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Junior Apprentice winner 'elated' - despite looming exams.....................page 7 Warsi to review Tory A-list......................page 10 Shah Rukh Khan’s wish list ........................page 20 Mass marriage for 53 former LTTE rebel couples in Vavuniya...........page 26 China on verge of signing N-deal with Pak....page 27

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India refutes charges of misusing British education aid funds

Allegations of Non-existent schools getting tens of thousands of pounds

India on Tuesday strongly refuted charges that millions of pounds of UK aid meant for education of poor children were misused. The response came after UK Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell announced initiating an inquiry following media reports in UK alleged that corrupt

Indian officials had misused tens of thousands of pounds of UK aid meant for poor students.

India claims that UK barely funds 2% of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan through it donor agency – Department For I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development (DFID).

Continued on page 24

LSE report reveals close ISI-Taliban links

Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been hand-inglove with the Taliban in Afghanistan, supporting them with training, cash and sanctuary on a far larger scale than was previously thought, according to evidence supplied by insurgent commanders.

A detailed study by Matt Waldman, a Harvard researcher, whose work was published at the weekend by the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE), has revealed that there was extensive collaboration between the ISI and the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, as well as another faction, the Haqqani group. Mr Waldman based his conclusions from interviews with nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan who told of their

close cooperation with the Taliban leaders, Qayyum ISI. Zakir, the movement's new “According to both commander, and Mullah Taliban and Haqqani comAbdul Raouf Khadem, manders, it controls the reportedly now head of the most violent insurgent Quetta Shura, who are units, some of which appear among the three or four highest ranking in the moveto be based in Pakistan,” wrote the author of the Asif Ali Zardari ment below Mullah Omar.

This explosive report is cerreport. “Insurgent comtain to have far-reaching consemanders confirmed that the ISI are quences. Islamabad's criminality even represented as participants or stands exposed. The former head of observers, on the supreme leaderthe Afghan intelligence agency ship council.”

Amrullah Saleb, who resigned last President Zardari himself has apparently assured captive, senior week, said: “The ISI is part of the Taliban leaders that they are “our landscape of destruction in this people” and have his backing. He country, no doubt, so it will be has also apparently authorised their waste of time to provide evidence of release from prison. The ISI even ISI involvement. They are part (C omme nt page 3) arrested and then released two of it.”

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

one to one Keith Vaz MP with

Councillor Priyen Patel Priyen worked the Conservative Party and Barclays Bank before moving to the Federation of Small Businesses as a policy advisor. This has brought him valuable knowledge and skills which have helped him develop policies and campaigns which help the local community. At university, he studied politics and enjoyed playing football and golf. Outside of work and politics, Priyen enjoys watching copious amounts of football (as a Tottenham Hotspur fan he can wave goodbye to all Arsenal votes), enjoys film and spending time travelling abroad.

1) You have just been elected as a Councillor.

What have you learnt so far?

I have learnt that I can no longer read a book a month. The vast amount of reports and documents which need to be read, digested and the acted on take over the commute to work. It is also really important to make sure constituents are heard and have a voice, which all too often in the past has not happened.

2) What do you hope to achieve for your con-

I think a low-tax, safe

4) Do you feel politics today fully represents ethnic minority communities?

I believe that politics is an instrument of change and those who are angry about policies and issues must get involved. I believe that more people from ethnic communities should be involved but as a meritocrat I fiercely disagree with quotas. I want to win because I am the best, not for being ‘ethnic’.

5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

stituents?

I want to make sure they have the ability to contact me through a letter, calling my office or through facebook or twitter, and receive and honest and thoughtful response. I believe that where honest truths have to be spoken, they should. I want to make sure that key areas like council tax, the environment, education and crime are at the forefront of decision making.

3) What is your ultimate career goal?

career goal is to highlight those areas which are important to the country.

My political idol is Baroness Thatcher. She took over a country which was a mess and made it one where anybody could succeed and rise to the very top. She helped destroy the communism and took difficult decisions for the good of the country.

6) What is the best thing about your job?

and strongly independent UK the best route for a

prosperous and successful country. My ultimate

The best thing about my job is meeting some of the great people who run local charities and help groups in local commu-

nities. These people are often working in the daytime and then plough their free time in making others lives better. They are truly inspirational.

7) And the worst?

Missing football games!

There are lots of evening meetings and lots of documents to read, but this is a task which needs to be done.

8) If you were Prime Minister, what one thing would you change?

If I was Prime Minister I would make every school as good as any in the private sector; and stop all selling off of playing fields and sports grounds. I think education is the route out of many of the economic and social faults which have occurred in the country over the last two decades.

9) Who would your 5 dream dinner party guests be?

Baroness Thatcher, Shane Warne, Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Narmer (sometimes called Menes, who was the first Pharaoh of Egypt – I’d ask him how he built the pyramids).

Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2010 The following were named in Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours list.

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Ms Janet Paraskeva. For public service.

Mrs Naila Zaffar. For services to local and national Education.

KNIGHTS BACHELOR Ahmed Salman Rushdie.

For services to Literature.

CBE Dr Husna Ahmad. For services to Disadvantaged People.

Maqsood Ahmad.

Formerly head of Police Equality and Diversity Policy, Home Office.

Mockbul Ali. Islamic Issues Adviser, Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Ms Christiane Amanpour.

For services to Journalism.

Dalwardin Babu. For services to the Police.

Ms Shami Chakrabarti.

For services to Human Rights.

Janti Champaneri. For services to Local Government.

Utheshtra Chetty. For services to Medicine.

Judge Khurshid Hassan Drabu. For services to Community Relations.

Dr Kranti Rajesh Hiremath, MBE. Honorary appointment made substantive.

Mashuq Hussain. For services to Young People and to Community Relations in Burnley and Pendle Lancashire.

Taha Mohammad Idris.

For services to Community Relations.

Dr Sukhbir Singh Kapoor.

For services to Community Relations.

Professor Mayur Keshavji Lakhani. For services to Medicine.

Dr Kartar Singh Lalvani.

For services to the Pharmaceutical Industry and to Charity.

Deepak Lalwani. For services to the Financial Services Industry.

Dr Kailash Chand Malhotra. For services to Healthcare.

Jehangir Malik. For services to Islamic Relief.

Mohammad Nazir. For services to Business.

Mrs Inderjit Kaur Sandhu. For services to Education.

Dr Prem Dutt Sharma.

For services to Community Relations.

Dr Rashmita Shukla.

Regional director, Public Health, Department of Health.

Professor Azim Surani.

For services to Biology.

Jeffrey Kamaruddeen Threlfall. For services to Education.

OBE Raj Kumar Aggarwal. For services to the Pharmaceutical Industry and to the Asian Community in Wales.

Dr Husna Ahmad. For services to Disadvantaged People.

Maqsood Ahmad.

Formerly head of Police Equality and Diversity

Deepak Lalwani

Policy, Home Office.

Ms Parvin Ali. For services to Diversity.

Anil Kumar Bhanot. For services to the Hindu community and to InterFaith Relations.

Ramesh Govindalal Gandhi, JP, DL. For services to the community in Lancashire.

Ashok Ghose. For services to Disabled People.

Mrs Jasminder Grewal.

For services to Education.

Mashuq Hussain. For services to Young People and to Community Relations in Burnley and Pendle Lancashire.

Dr Sukhbir Singh Kapoor.

For services to Community Relations.

Professor Daniel Yameen Prakash Khan. For services to Further Education.

Professor Srinivasan Raghunathan. For services to Aerospace Engineering Research and to Education in Northern Ireland.

Dr Rajadurai Sithamparanadarajah, JP. HM Principal Inspector, Health and Safety Executive. Department for

Ahmed Salman Rushdie

Shami Chakrabarti

Dr Kartar Singh Lalvani

Work and Pensions.

Waseem Yaqub. For charitable services.

MBE Jamil Akhtar, JP. Acting chief executive, Kirklees Racial Equality Council.

For services to the community in Huddersfield.

Ms Saima Afzal. For services to the Police and to Community Relations in Lancashire.

Daljit Singh Ahluwalia.

For voluntary service to Community and Interfaith Relations in Derbyshire.

Zaheer Ahmad. For services to the Police.

Basheer Ahmed. For services to Community Relations.

Ms Shanaz Ahmed. For services to the Asian community in the East End of London.

Sanjay Anand. For services to the Hospitality Industry.

Mohammed Aslam. For services to Community Relations in Walsall, West Midlands.

Mrs Zulekha Dala, JP. For services to the community in Lancashire.

Prakash Daswani. For services to the Arts.

Mrs Mrudula Desai.

Administrative Officer, Disability and Carers Service, Department for Work and Pensions.

Vinod Desai. Chief executive, South Asian Arts.

For services to the Arts.

Dr Salah El-Sharkawi.

For services to Medicine.

Dr Mahvash HussainGambles. For services to the Beauty Industry and to International Trade.

Bakhtiar Ahmad Gilani.

For services to the community in Greater Manchester.

Ravindra Pragji Govindia.

For services to the community in Wandsworth, London.

Sajid Hashmi. For services to the Voluntary Sector in Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire.

Ms Hanan Ally Ibrahim.

For services to Black and Minority Ethnic People.

Mrs Abida Iqbal. For services to the community in London Borough of Redbridge.

Vithaldas Jeram Mamtora.

For voluntary service to Older Asian people in Greater Manchester.

Miss Veena Kumari Mohindra.

Executive Officer, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and

Pensions.

Mrs Sudershan Kumari Mohindra, JP. For services to Community Relations in Nottingham.

Mukesh Patel.

Administrative Officer, Customer Operations, Leicester, HM Revenue and Customs.

Sam Sagar. For services to West Yorkshire Police.

Dr Edwin Sawacha. For services to Social Housing and to the community in North West London.

Mrs Marzia Sayani.

Executive Officer, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions Devi Dayal Sharma. For services to the community in Bradford.

Mrs Jaswant Sira. For services to Healthcare.

Balvinder Singh Sokhi.

For services to the community in Nottingham.

QUEEN'S FIRE SERVICE MEDAL Mazan Khuri. Assistant chief Fire Officer, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

LVO Mrs Inderjit Kaur Jutlla.

Assistant Treasurer to The Queen.

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

COMMENT

Pakistan's double game exposed It's a case surely of indecent exposure.

Referring to the insurgency in Afghanistan the Harvard analyst, Matt Waldman, in a detailed report published at the weekend by the London School of Economics, writes: “Pakistan appears to be playing a double game of astonishing magnitude.The conflict has led to the deaths of over 1,000 American and 700 other foreign military personnel [295 British]; thousands of Afghan soldiers, police, officials and civilians and an unknown number of Afghan, Pakistani and other foreign insurgents. It has cost America nearly $300 billion, and now costs over a $70 billion a year”. An insurgent Haqqani commander in Afghanistan is quoted as saying, “Of course Pakistan is the main cause of the problems [in the country] but America is behind Pakistan.” So it has been, and so it still is.

For too long, the great and good in London and Washington have been coy about nailing Pakistan's rulers, the military and intelligence services for their covert support for the Taliban.

The indulgence shown to their minions in Islamabad by successive British and US administrations may in due course attain respectable status in political science courses at Oxford and Harvard, the accompanying media double-speak and double-think part of an unfolding communications syllabi.

Pakistan is where the national interests of Britain, the US and China have long converged in a geo-political game of sorts, which has involved the export of Islamist terrorism across the Pakistan border into India, the active clandestine nuclear bomb-making commerce promoted by Islamabad and Beijing and the passive acquiescence of Washington and London in this black art.

ISI-trained barbarians having repeatedly entered India's gates, most notably through Mumbai on 26/11/ 2009, are making desperate efforts to replicate the Mumbai experience in the UK and US, if media reports are to be believed (The Daily Telegraph front-page, June 12). But the voices of appeasement keep droning on. A former British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Sir Hilary Synnott, argues in The Daily Telegraph (June 14) for greater Western aid, understanding and trust for the present Pakistani regime and the alienated Islamist sections of the Pakistani street as they confront their inner demons. Sir Hilary writes as if this is simply a Western concern.

Nowhere in his column is there even passing mention of India, as an affected neighbour.

For how long can this sorry state of affairs carry on? The situation in Afghanistan worsens

by the day and security in Pakistan keeps sliding towards the abyss. The endgame cannot be too far away with depleted finances in London and Washington.

Matt Waldman's LSE report has revealed the deep relationship that exists between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr Waldman interviewed nine Taliban commanders who revealed details of their collaborative ties with the ISI, which also have the blessing of President Asif Ali Zardari (See front-page report for details).

There is nothing quite like a crisis to concentrate minds. For all the bromides of General McChrystal, who heads the Nato expeditionary force in Afghanistan, Af/Pak ground realities tell a grim tale. Convoy blown up, helicopter shot down, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's two security advisers most trusted by the West resigned, and 29 Nato and British servicemen killed in less than a fortnight. It cannot get any worse. Prime Minister David Cameron has hard choices before him: the first is to craft an exit strategy from Afghanistan based on British and Western interests but taking full account of the interests of the regional powers as well. The near blank cheque for Pakistan in Afghanistan advocated by certain British and American voices, far from ushering in the desired peace will simply compound present regional insecurities and seed a wider conflict of incalculable consequences.

Utterly ridiculous are calls, including one from Matt Waldman in the concluding paragraphs of his report, for Indian concessions (code for Kashmir) to Pakistan in a bid to allay Islamabad's anxieties.The people of India have suffered greatly and for too long from Pakistani depredations to respond to such voices. Pakistan has been conducting an undeclared war against India for years, the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate being the Pakistani goal. A perusal of jihadi literature emanating from Pakistan makes this abundantly clear. It is not for India to pull the West's chestnuts out of the fire. The West and Pakistan's other friends around the globe must find some other way out of the Af/Pak impasse. Having sown the wind they are reaping the whirlwind.

A postscript on self-interest. BP's oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico has President Obama and the whole of America up in arms. Yet Washington refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty on pollution; the US was indifferent to Indian appeals on the threat posed by Pakistan-incubated Islamist terrorism, until the terrorists struck American soil on 9/11.

Lessons, it would appear, are learned the hard way. The pity of it.

Delhi, Kolkata breathe easier Most of us, or the wisest among us, are green.

The environment truly matters, and climate change is more than a buzzword. Urban pollution has long been a Third World curse, with India blighted most of all. But India's war against pollution has given some grounds for hope. Delhi started the fight-back. Old polluting cars, buses and scooter rickshaws were gradually taken off the streets after a struggle. More eco-friendly vehicles took their place. Over and above this the Delhi Metro, a marvel of engineering and administrative efficiency, has started making a real difference to the lives of millions of commuters.

The result has been noticeably cleaner air. The Indian capital's residents now breathe easier as they go about their daily chores. The no-changers' brigade are in retreat as the citizenry savour a

markedly superior quality of life. Come July and Liquid Crystal Display boards across the city will flash hourly data on air quality.

Nearly a thousand miles away in Kolkata, a more arduous struggle to rid the metropolis of its polluting vehicles has yielded results. Concerned citizens kept up the pressure on the tardy authorities, and were aided in their efforts by a responsive judiciary. So, in addition to changes in the machines of vehicular traffic, parks, but most of all, Kolkata's famous maidan (common) is now a protected zone, free of mass meetings and a variety of public exhibitions which have been forced to seek alternative sites. A rough and ready metro has eased congestion on the roads. The tide of opinion has turned, and given hope to others in this sprawling land.

Commonwealth Games baton set to arrive in India The eagerly awaited Commonwealth Games will open in Delhi on October 3rd and close on the 14th. After travelling through 71 countries, the Queen's baton will reach India on June 25; the relay to be the longest ever in the history of the games. The baton, which was flagged off by Queen Elizabeth II from Buckingham Palace on October 29, 2009, is currently in the South Pacific island of Nauru, the world's smallest state. From here, the baton will travel to New Zealand and Australia before making landfall on Singapore, thence to Pakistan and a circuitous route entailing 28 Indian states, when the specially-designed baton

made of light-weight aluminium and plated with gold, will touch down in Delhi.

Scientists from the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology have prepared an emissions inventory for the Commonwealth Games. It will prove crucial in managing air quality during its duration.

The Games will surely be a landmark in India's sporting history, and also signal the country's ability to organise such events in the future and oversee security in these troubled times. This may not be a monument to the Triumph of the Will, but it is surely part of the Indian story.

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Thought for the Week Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

- Robert Frost

“Our London” CIIr Navin Shah AM London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow

The best of Bangladesh The Harrow Bengalee Association celebrated with style the rich heritage of Bangladesh at the Harrow High School last week. I’ve always found attending community events very fulfilling and this was one of the nights when I learnt a lot about the rich heritage of Bangladesh and thoroughly enjoyed the history, the poetry, the music and the dancing of the highest possible standard.

The first part of the evening’s celebration was dedicated to the tribute to the Maestro Kazi Nazrul Islam – the national poet of Bangladesh. Life spanning from 1899 to 1976 - Nazrul was born in a poor Muslim family.

Particularly working with theatrical groups Nazrul was a creative genius who wrote short stories, essays, novels and poems. Nazrul pioneered ‘Gazals’ and was best and known for his poems including writing some 4000 songs (‘Nazrul Geeti’) for which he himself composed music. But above all Nazrul was a ‘Bidrohi’ - a true rebel and a revolutionary. His form of revolution was promoted through his poetry and his fight for freedom of India. It was a privilege to hear the famous London based narrator M R Khan reciting Kazi Nazrul Islam’s songs in the company of His Excellency Dr. Sayeedur Rahman Khan the High Commissioner of Bangladesh and other dignitaries.

The second half of the event was dedicated to a musical called ‘Nokhsi Kaathar Maath’ (Land of the mysticwoven shawl) which turned out to be a pure and vibrant mix of drama, music and dance. The ancient drama written by another very famous Bengali poet Kobi Joshimuddin is centred entirely towards a mystic shawl

acting as a colourful mosaic of both the simple pleasures of village life and the sentiments and the emotions of villagers. The dance drama featured a tragic love story of a young couple called Rupai and her lover turned husband Saju. The story starts with a drought situation (common to this region), the traditional ritual prayers for rain which is when the young couple fall in love at first sight, get married and are separated due to conflict. The story ends with both of them losing their lives and all this time – from start to finish- the mystic shawl is being woven and the story of this mystic shawl has become a folklore. This complex, colourful dance drama, one of the best I’ve seen in terms of the quality of music and dance was brilliantly directed by Dr Ananda Gupta and put together by an International collaboration of the Harrow Bengalee Association, FIA UK and Dakshinayan Uk / Dakshinee Kolkata.

The event deserved full coverage in this column for two primary reasons. The first being the rich heritage of Bangladesh demonstrated by the two performances and the second being the remarkable progress made by the Harrow Bengalee Association in a short space of time. Harrow and Brent’s Bengalee / Bangladeshi community is relatively small and the Bengalee Association started with modest activities like the language classes, religious and community events. From the small and humble beginnings the organisation has now really flourished into a well organised and effective group laying on very high quality events and ably tackling the community issues under the stewardship of Syed Alam.

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YOUR VOICE

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Bhopal verdict

Firm and aggressive action

Bhopal tragedy is worst global industrial accident with immediate and long term impact on environment and humans.

Punishing Indians when American boss absconds, is unfair. But, extradirting Warren Anderson will be another futile exercise similar to Afzal Guru and Kasab.

Efforts must concentrate on enhancing compensation and expediting its distribution to disabled, poor and needy survivors.

America can justify the statement that India is indispensable friend, by treating Bhopal tragedy as natural disaster, bypassing legal tangles and face saving tactics that handicap America’s willingness to be compassionate, enabling it to allocate generous and unconditional compensation as easily as it gives to Muslim countries.

Government assisted Warren Anderson to abscond exposes submissiveness of India to America’s dollar diplomacy, and sacrifice of national interest and dignity at the feet of U.S.A. India had let off Warren Anderson for causing 20,000 deaths, but avenged death of ONE woman, Indira Gandhi. America avenged death of mere 3000 Americans in 9-11 attack by attacking Afghanistan.

If Warren Anderson is not supposed to be extradited, why Narendra Modi is persecuted over post Godhra deaths of 790 Muslims?

Intricate legalities, blame game and denials will not help poor sufferers.

Generousity, compassion, humanism and selfless distribution of compensation is need of the hour.

Today the London School of Economics has issued a very damming report on the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. In his report, Matt Waldman, the author of the report says the ISI provides “extensive” funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The report claims there is concrete evidence suggesting support for the Taliban is the "official policy" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

ISI not only funds and trains Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but is officially represented on the militant group's leadership council according to the report.

The report also alleges Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, along with a senior ISI official, visited senior Taliban prisoners earlier this year, where he is believed to have promised their release and help for militant operations.

To date we have lost just under 300 soldiers in Afghanistan, majority of them killed by the Taliban. Yet, it appears our politicians are turning blind eye to the real culprit, the Pakistani ISI. It is about time our politicians wake up to the fact that our young brave soldiers are dying needlessly in Afghanistan.

To stop “massacre” of our soldiers by the ISI trained Taliban, politicians should act firmly and aggressively with Pakistan in ensuring that ISI stops providing facilities to Taliban.

Ramesh Jhalla By email

Author and activist Arundhati Roy has proclaimed her backing for the Maoists, in "The war on people, organised by Committe for protection of democratic rights" in Mumbai on June 2nd.

She said: "I am on this side of line. I do not care. Pick me up, put me in jail."

This shows her support but the question remains, if this is to be creditable, is she prepared to die for the Maoists and their cause, like the soldiers who were killed by the Maoists?

The soldiers gave their lives for the Maoists, in order to keep the democratic values of the people of India. She did not express that she is prepared to lay her life for the cause, but stated that non-violent ways will not work here, But the fact remains that Gandhiji did acheive his ambitions, via non violent and peaceful ways. One needs to ponder on support for maoists, by violent ways, expressed on public platform by her.

Hindus in Pakistan I was deeply shocked to read that 57 Hindus in Pakistan were forced to convert to Islam to save their jobs. We are often told that Islam is tolerant. Then why these conversions? What is Asma Jahangir the human rights activist in Pakistan, doing?

I don't expect any reaction from the spineless government of India. It would send a delegation to Denmark to protest against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. But it has no political will to safeguard the interests of Hindus at home and abroad. We are quite happy here but we must not forget our Hindu brothers and sisters in Pakistan.

I would appeal to Hindu organisations here lobby their MPs and pressurise the government of Pakistan to treat its Hindu and Sikh population justly Ramanbhai N Parmar Birmingham

Correspondents wanted If you live in Leeds, Manchester, Bradford or Edinburgh and are interested to be the Asian Voice 'Community News Correspondent’, please send your CV to Rupanjana at rupanjana@abplgroup.com.

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Chuni Chavda By email

Supporting the Maoists

Jay Thakerar By email

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Sanatan Hindu Mandir and its security

Government promising more faith schools

Last week, I had pleasure to visit the Sanatan Hindu Temple on the Ealing Road, Wembley. It was such a pleasant experience.

I was so pleased to see such an amazing work. The carvings are in such a detail; hats off to the artists who have put so much effort and hard work behind it. I would like to point out some important issues here.

The security check is inside the temple which is right underneath the God idols. I think the security check and the metal detectors should be outside the temple; I guess a bit distant to the temple entry.

Another thing was the management of the bags and ruksacks; People are asked to leave their purses, bags and other stuff on a medium size table without being alloted any sort of token number. That means that I could have easily walked away with someone else's bag without being noticed.

Afterall, a single security guard can not remember everyone's face and relavent bag. I asked the temple management for volunteership, but my willingness was refused saying there was no volantery vacancies.

I was surprised to read the article in AV about the governments proposal to increase faith schools in the UK. I am completely against faith schools as I cannot stress the utmost importance of children learning to socialise with children of different backgrounds.

When these children have to go into employment, it may be difficult for them to mix with others. I think the diversity in this country is one of our strengths, and we need to learn to live, work and study together.

Unfortunately, I tend to agree with Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society that the creation of more faith schools is sowing the seeds of disaster for community relations.

Devang Bhatt By email

Labour’s self inflicted wounds It is always a pleasure and a privilege to read or hear Stephen Pound, MP for Ealing North. His piece in last week’s AV was no exception. Many of his fellow MPs describe him as the best speaker in the HOC. The voting has been intelligent and constructive, at least in the general election, thus denying Respect and BNP any seat in the HOC but electing the first ever Green MP. Like Stephen, I would miss Tony McNulty, as he has always been a good friend, the first one to email me, commenting on my letters.

The main reason why Barry, Gareth and Stephen won, some with increased majority is that they are all constituent friendly MPs who looked after us well, always able and willing to listen and help us in our hour of need. Their constituents stood by them in their hour of nee.

Unfortunately the same can not be said about the last Labour government.

When the Labour government initiated Green Paper and recommended to abolish Disability Living and Attendance Allowances for the elderly, I wrote several letters to Ministers but never received an honest, straightforward reply, treating us like halfwits if not outright foolish.

This was their attitude on several matters and I was gob smacked when I

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Anita Gupta By email

Migrants to learn English I think the Home Office has put forward a much needed regulation that Migrants marrying UK citizens must learn English.

Firstly for the Migrant it will obviously be beneficial as it would be easier to assimilate with UK's culture as well as being a valuable skill in employment.

Also with certain hostilities towards migrants to the UK, British born migrants will be ensured that steps are being taken to better equip migrants to contribute to society.

Ashok Joshi By email

Queen's Award for Hansworth Gurdwara I would just like to highlight the Queen's award for Voluntary services which went to The Nishkam Centre in Hansworth.

With much negative press for religions in the UK today, it's great to hear that religions are positively contributing to UK society. With a history of selfless service from the Sikh community, it's great that they continue to be recognised.

