30_vol4_epaper

US Affairs 11

Eid Celebrations 18

Hazarika Tribute 26

Spiritual Awareness 30

NEW YORK EDITION Vol.4 No.30 November 12-18, 2011 60 Cents Rajaratnam ordered to pay $92.8 M penalty in civil case

NYC Councilman Halloran never rests: Interview Tristate Community, Page 10

Pink City to PBD: ‘Padharo Mhare Des’

By Prakash Bhandari/SATimes Jaipur: Preparations are in full swing for the 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2012 which the Pink City would host from January 7 to 9 next year.

This event came to Rajasthan because of the initiatives taken by the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during the Rajasthan Association of North Americans (RANA) convention in Long Island last year. There Gehlot took an assurance from Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi to let Rajasthan host the PBD which connects more than 25 million overseas Indians in over 110 countries and recognizes Continued on page 4...

Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, accompanied by Rajasthan Industries Minister Rajendra Pareek, releasing a Brochure on Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas -2012 to be held in Jaipur.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info Rahul Gandhi poised for bigger role: Congress India Newswire, Page 12

India, Pakistan unveil 'new chapter', agree on 26/11 justice Addu (Maldives): India and Pakistan Thursday talked about writing ''a new chapter'' in their accident-prone ties, with Islamabad assuring New Delhi that the terrorists behind the Mumbai carnage, that virtually froze relations between the neighbors, will be brought to justice soon.

Meeting on the sidelines of the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit here, the two leaders held delegation-level talks for around half an hour in a seaside cottage and followed it up with 45 minutes of one-on-one talks.

With relations having languished since the cataclysmic

Ravi Batra weighs in on Rajat Gupta case New York: Not long ago, Rajat Gupta was straddling the worlds of international business and philanthropy in both America and India. The stunning fall from grace for the star executive came when in March the SEC filed an administrative civil complaint against him for insider trading alleging that he tipped Galleon chief Raj Rajaratnam with insider information about Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble while on the boards of both.

Weighing in on the case, eminent attorney Ravi Batra says it was dumb of Gupta to try and win the right to be "tried" in a larger setting. His just deserts came on Oct 26 in the form of one criminal and one civil suit.

No matter his standing, now under cloud, among Indian Americans or in India, Rajat Gupta was, in the eyes of Batra, a “false hero, whose natural abilities were wasted on playing the game while remaining insecure and feeling poor”. In a detailed interview with SATimes, Batra speculates on Gupta’s culpability and possible outcome of the case, while admitting his admiration for the ‘grand

Imran Khan predicts ‘a revolution’ in Pak politics Subcontinent, Page 21

Rajat Gupta, facing Attorney Ravi Batra criminal and civil suit interviewed by SATimes. prosecutor’ Preet Bharara. He also tackles the larger question of what the high profile case means for the South Asian community and its impact on the perception of leadership, ethical qualities of Indian business leaders here.

Read full interview on page 15.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, after the bilateral meeting, on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC Summit in Maldives Nov 10. They are accompanied by their foreign ministers S.M. Krishna and Hina Rabbani Khar.

26/11 terror attacks three years ago, the two sides agreed to push

a host of initiatives, including the Continued on page 4...

Europe breathes easy, Greece & Italy getting new heads Sydney: The euro held tentative gains early in Asia on Friday, having bounced off a one-month low versus the dollar on relief that Italy was able to fund itself in the debt market, albeit at a high cost.

The common currency was at $1.3602, up from Thursday's trough of $1.3481. It drew support from signs the political deadlock in Rome and Athens may be easing and as European politicians denied any split in the euro zone was under discussion.

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti has emerged as favorite to replace Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi within days and lead an emergency government. In

Greece, former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos was appointed to head an interim crisis cabinet.

"These developments are welcome - they are necessary for a turnaround in market sentiment," said Luigi Speranza, analyst at BNP Paribas.

But whether that is enough to stabilize the euro zone bond market in the longer term depends on the ECB, which has so far been reluctant to intervene on a large enough scale, Speranza wrote in a client note. Several ECB members hosed down thoughts of the central bank becoming a lender of last resort, which most analysts say is crucial to stem the crisis.

Tristate Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

3 Indian-Americans re-elected in NJ swept by blue wave

By Ashok Ojha/SATimes Edison, NJ: Less than a week before the General Election in New Jersey, Democrat incumbent Barbara Buono, a vocal critic of Gov. Christie’s tax policies, received encouraging support from prominent Indian American businessmen in the state. Impressed by the support from the community, Senator Buono, who has been representing the 18th district in the NJ Senate since 2002, declared her unconditional support for the growth of small businesses in which a large number of Indian Americans are active. The 18th Legislative District covers the Middlesex County municipalities inlcuding East Brunswick, Edison, Metuchen and South Plainfield Boroughs.

The presence of local Democratic Party leaders, such as, Toni Ricigliano, Mayor of Edison Township, Councilman Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad and a host of business owners created a lively atmosphere where Sen. Buono promised to support the business interests of the Indian American community. H.R. Shah, chairman of TV Asia and founder

3

Upendra Chivukula (left) who won a sixth term to New Jersey state assembly, had campaigned for Democratic Councilmen Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad (Edison Township) and Rajiv Prasad (Franklin Township) who retained their seats. member of the Asian American Retailers Association, organized the meeting and appealed the Democrats to lower taxes in the state. Shah was seconded by other speakers including Kenny Desai and Kanu Patel.

Fact remains that candidates from both Republican and Democratic parties have received support from the community. GOP is said to have made inroads in the community by fielding some Indian Americans in local elections.

Alerted by the emerging trend of Republican support in the communi-

ty, Democrats have made efforts to safeguard their support base in the community. Earlier this year Senator Buono sponsored a Joint Legislative Resolution on the floor of the House to honor Indian Business Association (IBA) for promoting commerce, civic engagement, and community activism in the state. IBA organizes the annual India Day parade in Edison. She praised IBA for playing a key role in preserving Indian culture and developing the economy of Edison Township.

Continued on page 4...

Republicans retain majority in Nassau County legislature John Venditto again TOBAY Supervisor; Rose Walker retains seat; in Suffolk county, Steve Bellone wins Executive race

John Venditto

Rosemarie Walker

Mineola, NY: Despite passing a tough budget and slashing spending costs, Republicans in the legislature managed to hold on to their majority lead after Tuesday’s off-year election. And at the town level, Supervisor races too remained status quo.

In the other Long Island county, Steve Bellone, the town supervisor of Babylon, became the Democratic Executive of Suffolk County, replacing Steve Levy, Democrat who turned Republican and ran an aborted campaign for NY governor. Bellone received 57 percent of the vote,

Steve Bellone

compared with 43 percent for his Republican opponent, Angie M. Carpenter, the county treasurer. In him, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will find a prominent new ally in the New York City suburbs.

In Town of Oyster Bay, John Venditto retained his Supervisor position, handily topping his Democrat rival John Capobianco 72 to 27 percent. His campaign pledge was to freeze taxes through 2012 in the town. Republican Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, also a Republi Continued on page 4...

Food for thought served by Narayana Murthy

By Jinal Shah/SATimes I have experienced hunger,” said Narayana Murthy, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys. Ironic of a man whose fortune is worth $1.65 billion, but it’s true! Murthy shared this incident while addressing over 200 people at the annual Akshaya Patra benefit program in New York on Wednesday. The Massachusetts based Akshaya Patra that feeds 1.3 million children in Indian schools daily is now set to feed five million children by 2020.Murthy narrated the hunger episode from his life: “In 1974, in a small border town named ‘Nis’ between what is now Serbia and Bulgaria I was hitch hiking on way from Paris to India. I had no local money and hence could not buy food. On my way to Bulgaria in Sofia Express I struck a conversation in French with a young girl. We spoke about the travails of living in an iron curtain country until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen (summoned by a man in the same compartment) who arrested me for criticizing the communist government of Bulgaria. I was dragged along the platform into a small room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was denied food and water for 125 hours.”

“

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy addressing the press on the eve of Akshaya Patra Foundation benefit event, along with Madhu Sridhar, President and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA. Murthy continued, “Deep in my heart; I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist.” This incident left an indelible mark on him and eventually led to founding of Infosys in 1981.

Besides giving a taste of what hunger is, Murthy’s narration lauded the meal scheme by Akshaya Patra as a great example of public-private partnership and put a spotlight on the compassionate capitalism he practices.

Akshaya Patra is a decade old foundation managing one of the world’s largest NGO- run

Narayana Murthy, India's ambassador to UN Hardeep Singh Puri (Second from left), and other guests at the Akshaya Patra event (Photos: Xitij Joshi/xitijphoto.com) midday meal programs. It serves daily meals in over 8,000 schools through 18 kitchens in eight states in India. “For many children this is their only complete meal for the day. It takes only $37 to feed a child for a whole year. Of which, $22 comes from the Indian government and state governments in form of subsidies, and the remaining $15 is the contribution made by our NGO,” said Madhu Sridhar, president and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA. She added that 80 percent of those funds still come from India and only 20 percent from USA. Murthy, a member of the newly formed advisory board of Akshaya Patra along with New

Age guru Deepak Chopra and CNN host Fareed Zakaria, cited two reasons for his involvement with the non-profit. One, he is fascinated how IITians led by Madhu Pandit Dasa (Akshaya Patra Chairman) are involved in creating technology to make the food production and distribution low cost and timely. Two, he is thrilled that it is a secular organization. "The great experiment by Akshaya Patra has proved that hot and free meals increased school attendance and also showed that children with filled stomachs studied better. The experiment was an example of inclusivity of growth that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continually talks about," Murthy said.

“The organization operates centralized kitchens in urban and suburban areas. Developed ingeniously, the mechanization has minimized human handling of food to ensure high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. The food is prepared within five hours,” Sridhar pointed out. The New York fundraiser was among half a dozen events held this year in cities including Boston, San Francisco and Atlanta expected to raise $1 million for the charity.

The Akshaya Patra foundation recently tied up with Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore to bring down the escalating food distribution cost due to rise in fuel prices.

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Community

November 12-18, 2011

Student unrest as coach Paterno is fired in Penn sex scandal State College, PA: Penn State University struggled to stem the damage on Thursday from a sex abuse scandal that ended the 46year career of football coach Joe Paterno, one of the most revered US sports figures.

Paterno was fired late Wednesday after it was revealed he was told in 2002 that his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky engaged in allegedly sexually inappropriate behavior with a young boy in a campus locker room. While Paterno told his boss, he did not call the police.

Chanting "Hell no, Joe won't go" and "We want Joe back," thousands of students took to the streets overnight in this central Pennsylvania university town to protest the decision, overturning a television van in a demonstration in which some police dispersed pepper spray.

Police said more than a dozen people were arrested and that there were plans to boost security at Penn State's final home football game on Saturday, although interim head coach Tom Bradley said he was not concerned about the safety of players.

"We are obviously in a very unprecedented situation," Bradley told a news conference on Thursday of the challenge facing him. "I am going to find a way to restore confidence and start a healing process with everybody." Sandusky was charged on Saturday with sexually abusing eight young boys over more than a decade and former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former finance official Gary Schultz, were charged with failing to report an incident.

Sandusky, Curley and Schultz have all denied the charges.

Along with Paterno, Penn State University President Graham Spanier was also fired on Wednesday after 16 years in the job.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info India Pakistan Story Continued from page 1 revival of the joint commission, a preferential trade agreement and liberal visa regime.

India conveyed to Pakistan the imperative need to punish perpetrators of 26/11 carnage and underlined that terror should not be allowed to spoil improving relations between them.

Pakistan promised to conclude the trial of the Mumbai terror accused in its custody and declared that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist, should be hanged.

In a sign of the new spirit of mutual accommodation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani agreed to open a new chapter in ties and hoped the next round of talks will be "more productive and constructive."

Coming out after their meeting, the two smiled and made brief statements before the media in which they virtually echoed each other in their desire to start a new phase in relations.

Describing Gilani as "man of peace," Singh said that the dialogue process, which the two countries resumed early this year, has yielded positive results, but stressed that "more needs to be done.

"We have decided that we will resume this dialogue with the expectation that all issues which have bedeviled the relations between our two countries will be discussed with all the sincerity that our two countries can bring to bear on these talks," he said.

Saying that "the destinies of people of India and Pakistan are very closely linked," the prime minister stressed that "we have wasted lot of time in the past in acrimonious debates.

"The time has come to write a new chapter in the history of our relationship."

Saying that Gilani fully endorsed this view, he said that "the next round of talks should be far more productive, far more result-oriented in bringing the two countries closer to each other than ever before."

He said the next round of the talks would be "more constructive, more positive, and will open a new chapter in the history of both the countries."

Saying that the two sides are "moving in a positive direction," Gilani also assured that "all possible steps were being taken in the context of the joint fight against terror."

Briefing reporters after the talks, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that the prime minister conveyed that the period of "accusations and counter-accusations was behind us," and stressed on key initiatives that emerged from the talks that included the revival of the joint commission and the signing of a visa agreement.

Building on positive momentum generated by Pakistan granting India Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, Mathai said the two countries are now planning to move towards a preferential trade agreement.

PBD Story Continued from page 1 contributions of global Indians to India’s economic growth.

Ravi spontaneously accepted the offer.

Ravi visited Jaipur recently and inspected the PBD venue - Marriott Hotel where the mega event would be staged. He also held high level meeting with ministers and officials and monitored the progress made by the organizers.

The theme of PBD-2012 is “Global Indian - Inclusive Growth”, and the Chief Guest will be the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Kamla Persad Bissessar.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate this annual flagship event of the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry Jan 8 and President Pratibha Patil will deliver the valedictory address Jan 9 and confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards.

“About 1,500 delegates are expected to participate in PBD-2012 from all over the world. The Rajasthan government is trying to make PBD more meaningful and interactive event that would address issues and concerns of the overseas Indian community effectively. The event would be webcast online and summary of proceedings will be put out every day on the website, www.pbdindia.org. The interactive website would provide an opportunity for the diaspora to participate in the conference from Communications & Operations Bhrigu Pankaj Prashar Cell: 516-303-4002 Bhrigu@TheSouthAsianTimes.info

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3 Indian-Americans Story Continued from page 3 “In these tough economic times, organizations like the IBA help make Middlesex County a model for economic success,” said Senator Buono.

Buono served in the state Assembly from 1994 to 2001. She worked on legislation for anti-harassment and bullying prevention to make schools safer for children. She also sponsored consumer protection measures restricting telemarketing by creating the most stringent "Do Not Call" database legislation in the nation.

Republicans retain majority Story Continued from page 3 can, got re-elected comfortably. In North Hempstead, Supervisor Jon Kaiman beat Republican challenger Lee Tu by a margin of 53 to 46 percent.

In the NassauCounty legislature races, Legislator Rose Marie Walker (RHicksville) trounced Democratic challenger Frederick Hagemann III by 74 percent to 26 percent.

An upset, however, on the Republican side came when Democrat Carrie Solages (D-Elmont) knocked off longtime lawmaker John Ciotti (R-Valley Stream).

The most-watched race in the county was for an open seat between Republican Robert Germino who squeaked past Democrat Delia DeRiggi-Whitton by a mere 37 votes in the 18th. Both are from Glen Cove.

“It’s a great night for the Republican Party!” GOP boss Joe Mondello told a packed room and loud applause and shouts. “We won the legislature, ladies and gentlemen!

We won the Town of Hempstead. We won the Town of Oyster Bay. We picked up one seat in North Hempstead.”

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all parts of the world,” said Rajasthan industries minister Rajendra Pareek.

Purushottam Agarwal, Commissioner of Bureau of Industrial Promotions (BIP), the nodal body of the state which is hosting the event in association with CII, said that to give the event a Rajasthani flavor, maximum participation Rajasthani NRIs is being planned.

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Tristate Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

Raj Rajaratnam ordered to pay $92.8 million in a civil case New York: After getting the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading, hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam has been ordered to pay a record $92.8 million penalty in a related civil case.

The fine imposed Tuesday on former head of the Galleon hedge fund group Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam was the largest the Securities and Exchange Commission has ever assessed against an individual. US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff stressed that he meted out the maximum financial penalty of $92.8 million, three times the $30.93 million the defence claimed Rajaratnam had made in illegal profits and avoided

Raj Rajaratnam to pay highest fine imposed by SEC to an individual losses, to send a clear message that anyone caught engaging in unlawful insider trading will “pay severely in monetary terms.”

He also said such a penalty was appropriate because the net worth of Rajaratnam, a former billionaire, “considerably

exceeds” the penalties in the criminal case.

“When to this is added the huge and brazen nature of Rajaratnam’s insider trading scheme, which, even by his own estimate, netted tens of millions of dollars and continued for years, this case cries out for the kind of civil penalty that will deprive this defendant of a material part of his fortune,” Rakoff wrote.

Rajaratnam was sentenced in October to 11 years in prison, ordered to forfeit $53.8 million in illegal gains and fined $10 million.

The fines and monetary sanctions imposed on him in the criminal and civil cases total almost $157 million, the SEC says.

End Polio walk held in Aruba New York: On Monday October 10, 2011, Ravi Bhooplapur ,Past District Governor of District 7250 and President of Xavier University School of Medicine, arranged and sponsored the first ever "End Polio Walk" on the tiny yet beautiful Dutch island of Aruba.

The historic event was highlighted by a rousing and heartfelt address by Past President and current Trustee of Rotary International, Wilf Wilkinson. P.R.I.P. Wilkinson addressed the medical students, on the main campus in Madiki, Aruba and thanked the wonderful and gracious Rotarians of Aruba for their hospitality. P.R.I.P Wilkinson made special note of P.D.G. Bhooplapur's selfless commitment to the betterment of humanity and thanked P.D.G. Bhooplapur for making the event possible. P.R.I.P. Wilkinson's speech reminded

Ravi Bhooplapur (second row, second from left), Past Governor of Rotary District 7250 and President of Xavier University School of Medicine, arranged and sponsored the 'End Polio Walk'. all the participants and atten- Board of Trustees of Xavier School of dees that while the Rotary University Foundation has done so much Medicine to imprint the unito eradicate the polio virus versity's school uniform with from the face of the earth, the "End Polio Now" logo. there is still more to do. And Xavier University School of we are "This Close."

Medicine, Aruba has also To further awareness of the raised a significant sum and is "End Polio" global campaign committed to contributing the on the island of Aruba, P.D.G. entire amount to the Rotary Bhooplapur has persuaded the Foundation.

Muggers beat ex-cabbie fatally in NY New York: Indian-origin Bimal Chanda of Bronx died yesterday from injuries he suffered when a pair of muggers beat him over the head for $15.

Bimal Chanda, 59, was attacked in the stairwell of his apartment building on West 190th Street in Fordham at about 9 a.m.

Saturday, reports the New York Post. The muggers had followed him from the street and grabbed him on the second floor landing, police say.

Chanda, who was married and had a daughter, was repeatedly struck in the head by one of the attackers with some sort of metal object, while the second assailant took his money.

He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital,

5

Bimal Chanda succumbed to severe head injuries where he died from the injuries he sustained at about 6 a.m. yesterday.

The suspects are still being sought through an NYPD investigation.

Indian employers hiring professionals in USA

By Ashok Ojha/SA Times Edison, NJ: With US job market showing no sign of looking up, India based employers are trying to attract experienced professionals who are willing to move to India. A dozen of such Indian companies ranging from IT to manufacturing last weekend showcased their strength at a road show in Somerset, NJ New Jersey called ‘India Hiring 2011.’

Prominent companies at the show included flipkart.com, Accenture, Jindal Steel & Power, Capgemini, Infotech and Tata Motors.

The show is scheduled to be held in San Jose, CA this weekend.

“India is no longer a destination for backend jobs only,” said Sandeep Bhushan, COO of HT Media Limited, that owns a job search portal, Shine.com, the main organizer of the show. “The current economic environment IN India is very fertile for start-ups. There is growth in most sectors, such as telecom, manufacturing and retail,” he added.

Bhushan said he expected 1,000 job seekers to visit the NJ show. “The participating companies are looking for talented candidates to fill their top and middle level managerial and technological positions,” he added.

“The new economy in India is no longer a bastion of big industrial houses,” claimed Amod Malviya, VP, Engineering of Flipkart.com, a 500 crore e-commerce com-

Sandeep Bhushan, COO, HT Media (right) briefing a guest at ‘India Hiring 2011’ show in Somerset, NJ. pany which is similar to amazon.com. “We are looking to hire our top level professionals from USA because we wish to compete internationally.” While Flipkart was looking to hire engineering manager, VP-supply chain technologies and software development engineer, Accenture was there to hire analyst and consultants in instructional design, assortment planning, financial consolidation, health domain, product sciences, etc. Similarly, Jindal Steel and Power wanted to recruit specialists in steel technology, coal gasification and steel melting. Tata Motors was interested in hiring managers and leaders in a variety of manufacturing areas. Infotech, Copgemini, SmartPlay, McAfee were looking for senior managers and IT specialists in designing, testing and datacenter management.

