India HeraldVOL 20 NO. 48 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • P.O. BOX 623 • SUGAR LAND, TX 77487 • PERIODICAL PERMIT USPS 017-699 25 C

Web: www.india-herald.com • Email: editor@india-herald.com Tel: 281-980-6746

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University of Houston President and UH System Chancellor Renu Khator is set to lead the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Khator recently was UH President Renu Khator-announced as the board’s chair.Khator joined the board in 2011

and was appointed deputy chair in

Ami Bera wins after long count

U.S. Rep. Amerish Babulal “Ami” Bera (D-Elk Grove) on Nov. 19 declared victory in his 7th Congressional District race after increasing his lead over op-ponent Doug Ose to more than 1,400 votes.

Bera, who trailed by more than 3,000 votes after the initial re-turns were announced on Election Night, Nov 4, led two weeks later by 1,432 votes on Nov. 19. The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters said Bera had 92,394 votes while the Republican challenger had 90,962 votes.

“It’s been my honor serving this community as a doctor for the last 19 years,” Bera said in a press statement from Washington, D.C., for the fi nal weeks of his fi rst term in offi ce.

The physician added, “I am grateful I will have the opportu-nity to continue serving as the representative for California’s 7th Congressional District in Con-gress.”

Ose, who served 1999-2005 in Congress and honored a commit-ment to only serve three two-year terms, conceded the race.

“I celebrate the fact that our in-stitutions and our laws provide us a system whereby elections can

See Page 3

2013. The Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., recently an-nounced her appointment as well as those for the other Federal Re-serve Banks across the country.“I am excited and honored to re-

ceive this opportunity, and for the recognition it brings to the Uni-versity of Houston,” Khator said. “As chair, I look forward to add-ing my perspective to the impor-tant monetary policy discussions conducted by the talented and dedicated members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.”There are 12 Federal Reserve

Banks, and a nine-member board guides each institution. These boards work with their respective Federal Reserve Bank presidents to offer grassroots economic in-formation and input on manage-ment and monetary policy deci-sions. Serving alongside Khator

Renu Khator to lead board of Dallas Federal Reserve

President Barack Obama has accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invite to be chief guest for the 2015 Republic Day, and will be the fi rst US president to grace the occasion as chief guest. “We have now received a confi rmation through diplomatic channels of President Obama agreeing to come to India as the 1st US President for a Republic Day function as the Chief Guest,” external affairs ministry spokesper-son Syed Akbaruddin said in a statement.

He said the “prime minister had a very successful visit to USA earlier during the year in September. Following this, as a personal initiative, he did extend an invitation to President Obama to be the Chief Guest of our next Republic Day celebrations during a diplomatic conversa-tion”.

U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the news. “Today’s announcement that Presi-dent Obama has accepted an invitation to attend Indian Republic Day as the Chief Guest is a very welcome development. The importance

Obama to be chief guest for India’s Republic Day

A victory for HAF advocacyIn a landmark moment for the Hindu American community, the Texas

State Board of Education voted late last week to adopt new textbooks that dramatically improve the way Hinduism is depicted. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) was involved in the adoption

process from the beginning, working with scholars and historians to en-sure a constructive and accurate understanding of Hinduism. As a result of the changes made by publishers in response to HAF’s reviews, the textbooks now present a picture of Hinduism that emphasizes the reli-gion’s core philosophies with accurate explanations of key concepts.

See Page 7

See Page 3

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 3

INDIA - U.S.

of U.S.-India relations cannot be overstated,” Royce said in a state-ment. “Frankly, this has been a relationship that unfortunately has struggled to fi nd its footing in the last several years. The President’s visit could be another important step in getting this relationship back on track, following Prime Minister Modi’s very successful trip to the U.S., which I had the honor of being a part of, including welcoming the Prime Minister to Congress.

“During his trip, President Obama will have the opportunity to help push U.S.-India trade relations, which are far below their potential. Some progress has been made recently, but the President needs to push for full implementation of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Fa-cilitation Agreement, which would increase market access and lower transaction costs for U.S. and foreign companies in India. The U.S. should be encouraging Indian investment in the U.S. Progress also needs to be made on implementing the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agree-ment. Given India’s signifi cant energy needs, we need to overcome the impasse that has stalled this agreement. Too much has been invested in this critical energy area to let it languish.

“Given the signifi cant threat India and the U.S. face from radicalism, the President’s visit should have a strong counterterrorism component, as well. President Obama should push for more high-level visits by each country’s various intelligence and security agencies. Our coop-eration is strong, but there remains a need for greater engagement.”

“Following that diplomatic conversation which the Prime Minister had with President Obama, a letter was sent in writing, formalizing that invitation,” Akbaruddin said. “We will now look forward to this de-velopment which stems from the initiative of our PM, which followed their bilateral meeting in Washington.”

Breaking the news, Modi had tweeted: “This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US Presi-dent to grace the occasion as Chief Guest.”

The invitation to Obama comes weeks after Modi’s hugely success-ful visit to the US. Modi and Obama also met on the sidelines of G20 summit in Brisbane Nov 14. Obama had called Modi a “man of ac-tion”.

This will be Obama’s second visit to India. He had visited India in 2010 at the invitation of then prime minister Manmohan Singh and ad-dressed a joint session of parliament.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at the SAARC na-tions summit in Kathmandu nd there is little chance that he will meet with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif once again unsuccessfully attempted to pull in President Ba-rack Obama to intervene on the Kashmir issue during his scheduled visit to India in January. Sharif, in a phone conversation last week, had reminded the US President of his pending visit to Pakistan.

However, a release from the Pakistani Foreign Offi ce said that Obama had told Sharif he would visit the country ‘only when the situation normalises’. Further, according to the release, Sharif urged Obama to bring up the Kashmir issue during his visit to India, but the White House, in its release, makes no mention of it, indicative of a stern ‘no’.

Obama’s second visit to India

From Page 1

From Page 1Renu Khator

will be newly appointed deputy chair Matthew K. Rose, execu-tive chairman of BNSF Railway Company.Khator began her dual role as

UH president and UH System chancellor in 2008. She is the System’s fi rst woman chancellor, UH’s fi rst foreign-born president and the fi rst Indian immigrant to lead a comprehensive research university in the U.S.Her presence on campus has

invigorated students and helped drive UH to new levels of success. Under her leadership, the Univer-sity experienced record-breaking research funding and achieved Tier One University Status by the Carnegie Foundation. Other milestones reached under her leadership include the creation of the University’s Energy Research Park and UH becoming a mem-ber of the Texas Medical Center.This year, Khator has been rec-

ognized by several organizations for her commitment to excel-lence in higher education. Among her 2014 honors are the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from the President of India. Khator shares her energies and

insights with several organizations including the Indian Prime Minis-ter’s Global Advisory Council, the American Council on Education, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Technology Center, the Methodist Hospital Research Institute Board, the Business-Higher Education Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations.Khator has a bachelor’s degree

at the University of Kanpur. She received her master’s degree and her Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University. A noted schol-ar in the fi eld of global environ-mental policy, she has published numerous books and articles on the subject.

Bera’s come-from-behind win

be peacefully resolved,” he said in a statement. “I congratulate Congressman Bera on his victory.”

This race was one of the few nationwide that was still undecided more than two weeks after Election Day.

That is a familiar position for Bera, who narrowly lost to incum-bent Dan Lungren in 2010, but defeated Lungren in a closer race in 2012 that didn’t end until a week after Election Day.

Bera, Ose, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Commit-tee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and inde-pendent organizations spent millions of dollars on this race.Spending topped $20 million, including some $7 million by the candidates’ campaign committees, plus almost $13.5 million from the two political parties and other groups who paid for television ads, mailers and other operations independently of the candidates’ campaigns.The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for exam-ple, spent $4.6 million on TV ads for Bera and paid for 17 cam-paign fi eld staff members and two fi eld offi ces in the Sacramento-area district.

Bera cited several issues he said showed a “clear contrast” be-tween him and Ose, an experienced lawmaker who was widely considered the most moderate of the three Republicans on the June primary ballot.

Both candidates also called on major fi gures to stump for them in the fi nal days of the campaign. First Lady Michelle Obama re-corded a phone call on Bera’s behalf. Former president Bill Clin-ton also promoted Bera at a rally held at the University of Cali-fornia, Davis.

Bera also had to overcome a campaign led by activist, Elk Grove resident, and former supporter Amar Shergill, who said Bera re-fused to state the Indian government was responsible for the mur-der of thousands of Sikhs in November 1984.

Shergill created postcards that volunteers hand delivered to Sikhs throughout the Congressional district just days before the election.

“I will always support those that put America fi rst. For now, I can sleep soundly knowing that we fought the good fi ght,” Shergill said after Bera claimed victory. “I trust that, in time, Dr. Bera will come to realize that he needs to be on the right side of history.”

Bera listed middle-class interests, climate change, jobs and af-fordable college education as key issues, adding he believed “peo-ple recognized that I worked on trying to be as bipartisan as pos-sible, reaching across the aisle...whenever I could.”

But he said credit for the victory lies in large part with his more than 1,000 volunteers -- whom he said “made almost a million phone calls and probably knocked on almost 500,000 doors.”

“This was the most expensive race,” Bera said, “but when you have neighbors talking to neighbors,” it can make the difference between victory and defeat.(India Herald incorrectly called the result in the race and declared Bera as the loser in the November 5 issue of the paper. The error is regretted. -- Editor)

From Page 1

PAGE 4 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

India HeraldIndia Herald (USPS 017-699) is published every Wednesday (for a

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TOPIC OF THE WEEKVOICESObama visit to India will be strong

and meaningful, experts sayFor some critics, dame luck has favored Prime Minister Narendra

Modi by making Barack Obama a lame-duck president, allowing theIndian leader to snag the US president as a Republic Day guest. Butexcept for some domestic issues, the lame-duck trope is overused inAmerica, where the President remains the country’s — and arguablythe world’s — most powerful man till he demits office and steps out ofthe White House on the final day of a four-year term.

When he arrives in New Delhi on January 25/26, President Obamawill still have a week short of two years in office. Bill Clinton, when hevisited India in March 2000 as Prime Minister Vajpayee’s guest, hadonly about 10 months to go before demitting office after a secondterm. Vajpayee himself was Clinton’s last state guest in September2000 when the US president only had about four months to go in hispresidency. They didn’t do too badly in laying the foundation of a solidUS-India partnership.

Although the next presidential election is due in November, 2016,President Obama will continue to exercise full executive power tillJanuary 20, 2017, when the 45th president will be sworn in. Past recordsshow that even in this so-called “lame-duck” period, with the shadowof a new Congress and a president-elect over them, incumbent presi-dents exercised their authority to order military actions and issue ex-ecutive orders. President Bush was able to implement the surge inIraq when his policies in 2007 seemed to be failing and he was at thetail end of his second term, with Congress in Democratic hands. Evendomestically, he initiated executive action to save the financial marketfrom collapse in the final days, even final hours of his presidency.

“History shows that the next few years could be a highly creativeand significant period in Obama’s presidency,” writes Julian Zelizer, aProfessor of History at Princeton University and author of GoverningAmerica. “Just when things seem most desperate, presidents havesometimes found the space they need in the closing months of theirterm to make gains.”

Lisa Curtis, a Heritage Foundation scholar and former CIA analysttold Times of India that President Obama is likely hoping a splashy visitto India will help him start off the New Year with a foreign policy win.“Aside from the symbolism and optics of being the first US Presidentto serve as chief guest at the Republic Day celebration, Obama has areal chance to cement ties with India in a way that supports US goalswith the Asia pivot,” she said.

Curtis also maintains that the invitation demonstrates that, unlikeManmohan Singh during his second tenure, Modi is not afraid to leantoward the United States. Obama’s visit in January, which will makehim the only serving U.S president to visit India twice, allows the twocountries to continue the positive momentum in relations that was startedby Modi’s visit to the US, she added.

India also has the added advantage of bipartisan support in Wash-ington, with both Democrats and Republicans backing strong ties withNew Delhi.

“The importance of US-India relations cannot be overstated. Frankly,this has been a relationship that unfortunately has struggled to find itsfooting in the last several years,’’ said Congressman Ed Royce, theRepublican chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee and astrong votary of even greater engagement with India.

“The president’s visit could be another important step in getting thisrelationship back on track, following Prime Minister Modi’s very suc-cessful trip to the US.

“Given the significant threat India and the US face from radicalism,the president’s visit should have a strong counterterrorism component,as well. US President Obama should push for more high-level visits byeach country’s various intelligence and security agencies. Our coop-eration is strong, but there remains a need for greater engagement,”Royce advised.

Given such views, Obama’s visit will be anything but ceremonial. Infact, in as much as it commemorates the adoption of India’s constitu-tion, the R-Day parade has lately become a showcase of India’s mili-tary heft, with the overt display of military muscle, including nuclearmissiles.

New Delhi wheeled out its Agni-5 missiles during 2013 RepublicDay parade, and it remains to be seen what firepower will float pastPresident Obama on January 26, 2015.

— Chidanand Rajghata in The Times of India

By Swapan Dasgupta

It is unlikely that too manyNehruvians or even those thatview India’s former Prime Minis-ter with a sceptical eye will, dur-ing the year-long commemorationof his 125th birth anniversary careto stress the colossal importanceof the Spanish Civil War in themaking of the man. As someonewho had an insatiable appetite forcontemporary fashion-be it politi-cal, sartorial and aesthetic-Jawaharlal Nehru was totally soldon the entire romanticism sur-rounding the battle of the Repub-licans against General Franco.

In the heady atmosphere of the1930s where the quest for defin-ing ideologies that would reshapethe world was unceasing, the Span-ish Civil War became the stuff ofboth politics and poetry.

It was more than just a battleagainst the Falangists and the tra-ditional order. To the trend-settingarbiters of political fashion, whichincluded a disproportionate num-ber of British intellectuals (but notBritish voters), Spain became ametaphor for radicalism.

George Orwell’s writings havedisabused us of the so-called ide-alism behind the Republican side.

It now transpires that bothsides were equally guilty of beingmanipulated and used as proxiesby other European powers: Stalinshamelessly (and quite brutally)moulded the priorities of the Re-publican army and Hitler used sup-port for covert operations as alaboratory for his weapons of war.

To be fair, Nehru may not havebeen aware of the ugly undersideof this great romantic struggle-hisability to cull information and hisindignation was always selective.

What inspired him to join handswith Stalinists in the Leagueagainst Imperialism and otherdodgy bodies was the example ofthe International Brigade-the vol-unteer army of concerned citizensfrom other European countriesthat fought alongside their Span-ish comrades. In the mythology ofthe European Left, a decisive in-fluence on Nehru, there was ahalo over the International Bri-gade.

It is estimated that somewhereclose to 35,000 non-Spaniardswere initiated into the InternationalBrigades and about as much asone-fifth of the volunteers died inthe Civil War.

The high casualties were onaccount of the complete lack oftraining and poor military strate-gies. When Franco finally pre-vailed, the surviving foreign vol-unteers returned to their homes.

Some ended up dispirited, oth-ers became hardened Communistcadres and a third lot became the“useful idiots” that Lenin believedwere so important in the spreadof his ideas.

Some eight decades later, theSpanish Civil War is distantmemory and with the deaths ofFranco and Salazar, democracyhas returned to the Iberian Penin-sula. However, there is one facetof the Spanish legacy that has en-dured:

The belief that national bound-

aries are no barriers in fighting thegood fight. Internationalism wasalways a catchword of the MarxistLeft, to be used expediently: FidelCastro used it to despatch an in-convenient Che Guevara to Bo-livia to spread the revolution.

