the indian down under - e paper june-july, 2011

The Indian Down Under PO Box 99 Thornleigh NSW 2120 Ph (02) 9875 2713 Fax (02) 9980 6349 Email: [email protected]

VOL 24 No. 1Print Post Publication No. 23572300014

Annual Subscription incl. postage & handling $17 Newsagencies$1 inc GSTJune - July 2011 Free at Indian Outlets

TIDU enters

Year of Publication

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:19: TIDU talks to Paul Lowe,Head, Population Census Progam 20: Dipen Dhruv, CEO, LeapfrogConsulting, sleeps out in Sydney39: Raju Varanasi brings ITrevolution in NSW school education55: Laugh with Jerry Seinfeld57-60: Kersi Meher-Homji andDilip Mahanty report on Cricket

How Indians are fighting the scourge of corruption in the country. Stories Page 8,9

India’s fight against corruption

2 THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER June-July 2011

June - July 2011 THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER 03

04 THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER June - July 2011

Editor's Letter

June-July 2011 THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER 7

Editorial/Advertising Enquiries: 02 9875 2713Postal Address: PO Box 99, Thornleigh NSW 2120.Email: [email protected]: www.indiandownunder.com.au

EDITORIALPrincipal Editor: Vijay BadhwarAssociate Editor: Neena BadhwarNorth America : Parveen ChopraCorrespondent Sports Editor: Kersi Meher-HomjiDelhi Reporter: Ritu Ghai

WRITERSThird Eye: Rekha BhattacharjeePolitical Columns: Karam Ramrakha, MallikaGanesanFilms and Art: Neeru Saluja, Abhishek Sood, MonicaDaswani, Sumi Krishnan, Devaki Parthasarthy, NeenaBadhwar, Rekha RajvanshiBody-Mind-Spirit: Dr Sunder Das, KanakaRamakrishna, Faith Harper, T Selva, Dilip MahantySport: Kersi Meher-Homji, Dilip MahantyFiji Diary: Karam RamrakhaCookery: Promila GuptaChildren Section: Esther Chudhary-LyonsClassical Music: Sumi Krishnan, Kris Raman,Lokesh VarmaTravel: Vijay Badhwar, Kris RamanHumour: Melvin Durai, Santram BajajSeniors Column: Santram BajajBeauty: Devaki ParthasarthyCommunity: Neena Badhwar, Kersi Meher-Homji,Vijay Badhwar, Sumi Krishnan, Neeru Saluja, SavithaNarayanPhotographers: Neelesh Kale, Raj Suri and JordanAnjaiyaGraphic Design: Nayanesh Gandhi, Dinesh Verma,(Bhagwati Multimedia) Bharat Bhushan Chopra

Subscription Coupon

Name

...............................................

Address.....................................

...............................................

...............................................

Post Code ................................

Annual Subscription $17 including

GST, postage & handling.

Send to TheIndian Down Under,

PO Box 99,

Thorhleigh NSW 2120

Like Shikhandi in Mahabharata,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh isfronted up so that the Government is

shielded against Opposition attacks. Unableto take any firm action against the offend-ing politicians, the Prime Minister’s onlyeffort so far has been to keep the allianceat any cost. He, himself, has been com-pletely ineffectual to force any value-relat-ed directions to his government, bar citingof his own integrity, which, of course, isabove board.

But the Indian public and even interna-tional business now consider that suchwidespread corruption is a major issuewhich adversely affects everyone andeveryday life. It is like cancer in the socie-ty and needs to be tackled firmly if India isto rise as an economic power. Recently,it’s been termed as “season of scams”which includes alleged misappropriation ofbillions in last year’s CommonwealthGames in Delhi, $40 billion in lost revenuefrom the crooked sale of 2G telecomlicences and over $40 billion stolen inUttar Pradesh from schemes subsidisingfood and fuel for the poor. The benefits ofprogress have to flow down to all sectionsof the society, to uplift the poor andempower them, not only to satiate thegreed of a few politicians with their bil-lions rotting in Swiss banks.

The Government has taken some actionagainst corrupt individuals - Maharashtra’schief minister has been removed over aproperty scandal. Suresh Kalmadi, who ran

the Commonwealth Games, andAndimuthu Raja, who oversaw the 2G tele-com licences, and DMK Rajya Sabha MPKanimozhi also implicated in 2G scam, arebehind bars.

As India heads towards becoming aworld economic power, it has to invest inits lagging infrastructure. In its next five-year plan, India will spend $1 trillion onroads, railways and ports. With scarce landand energy resources, the scope for cor-ruption, if not curbed, increases exponen-tially. In this light the satyagraha initiatedby Anna Hazare and followed up by BabaRamdev are ‘marg darshana’ to guide andempower the masses to say ‘no’ to bribes,to instill in them the confidence that theydo not have to be indifferent to all the cor-ruption proliferating around them. TheGovernment’s highhandedness in disruptinga peaceful meeting at Delhi’s RamlilaGrounds at 2 am in the morning on June 5,on the pretext that the gathering exceededthe permission for 5,000 people, whenpeople were singing bhajans and were notdoing anything unlawful, was an abom-inable act to take place in a democracy. Itwas justifiable to compare, albeit withsome exaggeration, to the dastardly act ofan alien power in Jalianwala Bagh duringIndia’s freedom struggle.

The UPA Government is not serious tocurb corruption. Its intentions are clear asit dilly-dallies on its earlier commitmentwith Anna Hazare on Jan Lokpal bill. Itwants to exclude the prime minister from

the bill’s purview, fully aware that pastprime ministers Charan Singh andNarasimha Rao were both alleged to betainted. The Government wants to drafttheir own version of the bill which forfeitsthe whole intention of inclusion of ‘peoplepower’.

Law Minister Veerappa Moily hasrecently released a draft of the Lokpal bill,prepared by five ministers and with a noteon the reservations expressed by the civilsociety members. The differences oversome key provisions remain. The bill is setto be finalized on June 30 with theGovernment toughening its stance that itwill not ‘tolerate pressure tactics by a fewself-styled persons in the name of civilsociety’. It should, rather, have been afirm stand against the corrupt politicians.

Kudos for Fiji Govt

Iread the article "Fiji - an InternationalEnigma" by KC Ramrakha with interest

as we have been providing voluntary med-ical services for the past 6 years to the dis-advantaged population of Fiji whichincludes significant majority of Indiandescendents. I must applaud the rulinggovernment which may be unlawful orauthoritarian, waiting to become an electeddemocracy in 2014, but it has surpassed allthe previous endeavours of creating a fairand equal society. Our work would nothave been possible without the support andgoodwill of the health minister which hasnow started a revolution in mental healthservices throughout the country.Postgraduate studies in psychiatry as from2012 will be just the beginning of trainingfuture medical specialists to serve theentire Pacific region. Fiji is not only aneighbour but its significance to Indians isalso far greater. Indian settlement over 150years ago is a story of resounding triumphsand devastating failures, a story of chal-lenges and heartaches and above all thestory of the strength, commitment,

courage, endurance and resilience of theunsung heroes who passed the culture, reli-gion and language in sacred packagesthrough generations. Our motivation andinspiration indeed came from the sacrificesmade by these settlers whose descendents,unable to leave the country, live in pover-ty. For them the rulers of the country havenever been better.

--Shailja Chaturvedi

Osama image shroudsbackground politics

The American politicians and mediahave successfully used a bogeyman in

what they perceive to be an elevation oftheir status and a distraction from serious

economic issues.During the lastdecade or so, demo-nizing relativelypetty individuals hashelped eviscerateconstitutional rightssuch as freedom ofspeech, movement

and association, and maintain a state ofperpetual war so that the military-industrialcomplex is sustained.

Soon after 9-11, a commission ofinquiry headed by an expert on the creationand maintenance of public myths was foist-ed on the public, to enable landmarkevents to herd an apathetic populace in thedirection the policy-makers wished. Thecommissioner’s work in the 1990s specu-lated that catastrophic terrorism events andthe resultant horror could be used to whipup vastly beneficial hysteria, enforce dra-conian legislation, reverse civil liberties,engage in intrusive continuous surveillanceand detention without charge, of citizensand the use of indiscriminate force anddevastation on impoverished nations.

The image of Osama bin Laden is oneof the most successful psychological opera-tions mounted in world history. Fear mon-gering and regularly reiterated myths haveensured a malleable public that does notquestion what really defines terrorism andwho best fits its characteristics in terms ofmagnitude and frequency.

--Lasantha Pethiyagoda

Manmohan Govt is not serious to end corruption

Letters to the Editor

The satyagraha initiated by AnnaHazare and followed up by Baba

Ramdev is to guide and empower themasses to say ‘no’ to bribes, and that

they do not have to be indifferent to thecorruption proliferating around them


Opinion

Azero rupee note is a typeof fantasy money issuedin India as a means of

helping to fight systemic politi-cal corruption. The notes arepaid in protest by angry citizensto government functionaries whosolicit bribes in return for serv-ices which are supposed to befree. Zero rupee notes, whichare made to resemble the regular50 rupee banknote of India, arethe creation of a non-govern-mental organization known as5th Pillar, which has distributedover 1.3 million pieces sincetheir inception in 2007. Thenotes remain in current use in2011.

Bribery - the offering orsolicitation of items of value toinfluence the actions of a gov-ernment official is recognizedas a pervasive problem in India,with the 2010 report by anti-cor-ruption watchdog organization

Transparency International rank-ing India in 87th place on itsCorruption Perceptions Index. A2005 study published byTransparency International Indiaindicates that as many as 62% ofIndian citizens had first-handexperience of having paid abribe or used an illicit "contact"to get a government job done.

Majority of survey respon-dents characterized the police,judiciary, land administration,municipal government, electrici-ty supply system, governmenthospital system, ration card sys-tem, water supply system, andsystem of assessing individualincome taxes as corrupt.

In 2007, a non-profit organ-ization called 5th Pillar unveileda new means for Indians to reg-ister their refusal to participatein bribery — the "zero rupeenote". Closely patterned afterthe nation's fifty rupee notes,these documents instead included

anti-corruption slogans"Eliminate corruption at all lev-els" and "I promise to neitheraccept not give bribe".

"The note is a way for anyhuman being to say no to cor-ruption without the fear of fac-ing an encounter with persons inauthority," 5th Pillar hasdeclared in an official statement.Such currency devices enable thecitizen to register their opposi-tion to the illegal request in atangible form, "paying" the offi-cial with these valueless alterna-tive notes.

President of 5th Pillar, VijayAnand, expressed satisfactionwith the program's efficacy:“People have already startedusing them and it is working.One autorickshaw driver waspulled over by a policeman inthe middle of the night who saidhe could go if he was ‘takencare of’. The driver gave himthe note instead. The policeman

was shocked but smiled and lethim go. The purpose of this is toinstill confidence in people tosay no to bribery."

Satindar Mohan Bhagat, anIndian expatriate who is current-ly a physics professor at theUniversity of Maryland, is cred-ited with originating the conceptof the zero rupee note in 2001.Upon returning to India for avisit, Bhagat was frustrated bythe petty extortion demands ofgovernment officials that were

part of daily life there and con-ceived of the idea of a zerorupee note as a polite way ofdeclining participation. Thecharity 5th Pillar smiled uponBhagat's idea and put it intopractice. Fifth Pillar began thecampaign in the spring of 2007with a first printing of 25,000notes that were distributed in theChennai. Buoyed by the successof the campaign, additionalprintings followed and use of thezero rupee note spread acrossthe nation. From their inceptionthrough early 2011, 5th Pillardistributed a total of over 1.3million zero rupee notes.

Zero rupee notes have beenissued in five of the 22 sched-uled languages of India, includ-ing Tamil, Hindi, Kannada,Malayalam, and Telugu.

The concept of privately-issued and valueless fantasy cur-rency for use in the fight againstcorruption has recently beenextended from India to two othernations suffering from endemicgovernment bribery problems,Mexico and Nepal.

The Zero Rupee Note mayor may not help fight bribery inIndia but at least it’s an initiativewhich can bring awareness tomasses not to accept the endemicbribery practices in daytoday lifeof everyday Indian.

(Compiled from varioussources from the net)

In October 2010,Switzerland’s Federal Act onthe Restitution of Assets of

Politically Exposed Personsobtained by Unlawful Means(commonly referred to as theReturn of Illicit Assets Act or“RIAA”) was passed by bothhouses of the Swiss Parliament.It became effective on February1, 2011.

Although Switzerland hasreturned over $1.6 billion lyingin various Swiss Bank Accounts- money which was illegallyobtained and stashed byPolitically Exposed Persons

(PEPs), the developing countriesdid not have enough wherewith-al to get the money back. Thiswas mainly because these coun-tries were not able to providethe Swiss Federal Criminalagencies with proper support todo the due diligence necessaryto establish the link of themoney to the depositor and itsorigin.

Though the money can bebrought back using the MutualLegal Assistance (“MLA”) -which formally establishes theframework to request the moneyback from the Swiss Banks, butthe process had issues. The

RIAA will help overcome thoseissues and make it easier torecover the money back.

There have been success sto-ries in the past decades wherethree countries - Peru, Nigeriaand the Philippines have beenreturned money.

In 1986, the Republic of thePhilippines filed a request formutual assistance with the Swissauthorities in connection withthe repatriation of Marcosdeposits in Swiss banks. Twelveyears elapsed before thesedeposits were transferred toescrow accounts in thePhilippine National Bank (PNB)

and another six years passedbefore the concerned $624 mil-lion was transferred to thePhilippine Treasury.

With the Swiss Assembly’spassage of R.I.A.A., it isexpected that the last barriers torepatriating Duvalier’s frozenassets — an effort that began in1986 — will finally be removed,and approximately $5.8 millionwill be soon returned to Haiti, acountry desperately in need ofgood news and money.

According to Swiss reports,over the last 20 years the gov-ernment has returned more than$1.5 billion in assets of criminal

origin — including assets fromsome of the most famous klepto-crats in history such as SaniAbacha of Nigeria, FerdinandMarcos of the Philippines andCarlos Salinas of Mexico.

According to the data pro-vided by the Swiss bank, Indiahas more black money than restof the world combined. Indiatopping the list with almost$1500 Billion black money inSwiss banks, followed by Russia$470 Billion, UK $390 Billion,Ukraine $100 Billion and Chinawith $96 Billion.

(Compiled from the net)

Can a Zero Rupee Note fight bribery in India

Indians stashed away ill-gotten $1500 Billion in Swiss banks

Comment


By Rekha Bhattacharjee

“Corruption and hypocrisy ought notto be inevitable products of democracy, asthey undoubtedly are today”

– Mahatma Gandhi

The great Indian freedom fighter andapostle of non-violence made thisobservation more than six decades

back. If Mahatma Gandhi returns to his‘karma-bhoomi’ today, he may die anotheruntimely death out of shock over the mag-nitude of corruption for which some mem-bers of his beloved Congress Party aredirectly responsible.

As social commentators have beenpointing out regularly, the disenfranchisedpoor living in India’s remote tribal andunderdeveloped regions, are being exclud-ed from reaping the benefits offered by thegrowing Indian economy. The fallout ofthis exclusion gets manifested in move-ments like Naxalism, Maoism, etc.

The fact that insurgencies led by leftistextremists are spreading over large ‘back-ward’ regions is an evidence of growinganger felt by India’s poor over beingexcluded from what is largely an Indianmetropolitan growth phenomenon. The factthat select few are pocketing billion of dol-lars through entrepreneurship and corrup-tion is not going down very well with alarge number of the Indian population forobvious reasons.

The anger and frustration of the bur-geoning city-dwelling lower middle classover all-prevailing, stifling corruption getsmanifested in the so-called civil societymovements like one led by Anna Hazareand yoga tele-evangelist Baba Ramdev.

The colourful and vociferous anti-graftcampaign by Baba Ramdev has attractedgovernment’s wrath as yoga guru is beingincreasingly cornered over his businessempire based on Ayurveda medicine andreal estate purchased to set up his Patanjali

Yogpeeth centres.Even some left-wing publications have

deplored the Indian government actions to‘humiliate’ the new saffron hope BabaRamdev. The yoga guru, who has doneimmense work to improve the health andlifestyle of millions of Indians, could beaccused of nothing much but waging acampaign to eradicate corruption in India.

Besides reining in the corrupt in India,Baba Ramdev and Co had made an inter-esting demand to ‘nationalise’ all the blackmoney to whomsoever it may belong andwherever it has been siphoned to.

According to the data provided by justthe Swiss banks, India has more blackmoney locked in the Swiss vaults than restof the world combined! India tops thedubious list with almost $1500 Billion($1.5 trillion) black money in Swiss banksfollowed by Russia $470 Billion, UK $390Billion, Ukraine $100 Billion and Chinawith $96 Billion.

To make a casual comparison, the totalvalue of deposits in Indian banks in 2008-09 was around $850 billion, total foreigncurrency and gold reserves were around$285 billion (31 December, 2010 est.),foreign debts were valued at around $237billion (31 December, 2010 est.), importswere around $327 billion (2010 est.), etc.

The magnitude of the ‘stolen’ Indianmoney deposited in Swiss banks could alsobe gauged from the fact that the total sizeof the Indian economy or Gross DomesticProduction (GDP) is valued at only $4.06trillion according to a 2010 estimate byCIA.

The ruthless targeting of Baba Ramdevand, now, Anna Hazare reflect the inade-quacies of a rattled regime deeply-embroiled in mega scams trying to protectits luminaries from exposure. A number ofsuch corrupt politicians and fund-raisersallegedly have secret bank accounts inSwitzerland and other safe havens.

There are all indications that the ruling

coalition would bludgeon above-mentioned‘civil-society’ campaigns against corrup-tion with Digvijay-esque stealth and highhandedness. But similar movements arebound to crop up to ask some difficultquestions over the involvement of the rul-ing elite in perpetuating the spectre of cor-ruption.

In 2009, Prime Minister ManmohanSingh said that corruption is the singlegreatest threat to the nation’s economicprospects. In a speech given to an anti-cor-ruption forum in New Delhi, Mr Singhdescribed the damaging effect that bribes,extortion and fraud have on all levels oflife in India. He said that graft meantinfrastructure projects were late, over-budget, and often poor quality, whilelabelling India’s opaque business practices‘a fertile breeding ground for the evil ofcorruption’.

“The pervasive corruption in our coun-try tarnishes our image [and it] discouragesinvestors who expect fair treatment andtransparent dealings with public authori-ties,” he said.

Today the involvement of various com-ponents of the ruling coalition in mega-corruption cases like the sale of the 2Gspectrum and the organization of theCommonwealth Games has pushed the barfor the corrupt regimes world over muchhigher.

The sheer scale of the corruption bysome members of Congress and allies is ofcourse unfathomable as figures quoted bythe anti-corruption campaigners are toocomplex for the untrained minds.According to an estimate, the 2G spectrumwas allegedly undersold by the concernedMinistry to the tune of approximately 40billion dollars.

The fact that competitive bidding wasnot allowed in the sale of the second gen-eration (2G) mobile phone licences makesthis government revenue making exerciselook even murkier.

An appointee for the office of ChiefVigilance Commissioner himself facedcharges of alleged offences. What could bemore ironical as the watchdog was himself

alleged to be the subject of a corruptioninvestigation?

The much-publicised jailing of theCommunications Minister A. Raja andSuresh Kalmadi have helped Congress sal-vage some credibility but it would be along way to redeem itself from the quag-mire named corruption.

In spite of steps taken by ManmohanSingh and others, which may be commend-able to some extent, they have not donemuch to stop corruption from spreading itstentacles. The scale of burgeoning corrup-tion scandals in India is simply enormous.As a Financial Times editorial had pointedout late last year: ‘Even in a country onfirst name terms with corruption, the scaleof the scandal engulfing Indian politics isstaggering’.

India’s Opposition may have managedto paralyse the Indian Parliament for daysdemanding all-party inquiry panel, but theyare themselves embroiled in a number ofcorruption scandals to cast stones onCongress and allies.

What the ruling party has failed to real-ize is that the impact of the corruptionwould not only disenfranchise the Indianpoor and get reflected on the polling daybut also the economy itself.

It is also a failure of the Indian plan-ning bodies to highlight the debilitatingimplications of the corruption on theIndian economy.

In the campaign to elevate the status ofthe Indian poor, those overseeing theacceleration of the South Asian economy,need to do much more to combat thescourge of graft.

The Congress-led coalition is fast run-ning out of options and time. It is hightime the members of the oldest & largestparty should seize the chance to tackle cor-ruption head on or face the consequenceswhen the disenfranchised manage to grabreins of the political power.

If that happens even in distant future,and if it happens without shedding bloodeven of the corrupt, the soul most contentwould be that of the global mascot ofrighteousness - Mahatma Gandhi.

The Third Eye by Rekha Bhattacharjee

United we scam – how not to fight scourge of corruption in India

Naxalism known as Maoism is spreading among the impoverished rural poor and trib-als who have been excluded from reaping the benefits of the growing Indian economy.

The sheer scale of the corruption by Congress leaders and allies is unfathomable--2G spectrum was allegedly undersold by the Telecom Ministry under A. Raja

to the tune of $40 billion.


India

Islamabad: The ForeignSecretaries of India and Pakistanbegan their discussions on allissues of mutual interest with aspecific focus on peace and securi-ty on Thursday afternoon, with a“great sense of confidence, opti-mism and determination” andremained engaged for over fivehours after which both sidesexpressed satisfaction.

After the meeting, ForeignSecretary Nirupama Rao wasquoted by some Pakistani televi-sion channels as stating that bothcountries had to work together toeliminate terrorism and that therecould be no segmented approach.Her Pakistani counterpart, SalmanBashir, added that terrorism wasrelated to peace and security in theregion.

The Indian delegationdescribed the talks as “construc-tive, substantive and forward-looking.” Ms. Rao said somesteps to improve the relations hadbeen discussed but these could notbe disclosed to the media. Mr.

Bashir flagged the LahoreDeclaration and Memorandum ofUnderstanding signed in 1999 anddescribed it as a “shared vision for

peace and security.”Though the first session of the

three-part engagement over thetwo days was initially scheduled

for two hours, the meeting wenton till late into the evening.According to External AffairsMinistry spokesman VishnuPrakash, all aspects related topeace and security have been dis-cussed. “Terrorism is an issue thatis confronting both countries andhas affected peace and security inboth countries. Both sides arecommitted to try and bridge thetrust deficit and take the relation-ship forward.”

“No miracles”Earlier in the day, Pakistan's

Minister of State for ForeignAffairs Hina Rabbani Khar said noone could expect miracles fromthese talks but “we are looking forforward movement.” While main-

taining that Kashmir is the coreissue, she said Pakistan hadalways been consistent on the needto resolve issues instead of lettingthem fester so long that theybecame larger than life and affect-ed the development of the region.

Within the rubric of peace andsecurity, confidence buildingmeasures (CBMs) — relating toboth nuclear and conventionalweapons — were looked at duringThursday's meeting.

At present, the two countrieshave CBMs in both areas, includ-ing informing the other in advanceof missile tests. As to whether anynew CBMs were discussed, nei-ther side was willing to throw anylight

India and Pakistan in nuclear confidence-building vow

Exuding optimism and determination, India and Pakistan began talksin Islamabad in end June. Here, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is

being greeted by her Pakistani counterpart, Salman Bashir, prior to the talks.

India to up defencesin Andamans,Lakshadweep

Radicals Closer Than Ever To Pakistan's Nukes

CBI to send LR toSwitzerland to probe

money-trail in 2G scam

Maid sues Indian consulgeneral in New York

Washington: A new report by the Federation ofAmerican Scientists says Pakistani nuclear weapons aremore vulnerable to capture by jihadist radicals than everbefore — despite months of increased drone attacks onmilitant groups and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The nuclear watchdog's report, to be released tomor-row, says ties between organizations like PakistaniTaliban and the country's intelligence service are partic-ularly troubling for the security of its nuclear stockpile.

“If you had asked me 10 years ago if Pakistan’s

nuclear weapons were likely to fall in the hands of theIslamic groups, I would say it was very unlikely,”Charles P. Blair, the author of the study, told iWatchnews, which obtained an advance copy of the report.“But now it is getting more likely.”

The report comes amid more brazen attacks launchedby Pakistani militants against the country's military,which has opted to store its nuclear weapons across thecountry in multiple less secure facilities to avoid theirdestruction in a single attack.

New Delhi: The CBI will soon send a formal requestto Switzerland to help the agency in tracking downthe alleged money trail of Swan Telecom, a companychargesheeted in the allocation of 2G spectrum.

CBI sources said this was decided after documentsreceived from Mauritius indicated flow of money toother European countries considered as tax havens.

They said Letters Rogatory (LR) will be sent toSwitzerland authorities to share investigation detailsin the allotment of second generation spectrum in2008.

If the Swiss authorities agreed, a joint team ofCBI and Enforcement Directorate would be sent tothe European country for carrying out investigations,the sources said.

“We have received ownership patterns and detailsof investments by a number of companies based inMauritius. Prima facie it appears that funds have beenrouted to Switzerland through some channels. We arestill examining all documents and will send our teamto probe it,” said a CBI official.

Mauritius-based front companies of foreigninvestors are often utilised as a route to avoid payingtaxes in India.

The sources in the investigating agency said theCBI has asked details of Mauritius-based DelphiInvestments Limited, Murphy Investments Ltd,Capital Global Ltd, Black Lion Ltd, Inditel Holdings,Deccan Asian Infrastructure, Aidetel Holding, KaifInvestments, Electro Investments Ltd and Palabinvestments for their alleged role in the 2G scam.

New York: Indian consul general inNew York Prabhu Dayal, who isaccused of treating a former domes-tic help as a slave and making sexu-al advances, has said that the Indiangovernment will now have to decidehow to proceed with the forcedlabour lawsuit filed against him byhis former maid. Dayal said that he

had received summons from thecourt and had turned the matter into the hands of theIndian government.

The government would have to see whether to resolvethe matter in court or go through the US State department,he said. Santosh Bhardwaj, 45, accuses Dayal of makingher work for long hours everyday at $300 a month, con-fiscating her passport, making her sleep in a storage clos-et and asking her for a massage.

Dayal, who has described these charges as "completenonsense," has said that Bhardwaj ran away because hedid not allow her to work outside the consulate to makesome extra money as it was against her visa rules.

Dayal has said that he never asked Bhardwaj for amassage, which she interpreted as a sexual advance.

The Indian government has already expressed sympa-thy for Dayal.

"We are disappointed and surprised at the allegationsagainst consul general of India in New York PrabhuDayal, by his former employee, which appear to be moti-vated and baseless," ministry of external affairsspokesperson Vishnu Prakash said last week.

But the US government says it is a matter for thecourts. Diplomats have immunity in line of official work,not personal matters.

New Delhi: Keeping in mindChina’s forays into the IndianOcean region, India has approvedplans to beef up its military infra-structure and force levels in theAndaman and Nicobar Islands andthe Lakshadweep chains on theeastern and western seaboards.

The plans, approved at ameeting of the country’s securitytop brass last month, involves theramping of army, navy, air forceand coast guard infrastructure,including a radar network, andforce levels of both men andmachines, a top defence ministryofficial said.

“The plans, approved at ameeting of the armed forces withthe national security adviser’soffice last month, involves signif-icant enhancement of militaryinfrastructure and force accretionin both the Andaman and Nicobarand Lakshadweep chains,” theofficial said on condition ofanonymity.

There is growing realisation inIndia that the island territorieshold the key to dominating thevital maritime zones and securingthe economic and strategic inter-ests, apart from boosting engage-ments with friendly countries suchas Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia,Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mauritiusand the Maldives by offering sup-port in capacity building, militaryassets transfer, and jointpatrolling of the common mar-itime borders.

The Andaman and Nicobarchain already hosts a tri-services

command, with elements of thearmy, navy and air force as partof its force structure, while theLakshadweep chain has a coastguard district headquarters andstations.

Among the approvals obtainedare upgrading the Andaman andNicobar Islands as an amphibiouswarfare training hub, as alsoincreasing the army’s force levelsto more than a brigade, the offi-cial said.

The naval air bases at PortBlair and the air force base in CarNicobar too will be upgraded tofacilitate fighter jet, helicopterand heavy transport plane opera-tions.

The Indian Air Force (IAF)has already tried out its potentfrontline Sukhoi SU-30 fighterjets from air bases in theAndaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Shibpur airstrip in northAndamans will be extended from3,200 feet to 12,000 feet to sup-port all types of aircraft and night-flying operations.

The navy and air force basesin both the island chains will alsodeploy unmanned aerial vehicles,to augment surveillance alongsidethe radar chains.

The navy, on its part, willscale up the jetties at Diglipur innorth Andamans, Kamorta insouth Andamans and CampbellBay in Car Nicobar into “opera-tional turn-around bases” withbetter refuelling and communica-tion facilities, and more personnel.

Nirupama Rao to be next envoy to USForeign Secretary Nirupama Raois set to be the next Indian ambas-sador to the US, official sourcessaid here.Rao, 60, will be demitting office

July 31 at the end of her two-yearterm.She will be replacing MeeraShankar, who has held the postsince 2009.

Prabhu Dayal


India

Toronto: Sans Amitabh Bachchan,the India International FilmAwards (IIFA) held on June 25 inToronto could well have seemedactor Shah Rukh Khan’s personalstage show. To be fair, he was theonly true-blue Bollywood super-star at this celeb-starved event,attended by some of the mostexcitable, celeb-hungry fans ofHindi film-stars in the entire world.South Asian Torontonians’ love forBollywood could shock the faint-hearted. They wouldn’t stopscreaming all day, all night,whether outside the FairmontRoyal York Hotel, where themovie heroes stayed, at the event’sgreen carpet, or inside the RogerCentre, the venue of the awards’night. If there was anyone whocould vaguely match the over-the-top enthusiasm of this crowd, itwas probably the loud, hystericalAnil Kapoor, host of one of thesegments of the night.

Once every few minutes, someof the other filmies who’d flowndown from Mumbai to the Ontariocapital found their moments ofshining glory. But it was prettymuch SRK, who shone through thenight. He hosted two lengthy seg-ments, opening and closing theprogramme. His final set was anaudience interactive show of itsown. He picked up 'best actor' tro-

phy for My Name Is Khan, fromtwo-time Oscar winner HillarySwank, no less. His director KaranJohar was awarded 'best director'for My Name Is Khan. His buddyArjun Rampal was adjudged 'bestsupporting actor' for Prakash Jha’sRajneeti. His 'Rab Ne Banadi Jodi’debutant Anushka Sharma was cho-sen best actor (female)….