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Tristate Community

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Indian-origin commander Sunny Brar honored by NY State Assembly York: The New York State Assembly and the Punjab Chapter of the Indian National Overseas of N-powered US aircraft New Government of Nassau County NY, both honored Congress (INOC) and organized under the leadership Sunny Brar, MLA of Muktsar Punjab for his life- of Shudh Parkash Singh, National Vice President of carrier dies long service to the people of Punjab, at a function INOC, USA. The Consul General of India Prabhu Washington, DC: India-born Captain Tushar Tembe, Commanding officer of the American nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, has suddenly died, the US Navy announced Thursday.

49-year-old Tembe, a naval aviator, had assumed command of Truman only three months ago.

Mumbai-born Tembe came to the US as a child and later graduated from Texas Tech University.

In a statement, the US Navy said, the ship''s medical response team provided immediate medical assistance until Tembe could be transported to Bons Secours Maryview Medical Center where he was later

pronounced dead.

The cause of death has not been determined, it said.

"We offer our sincere condolences to Capt. Tembe''s wife and children, his family and the Truman crew. They are in our thoughts and our prayers as we deal with this tragic loss.

Capt. Tembe served the Navy and our nation honorably and with great distinction. We honor his outstanding contributions to our nation," said Rear Adm Ted Branch, commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic. Tembe is survived by his wife and two sons. Planning for a memorial service and funeral arrangements is ongoing.

held in New York a few days ago. Brar had been under treatment for cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. After long two years of treatment the doctors allowed Brar to return to India and resume his work.

The reception in the honor of Brar was hosted by

Andaaz Season 3 launch party held in NYC New York : Andaaz is a life style talk show that airs in more than 150 countries on Sony Entertainment Television Worldwide.

It is the first show that Sony has ever aired and distributed that is completely shot and produced in the U.S. Season three will premiere in January 2012 but the

Kerala Center to honor six at awards banquet Nov 12 New York: The Indian American Kerala Cultural and Civic Center (www.keralacenterusa.com) will honor seven Indian American Malayalees for their outstanding achievements in their field of specialization or for their service to the society. The awardees will be honored at Kerala Center's annual banquet on Saturday, November 12. The Chief Guest for the evening is Ramu Damodaran, Deputy Director of Outreach Division, Department of Public Information at the U.N. The keynote speaker is the famous

robotic surgeon/urologist Dr. Mani Menon, Rajendra and Padma Vattikutti Distinguished Chair in Oncology and Director of the Vattikutti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. Dr. Menon will also be honored for his achievement in medicine.

Other award recipients who will be honored at the Awards Banquet are Dr. K. M. Abraham, Research Professor at Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technology in Boston and the President and Chief

Technology officer of E-KEM Science, Boston (Applied Sciences); Dr. Santhosh Mathew, professor, researcher and science writer (Journalism – Science Writing); Raju Mylapra, Chief Editor of Aswamedham online publication, New York (Journalism – Humor Writing); Dr. Murali Nair, Professor & Director of School of Social Work at Cleveland State University in Ohio (Social Sciences); Gracy Varghese, Nursing Home Administrator, East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Bronx, New York.

Jailed embezzler's designer items on auction Houston: Hundreds of items like designer shoes, purses and clothing, which once belonged to IndianAmerican Sujata ''Sue'' Sachdeva -- the ex-Koss Corp executive jailed for 11 years for embezzling USD 34 million from the headphone maker -- are being sold via online auction through November.

The property includes brands such as Armani, Manolo Blahnik, Brooks Brothers, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, Donna Karan, LAM and Louis Vuitton, the US Marshals Service said.

Dayal was the Chief Guest of the event.

Many Indian community leaders of America particularly hailing from Muktsar participated.

Brar who is one of the biggest agriculture landlords of Punjab, is also one of the biggest race horse breeders of India.

Federal authorities seized thousands of items of merchandise in connection with the criminal prosecution of Sachdeva.

The Marshals Service, a US federal law agency, conducted a live auction earlier this year followed by several online auctions aimed at raising funds for Koss Corporation as restitution for Sachdeva''s thefts.

Auctions will run continuously through November, with the current sale of 101 lots ending on November 10 at www.txauction.com.

festivities have already begun, with an evening of cocktails, appetizers, VIP’s, and a highly anticipated musical performance by viral sensation Shankar Tucker held November 11 at the Flomenhaft Gallery.

Additionally, more than 75 crème de la crème of NYC’s fashion, entertainment, and busi-

ness world had attended this glamorous evening.

“Andaaz’s mission is to be the Desi girl’s personal, South Asian on-air community and provide women with inspiring stories and tools they need to uplift their life to the next level,” says Andaaz Executive Producer and Host Sarika Batra.

ZEE TV launches new show - Hitler Didi

New York : ZEE TV, the leader of the U.S. South Asian entertainment space is adding a host new shows and movies in the coming months starting with Hitler Didi.

Hitler Didi premiered on November 7, 2011. It is the story of 25 year old Indira Sharma, a self assured career woman, confident with a strong hint of dynamism.

A girl who has no time for things as frivolous as love, for

weighing heavily on her shoulders is the responsibility of her family.

A family that her father had abandoned for another woman.

Indira meets daily challenges at home and at her work place deliberately turning her back on love until it comes into her world quietly in the form of Rishi Diwan.

Hitler Didi airs Sunday to Thursday at 9 pm ET/ 6 pm PT.

Annual SALTAF features emerging authors, artists Washington, DC: For ten years, the South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival (SALTAF) has been an annual celebration of South Asian creative talent, showcasing the work of established and emerging artists and connecting them to a wide audience in the Washington, D.C. area. The festival emerged from the book club created by the Network of South Asian Professionals D.C. (NetSAP DC) and has blossomed with its partnership for the last eight years with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (APAP).

Discussion with author Aatish Taseer, moderated by Madhulika Sikka The day-long event this year was held Nov 5 at Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History. The featured literary artists were: Aatish Taseer

(Noon), Mitali Perkins (Bamboo People), Nina Godiwala (Suits: A Woman on Wall Street), Shailja Patel (Migritude) and Roksana Badruddoja (Eyes of a Storm).

The book signing event in progress The festival opened with a screening of the film The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan followed by a conversation with the director, Phil Grabsky.

Discussion with director Phil Grabsky, moderated by Manjula Kumar

National Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

7

November 12-18, 2011

Indian American lawmakers demand Kentucky Republican's apology

Kentucky state senator David Williams criticized Governor Steve Beshear over Hindu ceremony participation Washington, DC: Three Indian American lawmakers from Maryland have demanded an ''immediate apology'' from David Williams, a hopeful for the guberna-

torial post, for his "offensive remarks" against Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.

In a joint statement, Delegates Kumar Barve, Aruna Miller and Sam Arora from Maryland condemned the "offensive remarks" made by Kentucky State Senator David Williams and called for an "immediate retraction and apology."

Early this week, Williams had lashed out at Beshear for his participation in a 'bhoomi poojan' or ground breaking ceremony of a manufacturing facility.

Williams charged that the actions

Indian Americans form body to boost nanotechnology Washington, DC: Given the huge potential of nanotechnology, a group of Indian Americans professionals have launched The Indus Nanotech Association (TINA), which would connect entrepreneurs and businesspersons, researchers, technologists and investors.

The idea to launch TINA came up at a Nanotechnology Commercialization conference organized by Thomas Abraham, president of Innovative Research and Products (iRAP), Inc., a Stamford, Connecticut firm conducting industry and market analysis of new generation technologies, in conjunction with CHEM SHOW 2011 in New York City last week.

Nanotechnology is termed by many as the 'next big thing' among the emerging technologies. The US National Science Foundation has estimated the nanotechnology enabled market to reach $1 trillion by 2015.

There are a large number of Indian academics involved in nanotechnology research encompassing from sciences including chemistry, physics, engineering, materials science, biology and medicine, according to Abraham.

'We have reached the critical mass of a large number of Indian

Americans involved in nanotechnology and nano-enabled technologies and the time has come to develop a networking group amongst us,' said Abraham, coordinator of the new group.

'We would like to see more collaboration between researchers and companies as well as B to B at these meetings to achieve early commercialization of nanotechnologies,' added Abraham, who also founded the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO).

The new group will provide a platform for Indian origin nanotechnology researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs and investors to exchange ideas and provide networking opportunities among the nanotechnology professionals so as to advance the field and create new areas of business.

It will also create interactive and cooperative efforts between nanotechnology professionals and entrepreneurs living outside India with their counterparts in India.

The new group will organize international and regional meetings to promote new technologies and to provide opportunities for technology developers to meet with potential investors.

of Beshear were tantamount to "idolatry" and criticized him for "sitting down there with his legs crossed, participating in Hindu prayers with a dot on his forehead."

"His words were an insult to all Americans, not just to Hindus. I have served in the Maryland House of Delegates for more than two decades and have never heard an elected official use such reprehensible language toward their fellow citizens," Barve said.

"In the difficult times we face, I cannot fathom why anyone would choose to use such inflammatory

language instead of celebrating the economic impact and jobs the plant will create," Miller said.

Arora said, "As a Baptist, I am embarrassed that someone would try to use our faith as cover for such inappropriate remarks."

Yesterday, Williams had sought to clarify his remarks. In a statement, he said, he believes in freedom of religion but believes Governor Beshear has worked to "undermine the Christian faith."

Meanwhile, Washington-based Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has launched a public campaign

against Williams seeking his apology. "We need you to act! In one minute you can send a message to Williams, informing him that his words are unacceptable and demanding an apology," HAF said in a mass e-mail sent to its support base in US. "I request you to make a public apology, not only to those Hindus who you have so blatantly disrespected, but to the countless Americans who value and understand the importance of diversity in our country," says the draft of the letter provided by HAF.

US lawmakers hail Indian diaspora's role in pushing ties Washington, DC: Two leading Republican lawmakers have expressed happiness over the growing momentum in India-US relations and the role of the Indian diaspora in building an important cultural bridge between the two countries.

Mac Thornberry, vice chairman of the house armed services committee, and Devin Nunes a member of an intelligence panel, hailing from California, which has a large Indian community presence, conveyed these sentiments at a meeting with Indian Ambassador to US, Nirupama Rao. During the meeting on Tuesday, Rao exchanged views with Thornberry and Nunes on bilateral relations and regional and global issue of common interest, the Indian

embassy said.

They expressed happiness over the growing momentum in India-US relations based on shared democratic values and converging interests.

Thornberry highlighted growing cooperation between the two countries in the field of counter-terrorism and expressed interest in enhancing engagement with India in the field of cyber-security.

Nunes referred to the rapidly growing trade and economic engagement between India and the US and the role of the Indian diaspora in the US in building an important cultural bridge between the two countries.

Rao said she looked forward to an early visit by the two Congressmen to India.

Prakash Nagarkatti named USC Vice President for Research Washington, DC: Prakash Nagarkatti, an internationally known researcher who has directed a highly successful research enterprise at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, has been named to become USC’s vice president for research, effective Oct 16.

Nagarkatti, whose appointment was approved on Oct 7 by the Board of Trustees, will be responsible for planning and implementing the university’s research priorities. Nagarkatti has served as associate dean of the USC School of Medicine since 2005, overseeing all research-related activities.

From FY04 through FY11, external funding at the USC School of Medicine increased from $21 million to $41 million.

“Dr. Nagarkatti is a skilled

Prakash Nagarkatti researcher with a proven track record in attracting funds and navigating the landscape of federal agencies and opportunities,” USC President Harris Pastides said.

“With the university on an upward trajectory with our research funding, we needed to choose a leader who will continue to guide those

efforts and help us grow in our Carnegie ‘very high research activity’ mission.”

In addition to leading a vigorous research effort, Nagarkatti has earned international recognition for his own research. He oversees a $6 million Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), one of only 11 such centers in the nation supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

His research, which has concentrated on cancer and autoimmune diseases, also has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as private foundations such as the American Cancer Society, and he has published more than 160 papers in prestigious journals.

8

National Community

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Smita N Shah receives 2011 National Community Service Award Chicago: In 2010, the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Illinois Chapter recognized Smita N Shah, owner and president of SPAAN Tech, an engineering firm in downtown Chicago with their Illinois Community Service Award. She was then recommended for, and subsequently honored with the ACEC National Community Service Award on October 21, 2011. This award is presented to a corporate leader who has demonstrated a commitment to give back to her community, and her country, by giving of her time and talents to various boards of directors, councils, advisory panels and volunteer community service. Her service has been evidenced by her work on the President’s Council of the Museum of Science and Industry,

(L to R): David Raymond, ACEC President and CEO, Everett Cowan, Chairman, Committee of Fellows, Smita N Shah and Terry Neimeyer, ACEC Chairman Board of Trustee of Loyola appointed Northwestern University, Metropolitan Planning University Council of One Council, Director’s Circle of the Hundred.

Steppenwolf Theatre and newly “Young people today should

Subodh Chandra runs for Prosecutor of an Ohio county Washington, DC: Attorney Subodh Chandra, a former law director of the city of Cleveland who lost a bid for Ohio state attorney general in 2006, announced his candidacy Oct. 25 to run in the Democratic primary next year for prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Current Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason has announced that he is not running for reelection when his term ends in 2012.

The primary is scheduled for March 6, but that could shift to another date because of legal challenges to redistricting.

So far at least three other candidates are running in the Democratic primary and a fourth candidate is expected to announce soon. According to news reports, former Cleveland city law director

Attorney Subodh Chandra had lost a bid for Ohio state attorney general in 2006.

He has announced his candidacy to run in the Democratic primary next year for prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Robert Triozzi, former North Royalton city prosecutor James J. McDonnell and Cleveland city Councilman Kevin Kelley are running.

The Indian American attor-

ney currently heads The Chandra Law Firm, LLC. When he finished his term as Cleveland law director in 2005, he led a staff of 82 attorneys with both criminal and civil divisions.

He last ran for office in 2006 when he lost in the Democratic primary for Ohio state attorney general to Marc Dann, who beat the GOP candidate in November 2006, but who later resigned from office after a sexual harassment charge was levied.

Chandra is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review. He also graduated from Stanford University, which awarded him the John Gardner Fellowship to work with Ohio Governor Dick Celeste.

recognize that in this age, it’s timely, it’s exciting, it’s fashion forward to be involved in science, technology and engineering.

Combine that with being active in the community, and you can really make a difference in people’s lives.”

Shah, daughter of Indian immigrants Niranjan and Pratima Shah, was born and raised in Chicago.

Her parents emigrated from Gujarat, India in the 1970s and always emphasized to their children the importance of education and giving back to their community. Smita attended Northwestern University for her undergraduate studies in engineering and received her Master’s degree from MIT in civil and environmental engineering. She completed post graduate studies at Oxford, and received a Certificate of

Management Studies upon completion of her thesis on public private partnerships.

Smita has served as Vice President for the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) as well as Chairperson for the Indian Independence Day Parade a few years ago.

For ten years, she has played an integral role in the Chicago Sister Cities International Program as Delhi Committee Chair and participated in a trade delegation to India with Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In addition to her public service, Smita has achieved much success in her professional life. SPAAN Tech has worked on numerous challenging projects including the I-355 South Extension and Runway Design at O’Hare International Airport.

Mohan Babu on charity fund-raising tour of US New York: Actor M Mohan Babu is currently touring the United States meeting Telugu NRIs here in a bid to raise donations for Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust to fund education of underprivileged students, according to The Times of India report. This is the first time the actor-cum-producer who is the founder-chairman of Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust, is touring United States raising funds for his educating students. The trust comprises of an international college, an engineering college, a pharmacy college, a nursing college, a degree college and a college for PG studies. The trust has around 10,000 students studying in various streams and 25 per cent of them are given free education. Close to 2,500

The star studded world premiere of Freida Pinto starrer 3D movie ‘Immortals’ took place at the Nokia Live Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles with director Tarsem Singh and the cast from the film in attendance. Seen here actress Freida Pinto at the Red Carpet premiere. Also (l to r) actor Joseph Morgan, Director Tarsem Singh and actors Henry Cavill, Kellan Lutz and Luke Evans Photos : Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Relativity Media

Actor Mohan Babu underprivileged kids get free education.

Before leaving for the States, the Padma Shri awardee tweeted, "SFO,LA, Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and New Jersey.

Noble& Big hearts needed" hinting that he will be looking out for some generous

donations. The actor landed in San Francisco on October 31 and was received by Jayaram Komati of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The first leg of the fund-raiser was held at Swagath restaurant in Freemont the very same day. He next met NRI Telugus at a fund-raiser dinner that was organized in a hotel in Los Angeles and was glad with the response.

The actor tweeted, "Had a great experience during the Fund Raiser dinner in LA. Thanks for all the big hearted Telugu people. Next in Dallas on 12th evening." He is expected to visit Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, New Jersey next as part of his fund-raising trip.

National Community TheSouthAsianTimes.info

9

November 12-18, 2011

Chandrika Tandon Benefit Concert helps launch Global Peace Initiative Iowa: Leaders of the Global Peace Initiative hosted a Vedic Visitors Weekend, November 4 to 6, at Maharishi Vedic City in southeast Iowa, attracting Indo-Americans from cities as far away as Los Angeles and New York.

All the participants assembled for one purpose: to experience a weekend devoted to peace and all things Vedic: Vedic education, Vedic health, Vedic agriculture, and Vedic architecture.

The weekend culminated with Grammy-nominated world music artist, Chandrika Tandon, performing a stunning sold-out benefit concert at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Ramani Ayer, retired CEO of the Hartford Financial Group and

To support 10,000 Maharishi Vedic Pandits

Chandrika Tandon performing on stage current Director of Development for the Global Peace Initiative, who served as a host of the weekend, said, “We invited Indo-Americans from around country to experience how powerful, valuable and relevant the practical application of ancient Vedic wisdom, as developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is to our

Diwali celebration in Maryland

Gov O’Malley reads the “Diwali Day” Proclamation during the celebration.

Ambassador Rao and Dr. Suresh C. Gupta, Organizing committee standing next.

daily lives and to the improvement of society.”

Fred Travis, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management in neighboring Fairfield, Iowa, is one of the

US asks Pakistan to punish killers of Hindus in Sindh Washington, DC: Condemning all violence directed at religious, ethnic and other minorities, the United States has asked Pakistan to bring to justice those involved in gunning down three Hindus in Sindh province.

'We have seen the reports of these murders.

We understand that an investigation is underway and we look forward to seeing the perpetrators brought to justice,' the State Department said in a statement in response to a question.

'We condemn all vio-

India charts competition policy M V Moily assures India is "open for business" Washington, DC: The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) welcomed India's Minister of Corporate Affairs, M. Veerappa Moily to Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

U.S. industry assembled to engage the Minister in a lively and informative roundtable discussion. Minister Moily and USIBC member companies discussed such issues as India's Draft National Competition Policy, merger and acquisition activity in India, rules related to audits in India, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), and other significant issues related to corporate activities in India.

"India's competition policy is of great interest to American investors," said USIBC President Ron Somers. "The competition policy will affect the business climate in India, and, if properly calibrated and

Sublime highlight of the weekend was the performance by 121 Maharishi Vedic Pandits of Rudrabhsihek

India’s Minister of Corporate Affairs M Veerappa Moily is on US visit

balanced, can serve as a tremendous impetus to growth. USIBC looks forward to working with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to ensure India's adoption of international best practices and pro-growth, job-creating polices."

Following the roundtable, USIBC member companies and friends of India attended a reception in the Minister's honor. The roundtable and reception were sponsored by New York Life.

lence directed at religious, ethnic and other minorities. We call attention to the issue of sectarian violence in the Human Rights Report and the International Religious Freedom Report, issued annually by the Department of State,' it said.

Four persons, including at least three Hindu doctors doctor, were reported killed near Shikarpur town in Pakistan's southern Sindh province Monday in what officials fear could be an incident of sectarian violence.

world’s leading researchers on the brain, consciousness and meditation.

His scientific presentation during the weekend on the effects of TranscendentalMeditation on brain functioning was highlighted by slides and graphics illustrating the beneficial changes that occur as a result of regular TM practice.

John Hagelin, Ph.D., a Harvardtrained, internationally renowned quantum physicist, provided the modern scientific understanding and corroborating scientific research documenting how groups of experts in the Transcendental Meditation and advanced TM-Sidhi program can neutralize violence and conflict

and create world peace.

“Extensive research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals verifies that Transcendental Meditation dramatically reduces acute individual stress and its deleterious effects on brain and behavior far more effectively than other methods,” Dr. Hagelin said.

Ayer provided a vision of the goal of the Global Peace Initiative: To maintain permanent peace-keeping groups of 9000 Vedic Pandits in India and 1250 Vedic Pandits in the United States—the number established by research that is sufficient to create a concrete and demonstrative positive global effect.