But it wasn’t confined to theLeft alone. In recent times, theprinciple of internationalism wasresurrected by Pakistan, with fi-nancial backing from the UnitedStates, to create an Islamicmujahideen to wage jehad againstthe Soviet infidels in Afghanistanfor a decade. It was a classic caseof ideological blowback.

A momentum, especially onelaced with adventure, romanceand a touch of fanaticism, oncecreated cannot be plugged bycommand. Pakistan deliberatelyallowed the ‘international’ rem-nants of the Afghan jehad to spillover into Kashmir.

Throughout the mid-1990s, itwas fairly routine for India’sforces to discover an internationalcommunity of jehadis waging warfor Kashmir’s “liberation.” Apartfrom Pakistanis, they includedArabs, Sudanese and Asian Brit-ons. Today, this perverse legacyof the Spanish Civil War has cometo haunt the whole world.

I am, of course, referring tothe international warriors that buyone-way tickets to Turkey andthen disappear from the gaze oftheir families to become both can-non fodder and valuable opera-tives for the grandiose Caliphateof the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria. According to one estimate,foreigners make up as much as20 per cent of the ISIS army andthey are drawn from more than100 countries.

The cases of bored, football-loving Muslim teenagers living insome nondescript town of north-

ern England suddenly upping andjoining the ISIS and, in manycases, getting themselves killedhave received widespread mediaattention.

The cases of their Indian coun-terparts have been relatively lessdocumented-perhaps understand-ably. What they add to it all is theundeniable reality of ISIS exercis-ing a perverted but at the sametime emotional appeal to a sectionof Muslim youth.

It is an international phenom-enon-a reason why the East Asianleaders meeting in Myanmar havedevoted so much attention to it.However, what remains under-stated are the two contributoryfactors for ISIS’s macabre appeal-and it has nothing to do with eitherPalestine or national boundaries ofthe Levant.

First, the radicalisation of Mus-lim youth is being organised by aset of very determined and moti-vated religious preachers. Theirefforts are being complementedby internet networks reminiscentof a Fredrick Forsyth novel. Boththese have to be tackled with re-lentless vigour and even merci-lessly. Second, the ISIS army de-pends substantially on kidnapping,extortion and oil for finances.

But there are whispers emanat-ing from Intelligence communitiesof the covert involvement of atleast one state in the Gulf. Chok-ing off this financial lifeline is amust and can only happen if allthe big powers act in concert.

The importance of the ISIS isnot confined to a corner of WestAsia. It has the potential of hav-ing a multiplier effect throughoutthe world, including India.

No wonder it is prudent torealise which facets of any greatlife are worth de-romanticising. —The Pioneer

The cursed legacy of internationalism

THE LIGHTER SIDE

By one estimate, foreigners make up about 20 per cent of the ISIS armyand they are drawn from more than 100 countries.

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HOUSTON: Dr. SambaReddy, professor of neuroscienceand experimental therapeutics atTexas A&M University Collegeof Medicine, has been elected asa Fellow of the American Asso-ciation of Pharmaceutical Scien-tists (AAPS), a lifetime recogni-tion and the highest professionalhonor of achievement in pharma-ceutical field. The award was pre-sented by the AAPS President Dr.Marilyn Morris at the 2014 AAPSAnnual Meeting and Exposition inSan Diego on November 2, 2014.

The AAPS recognizes out-standing researchers with a Fel-low designation. Dr. Reddy, a re-nowned expert inneurotherapeutics, was selectedon the basis of “professional ex-cellence as exemplified by a sus-tained level of superior and distin-guished contributions that have asubstantial impact in the pharma-ceutical field”.

He has made pioneering con-tributions that include developmentof a neurosteroid-replacementtherapy for epilepsy, new epilepsymedication ganaxolone, and tonicinhibition therapy for persistentseizures and neurotoxicity. Hesuccessfully designed manymodel systems, treatment strate-gies, and first-in-class agents forcomplex brain disorders. He haspublished 120 papers, authored 6books, and has made over 150presentations worldwide.

Dr. Reddy joined the TexasA&M faculty in 2008 and was pre-viously honored by the NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH) with theFellow Award for Research Ex-cellence for the year 2000. He is

AAPS Fellow award for Texas A&M scientistinternationally respected for hiscontributions to neurotherapeutics,neurosteroid mechanisms, andnew treatments for epilepsy andbrain diseases. His work is cen-tered on finding better medicationsfor treatment of epilepsy, brain in-jury, and chemical neurotoxicity.

Dr. Reddy serves as an expertmember in federal committees inWashington such as NIH, DOD,and the United States pharma-copeia (USP). He is an editor-in-chief of an international pharma-ceutical journal. He has a phar-macy degree and doctorate inpharmacology.Dr. Samba Reddy

PAGE 6 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

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By Manu ShahFour major certification agencies and four high level Fortune 500

Supplier Diversity Managers shared a wealth of information about theadvantages of certification and the procurement process with IndoAmerican Chamber of Commerce of Great Houston (IACCGH)members and guests on November 17 at the HESS Club.

One of the first and best steps to bring visibility to a business andpromote growth is to be certified by nationally recognized certificationcompanies. Houston Minority Supplier Development Council’s Presi-dent Richard Huebner, who aptly described by IACCGH ExecutiveDirector Jagdip Ahluwalia as “the father of diversity in Houston,” out-lined the process and benefits of certification describing it as “an entrypoint to business.”

Certification with HMSDC is a 5-step process and offers the pri-mary advantage of credibility. Corporations primarily look for a com-pany that has been certified to do business with as “it validates whoyou are and what you do” by an independent certification agency.Certification also offers exposure to market one’s business and accessto corporations looking for suppliers.

Director, City of Houston, Office of Business Opportunity, CarleciaWright also stressed the fact that certification is key to the growth andsuccess of smaller businesses and offers an opportunity to “educateoneself, connect and grow.” The office offers a variety of certifica-

IA Chamber’s supplier diversity & certification seminar

tions for minority, small andwoman-owned businesses andaims to “get the company to bethat Fortune 500 Company.” Anew initiative – Hire Houston First– offers a competitive edge tothose certified businesses locatedin the city of Houston or the sur-rounding 8 counties over those lo-cated elsewhere, when making abid for business.

“If you are a bold innovativebusiness, then you must get certi-fied,” was the advice from AprilDay, President, Women’s Busi-ness Enterprise Alliance. Beingcertified with WBEA makes onea part of 12,000 network ofwoman owned businesses andexpands your company’s visibilityto decision makers in supplier di-versity and procurement offices.It also provides scholarships in

professional development opportunities for team members of a grow-ing business.

Deputy Chief Procurement Officer, METRO, Kimberly Williams,believed that the biggest benefit of certification is the sharing of infor-mation and “getting your name and your brand out there.” Being aMETRO certified small business allows a company to be listed in theMETRO directory as a Small Business Program participant, offerstechnical assistance services and is accepted by the Houston Commu-nity College, Houston First Corp. and the Port of Houston for theirbusiness development programs.

Shell’s Manager of Supplier Diversity, Donovan Casanave stressedthe fact that certified businesses must be able to “articulate wherethey fit in” in a Company’s supply chain. He also encouraged thegathering to attend expos, seek out supplier diversity representatives,ask about subcontracting opportunities, be visible and in touch with therepresentatives.

Describing CenterPoint Energy as the company “one thinks of onhot days and the cold days,” Steve Dukes, Senior Coordinator, Sup-plier Diversity offered examples of two certified businesses who workedwith CenterPoint Energy in Field Data Management and IT consultancy.

Annie Lidge, Program Manager, Supplier Diversity of Fluor, ex-plained how the Company uses diverse local businesses for their con-tracting jobs and how certification helps. It is also important for busi-nesses to ask themselves what makes them “unique and different” tobe able to get a foothold in business contracts.

“Get as many certifications as possible,” was the advice by RogelioAnasagasti, Executive Director, Procurement Operations, HCC, as it“opens doors”, visit expos and build a relation of trust with supplierdiversity managers. The day’s takeaways were that a business can besuccessful and grow if it can get certified, have a unique value propo-sition, build relationships with decision makers, be visible, outperformcompetition and as Steve Dukes put it – “hang in there.”

IA Chamber President Sanjay Ramabhadran (left), Rogelio Anasagasti (HCC), Richard Huebner (HMSDC),Annie Lidge (Fluor), Kimberly Williams (Metro), April Day (WBEA), Carlecia Wright, City of Houston, SteveDukess (CenterPoint), Donavan Casanave (Shell) and IA Chamber Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia

Indian writer a finalist for literary awardNEW YORK: An Indian-origin writer is among the finalists for one

of the most prestigious US literary award for his non-fiction book set inwar-torn Afghanistan. Anand Gopal is among the finalists in the non-fiction category for the 2014 National Book Award for his book NoGood Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the Warthrough Afghan Eyes.

Gopal, who has served as an Afghanistan correspondent for TheWall Street Journal and The Christian Science Monitor, chronicles thelives of three Afghans caught in America’s decade-long war on terror.The National Book Award is one of the nation’s most prestigiousliterary prizes.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 7

COMMUNITY NEWS

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPENI welcome the opportunity to learn about your unique goals and needs. Together we can create a strategy designed to help guide you along the path to financial well-being. Call to schedule a consultation today.

Washington, D.C: In a land-mark moment for the HinduAmerican community, the TexasState Board of Education votedlate last week to adopt new text-books that dramatically improvethe way Hinduism is depicted.

The Hindu American Founda-tion (HAF) was involved in theadoption process from the begin-ning, working with scholars andhistorians to ensure a constructiveand accurate understanding ofHinduism. As a result of thechanges made by publishers inresponse to HAF’s reviews, thetextbooks now present a pictureof Hinduism that emphasizes thereligion’s core philosophies withaccurate explanations of key con-cepts.

“This is a game-changing mo-ment for our community,” saidHouston-based HAF BoardMember Rishi Bhutada, testifiedbefore the state board in Septem-

ber, urging changes to the pro-posed content. “This is the firsttime that this type of textbook re-form has ever been accomplishedon a statewide level anywhere inthe US, and to do it in Texas, oneof the two biggest textbook mar-kets in the country, is amazing.”

Educators, several publishers,and other advocacy groupsworked closely with HAF to makesure the representations of Hin-duism were not steeped in the ar-chaic and inaccurate “caste, cows,and karma” approach that hasdominated textbook content foryears. With 100 errors corrected,additional changes include:

• More balance in understand-ing the disputed origins of Hinducivilization

• Inclusion of Hinduism andHindus in contemporary world his-tory and geography greater con-text in the explanation of caste,including the definition of termssuch as varna and jati

• Detailed explanation of termssuch as karma and dharma

• Reflection of the inherentlypluralistic nature of Hinduism

One publisher, for example,wrote: “In short, one has to liveaccording to his or her dharma,which is defined as righteousaction for spiritual advance-ment. Hindu teachings believethat all beings suffer, but thatkarma, the law of action andconsequence, will govern thecircumstances of future births.

If a person lives well, she orhe will be reborn in better cir-cumstances and have an easierpath to achieving moksha.However, karma is still based onone’s choices, and Hindu teach-ings emphasize that having abetter birth does not guaranteeprogress. The goal is to exhaustall of one’s karma from previ-ous lives in order to achievemoksha, or union with Brah-man.”

Another publisher mentionedthe Hindu saint Adi Shankara, thefirst time such a reference hasbeen made in an American K-12textbook. HAF’s Director of Edu-cation and Curriculum Reform,Murali Balaji, Ph.D., said that thechanges reflected rigorous aca-demic feedback and a fact-basedapproach to teaching about Hin-duism.

“This is transformational for theHindu American community, butit’s important to note that beingculturally sensitive doesn’t meanforsaking accuracy,” Balaji said,noting reviews by numerous reli-gion and history scholars.

“We want to ensure that stu-dents in Texas have the most ac-curate and constructive under-standing about the world’s thirdlargest faith, in a state that has thesecond highest population of Hin-dus in the country.”

Balaji credited an engagedHindu American community in

Texas, including nearly 30 whovolunteered to serve as textbookreviewers for the Texas Educa-tion Agency (three were ultimatelyselected), as well as the leader-ship of Bhutada and HAF Execu-tive Council member, Dr. RajivPandit of Fort Worth, who workedto get members of the Dallas-FortWorth community engaged in theimportance of the review.

The textbook vote is final, andthe textbook changes will reflectin materials next year. The HinduAmerican Foundation’s evidence-based efforts in education reformhave been acknowledged inTexas and across the country, in-cluding by prominent social stud-ies and history organizations suchas the National Council for theSocial Studies.

For all media inquiries, con-tact Rishi Bhutada, HAF BoardMember, at rishi@hafsite.org.

Texas school board adopts Hindusim-related changes in new textbooks

Four Indo-Americanstudents namedRhodes Scholars

WASHINGTON: Four IndianAmerican students, AnishaGururaj, Sai Gourisankar, MayaKrishnan and Abishek Kul-shreshtha, are among 32 men andwomen chosen as 2015 RhodesScholars from the US.

Considered the oldest and bestknown award for internationalstudy, Rhodes Scholarships pro-vide all expenses for two or threeyears of study at the Universityof Oxford in England.

A native of Chesterfield, Mis-souri, Anisha Gururaj is a seniormajoring in chemical-biologicalengineering, according to MIT.She plans to pursue an MSc inengineering science research, witha focus in bioengineering, and amaster’s in public policy.

Gururaj has also co-founded aproject to design a low-cost, non-electric fluid warmer for militarytrauma victims.

Sai P. Gourisankar is a seniorat the University of Texas, wherehe will graduate in May with a BSin chemical engineering and a BAin Plan II Liberal Arts.

He also has a minor in German.He is a Goldwater Scholar with a4.0 across multiple disciplines.

He has several publications re-lating to his work in nanotech-nology, particularly relating tonanoclusters.

Maya Krishnan is a StanfordUniversity senior majoring in Phi-losophy, with minors in ComputerScience and Classics. Her book,“Modern Illuminations”, includes10 essays on the relationship be-tween the theory of knowledgeand theology.

Abishek Kulshreshtha is a se-nior at Brown University wherehe majors in Physics.

Much of his work in theoreti-cal physics has applications to thecreation of a quantum computerthat would make computations ex-ponentially faster, and toward thegoal of better understanding ofbiological processes. He is presi-dent of Brown’s Model UnitedNations and founder of the Provi-dence Public Schools ModelUnited Nations.

PAGE 8 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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An adolescent boy strikes it richby inventing a popular phone appbut loses sight of what really mat-ters in life. Based on the Dickensclassic. Showing Saturdays at2 p.m. on November 29 andDecember 6, 13, 20, 2014 atExpress Children's Theatre atNorthwest Mall. To reserve a pri-vate weekday performance at thetheater for your group (30 personsminimum) call 713-682-5044.

Vishwa Shanti YagnaDec 6, sat @ 9 a.m.On the occasion of Pratishtha

Divas Houston Durgabari Soci-ety will hold Vishwa Shanti MahaYagna under the guidance ofHDBS head priest Dr.Bishnupada Goswami. Event in-cludes puja, lunch, cultural pro-gram. At 13944 Schiller Road.Limited seating available. Call DrGoswami 832-367-6646 orNirmalya Roy 832-971-8659.

