs, supplements or herbal medication. History of surgery, trauma, or any medical conditions. History of smoking, your diet and exercise habits. Family history of medical/ renal conditions, travel history, exposure to certain chemical or chemotherapeutic agents.

Diagnostic tests used to determine cause of hematuria would start with a urinalysis. Here we are looking for presence of protein or abnormal cells casts in

addition to the hematuria. Presence of these is usually indicative of disease in the kidney itself like glomerulonephritis.

Culture of the urine is helpful to identify the organism causing the urinary tract infection, so specific antibiotics can be directed to the infection.

X-rays can identify some kidney stones. Ultrasonography is also used, but better still is a CT scan to identify kidney stones.

Cystoscopy is done if the cause of hematuria is not identified by the above tests. Cystoscopy consists of directly visualizing the interior of the bladder, urethra and ureters to identify the cause of hematuria. It should be considered in patients over the age of 40 or in those in whom a cancer is suspected.

Cytological evaluation of the urine is done to review for cancer cells in the urine.

If disease of the kidney is suspected as cause of hematuria then a biopsy of the kidney may be warranted.

Treatment Treatment of hematuria is treatment of the underlying cause. For infection antibiotics will be prescribed. For kidney stones drinking plenty of fluids and or breaking/removing the stone. Similarly if the cause is related to benign enlargement of the prostate, treatment of BPH will resolve the hematuria.

In brief, causes of hematuria are plenty, many benign. But if you have hematuria see a physician to confirm diagnosis and nature of disease.

The author of this article, Dr. Moyna Kapoor, M.D. is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine for Internal Medicine and Nephrology. She has offices in Brooklyn and holds consulting privileges in various hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens.

Atlantic Dialysis Management Services, LLC (ADMS) provides new dialysis site development, day to day administration and management of dialysis services and related business development activities. Its business strategy is to produce economies of scale and maximize individual site results through consolidated activities. Central to the ADMS approach is the long term control of clinical services by nephrologists.

In 2010, ADMS affiliates provided over 225,000 dialysis treatments to over 2,500 patients in New York City and Long Island.

26

Religion

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Significance of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr Fasting during the entire month of Ramadan (starting July end) is one of the five pillars of Islam. The breaking of the fasting period is celebrated in the joyous festival of Eid-ul-Fitr.

When Muslims obey the command of Allah and follow the n the Muslim world, all Hadith of his Messenger – the Muslims, followers of Islam, Prophet Mohammed (peace be will observe the holy month of upon him) during the holy month Ramadan, due to start from July 31 of Ramadan in specific, they are or August 1, depending on moon- rewarded the macrocosm (great sighting. This month is also known world or most worldly things) of as Shehrullah, meaning a month of the life in this world and hereafter Allah wherein Allah in the microcosm (little world or commands/ordains all Muslims to minute period), being a self-discikeep fasting. Allah made it Lazim plined and committed to Allah's (compulsory) for all Muslims ordain. across the globe. The fasting is one The Ramadan in India is also of the five pillars of Islam. At the called Ramzan. “Ramz” means to end of Ramadan-month, Muslims burn. As such, the fasting is considlook forward to celebrate the great ered to burn down one's sins. This, festivity known as Eid-ul-Fitr or in turn, will enhance one's moral Ramadan-Eid. standard, remove evil thoughts, In Islamic calendar, there are sanctify one’s body and soul and two joyous festivals among other make one a better person as a Muslim holidays: one is Eid-ul- Muslim to lead civic life in society Fitr, which falls on1st of Shawwal with the spirit of love, compassion and the other is Eid-ul-Adha (Bakri and brotherhood with others. The Eid) on 10th of Zilhajj. The Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.) said: Shawwal and Zilhajj are 10th and “Observing the fasting by getting 12th months of Hijri (Muslim) cal- up before dawn and performing endar, respectively. Eid is an prayer and reciting Do’a (supplicaArabic word meaning Festivity. tion) does not bear the fruits if one Eid-ul-Fitr is not related to any does not shun evil thoughts and worldly affairs, not linked with any deeds, does not think with passion historical event or connected to any for other needy and poor people”. world leader or human being. It is During Ramadan, Zakat (Charity) only connected with Allah, the cre- is highly obligatory for all Muslims ator of this universe. Its signifi- since Zakat is one of the five pillars cance is purely spiritual. During (tenets) of Islam and every Muslim the month of Ramadan, a Muslim is called upon to contribute or put is expected to pay the Zakat (chari- aside at least 2.5% of his/her ty) as laid down in Muslims’ holy income for the financially deprived scripture – Quran. Obligation of or under-privileged people such as Zakat stands equally with Salat widows and orphans.