Hindu Vedic Society donates books to school libraries in Baton Rouge Baton Rouge: At the meeting for librarians of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System held October 19 at the Christa McAuliffe Center, members of the Hindu Vedic Society (HVS) Community of Baton Rouge presented 86 copies total of two award-winning books, “Finders Keepers?” and “India Unveiled,” worth $2417 to school libraries in the district.HVS Community represents about 200 families of Indian origin living in Baton Rouge.

Members of HVS Community see this book donation as a

way the Indian-American community can give back to Baton Rouge, which is now their home. The donation was made possible by a member of the HVS community in Atlanta.

“I want students to know more about the customs and culture of India,” said Raju Hingorani of the HVS Community.

“Our families and children are part of the Baton Rouge community, and we wanted to share the basic principles common to both Indian and American cultures.”

Inaugural SikhLEAD program a resounding success Washington, DC: Last month, SALDEF successfully held its first Leadership Development Program (LDP), under its new ground-breaking SikhLEAD youth development initiative. From a large pool of applicants, SALDEF selected 17 highly talented and accomplished young Sikh Americans from around the country for three days of leadership training, selfexploration, and development in Washington, DC. LDP is designed to inspire, train, and support a diverse, motivated, and entrepreneurial group of young Sikh leaders as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and leadership. The purpose of this opportunity is to empower Sikh American youth in becoming effective leaders committed to exploring and realizing both their personal potential and that of the Sikh American community.

The attendees participated in a series of activities aimed to help identify their passion, recognize their strengths, and build a stronger sense of identity while building a national network of emerging young leaders. The program provided training and skills for participants to improve public speaking, explore non-traditional career paths and network with leaders in the community.

Several community members provided their valu-

17 Sikh Americans were selected for the leadership development program able time to serve as panelists and guest speakers during the 3-day program: Dr. G.P. Singh, former CEO, Karta Technologies; Gurinder Ahluwalia, President & CEO, Genworth Financial; Dr. Jaideep Singh, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, CSU East Bay; Jyotswaroop Kaur, Director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy; Ravi Bhalla, Councilman of Hoboken, NJ; Satjiv Chahil, former Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing at Apple.

10

Tristate Community

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

A self-described proud Republican, Halloran had won in a blue district promising to work together with Democrats for the common good of all New Yorkers and pledging that he would work whatever hours required to meet the needs and interests of his constituents. That pledge was tested when Hurricane Irene struck in August.

Halloran: A Councilman who never rests

By Robert Golomb f the question was – “Which member of the New York City Council best personifies the proposition that a councilman, like a police officer or a fireman, is on duty 24 hours a day and seven days a week?” – the answer for citizens living in northeast Queens’ 19th Council District, which covers College Point, Auburndale, Bayside, Whitestone, Bay Terrace, and portions of Flushing, Douglaston and Little Neck, just might be: Dan Halloran.

A self-described proud Republican, Halloran, who upon his election in November 2009 in the 3-1 registered Democrat to Republican 19thDistrict found himself to be a member of a city council in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 46 to 5, had campaigned on the promise that if elected he would put political considerations aside and work together with Democrats for the common good of all New Yorkers and on the pledge that he would work whatever hours were required to meet the needs and interests of all of his constituents.

That pledge was put to the test with the coming of Hurricane Irene in the last weekend of August. Days before the storm first struck, Halloran informed the public through

I

Dan Halloran leading a protest against the proposed new ramps on the Van Wyck Expressway, which he argued would cause a congestion nightmare. the media that his office would initiate an member staff, which manned his office in 4round the clock undertaking to, he said then, hour shifts, was said to have responded to “protect the people and property of northeast more than 100 telephone calls, forwarding Queens.” To fulfill that promise, Halloran, the lion’s share, which concerned fallen trees as it was widely reported at the time, opened and power shortages, to the 311 city emerhis office beginning at 7 a.m. on Saturday, gency line, and in the several cases in which August 27, as the storm was reaching its callers said that they faced imminent danger, greatest strength, and kept it open until 10 contacting the appropriate city emergency p.m. on Sunday, after its winds and down- service to request immediate assistance. pour had subsided. During this time, his six Halloran himself spent almost all of those 39 for what for him were sleepless hours, either in his office on the phone speaking with city officials, or driving in his car scouting throughout his district to see firsthand the damage Irene had inflicted on his constituents. He was to later explain that these first hand observations proved helpful in the weeks following the storm as he worked with city officials to formulate a post-hurricane recovery plan for his hard hit district.

When, in an interview I conducted in his office last week, I, only half jokingly, asked Halloran, a former police officer and a former Assistant District Attorney, whose great grandfather was an NYPD police chief, his grandfather an NYPD detective and his two brothers currently FDNY firefighters, if a round the clock work ethic in service to his community is part of his DNA, he responded, “ I never thought of it in that term {DNA}, but the answer is an emphatic yes … My parents taught my brothers and me that in the tradition of the Halloran family, which actually can be traced back to Queens

Leading an effort to keep the neighborhoods in Queens graffiti-free.

for five generations, the most notable profession New York City is one which gives Councilman Daniel J. you the opportuniHalloran ty to use whatever talents and energy you possess to serve your country and your community.”

If there is another part of his family’s DNA that was passed on to Halloran, it is resolve. It is this resolve that first brought Halloran to my attention when I learned that, as hard as it was for me to believe, he was the only one among the 51 City Council members to come out against the building of a 15-storey Islamic center (aka. Park 51 project) two blocks from where actions of Islamic terrorists killed 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. Halloran lost his cousin, Lt Vincent Halloran, an FDNY first responder, that horrible day.

When I asked him about that loss, Halloran replied in a voice tinged with sadness, “My cousin Vincent had five children and a sixth, a daughter, was born six months after he left this world… His mother, who said she would mourn the loss of her son forever, died five years ago. Yet what his father, his wife and the six now mostly teenage children he left behind understand, and what I myself can never forget, is that 411 first responders and 2,600 men and women civilians died along with Vincent that horrible day… And their families, just like Vincent’s, will never recover from their loss.”

A frequent speaker at 9-11 memorial ceremonies and Park 51 protests, Halloran told me, “My opposition {to building the mosque at ground zero} is not rooted in any prejudice against Muslims or the Islamic faith. In fact the opposite is the case… As a student of local history, I know that the tradition of religious tolerance in my community goes as far back as to 1657, when the Flushing Town fathers protested against Peter Stuyvesant’s edict to ban Quakers from the colony of New York… Quakers were to find safe refuge right here in Flushing, where the Quaker Meeting House, built in 1694, still stands… I take great pride in that tradition… My opposition to the mosque has nothing to do with religious intolerance. It rather has everything to do with the respect we show for the memories of those murdered on 9-11 and the compassion we feel for all those they left behind… The moment we decide to forget about that respect and compassion, whether in the interpretation of the first amendment or in the name of political correctness, we will have lost the soul of our nation.”

I had nothing to ask or add to Halloran’s final words, as I shook his hand, said goodbye and left his office feeling a bit differently than I had, when an hour earlier, I had first walked in.

Robert Golomb is currently an adjunct professor of graduate writing, education and school administration. His published articles have covered a wide range of educational, political, international, entertainment and cultural topics. He can be contacted via email: MrBob347@aol.com.

US Affairs TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

2 women go public in harassment charges against Cain Rochester Hills, Mich.: Two women who say they were sexually harassed by Herman Cain now plan to hold a joint news conference, the lawyer for one of the women said.

Attorney Joel P. Bennett, who represents federal employee Karen Kraushaar, 50, said he was planning the news conference with attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Sharon Bialek, 50, a Chicago homemaker, Washington Post reported.

The Post said details of the joint appearance have not yet been worked out, but Politico said Bennett plans to hold the news conference even if other women who reportedly said they were harassed by the Republican presidential candidate do not come forward.

Earlier, Bennett said Cain's behavior toward Kraushaar was harassment.

Kraushaar also said Cain, whom she accused of acting inappropriately toward her while he led the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, could be called a "monster," ABC News reported Tuesday.

Kraushaar, whose identity was revealed Tuesday, said she had tried to avoid the media spotlight because she feared retaliation from Cain backers.

Bennett last week said his client reported a "series" of incidents involving Cain when she worked in the trade group's communications department while Cain was CEO in the late 1990s. She now is a spokesperson for the IRS Inspector General.

Kraushaar left the NRA after receiving a reported $45,000 settlement.

Cain has strongly denied any wrongdoing with

Hermain Cain accusers Karen Kraushaar (left) and Sharon Bialek Kraushaar or any of the other three women who have accused him of acting inappropriately. On Tuesday blamed the "Democratic machine" for the emergence of one of his accusers.

He said Tuesday in a news conference he "will not be deterred by false, anonymous, incorrect accusations."

The latest allegations and plans came ahead of a nationally televised debate Wednesday among the eight Republican GOP contenders at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. Jobs and the economy are supposed to be the focus.

GOP rival former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Tuesday called the allegations against Cain "particularly disturbing" and said, "They're going to have to be addressed seriously."

Voters defeat many GOP-sponsored measures Washington: Voters turned a skeptical eye toward conservative-backed measures across the country Tuesday, rejecting an anti-labor law in Ohio, an anti-abortion measure in Mississippi and a tightening of voting rights in Maine.

Even in Arizona, voters turned out of office the chief architect of that state’s controversial anti-immigration law. State Senator Russell Pearce, a Republican power broker and a former sheriff ’s deputy known for his uncompromising style, conceded the race Tuesday with a look of shock on his face.

Taken together, Tuesday’s results could breathe new life into President Obama’s hopes for his re-election a year from now.

But the day was not a wholesale victory for Democrats. Even as voters in Ohio delivered a blow to Gov. John R. Kasich,

a Republican, and rejected his attempt to weaken collective bargaining for public employees, they approved a symbolic measure to exempt Ohio residents from the individual mandate required in Mr. Obama’s health care law.

And while voters in Mississippi, one of the most conservative states, turned away a measure that would have outlawed all abortions and many forms of contraception, they tightened their voting laws to require some form of governmentapproved identification. Democrats had opposed the requirement, saying it was a thinly disguised attempt to intimidate voters of color.

In Maine, where Republicans recently had ended same-day registration at polling places, voters decided to restore the practice, which Democrats supported.

Square Garden on March 8, 1971, with a glittering backdrop. The crowd was studded with celebrities, including Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman and Diana Ross.

Frank Sinatra was a ringside photographer for Life magazine. Each fighter was guaranteed $2.5 million, the highest purse in boxing history at the time.

About 25 seconds into the 15th and final round, Frazier landed a left hook on Ali’s jaw, sending him to the floor, with his head bouncing off the canvas. Frazier won a unan-

Obama becoming toast in 2012?

Hardly, says his campaign Washington: Obama campaign manager Jim Messina offered his year-out analysis of the 2012 race in a lengthy email to supporters, underscoring the “Obama versus the GOP/Tea Party” narrative that he has been crafting over the past six months.

Messina uses a New York Times weekend analysis of the GOP field to shadow box the notion that some candidates may have a better chance against Obama than others.

“There has been virtually no difference among the GOP candidates — or between them and the Republican congressional leaders who refuse to do anything to restore economic security for the middle class,” Messina writes.

“Whoever wins the nomination will no doubt try to appear more ‘moderate’ as they compete for undecided voters in the general election. But they have all made their positions clear. And we will hold them accountable for that,” he said. “The only true difference in this race is between their

agenda and President Obama’s.”

Messina says the Obama campaign’s army of supporters – more than 1 million enlisted so far – will make the difference in nine key battlegrounds Obama flipped four years ago.

“We have no intention of returning to the old electoral map,” Messina said, adding that he’s optimistic about Obama’s chances to gain ground in Arizona and Georgia, where Hispanic and African-American voters could play a swing role.

The Obama campaign has raised more than $88 million for the 2012 race and been rapidly expanding its grassroots organizing presence in states nationwide, including Arizona and Georgia.

Aides say the next two months, before the campaign kicks into a higher gear, will focus on energizing supporters and gathering commitments from volunteers to get involved.

“So, is Obama toast?” Messina asks in his email, “It’s up to you.”

New standard raises American poor to 49 million Washington: By American standards, more than 49 million or 16 percent of the people in the world's richest nation were living in poverty in 2010 under an alternative measure released by the Census Bureau.

The official rate, released in September, showed 46.6 million people, or 15.2 percent, living in poverty. Under the new measure, the poverty threshold for a family with two adults and two children in 2010 was $24,343, while the official threshold is $22,113.

The Census Bureau's first supplemental poverty measure includes various government benefits and expenses not captured by the official poverty rate, according to CNN. It also takes into account geographic differences in prices and the impact of many forms of non-cash public assistance, such as food stamps, housing subsidies and energy assistance.

The new measure had a major impact on

poverty rates among the elderly, in part because they have large medical expenses.

Some 15.9 percent of senior citizens are considered poor, up from 9 percent under the official rate.

Fewer children, however, are living in poverty under the supplemental measure because they benefit from many government assistance programs and the earned income tax credit. The level drops to 18.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent.

Under the new measure, the poverty rate among blacks fell to 25.4 percent, down from 27.5 percent. But more whites, Asians and Hispanics are impoverished.

Americans who live in metropolitan areas have higher poverty rates under the supplemental measure, while the opposite occurs for those who live outside of them. That's partially because the new report adjusts for geographical differences in prices.

Michael Jackson doctor found guilty of manslaughter

Muhammad Ali’s bête noir, Joe Frazier, falls to cancer Philadelphia: Joe Frazier, a onetime heavyweight champion whose epic battles with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s spilled from the boxing ring into a decades-long war of words, died Nov. 7 of liver cancer at age 67. His family said he died in hospice care in Philadelphia.

Frazier and Ali (born Cassius Clay, Jr) were the dominant heavyweights of their generation, and their rivalry was considered one of the most heated and enduring in all of sports. Their first fight took place at New York’s Madison

11

Joe Frazier delivers knockout punch to Muhammad Ali during their heavyweight title fight at New York's Madison Square Garden. imous decision, giving Ali the first loss of his career. Both fighters ended up in a hospital.

Ali, now 69, suffers from Parkinson's syndrome since 1984.

Los Angeles: Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the King of Pop's 2009 death, in an emotional climax to a sixweek trial.

A few minutes later he was handcuffed after judge Michael Pastor remanded him in custody pending a November 29 sentencing hearing, while fans outside Los Angeles Superior Court erupted in joy.

There was a brief cry in the courtroom, and cheers outside, but Murray himself gave no reaction when the long-awaited verdict was

announced inside a packed courtroom yesterday.

Jackson's family including mother Katherine and father Joe, and siblings Randy, Jermaine, Rebbie and La Toya were in court. His mother was hugged by Randy and appeared to cry into a tissue, after the verdict was announced.

Outside, the verdict was greeted by joy and relief. "Joy, justice, relief, finally, that's it," Jackson fan Terry Wilson told AFP amid celebratory scenes outside the downtown building where the trial began Sept 27.

12

India Newswire

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Rahul poised for a bigger role: Congress New Delhi: Against the backdrop of reports that Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi could be elevated to the position of working president, the party said that he was set for a bigger role but the timing will be decided by party chief Sonia Gandhi.

Congress media department chief Janardan Dwivedi said there was no suspense that Rahul Gandhi would have a bigger role in the party but did not go into specifics.

"There is no suspense about it.

He (Rahul Gandhi) has a role, which is increasing constantly. In natural course, his role will go on increasing. This is what Congressmen want and this is what in their opinion is natural," Dwivedi said, adding that there was no doubt that Congressmen want Rahul Gandhi's role to increase. He stressed that Sonia Gandhi "is here to lead the party and she will decide what to do and when".

There has been speculation that the young leader could be made working president on Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary on Nov

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

19 or in the near future. Some reports have also suggested he could be made party president.

Dwivedi, however, refused to go either into the issue of timeline or the designation that Rahul Gandhi will assume.

"You just cannot speculate on a timeline. You should consider all other speculations as mere speculations for the time being".

Asked about the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joining politics, Dwivedi remarked: "They (the Gandhis) themselves decide who in the family has to do what and right now, Rahul Gandhi is in politics."

Obama, Manmohan to meet in Bali on Nov 18 Washington: Describing India as an important security and counterterrorism partner in South Asia, the White House has said President Barack Obama will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Bali on November 18.

Meeting for the first time at the East Asia Summit after about a year, the two leaders are expected to review the progress of their bi-lateral ties since Obama's visit to India last November, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters.

They would also discuss their deepening economic and commercial ties besides a wide range of other issues including Afghanistan, economic ties and security relationship, he said.

"India, of course, as a rapidly growing economy, as a strong democracy and as an important security partner and counterterrorism partner in South Asia, is a very important relationship to the United States," Rhodes said. From the beginning of Obama administration, the US "had engaged the emerging powers in the Asia Pacific -- China and India, Indonesia and others -- as well as engaged regional institutions, like APEC and the East Asia Summit," he said.

In a major speech in Australia, Obama will focus on the US efforts over "the last three years to strengthen our core alliances to engage emerging powers like China and India and others, and to engage Asian regional institutions like APEC and the East Asia Summit."

Noting that "in addition to almost all of our key allies in the region, we're meeting with China,

Kalam visit fruitful, but N-plant officials aloof

Chennai: Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visit to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) and his 10-point development program for the area has brought about a change of heart among those protesting the project, says S.S. Ramasubbu, the Congress MP from Tirunelveli constituency of Tamil Nadu.

However, he says KNPP officials are keeping aloof from elected representative like himself. "The visit of Kalam and his 10-point programme for the development of Kudankulam and neighbouring areas have certainly resulted in a change of heart among people in Kudankulam and other villages. His words carry weight," Ramasubbu said.

Four-lane highway, a mega desalination plant, construction of houses, schools, hospitals as well as cold storages are among the 'developmental cluster missiles' for Kudankulam and surrounding areas that India's missile man Kalam suggested to the central government soon after his Nov 6 visit to KNPP. After verifying for himself the safety features of the Russian reactors, Kalam who visited the plant Sunday certified they are safe and people need not nurture even a nano-sized particle of fear.

However, he is sore with KNPP officials. "The officials keep aloof. My requests to KNPP officials to inform me whenever their chairman visits the project

Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam addressing a press conference in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu. site also went unheeded. While the leader of the antiKNPP movement S.P. Udayakumar was taken around the plant by officials, I was not given the same courtesy. I don't understand this.

I have visited the project as part of some other delegation," Ramasubbu fumed.

This despite Ramasubbu being from the same constituency where the power project is being set up and also being a member of the Standing Committee of Parliament on Science and Technology.

The two leaders are expected to review the progress of their bi-lateral ties since Obama's visit to India last November.

Russia, India," Rhodes said, "They will have the opportunity to discuss issues like Iran, which are particularly important in the wake of the IAEA report, as well as discussing Afghanistan in the lead-up to some important international conferences on Afghanistan."

So it's also an opportunity to check in on AsiaPacific issues, but also a number of other global issues," he said noting that "this is a region that sees a lot of rapidly developing change, including the rise of China."

"But in that context, the US wants to, again, make it clear that we are going to continue to be a strong Asia-Pacific power; that we're going to continue to stand by our core alliances; that we're going to build positive relationships with emerging powers like China and India."

‘World's Leading Destination’ award goes to India London: India has won recognition as the "World's Leading Destination" at the World Travel Market 2011. It also bagged the "World's Leading Tourist Board" award.

Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai, who received the awards from Graham E. Cooke, president and founder of World Travel Awards, said five million tourists had already visited India this year so far and the target was to attract another five million over the next two or three years. This would help generate 25 million

additional jobs.

He said though India started late in developing tourism it was determined to make it a success.

Efforts to boost tourism included a move to remove visa restrictions that barred tourists from revisiting the country within two months of their first visit.

The issue was being ``resolved’’.

Sahai said the aim was to increase India’s share in the International Tourist Arrivals from the present 0.6 per cent to 1 per cent –one billion travelers--- by the end of 2016.

India Newswire TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

Sonia slams Team Anna's ‘duplicity' on corruption New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Team Anna, saying that slamming others while attaching virtues to corruption of one's own aides was not the right way to combat graft.

"Corruption cannot be fought by thinking that corruption by us and our people is a pious act while that of others is corruption. This is what is happening these days," she said.

The stinging comment did not name names but left few in doubt about the target given Team Anna's relentless attack on the Centre over graft amid controversies dogging civil society members over inflated travel bills, unpaid dues of government and land allotment.

The Congress chief's speech marked Congress's aggressive intent on Team Anna amid indications that the Lokpal proponents would not relent on their dogfight with the ruling party despite government assurances to pass Lokpal bill in the winter session of Parliament. Given the experience of Hisar by-elections and BJP-led Uttarakhand government's decision to adopt the Lokpal bill with gratitude for Anna Hazare, Congress thinks that confronting the rivals is

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the best way out.