Bhupinder Kaur By email suggested, on the recommendation of my GP that the government should remove the priority list for swine flu vaccination and make it available to every one, as intake was so low and GPs’ fridges were overflowing with the vaccine that no one want, leaving it to GP to decide whom to give. The reply I received was that the Minister and their advisors who sit in their comfortable offices knew better than our own GPs who have been treating us for years! It was an arrogant and overbearing attitude that made them unpopular.

No one has the God given right to govern indefinitely. What voters bestow, they can easily take it away. What is surprising is that in spite of Labour’s troublesome last year, Conservatives failed to gain an overall majority.

Bhupendra M Gandhi By email

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‘Smile Pinky’ too gets the Oscar Boyle says Mumbai dwarfed the statuette

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Cricket crazy Indians for the first time was seen so euphoric on Monday morning, as they expected a couple of Oscars. British Indians in the UK, Dharavi slums, the shanty township of Mumbai, a village in Uttar Pradesh and almost the entire Bollywood waited in expectation, glued to their TV sets. They burst into celebrations as one by one, their heroes, the actors of the British Indian film and the music maestro, A R Rahman bagged the top awards in the world of entertainment.

British actress Kate Winslett also won the Oscar after having missed it almost five times earlier.

‘Smile Pinki’, a short documentary on a cleft-lipped Indian girl in Uttar Pradesh directed

by American director Megan Mylan, won the Oscar for the Best Documentary (Short).

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Keith Vaz elected to Chair Key Commons Committee

Keith Vaz MP for Leicester East has become the first person of Asian origin to be elected Chair of a House of Commons Committee. He is the only one of 22 Committee Chairs elected last week.

Mr Vaz was elected Chair of Home Affairs Select Committee with the largest number of votes for any Labour candidates. This is the first election where all Members of Parliament can vote. He defeated former First Minister for Wales Alun Michael MP by 336 votes to 242 votes.

The Home Affairs Select Committee is one of the most influential of the Commons and scrutinises key areas of Government policy including policing, immigration, counter terrorism and the justice and home affairs agenda in the European Union.

Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP said: “I am honoured and privileged to have been elected by the whole House to do this work. I hope that we will properly reflect the views of the public.”

Since being elected Keith Vaz has raised concerns over the Government’s policy requiring all migrants of spouses to have sufficient English language before entering the UK. “I am worried about the timescale for the implementation of this policy, it is vital that this is not rushed and careful consideration is given to the consequences. Last year alone 38,000 migrant spouse visas were issued. The previous Government initialised this policy but it was not due to come into place until next year, which would have given sufficient preparation time. I will be asking the Government about their plans to ensure migrants have received proper English teaching and how this new rule will be administrated.”

5

Banned couple allowed to return to Cheltenham Hindu temple A couple who were banned from attending a Hindu temple in Cheltenham last month won their battle to have the verdict overturned.

Shantial Kotecha and his wife Kanta threatened to sue the Cheltenham Indian Association after they were forbidden from entering the group's Swindon Road temple.

But having taken legal advice, the association's management committee

has agreed to reinstate the couple and pay Mr Kotecha £100 as a goodwill gesture.

Their son, Sandip Kotecha, said he is pleased with the outcome. "Finally the management committee has seen sense in issuing an apology and acknowledging its wrongdoing.

It's a shame it has squandered members' money in legal fees to try to defend its own wrongdoing. No doubt the mem-

bers will now want an explanation. All my parents did was to raise legitimate concerns. But instead of welcoming debate the committee sought to unlawfully expel them," he said.

The Indian Association started in 1984 as a registered charity. It runs workshops and groups for the Cheltenham Hindu community and is funded by donations and grants from Cheltenham

Borough Council and Gloucestershire County Council.

Opponents of the management committee, including the Kotechas, called for a extraordinary meeting to discuss its competency in November. They said the temple, which includes a hall, kitchen and workshop rooms, has an unwelcoming atmosphere.

Mrs Kotecha ran a weekly yoga class at the

temple but said she suffered a major fall out with committee members and was banned from continuing. Her husband was also thrown out.

The family threatened to sue the individual members of the management committee for breach of contract if it did not back down. Noone from the management committee at the centre was available for comment.

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6

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Chattri Memorial Service remembers Indian Soldiers Attendees of the service, posing with the Chattri

Kapil’s

KHICHADI

by Kapil Dudakia - email: kapil@abplgroup.com Whose hand is it?

Indian soldiers were cremated is marked by the Chattri, an umbrella shaped monument on eight pillars, built in 1921 to commemorate their bravery and sacrifice.

Wreaths were laid on the concrete slabs where soldiers were cremated by the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, the Undivided Indian Ex - Services Association, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the British Armed Forces, members of the Police service and others. This was followed by Ardaas (Sikh Prayer) from Narinder Singh and a group of Hindu ladies who also payed their tribute by singing prayers.

Lord Lieutenant Peter Field, then opened the speeches saying, “the Chattri is not only a fitting memorial to those who gave their lives, it also symbolises the diversity of Brighton and Hove. It

War veterans and esteemed guests gathered in a touching ceremony for Indian Soldiers who died fighting on the Western Front.

On Sunday 13th June a crowd of over 300 people attended the annual Chattri Memorial Service, on the Downs in Brighton.

During the First World War, over one and a half million Indian soldiers fought alongside British troops in France and Belgium. 12,000 wounded Indian Soldiers were hospitalized in various sites around Brighton which included York Place School, the Dome, the Corn Exchange and the Royal Pavilion.

The 53 Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died from their injuries in Brighton were cremated on the Sussex Downs, with their ashes scattered in the sea according to their religious rites. Today the spot where those

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represents a continuous link with our multicultural past. And that includes this unique annual memorial service which not only pays homage to our Indian brothers in arms but it also gives us an opportunity to highlight our close community.”

Indian High Commissioner Nalin Surie expressed his gratitude for the “love and care” in which the UK has maintained the Chattri site. He then proceeded to announce the release of a commemorative book bought out by the Indian High Commission, which highlights the contribution of the Indian army to the First World War, titled 'Valour and Sacrifice.'

Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Puji, one of the most experienced World War Two veteran fighter pilots humbly expressed his thanks and gratitude to the Chattri Memorial Group for erecting the monument. On behalf of the war veterans he said, “they made the supreme sacrifice so we could stand here today as free people.”

President of the Chattri Memorial group Dalvinder Dhillon closed the ceremony with the announcement of a new memorial which will include the names and ranks of the 53 soldiers who were cremated at the Chattri. It is due to be unveiled on the 26th Sept 2010.

Speaking to Dhillon after the event he expressed the significance of this annual service.

“It's important for future generations to remember the contribution India made to winning the first world war. Had it not been for the Indian soldiers, there was a very strong possibility that Britain and its allies would have lost the first world war.”

Next year will be the 90th year since the unveiling of the Chattri and will take place on the 12th June 2011. All are welcome to attend this free service which strives to ensure we never forget them.

Successive leaders in Pakistan have always acted as puppets to their western pay masters. The only issue being whose hand is it that controls the puppet? America and Britain have historically been the silent funding partners in keeping the corrupt regimes of Pakistan alive and kicking. Since the ‘cold war’ era when India refused to bow to the white colonial masters, Pakistan was given multi-million dollar payouts to keep successive leaders in power, and to systematically undermine the security of the whole region. In particular, their target was and still is, to undermine India.

This typical shorted sighted ‘sleeping with the devil’ mentality of the west allowed Pakistan and it’s so called ‘intelligence’ agency to get out of control. They were encouraged to ignore UN resolutions and go about creating and maintaining terrorist training camps.

These were the training ground for Islamist extremists who are responsible not only for cross border attacks on India, but have also since turned their fire on the west, and increasingly their own people. India has for several decades given concrete proof of the role of Pakistan and its ISI agency in acts of terror and cross border incursions. These genuine and substantiated reports fell on deaf ears since both America and Britain knew that if ever the truth be told, how could or would they be able to justify their pact with the devil.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that the London Schools of Economics (LSE) came out this week with a report that confirmed what most decent minded people have known for a long time - that Pakistan’s intelligence services, the ISI are providing “extensive” support to the Taliban who are intent in killing British soldiers.

What the report is saying in essence is that the Pakistani Government that receives millions of Dollars in support every year from us is in fact using that money to train killers who then go out and kill our troops. The British Government with its ‘special friend’ the USA is in effect behind the very people who pull the trigger that kills our boys in Afghanistan.

Whilst everyone rush-

es to pin the blame on the monkey that dances to the tune of its western master, maybe we need to remind ourselves of the real organ grinders who follow and promote such morally and ethically corrupt foreign policies.

Bhopal, a stain in blood Last week I raised the issue of Bhopal. Since then many in the media have taken interest in this unending tragedy and have started to report the story again. In particular, some are contrasting how President Obama is dealing with the BP oil spill and the disgraceful way in which successive Indian Governments have acted over the past 26 years.

The President has more or less singlehandedly devalued the net worth of BP by half, force BP to expend in excessive of $1.2 Billion, with billions more to complete the clean up and to pay compensation to those most affected.

Contrast this with

bility to only a few hundred million Dollars.

Basically, if India has a disaster of the type that occurred in Chernobyl then these overseas companies would only be liable, legally, to pay a very small proportion towards mitigating the impact of such a disaster and the associated compensation payments. One wonders if India will ever learn the lessons of history.

So if you want to send a message to the Indian government on ‘The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill’ – then why not register your protest vote at: http://www.greenpeace.or g/india/

Kapil on Kilimanjaro?

A great charity that serves needy children in Vrindavan has asked me to take part in a mountaineering challenge. It turns out they want me to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of raising money for their charity.

The trekking event will be in

Mount Kilimanjaro

Indian politicians who helped to fly the CEO of Union Carbide out of the India, settled for a sum that defied all sense of proportion or reasonableness, and has since dragged its feet to such an extent that many of the affected generation are now dead without getting any justice. If India wants to remedy the situation and some of its credibility, now might be a good time to start.

Of course much of this might be wishful thinking on our part that Indian politicians might care for the country and its people.

However, a good friend of mine alerted me to another potential disaster awaiting yet another tragedy.

This is in relation to the ‘Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill’. It appears that those foreign companies that arrive in India to build, own and operate nuclear power plants will be given a sovereign guarantee that limits their lia-

October and take place over 7 days.

So my friends, what should I do?

If readers of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar feel that I should take part, then there should also be one further condition.

Namely that I would like readers to sponsor me to an amount that is affordable to them. Would it not be great if we can raise a serious amount of money for a charity that is making a real difference to the lives of so many children?

If you want to know more about the charity in question, visit their website at: http://www.fflvrindavan.org Assuming that you all convince me to take part, in the next few weeks I will provide you with full information on how you can support and sponsor this adventure of a life time, and also help to raise money to save lives in India.

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

7

The making of Lord Dolar Popat Junior Apprentice winner 'elated' By Dr. Rami Ranger MBE, FRSA. Dolar Popat has joined the ranked, titled and privileged few by accepting a seat in the House of Lords as a Conservative Peer.

Dolar's arrival in the Upper House will take his rise from a mere waiter in a London restaurant to one of the highest offices in the country. He was the personal choice of David Cameron, the Conservative Leader who has known Dolar for some time.

It is rare when someone as successful in business as Lord Popat devotes his valuable time for the uplift of the community and country. He benefits the nation in more ways than one. He is a proud Hindu and says with pride, "Proud to be Hindu and Proud to be British". He believes that it is a prerequisite for success to be loyal to the country where one lives and has made a home. "Those who look back cannot look forward" it is as simple as that. He is a firm believer that Hindus must always preserve and be proud of their ancient heritage as well as their adopted country. We can live in any country, Islamic or Christian, but must be loyal to the host community at all times. As a matter of fact, by being loyal pays a tribute to our faith which has enshrined these values in us.

Lord Popat who is known as simply "Dolar" by many, is someone who has gone the extra mile for the Hindu community and his adopted country, Britain. He is a Ugandan Asian who arrived for studies and could not return as Asians were expelled by General Idi Amin; the despot leader of Uganda who felt that by expelling his hard working Asian community he would give the indigenous population a head start. As a matter of fact, by removing the hardworking and enterprising community, he plunged Uganda into an unparalleled crisis. The country has only started to recover now after the dictator was deposed and the present government allowed the Asians an honourable return back to the country of their birth in order to help build Uganda's shattered economy.

They say one man's poison is another man's meat. Britain under the then Conservative Government, received these beleaguered and destitute Ugandan Asians with open arms. These Asians, as we know, worked hard and transformed the British economy. They became successful as a result of the British sense of tolerance and fair play. Today, Britain without the Asians will not be the Britain as we know it.

Lord Dolar Popat

The Asians have brought colour, pageantry and culinary delight to every corner of the country and have become invaluable assets to the nation in every sense of the word.

Dolar has never forgotten this act of kindness by the then Conservative Government and set about repaying his debt to the Party. The rest, as they say is history and Dolar has been working for the party quietly and diligently ever since.

I have known Dolar for nearly 25 years and often called him the original Asian Tory because in those days we were a struggling community and the Tory Party was perceived to be the party of the rich and elite. It will not be an exaggeration if I was to say that the word Tory was considered a four letter word by many amongst our community.

Dolar undeterred, kept on chipping away at the hostility against the Party and with his softly, softly approach, he converted many reluctant recruits to the Party.

I too, followed into the Party because of the persuasion of Dolar and Ranbir Suri who is now the Chairman of the British Asian Conservative Link. It is with their efforts that the Party has become Asian friendly and Asian Tory friendly.

David Cameron is going out of the way to encourage Asians to stand for Parliament, having seen the loyalty and integrity of people like Dolar and Ranbir for the country. The Party is now fully engaged with the Asian Community as never before.

I often reflect back to the days when Asians used to shun the party of their natural values. After seeing Dolar and Ranbir, they started to join the party in droves and made the party stronger and Britain richer.

Needless to say, how wrong it is in a democracy to have a major political party which does not reflect the makeup of the present day Britain.

Moreover, if in a democracy everyone has a share, then in a democratic party, everyone should also have a share, regardless of their education, wealth, colour, race or religion. We owe people like Dolar and Ranbir a great deal as they sacrifice their personal gains for the sake of a bigger picture for the Party and the Country.

The elevation of Dolar to the House of Lords takes the British Hindu Community a notch further in the Political arena. I am confident that Lord Popat will make the party even stronger and our community proud, simply because he has a unique position within his community from where he derives strength. He is held by everyone in very high esteem. He is a generous person and is always ready to help any worthy cause, not only with his time but also with his money.

He believes that it is the Hindu religion which has given him the vision and strength to do good for mankind. He takes inspiration from Morari Bapu, a renowned Hindu spiritual leader. I recall he invited David Cameron to meet Bapu. David's speech was heard by thousands of Hindus who came to pay their respect to Morari Bapu and also seen by millions on You Tube throughout the world. It is still available on the Hindu Forum of Britain website www.hfb.org.uk Lord Popat has a long history of public service but has always kept a very low profile. To some degree, this will change as being a Peer, he will be under the spot light of not only his political rivals but also the people of the Press and Media. His wife, Sandhyaji has always stood by him and will now find herself working even harder for Dolar, the Party and the community. We are proud and fortunate to have remarkable people like Dolar and Sandhyaji who put the interests of others above their business and family. A community is as great as its leaders and we are lucky to have such a leader who will raise the profile of his community with his personal examples and work.

Understandably, many youngsters as well as people of my age would like to emulate Lord and Lady Popat and by doing so, will add extra value to their own life as well as to the lives of others. We, as a community feel proud and wish Lord and Lady Popat every success in their new role.

despite looming exams

THE winner of the hit TV show Junior Apprentice has spoken of his "amazing" time on the programme, as he prepares for the even greater challenge of his A Level exams this week.

Ilford County High School sixth former Arjun Rajyagor, 17, became the first-ever teenager to come out top on the BBC1 contest last week, beating a clutch of other eager young hopefuls in the process.

But before Arjun can get his hands on the £25,000 prize money he must first knuckle down and pass tests in Physics, Maths and Systems and Control, which he needs to secure his place studying Engineering Science at Oxford University this September.

However he has allowed himself a brief moment of celebration before getting down to the work at hand.

He said: "The feeling of being the first ever winner is beyond amazing, when I

Arjun is the first-ever winner of BBC1's Junior Apprentice TV show.

found out, I couldn't believe it, I was physically taken aback and had to double-check. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would win when I first sent off that application form but now that I have, I couldn't be more elated, my family and friends have been the greatest support system that anyone could have asked for and I actually cannot believe that it is all over."

Arjun hopes to use the cash to start up his own company on completing university, and aspires to oversee a “revolution” in electrical engineering.

He added: “I found my

time on the programme the most amazing experience of my life and I didn't want it to end, I know that I will never have the chance to experience something like this again”.

The school's head of sixth form, Colin Jenkins, said fellow staff and pupils were very proud of Arjun's success.

He said: “I think the whole school was watching the programme on the night. I suppose he is a bit of a celebrity around the school now but he hasn't been in that much because he's been revising for his exams. Because of his exams we're trying to keep it low-key. From our perspective it's a bit unfortunate that the programme was scheduled right in the middle of exam season but I'm sure he will do fine.

After he leaves the school I won't be surprised if we hear from him again in future.”

Look out for Arjun’s full interview in the next issue of Asian Voice.

The victim psychology Should caste discrimination become a law in the UK?

By Nitin Mehta MBE Throughout history people have challenged and fought one form of suppression or other. Human beings have always tried to dominate their own species and non human species. This urge to dominate can be noticed amongst toddlers in nursery schools. At every step in an individual’s life one will have to fight many battles.

By fighting these battles an individual discovers his or her inner strength and scales new heights. At some stage in our lives we have all faced prejudice and human nastiness! However we do not allow these problems to develop into a victim psyche.

Caste is a fact of life in India just as class is a fact of life in UK. The Hindu caste system is based on the idea that there are four psychological types of human beings. The intellectual, warrior, mercantile and artisan type. An individual born in any one of these types of families will be genetically prone to excel in his or her psychological type.

In a class of thirty students all four types of individuals will be found. These four types of people working together would form the basis of a progressive, healthy society. None are considered higher or lower.

However in any long established tradition and Hinduism has a history going back tens of thousands of years, negative and corrupt practices creep in.

The caste system became an instrument of oppression. Hinduism has a very robust system of pro-

ducing reformers who challenge the established orthodoxy. Unfortunately India was colonised first by the Mughals for almost 800 years and then by the British for almost 200 years.

For almost a thousand years Hindu thought process stagnated and the colonial occupiers sought to divide the society wherever possible. By the beginning of 19th century a renaissance took place producing brilliant reformers and freedom fighters. From spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda to political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi all urged the masses to challenge the victim psyche and fight for their rights.

In 1947 when India became independent caste discrimination was outlawed. A huge programme of positive discrimination in favour of oppressed classes is in place in jobs and education. The lower castes or the Dalits have held some of the highest positions in the country and continue to do so. A lot more needs to be done. In a democratic country like India change comes through evolution not revolution. Those of us living in UK wish India well in its attempts to eradicate inequality in all its forms.

What baffles us is the raising of the caste issue in UK. A vociferous lobby is claiming that caste discrimination is rampant in UK. Caste discrimination has been included in the new equalities bill but will only be outlawed if the government is satisfied that it exists. For caste discrimination to exist here in UK the

dominant caste would have to wield an absolute economic and political power.

The approximately 2 million Hindus in UK have no such clout. This country already has quite robust anti discriminatory laws.

Hindus would not be able to discriminate against anyone in the allocation of jobs, education or any other field even if they wanted to.

No one is barred from Hindu temples in UK. So why one wonders is there a clamour for introducing caste in British politics?

Could it be that the caste lobby is fighting a proxy war on behalf of Christian evangelicals in India? How many of those in the caste lobby are actually Hindus?

Caste discrimination law will be a meaningless law.

The new government is keen to dismantle unnecessary laws and it would be prudent to scrap this wholly unworkable and phoney proposal. On the other hand if the government does go ahead with making caste discrimination unlawful in UK it will be pyrrhic victory of the caste lobby as it will not change anything on the ground neither will it impact India in any negative way. Those who feel victimised only need to pick themselves up and better themselves! It seems that some individual almost revel in being victims!

Blaming others is sometime an attempt to hide our weaknesses and failures!

This country has given us all ample opportunities to prosper. All you have to do is abandon the victim psyche.!

Email:animalahimsa@yah oo.co.uk

8

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Dee Katwa

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Midland Voice Contact: Dhiren on 07970 911 386 or dhiren.katwa@abplgroup.com

Drunk driver jailed for killing dad-of-two A drunk and unlicensed driver from Birmingham who crashed into a car killing a father-of-two has been jailed for seven years.

Naseer Ahmed, 36, from Smethwick, drove the wrong way around a roundabout in Handsworth before he smashed into Mohammed Ahmed’s Renault car last April.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Naseer

Ahmed was “extremely drunk” and had probably also smoked cannabis just before the accident.

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: “You were not a qualified driver and you took the drunken and irrational decision to Jailed: Naseer Ahmed

Top spin surgeon quits Birmingham City Council spin surgeon Debra Davis, pictured, has quit her £120,000-a-year job after just over three years. Last week Ms Davis, 55, flew to her native Canada for a month. On returning she will join City TV Birmingham as Director of Communications and Public Affairs. The company was co-founded by Alan Grindley, her flamboyant, longhaired partner. She made headlines last year after submitting expenses claims totalling £15,000 for foreign trips and entertaining, part-funded by the taxpayer. Just a month ago she was booed off the stage by journalists at the Midland Media Awards.

Our art-less planet Staunch spiritual activist Satish Kumar won extended rapturous applause following his intensely philosophical 45-minute off-thecuff address on art and design at Birmingham City University last Wednesday. “Our world has become art-less,” he said, “each of us is a special artist and we all have the capacity to be creative and to imagine.” He added: “We have forgotten who we are. Through art and design we can discover ourselves.” Top gent Mr Kumar, pictured, who celebrated his birthday this month, left his family at the age of nine to become a Jain monk. He lives in Devon.

Siblings, Hindus and Parsis A rare symposium, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism: a comparative perspective, will take place at the Council House in Birmingham next month.

The sacred texts of both religions cover much common ground, in terms of spirituality, ethics and morality, language structure and vocabulary.

Currently in the UK there are an estimated 560,000 Hindus and 5,000 Zoroastrians, also known as Parsis. The £10-per-head 10am to 4pm event on Saturday 3 July, organised by the Birmingham Council of Faiths, will include a discussion, debate, a Q and A session and refreshments. To find out more contact Jimmy Suratia on 07801 787 382 or email suratiaj@uk.ibm.com or kiranvaja@yahoo.co.uk

Student spared jail Midland student Rikesh Patel, pictured, who shot three schoolchildren with a ball bearing gun has been given 36 weeks in detention suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 180 hours’ unpaid work in the community and to obey a four-month curfew between 7pm and 7am. Judge Martin Walsh, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, told Patel, 20, an accountancy student at Wolverhampton University, his actions could have had “catastrophic consequences” if the children had been hit in the eye and blinded. Dean Kershaw, defending, said Patel, who lives with his parents in Wembley, London, had behaved like a “buffoon and an idiot”.

drive a large vehicle.” The 45-year-old victim, Mr Ahmed, who was married with two children, died as a result of severe crush

injuries. Nigel Wilkins, prosecuting, said police who arrested the defendant found him slurring his speech and barely able to stand. They also smelled alcohol, he said.

John Smitheman, defending, said the defendant, who had a previous conviction for driving with excess alcohol, had smoked cannabis at 1am on the day of the fatal collision. He said he had been worried about his father undergoing a kidney transplant and was also under family and financial pressures.

Mind and body workshop A workshop on how to control the mind, body and spirit to lead a healthy lifestyle has been organised by the Hindu Women’s Network. It will take place on Sunday (June 20), 3pm-7pm, at Highfield Hall Community Centre, Hall Green, Birmingham (B28 0HS). To find out more telephone Kiran Bhardwa on 0121 745 1908.

Helping the poor in India The chief executive of the Ethnic Minority Foundation, Dr Krishna Sarda, pictured, returns to the UK from Bhopal this Saturday. His visit coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the legal saga for which has continued for 23 years. Dr Sarda’s been busy with his new venture, India800 Foundation (www.india800.net), set up to support 800 million Indians who live below the poverty line. He admits the scale and complexity of the challenge is “enormous” but he remains positive and passionate. The Foundation’s vice chair I notice is Lord Amir Bhatia who is still disappointed with me, it appears, as he has not called back. He’d telephoned me a few months ago requesting a meeting at short notice, an ask I was unable to honour at the time. Lord Bhatia: Do call again.

Did you know...

An estimated 200,000 people work in the media industry but each year there are about 60,000 people trying to find work in it.

Course success A unique programme that has helped hundreds of firefighters and police officers in the West Midlands realise their dream of getting into the services has reached its 20th year. Former students were invited to a celebration at the City of Wolverhampton College on Friday a fortnight ago, which offers the prerecruitment Fire Service course, the only one of its kind in the country. Among attendees was mum-of-three Marlenea Bhalla, who decided to quit her job as a teacher to embark on a career in the Fire Service. For Kam Cheema the course gave her a “real impetus” to her desire to join the police. She is currently working in a CID role.

Recycling medical apparatus Bosses at Walsall Manor Hospital have donated old mannequins to India. The equipment, which is surplus to requirements at the Manor following its £170 million revamp, is being taken to the subcontinent to help with training doctors and nurses at a hospital in Assam in north east India.

News in Brief Rise in demand for IVF Demand for IVF treatments in Birmingham has increased by more than 28 per cent in a year, new figures show. Numbers of patients receiving fertility treatments in the city has increased by 807 from 2,934 to 3,741 in a year. The average age of women to undergo IVF treatment is now 35 years.