Arya Samaj SatsangWeekly Havan Satsang every

Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.DAV Sanskriti School Sundays 10a.m. to 12 noon. - Havan, Hindiand Naitik Shiksha classes. DAVMontessori School for ages 2 to 7years. Call Arti Khanna 281-759-3286. Free Yoga classes on Sat.Sanskrit & Upanishad classes Tue.6-8 p.m. At 14375 Schiller Rd. (betWestpark & Bellaire off Hwy 6).281-752-0100.

Chinmaya MissionSunday satsangs for adults,

youth, and children. A unique BalaVihar program for each grade,from PreK to Grade 12. Satsangsin two sessions between 8:35 a.m.- 10:15 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. -1p.m. Bala Vihar students cantake shloka, bhajan and orchestraclasses or language classes for

meditation and spiritual practicethat helps one realize the utimatepotential within oneself. The medi-tation is available to anyone whowishes to practice. Weekly medi-tation sessions held throughout theHouston area. Web: www.sahajmarg.org Email: meditate_houston@yahoo.com.

Heritage ClassesAshirwad’s Heritage Classes in

Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land forkids 4 to 18 yrs - meditation, Yoga,slokas, stories from scriptures,Vishnu Sahasranam, bhajans, com-petitions and fun activities. Adultmeditation classes. Register atwww.ashirwadablessing.org or SriRavula 281-995-0930.

Hare Krishna DhamHouston’s original Vedic temple,

ISKCON of Houston. At 1320 W34th St. (77018). Daily Darshan& Arati Times: 4.30am, 7am,8.30am, 12noon, 4.30pm, 7pm,9pm. Sunday Festival: 5.30 pm to7.30 pm. Weekly Gita classes foradults; call 281-433-1635 orharekrishnadham @gmail.com

Gandhi LibraryMahatma Gandhi Library Book

Club: Meets 2nd Sunday of eachmonth; 12:30 PM at Arya SamajGreater Houston, 13475 SchillerRd. Join the discussion of the greatman’s autobiography – The Storyof My Experiments with Truth.Call Manish Wani 713-829-6979.

Saumyakasi SivalayaSri Saumyakasi Sivalaya is lo-

cated at Chinmaya Prabha, 10353Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77478. Temple timings: Monday toFriday: 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon and5:00 - 8:00 PM Saturday and Sun-day: 8:30-2:00 PM and 5:00 - 8:00PM. Contact Bharti Sutaria 281-568-1690 or Jay Deshmukh 832-541-0059 or visit www.saumyakasi.org.

Veerashaiva SamajaVSNA Houston is a group of

families who believe in Veera-shaiva dharma (Basava dharma).Monthly Mahamane program forprayer and discussion on VachanaSahitya followed by Prasada. Con-tact: vsnahouston@gmail.com orJagadeesh Halyal 832-744-4166.

Shiv Shakti MandirSanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir,

6640 Harwin. Open daily 7 a.m.to 8 p.m. All major festivals, as wellas birthdays, naam karan, engage-ment and other ceremonies. CallPandit Virat Mehta 713-278-9099or Hardik Raval 361-243-6539 forpuja or other ceremonies.

Houston NamadwaarA prayer house where the Hare

Rama Hare Krishna Maha-man-tra is continuously chanted. Week-ends: 8-11 AM & 4-7 PM, Week-days: 7-8 AM & 6-7 PM. Weekly“Gopa Kuteeram” children’s heri-tage classes and SrimadBhagavatam classes. Call 281-402-6585; visit www.godivinity.org(Global Organization for Divinity).

Mar Thoma ChurchTrinity Mar Thoma Church ev-

SALES HELP WANTEDWell-known Houston jewelry store is looking forsaleswomen availabe to start immediately. Must be ableto speak English and Hindi well. Call 713-789-7575

ery Sunday at 5810 Almeda Genoa Rd. Sunday School at 9:15 a.m.Malayalam service at 9:30 a.m. on 1st & 3rd Sunday. Adult Bibleclass at 9:30 a.m. English service at 10:30 a.m. on 2nd & 4th Sunday.Call 713-991-1557 or 281-261-4603.

Sri Guruvayurappan TempleHours: Mon to Fri 6 a.m. -8 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Week-

ends & Holidays: 6 a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. BhajansSaturdays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Special poojas(weekends and holidays) Choroon (Annaprasam) for kids,Thulabharam, Vahana Pooja, Nirapara. Temple is located at 11620Ormandy St (77035) Tel: 713-729-8994 email: temple@ guruvayur.us

Arsha Vidya BharatiSanskrit classes and special worship sessions for all ages. At 2918

Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479.Call 281-606-5607 orAVB.Houston@gmail.com. Web-site: https://sites.google.com/site/avbtexas/classes

Preksha MeditationNew facilities of JVB Preksha Meditation Center. Classes for Yoga

and Meditation under guidance by Samani jis and discourses. At 14102Schiller Road (off Hwy 6 bet Bellaire and Westpark - 77082). Tel281-596-9642.

Patanjali YogpeethFree Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun at Arya Samaj from 8 am to 9:30

a.m. Call Anil 281-579-9433. For other free classes, call Indra 281-537-0018. For Yoga/Herbal products, call Shekhar 281-242-5000. Web:www.pyptusa.org and www.DivyaProducts.com.

Sadhu Vaswani CenterSadhu Vaswani Center of Houston holds regular Satsang on 3rd

Thursday of the month and daily Arti at 7.30 p.m. Call 281-463-0379or e.mail ramolaj@aol.com

Sathya Sai centersSunday program held at two locations (North Houston: 12127

Louetta Rd, Houston; South Houston: 246 Fluor Daniel Dr, Sugarland,TX, 77479) from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Sai Spiritual Education classesfor children; study circle for adults. Service programs - food distribu-tion & food drives; nursing home visits, tutoring at schools etc. Con-tact Sanjay Gupta (North) 832-687-6766 or Sondip Mathur (South)832-215-8675 www.sairegion10.org.

Gaudiya MathSri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd., Hous-

ton 77084. Satsang Sundays 5 to 7 pm. Mantra meditation, kirtan,Sanatan Dharma classes. Vedic Education and Hindi classes for kids5-14 yrs. Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wed. Hanuman Chalisa andRamcharit Manas on Tue. 7:30–8:30 p.m. info@sggm. org or 281-499-3347.

Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, andGujarati. Located at ChinmayaPrabha, 10353 Synott Road, SugarLand, TX 77498. New membersmay visit the welcome desk be-tween 8 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. or 10:15a.m.-11:30 a.m. Visit www.chinmayahouston.org or call BharatiSutaria 281.933.0233.

Vedanta SocietyVedanta Society of Greater

Houston, 14809 Lindita Drive(77083) has classes every Sun-day from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.on Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 1st& 3rd Sunday; Bhagavad Gita,2nd Sunday; on works of SwamiVivekananda, 4th Sunday; HolyMother Sarada’s Gospel, 5th Sun-day. Swamis of Ramakrishna Or-der visit to conduct retreats andtalks. www.houstonvedanta.orgor 281-584-0488.

Durga Bari TempleDurga Bari temple is open from

9 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Mon.thru Sat. Sandhya aarti at 6:30p.m. Temple closes at 7 p.m. Sun-day special from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.Puja services - Priest BishnupadaGoswami 281-597-8100 Templeis located at 13944 Schiller Rd (offHwy 6 bet. Bellaire & Westpark).Call Ganesh Mandal at 713-797-9057 / 832-423-8541.

Telugu FellowshipTelugu Christian Fellowship

meets every third Saturday of themonth at Triumph Church, 10555W. Airport Blvd., Stafford TX77477 at 6:30 p.m. Join us for atime of praise, worship and fel-lowship. Worship is in English. CallChris Gantela 281-344-0707, orRev. V. Gurrala 281-997-0757.

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FEEDBACKPlea by undocumented Indians

I am trying to bring to your notice the issue relating to some 450000undocumented Indians living in USA and how our government can behelpful in providing them NEW passport as well as required legaldocuments necessary for them to take advantage of recent executiveactions announced by President Obama.

Me and my friends are only advocating for some 225000 - 275000undocumented Indians who came to USA undocumented (somesmuggled and others on fake identity) from villages in India, who donot have time, knowledge, or resources to get in touch of Indian poli-ticians and government officials.

We have started a Facebook Page highlighting the issue... and vol-untarily advocating it. https://www.facebook.com/indiansforidentification

PetitionWe, the undersigned, call on the Prime Minister of India Shree

Narendra Modiji to provide NEW Passports and associated requireddocuments to some 450,000 Undocumented Indians living in USA.

President Obama just signed immigration executive actions to bringthese undocumented out of the shadow.

It’s time for you to act too Modiji! Thanks for your support Modiji.We will always remember!

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 9

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Supreme Court suggests statesgive ‘incentives’ to save girl childNEW DELHI: With child sex ratio slipping fast, the Supreme Court

asked the States if some “incentives” can be announced for familieswho “respect and honor” the girl child in a bid to the draw societyaway from the evil of female foeticide.

“A female child has as much right to live on the face of the earth asany other. Nobody is taking this up as an issue... This issue affects thehuman race,” Justice Dipak Misra observed on Tuesday.

The Bench, also comprising Justice U.U. Lalit, asked the Stategovernments to wake up and not view female foeticide as a “socialinevitability”.

It directed the States to give suggestions for “some incentives thatcan be given to the family who show respect and honour for the girlchild and give birth to girl child so that the sex ratio is improved.”

The court was alarmed at the prevailing child sex ratio in Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Delhi despite these governments assuring that “allpossible steps” were taken.

For instance, the court noted how Uttar Pradesh, when asked toprovide the latest status on child sex ratio, produced the Census 2011chart. The Bench said U.P’s affidavit was an “apology” for one. In itsdefence, the U.P. State counsel pointed to an ‘annual health survey’ tosuggest that sex ratio at birth in the State had improved from 904:1000in 2010-11 to 921:1000 in 2012-13. But when the court asked for thesource of the survey’s data, counsel was unable to respond.

Haryana’s affidavit showed that sex ratio at birth till June 2014averaged 806:1000 in Rewari district, 839:1000 in Gurgaon and890:1000 in Faridabad. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, counsel forNGO Voluntary Health Association Punjab, which filed the PIL, sub-mitted that the “whole of Haryana was in the red zone”.

The affidavits were in response to the court seeking up-to-datedata on steps taken to curb female foeticide.

Bhopal victims appeal to higher courtWASHINGTON: After a New York judge declined, in July 2014, to

allow the case brought by victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, toproceed and ruled in favour of the defendant, the Union Carbide Cor-poration (UCC), the plaintiffs have appealed, this past week, to a fed-eral court to reverse the decision the U.S. firm could not be sued forongoing contamination from the chemical plant.

In the Sahu II case plaintiffs EarthRights International said thatthey had presented the U.S. District Court of the Southern District ofNew York with evidence that a UCC employee, Lucas John Couvaras,managed the construction of the plant, and in doing so had providedample new evidence that demonstrates UCC’s involvement, despitewhich “the court chose to improperly assess the weight and credibilityof this evidence, assessments that are supposed to be left to the jury.”

On July 31, District Judge John Keenan, who had ruled in favour ofUCC in prior cases too, said, “The manufacturing processes and wastedisposal systems to be implemented at the Bhopal plant were all ini-tially proposed by UCIL (Union Carbide India Limited)… [and thus]defendant UCC’s motion for summary judgment is granted [and] plain-tiffs’ motions relating to the deposition of Couvaras are denied.”

On Friday, Nov 21, the plaintiffs, led by attorney Rick Herz, filedtheir appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which they notedhad previously reversed several prior dismissals of cases against UCCand might do so yet again.

The whereabouts of the four young men who had flown to Iraq inMay to allegedly join Islamic State (IS) militants have been identifiedby Indian intelligence agencies.

Aarif Majid, a resident of Kalyan in Mumbai, who was believed tohave been killed, has been traced to Turkey. On November 20, hecontacted his relatives by phone and sought their help for his return.

“His father has reported the matter to National Investigation Agency(NIA) officials in Mumbai. All efforts are on to bring him back,” saida senior Home Ministry official.

The other three young men from Kalyan, Saleem Farooq Tanki,Fahad Tanveer Shaikh and Aman Naeem Tandel, are believed to be insouthern Iraq. “It is not yet clear how Aarif managed to flee Iraq [andreach Turkey]. We have received reports that the other three are alsodesperate to come back and a couple of them have also contactedtheir relatives seeking help,” said the official, indicating that the gov-ernment might treat their case sympathetically.

On May 25, they left along with 40 others by an Etihad flight toBaghdad on a pilgrimage. On May 31st, they called for a private taxiwhich dropped them off in Mosul. Since then they are missing.

According to a senior police officer privy to the developments, theHome Ministry has managed to activate diplomatic channels.

“We are hopeful that we might be able to get the youths back andreunite them with their families,” said the officer. If indeed this megaexercise undertaken by the Home Ministry materialises, it might be amajor boost for the Modi government.

The families of the youths had met Home Minister Rajnath Singhrequesting him to look into the case and even communicated the de-sires of their sons to return home.

ISIS recruits from Mumbai located

71 % turnout as Kashmiris reject poll boycott call

SRINAGAR: In a strong re-buff to separatists, Kashmiris andresidents of Jammu lined up inthousands outside polling booths,declaring their support for democ-racy and posting the highest turn-out in the 15 seats that polled onTuesday since the last delimitationin 1995.

The turnout of 71.3% wasmuch higher than in 2008 whenthe same seats had polled 65%.The seats had registered 52.6%voting in the Lok Sabha polls ear-

lier this year. Some seats in thevalley recorded more votes thanJammu and Ladakh . A heavy75% turnout was recorded in threeBandipora constituencies in northKashmir.

Describing the elections as“flawless”, deputy election com-missioner Vinod Zutshi said therewasn’t a single “vitiating” incidentsave minor clashes. He attributedthe turnout to “the combined ef-forts of everyone”.

Hailing successful polling in 15

seats of Jammu & Kashmir,deputy election commissionerVinod Zutshi said there were nountoward incidents. “There werea few incidents of bursting of firecrackers in Bandipora, nothingelse,” he said.

Zutshi attributed the high turn-out to “the combined efforts ofeveryone, along with good secu-rity and voter awareness effortsof the Election Commission”.There were at least 43 choppersorties to airlift personnel and se-curity to remote areas, Zutshi said.Voter enthusiasm was best show-cased when a centenarian, NoorBin, voted in Ramban, he said.

Independent sources, however,said an explosive went off min-utes after voting began at a poll-ing station in Bandipora. Anotherblast was reported at Naidkhi inSonawari, north Kashmir, witheyewitnesses saying it was apetrol bomb thrown by miscreantsto scare away voters. But that didnot deter them, they said.

The sense in some quartersthat the Omar government wouldget washed away in the electionsbecause of mishandling of Sep-tember floods gained traction asthe turnout rose through the day.

Kashmiri separatists said theturnout was a result of large se-curity presence but political ana-lysts believed they were soft onelection boycott given BJP’s pres-ence, particularly in the Valley.Rejecting this, hardliner Syed AliGeelani said, “The governmentconducted these elections on thestrength of security forces,” add-ing that the police had said theywould crush anybody trying to dis-rupt polling and they proved it.

However, Sanaullah Dar, 88,of Theru village in Ganderbal said,“We consciously chose to remainwith India in 1947. Voting is ourright and I voted for my candidateand so did my family.”

A paramilitary soldier walks past Kashmiri voters outside a pollingstation in Lar.