(Prayer) & Som (Fasting) to every The next day on ending of fastMuslim. ing-month of Ramadan, almost 2 billion Muslims around the world celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr (Ramadan Eid). Eid-ul-Fitr is an Arabic word. Eid means Festivity and Fitr means to break (the fast). So, this holiday symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period.

Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated throughout the Feast after the fast—Vermicelli is the main Muslim world – from ingredient in the traditional Eid sweet China in the East to “Shirkhumo” made with milk.

USA in the West, from

By Shk. Tayeb Poonawala

I

Canada in the North to Indonesia in the South, wherever Muslims live, irrespective of Sunni or Shia branch of Islam or of any ethnic groups connected with Islam.

Mother India also celebrates this Ramadan-Eid with her 150 million Muslim Children, representing her status in the Muslim World as the second largest Muslim populated country among five continents of the world, next to Indonesia which is first ranking country of the Muslim World.

Eid-ul-Fitr is called by different names in different Muslim countries, e.g. Hari Lebaran (Indonesia), Hari Raya Puasa (Malaysia), Shemai or Rojar (Bangladesh), Ramazan Bayrami (Turkey), Tabaski (West Africa), Eid-ul-Fitr (Mediterranean North Africa ), Id-al-Fitri (Nigeria), Ramadan Bairam (Sudan), Oraza Ayt and Ruza Hayit (Kazakhastan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia), Kochna Akhtar (Afghanistan), Eide Sayed Fitr (Iran), Fuchingze (NW China), Ramzan Eid (India), Chhoti Eid (Pakistan), Iddi-el-Fitry (Tanzania/Zanzibar), Ramadan Bajram (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Lesser Bajram (Albania, SEEurope), and Eid-ul-Fitr (throughout the Arab Peninsula).

The significance of Eid-ul-Fitr, apart from the theological aspect, when looked from philosophical perspective, is manifold: 1. Eid is a Thanksgiving Day: Muslims assemble in happy and joyful atmosphere in mosques to offer their gratitude to Allah for helping them to fulfill their religious obligations and to revive their spiritual strength to feel closer to Allah and to lead their lives with the decency and dignity in society.

2. Eid is a Day of Remembrance: Allah is identified and is called by 99 names, which are related to all adjectives of the virtues of Allah that he holds or possesses. As such Muslims refer to Allah or call him as: Ya-Rehman (Gracious), YaRahim (Merciful), Ya-Khaiq

Prayers during the first night of Ramadan at Madina Masjid in the East Village in New York City last year.

(Creator), Ya-Bari (Originator), YaAalim (All Knowing), Ya-Samee (All Hearing), Ya-Baseer (All seeing), Ya-Habib (Dear), Ya-Razzak (Provider), Ya-Aziz (Loving), YaAzim (Great/Glorious), Ya-Tayyib (Good/Fine), and so on. Therefore, Muslims pray to and remember Allah with such names in reciting Do'a (supplication) and ask for his favors or blessings with those meaningful names.

3. Eid is a Day of Victory: When a Muslim-devotee observes a month-long Som (Fasting), Salat (Prayer), Tilawat (Recitation of Quran) and Zakat (Charity), he/she succeeds in attaining spiritual enhancement, moral growth and receives Eid with the victorious spirit and vigor.

4. Eid is a Day of Harvest: “What You Sow, So You Reap” is a well known proverb. As such, those Muslims who sow the seeds of charity in the fertile field of fasting during the season of Ramadan do reap the blessings of Allah in abundance. Allah gives infinitely to those who are sincerely concerned with the general welfare of their fellow-brothers and sisters who are poor and needy.

5.Eid is a Day of Forgiveness: When Muslims assemble in the Masjid (Mosque) or in the congregation of the Eid-Day, they wholeheartedly pray for the “magferat” (forgiveness) for their Gunah (sins) and earnestly ask him to provide “nek-taufiq” (good strength/help) in their Imaan (Faith), Allah answers their calls through prayers positively.

On this auspicious day, Allah has assured those who approach him with sincerity to grant them of his mercy and forgiveness.

