FG! 3 JULY 2013

IF I DIDN’T LEAVE MY BITTERNESS AND HATRED BEHIND, I’D STILL BE IN PRISON - NELSON MANDELA! 1

FRIENDS’

GAZETTE

HUNGRY vegetarians and vegans could soon be tucking into forgotten favourities like pan- c a ke s , s p o n g e s a n d muffins - even scrambled eggs - if an egg-citing new product takes off.

Beyond Eggs aims to replace eggs with its concotion of ground peas and starches. And it hopes to do it so well that the difference is virtually undetectable.

Top-level talks with a ‘large food company’ are already underway but these are being kept secret in case the idea gets poached.

And the likes of Bill Gates, Tony Blair and Indian entrepreneur Vinod Khosla are poised to cash in on what could become an egg-straordinary opportunity.

Rejecting eggs can present huge difficulties in the West where egg-free eating is wholly foreign to the culture - even for vegetarians.

Bread, cakes and mayonaise usually contain eggs which lacto-veggies and vegans can’t eat because they can’t be sure of the eggs-act ingredients.

And breakfast favourites like scrambled eggs have to be shunned, causing looks of eggs-asperation from hotel waiters.

But now a new era is dawning as California-based company Hampton

Creek Foods tackles the issue from a health, environmental and ethical angle.

The welcome news has been greeted by one American follower of RSSBI, whose adherents follow a strict lacto-vegetarian diet, simply as ‘Yummie’!

Founder and CEO of Hampton Creek Foods Josh Tetrick, 32, a vegan, said: “We’re trying to take the animal totally out of the equation.”

And he stresses : “This i s a mainstream project for everyone around the world to enjoy.”

Tetrick says about 1.3 trillion eggs are la id ever y year worldwide and 99% are from battery cage birds.

Tetrick’s visionary mixture , set to launch in February, is made from bits of ground-up peas, sorghum, sunflower lecithin, canola and “ a f e w o t h e r ingredients”.

It is cheaper and lasts longer on the shelf and, Tetrick claims, Hampton Creek Foods is on the verge of a major deal with a

large food company but details are being kept under wraps.

According to gigaom.com the company is just one of a new type of eco-food innovators that is being ‘incubated’ in Silicon Valley, USA.

It is backed by heavy weight financier and risk taker Vinod Khosla through his firm, Sand Hill Road. Bill Gates - an investor in Khosla’s firm - gave Hampton’s muffins a taste test last year and couldn’t tell the difference between a muffin made with eggs and a muffin made with egg substitute, Beyond Eggs.

BEYONDEGGS-CITING!

Bill Gates (right) takes a bite of a Beyond Eggs muffin with Hampton Creek Foods founder, Josh Tetrick (left).

Vinod Khosla, Bill Gates and Tony Blair keen to support bid to crack egg-free market

UK eggs-clusive by FG reporter

FG! 3 JULY 2013

IF I DIDN’T LEAVE MY BITTERNESS AND HATRED BEHIND, I’D STILL BE IN PRISON - NELSON MANDELA! 2

20% offfor FG readers

Indian Zing - the only restaurant in Hammersmith and Chiswick to be listed with 2 couverts- The Michelin Guide 2008.

Tel: 020 8748 5959Orders must be placed before 6.30pm

ask for Rahul Kulkarni(not Friday or Saturday)

Indian Zing Restaurant

236 King Street, London W6 0RF

Khosla’s partner former British prime minister, Tony Blair, also did the taste test with the same result.

In 2000, the global demand for eggs was about 14 million tons, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. By 2030, the figure could climb to 38 million tons.

A big part of the environmental footprint of eggs is the amount of water and land it takes to grow the grain fed to laying hens. Fossil fuel energy is also needed to produce and transport the products.

So more and more innovators are looking to develop plant-based alternatives. Other companies in the egg-replacements mix include Bob’s Red Mill and Ener-G Inc. Read more on (see ‘clickable’ sheet): http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/silicon-valleys-fake-eggs-are-better-than-the-real-thing#ixzz2WK7JF4Fi and: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/silicon-valleys-fake-eggs-are-better-than-the-real-thing#ixzz2WK6Tjzld and: http://m.npr.org/story/191376928?thingId=191376928

A REVELLER nearly killed himself when he drank a quart (four bowls) of soya source for a dare.

The reveller, a 19-year-old Virginian, was saved by doctors who treated him with sugar water to counteract the sodium (salt) contained in the sauce which is poisonous if taken into the body in excessive quantities.