PAGE 10 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

COMMUNITY NEWS

Manvel, TX -- Love to Share Foundation America (LTSFA) and Global Organization for Divinity’s (GOD) fourth annual health fair – Life and Soul 2014 – was kicked off by the Mayors Delores Martin of Manvel and Tom Reid of Pearland on Nov 15.

Both Mayors had wonderful words of appreciation to the organiza-tions for their selfl ess service to the community, and praised them for all their community initiatives. They also spent time visiting all the vendors and testing stations, and encouraging the volunteers.

About 150 people from Brazoria and neighboring counties braved

4th annual Life and Soul Health Fair serves free screenings and vaccines

cold, wintry conditions and were served with best in class medical examinations for free.

The completely free health fair drew tremendous support from sponsors, vendors and volunteers, who were all constantly on their feet, tending to the needs of all the attendees.

There were over 40 volunteers at the fair this year.

The sponsors of this years’ event were Frost Bank, Gale Compounding Pharmacy, Proac-tive Physical Therapy, Pearland MRI, Bay Area Printing,

Best Coupons, Mrs. Janis Sch-neider, Sanofi Aventis and As-trazeneca, in addition to Texas Medical Association’s grant. The vendors who offered services were HEB – Plus, Walgreens, Alvin Community College and Texas Eye Institute.

Physicians who served during the fair included Dr. Deepa Va-sudevan- Family Medicine, Dr. Radha Arunkumar - Anesthesiol-ogy, Dr. Jyoti Rao - Gastroenter-ology, Dr. Hema Salvady – Rheu-matology, Dr. Ashima Chauhan

– Family Medicine, Dr. Nisheeth Goel – Cardiology, Dr. Rajan Kada-kia – Cardiology and Dr. Seema Nanda – Eye Specialist. Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri conducted a Diabetes Workshop.

The free testing offered included Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Hemoglobin A1C, Complete Lipid Panel, Bone Density, Lung Function test, Electrocardiogram, Glaucoma, Vision and Retina Screens.

Flu and pneumonia vaccines were also offered on a fi rst come fi rst served basis free of cost. The screenings and the vaccines offered had a value of $600 per patient.

LTSFA and GOD, both organizations inspired by His Holiness Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji, look forward to reaching out to more and more community members with similar such future events.

Apart from this annual free health fair, LTSFA’s social initiatives across the United States include blood and bone marrow drives, food and clothing drives for the homeless, environmental drives, educational supply drives/donations for special-need schools, medical supply do-nations to deserving nonprofi t organizations in the fi eld and leadership workshops for youth as well as for employees of professional organiza-tions and businesses.

Mayors Delores Martin of Man-vel and Tom Reid of Pearland with organizers of the health fair. (Below) Blood screening and vision tests being conducted by volunteer technicians. (right) a patient gets a lung function exam.

Stem cell donation awareness programInformation seminar on stem cell transplant to create awareness

this critical life-saving transplant therapy. Program will include a documentary, More to live for (http://www.moretoliveforfi lm.com/), based on grammy award winner Micahel Brecker’s life. He was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and was not able to fi nd a donor for allogeneic stem cell transplant.

Also, patients of Indian origin are not able to fi nd donors even though the our population is the second largest in the world.

Therefore, creating awareness around stem cell transplant is very important to give information on Asia Pacifi c Hematology Consortium, with support from MD Anderson Cancer Center will host the fi rst event in Houston at the India House on Wednesday, Dec 10, from 6 p.m. onwards.

The invited delegates from India will include Dilip Trivedi (Chief, Central Reserve Police Force, CRPF); fi lm star Manisha Koirala (ovarian cancer survivor), fi lm star Lisa Ray (multiple myeloma survivor), Vikram Mathews (Chief, Hematology and stem cell transplant, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India), Rishabh Gambhir (leukemia patient post stem cell transplant) He could not fi nd a donor and had to undergo high risk transplant with only 50% match; Richard Champlin (Chief, Cancer Medi-cine Division and Stem Cell Transplant, MD Anderson Cancer Center) and E.J. Shpall (Chief, cord blood transplant, MD Ander-son Cancer Center).

For more information, send email to Dr. Simrit Parmar, orga-nizer, at simrit.parmar@gmail.com

PAGE 12 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

COMMUNITY NEWS

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“This was by far the best program in this center with highest rate of retention”, said William Rees ‘Billy’, Senior Consultant with DAWN (Diabetes Awareness & Wellness Network) facility in the 3rd ward area of downtown Houston.

The 20 hour program to manage Diabetes through Yoga therapy was conducted in partnership with City of Houston Health depart-ment.

This was fourth of such camps offered by Sewa International and VYASA in Houston.

Fifteen residents of the third ward area participated in this camp which was spread over three weekends.

Melanie Gilmore (Health Planning Chief with Houston Depart-ment of Health and Human Services (HDHHS), Division of Aging, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (ACDIP), expressed great joy and shared her happiness that so many participants were able to participate and benefi t from this program.

She and her family prepared delicious vegetarian soup and sand-wiches for all participants and encouraged all to continue the prac-tice which they found benefi cial.

She also presented the certifi cate of appreciation from DAWN center to Sewa International and Stop Diabetes Movement for bringing this program to DAWN center.

The participants were deeply appreciative of Venita Ray who helped in bringing this program to DAWN. Venita also expressed great satisfaction and pleasure to see the camp went so well and that it touched so many people in a positive way.

The program was run by volunteer Yoga therapists and Doctors and the participants were deeply appreciative and expressed their gratitude to them for making this program possible.

One participant said, “Since beginning of the program, I am feel-ing that my blood pressure is normal. I can’t wait to go to my doctor and share the good news.”

Others also expressed how much they enjoyed and have found useful this ‘pill-less’ therapy which empowers them.

The program which would have otherwise costed the participants at least a $1000 was offered completely free to all participants and supported by all volunteer Yoga Therapists and medical doc-tors who came from all parts of the city from Katy to Pearland to Woodlands.

Stop Diabetes Movement (SDM) originated at SVYASA, Yoga University in Bangalore, India.

Through systematic research of 30 years, comprehensive yoga modules have been established that have shown measurable im-provement in the various complications associated with Diabetes.

The program has been proven to reduce cholesterol and reduce dependence on medicines as well as reduce anxiety and depression associated with the disease.

VYASA centers in Houston with help of Sewa International has conducted SDM camps in different part of the city with help of lo-cal organizations since beginning of the year.

The next SDM at Sugarland is scheduled for Late January 2015. Contact info-sdm@sewausa.org for further information and pre-registration.

Sewa & Vyasa conclude 4th camp to manage diabetes through Yoga Therapy

Dawn Center’s Melanie Gillmore presented the Certifi cate of Appreciation to Sewa International volunteers Dinesh Shah and Vishwaroop. (Left) volunteers and participants at the SDM at the Dawn Center.

PAGE 12 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

COMMUNITY NEWS

Foundation for India Studies ( FIS) and Houston Community College System (HCC) have both signed a MOU at the Katy cam-pus on November 18 to partner in FIS’s Indo-American Oral His-tory Project. The MOU will facilitate HCC and FIS to collabora-tively produce video recordings of oral history interviews of the fi rst generation immigrants from India who came and settled in greater Houston area in the early 60’s,70’s and 80’s and have con-tributed to Houston’s economy and cultural diversity.

The video interviews will be transcribed and permanently stored in the digital archives of the Houston Public Library (HPL) under a separate agreement reached with HPL earlier.

The video recordings will not only benefi t academia like the historians,researchers, sociologists and students, but also will en-able future generations of Indo-American children to trace back to their roots in India.

Under this MOU, HCC will make available their studios located at NW College Spring Branch campus and will ensure that the recorded interviews meet appropriate standards of quality.

The MOU has no expiry date, and is signed by Dr. Edmund “Butch” Herod, Acting President of HCC Northwest College and FIS Chairman, Krishna Vavilala. Thirty interviews have been re-corded so far,and the current MOU with HCC will certainly expe-dite the progress of the project. Interviews are done on fi rst come fi rst served basis, To schedule an interview and for further details, the number to call is 713-795-5169.

MOU signing Nov.18,2014 at HCC-Katy Campus (from left) Tejal Patel, HCC Northwest PR, Aric Nitzberg (HCC-Film Division Chair), Sita Mutyala (FIS), Rose Sarz, Krishna Vavilala, FIS chairman, and Dr. Edmund “Butch” Herod, Acting President of HCC Northwest College.

FIS signs MOU with HCC

A fund-raising event was held for Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard at the home of Jugal and Raj Malani on Nov 15. Atman Shukla introduced Tulsi Gabbrad. The fund-raiser was hosted by Jugal and Raj Malani, Ramesh Bhutada, Vijay Pallod, Pankaj Malani and Rishi Bhutada. (Left) Atman Shukla, Tulsi Gabbard and Nikita Shukla.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 13

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Thanks to the efforts of founder director Rupa Ghosh, the Surangan School of Music held its annual student ap-preciation day at the Maharaja Banquet Hall on November 21. Hailing from Bangladesh, it was only befi tting that she and her students picked their national poet to pay tribute to and honor. They paid respect to him by packing the eve-ning with songs, dances to songs and recitations composed by him.

Rupa’s passion for music started at the tender age of fi ve when she trained under Sri Nirmalendu Chowdhury who made Bengali folk songs mainstream in the sixties and seventies. She then trained in classical music and Rabindra Sangeet under renowned Gurus.

She brought this passion along with her to Houston and to enable the next generation to continue the tradition and connect with their roots, she has been successful in training students Bengali music with purity and authenticity for the last four years.

This passion refl ected in the entire night’s proceedings which included group songs, group dances, solo songs and recitations. It was very encouraging to see the enthusiasm

COMMUNITY NEWSSurangan school pays tribute to Bangladesh’s national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam

of the young budding performers attacking their performance with great gusto. The older senior students also did justice and enhanced the mood of the evening. A series of solo song renditions were pre-sented by Smita, Sedra, Tithi, Purnata, Puspita, Arita, Prionti, Naiza, Sharoni, Gronti, Shayon, Shawon, Banani, Fateema while solo recita-tions were presented by Sohan, Rameen, Rafi d, Sriti, Jolly and Arun. Maqsud’s, “Aalgaa koro go khopar bandhon” received a huge round of applause.

The young dancers carried their colorful saris so capably and thor-oughly enjoyed themselves in their four group dances. Raja Banga, director of the Prana School of Music, an eminent music school of Katy along with his few disciples delighted the audience with a Tabla Concert. He and Bidyut Ghosh on the mandira also provided the ac-companiment to all the vocal renditions be it song or recitation.

The evening was compered very cheerfully with a lot of zest by PhD student at UH, Raju Ahmaad, who also got to screen his short documentary on Kazi Nazrul Islam. Maharaja reataurant provided boxed dinners for all present. Rupa fi nally took the stage and with her beautiful mellifl uous voice charmed the audience with amongst others, “Aruno kanti”, a Nazrul kirtan, etc. At the end, on popular

demand, she had to comply with the audience’s special request for “Anjali laha mor sangeete” although it was getting very late. She thanked the audience and

handed over appreciation cer-tifi cates to students and the night ended with a cake cutting.

All credit goes to Rupa Ghosh for keeping the vision and com-

mitment to continue the tradi-tional genres of Bengali mu-sic alive in Houston for both adults and children alike.

— By Sanchali Basu

PAGE 14 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2014

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BOLLYWOOD

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kalki Koechlin, Govinda, Ileana D’Cruz,Ranvir Shorey.

Here’s the thing. Everyone loves a good spoof, and our industry’sunchanging ways could use a good-natured spanking in the formof a biting satire. It’s great to be irreverent and poke fun at cliches,but not if you’re going to cop-out and give us the same worn-outstuff!

The fi lm, for example makes fun of an ageing movie actor (Gov-inda) trying to hold on to plum roles (the irony hasn’t even begunyet), while also casting an actor (Saif) who looks too mature for acharacter that still wears cartoon character T-shirts and runs awayfrom hard work and commitment.

Second, for a fi lm making fun of cliches, it’s quite odd to castSaif in a role he has played TOO many times already. The NRIboy-man, the urbane “dude” (he calls himself that in the movie),who replies to people in English when they’re conversing in Hindi,who is a heartbreaker and commitment-phobic, till he changes overa new leaf when he meets ‘the’ girl. You get the drift. This fi lm ridi-culing cliches is pretty unoriginal itself!

And this also fi lters into the dialogue. While several lines (espe-cially those of Govinda and Ranvir Shorey) are funny, there are alsothose annoying literal translations of jokes from American sitcomsthat just don’t work in Hindi. For humour you have several industryinside jokes that are intermittently funny. And an alter-ego of Saif’scharacter that’s supposed to be funny, but is as one-dimensional asthe other characters. You see an audience will forgive an openlytrivial movie, but it’s not nice to get all pretentious while handingover the same shallow story.

I’d salute the fi lm if it had been bold and cheeky enough to castSaif as that super-funny, ageing fi lm-star (played by Govinda) whocasually remarks that the heroine is “too old for him”. THAT wouldhave been something.

Talking about Govinda, he’s the best part about the movie. Play-ing an impossibly narcissistic superstar, he dumps Hollywood mov-ies in front of the scriptwriter Yudi (Saif) for copying. When Yudi objects, he casually tells him, “thoda idhar udhar kar lena”. Hissole purpose is to bring out the laughs, and Govinda performs therole sportingly. He gives Yudi’s scriptwriter character a lot of grief,while claiming he doesn’t like interfering, much like it happens inthe fi lm industry.

Yudi’s character is pretty constricted and it always seems likeSaif playing himself, rather than the character. Saif is dependablygood in the movie, but it’s about time the talented actor drops play-ing characters that are a decade his junior, and picks up solid rolesthat exploit his talent!

Ileana Dcruz too has a straitjacketed role. In fact, the fi lm wantsus to believe her character, a celebrated author, is so dumb that shewalks on the road talking loudly over the phone about the “romanticbakwaas” she writes, while also saying she’d be in trouble if any-one heard her talk like that. (And guess who’s overhearing her!)

There are some bright spots in the movie when Saif and Ileana’scharacters get drawn to each other, and enjoy a no-strings-attachedromance. The two actors share an effortless chemistry, that’s eventu-ally diluted when the romance turns towards the predictable path.

Other characters are just as limited in scope. Kalki Koechlinplays a pestering overbearing girlfriend (again) who downloads anapp called “No Space” to keep a track on Yudi.

She has absolutely no other character layering except reaffi rminghow overbearing she is.

Ranvir Shorey, the best thing in the fi lm after Govinda, playsYudi’s friend Montu. As is the case in Bollywood, ‘The Friend’ isjust an appendage to make the hero look good. And Shorey does adamn good job of it, while also displaying superb comic-timing. Hewalks away with the best lines. It is then up to Govinda and RanvirShorey to liven up the proceedings somewhat.

It’s disappointing that director duo Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru(Go Goa Gone) have come with as fi lm that is pretentious and hol-low, embracing the very cliches it makes fun of. After all, it’s unfairwhen a pot calls the kettle black. — Sonia Chopra in Sify.com

Happy Ending: Shallow, pretentious

Ingredients: Rice- 2 cups (cooked and non-sticky); 1 Capsicum, chopped; past of 1 green chilli, 1 tsp green chilli paste, 1/2 tsp Mus-tard seeds, 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds, 2 tbsp cashews, broken and roasted in ghee, 1/2 tsp black pepper powder, 1 small stick cinnamon, 3 tbsp freshly grated coconut, salt, 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp ghee.