The strong words elicited immediate response from Team Anna.

While civil society ignored the attack which, by all indications, was directed at it, the group welcomed the Congress chief's public commitment to bring a strong Lokpal bill in the winter session while adding that mere speeches were not enough.

Sonia did not go to Gauchar in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand for the public rally because, the AICC said, she was indisposed. But her speech was read out to the gathering which outlined the party strategy to counter BJP's aggression on graft in poll-bound Uttarakhand and Punjab.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

She also expressed concern over inflation which she said was burdening the common man. She urged the government to initiate steps to give relief to the people.

In a first of sorts, the Congress chief called herself the initiator of anti-graft focus while directly questioning Anna's authorship on Lokpal and corruption.

'UPA must honor Sonia's commitment' New Delhi: Welcoming Congress president Sonia Gandhi's views that the government was committed to a stringent Lokpal bill, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal hoped the UPA would honor her commitment and pass the anti-corruption law in parliament's winter session.

"India Against Corruption (IAC)

welcomes UPA Chairperson's commitment on Lokpal," Kejriwal wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. "We sincerely hope the government would honor her commitment of getting a strong and effective Lokpal during the winter session. Mere speeches would not be enough from the Government's side," he added.

Pak making use of you, Modi tells China Beijing: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi belied speculation that he would give up the BJP's nationalistic stance for the sake of Chinese investments. He raised a few controversial issues including the one about the presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir during his talks with Communist Party leaders in Beijing.

"I told them - whatever your intentions, Pakistan is making use of you," Modi said after his meeting with three Chinese leaders including Wang Gang, a politburo member of the Communist Party of China and vicechairman of the China People's Consultative Conference. There is a lot of concern over Chinese troop presence in PoK in India, and particularly in Gujarat as it was a border state, he told them.

Modi also questioned the wisdom of a Chinese transformer maker, TBEA, displaying a wrong map of India at a function in New Delhi, which resulted in a sharp exchange of words between a journalist and Chinese ambassador in India, Zhang Yan. Gujarat government is worried about the controversy because it has signed a Rs 2500-crore contract with the Chinese company.

Chinese leaders carefully listened to his concerns about the long detention of 22 Gujaratis, mostly diamond merchants, who have been languishing in

Wang Gang, a Politburo member with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Beijing. jails in China without trail for close to two years, Modi said. "I was not expecting a promise. You cannot get results in one meeting. But I am sure they have understood our feelings on the subject," he said.

The Gujarat chief minister said Chinese leaders were eager to hear about Gujarat's development, and heard him with a lot of attention. This is significant because he did not represent the ruling party in New Delhi, Modi said.

Modi said he expects China to become the third country after Japan and Canada to establish a special relationship with Gujarat, which is besides their interactions with the rest of India. He is also working on collaboration with China for establishing a sports university in Gujarat, he said.

14

India Newswire

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

31 get life term for burning 33 Muslims alive in Gujarat Ahmedabad: Offering hope to hundreds of victims of the 2002 riots in Gujarat, a special trial court sentenced 31 accused to life imprisonment for the massacre of 33 Muslims in Gujarat's Sardarpura village on the intervening night of February 28 and March 1, 2002.

Principal district and sessions judge SC Srivastav, who concluded the trial within two years, found them guilty of murder and rioting but ruled out any conspiracy angle in the massacre. The court also acquitted 11 accused and let off the remaining 31 with

A convicted man on way to prison. Thirty-three Muslims in Gujarat's Sardarpura village were killed in 2002.

Army wants AFSPA to stay, Omar insists it must go

J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah.

Jammu/New Delhi: The army opposed Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah's move to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from some parts of the state, but got tough talk from him in response. According to sources present at a Unified Headquarters meeting, Abdullah The sources said the army contended at the meeting security forces needed protection of the law in the militancy-troubled state to function effectively.

The AFSPA empowers security forces to shoot at sight or arrest people without a warrant in areas declared disturbed. The law shields security forces from prosecution (unless the union government gives sanction).

Top government sources said Chinar Corps Commander Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain made a presentation on the AFSPA at the meeting attended by Northern Army Commander Lt General KT Parnaik and other senior officers.

A few hours before the meeting, Abdullah had iterated his commitment to revoking the AFSPA, an announcement he had made on October 21. "We can't wait for last gun to fall silent," he told mediapersons.

fines of Rs 25,000 each.

The verdict drew immediate comparisons with the slow pace of 42 acquitted in anti-Sikh riot cases. The violence left 2,733 people dead in 1984 but so far, only 25 people have been convicted.

The verdict sparked off a fresh war of words between the BJP on the one hand and the Congress and members of civil society on the other. “(Chief minister) Narendra Modi should be cross-examined,” said RB Srikumar, who was additional DG, Intelligence Bureau,

during the riots, reiterating the civil society charge that the CM was somehow involved. Srikumar is a known Modi critic.

Sardarpura is one of nine Gujarat riots cases the SC handed over to a special investigation team (SIT) in March 2008 following charges of bias against the police.

This is the second success for the SIT, after the Godhra train burning case, in which 11 accused got the death penalty and 20 received life imprisonment for the massacre of 59 Hindu pilgrims on February 27, 2002.

Stampede at Gayatri Parivar yagna in Haridwar, 20 die Haridwar: Scenes of piety and devotion quickly turned to devastation as at least 20 people were killed in a stampede that occurred when massive crowds had gathered near the Ganges for a religious meet in this temple town.

About four lakh devotees were here for a five-day event that began on Sunday to propagate the Gayatri Mantra, one of the foremost chants in Hinduism. But tragedy struck the gathering, which had been lauded for its discipline. Witnesses said the tragedy occurred when an elderly woman slipped while walking through a barricaded route close to where 1,551 'yagyas' - or fire rituals - were on.

"Once the woman fell, there was commotion. The crowds, however, kept pushing ahead. In no time, people began to fall over one another, crushing many," an activist for Gayatri Parivar, the organisers, told reporters in Haridwar.

The activist said that while 16 people 14 women and two men - were killed instantly, four others succumbed to their

A man identifies the body of his relative after a stampede during Gayatri Mahakumbh in Haridwar. injuries late in the evening. Most of the victims were elderly and suffocated to death. Around 40 others were injured in varying degrees.

Within minutes, sounds of bhajans being sung were replaced by ambulances with wailing sirens rushing the dead, the dying and the injured to a 10bed hospital that the organizers had set up to deal with emergency situations.

Some of the injured -- men and women -- limped away from the site of tragedy. Others were taken away on

stretchers. Devotees walked around, traumatised after the experience as others gathered at hospitals to get news of their relatives.

Gayatri Parivar spokespersons had said that they expected some 50 lakh people to attend the event over five days. "We knew about the crowds and we had told everyone including the media," a spokesperson said.

He added that Gayatri Parivar, which commands millions of members mostly in northern and western India, had urged the elderly not to visit Haridwar but many chose to do so.

The event also marked the centenary celebrations of the group's founder, Pandit Sitaram Sharma.

Among those expected to attend the event were the chief ministers of Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The families of those killed are expected to get Rs. 5 lakh each as compensation.

Kingfisher in a soup, cancels more flights Mumbai: Air passengers all over the country faced tough time as cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines cancelled more than 30 flights on November 10. The airlines has plans to cancel more flights till November 19.

According to reports, the airline would give details of cancellations to take place in the coming weeks. Lot of passengers were stuck due to the cancellation of the flights

and many others had to book tickets in other airlines at higher prices.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has sent Kingfisher a notice over the sudden cancellations. The DGCA has sought a reply by Nov 10.

Last month, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) promoter Vijay Mallya met senior government officials in both the finance and civil aviation

ministries to present details about the precarious state of private airlines’ balance sheet, showing how losses will only multiply unless fares are hiked, a government source told HT requesting anonymity.

He had also sought a level playing field, arguing that state-owned Air India enjoys many advantages as it can dig into the government’s coffers to fund its way out of

a crisis, an option not available to its private-sector peers.

"He has argued for an immediate need to hike fares to prevent a halt in operations," a government source said. The capital-starved airline has not made profits since its inception in 2005, had a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore as on March 31, 2011 and reported a loss of Rs 1,027 crore for 2010-11.

Law & Justice TheSouthAsianTimes.info

15

November 12-18, 2011

“A false hero, whose natural abilities were wasted on playing the game while remaining insecure and feeling poor” Eminent attorney Ravi Batra offers expert commentary on Rajat Gupta case, perhaps the most high standing executive in corporate America to be tried for insider trading.

Ravi Batra Exclusive Interview By: Parveen Chopra Managing Editor The SATimes his Diwali, on October 26, Rajat Gupta, former Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and director at Goldman Sachs, was arrested by the FBI on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy as part of an ongoing and wide-ranging insider trading case in which close friends and business partners Raj Rajaratnam and Anil Kumar were convicted or pleaded guilty, respectively. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Gupta the same day. Gupta entered a plea of not guilty and was released on $10 million bail.

The SEC had previously filed suit and later dropped charges against Gupta. Meanwhile, Gupta's conversation on tape with Raj Rajaratnam was played at the trial of the Galleon hedge fund chief. This was from a time Gupta was a board member of Goldman Sachs and attracted widespread attention and notoriety. In the wake of the original SEC charges, Gupta resigned the majority of his corporate and philanthropic positions including at Procter and Gamble, American Airlines, The Gates Foundation, the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, and the American India Foundation.

As the high profile trial is tentatively to start April 9, prosecuted by another high profile Indian American, Preet Bharara, The South Asian Times sought the views of eminent attorney Ravi Batra who is also Chairman of the National

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Rajat Gupta after his indictment Oct 26 Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs. Excerpts from the interview: The South Asian Times: Have you known Rajat Gupta personally or socially, and what impression did he leave on you?

Attorney Ravi Batra: I have run into him at events, without much a memory except a conversation I had with him last year at American India Foundation's annual event when things were already "disturbed." I walked away from that chit chat, amplified by his body language, with an impression that there were troubled waters ahead for him.

Having said that, by no means did I imagine what we have now all come to know either from the Rajaratnam criminal trial or the twin synchronized Diwali hits, one civil and one criminal, against Rajat Gupta by the government.

TSAT: You wrote in a comment article elsewhere that Gupta himself

“Any allegation that Rajat Gupta engaged in any unlawful conduct is totally baseless. The facts demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is an innocent man and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity.

He did not trade in any securities, did not tip Mr Rajaratnam so he could trade, and did not share in any profits as part of any quid pro quo."

--Rajat Gupta’s attorney, Gary Naftalis

invited the latest trouble, asking to be tried in a larger setting as against the civil proceeding by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) earlier.

Batra: Earlier, when the SEC sued Rajat civilly only, albeit, administratively, Rajat went to court loudly and noisily stating that he was being treated unfairly as compared to other civil defendants as the SEC had sued them in federal court, with a full array of federal due process rights. After some in-court battles, the SEC agreed to withdraw its administrative case, without prejudice to re-filing in the larger federal court setting. Rajat loudly declared victory. So, obviously, Rajat won the right to be "tried" in a larger setting. Then, unfortunately, albeit predictably, he got his wish, and then some. This is why I think of him as dumb and dumber, all by himself. For the astute followers of the Rajaratnam trial, let me add the solitary benefit of challenging the SEC's administrative case: lack of synchronicity. By that I mean that Rajat's "boomerang" move to sue the SEC did give him one advantage besides a big bump on his head with the twin Diwali hits: he was able to prevent concurrent trials of himself and Rajaratnam, albeit, his was administrative-civil and Rajaratnam's was criminal.

TSAT: You believe prosecutors have much more on Rajat but have not shown their hand so far.

Batra: The purpose of a civil pleading or a criminal indictment is to lay out the necessary factual allegations that make each of the necessary legal elements of the charged offense or crime, sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss by the defense. One can add more factual assertions in a civil case more easily than in a criminal case. In a civil case, there is liberal discovery any-

“Unlike Rajaratnam, Rajat has been a consultant.

His web of activities will be farther than a mere investor or hedge fund owner/operator. Since Rajat forced the government to take him on, they must take him out based upon the evidence as judged by a jury, for Main Street, let alone Occupy Wall Street or Tea Partiers, flip side of the same coin, desperately needs Wall Street to learn that it exists for the benefit of Main Street and not the other way around.”

--Attorney Ravi Batra way, so the facts of both sides are on the table well before a trial.

However, in a criminal case, with limited discovery disclosure compelled upon the prosecution by the Constitution, and none on the defense due to the 5th Amendment right, a regular prosecutor might give away more upfront than the supremely capable and confident United States Attorney Preet Bharara. His intellectual firepower arms him the confidence to only show upfront that which will not only cause a grand jury to indict but also to squeeze Constitutional Innocence into an ideal rather than a durable fact. It is no accident that the Rajat indictment discloses a 16second breach of confidentiality: it makes the legal case strong enough to survive a motion to dismiss, while leaving society breathless.

TSAT: If Rajat did not financially benefit from giving tips/information (a line the defense is taking), is he still guilty of insider trading under the law?

Batra: Of course he is. Rajat, as a member of the board of directors of a corporation, was entitled to confidential information that belonged to the corporation, which in turn is owned by its shareholders or creditors. These set of director-rights also imposed upon him high fiduciary duties, which include keeping secrets, and not using those for undisclosed and unconsented-to

self-gain or self-advantage.

However, while Rajat did not have to make money or avoid losses to be convicted of insider trading, remember that he had invested his personal monies with Rajaratnam, as well as being a founder and a "partner," so to speak, with Rajaratnam in Taj Capital, which later became New Silk Route. It defies reason that Rajat would share non-public material confidential information with Rajaratnam within 16 seconds of being able to, and not share with others he was doing business with or with whom his monies were invested or at risk.

TSAT: Is this insider trading snowballing case involving mostly South Asians shameful for the community? Or as the opposite, extreme view is, that it shows the community has “arrived”, dealing in billions?

Batra: I reject both premises.

Crooks come in all shapes, sizes, colors, ethnicities and religions in a gender-neutral way. No community ever "arrived" in America by how much money it amassed or collected. A community can only "arrive" in a nation by how much public service it does and how great a neighbor it is to all those who were already here. Remember that Rosa Parks didn't fight to sit in front of the bus so that Johnny-come-latelys could jump the line and sit in front of her.

Continued on page 27...

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Ultimate Bollywood

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

'Loot:' Downhill all the way here is a don (oh, there are many of them peeping out of every nook and cranny of this abominable comedy) played by Prem Chopra who loves Meena Kumari and Pakeezah.

Sighing loudly he tells another don, played with lipsmacking relish

by Mahesh Manjrekar, ‘They don’t make heroines like Meena Kumari anymore.

She was someone you wanted to marry. Nowadays the heroines are good for only one thing’. That is just about the most subtle dialogue you will get to hear in this in-yourface farce where three small-time wastrels – Govinda, Jaffrey and Mahaakshay, and a scowling goon Suniel Shetty – take off to Pattaya.

What follows is a fiesta of fatuous

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REVIEW

Govinda’s film is a painful reminder of the collapse of the comic caper in Bollywood, but it’s still better than ‘Rascals’. gags and dialogues including of ‘guard’. Wouldn’t miss out on that. course, bad puns on ‘pattaya’ and 'Loot' looks like an unfinished

Swami Agnivesh to rock Bigg Boss' house affron-clad social activist Swami Agnivesh, who had bitter fallout with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, has agreed to be a part of the reality show 'Bigg Boss' which is into its fifth season.

According to Agnivesh's close aide Manu Singh, “Swami will spread his message through the program. Whenever he finds a challenge, he accepts it and that is the reason why he accepted this.”

Agnivesh was in the eye of a storm soon after Hazare's hunger strike -- when a video surfaced in which he was seen talking to an unidentified person asking him to deal strongly with the Gandhian.

This led to his estrangement from Team Anna.

He will be the fifth male inmate to be a part of the Bigg Boss house, which is dominated by female contestants like Pooja Bedi, Juhi

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The saffron-clad swami will be the fifth male inmate to be a part of the 'Bigg Boss 5' house, which is dominated by female contestants.

Parmar, Shonali Nagrajan, Mehak Chahal among others.

Swami will make an unlikely contestant on the show, which is popular for the cat-fights among the members of the house.

x-Miss India World Sayali Bhagat seems to be playing musical chairs with the entire media from a month, while the media seems to be foolishly eating out of her palms!

The model and actress, best known for her movie The Train opposite Emraan Hashmi, puts ‘sexual harassment’ allegations on actors on one day; says she didn’t say it the next; then says she said part of it; then says she never said the whole of it. And the gullible scandal hungry media is carrying all her versions, giving her free publicity all the while.

First, through an interview in a gossip magazine, Sayali alleged outrageous things about co-star Shiney Ahuja, who she is acting within a forthcoming film. Her talent management agency shot press releases asserting Shiney ‘sexually harassed’ her during the making of a film. A few days later, Sayali claimed in a prominent Delhi newspaper that

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A Californian woman claims that the teen sensation fathered a child with her after a brief sexual encounter.

Justin Bieber will voluntarily take the paternity test. That is the only way to definitively determine who

And Suniel remains true to his character, while Manjrekar along with his sidekick Razaak Khan share the film’s only genuinely funny sequence.

But most of the time, the actors seem as clueless about their next move as the scriptwriter. So they just decide to have fun with the pun.

If only we knew what was so funny. Loot is a hoot. And a painful reminder of the collapse of the comic caper in Bollywood in a heap of inadequacy.

The writing reaches a stalemate even before the actors warm up to their roles. And then it’s downhill all the way.

Is Sayali Bhagat bluffing the media?

Bieber to take paternity test een sensation Justin Bieber, who has denied claims by a Californian woman that he fathered a child with her after a brief sexual encounter, has offered to take a paternity test.

Mariah Yeater, 20, has filed legal papers stating she had sex with 17-year-old Bieber Oct 25 last year following the singer's performance at Los Angeles' Staples Centre.

Bieber has denied the allegations and his lawyers have vowed to do everything possible to defend the singer, reports contactmusic.com.

Yeater's attorney has confirmed the singer has offered to take a paternity test.

Matt Pare and Lance Rogers said: "We are encouraged that

product from a group of actors and technicians who lost their way in transit. This one should have ideally remained in the cans. Just why Suniel invested into this piece of filmed garbage is anyone’s guess.

The characters are most frequently seen lolling around in hotel rooms, waiting for the dialogue writer to come up with some more oafish innuendos. In the meanwhile there is a whole truckload of gangsters, goons, dons and hoodlums waiting to pounce on the plot at the drop of a hat. The world never seemed more unsafe.

Govinda’s habitual abilities to improvise do see some of the scenes to a kind of culmination.

the father is. The paternity suit was filed in good faith, and it will continue..."

The model and actress is best known for her movie 'The Train' opposite Emraan Hashmi.

Shiney didn’t.

In a few days, her agency sent yet another press note, with her making taller allegations that even megastar Amitabh Bachchan, filmmaker Sajid Khan and actor Arya Babbar sexually harassed her, and that she will file Police complaints and take action against them.

Then again, she told the same Delhi newspaper, she didn’t make these charges, and is not planning to file any complaint. This was followed by reports in various net media saying, that Sayali had now claimed that though Big B, Sajid and Arya, were innocent, Shiney wasn’t.

Two days ago, the actress went ahead and gave a video interview to a prominent Bollywood website stating, she hasn’t said any of the things that she has been quoted to have said. In the interview, Sayali repeatedly mentioned that she is having a Press Conference to clarify all this mess that same evening.

Since then, we haven’t heard of any such Conference! So is there any credibility in what Sayali has been saying? Or is she bluffing the media? Is she using newspapers and other media as a platform to be in news for scandalous reasons? Would the media still want to believe her in future? Only time will tell.

Kim Sharma calls it quits im Sharma, whose acting career never took off, has put an official end to her Bollywood career and says that ‘Loot’ is her last movie.

"I am very happily married.

Luckily and happily, Loot is the last of my terrible film career," said the actor who recently married Kenya-based businessman Ali Punjani.

Kim now divides her time in three cities - Mombasa in Kenya, Dubai and Mumbai - and sees no reason to cling to a non-existent Bollywood career.

"So it's farewell to Bollywood.

My message to Bollywood, see you later, Beautiful," said the actress who is paired with singer Mika in Loot -- in not a major or noticeable role.

Kim started her career in Aditya Chopra's "Mohabbatein".

K

Kim started her career with Aditya Chopra's ‘Mohabbatein’. She is more famous as cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s ex-girlfriend.

Ultimate Bollywood Thesouthasiantimes.info

17

November 12-18, 2011

Karisma reconciles with husband arisma Kapoor, who had been contemplating a legal separation with Delhi-based businessman Sunjay Kapur in 2010, seems to have decided to give her marriage a second chance.