According to the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine a depressed 55-year-old woman, actually succeeded in killing herself after drinking “a large quantity of shoyu (Japanese soy sauce),” in 2011.

After he downed the otherwise harmless soy sauce the teenager

started grinding his teeth and his arms went stiff by his side, the npr.org website reports.

A salt dose ranging from 0.75 to three grammes per kilo of body weight can be fatal, doctors say.

A tablespoon of salt weighs about 15 grammes.

Pass the soy - I’d like to kill myself

Liquid killer - soya can kill if consumed in large quantities

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T H E E L E C T I O N o f a moderate president in Iran could ease pressure on esoteric versions of Islam like Sufism, the FG has been told.

The Islamic sect which believes in living teachers or shaykhs had been targetted by the previous, more hardline, regime.

But the election of moderate Hassan Rouhani as president is ‘a good sign’ and could herald a more tolerant administration.

Dr Stefan Sperl, a senior lecturer in Arabic at London’s School of Oriental and African Sudies (SOAS) said: “It is a good sign. One would hope that life would be easier for people who do not follow hardline Islam.

“Sufis are considered to be apolitical. They are involved in

spending their time worshipping the lord and not spending enough t i m e t e a c h i n g society how to behave according to their [Islamic] r u l e s a n d regulations.

“Sufism is deeply rooted in Iran. It is i m p o s s i b l e t o eliminate. ”

But he warned: “In Iran you have a religious leader who is, de facto, in charge and the leeway is not that much.”

Abdul Ghaffur, manager of the School of Sufi Teaching’s London branch, said: “There is a reformation taking place in Islam similar to Europe 300 years ago. The modernisers oppose Sufi practices such as having a

s h ay k h a s a t e a c h e r. T h e i r understanding is incredibly literal.”

And he added: “[Rouhani] is a politician. He ought to allow his country to survive and make his choices free from America.”

Rouhani has promised to be more ‘transparent’ about Iran’s con-troversial plans on nuclear power.

Election of new Iranian president ‘a good sign’Crackdown on Sufis could ease as moderate comes to power in mid-East

Hassan Rouhani - crackdown on Sufis could ease under his presidency

‘Holy City’ set to be home of Sufi centreAMRITSAR the ‘spiritual capital’ of the Punjab and the heart of the Sikh religion could become the location for a new Sufi research centre, according to reports.

Speaking at a huge Sufi festival in the city, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said the state government “would soon establish a state-of-the-art international centre for research in Sufism here in the holy city.”

An aim of the centre, according to Badal, would be “to propagate the values of humanism, harmony, peace and universal brotherhood.”

The two-day international festival last autumn was granted IR200,000 (commercial value of £500,000) by the Punjab state. It could now become an annual occasion.

The Sufi event brought together scholars, poets, musicians, singers

and dancers from 13 countries. Badal claims that the bani(teachings) of a large number of Sufi saints has been enshrined in the Sikh holy book the Guru Granth Sahib kept in the Golden Temple. And he added that Sufi saints like Baba Farid had spread the message of humanism, spirituality and oneness of god based on the principles of love, compassion, equality,

humility, brotherhood and freedom - all of which were very similar to the tenets of Sikhism.

Dates for building work to begin or for the centre to be ready for use by the public have not yet been announced.

The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar

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Hello Steve,Thank you for getting in touch.

It is always lovely to have nice images of Pete in his early days.

He was such a great character, not many people passed through his life without a memory of him, which is nice, and I am left with his great legacy, of course, his children who have so much of him in them. Basil, his son, put this wonderful exhibition together and, yes, it was a huge success (Gods and Demons - June). We sold many paintings and many friends and family gathered in memory of Pete. Nobody had ever seen all his paintings in one huge space, so that was quite amazing in itself.    Kind regardsDom Marples

[To the editor,]Someone must be trying to reduce our dependance on tasty foods - the rotten swine! (End of an Era - June)David Ednam

Hi Steve, 1st May, 2013Thanks for your latest Gazette.

I appreciate you put in a lot of effort so please take my feedback as intended to help, rather than a criticism! There are a few factual inaccuracies about Haynes and

the tent which need addressing (FGSpecial Edition - April).

Firstly, it used to take three days to erect at first, but now the team can do it in one (long!) day.

Also when it first appeared I understood the cost was £600,000.

Regarding this: “... it was revealed that SOSBI is considering buying property in France and the US and perhaps elsewhere ...” RSSB/SOS already has quite a few properties around the world.