Still, so far as number of tro-phies go, the night belonged toSalman Khan’s Dabangg: sixawards in all, including ‘best film’that producers Arbaaz Khan and

Malaika Arora received fromOntario's premier. Hollywood coo-lio Cuba Gooding Jr had earliergiven out the director's prize toJohar. Cuba said he wanted to par-ticipate in this "phenomenon"called Bollywood, “I’m bowledover by the sheer power of theIndian film industry across theglobe.” The Indian actors and per-formers who walked up on stage,on the other hand, had pretty muchone thing to say, “Hello Toronto”(to a screaming crowd). “What’sup Toronto” (to a screaming crowdagain). Their speeches were usual-ly longer than their audiences’attention spans. Dharmendra spokeand stood on stage for far moreminutes than any awards showmight ever allow, as did SharmilaTagore, Asha Bhosle, and severalothers.

The monotony of this damp-ened no spirits though; largelybecause of fine hosts RiteishDeshmukh (who, by the way, alsobagged the best comedian's awardfor Housefull!) and Boman Irani(haven't seen a better Saif Ali Khanimpersonation than his). A terrifictribute to Asha Bhosle in the formof Priyanka Chopra's dance med-ley, to music from the legend'scareer, was certainly the evening'sbest performance.

Washington: Assuring Americaninvestors that India was firmly set ona continuous reform path, IndianFinance Minister PranabMukherjeee has said that with recent"major steps" India is back on itshigh 8.5 plus percent growth path.

"That does not mean that we arereturning to growth path withoutproblems," he told a India-US busi-ness forum June 27 with USTreasury Secretary TimothyGeithner ahead of the second roundof Economic and FinancialPartnership talks here the next day.

While India's growth is largelydomestically driven, inflation pres-sures have been a "serious constraintwhich we shall have to tackle" tocheck the recent deceleration ofgrowth, Mukherjee said. Apartfrom high oil prices and commodityprices, it is supply problems thathave caused inflation problems, hesaid suggesting that while 5 to sixpercent inflation would be ideal, he

believed the Indian economy couldhandle inflation of up to 6.5 percent.

"Monetary policy and fiscal pol-icy thus must move in tandem. InIndia, we are doing so," he said.

"Tolerable level of inflation isvery difficult to define, but in oureconomy we feel that if we can keepthe inflationary pressure within fiveto six percent it would have beenideal, but we can deal with six, six-and-a-half percent," Mukherjee said.

Outlining a series of reformsunderway from bringing greaterclarity and predictability to foreigndirect investment regulations, bank-ing, insurance and pension funds, hehoped the planned measures wouldget parliamentary approval withtalks on to bring about a consensus.

Geithner acknowledged that theUS economy benefits from India'srapid growth while not impedingIndia's economic objectives saying,"Growth in India is good for the US,no threat to the US."

New Delhi: The prime minister's office (PMO) has takenserious note of news reports that exposed scores of sur-geries being performed by Indore doctors, promising toconvert girls as young as one to five years — apparentlywith gender ambiguity — into boys. The surgery, knownas genitoplasty, is done on the premise or pretext that thesechildren have internal organs that don't match their exter-nal genitalia. "The PMO has taken note of the seriousissues that arise from the story on doctors in Indore turn-ing young baby girls into boys, which appeared in theHindustan Times on June 26, 2011,” said a senior officialin the PMO.

The PMO official said a National Commission forProtection of Child Rights (NCPCR) team would be sentto Indore soon to investigate the matter. He said new lawscould be framed, if necessary, to deal with such medicalprocesses.

"It has been decided to obtain reports from the min-

istries of women and child development, health and fami-ly welfare about this. The ministries have also beenrequested to see if laws are being violated and if there areadequate legal safeguards against genitoplasty on youngchildren. One cannot subject infants to any such surgery,”the official said in his mail.

The commission asked the Madhya Pradesh govern-ment to get the matter investigated by a team of doctorsknown for their professional competence and ethical stan-dards and to submit a report in 15 days.m The state hasalso been asked to take necessary actions, including can-cellation of licences and registration of doctors and hospi-tals involved and initiating criminal cases against them.

Mahendra Hardia, minister of state for medical educa-tion, said, “If this is indeed happening, it is absolutelywrong. I have asked the joint director, health, of Indore tolook into the matter and fill me in with details. Only thencan we decide on what action is to be taken.”

Mumbai: Ask him if the newshas sunk in yet and the ‘no’comes even before you bat aneyelid. Abhishek Bachchan is ontop of the world and says thefeeling of becoming a fatherwould sink in only when he’ll“hold the baby in his arms.” Inhis first interview after the newsof wife Aishwarya Rai’s preg-nancy was announced, the 35-year-old actor confirms the babyis due in November and says itwas in fact Ash’s idea to let hisfather, actor Amitabh Bachchan,reveal the news to the world.

And the world, predictably,has reacted with joy. “The houseis full of flowers, the phone has-n’t stopped ringing. It’s just thehappiest feeling,” he says, andadds, “The baby’s due inNovember. I wish for a healthybaby, hopefully a daughter wholooks just like Ash. We wouldlike to have two kids, so maybe ason after that.”

Has the dinner table conver-sation turned to discussing babynames and ultrasound appoint-ments? “Not yet but it soonwill,” he laughs, “I haven’t hadthe time to read up on what sheshould be doing and eating in thisstage but after my film releases,that’s what I’ll get down todoing.” Ask him if he plans topamper Aishwarya during thepregnancy and he replies, “Iwould like to think she anyway

has no complaints, but yes, ofcourse!”

There were recent reportsraising a question on the timingof the announcement made byAmitabh Bachchan, hinting thatit was carefully aimed to scuttlethe IIFA awards since they haddropped him as their brandambassador. “Disgusting.Absolutely disgusting is how Iwould term such reports. Somemorons think that we would usethe happiest moment of our livesto gain cheap mileage. I can onlywish that when such a momentcomes in their lives, they don’thave to face such deplorable neg-ativity,” he says.

IIFA Awards: SRK wins, Dabangg scores India returning tohigh growth path:Pranab Mukherjee

We plan to have twokids: Abhishek

Latest in son obsession: surgery to turngirls into boys

Shah Rukh Khan being presented the ‘Best Leading Male’ award byHilary Swank, with Anil Kapoor also in frame.

Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy wastweeted by Amitabh Bachchan

And the winners were…Playback singer (female): Mamata Sharma for Munni Badnaam Hui(Dabangg)Playback singer (male): Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for Tere Mast Mast DoNain (Dabangg)Music director: Sajid-Wajid, Lalit Pandit (Dabangg)Outstanding achievement in cinema: Sharmila Tagore50 years’ contribution to Indian Cinema: DharmendraDebutant actor (male): Ranveer SinghDebutant actor (female): Sonakshi SinhaBest actor (in a comic role): Riteish Deshmukh (Housefull)Best actor (in a negative role): Sonu Sood (Dabangg)Supporting actor (female): Prachi Desai (Once Upon A Time InMumbai)Supporting actor (male): Arjun Rampal (Rajneeti)Actor (female): Anushka Sharma (Band Baaja Baraat)Actor (male): Shah Rukh Khan (My Name Is Khan)Film: Dabangg

India-Australia


By Rekha Bhattacharjee

In the midst of this financial crisisAustralia’s swift policy response savedtens of thousands of jobs, countless

business failures, and a level of individualmisery and hardship that can never beknown. Today, despite the hammer blowsof recent natural disasters, the economicoutlook is strong and we are in a betterposition than most.

A country’s economy can also benefitfrom, as research tells us, by supportingwomen in the work force and in the socie-ty. This is a high yield investment result-ing in stronger economies, more vibrantcivil societies, healthier communities andgreater peace and stability.

This second term Labor Governmentfaces a very different set of challengesthan it did for much of the first term. Withprivate demand strengthening and unem-ployment falling, Australian economy ispushing towards capacity. The federal gov-ernment is speaking of restraint in publicspending to stay the course and bring backthe budget surpluses.

In Australia, women are the surprisewinners with the latest job figures showingfemale employment climbing at a timewhen male employment has been sliding.

Industry trends reveal shrinking jobmarket in mining, manufacturing and realestate while there is increase in healthcare,social administration and arts. Thus, theindustries that are continuing to do wellare those that employ women.

Much of the manifestation of femaleachievement has come in response toopportunity. The window of opportunityhas widened the awareness of what womencan do.

Today more women are leading gov-ernments, business and non-governmentalorganizations than in previous generations.

The US Secretary of State HillaryClinton when addressing a thousand stu-dents at Delhi University on her last visitsaid, “It is exciting that if there is any bet-ter time in human history to be a woman –it is right now in the modern world. Forme it is a tremendous opportunity andresponsibility that I willingly accept.”

The time has certainly come toacknowledge that women have what ittakes – the realm of possibilities appearslimitless.

A look of the recent past in Australiaand India shows how women are makingtheir mark in every field.

AUSTRALIAJulia Gillard, the first Woman Prime

Minister of Australia.PM Julia Gillard has some ambitious

goals for 2011 - including a carbon tax.She frequently talks about the virtues ofhard work and believes in its intrinsic (asdistinct from economic) benefit.

Quentin Bryce, the first womanGovernor General before Australiabecomes a Republic.

It has been more than a century and 25appointments for a woman to be given therole of Governor General. As PrimeMinister Kevin Rudd said, ‘her appoint-ment captures the spirit of modernAustralia’.

Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland

The first woman in Australia to beelected Premier – an important milestoneon the road to achieving gender balance inAustralian Politics. More important thanBligh’s gender are the qualities that madeher Queenslanders’ undisputed choice ofpremier. She is one of the few femalepoliticians who managed to strike the rightbalance of professional toughness and per-sonal warmth.

Justice Susan Kiefel, apex court bench

Justice Susan Kiefel was appointed tothe High Court of Australia. Justice Kiefelwas only the third female to join the male-dominated bench. She will sit alongsideJustice Susan Crennan, making it the firsttime in its 104 year history Australia hashad two female High Court judges at thesame time.

ABCThe ABC’s historically male dominat-

ed news division gets its first female headafter the national broadcaster chose womenfrom its own ranks to fill two executivepositions.

Kate Torney, 41, who was head of

Asia Pacific News, becomes the corpora-tion director of News. Kate Dundas, 50,the ABC’s head of human resources isappointed Director of Radio.

INDIAIn independent India, with the lifting of

restrictions – women are making theirmark in every field.

Pratibha Patil, President of India

Mrs. Patil assumed office as the 12thPresident of India on July 25, 2007. Sheis the first woman to have been elected tothis august office. Immediately prior toelection as President, Mrs Patil was theGovernor of Rajasthan from November 8,2004 till June 21, 2007.

Sonia Gandhi, Congress presidentAt the helm of the grand old Congress

Party in India, Mrs Gandhi was named byTimes magazine as among the 100 mostinfluential people in the world whileForbes magazine ranked her 13 on its listof the world’s most powerful women.

Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO ofPepsi Co

She has been named the InternationalCEO of the year 2009. Indra Nooyi ‘scontribution include promoting and sup-porting socially responsible business prac-tices, including taking on one of the plan-et’s most pressing problem – ClimateChange!

Meera Kumar – first female Speakerof Lok Sabha in India.

Daughter of late heavyweight leaderBabu Jagjivan Ram, Meera Kumar gave upher successful career in the Indian ForeignService to enter politics in 1980s. She hasbeen elected to the Lok Sabha five timesand has set a landmark as the first presid-ing officer of either of the two Houses ofParliament.

Nirupama Rao, Foreign Secretary ofIndia.

Rao takes the top job in externalaffairs ministry after crucial ambassador-ships in Sri Lanka and China apart frombeing India’s first woman foreign ministryspokesperson. She also served asAmbassador in Peru and in missions inWashington and Moscow.

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister,West Bengal

In WestBengal, MsBanerjee’s leader-ship was essentialto mobilise themass fury againstthe Marxist-ledLeft Front’s mis-rule - that ruledfor 34 years-- toput it no morestrongly than that!

J. Jaylalithaa, Chief Minister, TamilNadu

In thesouthern statea viable alter-native wasavailable inthe charismat-ic personalityof MsJayalalithaa,who hasalready been

its chief minister twice. The difference inthe causes that destroyed the Communistbastion in the east and the family rule ofDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)patriarch M. Karunanidhi in the south isalso significant.

Mayawati, Chief Minister, UttarPradesh

At age 39, she became the youngestpolitician to be elected Chief Minister inUttar Pradesh and the first Dalit-womanChief Minister of any Indian state.

After three short tenures between 1995and 2003, it is her fourth term in thisoffice!

Supporting women is a high yield investment

Anna Bligh with Oprah Winfrey


Community

First Indian subcontinent writers’ meetOn May 24 a group of Di-

aspora of Indian Writersand Poets in Australia

(DIWPA) met at Blacktown ArtsCentre. Sydney poets Abbas RazaAlvi and Jagdip Johar organizedthe meeting with writers that in-cluded Farida Lakhany, IqtedarAbdi, Zafar Iqbal, Anuj andSwetchha Kulshreshtha from theIndian subcontinent community.

The group had the honour ofmeeting a famous Australian,writer, critic, journalist, filmmaker, political commentatorwhose rumblings are well knownby the avid readers of the Indiancommunity who’ve read his col-umn on the opinion pages of Syd-ney Morning Herald a few yearsback. Bob Ellis came to the meet-ing, sat quietly sifting through hisbook to read a piece he wrotewhen he was in India in 1971when Bangladesh emerged as anation. The scene of the war camealive as Bob read and later men-tioned that he was there with ac-tivist John Pilger and even metSatyajit Ray. He said after thereading, “It is good to see theprice someone pays for the kind ofutopia that we create. The vastgreen fields, vegetation and land-scape I saw there was something

to die for but you’d see a tank ortwo in the middle of those.”

When asked whether he plansbefore writing, he answered,“Writing should be the engine thatdrives the thinking. If its plannedactivity then its dead already.”

Bob said he wakes up routine-ly at 2.30am and writes till 6.30and then goes to sleep for a littlewhile, “I try to eat light and sip ongreen tea while working with clas-sical music playing in the back-ground.” His advice, “Write aslegibly as you can. It’s a process.

Everybody has a book in them.And read as much as you can.”He talks about TS Eliot, Heming-way and other great writers andtheir habits.

Bob says that he reads some-thing like 48 magazines and jour-nals from around the world everyweek. When asked that as multi-cultural community writer one isconscious and not sure whetherthe mainstream will approve, headvises, “Bugger them! just write.Listen to your voice, speak slow-ly and let the words come.”

“Try to meet regularly ingroups,” says Ellis. Currentlyhe’s writing a few plays workingin a group with other four writers.Bob writes in long hand andmakes his wife Anne Brooksbank,an author and screen writer, typehis work. It seems he does notread emails leaving them for herto print for him to read. Bob andAnne have three children and he isanxiously waiting for the arrivalof their grandchild soon.

Talking about politicians Bobsaid that he finds Julia Gillard

worse than John Howard. “I knowher and she is a passionate racist.”Politicians that Bob likes are BillShorten, Lindsay Tanner and mostdefinitely Peter Costello.

When mentioned that it was adream come true to see him inperson, says Ellis, finally flashinga smile on an otherwise seriousface, “All you have to do is askand I’ll come!”

The group is given a demon-stration of a beautiful, lilting mu-sic that transports everyone awayas they sit with their eyes closed.The musician is a French lady, IsGuellemin, who lives in Sydneyand makes her own musical in-struments. She has turned a reedof bamboo into something thatcreates sounds of swirling water.She hums and plays on singingbowls of various shapes and sizes.Her music creates a moment ofconnection with oneself. Black-town Arts Centre’s acting directorSophia Kouyoumdjian is alsopresent at the meeting promising agreat future for a creative expres-sion from the Indian subcontinentcommunity. The meeting hasturned out to be definitely a dis-tinguished debut for DIWPA inthe great company of great BobEllis, no less.

Diaspora of Indian Writers and Poets in Australia group posing with Bob Ellis (sitting fourth from left)

Adnan loved Sydney audience!By Neeru Saluja

Adnan Sami does not sing a song, helives it and he loves it. Not only hecreates a passion for it on stage for

himself but also for audience who lap uphis every note, every word. How else cana singer deliver such beautiful songs thatmake one fall in love all over again? A ro-mantic at heart, every song of his cast aspell of magic of love, joy, pleasure andhappiness. A ball of energy, on the coldevening of June 18, Adnan left his fans to-tally spellbound.

Don't get mistaken. It's not only hisvoice that does the wonders. He is giftedwith a magical touch too. Known as thefastest keyboard player in the world, hisfingers move like a magic wand on the pi-ano. Smiling and talking to the audience,he pleases them with whatever they want.A magician in the disguise of a musician!

Adnan Sami has played the piano sincethe age of five. Born and brought up inUK, he started taking lessons from PanditShiv Kumar Sharma during his visits to In-dia. Melody queen Asha Bhosle spottedhim at an RD Burman concert in Londonand encouraged him to take up music as acareer. And soon he crossed path withAsha Bhosle in his first Pakistani film asan actor/composer for which she did theplayback singing. After a failed attempt atPakistani pop, Adnan finally teamed upwith the melody queen to release a collec-tion of love songs named 'Kabhi to NazarMilao'. The album became an instant rageand Adnan became a sensation. His secondalbum 'Tera Chehra' also did well andBollywood playback singing offers poured

in. The trademark of his songs were theBollywood stars in his music videos – itstarted with Aditi Gowitrikar (Kabhi toNazar Milao) followed by Rani Mukherjee(Tera Chehra and O Meri Jaan), NamrataShirodkar (Bheegi Bheegi Raat), DiaMirza (Pal do Pal), Amitabh Bachchan(Kabhi Nahi), Govinda, Raveena Tandonand many more.

With such a good standing in the musicscene, Adnan Sami did not disappoint hisfans on his first visit to Sydney. Neverever did the stage at Hills Centre look so

enchanting. With his full orchestra and as-tounding light effects, every song had itsown charm. The audiovisual effects turnedthe stage into a fantasyland, while some-times the background screen focused onAdnan's magical fingers on the piano andat times the background matched the themeof the song.

Starting off with his first Bollywoodtrack 'Mehbooba Mehbooba', Adnanpleased his fans with his evergreenfavourites like Dil Keh Raha, Salaam-e-Ishq, Sun Zara, Ishq Ishqan, Udi Udi,

Bheegi Bheegi Raaton mein, Tera Chehraand Kabhi to Nazar Milao'. “Your wishesare my command” exclaimed Adnan andhe even fulfilled the last wish of the audi-ence 'Lift Kara De'. Neither he himselfnor could the audience resist connecting tohim as everyone eagerly got up to dance tohis songs close to the stage, near theirhero! In the intermission Adnan Sami washonoured by the sponsor Paul Singh fromHaveli restaurant and he thanked the or-ganisers Desi Style and Shivam Events forbringing him to Sydney. “These are thepeople who have brought me to you,” Ad-nan told the audience. Adnan’s rapportwith the audience was great throughout theconcert, when he finally answered thequestion on everyone's mind – how did helose so much weight?

“I weighed 210 kg. I went to the nu-tritionist and they told me to give up rice,bread, sugar, oil and indulge in a high pro-tein diet. It was not easy. I lost 145 kg, butit was a lot of hard work. It's wonderful toget all the applause, but the biggest thrillwas to walk in a store and get anything offthe shelf. I had tailor made clothes, twotailors used to hold the measuring tape tomeasure my waist once, I'm glad it's allbehind me,” said Adnan.

When Adnan took his breaks, the audi-ence was entertained by stand up comedi-an Rahul Ingle, singer Riaz Khan anddancers from Road2Bollywood. Leavinghis fans mesmerized and wanting formore, Adnan finally had to bid goodbye.As the man with the midas touch told hisfans, “I love you Sydney – and always re-member, an artist is not an artist withoutan audience.”

Adnan Sami, the slimmer version of the singer at the concert

Community


A beauty pageant that turned ugly

Celebrations! Even though the weather has been cold and wet in June the community celebrated events indoors and outdoor. Greenathon3 func-tion by IABBV brought smile on faces of all as it turned sunny while Sydney’s Priya Singh celebrated her 21st Birthday bash withfamily and friends on June 12. AIBC honoured Cricketer Brett Lee, Arun Jagatramka and Nirmal Singh Bhangoo for their contri-bution in helping build better relations between India and Australia. AIBC celebrates its 25th anniversary this year!

Priya with grandma Mrs Bimla Singh IABBV’s Mala Mehta with Deepti and Khushboo L to R: AIBC NSW president Dipen Rughani, Nirmal Bhangoo Junior, ArunJagatramka, Brett Lee and Premier Barry O’Farrell at NSW parliament house.

What does it take to be a real womanin today's world? She balances a career,home, marriage and motherhood all at oneplatform. And that too with a smile on herface, braving all the odds. The Indianwomen have little time, but they still havedreams, dreams that need fulfillment.

Keeping those wishes in mind thebeauty pageant, 'My name is Woman -Mrs India Australia', was born last year.The brainchild of director Annie Gurung,the inspiration came from the very simpleyet the most beautiful experience in herlife 'marriage and motherhood!'.

"The feeling and realization was thatthe society did not applaud or appreciateenough, the small yet very important con-tribution women made every hour by nat-urally taking up the role of a home maker,rearing a child in addition to being breadwinners in this modern day world, tomaintain a happy family ultimately pro-ducing a happier society. The thought was- why not we create a platform to cele-brate the big and small contribution of awoman."

The idea was new and people wereinitially resistant to accept the change.Though Mrs India has picked up popular-ity in India as it's organised by Gladragsand was even a reality show last year, itwas a new concept in Australia. With lessmedia support but more relying on wordof mouth and social media, they finallymade their way and managed to get agood score of talented contestants fromvaried walks of life.

On June 4 at Riverside Parramatta theevent was colourfully designed withBollywood dances, bhangra and dhols.Judges included the famed June DailyWatkins, Mrs Australia 2009 CarinHillman Varma, community leader ArunaChandrala and the pageant director. MonaSingh was declared the winner, whileNeeru Singh and Inderpreet Kaur were thefirst runnes up and second runner uprespectively. The Mrs Talented and MrsBest Costume went to Jasmine Walia, MrsPhotogenic and Mrs Personality to RubyBains, while Vaidehi Mehta won the MrsBeauty for a Cause title.

Unfortunately, there were allegations

that the judging was not entirely fair.When TIDU asked about results beingrigged, Anup Bhandari of Mrs IndiaAustralia said, "These rumors were thereright from the beginning that was verystrange and surprising! However, in retro-spect it appears that through our profes-sional approach of work and not allowinganyone to interfere in how we operate westepped in few people's toes and egos. Wehad proper system and process that wefollowed to judge the contestants. Theprocess was very fair and just. The titleand subtitle winners were deserving andin line with the spirit of the pageant.However, after the contest we also sadlylearned that few title winners were totallyagainst the spirit of the contest. Aftermuch thought, advice and discussion wehad to strip three titles that were award-ed."

It leaves a bad taste that the pageantended in a controversy: that all the con-testants didn't go home with a smile ontheir face. Whereas some winners are cel-ebrating their win others who have beenstripped of the titles are so sour that one ofthe contestant has decided to take theorganizer on by sending a legal challengeto judges' decision on the titles.

Was it that a result was not accepted inthe right spirit? Was it a game of moneyand fame? Was it properly organized ornot? Why was there a tie? Why did theorganisers have to strip titles? What actu-ally happened behind the scenes.

Hope these rumours pass by silentlyand the Indian married woman may carryon to showcase their talent on such a plat-form where they will be recognized. If wehave to celebrate womanhood, thereshould be no controversies. After all a truebeauty is not just looking beautiful butbeauty of character in and out, talent,poise and celebration of motherhood inwomen. Above all the pageant should befair, full of fun and sporting acceptance.Then only will it truly represent the causeit sought out to achieve in the first place.Not just some ugly turnaround and a totalcounterproductive effect that it has pro-duced this year.rm

MIA 2011 winner Mona Singh. Inset: Winners of various titles announced on the night

By Neeru Saluja


Bollywood

By Neeru Saluja

Move over superstars, the latestsuccess formula is to be smart withmoney. Gone are the days when ropinga superstar in the film and spendinglakhs on exotic sets could guaranteethe success of a film. The younger gen-eration of directors are innovative intheir concepts and are not scared innarrating the story of a common man.

There are no Swiss Alps, glossylocales and glamorous stars in thesefilms. The films tell the stories of mid-dle-class people and revolve aroundday to day situations. Yet they arefetching most of the awards at the star-studded functions year after year.

The trend started off with films like'Bheja Fry' and 'Khosla ka Ghosla', butlast year was the biggest year of lowbudget films. Films like 'Tere BinLaden', 'Udaan', 'Peepli Live', 'DoDooni Char', 'Love Sex and Dhokha','Band Baja Baraat' revolved aroundsimple themes, middle-class peopleand even rural locations. While someof these films featured in internationalfilm festivals, Aamir Khan's PeepliLive was India's official submission toOscars. Rustic charm, fresh contentand talking about our very own Indiansappealed to audiences rather than thoseexpensive elite NRI films which havebecome a passe.

This is not the first time smallbudget films have ruled. An earlyexample of a very successful low-budget film was the1975 Bollywoodfilm Sholay, which cost Rs. 2 crore($400,000) to produce and grossed Rs.

300 crore ($67 million), making it thehighest-grossing film of all time inIndian cinema. Oscar winningSlumdog Millionaire was another sur-prise, with a budget of $15 million andgrossing over $360 million worldwide,it was a success worldwide.

Renowned Bengali film directorSatyajit Ray was also known for mak-ing micro-budget films, the mostfamous being 'The Apu Trilogy' whichincluded the critically acclaimedPathar Panchali. It was produced on ashoestring budget of Rs.1.5 lakh and isknown amongst the greatest films of alltime.

On the other hand, in Hollywoodthe most successful low budget filmwas 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project'. Ithad a budget of around $60,000 butgrossed almost $249 million world-wide. Another one was 1972 film DeepThroat which cost only $22,500 to pro-duce, yet was rumored to have grossedover $600 million. Director KevinSmith launched his career by makingthe low-budget film Clerks which wasmade on a shoestring budget of$27,000 yet its success helped launchSmith's career.

Coming back to Bollywood,although the recent biggest hits werebig budget films like Dabangg,Rajneeti and Golmaal 3, it was accom-panied by big budget films whichflopped miserably at the box office -Action Replay, Guzaarish, Tees MaarKhan and Kites. Though they had allthe ingredients of a blockbuster - bigstar cast, big budget, excellent music,beautiful locales, the films couldn't

keep the cash counter ringing.Audiences cannot be brought to thecinemas by all the above now, the storyhas to impress the cinema lover toactually watch the film.

So what's the reason behind thechanging trend? It's quite evident - pro-ducers are now willing to experimentwith small-budget films because a lotof risk is not involved. It's a simple for-mula - 'the less you hit your producer,the less he will hit you back'. But thereare drawbacks - the difficult part is rop-ing in stars. When a big budget filmwith multiple stars flops, the responsi-bility does not fall on the shoulders ofone actor. And on the other hand, whena small-budget film flops, no one evennotices.

Indian film makers are finallyready to experiment. They are no moreshy of telling simple stories where peo-ple can see themselves. The economictrend has changed and there is a newbreed of young directors in the marketwho are gutsy enough to stop aping thewest and talk about us.

Watch out for some upcoming lowbudget films that may excite you withtheir mix of comedy, drama in SudhirMishra's 'Yeh Saali Zindagi' withIrrfan Khan Khan and hotChidragandha Singh; 'Tanu WedsManu' with Kangana Ranaut andMadhavan; 'Shagird' with NanaPatekar; Kalki Koechlin in 'That GirlIn Yellow Boots'; directorBhavnaTalwar's 'Happi' with Pankaj

Small budgetfilms: the latestsuccess storyWhat's the reason behind the changing trend? It's quite evident - produc-ers are now willing to experiment with small-budget films because a lot ofrisk is not involved. It's a simple formula - 'the less you hit your producer,the less he will hit you back'

Kapoor; 'Paan Singh Tomar' based onthe true story of a steeplechase runnerwho becomes an outlaw boasts ofIrrfan Khan's best performance todate. Last but not least RakeyshOmprakash Mehra's new film 'Teen

Thay Bhai' with Om Puri, ShreyasTalpade and Deepak Dobriyal are thefilm's leads might be an interestingmix to look forward to.

Pics: Some low budget films include (clockwise): KalkiKoechlin in 'That Girl In Yellow Boots'; Big block buster‘Sholay’ only cost two crores to make 300 crores; Hollywood’s‘deep Throat’ only cost US $22,500 to make while ‘Apur Sansar’a measely 1.5 lakh rupees - approximately $3000 in today’sterms.

Bollywood


By Neeru Saluja

They were together for 25years and had four children. Theirmarriage was considered as oneof the most successful Hollywoodweddings. Their divorce shook upthe whole industry and the sancti-ty of marriage was being ques-tioned. It was all over the head-lines - former CaliforniaGovernor, action movie starArnold Schwarzenegger and hiswife Maria Shriver have separat-ed after 25 years of marriage.

While that was the news inHollywood, Bollywood was noless behind. Making affairs publicand then breaking off relation-ships has become the latest fad inour film industry. While we letHollywood talk about Arnie -Maria, Brad - Jen, Sandra - Jessebreak-ups, let's talk about therecent splits in Bollywood whichcreated headlines.

Bipasha Basu and JohnAbraham

They seemed inseparable - thehottest couple of Bollywoodgoing strong since a decade. Whocould imagine them breaking up?Who could forget their onscreenchemistry in Jism? The duskysexy Bong beauty and the hand-some hunk were the typical BollyHolly couple having a live in rela-tionship but no commitment tomarriage.

But the grapevine says that thetime had come to test the water.Bips wanted to get married whileJohn didn't want to tie the knotand settle down at this point of hiscareer. They had no choice leftbut to part ways and find anotherperfect match for themselves.

Salman Khan and Katrina

KaifAnother sad end to a long

affair in Bollywood. First therewere rumours and then came thetruth of their break up. Salmanstarted dating Katrina when shearrived in Bollywood in 2004 andhe helped her a lot to attain star-dom. They also starred in a fewfilms together and despite theirage difference, their affair lastedfor a good time.

But the bad boy lived up to hisreputation. He was jealous of heron screen chemistry with AkshayKumar, disapproved of her wear-ing short skirts and started inter-fering in her career. The protec-tive boyfriend attitude didn't lastlong. Despite their break up, theyare still good friends.

Ranbir Kapoor and DeepikaPadukone

Blame it all on Sydney! Yes

these two love birds locked eyesin Sydney on the sets of BachnaAe Haseeno. Didn't they lookamazing together? Both wereyoung newcomers, latest heart-throb sensations and sizzledchemistry on screen. As theyoung modern couple, they hadno qualms in openly admittingtheir relationship and sharingtheir secrets of love in magazinesand award functions. Ouch sooocute!