Making a fresh start, Kareena Kapoor's elder sister, spent Diwali with her estranged husband in his Delhi home after over a year of separation. Her daughter Samaira and son Kian too spent about a week with her and Sunjay. A source said,

K Sanjay’s alleged 'closeness' to certain women did not go down too well with the actress who had left her successful Bollywood career to settle down in Delhi.

"Lolo had a great time in Delhi. She stayed in Sunjay's house for about four to five days. She has not looked so happy in a very long time. She clicked pictures with Sunjay and her kids and sent them across to Kareena, who was in London for the launch of her wax statue at Madame Tussauds."

Karisma married Sunjay in 2003. Soon after, her husband's alleged 'closeness' to certain women did not go down too

I'm uncomfortable talking in English: Akshay nlike other Bollywood celebrities, who prefer to converse in English, Bollywood's desi boy Akshay Kumar says he is more comfortable talking in Hindi.

"After all, we're Hindi film stars.

We earn our bread and butter from Bollywood. I'm uncomfortable talking in English..I've always been," Akshay said in a statement.

"I've realized my fans love the dialogues I say on screen. And those are in Hindi. Why speak in a language your are not comfortable with? After all success is about being comfortable in your own skin and I'm finally doing that," he added. The actor, who is now gearing up for the release of his new film "Desi Boyz" with John Abraham, calls himself "desi" and says he is proud of his roots.

"I'm proud to be desi. I'm a desi boy from

U

Akshay Kumar.

Delhi and I'm very proud of who I am and I am proud of my roots. My fans love me for being being humble and hard working. They love me for speaking to them in their language; they connect with me because I remind them of their roots," he said.

well with the actress who had left her successful Bollywood career to settle down in Delhi.

After a brief period of estrangement, Karisma and Sunjay reconciled. But problems apparently started again when Karisma became pregnant with her second child.

Sunjay was reportedly getting cozy with a Delhi-based socialite. Unhappy, with her husband's roving eye, Karisma shifted base back to Mumbai.

"Karisma has put her past

Aniston-Pitt to reunite for Oscars

ollywood hotties and exspouses Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt are planning to make their first public appearance together since 2004 at the Oscars.

Pitt and Aniston, who divorced in 2005 after five years of marriage, have been asked to present one of the gongs at next February’s Oscars ceremony, after their friend, filmmaker and video director Brett Ratner, landed the job of producing the Academy Awards show.

“They’re considering it,” the Daily Telegraph quoted a source as telling UK’s Now magazine.

“Brett knows that getting them on the podium together will make the ceremony the most talked about one,” the source added.

H

behind now. Better sense seems to have prevailed upon both her and Sunjay. He isn't with the Delhi socialite anymore. Karisma, too, is trying her best to stay optimistic," said the source.

However, this reconciliation might not culminate into Karisma moving back to Delhi.

The actress, who is currently working with Vikram Bhatt on Dangerous Ishq, will continue with her second innings in Bollywood.

The decision to drop Prachi Desai from ‘Jannat 2’ was taken after the actress refused to get intimate on screen.

Kareena and I couldn’t act together : Ranbir nd while the director was keen to work with his Geet again after the ‘Jab We Met’, he had to reluctantly let her go because Ranbir was best suited for the title role, and being first cousins, the two couldn’t be romantically paired.

Kareena’s admitted that losing Rockstar to Nargis Fakhri was “heartbreaking”.

Ranbir acknowledges that Kareena is one of most talented actors in the industry today: “She’s hardworking, passionate and has had the opportunity to work with many good directors, including Imtiaz.

It’s unfortunate that since we are related by blood, we couldn’t act together.”

However, he points out that

A

Kareena’s admitted that losing Rockstar to Nargis Fakhri was “heartbreaking”.

Kareena and I couldn’t act together: Ranbir Indian cinema is progressing movies being made, they could opportunity. “May be a film in romance each other but play a n d w i t h d i ff e r e n t k i n d s o f b e p r e s e n t e d w i t h a n o t h e r w h i c h w e a r e n o t m e a n t t o characters,” he says.

18

Festival

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Prayers, sacrifices mark Eid in South Asia

Children greet each other after offering Namaz on Eid-ul-Zuha at Jama Masjid in Delhi.

New Delhi/Islamabad: Thronging mosques, sacrificing goats, greeting friends and rustling up delicacies, millions of Muslims celebrated Eidul-Zuha across South Asia.

The day passed off peacefully, barring in Jammu and Kashmir where clashes broke out between stone pelting youths and security personnel.

What reigned supreme was the spirit of sacrifice. Be it Delhi or Mumbai, Kerala or Uttar Pradesh, the festive mood prevailed everywhere as friends and family got together to mark the occasion, also known as Bakr-Eid. In Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley, protests erupted soon after Eid prayers in Sopore, Anantnag and some parts of old Srinagar.

Youths, shouting slogans, started pelting stones at police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). More than two dozen security personnel were injured, a senior policeman said. Batons and teargas shells were used to disperse the protestors.

Celebrations were, however, peaceful in other parts of the state.

The devout thronged Eidgahs and mosques to offer prayers despite the morning cold. Among them were Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father, union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah.

In the capital, thousands crowded the 17th century Jama Masjid and other mosques. Chants of "Allah ho Akbar" resonated in the narrow lanes of Delhi's old quarters from the loudspeakers of the Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque in India and one of the main centers for Eid festivities.

"The Jama Masjid was packed, thousands morning attended the namaz at 8.30 a.m," Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid, said.

India has the third highest Muslim population in the world at 14 million, after Indonesia and Pakistan.

And on Monday, many of them fondly recalled the legend associated with Eid-ul-Zuha.

The story goes that bowing to Allah's command, Prophet Ibrahim offered his son Ismail in sacrifice.

When he blindfolded himself and moved the knife on his son's throat, Allah ordered a ram from heaven to replace Ismail.

In a symbolic gesture, on this Eid thousands of animals are sacrificed Monday to commemorate the historic sacrifice offered by Prophet Ibrahim.

Around five lakh goats and sheep were sacrificed in Mumbai, nearly two lakh at Deonar abattoir alone.

The abattoir, one of the largest in Asia, ensured no illegal animal was brought in for slaughtering as per a court order. According to tradition, after cutting a goat or a sheep, every Muslim divides the meat into three parts. One part goes to the poor, the second to relatives and the third remains with the family.

The festival coincides with the Haj pilgrimage in Makkah Eid was celebrated across Pakistan with zeal and fervor and a renewed commitment to make the country prosperous and invincible to threats to its integrity.

Small and large Eid congregations were held at hundreds of Eidgahs and mosques across the country.

In their Eid sermons, clerics highlighted the significance and philosophy of the sacrifice and urged Muslims to follow the teachings of Islam, which call for greater unity amongst themselves. Special prayers were offered for the integrity, solidarity and prosperity of the country.

The clerics urged Muslims to shun petty differences, stand united and seek God’s blessings. The Interior Ministry had employed security measures to prevent any untoward incidents, with security officials deployed outside mosques, Eidgahs and other places where Eid congregations took place.

Egyptian Muslims celebrated Eid amid parliamentary election campaigns, with candidates and parties trying to win over masses in one of the most important feasts on the Muslim calendar.

In Dar el-Salam suburb of Cairo, one can see a long queue of people waiting to receive a sack of meat, which is provided for free from the Freedom and Justice Party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Muslim women offer prayers at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore.

Nepalese Muslims perform morning prayers at the Kashmiri Mosque in Kathmandu.

Sri Lankan Muslims greet each other on Eid in Colombo.

Indian and Pakistani rangers exchange sweets at the Wagah border.

President Obama congratulates King Riyadh: Custodian of the two holy mosques King Abdullah received a congratulatory cable from US President Barack Obama.

“Michelle (Obama) and I would like to congratulate Muslims in the US and the rest of the world on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, particularly the pilgrims who have carried out one of the basic rites of Islam. We are proud of the fact that thousands of US pilgrims have joined the approximately 3 million Muslims in Haj this year,” Obama said in his message.

The president said Eid Al-Adha revived the memory of the readiness of the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) to sacrifice his son. He pointed to pil-

grims offering sacrifices and donating the meat to the poor, including those who are suffering from severe drought in the Horn of Africa.

“While such a huge number of people from various racial and economic backgrounds overcome their differences for a greater cause, in it there is a lesson for the entire mankind that differences of people are a source of strength and is a blessing of God that should be celebrated,” Obama said.

“We would like to in these blessed days and on behalf of the American people to offer our sincerest greetings to the Muslim world on Eid Al-Adha and also to everyone who completed the Haj,” the president said.

Palestinian youth enjoy the holiday on Eid at a public park in East Jerusalem.

Op Ed TheSouthAsianTimes.info

19

November 12-18, 2011

Anna's future less rosy than his past?

By Amulya Ganguli t is possible that the Congress will finally succeed in outflanking Anna Hazare.

It isn't only the decision to introduce the Lokpal bill which is likely to take the wind out of the latter's sails, another piece of legislation to tackle corruption at the lower level will send the message that the government is at last serious about purposeful legal measures and not insipid ones, as was the earlier perception.

True, the Lokpal bill is unlikely to be passed during the winter session, as the civil activists want. The government may even engage in a bit of filibustering to ensure that the debate stretches into 2012. There are enough critics of the measure outside the government, like the Congress' old friend Lalu Prasad, who can help prolong the discussion on the grounds of a closer look.

Even then, once the consideration of the bill is taken up by parliament, it will be extremely difficult for activists to rev up their campaign. Certainly, there can be no question in this context of a third fast, as promised by Anna. The movement can continue, of course. Even suspicions can be

I

trump card that compelled the government to accept its terms, namely, its version of the bill, by exerting relentless pressure.

Till now, the group has been fairly successful - in fact, more successful than any such movement in the past, including Jayaprakash Narayan's. The latter's prodemocracy movement was actually a failure considering that JP himself was jailed along with scores of other top-ranking leaders and the period from June 1975, to March 1977 was largely uneventful. It was only Indira Gandhi's erroneous reading of the prevailing calm which made her call for elections with disastrous results for the Congress.

Anna's success, on the other hand, was based, first, on the deep disquiet among the aam admi about the prevailing corruption and, secondly, on the Congress' initial misThe Lokpal bill is unlikely to be passed dur- handling of protests, mainly because it ing the winter session, as the civil activists seemed to have no idea about how the many want. The government may even engage in scams have undermined its position. But a bit of filibustering to ensure that the now the wheel has apparently started turndebate stretches into 2012. ing the other way.

Anna's problem is that he wants to operate voiced about the dilatory parliamentary tactics. But anything smacking of pressure tac- outside the system because he regards it as tics will be counter-productive. What this corrupt to the core. However, in trying to means is that the Anna camp has lost its place himself above it - above parliament, in

the words of an acolyte - he has been acting in accordance with a certain traditional viewpoint which maintains that the present Westminster system is essentially alien to the Indian ethos. What the adherents of this belief hark back to is a glorious Indian past, where the kings were subservient to the sages.

Evidently, when Anna launched his anticorruption battle, he did not anticipate that it would become such a big affair, capturing the imagination of the people who were looking for a hero in a dispiriting time and attracting activists from various walks of life. It was all very well when the government was on the retreat. But now the difficulty of sustaining the two basic ingredients of the movement - hype and a lily-white image - have come to the fore.

The government, on its part, can carry on much as before since the focus will be on parliament rather than on it. But Anna will have to ensure that the movement does not flag, that the bill does not go off track and that no other allegations of dubious transactions are made against his followers.

Clearly, Anna's future will be less rosy than his past.

Rajat case: Lending color to the debate

By Pratik Kanjilal s Rajat Gupta Indian, American, Indian-American, South Asian or what, and does it matter? The question is interesting because the story of the fall of the biggest desi name in global business is being told in terms of geography and identity. The day Gupta surrendered to the FBI to face charges of insider trading, the front pages in Kolkata mourned the fall of the blue-eyed boy from the neighborhood of Maniktala, while the Delhi press lamented over one of the most extraordinary alumni of Modern School and IIT Delhi.

Meanwhile, the US and British media were going ape over South Asian conspiracy theories because all the big shots in the dragnet of the biggest-ever insider trading investigation were South Asians.

Was the model achiever community losing its goody two-shoes rat-

I

ing? Had South Asians imported the lawlessness of their homelands?

South Asians immediately countered: American traders had been swapping tips at the 19th hole for generations, but it was a problem if immigrant South Asians did it?

There's an element of truth there, but it doesn't follow that South Asians were picked on. The trail just happened to begin with a South Asian, Roomy Khan, and led to a network of South Asians, including the Sri Lankan Raj Rajaratnam, promoter of the Galleon Group. Since Galleon was the hottest hedge fund, it was the biggest target. And that fork of the trail led to Rajat Gupta, the tallest South Asian in the business and guaranteed to fall hardest.

In an interview with Suketu Mehta, Rajaratnam, who has been put away for 11 years, spoke of "a Jewish mafia, a WASP mafia, an

Irish mafia" on Wall Street, which made it hard for South Asians to break in. But they don't operate under the colours of their countries of origin. Their flag, and that of all other financial cliques, is the colour of money.

We read this as the story of a model achiever community gone wrong only if we gloss over the name of the man leading the investigation: Preetinder S Bharara, Punjab-born US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Apart from ravaging corrupt US officials, Bharara's term has seen the conviction of al-Qaeda operatives, and the Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui for an alleged lethal attack on US interrogators in Afghanistan.

Siddiqui's controversial trial can't have made Bharara a popular figure in Punjab, that side of the border.

Ethnicity may have played only an incidental role in the insider

Rajat Gupta. trading case. The South Asians involved are US citizens. They happened to hang together because, for purely cultural reasons, ethnic communities hang out together.

Tagging the Rajaratnam-Gupta episode as a South Asian debacle on that ground alone is stretching it a bit. And telling their success story as a parable of South Asian achievement was just as fallacious.

The stories of Rajaratnam, Gupta or the Pakistani cricketers sentenced this week in London are personal tragedies, not those of

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

their communities. Perhaps we should not take them too personally. Many achievers of South Asian origin don't even hold passports from our region. They are world citizens who happen to have been born with our skin color. And sometimes, it shades over the color that really matters - the color of money.

(Pratik Kanjilal is publisher of The Little Magazine. The views expressed by the author are personal)

20

Diaspora

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Indian man becomes 'farming king' in Argentina Buenos Aires: A Punjab-origin man in Argentina, who started a peanut farm a few years ago, has gone on to become the 'uncrowned king' of rice, soya and corn plantations in South America.

Simmarpal Singh's company Olam, based in Singapore and run by people of Indian origin, is one of the major rice traders of the world, says R Viswanathan, India's ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

"The Argentines admire this young Indian's dynamism and adore his turban, thinking that he is a Maharaja," he says.

Simmarpal now has an area of 20,000 hectares of peanut farms.

He grows soya and corn in 10,000 hectares, and has leased 1,700 hectares of land in Concordia in Entre Rios province for rice cultivation.

Argentines neither follow the Indian practice of ploughing the land nor the method of developing

Simmarpal Singh, the Peanut Prince of Argentina a nursery first and then transplanting the rice plants. The farmers here use the 'no-till' method, also called 'direct seeding.'

Viswanathan says Simmarpal has impressed everyone with his "Indian-style" hard work and also with the pleasant Latino way in which he manages his Argentine employees.

Hindujas' £100 million mansion is next door to Buckingham Palace London: According to The Times of India, billionaire Hinduja brothers’ £100 million palatial property is a stone's throw from Queen Elizabeth's iconic Buckingham Palace.

It took the Hindujas - who have an estimated fortune of £6 billion five years to restore the mansion, carved out of four listed properties and located on the Mall, the boulevard in front of the UK's monarch's London residence. It was originally commissioned by King George IV in the 1820s.

Its six floors and 50 rooms are divided into four spacious, integrated apartments - one each for Srichand, Gopichand (both based in London), Prakash (who operates from Geneva) and Ashok (who lives in Mumbai), a swimming pool and a cinema hall.

The John Nash-created facade is charmingly English and a reflection of one of the most distinctive

Govt. to fund 3 Hindu temples in Malaysia Kuala Lumpur: The Malyasian government is reportedly allocating funds for building three Hindu temples in the state of Sabah.

These temples include Sri Murugan Temple in Tawau, Pasupathinath Temple in Kota Kinabalu and Sri Subramaniar Temple in Lok Kawi Camp, reports suggest.

Applauding this government gesture, Hindu statesman Rajan

Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) requested declaration of Thaipusam as a public holiday in Sabah enabling more community members to celebrate it together.

According to reports, presently four states of Malaysia observe Thaipusam Day as a public holiday.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Haji Mohd Yassin reportedly recently

attended Deepavali open house.

Allocation for Sri Murugan Temple will go towards preparation of Maha Kumba Bisegam celebration held every 12 years.

On the last Thaipusam festival of Tawau Hindu Temple attended by hundreds, devotees carried decorative kavadi and paal kudam (milk pots) in a procession from river bank to Temple, walking about two kilometers.

UK Indian laced wife's food with steroids to make her fat London: An Indian-origin man in Britain laced his wife's food with steroids in a bid to transform her into a fat, stay-at-home mother, a court has heard.

Dalwara Singh slipped the drugs into his wife's dinner, causing her to develop facial hair.

He was caught out when their teenage daughter heard him grinding something in the bedroom. His wife then discovered the drugs hidden in a locked cupboard and called in the police, The Sun reported.

The couple had been married for 17 years and have a son and a daughter -- aged 15 and 16.

The prosecutor told the court that Singh gave his

wife the drugs to keep her at home.

'He wanted to stop her from going out for walks, because he wanted her to be at home to cook for him and look after the children. He said he didn't consider the side effects and intended to stop,' the court was told.

Singh admitted administering a noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy at the Leicester Crown Court.

He narrowly escaped jail and was instead handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was also handed a restraining order banning any contact with his now-estranged wife other than through solicitors or social services.

The Hinduja Mansion features of the London's architecture. It has, in fact, been acquired from the Elizabeth-owned Crown estate, a royal portfolio worth £7.3 billion. One of the flats was once the home of a 19th century British prime minister, William Gladstone.

The Hindujas' acquisition includes a dining room which can seat more than 30 people on a glass table. Italian chandeliers and Honduran mahogany paneling adorn the house. The meticulous restoration work under the watchful eyes of English Heritage has

relaid solid marble floors.

The director for London of English Heritage, Paddy Pugh, told the Sunday Times newspaper, "I can't think of another domestic restoration project on this scale with buildings of this importance," adding, "Rarely have we seen such opulence allied to such craftsmanship."

The Hindujas bought the four properties - which were in a rundown condition - for £58 million in 2006. They spent £40-£50 million to bring it back to their old glory.

Hinduism spreads in Ghana, reaches Togo Accra: From just two dozen people in the mid 1970s to 3,000 families now, Hinduism is spreading in Ghana and has also made its way into neighboring Togo.

Hindu worship began to grow in Ghana after African spiritual leader, Essel ji, was initiated by Swami Krishnanda ji Saraswati into the Holy Order of Renunciation in 1976, said Kwesi Anamoah, national president of the African Hindu Temple here.

"Today, there are 2,000 to 3,000 families worshiping all over the country which is a big increase from the 24 people who participated in the first-ever training camp in 1976 to become disciples," Anamoah said.

"We have not achieved this through the winning of souls as other religions do, but have attracted people into the practice of Hinduism simply by the lives we lead," he said, adding: "Our lives shine in the community to attract people."

Christians form nearly 70 percent of the 24 million population of Ghana while the population of six million in Togo includes nearly 30 percent Christians and 20 percent Muslims.

He said the first ever Hindu monastery has been built in Ghana and it is from here that Hinduism is spreading.

"We do not evangelise like other faiths do, but we have attracted people because they see how we live our lives as Hindus and come to make enquiries and then find their way into our folds," Anamoah added. He said the monastery annually holds six weeks' training for those interested to become devotees. "It is a religion that cannot be explained in simple terms...we do not go into the streets to talk to people; rather, they are invited to come and understand."

"We have also been able to change initial perception that Hindu worshipping was cultural enslavement...," he added.

Subcontinent TheSouthAsianTimes.info

21

November 12-18, 2011

Pak schools teach Hindu hatred: US panel Islamabad: Text books in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and Christians, while most teachers view religious minorities as “enemies of Islam", according to a study by a US government commission.

The findings indicate how deeply ingrained hardline Islam is in Pakistan and help explain why militancy is often supported, tolerated or excused in the country.

"Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability, and global security," said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

"likely face strong opposition" from hardliners.

The study reviewed more than 100 textbooks from grades 1-10 from Pakistan's four provinces.

4 Hindu docs gunned down

The findings indicate how deeply ingrained hardline Islam is in Pakistan.

Religious minorities and those brave enough to speak out against intolerance have often been killed, seemingly with impunity, by mili-

Zawahiri set up Osama: Book ager to become the leader of al-Qaida , the then number two Aymen Zawahiri set up Osama bin Laden by repeatedly sending a human courier to his hiding place in Abbottabad who had been interrogated by the CIA, a new book by a former Seal Chuck Pfarrer has said.