A new reader may get the impression from this that Dera and Haynes are the only ones!

Also SOSBI is “British Isles” and so wouldn’t be the organisation buying properties abroad.

I’m sure Friends Gazette will be circulated around the world and so is effectively in the public eye, and as such we have to be a little careful about misleading infor-mation or impressions that go out into the world.  I know that you do this as a service to others and please take my feedback in the same spirit! I hope you had a great weekend. It’s always so special to be around the Master and hear him speak.RSJames Watson

FRIENDLYFEEDBACKfriendsgazette@gmail.com

FRIENDLYCOMMENT

Drummond Street is partof British culture!TURNS out one of the key players in the HS2 drama has the good fortune of having a vegetarian wife.

Victoria Leeks tucks into some delicious south Indian fare when she’s in town on business.

As such, she’s living proof that the restaurants’ customers come from all over the country and, indeed, from all over the world.

As our story (see page five) reveals her hubbie, Clinton, advises on the HS2 project, and is committed to consultation.

There’s no doubt this country must modernise. The HS2 project will create thousands of jobs and be good for British business.

But that can’t mean innocent bystanders like the Drummond Street community have to be sacrificed to achieve it.

Let’s hope Clinton can convince the powers that be of that. For it is a given that Drummond Street has its own incredibly important part to play in modern-day British life and culture.

Ask Victoria!

No eggs, period!THERE are myriad reasons for giving up eggs;• moral (fertilised)• spiritual (negative energy)• dangerous (allergic).Now we have another;• environmental! (see page one).

It seems the ‘carbon footprint’ for producing eggs is of concern. All the fossil fuel that has to be burned schlepping trillions of them every year is hurting the planet. There’s also all the food that has to be grown to feed the poor old hens who lay tons and tons of the bloomin’ things every year.

So anything - like fake eggs - which makes life easier for those of us who have chosen to eschew these end products of a chicken’s menstrual cycle (euww!) must surely be welcome.

A POLITE and devoted Indian seeker has asked the FG to help him find kindred spirits in the Newcastle area.

Narender Kumar Sonkhla, 24, came to England from Una in Himachel, India, last August.

He attended national satsang (meeting) in Haynes Park in the spring when RSSBI leader Gurinder Singh was visiting the UK.

In an e-mail to FG he says: “Mr Steve, can you tell me is there any satsang near Newcastle-upon-

Tyne. I’m trying to find any satsang ghar near me.”

Both Narender’s father and grandfather are RSSBI initiates and belong to their local sangats back home in India.

Himachel state or ‘pradesh’ is one down from Kashmir and has an eastern border with Tibet.

Narender hopes to make his career in marketing and has been studying in the UK for Level 5 exams.

Anyone who can help should email friendsgazette@gmail.com

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IF I DIDN’T LEAVE MY BITTERNESS AND HATRED BEHIND, I’D STILL BE IN PRISON - NELSON MANDELA 5

Curry? This way please!

S P E C I A L s i g n s a n d suspended walkways could help travellers get t o t h e i r f a v o u r i t e restaurants when they arrive at the new-look, h i g h - s p e e d E u s t o n station in 2026, the FG has been told.

Plans for HS2 a state-of-the-art high-speed train service which will whisk passengers from London to the north in a fraction of the present journey time have caused howls of protest from local businesses and residents.

Restaurants like Diwana, Chutneys and Ravi Shankar - all firm favourites with FG’s vegetarian readership - fear loss of vital custom while work goes on over the next decade.

And even when the new station opens, probably with a completely

new layout, nobody will be able to find them any more, they claim.

But speaking exclusively to FG at a special public consultation held in Kentish Town, London, recently, Clinton Leeks, director of external and parliamentary relations for HS2, said: “It is absolutely not in our interests to make it less easy for people who come out of the station. [There could be] signage [which says] ‘Vegetarian Restaurant This Way’, [and] upper-level walkways in the meantime.

“We are going to go on t a l k i n g t o t h e m [representatives of the restaurants] and listening to them.”

Mr Leeks pointed out his wife, Victoria, is a vegetarian and has enjoyed eating at Diwana when she’s down from Sunderland on business. He added: “At the moment businesses do not get compensation for temporary disruption.

“As far as I know we do not intend to extinguish any of the businesses for wh ich there [wou ld be] compensation. It is our job to create businesses, not extinguish them.”

Objections to the plans were heard in the Court of Appeal in the Strand, last month. The hearing was the latest in a series of court cases from objectors up and down the country.