But Ranbir's parents RishiKapoor and Neetu Singh didn'tfind that so cute. They feared thattheir son's popularity with thefemale fans is being affected.They never really acceptedDeepika who changed boyfriendsvery quickly. Whatever the rea-son, they made a great couple andthey parted ways in a friendly

manner after a two year courtship.Preity Zinta and Ness WadiaA pretty vivacious actress and

a rich tycoon boyfriend - perfectstory to hit the tabloids. But it wasnever perfect for the pretty PreityZinta and her boyfriend NessWadia. Their affair started in2005 but their engagement, own-ership of Kings XI Punjab cricketteam, Preity's acceptance in theWadia family always made head-lines. Their split finally came in2009 and they maturely declaredtheir affections, with the samematurity they accepted their split.They still go to IPL meetingtogether but that's all to it.

Kareena and Shahid KapurThe lovey dovey 'Kapoor'

couple soon became the hottestduo after they starred together in'Fida' in 2004. They went on to

star in more movies - 'ChinaTown', Chup Chup Ke, Jab WeMet but, except for the last one,they never sizzled on screen.Their four years of love was notstrong enough to hold them astheir career went through differ-ent phases, one tasting successand the other not.

Who dumped whom is still aquestion as both of them foundsolace in their co-star arms prettysoon. If Shahid tried to connecthis kismat with his Kismat con-nection co-star Vidya Balan,Kareena fell for the smooth andsavvy Saif Ali Khan during theirshooting of Omkara. ThoughShahid moved on to Priyankafrom Vidya, Saif and Kareena aregoing steady and are known to bethe most glamorous couple of tin-sel town.

Till marriagedo us part...Blame it all on Sydney! Yes these two love birds locked eyes inSydney on the sets of Bachna Ae Haseeno. Didn't they lookamazing together? Both were young newcomers, latest heart-throb sensations and sizzled chemistry on screen. As the youngmodern couple, they had no qualms in openly admitting theirrelationship and sharing their secrets of love in magazines andaward functions. Ouch sooo cute!

Census News


By Neena Badhwar

Paul Lowe is the Head of the AustralianPopulation Census program and isresponsible for all aspects of the pro-

gram from enumeration through to the dis-semination of the results. He has over 20years’ experience in census taking inAustralia and has worked in all areas of theprogram including the role of ExecutiveDirector of the Census Data ProcessingCentre.

He has also worked as a census technicaladvisor for the National Statistical Offices inPNG, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Thailand.He is also a member of the InternationalTechnical Advisory Boards for both theAfghanistan and Iraq censuses.

Lowe was the principle editor of the UNpublication "Handbook on CensusManagement for Population and HousingCensuses" and has presented many trainingcourses on census management in develop-ing countries.

The Indian Down Under spoke to PaulLowe about the upcoming Census onAugust 9, 2011 and how the Indian com-munity should go about furnishing Censusinformation.

Census 2011 is upon us. It is the biggestnumber collecting exercise in Australia thatemploys 43,000 community workers, saysPaul Lowe, the Head of Census, “We haveto reach to 9 million homes across vast dis-tances of this huge subcontinent.”

“It is a vital set of information which ishelpful in planning Australia’s future. Thepeople employed for this purpose know thevalue of Census information and are quite acommunity minded people coming fromdiverse background that makes up Australia.Since Australia is a large country it doespose challenges but we try to put together anaccurate snapshot of Australia andAustralians.”

When asked about the community Profilebooklets that ABS used to publish, saysLowe, “We have stopped printing those pro-file booklets and the Census results in theform of community profile are available onthe website of Australian Bureau of Statisticsat nominal cost.”

Would it not be good to furnish theseprofiles or their links to the community,related academics and statisticians so thatthey have better access to the data and beable to use it for interpreting and asking helpin areas of need by a specific community.Replies Lowe, “I am looking into that andwill try to send the information through tocommunity groups and media.”

According to Lowe, about 97% ofAustralians responded and participated in thelast Census and that it does not apply to for-eign diplomats while everyone else presentin Australian homes or anywhere inAustralia on August 9, the night of Census2011, must be counted. “That includes citi-

zens of Australia, permanent residents, visi-tors, tourists, overseas students, temporaryworkers, even refugees. Then we consult theimmigration’s departure cards at the airportsand add on to the Census data to figure outnet results of the Australian population.”The drawback of counting the departures isthat some of the Census data is not collectedon those people overseas who according toPaul are a substantial number. Says he, “InApril of this year there were 693,000 shortterm resident departures from Australia. It’sjust that that they are counted in the popula-tion number.”

One can see that there has been a markedincrease in the number of the Indian com-munity having made Australia their perma-nent home yet, the last Census showed only234,000 people from Indianbackground.Could that be an undercount andmay be the community did not participate theway it should have. Says Paul, “In the lastcensus there was an undercount of net 2.7%and we encourage Indian community to par-ticipate in this Census on August 9 so thatthey are counted properly for all sorts of rea-sons. The ABS estimates that the Indianundercount was 18 per cent.

Census information is used for a range ofplanning purposes by all levels of govern-ment and private institutions. It is used todetermine such things as where infrastruc-ture and community services are located,like hospitals, schools and roads. So it’simportant that Indian community is countedproperly, which can only happen with theirfull participation on the night of the census.It is vital for the Indian community that bycreating an accurate profile of Australia, theCensus gives us a snapshot of who we are asAustralians.

The number of seats each state and terri-tory has in the House of Representatives isalso based on Census figures, as are federalfunding arrangements to the states and terri-tories. Census information is used as thebasis for allocation of GST revenue to the

states and territories too,” says Lowe. What if one does not furnish the right

information? Says Lowe, “We rely on peo-ple’s honesty and mostly they are. TheCensus is compulsory for all and people whodo not participate are liable for penalty. Weonly send a notice and the judge decides,which can be up to $110 a day.”

About the language questions, numbers16 and 17 in the Census form , TIDU askedLowe that since anyone from the Indian sub-continent region being multilingual and usesat least 4 spoken languages at home, whatshould they fill, replied he, “You’d have tochoose the most spoken language at home.You may add other languages but only onelanguage will be measured as far as Censusgoes.”

About helping out people who do notunderstand how to fill Census forms, Lowesays, “We have people who offer support topeople from non-English speaking back-grounds. One can either look up for help onour website and there’s also a helpline toguide people through.”

What about the privacy of informationtendered in the Census, his answer is, “Wehave a proud history of keeping the data pri-vate and we destroy it straight away afterprocessing the records. Your information isconfidential and we do not give to govern-ment bodies or private organizations as itwill be a severe breach of the informationcollected by Census.”

Lowe adds that this year’s Census doesnot have any new questions from what wasasked in the last Census though E-Census,that is filling up of Census forms, was avail-able in 2006, only 10 per cent responded onthe internet whereas the Census this timeround is pushing for a 30 per cent throughthe net.

“It is quite a simple and smart form thatguides people through in easy steps. So doparticipate and fill E-Census forms to getquicker and faster results of the demograph-ics of Australia and Australians in 2011.”

Be counted in Australian Census

Paul Lowe, Head of the AustralianPopulation Census program

If numbers don’t show, we miss out: ShebaSheba Nandleokyar, CEO of Multicall

- a campaign company which hasbeen assigned with disseminating

information and awareness about Census2011 in the multicultural community, saidthat Census 2011 was quite special as itmarks the 100th year of Census inAustralia with first Census having beenconducted in the year 1911. TIDU askedsome questions specific to the Indian com-munity and the Census, the questions thatIndian community should look out for?Answers Sheba, “The Census survey hassome extremely important questions thatcapture data specific to the Indian commu-nity. Question No. 12 where we are asked‘In which country was the person born?’‘India’ or any other sub-continent countrymust be entered under the column ‘Other,please specify’.

“Question number 16 is importantwhere you are asked if you speak a lan-guage other than English at home. I wouldsincerely advise the Indian community toenter their spoken language, be it Hindi orany other in the column ‘Other, Pleasespecify’.

Question number 18 is quite importantwhere a person’s ancestry is noted. Againit is good to give our Indian backgroundeven if we are born here as the ancestrycontinues to be Indian. Ancestry shouldnot be misunderstood for ‘citizenship’.

Sheba points to another question num-ber 19, “This question must be answeredcarefully which asks about your religion.Indian community should enter ‘Hindu’ orany other religion they follow under‘Others’.”

Sheba stresses the fact that as a mem-ber of the Indian community and as mem-ber of the wider multicultural communityin Australia that the Census form should befilled up on the night of August 9 and ten-dered to the collectors when they comeknocking on your door.

“And since the E-Census form on thenet is available throughout the month ofAugust, it can be filled in easy steps and atyour convenience. I recommend that youdo that by the end of August when the col-lection of Census closes,” adds Sheba.

About the Census and its benefits, saysSheba, “If we are able to get ourselvesrecorded accurately the data benefits the

Indian community as also other communi-ties in Australia in various ways. Forexample if we know where the Indians aresettling down and in which state the gov-ernment funding can reflect those addition-al numbers in providing services specificto certain sections of those community.”

“Not only transport, hospitals butCensus helps in planning decisions aboutcommunity services. The government usesCensus data for all sorts of planning pur-poses about infrastructure, services tocommunity where they live.”

“It is obviously quite important that thenumbers are recorded correctly so thatgovernment can better plan and apply itsplanning where needed. Also the federalgovernment’s funding arrangements tostate and territory governments are basedon Census information.”

Says Sheba, “Last but not the least, isthat the census data is used by marketers totarget better services and their products tovarious communities. If numbers don’tshow up we miss out. So we must get our-selves counted and that everyone fills theCensus form, be it a citizen, resident,tourist, student or a visitor.”

Sheba Nandkeolyar, CEO ofMulticall Connexions, the agency thatcommunicates about the Census 2011

messages to all the multiculturalcommunities. She is the marketing

strategist and works closely with clientsto target multicultural audiences.


Community

By Neena Badhwar

Dipen Dhruv, CEO ofLeapfrog Consulting - amanagement consulting

company focusing on organiza-tions that are going through tech-nological transformation, was notthe CEO for one night but ahomeless person on the streets ofSydney.

Dipen Dhruv participated in StVinnies Sleepout campaign onJune 16 to fundraise for thehomeless people in Australia. Atother times Dipen is busy sailingon the Sydney Harbour onSaturdays enjoying the beautifulharbour of Sydney city in a 'luckycountry' called Australia, saysDipen Dhruv, a 45-year old fatherof two. "There are many who arenot so lucky as according to datathere are now more than 200,000homeless people on streets today.The night was an eye opener forme."

"We were about 200 CEOs

sleeping at Luna Park where wewere given a soup bowl and apiece of bread and some card-boards and asked to find a cornerto sleep in. We even collectedsome newspapers as the night waspretty cold. I did take a sleepingbag and was well covered yet Icould not help but feel empathyfor people who sleep 365 days onthe streets. For me it was just onenight. Yet I felt humbled thinkingof young kids, families and youthwho live on the streets of Sydneywith no home.

"It’s St Vinnies that tries toput them up in shelters and atleast one decent meal for theday," said Dipen.”

So what were his thoughts onthe night?

"The night for me was not justsleeping out but also an awarenessof why so many people go home-less in a rich country likeAustralia. There were talks byfew homeless people who told ustheir stories. I learnt how peopleshun them as they said that itwould be good if someone said'hello' and recognize the fact thatthey are human too. I shared mynight with a Martin Paul, PartnerMD of ‘More Strategic’. We

talked a lot as it was difficult togo to sleep.

"Even the Leader of theOpposition Tony Abbott came. Ifelt privileged to be introducedand was impressed by how apotential PM of Australia cameand shook hands with us. Whenwe joked with him whether hewould like to join in in theSleepout he actually came back tosleep and I guess that he was alsogiven some cardboards.

"We also had a panel discus-sion with various CEOs whotalked about the problem, what todo and how to resolve it.

"Late at night I got talking tothe CEO of St Vinnies about thehomelessness in Australia and thathomeless people here were muchbetter off than the ones in India.And we discussed how we couldtake such a campaign to Indiawhere I know that the richest ofthe rich live. Take MukeshAmbani's house in Mumbai, forexample. Does he care that under-neath his 2 billion dollar homethere could be many who sleep onthe footpaths? "I want to bringthis awareness in people in India.So we discussed who to contactand how to go about it in India,"

said Dipen."I want people not to look

above at people who are better offthan them but to look down andsee how the homeless people haveended up in such a state. My keygoals of this exercise were to seethe people at Vinnies and how Ican take such a concept to India."

Dipen said that the CEOsVinnies Sleepout campaign raised4 million dollars that night withNSW CEOs contributing 1.5 mil-lion dollars. Says Dipen, "Ipitched to my colleagues andfriends to sponsor me and theydid. I must say that awareness ofsuch a campaign by Vinnies is lotless in the Indian community. Itwould be good if they contributednot just to this campaign but alsoto homeless people in India andbecame aware of what it is beinga homeless person."

So what did he learn? "I learntthat people in Australia becamehomeless due to the breakdown ofsocial structure, the breakdown ofthe family. Exactly how theVinnies ad on homeless peopledepicts. These people can be fromgood homes but as soon as thebread winner loses his job andfinds himself in dire circum-

stances, children end up in fosterhomes and before they realizethey are on the streets.

"I observed that as comparedto Australia where the problemcan be solved because they arehomeless due to the breakdown ofthe family's social structure, inIndia it can take much longerbecause of the very poor condi-tion of the people who are illiter-ate with a mindset which hasthem in an environment that's nothelpful and don't have hope as thesociety looks down upon them. InAustralia people can be helpedwhereas in India it can take yearsto lift people out of the spiral ofpoverty and homelessness."

Vinnies sleepout campaignincluded CEOs of CommonwealthBank, Virgin Australia, whoseCEO John Borghotti was spon-sored with a donation of $20,000by Sir Richard Branson, whereasDipen only managed to collect$1300. But said Dipen, "I reallyfelt good to be part of this cam-paign having missed out last year.My daughter Anika was quiteimpressed and I had to take aniPhone video as she insisted tosee me sleeping out on a coldwintry night."

Astha Rajvanshi - ayoung Media &Communications stu-

dent at Sydney university - wasunanimously elected capturingclose to 900 votes to become aboard director of the Sydneyuniversity’s student union inMay.

Her slogan was ‘Astha laVista’ - a catchy trademark,says Astha. “I tried to put outthe message that say ‘Astha LaVista’ – that is good bye to theold union and say hello to thenew one.”

And what was her pitch forthe new union? “Oh, for exam-ple in the past the union mainlyconcentrated on parties, gigs

and events. All that happenedbefore was party, party andparty. I said that’s enough andlet’s take a serious look at unilife and how it affects students.I promised better services suchas lockers, storage etc. Then,there’s no representation forinternational students. I prom-ised to form a society for themto help them mingle with localstudents. Also no one looked atcharity at campus before - nei-ther anything for a social justicecause. I saw that there was nohelp for students who neededbasic tutoring. I promised facil-itating study groups to help stu-dents out in their study. Myaim was not to be unrealistic,

yet give a new makeover to theold union.”

Astha was one of the sixcandidates elected out of total16 who stood for elections.“The race started with 16 andended up with 10 out of whichonly six got chosen.”

Astha whose hobbies arewriting, reading and obviouslythinking deeply on issues allaround her, at 19 years, didsurprise her family as she quiet-ly worked hard besides studyingto achieve what she hasachieved. The university is notjust study or party but definitelysomething more. That is tomake a difference in the lifearound you.

Homeless in Sydney

Astha elected a Board Director inSydney U Student union

Dipen Dhruv (right) participated in Vinnies Sleepout Campaign, and (right) Dipen with his daughter Anika.

Astha Rajvanshi

Did you know?*There are more than

105,000 Australians homeless every night,including 7,500 families.

*More than 12,000Australian children underthe age of 12 have no home.

*A further 22,000 youngpeople aged 12 to 18 arehomeless, most of themestranged from theirfamilies.

*Most families which arehomeless are women andchildren escaping domesticand family violence.

*Most homeless peopleare under 35 (58%) and42% are women.


Community

What an evening of clas-sical music, dance,charity and divinity

coming together in a memorablegala evening on May 14 at thePLC. Called Kshetram, a house-full audience of 700 celebratedSwami Dayananda Saraswati’s80th birthday and the launch ofglobal Charity AIM for SEVAin Australia.

The surprise package cameright at the start with little boysand girls (some as young as 8years old) from John ColetSchool, Belrose, chanting sever-al slokas in Sanskrit as invoca-tion prayers. As the only schoolin Australia that teaches Sanskritas compulsory subject at all pri-mary classes, these Aussie kidswith their proud parents re-ceived a rousing reception.

Sri Vasudevacharya, a well-known teacher of Vedanta inAustralia, inaugurated the eventwith a talk on the vision ofVedanta from Swamiji and hiscontributions for preservation ofSanatana Dharma over the last60 years.

Murali Dharan, the convenerof AIM for SEVA Australasia,showed a video highlighting itsmajor projects and transforma-tion in disadvantaged children ofremote/rural parts of India. Thiswas truly inspiring.

A stunning entertainment fol-lowed with students of RasikaDance Academy, inBharatanatyam dance ballet, de-picting the travels of two youngchildren with their Indian grand-mother (a dancer) who takesthem through various kshetrams

of India, enacting their grandeurand divinity. Choreographed byManjula Viswanath, this washighly creative and had the audi-ence spell-bound. It was a highquality production, with entirelylocal musicians, singers and in-strumentalists, creating a de-lightful music score, from thetraditional Carnatic composersof India. Combined with speciallights, stage effects and stunningcostume changes, the rapid se-quence of dances narrating thestory, fully deserved the stand-

ing ovation it received.Audience were asking for

more and they got it in the formof delicious meal in dinnerpacks, served free to all of the700 that packed the PLC audito-rium for a great evening.

Swami DayanandaSaraswati, as pre-eminent Guruhas shared the knowledge ofVedanta globally, in teaching theteachers with his abundant loveand dedication. Past 80, he stilltravels all over the world doingsatsangs and classes for free,

while urging people of all na-tions, to be contributors to soci-ety, especially to weaker com-munities and children.

AIM for SEVA fulfills thatpromise. With an AustralianChapter, it has now become atruly global network of Seva(Service) offering opportunitiesalso to NRI children to connectto their ancestry.

For further information visitthe websitewww.aimforseva.org or callMurali on 0414 892361.

Swami Dayananda’s Birthdaycelebrations in Sydney

Dancers of Rasika

Lord Ganesa

Community


By K. Raman

Our world is a conglomeration ofweird, level headed, gritty, strangeand wonderful people. Take, for in-

stance, the deeds of a mentally and physi-cally tough man who has embarked on atough assignment which makes many tobrand him as a mad man, some fondly call-ing him ‘the Australian Forest Gump’.

The deed - a Pole to Pole trek and runby the great Aussie Pat Farmer. He has tocover a distance of 21,000 kilometers as hetravels on foot from the North to SouthPole. The hardest portion of the trek will bethe slow moving travel over massive float-ing mass of polar ice with the surface tem-perature of minus 48 degree Centigrade.

Pat Farmer began his epic journey onApril 6, this year, from North Pole with ateam of supporters. As I write this he hascrossed one of the toughest legs of the jour-ney and is running in a downwardly direc-tion through Canada to the northern dividerbetween Canada and US.

By the end of the year-long race hewould have covered a distance of 13,000miles through icy, hot and humid regions ofthe globe. He will run through 14 countriesand regions like Canada, US, Mexico and anumber of South American countries whichinclude Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua,Costa Rica, Panama, Eucador, Columbia,Peru, Chile and finally, a long run across

the ice mass to the South Pole. BetweenPanama and Columbia, he has to run astretch of 100 miles through unfriendly andthick jungle with military escorts followinghim to ensure his safety. In this long en-durance race, he may need 40 pairs of toughdurable and specially made running bootsand 800 pairs of socks.

Born in Ultimo, NSW, Pat Farmer is theson of Frank and Mary Farmer. He hasbeen jack of many trades and also master ofmany in his eventful life of 49 years so far.After working as a motor mechanic and asa landscaper earlier, he turned into a politi-cian, serving the Macarthur constituency asan MP for eight years and for three years asa Parliamentary Secretary.

Pat Farmer did not get continued en-dorsement to contest in the recent electionsand he channelled his efforts to raise mon-ey for various charitable causes.

He had been an ultra-marathon runnersince his teenage days. Just as any other hu-man being, he wanted to cast a niche for hissuper human efforts while he wished toraise money for deserving charitable caus-es.

Some of Pat’s major runs include a runaround the continent of Australia covering adistance of 14,964 kilometers in recordtime, and twice, run across the US. Heraised three million dollars from his Aus-tralian run which he donated to DiabeticAustralia.

Pat Farmer is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weigh-ing 145 pounds, a pack of solid muscles, apowerful ticker, a pair of bellowy lungs anda steely mental resolve which makes him anideal candidate for what he has currentlyundertaken. He runs for 4 hours and 20minutes everyday while not participating inendurance racing.

The Pole to Pole run of 21,000 kilome-ters is the hardest of all runs and if accom-plished, he will be the first human to do so.On a daily basis he will be running for 85kilometres, equivalent to two marathonruns, without any break in between, for a

prolonged period of one year.Just finishing his run in Canada, he is

moving from minus 30 degrees to plus 30degrees, from ice blocks to bitumen, snowshoes to joggers, from tasteless dehydratedfood to spaghetti, salmon, cakes and whatnot .

What lies ahead is to cross 13 countries,one more pole to conquer and one millionmore foot steps to pound!

Pat’s teenage daughter has this to say ofher dad’s Polar run: “Dad has done so manycrazy things; this is yet another crazydeed.”

By K. Raman

Harikatha is the ancient form of sto-rytelling, mostly stories on Godsand Goddesses. It had taken roots in

Maharashtra through the early initiative ofSwati Tirunal, a musically inclined ruler oferstwhile Travancore state. He realized thepotential of public appeal for this art formand initiated this pristine story telling art inKerala.

Swati Tirunal noticed Anandapadman-abha Goswami’s talent as the story teller ex-traordinaire and invited him to his court andinstalled him as an Asthana Vidwan. He re-quested Goswami to do Katha Kalakhepamin temple venues in Travancore on a regu-lar basis. In no time people took the storytelling art to their heart.

Many versions of Harikata exist in In-dia. Purana Pravachanam, Harikatha Kalak-shepam and Burra Katha Burra are the dom-inant forms of story telling still practiced inSouth India. There is a ‘Moola grandha’ onstory telling called ‘Nirupana’. There is an-other old form of storytelling known as‘Villupattu’. In fact, Harikatha is certainlylinked to ‘Bhajana Sampradayam’ (singingthe praise of the lord).

In my younger days I used to tag alongwith my grand-pa, a great patron of this art,to venture out to listen Harikatha Kalak-shepam, visiting various temple venueswhere it was held regularly. The presenter(story teller/ Bhagavathar) used to explainthe story line in detail, preceded by slokaswith hardly any musical flair in it. In otherwords it was a combination of ‘Padya-parayanam’ and story narration, nicely in-tertwined. It was generally held within thetemple complex, and Illams (residences) of

wealthy Namboodris (Kerala Brahmins),where listeners sat on the floor engrossed inthe mythological stories.

These days, a young lady, MrsVishakha Hari (as part of Harikatha), hasraised story telling to new heights. It is cur-rently a rage in Tamil Nadu and also inwestern countries, thanks to this young ex-ponent. Her popularity is immense. She isin her early thirties, very articulate, oozescharisma and criss-crosses the world popu-larising the new style of Harikatha.

A feature of Vishakha is her pleasantpersona and disposition. Women folk inparticular are attracted by the way shewears saree in ‘Madisar’ (Nine yards saree)

in a traditional way. She is Chennai bornbut prefers the spiritual and tranquil atmos-phere of the Cauvery shore town of Sri-rangam, which is the cradle of Veda, Sas-tra, Purana and Mantra learning.

For one who travels extensively like herthere is no leisure time. If she gets anybreak from Harikatha narrations, she uti-lizes that spare time to learn scriptures andUpanishads and invents innovative modesof sankeerthanam and Upanyasam (storytelling). She is a thinking person with acomputer brain, quick witted and eloquentin Tamil and English. Being located in a farflung land away from genuine Harikatha ac-tion, I have yet to hear Vishakha’s live dis-course, even though I experienced the blissthrough ‘YouTube’, in a less realistic way.

Vishakha brings the age old art form ofstorytelling to a frenzied level of apprecia-tion by the purity of her voice, high level ofknowledge in music and with the added fea-ture of her stage presence. She has the un-usual ability to draw packed houses where-in patrons pay for tickets, a far cry from thefree parayanams held in the temple premis-es of the bygone era.

Her remarkable eloquence goes hand inhand with her diligent singing ability. Sheunderstood early on that Carnatic musicevokes, embellishes and enhances themoods and emotions of the listeners. Shecopiously absorbed music, Katha and pres-entation techniques which led her to therecipe of her success.

She is very happy in a temple atmos-phere as she feels the spiritual vibrationsthere. She once said, “I can stay here nearthe temple tank telling katha forever.” Hercommitment to Harikatha is total and shesays, “For me kathakalakshepam is not per-

formance on stage for a specific duration oftime rather it stays in my system even be-fore and after the show is over”.

Vishakha got married when she was 22to Hariji, a Harikatha exponent himself. Hisfather is the much celebrated Harikatha Kr-ishnapremi, who simply is a treasure houseof this art, a highly experienced repositoryof stories and an authority in this demand-ing field of the art of kalakshepam. Hariji isher mentor and Guru. She had an added ad-vantage that she learned classical musicfrom Lalgudi Jayaraman.

Vishakha changed the methodology to anew form by singing the verse in classicismand following it up with the story narratedin eloquence with choice of apt words punc-tured with wit and humour. The serious re-ligious discourse was thus enriched with theaddition of the element of music. She has adistinctive and vibrant style of singingwhich she uses efficiently to attract listenersof all ages. Fluent in Tamil and English, shepresents her stories in flawless Tamil inTamil Nadu while resorting to English else-where.

I understand from Sri. Jayendran ofSwaralaya Fine Arts that Vishakha will doKatha Parayanam both in Sydney and Mel-bourne in July this year. Her Melbourneshow is on July 10, managed by the VedicSociety of Victoria. There are two shows inSydney in which she tells two separate sto-ries. The first show on July 16 will be heldat Macquarie University Auditorium, andthe second show on July 17 will be held atthe Ryde Civic Centre Auditorium. I wishthat you do not miss this rare opportunity toenjoy the brilliance of Vishakha. Any infor-mation on the show can be obtained fromJayendran on 0430 223 456.

Pat Farmer (left), who has started his 21,000 km run, with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

Vishakha Hari

Pole to pole

Vishakha makes storytelling an art


Karam C. Ramrakhaadvises his clients that

he is still in active practice but is now with Macquarie Legal Lawyers

who operate from Level 11, 3 Spring Street Sydney 2000

(just behind Australia Square). The new phone number is (02) 92352500.

Kirath C. Ramrakha is also with this firm as a Senior Associate. This firm handles conveyancing,com-

mercial work, and litigation of all types and level. Werefer immigration but can handle immigration appeals.

ACARD

Community


Anand Sharma agrees to double trade with Australia

Anupam makes it to top list in Oz film industry

In a recent visit by India’sCommerce Minister Mr.Anand Sharma, India agreed

to double trade to Australia toAUD$40 billion in the next fouryears. India and Australia havelaunched negotiations to concludea Comprehensive EconomicCooperation Agreement (CECA).The announcement came in Mayin a joint press conference atCanberra by Anand Sharma, andMr. Craig Emerson, Minister forTrade of Australia.

The press conference fol-lowed the 13th Session of theAustralia-India Joint MinisterialCommission, held in Canberra onMay 12, 2011. Speaking on theoccasion, Shri Sharma termed theproposed CECA a “high-quality,truly-liberalising” pathway tocloser economic integrationbetween India and Australia. TheCECA, when concluded, isexpected to assist in broadeningthe base of merchandise trade,remove non-tariff barriers imped-ing trade in services, and facili-tate two-way investment. Thefirst round of negotiations isexpected to take place in India inJune 2011. Both the Ministersalso stressed the critical role ofthe private sector in creating aparallel pathway to closer bilater-al economic integration, and

announced the launch of a CEOsForum; Shri Naveen Jindal wasco-chairing the CEO Forum fromthe Indian side, and Mr. LindsayFox as co-chair from theAustralian side. First meeting ofthe forum is expected to take

place later this year.India is currently Australia's

third largest export destinationafter China and Japan. Australiais India's eighth largest tradingpartner. In the last financial year,two-way trade in goods and serv-

ices was of the order ofAustralian $ 20 billion. Trade hasbeen growing by an average of25% per annum over the last fiveyears and is driven by the strongcomplementarities between thetwo economies. The imports fromAustralia are overwhelmingly ofmineral resources such as coal,copper, nickel and gold, servingas critical components in India'seconomic growth. LNG importsare also due to start in a fewyears, as Australia's importancegrows as a supplier of naturalgas.

Other areas of importance areclean and renewable energy tech-nologies and skills developmentprogrammes in the identified pri-ority sectors of mining, construc-tion, hospitality and retail. Co-operation in the agricultural sec-tor is expected to be given a bigboost, with the export of mangoesto Australia set to start from Junethis year and co-operation in woolproduction and quality improve-ment in the offing.

Shri Anand Sharma followedup on his meetings with five sen-ior Australian Cabinet Ministersin Canberra with a meeting withAustralian Prime Minister JuliaGillard, who expressed her satis-faction at the outcome of ShriSharma's visit and re-affirmed

her strong commitment to theIndia Australia strategic partner-ship.

The minister also met mem-bers of the Indian community in apress conference and a luncheonorganized by the Australia IndiaBusiness Council when it hostedthe 19th JBC meeting in May.Said Arun Sharma, AIBC’snational chairman in an interviewwith CNBC, “Although the tradebalance is in Australia’s favour,yet Australia can help redress theimbalance by providing to theenergy needs of India in theimmediate short term such asthermal coal, LPG and collabora-tions in Solar energy area whichis part of the FTA agreementunder CECA ruling. TheUranium issue is a political issueand can be dealt later.”

AIBC, in a function held inJune at the NSW Parliament inthe presence of Premier BarryO’Farrell and select businesscommunity, also honoured crick-eter Brett Lee for his work withslum children in India, ArunJagatramka of Gujarat NRE andNirmal Singh Bhangoo,Chairman of Pearls GlobalGroup, for helping build bridgesand recognizing their efforts inhelping develop stronger tiesbetween Australia and India.