6. Eid is a Day of Love and

World-Peace: When Muslims become free of hatred, create love and establish peace in their hearts

by Allah's Ta'aat (by obeying the laws of Allah) during this holy month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid on ending of Ramadan with happiness and joy of Eid, they certainly feel spiritually re-awakened and invigorated human beings and conclude to lead loving, honest, disciplinary, peaceful life with compassion. Muslims, thus, can generate love and peace in the family and society. Such a MuslimSociety at large can bring love and peace to the nation and such a nation can stand proudly with the icons of communal harmony, stability, national progress and peaceful coexistence in the pluralistic society of the democratic government. In turn, the nation with such a character can participate effectively to achieve world peace on global stage. Thus, Eid is a Day of Love and Peace.

On the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, Muslim families at home prepare a traditional, mouth-watering, delicious dish known as “Shirkhumo” (Well Boiled Thick Milk Mixed with Vermicelli, Dry Fruit and Saffron) to entertain family, relatives and friends. Eid is indeed a happy, joyous occasion for family reunion, similar to Rosh Hashanah /Yom Kippur for the Jewish people, Diwali/Deepavali to Hindu Society, Christmas to Christian community, Baisakhi to Sikhs, Mahavir-Jayanti to Jain Samaj, Lasor to Buddhists and Jamshed Noruz to Zoroastrians– Parsi Community.

The author is President, IndoAmerican Interfaith Forum, NY, and can be contacted at tpoonawala@aol.com.

Lifestyle TheSouthAsianTimes.info

27

July 30-August 5, 2011

Hugs keep marriage strong and happy o you think that not having sex with your partner is a sign of a troubled relationship? Well, its not. A new research has indicated that the frequency of cuddling is a far better indicator of the strength of a relationship than having sex.

“Cuddling provides not just sensual pleasure, but also a feeling of comfort, security and companionship, all of which are just as important to a relationship as sex,” the Daily Mail quoted Paula Hall, relationship expert for

D

Why attractiveness matters

o good-looking people really benefit from their looks, and in what ways? A team of researchers found that attractive people have more social relationships and an increased sense of psychological well-being.

This seems like common sense, and might be why we spend billions of dollars each year trying to become more attractive.

However, the study also determines that the importance of attractiveness is not universal; rather, it is determined by where we live. In urban areas, individuals experience a high level of social choice, and associating with attractive people is one of those choices. In other words, a free market of relationships makes attractiveness more important for securing social connections and consequently for feeling good.

In rural areas, relationships are less about choice and more about who is already living in the community. Therefore, attractiveness is less likely to be associated with making friends and feeling good.

Victoria C. Plaut, a psychologist at the University of Georgia, and her team studied women at mid-life, based on data related to their well-being, social connectedness, and their body attractiveness (waistto-hip ratio).

Plaut points out "the importance of attractiveness varies with certain sociocultural environments, and, if you think about it, urban environments are actually a relatively recent addition to human life", according to a Georgia release.

These findings were published in the latest issue of Personal Relationships.

D

online dating service Parship, as saying. In fact, maintaining an intimate connection without the wild abandon of the hormonal early days can be vital for a happy relationship. “The advantage of non-sexual intimacy is that couples often use this time together to talk about their emotional lives,” said Hall.

“Whereas when sex is their only way of getting close, couples who find emotional openness difficult often rely on making love to help them connect.

They can find themselves missing out

on other levels of intimacy,” added Hall.

If sex is the focus, it can mean that emotional problems are never discussed — whereas non-sexual touching, such as cuddling and stroking, encourages more relaxed bonding and intimate conversation, due in large part to the crucial “cuddle hormone” oxytocin.

“Oxytocin is produced by touch and, as well as making us feel good, it also inspires us to touch more,” said Hall.

28

Humor

July 30-August 5, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Humor with Melvin Durai

Prayer requests via Facebook s part of an ongoing effort to get more young people to participate in church, Good Shepherd United Church decided to accept prayer requests on its Facebook page and print them in its weekly bulletin. Pastor Jim Williams was pleased to see the entire congregation, young and old, reading the bulletin with great interest the following Sunday.

*Please pray for Joanne, who strongly desires to tie the knot with her boyfriend, Ron. Pray that everything works out for her and that Ron finally gets the hint.