The Appeal Court judges’ ruling has not been announced at the time FG ‘went to press’.

What do you think? Will the signs work or are they just a poor excuse for rampant modernisation? Email us on: friendsgazette@gmail.com

special report by Steve Ward

Exclusive report bySteve Ward

Special signs could help hungry passengers find their way to their favourite restaurants

Clinton Leeks: ‘My wife’s a vegetarian.’

3 JULY 2013

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IF I DIDN’T LEAVE MY BITTERNESS AND HATRED BEHIND, I’D STILL BE IN PRISON - NELSON MANDELA 6

A FRIEND and former colleague of singer Judith Durham has spoken of her feelings at the news that the performer is unwell.

Judith, 70 today, is recovering in hospital in Melbourne, Australia, after suffering a stroke while on tour with her group The New Seekers.

The group was recently honoured by the government for outstanding services to Australian music.

Iris Chapple, who knew Judith as she was coming to fame and managed her career for a while, said: “It’s fabulous that she is getting better. I wish her all the best for her recovery.

“She was always very ambitious. Her life was performing. She has a naturally lovely voice.”

Both Iris and Judith, and Judith’s late husband Ron Edgeworth, were initiates of Charan Singh and came to the RSSBI path during the late 60s and early 70s.

Iris and Judith were raw food fanatics ‘in those days’ and were strict vegetarians. She [Judith] was a dedicated follower of the guru and

was very philosophical about her husband’s illness, Iris continued.

“They lived in Highgate. Ron’s mother was from east London.

“I should imagine [her illness] must be a huge shock for her. I don’t think any of us want to be ill, but if you are quite a strong character and fairly controlling of yourself it must be an awful shock.”

As reported in a special issue of FG Judith was taken ill after she performed with The Seekers in Melbourne, Australia.

On returning to her hotel she complained of ‘having difficulty’ working the tv remote in her room.

At Iris’ instigation readers of FG sent a special message to Judith wishing her well when news of her stroke first broke in May, which she acknowledged.

Judith, an Australian native, shot to fame in the 60s. In November 1964 the Seekers released the massive hit I'll Never Find Another You composed by Tom Springfield, British singer Dusty Springfield’s brother.

Iris, herself a former singer, performed in the musical Kismet in 1973, among plenty of other shows.

She also worked with the world-famous Windmill Girls dancers in Soho.

She now runs the Iris Chapple Nail Studio in fashionable Mayfair and is often quoted in the beauty pages of the national and international press and on the internet.

Pictured: Iris Chapple (top);The Seekers (left).

‘I wish her all the best’

Nehru getsEdinburgh fringe debut

A LONDON actress has scooped an iconic role on a pioneering play about the inner life of India’s legendary first leader, Pundit Nehru.

And the play, already critically acclaimed in India, has won a coveted slot at this summer’s Edinburgh fringe festival. 

Deborah Ward, who trained at the London International School of Performing Arts, said: “This is a good opportunity for me to be part of a prestigious production which tells of the mental turmoil of this great historical figure.”

Deborah, 27, (pictured above) is spending a month in Delhi on an intensive rehearsal programme before Edinburgh. She is no stranger to the sub-continent.

She travelled widely in India as a student and visited the RSSBI headquarters in the Punjab in 2008, where she attended a meeting given by Gurinder Singh.

The play stars Dilip Shankar who plays Nehru ‘the man in the white sherwani’ with Deborah (pictured above) taking a number of supporting roles from Lady Edwina Mountbatten the wife of the English Viceroy who had a pas-sionate affair with Nehru, to an acolyte of the great man.

Performances begin on August 3 until 25. The venue is Paradise in the Vault in the Augustine United Church in the city.

Limited tickets on: http://www.paradise-green.co.uk/2013-programme/whats-on/brochure/details/955/

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IN BRIEFSun shines on vegansVegans are a ‘powerful force’ for the evolution of mankind, says Sun, founder of Gentle World a pro-vegan website. Sun, who doesn’t seem to have a surname, writes: “Vegans recognise the inherent right of every animal, human or otherwise, to be the sole owner of his or her body.”

‘We hear your voice’British Sikhs have won their bid to have their voices heard at the heart of government. In a debate led by Tory MP for Dartford, Gareth Johnson, members of all parties officially recognised the democratically elected Sikh Council UK.

Stubb it out!London members of RSSBI were given guidance on smoking recently. Until now they have been free to smoke, though many have chosen not to. Now, in an official statement directly from leader Gurinder Singh, all followers are urged to give up smoking, though FG has learnt that a formal ban is not yet in place.