Jailed Blake released early Disgraced former TV presenter Ashley Blake, pictured, has been released from Stafford Prison less than nine months into a two-year sentence for attacking a teenager with a wooden pole. Greg Jones, 18, the victim, needed ten stitches and now has a permanent scar from his lip to chin. Former Midlands Today newsreader Blake, 40, is expected to have to wear an electronic tag under a curfew arrangement that means he must spend at least nine hours a day at home.

Handsworth reunion The Friends of Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham are holding a reunion at the school in Grove Lane, Handsworth at 7.15pm on Friday July 9.

All former students, parents, staff and friends of the school are invited to attend. Further details from Mrs Fiona Linley on 0121 554 2794.

Mahmoods at war The new MP for Ladywood S h a b a n a Mahmood ( pictured left) and her namesake in Perry Barr Khalid (pictured right) have fallen out within weeks of the election, reports the Birmingham Mail. The pair, along with their supporters, had a public spat and had to be taken outside, separated and spoken to by Labour council leader Sir Albert Bore. It all happened at Aston Villa’s function rooms where Labour Party activists had gathered to celebrate Shabana’s General Election victory. Different versions of events are doing the rounds, but it seems Khalid was not given the status his vocal entourage felt he deserved by not being given a seat at the top table.

Where’s that smell from?

The ‘filthiest’ folk in Britain live in the West Midlands, according to a new survey. The poll, by Megaflo, the hot water system manufacturer, found the highest number of soap dodgers live in the region and do not shower or bathe every day.

Volunteers needed Birmingham researcher Frederick Ebot is seeking African Asians to take part in a project, the results of which will culminate in a history booklet, a DVD and an online portal. The aim of these archives, Voices of African Superheroes: Their contributions to Birmingham, is to capture the past and present for future generations. Participants will be interviewed and filmed. To find out more contact Frederick on 0772 0431026 or email caassuk@yahoo.co.uk

Unread job contracts Almost a third of workers fail to read their employment contracts properly, putting them at risk of unfair treatment, according to a poll. Just three in 10 employees received their contract before starting their job and nine per cent did not get a contract until they had been in the post for six months or more, the survey, by Which? Legal Service, of 4,000 people found. It also revealed that 12 per cent of employed adults do not have a contract.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Leicester Voice

Elki combats butterflies to take crown The new Miss Leicester has revealed that she almost pulled out of the competition because of nerves.

Elki Parmar, 20, beat 23 other girls to take the crown in the final. She dominated in three rounds – club wear, evening wear and the interview.

But Elki, of Western Park, Leicester, said she had second thoughts about going to the final because she did not think she had a chance of winning.

She said: "I've never thought of doing modelling or anything like that but a lot of people said I should enter Miss Leicester. But I was nervous before and I was close to dropping out before the final. I'm actually not very

Elkie Parmar pictured with runners up

confident at all. The worst part on the night was when they were about to announce the winner. I think it took about two hours to sink in. But this has given me a real boost."

Elki has two jobs, working at Marks and Spencer in Fosse Park and doing shifts for events at

the City Rooms in Hotel Street, Leicester, where the contest was held.

Her year as Miss Leicester will include a number of appearances and charity events. She will also represent Leicester in the Miss England contest later this year.

Muslims back call for better prison treatment A Muslim group has echoed a prison chief's call for improvements in the treatment of Islamic inmates.

The Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations spoke out after chief inspector of prisons Dame Anne Owers warned Muslim inmates were being treated as potential security threats.

Dame Anne said prisons had made progress in improving facilities for different faith groups, but added: "It would be naive to deny that there are, within the prison population, Muslims who hold radical extremist views, or

who may be attracted to them. But that does not argue for a blanket security-led approach to Muslim prisoners in general."

She urged the National Offender Management Service to develop support and training for prison staff to ensure Muslim inmates were treated as individuals and not assumed to be linked to radical Islam.

Suleman Nagdi, official spokesman for the Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations who has worked in the prison system, said: "There is an underdeveloped understanding about Muslims among staff and

a tendency to group them together as terrorists or potential terrorists. I believe prisons must invest in more staff training so that dialogue can open up between prisons and the wider community.

If prisons simply reinforce stereotypes and prejudices, it serves merely to marginalise people even more."

English tests given backing Faith leaders across Leicestershire say they agree with the Government that people moving to the UK should learn English – but not all of them back the idea of a compulsory test.

Under proposals announced this week, all non-European immigrants will have to demonstrate they have the basic communication skills that enable them to deal with everyday life before receiving a visa.

The measure, due to come into force this autumn, will apply to spouses and unmarried couples who are already in Britain as well as overseas applicants.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted to "promote the integration of newcomers into British society".

Resham Singh Sandhu, trustee of the Leicester Council of Faiths, said: "It's quite fair that people should be expected to know the lan-

guage of the country they are going to live in as it benefits both parties and the economy. The language barrier is the biggest obstacle for people and it needs to be sorted out before they come over and live in the UK." Suleman Nagdi, spokesman for Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations, agreed with the idea in principle but said it was unfair to just apply it to non-European migrants.

He said: "It would certainly be a very big advantage for people coming over to Leicester and other parts of Britain and would really help towards them finding employment.

But the difficulty is having one rule for one group of people and another for Europeans. Some people feel that the best way to learn a language is to live in a country and immerse yourself in its culture."

Abdulkarim Gheewala, of the Leicester Indian Muslim Association, said

he did not agree with making the test a requirement but said people coming over to be married should be encouraged to learn English.

"It's certainly an asset and many schools in India give their instructions in English now. People living in the UK have to be able to speak the language if they are to make the most out of the opportunities here. But rather than imposing this test, we should be encouraging people to learn," said Mr Gheewala.

A Leicestershire County Council spokesman said the authority spent £48,048 in the past financial year on "around 100 self-employed interpreters and translators" covering 28 different languages.

County council leader David Parsons said he thought introducing the test was "an eminently sensible thing to do" and would "be a benefit for everyone".

Do you have any comments, news or photographs about Leicester? If you do, please send them to Leicester Voice at

leicester@abplgroup.com

Keith Vaz applauds scientists A city MP has called on Parliament to applaud scientists at the University of Leicester who are looking for life on another planet.

Leicester East MP Keith Vaz submitted an Early Day Motion – a sort of parliamentary petition that MPs use to draw attention to an issue – to highlight work done by the academics.

The motion calls on MPs to applaud "the ambitious project lead by scientists at the University of Leicester to search for signs of life on

Mars. The Leicester academics are among a group of scientists working on equipment for the ExoMars mission. Mr Vaz

noted that the mission "celebrates the 50th anniversary of space research at the University of Leicester".

New book explores immigration history of Britain A new book from Panikos Panayi, Professor of European History at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester, provides a comprehensive study into the history of migration into Britain.

Panikos Panayi is a leading authority on the history of immigration and ethnicity, and his new book An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism since 1800 explores the arrival, and integration, of

a wide range of migrant groups. Through this analysis Panayi draws out the constants and contradictions in British culture and attitudes to immigration.

Professor Panayi said: “The book guides readers through a comprehensive study of the economic, social and cultural impacts of immigration over the last two hundred years. It explores the themes of migrant poverty and social mobility; ethnic

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identity versus increasing Anglicisation; and racism versus multiculturalism. It also examines the invention and reinvention of Britishness as a result of immigration. Putting modern debates into a historical context, An Immigration History of Britain is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex and contentious issue of immigration, its transformation of Britain and migrant experiences.”

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UK

Successful launch of FBI 2010

ART & CULTURE

Sotheby's to auction iconic Indian sculpture Priyal Sanghavi

Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chief Guest Hon Lindsay Hoyle, Deputy Speaker House of Commons, Guest of Honour Peter Luff - Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, CB Patel - Publisher/Editor - Asian Voice & Gujarat Samachar at the release of the Finance, Banking and Insurance event at the House of Commons on 10th June. Look out for the full report on the FBI event in next week’s issue of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar.

Warsi to review Tory A-list A Conservative list that increases the number of female and black Mps could be scrapped under a complete review by the party chairwoman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Warsi believes that the time for quotas for minority groups had passed. The first ever Asian member of cabinet from Yorkshire would rather emphasise on schemes like internships for students to get

more black and Asian people involved with the Conservative party.

Speaking to representatives of the national media, Warsi said: “Rather than having a panic moment and saying We need to find three black or brown Mps to fit the quota, we have got time now to say lets create a space for people to come in. Lets make the party a welcoming place.”

Britons link Islam with violence: Study Islam has a perception problem in the UK. Almost a third of Britons believe it is a violent religion, three in five Britons (58 per cent) associate Islam with extremism and one in two Britons link it with terrorism.

Two-thirds of Britons (68 per cent) believe Islam encourages the repression of women, fewer than one in seven Britons believe that it is a religion of peace and only one in 16 believe it is a religion of justice, the YouGov survey commissioned by the Exploring Islam Foundation.

To counter the negative perception of Islam in Britain, the foundation,

which has Gujarat-born Lord Adam Hafejee Patel of Blackburn as its patron, on Monday launched an awareness campaign “Inspired by Muhammad,” to counter widespread public concern.

Lord Patel commented: “Islam has been a part of British life for generations and British Muslims make an important contribution to the UK’s economic and social wellbeing, and its rich cultural diversity. Yet as this poll demonstrates there remains a great deal of misunderstanding and distrust at the role of Islam and Muslim in Britain today. As a British

Muslim, proud of my faith and my country, this causes me deep concern. So I am delighted to be associated with this campaign which I hope will help build a greater understanding and awareness of the positive contribution Islam and Muslims make to British society today.”

Honouring and celebrating fathers Father's Day, celebrated this year on Sunday 20th June, is a day honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in 55 of the world's countries and on other days elsewhere.

It complements Mother's Day, the celebration honoring mothers. It is a widely known celebration.

The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington.

A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the

first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. So Father's Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother's Day.

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

An iconic Indian contemporary artwork is set to be sold by British auction h o u s e Sotheby's this June.

Indian artist Bharti Kher's sculpture is a lifesized female elephant valued b e t w e e n £700,000£1mn.

Titled The Skin Speaks A Language not its Own, the elephant is made with fibre glass and adorned with by thousands of bindis. Born in London, Kher decided to migrate to India in 1992 at the age of 23 inspite of not visiting the country for 20 years. Her work reflects her own personal struggle with identitybeing a western-educated woman living in modern India.

As the name suggests, The Skin Speaks a

Language not its own signifies that outward appearances and inner beliefs do not match. It is a metaphor for current

India- where modernism and traditions blend and at times, have been at loggerheads with each other. Today India is one of the most progressive nations in the world.

However internally traditions, family and social structures continue to exist. Bharti uses two iconic Indian motifs- an elephant and bindis.The bindis can be seen as if

they are overpowering the elephant like maggots or are adorning it, shining brightly. Has the elephant fallen down in this tussle between these extremes or is she merely asleep and will soon rise to be a superpower one day?

This auction comes in the same month that Indian art legend S H Raza’s Saurasthra was sold by Christie's for £2.4 million.

Overall Christie's two-day South Asian art sale was valued at £12.4mn, a record for the region.

Alexander Branczik, Sotheby’s Deputy Director Contemporary Art feels Indian art is now global. He says: “Bharti depicts a contemporary Indian dilemma.

This piece drew attention to Indian artists.

Currently international interest for Indian artists is at its highest yet. “

Hip hop music and yoga need each other Yoga while continuing to flourish in its original form, has now been adapted by many practitioners thus creating variations like Power Yoga, Bikram Yoga and others. However infusing an ancient Indian art with a western music genre is unheard of- but rapper yogi Neil Patel does just that by creating Hip hop yoga .

Neil, founder and instructor combines both world currently running batches in London nightclubs since superior sound systems are a must for Neil. Neil’s introduction to yoga started early on with his mother being a yoga teacher. He began hip hop yoga in the early 90s when he decided to fuse his love for rapping with yoga. “For me writing lyrics or practising yoga both came from the heart.”

Nineteen years later, the journey still continues in London clubs. Usually practiced in serene quiet places, yoga in Neil’s class is on the dance floor and disco lights. With tracks of Jay-Z and Lil Wayne blaring in the background, one can keep track of the poses and not drift off.

There are seven levels to the class. The first is the freestyle warmup which uses both breakdance and yoga moves. The next one focusses on abs/obliques.

Then, Neil teaches chore-

ographed sequences which are full of strong yoga poses to latest Hiphop and Asian Fusion music tracks. Mind Yoga doles out meditation techniques while Chi Kri Chillout relaxes brain, nerves, body and breath.

Neil has even included an expression section where people are encouraged to speak, read poetry and even rap.

While the purists may be horrified at this strange blend, Neil strongly believe Hip hop and yoga are a match. He says: “I think the hip hop world

actually need yoga to give the huge phenomenon that rap has become some grounding and sense of spirituality and purpose again; and I think the yoga world needs to embrace rap as being the poetry of the modern day.

As a rapper myself, I know exactly the sensitivity and self-tuning a rapper needs to have to be able to produce quality lyrics.”

Hip Hop Yoga Classes are held in London on Mondays 7pm - 8.30pm.

Visit www.hiphopyoga.co.uk

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

11

National Hindu Students Forum (UK)

By Miten Kana, NHSF Learning Team

By Spriha Srivastava

Rishi Kapoor – The face of Bollywood romance He is one of those actors who started the trend of teenage romance. Before that, Indian cinema was a palette of love stories between those in their 20’s or even 30’s sometimes. But he brought the concept of “puppy love”, if I may say so - when the girl is 16 and the boy is 18. He is enigmatic, he is lively and even today he has the magic to sway the crowd with his lovely stories.

Chintu, as Rishi Kapoor is affectionately called, has completed a journey of forty years in Indian cinema. His first film – Mera Naam Joker, where he was a child artist was a start for his career as a successful and dynamic actor in the Indian bollywood industry. Today, many years later, Chintuji is still the fun loving boy we remember from Bobby or Karz. I am not going to go on talking about his films because he needs no introduction in terms of his work. But what I am going to focus upon are small little stories that Chintuji shared with us during his recent visit to The Nehru Centre last week.

A press meeting in the beginning and then a conversation with film historian Nasreen Munni Kabir, Rishi Kapoor gave his audience all the time they needed in getting to know their favourite actor better. When Nasreen Munni Kabir asked him what he remembered as a thirteen year old from his first film Mera Naam Joker, a witty Rishi Kapoor replied that immediately after overhearing his parents talk about casting him as a child actor, Rishi Kapoor rushed to his room, took out a pen and paper and started practicing his autograph. He also said

Legendary Rishi Kapoor

that whenever his mother would scold him for something, he would cry and would not miss a chance to peep into the mirror to see how he looked.

During the press conference he talked about two movies that he is presently working on. He is presently in London for the shooting of Patiala House, a film about British Asian identity and the conflicts that arise between generations. The filming has been taking place at locations across UK, including Southall, Harrow, Covent Garden, Lords, Oval and Nottingham Trent Bridge cricket grounds.

Leading the cast is superstar Akshay Kumar in an on-screen avatar that’s never been presented to audiences before.

An accomplished and leading actor, Kumar juggles the contradictory role of a shop keeper from Southall respecting his traditionalist father, played by Rishi Kapoor, while pursuing his dream to play cricket for England. Also to be seen in the movie is Anushka Sharma, Dimple Kapadia and British Asian Rapper, Hard Kaur.

The second movie is Do Dooni Char, a movie that brings back the “Ek main aur ek tu” couple – Rishi Kapoor and his

Rishi Kapoor pictured with Divya Mathur of the Nehru Centre and Spriha

beautiful wife Neetu Kapoor. Ever since we saw a glimpse of her in Love Aaj Kal, people seem to be going gaga over the couple’s return to Indian cinema.

On his relationship with his son Ranbir Kapoor, he maintained a somewhat proud father stand saying he hasn’t contributed to Ranbir’s success in anyway and whatever Ranbir has achieved today is on his own. He also said that the only thing that he keeps telling Ranbir and other aspiring actors is that one should never take success to head and failure to heart. That is the only way to go about in the film industry.

When asked what he thought about the present day romantic flicks, he said he liked them and had no favourites – “I have five fingers and I cannot be unfair to any of them,” he said. Although he found Rajneeti to be a very different sort of a movie, he felt that bollywood today faces lack of good and meaningful stories. He was seen to be quite diplomatic while answering questions so as to avoid any controversies, especially because two of his big films are underway. He also said that he cannot name one of his films as his favourite since he is extremely proud of his work and it is difficult to choose a favourite from the list.

Well said Mr. Kapoor, I am sure not even your fans can choose just one out of the box since you have been excellent in every role that you have taken up. No matter how many star kids make their way through to the bollywood industry, the audience still longs for their legendary heroes and heroines who will remain immortal forever.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at spriha@abplgroup.com

Purusharthas: The Goals of Life Students often find themselves contemplating the mysteries of life; what purpose am I serving as a human being on this earth? Am I here to just eat, drink, sleep and attend lectures? Surely there is more to this? I am sure many of you have, at some point, questioned your own existences. This is perfectly natural. As human beings we have a tendency to question and contemplate deeper thought.

Thanks to the beauty of Hindu Dharma, such mysteries need not exist.

Such a system exists that gives meaning and depth to not only to an individual, but to society as a whole.

Even more enlightening is that you need not be a Hindu to follow these objectives, these goals are called the Purusharthas.

The word Purushartha is a Sanskrit compound that directly translates to “human purpose”. This translation demonstrates the objectives are for Human society. Hindu Sadhu’s realised the four

simple goals to leading a fulfilled life are: Dharma (duties), Artha (material prosperity), Kama (desire) and Moksha (liberation).

Dharma incorporates finding the truth by leading a disciplined life. One must fulfil their duty rather than be selfish.

For example, it is an MPs duty to lead his whole constituency, not just those who voted for him.

Honesty, truth, love and justice are the virtues which should be practised in life.

Artha recognises the need for material things in order to live a suitable life. As humans, we cannot be expected to live like animals in a forest.

Everyone needs a home, food and money in order to live a worldly life.

Money should be earned by fair and honest means and should be spent wisely on necessities.

Gaining wealth should not be ones only objective – there is more to life than money.

Kama understands the need to enjoy worldly happiness through the

five senses. However, we are warned that not all desires can be fulfilled immediately as the karmic effect would lead to unhappiness. Students should understand that the desire for sexual happiness is natural, but there is time set aside for it in life, called the Grihastha Ashram (family life). Therefore is a necessity to lead a disciplined life.

Moksha is the final objective of life and is to gain freedom from worldly sufferings and inevitably the continuous cycle of birth and death. This can be achieved by leading a virtuous, righteous and disciplined life.

Just as a student plans and studies for exams, so should one set a guideline to uphold and maintain these Purusharthas. This not only gives meaning to ones life, but benefits society as a whole - what better objective than u n d e r s t a n d i n g Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The Whole World is One Family.

Marmalade Drops The Pre-Nup Conundrum

By Deepti V. Patel Last month saw heiress of German paper fortune Katrin Radmacher awaiting Supreme Court decision over the validity of her pre-nuptial agreement. Her husband, Mr Granatino, a former City banker, agreed that he would not make a claim against her fortune in the event of a divorce. Now eight years, two children and one broken marriage later, Mr Granatino is making a claim citing that he didn’t know the extent of her wealth when they got married. This only serves to highlight the purpose of the agreement in the first place – protection of assets. It’s a hard subject to debate - on the one hand marriage is about risk and taking a leap of faith but on the other with the increasing divorce rate, not addressing the issue doesn’t mean it will simply solve itself. Is signing a prenup, pre-empting your divorce or is it the key to a happy modern marriage?

Here are the two potential scenarios facing any newly married couple

– a long, happy marriage or a decade or so of marriage, two children and a divorce lawyer. The latter scenario is not desirable, but the fact that there are divorce lawyers employed means that it is a possibility. Then there are two types of divorces. The first where the couple wisely put bitter feelings aside and amicably agreed to divide assets and move on, spending less on lawyers. Or sadly the more likely scenario there is one bitter party who would rather decimate the matrimonial assets rather than see their former spouse obtain it.

Generally speaking, this arises where one spouse has accumulated most of the wealth, be it through inheritance or hard work, and the other party has nothing to lose in wiping it out. No one tends to start off wanting to be that bitter spouse.

If that’s the end where do we start? If the marriage starts afoot on material inequality then a well drafted pre-nup clarifies the position for both

parties. Talking about money can be like the elephant in the room that neither party wants to broach. However ideally it should be one of the first things you have an understanding about or else daily life thereafter might be some variant of hell. And if intellectually parties have different positions, at this stage, obtaining independent advice before getting a pre-nup signed is probably the least of your future worries.

Pre-nup or no prenup there is nothing in an agreement to provide a safety net for the heart or the time and energy spent creating a family.

There is no monetary amount that will truly compensate for when that fails. Ultimately marriage will always be about a leap of faith and ideally, a pre-nup, if signed, is like insurance, just another dusty piece of paper in the filing cabinet.

12

HEALTH WATCH

HEALTH WATCH IN BRIEF Apple juice perks up mood in Alzheimer's patients Apple juice can improve mood swings in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients, says a new study.

Indoor AD patients administered two fourounce glasses of apple juice daily for a month did show 27 percent improvement regarding anxiety, agitation and delusion, but their Dementia Rating Scale (day-to-day abilities) remained unchanged.

AD is characterised by a progressive loss of memory, decline in cognitive (mental) function, behavioural changes, and the loss in ability to perform routine activities, all of which causes healthcare increased costs, say study authors.

'The...statistically significant impact of apple juice on the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia...adds to the body of evidence supporting the usefulness of nutritional approaches...,' write the

study authors from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell (U-Mass).

While pharmacological treatments can provide temporary reduction in AD symptoms, they're costly and cannot prevent the ultimate decline in cognitive and behavioural function. That's why the authors considered it important to discover any possible nutritional interventions, said an U-Mass release.

These findings were published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias (AJADD).

Two cups of coffee daily reduce Parkinson's risk Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's Disease (PD), reveals a new study.

Researchers have observed that regularly drinking coffee can cut the risk of developing the disease by 25 percent.

However, the risk fell to 14 percent among female coffee drinkers.

"This study confirms an inverse association between caffeine intake

Basil, baths and cups of nettle tea ... how to manage your arthritis There are more than 200 types of arthritis – and a staggering nine million people suffer from this debilitating disease in the UK alone. Arthritis is now the most common long-term health condition, affecting one in five adults and 12,000 children.

It is thought to cost the NHS and social services about £5.5 billion a year, and one in four visits to GPs is said to be linked to the disease.

Arthritis, or inflammation of the joints, can have a wide variety of causes, including genetic, biological, hormonal, lifestyle and psychological factors.

Excess weight gain, overuse of joints, injuries, infections, female hormones, stress, diet and smoking – all of these may play a part in the disease. The two most common types are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Both can be immensely debilitating and often have similar symptoms – pain, stiffness and limited Although movement. there are a number of ways to treat and manage arthritis, most experts agree that eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight are the best ways to keep joints in good condition.

Here are eight ways to take control and keep arthritis at bay.

and the risk of PD, which can hardly be explained by bias or uncontrolled confounding," telegraph.co.uk quoted researchers from the University of Porto, in Portugal, as saying.

Consume lots of soy to reduce breast cancer risk Consume a lot of soy products if you want to cut back on the risk of breast cancer, says a new study, with Indian specialists agreeing that a protein in soybean acts like a medicine that is used to cure the disease.

“The rate of breast cancer has always increased or decreased with food habits. Breast cancer rates are high in western nations as compared to women living in China and Japan where people consume high soy diet since childhood,” Sameer Kaul, senior consultant, oncology, at Apollo Hospital told IANS. Soy protein is a high quality protein equivalent to the protein quality of egg, milk or meat.

Soybean is a functional food of this millennium with complete protein package, containing essential amino acids

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

that are required by the body.

With almost 40 percent protein, soybeans are higher in protein content than other legumes and numerous animal products and high soy intake during adolescence can reduce the risk of breast cancer in the pre-menopausal years by about 25 to 50 percent, suggests a recent study in the US. The study further concluded that no significant association with soy food consumption was found for postmenopausal breast cancer.

Olive Oil: This not only prevents the development of rheumatoid arthritis – the presence of Omega-9 fatty acids and antioxidants in olive oil is also

believed to play a part in reducing joint inflammation. In particular, vegetables cooked in olive oil have been found to have a protective effect.

Drink nettle tea: A traditional treatment that has been used for hundreds of years. Stinging nettles are believed to reduce pain and disability in osteoarthritis sufferers.

The leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals, contain natural painkillers and have antiinflammatory properties.

Nettle teabags are available in health-food stores.

Brilliant basil: This easyto-grow herb contains a volatile oil called eugenol and is thought to have anti-inflammatory properties similar to those of aspirin. Try adding torn basil leaves to pastas and salads.

Fill up on iron: It is vital to maintain sufficiently high levels of iron in the body as anaemia can be a symptom of rheumatoid arthritis. Rich sources of iron include salmon, sardines, tuna, eggs, liver, meat, poultry, dark green leafy vegetables, nuts and dried fruits such as

prunes and apricots.

Take an old-fashioned bath: By taking a long soak in a warm bath containing magnesium-rich Epsom salts, magnesium levels are increased and aching muscles and joints eased. Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that the greater your deficiency, the more magnesium your body will absorb.

Get weeding: As a form of weight-bearing exercise, gardening has been found to be more effective than jogging for strengthening the bones.

Performing light gardening tasks can improve your strength and agility without putting too much strain on your joints. But limit yourself to 30minute sessions and vary tasks so as not to put unnecessary strain on your muscles.

Maintain muscle strength: When joints are painful, the natural response is to tense the muscles, leading to greater pain. Muscle relaxation methods help to release tension and ease discomfort.

Breathing techniques, meditation, t'ai chi and yoga will all enhance muscle strength and force them to relax. Swimming in warm water is also

hugely beneficial, strengthening and stretching muscles. As the water supports the body's weight, less strain is exerted on the joints, while the warm water relaxes both joints and muscles, enabling them to move more freely.