A

Prayer Requests: *Please pray for C.J. as he awaits the results of an important test. His classmate Jenny recently gave birth to a baby boy and is having a paternity test done. Pray that C.J. isn’t the father, but if he indeed is, please pray that he has the strength to face his parents. *Please keep Mike in your prayers as he tries his best to get tickets to the U-2 concert next week. Also pray that he doesn’t have to pay too much for the tickets, and if he does, please pray for the souls of the ticket scalpers. *Please pray that Harumi can overcome his addiction to viewing

certain pictures and videos on the Internet, which is affecting his work and family life. He wants desperately to overcome his obsession with Will and Kate. *Please pray that Heather will have success with her experiment in chemistry class. There is a cute guy in the class and she is experimenting playing hard to get. *Please pray that Mukesh can solve his Visa issues and bring his wife and children from India. He wants to buy airline tickets and needs a new Visa card to charge them to. *Please keep Veronica in your prayers as she begins a new phase in her life. Pray that she has the strength to survive without Oprah.

*Please pray for Prince, who is trying desperately to get some money out of Nigeria and needs someone’s help.

dering why she couldn’t find employment at some place other than Baskin-Robbins. Pray that she doesn’t eat herself out of a job. *Please pray for Dawn, who is having a health issue. Her doctor says she needs to lose weight, but if she doesn’t get a little bigger, she

won’t create enough space for a Justin Bieber tattoo. *Please pray for Jack, who just lost three friends. He doesn’t know why they unfriended him on Facebook. Pray that his prayer request results in a few more friend requests.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

*Please keep Justin in your prayers as he faces a difficult decision in his life: whether to buy a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PlayStation.

Help him get the direction he needs. *Please pray for Carson, who promises to come to church every Sunday for the rest of his life if he manages to pass his Grade 12 math exam. *Please pray for Miguel, who is recovering from a big loss and still can’t understand how the Mavericks beat the Heat. Pray that he has the strength to endure another season of watching LeBron come up short. *Please pray for Sunita, who is struggling with temptation and won-

by Mahendra Shah Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons.

Hailing from Gujarat, he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Tech Life

Future PCs to break calculation barriers WASHINGTON: Future computers will perform complex calculations unthinkable for existing models with scientists tweaking a mechanism to process and transmit data at phenomenally high speeds.

Future computers will exploit the mind-bending properties of quantum particles, a mode of computing that relies on quantum bits or qubits, encoding information as ones and zeros. While a bit can represent either a one or a zero, a qubit can represent both one and zero simultaneously, a state known as superposition.

This allows for instantaneous processing of calculations in a truly parallel system, skyrocketing computing ability, the journal Nature magazine reports. Using intense magnetic fields, Susumu Takahashi, assistant professor

at the University of Southern California's Dornsife College and colleagues managed to suppress decoherence, a key stumbling block in quantum computing.

Decoherence, described as a "quantum bug," knocks quantum particle out of superposition, the ability to exist simultaneously in one and zero states, which has delayed the creation of a fully functional quantum computer, says a Southern California release.

Researchers figured out that qubits function optimally when decoherence is reduced by 1,000 times, something which crystalline molecular magnets helped Takahashi accomplish.

"This will obviously increase signals from the qubit drastically, so the detection of the qubit in the molecular magnets is much easier," Takahashi said.

Women prefer internet, sleep to sex WASHINGTON: The three most important things in a women's life are sleep, the Internet and showers, a new study has revealed.

While men may agree on the first two items, sex is the third thing most of them say they can't live without.

New research conducted by Women at NBCU revealed that women are becoming increasingly more passionate about the Internet and their tech gadgets.

In fact, about 54 percent of women own smartphones compared with 46 percent of men.

Women also tend to have more friends on social networking sites and follow more

brands, and check their profiles about four or five times a day.

They are also becoming more interested in gaming.

Although men have traditionally dominated the gaming

world, a whopping 75 percent of women with smartphones own a gaming app compared with 67 percent of men.

Gaming popularity among women doesn't stop at smartphone apps, either: more women than men own Nintendo Wii systems, the report said.

The rapid adoption of digital technology by women has been a game changer when it comes to the shopping industry.

For example, more "flash sales" have been popping up in retail, as 87 percent of women prefer a one-day deep discount to a moderate weeklong sale.

The study has been published in TechNewsDaily.

Astrology TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-August 5, 2011

By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma

Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874; Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 9899; psharma@premastrologer.com; www.premastrologer.com

Stars Foretell: July 30-August 5, 2011 Aries: This week some difference of opinion with children or some trouble with servants, co-workers, subordinates would leave you in a terrible mood. Health of some elderly person in your family or of some near one could cause some stress and anxiety. Your own health could also suffer if you do not take proper rest or take proper diet. Avoid hasty investments. Religious feelings would arise making you spend more time on religious and spiritual activities. Foreign related matters would take shape.