Method: Melt ghee and butter in a wok. When it melts, add cumin and mustard seeds. Allow it to splutter. Add the cinnamon stick and green chillies paste and sauté on low fl ame for a few seconds. Now add the chopped capsicum and cook on a low fl ame for about 4 minutes. Do not over cook them. The capsicum should become tender not burnt. Sprinkle salt and black pepper powder. Mix well. Add the cooked rice and roasted cashew nuts. Mix well so that all ingredients are evenly absorbed. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add grated coconut and mix with rice. Turn off the fl ame.

Capsicum-Coconut rice

Ingredients: 1 lb small round Brinjals, 3 tbsp freshly grated Coconut, 1 tbsp channa dal, 1 tbsp Dhania or Coriander seeds, a few methi seeds, 1 tsp sesame seeds, one sprig curry leaves, 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder, 3 dry Red Chillies, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp Tamarind pulp, Mustard Seeds for seasoning, oil and salt.Method: Remove only the

stalks of the brinjal and make slits

Russ Vaangi (Brinjal in gravy)

on all 4 sides keeping the bottom intact. Immediately immerse into cold water. Dry roast channa dal, chillies,

coriander, sesame seeds and me-thi till you get the aroma. Turn off the fi re and add coconut, garlic and salt. Powder the roasted spic-es coarsely. Pat the brinjal dry with a kitchen

towel and fi ll in the powder. In a wok heat 3 tsp oil and add

mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter,

gradually add the brinjal. If there is any masala powder left just sprinkle it on top of the vegetable. Add curry leaves and cover it with a lid. Cook this on low fl ame for 5 minutes. Uncover and gently toss the

brinjals with a ladle. Make sure that you do not break the brinjal. Add the tamarind pulp and tur-

meric and let this cook for an-other 5 to ten minutes or till the vegetables are tender. Let water evaporate and once the oil fl oats on top it is done. Serve hot with rice.

Ingredients: 1 tbsp oil, 4 cups chopped onion, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 8 cups prepared fresh fruit, peeled if desired, 1 cup dried fruit, chopped if larger than raisins, 1 cup sugar, or brown sugar, 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, 2 small green chillies, seeded and slivered lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper.

Method: Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add on-ion and cook, stirring occasional-ly, until light brown, 6 to 10 min-utes Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add fresh fruit, dried fruit, sugar, vinegar, water, chiles and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to maintain a lively simmer and cook until thickened, 30 to 40 minutes. To test doneness, put a spoonful of chutney on a plate and draw a spoon through the center. If no liquid seeps into the middle, it’s done. Return to a simmer to thicken more if necessary.

If freezing or refrigerating, ladle the chutney into clean can-ning jars to within 1/2 inch of the rim. Wipe rims clean. Cover with lids. Let the jars stand at room temperature until cool before re-frigerating or freezing. Or process in a water bath to store at room temperature. Note: You can use peaches, pears, apples and straw-berries.

Fresh fruit chutney

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 15

MOVIES

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Call 713-789-4919 • 1-800-464-9297Fax: 713-266-4929

Cast: Sibiraj, Idoh (the dog), Arundhati. Director: Shakti Soundar Rajan

It is said that hindsight is always good, an advice that the makers of ‘Naaigal Jaakirathai’ seem to have taken particularly seriously. They seem to go back 25 years to the year 1989 when K-9, a Hollywood fi lm about a police detective who attempts to solve crime with his new partner, a German shepherd dog, was released. To use a word that’s quite popular in the fi lm industry, ‘Naaigal’ has a few ‘inspirations’. The hero’s lover, just like in that fi lm, is unhappy about his police work. In fact, so unhappy is she in this fi lm that when she sees Karthik (Si-biraj) returning with gunshot wounds, she decides to pack her bags in anger. Overreaction, anybody?

Another ‘inspiration’ is how the police dog, despite being trained, shames its owner with its initial disobedience but goes on to prove in-valuable. There’s also the development where Karthik’s lover is ab-ducted by the villain, an epitome of evil. In fact, there’s even the bit when our male dog cavorts with a female dog, something that the lat-ter’s owner (Mayilsamy) isn’t happy about at all.

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Naaigal Jaakirathai loses steam midwayHowever, despite

these inspirations, there are quite a few genuinely enjoyable moments in the fi rst half of the fi lm, one in which it hasn’t yet stepped into hero-has-to-rescue-heroine territory. During this period, his girlfriend is hardly around, and he has no lofty am-bition to live up to. It’s a welcome relief to have a Tamil fi lm hero who has all the time in the world to bond with a dog. As Karthik lies sprawled,

Eleyadevan’s Gnana-kirukkan begins with a harrowing scene of childbirth in a nonde-script village, and then the father (Ganesan, played by Daniel Bala-ji), who appears pos-sessed, uproots a trident from the local shrine and holds it over the infant. Given what’s to come, this is the happy-days fl ashback. For a while, we seem to be in a story about the travails of the mother. Her el-der daughter runs away. Then she’s excommu-nicated by the village. Then the son Perumal – the infant from earlier,

set of paws slide down the window pane in pleasure à la Kate Winslet in Titanic. There’s even a cute reference to a popular director’s inter-view that recently went viral. These are all quite entertaining, and you hope, desperately pray even, that the movie’s tone remains the same, even if the story cannot remain contained to the duo. The joy of watch-ing the camera circle around a dog in obeisance, a treatment that is usually only reserved for established heroes, has to be experienced to be understood.

Alas, good things come to an end, and here, they come to a rather premature end when Karthik’s wife is abducted by the villain, played by Balaji Venugopal, whose dialogue delivery reminds you a lot of Je-evan in ‘Kaakha Kaakha’. In fact, his motivations and plans are pretty similar too. It’s the all-too-familiar plot of a villain who abducts an in-spector’s wife to exercise revenge. Films such as ‘Kaakha Kaakha’ and ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu’ have already indulged in this very premise. On a side note, you don’t envy policemen their marriage prospects at all, thanks to these movies. In fact, the villain’s modus operandi here is to bury women alive in a webcam-attached coffi n and let them suffo-cate to death over several hours, as he watches from his computer and sips coffee. A faint visual of Uma Thurman punching her way out of her coffi n (Kill Bill 2) comes to your mind. And sure as clockwork, a similar scene plays in this fi lm too.

You have to wonder if there has been one Tamil fi lm in the last de-cade or two that has limited itself to just being a warm tale of a family and their pets: something like ‘Marley and Me’. You wouldn’t perhaps begrudge the makers their ‘infl uences’ if the result was a fi lm we gen-erally don’t see a lot of, but ‘Naaigal’ reneges on the promise of its fi rst portions. Oh, and about the opening scene when the dog becomes Karthik’s responsibility, after the death of its owner, and the climax… have you watched Turner and Hooch, a fi lm that ironically was made again in 1989? — The Hindu

drunk as a skunk, the televi-sion plays an old Sivaji Ganesan song — ‘Kudi Magane’. When he wakes up, Karthik’s sister sees him roll on the fl oor and scratch his ear in much the same way that Mani (Idoh, the Belgian shep-herd) does. Later, when the dog mates with a female in the car, a

now grown up and played by Jega – runs away. And there’s the hus-band, who just lies there, doing nothing. What’s with him, we wonder. Is he really possessed, or is he just an eccentric?

But then we begin to follow Perumal’s story, in Trichy. These scenes are actually promising. We see the young boy unfl inching in the face of hardship, and there’s a genuine sense of triumph when he makes some sort of life for himself. But he cannot be allowed to remain happy for too long – otherwise there’d be no movie. So he loses his job. He loses the girl he loves. He buys a one-way ticket to Hell (Chennai), and there he fi nds a fellow-sufferer, Sumathi (Archana Kavi). Thereon, it’s one thing after another – an attack by drunks; a gang-rape; there’s a lecher-ous old man; Sumathi almost ends up in a brothel; she falls ill; and then we discover that her mother, back in the village, is blind. At this point, back-to-back screenings of Mahanadhi and Naan Kadavul began to look like a pick-me-up. The director strives for the lyricism of Kadhal, but you can’t get there with a battering ram. — The Hindu

Gnanakirukkan: Sad, sad lives

PAGE 16 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

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Answer: If you answered that you are first, and then you are abso-lutely wrong! If you overtake the second person and you take hisplace, you are second!

Try not to screw up in the next question.2) If you overtake the last person, then you are...?Answer: If you answered that you are second to last, then you are

wrong again. Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?3) This must be done in your head only.Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30.

Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add10. What is the total?

Did you get 5000?The correct answer is actually 4100.4) Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4.

Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?Answer: Nunu?NO! Of course not. Her name is Mary. Read the question again.

*** A hungry lion was roaming through the jungle looking for some-thing to eat. He came across two men. One was sitting under a treereading a book; the other was typing away on his typewriter. The lionquickly pounced on the man reading the book and devoured him. Eventhe king of the jungle knows that readers digest and writers cramp.

*** O'Grady proposed to Fiona. I am totally in love with you. "ButI am one year older than you," she said.O'Grady said, "That is all right.We can get married next year."

*** When I die, I wanna die like my grandpa ... peacefully in hissleep not screaming like all the passengers in the car he was driving.

*** "It's just too hot to wear clothes today," Jack says as he steppedout of the shower, "honey, what do you think the neighbors wouldthink if I mowed the lawn like this?"

"Probably that I married you for your money," she replied.*** A man is sitting in a bar looking at his drink. He stays like that

for half an hour. Then, a big trouble-making truck driver steps next tohim, takes the drink from the guy, and just drinks it all down.

The poor man starts crying. “This day is the worst of my life. First,I'm late to my office. The boss fires me.

“When I leave the building to go to my car, I find out it is stolen. Thepolice say they can do nothing. I get a cab to return home.

“I go home and when I get there, I find my wife sleeping with thegardener. I leave home and come to this bar. And when I was thinkingabout putting an end to my life, you sho

*** Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man; Love toforgive him and Patience for his moods. Because, Lord, if I pray forStrength, I'll beat him to death.

ADELAIDE: India’s fastbowlers led by Varun Aaron madefull use of the seamer-friendlyconditions, as they dismissed aninexperienced Cricket Australia XIfor 219 on the first day of theiropening two-day warm-up fixture,here on Monday, Nov 24.

All the Indian bowlers wereamong wickets as Aaron, whoworked up good pace, finishingwith figures of three for 72 in 17overs.

Aaron thus kept himself in con-tention for a place in the playingXI in the opening Test atBrisbane, starting December 4while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/32in 12 overs) and MohammedShami (2/52 in 18 overs) also gotprecious overs under their belt.

At stumps, India were 55 forone losing Shikhar Dhawan’s (10)wicket. Murali Vijay (32 batting)and Cheteshwar Pujara (13 bat-ting) were at the crease at stumps.

Another highlight waswicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha’sfine performance behind thestumps as he took five catchesand also effected a stumping tostart his preparations for the firstTest in right earnest.

At the onset, it was CA XI cap-tain Ashton Turner, who won thetoss and elected to bat on a freshtrack at the Gilderol Stadium.

He was involved in a 51-runpartnership with opener RyanCarters (58) before Aaron, in aquick burst, removed Turner (29)and new batsman Nick Stevens(0) in space of three balls.

It brought Kelvin Smith (40) tothe crease who put on 74 runs forthe fourth wicket with Carters oneither side of lunch.

It was the best stand of the in-nings for the hosts. Once the twobatsmen were dismissed withinthree overs after the lunch break,the Indian bowlers didn’t let up thepressure and knocked over theremaining wickets cheaply.

Only the last wicket stand pairof Harry Nielsen (43 no) andHarry Conway (7), showed someresistance as the duo put on 52runs to take the team’s total past200-run mark.

On a pitch that assisted fastbowlers, Aaron rattled up theyoung batting order with sheerpace.

Leggie Karn Sharma (2-30)was introduced into the attackahead of Ravichandran Ashwin(1-22), but he couldn’t find hisbearings in the pre-lunch session.

After the break though, whenre-introduced against lower middleorder batsmen, he was in bettercontrol and picked up a handy two

wickets in his first out-ing in Australia.

Ashwin had earlierdropped a catch at firstslip off Aaron, withSmith the lucky bats-man, while keeperWriddhiman Saha hada good day behind thewickets pocketing fivecatches.

This match is stipu-lated as a 13-per-sidegame with 11 playerseligible to bat and 11can field. This is not anofficial first-classgame.

India opted to restRavindra Jadeja,Ishant Sharma,Umesh Yadav, Naman

Ojha and KL Rahul from this match with all other members of thetouring party involved in the proceedings.

This is the first of two practice games against Cricket Australia XIscheduled this week before the commencement of the Test series.

Varun Aaron stakes a claim for Test XI

Carlsen wins in 11th game for titleAfter the

11th game ofthe 2014 FIDEWorld ChessChampionshipin Sochi, Russiaon Nov 23, arepeat victoryfor title-holderMagnus Carl-sen—the Nor-wegian looked worn, flashing both the mental fatigue of a two-weekfight and emotional joy of victory.

The critical move in the penultimate game of the match came whenchallenger Viswanathan Anand, in desperate need of a victory, sacri-ficed his rook (27 …Rb4) in a bold—yet ultimately ineffective—ma-neuver. Soon, and with a knowing glance, Anand offered his hand inresignation to Carlsen. “I played it quite forcefully and he didn’t haveany chances,” said Carlsen, who won the match 6.5 – 4.5 (best-of-twelve).

Last year, playing in Chennai, Carlsen needed just 10 games tounseat his opponent, whose shaky play was uncharacteristic of thefour-time defending champion.

But Anand played better in this year’s match. Carlsen struck first,in game 2, after an Anand blunder allowed Carlsen’s queen to seal awinning position. “My nerves were the first to crack,” said Anand.

Anand hit right back with a win in game 3 that showcased hisample preparation in the Queens Gambit Declined. It was Anand’sfirst victory against Carlsen in championship play.

After draws in games 4 and 5, Carlsen blundered on move 26 ofgame 6: Carlsen had opened the door, but Anand didn’t walk throughit. “When you’re not expecting a gift,” Anand said (of missing 26…Nxe5), “sometimes you just don’t take it.” Carlsen later called it an“exchange of ridiculous blunders.”

Carlsen’s strengths lie in his ability to keep pressure and wring po-sitions to their last strategic drop. As it entered the endgame in game 7,Carlsen, playing white, had one knight, two pawns and a rook, to Anand’sfour pawns and rook. The position appeared drawn, but Carlsen pushedfor winning ideas—for a total of 6.5 hours. But Anand’s defense heldup well, earning him a draw with black in the 122-move affair, thesecond-most in world chess championship history.

After three straight draws, Carlsen broke through yet again in thedeciding game 11. “I have to admit in this match—all things taken intoaccount—he played better,” said Anand.

Pacemen do well in warm-up down under

RELIGION/ SPIRITUALITYINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 17

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Ethics and MoralsListening to Gopalkrishna Gandhi at Kalakshetra Foundation,

Chennai, deliver the K Sankara Menon Memorial Lecture on the topic,“What is moral?” I found myself thinking: don’t we often confusemorals with ethics?

Morals, or social mores, change with the times. Survival strategiesevolve with the evolving environment, and along with those, our senseof what is proper and what is not also changes. What in the Victorianera was considered scandalous is today par for the course, especiallyin matters related to our sexual lives and gender equations.