Protect your joints: When performing everyday tasks, there are various things you can do to avoid putting unnecessary strain on your joints and minimise pain. Pain is a sign that you are overdoing things so if you experience it, take a break from whatever you are doing. Avoid gripping objects too tightly – use padding on items such as pens, toothbrushes and knives to help relieve the strain on the thumb, finger joints and knuckles.

Use your bigger, stronger joints whenever you can.

For example, you may be able to use your hip or shoulder instead of your hand to shut a door or drawer. When lifting, use both hands to spread the load. Where possible, shift rather than lift – use a trolley around the house and a wheel barrow around the garden.

Avoid positions that put a strain on one particular joint. For instance, stand squarely to ensure your weight is supported equally by both knees.

Replacing white rice with brown or other whole grains may reduce diabetes risk In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, eating two or more servings of brown rice per week was associated with a lower risk of the disease.

The researchers estimated that replacing 50 grams of white rice (just one third of a typical daily serving) with the same amount of brown rice would lower risk of type 2

diabetes by 16%. The same replacement with other whole grains, such as whole wheat and barley, was associated with a 36% reduced risk.

The study is the first to specifically examine white rice and brown rice in relation to diabetes risk among Americans, said Qi Sun, who did the research while at HSPH and is now an instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Rice consumption in the U.S. has dramatically increased in recent decades. We believe replacing white

rice and other refined grains with whole grains, including brown rice,

would help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes," said Sun.

13

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

DIABETES - do you or someone close to you have this condition? Then this information is vitally important to help prevent the devastating complications...

l A healthy lifestyle, will help reduce the risk of developing the long-term complications of diabetes such as heart attack, stroke, amputation, blindness, kidney failure and nerve damage. l The main aim of diabetes treatment is to achieve blood glucose, blood pressure and blood fat levels (including cholesterol) within the target ranges agreed by the patient and their healthcare team. Please obtain specific advice from your GP/Practice Nurse.

Kidney Disease can happen to anyone but it is much more common in people with diabetes and people with high blood pressure. About one in three people with diabetes might go on to develop kidney disease, although, as treatments improve, fewer people are affected. An Asian person with diabetes is TEN times more likely to develop kidney failure compared with a White person with diabetes! Kidney Research UK’s ABLE* research project into this subject revealed that Asian patients with diabetes are largely unaware of their risk of kidney disease, hence the need for this awareness campaign. l Diabetes, Kidney disease, high BP and cardio-vascular disease are all inter-related, with many of the common lifestyle factors affecting them, e.g. obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and unhealthy diets….so managing these is key!

Find out how your GP Practice team can help you.

The kidneys are the organs that filter and clean the blood and get rid of any waste products by making urine.

Why are people with diabetes more at risk of kidney disease?

l As with many of the other complications of diabetes, kidney disease is caused by damage to small blood vessels. This damage can cause the vessels to become leaky or, in some cases, to stop working, making the kidneys work less efficiently. It is now known that keeping blood glucose levels as near normal as possible (between 4 and 6 mmol/l before meals, and less than 10 mmol/l two hours after food) can greatly reduce the risk of kidney disease developing as well as other diabetes complications. In addition, keeping the 3 monthly HbA1C blood test result to less than 7% is critical. It is also very important to keep blood pressure controlled –no more than 130/80mmHg. Check with your GP about your results. A healthy Lifestyle will help – such as having a healthy diet and weight, exercise, and not smoking. l Everyone with diabetes is entitled to have at least an annual check up, which should include a urine test for protein and a blood test to check kidney function is also done. These should be monitored regularly by the patients GP and the patient should play an active part in managing their treatment. l Treatment - This very much depends on the individual, the type of diabetes and other factors, such as blood pressure.

Keeping blood pressure under control is extremely important (see photo of C B Patel having his BP done!) and tablets for lowering blood pressure are often used. An increasingly common form of treatment for people with diabetes are 'ACE inhibitor' drugs or Angiotensin II receptor antagonists (AIIRAs). These are particular-

ly successful as they not only lower blood pressure but also help protect the kidneys from further damage. These drugs are also sometimes used therefore in people who have normal blood pressure, due to their protective effect on the kidneys.

Remember you should discuss your specific treatment with your doctor so that you understand and can play an active role in reducing your risk of kidney disease as there is no cure for kidney failure.

jain@kidneyresearchuk.org; 0121 244 0272; For more information on kidney disease: call Kidney Research UK’s Kidney Health Information Line on T: 0845 300 1499 / E : k i d n e y h e a l t h @ k i d n e y re searchuk.org For nearly 50 years, Kidney Research UK has been the UK’s leading kidney charity, funding research into the prevention, treatment, and management of kidney diseases. It also dedi-

CB Patel, Editor & Publisher, “Gujarat Samachar” & “Asian Voice” - Getting your blood pressure monitored and in good control is very important for people with diabetes to avoid kidney complications.

Sources and acknowledgments: Diabetes UK website, 2010 and Kidney Research UK: www.kidneyresearchuk.org. *ABLE (A Better Life through Education & empowerment) is the Kidney Research UK’s awareness and research programme that has been focusing on the Asian and Black communities due to their increased risk of kidney failure.

For more information on ABLE, please contact Ms Neerja Jain, RGN, BSc (Hons), MSc, ABLE Project Manager: neerja-

cates its work to patient care and educational initiatives.

In the UK, over 3 million people have their lives threatened

by Chronic Kidney Disease today – most of whom don’t know it. Around 34,000 people are currently being treated for kidney failure, a number that is rising by 8% annually.

Please call to donate and help fund research to save lives 0800 783 2973.

Thank you!

Registered Charity No. UK 252892 & Scotland SC039245 Kidney Research UK is a limited company registered in England, No. 905963.

14

MEDIA WATCH

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Scrutator’s “A gateway of opportunity for the intellectual elite of India” is the title of Anjli Raval's Financial Times report on the country's Institutes of Management (June 7). She started off by referring to the thrusting, emergent middle class that is driving Indian economic growth. “But with success comes increasing ambition, with the next generation of India's growing middle-class youth aiming for new heights. One of these aspirants is Tapangshu Das, a 26-year-old graduate from one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. In March he graduated from the IIM Koizhikode (in Kerala) with arguably the most sought after qualification in India, the post-graduate programme in management, the PGP.

(May 27), science journalist O.P. Sabherwal explained that mastering the relevant technology and production of heavy water – the key material needed to operate India's indigenous nuclear reactor system was a complex scientific and engineering knowledge and skills, available only to a select group of nations, of which India is one. India was forced to meet the challenge of producing heavy water with a western sanctions regime in place.

Today, India has emerged as the world's leading producer of high quality heavy water.

Heavy water from India is much in demand in South Korea, China and in some research institutions in the United States as well, a vindication of Dr Homi Bhabha's dream of making India a centre of excellence across the entire field of nuclear science and technology.

Technology upgrade Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

“The IIM PGP is a two-year programme taught after the undergraduate degree, identical in structure to many masters in management degrees in Europe. In India these degrees are dubbed MBAs.... There are seven IIMs in India, with a further two opening this month at the start of the academic year and five more by 2012, due to increasing demand for places.... Last year about 2.2 million sat the Common Admission Test, the first round of assessment for a place at an IIM. Shortlisted candidates must then pass rigorous interviews and group discussions...,These students are attractive to potential recruiters and large multinational and domestic corporations from Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs to Pepsi and Hindustan Unilever.... At IIM Ahmedabad this year, 280 graduates out of 289 that were eligible for placements accepted offers from domestic and international companies, with nearly 60 per cent jobs in finance or consulting. These ratios are typical across all IIMs,” writes Ms Raval.

To balance supply and demand in a country of 1.1 billion souls is a difficult task indeed.

Flotation demand The FT's Joe Leahy (June 6) told of the Indian government's order to listed companies to “ensure that at least 25 per cent of their shares are publicly held within three years in a move that could hit the valuations of hundreds of businesses.” This could lead to shares worth $53 billion being sold over the next three years.

India's Finance Ministry issued the following statement: “A dispersed shareholding structure is essential....to provide liquidity to the investors and to discover fair prices.”

Joe Leahy again: “Corporate governance

activists have long argued that the low compulsory public float made it easier for the controlling shareholders of India's companies to manipulate stocks by buying and selling small volumes of shares.”

Pramod Gubbi, head of sales at Noble, a brokerage, said the new rule would have different implications for different companies. It would be less of a problem for companies with investors but it could have a serious effect on those whose shares were already under selling pressure.

Heavy water Writing in the Hindustan Times

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay where heavy water is produced

At present, heavy water production capacity in India is over 500 tons. The production centres are located at Baroda, and Hazira (Gujarat), Kota (Rajasthan), Manuguru (Andhra), Thal (Maharashtra) and Talcher (Orissa).According to Dr A.L.N Rao, Chairman and CEO of the Heavy Water Board (HWB), “On moving from concept to commissioning and then to consolidation, we have increased the production of heavy water more than the rated capacities. No less significantly, we have reduced specific energy consumption considerably. We have scaled new peaks in the areas of productivity, capacity utilisation, energy conservation, safety and environmental protection.

Significantly, HWB is advancing further to meet the emerging needs of India's nuclear programme. With the confidence gained in the solvent extraction process of rare metal recovery from wet phosphoric acid, a Technology Demonstrator Plant is being set up. This will give additional confidence to the fertiliser industry that there won't be any change in the characteristics of phosphate fertiliser after the rare metal is recovered from the phosphoric acid,” said Dr Rao.

Bihar 30 crack IIT Another Hindustan Times report (May 26) told how 30 students of Bihar's Super 30, a free coaching centre in state, cracked the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) for the third year running.

“We are really upbeat and celebrating the 100 per cent for the third consecutive year,” said Anand Kumar, the centre's director-cum-founder.

Super 30, which helps economically disadvantaged students crack the IIT-JEE, has been selected by America's Time magazine in its The Best of Asia-2010 column.

Super 30 student

Mohammed Sadab Azam said: “Thanks to Super 30, I cracked the IIT-JEE.” Mr Anand said: “Last year, 30 students came from one coaching centre in Patna. That may not seem many, but for the Super 30 centre it's a pass rate of 100 per cent.” Bihar is one of India's poorest states. Mr Anand said Super 30 is supported by the fee-paying Ramanujan School of Mathematics he had set up a few years earlier.

“Super 30 is an amazing initiative and it needs to be taken to the maximum people around the globe,” said Christopher Mitchell, whose film for television's Discovery Channel also bagged the Audience Choice Award in Los Angeles.

Three years ago, Norika Fujiwara, a former Japanese beauty queen and an actress, made a documentary film on the Super 30 centre for its innovative and successful attempt to send poor children to India's top-flight engineering institutions.

Indo-French air exercises According to The Times of Indian India (May 31), six Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft, two heavy-lift IL -76 aircraft and an Il-78 mid-air re-fueller were en route to France for an air exercise with the French Air

Sub transfer to India Russia's RIA Novosti agency (June 3) reports that Russia will transfer its Nerpa nuclearpowered attack submarine on a 10 year lease to India this autumn. This was disclosed recently in New Delhi by the head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Mikhail Dmitriyev. He told newsmen in the Indian capital that India would receive the K-152 in October or November.

The submarine, which belongs to the Akula class, is considered the quietest and deadliest of all Russia's nuclear powered attack submarines.

The Nerpa is now fully operational and its Indian crew have completed their training.

A second Novosti report referred to an Indian order for a Sukhoi-30MKI upgrade. The aircraft, which is produced under licence in Bangalore at the Hindustan Aircraft plant, will receive new radars, onboard computers, electronic warfare systems and BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles on 40 of the aircraft. The current Indo-Russian cooperation programme comprises 200 joint projects.

Gorshkov handover According to The Times of India, the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, will start extensive harbour trials at the start of 2011 and will be handed over to India in December 2012. This comes after an

IAF’s French-built Mirage- 2005 aircraft in full flight

Force commencing June 14-25.

The exercise, Garuda-IV, being held at the Istres airbase in France, comes at a time when India and France are all set to sign around a massive deal for the upgrade of 56 Mirage-2005 warplanes in the IAF's combat fleet. Under the upgrade, the entire airframe will be stripped down to be rewired and re-equipped with new avionics, mission computers, glass cockpits, helmetmounted displays, electronic warfare suites and weapons systems designed to extend and enhance the operational life of this frontline aircraft by 20 years.

India's broad-based defence ties with France includes the construction of six French scorpene submarines at India's Mazgaon Docks near Mumbai.

Indian naval team, led by the controller warship production and acquisitions, Vice-Admiral N.N.Kumar, visited Russia to examine the 44,570-tonne carrier at the Sevmash Shipyard.

“There has been substantial progress since the examination in September 2009. Around 99 per cent of the structural work and almost 50 per cent of the cabling work has been completed on the carrier. Almost all large-size equipment, like engines, diesel generators etc, has been installed,”said another officer.

The Navy plans to have two carrier-battle groups after the completion of the 40,000-ton indigenous aircraft carrier. This is expected to be ready by 20014-15. The Indian Navy is now the fifth-largest in the world, with a capacity to operate in the Asia Pacific area.

More on this next week.

15

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Alpesh Patel Consultant Editor Financial Voice Dear Financial Voice Reader, As I mentioned in my political column this week, I had the opportunity to do one of my regular BBC TV newspaper reviews. Do you buy BP? Well, if they pay all the compensation from a reduced dividend and have no further restrictions on their business and the lost oil does not impact their share price then the company is undervalued and a buy.

The problem is there are too many unknowns.

And whilst we may not want to speculate with a small company, speculating with a FTSE 100 giant may not be too risky. Indeed, if it isn’t brought to bankruptcy then surely its relentless rise up continues? Why wouldn’t it.

One of the seductive things about BP is that it has dropped 50% in 2 months. People obviously salivating and gnashing their teeth at that. But let’s also remember a stock that is down 95% is one which has dropped 90% then dropped another 50%. So a 50% drop is not necessarily a big deal.

The next story on the BBC I was asked to comment was Spain. The Spanish unions are likely to strike due to government budget cuts. Well that’s a bloated economy and sadly they’ve become entitled to jobs and perks which are not sustainable. In fact strikes are the ways to make things worse. It hardly makes the country more attractive to ratings agencies who if they downgrade the credit worthiness of the country means the country has to pay greater interest on its borrowing; a vicious circle.

Sadly Spain needs to face the pain. Luckily it is a not a major Eurozone economy and the German economy which is of paramount importance has been run on a sound basis. We need a Germanisation of the Eurozone – they need to enforce their know-how on the Spanish and the Greeks, and the Italians.

What of the broader market? Rather like BP, things are finely balanced. When one looks at longer term monthly charts for the FTSE 100 it’s not clear rises are on the offing. I prefer not to make any bold statement on rises.

Earnings in the US have been holding up well, but I expect the European austerity measures to lead to pessimism and fear rather than confidence.

Consequently I am very cautious about being UK bullish. One thing that is helping the UK is the falling pound which means investing into the UK is cheaper and who knows maybe BP will be taken over – certainly expect other FTSE 100 companies to have offers made for their shares.

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Essar Energy included in FTSE 100 Index Essar Energy, a company of Indian industrial group of Essar, took rapid strides at the London Stock Exchange. Within a very short period of just over a month, the Essar Energy joined an elite group of blue-chip companies that make up the FTSE 100 Index.

FTSE Group last week announced the entry of India's integrated energy company into the primary index. “FTSE Group confirms that gold producer African Barrick Gold and Essar Energy will be joining the FTSE 100 Index for the first time. In the rebalance, Thomas Cook

Group and the London Stock Exchange Group will leave UK’s leading blue-chip Index and join the FTSE 250 Index," it said in a media release.

Essar Energy will only be the second company with Indian promoters to feature on the index. The Anil Agarwal-controlled mining major Vedanta Resources is on the FTSE 100 list since December 2003.

Changes from this review will be implemented at the close of business

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issue, its listing and free float were all specifically designed to ensure that the company makes a smooth entry into the FTSE 100 list.

Essar Energy raised around $1.95 billion by selling 23 per cent stake to institutional investors.

The shares were sold at 420 pence each and went to list on the LSE in the first week of May this year.

The FTSE 100 constituents are reviewed every three months. Apart from market capitalisation, aspiring stocks have to satisfy several other conditions before they are made a part of the list.

Tame debut for StanChart IDRs in India Listed at Rs. 105 per IDR, ended lower on first day The IDR issue of StanChart, the UK based bank made a tame debut on the BSE, opeining at Rs. 105 per IDR against an issue price of Rs. 104. The issue was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, the last day of

the previous week. After a not so encouraging opening, the price of the IDR

saw a little fluctuation during the day. The prices ranged between Rs. 100 to Rs. 108 and ended the day at Rs. 103.05 per IDR. However, the volume of trade was significant at 41

million IDRs at BSE and NSE. The IDR issue, last month saw the bank mobilise approximately Rs. 25 billion. Standard Chartered management said they are happy with the response.

UK growth forecast down to 2.6% OBR says deficit, debt also likely to go down

The growth projections for the UK economy in year 2011 have been lowered at 2.6% by the new independent fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The last budget by the

previous Labour government had given estimates of the country’s economy for the year 2011 at 3% to 3.5% Lower forecast could lead to more cuts in government spendings, as it would translate into less

tax revenues for the government. The OBR, even while making a lower growth forecast said the deficit and debt will be not as bad as the forecasts.

Previous Labour government had projected the

deficit for 2011 at 11.1%, while OBR says it could be better at 10.5%.

Government debt, as per the latest estimates is likely to be lower at 62.2% against the previous estimates at 63.3%.

Kansagra offloads entire stake in SpiceJet UK based founder exits from Indian low cost airline Bhupendra (Bhulo) Kansagra, the founder of Indian low cost airline SpiceJet and the US fund owner W L Ross have sold their entire 37.7% stake to Kalanithi Maran, an Indian media magnate based in Tamil Nadu.

Maran, the new owner intends to have a comfort-

able majority stake in the carrier. For the purpose, he made an open offer to buy further 20% shares from the market. Kal

Airways, the new entity under the Marans will be new owners of SpiceJet. The name of the airline as well as the headquarters may also be changed.

Presently, SpiceJet is based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi.

Kansagra and W L Ross

will get Rs. 8 billion. Of the total 37% stake, W L Ross owns 25% through FCCBs, while Bhulo Kansagra has 12%. USA based Goldman Sachs recently picked up 6% stake through conversion of the 15 million warrants that it purchased in December, 2008.

Dana Petroleum of UK to buy Petro Canada Netherlands British entity Dana Petroleum Plc announced a deal to acquire the entire stake of Petro Canada Netherlands from their current owners.

The takeover deal is worth £270 mn.

The oil and gas exploration major from UK said in a statement that the new firm that it is going to buy has proved and probable reserves of 31 mn bar-

rels of oil. It will also give Dana Petroleum an exposure to Europe and a complementary asset base in the North Sea. Petro Canada Netherlands is an upstream oil and gas exploration and production firm operating in the Dutch area of the North Sea. The total number of producing fields operated

by Dana would go up to 54 from 36 currently. This

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on Friday, June 18 and will take effect from the start of trading on Monday June 21, FTSE Group said.

The FTSE 100 Index represents the 100 biggest UK blue-chip companies by market capitalisation.

The index currently reflects approximately 85 per cent of the UK market, providing a broad and accurate investment tool for pension funds, financial products and investment portfolios in the UK and around the globe.

Entry into the FTSE 100 had been a stated goal for the Indian energy major. The timing of the

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would include 15 new offshore and three onshore fields. Dana is purchasing Petro Canada Netherlands from Petro Canada (International) Holdings,

a subsidiary of Canada's largest energy company, Suncor Energy. The deal is expected to be closed in the third quarter of the current year.

Invest for a Life in the US The United States of America, often referred to as the land of opportunity, has been taking in immigrants at the rate of more than one million every year for over a century.

Unfortunately, because it is so popular, it has become progressively harder to secure a visa for those who wish to live and work there on a permanent basis.

Most visas are either difficult to obtain or unsuitable, because they need to be reapplied for, which carries risks. Noone wants to emigrate

only to lose their visa after a year or so.

The most popular choice, for those in a position to invest $500,000, is the EB-5 investment visa.

In 2003 the US Government reintroduced the Regional Center program. Investments into an approved Regional Center qualify an investor, spouse and all children under 21 to Green Cards (Permanent Residency).

Citizenship can be obtained after 5 years.

For information, visit eb5-visa.net.

16

fInAnCIAl voice

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

A Reliable Succession Maria Fernandes maria@abplgroup.com

Controlling immigration and the extension of the English test requirement Throughout the election campaign all parties made a song and dance about the fact that the public were expressing concern about the control of the levels of immigration. What every party sought to do without exception is to acknowledge these concerns. However the “uncontrolled” immigration that was being raised is of European Union nationals who have the freedom of movement. It is already tough to bring in non EU nationals and the numbers who come in are negligible when compared to European migration.

There are already rules in place requiring spouses to pass the English test before qualifying for settlement.

This was a sensible change that allowed spouses to integrate but gave them time to do so.

The new proposals due to come into effect in the Autumn introduce English tests for spouses. The clear aim is to limit immigration and the primary target here is Asian families.

The Human rights legislation acknowledges the right to respect for a family life and only permits an interference in specific instances for example

the economic well being of the country or for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Furthermore and a very important requirement is that the State must show that it is proportionate response.

The other point of the proposed change is that it is a potentially discriminatory measure which will directly affect a particular community and would be in breach of Article 14 of the Convention. There are already cases in the pipeline regarding the potentially discriminatory affect of raising the age of marriage for spouses.

This is a blatant attempt by the Government to pander to the perceived views of the public. It will not solve the problem but it will breed resentment among certain sections of the community who feel that they are being unfairly targeted.

Maria Fernandes is a principal of Fernandes Vaz solicitors who specialise in immigration and nationality law. She has substantial experience of immigration and is an accredited member of the Immigration Law Panel.

China may rewrite the record for world’s biggest IPO Agriculture Bank of China to enter the market soon with a target of upto US$ 28 bn AgBank or The Agriculture Bank of China (ABC) has got the regulatory approval for in IPO that is to come soon. It is expected to be the biggest IPO in the world, beating previous record, also by a Chinese Bank – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The 2006 IPO mobilised US$21.6 bn, while AgBank issue is likely to raise upto US$ 28 bn. Cornerstone investors are being roped in by the bank and people familiar with the developments have said investors from Hong Kong, Singapore,

Australia, Japan, the Middle East as well as Europe would be investing in the IPO. AgBank last week earned regulatory approval. A depressed market and a low rating by Fitch are challenges for the efforts by the Bank.

The offering is expected to take place late this month or early July simultaneously in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission made a brief announcement Wednesday last week on its website saying it had approved the IPO

Irreplaceable is a powerful word. Imagine Apple without Steve Jobs or Virgin without Richard Branson. Are they irreplaceable? What would happen to their companies if they left? When Dhirubhai Ambani passed away in 2002, Reliance Industries faced the challenge of replacing their pioneering founder.

Suddenly a company which, as per its name, was a symbol of reliability became the focus of speculation about the differences between Dhirubhai’s sons, Mukesh and Anil Ambani. It soon became very apparent that the two brothers wanted different things for themselves and the company.

Herein lies the problem - leaders plan for changes in the marketplace and environment but they often tend to overlook planning for their succession. Yet this is vital to any business simply because when a key person leaves, they take with them their indepth knowledge of the brand, the culture and the people - qualities which cannot be taken off a shelf and given to a new leader.

Reliance has since been split in two with each brother controlling one part and there have

been several public conflicts between them. One can only wonder why Dhirubhai did not ensure that both understood and shared his vision. Why did he not agree a plan with both brothers so this could have been avoided? No one outside the family really knows what happened. But it is safe to say that so far, no one, not the brothers or the company, have benefited from any of this. I have often heard of businessmen whose children have no interest in running the family business and yet they fail to address this and prefer to ignore the problem.

When Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy announced his retirement last week it was clear that there was a clear succession plan in place. His successor, Philip Clarke has spent his entire career at Tesco and shares the same vision for it. The result is a seamless transition which allows the company to build upon its successes. What a contrast to the Reliance saga.

Many leaders think that it is too early to think about succession planning, but years of experience cannot be replaced within a few months. Besides, who knows what will happen

Amit Patel

tomorrow? A lifetime of work can be undone due to the failure to plan for the future succession.

Dhirubhai gave many things to many people.

He built a company which gave India pride.

He gave his shareholder’s security. He gave his sons’ power. The only thing he was unable to give any of them was a reliable succession.

Amit Patel has over 15 years experience in the field of Personal Development and Human Resource Management. He has delivered speeches on People Management and Development throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Amit provides consultancy services to business' and individuals on a range of issues from team building to personal development. You can contact Amit by email at amitpatelmail@gmail.com

JLR begins deliveries of Jaguar XJ in India

plan for the Beijing based ABC. The bank is the last of the “big four” stateowned banks to seek a share listing. It plans to sell a total of up to 53 billion shares. State-run newspapers have said trading on the shares will begin in mid-July.

ABC will issue shares worth 15% of its equity.

It is a giant bank with 24,000 branches and more than 350 million customers enjoying a near monopoly in rural banking in China. Unlike the three other big state-run banks, ABC has not yet taken a foreign strategic partner.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has begun deliveries of the iconic Jaguar XJ in India, Tata Motors said on Tuesday.

The company's Senior Vi c e - P re s i d e n t (Commercial), Passenger Car Business Unit, S Krishnan, said, "we notice a very intense aspiration in India to own an XJ. We are encouraged by the number of customers who have expressed a desire to own this iconic car." A statement released by the company gives a detailed account of its looks and design. It said the elongated teardrop shape of the side windows establishes

the car's silhouette and lies at the heart of its flowing design. It does not just look streamlined - its drag coefficient of 0.29 makes it the most aerodynamic Jaguar ever, along with the XF, the release said.