"Despite knowing that this operative was blown, Zawahiri used Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti to make repeated trips to Bin Laden's compound," says the book 'Seal Target Geronimo' written by a former SEAL, Chuck Pfarrer, and published on Nov 8.

"Based on this information, one can draw conclusion that it was Zawahiri who led US to bin Laden's hideout, accomplishing this through a complex and per-

Researchers in February this year visited 37 public schools, interviewing 277 students and teachers, and 19 madrasas, where they interviewed 226 students and teachers.

E

Chuck Pfarrer's book contains new details about the mission that killed Bin Laden. sistent series of lapses in security," he said.

tant sympathizers. The commission warned that any significant efforts to combat religious discrimination, especially in education, would

Karachi: Four Hindu doctors have been gunned down in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, sparking fears and panic among the minority community.

The doctors were gunned down on Nov 8 at their clinic in Chak town close to Shikarpur.

Dr Ramesh Kumar, a former member of provincial assembly and chief patron of Pakistan Hindu

Council, confirmed that Dr Ashok, Dr Naresh, Dr Ajeet and Dr Satia Paul were killed by armed assailants while working in their clinic."There is a strong population of around 50,000 Hindus in Chak so for such an incident to happen is bad and the government must take notice of it and provide protection to the minorities," Kumar demanded.

SAARC Summit: All eyes on India, Pak Addu: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was all set to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Maldives.

They were expected to review progress in bilateral ties against the backdrop of some positive developments witnessed lately.

The two leaders were to meet on Nov 10 morning ahead of the inauguration of the two-day summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in the Addu atoll islands.

The meeting between Singh and Gilani comes after they met in March in Mohali on the margins of the Indo-Pak World Cup semi-final tie.

The rendezvous was to take place in the backdrop of some recent positive developments witnessed in bilateral relations like Pakistan's decision to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status to India and the release of an Indian helicopter that had strayed into Pakistani territory.

The Foreign Secretaries of the two countries who are already in Maldives met to discuss bilateral

The heads of eight SAARC countries are meeting in Addu, Maldives, on November 10 and 11. issues and matters relating to the meeting between the Prime Ministers.

Foreign Secretaries Ranjan Mathai and Salman Bashir expressed satisfaction on the engagement process and agreed that "stable, normal and predictable" ties were in their interest as well as the region's.

Imran predicts 'a revolution' in Pak politics Islamabad: At the height of his cricket glory days, Imran Khan would visualise winning – standing on the podium, cup held aloft – and propelling Pakistan to victory. Last weekend, standing before a sea of supporters in Lahore, he had a similar epiphany about his political career.

"As I stood there, watching them, I knew the moment had come," Khan, who is the leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insafr party, said. "Now nothing can stop us.

This is a revolution, a tsunami. We will not just win the next elections – we will sweep them."

Whether the former cricket captain can translate rhetoric into reality is hotly debated. Yet few doubt that last weekend's rally sent shockwaves across Pakistan's moribund political system.

Over 100,000 people crammed

Former cricket player vows to fight corruption and negotiate with the Taliban. into a historic Lahore park. Many were middle-class Pakistanis – young, urban, educated – drawn by Khan's rhetoric and their anger at conventional politics.

Khan is visibly buoyant. For years he has campaigned on a platform of what some call "anti-politics" – virulent criticism of the graft and patronage that infect Pakistani politics. Now, he says, he

has been proved right.

Sitting on the veranda of his hilltop farmhouse outside Islamabad, he pointed across the city at the presidential palace. "[President Asif Ali] Zardari is a crook, nothing more," he said. "We've broken all records in corruption."

His plan for the economy is to "inspire" Pakistanis to pay tax – currently only 2% do so. "We just

need to have some austerity and collect taxes. If we do that, we can balance our budgets," he said.

In power, Khan said, he would cut off American aid. "I want to be a friend of the Americans, not their lackey. Aid is a curse for a poor country; it stops you making the required reforms and props up crooks."

But perhaps most alarmingly for Pakistan's western allies – and some Pakistanis – Khan says he would negotiate with instead of fighting the Taliban militants who have been bombing Pakistani cities.

"Anyone who thinks this country will be taken over by Taliban are fools. There's no concept of a theocracy anywhere in the Muslim world for the past 1,400 years. If I came to power, I could end this conflict in 90 days – guaranteed."

Khan's choice of allies, many of them veterans of previous political dispensations, has also been controversial. Khan's foreign policy adviser, Shireen Mazari, is famously hostile to India; when editing a national newspaper she ran stories that branded British, Australian and American journalists as "CIA agents".

"I don't agree with her on everything. We give her hell on certain views," he says.

Yet Khan is defiantly proud that his new-found success is vindication against what he calls the "liberal, westernized elite" – wealthy, English-speaking Pakistanis who, he claims, are out of touch with the realities of their own country. "I call them coconuts: brown on the outside, white on the inside, looking at Pakistan through a westernized lens," he says.

22

Business

November 12-18, 2011

An MBA from HULT with Harvard connection joins SATimes

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Moody's cuts India banking outlook, shares fall Mumbai: Moody's Investor Service has downgraded its outlook for India's banking system to "negative" from "stable", as it warned of slowing growth at home and overseas hitting asset quality, capitalization and profitability.

A curbing of economic growth and increased borrowing by the government will drain funds from the private credit market, the ratings agency said in a statement, pressuring lenders in Asia's thirdlargest economy.

"With asset quality, given the tightening environment, we anticipate that it will deteriorate over the next 12-18 months, thereby

SBI quarterly net profit rose 12.4 percent. causing an increase in provisioning needs for the banks in FY2012

Fannie Mae seeks $7.8 bn aid

Namit Narain, VP, Strategy & Business Development with The South Asian Times Hicksville, NY: Namit Narain has joined The South Asian Times as Vice President of Strategy & Business Development. He is a recent MBA graduate from HULT International Business School (previously, Arthur D. Little Business School) in Boston. He also took Leadership Management exchange program at Harvard University in Principles and Lessons on Leadership. Namit has an extensive experience in digital and interactive media/entertainment, with track record of rapid advancement managing aspects of the business development life cycle in highly competitive landscape ranging from target market evaluation, product development, strategy, design, innovation, product launch, PR, and marketing.

Highly resourceful and creative, he is able successfully to manage multicultural teams and forge partnerships to deliver business results.

Before joining The South Asian Times, he has worked for leading companies such as P&G FutureWorks, Siemens, Dream11.com, Games2Win, and NIIT Limited.

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The South Asian Times is a premier community weekly with a corporate office in Hicksville, NY.

Washington: Fannie Mae, one of the two major US mortgage-finance companies, has said it will request a $7.8 billion aid from the US government after posting huge losses in the third quarter.

The government-backed company, confronted with a weak housing market, Tuesday reported a net loss of $5.1 billion in the third quarter of 2011, much more than a net loss of $2.9 billion in the previous quarter, reported Xinhua.

The main reason for the increased net loss reflected the credit-related expenses and fair value losses due to further declines in interest rates, said the mortgage giant in a financial report, adding that continued weakness in the housing market and

Fannie Mae is one of the two major US mortgage-finance companies. the economy overall had a significant impact on its derivative losses.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived on Treasury aid since September 2008, when they were put under conservatorship by the federal government after suffering from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

and FY2013," Vineet Gupta, Moody's vice-president and senior

analyst, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The ratings agency said monetary tightening and a slowdown in the economy would cut bank loan growth, while a recent liberalization of savings deposit rates by the central bank would pressurize lenders' profitability.

In October, shares in State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, had fallen to their lowest level in 2 years after Moody's cut its standalone rating to D+ from C-. On Wednesday, State Bank shares erased early gains and were trading down 0.2% at 1,993 rupees ahead of the bank's quarterly earnings.

Kochhar tops India's powerful businesswomen's list New Delhi: ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar tops Fortune India's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list, which also includes Ekta Kapoor and Farah Khan from the world of showbiz.

Axis Bank MD Shikha Sharma is at number two, while TAFE Chairperson Mallika Srinivasan ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar. has landed the third position. Capgemini India CEO Co-founder Zia Mody round up the Aruna Jayanthi and AZB Partners top five.

Financial world needs more transparency: Pandit

Washington: Citigroup's Indian American Chief Executive Vikram Pandit says last week's collapse of MF Global Holdings Inc. proves that the financial world needs ever more transparency on disclosure and derivatives as well as a better way to regulate nonbanks.

Advocating putting derivatives on clearinghouses and exchanges, Pandit Monday pointed to MF Global's European exposures, which ultimately sank the firm, as an example of what can be improved by greater clarity.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in New York, Pandit also argued that financial players such as MF Global that are not being regulated like banks, but which engage in banking activities, need

Citibank's CEO Vikram Pandit. to be regulated the same way.

"Shadow banking is really important and prudential regulation can't stop only at a few firms," Pandit said. "It does need capital and other oversight. If you want to be in the busi-

ness that's the price you have to pay."

Shadow banks are financial firms that aren't subject to rules applied to traditional banks.

MF Global, the holding company for the broker-dealer run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc co-Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy protection Oct 31 after making a $6.3 billion bet with the firm's money on European sovereign debt.

Pandit said the current economic environment is still feeling the effects of the last crisis in 2008, as the world continues to work through the leverage that built up and caused the financial crash.

"We learned yet again what happened to the world when leverage rises to levels that are unsustainable," he said. "We are still living through that."

Italy too big to bail out: Austria Brussels: Italy is too big to bail out, which is why Rome must make huge sacrifices, Austria's finance minister said Tuesday as IMF and EU inspectors start poring over the country's books.

"Italy knows that given the size of the country, it can't hope to get help from outside," Maria Fekter told reporters as he arrived for a second day of talks among coun-

terparts in Brussels. "That's why these huge efforts are made in Italy at the moment."

Fekter was speaking just as the yield on Italian 10-year debt bonds rose to a new record of 6.73 percent in early trading and as embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced a critical parliament vote on the country's public finances.

The combination of Italy's low growth rate and 1.9-trillion euro ($2.6-trillion) debt has fanned investor fears that Italy could be the next victim of Europe's debt crisis even though its deficit is relatively low.

EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he wants immediate answers from the eurozone's third largest econ-

omy on its reform plans, and a first group of EU monitoring experts was expected in Italy soon.

A defiant Berlusconi dismissed talk of his possible resignation as "baseless" and warned against calls for the creation of a unity government to steer a way out of the crisis, saying it would be "the opposite of democracy."

International TheSouthAsianTimes.info

23

November 12-18, 2011

Netanyahu a 'liar,' Sarkozy tells Obama Paris: French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.

"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.

"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter.

The technical gaffe is likely to cause great embarrassment to all three leaders as they look to work together to intensify international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

The conversation was not initially reported by the small group of journalists who overheard it because it was considered private and off-the-record. But the comments have since

French President Nicolas Sarkozy with US President Barack Obama. emerged on French websites and can be confirmed by Reuters.

‘News Corp paper spied on Prince William’ he News of the World, the now-defunct tabloid at the centre of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal, paid a private eye to spy on Prince William and a host of other high-profile people, the BBC said.

The report, based on an interview with the detective, is yet another damaging revelation for News Corp's British operation and comes in the week Rupert Murdoch's son James will testify for a second time before British lawmakers. According to former police officer Derek Webb, the News of the World asked him to carry out surveillance on Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince William, his brother Harry's former girlfriend, former Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith and the parents of "Harry Potter" actor Daniel Radcliffe.

"I was working for them extensively on many jobs

T

The prince's office said it had no comment on the story. throughout that time," Webb said according to quotes on the BBC website.

"I never knew when I was going to be required. They phoned me up by the day or by the night... It could be anywhere in the country."

William, whom the report said was trailed in 2006 while in western England, was one of more than 90 people Webb was asked to follow in eight

years of working for the paper from 2003 until it was closed down in July.

The prince's office said it had no comment on the story.

"Basically I would write down what they were wearing at the time, what car they were in, who they met, the location they met, the times -the times were very important -- and I would keep that," Webb was quoted as saying.

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the conversation when asked by reporters traveling with Obama to an event in Philadelphia.

Obama's apparent failure to defend Netanyahu is likely to be leapt on by his Republican foes, who are looking to unseat him in next year's presidential election and have portrayed him as hostile to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region.

Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strong base of support among the U.S. public and in Congress.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment, but one of his deputies, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, played down the episode.

"Everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions," Shalom, a former foreign minister and rival of Netanyahu in the rightist Likud party, told Israel's Army Radio.

Consensus on Palestine bid eludes UN panel United Nations: A draft report by a UN Security Council committee declared that members could not reach consensus on whether Palestine should be accepted as a UN member state.

"The committee was unable to make a unanimous recommendation to the Security Council," said the The Palestinians can still call for a vote in the Security Council, but draft report of the diplomats say it isn't clear if they will do so given that US will likely council's commitnot need to use its veto to block it. tee on admitting new member diplomats say it isn't clear score a moral victory and states. It was circulated to if they will do so given that force US to cast its veto if all 15 members.

US will likely not need to they are able to muster nine The Palestinians can still use its veto to votes. But Palestinians call for a vote in the block it. have secured only eight Security Council, but The Palestinians would backers.

Toll in Thailand floods crosses 500 Bangkok: The death toll from Thailand's worst flooding in half a century has climbed past 500, as advancing pools of polluted black water threatened Bangkok's underground railway system.

As new evacuations were ordered in the sprawling capital, the latest district added to the government's evacuation list was Chatuchak, home to a major public park and an outdoor shopping zone that is a major tourist attraction.

The Chatuchak Weekend Market was open, but missing many vendors and customers on Sunday as floodwaters poured past the market's eastern edge for a second day.

So far, Bangkok's governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, has ordered evacuations in 11 of Bangkok's 50 districts, and partial evacuations apply in seven more.

The evacuations are not mandatory, and most people are staying to protect their homes and businesses. But the orders illustrate how far flooding has progressed into the city and how powerless the government

Large swaths of Thailand have experienced heavy rainfall and flooding since late July, leaving 506 people dead, according to the latest government statistics. has been to stop it.

Chatuchak is just a few miles north of Bangkok's central business district, which still is dry. On Sunday, cars drove through a

flooded road underneath Chatuchak's Mo Chit Skytrain station, the northernmost stop on Bangkok's elevated train system.

Floodwaters also reached roads at three

metro stops in northern Bangkok, though both mass transit networks are functioning normally.

Large swaths of Thailand have experienced heavy rainfall and flooding since late July, leaving 506 people dead, according to the latest government statistics.

Most victims have drowned, while a handful died from flood-related electrocutions. No deaths have been reported in Bangkok.

In the last few days, floods have also begun moving southward in adjacent Lad Phrao, a district full of office towers, condominiums and a popular shopping mall.

On Friday, workers completed a 6km flood wall made from massive, hastily assembled sandbags to divert some of the water flowing towards central Bangkok.

But large amounts of water are already beyond that wall, and officials say that besides a network of canals and underground drainage tunnels, there are no more barriers preventing water from pushing south into the heart of the city.

24

Sports

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

India win first Test against WIndies New Delhi: Though Sachin Tendulkar fell 24 runs short of his 100th international century, he made sure that India won the first cricket Test against the West Indies to go one up in the three-match series here.

India reached the 276-run target for the loss of five wickets, Yuvraj Singh falling when the scores were tied, 32 minutes after the lunch break on the fourth day with V.V.S. Laxman remaining unbeaten on 58.

Tendulkar en route to his 76 also crossed 15,000 runs in Test cricket.

It was India's first win after six Tests, and their first against the West Indies at the Kotla.

India also equaled the second successful run chase at home. Interestingly, the visitors had chased an identical target successfully here in 1987.

The young West Indies team gave an

inspired performance and fought till the end, skipper Darren Sammy castling Yuvraj (18) when he was looking to clip the winning run. It was left to Laxman to complete the formality in the next over.

Though the match finished with a day and half to spare, there was enough drama with fortunes fluctuating. The West Indies, riding on a fine 111 by their senior pro Shivnarine Chanderpaul, entertained hopes of a victory when they bowled India out for 209 after scoring 304 in the first innings.

India had gone into the match with a fresh bowling attack. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, who was playing a Test after a year, and debutant Ravichandran Aswhin. The two youngsters did not disappoint.

Ojha was the pick of the bowler in the first innings, getting his maiden five-wicket haul (6/72), while Ashwin turned the match

Mutai wins New York marathon

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya.

New York: On a near perfect, windless day that seemed made for African marathon runners, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya flew over five New York bridges, breaking away from the so called elite pack in the final six miles to shatter a decade-old course record by more than two and a half minutes.

And, in the process, he set off celebrations among Kenyans living in the US that went on late into the night. "It’s a great day for Kenya. Our runners have made us proud and its in order for Kenyans wherever they are to celebrate this win," said Dr Josephine Ojiambo, Kenyan Ambassador to the UN after receiving the runners at the end of the race.

With song and dance, and Tusker as one Kenyan living in the Bronx told The Standard on phone, Sunday afternoon and many hours later in the US belonged to Kenyans.

The win was treated as one of the biggest story on both local and national television and radio.

The spectacular run by the Kenyan trio of Geoffrey Mutai,

Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany (third in women race) in the New York Marathon highlighted the day.

"New York City is abuzz with the Kenyan win. I’m on facebook and twitter with my friends still celebrating and marveling at our athletes win," said Peter Kerre from New York City.

"Geoffrey Mutai had assured me last night that he felt good in body and spirit and that he was confident he will win. Indeed, these are our true ambassadors and as a country, what we have to think about is how to make them feel appreciated so that they can continue flying our flag," said Elkanah Odembo, Kenyan ambassador to the US. The London Marathon champion, Emmanuel Mutai second finish in New York saw him win $500,000 World Marathon Majors (WMM) jackpot.

In the women’s race, Dado of Ethiopia took the women’s title in 2:23:15 eclipsing compatriot Buzunesh Deba with the current London Marathon champ Mary Keitany of Kenya next in 2:23:39.

R Ashwin, Man of the Match India's way on the third day when he picked up his maiden fifer (six for 47) that restricted the West Indies to 180 in the second innings to leave the hosts a competitive target.

Ashwin, 25-year-old engineering gradu-

Butt appeals against 30month jail sentence London: Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has appealed against his 30-month jail sentence for spot-fixing in a Test match against England at Lord's last year.

Butt, along with fellow teammates Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, were sentenced after a London court found them guilty.

Butt'a lawyer Yasin Patel verified that an appeal had been filed against the sentence, the Guardian reported. A crown court found Butt to be the "orchestrator" for directing Asif and Aamer to bowl a no-ball at a pre-determined moment.

Butt is reportedly sharing a cell with his coconspirator Asif at Wandsworth prison, though the prison service has refused to confirm the claim, the report said.

Asif is serving a 12month sentence while Aamer, who was given a six-month sentence, has been reportedly moved from Feltham Young Offender's institution to the smaller Portland prison.

V.V.S. Laxman remaining unbeaten on 58. ate, finished with a match haul of nine for 128, the second best by an Indian debutant after Narendra Hirwani's 16 for 136 also against the West Indies in 1988. The tall Chennai lad was rightly adjudged the man of the match.

Sachi: Caught between Devil and Deep Sea

Sachin Tendulkar fell 24 runs short of his 100th international century.

By Bobilli Vijay Kumar New Delhi: Almost every time a momentous milestone looms before him, Sachin Tendulkar also perceives the Devil and the Deep Sea; he just can't seem to decide which is the lesser of the evil and ends up being consumed by one or the other, or both.

The first Test at the historic Kotla once again showcased this one aberration in his exceptional run over the years. He walked in at 95 for two; by then, the danger had passed and the wicket too mysteriously looked friendlier.

Yet, Tendulkar only saw the Devil (in the track): as he took his stance, you could sense his anxiety. India could have still lost from here; but he could also make a dash for it.

Inevitably, his nerves settled down; the smile was back on his face and he started looking for his shots: gentle pushes through covers and crisp tucks to the on-side confirmed that the butterflies in his stomach had taken flight.

Tendulkar suddenly saw the Deep Sea: the target was sinking much quicker than he had planned

for. Typically, he changed tack: there was an urgency in his batting which was hitherto missing.

Cuts, sweeps, paddle sweeps quickly materialized to bring in a flurry of boundaries. He jumped from the 40s to enter his 70s. It was just a question of time after that, or so it seemed.

A pull off Marlon Samuels, however, rang the first alarm: the ball wasn't short enough; Tendulkar pirouetted on his toes and swiped it towards square leg.

He got another four but couldn't keep it down. Dangerous. Next over, he paddle sweeps again and misses; more surprisingly, he doesn't take the single on offer.

Sometimes, just like in life, such misses prove to be portentous: three deliveries later, he tries to pull Bishoo and fails to connect.