Concepts of morality get transformed over time, and what weagonise over today or feel acutely embarrassed even to discuss openly,are tomorrow’stalking points at parties.

However, ethic is something that remains constant. In any era, it isunethical to give or take bribes. Cheating, lying, stealing and corruptpractices are viewed as unethical practices. Sure, they might havecertain moral dimensions depending on the context, but at their core,they remain unethical acts. Rape can never be justified, no matterwhere, when or how it happens.

Morals, on the other hand, can be seen from many perspectives.As they say, the opposite of one great truth is not one big falsehood; itis perhaps another great truth! There are many shades of truth, allow-ing for multiple viewpoints and opinions, interpretations and perspec-tives on what is moral and what is not. But there can be no doubt as towhat is ethical and what is not. While ethic relates to character, moral-ity is a sociocultural concept. — Narayani Ganesh

Living with compassionThe one principle that should be at the core of any religious belief is

ahimsa, or non-violence: not to hurt any life, human or otherwise. Kill-ing is not right. Killing animals to eat them is not a civilised thing to do,but carnivores exist in nature and in many places, humans have tosubsist on non-vegetarian food for reasons beyond their control. Butwherever possible, vegetarianism must be practised.

Hurting people physically or mentally, whether by word or action, iswrong. Ahimsa is more important than prayer and kirtan.

Ahimsa should be the central principle of your faith. But you mustraise your voice against injustice. Then, if you hurt someone who hashurt other people, it is justified. But the death penalty is barbaric: it ismurder by the state.

Once, as editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, I wrote an edito-rial on the issue of hunting and killing animals for sport. Then I sentindividual letters to chief ministers of states asking them to ban shikaar.Some of them responded by banning shikaar. As one who has faith inahimsa, I feel good about this.

Live life with compassion and non-violence. I think a lot about lifeand the way we live it; I also think about death and how we deal withit. The basic point is, we don’t know where we come from; we alsodon’t know where we go after death. In between, we might know alittle about life. So live graciously. — Khushwant Singh

Let children chooseEvery child should be allowed to grow without any religious teach-

ing. Love your children, but never impose your ideologies on them. Letthem feel, but don’t force them. Let them grow in freedom. Every-thing becomes ugly when forced.

Consciousness grows in freedom, and starts dying when things areforced. And up to now, this has been done. This is the greatest crimethat parents have always committed against children. They go on forc-ing the child — they are afraid, they don’t trust their own prayer.

When I was a child, I used to go with my father to his temple. In thebeginning, he would tell me to do this and that. I told him, “If you tellme, I will do — but from the very beginning, I will be against it.

So please, don’t enforce. Let me come, let me watch. If I feelsomething has happened to you, that will be the decisive factor.”

I would simply sit and watch. Praying and meditating, I would seehow silent and graceful he became. That became an enquiry… onehas to know these spaces, too. Then the child is enchanted and a greatdesire arises in him to know what it is all about.

Good if you were brought up in an irreligious home. That may bethe cause that whenever I mention the name of Jesus or Buddha,something deep inside you is moved though you are neither Christiannor Buddhist. — Osho

By Nayaswami Jyotish

Meditation is a natural and re-warding human activity.Paramhansa Yogananda definedmeditation as “deep concentrationon God or one of His aspects.”Practised daily, it produces aston-ishing results on physical, mental,emotional, and spiritual aspects ofour being. It connects us with ourown inner powers of vitality, clar-ity and love. When done deeply, itgives us an expanded sense ofconnection with all life, an experi-ence of profound joy.

Meditation has three aspects:relaxation, interiorisation, and ex-pansion. First, relax completely,both physically and mentally; theninteriorise your attention and con-centrate one-pointedly, usually atthe point between the eyebrowsand thirdly, focus your concen-trated attention on an aspect ofyour own deeper self, or on God,love, joy, sound or light. This willhelp you naturally expand yourconsciousness.

Although the process soundssimple, the attainment of deeperstates requires faithful practicewith dedication and discipline.Even a little practice of medita-tion gives immediate results. Youwill find that practicing even a fewminutes a day increases yoursense of well-being and brings in-creased joy.

There is an innate yearning ineach of us to expand our aware-ness to what we really are, and toexperience union with the endlesslove and bliss of God. At a certainstage in this eternal quest, we feeldrawn to explore inner stillnessthrough the practice of meditation.

Profound perceptions of real-ity come through intuition ratherthan logic, from the “super-con-scious” rather than the consciousmind. When the body is com-pletely relaxed, the five sensesbecome stilled, and the mind be-comes deeply focused; a tremen-dous flow of energy becomesavailable. That intense energy canlift us into super consciousness,where our inner powers of intu-ition are fully awakened.

Deep meditation helps us be-come aware of realities barelydreamed of; and even a littleinternalisation of our conscious-ness lifts us toward that state andbrings great peace.

uring meditation, the breathslows, blood pressure and meta-bolic rates decrease, and circula-tion and detoxification of the bloodincrease.

In addition to its physical andmental benefits, meditation is firsta spiritual art. Its purpose is to leadus to the realisation that we are

one with the Creator. We comefrom God and are made in Hisimage, and our hearts are rest-less until we achieve unity (yoga)with Him. Meditation is the directpathway to this unified state.

It is said that the greatness ofa culture can be judged by its he-roes. In the East, particularly inIndia, the greatest heroes havealways been people of the high-est spiritual attainment.

The West, however, has lackeda living tradition of meditationpassed on from master to disciple.There have certainly been greatwestern saints, but usually theyhave been self-taught men andwomen who had to discover thepathway to mystical union withlittle or no outside help. Moreover,they often knew no techniques tochannel the enormous inner en-ergy awakened by their intensedevotion.

Without teachers to guide them,or techniques to help them, theirinner energies often became ob-structed, and many were besetwith great physical suffering as aresult. In a society that didn’t un-derstand or encourage sanctity,many had to face opposition fromtheir families and even their spiri-tual “superiors.”

Heroes, in the West, havetended to be more warlike thangodlike. The practice of medita-tion has tremendous potential forenriching both our individual livesand our society.

Why we are in conflictYou see that most of us are in conflict, live a life of contradiction,

not only outwardly, but also inwardly. Contradiction implies effort. Wherethere is effort, there is wastage — there is a waste of energy. Wherethere is contradiction, there is conflict. Where there is conflict, there iseffort to get over that conflict which is another form of resistance.

And where you resist, there is also a certain form of energy engen-dered you know that when you resist something, that very resistancecreates energy. All action is based on this friction that I must and Imust not. And this form of resistance, does breed energy; but thatenergy, if you observe closely, is very destructive; it is not creative.

Please, it is extraordinarily difficult to understand and to be free ofthis because most of us are brought up to struggle, to make effort.Most people are in contradiction. And if they have a gift, a talent towrite or to paint or to do this or that, the tension of that contradictiongives them the energy to express, to create, to write, to be.

The more the tension, the greater the conflict, the greater is theoutput, and that is what we call creation. But it is not at all creation. Itis the result of conflict. To face the fact that you’re in conflict, that youare in contradiction, will bring that quality of energy that is not theoutcome of resistance. — J Krishnamurti

Cleanliness for peaceNeither atheist nor agnostic would take umbrage to the saying,

‘Cleanliness is godliness’ — for here, the reference is more to whatwe mean by ‘divine’ rather than an entity that we like to refer to as‘God’. November 19 is celebrated as World Toilet Day, following aproposal made by Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization.

It may not sound pretty to be called ‘Mr Toilet’ but Jack Sim ishappy, having earned numerous awards, including Time magazine’sHero Of The Environment accolade in 2008 for his advocacy work toimprove awareness of the need for sanitation in developing countries.

Perhaps Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat cam-paign with a goal to build more than 100 million toilets by 2019, couldtie up with Jack Sim’s initiative to pull off what seems impossible in aculture that exalts inner cleanliness while ignoring or neglecting theouter, causing poor sanitation and health. Both inner and outer cleanli-ness are crucial to support any effort to evolve as better humans.

If the future lies in togetherness and living in harmonious communi-ties, we need to crank up our civic consciousness and standards ofenvironmental and personal hygiene to trigger a cultural revolutionthat would subsume all other ideological movements. Clean surround-ings and a pure consciousness can only foment positive thinking andpeaceful living. — Narayani Ganesh

The tremendous power of meditation

PAGE 18 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

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KOLKATA: West BengalChief Minister and All IndiaTrinamool Congress (AITC)chairperson Mamata Banerjeethrew a challenge to Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi with thethreat of staging an agitation inNew Delhi.

Mamata dares center to arrest her

Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Kolkata on Nov 24

“You may takepeople with you tothe United States,to London, to Aus-tralia, and haveselfies takenthere; now if I goto Delhi are youready to face theconsequences,”Banerjee asked ata rally in Kolkataon Monday, Nov24.

Lashing out atthe ongoing probeby the CBI onSaradha scamBanerjee daredthe Centre to ar-

rest her.“I am standing right here.

Come and arrest us. How manycan you arrest? Build as manyprisons as you can,” the ChiefMinister who hit the streets for thefirst time since the recently con-cluded Lok Sabha polls said.

Her comments are significantin the wake the recent arrest ofAITC Rajya Sabha MP SrinjoyBose for his alleged involvementin the scam. Banerjee had on Sat-urday accused the Centre on in-dulging in political vendetta by us-ing the CBI as a tool.

At the workers conference onNovember 22, Banerjee hadlinked Basu's arrest with her visitto New Delhi to attend the 125thbirth anniversary of JawaharlalNehru on invitation from Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi. However,on Monday, she ruled out possi-bilities of any immediate alliancewith the Congress.

“I went there only becauseSonia Gandhi invited me and notto do any politics,” she clarified,stating that Trinamool will con-tinue alone in Bengal.

Coming down heavily on theCentre’s economic policies WestBengal Chief Minister said thatwithin just six months of comingto power, the BJP led governmenthas been “selling the country”.

“By selling of everything doeshe hope get a Nobel Prize,”Banerjee said in an obvious refer-ence to the Prime Minister.

She put the blame on the Cen-tre for the chit fund scam and saidthat her government has returnedmoney to 5 lakh investors in theState.

“We are urging the Centre tomake laws so that money can bereturned. Two Bills from the Statehave been returned by the Cen-tre,” she said.

The Chief Minister also raisedquestions about why border withBangladesh are not being fencedand said that she also wants thatcross border smuggling shouldend. Banerjee added that it wasthe West Bengal police that ar-rested the main accused inBurdwan blast.

Rampal says he lost his mindBARWALA: Arrested ‘godman’ Rampal was on Sunday, Nov 23,

taken to his 12-acre Satlok Ashram in Hisar district in connection withthe probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Haryana Police,which will question him on the materials recovered, including arms andammunition.

Rampal, 63, who was arrested on November 19 from his ashram,was taken by the police to the complex for further investigation as theymade more recoveries from the premises, where a thorough searchhas been going on for the last four days.

Rampal, who was produced before the Punjab and Haryana HighCourt a day after his arrest in connection with a contempt of courtcase, was later remanded in police custody for five days by a court inHisar after fresh cases were slapped on him.

The police today said he will be questioned in connection with therecoveries, including arms and cartridges, made from the ashram, whichis located in this Haryana town. There are many lockers inside theashram and the police will quiz him about these as well.

During the standoff between Rampal’s followers and the police,five women and an infant had died, while more than 200 people wereinjured in the clashes on Nov 18.

For the search operation, the police have divided the ashram intothree zones. The underground bunkers are also being searched. Yes-terday, the police had found a bullet-proof vehicle, an oil-tanker, twotractors and many two-wheelers among other items from the ashram.

A huge cache of arms and ammunition, petrol bombs and acid sy-ringes were found from the highly fortified complex. The police havefound three .32 bore revolvers, 19 air guns, two 12 bore double barrelguns, two .315 bore rifles, 28 cartridges of .32 bore, 50 cartridges of 12bore and 25 cartridges of .315 bore.

The sprawling complex was found to be under constant surveil-lance of CCTV cameras installed at several key points to keep tabs onthe movements of followers, who largely came from low-income strata.

The police said that the search operation will continue for a fewdays more as the ashram was spread over a vast area.

Rampal's first two nights in police lockup were largely sleepless.The owner of the 12-acre Satlok Ashram was seen chanting and mov-ing in circles inside the cell in civil lines police station of Hisar.

"Jab buddhi bhrasht hoti hai to aisa hi hota hai. Meri buddhi bhibhrasht ho gayi thi (Such things happen when you lose your mind. Ihad also lost my mind)," has become Rampal's reply to most questionsasked by investigating officers. He appears upset and wakes up in thenight fearing physical torture.

Sources said that Rampal claimed he did not know what was hap-pening on Wednesday and Thursday during the police action at hisashram. In response to question as to why did he let such a situationarise, Rampal, whose website proclaims that he is 'jagatguru' (worldguru) and 'tatvdarshi' (enlightened) said, "I was unaware of what washappening outside my ashram."

Rampal repeated that even he was held captive in ashram when hewas arrested. Referring to allegations of abuse of women, sourcessaid that Rampal replied, "Everything had gone out of my control. Therewas lots of chaos, I did not have any power over anyone."

BHOPAL: Out of power, ev-ery penny counts — not to men-tion a 43-year-old echo whosemystery still endures.

The central Congress leader-ship has sent an auditor to investi-gate who withdrew Rs 32 lakhfrom an in-house trust in MadhyaPradesh, apparently without theknowledge of the trustees.

Sources said AICC treasurerMotilal Vora had received ananonymous letter with details ofthe alleged “embezzlement”,prompting the veteran to dispatchchartered accountant S.K. Jain toBhopal.

Jain, who refused comment,was yesterday spotted at a branchof the Punjab National Bankwhere the Jawahar Bhavan Trusthas its account.

The amount — Rs 32 lakh —is peanuts when viewed againstthe Rs 1,185 crore that the Con-gress, according to an NGO, hascollected and earned over threefinancial years from 2007 to 2010.

But no change is too small forthe Congress, especially itsMadhya Pradesh unit.

The state Congress, out ofpower since December 2003,used to receive Rs 5 lakh towards

Congress wrestles with a Rs 32-lakh riddlemonthly expenses from the AICCbut funds from Vora’s office havereportedly become erratic sinceMay 2014 when the party lost theLok Sabha elections. In the pastfew months, the state unit has evenstopped serving tea to visitors.

Congress insiders in Bhopalsaid the money had been with-drawn from the account, appar-ently without the knowledge orconsent of the five trustees: Vora,the AICC general secretary incharge of Madhya Pradesh,Mohan Prakash, state Congresspresident Arun Yadav, legislatureparty leader Satyadev Katare andthe state party general secretaryin charge of the organisation,Chandrika Dwivedi.

Any withdrawal has to be firstapproved by the trust, while thestate unit chief and the legislatureparty leader have the signing au-thority. Trust members deny hav-ing met in the recent past. Katare,who has signing authority as leaderof the legislature party, denies hav-ing signed any cheque.

All eyes are now on Yadav. Thestate unit chief has not been tak-ing calls. His aides say Yadav hasbeen busy with civic polls.

Missing cash touches a histori-

cal raw nerve in the Congress,probably because of theNagarwala case of 1971. RostumSohrab Nagarwala, a formerarmy captain, had collected Rs 6crore from an SBI branch in NewDelhi after the chief cashier re-ceived a telephone call from aperson who introduced herself asthe Prime Minister. Indira Gandhiwas the Prime Minister then.