At the heart of the allnew XJ's construction is Jaguar's unique light-

weight vehicle a rc h i t e c t u re .

Primarily aluminium, but also using magnesium and composite alloys, this allows Jaguar to produce a significantly lighter and stiffer body-the lightest in its class.

The structure features aerospace-based riveting and bonding processes, and uses these advanced materials to deliver improved strength, enhanced refinement and superior safety performance.

“RIL and Reliance ADA Group are hopeful and confident that all these steps would create an overall environment of harmony, co-operation and collaboration between the two groups, thereby further enhancing the overall shareholder value for shareholders of both the groups”, the statement had said.

Following this, sources said, the two brothers also discussed the strategy for the telecom sector where Mukesh is getting in a big way in the broadband sector while Anil is a major

lowing the truce between the two brothers could pose a formidable challenge to other players in the sector, analysts feel.

Mukesh’s wife Nita and children Akash, Isha and Anant and Anil’s wife Tina and sons, Anmol and Anshul, camped at Kruger, one of Africa’s largest game reserves last week, sources said.

Mukesh’s long-time friend and trusted lieutenant Anand Jain who played a key role in the peace pact announced by the two brothers on May 23, was also believed to be there.

India’s largest lender SBI last week said it was planning to mop up Rs 200 billion from rights issue by this fiscal end.

"We are expecting to raise Rs 200 billion from rights issue," SBI Chairman O P Bhatt told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event in New Delhi.

He said the issue may come by this fiscal end since the bank is currently talking to the Government about it.

"It is still at the conversation stage (with the government). That is why, if at all it comes up, may

be it would be coming up towards the end of this fiscal," Bhatt said.

On the liquidity in the system, SBI said it would remain tight in June due to payment towards 3G spectrum auction and expected outgo for broadband wireless access (BWA).

However, the liquidity position should ease by next month, he said.

Over Rs 670 billion was paid by telecom operators for spectrum for third generation telephony. The BWA auction so far will lead to cash outgo of Rs 340 billion.

Ambanis discuss synergies during African safari SBI to raise Rs 200 bn both sides on May 23 player in telecom services.

Leaving little to doubt via rights issue announcing a truce.

The collaboration folabout their growing

understanding at home and at work, Mukesh and Anil Ambani holidayed with their families in South Africa and are believed to have discussed synergising their businesses to mutual advantage.

The brothers, who have been battling ever since the family patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani passed away in July 2002, revisited the same lodge at the Kruger National Park where their father had brought the family last in 2000.

During the break, the brothers were understood to have discussed ways to

Anil and Mukesh Ambani

leverage each other’s business activities in the telecom, finance and entertainment sectors, sources said.

Spokespersons of both Mukesh and Anil’s groups declined to comment on various queries on the bonhomie and business collaborations, an indication of which came in the identical statements by

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

17

Property Focus Suresh Vagjiani Managing Director of Sow & Reap, a Property Investment & Financing company.

When all hope is lost Sow and Reap remain There comes a time when regardless of what profession you are in you sometimes get real satisfaction for a job well done. For us its doing deals which are not possible but we make them possible. Delivering the undeliverable is what gives us satisfaction.

A recent client had come to us from a referral. His problem was an unusual one. He had amassed his allot of commercial property at a time when lenders were financing practically the whole purchase.

He had two portfolios with two different banks. One was in the region of £20 million and the other £45 million.

The recent credit crunch had reduced the value of these assets but all the properties were rented and payments to these providers were being made on time with no missed payments. Now both banks were recalling the loan and because the loan to value terms had been breached despite all payments being made.

Both banks called in the debts leaving the clients in a desperate situation to refinance immediately.

By the time the client had come to us it was too late to redeem to the smaller £20 million portfolio and these properties were placed into receiver’s hands and the individual properties were already popping up at various auction houses.

One may think this is the end of the situation once the properties have been reposed and the borrower is not liable to pay any more. Not the case. If money is outstanding after the assets have been sold the bank has the right to recover any shortfall from the borrower. So in this situation the borrower is still at risk if the bank does not recover the full amount owed to them from sale of the properties This portfolio is spilt milk and so the only thing left is to save the larger £45 million portfolio. The current outstanding debt was £39million. Lenders are currently negotiating with their borrowers and reducing the amounts owed. Thus instead of be a negative sit-

uation it can be turned into a positive.

In this situation the lender was willing to take a hit of £9m and accept £30m.

The client had tried many avenues independently to secure this funding but was only getting offers in the region of £26 million. They had gone to all high street lenders who ordinarily would have appetite for this kind of lending.

It was clear to us there is absolutely no point in going at this the conventional way. The client had already tried this many times over. This required a completely new angle. Due to the size of the loan it is possible to be flexible and define terms exclusively for this client situation. Rather then simply going for a refinancing we sought a partner to take some of the equity in return for funding.

The client managed to save their portfolio which is now beginning to increase again in value.

Through our persistence and ability to structure things differently we were able to put this client from a position of weakness to a position of strength So now the client will see his portfolio secured and a reduction of his debt by £9m who says you cant have your cake and eat it?

If you or anyone you know is in a similar situation call us today so we might have the missing piece to the puzzle.

I thought I had seen it all....

I thought I had seen pretty much everything in the property industry. This week was a revelation and an education. One of our contacts told me that she had a brothel in the posh area of Marylebone village for sale and that this was to be sold ideally as a going concern. Meaning business would still carry on.

It is simply a numbers game for investors and, as this would not be everyone’s cup of tea, I thought that there may be an angle here.

The property was a lower ground property with its own private entrance and was offered with the benefit of a tenant or rather an ongoing business.

The business had been running at the same premises for the last 30 years and in the same ownership for the last 20.

The rental offered was a generous £800 per week. As the referencing and so forth would be non existent we agreed for it to be paid upfront for the full year. The reason for the sale was that the current owner was emigrating and had a good manager to keep the business ticking over. The property would be guaranteed with vacant position after one year through a solicitor. Not many tenants would offer years rent upfront and this is a big plus.

that we dress in a suit and tie and appear more externally acceptable in society. In fact, I have heard it said this is the oldest profession in the world and perhaps the most honest.

The brothel stays open only during the day to avoid the kind of crowds attracted in the night time. They were fussy of their clientele. The other owners of the flat in the same block were fully aware of the arrangement with the flat and were pleased with it. Since the current leaseholders are all working professionals, busy during the day, they were not bothered about the activity going on at the premises.

It all appeared to be done very respectably and the business was well integrated into the local community. As a matter of fact, its presence even seemed to enhance the block.

The property also came with the freehold of the whole block and therefore was entitled to ground rent from the other leaseholders in the block. The estimated value of the freehold is a minimum of £40,000.

There are three components to this deal, i.e. the freehold, the rent guarantee, and the flat. The price on the property is cheap. There is a way to reduce the funds

On enquiring further about the business it was easy to see how they could afford to pay the rent.

With 6-8 appointments a day it was easy to see the lucrative nature of this little business. I suspect the business would stay for many years to come. So you will not have the hassle of void periods in between tenants.

I began to rationalise the business; from one angle, we all sell some part of ourselves for some sort of reward, mostly economic. We could sell our minds or our labour while some might sell their intelligence. So, what is the difference? Only

put in though. The price of the property is £720,000; I would estimate the actual value around the £850,000 mark. This price differential can be used to reduce the deposit required by increasing the sale price and also increasing the rental figure by the same amount and, as the rent is paid in yearly in advance, this would work well. The sale of course must be subject to the year’s rental paid upfront on completion, otherwise there would be issues.

The other angle would be to sell the freehold simultaneously which would also contribute to the deposit.

n Mortgages n Commercial Finance n Property Sourcing n Gujarat Properties - Sale & Resale T: 0207 706 0187 F: 0203 014 8484

E: info@sowandreap.co.uk W: www.sowandreap.co.uk

31 Southwick Street, Paddington, W2 1JQ Registered in England No. 05083823

18

fInancIal voice

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

UK may ‘share’ $3 bn IT jobs with India UK's government departments struggling to cope with fiscal deficit and seeking to cut costs without having to send jobs overseas, are set to flesh out shared service centres, which means new business for top back office and outsourcing firms.

The new political leadership with Conservative David Cameron at the helm has to deal with high unemployment rate of around 8% by creating more local jobs and, at the same time, cut government spending by almost $9 billion this year.

While outsourcing and offshoring of non-core back-office activities can help the government achieve this goal, some officials and experts say,

the government is more inclined to establish shared service centres in order to avoid any massoffshoring fears.

“The current government’s focus on giving greater autonomy to agencies is likely to mean that we see a range of public sector bodies within a local area working together towards common goals of reduced costs and economies of scale,” said Jessica Hawkins and Ian Brown, analysts at UKbased research firm Ovum.

For India’s outsourcing and back office firms including EXL Services, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and others, shared service centre opportunity could be worth $2-$3 bil-

lion over next few years, experts tracking the sector said.

“I suggest this is one of the routes they will have to evaluate to meet imposed target spending reductions, however reluctant they may be to look at giving their processes to third parties,” said Bob McDowall, research director at TowerGroup.

“They (the BPO vendors) should be preparing to approach government departments over Q3 this year as government departments have to seek spending cuts. If they can absorb some of the civil servants impacted by the cuts, the proposition becomes more inviting to government ministers,” Mr McDowall added.

IDBI Bank opens first overseas branch at Dubai

IDBI Bank of India has opened its first overseas branch at The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), which will provide a full range of corporate banking services, including financial advisory and syndication of credit.

The branch was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Finance, Namo Narain Meena in the presence of IDBI

Bank's Deputy Managing Director, B P Singh, and other dignitaries recently, according to a statement.

The branch will meet the corporate financing needs of not only its vast Indian clientele but also clients in the Middle-East.

Through its DIFC branch, IDBI Bank aims

RIL discovers more oil at Cambay Basin

Reliance Industries (RIL) has discovered more oil at an on land site in Gujarat’s Cambay Basin, raising the potential of the exploratory fields it has been drilling.

The energy major made its sixth discovery in the 635 sq-km block located in the Cambay basin, about 130 km from Ahmedabad, the company said in a release.

Reliance holds a 100% participating interest in the block.

“The discovery is significant as this... is expected to open up more oil pool areas, leading to better hydrocarbon potential within the block,” the

release added. Analysts, however, are not very upbeat.

“The discovery is not very significant in terms of the overall oil exploration portfolio of RIL. This will keep happening,” said SP Tulsian, independent investment advisor.

“Overall the company is moving into a trajectory of generating close to $10 billion operating cash flow per annum,” said India Infoline in a note to clients.

The company has signed sales purchase agreements with several customers for selling gas from its Krishna-Godavari basin fields.

to foster greater trade and cross-border capital flows between India and the Middle-East region, the release said.

The bank is presently one of India's leading provider of project financing and infrastructure financing. It is the second largest syndicator of loans in India and fourth-largest in Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) region.

Alpesh Patel’s Political Sketchbook: Poor People Don’t Matter Doing the early morning BBC TV newspaper review allowed me this past week to vent some anger which has been boiling up for 20 years.

The story I was asked to comment on was the fury of Obama at BP for the oil spill. Now I can imagine the President, pacing in the Oval office, the most powerful man in the world, with the largest nuclear arsenal, heading a country which has since its creation in 1776 never known a decade without war outside its borders, yet unable to put a boot on the throat of BP. Now I don’t have a problem with the President’s anger, and indeed welcome it on issues of the environment. But I only wish the Americans could have given half a damn when it came to 3,000 dead Indians in Bhopal due to an American company and a chemical spill.

You see with BP – no one has died. Okay some Louisiana fisherman are suicidal, but with Bhopal mothers witnessed their children die. Dead. 3000.

But it doesn’t count.

Doesn’t count because poor Indians do not count.

The lovely Louisiana coastline and the livelihood of one bloated American living in the world’s richest country counts more than 3,000 dead poor Indians.

Anyway why should America care about Bhopal when the Indian Government itself didn’t want to put a boot, or sandal, on the throat of Union Carbide? Your citizens are worth what your Government is willing to do for them. I guess prices of citizens is based on supply and demand and India has an oversupply of people.

So when the CEO of BP goes to the White House, I hope he reminds the President that his country should reciprocate when it comes to moral indignation – because the thing about moral indignation is that it should be moral.

And what of BP – owned by as many US corporations as British ones and paying as many US pensioners as British ones. Shouldn’t Obama

know better? Given his heritage? But annoyingly the Louisiana Governor is Indian – Bobby Jindal.

Oh, he converted from his Indian religion in the US to be sure – but I bet he won’t stand up for the country of his ancestors either – how soon they forget.

I remember once being at the British High Commission in Delhi and the bantering with the High Commissioner he pointed out I was British. And I told him – he is right I am. But the blood coursing through these veins is that of my ancestors. I am a British Indian.

Sadly the Louisiana Governor I suspect is all American – he’s drunk the coolade as they say.

It should be said of Indians you can take the Indian out of India but not India out of the Indian – wish it was true.

How I wish the Bobby hadn’t converted. How I wish Bobby would have the guts to tell the President where to go.

Anyway, why should he, lower than Indians are poor people and poor people don’t matter.

Indian industry grows 17.6 per cent in April India's factory output bettered expectations to expand at 17.6% in April, marking a near 20-year high achieved on the back of copious domestic consumer demand, a revival in exports and higher infrastructure spending but also got boosted by a low base effect. While the best show by the manufacturing sector since December 2009 raised hopes of an 8.5% GDP growth rate in the ongoing fiscal, it also reinforced expectations of a further rate hike by the RBI next month.

The April figure is almost equal to the 20year-high of 17.7% posted in December 2009.

Manufacturing, which accounts for around 80% of the IIP (index of industrial production), expanded by 19.4% in April.

Capital goods showed a growth of 72.8% and consumer durables by 37%.

The expansion follows an annual 8.6% expansion in the economy in the quarter through March. But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said he had expected the industry to do even better in April.

"Of course, my appetite is infinite. I would have been happier if it was 20%," he told reporters.

Analysts said the strong industrial showing in April coupled with a normal monsoon would

put the economy on an 8.5% growth trajectory in 2010-11. "The industrial growth can be equal to the growth rate last year and, therefore, taking that into account and if agriculture performs reasonably well during the year, one should hope to get a growth rate close to 8.5%," prime minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said.

The double-digit growth strengthened the case for stimulus rollback but Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the pace of monetary policy normalisation need not be quickened. This essentially reflects worries over

Eurozone debt crisis and the health of the global economic recovery as well as concerns expressed by most other central banks in Asia.

India Inc too cautioned that the growth trend may moderate from June onwards since part of the industrial expansion could be attributed to a low base in April last year. Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra said, "This trend of very high growth might moderate from June onwards because of the base effect."

The low base is evident from the fact that capital goods had contracted by 5.9% in April 2009, even as consumer durables had risen by 17.6%.

Indians are the 3rd-fastest growing investor in US Indians are the third fastest growing foreign investors in the United States, a top Obama Administration official has said, acknowledging the positive contribution of India in the US economy at the time of recession.

"India is the third fastest growing foreign investor in the US," said Holly Vineyard, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Africa, the Middle East and South

Asia, at an event on Monday. Vineyard said Indian investment in 2008 was USD 4.5 billion but the investments in 2009 grew 60% higher than investments in the previous year. He was quoting from a yet to be published report by India US World Affairs Institute and the University of Maryland.

The report will soon be released by Congressman, Jim McDermott, Co-Chair of the Congressional

Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, at a function organized by the East West Center, a Washington-based think tank.

The Joint study has found 372 acquisitions by Indian companies in the US between 2004 and 2009 worth USD 21 billion. This has created an estimated 40,000 employment in the US. Giving preview of the report, the FICCI secre-

tary general, Amit Mitra, said there were 127 green field investments worth $5.5 billion by Indian companies in the United States. "So these are huge numbers that India is contributing to the US economy," Mitra said.

"In contrast", the FICCI secretary general pointed out, "India was facing difficulties in attracting US investment in its infrastructure sector."

US needs to do more in

the infrastructure sector, he said. "We have come here to tell the US government and businesses, 'get in there'."

To boost the US involvement in India, FICCI is following Track II policy, envisioned by the External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna, and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton when they met in Washington earlier this month. The policy works on enhancing public private engagement in eco-

nomic and strategic sectors in both the countries.

On Monday, as part of Track II policy, FICCI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Council on Competitiveness. In the MOU, FICCI and the Council agreed to work together to accomplish projects that shared their mutual interests including the development of innovative human capital and sustainable development.

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

19

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For any further information call 020 7220 8181 or e-mail info@rationalfx.com

Teamwork the Key It seems quite fitting that the World Cup is on at the same time as the first budget delivered by the new alliance government.

There are many comparisons that could be made between the challenges facing the England to progress in the most prestigious football competition in existence and the current coalition government. To achieve the ultimate goal is the aim, but to make sure that there is not too much damage done on the way.

Mr. Capello has to view the competition as a whole and make his tactics accordingly with a view that we are going to be in it all the way. The proposed cuts in the next budget have to be viewed the same way. There may be damage in the near term but the end result must justify the means. It has been well publicised that the UK have a massive debt that needs to be recouped from the economy but too strong a hand could immediately damage the fragile recovery in the economy. The date of the 22nd June is swiftly approaching and the current government’s biggest test to date will be closely monitored by all. Mr. Capello is probably under as much pressure for his team to perform, qualifying easily with great hopes of success to come in the

big event. Hopes and expectations are one thing delivering the goods is quite different. Recent times have seen much change in the UK and world as a whole in the financial industry. Cast your mind back to the last World Cup just four years ago when we had a different outlook to the forthcoming event, Britain was enjoying the hedonistic precredit crunch spending spree back then, borrowing to buy new cars, exotic holidays, luxury goods of every kind and also borrowing more to purchase homes in over inflated housing market. The FTSE was healthily high and the national team seem feted to return to the glory of their predecessors of the winning 1966 team. Surely nothing could go wrong everything was set up for glory and plenty of funds around to spend to celebrate success.

As we know success eluded us once again and maybe the spending that was being done then should have been analysed more to prevent what followed.

In retrospect was it a microcosm of the disaster yet to befall the world economy a few years later.

This year after the recent addresses that many of us have had to make to their personal

finances the expectations are not so high but I think the celebrations will be even greater if we succeed as the country is in a need of an uplift. The managers at the head of the helm in both cases of football team and coun-

try are different from 4 years ago and both sets of managers probably reflect the difference in the UK now to what we were like then. Back then we had a manager that encouraged the wife’s to come along to the tournament and their lavish spending was encouraged by the media. This time around the message from manager and media are different, the players are more ambassadors for our country now than ever and the women are encouraged to stay away.

This time there will be no lavish spending and concentration on the job in hand is the most important issue. The running of the country mirrors this with MP’S being scrutinized over every penny that they spend and all costs must be in countries interest.

Comparisons can be made all the way along the line but the only way success can be achieved in both cases is with teamwork being the key. It was once said that a team is as strong as its weakest link and it still holds today whether it be football or turning around the countries economy.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 15th June 2010 @ 2pm GBP - INR = 68.70 USD - INR = 46.54 EUR - INR = 57.05 GBP - USD = 147.64 GBP - EUR = 120.43 EUR - USD = 122.55 GBP - AED = 5.4324 GBP - CAD = 1.5170 GBP - NZD = 2.1235 GBP - AUD = 1.72 GBP - ZAR = 11.32 GBP - HUF = 336.30

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20

garammasala

Asian Voice Saturday 19th June 2010

Shah Rukh Khan’s wish list There may be hundreds of directors who’d dream of signing Shah Rukh Khan, but the actor has a wish list of his own.

Khan, who is currently shooting for Abhinav Sinha’s superhero movie, “Ra.One,” tweeted the names of some directors whom he’d like to work with in the future, on the micro blogging website, Twitter.

The actor tweeted, “Would love to work with Vishal (Bhardwaj), Anurag (Kashyap or Basu), Mani (Ratnam) sir, Raju (Hirani), and so many other gifted directors. But we have to have something which suits us all.”

Genelia’s narrow escape!

Recently, many rumours spread like wildfire that bubbly actress Genelia was supposed to perform at the recently-held IIFA in Sri Lanka. But the actress opted out from the event at the last minute. Now sources close to the actress reveal that Genelia was not aware of the controversy surrounding the Tamil film industry and the IIFA and she was all set to leave for Colombo.

However, at the last minute, she was cautioned by Aascar Ravichandran (producer of Velayudham, starring Vijay, Genelia and Hansika), who advised her not to attend the event.

The actress quickly realised the situation and opted out of the event. In fact, Genelia reportedly said she respects the sentiments of Tamil film industry and will never hurt them.

Marriage not now, says Shriya

ver in the institution of marShriya Saran, who is a strong belie wedding. “I will surely enter for y hurr a in riage, is however, not she says. wedlock when I find the right man,” Saying she is yet to find her man, the actress adds: “I believe no one should be forced for love and marriage. At the same time, I do believe in the institution of marriage and commitment as well.”

On her Telugu comeback ‘Don Seenu’, in which she is acting opposite Ravi Teja, Shriya says, “It is a nice script which has a very strong character for me. I love Tollywood and I am happy to be back.”

Throwing light on her fitness secret and the stress-busting activities she undergo, the actress says, “I do yoga, work out, swim, and try to think positive. These things would keep any person in the earth happy and fit.”

Surya – Jyothika blessed with a baby boy It’s turning out to be a celebration for the entire family of Surya as his wife Jyothika gave birth to a baby boy.

Jyothika delivered the child on June 7 at Apollo Hospital.

Surya and Jyothika got married on September 11, 2006 and were blessed with a baby girl Diya.

Now, they are elated to have a new arrival in their family.

Surya must be the happiest man in the whole world at the moment, (just as he utters the same words as his film ‘Sillunnu Oru Kadhal’ of yesteryears).

Both his career and family life

are going great guns now. He has been striking gold with continuous successes in all his films and is awaiting for more triumphs for his upcoming projects – ‘Raktha Charithra’, ‘7 AUM ARIVU’ and ‘Businessman’.

SRK’s list was intriguing, since in the past, he has been associated with projects of most of these directors, and has either turned down, or has not been able to work with them. Apart from Mani Ratnam, who the actor worked with in “Dil Se,” SRK has been approached by all the other directors on his wish list. The actor was supposed to work with Hirani on “Munnabhai MBBS,” but due to his back problems, had to back out from the project. Sanjay Dutt later stepped into the role, and the movie went on to be a blockbuster.

There were also reports that Bhardwaj had approached SRK with a movie, but when he suggested changes in the script, the duo fell out. The actor and director have since patched up.

World TV Premiere of ‘Kites’ on COLORS Hrithik and Barbara Mori starrer to air on Sunday 27th June

After having premiered superhit Bollywood blockbusters like ‘Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani’ and ‘Blue’ even before the movies had left the cinema halls, COLORS, the leading entertainment destination, has done it yet again. This time around the channel will be exclusively premiering the recent Hrithik Roshan starrer, Bollywood blockbuster ‘Kites’ on Sunday 27th June at 8.00pm.

‘Kites’ is a love story set against the backdrop of a robbery in a Las Vegas casino. The film is rife with romance, passion, high speed car chases, mind-boggling dance sequences

and brilliant acting.

Speaking about the World TV Premiere, Gaurav Gandhi, Chief Commercial Officer & Head - International Business, Viacom18 says, “At COLORS we endeavor to bring the biggest Bollywood blockbusters to our

viewers, right in the comfort of their homes. The next six to eight months are going to be a pure treat for the viewers as we plan to showcase a series of big and recent blockbuster films.

With Kites, we begin a long and potentially fruitful association with Reliance BIG Pictures with whom we have signed a much larger deal and will be showcasing a whole range of popular movies from their library in the days to come.”

COLORS, India’s popular entertainment channel, is available on Sky’s Digital Satellite platform on Channel No. 829 on the VIEWASIA package.

Khattha Meetha is my best comedy film, ahead of Hera Pheri Priyal Sanghavi Akshay Kumar who has been in London for quite some time' had an informal chat with media in London about his latest film Khattha Meetha. He even had a special 9 minute long screening of never-seen-before footage of the film.

Khatta Meetha is the story of a road contracter Sachin Tichkule (Akshay) who is unable to fulfill his big dreams to be rich. He has several unsuccessful stints with bribery and corruption to his poor background. A new municipal commissioner arrives and it is Sachin's college sweetheart who he parted on bad terms. In the end, will Sachin succumb to corruption or rise with honesty, forms the crux of the story.

Akshay reveals that the idea sprung when he kept seeing

construction outside his house.

“I am so sick and tired of it and knew its a problem many people face. Its about a contractor who keeps building and rebuilding the same road. Its a light-hearted and entertaining take on corruption. Since last five years, business of comedy films has been more than any genre.”

Priyadarshan has directed 75 films with most of them declared hits. Akshay who has

previously featured in Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri, Bhagam Bhag and many others, finds Priyadarshan very difficult to work with. “He is very fast.

Dialogues are given at the spot, it is not given to you in the night and you have to nail them.”

While Akshay continues having a growing fan following across the world, Hollywood is not on the cards. He says: “I'm not fit for Hollywood. I'm very happy here where I have a huge audience, who give me so much love and affection. I do get big and small offers but I'm happy where I am.”

The clip was then played and left the whole room in splits.

Akshay appeared relaxed and confident and stayed till he was sure everyone's queries were answered. From the clip and his words, Khatta Meetha is being looked forward eagerly by all.

M F Husain wants to paint Vidya Balan Madhuri Dixit, Urmila Matondkar, Tabu, Amrita Rao and now Vidya Balan. Yes, M F Husain himself declares she’s the current creative livewire in his life.