ASydney based film maker hasmade to the list of top 50 mostinfluential professionals in the

Australian film industry.Australia's most prestigious film indus-

try publication ENCORE released itsannual list of film professionals "Whohave achieved new heights in 2010/11,whose decisions influence and shapeAustralia's film industry and whose workhas stood out from the crowd."

Sharing a spot with well known dis-tributor and exhibition consultant, PeterCastaldi, Anupam Sharma has beenincluded in the list for not only his pio-neering and substantial work in developingAustralian film links with India but also asthe founder of Australian Film Initiative.

The initiative was founded by Anupamwith Peter Castaldi to market, promote,and distribute Australian films in nontradi-

tional and emerging markets for a morecommercially robust Australian screenculture.

The first event of the initiative was afestival of Australian films in India withother regions like South Americas, MiddleEast, and North Europe to follow. Thefestival in India was supported by actorHugh Jackman with a retrospective ondirector Bill Bennett and his films. 2012will see Baz Luhrman retrospective beingheld for the first time in Bollywood.

Speaking from his office in FoxStudios, Anupam said, "While such listsshould always be taken with a pinch of saltand tongue in cheek, it’s a good feeling tobe considered in such a way by one ofAustralia's leading film publications."

With a thesis on Indian cinema and afrequent spot on the speakingcircuit/media about Indian entertainmentsector/Bollywood, Anupam has beenacknowledged as one of the leadingexperts on Indian cinema. Anupam’scompany Films and Casting Temple hasbeen involved with productions of scoresof Bollywood films that include PremAggan, Heyy Babyy, ‘Lakshya’, ‘Koi MilGaya’, ‘Dhoom’, 'Apney', 'Dil ChahtaHai', 'Janasheen', ‘Aryan’ and ‘We areFamily’.

He is currently producing and directinga feature film and working on documen-taries for the global market with India cen-tric themes. He is the first Australian ofIndian origin to make it to the list.

Commerce Minister Mr. Anand Sharma

Australian cricketer Brett Lee with Indian childrenfrom the slums at the launch of his Mewsiccommunity music foundation for children

living in slums at the Deonar dumping groundon the outskirts of Mumbai.

Arun Jagatramka (left) of Gujarat NRE washonored for helping build bridges and developing closer ties between India

and Australia.

Cricketer Brett Lee (second from left) was honored by AIBC at afunction in NSW Parliament for his work with slum children

in India.

Anupam Sharma

Community

By Santram Bajaj

Mrs Vimla Luthra hasproved that age is nobarrier for writing a

book. At 78, she has compiled acollection of her poems into abook titled ‘Jharna’- The Spring.

The book was launched onMay 14 at an AHIA Seniors’meeting at Westmead by theChief Guest Dr Ursula Rao fromthe University of New SouthWales. Several other Indian asso-ciations attended the ceremony.

Santram Bajaj, editor ofAHIA Seniors’ newsletter and awriter, welcomed the guests onthe occasion and requested AbbasRaza Alvi, a well-known Sydneypoet, to launch the book as heinvited speakers representing var-ious organisations related withHindi language literature onstage.

Rajan Luthra, Vimlaji’s elderson, spoke about his mother’sachievement and how she wouldread her new poems to him as

soon as she wrote them for hisinitial critique.

Poet Om Krishan Rahat gaveraving reviews about the book as

did Dr Shailaja Chaturvedi ofHindi Samaj. Prof Ursula Raospoke in Hindi to the delight ofthe audience.

Mrs Luthra related about herstruggle in life and how she wasself-educated to graduate level asthere was no college where she

lived. It was only recently thatshe had an urge to write poetryand have it published.

The poems describe her expe-riences and her memories fromher day to day life and are quitelikeable. In one poem, ‘Merakona’, she reflects:

“Kaisi meri dharti, kaisamera kona

Jis men bitaaaya jeevan,kaisa desh veh salona”

The function was well attend-ed. Dr Rakesh Sachdev of AHIA,under whose banner the functionwas organised since Mrs Luthrais a member of the AHIA’sSenior group, worked hard toaccommodate about 150 peopleincluding many seniors who hadcome to honour her. The guestsincluded Dr Senthil, DirectorCumberland Hospital, MadhuChaudhari of Carewell andRajesh Batra of Radio Mirchi. DrYash Bhasin presented bouquetsto the Chief Guest and MrsLuthra.

The function closed with voteof thanks by Dr Tilak Kalra.

Age no barrier for Vimla Luthrato publish poetry

Mrs Vimla Luthra


Community


Devinder Singh Dharia, founderof Panjabi Sangeet Centre, or-ganised 8th Vaisakhi Festival at

Blacktown Show ground in Sydney onMay 22, 2011.

Dharia’s hard working team includedHarkirat Singh Sandher as Presidentwho was also honoured for his effortsand Kalpesh as general secretary whoworked for months despite the rainyweather, which caused the mela to bepostponed by a couple of weeks.

Yet May 22 turned out to be a sunnyand a fun family event enjoyed by thou-sands who have become loyal patrons ofthe fair. Vaisakhi Mela was conductedunder the support and supervision ofBlacktown Council, Blacktown PoliceChief Inspector Robert Fitzgerald andSecurity Supervisor Harry Singh.

Blacktown showground was a buzzof activity with a decorated stage, spon-

sors, stall holders selling food andwares as cultural items kept the audi-ence entertained as people bargained tobuy food, fashion and accessories.

There were about 48 Stalls with deli-cious food, traditional dresses, AirTickets, Insurance, Migration services,estate property and Mehndi, and more.

Children lined up to take rides asthere were five rides installed while par-ents kept a watchful eye on them.

As videographer Ankur captured cel-ebrations of Vaisakhi for posterity, oth-er volunteers such as Aman Kaur,Anand, Bablu, Dhruti , Lucky Singh,Manjeet, Purvish , Pinku, Pappu Bho-gal, Sahib Singh Surjeet, Tarun, Varunand Yogita did excellent job as volun-teers. The cultural program started witha religious ambiance as a religious hymnwas sung by Rashpal Singh.

Young Harshil and Jiya performed

a thrilling item number followed by stu-dents of Paneri and Akriti group givingan energetic dance performance.

Anchors Pritender Grewal and Ran-jeet Khera kept the audience entertainedwith their compering.

Devinder Singh Dharia sang reli-gious song and another one from hisnew album while Neetu from PanjabiSangeet Centre presented a popular Ra-jasthani Song –“Holiya Main Ude ReGulala” and followed it with a danceand song item ‘Kanak Di Rakhi’ and‘Yaar Bol-Da’ with Navdeep Singh.

Afternoon was kept busy with popu-lar Musical chair and Chatti Race andTug-O-War as onlookers gatheredaround the arena to watch these popularIndian sports.

Speeches followed as the ChiefGuest of Honor was honoured with tro-phy presented by Devinder Singh

Dharia and Harkirat Singh Sandher.Sponsors of the event included RadheSuper market, Cheema Da Dhaba, TuliJewellers, WWICS, Migration Over-seas, Spice Land, Fone Guru, ANZ, GoCool, Gaura Travel, Haveli, DesiVibes, The Immigration Centre, Inter-national Visa Advisor, Sidhu Cars andCar Clinic, Any Shape Plastic andGrace of India with Media Partners asPunjab Times, Punjab Express, MasalaNewsline and Ajit - a Panjabi newspa-per. Gaura Travel donated free ticket toIndia for the lucky draw with Tuli Jew-ellers offering three gift items to luckywinners.

At the end Boliyan were presentedby all singers that included DevinderSingh Dharia, Jagpreet, Jaskirat, Pinku,Preet Sargam, Surjeet, and Varindercreating a great noise and atmosphere ofa true Punjab at Blacktown Oval.

ILASA, a newly created organisationto promote Indian literature and artin Australia, was formally an-

nounced on 5th June 2011 duringNDTV Greenathon awareness day andIABBV-Hindi School sports day atThornleigh. A group of Australia basedIndian writers and artists joined handsand registered this non-profit organiza-tion. On behalf of the society, the Hindipoet and DET teacher Rekha Rajvanshigave a brief introduction and told themain objectives of this new society.

Rekha said, “Since I came to Aus-tralia, I always felt something was miss-ing. We have a lot of Indian organiza-tions but there was nothing to satisfy thecreative urge of writers and artists,there was no structure of monthly ortwo-monthly meetings, there was noth-ing to inculcate younger generation’s

creative talents. I have been teachingHindi HSC students for the last 10 yearsand some of my students were verygood writers and artists. I tried to en-courage them when they were at school,but after they finished HSC we losttouch and their creativity died. I thoughtif we want to preserve our culture, liter-ature and language, we need to make aneffort; we need to nurture generationY’s talents. If we don’t want to lose ouridentity and widen this gap, immediatemeasures were needed.

“I discussed this idea with like-mind-ed people such as Avijit Sarkar, NeenaBadhwar, Mala Mehta, Sant Ram Bajaj,Saba Abdi, Vipul Vyas, Vinod Rajputand Sheba Nandkeolyar, to my surprisethey all thought the same, so we cametogether and registered this society. Thissociety has been set up nationally. We

have coordinators in Canberra, Mel-bourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane andGladstone, who can be contacted forILASA’S activities. I hope we will worktogether for the same objective withoutgetting into politics, we will have ayouth group too.’

Rekha outlined ILASA’s objectivesin front of the dignitaries MP MattKean, Councillor Dilip Chopra, and theother representatives/heads of variousorganizations, parents and students whowere present on the occasion. Everyonewelcomed the formation of this societywith a loud applause. UIA presidentAmrinder Bajwa, GOPIO president Har-ry Walia, Raj Dutta of Deepawali festi-val committee of NSW, offered full sup-port. Bipen Sharma of Sharma’sKitchen, Sanjay Deshwal of AustralianVisa & Migration Consultancy Services

and other business associates assured oftheir support when needed. Hornsby MPMatt Kean showed a keen interest in theorganization and promised full assis-tance.

The main objective of ILASA is topromote Indian literature and art amongthe younger generation. Other objectivesinclude: having literary meetings inEnglish, Hindi and other regional lan-guages, promoting a book club, encour-aging budding writers and artists, help-ing them in publishing their work or or-ganizing exhibitions.

Anybody can become a member ofILASA. All are welcome, especially theIndian youth.

The membership will be open soonand ILASA will be formally launched.

For membership contact ILASAteam.

Vaisakhi Mela – the spirit of Punjabin Blacktown

ILASA - an Indian Literary and Art Society formedSong and dance and popular sports like Tug-O-War were part of the fair


Community

A young Sydney boy Srikarasked Dr. Abdul Kalam when hevisited Sydney and came to meetIndian community members atHotel Shangri-La what was hishappiest day in life to which Dr.Kalam answered that when Indialaunched Satellite Launch Vehiclein space when he was the projectdirector he was very happy.

"When we launched AgniMissile and as it reached success-fully its target it was a happy day.And on 11th May 1988 when Indiabecame a nuclear weapon state Iwas happy. Also when the Indianparliament approved 2020 vision itmade me happy. We had at thattime were working on Agni Missilehad discovered a carbon-carbonmaterial which was high strengthat high temperatures yet very light.One of my friend who was anorthopaedic doctor asked me tohelp polio children in hisorthopaedic ward with their shoeswith very heavy calipers that wereas heavy as 4.2 kilograms."

Dr. Kalam said that he was ableto make the calipers lighter forthose children who walked withsuch heavy load besides beinghandicap. "I was able to lightentheir load from 4 kgs to only 400gms. There were tears in theirmothers' eyes as children walked

with on shoes with those lightcalipers…that was the happiest dayof my life."

Dr. Abdul Kalam, former presi-dent of India, came to Sydney atthe invitation of Sydney universityto honour him with his 41st hon-orary doctorate. Dr Kalam waskept busy as he lectured to UTSstudents and academics about con-nected university education andknowledge through the use of tech-nology. He even talked about useof Thorium compared to Uranium

saying that it was much safer forfuture energy use and that Indiawas working towards developingThorium reactors.

Dr Kalam was honoured withdoctorate on Sydney uni's gradua-tion day along with students ofSydney university. Dr Kalamimpressed all with his talks andspecially the Indian communitywho gathered around him at hotelShangri-La. He said, "The bestenvironment for children to bringup is to create citizens with ethics

and great families with value sys-tem. Such an approach by Indiancommunity in Australia will notonly promote harmonius living forall the members of the Indian com-munity but create an environmentof trust and compassion among themulticutrual and multireligioussociety that lives here."

He encouraged community toask questions that ranged fromtsunami, terrorism, regionalism,NRIs, his first day experience as apresident, nuclear reactors, India-

Australia cooperation on fuels,religious tolerance among theyounger generation, poverty ofIndia and he gave quite inspiringanswers and made everyone takean oath, as everyone repeated,"Where there is righteousness inthe heart there's beauty in the char-acter, when there is beauty in thecharacter there is harmony in thehome, when there's harmony in thehome there is order in the nation,when there's order in the nation;there is peace in the world." Everyone eagerly repeated the oath afterDr Kalam as he stressed that, 'Tobring up righteousness in the heartcan be given by father and motherin a spiritual environment.' He saidthat a 'good primary schoolteacher' could leave a good impres-sion on a young growing mind. DrKalam suggested that 'instead oftaking we should think of giving tothe world ' and help evolve a soci-ety that 'respects differences andcelebrates differences."

It was an enlightening experi-ence in the company of great Dr.Kalam for all who came to be withhim, listen to him and inspired byhim. And surely they all did getinspired to live a righteous life thatpromotes the motto 'live and letlive'.

Dr. Kalam brought a smile oneveryone’s face!

A biannual multicuturalfundraiser 'Bollywood Diva laGong' was held in May at thePortofino Function Centre by organ-isers Urmilla Daya, UshaFernandez, Rashmi Murthy andSneh Gupta from the IndianAustralian Cultural Association ofWollongong was a resounding suc-cess as it boasted of collecting$11702 which included MonaJagatramka of Gujarat NREMinerals with a generous donationof a $1000.

Cause - to donate funds to a cou-ple charities, namely - 'House withno Steps' - a leading organizationthat provides services to people withdisabilities and 'Research &Development Centre of Innovation'at the university of Wollongong.

Four hundred ladies dressed tokill a la Bollywood caem from themulticultural mix of Wollongong.Not only Indians, Aussies, Greeks,Italian and Macedonian learnt todance Bollywood dance steps asmusic blared.

Guests were privy to a varietyof entertainment highlight of theprogram being a mini Bollywood

workshop which got the wholecrowd jive on the dance floor. TheManager of the function centreadded spice to the entertainment byperforming Pyrotechniques on'Boom Shaka Laka' number withfireworks on display.

There was a fashion show bySarikini fashions as if the outfitsworn by the guest were not enoughand everyone got a glimpse of fash-ion to come. An outstanding com-munity service award was presentedto Dr Lalita Tamhane by Sharon

Bird, MP, Federal member forCunningham.

An unique 'Dress up as aBollywood Diva' and the Mehndistall stole the show.

Other stalls sold Indian handi-crafts, sarees and designer clothes

with beautiful Indian jewellery,herbal teas and spices.

The cuisine was a combinationof scrumptious Indian and Italianfood with an array of wines and softdrinks.

Wollongong goes Bollywood and donates to charities

Dr Kalam with India’s High Commissioner Her Excellency Sujatha Singh

From Left: Urmilla Daya, Sneh Gupta, Usha Fernandez, Rashmi Murthy with Master of Ceremonies Rajiv Chaturvedi while Lalita Tanhanereceives Ammunity Award from Sharon Bird, MP. Bollywood workshop by Ben and Ishira of Canberra Bollywood Dance School.

Community


Afriend asked me the day after therecent Bollywood’s Golden Melodyconcert as to which song appealed

to me the most.“Almost all,” I replied.“But which song made you hum till the

following day?” she persisted.I thought for a few seconds and said,

“Thandi hawaayen...”“Was that by young Sunanda Sharma?

She also sang Thandi hawaayen at anotherconcert and I hummed that tune for weekstill my husband got fed up!”

That is the acid test of melody, thehummability!

However, there were many other songsI kept humming after the North Shore BandBaajaa concert presented for the IndianSeniors Group Hornsby on June 19.

Apart from ‘Thandi hawaayen’ beauti-fully sung by the enchanting Sunanda, Icannot single out a song as all the 1940s,50s and 60s numbers were toe-tappinglynostalgic and took us back to our child-hood. Attractive Shobha Ingleshwarsummed it up harmoniously when crooningthe Deedar hit parade number ‘Bachpan kedin bhula na dena’.

I enjoyed all melodies, especially SuhasMahajan’s Chaudhavi Ka Chaand andTumpe Ashiq in a soft Talat-like voice,Vinod Rajput’s Kaun Aayaa, Duniya kerakhewale and Raat dhal chuki.

The twinkle-eyed Lata Baraskar put the

listeners in the mood by her rendering ofJabse balam ghar aaye. It was my parents’favourite and brought tears to my eyes, es-pecially their mimicking “machal, machaljaye”.

No less hummable was the duet byKedar Pagad and Shoba as they swung uswith Aaja sanam -- a Chori Chori hit song.

The sombre mood of nostalgia waslightened by Muhsin Dadarkar’s humorousverses and then rendering of a KL Saigalclassic Gam diye mushtaqil.

Another highlight was Sharda Sharma’sAayega, anewalla, unrehearsed and unac-

companied. The lilt in her voice was mes-merising. Aruna Chandrala’s “Man doley”from Naagin reminded me of snake charm-ers on the streets of India.

The concert ended with a triple climax;Lata and Rajen with Yaad kiya dil ne kaha,Vinod and Sunanda making us clap andwhistle with Uden jab jab and Kedar put-ting everyone on their feet with O merizohra zabin.

Surinder Singh was brilliant on histabla as guitarists Ranga and Sharat andpercussionist Gamini added to our listeningpleasure.

No concert can go smoothly without acompetent MC and the eloquent Rekha Raj-vanshi was at her best introducing eachartist with a shayeri.

Bravo, Vinod Rajput, for orchestratingindividual voices into harmonic melody.

Vinod Rajput, Bipen and Uma Sharma of Sharma’s Kitchen with compereRekha Rajvanshi.

Sunanda Sharma

Golden Melodies create nostalgiaKersi Meher-Homji applauds Vinod’s Band Baajaa


Community

Dr Bharti sang as Sydney listenedDr Roshan Bharti, a relative

of Ustad Mehdi Hasan andsixteenth generation of the

‘Senia’ gharana, entertained Syd-ney with renderings of his ghazalsas people sat mesmerized with hischoice of poetry. It was a night toremember on June 3 as a hall fullof people delved deep into a shero-shayari mood.

Dr. Roshan Bharti, a childprodigy who won ‘trophy of theyear’ at the age of nine at All IndiaMusic competition organised byDelhi based music group Sangee-tayan, came to Sydney for a visitand entertain Sydneysiders as peo-ple flocked to witness him and hisart. His grandfather Ustaad JamalKhan trained Jagjit Singh fortwelve years. Dr. Bharti is a goldmedalist post-graduate from theUniversity of Rajasthan. He wrotehis doctoral thesis on 'BegumAkhtar's life and works.’ Dr Bhar-ti has an indepth knowledge of Ra-gas and sings complex ghazalsquite effortlessly.

The ghazal night was organ-

ised by Radio Sur-Sangam, 99.9FM, broadcast every Sunday from3pm to 4pm, along with a com-mittee that consisted of AbbasRaza Alvi, Harry Walia, Dr.Shailja Chaturvedi, Amit Diwad-kar, Swechha Kulshrestha, RituMadan and Sukhpreet Dhamoon.The ghazal night was supported by

Hindi Gaurav, Australia's first on-line newspaper updated daily, withMaya da Dhaba as gold and Immi-gration Law consultants as silversponsors. Other sponsors wereSharma's Kitchen, Décor-A-Shaanand Tuli Jewellers. Volunteers in-cluded Sachin, Kapil Kulshresthaand Sanjeev Kumar.

Guests of honour were Coun-cilor Tony Issa, Julie Owens MPfrom Parramatta and CouncilorBarbara. Guests from Indian, Pak-istani, and Bangladeshi back-grounds included Amrinder Ba-jwa, Harish Velji, Dr Yadu Singh,Dr Virk, Subba Rao, Shubha Ku-mar, Sanjay Deshwal, Raj Datta,Uzma Gilani, Eijaz Khan andParvez Khan.

On second birthday celebra-tions of Sur-Sangam, the commit-tee honoured Kumud Mirani forher excellent contribution to thepromotion of Hindi, AishveryaaNidhi for excellent contribution inpromoting arts and culture fromthe Indian sub-continent and DivyaDhingra as the rising youth icon.

Abbas Alvi explained themeaning of ghazal and invited DrBharti on stage.

Roshan Bharti started theevening with ‘Maine kaha nazarmila....usne kaha nahi nahi’, set-ting a romantic mood for theevening. He transported audienceinto a world with his pleasing

voice with a uniform timbre andgood range. Accompanying himon the tabla was Sydney’s wellknown tabla artist MaharishiRaval. Bharti’s memorable ghaz-als were ‘Meri umar mein nasimat sake’ , ‘Mere pass jitnesawaal the teri ek nazar mein aagaye’, ‘Mohabbat ke deepak jalake to dekho, Zara meri duniyabasa ke to dekho’ and ‘Woh harpal meri jhoothi kasme khata hai’.He ended the evening with ‘Mar-sutya’ to which everyone tapped,clapped and danced. Nita Tanna’stasteful decor added to the mood ofthe evening and after the concert adelicious dinner was served byAjay Raj of Maya Da Dhaba.

Nitin Madan and Anuj Kul-shreshta honored Dr. RoshanBharti with a shawl as Abbas RazaAlvi invited all artists-writers, po-ets, actors present on stage to hon-our Dr. Bharti with a plaque.Lucky Singh presented a bouquetto Dr. Roshan Bharti with Anujand Harry Walia giving vote ofthanks.

Ghazal singer Dr Roshan Bharti honoured by Kumud, Swetchha,Divya and Anuj

Indo-Aus Bal Bharti organisesGreenathon in Sydney

NDTV’s Greenathon3 onJune 5 was supportedwholeheartedly by a pro-

gramme organised by the IABBVHindi School at Thornleigh Pub-lic School in Sydney.

‘NDTV Greenathon – Light-ing a billion lives’ is an ambitiousproject launched in India in its ef-fort in going green to save theworld’s environment. ‘Lighting abillion lives’ aims at providing so-lar power to villages without elec-tricity. Greenathon – a 24-hourlive telecast across NDTV net-work is a combination of music,entertainment, dances – afundraising event to bring peopletogether in a spirit to support anddonate and make green pledges.In India the initiative galvanizescelebrities and politicians to comeforward to participate and moti-vate common people to createawareness about the environmentand help promote a greenerworld.

IABBV school teachers, chil-dren, parents and volunteers pre-sented a green variety entertain-ment and shouted ‘GreenathonZindabad’ with great fervour asvolunteers of NDTV collected do-nations from the communitymembers. The IABBV schoolconducted its Sports Day withchildren competing at various ath-letic activities that ended up in abig tug-o-war. Indian seniors en-joyed a game of musical chairs

which was won by Usha Chaud-hary. Children, students, parents,volunteers and teachers woreGreenathon T-shirts as the wholecrowd moved to school hall for acultural variety program. But be-fore it all started there was plentyof food at the stalls sellingsamosa, jalebi, vada and dosa,tea, coffee and corn-in-a-cup.There was plenty of food beingoffered inside the hall courtesy ofthe parents of the Hindi school.IABBV students eagerly per-formed Bollywood dances,bhangra to delight the audience.

A quiz was also conductedand the raffle brought smiles tofaces as people won some prizesthat included a family ticket toTaronga zoo. Children proudlycarried their trophies and NSW

Liberal MP Matt Keane was thechief guest among other distin-guished guests from the commu-nity. Mala Mehta, Coordinator,thanked NDTV and all partici-pants, young and old, in an eventwhich will help remote Indian vil-lages with solar lamps. She prom-ised that the event will be biggerand better next year as everyoneshouted slogans in support of‘Greenathon’ movement. Devin-der Singh Dharia and his studentsdid bhangra outside the hall ascrowd gathered in front of theNDTV camera going live back toIndia.

The NDTV Greenathon3 inSydney was mobilised by VishViswanathan when he suggestedone to NDTV’s Sydney anchorDeepti Sachdeva.

IABBV celebrates and supports NDTV’s Greenathon3

Community


Indian community after work-ing hard to settle in the new home-land Australia has now turned toexpress itself through writing andin the last couple of years a lot oftalent has come up in the form ofpoetry, short stories in Englsih,Hindi as well as in other Indianregional languages and somemembers of the community haveworked hard to publish theirworks.

Two people who come to mindare Maya Nartpatsingh and DrMuthukrishnan. Dr. Muthu, as heis lovingly called, came up with a

book 'Software for your Soul', abook on self-hypnosis as he haspracticed and researched on it forthe last few decades. He hasproven case histories and hastrained many a doctors all overAustralia on treating their patientssuccessully using his hypnosistechniques.

Maya Narpatsingh has pub-lished an anthology of her poems'Life's Rythms' that touch varioustopics from memories to trees todeath. Mayaji has written prolifi-cally on Australia her adoptedhome and India her birth home.

Both Maya and Dr Muthuwere honoured by the Indian com-munity for their work and a lifethey have spent honing their artand skill in a dinner party organ-ised by TIDU columnist RekhaBahttacharjee.

Maya ji's poems were read andDr. Muthu conducted a mini-hyp-nosis on the select communitymembers who became willingsubjects. Guests included greatsinger Kamahl and Indian ConsulGeneral Mr Amit Dasgupta. Ademonstration of mini hypnosisworkshop was to see for them-

selves how people can improvelife in general as Dr Muthuexplained steps to inculcate posi-tive affirmations into the subcon-scious and do away with negativeexperiences which some time peo-ple carry as a heavy load all theirlives. The session included someexcercises and a thought changingexperience for all. Guests werehappy with what they experiencedand asked Dr Muthu questions toclarify their doubts later. 'Softwarefor your Soul' is available fromwww.amazon.com

Reka Rajvanshi, a Hindi poet

who has published 'Boomerang' -a compilation of poems from 11writers from Australia in Hindi,read a thoughtful poem titled'Bajawala' which is going to bepublished in her forthcoming bookon poetry.

Sydney’s classical singer RittiChatterjee sang two beautiful ren-ditions on the night.

The evening definitely left apleasant experience on guests hav-ing gone through a transformationand experiencing a tiny glimpse ofwhat self-hypnosis can achieve.

A touching experience for the soul

L to R: Singer Kamahl, Consul General Amit Dasgupta, Noshir Irani and Dr Viju Desai under hypnosis and happy for ever after, after a session with Dr Muthu.

Dr Deepak MalhotraMBBS, MBA, FAIM

Is pleased to announce that he is commencing practice in Family Medicine at

Merrylands Medclinic & SpecialistCentre, 244 Pitt Street Merrylands.

Bulk Billing and all medical services includingPathology, X-Ray and Ultrasound, ECG'S and

Vaccines available at the practice.

Languages Spoken: Hindi, Punjabi,Urdu, Marathi.

Telephone: 02 9682 3972/02 9897 378832 THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER June - July 2011

Decor - A - Shaan specializes in uniquelydesigned

Mandaps withBackdropDrapesSashesTableclothsCentrepiecesMehndiChair CoversWeddingOutfitsJeweleryCateringTraditionalBonbonnieres

Sydney Music Festival


By Malli Iyer and Hamsa Venkat

Various themes dominatedSwaralaya’s music festivalin June this year. Sri Pappu

Venugopal Rao, Secretary of MusicAcademy, Chennai, was the guestof honor for this festival whoexplained the significance of thePancharatna Krithis before thegroup renderings.

Gayatri Girish, student ofMadurai T.N. Seshagopalan, intro-duced the theme of her concert as“Shanmatham”, the six differentforms of worship as ordained byAdi Shankara. A crisp detailedRagam and a high class Neraval andSwaram in Papanaasam Sivan’s“Ksheera Saagara” in Raga PoorviKalyani was accompanied by BUGanesh Prasad on violin andPoongulam Subramanian onMridangam creditably.

Sikkil Gurucharan, another dis-ciple of Sri Vaigal Gnanaskandanand the grandson of Smt. SikkilKunjumani, chose Lord Muruga asthe theme of his concert. Giving theclassiest performance of theFestival, his rendering of “Ka GuhaShanmukha Neeye Gati” in RagaKosalam and “Sivagurunaadanai” inRaga Mukhari was exceptional.Among other attractions, “Varasiki” in Raga Supradeepam,“Shadananey” in Raga Khamas andthe Thillana in Behag were bonusesof Gurucharan’s concert.

Shankara Narayanan, a youngnational talent scholarship recipient

for 13 years, is currently receivingtutelage from Prof. T.R.Subramanian. He is also thePresident of Music Circle inSingapore where he is based. Hecommenced with CharukesiVarnam, followed by Seethamma inRaga Vasantha establishing his tra-ditional approach. Highlight of hisconcert was Papanasam Sivan’s“Pirava Varam” in Raga Lathangi.It started with a viruttham, thenRagam, Niraval and Swaram all ofwhich were of a consistently highstandard.

Abhishek Raghuram, a profes-sional level player of Mridangamand Kanjira and grandson of the leg-endary Palghat Raghu, is currently adisciple of Sri P.S. NarayanaSwamy. Showing a deep insight tocarnatic music, his performance wasspell-binding and inspired hisaccompaniments to raise their per-

formance levels a few notches. His concert theme of “Rama

Bhakthi” was spectacular. His “NeeDaya” in Raga Vasantha Bhairaviand “Bhajare Manasa” in RagaAbheri were both outstanding fortheir precision and deserved fullmarks. Nagai Sriram’s Violin andPatri Sathish Kumar’s Mridangamaccompaniment made it an inspira-tional effort.

Smt. Sowmya deserves kudosfor her attempt to create a balladfrom Gopala Krishna Bharati’s workusing her consummate skills as amusician and a scholar. Her themefor the concert was “NandanaarCharitram” as developed by SriGopala Krishna Bharati. Startedwith a varnam in Raga Mohanam,“Gananatha Sharanam”, and “Sivaloga nathanai kandu” in Raga MayaMalava Gowla, she followed it with“Tillai Padam enru solla thodangi-

naar” in Raga Shyama. All of thiswas from the opera written by SriGopala Krishna Bharati.

Expressing the compassion forNandanaar in a T. Muktha styledRaga Alapanai in Nattaikkurinjiwith “Vazhi maraitthu malai poley”signifying Nandi bull’s blockingNandanaar’s view of the Siva idol,she continued portrayingNandanaar’s persistence in“Chidambaram Darisanama” and“Paarka parka thigattum undanpaada darisanam”. In true classicalstyle she sang “Nadanam aadinaar”in Raga Lalitha with Ragam andSwaram and concluded with“Aadum chidambaramo” in RagaBehag.