Taurus: This week you need to take out some time and visit close friends, since your recent work schedule could have prevented you from meeting them. Sudden journey for working women and those connected with sales & marketing cannot be ruled out. Politicians would also find things not proceeding smoothly.

Romance would be exciting, but prove expensive to your pocket. Losses are certain if you associate yourself with dubious people.

Gemini: This week difference of opinion is likely to create uneasy moments at workplace but your efforts would get noticed and appreciated by your seniors. Relationship with beloved/spouse would improve and you would get to spend some memorable time together.

Good news from overseas can be expected later in the week. A new job, promotion or change of residence for some. This seems to be a good period to buy new electronic equipment for your domestic use.

Cancer: This week you would have more energy than you normally do and you should use it in a constructive manner. Do not make hasty decision or behave in a manner that could put you into problems with authority figures. You should try to use your extra energy to improve your earnings, build new contacts and help those who approach you with problems.

Resist overspending on luxury items and save as much as possible for the not so good days.

Leo: This week do not expect too much from your colleagues and friends. Hectic work schedule would require you to be on your toes most of the time, so take as much rest as possible in-between work. Family members ensure support while spouse provides you with a helping hand to finish pending jobs. New ventures and important plans would also be formulated later in the week. Sports and outdoor events would attract you.

Virgo: This week some good event revitalizes your energy. You would move ahead with the right initiative and finish off many pending proposals and jobs. Your painstaking efforts of the past, to establish a secure future for yourself and your loved ones would pay off good returns. Journey undertaken this week would bring in appreciable returns not immediately, but eventually. A Lady friend brings in financial/spiritual gains.

Libra: The coming week brings plenty of financial gains, giving you reason to be jubilant and extravagant. Business risk that you take during this period would have positive effect and would bring you monetary benefits. You would also acquire new techniques and skills

29

during this period, which would work to your advantage. Be careful of your antiques, documents, cash and expensive items, as losses due to theft seem likely.

Scorpio: This week a rendezvous with an influential person provides you with new direction and goals. Meanwhile moneymaking ventures that you undertake this week, would bring immediate gains, but avoid entering into any new partnerships and joint ventures. Unexpected good news from distant relatives would bring happy moments for the entire family. A friend may join you in an important mission. You will win lots of appreciation for your creativity.

Sagittarius: This week your dedication and hard work puts you in the limelight.

Your personality would have a magnetic appeal, which would easily attract the right people. Put maximum efforts on creative projects, which promise you long-term gains. Romance would flourish as your beloved brings you gifts and expensive presents. Health of your parents is likely to create tension and anxiety.

Capricorn: A wonderful week to work on projects which, are of creative nature.

You would also make certain changes, which would make you feel good about yourself. The cosmic weather is gradually changing which would bring benefits for you especially in your career. Travelling would be on your mind, but you should leave only if your work is up-to-date.

Health needs care, so avoid late night parties and hard drinks.

Aquarius: This week the work that you accomplish would not go unnoticed. You would be rewarded handsomely for your efforts.

Your partners would be helpful and supportive.

Improvement in finances is certain and you are likely to spend on family members and luxuries.

Your decisions would be widely accepted by people around you. If you are starving for knowledge then this is a perfect week to sign up for new courses and lectures.

Pisces: This week thinking positively would lead you to success. Interacting with eminent people would bring you good ideas and plans. Unexpected gifts and presents from guests as your fortune fairly smiles. Travel for some would prove hectic and stressful, but financially rewarding. Outing with friends would be entertaining but highly expensive, especially if you don’t learn to say no. This is definitely not the best period to speculate or invest in risky business.

Before you consult... i) Accurate Data: Please make sure Date, Time and Place of birth is accurate. ii) Careful: Did you check background of the astrologer before disclosing your secrets. iii) Fee: Discuss the charges before, don’t feel shy. It’s his business. iv) Expectation: Expect the best, if the outcome is not as desired, never give up. v) Consult: Take second opinion before spending thousands on cure/remedies.

Annual Predictions: For those born in this week July 30: Dominated by number 3 and the Planet Jupiter, you are charming, ambitious, talented, helpful, dignified and a highly methodical person. You are efficient in your work and others have difficulties in keeping with your pace, but you need to curb your tendencies to behave extravagant, jealous and hypocrite at times.

This year you would form many beneficial business partnerships and alliances. You would improve your financial gains through investments and new ventures. Your loved one will give you his or her time, services, and even financial support, if needed. Family responsibilities will escalate and people at home will be more demanding. Real-estate transaction towards the yearend should bring excellent monetary gains. The months of February, August, September and November will be result oriented.