‘Vidya is gorgeous!’: The man is quite enamoured with his latest muse. Ask him what’s that one thing about Vidya that captivates him and he gets lyrical. “She’s gorgeous and blessed with an earthiness, which enchants you. She has certain unique characteristics, which suit the main protagonist in my new film Comedy.com. I have already started working on the script. As the name suggests, it will be a full-on comedy, which will be subtle and not slapstick.

God willing, I will start the project as soon as Vidya allots me the dates.”

On the canvas of love: Along with casting her in his film, Husain is also looking forward to paint his beautiful muse.

“For me it’s all about vision and the image. So, the entire storyboard will first be painted with a series of paintings done on Vidya, before we start filming her. In fact, I’m waiting to paint her! I spoke to her last week and now I’m looking forward to meeting her,” says the besotted painter.

‘ITNE SAARE AAM!’: Ask him if he has missed his fave mangoes this summer being away from India, and Husain

replies with a throaty chuckle: “My friends in India have been sending me so many alphonsos in summer that I’m overwhelmed! Itne saare aam toh maine India main bhi nahin khaye! I guess when you are away, your friends remember you more! But, I’m really going to miss the bhuttas in the forthcoming monsoons.”

Winner of ‘Raavan’ contest Nilesh Patel, from Hounslow has won tickets to the Raavan contest announced in Asian Voice on page 28, issue dated June 12. The premiere date was wrongly printed as June 12. It will be held on June 16.

Asian Voice apologises for the inconvenience.

bollykats

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

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Kareena voted India’s most beautiful woman

Raavan A Maniratnam flick under the banner of Madras Talkies and Relaince Big Pictures, Raavan is an action and romance film.

The film is about Dev, Ragini and Beera.

Maniratnam has produced and directed the film, while Rensil D’Silva has written the story and the script of the film.

Dev falls in love with Ragini, a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. They get married and he takes up his new post in Lal Maati, a small town in northern India.

In this town, the world of law is not the police but Beera, a tribal. He has over the years shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the have-nots of the area.

Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case Beera.

In one stroke Dev manage to rip open Beera’s world, and set in motion a change of event which will claim lives, change fortune.

Beera, injured and enraged, hits back starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle that is dense, confusing and scary.

The jungle (forest) becomes the battleground - a battle between good and evil, between Dev and Beera, between Ram and Raavan.

Lead cast of the film consists of Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Chiyaan Vikram, Govinda, Nikhil Dwivedi, Ravi Kissen and Priyamani.

Gulzar has penned the lyrics while A R Rahman has set the music. Playback has been rendered by Kirti Sagathia, Vijay Prakash, Karthik, Sukhwinder Singh, Rekha Bhardwaj, Javed Ali, Anuradha Sriram, Reena Bhardwaj, Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi and Kunal Ganjawala.

New Hindi movies releasing this week 1. Raavan

Top 4 Bollywood movies for the week No. Film 1 2 3 4

Raajneeti Kites Badmaash Company Housefull

No. Last Week New 1 2 3

Total weeks 1 2 5 6

Bollywood beauty Kareena Kapoor was recently voted as India's most beautiful woman by the People Magazine.

Kareena, who features on the cover of the magazine credits her beauty to her fitness regime and her diet. The issue that takes readers through her growing up years also touches on questions like “When does she feel the most

beautiful”.

Says Kareena in an exclusive interview with People Magazine “I believe that you are what you eat”. The Czarina of the Bollywood Industry also goes on to reveal that her stable relationship and career have brought her peace of mind which shows on her face.

Indeed Kareena does have a lot going for her with the juiciest projects

denly snapped.

But the cool and composed lady didn’t let this to affect her. The experience of walking the ramp helped her. She quickly held on to the strap and went backstage. Lara’s presence of mind confirmed that no malfunction can unruffle her.

A source revealed that she looked a little uncomfortable when the photographer asked for her pictures. Sometimes these things are done for the

sake of publicity. But Lara is one of the most wanted actresses in industry and doesn’t really need such cheap publicity gimmicks.

From supermodel Carol Gracias to Bollywood actresses like Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Riya Sen, Kangana Ranaut, Samita Shetty, Freida Pinto as well as Celina Jaitley had become victims of wardrobe malfunction earlier.

and largest number of brands in her kitty.

Kareena is currently shooting for “Golmaal 3,” “Ra 1,” “Agent Vinod” and “Stepmom.” She recently also won the 'Quick Heal NDTV Tech Life Award for Best Celebrity Endorser'.

Lara had a wardrobe malfunction The latest incident of wardrobe malfunction occurred during the IIFA award ceremony held in Colombo this year. This time, it was the turn of the sizzling beauty, Lara Dutta, to bear the brunt of wardrobe malfunction.

Dressed in a beautiful low cut golden dress, Lara was present on the stage for the launch of a musical reality show of which she was the judge. While addressing the gathering, the strap of her dress sud-

US beauty to try her luck in Bollywood One more Caucasian beauty is all set to try her luck in Bollywood.

Sarah Thompson who plays Ranbir Kapoor's American girlfriend in “Raajneeti,” seems completely smitten by him.

She says that she's all set to make her move from the US to Bollywood. And has hired herself a Hindi tutor.

“When I started working on “Raajneeti” I knew no Hindi. That was okay.

I had to play a girl who doesn't know any Hindi and all I had to do was mutter a smattering of bad Hindi.”

But now Sarah has got herself a Hindi teacher. “I want to make a career in Bollywood. For that I need to know the lan-

guage. So I got myself a teacher. Ab mujhe Hindi bolne aati hai.”

She gushes, “I love India and Indian films.

Mumbai reminds me of New York. The same energy and bustle and now I want to be part of it.”

This is Sarah's third visit to India.

“I came for the first time to shoot in Bhopal for ‘Raajneeti’ and then I came to dub for the film. Now I'm back for the release and I'm nervous and anxious, yeah! I want to do more Bollywood films, and yes I am shifting to Mumbai.”

This time Sarah has come complete with a wish-list of Bollywood directors she wants to work with. “I want to meet Vishal Bhardwaj and Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra. In fact, I am meeting Rakeysh Mehra shortly.

I saw ‘Rang De Basanti’ and said to myself, 'Why couldn't I have played the British girl in the film?'

I've seen Vishal Bhardwaj's ‘Kaminey’ twice. He's another Bollywood director that I really want to work with.”

Sarah admits she had not heard of Prakash Jha when he offered her the role in ‘Raajneeti.’ “But when I met him and he narrated the role of Ranbir Kapoor's American girlfriend to me I knew that I had to do it.

He gave me his Gangaajal and Apaharan to watch. And that's how I was introduced to a totally new facet of Bollywood.

22

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Sultanpur Lodhi to be declared a holy town soon The Punjab government has given in-principle approval to declare Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district as a holy town in view of its religious and historical significance, an official said.

The decision was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal recently during a meeting of the Sultanpur Lodhi development board.

'Badal has directed the revenue department officials to finalise the modalities to declare Sultanpur Lodhi as holy town at the earliest. He has also asked the chairman of Punjab Powercom to provide 24hour uninterrupted power supply in the town,' a gov-

Gurudwara Ber Sahib - Sultanpur Lodhi

ernment spokesperson said.

Sultanpur Lodhi, one of the ancient towns of India, holds high significance in Sikh religious history.

The town has at least seven historical gurudwaras. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the religion,

spent several years of his life there.

New roads will be constructed and existing roads will be repaired in Sultanpur Lodhi on top priority, while Rs. 20 million will be allocated for the execution of sewerage and drinking water schemes.

Chemical, biological and radiation toxicity rampant in the state The adverse health effects on plants, animals and humans are visible and studies have proved this, said Dr Reyes Tirado, who conducted the study in 50 villages in Muktsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana districts last year under a Greenpeace Research Laboratories investigation.

The study found the effects of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in groundwater in agriculture intensive areas in three districts of Punjab. It showed that 20% of all sampled wells have nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg of nitrate per litre, established by WHO. Germany’s Microtrace Mineral Lab had revealed high levels of uranium in hair samples of mentally retarded children in Malwa region. With no source of uranium in Punjab, Carin added, “We were not testing for radioactive element but

heavy metal toxicity, which results in illhealth and premature death.”

Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, a known ecoactivist whose relentless efforts led to resuscitation of many rivers in Majha area of Punjab, said the Punjab government is drafting anti-pollution laws only on paper and not implementing these against those causing serious type of water and air pollution. He said harmful chemicals, including cyanide, was flowing from factories from Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Phagwara into drinking water sources, particularly of the Malwa region and the adjoining Rajasthan, as a result of which disease like cancer was prevalent in these areas. Everyday, 1,144 million litres of polluted water was being discharged into the Sutlej by various drains flowing through these industrial areas.

Divorce could become easier for Sikhs too A draft of Sikh Marriage Act under consideration

After the Indian cabinet last week gave a go-ahead for the amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act, making divorce easier, a similar move is under consideration for Sikhs also.

The Cabinet on Thursday cleared amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act, allowing the provision of ‘‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’’ to be included as ground for divorce.

Sources said a similar provision could be added to the draft Sikh Marriage Act that is currently under consideration with the law ministry.

At present, Sikhs are governed by the Anand Marriage Act of 1909 which the draft bill seeks to replace. The demand for a separate marriage Act stems from the need to

By Rajen Vakil

The Great Rishi Vyasa

Punjab fast turning into a toxic hotspot Punjab is in a deep ecological crisis with serious ramifications on the socio economic and cultural life of the people of state, researchers have warned.

What is more shocking and surprising - high levels of uranium was found in the hair samples of mentally retarded children and adults, while the toxicologist was looking for exposure to arsenic.

Dr. Reyes Tirado, a scientist from the University of Exeter, UK in his study found high levels of traces of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in the groundwater in three districts that are agriculture intensive, while Dr. Carin Smitt, a South African toxicologist found pathological levels of uranium in the hair samples of mentally retarded children and adults in the Malwa region. He was expecting for results of exposure to arsenic, but instead found this radioactive elements.

In divine light

register marriages solemnised under their religious ceremony Anand Karaj.

It is learnt that sports minister M S Gill intervened in the discussion on Hindu Marriage Act to say that similar provision for “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” should be made for Sikhs, adding that Anand Marriage Act was 50 years older. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it would require a separate proposal.

Gill said the community had pursued former law minister H R Bharadwaj with the demand but to no result.

Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee Paramjit Singh Sarna said the committee was in favour of a separate law to govern Sikh marriages. ‘‘We have separate set of Sikh rituals and we

would like to be registered under the Sikh Marriage Act rather than the Hindu Marriage Act as we have to do now. It is a matter of our identity and a legal recognition to Anand Karaj,” Sarna said.

He added there was no objection to adding a new provision to ease divorce proceedings. ‘‘We are willing to adopt all the provisions under Hindu Marriage Act as long as the Sikh rituals are given legal sanctity,’’ he said.

Sikhs have been demanding a separate Act for registration of marriages solemnised under Sikh traditions.

At present, Sikh marriages are registered either under the Hindu Marriage Act or the Special Marriage Act. Sikhs contend that their marriage rituals are different from that of Hindus.

Rishi Vyasa is said to be the author of the Mahabharata. It would be impossible, historically, to say anything about this great seer. As our study of this great epic goes deeper, the hidden mysteries start unravelling; then, we can only but bow down in astonishment as to what kind of a super human could have written this magnum opus. Today, let us try to look into the story of this great rishi and see what we can learn from it.

Rishi Parashara, the father of Indian astrology, wanted to cross the river Kalindi. As the ferryman was having lunch, his daughter Matsyagandha ferried the rishi across. She was called Matsyagandha because she was born from the stomach of a fish and her body always had the odour of one.

When the boat reached the middle of the river, Rishi Parashara realised that at this point in time all the planets were in their houses of exaltation and degree-wise perfect.

This point in time was the most powerful ever and a child conceived at that moment would go on to become a spiritually highly advanced superhuman. He created a fog around the boat and asked Matsyagandha to embrace him. He created an artificial island in the middle of the river where the play of love was enacted. The minute the act was over the smell of fish left her body and was replaced with the fragrance of musk.

Matsyagandha became pregnant immediately and the rishi blessed her saying that even after giving birth to a son, she would still remain a virgin. The rishi took a bath in the river and then took her leave. He told her that her son would be born with a divine essence, that he would become a famous teacher and would compile works of the rishis called the Vedas. He would be called Vyasa.

There was no time gap in the completion of Matsyagandha’s pregnancy and Vyasa was born immediately. He grew up immediately into a radiant young ascetic; taking leave of his mother, he went away into the forests to do penance.

Before leaving, he promised her that whenever she wished to see him, he would be there. Since Vyasa was born on an island, he was also

called Krishna Dwaipayana, or the ‘dark one’ of the island.

When we go into the root of the word Vyasa, we can derive many meanings: 1. Vi + as: the one who has a ‘vishesh asana’ or is sitting in a special way, a special posture. Man is a three brained being; he has a thinking centre, a feeling centre and an instinct/ moving centre. In today’s age, the thinking centre is overactive and hence, a lop-sided development of the centres exists. We think about everything, even if it is not meant to be a function of thinking.

For instance, love is a function of feeling, but we think about it all the time. Eating is a function of the instinct centre and body intelligence, but we keep calculating how much we should eat and how many vitamins we would need. It is very rare to see a person whose is centred or is in balance. Vyasa or a special way of sitting is personification of a person whose posture (among the centres) is totally balanced.

2. Diameter: That which divides a circle into two or gives rise to the duality of life.

Everything in life is cyclical but we normally look at things in pairs, for instance happiness and sorrow, love and hate, hot and cold. The one that can see both simultaneously is called Vyasa. We think day is different from night but the reason they seem different is because one cycle is divided into two.

When times are bad we cannot see good times, but both are part of one cycle and the one who can see the other end from one is called Vyasa.

3. Vyasa also means the compiler or distributor. He compiles the Vedas. The inner intelligence that knows where to use attention and how to direct and control the subtle energies in our body-brain system is also called Vyasa.

Vyasa was born of Rishi Parashara. We discussed how the rishi realised that it was the most valuable point in time, a point unique in the history of mankind, and so he entered into a union. Hence, Vyasa was not born out of excitement but his birth was a conscious act based on what Rishi Parashara foresaw. Parashara is a combination of the words ‘par’ and ‘shru’. Par

means beyond and shru means to join, that is to join with the beyond.

Parashara is a saint whose arrow of attention has joined with the divine or the very source of attention. He meets the ferry woman who smells of fish and she is the one who takes the boat from one shore to the other. In the Mahabharata, we see that Vyasa is the one who balances both, the spiritual and material sides (or the two shores of life).

Smell is a sign of the astral world. After death, the astral body feels hungry, and that is why we offer food to the departed. The purpose behind this is that the departed satisfy their hunger (or desire) through smell and had nothing to do with physical consumption of the food.

Matsyagandha losing the smell of fish and gaining the fragrance of musk reveals to us that she was then free of passions and desires that lie in the lower astral and psychic worlds, and rises above all of these, symbolised by the divine fragrance of musk.

Vyasa is born on the island, Dwaipa, created

by Rishi Parashara.

Dwaipa means the spiritual path that can only be travelled alone. Sage Patanjali calls the ultimate experience as ‘kaivalyam’ or that aloneness which is connected with everything in the universe or ‘all + oneness’. Vyasa is also called as Krishna or ‘the dark one’, symbolising the ultimate experience as to that of a black hole where everything dissolves and total emptiness remains.

This shows that Vyasa was born in the highest spiritual state possible for man.

This ultimate experience is both our right and destiny and the Mahabharata shows the different paths available for us to attain this experience. No words are enough to describe the greatness of Rishi Vyasa; we can only bow down in humility to this great rishi who created such an immortal scripture.

Next week, we shall look into the interaction between Lord Ganesha and Rishi Vyasa and how the Mahabharata came to be.

(Edited by Chintu Gandhi.)

The author can be reached by emailing 3srb@live.com

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

India to again ask for voice samples of Hafiz Saeed, Lakhvi India will seek to press Pakistan to hand over the voice samples of Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed and commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi when Union Home Minister P Chidambaram meets Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the bilateral engagements between the two neighbours during the SAARC Interior Ministers’ Conference

Bill on voting rights for NRIs cleared by GoM A group of ministers last week cleared a draft bill which aims to enable NRIs holding Indian passports to vote in Indian elections.

It is however conditional, that the concerned person should be present in the constituency where they could vote.

The idea of Internet voting was not acceptable to the Election Commission of India.

The provisions in the draft bill make it clear that in most of the cases, the bill, if it gets parliamentary approval, will enable only Indian students who are out of the country for studies or others who are working abroad but continue to hold Indian passport and citizenship to participate in elections.

The Representation of People's (Amendment) Bill was cleared by the GoM and will be taken up by the Union Cabinet soon.

Overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi said the GoM had cleared the bill and it would be introduced in Rajya Sabha as early as the next session. “This was a long standing demand of people holding Indian passports especially in the Gulf. We hope to bring it in the Cabinet soon,” Ravi said.

NRIs have been demanding voting rights for several years now.

While many associations had been campaigning for voting through the internet, the option did not find favour with Election Commission. According

to sources, concerns were raised about the modality of the process. “According to the present bill, Indians who are living abroad will be able to vote from their constituency. Their name will not be struck off the electoral list only on the basis of their absence,'' a source said.

There are an estimated 50 lakh NRIs globally and in a signal to their growing influence and strength, PM Manmohan Singh had announced in January that the government would make efforts to ensure that NRIs had voting rights by the next polls.

The GoM included Ravi, law minister Verrappa Moily and parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.

India and the US have agreed to work toward attaining equivalence of degrees in the higher education sector. Sharing this information, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who returned from his US tour, said the two countries were in agreement on the issue and standards would be evolved soon to ensure the equivalence.

If this arrangement

succeeds, management, medical, technical graduates and undergraduates would not need to pass a test in the US to get their degrees recognised. India is also working on equivalence issues with Australia, New Zealand and China. Two deliverables that Sibal mentioned for the President Barack Obama’s visit in November include the Indo-US Education

Council and the innovation universities. “We can constitute the council that I discussed with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Its first meeting for example can take place when the US President comes. Hillary was very positive about the proposal,” Sibal said. Moreover, Sibal said the US universities were excited about the idea of collaborating with India.

Concerned over the uproar on the Bhopal gas leak judgment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directed the Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by home minister P Chidambaram, to report to the cabinet within 10 days on all aspects relating to the tragedy.

Manmohan Singh directed that the GoM may meet immediately to take stock of the situation arising out of the recent court judgement, to assess the options and remedies available to the government on the various issues involved and to report to the cabinet within 10 days, a statement from the prime minister's office (PMO) said here.

The GoM, set up to look into all issues relating to the Bhopal disaster, was reconstituted recently with Chidambaram as the head of the panel.

The empowered GoM also comprises health and

family welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, law minister M Veerappa Moily, minister for urban planning S Jaipal Reddy, minister for roads and highways Kamal Nath, tourism minister Selja, minister for fertilisers and chemicals MK Alagiri, minister of state in the

PMO Prithviraj Chavan and environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

Madhya Pradesh's minister in-charge of rehabilitation will be a permanent invitee to the panel.

India received flak from all over the world on the poor judgement and the delay.

India, US agree to recognise each other’s degrees

Manmohan wants GoM report on Bhopal in 10 days

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later this month.

As per sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), India is expected to renew its demand for voice samples of the key LeT operatives so that it can match them with the voices of the handlers of the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

Gujarat Day celebrated in the New York State Assembly

To commemorate the completion of 50 years of formation of Gujarat state, Gujarat Day was celebrated in the New York State Assembly on June 09 in presence of leading Gujaratis settled in New Jersey.

Top: Albert Jasani, Manikant Patel,

Sunil Nayak,Dilip Chauhan -South Asian Community Leader and organizer of Gujarat Day Event in NYS Assembly,Jitu Parekh, Virendra Patel, Dr.Vitthal Dhaduk Below: Hiru Patel, Sudhir Vaishnav, Kirit Patel, Suresh Jaani, H.R.Shah, Jayanti Barot, Subhash Kapadia, R.D.Pat

Gujarat may get Israeli centre for excellence in horticulture Gujarat might soon have a centre for excellence in horticulture, Israeli Consul General Orna Sagiv has indicated.

Gujarat government has made a proposal to the Israel to set up centres for excellence in the state, as it wants the West Asian country to provide its

expertise in the field of agriculture. The proposal was given to an Israeli delegation that met several companies from the agricultural sector recently.

The delegation was headed by Sagiv.

Sagiv said, “Israel spends 4.7% of its budget on agriculture and rural

sector. We have set up centres for excellence in Haryana and Maharashtra and want to expand it now. Considering that Gujarat is the largest producer of cotton, sesame and groundnut in India, we will now forward this proposal to the Israeli government.”

24

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Bail plea adjourned, SPS Rathore in jail till 29 June Disgraced former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted for molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, continues to be in jail till at least June 29, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court adjourning his bail plea and revision

petition.

The vacation bench of the high court said the case would now be taken up by another appropriate bench June 29. Till then, his bail plea would remain pending in the court.

According to sources in the Burail jail here, Rathore, 68, is sharing a cell with seven other prisoners, most of whom are convicted cops. He is treated like any other ordinary convict and no VIP treatment is extended to him.

India signs 7 agreements for co-operation with Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa assures resettlement of all Tamils in 3 months Even as Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh stressed speedy resettlement of the Tamils in Sri Lanka who are still languishing in refugee camps, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured that the remaining displaced Tamils will be resettled in 3 months.

Indian and Sri Lankan delegations also discussed livelihood to the Sri Lankan Tamils, devolution of powers to provinces and negotiations with Tamil groups.

Wednesday last week, on the second day of the Sri Lankan President’s visit to India, the two countries signed seven agreements for co-operations in various fields.

The two leaders also touched on other bilateral and global issues such as stepping up trade and

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in New Delhi on Wednesday, 09 June.

investment, ensuring energy security and better cooperation in counterterrorism.

Mr. Rajapaksa assured reassured Dr. Singh about his Government’s plans to resettle refugees who continue to remain in camps.

He agreed with New Delhi’s perception that a sense of dignity and livelihood has to be ensured to

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the Tamil Nadu MPs in New Delhi

all those displaced by the war.

The Sri Lankan President also briefed the Prime Minister about his Government’s plans to settle the ethnic grievances and appreciated India’s assistance in relief and resettlement to the civilians caught in the war.

Of the seven agreements inked by both sides,

officials put store on the pact on interconnection of electricity grids which would help meet Sri Lanka’s energy needs. A pact in the railways would enable India take up the construction of the Talaimannar-Madhu railway line.

On the security side Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai and Secretary

Ajay Devgan to set up a solar power project in Gujarat

More and more Bollywood personalities are finding Gujarat interesting. They are also among the growing list of fans of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and impressed by development in the state.

Latest to join the Bollywood bandwagon to visit Gujarat was Ajay Devgan. The hero is interested in setting up a solar power project in Gujarat.

He called on Narendra Modi last week and discussed his interest in the project.

Speaking to the media after meeting the CM, Devgan expressed his admiration for the developmental strides made by Gujarat. He said, "I am

very impressed with all that Mr Modi has done for Gujarat. I admire his leadership abilities, and have wanted to meet him for very long."

Devgan said he has been hearing of Modi's

administrative skills, but it was only after meeting him that he realised what kind of leadership is needed in the country, and how progress is achieved.

Elaborating on the purpose of his visit, Ajay

said that he has plans to establish a solar power plant in the state, as well as a plant for production of natural colour. He is also looking for assistance with shooting in the state.

Devgan sought information on Gujarat's achievements, and congratulated the people on the occasion of the state's golden jubilee. He also recollected how, while shooting for a film in Kutch some time ago, he had found the backdrop extremely picturesque.

Inviting Modi to watch his recently released film 'Rajneeti', Devgan said he looks forward to acting in more films shot in Gujarat, in future.

about had already come to light in mandatory auditing by Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

“All the cases have been discussed in Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. Money has been recovered and criminal cases have been filed in each case,” a source said.

An HRD official also pointed out that post-procurement audit of 800 contracts was done by World Bank. “It found only 0.6% funds being diverted,” he said.

Allegations in UK media The UK media has alleged that millions of pounds of education aid from UK have been blown up by Indian officials in

purchasing luxury cars, TVs, Air conditioners, beds and things that have nothing to do with education.

In Bihar, even as children continue to study in

suggests that £4.8 mn were missing from the books of accounts.

One woman involved in the widespread fraud has been accused of siphoning off up to £6 mn

to the Sri Lankan President Lalith Weeratunge signed a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and MoU on transfer of settled prisoners. These agreements are said to stepping stones to greater security related partnership between the two countries.

Besides renewing a MoU on SDP schemes, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Sri Lanka High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam agreed on the setting up a centre to assist in the rehabilitation of war widows with help from the Ahmedabadbased Self Employed Women’s Association. The two officials also inked a MoU on renewing the cultural exchange programme.

MPs from Tamil Nadu call on Rajapaksa Sri Lankan president assured a delegation of DMK and Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu that over 54,000 Tamils displaced due to the civil war there will be resettled in their towns and villages within three months.

The visiting president also told the delegation led

by DMK Parliamentary Party leader TR Baalu that his government was committed to implement the 13th Amendment under the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord.

A total of 14 MPs from DMK and Congress, including DMK chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, former Union minister Manishankar Aiyar and EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, called on Rajapaksa.

Lankan minister Devananda a fugitive in India Douglas Devananda, Sri Lanka minister for traditional industries and small enterprises development was a part of the Sri Lankan delegation that visited India last week. He became a source of embarrassment, atleast for India after it was discovered that Devananda is declared a fugitive, a proclaimed offender in India and an arrest warrant against him was pending in the state of Tamil Nadu.

But as Douglas Devananda was a part of the official Sri Lankan delegation and a visiting dignitary, he enjoyed full diplomatic immunity.