Unnikrishnan started with a var-nam in Raga Thodi, followed it with“Deva Deva Kalayamithey”in MayaMalava Gowla by Swati Tirunaal.His Ragam, Neraval and Swarams

had class stamped all over it. Hesang with his teeth almost clenchedand his audience was unable to fol-low the saahityam clearly.

“Seshachala Nayagam Bhajami”by Muthuswamy Dikshatar in RagaVarali was pleasing and fluent inNeraval/Swaram.

He did an elaborate RagaAlapanai in “Akshaya Linga Vibho”by Muthuswami Dikshatar. It washard to identify the raga as he sailedthe fringes of Sankarabharanam.His chosen spot for neraval in“kadari vana moolam” honed hisskill and command over this medi-um.

His Ragam Thanam Pallavi inRaga Kalyana Vasantham was brim-ming with melody as didHamsanandi, Bahudari and Ranjiniin his ragamalika. He capped hisconcert with “Pibare Rama Rasam”in Ahir Bhairav.

By Hamsa Venkat

The pallavi rendered on theChitra Veena by Ravi Kiran‘Geetha mumurthigalalai

potruvom manamara enrenrum’ onthe first day aptly portrayed the spir-it of the Swaralaya festival – theEternal Bliss of Music. Ravi Kiran,commenced with a varnam in Suruttifollowed by Papanasam Sivan’s ‘kava va’. His svara prasathanams invarali included variations in differ-ent speeds and was followed byReethigowlai, ‘enna punniyam seid-heno’ which was exquisite. He ren-dered Raghuvamsa in an explosionof swarams followed by keeravaniand a cascade of ragams in the tanamwith behag, nattai and ahiri, andGanesh Prasad choosing the rareSimhavahini and gowla was inspir-ing.

Amongst whispers of ‘cannotwait!’ preceding the excitement inthe foyer Sanjay Subramanyam’sconcert was an adventure of unex-pected surprises. Sanjay split eachline of the Ata thala varnam inBhairavi in three parts and sang inthree different speeds and then intisra nadai depicting mind blowingdiscipline and artistry.

A rare piece in Samageethapriyan in gowlai followed whereSanjay beautifully phrased the edup-

pu everytime in Samageetha with thenotes Sa and Ma. Beautiful expres-sions of Devamanohari, Asaveri,Hindolam followed culminating in aRTP in Chalanatai ‘Jalamen seivadhazhaga guha vadivela en mel’.

Instead of presenting the pallaviin three speeds, Sanjay sang kalpanaswarams in different speeds ensuringthe first half of the pallavi finishedon the arudi. A themmangu stylePayum oli nee enakku lilting withlove brought the audience close totears at the end of the concert.

Shri Ganesh and Shri Kumaresh,the violin duo, gave an unusual con-cert, starting with Thaye Yashodhain thodi as the opening piece. An

RTP in three ragams but again witha difference, alapanai in begada,thanam in hindolam and pallavi inDharmavathi going back in reversefor the kalapana swarams.

They presented their own com-positions in a Ragapravaham inGambheera Nattai, which had nolyrics and elaboratedNasikabhushani portraying a delin-eation only of the ragam in its myri-ad shades and moving away fromSahitya Bhava.

The much awaited concert ofRanjani and Gayathri warmed up ona cold evening with the varnam inSahana followed by SiddhiVinayakam by Muthuswamy

Dikshidhar. A breezy and beautifulcomposition by neelakanta sivan inmisra chapu ‘navasiddhi petralum’made the audience sway in agree-ment. Sri chamundeswari palaya-mam in Bilahari with kalpanaswarams picked the pace of the con-cert preceding Bogendra shayinamin Kuntalavarali.

The RTP in saramathi wherethere was a pun on the phrase manasara- mathi ani eesan maganai dhina-mum ninai cradled the audience tocatch a glimpse of the aesthetics ofthis artform.

No concert by Ranjani Gayatri iscomplete without a vrutham andabhang. They presented a vruthamfollowed by Chandrasekhara eeshaand a tukaram abhang bolava vittala.

The third day brought the lec-dem on a composer Venkata Kaviwho lived 400 years back who hadfound a dedicated researcher in RaviKiran. Ravi Kiran tried to restore tolife the poet’s compositions withabout 30 students of Carnatic music,very much from the 21st century inSydney. Rare songs from theVenkatakavi Saptaratna, and onecomposition, the only one in carnat-ic music which mentions the namesof all the 63 nayanmars in one of thecharanams, a true tongue twisterwere sung by none other than stu-dents from Sydney who had been

meticulously trained by their gurus,Prema Anandakrishnan, BhavaniGovindan, Chitra Krishnamurthy,Ketheeswary Paheerathan and UmaAyyar, a perfect example of howmusic has no boundaries.

Given the topic Sakthi mahima,Carnatica brothers began with abrisk rendering of Sarasiruha innatai followed by Sama gana priye ina more sedate anandhabahiravi thebrothers set the tone for the concert.

Elaborations of ragams likeLalitha and Dwijavanthi alternatingbetween the soft and strong notesbrought out the intense force andbeauty of devi in the songs nannubrovu lalitha and akilandeswari.

The majestic RTP in RagamShivashakthi, a composition ofChitra Veena Ravikiran includedbeautiful ragams like Dhanyasi,Durga, Rasikapriya andAmrutavarshini, a reflection of thepouring rains in Sydney perhaps.

Violinists Nagai Sriram and B.UGanesh Prasad excelled in their artand challenged the vocalist to go onenotch up every time with theirkalpana swarams and alapanais.Percussionists Patri Satish Kumar,Tanjore. K. Murugabhoopathi andK. V Gopalakrishnan presented somany different variations in thanisand arudhis pacing their accompani-ment to perfection with the vocalist.

A music fest of eternal bliss

Swaralaya fest lived up to its name

Carnatica Brothers – singers; Murugabhoopathy – Mridangam; Nagai Sriram -- Violin

Student Participants at the Festival Artistes singing the Thyagaraja Pancharatna Krithis


Children’s Corner

He was a clever cricketer,And very proud of that;Conceitedly one afternoonHe took his cricket bat.But when he at the wicket

sawHis sister with her curls,He turned his nose up so, and

said:"I never play with girls! "They're molly-coddles all,"

he cried;"They always spoil a match;They cannot field or bowl a

bit—They cannot even catch!However, just this once I'll

play!"O, pride had such a fall:You should have heard them

shout—a girlHad bowled him out first

ball! By Jonty Gardner

An old man on the point ofdeath summoned his sonsaround him to give them

some parting advice. He orderedhis servants to bring in a bundleof sticks, and said to his eldestson: "Break it." The son strainedand strained, but with all hisefforts was unable to break theBundle. The other sons alsotried, but none of them was suc-cessful. "Untie the bundle," saidthe father, "and each of you takea stick." When they had done so,

he called out to them: "Now,break," and each stick was easilybroken. "You see my meaning,"said their father.

Union gives strength

The Indian National anthem, originallycomposed in Bengali by RabindranathTagore, was adopted in its Hindi version bythe Constituent Assembly as the NationalAnthem of India on 24 January 1950. It wasfirst sung on 27 December 1911 at theCalcutta session of the Indian NationalCongress. The complete song consists offive stanzas. Playing time of full version ofthe National Anthem is approximately 52seconds. The lyrics were rendered intoEnglish by Rabindranath Tagore himself.

Jana gana mana adhi naayaka jaya hai! Bhaarat bhaagya vidhaata Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maraatha, Dravid Utkala Bangaa. Vindhya Himachala Yamuna Ganga, Uchhala jaladhi taranga. Tava shubh naame jaage, Tava shubh aashish maage, Gahe tava jaya-gaatha. Jana-gana-mangaladayaka jaya hai! Bharat bhagya vidhata. Jaya hai! Jaya hai! Jaya hai! Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya hai!

English Translation"Thou art the ruler of the minds of all

people,dispenser of India's destiny. The name rouses the hearts of Punjab,

Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravidand Orissa and Bengal;

It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyasand Himalayas, mingles in the music of theYamuna and Ganga and is chanted by thewaves of the Indian Sea

They pray for thy blessings and sing thypraise.

The salvation of all people is in thyhand, thou dispenser of India'sdestiny,Victory, victory, victory to thee."

Afarmer had some puppieshe needed to sell. Hepainted a sign advertising

the pups and set about Nailing it toa post on the edge of his yard. Ashe was driving the last nail into thepost, he Felt a tug on his overalls.He looked down into the Eyes of alittle boy.

Mister," he said, "I want tobuy one of your puppies."

"Well," said the farmer, as herubbed the sweat off the back ofhis neck, "these puppies comefrom fine parents and cost a gooddeal of money."

The boy dropped his head for amoment. Then reaching deep intohis pocket, he pulled out a handfulof change and held it up to thefarmer. "I've got thirty-nine cents.Is that enough to take a look?"

"Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whis-

tle,"Here,Dolly!" he called.Out from the doghouse and

down the ramp ran Dolly followedby four little balls of fur. The littleboy pressed his face against thechain link fence. His eyes dancedwith delight.

As the dogs made their way tothe fence, the little boy noticedsomething else stirring inside thedoghouse. Slowly another littleball appeared; this One noticeablysmaller. Down the ramp it slid.

Then in a somewhat awkwardmanner the little pup began hob-bling toward the others, doing itsbest to catch up....

"I want that one," the little boysaid, pointing to the runt.

The farmer knelt down at theboy's side and said, "Son, youdon't want that puppy. He willnever be able to run and play withyou like these other dogs would."

With that the little boy steppedback from the fence, reacheddown, and began rolling up oneleg of his trousers. In doing so herevealed a steel brace runningdown both sides of his leg attach-ing itself To a specially madeshoe. Looking back up at thefarmer, he said, "You see sir, Idon't run too well myself, and hewill need someone who under-stands."

The world is full of peoplewho need someone who under-stands.

When you hear the merryrain

Patter at the window-pane,Think 'twill soon be fine

again;So laugh at it!If you chance to tumble

down,Though you bump your little

crown,Never cry or pout or frown,Just laugh at it!When the sum is hard to do,Rub it out and try anew;When you get the answer

trueYou'll laugh at it!

By Neal Nayer

There was once a youngShepherd Boy whotended his sheep at the

foot of a mountain near a darkforest. It was rather lonely forhim all day, so he thoughtupon a plan by which he couldget a little company and someexcitement. He rushed downtowards the village calling out"Wolf, Wolf," and the vil-lagers came out to meet him,and some of them stopped withhim for a considerable time.This pleased the boy so muchthat a few days afterwards hetried the same trick, and again

the villagers came to his help.But shortly after this a

Wolf actually did come outfrom the forest, and began toworry the sheep, and the boyof course cried out "Wolf,Wolf," still louder than before.But this time the villagers,who had been fooled twicebefore, thought the boy wasagain deceiving them, andnobody stirred to come to hishelp. So the Wolf made agood meal of the boy's flock,and when the boy complained,the wise man of the villagesaid:

Children's Corner By Esther Chaudhry-Lyons

Conceit Bowled Out !

PUPPIES FOR SALE

The Bundle of Sticks National Anthem ofIndia

Laugh at It!

The Shepherd Boy

Colour and Enjoy


Community

By Rekha Rajvanshi

Raju Varanasi is anAustralian FulbrightScholar. As the Direc-

tor of the Curriculum andLearning Innovation Centre,he promotes a culture of in-novation and organisationallearning across NSW Depart-ment of Education and Com-munities. Earlier, he was aDirector in TAFE NSW forseveral years.

Raju is an IIT graduate inchemical engineering and ob-tained post-graduate manage-ment qualifications from IIMBangalore. He migrated toAustralia in 1991, accordingto him, “due to sunny weath-er and my love for cricket”.

He has a thorough under-standing of the current tech-nology trends in education in-cluding pedagogical ap-proaches, planning policiesand standards within NSWand Australia. Under MrVaranasi's leadership, theCentre for Learning Innova-tion has introduced severalhighly successful technology-based flagship services forschools, vocational educationand training sector.

The Indian Down Underdiscusses with Mr Varanasithe future trends in educa-tion.

TIDU: In the last tenyears there has been a hugeadvancement in technology.How do you envision futureeducation?

Raju Varanasi: Technol-ogy has really changed a lotof things. What constitutesnow as a classroom or aschool, now revolves aroundtechnology. I work veryclosely with the principalsand the senior executives.They are very conscious thatwe need to provide more op-portunities to the students.Year 2+ kids are quite goodin adapting education andprocessing and downloadinginformation. So the future ofEducation will be drasticallydifferent. Learning is a socialprocess and school is a socialconstant. However, the phys-

icality is now less important:two learners may not be inthe same classroom but theycould be in the same class asinteractions are much morevital and digital. In the fu-ture, a teacher will become amentor and the classroomwill become a learning space.It may look more like a caférather than as a classroomyou and me went to. Withthese mobile technologies wecan set up a learning environ-ment anywhere. My conceptis that the social concept ofschool should not go away.There will be a lot of interac-tion in the physical world,complemented well by thevirtual world. With nationalbroad band coming up, it willbe a big plus.

TIDU: Australians of In-dian origin are either bilin-gual or multilingual. Withyour bilingual background,what’s your opinion on sec-ond languageteaching/learning? Did beingbi/multilingual benefit youin your professional or per-sonal life?

Raju: Certainly it hasbenefited me both in personaland professional life. I knowTelugu and English, a bit ofTamil and Hindi as well. It isa globalised world and a bulk

of Australia’s future isvideshi, and language is thebest vehicle for interculturalunderstanding. Australiarecognises that. We, inNSW, provide 35 languagesup to HSC and in K-6 stagewe offer 40 languages. I per-sonally feel that languageshave opened up a new way oflooking at life. When welearn a language, we look atculture and when we look atculture we appreciate newthings in life. If you take aneconomic view, languagebuilds trade, language buildsrelationship, language makesit possible to exchange ideas,money, people and goods.

TIDU: What is themantra of your success inAustralia?

Raju: A little bit of luckis always there. As a firstgeneration migrant I had allto win and nothing to lose. Ihad the aspiration to do welland Australia gives a lot ofopportunities. The mantra isa mix of luck with aspiration.

TIDU: What were yourmain achievements as aTAFE director and now atCLIC (Curriculum andLearning Innovation Cen-tre)?

Raju: One of my key

achievements at TAFE,which I joined in 1991, wasworking on the first cross-in-dustry training package. Weworked on a lot of nationalissues such as skill standards.I was lucky enough to get aFulbright Scholarship fromthe Australian FulbrightCommission which took meto the USA. I could meetwith scholars at Harvard Uni-versity and the University ofTexas, which was a fantasticexperience. Now in CLIC, Iimplement and support all thecurriculum issues in theschool regions. We are talk-ing about kids born in the in-ternet generation; so my roleis to put new digital learningenvironments and promoteintegrated web based learn-ing.

TIDU: According to theBoard of Studies, ACARA’sDraft languages paper hasfailed to address an ''alarm-ing decline” in language ed-ucation. How can this be ad-dressed?

Raju: There are pressureson schools about numeracyand literacy, NAPLAN. TheGovernment is putting sys-tems in place about schoolaccountability in getting thenumeracy and literacy start.There is pressure to put a Na-

tional Curriculum in placewith more consistency. In thecontext of all this I admit thatlanguages have taken a lowerpriority in the current schemeof things because they aretrying to get the foundationright about literacy and nu-meracy. But it won’t be thesame forever; very soon thegame will move on to higherorder things and languageswill come on higher stage.

TIDU: Why do you thinkany of the Indian languages,and Hindi as well, has notbeen included in the nationallanguage curriculum?

Raju: I am pleased thatHindi has been included inthe HSC. Hindi is now therein the Saturday School andalso in K-6 schools. It is oneof the fastest growing lan-guages in Australia. I thinkthere will be further growthwhich will open up morerecognition and more partici-pation in Schools. In terms ofthe Australian National Cur-riculum, there are so manyother languages with longtime legacies such as Frenchand Italian. Asian languagessuch as Korean and Indone-sian are growing, and I un-derstand Hindi is not in thetop rating. I am optimisticthat very soon Hindi will behigher up on the agenda.

TIDU: Would you sup-port the petition for addingHindi in the National Cur-riculum?

Raju: Yes, I would sup-port, but I also understandthe priority order.

TIDU: Any special mes-sage you would like to giveto the Indian students andthe Indian community ofAustralia?

Raju: I am not so muchinto giving messages but if Ihave to give a message Iwould say, ‘we collectivelyhave chosen a great countrywhere we can integrate whilewe can still retain our cultur-al richness. We have to re-ciprocate tolerance; tolerancehas to be both ways - a twoway social relationship’.

Raju Varanasi works technology into teaching

Raju Varanasi, Director of Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre


Community

By Rekha Rajvanshi

Hindu Council of Australiaorganized their annual dinner onSaturday, May 28, 2011 at theSapphire Function Centre inAuburn. The dinner was wellattended by the executives andmembers of the Hindu Counciland invited dignitaries such asSenator Hon Kate Lundy, VictorDominello MP and Matt KeanMP.

The program started withbeautiful dance performancesand lively songs, which werefollowed by speeches by SenatorKate Lundy and the Hon. VictorDominello MP, who highlightedsome important points about themulticultural and multi faithsociety that is Australia.

Dr. Nihal Agar, President ofthe Hindu Council of Australiawelcomed guests and thankedsponsors, supporters and volun-teers. He talked about Council'sdream to establish a NationalCentre of Hindu Education andculture in Australia.

He suggested that this projectwould be planned in three phas-

es: collecting funds, buyingland and finally paying off the

loan. The Secretary of Hindu

Council Mr. Sanjeev Bhakhrimentioned various successful

activities of the Hindu Councilincluding Deepavali Fair, inter-faith functions, supportingAuburn temple attack issue andmaking a submission to includethe Hindi Language in theNational Curriculum at ACARA.

The Hindu Council ofAustralia's Om Gupta outlinedobjectives and the structure ofHindu Education and CulturalCentre (HECC). One of HECC'sobjectives is to collect, consoli-date and keep all relevant educa-tional, cultural and religiousmaterial relating to Hindu tradi-tions in appropriate forms.Hindu Council also honoredsome of the prominent seniormembers of the Indian commu-nity by giving recognising MrsLeela Gune and Mr Shiva Bhatt.Mrs Leela Gune has selflesslyworked for Auburn Temple formany years. Pandit Shiva Bhattji is respected member of theIndian community and has beenmodel for the Indian communitydown under. Both of them havemade life time contribution tothe Hindu community inSydney.

Hindu Council of Australia honours Mrs Gune and Mr Bhatt

Mrs Leela Gune and Mr Shiva Bhatt

Community


By Neena Badhwar

When you meet Dr ColinYarham you do not realize that heis 80 years old with an extendedfamily, wife, children, grandkidsin Australia and a life full of goodtimes and bad times. Yet he leavesit all and goes and spends tenmonths out of the year in India inTamilnadu. Says he, "I have got-ten used to the hot weather.Though I understand the languagebut can't speak beyond a fewwords."

Talking of good and badtimes, "There was a very sad timewhen I sat next to my son whodied of pancreatic cancer. I stillshed a tear or two," he pauses fora second and then says, "Oh, Ilove visiting my grandkids inPerth and spending some qualitytime with them and in Sydneywith my wife and daughter."

Dr. Yarham has spent last 16years in India in Tamilnadu pro-moting health education and safe-ty in schools through HEPI, aHealth Education & PromotionInternational Inc., a non-profitassociation dedicated to thedevelopment of the health andwell being of all children.

"Our aim is to work in a prac-tical manner and in a spirit of loveand care to promote the healthand welfare of children, whereverthey may be."

Health Education &Promotion International has beenworking since 1985 to empowerchildren regarding their totalhealth and life skills. InTamilnadu state HEPI works inclose cooperation with adminis-tration at all levels and the initia-tive reaches to some 14 millionchildren.

Says Dr. Yarham, who hasspent his lifetime as an educatorin Australia and has a great net-work of academic friends andcontacts, says, "Our challenge isto combat the horrendous erosionof the well-being of school agechild and youth due to ignorance,substance abuse, starvation, dis-ease, HIV/AIDS, abuse and neg-lect."

Not only has Dr Yarham spentyears working in India, he hasused his knowledge and networkof university friends and academ-ics to design a full curriculumwith detailed Scope & SequenceChart from year 1 to year 12 andgetting them to design lessonscompiled into books for eachyear. Not only that, he says,"Since I realized that teachers canbe mothers with a family to lookafter they do not have time to

research to conduct lessons. Sowe designed teachers manual andresource books for each year." Heproudly shows all the books,charts, resource manuals and

teacher manuals - years of workthat has gone into designing allthe course material, thoughtfullydone for India's children with top-ics that range from Indian homes,cooking, hygiene and lifestyle assuch.

"When I approached theIndian government they put meon to NCERT department andwhen I got in touch with themthey gave me the name of thepublisher - Vikas Publishing - butit was all mine and my team'seffort to get the books publishedthe way we had visualized com-plete Health Program for schoolkids."

"If you want to change a lifeyou capture young children whonot only carry childhood impres-

sions deep in them they even edu-cate the people around them." DrYarham shows a picture of aschool, all the litter around andpointing to the stairs which hesays is the only exit for children

studying in rooms upstairs. "Oncethere was a fire and it gutted therooms upstairs and around 130children perished due to an ill-thought out exit. We tried toimpress on school authorities tothink of safety and other measuresfor the sake of children."

"HEPI program has been sosuccessful that it is now runningthrough 54,000 schools with400,000 teachers and reaches 14million children. We have thoughtof every aspect of health educa-tion and I have made friends inhigh offices of the government asit is possible for me to walk in andtalk to people in administrationwho know that we have achievedtremendous results and healthawareness in Tamilnadu. Theyalways welcome me when I comeasking."

Dr Yarham quite humbly says,"Not only school kids but wethought of homeless children too

who live on footpaths with leastsense of hygiene or basic educa-tion. We said they need educationtoo. So we designed simple bookswith pictures and distributed themthrough organizations that work

and help children of the slums.The volunteers distribute ourbooks to street kids. It is impor-tant as there’s no hope for chil-dren living on the streets yetgiven the chance they may makesomething out of themselves."

"For schools HEPI trains notonly the teachers, we preparetrainers as well as master train-ers." Says Yarham, a visionaryeducator who thought out healtheducation program in minutedetails with the help of over 32educators, academics and friendssourced from Australia and Indiaand worked for years criss-cross-ing countries for more than adecade.

Health education, safety, riskmanagement, education of the girlchild, pit toilets for girls, sub-stance abuse, physical and emo-tional abuse all have been consid-ered in the program.

"So impressed are the people

with this curriculum that the gov-ernment of Malawi has asked meto institute it in schools overthere. And I have beenapproached by Indian states ofBihar, UP and Rajasthan in thenorth to chalk out health educa-tion there for which I will have todraw up plans and get the booksdone in Hindi. In Tamilnadu thebooks are in Tamil language,"said Dr Yarham as he is visitingSydney in July for a month.

"Up until now we have beenfunded by some bodies such asWorld Aid, AusAid but they havetightened the funds and that iswhy I am asking the Indian com-munity here to get involved inthis worthwhile project as it ispromising to see the changethrough this program in healtheducation of school children."

"I do not ask for a salary formyself as I have worked withoutit for the last sixteen years. Itssuch a good cause and that's whatIndia badly needs - health andhygiene and that children studyand learn in a safe and healthyenvironment."

When asked what does hisfamily think about his work andhim staying away in India forlong stretches of time, "Oh mywife has gotten used to it. Thefamily has given up on me in thesense that they know that that'swhat is my life. I will spend everymoment of it for the betterment ofchildren." Says Yarham with adetermination stressing the mottoof HEPI on its flyer - 'for the loveand care of children'.

Dr Yarham looks up and sumsup in three words, "We NeedHelp!"

We are lucky that we have aperson like Dr Colin Yarham whois a true karmic and works forhumanity with no personalreward. Not only does he inspireothers around him he invites themalong to India as many of his col-leagues, friends, family have goneand met him there and have vol-unteered and worked for him inIndia. His vision of India can onlybe visualized when one meetshim. Not just a vision but he isactually doing it for the future ofIndia and for the future of Indianchildren.To discuss, help and donatecontact: Health Education &Promotion International Inc.P.O. Box 78, Roseville, NSW 2069 Ph. 02 9416 [email protected]: www.hepi.net

We need help!

"Our aim is to work in a practi-cal manner and in a spirit of loveand care to promote the health andwelfare of children, wherever theymay be."

- Dr Yarham

Dr Colin Yarham

Tamil Course Book

Dr Colin Yarham


Thornleigh Harris Park1 Station Street Shop 3, 96-98 Wigram StPh: 02 9481 8200 Ph: 02 9893 8691

Columns


Chicken is a very versatile food and doesnot suffer from the problems of redmeat. This collection of recipes is using

Microwave Cooking and thereby minimizes theamount of additional oil needed for cooking.Microwave cooking also reduces the total workand saves water/energy as the same dish can beused to cook, serve, preserve, reheat, re-serveand finally clean. This method of cooking willpreserve the environment as well. I hope ourTIDU readers find this a healthy change.

Coconut Chicken KebabsIngredients� 200 gm chicken breast cut into 8-10

pieces�1tsp corn flour� ½ tsp garlic paste�½ tsp ginger paste� ½ tsp freshly roasted and ground cumin

seed powder�½ tsp freshly ground black pepper�½ tsp or more salt to taste�2 tabs lemon juice�½ cup desiccated coconut powder

MethodPlace the chicken pieces in a mixing bowl.

Add the corn flour, garlic paste, ginger paste,cumin seeds powder, black pepper powder, salt

and lemon juice. Mix well so that the chickenpieces are evenly coated. Cover the bowl witha cloth and let it marinate for 3 to 4 hours.

Roll each chicken piece in coconut powderso that it is well covered with it. Arrange all thepieces evenly spaced on a lightly greased mi-crowave safe dish.

Place the dish in the microwave oven. Cov-er with a microwave dish cover and cook onhigh for 2 minutes. Remove from the mi-crowave and turn the chicken pieces over. Cov-er with a microwave dish cover and cook onhigh for another 2 minutes. Give 2 minutesstanding time. Remove from the oven andcheck. The food should be cooked. As the in-dividual microwave and their settings can bedifferent, additional cooking for 1 minute eachside may be needed.

Serve hot.

Malai Chicken KebabsIngredients�250 gm chicken breast cut into 10-12

pieces�1 tsp garlic paste�½ tsp fennel seeds powder�1 tsp red chili powder�3/4 tsp or more salt to taste�1/3 cup thickened cream

Ingredients for garnishing�2 or 3 fresh washed and dried lettuce

leaves� 4 to 6 red thinly cut onion rings� 4 to 6 red thinly cut lemon rings

MethodPlace the chicken pieces in a mixing bowl.

Add the garlic paste, fennel seeds powder, redchili powder, salt and cream. Mix well so thatthe chicken pieces are evenly coated. Cover thebowl with a cloth and let it marinate for 2 to 3hours.

Arrange all the pieces evenly spaced on alightly greased microwave safe dish. Discardthe excess marinate left in the bowl.

Place the dish in the microwave oven. Cov-er with a microwave dish cover and cook onhigh for 2 minutes. Remove from the mi-crowave and turn the chicken pieces over. Cov-er with a microwave dish cover and cook onhigh for another 2 minutes. Give 2 minutesstanding time.

Place lettuce leaves on a serving plate andarrange the cooked malai kebabs on the leaves.Then arrange the onion and lemon ringsaround. Sprinkle salt and pepper on theonion/lemon rings and serve hot.

Chicken TikkaIngredients�300 gm boneless chicken cut into 12-15

pieces�1 cup natural yoghurt

�1 small red onion cut into quarters andthen each layer separated.

� 1 green capsicum, cut into small squares� ¾ tsp garlic paste�¾ tsp ginger paste� green chili – finely chopped� 1 tsp freshly garam masala powder�1 tsp amchur powder (dry mango pow-

der)�¼ tsp tandoori (orange red) food colour�1 tsp salt�Oil for brushing the chicken tikka

MethodPlace the natural yoghurt in a thin cotton

cloth and hang the cloth so that excess water isdrained out. Occasionally squeeze the hung yo-ghurt by hand to squeeze extra water. It maytake up to a couple of hours and a few handsqueezes to make the yoghurt thick.

Place the chicken pieces in a mixing bowl.Add the hung yoghurt, onion pieces, capsicumstrips, garlic paste, ginger paste, chopped greenchili, garam masala, amchur powder, tandooricolour and salt. Mix well so that the chickenpieces are evenly coated. Cover the bowl witha cloth and let it marinate for 3 to 4 hours.

Arrange all the chicken pieces, capsicumsquares and onion pieces evenly spaced on alightly greased microwave safe dish. Discardthe excess marinate left in the bowl. Place thedish in the microwave oven. Cover with a mi-crowave dish cover and cook on high for 3 min-utes. Remove from the microwave and turn thechicken pieces over. Cover with a microwavedish cover and cook on high for another 3 min-utes. Give 3 minutes standing time.

Serve hot.

By Devaki Parthasarathy

Tea is the buzz word these days as its mul-tiple benefits are getting louder and moredifficult to ignore. Tea and its healthy

benefits have been receiving wide attention inthe media. With more and more studies beingpublished it is becoming more evident that thecomplex brew of chemicals that make up thisseemingly simple beverage is truly a “wonderdrug”. Enlightened tea drinkers are rediscover-ing the protective and revitalizing benefits ofthis ancient drink.

Tea has been an integral part of everydaysocietal life in many of the world’s most popu-lous countries which has made it the secondmost widely consumed beverage in the world,exceeded only by the most necessary of all liq-uids - water. Ever notice why the Chinese andJapanese have some of the longest life-ex-pectancy rates in the world? It’s all in a cup-pa….

The Japanese have believed for centuriesthat the Polyphenols in tea help prevent bloodclotting, lower cholesterol levels thus reducingheart diseases and stimulate the immune sys-tem. More research has shown that they do ac-tually neutralise enzymes that aid in the growthof tumours and deactivate cancer promoters. Ithas fluoride for strong teeth and half the amountof Caffeine found in an equally-sized cup ofcoffee.

Traditionally, it is said that a warm cup oftea warms you up. To the English it is a ritualand more like having a picnic indoors. It’s a fa-mous saying in Japan that a man that has no teain him is incapable of understanding truth andbeauty. A daily cup of tea, say the Chinese, canstarve the apothecary. So what is it about thishumble cup of tea that makes it an elixir of life?

Here are a few benefits that have come out ofresearch being done in the field. Not all of themare conclusive and continuous research is prov-ing most of them to be right.