Milk alertDunn’s Dairy of Beacon View Farm, Devon, has recalled all date codes of its milk and cream products. ‘Please do not drink or eat them’, the government has warned.

Cereal viewThe Food Standards Agency is seeking views on a refined oil, rich in Omega-3 and 6. Technology Crops International wants to use the oil in milk-based products, drinkable yoghurts, breakfast cereals and food supplements.

Veggie study sparks debateA STUDY which claims vegetarians live longer than meat-eaters has sparked academic controversy.

The study was carried out in California in the USA recently.

The people involved in the project were American Seventh Day Adventists, a Christian sect which encourages vegetarianism.

The study found that vegetarians were 12 per cent less likely to die within a six year period than their meat-eating counterparts.

Men who ate a vegetarian diet were significantly less likely to die from ischaemic heart disease (reduced blood to the heart) or coronary ventricular disease which affects the heart muscles.

Dr Michael J Orlich of Loma Linda University, California, the lead academic on the study, said: “This research gives more support to the idea certain vegetarian dietary patterns may be associated with reduced mortality and increased longevity.”

But Dr Robert B Baron of the University of California, San Francisco,

said since it was a study which simply observed people, solid conclusions could not be drawn from it.

Dr Robert H Eckel of the University of Colorado said: “We need to put this study into

perspective. Is a vegetarian diet heart healthy? Probably, yes. “Should people convert to a vegetarian diet based on this study? Absolutely not.” Loma Linda is described as a ‘Seventh Day Adventist health institution’. The study involved following more than 70,000 men and women over six years. The participants

followed a range of diets from vegan through to carniverous in order for the comparisons to be made and conclusions drawn.

Seventh Day Adventists are well known for their vegetarianism and promotion of healthy, ‘including kosher’, diets.

One of the better known Seventh Day Adventists was John Harvey Kellogg who invented the now world-famous breakfast cereal which is named after him.

In Australia and New Zealand the church-owned Sanitarium Heath Food company is said to lead the field in health and vegetarian-related products, best known being Weet-Bix.

special report by

Alex Newell

Dowries alive and well in UK’s Sikh communityTHE ASIAN tradition of the exchange of gifts between bride and groom, known as the dowry, is more prevalent among the Sikh diasporah living in the UK than other goups like Gujaratis and Muslims, according to India Today. Reason being, land prices are high in the Punjab and families want to avoid losing this wealth through the operation of UK inheritance tax laws which don’t apply to ‘gifts’, the website claims. Giving dowries is illegal in India and has been since 1961. The offence is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

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God for Harry, England - and Saint Edmund?

ONE of the most famous quotes in English literature is incorrect, a musical duo has claimed.

The bold statement came during a performance at the Red House, in Bexleyheath, Kent, once the home of artist and designer William Morris.

But it was another William who came in for criticism.According to the pair, who dress up in costume and play

original instruments, William Shakespeare made a faux pas in his classic work, Henry V.

And there’s even a pressure group to try and correct the alleged error.

Rick Heavisides, one half of the popular baroque folk duo, Hautbois, said: “Shakespeare got it wrong when he made the king refer to St George. He should have used St Edmund who was a Christian martyr and the patron saint of England in King Henry V’s time. It changed to St George more than a century later!”

Clive Paine, a Suffolk historian, told the BBC recently: “Edmund is an indigenous Anglo-Saxon who died in

defence of the Christian religion, whereas St George is a foreigner.”

Henry V is one of the bard’s most famous works. The starring role has been played by no less than Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Brannah on screen and Jude Law is set to play Henry on the London stage in November.

In a famous, stirring scene the heroic monarch urges his troops into battle with the words: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; ... the game’s afoot: follow your spirit, and upon this charge, cry ‘God for Harry, England and Saint George!’

St Edmund ruled East Anglia between AD 855 and 869 and was England’s patron saint before St George. He was put to death by the Vikings for refusing to give up Christianity.

Diwanapure vegetarian food

121-123 Drummond StreetLondon NW1 2HL

Tel: 020 7387 555612pm-12am seven-days-a-week

Buffet and à la carte

‘to live for’!

Once more unto the breach . . . we all know the famous speech. But did Shakespeare make an awful mistake when he referred to the ‘wrong’ patron saint of merry England?

right - Helen and Rick Heavisides of Hautbois at the Red House

St Edmund

south Indian restaurant and takeaway