Devananda was declared a proclaimed offender and an absconding accused by a sessions

court in Tamil Nadu in connection with a shootout-cummurder in Chennai in 1986. In November 1986, Devananda, then a member of the separatist movement Eelam People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRLF) in Sri Lanka, and nine others were charged with opening fire with automatic weapons at locals in Choolaimedu in Central Chennai, injuring five people. Devananda has three cases pending against him. However, when he was confronted with the issue, Devananda said he knew nothing about the cases pending against him. He said he thought he was among all those political leaders pardoned in India later.

gations. I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused. The new British Government will have a zero tolerance policy to corruption”.

A report in the ‘News of The World’ alleged that even Indian inspectors blasted the misuse of money meant for poor students – children up to the age of 14.

India is the single largest recipient of UK’s overseas aid and received an estimated £1 billion between 2003 and 2008.

Various reports by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General, ministry of human resources development and others have reportedly exposed shock-

ing instances of corruption of an unprecedented scale.

In one of the cases, £70 mn were found to have simply vanished. In another instance, 2,369 nonexistent schools were allocated tens of thousands of pounds.

Four luxury beds were purchased at a cost of £17,754 in another case.

In yet another shocking instance, £150,000 was paid into a mystery bank account and no reasons were given for that. In many schools which do not have electricity connections, money was spent on purchasing air conditioners, colour TVs, fax machines and photo copiers.

India refutes charges of misusing British education aid funds

Continued from page 1 Further, the agency helps with reimbursements, and not grants. The DFID aid for past three years is worth Rs 15 billion out of the total spending of Rs 50 billion on the programme.

The HRD ministry official said, “There seems to be a communication gap between DFID and the British government. DFID funds SSA on reimbursement basis and not as a grant. The scope of diversion of funds is more when funds come as grant.

Reimbursement is sought after proper auditing has been done.”

Sources said most of the cases being talked

• Indian HRD ministry says UK DFID provides reimbursement, not grants, their contribution is not as huge as media reports claim • Other charges say £70mn vanished in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan open, more than half of the money were not passed on to schools for undertaking repairs of classrooms. Media reports in UK and India say UK aid for children’s education in India is worth £340 mn, while another report

from the funds, even using £44,000 of it to make a movie directed by her son.

Mitchell launches inquiry Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for I n t e r n a t i o n a l Development, said: “These are shocking alle-

25

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

A sex shop thrives in Bahrain Manama: Where does one buy lingerie and sex toys designed to enhance female sexual pleasure in a Gulf region which frowns on open displays of sexuality?

From a lady in a traditional headscarf of course.

Khadija Ahmed’s sex shop has survived against all odds

and intense scrutiny from customs officials since it opened in Bahrain in 2008. Ahmed’s shop sells a wide range of lingerie, creams to delay male orgasm and sex toys out of the tiny Khadija Fashion House south of Manama, or through her website to customers across the region.

Israel sets up inquiry into deadly Gaza flotilla raid Rejects UN proposal for an international probe, agrees to include 2 foreign observers Jerusalem: Israel has ordered an internal inquiry into its deadly raid last month on a convoy of Gaza-bound aid ships.

Israel earlier rejected a UN proposal for an international probe, but has now agreed to include two foreign observers in its own inquiry.

Nine Turkish activists were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ships in international waters on 31 May. Meanwhile, Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair says he hopes Israel

116 Indians evacuated from Kyrgyzstan Osh: One hundred and fifteen Indian students and a professor, who were trapped in Kyrgyzstan's southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad, wracked by ethnic violence, have been safely evacuated.

Sources in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the Indian mission in Kyrgyzstan, in active cooperation with Kyrgyz authorities, succeeded in pulling the students and one professor of Indian Council for Cultural Relations out of Osh and taking them to Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

Meanwhile, the riots have claimed the life of one Pakistani student while 266 were rescued and brought back to Pakistan.

Over 100 dead in riots The ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan have left more than 100 people dead while over 80,000 refugees, mainly Uzbeks, have fled the country.

The interim government in Kyrgyzstan has declared a state of emergency in and around the city of Osh.

will allow more humanitarian items into Gaza.

Washington, meanwhile, welcomed the announcement of the inquiry, describing it as "an important step forward".

Three-man panel is headed by ex-supreme court judge Yaakov Tirkel.

Other members are Amos Horev, a retired military officer; and Shabbtai Rosen, a professor of international law. Two foreign observers David Trimble and Ken Watkin will consider how nine

Turkish activists died after their ship was boarded by Israeli commandos Will also adjudge whether Israel's naval blockade of Gaza is allowed under international law.

But Turkey's foreign minister said in Ankara that he had "no trust at all" that Israel would conduct an impartial investigation.

Mr Blair said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed in principle to move from a list of items that are currently permitted into Gaza into a list of

prohibited goods - and that was a "significant change".

Mr Blair added that the Israeli government would consider the plan in the coming days.

He was speaking before briefing European Union foreign ministers at talks on the Gaza blockade in Brussels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said Israel's blockade of Gaza is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

United Nations: The US pushed through a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran on last week in yet another attempt to pressure Tehran over its nuclear programme.

The new sanctions took months to negotiate, but did not carry the symbolic weight of a unanimous Security Council decision. Twelve of the 15 nations voted for the measure, while Turkey and Brazil voted against and Lebanon abstained.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the latest sanctions, saying that they are “annoying flies, like a used tissue”.

Susan E Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said the body had “risen to its responsibilities” by approving the measure, and that “now Iran should choose a wiser course”.

Diplomats from Brazil and Turkey, which negotiated a deal with Iran last month to send some of its

low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for access to fuel for a medical reactor, criticised the sanctions, saying they could undermine further attempts at diplomacy.

Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Brazil’s representative to the UN, said “we do not see sanctions as an effective instrument in this case”. The five permanent Security Council nations that negotiated the new sanctions also left the door open to new diplomacy.

Washington: People of Indian origin have emerged as the thirdlargest immigrant group in the United States in 2008 after Mexicans and Filipinos.

There were 2.3 million members of the Indian diaspora residing in the US in 2008, including 4,55,000 nativeborn US citizens of Indian ancestry.

Between 2007 and 2008, the number of Indian immigrants surpassed the number of Chinese and Hong Kong-

born immigrants for the first time since at least 1960, according to a new report from the migration policy institute, a Wa s h i n g t o n think tank.

I n d i a n immigration to the US, a fairly recent phenomenon, grew rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s, the report noted. In addition, people with Indian ancestry have also immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean, East Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

UN slaps new sanctions, Iran defiant

1.6 mn Indians make US their home

Sikhs outraged as Kiwi club refuses to lift turban ban Auckland: The dispute between the New Zealand-Sikh community and an Auckland club seems to be far from being resolved, as the club has decided to maintain a ban on wearing 'turbans' in its bar.

The Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club held a poll during its annual meeting on Sunday, in which about 75 per cent members said that they wanted to maintain its policy forbidding the headwear.

The vote was held after

Karnail Singh was barred from entering the club in November last year for not removing his turban.

Club manager Patricia Rangi said that there was a long discussion on the issue, but refused to reveal the details.

The Sikh Council of New Zealand Secretary, Verpal Singh said that he was surprised at how many people voted against the motion.

He also said that the council was considering using the Human Rights Review Tribunal, though it

was waiting for written confirmation of the proceedings.

"We are disappointed that the decision didn't go in our favour. Something that was surprising to us was that of 300 people that voted, there were over 200 who voted against it," Stuff.co.nz quoted Verpal, as saying.

"It's a bit of a wake up call to our community that we have a job to communicate to wider New Zealand society about the importance of the turban to us," he added.

Chinese youth arrested for Indian cabbie’s murder in NZ Melbourne: Auckland police have identified and managed to arrest a Chinese youth for the brutal murder of an Indian taxi driver in January this year. Hiren Mohini, the 39 year old taxi driver was stabbed to death on 31st January. By the time police were able to identify the suspect, he had fled. He was recently arrested from Shanghai late last week. According to Auckland district court files the arrested man is Zhen Xiao. Hywel Jones, the detective senior sergeant headed the murder investigation and is at present in China, helping the authorities there with evidential matters.

CCTV pictures of the man believed to have committed the murder helped police to search his Auckland apartment, but he had fled by then. An arrest warrant was issued by the District Court on February 26. A nation-wide appeal by the Taxi Federation has raised more than USD 100,000 for the Mohini family.

Man gets jail and 90 lashes for kissing in Saudi mall Riyadh: A Saudi court has convicted a man and sentenced him to four months in prison and 90 lashes for kissing a woman in a mall, a government-owned daily reported last week. Saudi religious police arrested the man and two women after seeing them on mall cameras “engaging in immoral movements in front of other shoppers,” the Al-Yom newspaper said.

The man, who is in his 20s, was seen with a woman “sitting on one of the chairs, exchanging kisses and hugs”. It was unclear what the other woman was doing. Neither the man nor the women were identified by name. Such kissing busts have increased in Saudi Arabia as economic pressures have made it harder for young couples to marry. Young men often must pay more than $50,000 in dowry and gold before their brides’ families will accept marriage.

26

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Sri Lanka arrests kissing couples Colombo: Sri Lankan police have rounded up hundreds of young lovers for kissing in public following complaints that the overt displays of affection caused embarrassment to others, an official said. Nearly 200 couples have been briefly detained in the districts of Matara and Kurunegala over the past two weeks, police spokesman Prashantha Jayakody said.

"We have taken them into custody for indecent behav iour at a public place," Jayakody said. "Usually we free them after informing their parents. Charges are not pressed."

A resident in the town of Matara, 160 km (100 miles) south of Colombo, said young couples were sometimes acting intimately on the beach as many could not afford the privacy of hotels.

Mass marriage for 53 former LTTE rebel couples in Vavuniya Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi, Namal Rajapaksa among the VVIP guests Colombo: Fifty-three former LTTE rebel couples tied the nuptial knot at Pampaimdu in Vavunia district of Sri Lanka on Sunday, June 13. Popular Bollywood star Vivek Oberoi and Namal Rajapaksa, the first time MP as well as son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among the VVIP guests who attended the ceremony. All the 53 couples were issued marriage certificates.

This young Sri Lankan Tamils were among those

LTTE cadres who had surrendered before the Sri Lankan army during the decisive civil war between the LTTE and the army last year. They were among many more that spent around a year in the custody of the Sri Lankan army. During their detention, a rehabilitation process was carried. The surrendered cadres were given vocational training as also an awareness about the civil society.

The army had also made attempts to bring

parents of as many men or women who got married at the ceremony to attend the marriage and give their consent.

Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe, said most of the ex-combatants had been living together without formalising their relationship.

"Some have children.

It's only fair we legalise their marriages as part of their rehabilitation process," Ranasinghe said.

;/ "

Hindu and Christian priests conducted the wedding with the Registrars of Marriages summoned to do the needful. The crowd that gathered to witness the wedding was served ladoos and cakes on the occasion.

Defence minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa also met the rehabilitated former LTTE cadres earlier last week.

In all, there were about 148 university students among the cadres, including 51 girls.

Empire State Building says 'no' to honour Mother Teresa New York: New York City's Empire State Building said "yes" to Mariah Carey, dog shows, cancer charities - and even the 60th anniversary of communist China. But the landmark skyscraper's owners have declined to illuminate it in honour of the late Mother Teresa.

"They're bigots! They have an animus against Catholics!"

Catholic League President Bill Donohue said. He said his lay advocacy group requested that the building glow on August 26 for the centennial of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner's birth. The request was denied in an unsigned,

Hindu Council of NZ to celebrate Raksha Bandhan in a big way

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faxed letter, Donohue said, "and they never gave an explanation." He said Empire State Building officials were "stonewalling" not only the Catholic League, but also the media and members of New York's City Council.

Now, another prominent New York Catholic is voicing her outrage.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that she spoke with Empire State Building owner Anthony Malkin. Although the real estate mogul was "very professional" and said he "would reflect on the points I made," she said, he didn't give her a satisfactory answer.

Official TV Media Partner Sponsored Charity

Auckland: The Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associations (HOTA) Forum will be celebrating Raksha Bandhan in a big way in New Zealand on August 29 at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland. The Hindus festival is organized to promote universal fellowship and to venerate womanhood.

Hindu Council of New Zealand is the first year host of the HOTA Forum, and will take initiative in celebrating the festival this year with support from all other Forum members. Mr Vinod Kumar and Ms Mamta Bhikha are the Chairperson and Secretary (and coordinator) of the organising committee, respectively. Mr Chandra Shekhar Monga and Mr S Subbiah are the joint coordinators.

“Hindu Mandir Executive Committee of USA has been organising their conferences since 2006. It started off with a small number but now more than 100 temples participate in such meetings.

Similarly, we believe HOTA forum will have more members with time to come” said Mr Vinod Kumar, President of Hindu Council of New Zealand.

“HOTA Forum will organise the Raksha Bandhan Festival annually to bring the Forum members closer, develop understanding and promote collaborative project based work among them on social issues in a better way” said Mr Chandra Shekhar Monga, spokesperson for the Forum. All willing Hindu organisations, temples, associations are welcome to participate. Each one of the members in HOTA Forum will get an opportunity to host the programme on a rotation basis annually. New Zealand Hindu Temple Society will be the host of the HOTA forum in 2011.

“Classical dance groups, musical groups/performer groups and some folk dances have also been invited to perform in this programme” Mr Subbiah, cultural programme coordinator said.

The festival will have Indian classical dances, folk dances, vocal and instrumental music and music and dances from other cultures such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai.

The HOTA Forum was launched during the 3rd New Zealand National Hindu conference on 15th May, 2010.

Coordinators of the festival celebrations can be contacted through email: nz_hota@yahoo.com or on phone: Ms Mamta Bhikha - 021 227 9785; Mr Chandra Shekhar Monga - 021 171 6305 and Mr S Subbiah - 021 205 0347

27

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Zardari, Nawaz fooling people, says Imran Khan Islamabad: Cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan has threatened both President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz founder Nawaz Sharif, saying that he would 'bowl them out with a single delivery. Addressing a public gathering in Rahwali near Gujanwala, Imran said both Nawaz and Zardari were fooling the people of the country while trying

to protect the whole 'corrupt system,' The Dawn reports. "We will bowl out Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari on a single ball," the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief said, adding that he would soon come up with a 'whitepaper' against the corrupt PML-N leadership. Imran also vowed to make door-to-door visits in the province to unveil the Sharif brothers' corruption.

China on verge of signing N-deal with Pak US to object deal as it appears to violate international guidelines New Delhi: China is on the verge of unveiling a nuclear deal with Pakistan that will, in effect, be "cocking a snook" at the world as it will be outside the purview of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a noted security expert said on Monday.

After the exception the NSG accorded to India in 2008 to enable the implementation of its civilian nuclear pact with the US, Pakistan had sought a similar deal from

15 killed in US drone strike

Islamabad: At least 15 people were killed and 10 wounded in US drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area on Friday. The drone fired four missiles at a house in Datta Khel area, killing four people on the spot, Xinhua quoted a news channel as saying.

The injured were rushed to a hospital as 11 people succumbed to injuries later, the private Geo News channel reported, citing local sources.

Several others were in critical condition.

Meanwhile, drone flights are still hovering over the area creating panic among the locals, the report said. It is the second US strike in North Waziristan region, the stronghold of Taliban militants, in two days.

Washington and after having been turned down, "it now appears that China will soon announce its deal with Pakistan to export two nuclear reactors", Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhaskar, director of think tank National Maritime Foundation (NMF), said.

"This will be without NSG concurrence and despite the many misgivings about Pakistan's track record, its linkages to ter-

ror and radical ideologies," he said, while addressing a seminar here on "Nuclear Arsenals post-2010", organised by the Indian Navy-funded NMF. "One can infer that this is the equivalent of China announcing its own autonomy in the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) domain and that the US is no longer the determining factor in nuclear matters," Bhaskar contended.

"In effect, this would

mean that China is cocking a snook at the NSG, the US and the rest of the world," he added.

Tracing Pakistan's missile and nuclear acquisitions and the upcoming deal with China, he said these had "many grave implications" for the region - and particularly India.

US concerned over deal The Obama administration has, meanwhile, decided to object to a China-Pakistan civilian

Classified data stolen from Gilani’s secretariat

Islamabad: A substantial amount of official data of the Pakistan Prime Minister's Secretariat, including some classified documents, has been stolen by persons employed on short-term contracts who accessed a secure computer system.

The kind of classified information that was stolen was not immediately clear though the Dawn newspaper quoted a source as saying that the head of a multi-million rupee project to computerise and safeguard government data had "run away with classified data".

A complaint about the stolen data has been lodged with the executive director of the Electronic Government Directorate

Yousuf Raza Gilani

by the manager of the information system at the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the source said.

In the complaint, information system manager Farhan Karim Jaskani said: "Mr TR transferred the classified data from PM's secretariat database without prior permission of the joint secretary (admin)...which was later proved in the office of the

David Coleman Headley

anonymity.

However, there has been no official statement from Pakistan regarding sharing of details of Headley's interrogation.

A four-member National Investigation Agency (NIA) team quizzed Headley for over a week recently, drawing

information about his role in the ghastly Mumbai attacks.

According to a statement issued by the US Justice Department, Headley and his counsel answered all queries of Indian investigators in a series of interviews starting June 3.

The statement further added that both New Delhi and Washington have agreed not to disclose any detail of Headley's interrogation in order to protect the secrecy of the probe surrounding the November 2008 terror attack.

Headley was arrested by the US Federal Bureau

Hindu trader shot dead in Quetta

joint secretary...while the said official (TR) admitted this." A senior security official described the incident as a serious breach of security. "The data was stolen from the database server of the PM's secretariat, clearly exposing the weak information security protocols in place," he told the newspaper.

The official said that a strict security protocol for protecting information and the system from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction was not followed in this case.

Data such as approvals

by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his staff and other classified information are stored on the server.

of Investigation (FBI) in October 2009 for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.

During his interrogation, he also confessed to his role in the Mumbai attacks in which Pakistani terrorists killed 166 people and injured over 200 others.

Headley,49, told US interrogators that he had conducted a reconnaissance of the Mumbai sites before the attacks, having visited the country several times.

Headley has pleaded guilty on all 12 criminal counts against him, including his role in the 26/11 attacks conspiracy.

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come up before the 46nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting next week in New Zealand, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

State Department spokesman Gordon DuGuid said the US government “has reiterated to the Chinese government that the United States expects Beijing to cooperate with Pakistan in ways consistent with Chinese non-proliferation obligations.”

IN foCus

Pak seeks details of Headley interrogation

Islamabad: Pakistan wants both India and the US to share details of the interrogation of David Coleman Headley, the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative who is currently in America's detention, so that the 'myth' surrounding the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks is unearthed.

"Although India and the US are not bound to share findings of investigation, however, they need to share them with Pakistan in order to unearth the myth of Mumbai attack," The Nation quoted a top Pakistani official, as saying on conditions of

nuclear deal for establishing two atomic reactors in Pakistan, as it comes before the Nuclear Suppliers Group next week.

Experts have said that the deal appears to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.

The China-Pakistan nuclear deal is expected to

Islamabad: A prominent Hindu trader was shot dead and his son kidnapped in Quetta last week. The incident is illustrative of the plight of minorities in Pakistan.

According to reports, Rajesh Kumar, a rice dealer, and his son Hamesh were near their shop on Maddrasa Road, Satellite Town, when four men tried to abduct Hamesh. When Rajesh resisted, the men opened fire, injuring him seriously. They took away Hamesh with them. Rajesh was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead. "The four kidnappers were in Levies Force (a paramilitary organisation) uniform," The Nation quoted a senior police officer as saying. Many businessmen and others belonging to the Hindu community gathered outside the hospital and staged a demonstration against the government for failing to curb crime against minorities in the capital of the Balochistan province, after the incident. "Incidents of kidnapping for ransom are increasing with every passing day and people are being killed. But the government is reluctant to take action against the culprits," said Rahim Kakar, president, Anjuman-i-Tajran Balochistan.

Gilani’s daughter barred from sending son abroad in a custody case Lahore: Acting on a petition filed by her estranged husband, a Pakistani court has barred the daughter of PM Yousuf Raza Gilani from sending her nine-year-old son out of the country. Khurram Khan, the estranged husband of Gilani's daughter Fizza Batool, filed a petition in a guardian court in Lahore in which he sought custody of his son Asfandyar. He said in the petition that he feared Fizza, who belongs to an influential family, could send the minor boy to a place where he would be out of the jurisdiction of Pakistani courts. Responding to the petition, the guardian court restrained Fizza from taking the boy out of Pakistan.

'Halal' version of Facebook is a hit Islamabad: The "halal" version of Facebook launched

by Pakistanis last month after a ban was imposed on the social networking website for featuring blasphemous caricatures is going strong with 333,000 users having signed up at the last count. Millatfacebook.com, or "MFB" for short, was launched by six tech-savvy Pakistanis following a furore over the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed on Facebook. The Urdu word "millat" is used by Muslims to refer to their nation. "Dear brother/sister, congratulations and salam to over 330,000 Muslims already united as one Millat/Ummah at MFB.

Pak FM hails Manmohan’s Kashmir speech

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Istanbul: Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has hailed Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s speech in Kashmir and described it as visionary. While speaking to the media on the sidelines of the third Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit in Istanbul last week, he said the forthcoming visit of Indian foreign S M Krishna to Pakistan and the meeting between the two ministers would be a confidence building measure.

28

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

This week on CB Live Kokila Patel, Executive Editor, Gujarat Samachar will speak to Pujya Gitaben Shah, Head of the Gita Mandir at Vadodara who is well-known for her varied contribution in the fields of religion, education, social welfare, health and awareness of women issues. Mrs Patel will also interview Bhavisha Tailor, a brave cancer survivor and devotee of Swami Narayan.

Sneh Joshi - 020 8518 5500

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To ask questions please call on: 020 8963 1001

For more information e-mail:

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Only on CB Live - MATV Sky 793 - Thursday 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Pushti Panch Tatva Mahotsav celebrated in London

Coming Events l The Indian Portrait exhibition exploring Indian artists work over three centuries in depicting human form and changing role of portraiture today. Till June 20. National Portrait Gallery St Martin's Place London WC2H 0HE l Hip Hop Yoga classes held by rapper Neil Patel incorporating the popular music genre and the ancient Indian practice. He has been teaching since 19 years. Classes are held at a different London club every Monday between 7-8.30 pm.

See www.hiphopyoga.co.uk for details.

The five elements of Pushti Dharm were presented at the Sattavis Patidar Centre for the first time in London from May 21 to May 23.

Thousands of Vaishnavs attended the three-day recitation of the Panch Tatvas by Vaishnavacharya Shree D w a r k e s h l a l j i Mahodaishree from Kadi, Ahmedabad. He was accompanied by Krishnadas Nayak, a kirtan singer from Ahmedabad. Each day had vachnamrut theme on the different tatvas along with elaborate dec-

oration of the stage based on the day's theme.

The other ceremonies included Bhajan Sandhya, Ras garba, Janoi Ceremony of Deep Lakhani, Mala Pehramni for Late Mrs Otamben Kanjibhai Lakhani, and Loti Utsav. The presentation from the Vaishnav Sangh of UK was appreciated by Acharyashree.

Manorath Darshan was open to public in the evening.

The event was organised by Mahendra & Subhash Kanjibhai Lakhani.

You will progress by focusing your mental and physical energies on what you want to achieve. The underlying trend seems to be pulling you into a much wider social circle now. This will enrich your life and give you a deeper sense of purpose. The prevailing pattern of planets gives you a marvellous opportunity take advantage.

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

l Walk with the Lions- Lions Club of Sudbury has organized a 10 km charity walk to raise funds for the Krishna Avanti School in Harrow. The day also includes face painting, raffle tickets, Indian music, free food and drinks. On Sunday, June 20 at Fryent Country Park from 10am to 2pm Contact Viren Hindocha-07960 063 054 l Queensbury Eco-Cultural Festival organized by Friends of Eton Park. Enjoy music, dance and food stalls. On Sunday June 27 from 12pm to 5pm. www.etongrovepark.co.uk. For further information contact Kanta Mistry 020 8204 0165 l Rath-yatra Festival of Chariots where thousands of devotees will pull three 40 feet high chariots carrying deities of Lord Jagannatha, Lady Subhadra and Lord Balarama. It also includes workshops, music, food, sari draping and face-painting. On Sunday June 20. Procession will take place from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square between 12pm to 2.30pm and the festival will conclude at Trafalgar Square at 5.30pm. Contact the Radha Krishna Temple, London W1V 5DA Tel: 0207437 3662

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 This is a favourable time for getting away from usual routines and seeking a retreat for a few days. All the better if you are interested in such things as meditation, yoga and therapies that help you. This will prove to be highly beneficial for your physical and psychological well-being.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

Your thinking is inspired, so listen to your thoughts. This may be a time of expansion and opportunity and it would be unwise to let yourself become complacent. The need to push ahead with personal interests and to assert yourself with added force will take precedence over everything else for some time to come.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 You will feel energetic and confident as the week begins. New beginnings are favoured around now, as long as you do not bite off more than you can chew. Your thinking is inspired, so listen to your thoughts. This may be a time of expansion and improved opportunity and it would be unwise to let yourself become complacent.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

Take some time out to reflect. Try and work out where you want to make changes in your busy life.

Once you know, don't hesitate to implement it systematically. A tremendous amount of planetary activity in your chart signals a time of mixed emotions as well as personal issues to be dealt with.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23 Get out as much as possible. Do not be misled by inconsequential issues as you will have better opportunities if you stick to your main objectives. The domestic scene will be active and harmonious as long as you use tact and diplomacy. This is also a time when you will develop fresh insights into other people.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 Having all the major planets above the horizon in your solar chart shows that the general pattern of events will focus your attention on the need to make an impact on the world.