Aging : If you are the type to fret over theappearance of wrinkles, age spots and othersigns of growing old, oolong tea may be the an-swer to your worries.

Allergies : The wonder cup just got evenmore wonderful. Green tea, rich in antioxidanttreasures that protect against heart disease andcancer, now shows promise as an allergy fight-er. Green tea may be useful against a widerange of sneeze-starting allergens, includingpollen, pet dander, and dust.

Bone Density : Tea flavonoids may be bonebuilders. Drinking tea regularly for years mayproduce stronger bones. Those who drank teaon a regular basis for 10 or more years hadhigher-bone mineral density in their spines thanthose who had not. Consumption of green teamay be prophylactic for arthritis and may ben-efit the arthritis patient by reducing inflamma-tion and slowing cartilage breakdown.

Cancer : "Tea is one of the single best can-cer fighters you can put in your body," accord-

ing to Mitchell Gaynor, MD, director of med-ical oncology at the world-renowned StrongCancer Prevention Center in New York Cityand co-author of Dr. Gaynor's Cancer Preven-tion Program. Green tea extracts were found toinhibit the growth of bladder cancer cells in thelab — while other studies suggest that drinkinggreen tea protects against developing stomachand oesophageal cancers.

Heart Disease : Tea is a rich source of theflavonoids quercetin, kaempferol, andmyricetin, and research shows that high dietaryintake of these compounds is associated with areduced risk of fatal heart attacks. In one study,people who drank about a cup and a half of teaper day were almost 40% less likely to suffer aheart attack compared to tea abstainers. Drink-ing black tea may lower the risk of heart diseasebecause it prevents blood from clumping andforming clots. “Better to be deprived of foodfor three days than tea for one” - Chineseproverb.

High Blood Pressure: Tea lovers may besurprised to learn their beverage of choice toutsyet another health benefit: blood pressure con-

trol. Drinking a half-cup of green or oolong teaper day reduced a person's risk of high bloodpressure by almost 50% in a new study. Peoplewho drank at least two and a half cups per dayreduced their risk even more. Their risk was re-duced even if they had risk factors for highblood pressure, such as high sodium intake.

Oral Health: Rinsing with tea may preventcavities and gum disease. Antioxidants arethought to be behind the benefits of tea on den-tal health as well. A number of studies havesuggested that rinsing with black or green teamay lead to better oral health. Studies haveshown that the antioxidants in black tea willsuppress the growth of bacteria in the mouththat cause cavities and gum diseases and inhib-it or interfere with the attachment of bacteria tothe tooth surface.

Parkinson's Disease: Research is beingconducted as we speak on the correlation be-tween the consumption of tea and protectionagainst developing this debilitating neurologicaldisorder.

Weight Loss: Trying to lose weight? Reachfor a cup of green tea instead of a diet bever-age. Green tea contains high concentrations ofcatechin polyphenols. These compounds workwith other chemicals to intensify levels of fatoxidation and thermogenesis, where heat is cre-ated in the body by burning fuels such as fatsafely and naturally. Additionally, drinking teaalso causes carbohydrates to be released slow-ly, preventing sharp increases in blood-insulinlevels promoting the burning of fat.

With so much compelling research, isn't itabout time for everyone to consider brewing upmore of this potent potable? I think it's reason-able for people looking to make healthylifestyle choices to consider tea as a better op-tion than other beverages.

Tea - a wonder drug

Microwave Chicken Recipes

Look Good and Feel Great Naturally

Cookery with Promila Gupta

Green tea Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea (Camellia sinensis).


Special Offer on FacialsCheck our websit:

www.sumismindandbody.com.au

Yoga forObesity

Prenatal Yoga - Six WeeksAyurveda Massage - 10%off

for Arthiritis and Backpain

FREEChildren Gurukul

ActivitiesMONDAYS

Check Out Specials for next Monthwww.sumismindandbody.com.au

SUMI’sMind & Body02 8850 4567

72 Castlewood Drive Castle Hill


Dr. Anil KonthamDental Surgeon

Now at two locations!

Services include:General Dentistry Teeth WhiteningCosmetic dentistry Dentures/Partial/FullCrown and Bridge Root Canal TreatmentTotal Sterlisation Wisdom Teeth Removals

Gum Infection

Free Dental Treatment under Medicare*

(*For patients with chronic medical condition. some limits apply)

ON SITE PROCESSING OF HEALTH FUNDSEFTPOS AVAILABLE

Suite 1B, 1st Floor40 Panmure StRouse Hill NSW 2155(02 ) 8814 5255

Suite 1, Level 138-40 Geroge StParramatta NSW 2150(02) 9635 9525

0449 111 111

Free Quotes!Call Pappu!!

Jaswinder Singh Bhogal !!!0449 111 111

Body Mind Spirit


By Anil Sharma

The reincarnating ego belongsto the lower plane, namely,thought. It is transcended by Self-realisation.

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

In the life on the other side ofthe grave, there are no tears, orlaughs, no friends or enemies.

Nobody is rich or poor, neither aking nor a pauper. But there areopportunities aplenty to realiseperfection.

Immediately after death, thelife force having left the physicalbody is plunged into deep sleepakin to an unborn child prior tobirth. The individual life force pre-pares for rebirth on the astral planeand requires time to adjust itself.

Birth on physical plane hasmany aspects in common to themove on astral plane - both pre-ceded by a period of deep sleep.During this sleep-like stage theindividual life force dwells in theetheric shell which serves as itscovering and protection, just as thewomb serves as the protection forthe child approaching physicalbirth.

Normally, the life force sleepsin peace, undisturbed by and pro-tected from outward influences.However, there is an exception tothis rule and the peaceful sleepmay be disturbed by dreams whichmay arise as a result of intensedesire filling the mind of the dyingperson, such as love, hate or unful-filled tasks or duties. There alsomay be strong desires and thoughtsof those left behind, love or otherstrong attachments.

These causes tend to produce arestlessness in the sleeping lifeforce and can manifest itself to thescenes of earth as a dreamy tele-pathic communication. This isregrettable as it interferes with fur-ther evolution and development inits new phase of existence. Insome cases these visualisations caneven be of a ghastly nature. Manya well meaning person has acted toretard the natural processes of theastral plane in relation to someloved one who has passed away

and has denied to the life force therest which it has merited. That iswhy weeping, crying and showingremorse does not really help.

The grief and demands of thoseleft behind often cause much painand sorrow to their loved ones whohave passed over to the other side.Sometimes they will fight off theslumber for years in order to bearound their loved ones on earth,but this course is unwise as itresults in unnecessary sorrow andpain.

Spiritual teaching does not fora moment counsel forgetfulness ofthe dead, but it does suggest thataffectionate remembrance of thedead is a force which, if properlydirected, may be of real value tothem. Prayers and accompanyingceremonies create environmentwhich strikes against the negativeforces creating disturbances in theslumber state, thus speeding theprogress towards the astral world.

The period of soul slumber islike the existence of a baby in themother’s womb. It sleeps so that itmay awaken into life withstrength. There is nowhere innature in which an entity is socarefully and fully guarded. Soabsolutely secure from invasion orintrusion, from harm or hurtfulinfluence, are these sleeping indi-vidual life forces that nothing shortof a complete revolution ofnature’s most sacred laws couldaffect them.

The individual life force car-

ries with it into its slumber state aconcentrated record of its entirelife, including the seeds of itsdesires, ambitions, likes and dis-likes, attractions and repulsions.These seed-ideas soon begin tosprout and blossom and bear fruitduring the time of the individuallife force on the astral plane.Some of these seed ideas will bearresults in future incarnations.

Nature arranges that many ofthe strong impulses will be mani-fested and worn out on the astralplane so that the individual lifeforce may leave them behind whenit is reborn into a new earth life. Itis towards this fruition that thesoul’s slumber serves. During theperiod of slumber the individuallife force is prepared for its entryinto the astral world and its lifetherein.

The period of sleep may extendfor days or years, and sometimeslonger as the case may be, beforethe etheric matter is disentangledfrom both dense physical andastral worlds. Here, too, one findsa remarkable correspondence withthe phenomenon of gestation andbirth on the physical plane. In thecase of those animals whose natu-ral life period is short, one finds,as a rule, that their period of ges-tation in the womb is correspond-ingly short; on the other hand, ani-mals of a natural long life spend amuch longer period in the wombbefore birth. Thus, the elephanthas a twenty or twenty-one months

in the womb; human beings, ninemonths; rabbits, one month;guinea pigs, three weeks. The nat-ural life of each bears a relation tothe period of gestation. Similarly,the gestation period of the soul isfound to vary in proportion to thetime the awakened individual lifeforce is to pass on the astral plane.

The variation in slumber is dueto the soul being prepared to shedits lower animal nature upon awak-ening. The life force awakensonly when it has reached the high-est state of development possiblefor it when it is able to pass on tothe particular plane or sub planefor which its degree of develop-ment calls. An individual lifeforce of low development has verylittle to shed in this way and soonawakens on a low plane. A higherdevelopment, on the other hand,must shed and discard sheath aftersheath of the lower animal naturebefore it can awaken on the planeof its highest attainment.

An apparent exception to thisrule are persons of highlyadvanced spiritual power andknowledge, in which case the lifeforce is able, by its knowledge andpower, to control the naturalprocesses, instead of being undertheir control.

The process of discarding orshedding these lower fragments ofpersonality occurs immediatelyafter the first stage of the awaken-ing. The individual life force feel-ing the impulses of re-awakened

life, stirs itself languidly, as onedoes in awakening from a soundslumber in earth-life. Then, likethe butterfly throwing aside thechrysalis shell, it slips away fromthe etheric vehicle and in rapidsuccession unconsciously discardsthe lower principles of its nature.

This occurs while the individ-ual life force is slowly gainingconsciousness. At the moment ofthe actual awakening, the individ-ual life force is free from all theseworn out shells and encumbrances,and opens its eyes upon the scenesof its new activities and existencein the astral world.

Each individual life force isdestined to dwell on the plane ofthe highest and best in itself, afterthe dross of the lower elementshave been discarded. The individ-ual life force makes great progresson the astral plane, and during itsstay there, discards more of itslower nature as it passes on to stillhigher subplanes of the astralplane.

In the region of life after deaththe individual life force is relievedof all that tends to hold it back anddrag it down, and is rendered freeto express and develop those qual-ities and characteristics which rep-resent the best and truest that is init. This fact accords not only withthe sense of justice and equity; notonly with the longings and crav-ings of the individual life forceimprisoned in the physical bodybut also with the fact and princi-ples of evolution, which tend tomove upwards and onward,towards a far off goal of attainmentand perfection. The awakening ofthe individual life force is akin to anew birth, an entrance into a newworld of experience.

The life force manifests no fearof its new surroundings but is fullof activity in the direction ofexpression and manifestation of itsnew powers.

After slumber, the life forceawakens into a region of life andnot into a region of death. Likethe butterfly, it spreads its wingsand enjoys its new state of exis-tence. It does not mourn the loss ofthe chrysalis form and life.

There is life beyond death

A temple to Gandhi

Immediately afterdeath, the life forcehaving left the phys-ical body is plungedinto deep sleep akinto an unborn childprior to birth. Theindividual life forceprepares for rebirthon the astral plane

and requires time toadjust itself.

AChristian meeting a Muslim at amandir would require quite a leapof faith even in the most neutral

and secular of countries. Unless it's atemple where the reigning deity isMahatma Gandhi. Standing in prayerfulsilence next to Mohammad Abdul Kadir,Richard Chen says it seems natural to himthat he, a Christian, is united in peacewith a Muslim at what must possibly bethe only temple where Gandhi is a deity.

"This is what the apostle of peacewanted all his life, in Africa and in India.He said all are one before the religion oflove and coexistence,'' says Chen, who isChinese and has made Sambalpur his

home.A few steps away, Bhagawat Nanda, a

Brahmin, is sitting beside Kalia Bagh, aDalit who works as a priest here. "If youare a follower of ahimsa, you are a fol-lower of equality,'' Nanda says. No, heisn't uncomfortable with the fact thatBagh is a pujari at this temple where peo-ple bow before a 3.5-foot-tall bronze idolof Gandhi.

The Gandhi mandir at Bhatra, a Dalitsuburb in Sambalpur, 300 km fromBhubaneswar, has at its entrance theAshoka Stambha, the national emblemsymbolising peace and goodwill. It gets ahealthy flow of pilgrims through the day.

Here teachings of Gandhi are recited andsometimes passages read from his writ-ings.

"We perform puja every morning andevening,'' Bhagawat says as he winds upa prayer session. "Followers of Gandhijiflock to the mandir from all over theworld."

"There is a lesson to learn at themandir. It preaches equality and toler-ance, and expects followers to practice it.After all, peace is of paramount impor-tance in contemporary times when differ-ent faiths are at loggerheads. I pray toJesus Christ too. There is no clash,'' saysChen.

The idol of mahatma at the templein Orissa

Body-Mind-Spirit


See your inner self in a mirror

No matter what happensin our lives laughter isalways the best medi-

cine. Lately, I have beenwatching Seinfeld DVDs andeven though the jokes are near-ly twenty years old they stillstand out today.

Here are some quotes fromSeinfeld:

According to most studiespeople’s number one fear ispublic speaking. Number twois death.

Death is number two, doesthat sound right?

This means the average per-son, if you go to a funeral,you're better off in the casketthan doing the eulogy.

Dogs are the leaders of theplanet. If you see two life

forms, one of them is makingpoop, the other one's carryingit for him, who would you

assume is in charge.

What is a date really, but a

job interview that lasts allnight? The only difference isthat in not many job interviewsis there a chance you'll windup naked.

You know you are gettingold when you get that one can-dle on the cake. It's like, "seeif you can blow this out".

Men want the same fromtheir underwear that they wantfrom women. A little bit ofsupport, and a little bit of free-dom.

Now they show you howdetergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent imagethere. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain problemmaybe you should get rid ofthe body before you do thewash.

Sometimes the road lesstravelled is less travelled for areason.

The Swiss have an interest-ing army. 500 years without awar. Pretty impressive. Alsopretty lucky for them. Ever see

that little Swiss Army knifethey have to fight with? Notmuch of a weapon there.Corkscrews, bottle opener."Come on buddy, let's go, youget past me, the guy in back ofme, he's got a spoon. Back off,I've got the toe clippers rightthere.”

People who read thetabloids deserve to be lied to.

Seems to me the basic con-flict between men and women,sexually, is that men are likefiremen.

To men, sex is an emer-gency and no matter what weare doing we can be ready intwo minutes.

Women on the other hand,are like fire. They are veryexciting, but the conditionshave to be exactly right for itto occur.

Someone just gave me ashower radio. Thanks a lot. Doyou really want music in theshower. I guess there is not abetter place to dance than on aslick surface next to a glassdoor.

The world according to Seinfeld

Inner Space

By Faith Harper

Mirrors are objects thatdo more than reflectour image. Since

ancient times, it is believed thatthey show an individual’s innerconsciousness. They show whatwe truly look like and not whatwe imagine we are.

In the mystical world, mir-rors are seen to possess supernat-ural powers and have the abilityto reflect an individual’s soul.There is no home that does nothave a mirror because, besidesbeing used for personal groom-ing, it has many secrets attachedto it.

Mirrors play a vital role bothin Vasthu Sastra and Feng Shuibecause they focus on the place-ment as well as the expansion ofenergy. It is auspicious to hang amirror on the west wall facingeast because the image of theindividual looking in the mirrorshould fall towards the east.Placing a mirror at the entranceof the house is favourable pro-vided it faces east or south.

To magnify the ambiance ofa room and to create a sense of

spaciousness, use mirrors toproject scenery and pleasantimages like a waterfall, moun-tains or flowers hanging on theopposite walls into the living anddining areas.

Use mirrors to ease thedefect of any exposed pillar inthe centre of the living room byplacing them all around the pil-lar, from top to bottom. To dis-pel darkness in the corners of aroom, use mirrors to reflectlight. Avoid having mirrors onevery wall because this can havean unsettling effect, especiallywhen you catch a reflection ofyourself, unexpectedly.

In the bedroom, avoid facinga mirror when you sleep as thiswill result in interrupted sleep,which could then lead to insom-nia. Have mirrors embeddedinside your safe or cash box as

the reflection of the money willmultiply the energy of wealth.

There are many do’s anddon’ts concerning mirrorsbecause they are believed toabsorb both the positive and neg-ative energies around them.Thus, all traditions practise cov-ering the mirrors in a housewhere someone has died orwhere the funeral is being held.This is to prevent the mirrorfrom gripping the energy ofdeath, which may be lingeringaround the house looking for abody to possess in order toresolve unresolved issues beforemoving on.

Do not let your mirror reflectunpleasant sights like the toiletor bathroom because it isbelieved that this will amplifynegative energy. Breaking a mir-ror is supposed to bring misfor-

tune like bad health and ill luckthat will persists for seven years.Why seven? Because it isbelieved that the physical bodywill revive itself in seven years.

But should you accidentallybreak a mirror, the only way toavoid the curse is to pick up allthe broken pieces and bury themin the moonlight. Some peopleplace mirrors at their main door-way to prevent unseen entitiesfrom entering because unholyspirits do not like to cast theirreflection in a mirror.

All broken mirrors, includingthose that are old, tarnished andcracked, should be discardedimmediately because it is inaus-picious to have your imagereflected in a damaged mirror.

Using decorative mirrors isfine as long as they are not smallor irregular mirror tiles because

such designs will distort andbreak up an image. Mirrors arealso an excellent tool that can beused to cleanse and improveyour aura. To do that, choose aclean or new mirror and wipe itwith a cloth clockwise dailybefore using it to view yourimage.

Never leave a mirror coatedwith dust and dirt as that willgenerate negative energy. Youcan also do certain exercisesbefore the mirror to remove neg-ative energy:● Take a warm shower and

then stand or sit in front of aclean mirror, or your favouritemirror.● Gaze into your eyes in the

reflection and observe yourfacial expressions.● As you look at yourself,

analyse your day and recall boththe positive and negative emo-tions that arose during the day.● Focus on your reactions

and turn hostile situations aroundto acceptance.● Practise this daily at the

end of the day or on days whenyou’ve had a challenging time asit will help ease stress and light-en your body.

T. Selva is the author of thebest selling book titled VasthuSastra Guide. He can be contact-ed at [email protected]:www.vasthusastra.comTo get acopy of his book, call Devi on0412623017.

VasthuSastra

By T. Selva

Lately, I have been watching Seinfeld DVDs and even though thejokes are nearly 20 years old they still stand out today.

In the mystical world,

mirrors areseen to possesssupernaturalpowers and

have the abilityto reflect an individual’s

soul,

Jul Mat 1. Hindu Punjabi busi-

ness parents invite alliance from abeautiful educated girl for their high-ly qualified son 30/6'3", a very wellplaced financial consultant with aleading multinational company inUK. Will be in Australia in July,Caste no bar. Send BHP to [email protected]

Jul Mat 2. Well settled family inAustralia inviting alliance for 27year old, 5"11, Sood Punjabi boy,B.Software Engineer(honors) and is

working as a seniorIT Consultant for theAustralian govern-ment on highincome. SeekingIndian girl, caste nobar. Please call0 4 1 4 - 5 1 8 - 3 1 2 .Email [email protected]

Jul Mat 3.Seeking compatiblewell educated,employed profes-sional/ businessmatch, with Indian

background, broad minded/ matureoutlook, independent, divorcee, age47 years onward, For caring, honest,friendly, Indian Christian divorceeAustralian citizen, 48 yrs 5'3" tall,much younger looking than age,attractive, graceful looking graduatenurse, employed. Caste no bar. Emaildetails to [email protected]

Jul Mat 4. Suitable match for26.5 year old, Hindu boy, 6 Feet,handsome, Australian qualifiedDentist, Income High Six figure,seek Indian good-looking, profes-sional girl with strong family val-ues.Caste no bar, girl merits mainconsideration.

Please contact with profile andrecent photograph at 0412-788569 orEmail: [email protected]

Jul Mat 5. Young Indian Hindugirl 27 years old from respectablefamily, living in Sydney seeksyoung Australian Indian man withstrong cultured and family back-ground for friendship with view ofmarriage. Please call on 0421 689546.


All you want to know$30

All types of Visas, Sponsorships, MRT, RRT, Minister Appeals Victor S. Lamba JPCivil Marriage Celebrant

BMC MIGRATION CONSULTANTS269 Pacific Highway Hornsby NSW 2077

[email protected] Fax: [02] 9940 4454 MARN 9901093

IMMIGRATION

(Forms available) (Time Limits Apply)

[02] 9940 44300412 268 568

MATRIMONIALS

89.7 fmEastside Radio

Every Sunday10am - 7pm

Monika Geetmala

Golden Opportunity!!!INDIAN GROCERY SHOP FOR SALE

Prime location , No competition Good returns

Price $40,000.00 (Walk In Walk Out)

Call on 0425 819 271

North Indian MusicTuition in Singing

Classical Music, Bhajans & playingHarmonium by

Bachelor of Music fromBhatkhande University of Lucknow

Phone: 02 9521 6703

Now on the net every sunday:www.eastsidefm.org

The Indian DownUnder

newspaper is looking for an

energetic,enterprising young

person formarketing and

sales...

Call

02 9875 2713

visit us at:www.indiandownunder.com.au

and keep in touch with community news down

under...daily!!!

Civil Marriage Celebrantand Hindu Priest

Arun Baral

Ph 8698 6368 / Mob 0412 684 096Email: [email protected]

Services: Civil Marriages in AustraliaPoojas, Hawans & Hindu Karmakaanda (rituals)


Hindi Humour

bwSu fUwúttü mu mÏ; lV\h; ni>Rm mu vn˜u rfU ytv vÀ:h WXt

fUh bwSu bthlu fUtu =ti\zü, buhe vqhe ct;;tu mwl ˜ersgu...

buht YfU v\ztume ni rsm fUu vtmYfU fUwútt ni stu CtîfU;t ni>

ytv fUnüdu gn fUtil me Ic{urfUkdàgq\sO mwlt =e bî lu > y¢mhv\ztu{urmgtü fUu vtm fUwútu ntu;u nî ytih JuCtîfU;u nî ne >

mtu ;tu XefU ni vh gn fUwúttrfUë;tü bü CtîfU;t ni> b;˜c bîmbSt;t nqâ... ht; fUtu yatlfU gnYfU CtîfU ˜dt;t ni ytih rVUh Y¢=bawv ntu st;t ni simu Wmu gt= ytst;t ni rfU fURo NheVU ˜tud mtu hnuntüdu, Wànü ¢gtuk rzmxco rfUgt stgu,vh :tu\ze =uh ct= Jn gn mc Cq˜st;t ni ytih =qmhe CtîfU stu vñ˜efUe =qmhe rfUë; ntu;e ni, Nwh¥ fUh=u;t ni>

ytih gn rm˜rm˜t ht; fUtu fURocth =wnht;t ni>

nb Rm fUe Rm yt=; mu cý;=wFe nî ytih y¢mh Wmu c==wyt =u;uhn;u nî vh Wm vh Rm fUt fUtuRo ymhlnek v\z;t>

fUwútt Jimu c\zt IfUtüx[tuJmeog˜OseJ ni> YfU ;hVU ;tu Rmu yt=be fUtmc mu yåAt mt:e btlt dgt ni ;tu=qmhe ytuh D]Kt fUt vtºt mbSt st;tni> simu rfUme fUtu cý; ne cwhtfUnlt ntu Wmu IfUwútt fUbeltO fUntst;t ni>

fUwútu gt ;tu "tuce hFt fUh;u :ugt Cu\z cfUhe vt˜lu Jt˜u ahJtnu>yts fU˜ fUe ;hn fUwútu Dhtü büvt˜lu fUt rhJts lnek :t ¢gtürfUd˜e bwnÖ˜tü bü rs;lu atntu =uF ˜tuytih Ju ytb ;tih vh Rkmtltü fUu mt:IfUtuYrdr\sôxîmO fUe vtp˜eme vhaÖ;u :u, gtrl ytv Ftlt Ft hnu nî;tu Ju Aelt Svxe lnek fUh;u :ucrÖfU athvtRo fUu vtm ciX fUhRk;\sth fUh;u :u rfU fUc ytv FtltFt fUh Wànü fUwA =üdu> ˜\ztRo Sd\ztfUh;u :u ;tu ytvm bü, ytb ;tih vhRkmtltü fUtu fUwA lné fUn;u :u, ntâCtîfU;u \sÁh :u gt fUCe fUCth fUtxr˜gt fUh;u :u vh Jn Ce sc rfUmelu Nhth; fUe gt fUtuRo atuh Wa¢fUtbwnÖ˜u bü yt Dwmu> YfU ;hn murm¢gturhxe dtzo fUt fUtb fUh;u :u>

c\zt yåAt yhüsbüx :t..˜urfUl rVUh l stlu fUc Ju Dh

fUu yà=h Dwm ytgu - mtuVUu vh, cizÁb bü, rcô;h bü ytih dtu= bü> ;Ce

mu mc d\zc\z ntulu ˜de>nh Dh bü fUwútt vrhJth fUt YfU

m=ôg cl dgt ni > yc nt˜; gnni rfU gr= ytv lu fUwútt lnek vt˜hFt ;tu ytv IrvA\ze str;O fUu gtrlcifUJzo ˜d;u nî> ¢gtürfU c\zu c\zu˜tud, htsu bnthtsu, JeytRove,NuF... Rkd˜îz fUe bnthtle,yburhfUt fUu Œur\szüx.. mCe ;tu fUwútuvt˜;u nî>

yvlu ytih yvlu cåatü mu \ßgt=tfUwúttü fUt Ægtl hFlt v\z;t ni >

ôvuN˜ rcrôfUx, ôvuN˜ Ftlt,nh bnelu Nuövq ytih IntRoz[tu ct:O,=tu nÜ;tü bü YfU cth fUwútu fUtu Id{wv:veoO fUu r˜gu Cust st;t ni rsm büJn =qmhu fUwúttü mu rb˜ mfUu ;trfUWm fUt yfUu˜tvl =qh ntu ytih Wmvh fUtuRo cwht ImtRo¢˜tursfU˜O ymhl v\zu> Yume sdntü vh fUwúttü fUtuy˜d y˜d ¶uurKgtü bü hFt st;t ni> sJtl ytih ;tfU;Jh fUwúttü fUtuFu˜tü fUe Œur¢xm fUhtRo st;e niscrfU merlgh fUwúttü fUu r˜gu y˜dmu Œtud{tb ntu;u nî rsm bü \ßgt=t =ti\z"qv lné fUhle v\z;e>

yc fUwA n= ;fU ;tu XefU ni vhfUwA ˜tud ;tu fUwútu fUtu yvlu nercô;h vh mw˜tgüdu ytih Wmu aqbüatxüdu ytih Wl fUtu yvle Ë˜ux büFtlu =üdu, gn nbü XefU lné ˜d;t>yc gr= ytvfUe ceJe fUwútu fUturfUm fUhlu fUu ct= ytv fUtu rfUmfUhu ;tu fUimt ˜dudt? mthu Dh büü WlfUu ct˜ rcFhu rb˜üdu gntâ ;fU rfUrfUal bü Ce> rbSu ;tu b;˜e meytlu ˜d;e ni Yumt =uF fUh ne>

gntâ ytpôx[ur˜gt bü 80000

fUwútt_btr˜fUtu fUu ýY YfU ôJuo büvtgt dgt ni rfU 80% ytih;ü yvluvr; mu \ßgt=t yvlu fUwútu vh FatofUh;e nî, ytih ;tu ytih 77% ytih;üRm ct; fUtu btl;é nî rfU yvlu vr;ytih cåatü fUe rlôc; yvlu fUwúttüfUe =uF huF bü \ßgt=t Ægtl =u;e nî>

gn ct; mÀg ni rfU fUwútu c\zubwVUe= (yåAu) fUtb Ce fUh;u nî,simu IdtRoz ztpdO- stu fUb\stuh ytkFfUu ˜tudtü fUe mntg;t fUh;u nî> x[ulzfUwútu vwr˜m ytih fUôxb rJCtd büatuhtü fUtu vfU\zlu bü fUtb yt;u nî>=wDoxlt ô:˜ vh b˜cu b Vkmu ˜tudtüfUtu ZqkZlu bü mntgfU ntu;u nî>

=qmhu fUwA cw\swdo ˜tudtü fUtu yvltyfUu˜tvl =qh fUhlu fUu r˜gu Ce fUwúttüfUe ytJëg¢;t v\z mfU;e ni>

bwSu Rm vh fUtuRo ytvrút lnek ni>Yumu fUwútu ;tu cuathu nb Rkmtltü fUe;hn r=l ht; bunl; b\s=qhe fUh fUuyvlt vux vt˜;u nî ytih rcd\zu hRomtüfUe ;hn lné nî>

Fih mtrnc, ct; buhu v\ztume fUufUwútu mu Nwh¥ ýRo :e...