The then Prime Minister’s prin-cipal secretary, P.N. Haksar, latersaid Indira had not authorised anysuch transaction. Nagarwala wasarrested. He confessed and diedin prison in 1972, ostensibly ofheart disease. The police officerwho investigated the case died ina freak road accident. —Rasheed Kidwai, The Telegraph

Praise for oppositionNEW DELHI: Prime Minis-

ter Narendra Modi on Mondayvoiced hope that the Oppositionwill cooperate in the Parliamentto make it a “fruitful and result-oriented” winter session.

Praising the “positive role”played by the opposition in runningthe budget session, Modi soughtthe “same” cooperation from thelawmakers.

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NEW DELHI/DUBAI/RIYADH: India is pressing richcountries in the Gulf to raise thewages of millions of Indians work-ing there, in a drive that couldsecure it billions of dollars in freshincome but risks pricing some ofits citizens out of the market.

Over 5 million nationals arebelieved to be employed in the oilexporting states of the Gulf, thesingle largest group in a migrantworker population of more than20 million.

Migrants do many of the dirtyand dangerous jobs in the region,from construction to the oil indus-try, transport and services. Theyaccount for nearly half of theroughly 50 million population ofthe six-nation Gulf CooperationCouncil.

Over the past seven months,diplomats in Bahrain, Kuwait,Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia andthe United Arab Emirates havesharply increased the minimumsalaries that they recommend forIndian workers at private andpublic firms in those states.

“We want the Indianworkforce to be paid higher sala-ries. Inflation, the value of theIndian currency and a rise in thecost of living in the Gulf were thefactors that led to the decision,”YS Kataria, a spokesman for theministry of Overseas Indian Af-fairs (MOIA) in New Delhi, said.

The success of India’s strat-egy is not yet clear, however.Officials in at least some GCCnations have expressed displea-sure, and the strategy could back-fire if those countries end up hir-ing more workers from elsewherein the world.

“Of course it will encouragecompanies to look at Bangladeshand Pakistan as more viable op-tions to get migrant workers,” said

MUMBAI: Arvind Bhosale, the newly appointed spokespersonof the Shiv Sena was showered with shoes and chappals by partyactivists across the State on October 19, the day Maharashtra pollresults were out. He accepted those ‘gifts’ with great joy and su-preme satisfaction.

Bhosale has walked barefoot for the past nine years having takena vow not to wear shoes until the ‘traitor’ Narayan Rane, whodefected from the Sena to the Congress in 2005, was humbled in therecent polls. His dream became a reality after Rane lost to Sena’sfirst-timer Vaibhav Naik in Kudal by a margin of over 9,000 votes. Itwas Rane’s first election defeat in a 30-year career.

None other than the party supremo Uddhav Thackeray honoredBhosale with a pair of ‘golden chappals’ on Sunday, Nov 23.

Golden chappals presented to Shiv Sena activist“After he [Rane] joined

the Congress and defeatedmy party in the 2005 by-poll, I had left my chappalsoutside the polling station inKankavli [in Konkan]. Ireturned to Mumbai andpledged to walk barefooteverywhere, until my partydefeated him in an elec-tion,” Bhosale told TheHindu.

According to him, Ranewas a ‘traitor,’ as he disre-spected Sena founder BalThackeray during that time.“I took it as my personalinsult. I decided to makehim pay for his deeds,” hesaid. In subsequent years,he asked UddhavThackeray to give him the

responsibility to rebuild theparty organisation inSindhudurga district, as it hadbecome Rane’s den. Despitebeing from Mumbai, he wasgiven the task.

But is he still angry withRane? Bhosale said the ‘crimeof disrespecting Balasaheb’can never be forgotten. “Lead-ers like him [Rane] will nownever underestimate an ordi-nary activist like me.”

India seeks better pay for its workers in GulfMohammed Jindran, managing director of UAE-based recruitmentagency Overseas Labour Supply.

The government cannot dictate the pay of its citizens in the Gulf —decisions to hire workers are made by labour recruiters in individualcountries, which have not set minimum wages for migrants and usuallyprohibit union activity by them.

However, the recruiters must rely on the co-operation of local au-thorities to operate in India. An internal memorandum prepared by theMOIA, sent last month and seen by Reuters, says that if workers areoffered wages below specified minimums, ministry officials “woulddeny emigration clearance”.

In Saudi Arabia, the Indian embassy lifted the recommended mini-mum salary posted on its website to 1,200 riyals ($320) a month earlierthis year from 670 riyals. In the UAE, the minimum wage for Indianblue-collar workers rose to 1,500 dirhams ($409) in recent weeks from1,200 dirhams last year, Jindran said.

Recruiters must rely on the co-operation of local authorities to oper-ate in India. An internal memorandum prepared by the MOIA saysthat if workers are offered wages below specified minimums, ministryofficials “would deny emigration clearance”.

MUMBAI: Senior Congressleader and former union ministerMurli Deora passed away here onMonday morning, Nov 27, after aprolonged illness.

He was 77 and is survived byhis wife and two sons, includingformer MP Milind Deora. Deorahad been unwell and admitted to ahospital and had come home twodays ago, family sources said.

Deora, who held several impor-tant portfolios during his decades-long career, first contested the civicelections in Mumbai in 1975.

An economics graduate, Deorawas Mayor of Mumbai from 1977to 1978 and was later elected tothe Lok Sabha four times fromMumbai South, a seat later heldby his son, Milind, who is also aformer MP and ex Union minis-ter. Currently, he was serving histhird term as a Rajya Sabha MP.

He held the portfolio of Petro-leum and Natural Gas during theUPA-1 regime. The Congress vet-eran had also served as the

Congress leader Murali Deora passes away

Mumbai Congress President for22 years.

He joined the Union Cabinet in2006, shortly before he turned 70and led oil diplomacy in Myanmar,Algeria and Egypt, and held talkswith ministers from Sudan, Chad,Ethiopia and Comoros.

Deora also hosted the first In-dia-Africa Hydrocarbon Confer-ence and Exhibition in November2007. In July 2011, Deora wasappointedd Minister of State forCommunications and InformationTechnology.

False dowry charge is grounds for divorceNEW DELHI: If a woman's complaint accusing her husband and

in-laws of cruelty under the dreaded Section 498A of Indian PenalCode turns out to be false, then the man is entitled to divorce, theSupreme Court has ruled.

Allowing dissolution of marriage between K Srinivas and K Sunita,the court said, "We unequivocally find that the respondent-wife hadfiled a false criminal complaint, and even one such complaint is suffi-cient to constitute matrimonial cruelty. We accordingly dissolve themarriage of the parties."

After the wife left her matrimonial home on June 30, 1995, thehusband filed a divorce suit on July 14, 1995 on the ground of crueltyas well as irretrievable breakdown of marriage. The wife retaliated byfiling a criminal complaint against her husband and seven of his familymembers under various provisions of IPC and Dowry Prohibition Act.The husband and his family members were arrested and jailed.

A Hyderabad court on June 30, 2000, acquitted the husband and hisfamily members of the charges against them by the wife. Anotherfamily court granted divorce to the husband on December 30, 1999 ongrounds of cruelty as also irretrievable breakdown of marriage. Butthe HC, on the woman's appeal, set aside the divorce decree.

On the woman's statement to police on the complaint lodged by heragainst her husband and his relatives, an apex court bench of justicesVikramjit Sen and PC Pant said, "This is clearly indicative of the factthat the criminal complaint was a contrived afterthought. We affirmthe view of the HC that the criminal complaint was 'ill advised'."

The judgment, authored by Justice Sen, added. "In these circum-stances, the HC ought to have concluded that the wife knowingly andintentionally filed a false complaint, calculated to embarrass and incar-cerate the husband and seven members of his family and that suchconduct unquestionably constitutes cruelty as postulated under Sec-tion 13(1)(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act. In any event, both partieswere fully aware of this facet of cruelty which was allegedly sufferedby the husband."

PAGE 20 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

BANGLADESH / SRI LANKA

DHAKA: Bangladesh has ar-rested four members of an out-lawed militant group, including thechief of its women's wing, policesaid on Sunday, as authorities in-tensify a crackdown on militants.

The arrest follows Indian se-curity officials' exposure of a plotlast month targeting Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina. Two membersof a banned Bangladesh groupwere killed in an explosion whilebuilding bombs in India's easternstate of West Bengal, just over theborder with Bangladesh.

Police said they arrestedFatema, the chief of the women'swing of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen,whose husband Sajid was arrestedby Indian police in connection withthe West Bengal blast.

"Fatema and three men werearrested in a raid in Dhaka andwe also recovered a huge quan-tity of bomb-making materials andexplosives," police spokesmanMonirul Islam told a news con-ference.

The group also planned to as-sassinate the country's main op-position leader, Khaleda Zia, In-dian officials said. Hasina and Ziahave dominated Bangladeshi poli-

Woman leader of militant outfit arrestedtics for more than a decade.

Last week, a team headed by the chief of India's main counter-terrorism arm, the National Investigations Agency, held talks withBangladeshi officials in Dhaka and handed over a list of 11 suspectsthought to be hiding there.

Under Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has been working closely withIndia to tackle militant groups, including the handover of those Indiasuspects of stirring up trouble in its remote northeast.

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was thought to have been lying low sincea crackdown by authorities after it detonated nearly 500 bombs al-most simultaneously on a single day in 2005 across Bangladesh, in-cluding in Dhaka, the capital.

In subsequent suicide attacks on several courthouses, its militantskilled 25 people and wounded hundreds.

A security van taking members of the group to court earlier thisyear was targeted by gunmen who opened fire and tossed bombs atthe vehicle.

Wanted formermayor hiding in

SwedenA 70-year-old former mayor of

Bangladesh who has been sen-tenced to death for mass killingsand torture in the 1970s, is believedto be hiding in Sweden, accordingto Bangladesh's chief police com-missioner.

Zahid Hossein, who is also aformer leader of the BangladeshNational Party, was found guiltyof charges including rape, tortureand arson by a war crimes tribu-nal in Dhaka on Nov 13..

According to the court, he alsoforced Hindus to convert to Islamand was directly involved in thekilling of around 50 people.

He was tried in absentia andBangladesh's chief police com-missioner Hassan MahmoodKhandker believes he is currentlyliving in Sweden, which does nothave an extradition treaty withBangladesh.

"We will do our best to get himback," he told the Reuters newsagency.

Zahid Hossein disappearedfrom his home country last yearand is understood to have relativesin Sweden.

The crimes he is accused ofallegedly took place afterBangladesh broke away from Pa-kistan in 1971, following a bitternine-month war between nation-alists supported by India, and thePakistani military.

Last November, two other Is-lamist leaders living in the UK andthe US were sentenced to deathfor war crimes in absentia. Nei-ther has yet been brought back toBangladesh.

Human rights groups have criti-cized the war crimes tribunal inBangladesh and there have beenviolent protests from those whooppose the series of trials it hasbeen holding in Bangladesh since2010.

57% of Bangladeshis haveaccess to safe toilet

DHAKA: About 57 per cent of the people in Bangladesh haveaccess to improved sanitation facilities but three per cent still defecateout in the open, said Bangladesh Wash Alliance on World Toilet Dayon Nov 19.

Even though three per cent of the population still defecate out in theopen, in neighboring India, 50 per cent of the people do the same,according to a World Health Organisation report released in May.

About 14 per cent of the world's population do not have access to aproper toilet. More people have mobile phones than access to safetoilets, says the WHO.

Alok Kumar Majumder, country coordinator of Bangladesh WashAlliance, said around 25 per cent girls do not go to school due to a lackof separate and safe toilets. Girls who attend schools without safe,private, separate toilets are more likely to drop out during puberty,depriving themselves of the education that could help break the cycleof poverty, according to the United Nations.

Alok said this at a seminar on “Improved Sanitation: Challenges inSludge Management” organised by Bangladesh Wash Alliance in thecapital's Department of Public Health and Engineering Auditorium.

Meanwhile, WaterAid yesterday said over 1,400 children under theage of five die every day in the world due to diarrhoeal disease causedby not having access to safe drinking water or a basic toilet.

They do not have soap or sufficient water to keep their hands andbodies clean, it said.

WaterAid, together with international health and development ex-perts, sent an open letter to Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of theUnited Nations, calling on him to end the waste of life in this manner.

Prof Mujibur Rahman, a teacher of the department of Civil Engi-neering at Buet, in the Wash Alliance seminar said the achievement insanitation in the country might be lost if the government failed to intro-duce effective faecal sludge management.

In his keynote speech at the seminar, he said people in the ruralareas use pit-latrines, containing sludge for a long time, while the ur-ban people use septic tanks for treatment and disposal. When thesludge management system goes out of control, it might have seriouseffects on the environment and people's health, said Prof Mujib.

In Dhaka, only 20 per cent people were under the sewerage net-work. Only two per cent of the sludge management is done properly,he said. The WHO estimates that 88 per cent of diarrhoeal mortalityamong the young could be attributed to the lack of access to sanita-tion, clean water and hygiene.

According to the United Nations, about 35 per cent -- 2.5 billion ofthe planet's 7 billion people -- live without basic sanitation facilities.

Besides, one in three women and girls around the world do not haveaccess to basic toilets.

Bangladesh on high terror risk listThough not in conflict, Bangladesh is at risk of higher levels of

terrorism, according to the Global Terrorism Index report.The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a Sydney-based non-

profit research organisation, published the report yesterday, calculat-ing various political, social and violence factors to determine the risk.

Bangladesh ranks 23rd among 162 nations in the GTI. Iraq was thecountry most affected by terrorism, while Zambia is placed last on thelist. Bangladesh is among the 13 countries vulnerable to high terrorrisk and third South Asian country in such a position besides Sri Lankaand Myanmar. The other countries are Angola, Burundi, Central Afri-can Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Mali, Mexico andUganda.

The study also identified 102 countries, including Bangladesh, whereno death from terrorism took place in 2013. Three statistically signifi-cant factors associated with terrorism are state sponsored violence,group grievances and high levels of criminality, mentions the report.

“Terrorism doesn't arise on its own; by identifying the factors asso-ciated with it, policies can be implemented to improve the underlyingenvironment that nurtures terrorism,” said Steve Killelea, executivechairman of IEP.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka'shealth minister quit PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa's govern-ment Friday, Nov 21, to challengehim in the upcoming elections,accusing the leader of taking thecountry toward an autocracy.

The defection of MaithripalaSirisena, who is also No. 2 in theSri Lanka Freedom Party, the larg-est in the ruling coalition, is a seri-ous setback for Rajapaksa's questfor a third term. He is still popularafter leading a military campaignto end a 25-year civil war againstTamil Tiger rebels, but the erosionof support from within his ownparty is unprecedented.

Sirisena left the governmentwith three other ministers and alawmaker, saying Friday he hasbeen chosen as the combinedopposition's presidential candi-date.

"After the war victory, thepresent government started veer-ing in a direction that none of usexpected," Sirisena told reporters,flanked by his colleagues andformer President ChandrikaKumaratunga.

"Looking at the path that thecountry's leadership and the ad-ministration travel, the country isheading toward a beatific autoc-racy. Elections are held; conces-sions are given; development takesplace, (but) behind a smiling faceare many things that the peopleand we can't approve of," he said."One family has captured thecountry's economy, wealth, ad-ministration and the managementof the political party."

Rajapaksa announced onThursday he's seeking a third term,two years before his second termends. The Elections Departmentset Jan. 8 as polling day.