The umpire hesitates but has no other choice. Tendulkar walks back on 76, leaving the stands and the expectant country in a daze; he had already done his bit for the team though. There will, of course, be another chance soon for Tendulkar; surely, he will figure out a way to tame the Devil and the Deep Sea.

Rajasthan Focus TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

Rajasthan to earn Rs 30 billion as royalty from oil and gas

By Prakash Bhandari /SATimes Jaipur: The coarse sand of the Thar desert which has immense deposit of oil and gas is proving to be a gold mine for Rajasthan. The state is flourishing with the royalty and taxes received because of the increased oil and gas production in the desert. The daily revenue of Rs 50 million from oil and gas production is an all time record.

According to Dr Govind Sharma, principal secretary of mining and petroleum, the state government in the current financial year 2011-12 has already earned Rs 18.91 billion

by October. In October the revenue from royalty was Rs 3 billion, the highest for any month.

“We hope that the state would be able to earn Rs 30 billion as royalty by the end of the current financial year ending March 31, 2012.

In the last financial year the earning was Rs 16.31 billion and apart from this we received Rs 45 million by way of the state share as central sales tax (CST),” said Sharma.

Sharma said the oil and gas sector has emerged as the biggest revenue earner for the state and the revenue from royalty would snowball each year with the discovery of more and more oil, gas and coal bed methane, heavy oil and other mineral products.

Rajasthan’s minister for petroleum Ram Lal Jat said in the Thar desert oil and petroleum exploration and development activity has now gained momentum after the largest oil discovery of Mangla 2004 in Barmer-Sanchore basin in last two decades. Currently, exploration for

25

A Cairn India drilling rig in Rajasthan. oil, gas & Coal Bed methane (CBM) is underway in 21 blocks of the state by national and multinational companies in about 60,000 sq km area. Thus, Rajasthan has the maximum on-land area of the country under such exploration. “Under the hydrocarbon production strategy in the state seven billion barrels of crude oil worth 480 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) in-place reserves has been assessed in 25 discovered fields of Barmer-Sanchore Basin. Cairn India estimates that BarmerSanchore Basin has resource potential of 6.5 billion barrels (900 MMT) of oil equivalent.

Commercial Production of crude oil commenced from Mangla Field from 2009 and at present 1.25 lakh bbls per day is being produced. Rest of the fields shall come into production, as per approved five field development plans and subsequent approval of field development plans of other fields by the Union government,” said Jat A total of about 25-30 billion cubic meter of lean & rich gas reserves in-place have been proved by OIL, ONGC, Cairn India & Focus Energy in Jaisalmer Basin & Barmer-Sanchore Basin.

Cairn India fastest growing energy firm in Asia emerged as a significant oil and gas exploration and production Jaipur: Accolades continue for company in India. It has witCairn India, which explores oil nessed transformational growth in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh in these last 16 years, successfuland Sri Lanka. The company ly transforming itself from a was adjudged the fastest growsmall entity managing Ravva and Cairn India operations are ing energy firm in Asia at the CB/OS-2 to developing a world concentrated in Rajasthan Platts Top 250 Energy Company class resource base in Rajasthan, Awards Dinner 2011, held as part of the early foray and success in Sri Lanka and buildSingapore International Energy Week. ing the world’s longest continuous heated and The awards heralded the arrival of the non- insulated pipeline in India. The ranking for OECD energy companies on the global plat- fastest growth in the world and Asia is a testaform as both independent and government ment to our emergence on the global platform. owned companies vied and won top honors. At The success of Cairn India has created a compathe awards event, attended by more than 350 ny with more than 1400 employees and consultexecutives from the oil, gas and energy industry ants in India and a world class oil reserves base including Exxon Mobil, PetroChina, CNOOC, in one of the fastest-growing economies in the Cairn India received four awards spanning dif- world,” said Ayodhya Gaur, a Cairn India ferent categories. Companies from emerging spokesman. Cairn India has been ranked the markets came to the forefront and for the first fastest growing oil and gas exploration firm in time in the 10-year old history of the Award, the world, even as heavyweights like India’s they occupied positions in the top 5, also lead- major ONGC and Reliance Industries slipped ing the category of fastest growing company. in a list of top-performing energy firms globally.

Cairn India was awarded in the following cate- With a three-year compounded growth rate gories: (CGR) of 116.5%, Cairn was ranked by energy 1. Fastest growing oil company in Asia (No 1) information provider Platts as the fastest growand the fourth fastest in the world – special ing E&P company in 2010. It was also named mention in the speech by Platts Global Director the fastest growing Asian company ahead of 2. Award of Excellence - No. 120 in the top Reliance (ranked 18th in Asia) and state-owned 250 ranking global companies GAIL India (ranked 20th) in the Platts Top 250 3. Biggest mover (by 160 places) in the rank- Global Energy Company Rankings. The global ings over the last one year list was led by Exxon Mobil Corp, while 4. Finalists in GEA - second time running Chevron Corp moved up from ninth place in (winner to be announced in NY on Dec 2) 2009 to second place as it boosted its return on “Harnessing a combination of innovation and invested capital (ROIC) to 16% from 10.2% in entrepreneurship, Cairn India Limited (CIL) has the previous year.

By Prakash Bhandari

India to start diamond import from Zimbabwe

By Prakash Bhandari Jaipur: World’s biggest producer of cut and polished diamonds is all set to extend its rough diamond sourcing by starting imports from Zimbabwe.

According to Jaipur based Rajiv Jain, chairman of Gems & Jewelry Export Promotion Council, green signal was given by an international regulatory body to two mining operations in Marange in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s diamonds do not fall under the accepted definition of “blood diamonds” and thus should be legal. India has been a vociferous advocate of exporting Zimbabwe diamonds.

Zimbabwe recently closed a deal with Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing (India) Ltd (SRDSIL), a 1,500 member consortium of dia-

Diamond workers: Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing (India) Ltd (SRDSIL), a 1,500 member consortium of diamond cutters and processors, will purchase $1.2 billion worth of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe.

Rajiv Jain, chairman, Gems & Jewelry Export Promotion Council, said green signal to import Zimbabwe diamonds came from international diamond watchdog, Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

mond cutters and processors, in which $1.2 billion worth of rough diamonds will be purchased by the consortium, and Zimbabwean diamond cutters trained in Surat.

SRDSIL, lying dormant since its inception in August 2011, sprang to life after the international diamond watchdog, Kimberley Process Certification Scheme

(KPCS), cleared the export of rough diamonds from the two mining sites in Zimbabwe. SRDSIL officials \ will visit that country later this month to revive the rough diamond deal with Zimbabwe Diamond Consortium.

Rajiv Jain said Indian importers would start importing the diamonds from Zimbabwe soon, but it was difficult to assess the import volume.

“Zimbabwe diamonds are 2530% cheaper than those from other sources, although the .

Skilled craftsmen in Surat have the expertise to polish the rough diamonds, which they call Zimba diamonds, into precious gemstones. The flow from Zimbabwe would boost the diamond processing industry in the country,” he said.

India is one of the largest

exporters of cut and polished diamonds, but has few indigenous sources for the rough stones.

Zimbabwe diamonds get smuggled into India illegally. This year there were two major seizures in Surat. These smuggled diamonds which manage to escape the customs’ net are cut and polished, and then sold to established Mumbai firms, which go on to easing them into the legitimate diamond supply chain.

Surat is the global hub of the diamond processing industry and at least 80 percent of the industry's annual revenue comes from the nearly 4,500 units in the city.

An estimated 1.5 million people are employed in the industry.

India’s gem and jewelry exports jumped 47% to $43.1 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011.

26

Music

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

A master balladeer who touched millions of hearts Guwahati: Music lovers would have been denied the magic of Bhupen Hazarika's hauntingly powerful voice in songs like "Dil hoom hoom kare" and "Ganga behti ho kyun" if he had gone ahead and become a lawyer like he initially planned.

But destiny willed otherwise.

Hazarika, who died of multiple organ failure in a Mumbai, was a master balladeer and touched millions with the passion of his songs.

He was one of India's oldest performing singers who entertained music lovers all over for more than seven decades - his songs are at times like letters from home, had revolutionary promises, sometimes angry, but always had that soothing touch in his baritone voice.

From Tokyo to Mumbai and Alaska to Assam, those who heard Hazarika could never ever forget his powerful renditions.

"When I go to Japan, students of music want me to sing 'Manuhe Manuhar Babe' (For Man).

When I reach California people say you are our Paul (Robeson), please sing 'We are in the same boat brothers'," the legendary musician said just before a stage performance in Guwahati.

"I always think I am young," Hazarika told reporters while celebrating his 84th birthday last year. "I don't feel like retiring as music has no retirement age.

Throughout my life I have been

Bhupen Hazarika wove a magical tapestry out of traditional Assamese music and lyrics. trying to interpret Assam and India to the outside world through my songs," Hazarika said.

He began singing when he was just 10 years old and churned out hits after hits numbering more than 1,500 songs until his health failed about two years ago. At 13, he sang about building a new Assam and a new India - the lyrics were his own, very powerful and contemporary.

A singer, lyricist, actor, and a filmmaker, Hazarika was born in 1926 in one of Assam's remotest corners - Sadiya in the eastern district of Tinsukia. He grew up in the northern town of Tezpur and later went to Banaras Hindu University and completed his graduation and post-graduation

in Political Science.

He studied with an aim to pursue a career as a lawyer in Assam, but destiny made him a mass-based singer. In 1948, Hazarika went to the US on a scholarship to study Mass Communication at Columbia University, New York.

It was there that he got soaked in American folk music and later on that influenced him to bring in the folk elements in his songs - although he mostly sang the folk tunes of Assam. Always adorned with the trademark Nepali cap, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner's passion for music was unrelenting.

Hazarika had composed soulful music for films like "Rudaali", "Saaz" and "Gajagamini". Not just singing,

The last journey of the doyen of Indian music in Guwahati.

Hazarika dabbled in politics as well - his remarkable popularity brought him to the Assam Legislative Assembly as an Independent member in 1967, where he was solely responsible for installing the first state owned film studio of its kind ever in Guwahati, the Jyoti Chitraban.

He again tried his hand in politics - this time as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat in 2004. He was, however, unsuccessful and lost the election.

For close to 40 years, Hazarika had been in a live in relationship with filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi.

Kalpana Lajmi was just 17 when she fell in love with Hazarika who was 45 at that time.

When the music maestro

turned 80, he offered to marry her, but Lajmi turned down the offer saying the 'wife' tag was unnecessary to their relationship. 'Bhupso (Kalpana endearingly addressed Hazarika as Bhupso) did offer to marry me when he was around 80, but I said no,' Lajmi, told this writer in an interview.

Hazarika had produced, directed, composed and sang for Assamese language films like 'Era Batar Sur' (1956), 'Shakuntala' (1960), 'Pratidhwani' (1964) and 'Lotighoti' (1967).

Hazarika might have passed away - but his soulful music coupled with his powerful lyrics would continue to entertain and capture the imagination of generations to come.

Anoushka to play in honor of legendary spy Noor London: The sitarist Anoushka Shankar will play at a special concert in the British House of Commons next month to raise funds for a memorial to legendary World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan.

"It is a privilege to play for Noor. She was a brave Indian woman who did not hesitate to sacrifice her life for freedom.

The fact that she was a musician as well makes it even more special," Anoushka said in a statement here.

The Moscow-born Noor Khan, a descendant of Tipu Sultan, was a British secret agent who was sent to Nazi-occupied France as a radio operator.

Her father Hazrat Inayat Khan came from a princely Indian Muslim family. He lived in Europe as a musician and a teacher of Sufism. Her mother, Ora Meena Ray Baker, was an American from Albuquerque, New Mexico who met Inayat Khan during his travels in the United States.

Anoushka, the daughter renowned sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar, will be performing for free. The event will be hosted

by Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz, the first Asian MP

Sitarist Anoushka Shankar. (Inset) Noor Inayat Khan. to be elected to British parliament.

Widely acknowledged as an extraordinarily brave woman, Noor Khan landed in French territory in June 1943 but was betrayed and arrested in October that year.

A British Special Operations Executive Agent, she was the first female radio operator to be sent to occupied France to provide aid to the French resistance.

Known as Nora Baker among the resist-

ance fighters, Noor Khan refused to reveal any secrets to the Germans. She also escaped once from jail but was re-arrested and classified as a dangerous prisoner.

In September 1944, when she was only 30, the Germans, who had moved her into a concentration camp, shot her dead. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her bravery.

The memorial for Noor Khan will come up at Gordon Square in London in 2012. It will be sculpted by well known artist Karen Newman. It will also be the first statue of an Asian woman in Britain.

"We are delighted that Anoushka Shankar has so graciously accepted to perform for Noor Khan. It will be a meaningful tribute from one young Indian woman to another," said Shrabani Basu, chairperson of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust.

"They may have lived decades apart, but they are a wonderful reflection of Indian women then and now: talented, brave and at the same time gentle and committed."

The concert is being organized by the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust in association with Culturepot Global.

Performing Arts TheSouthAsianTimes.info

27

November 12-18, 2011

Paying homage to Gandhi whose ‘satyagraha’ remains a potent weapon

By Jinal Shah/SATimes here cannot be a perfect timing than now to stage Philip Glass’s opera ‘Satyagraha’. At a time when North Africa, Middle East and even Europe and the US are experimenting with peaceful means to protest political tyranny and economic disparity, Metropolitan Opera House in New York brings back the Gandhi opera based on the Mahatma’s century old weapon of ‘non-violent resistance’.

Glass, an influential American composer, in the past had said, "Almost all the techniques of protest — now the common currency of contemporary political life — were invented and perfected by Gandhi during his South Africa years.”

Even as the stage shows run through December 1, the magnum opus will be transmitted worldwide as part of ‘The Met: Live in HD series’ seen in 1600 movie theaters in 54 countries. ‘Satyagraha’ is an imaginative restaging of Glass’s pioneering 1980 work on Gandhi’s formative years in South Africa as an attorney and his decision to take on injustices with his revolutionary use of nonviolent resistance -- a potent weapon that gave India its independence. Paying homage to Gandhi and his philosophy most recently are the India against corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and Occupy Wall Street protests which have spread like wildfire across

T

Scenes from the opera ‘Satyagraha’ which returns to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

America and Europe.

The Met’s visually extravagant production features most of the same cast as in 2008, including the critically acclaimed melodious-voiced tenor Richard Croft as an eloquent Gandhi, soprano Rachelle Durkin as his stalwart secretary, Maria Zifchak as his wife Kasturba, Alfred Walker as his co-worker Parsi Rustomji and Dante Anzolini, a frequent Glass collaborator, again as the conductor. This year is the first revival attempt of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s touching 2008 production.

The four hour musical very skillfully portrays the central idea of Satyagraha movement -- coming together of people and taking responsibility for themselves --

Ravi Batra on Rajat Gupta case Continued from page 15.

It is America's greatness personified by every single American, even the bigoted one, that permits waves upon waves of immigrants to come ashore and realize both the genius and core contribution of America to humanity: freedom born out of constitutional separation of powers regime resting upon unique predicate principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Lady Liberty, beautiful as she is, is dwarfed by the greatness of our Declaration of Independence and our then-subsequent federalism inhabiting the Constitution.

I suggest that the Indian-American community see people as law-abiding or outlaws as the primary filter in business or society. In a nation of laws, anything else is merely selfdeceptive and self-identifying to the glee of an army of hungry prosecutors, state and federal.

TSAT: What is your perception of the ‘grand prosecutor ’ Preet Bharara, who has courted fame by successfully trying many high-profile cases since assuming office of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2009?

Batra: I am in awe of Preet Bharara and celebrate his parents, Chuck Schumer and the America that gave him the wings to fly like an eagle, albeit, happily for him, not

a bald one. I have said that what Rudy Giuliani did to the mob, Preet Bharara will do to Wall Street. I am a Bharara fan due to Thomas Becket. I saw myself over a decade ago effortlessly do a Becket act, a la pick Law over Politics (to Becket's God over King). When Preet Bharara took his oath of office he spoke of being willing to resign over principle.

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler used to say "I only rent" in Washington DC, meaning he was willing to leave as he didn't "own." There is no public service like that which is done by one willing to leave over principle. Bharara is the singular example of achievement in America by the Indian-American community, for he has John Wayne's True Grit and he can keep the nation safe from terror while protecting and honoring the Constitution. His successful prosecution, such as it was, of the Times Square Bomber was nothing if not akin to a piece of music written and performed by Mozart! After all that, his fellow state prosecutors all speak of him as being amiable, humble, easy to talk to. Preet Bharara, then, is a man who walks humbly with his God. It doesn't get any better than this. Well, actually, it can for our Republic; but that requires a President and the United States Senate. I would not want to lose Bharara to the bench, unless it

with skill ensembles. The multimedia production features full chorus, a semi-circular corrugated metal occupying a major portion of the stage, video projections, large-scale puppetry with a small ensemble of movement performers, aerialists and stilt performers. Refraining from the use of titles, the production projects isolated words and sayings onto sets or props like newspapers. Humble materials like cane baskets and newspapers is also used in the play to depict poverty. In fact the newspapers -- considered as one of the important weapons used by Gandhi in his non-violent movement -- is used in a variety of inventive ways throughout the show.

Of the many engaging high points in the composition is the libretto drawn from the

is the Supreme Court of these United States, but I see him as a natural successor to Attorney General Eric Holder.

TSAT: Are other top echelon Indian Americans sympathetic to Rajat Gupta, that for a seemingly small slip a long, distinguished career has been besmirched?

Batra: Some don't speak; others are sympathetic to Rajat. I just think of him as a false hero, whose natural abilities were wasted on playing the game while remaining insecure and feeling poor.

TSAT: In India there is great support for Rajat Gupta, right up to the PMO level. Can diplomatic pressure impact the case?

Batra: It is fair to say that there was, as in past tense, great support for him. Now, he is entitled to the full benefits of friendship, nothing more. There will be no diplomatic pressure in Rajat's case, as there is no such thing. Nations have agenda items, as long as a Greek Diner menu in New York, and each nation works with their counterpart in a bilateral setting with what is do-able given the respective administration's priority or in some rare instance if the public's media-stated view begins to become a domestic issue that needs redress, such as the TriValley or Krittika Biswas case. It is the legitimate job of nations to serve the many, not the few and the comity of nations functions to permit maximum public good.

text of the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ and sung in original Sanskrit. The composers intentionally did not provide English subtitles for the audience. ‘Satyagraha’ vividly mentions the three historical figures -Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, Indian poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The most captivating scene comes in act three when an actor playing King Jr. stands at an elevated podium at the rear with his back to the audience, gesturing while he delivers a speech.

This 1980 opera is the second in Glass's famous trilogy of operas about important historical figures who changed the world, the first being 1976's "Einstein on the Beach," and the third, 1983's "Akhnaten."

TSAT: Were you Rajat Gupta's attorney, how would you defend him?

Batra: He has a very capable lawyer in Gary Neftalis.

TSAT: Can you predict the outcome of the case?

Batra: The implosion caused by the detonation of a neutron bomb on Wall Street, which leaves institutions intact but takes out "bad actors." Unlike Rajaratnam, Rajat has been a consultant. His web of activities will be farther than a mere investor or hedge fund owner/operator. Since Rajat forced the government to take him on, they must take him out based upon the evidence as judged by a jury, for Main Street, let alone Occupy Wall Street or Tea Partiers, flip side of the same coin, desperately needs Wall Street to learn that it exists for the benefit of Main Street and not the other way around. The American Dream is reeling after the corrupt and incestuous misbehavior by greed-fed arrogant Masters of the Universe who have consumed global equity, generational peace of mind, and robbed the future of our children and grandchildren with their credit swap bets.

Our government rewarded the toobig-to-fail drunken bettors with trillions of our dollars to pay dollar-fordollar on these derivative-bets.

Public money became private money, and did not even circulate.

The public's mood is rightfully angry, and the public sits on juries

and they don't like a thief or a person who can't keep a secret, especially when it is their paid-job to keep secrets!

TSAT: Has Rajat Gupta's case adversely impacted on the reputation of major Indian business leaders here, questioning their leadership/ethical qualities?

Batra: Crime is an equal opportunity event do-able by anyone who doesn't remember that we come into this world with nothing and leave it in like fashion.

TSAT: In the light of the Rajat case, what is the best way to tackle the current situation on Wall Street and make a good example for the next generation of business leaders?

Batra: Enact laws, state and federal, that require disgorgement of all salaries, compensation and stock options received from a company in addition to a life-time ban or exile from anything Wall Street if the individual is convicted of violating his or her fiduciary duties owed to the corporation.

Trust is a big deal in an honorbased society such as the United States; breach of trust should cause a most painful punishment. Capital markets will cease to function if the ordinary investor feels that they are not getting a fair shake or an honest deal. Wall Street sorely needs to restore public confidence from Main Street, and if our leaders don't get it done the public will hire new leaders.