Wm lu buhe lé= nhtb fUh hFe :emtu nb lu mtuat rfU ¢gtuk l nb CeYfU fUwútt hF ˜ü ... Jn stu fUn;unî lt rfU IfUwútt fUwútu fUt cihe ntu;tniO.. v\ztume fUtu ytih Wm fUu fUwútufUtu mc\fU ;tu rmFtlt ntudt!

ytih nb ˜u ytgu YfU ;d\zt mtIsbol NivzoO stu rfU nbthu v\ztumeI˜ic{tztuhO fUtu bt; =u mfUu> rfU;lufUt? lné c;tQkdt ¢gtürfU ytvrJëJtm lnek fUhüdu rfU fUwútu R;lubuñkdu Ce ntu mfU;u nî - ct; n\sthtüfUe ntu hne ni - ltb Ce c\zt "tkmq

- xtRodh>Fhe=;u mbg nbü mc mbSt

r=gt rfU fUc Wmu IJixO fUu vtm ˜ustlt ni, fUc ln˜tlt ni, fUc WmfUe d{qrbkd ntude gtrl fUc Wm fUuct˜, ltFql ytr= fUxüduk ytih ¢cWmu =qmhu fUwúttü mu ImtuN˜tRor\skdO fUur˜gu ˜u stlt ytr= ytr=> Rm fUuyr;rh¢; mih vh Œr;r=l ˜u stltntudt> gr= nb ôJgk gu mc fUwA lnekfUh mfU;u ;tu Wra; =tbtü vh WlmuJtytü fUt Œck" rfUgt st mfU;tni, gntâ ;fU rfU IbtuctRo˜ ct:O Dhyt stgüdu>

nb R;le ˜öce r˜ôx =uF fUhDcht ;tu dgu vhk;w v\ztume fUu fUwútu fUegt= yt;u ne mc{ fUt Dqkx ve dguytih fUwútu, mtphe IxtRodhO fUtu Dh ˜uytgu>

yt;u ne Wm fUt d]n_ŒJuNO WmfUu ztpde-ntQm bü rfUgt, rsm bü WmfUt ôvuN˜ ciz ˜dtgt dgt :t, lgtfUtp˜h, fUwA Fu˜lu fUu r˜gu dü= ytihWm fUu r˜gu ôvuë˜ ytih ci˜üôzztpd-VUqz fUt Œck" rfUgt :t>IxtRodhO yvlu lgu Dh bü fUwA lJom˜d hnt :t, ˜urfUl sÖ= ne mcXefU ntu dgt>

Ntb ntu;u ne IxtRodhO fUtu mihfUhtlu fUu r˜gu rlfU˜u>

sqâ ne vtfUo bü Dwmu rfU Wmu IfUtp˜ytVU luahO fUe nts; ýRo ytih nbR"h W"h StkfUlu ˜du rfU fUtuRo =uF;tu lnek hnt ;trfU nb awvfUu murFmfU ˜ü, vhk;w fUtVUe ˜tud :u,Rmr˜gu v˜trôxfU cid bü mbuxltv\zt> c\ze ;fU˜eVU ýRo ¢gtürfU nblu r\sà=de bü yvlu cåatü fUe live;fU lné c=T˜e :e ytih yc gnmc fUwútu fUu r˜gu fUhlt v\z hnt :t>

xtRodh se yc c\ze awô;e mu

a˜ hnu :u ytih nbü Féa;u ýgumtblu fUe Atuxe me vnt\ze ;fU výkadgu> nbüü :fUtJx me bnmqm ntu hne:e, mtuat :tu\zt =b ˜u ˜ü > vh yCenb XefU ;hn mu mkC˜ Ce lné vtgu:u rfU nb lu =uFt rfU xtRodh fUwAW;tJ˜t ntulu ˜dt ni ytih rVUh Wmlu CtîfUlt Nwh¥ fUh r=gt> fUthK CembS bü yt dgt - :tu\ze =qhe vhYfU ytih fUwútt yvlu btr˜fU fUumt: st hnt :t ytih gn Wm fUumt: Nr¢;-Œ=Nlo fUhlt atn;t :t>nb Wmu yvle ytuh Féa;u ytih Jnnbü yvle ytuh > =qmhu fUwútu lu CeRmu IŒuôxes RNwO clt r˜gt :t ytihsJtce CtîfUlt Nwh¥ fUh r=gt :t>

gn ai˜üs :t xtRodh fUu r˜guytih Wm lu W"h =ti\zlt Nwh¥ fUh r=gtytih nbü mt: Dmexlu ˜dt>

nb =tultü bü fUtVUe hômtfUNe ýRorfUk;w nbthe =tu xtâdü Wm ath xtâdtüJt˜u fUt C˜t fUntâ ;fU bw\fUtc˜tfUh;é? Z˜tl fUe Jsn mu nb YumurVUm˜u rfU mkC˜ l mfUu ytih WmfUe I˜eNO Ce nbthu nt: mu Aqx dRoytih nb ˜w\ZfU;u ýY leau YfU vu\z must xfUhtgu>

Wm fUu ct= nbü fUwA gt= lné,ntuN ytgt ;tu yvlu ytv fUtuyôv;t˜ fUu rcô;h vu vtgt> ztpfUxhlu c;tgt rfU nbthe fUtp˜h - ctul büf{UifU ytgt :t ytih nbthe fUturñlgtâytih DwxTlu cwhe ;hn mu rA˜ awfUu :u,Rm r˜gu 6 mu 8 mË;tn ;fU nbürcô;h vh ythtb fUhlt v\zt > WmfUu ct= Ce fURo r=l ;fU me"u lneka˜ vtgu>

yc ;tu ytv mbS ne awfUu ntüdurfU bwSu fUwúttü mu lV\h; ¢gtü ni >

sc nb lu fUwútt vt˜t ... mk; htb csts

ck;t yvle dojVî{z fu mt: ctd buk ciXt :t > mtblu Yf fwúttfwr;gt ft rfm ju hnt :t >ck;t R;ht;u nwY - stlq ydh ;wb dwômt l fhtu ;tu bî Ce Yfrfm jult atn;t nwâ >dojVî{z - Xef ni bwSu ftuRo Y;hts\ lnekk ni cm R;lt ÆgtlhFlt rf fnek fwr;gt ftx l ju >

Yf cz\t mt f¡útt Yf Atuxu mu cåau fu b¡nk nt: atxlu jdt? Wmmu Yf mtj cz\t CtRo bthu zh fu aeFlu jdt>

btâ lu yk=h mu vqAt - fwútu lu ftxt ;tu lnekk?

CtRo - lnekk yCe ;tu aF hnt ni>


Body-Mind-Spirit

By Kanaka Ramakrishna

Ananyaschintayanto mamjanah paryupasate;

Tesham nityabhiyuktanam yo-gakshemam vahamyaham.

“Persons who, meditating onMe as non-separate, worship Mein all beings, to them, who arethus ever zealously engaged, I car-ry what they lack and preservewhat they already have.”

Once, a Swami was on a pil-grimage to Kedarnath, theancient temple in the snow-

clad ranges of the Himalayas. Henarrated a very eye-opening expe-rience he had on his way. He sawan old village-woman in her seven-ties, trudging along at a snail’space, with her hand on the shoulderof a young boy, who was guidingher up the fourteen kilometer long,steep, winding and narrow path.Scores of pilgrims, young and old,men and women, a few on horse-back and dandis and most on foot,were on their way to the temple.

But the sight of the old womanattracted the attention of the Swamibecause she was totally blind.Though he appreciated her devo-tion and determination, he was alittle curious too. He went to herand asked her respectfully, “Moth-er, what draws you to the temple?You have undertaken this long anddifficult journey but at the end of it,you won’t be seeing Baba Kedar-nath.” The blind woman seemed abit surprised at the question. Thenshe smiled and with folded handsraised to her head and eyes filledwith tears of devotion, she said in athrobbing voice, “It is true I cannotsee Him but surely Baba Kedarnathwill see me when I am there.”

The Swami stood therestunned! What a revelation! He hadnever thought along those lines be-fore. It flashed to him immediate-ly –‘I shall see the Lord only whenI reach the temple but He is seeingme right here, this moment andevery moment!’ He realised thenand there his pilgrimage had bornefruit through this message from theLord: ‘I am always seeing you.’This message remained with theSwami ever since and it was a con-stant source of inspiration, serenityand strength.

We know that God is every-where and He is omnipresent. Buthow often do we remember this?We tend to forget to see God every-where and also forget that God, onHis part, is always seeing us. Visi-ble or not, he is present every-where, very close to us. As SwamiVivekananda said, “Can you seeyour own eyes? God is like that. Heis as close as your own eyes. He isyour own, even though you can’tsee Him.” He is in us and with us.We can be alone but we can neverbe lonely.

There is an incident in the lifeof Kanakadasa, a poet-saint of Kar-

nataka. He was a chieftain and af-ter a few remarkable incidents inhis life, he renounced everythingand went for spiritual guidancefrom Vyasaraya, a great saint andscholar. Kanakadasa was a sincere,devoted student. He grasped every-thing the guru taught in great faithand practiced them with all dedica-tion. He became a favourite studentof his guru. Some disciples becamejealous of Kanakadasa because theguru liked him and praised him infront of all. One day, the gurucalled all his disciples and toldthem, “I will give you each a ba-nana but you should eat it in a placewhere no one would see you.”

The next day the guru calledthem all and asked where did theyeat the fruit. One after the other,the pupils said it was eaten behinda bush, or in darkness where noone could see, or behind a door orunder a blanket and so on.Vyasaraya then turned toKanakadasa and asked him wheredid he eat the fruit. Kanakadasasaid with all humility, “Guruji, Icould not eat the fruit because I didnot find a place where there wasnobody. God is present every-where.” The other disciples learnttheir lesson!

Swami Vivekananda taught thatGod is not hiding anywhere and weneed not search for Him. He isright here before us if we open oureyes and if we close our eyes wecan find Him in the depths of ourheart. A true seeker will see Himhere and now. We cannot see Himbecause our vision is defective; ourinner eye has become cloudy,sticky and dusty due to all sorts ofdesires and worldly attractions. Allspiritual disciplines and practicesare direct and indirect ways ofcleaning this inner eye. It isthrough the cleaned and purifiedeye that the devotee sees the Lord.In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishnacalls it the Divine eye. As SwamiVivekananda said, it needs a vigor-ous practice of three ‘p’s: purity,patience and perseverance.

It gives a great strength and

solace to believe ‘God is alwayswith me and He is seeing me’. Achild may be afraid when it is leftalone but when the father or moth-er is around, it feels secure assuredof the protection of the parents.Likewise, if we constantly remem-ber God’s presence, we need notfear anything. Fear and anxiety arethe sure signs of lack of faith inGod. Swami Ramakrishnanda, adirect disciple of Sri RamakrishnaParamahamsa, had immense faithin the Lord. He said, “Very few ofus believe in God all the time. Weallow anxiety and fears to arise inour minds. If we really have faithin God and in His infinite power ofgoodness, we can never feel fearfulof anything.”

Swami Vivekananda sent Swa-mi Ramakrishnanda to Chennai tostart a centre. In the early days, heunderwent extraordinary hardship.Many days he had no food to offerto God. But he had tremendousfaith in Him and somehow helpwould come to him at the appropri-ate time in unexpected manners. Henever lost faith in Him. His experi-ences are a source of inspiration,invigorating faith in God.

Once, the birthday of Sri Ra-makrishna had to be celebrated andthere was no money to feed thepoor, which was a part of the cele-brations. The night before, he waspacing up and down and mumblingloudly with every breath. Thedevotee who observed him under-stood later that he was praying forDivine help to feed the poor. Thenext morning, a large donationcame from the Yuvaraja of Mysorein appreciation of reading his book,‘The Universe and Man.’ There aremany more incidents like this in theswami’s life. God never forsakesthose who take refuge in Him. Thebelief in the presence of God freesus from the anxiety and fear andfills us with strength and protectsus always.

Vedanta teachers say that med-itation means ‘seeing’ the Lord andnot thinking about Him. We maythink about a person when he is

away. But when he is right in frontof us, we do not think about him.We see him and talk to him andhear him. That is what a devoteeshould do when he thinks of medi-tation. The more he practices this,clearer is his vision to see and feelthe presence of God. The starscannot be seen during the day but itdoes not mean they are not there.We may not see God right now butthat should not prevent us fromknowing that ‘He is seeing us’ allthe time. Whenever we are de-pressed, this faith in the eternalpresence of God pushes out all oth-er thoughts and tremendous vigourgets injected in its place.

In the life of SwamiVivekananda, we come across sev-eral incidents wherein this belief of‘God is seeing us’ was evident.Once while going round the Go-vardhana Hill, he made a vow thathe would eat only the food offeredto him without asking. By noontime of the first day he was ex-tremely hungry and tired and also itrained heavily. Faint with hungerand much walking, he went on andon. Suddenly he heard a man shout-ing from the rear that he hadbrought food for him. Resolved totest this apparent act of Providence,the Swamiji paid no attention. Theman came running nearer and near-er and the Swami began to run asfast as he could. The man camerunning faster and overtook theSwami and insisted on him to ac-cept the food. That done, the manwent away without a word. TheSwami burst into tears at this proofof the Lord’s care of His devotee inthe wilderness.

Remembering that the ever-present God is looking after us,helps us in focussing our thoughtson Him. In Swami Vivekananda’swords, “We must stand ever on theSelf and look with perfect calmnessupon all panorama of the world. Itis but a baby’s play and ought nev-er to disturb us. If the mind ispleased by praise, it will be painedby blame. All the pleasures of thesenses and of the mind are evanes-

cent but within us is the one trueunrelated pleasure of the Self. Themore our bliss is within us, themore spiritual we are.”

The awareness of ‘God is see-ing us’ is a shield that protects usunder any circumstances. WhenGod is nearby, the mind does noteasily go off the track. One of theearnest ways of disciplining one’slife is to remember at all times thepresence of God. Then every act ofours becomes an act of worship ofGod. Our home and heart becomesclean and tidy for God who is ourinseparable companion. In the ini-tial stages, we may feel the fear ofGod and do things to appease Him.But as we grow in practicing thisbelief of the presence of God withus and as our understanding deep-ens, we feel that God is all-in-all;father, mother and friend all rolledinto one.

Twameva Mata Pita twameva,Twameva bandhuscha sakha

twameveva,Twameva vidya dravinam

twameve,Twameva sarvam mama deva

deva.

O Lord, you alone are mymother, father, relative, friend;you are knowledge, “wealth; MyLord, You alone are my every-thing.”

When we have a strong con-viction that God is our only solace,we feel God frees us from the spellsof loneliness and depression, helpsus in focussing our mind and drivesaway anxiety and fear. He fills uswith strength to forge ahead to-wards the ideal.

What is remarkable about thispractice is that it is within every-body’s reach. With a strong andsimple faith and persistent effort,anyone can discover the enormousbenefit for oneself.

The following narrative fromAnonymus is a touching exampleof God’s grace on his devotee:

“One night I had a dream. Iwas walking along the beach withthe Lord and across the sky flashedscenes from my life. In each scene,I noticed two sets of footprints.One was mine and other wasLord’s. When the last scene of mylife appeared for me, I looked backat the footprints in the sand and tomy surprise I noticed that manytimes along the path of my life,there was only one set of foot-prints. I noticed that it was at thelowest and saddest times in my life.I asked the Lord about it. ‘Lord,You said that once I decided to fol-low You, You would walk with meall the way. But I noticed that dur-ing the most troublesome times ofmy life, there is only one set offootprints. I do not understand whyYou left my side when I neededYou most. Lord said, “My dearchild, I never left you during yourtimes of trouble. Where you seeone set of footprints, I was carryingyou.”

God is Seeing us all the time

Columns

June-July 2011THE INDIAN DOWN UNDER 55

By Karam C. Ramrakha

Karam C Ramrakha, alawyer, draws on his experienceas a former Fiji MP andFounding Father of Free Fiji toanalyse the recent events in Fiji.

Uneasy lies the head thatwears the crown. So farFrank Bainimarama has

enjoyed an untroubled run, thecountry being firmly under histhumb. Dissenting forces havebeen neutralised. For once no oneis cursing the Indians for Fiji'sproblems.

The two coups of 1987 andthe savage bloody coup of 2000were based on supposed Indiantakeover of Fiji and stated to bethe saviour of the embattledFijian race. But Frank's agenda isdifferent.

Graham Davis, a Fiji-bornjournalist, when accused of sup-porting a coup, summed the posi-tion thus:

I believe there’s a fundamen-tal difference between the coupsof 2000 and 2006. The formerwas supposedly a coup to upholdindigenous rights but, in fact,seems to have been carried out bya group of opportunists pursuingthe spoils of office. What’s theevidence for that? That indige-nous rights weren’t under anythreat. It was a smokescreen for amuch more grubby lunge for

power.The coup of 2006 – on the

other hand – was to uphold thenotion of a multiracial Fiji againstwhat the military believed to be aclear and present threat. This wasthe legislative program of theQarase government that wouldhave created two nations – onefor indigenous Fijians and one forthe rest.

I endorse his remarks.To seek to achieve that goal

Frank has had to pull out allstops and, for the time being, sti-fle all dissent. It began, of coursewith parliament itself. As we seein Australia today, parliamentcontinues to reflect a nation even-ly divided. Qarase had wonmajority with a blatantly racialapproach to indigenous Fijians tovote on racial lines. He deniedthis, of course, but a tape record-ing of one of his speeches caughthim out.

Qarase insisted with that bla-tantly racial agenda. He sought todeclare all sea and shores of Fijiindigenous land; he wanted the2000 coup perpetrators "recon-ciled" and thus forgiven; andfinally he sought every indige-nous Fijian outside Fiji to have avote. After months of warning,including a "settlement" confer-ence in New Zealand, Frankacted on 6 December 2006.

Frank would go on to neu-tralise the Fiji Law Society, the

Council of Chiefs and finally theMethodist Church. There hasbeen unrelenting pressure onFrank to hold elections. Frankdoes not want, what I may call,"the usual suspects" to end up inParliament.

Frank originally promisedelections in 2009, but has extend-ed this date to 2014. He does notwant any of the Old Guard tocome back to parliament. Hedoes not want any discrimination,wanting one man, one vote, onevalue. Equality for all. Very highand noble motives.

European Union is somewhatneutral to Frank. China is silentand it is one country which shunspolitical decisions in cases suchas Fiji. China is there to lend a

helping hand, but excites theenvy of other nations who shunFiji. But the West is suddenlybecoming strident despite show-ing some signs recently thatFrank should be accommodatedand "understood".

A recent drama has beenwhere a soldier accused of sedi-tion has been spirited to Tonga ina Tongan vessel which brazenlyentered Fiji's waters. UnlikeJulian Moti who was hunted likea fugitive, this solder, Ratu Ului,has been made welcome in Tongaand Australia where he was invit-ed to deliver a speech. Suddenly,the Machiavellian doctrine thatthe enemy of my enemy is myfriend is being invoked.

Why did Australia give Ratu

Ului a visa? On what basis?Australia is very selective in whowill come to Australia.

Remember, as one of CIA’soperatives confessed to a Fijianjournalist - the purpose of theCIA is to foster unrest in the restof the world...Yes, indeed, whilethe rest of the world is squab-bling and disunited Uncle Samrules. Remember Mrs Gandhi'swheat purchase from USA whichwas paid in Indian rupees. Yes,rupees which could only be spentin India. The CIA used thatmoney to bribe and destabilise.Remember Kwame Nkrumah.The CIA admits it had himkilled. Nkrumah's crime: hewould have united Africa.

So Australia and NewZealand are playing the sameCIA game and marching to itsbeat. Divide and conquer.Conquer and divide.

We watch how the Ratu Uluidrama will pan out? Tonga oncenearly conquered Fiji. ThatTongan Chief Maafu who tried toconquer Fiji is buried in Fiji atRatu Ului home in Lau. Parts ofLau speak Tongan. Yes, if any-thing, this dispute highlightsFrank's dream of a free Fiji withequality for all.

(Karam Ramrakha can becontacted on (02) 98082760 [email protected].)

Fiji’s fugitive is welcome in Australia

Osama: Knocking on Hell's Door

Osama blacked out and found him-self at the bottom of a deep shaft,with a single tunnel leading out of

it. He crawled through the tunnel and waspleased to see that it got wider and wideruntil he was able to walk upright. Hewalked for a mile or two and came to alarge iron door. He knocked on the door.

No answer.“Hello!” he called out. “Is this where

I get my 72 virgins?”The door opened slightly and a gust of

heat shot through it, scorching Osama’seyebrows. He fell back against the wall ofthe tunnel. A red-faced creature with twohorns peered through the gap, smoke spi-raling from his ears. He pointed at Osamaand laughed hysterically, his forkedtongue swishing over his lips. “72 vir-

gins? Ha ha ha! That’s a good one!” He turned away from Osama and

yelled into the fiery abyss behind him. “Isanyone a virgin in here?”

A wave of laughter, more powerfulthan the heat, rumbled through the door,causing the tunnel to shake.

“Sorry, buddy,” the creature said.“You’re out of luck! No virgins here. Butwe do have a guy named Virgil.”

“But I was promised 72 virgins inheaven.”

The creature laughed hystericallyagain. “Heaven? Sorry, buddy, you’vecome to the wrong place. Did you useGoogle Maps or Yahoo?”

“I didn’t have time to use either. Whatplace is this anyway?”

“Well, it used to be called hell. Butwe sold the naming rights a year ago. It’snow called the Enron Corporation HotHouse.”

“But there must be a mistake. I wassupposed to go to heaven.”

The creature laughed. “That’s whatthey all say. Even Adolf believes that hebelongs in heaven.”

“But I killed more than 3,000 infi-dels.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why you werefast-tracked here. You were sent straightto hell. I mean, straight to Enron HotHouse. Just like Saddam.”

“My friend is here? Can I see him?”“He’s busy getting a root canal. After

that, he has an appointment with the proc-tologist.”

“What about his sons? Can I seethem?”

“They’re busy getting their taxesdone. Every day is tax day here.”

“Is there anyone else I can see?”“In a few hours, perhaps. I can’t let

you in just yet.”“You think maybe I don’t belong

here?”“Oh, you belong here all right. We’ve

been waiting a long time for you. But we

need to make sure you’re really dead.”“What do you mean? I felt those bul-

lets go through me. I’ve got to be dead.”“Yes, I know. But the photos of your

dead body haven’t been released –- andsomeone spotted you at a restaurant inJapan, eating sushi with Elvis.”

“But if I’m here, aren’t I dead?”“Not necessarily. Sometimes people

come for a few minutes and then theyleave. It happens every 10 years or so.”

“You think that might happen withme?”

“Well, you have a snowball’s chancein Enron Hot House. But I just want to becertain. You know what would happen ifI let you in and you don’t stay? All EnronHot House would break loose.”

“So you want me to wait out herealone?”

“Not alone. I’ll be sending out thevermin to keep you company. They’vebeen waiting anxiously to welcome you.”

“Vermin?”“Yes, 72 of them.”.”

Melvin Durai is a Canada Manitoba-based writer and humorist. A native ofIndia, he grew up in Zambia and haslived in North America since the early1980s. Read his humour blog athttp://www.Nshima.com Write to him at [email protected]

THE HUMOR OF MELVIN DURAI

A soldier accused of sedition hasbeen spirited to Tonga in a Tonganvessel which brazenly entered Fiji'swaters. Unlike Julian Moti who washunted like a fugitive, this solder,Ratu Ului, has been made welcomein Tonga and Australia where hewas invited to deliver a speech.Suddenly, the Machiavellian doctrinethat the enemy of my enemy is myfriend is being invoked.


Santram's Grey Page

We are well into winter seasonnow. Last month’s rains inSydney made it worse. The

nights were very chilly. The electricity andgas bills will shock us when they arrive.

I hope most of you have had your year-ly flu vaccine. If not, please check withyour GP without further delay.

We are not immune to the happeningsin India, even though they may not affectus directly.

For example, the indefinite fast byYoga guru Baba Ramdev againstCorruption and black money was brutallydisrupted in the middle of the night byIndian Government after the ‘stick and car-rot’ approach failed. Baba had to run forhis life in disguise but was captured anddeported to Dehradun by helicopter. Manyof his supporters and well wishers werebeaten up by the police. He continued hisfast at Haridwar for several days and wassupported by Anna Hazare who went onone day fast to protest against the barbarictreatment to Baba Ramdev.

India is sunk so deep into corruptionthat things seem pretty hopeless. Is there alight at the end of the tunnel? Anna Hazareand Baba Ramdev seem to be the last hope.

Alcohol and Cancer Link

The Cancer Council of Australia haswarned people that there is a link betweendrinking and cancer, according to the latestresearch. They have asked people who liketo drink to follow the following AustralianDrug Foundation advice.

Have a non-alcoholic drink to quenchyour thirst before you start drinking alco-hol.

Eat before or while you are drinking.Don't let people top up your drinks.Try having a "spacer", a non-alcoholic

drink every second or third drink.Try a low-alcohol alternative or a non-

alcoholic cocktail.Write down how much you drink each

day.Have no more than two standard drinks

a day for healthy men and women.(A standard drink is the equivalent of

100ml of wine or 285ml of beer or 30ml ofspirit.)

Health benefits of fruits

Fruits contain 90-95% water whichhave a diuretic (increases urination) effect

on the body and help eliminate the toxinsand nitrogenous wastes from the body.

Most of the fruits are low in sodiumand high in potassium, which is an impor-tant mineral that helps to maintain normalblood pressure and also improve heartfunction.

Fruits like grape, cherries, blueberries,kiwi, plums and blackberries help reducethe risk of cancer and heart diseases.

Guava, oranges, papaya and Indiangooseberry are very good sources for vita-min C, an antioxidant. Mangoes andpapaya are excellent source for betacarotene.

Beta carotene and lycopene present inapricots take care of the heart by prevent-ing oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Healthbenefits of apricots include building up ofenergy and iron resources in the body.

Bananas are a very good source ofpotassium, vitamin B, vitamin C, man-ganese and dietary fibre. They are one ofthe highest sources of potassium, and reg-ular intake may even help to keep bloodpressure low.

Recent studies have shown that cherrieshelp relieve the symptoms and pain causedin gout, arthritis and joint inflammation.

The fibre present in fruits like appleshas a laxative effect on the body i.e. ithelps relieve constipation. The fibre alsogives a feeling of satiety by adding bulk tothe diet which is beneficial in conditionslike diabetes mellitus, heart diseases andobesity.

Fruits like Kiwi are a very good sourceof vitamin E that is an important fat-solu-ble antioxidant which when combined withwater-soluble antioxidants provides freeradical protection on all fronts.

Papaya is a rich source of antioxidants,vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin A and vita-min D. These antioxidants helps preventoxidation of LDL cholesterol which, if nottaken care of, can stick to and build up inblood vessel walls forming dangerousplaques leading to atherosclerosis, heartattacks or strokes.

Pineapple is loaded with vitamin C andhas anti-inflammatory properties, whichserves as a natural home remedy for thosesuffering from arthritis.

Brain temperature can now be measured non-invasively

Researchers have developed a way tomeasure the brain’s precise temperaturewith a device only as thick as a poker-chipand which rests on a patient’s head, elimi-nating the necessity of insertion.

The doctors also suggest that an injuredbrain can be significantly warmer than thebody, a finding critical to cooling therapiesthat reduce brain damage in everyone fromelderly heart attack victims to hypoxic(lacking oxygen) newborns.

Don't ignore those achingjoints

Keep them flexible. Lifestyle changesin the form of moderate exercise and ahealthy diet could go a long way in keep-ing you trim, which in turn eases the stresson weight-bearing joints.

It's a catch 22 situation. Most peoplesuffering from arthritis would like to exer-

cise but can't because it hurts badly andbecause they fear that exercise will aggra-vate their symptoms. On the other hand, ifthey don't exercise, it could lead to morestiffness, reduced strength and compro-mised cardiovascular fitness. TheAmerican College of Sports Medicine hasoutlined several ways by which exercisecan be made safe for those with arthritis:

1. Begin slowly and progress gradually.2. Avoid rapid or repetitive movements

of affected joints. For example, fasterwalking speeds increase joint stress; walk-ing speed should be matched to one's bio-mechanical status.

3. Do not forget to warm up before youbegin any exercise.

4. Pain is never good. Learn to listen toyour body's signals and know when to stopor slow down movement.

5. Try gentle massages at the hands ofa trained professional, again with the con-sent of your doctor. It can help control painand increase joint motion and muscle andtendon flexibility.

6. Invest in the right footwear — a pairthat is moulded to fit your feet perfectlywill absorb shocks, protect your joints andmake walking comfortable.

Green Tea

Green Tea fights cancer, protects yourheart, helps prevent strokes, promotesweight loss and kills bacteria. A bag ofgreen tea contains zero calories and is richin antioxidants.

To test for freshness, tightly squeeze asmall quantity and smell it. The freshestand most flavourful tea will smell sweetand grassy.

To test tea bags for freshness, removethe tea from a bag, place the empty bag ina cup, pour hot water over it, and let itsteep for 2-3 minutes. If the result tasteslike ordinary hot water, the tea is likely tobe fresh. If the tea bag water tastes like tea,then the tea is old and the paper hasabsorbed its flavour.

To retain freshness and flavour in bothloose and bagged tea, store it in an air-tightopaque container to protect it from light,moisture and food odours. It’s best to storetea in a dark, cool and dry cupboard.

Blood pressure – what’snormal?

“Only around 20 per cent of us under-stand that we can reduce the risk of demen-tia by keeping blood pressure levelshealthy,” says neuroscientist Dr MichaelValenzuela, senior research fellow with theSchool of Psychiatry at the University ofNSW.

“We might have grasped the fact thatkeeping the brain active can help prevent

its decline, but there’s another importantmessage that hasn’t got through – thathealthy blood pressure from mid-lifeonwards is one of our best anti-dementiadefences.” The physical activity helps pre-vent dementia. Valenzuela’s recommenda-tion is for at least three brisk 30-minutewalks and at least one session of resistance(strength) training each week. A combina-tion of both is good for health generally –and also helps prevent diabetes which isanother risk factor for dementia,” he says.

High blood pressure contributes to thesecond most common type of dementiaafter Alzheimer’s disease – vasculardementia that’s caused by having a stroke.

As a general guide, the HeartFoundation suggests:

Normal blood pressure: generally lessthan 120/80 mmHg.

Normal to high blood pressure:between 120/80 and 140/90 mmHg.

High blood pressure: 140/90 mmHg orhigher.

If your blood pressure is 180/110 mmHg or higher, you have very high bloodpressure.

(Disclaimer: The Health tips in the arti-cle are taken from various well establishedand reliable sources and are given to you ingood faith. However, readers are remindedto take care and consult their doctor if notsure, as no responsibility can be acceptedby the writer of this column or The IndianDown Under).

Just for SeniorsBy Santram Bajaj

Berries are among fruits which help reducethe risk of cancer and heart diseases.

Normal blood pressure is below 120/80 mmHg.

HUMOUR

Health & Well-being

Almost Perfect LifeAn old man is sitting on a park bench

crying his eyes out. A young jogger comesby and asks him what is the matter.

The old man says, "I'm a multi-million-aire; I have a great big house, the fastest carin the world and I just married a beautifulblonde.”

The young jogger says, "Man, you haveeverything I have ever dreamed for in mylife. What could be so wrong in your lifethat you are sitting here in the park crying?"

The old man says, "I can't rememberwhere I live."

Breaking and EnteringA man went to the Police Station wish-

ing to speak with the burglar who had bro-ken into his house the night before.

"You'll get your chance in court," saidthe Desk Sergeant.

"No, no no!" said the man. "I want toknow how he got into the house withoutwaking my wife. I've been trying to do thatfor years!"

Dilip Mahanty column


Acouple of years ago there was a lotof hand ringing as to who wouldput up his hand to step into the

huge shoes of giants such as Tendulkar,Dravid and Laxman when they ultimatelyretired. These remaining three of the “fab-ulous four” (with Ganguly alreadyretired), were not expected to continuemuch beyond 2012.

Heads were scratched to look for bats-men who had at least the potential to con-tribute effectively to India’s cause, even ifthey did not have feet big enough to fill theshoes left behind. After all, Tendulkar,Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly formed oneof the most potent middle orders in the his-tory of cricket.

Three promising lads were spokenabout, judging from the early promise theyshowed. Of these, the most prominent two(Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) grabbedthe limelight while the third (Pujara) wentabout quietly scoring runs by the bucketload in domestic cricket.