Since taking power in 2005,Rajapaksa has given his family andfriends more say in governanceand significant control over thenational budget. One Rajapaksabrother is the powerful ministerof economic development, an-other is Parliament speaker and

Health minister quits to challengeRajapaksa in election

Maithripala Sirisenaanother is defense secretary. Thepresident's elder son is a law-maker, a nephew heads a provin-cial government and other rela-tives and friends are in the bureau-cracy and the diplomatic service.

Speaking at a function laterFriday, Rajapaksa claimed oppo-sition parties had caused the de-fection because they could notfind a strong candidate to chal-lenge him.

"There is no competition forme. ... We have done good work,we have freed the country wehave ended the war and we willnot let anyone stall our march for-ward," said Rajapaksa.

Sirisena promised to abolish thepowerful presidency and return toa government headed by a primeminister that was prevalent before1978. He promised also to set upindependent bodies to appointjudges, police chiefs and others.

Sri Lanka's constitution had atwo-term limit for the presidency,but Rajapaksa used his over-whelming support in Parliament toscrap the limit and to ensure thecountry's highest court was full ofhis appointees. The court said ear-lier this month his pursuit of a thirdterm was legal.

Sirisena said the constitutionalchange that lifted term limits was"a serious mistake."

Five TN fishermen on death row freedCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka has released the five Indian fishermen

who were convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to death by theColombo High Court. President Mahendra Rajapakse pardoned thefishermen who will be sent back to serve time in an Indian jail.

According to media reports, the fishermen were handed over toIndian High Commission officials, and were being brought from theWelikada Prison to the Indian High Commission.

Earlier, the Indian Government had pressed for a pardon and re-lease of the fishermen since it believed that the evidence in the caseshowed that the fishermen were innocent.

On Tuesday, India had withdrawn the appeal filed in the Court ofAppeal paving the way for Sri Lankan Government to process therequest for a presidential pardon. The five fishermen were arrested in2011.

In Tamil Nadu, fishermen in Ramanathapuram District welcomednews of the release. The fishermen in the area were on strike fromNovember 1, over a demand for the release of these five fishermen.

The fishermen associations from coastal districts of Nagapattinam,Pudukottai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Karaikal also joined the strike insolidarity.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan met External affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj at Delhi with fishermen representatives from TamilNadu and top state BJP leaders on this issue.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Paneerselvam had urged PrimeMinister's direct intervention to ensure the release of Tamil fishermen.The local fishermen now hope that the centre will take steps to getback fishing boats of Tamils detained by Sri Lanka.

PAKISTANINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 21

Imran warns against blockingpeaceful activists

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khanon Monday warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minis-ter Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to avoid any action against peacefulprotesters on November 30, otherwise he will not be responsible of“any reaction” in this regard.

“Listen, Nawaz Sharif, Nisar Ali Khan… you people will pay thecost of your actions if you stop PTI supporters from entering Islamabadon November 30,” he said while addressing participants of his ongoingsit-in at D-Chowk.

“Today is not August 14 but November 24… we reached Islamabadfor sit-in in summer but we are still here in winter and look we’veremained peaceful for the last 104 days of our movement against thepoll rigging in the last year’s elections,” Khan added.

“This time, the young supporters of the PTI will not face violenceof the police like sheep at any cost but they will face the challenge andstand for illegal action of the police against them,” the PTI chief said.

“You can send me to jail or you can declare me a proclaimed of-fender, but I have already decided that I will fight until my last breathto get justice,” Khan challenged.

The PTI chairman also challenged Sharif brothers to hold a publicgathering in Peshawar, offering to make all the arrangements for thePML-N’s public gathering.

“You [PM Nawaz Sharif] claim to have bagged 15 million votes inthe May 11 elections and it should not be an issue for you to hold sucha public gathering… but you will only hear slogans of Go Nawaz Go,”Khan claimed.

He also alleged that the PML-N government was trying to createhurdles to stop the PTI supporters from attending the scheduled publicgathering on Sunday.

PPP denies Swiss jewelry belonged toBenazir or Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday,Nov 24, said that a Swiss tribunal held jewellery set, seized in connec-tion with investigations into the SGS case, does not belong to the legalheirs of the late Benazir Bhutto or former president Asif Ali Zardari.

“The piece of jewellery never belonged to Shaheed MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto. Therefore there is no question that it belongs to herlegal heirs or to Mr Asif Zardari. Let there be no doubt or mistakeabout it,” said PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar in a state-ment.

Babar said any assertion that the jewellery belonged to the legalheirs of Benazir Bhutto is wrong and incorrect.

He said that although he had not seen the latest ruling of the Swisstribunal, but on the basis of his association with the case from its in-ception, he could make this assertion confidently.

A Swiss federal tribunal had ruled that a valuable jewellery set thatwas seized by authorities in connection with investigations into allega-tions of graft belonged to former president Asif Ali Zardari or the legalheirs of the late Benazir Bhutto.

The set, which includes a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earringsand a ring, is said to be valued at over $180,000. In the judgmentissued on Oct 29, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the tribunalrejected ownership claims filed by Bomer Finance for the jewellery.

The company was allegedly formed by Mr Jens Schlegelmilch andlinked to Asif Zardari and was at the centre of the SGS-Cotecna in-vestigation.

World’s fastest growing N-program?Pakistan has the world’s fastest growing nuclear program capable

of weaponising up to 200 nuclear devices by the year 2020, a US-based think tank says in a recently released report.

“Pakistan...is believed to have enough fissile material to producebetween 110 and 120 nuclear warheads,” says the report StrategicStability in the Second Nuclear Age Council released by the influentialCouncil on Foreign Relations.

“By 2020, Pakistan could have a fissile material stockpile sufficientto produce more than 200 nuclear weapons.”

The CFR notes that Asia is witnessing a nuclear buildup, despitethe fact that nuclear arsenals are shrinking in the rest of the world.

The buildup comes as part of an ongoing nuclear and missile armsrace between Pakistan and neighbouring India since 1998 “that showsno signs of abating,” says the report.

“The size and composition of Pakistan’s nuclear forces appear in-creasingly dictated by India’s growing conventional military capabili-ties.”

According to the report, India – perceived to be the primary mili-tary threat to Pakistan – is also expanding its fissile material produc-tion capacity, and is estimated to possess enough fissile material forbetween 90 and 110 nuclear weapons.

The buildup poses more severe security challenges to the twoneighbouring nuclear countries than others due to their history of con-flict, domestic instability and cross-border terrorism.

“The next crisis between India and Pakistan could be sparked by across-border military incursion, a mass-casualty terrorist attack or ahigh-profile assassination.

“The security trilemma increases the vulnerability of regional stabil-ity to disruptions by outside forces and increases the likelihood that abreakdown in strategic stability between India and Pakistan couldthreaten other nuclear weapon states,” says the report.

Apart from the predominant threat posed by India, the CFR saidPakistan is also reportedly “concerned by the potential for the UnitedStates to launch a military operation to seize or disarm Pakistani nuclearweapons”.

It said concern was partly based on the US military’s reported con-tingency planning to “prevent Pakistani nuclear weapons from fallinginto the hands of terrorists”, and heightened by unilateral 2011 USforces raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden.

Speaking to Dawn.com on condition of anonymity, a Pakistani mili-tary official said the report was “not incorrect”.

However, he said that some statements in the report were mereassumptions, citing the portion stating that Pakistan could lose com-mand and control of its arsenal.

“It’s a hypothesis, as such it is a very basic report. It is not anincorrect report. They are talking about possibilities, like the possibleescalation of tension between India and Pakistan. These things aretaken into account by authorities,” he said.

LAHORE: Asia Bibi, the Chris-tian woman sentenced to death forblasphemy, filed an appeal in theSupreme Court on Monday, her fi-nal legal recourse after being foundguilty of insulting the ProphetMohammed (PBUH) four yearsago.

A high court in the eastern cityof Lahore confirmed the death sen-tence of Asia Bibi last month, dash-ing hopes the conviction might beoverturned or commuted to a jailterm.

She has been on death row sinceNovember 2010 after being con-victed of committing blasphemyduring an argument with a Muslimwoman over a bowl of water.

“On behalf of Asia Bibi I havetoday filed an appeal in the SupremeCourt," defence attorney SaifulMalook told AFP.

Malook said that in the petitionhis client has asked the court to re-consider deficiencies in the case

including allegedly manipulatedevidence and a delay betweenthe time of the incident and itsinvestigation by police.

Malook added that the blas-phemy allegation was concoctedby Bibi's enemies to target herand had no basis in fact.

“We expect an early hearing ofthe appeal and hope that the pro-ceedings will be over in one year,”he added.

The allegations against Bibi dateback to June 2009, when she waslabouring in a field and a rowbroke out with some Muslimwomen she was working with.

She was asked to fetch water,but the Muslim women objected,saying that as a non-Muslim shewas unfit to touch the water bowl.

A few days later the womenwent to a local cleric and put for-ward the blasphemy allegations.

Bibi's husband has also writtento President Mamnoon Hussain toask for her to be pardoned andallowed to move to France.

“We are convinced that Asiawill only be saved from beinghanged if the venerable President(Mamnoon) Hussain grants her apardon. No one should be killedfor drinking a glass of water,” hus-band Ashiq Masih wrote in anopen letter dated November 17and published by the New YorkTimes.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hassaid the couple are welcome in thecity. Blasphemy is a hugely sensi-tive issue in Pakistan, with evenunproven allegations oftenprompting mob violence. Pakistanhas never executed anyone forblasphemy and has had a de-factomoratorium on civilian executionssince 2008.

But anyone convicted, or evenjust accused, of insulting Islam,risks a violent and bloody death atthe hands of vigilantes.

In early November an enragedmob beat a Christian couple todeath and burnt their bodies in thebrick kiln where they worked forallegedly desecrating a copy of theHoly Quran.

Asia Bibi makes final appeal to supreme court

Drone strike kills 5PESHAWAR: A suspected

US drone strike near Pak-Afghanborder in Nangarhar province onAfghan side has left at least fivesuspected militants dead, sourcessaid on Monday night.

Highly placed intelligencesources told Dawn.com that theUS drone fired four missiles on acompound in Nazyan village ofNangarhar province in the southeastern Afghanistan. They saidthat the site of the attack is nearthe zero-line but in Afghan area.Identity of the militants killed is yetto be ascertained.

Blasphemy accused Asia Bibi hasbeen on death row since Nov 2010

Awami party leader shot dead in KarachiKARACHI: An Awami National Party (ANP) leader and former

union council nazim was shot dead in Orangi Town here on Sundayevening.

According to police and party officials, 45-year-old Dr Ziauddinwas returning home from Tooba mosque when two men on a motor-cycle opened fire at him near Frontier Mor in Pirabad. SSP West IrfanBaloch said the ANP leader suffered multiple bullet wounds, includingone to the head, and died.

The SSP suspected the involvement of the Taliban militants be-cause ANP workers in the past had been targeted by them.

ANP Karachi’s spokesman Abdul Malik said Dr Ziauddin had beenunder threat from elements claiming to be fighting for religion. He saidthat recently a bomb had been found outside the doctor’s house andthe bomb disposal squad had been called to defuse it.

The victim was ANP’s district West president and had been twiceelected as UC nazim from the area. Although he was a doctor byprofession, he worked for a private firm in some other capacity, thespokesman said.

PAGE 22 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

FINE ARTS

On a cold blustery Sunday afternoon in November, Kruthi Bhat, Carnatic Idol Winner, recipient of Shri Parthasarathy Swami Sab-ha’s “Best Vocalist” title in 2013, and 2013 Indian Raga Fellow, warmed the audience’s hearts and engaged their minds with a scholarly and devotion fi lled selection of songs.

Her concert, organized under the auspices of Bharathi Kalai Manram and Indian Raga, held at the Sringeri Vidya Bharathi Foundation Hall in Etobicoke on November 9, 2014, was well organized and well attended.

Kruthi set the tone for the evening early on, with her opening piece a stately rendition of the daru varnam Mathe Malayadvaja in Raagam Khamas, which was preceded by a melodious Virut-tham.

In the beautiful manodharma elaboration of the Raagam Reethigowla that followed, Kruthi struck the perfect balance be-tween melody and classicism, demonstrating that she belongs to that elite class of musicians whose music can be appreciated with the mind and felt with the heart simultaneously.

Her choice of Baale Balendu composed by Tyagaraja on the Goddess Lalitha was a testament to this fi ne balance.

Kruthi’s rendition of Saraswathi Namosthuthe in the epony-mous raagam Sarasvathi, was a tribute to Goddess Sharadamba in the neighbouring temple and featured a crisp and succinct Kalpa-nasvaram sequence.

Kruthi followed this spritely piece with a lovely, restful explora-

Memorable, melodious concert by young Kruthi Bhat in Toronto

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Under the guidance of HDBS Head Priest Dr. Bishnupada Goswami

tion of Begada, and the Tamil language kruthi, Kadikann Vaithennai Aalamma set to Mishra Chaapu.

Her neraval and svaram at “Vandhanai Shei Marakathavalliyein” the charanam brought out the essence of the raagam in a persuasive and meaningful manner.

This piece was followed by a fast paced Yenta Ni Vina Vinturaa in the rare raagam, Urmika.

The next step in the evening’s journey was Kruthi’s technically sound and mel-lifl uous exploration of that grand dame, Thodi.

This was followed by the equally regal delivery of Gati Nivani Ne Kori, the La-lgudi Pancharathnam composed by Tya-garaja in honour of Goddess Parvathi.

Kruthi elaborated at the phrase, “Madinee yenta Vedakisammadinee shri pravruddha shri” with imaginative ner-aval and svaram.

The next portion of the concert was a true treat, with Kruthi presenting a Raagam Thanam Pallavi in Hindolam set to Khanda Jathi Triputa Taalam.

During the Raagam portion, her con-fi dent smile at the end of each phrase as if to say, “Look, isn’t this so much fun.” drew the audience in to the evening’s en-chantment.

The interchange between her smooth deep vocals and the violinist, Jayadevan Nair was a true pleasure to listen to.

The audience witnessed an aural rain-bow in the raaga maalika Kruthi painted during the kalpana svaram portion of the pallavi which encompassed all twelve varieties of the saptasvara.

Kruthi took the audience on a delight-ful journey through Revathi, Brindavana Saaranga, Shivaranjani, Shankarabha-ranam, Lalitha, Sarasvathi, Anantha Bhairavi, Saaveri, Ranjani, Vasantha Bhairavi, Hamsadhvani in addition to Hindolam during this portion of the eve-ning.

The spritely and able thani aavarthanam by mridangist Shri B. Gowrishankar and Ganjeera artiste and concert co-organiser Karthik Venkatraman capped this section of the concert seamlessly, with a melodi-ous and adroit rhythmic exploration.

Kruthi closed out the concert with a soulful and moving rendition of the Purandhar Dasa classic Jagadho Dharana, in Raag Pilu, a Marathi Abhang “Vitho-ba” by Sant Tukaram in Raag Maruva Behag and the one-of-a-kind and other-worldly Sindhubhairavi Thillana com-posed by Shri Lalgudi G.Jayaraman.

It was an evening to remember and one that brought the Toronto crowd, young

and old to its feet in spontane-ous and warm applause. One looks forward to seeing more

of Kruthi Bhat, who’s rising star is an inspiration to aspir-ing Carnatic youth worldwide,

with her attention to detail and formidable melodic com-mand. — Review by Sripriya Sriram

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 • PAGE 23

PAGE 24 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014

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