July 31: Influenced by number 4 and the planet Uranus, you are trustworthy, energetic, systematic, reliable and noble person. You are physically very active, and enjoy participating in sports and social get-togethers, but you need to control your tendency to behave stubborn and jealous at times. This year you would travel excessively or do business with people who live far from your home. You are soon likely to enter a very positive period of financial and professional growth. It's also a good period to reassess your investments. Renovation of the house or construction related activities would also be high on your agenda. Chronic patients definitely need to be more careful about their health. Preventive medicines should not be avoided at any cost. The months of January, March, June and September will prove to be highly significant.

August 01: Governed by number 1, and the Sun, you are original, active, responsible and a talented person. You are highly skillful and fond of accepting challenges, but you need to control your tendency to dominate, overspend and behave destructive at times. You need to take stronger decisions to reap benefits.

Challenges that you accept during this phase would bring overwhelming results in the long run. Your financial condition would improve later in the year, as you would pickup jobs involving higher responsibility and position. A sudden influence of a spiritual person would have a remarkable influence on your personality and thoughts. Students would excel in their academic performance. Some exhilarating news from your overseas relations will boost up the spirits of the entire family. Travel and journey will be pleasurable. The months of September, November, March and May will be significant for you.

Aug 02: Ruled by number 2 and the Moon. You are highly trustworthy, emotional, simple, friendly and warmhearted person. You have a desire for learning and gathering knowledge and people look up to you for consultation and inspiration, but you need to check your tendency to behave introvert, hasty and whimsical at times. This year you need to do some serious thinking on your career options. Few brilliant opportunities would come your way but you need to act smart and quick to grab these once in a lifetime offer before others. Financial gains would accrue from investments and even speculation. A vacation to an exotic location cannot be ruled out later this year. Your health will remain good but health of your spouse or children will become a matter of concern.

Servants, colleagues, subordinates will cause some worry and unnecessary tensions. The months of August, November, January and April will be eventful.

Aug 03: Influenced by number 3 and the planet Jupiter. You are ambitious, philosophical, dignified, independent and intelligent person. Your outgoing personality and willingness to adapt to changes keeps you ahead of others, but you need to check your tendency to behave reckless, spendthrift and selfish at times. Important alliances would welcome you this year. Your self-confidence and determination would be at its peak. Selective speculation would be rewarding, therefore do not squander away your hard-earned money. Finances would improve middle of the year bringing prosperity and happiness at domestic level. Your friends would be supportive to your concerns and always be by your side at the need of the hour. New romance for those unattached will certainly add a spice to your bland life. Health of a sibling might cause some concern and anxiety. The months of Aug, October, December and January seem to be significant.

Aug 04: Dominated by number 4 and the planet Uranus, you are active, jovial, reliable, methodical and systematic. You are capable of handling many activities at one time, and you seldom complain, but you need to check your tendency to behave vindictive, jealous and stubborn at times. Great period to implement your new plans and ideas. Support from people around you would prove highly beneficial in completing pending jobs. Financial position stabilizes as investments start raking profits. Good time to travel and build up new contacts. Seeking blessing from a spiritual person would bring mental peace and comfort. Chances for overseas education for post graduates students would be bright. Matrimonial alliance for those seeking a life partner. Chronic patients need to take extra care for their health. The months of September, November, February and March will prove to be highly eventful.

Aug 05: Ruled by number 5 and the planet Mercury, you are strong, practical, active, business minded and a diplomatic person. You are a born leader and you easily inspire others to do an excellent job. You are hardworking and sincere, but your tendency to be moody, timid and jealous attracts enormous criticism at times. The coming year promises to be good for your physical and financial status. Recognition and rewards for your efforts would be plenty. There would be a good rise in your confidence and determination enabling you to handle difficult tasks with ease. Speculation in real estate would yield handsome returns. Distant travel would be undertaken for business purpose as well as pleasure. Children need to concentrate more on their career. Health would be fine in spite of overtime that you might have to put for initial few months. The months of Aug, September, January and June will be highly significant and result oriented.

Free Consultation Learn about the fair value of diamonds & precious stones.

To the readers of The South Asian Times by an expert gems dealer.

For appointment, please call 516 390 7847 or email consult.gems@gmail.com

30

Spiritual Awareness

July 30-August 5, 2010

TheSouthAsianTimes.info