Rohit Sharma

Rohit was first noticed in Australia in2008 when he played the ODI series forIndia. He seemed to possess the lazy graceand had oodles of time to play his shots allaround the ground. He had greatnessstamped all over him. In partnership withTendulkar, who got his first ODI hundredin Australia, he wowed the local crowd.Seasoned local critics, not given to unstint-ed praise, were effusive. Ian Chappellmarked him out for future greatness.

Then IPL happened and Rohit hit jack-pot with a US$750,000 a year contract forDeccan Chargers over three years.Suddenly the boy from a modest middleclass background was foisted onto the bigstage, rubbing shoulders with the high andmighty and mingling with glamorous peo-ple.

Apparently, according to reports,focus on cricket receded with these dis-tractions and his performance on the fieldbegan to suffer. He put on weight andstarted to lose his motivation. Afterumpteen chances he was dropped from theIndian team.

This shock and the advent of otheryoungsters like Raina and Kohli forced asea change in his attitude. When he wassnapped up by Mumbai for IPL4 andbrought under the tutelage of theredoubtable Tendulkar, he became a total-ly different player. He became fit, hungryand determined.

Virat Kohli

Kohli was rewarded by being selectedfor the ODIs against the West Indies. Hisperformance in this tour has been out-standing so far. He is determined to stepup to Test level and this is welcome newsto many cricket lovers who had been dis-appointed with his earlier attitude.

Virat Kohli showed a lot of characterwhen he was around 18 and playing forDelhi. He had a sound technique and a lotof promise. What set him apart from theothers was his strength of mind.

In a Ranji Trophy match Kohli wasplaying a back-to-the-wall innings to savethe match. He remained unbeaten and wasdetermined to continue his fight on the lastday to see Delhi through. Overnight, hisfather passed away from a sudden heartattack. Next morning, he requested familymembers not to perform the last rites tillhe returned after completing his innings.He lasted long enough to ensure Delhi didnot lose and returned home to completethe final rites.

With his abilities and display of leader-ship qualities, he was asked to lead theIndian under 19s in the ICC World Cup in

Malaysia in 2008. His personal contribu-tion and astute leadership earned India theWorld Cup trophy. He led India to anoth-er success in Australia during theEmerging Players Trophy in 2009.

Suddenly everybody started talkingabout him as the new “messiah” set to takeIndia to new heights. All this talk and verylucrative sponsorship deals both in IPL aswell as outside took a heavy toll on hisattitude. By his own confession to themedia he had turned boorish and insuffer-able. His performance began to suffer. Hisinclusion in the senior Indian team did notproduce the runs he thought he could scoreeasily.

Sitting in the same room with some ofgreatest players India has produced andseeing their modesty and work ethics,Kohli realized where he had gone wrong.He made a steely promise that he wouldchange his attitude and become a betterperson.

That he has kept his promise can begauged from his generally pleasant behav-iour these days, both on and off the field.In the last couple of years he has consoli-dated his position in India’s ODI teams.He has been scoring consistently in boththe shorter forms of the game. This con-sistency has provided the necessary thrustto catapult Kohli into the Test team in theWest Indies as many of the regular playersare not touring.

Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara is not the limelightseeking type. He can be described as “qui-etly efficient” – a Rahul Dravid sort ofguy. His technique is extremely sound andhe is not generally discomfited by pace orspin. He has risen to prominence throughsheer volume of runs in domestic cricket.Whenever he has toured overseas with theunder 19 or India A teams he has scoredprolifically. His hunger for run scoring isreflected in the double and triple centurieshe has made for his State team Saurashtra.

Pujara’s consistency earned him a Testcap against Australia last year. In the sec-ond Test in Bangalore (Pujara’s first) heshowed he had nerves of steel.

Australia scored 478 batting first.Tendulkar’s double century and Vijay’shundred helped India lead by 17 runs. Inthe second knock Australia scored 223leaving India to score 206 to win. On awearing pitch this task was not going to beeasy. Sehwag was out very early and thedebutant Pujara, who scored only 4 in thefirst innings, was promoted to come in atnumber 3 in place of injured Gambhir. Heset about scoring fluently in the companyof Murli Vijay and the pair added 72 valu-able runs before Vijay got out. Pujara thenhelped Tendulkar with a half centurystand. When he was out for 72 pricelessruns India was close to victory. This wasachieved without further loss.

Though his subsequent outings inSouth Africa did not yield high returns, hepromises to be a batsman of high calibre.However, an opportunity to consolidatehis position in the Indian lineup during theWI tour was sadly lost because of a seri-ous knee injury suffered during an IPL4match while playing for Kolkata.

These three, who are in their earlytwenties, should form the bulwark ofIndia’s middle order when Tendulkar,Dravid and Laxman retire. With Sehwag,Gambhir and Dhoni likely to play foranother 4-5 years, the batting line up willnot lack experience and class.

Players like Murli Vijay, Mukund,Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Raina wouldalso be marking time to get into the Testline up. So the bench strength of India’sbatting is impressive.

Players like Badrinath and Yuvraj,who do not have age on their side, may notget many opportunities to play in the nextcouple of years.

The real worry for India would be itsbowling attack after Zaheer and Harbhajanretire. Ishant and Sreesanth have promisebut lack control. Ashwin is still to be test-ed in Tests. Mishra seems to haveimproved of late and seems more penetra-tive but whether he will have the sameeffect against top class opponents remainsto be seen.

Ojha is steady but doesn’t spin the ballviciously enough to create problems.Other promising youngsters like RahulSharma and Abdullah need exposure over-seas to rate their performance.

There are a couple of pace bowlerswho are being noticed. Umesh Yadav canbe pacy but needs to work on his variety.A newcomer, Aaron Varun fromJharkhand, clocked 153 kph in a recentmatch. He regularly bowls at speedsbetween 140-145 kph. Both these young-sters are strongly built and have stamina.They need to be coached properly to reachtheir true potential.

India’s future depends on the fastmaturing of some of these promisingyoungsters. The fact that they get opportu-nities to share their thoughts and the dress-ing room with several giants of Indiancricket should help them “graduate”faster.

It will be difficult for them to fit in the huge shoes of giants such as Tendulkar, Dravid andLaxman when they ultimately retire, but Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar

Pujara are servingIndia’s cause well. The real worry would be India’s bowling attack after Zaheer and Harbhajan retire.

Gen Y is ready to take over

By Dilip Mahanty


The Kersi Meher-Homji Column

It looks strange, almost weird.Like Agra without the Taj, Pariswithout Eiffel Tower and Merv

Hughes without a moustache!I mean an Indian Test team

without Sachin Tendulkar andVirender Sehwag for the currenttour of West Indies. Also noGautam Gambhir or Yuvraj Singhin the Test squad. And no MSDhoni and reverse-swing kingZaheer Khan in the one dayers.

Well, Sehwag, Gambhir andYuvraj are injured. And Dhoni,after missing the only Twenty20and five ODIs, will captain India inthe Tests.

No one can deny that India’ssenior cricketers have been playingnon-stop for months and we dounderstand Tendulkar, aged 38,needing rest and spending qualitytime with his family. Especially thetour to England will start soon afterthe Caribbean tour finishes on 10July. But should he not have for-saken the meaningless IPL-2011lasting seven weeks to have timewith his family rather than miss animportant tour of the Caribbean?More on the irrelevance of IPLelsewhere but cricketers forsakinginternational matches for franchised‘club’ cricket is disappointing tome. Also, Tendulkar could have

scored his 100th international cen-tury in the land of Worrell, Hall,Sobers, Richards, Holding andLara.

I can see from Tendulkar’s

point of view. He is not young any-more and has to space himself if hehas to maintain his magnificentform. But to play seven weeks foran irrelevant franchise and miss an

important tour is unlike him.He explained, "As I have been

playing continuous cricket over thelast ten months, which started dur-ing the Sri Lankan series in July2010, I had requested the CricketBoard to allow me to spend somequality time with the family as itcoincides with my children's holi-days and hence will not be availablefor the series in the West Indies. Iwould appreciate everyone's under-standing of my decision and lookforward to be back shortly post theseries." India should not take theWest Indies lightly. India is cur-rently placed No.1 in Test cricketand No.2 in ODIs. A loss to thelowly-ranked Windies will see herranking zoom down. It will alsoshatter their confidence before thetour of England.

Remember England smashedAustralia 3-1 early this year anddefeated a strong Sri Lankan teamin the first Test recently. It is goodthat the Indian selectors are lookingat the future in selecting youngplayers to the Windies but too manychanges will be counter-productive.

Talented left-handed SureshRaina will lead India in the T20 andin ODIs before Dhoni takes overleadership when the Test seriescommences on the 20th of July. But

Raina has little experience in lead-ership and appears immature to me.Hope he makes me eat my words!

Also, we must not forget therole of coach Gary Kirsten in takingIndia to the top of the tree in Testranking as also in winning theWorld Cup in April. Will the newcoach Duncan Fletcher have similarrapport with the Indian cricketers?

The Test squad appears a finemix of youth and experience. Hereit is: Dhoni (captain, wk), VVSLaxman (vice-capt), Rahul Dravid,Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan,Raina, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay,Ishant Sharma, S. Sreesanth, MunafPatel, Parthiv Patel (wk), AmitMishra, Subramaniam Badrinath,Abhinav Mukund and PragyanOjha. India’s record in West Indiesis poor. Of the 42 Tests played inWI, India has won only four andlost 16. So there is no reason to beoverconfident.

Here is the tour itinerary:The five ODIs will be played in

Port-of-Spain, Antigua and Jamaicafrom June 6 to June 16.

First Test in Jamaica, 20 to 24June.

Second Test in Barbados, 28June to 2 July.

Third Test in Dominica, 6 to 10July

How will Sachin-less India fare in West Indies?

Indian team celebrating after the 2nd ODI match win: sans the starplayers, they had taken unbeatable 3-0 lead in 5-match series.

Chennai SuperKings win IPL again

IPL may be entertaining but isit relevant?

Wh a t e v e rMS Dhonit o u c h e s

turns to gold. Lookat his achievements.Under him India hasrisen to number 1ranking in Tests.Under him India haswon the World Cup.And under himChennai Super Kings(CSK) have won theIPL title for the sec-ond time in a row.

I know I am astrong critic of IPLfor what it will do toTest and first-classcricket. But it pro-vides top qualityspectacle with thebest global cricketing talent ondisplay.

In the final on 28 May,Dhoni-led CSK defeated star-studded Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) by 58 runs inChennai.

CSK’s Murali Vijay wasthe top-scorer with 95 runs ashe added 159 runs withAustralian Mike Hussey (63)for the opening wicket off 89balls. Vijay was made Man ofthe Match and RCB’s ChrisGayle adjudged Man of theSeries.

Gayle, the West Indian tor-nado, was the only one to hit

600 runs in IPL 2011. Hescored 608 runs at 67.55, belt-ing two centuries and three 50sin 12 matches. His strike-ratewas an astonishing 183.12 ashe smashed 44 sixes.

The other highlight of IPL2011 was the 206 run standbetween Adam Gilchrist andShaun Marsh for King’s XIPunjab in a qualifying match.Gilchrist (106 with 8 fours and9 sixes) and Marsh (79 not outwith 7 fours and 5 sixes) added206 runs for the second wicket.This is the highest partnershipin the four years of IPL for anywicket and the only partnershipof over 200 runs.

Call me a fuddy-duddy but IPL leaves me cold.And this despite my favourites SachinTendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne,

Virender Sehwag among others participating.First the good points of IPL: Spectators see the best international players from

yesterday, today and tomorrow in action. Old ‘foes’ like Harbhajan Singh and Andrew

Symonds play side by side for the same team, MumbaiIndians, their misunderstanding probably forgotten.

Youngsters have a chance to play with and againstlegends. Indian rookies have learnt an enormous lotfrom overseas legends Warney, Gilly, Watson, Gayle,Lee, Tait, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Vettori...

Now the minus points:Who cares as to who wins? Those ten sides are nei-

ther national nor state teams. They are franchises madeup of auctioned cricketers. They play for prize money.

Bill O’Reilly described Packer cricket in late 1970sas circus with clowns (players wearing colour cloth-ing). But at least they were playing for their countries,apart from a World XI. I shudder to think what hewould have described the IPL cricketers!

Talented IPL players provide entertainment galore.And crowds lap it up. But TV ratings were low thisyear with the average rating down almost 25 per centfrom the previous year.

Pay TV did not show IPL-2011 in Australia at all.Few Down Under seemed to care two hoots for thisfranchise razzmatazz.

In conclusion, does IPL matter? It’s a money-mak-ing gimmick, irrelevant and not good for cricket.

Now the IPL epidemic will soon become a pan-demic with Sri Lanka starting their SLPL, England per-haps their EPL and Australia their international BigBash.

The most worrying aspect is the fact that some topcricketers in the world are missing a tour comprisingTests to play gold-laced virtual club games.

“The fourth edition of the IPL has been beyond thepale,” Peter Roebuck wrote in The Hindu.

“Sooner or later slapstick loses its appeal. Likerugby sevens and speed chess, it does not really matter,even in the sporting sense. It is an entertainment not anexamination.”

Other experts also complain that the tournament isfailing to unearth new domestic talent.

“While it is argued that the IPL has given Indianfirst-class cricketers a new life, it has also made moneycome easy to most of them,” said Boria Majumdar, anoted cricket historian and writer.

The trend is disturbing. I agree with former SriLankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga that IPL will go ondestroying international cricket.

MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina celebratingsecond successive IPL cup win

IPL4 curtain-raiser by cartoonist Satish Acharya



Arguably the greatest leg-spinner incricket history, Shane Warne hasbeen the biggest headline maker in

the last few decades. Now he has announcedhis retirement from all levels of cricket.

As a tribute, a 300 kilogram bronze stat-ue of Warne is under construction by LouisLaumen, a

Melbourne-based sculptor. He has beenassigned to make this statue, which is likelyto be erected during the Boxing Day Test,scheduled to be played between Australiaand visiting India this December.

Speaking exclusively from Melbourne,he told Indian journalist Bipin Dani, "TheShane

Warne statue is to be about nine feethigh, so the amount of bronze will be about300 kg.

I imagine that there will be a number ofcricketing greats, past and present, attend-ing the unveiling ceremony on December26. If Sachin Tendulkar is there, of course Iwould be delighted to meet him.”

Laumen is the sculptor of ten statuesalready erected, which include DonBradman, Keith Miller, Bill Ponsford andDennis Lillee.

"In Australia as in India there are verymany who are passionate about the game ofcricket. As a professional artist it is pleasingto give pleasure to so many by portrayingtheir heroes. For me, the challenge is toportray character and I have always foundgreat sportsmen to have distinctive andforceful personalities. I was especiallymoved meeting Keith Miller at the end ofhis life; a man of great distinction in manyways -- a great lover of classical music andpoetry amongst other things," he said.

Back to Warne. Whether controversies,headlines and adoring females chased him

or he chased them is a question which willnever be answered. Although the word ‘liv-ing legend’ has become overused andclichéd, Warne is definitely one, along withboxing immortal Mohammed Ali, golfinggreat “Tiger” Woods, Garry Sobers and ourown Tendulkar.

Warne remains the only cricketer – pastor present – who has inspired a musicalplay. That was in May 2009. In that musi-cal the role of former Test cricketer TerryJenner (who died last month) is shown withaffection and humour. Teenager Warne wastalented in both AFL and cricket but refusedto practice. He ignored his mother’s ferventpleas but listened to Jenner’s coaxing and astar was born!

Warne reached the acme of his powersin late 1990s and is recognised as among theTop-5 all-time great cricketers along withDon Bradman, Garry Sobers, Jack Hobbsand Sachin Tendulkar.

But all good things must come to an endand so is Warne’s career as a cricketer. Thiswas in Mumbai on 20th May in an IPLmatch when the sprightly 41 year-youngWarne led his team Rajasthan Royals (RR)to a thumping 10 wicket victory overMumbai Indians, captained by his friendand rival Tendulkar. Warne took only onewicket in his swan song and 13 wickets in13 matches in IPL-2011, disappointing fig-ures for a legend.

But not so according to his RR andAustralian teammate Shane Watson. "It'sbeen mind-blowing for me to see him, afternot bowling for a year, be all over batsmenthe way he is. It's pretty crazy how some-one has got that much skill and hasn't lostthat control over something that is so diffi-cult to do. If he ever came out of retirement,which he's not going to do, he would stilldominate," he said after Warne’s finalmatch.

Shortly after bowling his last ball incricket, Warne celebrated with a passionatekiss to his new love Hollywood actress LizHurley.

The IPL matches did not stop Warnemaking headlines of the wrong type,allegedly using “colourful” language withthe franchise’s secretary on pitch prepara-tion and being slapped a fine of US$ 50,000last month.

Where Warney is, can controversies andheadlines be far behind? He was not nick-named Hollywood and Suicide for nothing!

To quote Steve Larkin from The Roarwebsite, “Some say the magnitude of his

‘cricket brain’ left little grey matter forother purposes. Think extra-marital affairs.Saucy text messages. Saucy baked beans.Diuretics. Crass celebrations. Sledging.Smoking. Warne was a gifted bowler, butalso a wrong’un.”

Interesting summing up of a larrikin byLarkin!

I had the pleasure of seeing Warne makehis Test debut against India at the SCG inJanuary 1992 when he was thrashed by RaviShastri (206) and 18 year-old Tendulkar(148 not out) and ended up with forgettablefigures of 1 for 150.

I was also there in the SCG press box asfolk hero Warne played his last Test matchin January 2007. In this, the final Test,Australia won by 10 wickets and regainedthe Ashes 5-0. What a magical moment, thefinal hurrah, as Australia farewelled herthree stars -- Warne, Glenn McGrath andJustin Langer.

In 145 Tests Warne took 708 wickets at25.41 (best 8-71), scored 3154 runs at 17.32(highest 99) and held 125 catches. He wasthe first one to capture 700 scalps in Testhistory and since then only Sri Lanka’s con-troversial off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharanhas taken more wickets (800 at 22.72 in 133Tests, best 9-51).

Contemporary spinners Warney andMurali will be remembered with as muchawe by batsmen in 1990s and 2000s asAustralian Don Bradman and EnglishmanWally Hammond by bowlers in 1930s and‘40s.

Will we ever see the like of ShaneWarne, the rebel without a cause -- thegood, the naughty and the epitome ofartistry?

But on 26 December we will see his stat-ue before the Melbourne Test against India.

Two giants, one past and onecurrent, were decorated withspecial Awards for their con-

tributions to Indian cricket. Theyare the debonair all-rounder SalimDurani who represented India from1960 to 1973 with grace and élanand the living legend SachinTendulkar.

Durani was honoured with theCol. C K Nayudu LifetimeAchievement Award besides Rs 15lakh and a handsome Trophy and acitation.

The Kabul-born Afghani-Indianwho became famous for hitting asix on demand for once turned emo-tional and expressed his gratitude ina choked voice. “I have no wordsto express my gratitude,” the 76-year-old said.

Durani remembered the days ofIndia's first captain C K Nayuduunder whom his father played anunofficial Test. He also recalled aRanji Trophy match of 1958 wherehe played against the Colonel. Healso wished the West Indies-boundIndian team all the success.

Tendulkar was honoured withthe Polly Umrigar Trophy for hismagnificent feats of 2009-10 whenhe scored an ODI double hundred(still unique in the annals of ODI)

and played a grand innings of 175besides 1064 runs in Tests.

“It feels great to hold thisTrophy a second time,” he told TheTimes of India.

Tendulkar also thanked histeammates. “Without my fellowmembers of the team I would not beholding this Trophy. I also congrat-ulate the team for becoming the No.1 in Tests and for going on to getsomething absolutely magical, theWorld Cup.” He termed M SDhoni's leadership as terrific andmade a special mention for the sup-port staff for all their help.

Iam surprised that Australia is still ranked No. 1and India No. 2 in one-day internationals (ODIs).

How come? Why? By what criteria, by whichstatistic? Like most fair-minded cricket-lovers I amconfused that Australia is eight points ahead ofWorld Cup champions India in the current rankings.

Is World Cup of no importance to those big wigsof ICC? Have their statisticians lost their marbles?Or their calculators have lost their battery charge andgiven false numbers?

Is an international event like the ICC- recognizedWorld Cup inferior to judge ranking than the 3-match series between Australia and the lowlyBangladesh in April?

Or for that matter a meaningless 6-1 victory byAustralia over a tired English team who, after win-ning the Ashes earlier this year, wanted to get it over

and done with in ODIs Down Under and go home fora rest before the 2011 World Cup?

I think the ICC ranking system is flawed.Not only did India beat Australia convincingly in

the World Cup quarter final but also last Octoberwon 1-0 in an ODI series in India.

Also, Sri Lanka defeated Australia 2-1 in an ODIseries in Australia last November.

In my opinion, India, the current World Cupchamps, should be ranked No.1 with South Africa atNo.2 in ODIs. After all, India lost to only one coun-try, South Africa, in a World Cup match.

Also, India had lost to South Africa in the ODIsby a 2-3 margin in South Africa this January.

By logic, as World Cup finalist and the victor ofAustralia in the ODI series in Australia lastNovember, Sri Lanka deserves to be ranked No.3.Australia can follow at No. 4.

The first Test India played was against Englandway back in June 1932. It was England’s219th Test. Although England won by 158

runs, India started on the right foot by dismissing astrong English team (led by Douglas Jardine andincluding stars Wally Hammond, Herbert Sutcliffeand Frank Woolley) for 259 (Maommed Nissar tak-ing 5- 93) and 275 (Jahangir Khan 4-60).

Seventy nine years later, India meet England atLord’s for their 100th Test starting on 21st July. Itwill be a big celebration for the two nations.

"ECB and BCCI have been discussing celebra-tions planned around this Test match which will be

the 100th Test played between England and India,"David Collier, the ECB chief executive said.

Interestingly, Sri Lankan lawyer, now based inToronto, Mahendra Mapagunaratne has also broughtto the attention of the ICC, Indian Cricket Board andthe ECB that this Test at Lord's will be the 2000thTest since the first ever Test was played in 1877 inMelbourne. He suggested that postal stamps shouldbe released by the concerned authorities in Englandand India.

"We will seek formal confirmation that this isthe 2000th Test and we can then make appropriateplans to mark that occasion," Collier added.

Bronze statue for the many-splendoured Warne

Awards for Salim andSachin

ICC’s ODI ranking system is flawed

Historic 100th Test at Lord’s

Shane Warne playing his last cricketmatch during IPL4, and (right) his 9-ft-high statue will be erected in Melbournein December before the Oz-India Test

match.

Salim Durani, all-rounder whoplayed for India from 1960-73,was given CK Nayudu Lifetime

Achievement Award.



Cricket & Beyond by GuluEzekiel, Ocean Books (India),2011, hard-cover, 183 pages.Foreword by Bishan Bedi. Price Rs250 plus postage. For copies, con-tact the author [email protected]

This is Gulu Ezekiel’s 14thbook on sports and accordingto me his best. A biographer

of MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkarand Sourav Ganguly, Gulu is one ofIndia’s most prolific and well-known sports writers.

To quote Bishan Bedi, “I haveknown Gulu for close to twodecades and have always beenimpressed by his passion and com-mitment to sport in general andIndian cricket in particular.”

Not one to mince words, Gulucomes down heavily on IPL. “TheIPL is fast becoming a law untoitself, its backers drunk on power,

money and fame,” he writes.Cricket & Beyond includes best

articles of Gulu culled from hisdecades in journalism, encompass-ing Olympics, tennis, hockey, box-ing, chess, table tennis and cricket.Especially cricket.

The author starts off with TKRamanathan, the father of tennisace Ramanathan Krishnan andgrandfather of Ramesh Krishnan.Grandpa Ramanathan sold all theland in his native place to build thecourt around his house to ensurethat his son and grandson shone outin tennis.

The chapter on boxing legendMohammed Ali is engrossing. “The1960s was all about power – FlowerPower, Black Power and AliPower. Mohammed Ali, that is.Foe Ali was as much a child andsymbol of the Swinging Sixties asthe Beatles…”, writes GuluEzekiel.

Did you know South Africangreats Mike Procter and BarryRichards, when travelling with aschoolboys’ team in England in1963, polished Garry Sobers’shoes? Hard to believe? They nar-rated this story to Gulu in Delhi in

1991.Ever heard of Norman Gilbert

Pritchard? He was the first IndianOlympian, the first in India to winmedals in Olympics way back in1896 and the first Indian, andindeed the first Olympian, to act inHollywood movies along with leg-endary Gary Cooper and RonaldColeman. He acted under the nameNorman Trevor.

Pritchard was born in Calcuttain 1875 but was he representingIndia or Briton in the ParisOlympics? Gulu has done intensiveresearch in solving this riddle.

You have to read the book toget a solution. I was so engrossedreading this chapter in the train thatI forgot to get down at my destina-tion!

The chapter on match-fixing isvery revealing. The first cricketersto be banned for match-fixing werenot Hansie Cronje, Mohammad

Azharuddin and Salim Malik, hewrites. It was England’s WilliamLambert in 1817! “It [match-fixing]started in the 18th century whentravelling professionals rode on thehorse-back and later by train fromvillage to village, playing for largepurses in winner-take-all matches.”

In a chapter titled ObnoxiousBreed, Gulu describes India’s tourto Australia in 2007-08 as one ofthe bitterest in cricket history. “Itsrepercussions are still being felt,”he adds.

There are well-researched chap-ters on Sachin, VVS and BrianLara.

Gulu ends with the achieve-ments of Indian sportswomen:Olympian PT Usha, tennis starSania Mirza, boxer Mary Komamong others.

I recommend the book to allsports lovers. It has something foreveryone.

BOOK REVIEW

Sania loses inFrench Opendoubles final

India's Sania Mirza willhave to wait to realiseher dream of winning a

Grand Slam event. Sheentered the Final of MixedDoubles partnering RussianElena Vesnina in the FrenchOpen on 3rd June. But theylost 4-6, 3-6 to Czech pairAndrea Hlavackova andLucie Hradecka.

Sania and Elena, both24, came together early in2011 and with titles atIndian Wells andCharleston, were having asuccessful year on the cir-cuit by holding a 20-4record. The two, however,failed to keep their unforcederrors under control on awindy day to go down in 82

minutes. They struggled atthe net and were over-whelmed by the Czechgirls' powerful groundstrokes.

Sania had created historyby becoming the first Indianwoman to enter a GrandSlam doubles final when sheand Elena shocked fourth-seeded Americans LiezelHuber and Lisa Raymond6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the semi-final.

"I thank Sania, our teamand everyone who support-ed us”, said Elena. “It hasbeen a great two weeks forus. I am sure we will havemore wins on our way and Iam hopeful we will make itsomeday."

Sania Mirza with her doubles partner Elena Vesnina

Dravid’s century behind India’s victory

India’s ‘second’ XI just beats the Windies

In a low scoring match Indiawon the first Test inKingston, Jamaica by 63

runs to lead 1-0 in the three-Testseries.

India started poorly losing 6for 82 on the opening day butrecovered through a 146 runpartnership between SureshRaina (82) and Harbhajan Singh(70) to total 246.

With opening bowlersPraveen Kumar and IshanSharma capturing three wicketseach, West Indies were dis-missed for 173.

A lead of 73 hardly lookedsufficient as India lost 3 for 57.But Rahul Dravid stood tall ashe scored a precious 112, his32nd century. Fortunately,Dravid was dropped before hehad reached ten. But afterwardshe played a flawless innings asIndia totalled 252.

Set 326 to win, the Windies

were never in the hunt and lostdespite spectacular sixes byskipper Darren Sammy and tail-ender Ravi Rampaul.

For his 40 and 112, Dravidwas the obvious Man of theMatch.

Milestones for Dravid for thesecond Test

*Dravid, age 38, needs 148runs to become the second highestscorer in Test history. SachinTendulkar is unapproachable with14,692 runs in 177 Tests, fol-lowed by Australia’s RickyPonting with 12,363 runs in 152.As at 25 June, Dravid hasamassed 12,215 runs in 151 Tests.

*Dravid ‘the Wall’ is joint 6thhighest century maker in Testannals. Tendulkar is again on topwith 51 centuries, followed byJacques Kallis of South Africa 40in 145 Tests, Ponting 39 in 152,Brian Lara and Sunil Gavaskar 34each in 131 and 125 Tests, andSteve Waugh and Dravid 32 eachin 168 and 151 Tests.

* But Dravid is supreme infielding, having taken 200 catchesin 151 Tests, followed by MarkWaugh 181 in 128 and Ponting178 in 152.

When Young India under Suresh Raina led the 5-match one-day international (ODI) series 3-0 inthe Caribbean we thought India has so much

depth. Just imagine, if India without World Cup 2011heroes Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj andZaheer could defeat full strength West Indies (minus ChrisGayle), what would the full strength India could achieve!

India only had four established players, skipper Raina,Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli and Munaf Patel, in theseries.

But the optimism evaporated somewhat when theWindies won the last two matches, thanks to some mightyhitting by Kieron Pollard, Darren Bravo and tail-enderAndre Russell. Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons andMarlon Samuels were consistent throughout. Russell andAnthony Martin excelled in bowling.

India’s Rohit Sharma was outstanding throughout theseries amassing 257 runs at a Bradman-like average of128.50 and deserved to be adjudged Man of the Series. Hescored 68 not out in the first ODI, 86 not out in the third,39 in the fourth and 57 in the fifth. His best was in thethird ODI in Antigua when he rescued India from 6 for 92to a 3-wicket win which sealed the series 3-0.

Kohli was another Indian to shine with the bat as hetotalled 199 in the series at 39.80.

Spinner Amit Mishra was the only one to get morethan 10 wickets (11 at 18.09) in the series.

Unfortunately, established stars Raina and Harbhajandisappointed.

The innings of the series was by the West Indian new-comer Andre Russell. In the third ODI at Antigua, WestIndies were on their knees at7 for 94 when no.9 batRussell swung his bat as he galloped to a record 92 not outoff 64 balls, belting 8 fours and 5 sixes.

But the talk in the Caribbean is the dumping of theirbrilliant opening batsman Chris Gayle from the Test serieswhich started on 20th June.

One hopes that India under the dynamic MS Dhoni andincluding master bats VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid per-forms better in the Test series. But openers VirenderSehwag and Gautam Gambhir, all-rounder Yuvraj Singhand swing-king Zaheer Khan (all four injured) and SachinTendulkar (resting) will be sorely missed.

The ODI series was played in front of near emptyStands in the Caribbean. Let’s hope the presence of VVS,Dravid and Dhoni arouses more spectator interest.

Rahul Dravid scored his 32ndcentury in Kingston Test vs

West Indies.

the indian down under - e paper june-july, 2011

Documents