Although the very practical affairs of life continue to be highlighted, you will be very much in demand socially.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 It is a good time for dealing with financial interests with a long-term basis, such as investments, insurance and all jointly held resources. You will be able to sort out any difficulties by taking immediate action. Therefore you will need to adopt a fairly flexible policy to accommodate the odd twists and turns of everyday life.

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SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 This week should see you at the peak of your creative powers. It’s an exciting, expansive time, when you should find it easier to be who you are and do what you want. This is a tremendously exciting time for you, in which you can embrace changes you might not even consider at other times.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

If lately you have had all sorts of demands being placed on you from all sides, don't despair; take some time out to reflect. Try and work out your priorities. Once you know, don't hesitate to implement it systematically. A tremendous amount of planetary activity in your chart signals a time for change.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

With Venus, Mars well placed in your chart, this is a good time for your social as well as your love life. If you’re single you are likely to meet the person of your dreams and this could lead to a permanent relationship for some of you. You could also benefit at work through a promotion.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20 Business partnerships are tested, some of them could challenge your authority. Now is the time to cultivate an easier relationship with life, get out and about, explore fresh possibilities.

Once you set your mind on a goal you stay the course no matter what obstacles you encounter.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

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Basie music Salon offering Heat-resistant glass Winglike parts Part of LAN China brand Coal containers Maddux or Norman Cromwell’s earldom Fireballs hit JFK info Syr. neighbor

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Popular place Loading places Squalid Outback bird Verb-forming suffix Floral necklace Seize Guns N’ Roses hit Gloomy effect “The Bronx___” Clean air grp.

Taxi Bombards

sCRAMBLE - 57

Rearrange the letters in the four word jumbles, one letter to each square/circle, to make four ordinary words IREEE

How to play

Now arrange the letters in the circles to form the answer to the riddle or to fill in the missing word as indicated

LLORs EEHRCO ARssKP

If winning isn’t everything, why do they ___ _____? (4, 5)

solution of scramble - 56

13 Tic-tac-toe winner 21 “Liebestraume” composer 22 Antioxidant ion 26 Actress Gilpin 27 Muscat’s land 28 Hollow cylinder 30 German port 32 Author of ‘Adam Bede’ 35 Scaly inflammation 37 Bus. school entrance exam 38 Pet protection grp.

39 Female military grp.

40 Isle of exile 41 Pilgrimage destination 42 Offer a view 47 Gray shade 48 Bit of clowning 50 Outpatient facility 51 Horsedrawn carriage 52. Ms. Minieus 54 Dance music 56 Agitate 59 Swiss painter 60 Old Italian coin 61 NFL passers 62 Mary of ‘Where eagles Dare” 63 One in Emden

49 In need of scratch 53 Annapolis or West Point 55 QVC rival 57 Wash rm.

58 Johnny Cash hit 61 Pursuit 64 Inter ___ (among others) 65 Part of VMI 66 Fanny of vaudeville 67 Head support 68 Prison uprising 69 Toledo mister 70 Astronaut Slayton 71 Zenith Down 1 Poked 2 Former S.F. mayor 3 Stomach acid inhibitor brand 4 Soap band 5 Beeps 6 Missteps 7 Coral formation 8 Automative bling 9 Ample amount 10 Affirmative answers 11 Hosp. staffers 12 Want-ad abbr.

Solution of Crossword-91

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Words: know, known, UNKNOWN

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WHATZIT? - 92

Answer: What lies behind us and what lies before us are tine matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

LOOP THE LOOP - 57

MINDBENDER - 92 Can you complete this sentence using words which are anagrams of each other?

“At the school recently, only the ==?== students could solve the ==?== equation.” solution of 91 : 4!*4! + sqrt($)/.4=581

sudoku-92

Today’s Ratings: 03-average | 04-good | 05-outstanding

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How many words of four or more letters can you make from the letters shown in today’s puzzle? In making a word, each letter may be used once only. Each word must contain the central letter. There should be at least one seven-letter word. Plurals, foreign words and proper names are not allowed. British English Dictionary is used as reference.

solution of spellathon - 91 : cope, crept, crop, pert, poet, pore, port, potter, PROTECT, rope, tope 20

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KAKURO - 92

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Rules Connect adjacent dots with vertical or horizontal lines, creating a single loop.

(Fig A).

Crossovers or branches are not allowed 3 3 3 3 3 (As shown by dotted lines in Fig B).

1 1 2 Numbers in the puzzle indicate the 2 3 3 number of lines that should 1 2 surround it, while empty cells may 1 3 2 3 be surrounded by any number of 1 0 2 2 lines.

You can’t draw lines arround 2 3 3 3 3 zeroes.

Each puzzle has just one unique solution.

How to begin: Example (Fig A) - Begin with the zero next to 3. Since no lines can be drawn around zero, mark crosses around it, as shown. Now there is a cross in one space around 3. So we know the three lines of 3 can only be drawn in the remaining three spaces. Next these lines can only be extended in one direction each. Continue, using the same Solution of LTL No. 56 logic. x x x x Hints: Keep elimix x nating possibili3 3 3 x x x x ties by marking x x 1 x 3 1 x 2 crosses in spaces x x x x between dots x x 1 x x 3 3 where a line isn’t x x x possible, i.e., if x 1 x x 0 x x you 2 2 x have already x x x x c o m p l e t e d x 2 x 2 3 3 required lines or x x x x x where a line x x x x 1 2 3 1 2 extension may x x x x create a branch or x x cause a deadend 3 3 2 3 x x (Fig B)

Find the familiar phrase, saying or name in this arrangement of letters.

sPELLATHON -92

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The numbers in the pink squares refer to the sums of the digits that you must fill into the empty spaces directly below or to the right of the pink square containing the number. For instance, in the given example, the 2 boxes below 12 must contain 2 digits that add upto 12, whereas for 20, the 3 boxes places horizontally next to it must add upto 20.

No zeroes are used here, only the digits one through nine.

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solution of sudoku-91 HOW TO PLAY Each row, column and square 3x3 box is a subgrid of 9 cells. Fill in the grid so that each sub-grid contains the digits 1 to 9.

Every puzzle has one solution.

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A digit cannot appear more than once in any particular digit combination. For instance in the example, we cannot have the combination of 8+4+8 for 20.

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www.abplgroup.com

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Any que stio

Sunburn care

Everyone has experienced the discomfort and even pain of a sunburn at some point in their lives. Nature provides a host of easy relief that even medical science can't seem to surpass.

The first step in treating a sunburn should always be to submerge the burned area in cool water for at least ten minutes to take out the heat and stop the burning effect.

moisten a cloth and be used as a compress. It is cooling and soothing, and promotes rapid healing.

On severe burns, it may sting at first, but then will cool.

Other Essential Oils for Sunburn Relief • Tea tree - also highly recommended to

Aloe Vera, the Top Treatment for Sunburn Nearly every list of things to do for sunburn – both holistic and medical – recommend Aloe Vera at the top of the list.

Lavender Essential Oil Almost as commonly cited for sunburn relief as aloe, is lavender essential oil. Unlike many essential oils, it can be applied neat (without being diluted) to the skin; it can also be added to a cool bath or diluted with water to

soothe and heal burns, and like lavender, it can be used either neat or diluted.

• Eucalyptus - highly cooling and can be used in a compress.

• Peppermint - cools considerably as well, but should not be used in excess as too much can sting; it is best used by putting a few drops in cool bath water.

• Chamomile also very soothing and promotes healing.

Other Herbs to Soothe and Heal Sunburn • Tea pleasantly cooling, and according to Mountain Rose Herbs, "tea has been shown to help reduce skin inflamma-

tion and redness, protect skin cells, and to assist with the adverse effects of UV radiation exposure. It naturally contains tannic acid, theobromine, and polyphenols – all of which are soothing and healing to sunburned skin." You can wet a teabag with cool water and apply directly, or m a k e strong tea, cool, and use on a cloth as a compress.

• Calendula antiinflammat o r y , astringent, antiseptic, and cooling, calendula promotes healing of mild burns.It is best used by making a tea then using as a compress with a soft cloth.

• Plantain - not to be confused with the large banana-type fruit, this small ovalleaved weed is common in many parts of the world. Simply crush a leaf lightly and apply to the skin to soothe the itching from minor burns, and insect bites as well.

Baking Soda to Reduce Sunburn Itch A bath with baking soda added to it can do amazing things to reduce the maddening itchiness associated with a sunburn beginning to heal. Add approximately one cup to a cool bath; for best effect, allow it to air-dry instead of toweling off, at least on the burned areas.

Life style

ns wri te to mam ta@abplgroup.com

By Mamta Bhatia, Psychologist

How to have dignity and respect for yourself

This week’s article is going to focus on how you can remain objective and calm regardless of any drama and politics that may surround you in life. It is very easy to say yet difficult to implement. However, if you take the time to invest in your own development by reflection, meditation and contemplation, the points below can help you feel and be in direct command of your life. If you have more control you realise how many choices you have, you can be proactive and self directed. If you are consumed and reactive, you limit your growth and any potential for a brighter, happier future.

Take note of the points below to enable you to get into the driving set of your life and feel in charge of you.

The first point to note is that any energy you spend worrying about the situation takes away any potential strength you could use to find your way out of it. People who play games gain much satisfaction when others are affected. Most of their malicious acts are triggered by the motivation to cause a stir or be controversial. When you choose not to react, they loose, you win. If you keep distant and consistent with this, your lack of reaction will eventually bore the trouble maker (s). Eventually they start scheming with somebody else as they quickly realise that they

will not get a reaction from you. Say to yourself: ‘It is what it is’.

However tempting it may be you should not stoop down to the individuals’ level. If you decide to get even and play the aggressor at their own game you will simply frustrate yourself, compromise your own good values and again choose to waste your energy rather then conserve it for your own betterment. Remind yourself of the following mantra – ‘what goes around comes around’.

Eventually, the source of trouble will get what they deserve as proven by quantum physicists - like attracts like.

Also, related to the above point, do not consume your energy discussing the individual or drama negatively. This may give you short term satisfaction and make you feel as though you are letting off steam, however, backstabbing conversations, moaning and complaining will not get you anywhere.

When you engage in these sorts of activities you create and invite a higher frequency of dilemmas into your life.

Soon nothing seems good enough and potentially you can find yourself stuck in a rut of constant complaint, inevitably annoying yourself and everyone around you.

Make sure you think before you speak or react. One impulsive, off the cuff statement or act can significantly damage

your reputation and credibility. Not only will you embarrass yourself you may ultimately make the situation worse and then before you know you will start feeling even more helpless about the situation and more out of control. Remember silence is golden, especially when you are angry, tired or around people that do not make you feel great.

You will be thankful that you did not react.

Most importantly, speak to someone you trust and respect about your dilemma. If your situation is causing you to loose sleep you should ideally turn to someone professional.

A great service that is provided at www.thinkspalondon.com will ensure that you are supported by a trusted coach to help you deal effectively with your dilemma. A professional coach at think spa can offer great advice, counsel and ultimately act as a sounding board.

Ultimately, you should respect yourself and your feelings; therefore taking responsibility is crucial if you are troubled by any such situation in your life. Think Spa is running another seminar this Sunday in London, for a last minute place contact mamta@thinkspalondon.com today. Remember there is always a positive way forward but you are the only one that can help yourself and change your life and circumstances for the better. Good Luck!

Pinapple Gojju Ingredients • 2 tablespoons coconut • 5-6 green chillies • 4-5 red chillies • 1/2 tsp methi seeds • 1 tsp jeera • 2 tsp coriander seeds • 1 small bunch coriander leaves • 1/2 tsp saunf • 1 clove • 2-3 peppercorns • 1/2 can of chopped pineapple • 1 tsp mustard seeds • 1/2 sprig curry leaves • A pinch of hing (asoefetida) • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder(optional) Method • Fry all the masala

•

• • •

ingredients in a little oil, drain and blend into a smooth paste.Set aside.

Open a small can of cubed pineapple and drain the juice from the fruit.

Heat 4 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds.

When they crackle add crushed curry leaves and hing.

Immediately add turmeric and fry for half

a minute.

• Now add the fruit pieces and fry for 5 minutes.

• Add the red chilli powder and fry.

• Now add the ground paste and a little water.

Add salt to taste and take it from the fire when the mixture comes to a boil.

Sport world

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

India to play a T20 match at a Durban football stadium The 2011 game to mark 150th anniversary of arrival of Indians in SA The Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban is the centre of attraction for football lovers today. It will be a witness to a special celebration next year – 150th anniversary of arrival of Indians in South Africa next year.

The event will be celebrated with India playing a T20 match against hosts South Africa in January, 2011.

The interesting cross relationship between

cricket and football is also on right now, as the

Kingsmead cricket ground in the same city is today turned into a camp to provide accommodation to football lovers who have descended into the country from many parts of the world.

The 9th January T20 match is expected to attract the biggest crowd ever to witness a cricket match in South Africa.

OZ to have a trial of split-innings one-dayers It is already being experimented by England this season

Cricket Australia has decided to have a trial of split-innings one-dayers in state games next summer.

Split innings means instead of teams playing 50 overs on a trot, the two teams will bat for two innings of 20 or 25 overs each. Both the teams will bat in rotation, as in test

matches. The concept will be finalised in next few weeks. England has already initiated the experiment with the split innings concept at this year’s county 2nd XI competition.

James Sutherland, CA chief executive says the need to try for the split innings stems from the

fact that cricket fans now feel the middle portion of the regular 50 overs a side ODIs have by and large become predictable.

England and South Africa have already changed their domestic limited overs competitions and reduced the games from 50 to 40 overs a side.

Even the ICC is looking at ways to keep the 50 overs format relevant in the face of the T20 onslaught.

With the rapidly rising popularity of the shortest form of the game, the 2011 World Cup could be perhaps the last one to be played in the current 50 overs a side format.

India sweep Zimbabwe 2 – 0 in T20s After a very poor triseries, Suresh Raina led Indians displayed some creditable game to beat Zimbabwe comfortably in the two T20 internationals played at Harare on Saturday and Sunday last week at the end of their tour.

On Sunday, Zimbabwe scored their second best in the shortest version – 140 for 5. But for India, even that was not a big challenge, as captain Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay made it look very easy.

Raina scored an unbeaten

Indians celebrate after they bagged the T20 trophy at Harare on Sunday

72 of just 44 balls, while Vijay scored 46 of 39.

India sealed the game and the series with a 7 wicket

win and 2 overs to spare.

In the first match, Zimbabwe were restricted to just 111 for 9 and India

overhauled the rivals’ score in just 15 overs, losing only 4 wickets.

After being at fault for playing too many strokes too early on Saturday, Zimbabwe adopted caution the next day, but that also did not help them. {Brief scores: 2nd T20 India 144 for 3 (Raina 72*, Vijay 46) beat Zim 140 for 5 (Taibu 45*, Dinda 2-15) by 7 wickets. 1st T20 India 112 for 4 (Yusuf 37*, Price 2-24) beat Zim 111 for 9 (Chibhabha 40, Vinay 3-24, Ojha 2-11) by 6 wickets}.

Saina Nehwal claims Yonex Sunrise-India GP title Indian shuttlers bag two crowns; miss three in the final showdown Saina Nehwal was stretched to the hilt, but finally she prevailed over her Malaysian rival Choo Wong Mew to claim the Yonex Sunrise-India Open Grand Prix gold badminton championships at Chennai on Sunday. The Indian star lost her first game, but came back strongly. Saina won 20-22, 21-14 and 21-12 in just under an hour. Other Indian contenders had a mixed bag, with Guru Sai Dutt losing the title

encounter, as also the women’s doubles pair, while in the mixed dou-

bles, Jwala Gutta and V Diju defeated their rivals to take home the title. In men’s doubles too, Indian pair had to remain content with runners-up tag.

Guru Sai Dutt lost to Yunus Alamsyah of Indonesia 1321, 18-21 in the men’s singles. In the doubles, Rupesh Kumar and

Sanave Thomas as they were defeated with a scoreline of 12-21, 20-22.

In women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to the Singapore pair of Yao Lei/Mulia Sari Shinta 1121, 21-9 and 15-21. The second title for India came from the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta / V Diju. They clinched the crown beating the Singapore pair of Yao Lei/Triyachart Chayat 2321, 20-22, 21-7.

West Indies continue dismal show South Africa win first test with a day to spare

It turned out to be rather Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel v/s West Indies, as the home team failed to tackle pace bowling of the South African duo at Port of Spain. The two between them captured 14 of the 20 West Indies wickets as the visitors mauled the home team on the 4th day.

South Africa won the first test match by a huge margin of 163 runs on Saturday.

Morne Morkel and

Dale Steyn, the most incisive new-ball pair in the world, took most of the credit.

The South African pair gave the few spectators at the Queen's Park Oval memories of old as they efficiently chipped their way through the tired surface and the top-order of the West Indies batting.

In fact, Graeme Smith made a calculated decision to give his bowlers some rest. He did not enforce

the follow-on and opted to build upon the first innings lead of 250 runs to make it 456 for the home team to win or save the match by batting out the remainder of less than 2 days of play.

Gayle and Chanderpaul resisted the shearing pace for a while, before Jacques Kallis scalped Chanderpaul.

Gayle batted valiantly, but that was not enough.

In the first innings,

Steyn took 5 and Morkel took 4, while in the second innings, they picked up 3 and 2 wickets respectively, while for the home team, Suleiman Benn was their key bowler, claiming 8 of the 14 wickets that they could capture. South Africa declared their second innings at 206 for 4. {Brief scores: SA 352 and 206 for 4 dec (Smith 90, Benn 3-74) beat WI 102 and 293 (Gayle 73, Steyn 3-65) by 163 runs}.

31

MBE honours for Duckworth, Lewis and Kyle McCallan Three cricket personalities were a part of the honours list last week, as Buckingham Palace honoured various people for their contributions in various spheres of life.

Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the inventors of a system of calculation to decide revised targets in Frank Duckworth and one day cricket, figure in Tony Lewis the list for MBE honours.

The system itself is known as Duckworth and Lewis.

It is applied when the match is shortened for any reason. The D/L method has also been extended to the T20s. The third person to be list as MBE honours recipient is Kyle McCallan, the allrounder from Ireland, who retired from cricket in December, 2009 after a career of 13 years.

The Duckworth-Lewis method was first used in international cricket in 1997 and formally adopted by the ICC as the standard method for setting revised targets in truncated games in 2001. The complicated method has been a subject of controversy, most recently in the World T20.

Kyle McCallan McCallan played 226 matches, captaining in a record 54 games. He captured 256 wickets with his offspinners, third on the all-time list behind Dermott Montieth and Jimmy Boucher. He's also scored 3616 runs, again No.3 in the list of highest run-getters from his country. McCallan was part of the Ireland team that reached the Super 8s of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies after beating Pakistan in the preliminary stage.

Kieswetter, Bell in England ODI team

As England is preparing to face their traditional rivals – the Australians at home for the 5 ODI series starting 22nd June, one of the heroes of their T20 World Cup triumph – Craig Kieswetter retained his place in squad for the 50 overs version. Ian Bell also got a recall. A speedy recovery enabled Tim Bresnan to get his place back sooner than expected. Michael Yardy, another of the T20 heroes is also included in the 13 men team. After some doubts, Andrew Strauss has also retained his place as the skipper of the ODI team as Andy Flower reposed faith in the captain.

Team: Andrew Strauss (capt), Craig Kieswetter, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Michael Yardy, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom and Ian Bell.

Sri Lanka drop Jayasuriya, Mendis Asia Cup team picked up by new selectors Fiery opener Sanath Jayasuriya and spin sensation Ajantha Mendis have been dropped from the 15 member Sri Lankan team picked up last week for the Asia Cup that got underway earlier this week.

Pacer Farveez Maharoof is fit and back in the squad. The new selection panel headed by Aravinda de Silva also picked up Rangana Herath for spin duties alongwith Muralitharan and Suraj Randiv.

Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), Muttiah Muralitharan (vc), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Farveez Maharoof, Chamara Kapugedara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Chanaka Welegedara, Lasith Malinga, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Thilina Kandamby.

Ashraful back in B’desh team Bangladesh selectors preferred the experience of Mohammad Ashraful for their Asia Cup campaign, leaving out Aftab Ahmed from their 15 men team to play in the 4 nation tournament in Sri Lanka.

Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed, both had poor tour of England recently, but ultimately Ashraful earned the nod. Shakib Al hasan will lead the side. Syed Rasel has earned a recall, while Nasir Hossain and Nazmul Hossain, who were a part of the earlier ODI team but did not get a chance to take to the field, were left out.

Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Jahurul Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam and Suhrawadi Shuvo.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th June 2010

Green missed a save, USA hold England to a draw Robert Green missed a save that helped USA hold England to a 1 – 1 draw in their first World Cup match.

Green's error came in the 40th minute of the first half when he failed to pick up a weak hit and hope shot from 25 yards

by American forward Clint Dempsey.

Again, the second half was only six minutes old when England missed a gilt-edged chance to take the tie by the scruff of the neck. A clever little pass from Wayne Rooney saw Heskey clean through on goal, but he fired straight at Howard.

Given that England starlet Wayne Rooney only

Group E along with the Netherlands, which beat Denmark 2-0 earlier Monday.

After a sloppy opening 30 minutes at the Free State Stadium, Japan broke the deadlock in the 39th when Daisuke Matsui's curling cross from the right drifted over Cameroon defenders Nicolas Nkoulou and Stephane Mbia and fell to Honda at the back post.

The striker neatly controlled the ball and slotted it past goalkeeper Hamidou Souleymanou.

The Japanese win comes eight years to the day since its last victory at the World Cup, when it beat Tunisia 2-0 in Osaka.

England's goalkeeper Robert Green fails to block a shot by US midfielder Clint Dempsey at Rustenburg on June 12

showed brief touches of the form that has made him such a deadly marksman, the U.S. were probably more happy with taking a point into the next game.

But both will need to be a little sharper around the net if they hope to advance deep into the tournament.

Japan stun Cameroon in World Cup

Keisuke Honda scored in the first half Monday at Bloemfontein to lead Japan to a 1-0 win over an uninspired Cameroon in Group E of the World Cup. The win is Japan's first at the World Cup on foreign soil, and puts the Japanese at the top of

FIFA World cup - Points Table (As on 15 June) Group A Team South Africa Mexico Uruguay France Group B North Korea Argentina Nigeria Greece Group C Slovenia USA England Algeria

MP 1 1 1 1

W 0 0 0 0

D 1 1 1 1

L 0 0 0 0

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GA 1 1 0 0

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0 0 1 2

3 3 0 0

1 1 1 1

1 0 0 0

0 1 1 0

0 0 0 1

1 1 1 0

0 1 1 1

3 1 1 0

Group D Germany Ghana Serbia Australia Group E Netherlands Japan Cameroon Denmark Group F Paraguay Italy New Zealand Slovakia Group G Côte d'Ivoire Portugal

1 1 1 1

1 1 0 0

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0 0 1 2

3 3 0 0

1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0

1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0

1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1

0 0

1 1

0 0

0 0

0 0

1 1

Lanka open their Asia Cup campaign with a victory Pakistan lose inspite of Afridi ton

A sensational spell of pace bowling by Lasith Malinga ended Pakistani hopes of revival of fortunes as the hosts opened their Asia Cup campaign with a 16 run victory at Dambula on Tuesday.

Two half centuries by Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene proved good enough against Shahid Afridi’s century, as rest of Pakistani batsmen failed against Malinga onslaught.

Sri Lanka survived perhaps Shahid Afridi's finest innings and an

impressive comeback from Shoaib Akhtar through some superb fielding and lovely bowling from Lasith Malinga.

Afridi hammered a ton, with the last 17 runs in pain and brought Pakistan within a striking distance, but that was still not enough.

Kumar Sangakkara at this point, produced a catch for the ages. {Brief scores: SL 242 for 9 (Mathews 55*, Jayawardene 54, Shoaib 3-41) beat Pak 226 (Afridi 109, Malinga 534) by 16 runs}.

Sachin Tendulkar a special guest at Wimbledon Royal Box Little master of Indian cricket with a huge fan following, Sachin Tendulkar is a tennis fan himself. He is so much attracted to the game and Wimbledon in particular, that at every available opportunity, he comes down at the Wimbledon lawns to watch live action there.

This year too, Tendulkar will be at Wimbledon, but his visit is a bit different. He has received a special invitation from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to witness the matches from the Royal Box, on June 26. There, he will be in the company of Tim Phillips, the Duke of Kent and lifetime president of the All England

Club. Every year, the first Saturday of the Wimbledon Open is known as Sporting Saturday. On that day, guests from the field of sports are specially invited. British and other overseas Royal Families, heads of government, tennis players, media organisations are also sent special invites.

Blackburn Rovers may be an Indian owned club soon Qubic Sports and Entertainment of Mumbai already doing ‘due diligence’ There were attempts previously too, but little is known about what ultimately happened to those attempts. But this time around, the prospects seem to be really good.

Blackburn Rovers, the football club of England based in Lancashire is up for sale and a Mumbai based firm already has got the rights for due diligence and also first refusal.

Saurin Shah, a young

businessman told one of the Mumbai based English dailies, DNA that they are already in negotiations for the club. He said he would be in a position to divulge more details later this week.

It would be worth a mention that previously, Mukesh and Anil Ambani as well as the Sahara

group had reportedly shown some interests in Newcastle and Liverpool clubs.

Saurin Shah explained why he was interested in Blackburn Rovers. The young business magnet is in shipping and investment business. He says Lancashire has a very good population of Brits of Indian and Pakistani origin.

That makes it an attractive proposition. Another

reason is that the club is owned and run by a Trust.

A group that previously owned the Manchester City club that also had some links with erstwhile Thai ruler Thaksin Shinawatra was another bidder, but they have lost the bid, according to media reports in England. Saurin Shah’s bid is managed by Chris Nathaniel and his firm, NVA Entertainment of London.