28

Humor

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Humor with Melvin Durai

Money-saving tips that really work!

veryone’s offering moneysaving tips these days, trying to help people survive the economic downturn. It doesn’t take much to save a few bucks here and there, even if you’re already scrimping, even if you order the “short” cappuccino at Starbucks and have reduced your cable TV package to only 380 channels.

Anyone who’s really serious about saving money needs to follow Melvin’s can’t-miss tips: 1. Be more religious. Yes, going to the temple, gurudwara, mosque or church can save you money. How? Well, many of these religious institutions offer you something you can’t usually find anywhere else: FREE FOOD! Entire meals are served at many temples, gurudwaras and mosques, while snacks are commonplace at churches.

I’m not suggesting, of course, that you go there just to eat. You can also get something to drink. But if the minister asks if you want to be “filled with the spirit,” it’s probably not a good idea to say, “No, thanks.

I’m driving.”

2. Don’t pay interest on your credit card. If you’re buried in credit card debt, it might be time to look in the mirror and accept that there’s only one person to blame for the mess you’re in: your spouse. (Or significant other.) He or she buys all

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sorts of luxury items with the credit card, whereas you use it only for essential items, such as wool pajamas for the dog. It might be time to get a divorce –- from your credit card.

3. Find vacations on the Internet. Let’s face it: it’s expensive to travel abroad and, even if you can afford it, do you really want to spend half your vacation going through airport security?

Thankfully, there’s an easy solution.

Just travel anywhere in the world –Tahiti, Jamaica, Hawaii –- by gazing at your Facebook friends’ vacation pics. Put your face right against the computer screen and you’ll almost feel yourself there.

4. Cancel your gym membership. Does it really make sense for you to spend two hours lifting weights, sweating profusely and not getting paid for it? Instead, head to the airport or train station and get yourself a job as a porter. Many companies, including UPS, Wal-

Mart and Sears, offer “lifting opportunities,” though it might be a good idea to stay away from shoplifting.

5. Take the bus or train to work and do some reading. The first step is to buy a monthly bus/train pass.

The second step is to cancel your newspaper subscription. Why subscribe to the newspaper when you can read it for free over someone’s shoulder?

6. Take advantage of telemarketers. If you get lots of calls from telemarketers, you need to do what I do: sell them stuff. It’s amazing how much you can sell if you’re a little forceful. Just ask Satwinder, the guy in New Delhi who just bought 100 copies of my novel “Bala Takes the Plunge.”

7. Do your own recycling. Don’t throw out that fashion magazine –pull out the glossy pages and use them to wrap small gifts. Don’t throw out that worn boot –- fill it with soil and grow a plant in it.

Don’t throw out that old pair of underwear –- cut it into a fancy shape and use it as a doily.

8. Keep your lotto dreams in check. It’s okay to buy a lottery ticket now and then, but if you’re plunking down 10 bucks a week, you’re throwing your hard-earned money away. Yes, people do win the lottery, but you have a better chance of getting Justin Bieber to share nail

polishing tips with you.

9. Think big. Don’t buy a small bag of rice when a big bag is more economical in the long run. The best part is, once the bag is empty, you can recycle it. Just write “Gucci” on the side of it and use it for shopping.

10. Get to know your neighbors.

Neighbors can save you a lot of money. In fact, if you’re trying to buy a house, make sure you find one with a plumber living on one side, an electrician on the other and a carpenter across the street. Don’t forget to show them your appreciation with a special gift, such as a nicely

Laughter is the Best Medicine

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

Picture passwords to beat hackers London: Find it difficult to remember your password? Here's some good news - researchers claim to have developed picture password for your online account, which will also help to protect against hacking.

An international team says that it's actually a new kind of login which relies on the fallibility of human memory to prevent phishing attempts at stealing one's account details, the New Scientist reported.

The researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have, in fact, come up with a system, called Phorce-Field that makes it almost impossible to log in without viewing the correct images.

PhorceField asks users to create a graphical password by choosing four images in a particular order from a set of twelve - you might choose pictures of a loaf of bread, a candle flame, and two more, for example. These images are stored in a secret file on

computer that only the legitimate website can access.

When one logs in, one simply remembers which images to click on among a set of others that aren't part of one's password. A phisher who wants to trick you into giving up your PhorceField password knows nothing about the secret images, and so must present one with a huge number of possibilities in the hope of getting the right set of pictures. This means that one will struggle to identify the correct ones - one might remember that the password includes a loaf of bread, but was it round or oblong?

Eventually, after a number of failed logins, you will just give up and leave the phishing site without ever having revealed your password , say the researchers.

The researchers tested PhorceField on 23 users and found that 76% failed to reveal even a single image from their password during a phishing attempt and none revealed the entire password.

Beware, that mobile app can be a virus London: Smartphone users need to take more precautions to protect themselves from unintentionally downloading malware applications, according to a national computer security campaign.

According to Get Safe Online, a UKbased campaign and national initiative to teach citizens about basic computer security, there has been an increase in smartphone malware as the market has grown. Criminals are typically creating Trojan copies of reputable apps and tricking users into installing them, the BBC reports.

The app, if downloaded, can secretly generate cash for criminals through premium rate text messages.

The campaign said fraudsters are designing apps that generate cash secretly in the background without the owner realizing until their monthly bill is received.

A typical scam involves an app designed to send texts to premium rate services without the user knowing.

According to the report, apps can appear to be bona fide software or sometimes masquerade as stripped down free versions of well-known games. The campaign has expressed concerns that users of smartphones, such as Android devices, were not taking enough steps to protect their devices.

Astrology TheSouthAsianTimes.info

November 12-18, 2011

By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma Stars Foretell: November 12-18, 2011 Aries: Romance, love and tender thoughts flow from your partner adding joy to your life. Health would show remarkable improvement. New ventures and partnerships are on your card. Income would rise and the fresh inflow of funds would make you spend more freely. Some problems might arise at work, but you are best not to nag or criticize others.

Taurus: This week artistic souls flourish and prosper. Eminent person provides support on your ongoing projects.

Investment would be highly rewarding, but speculation needs to be done with care. Call people you haven’t spoken to for a long time.

It’s an excellent time to reconnect with some of the people you used to know. Financial gains are certain but don’t overspend on luxury items.

Stay away from rumours and gossip.

Gemini: Although your involvement in social events would open doors to new and exciting opportunities, work pressure would definitely increase and you would feel that someone is trying to hold your performance. Added pressure would show on your health. If you're looking for romance, Monday and Wednesday hold excitement. Your preoccupation with other people could make you forget your personal jobs.

Cancer: Colleagues and family members provide support as slow progress of work adds mental pressure. Be careful not to trust strangers. You would benefit through hidden assets and property investments. Older family members would put pressure on your mind. If you are looking for love then the weekend hold excitement and true romance. Health in spite of added stress and tension seems perfectly fine.

Leo: This week you would immensely enjoy associating with people who have similar views. Travel and entertaining conversation would be informative and uplifting.

Improvement in finances would make it convenient for you to entertain friends and important people. If you and your beloved have had a misunderstanding lately things would improve, as both of you would work towards a compromise. Gifts and presents from visiting guests are certain for some.

Virgo: This week you should put your efforts into moneymaking ventures. You need to keep an open mind when interacting with influential people. If you and your spouse have not been on the same wavelength, then you would now get an excellent opportunity to sort matters. You would get good opportunities to combine work with pleasure. Put your best foot forward and make others feel your presence.

Libra: Lately depression could have made you feel low. It’s time to make few changes that would aid you to eliminate things that make you feel sad. Join friends and people who would bring cheers and excitement in your life. Involvement with important people would

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be to your advantage. Your love life would suffer if you try to impose restriction on your beloved. You will be inclined towards religious activities.

Scorpio: Things would be better for you if you meet people with an open mind.

Use your creative imagination and don’t be afraid to seek favours. You and your beloved would share some highly memorable moments together. Young Scorpio’s would have a magnetic appeal and would be popular among the members of the opposite sex. Children would be troublesome if you are too generous with them.

Sagittarius: You would have the drive and the energy to complete important projects all by yourself. You would be in a playful and friendly mood and would be tempted to spend more than you should on your friends and family members. With the planetary changes taking place, you would be in a truly romantic mood. Chances of a new romance would be strong for those not attached. Do not purchase any expensive items on Saturdays.

Capricorn: Mental pressure would increase, but do not let your personal problems interfere with your professional work.

You might need to put additional working hours to complete pending jobs. Luck is definitely with you, and this week benefit from most unknown sources comes your way. Wednesdays and Fridays seem to be good for developing new ties. Your resistance would be low and you would need good rest towards the weekend.

Aquarius: This week you would make changes that would not only improve your looks but also raise your self-esteem and boost your confidence.

You would accomplish a lot if you associate with individuals who are experienced and established. An unexpected achievement or news will bring in happiness for you and the entire family. Weekend seem to be good for travel and outdoor activities.

Pisces: This week you would be more dependant on others. Good friend would give you honest answers. Pending issues and jobs would need immediate attention. Contacts that you develop during this period would prove highly beneficial in the long run. Investment recommended in stocks and real estate.

Romance will be in the air, so make the best of it.

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.

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

Annual Predictions: For those born in this week November 12 You are governed by the number 3 and by the planet Jupiter. You are also influenced by the Moon.

You are able to impress people with your lofty ideas. With your creative ideas and hard work, you will be able to achieve honour and position in the year ahead of you. You will be able to maintain a harmonious atmosphere around you at work and at home. People will depend on you to sort out minor differences between colleagues. But, you have a tendency of being proud and arrogant. You will have to control this trait of your character. Your pleasing personality will catch the attraction of the opposite sex. Some of you may make a special relationship, in the year ahead of you. The months of August, September, November and February will be highly significant.

November 13 You are governed by the number 4 and the planet Uranus. You are also influenced by the Moon. You are born intelligent and with a methodical approach to life, you are able to reach high positions in your career. The coming year will bring you success and prosperity in your respective fields. You will not only attain fame and recognition, but also be able to earn a lot of money. The year ahead, will be full of activity and you will keep a busy schedule but professionally and socially. In matters of love, you will not express your feelings, till you are sure of what response you will receive from the other end.

Sometimes you tend to get obstinate and this creates a rift between you and your loved ones. Try to be more flexible in your approach to life. This will do wonders for you. The months of June, October, January and Nov will be result oriented.

November 14 You re governed by the number 5 and the planet Mercury. You are also dominated by the Moon. You are blessed with intelligence and shrewdness.

Those of you in business, will attain success in your new projects and plans, which you undertake, in the year ahead of you. You will be firm in your word and deeds. You will find the cooperation of your colleagues and loved ones. On your part, you will be honest and sincere to your loved ones and will go out of your way to see that they are happy. You will donate generously towards charity, in the year ahead of you. This will give you a sense of satisfaction. Your charming personality, will draw many friends towards you. You will be the centre of attraction at many social gatherings. In matters of love, you will have to be careful that you choose the right life partner. The months of July, September, November and March will be highly important.

November 15 You are governed by the planet Venus and dominated by the Moon. You are also influenced by the number 6. You are blessed with art and music. Anything, which is beautiful, is a passion for you. Your intelligence and sharp memory, will bring you success in your professional pursuits, in the year ahead of you. You will gain high positions and earn lots of money too. But you sometimes, tend to become proud and boastful. This could lead to friends, drifting away from you. You will also have to control your urge to take hasty decisions. Your family will be of utmost importance to you, in the coming year.

You can expect to receive love and affection from them at all times. On your part, you will do your

best, to give them the luxuries of life. Your communication skills will be an asset for you, in the coming year. July, September and November will be highly eventful.

November 16 You are governed by the number 7 and dominated by the planet Neptune. Moon also has an influence on you. You are cautious and alert in taking decisions. In the coming year, you will be able to take wise decisions, both in your professional as well as your domestic front. Your children will be a source of joy for you. They will live up to your expectations and bring you happiness. Your good-humoured nature, will draw many friends towards you, and you will have a good social life in the year ahead of you.

Your generous nature, will draw you towards those who are needy and oppressed. You tend to get depressed, when you get too engrossed in one subject.

So, try to keep yourself busy, with various activities, instead of concentrating on one subject or work. June, September, December and March will be highly important.

November 17 You are governed by the number 8 and by the planet Saturn. You are also influenced by the Moon.

You are blessed with wisdom and intelligence.

Coupled with your organizing capacity, you will be able to achieve success in your professional field, in the year ahead of you. Your inborn urge for knowledge, will allow you to go deep into the study of different subjects. Research and studies, will occupy a lot of your time, in the coming year. Your personality will draw people towards you. But, sometimes, you tend to get dominating. This may lead to your friends drifting away from you. You will put tremendous efforts in fulfilling whatever you strive to undertake, in the year ahead of you.

You will leave no stone unturned to achieve success in whatever project you undertake. August, December and February may prove to be highly significant.

November 18 You are governed by the number 9 and dominated by the planet Mars. You are also influenced by the Moon. You are fearless and courageous by nature.

In the coming year, you are likely to inherit property from ancestors, especially from your father’s side.

Hard work and the ability to take right decisions, will bring success to you in the year ahead of you.

For those of you in business, it will be a good year.

You can expect to sign and negotiate big deals. You like to help others and those in need, will look to you for advice and solace. But, sometimes, you tend to get dominating. You try to impose your ideas on others. You will have to learn to control this trait in your character. October, December and February will prove to be very significant.

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Spiritual Awareness

November 12-18, 2011

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Master’s job is to bring each soul back to God Concluding part of the discourse titled ‘The eyes of the master’

At some point in each person’s life, he or she begins to question the mystery of life and death.

When such a query arises, the person begins to pray to God for an answer.

God, sitting within, creates circumstances that lead such seeking souls to a place where they can find the answer

By Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj God is all‑consciousness, allknowing, and simultaneously aware of every soul created, whether it inhabits the form of a person, an animal, a plant, or a tiny blade of grass. God sees each soul caught up in the panorama of life and watches as the lower species of life are caught in mere survival. Each creature is trying to satisfy its physical needs for food, shelter, warmth, and safety. God also sees that the highest species of life, human beings, are caught up in trying to provide for their physical needs. But human beings have been given a facility which animals do not have. It is only in the human form that the soul can realize God. Thus, God has granted humanity a priceless boon in the hopes that it will recognize that it is a part of God. But instead of utilizing that gift, humans are engaged in the same activities as the lower forms—mere survival.

God watches as human beings spend their lives working to buy food, clothing, and pay for their shelter. God also observes that human beings have various pastimes which do not help in realizing God. Many people engage themselves in amassing possessions, wealth, or property. Others spend their time in acquiring name, fame, and power. Countless souls are lost in the world’s games. There are so many varieties of entertainment to occupy our attention. Two of the greatest distractions in modern times are television and movies. God is sitting within each of us and wants us to turn within, but we instead turn to television and movies and numerous other pastimes. sFor lifetimes we have been revolving on this merry‑go‑round of births and deaths. God, in eagerness to bring souls back, had to take some action to speed up this painfully slow process. What God did was to send down representatives, some of God’s select and specially‑favored souls, to bring the other lost souls back.

God sends down saints and Masters. These souls are one with God. They speak God’s words.

They act according to God’s will, and they radiate God’s love. When they come, they carry the fragrance of God with them. When the saints take birth in a human form to live amongst us in this world, they come to awaken humanity, in fact, all creation, to the true connection with God. They come to remind us that we are, in reality, soul—part of God. When the saints come they use various means to awaken humanity. Through books and literature and satsangs they give out the Truth. They explain that we are soul, a part of God and that we can reach God within us. But more than that, they give those souls who awaken to their message an actual proof and experience of what they are saying.

At some point in each person’s life, he or she begins to question the mystery of life and death.

When such a query arises, the person begins to pray to God for an answer. God, sitting within, is overjoyed that such a question is raised and then creates circumstances that lead such seeking souls to a place where they can find the answer. It may be that they pick up a book by a Master, or they attend a satsang or meet someone who is in contact with a Master. Or the person may come into direct contact with the Master himself. The Master draws people by his spoken or written words.

The seeker finds answers that make sense in the Master’s discourses. The Master also attracts them by his divine radiation.

Although the Master has the physical form of a man, the God Power flowing through him beautifies him to the point that souls feel a pull, an attraction. The soul recognizes the Oversoul working through the Master.

The soul finds itself magnetically drawn to the saint. It is similar to bees seeking the honeyed nec-

tar. Whenever we saw our Beloved Master Sant Kirpal Singh Ji or Sant Darshan Singh Ji moving about, we would find crowds of people rushing toward them, wanting their glance, wanting to be near them, wanting a touch of their hand. It sometimes became difficult for them to move. Sant Darshan Singh Ji used to describe what it was like, for example, in South America. The numbers of people would be so great that he used to say that when he left the crowd he would have to check whether his hands were still attached to his body!

When a seeking soul finds a place where the answers to life’s mysteries start making sense, that soul is overjoyed. Something inside awakens and unfolds. The soul sees a glimmer of hope. The soul is attracted to this life‑nourishing presence of the Master. The soul feels the affinity between itself and the God power flowing through the Master. That affinity is of the soul with its Creator. That is why people want to sit in the presence of the Master for hours.

They find it so soothing, so uplifting. The Master grants the seeker initiation, a contact with the Light and Sound of God within.

By his own attention, the Master uplifts the soul. The soul currents start to withdraw from the entanglements of the body to the seat of the soul from where we can transcend the body and travel into the Beyond. The soul experiences inner Light and celestial Music.

Through meditation, the soul becomes further absorbed in the Light and Sound and begins to rise above body‑consciousness to soar into the Beyond. Our soul recognizes that it is not the body but the soul. It then speeds on its journey back to its Oversoul.

We get so much pleasure and enjoyment from the company of a God-realized saint that we do not want to leave. When not in his presence, we feel restless. We find people standing for hours at the

saint’s threshold or on a roadside, waiting for even a brief glimpse of him. Normally, people cannot even wait for more than a few minutes in line for a bus or to pay a cashier. But for the saint’s glance, they will wait for hours and will not leave until they see him. We find people sitting in a bhandara for twelve to fifteen hours, even through intense heat or bitter cold. Why? Their soul is meeting their long‑lost Beloved after eons. They feel that love passing through the Master’s eyes and penetrating deeply into their own eyes. They feel the love passing from heart to heart and from soul to soul.

The quickest way to meet the Lord is to gaze into the Master’s eyes. Deep love passes from his eyes to ours. God’s love is looking out at us through the Master’s eyes. The Beloved Lord is conveying love for us through the Master.

His eyes pour out sweet nectar.

The sun may illumine the earth with its rays of light, but when the Master smiles, he illumines our souls with a greater Light, one which brings ecstasy and joy. His beauty is so charming, so captivating, that we want to look at him all the time. His voice has a charm and sweetness that thrills our hearts.

Each soul experiences this love because God has created each one, and loves each one. Thus, each person who comes to him carries his or her own personal relationship with him. Each soul was created by God and each has his or her own long history of searching for God. The Master’s job is to bring each soul back to God. Thus, we find the Master ’s smile enlivening lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of hearts. We find the prashad he gives uplifts countless souls. And his darshan shines like the eternal sun on all creation.

We need not read hundreds of books to find God. We only need to look into the Master’s eyes and find the beauty, love, and divinity

there.

Lost in his eyes, we communicate without words. There is nothing between us except pure love.

If we are receptive, we experience this love. We will feel a lift, a thrill, a bliss. If our mind is cluttered with thoughts, we will not feel it. If we are intellectually thinking of our problems, or analyzing what is happening, or thinking ill of others, our mind is standing in the way of our own bliss.

Even if we are clutching to have one blessing or another, we stand in the way of receiving the waves of love emanating from the Master.

The radiation flowing from the Master is consistent and eternal. It flows nonstop. The moment we gaze into his eyes sweetly, lovingly, receptively, with no thoughts, we will experience it. Then love, pure and simple, will flow from one heart to another. We will be lost in ecstasy. We will feel uplifted. When we close our eyes we will find his radiant form before us.

We will see him with open eyes or closed eyes. We will have him continuously within us. We become more and more absorbed in his radiant form. Once we reach that state, our work is done, for we merge in that form, and then travel with him to the higher planes until we arrive at our eternal home.

The union of our soul with God begins with pure love, unalloyed, unchanging. It begins with the glance of God pouring through the Master that penetrates our heart and soul. And that is the simple way back to God. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj is an internationally recognized spiritual leader and Master of Jyoti Meditation who affirms the transcendent oneness at the heart of all religions and mystic traditions, emphasizing ethical living and meditation as building blocks for achieving inner and outer peace. www.sos.org.

Wishing you a very

Happy Gurpurab

on the 542nd auspicious birth anniversary of

Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji Best Compliments for success & good health in life for everyone.

Surinder Singh Chawla Chairman

Shri Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center Plainview, Long Island