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Kartik.S.Raval An absorbing letter from Mahatma Gandhi, making reference to his belief in passive resistance, the need for unity between Hindus and Muslims and his 'Relentless pursuit of truth' is set to be auctioned at Bonhams, London on 29 March.

The letter sent by Mahatma Gandhi to Edmund Candler, who was an English journalist, adventurer, novelist and teacher in India has received an initial estimation of £10,000 for the auction at Bonhams.

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Billionaire on trial in US for insider trading Lanka-born Rajaratnam was running a vast network of tipsters and informants

Raj Rajaratnam, hedge fund billionaire of Sri Lankan origin, is facing trial in New York for alleged insider trading.

According to an FBI phone tap which was played inside the court, Rajaratnam was heard discussing prospective trade and deals with tipsters and informants. He swapped information with a number of clients and associates, including one trader who confided the information she obtained from ‘intimate’ relationship with two executives, prosecutors said on Monday.

Prosecutors played more than a dozen phone conversations recorded in late 2008. The calls, which provided updates of deal terms and the timing of the deal’s announcement before it was public, were buttressed with testimony from Anil Kumar, the former McKinsey consultant who has pleaded guilty in a cooperation deal with the government.

Anil Kumar told a jury on Monday that he provid-

Raj Rajaratnam

ed confidential information to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam on a "super-confidential" deal involving the acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc by Advanced Micro

Devices Inc (AMD).

"I told him that this was red hot," Kumar said.

"Please do keep this to yourself... Don't let anyone know." The central question of this insider trading case is whether the Lankan billionaire earned $45 million by using leaked confidential information.

His lawyers say that Rajaratnam conducted his business based on information that was already in the public domain and through research.

Continued on page 26

Panic grips Japan as radiation level soars Explosions and a fire at Japan's quake-hit nuclear plants unleashed dangerous levels of radiation on Tuesday, sparking a collapse on the stock market and panic-buying in supermarkets. In towns and cities, fearful citizens stripped shelves of food and water, prompting the

Few Britons are missing; Indian IT firms taking steps to evacuate staff government to warn that panic-buying could hurt its ability to provide aid to areas devastated by...

Continued on page 26

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Continued on page 4

VOICE

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

VOL 39. ISSUE 45

Gandhi's letter of 1919 set for auction

FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

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19th March to 25th March 2011

Dentist with 'roving eyes' victimise fairer sex

Dr Hundle at his Knightsbridge practice

A dentist who has appeared on television had alleged sexual intercourse with a patient in his surgery after telling her “you don’t mind men with a bit of weight, do you?”, a disciplinary hearing was told on Monday.

Dr Surinder Hundle, 44, who was once the face of Oral B toothpaste, allegedly boasted of having a “roving eye” and claimed he often dated two women at

once, the General Dental Council heard.

Dr Hundle, whose surgery is based in Knightsbridge, faces being struck off over his relationship with the schoolteacher, which is said to have lasted from 2001 to 2008.

The panel heard that the affair began following a series of alleged inappropriate comments made by Dr Hundle during consultations.

Continued on page 15

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Pensioner denies exploiting Tanzanian woman in slavery trial A pensioner accused of keeping a modern day slave says the woman was “smiling, happy and cheerful” in her home.

Saeeda Khan, 68, is accused of keeping Mwanahanisi Mruke prisoner at her Whitmore Road house to wait on her beck and call, deprived of food and sleeping in the cold on a thin mattress.

But the Harrow pensioner this morning told Southwark Crown Court the 47-year-old was happy during the four years she was working there and had little work to do.

She told jurors: “She was always smiling, happy and cheerful. I was surprised when I heard that she was not happy in my house, when they took her away after that.”

She claims Ms Mruke wanted to come back for another four years after her visa ran out and said there were never any arguments between them.

Mrs Khan denies stopping her from going home to see her dying parents and says she was free to leave the house when she

Saeeda Khan

wanted to and had free time every day.

Under her contract, Ms Mruke was supposed to be paid an allowance of just £10 a month with the equivalent of £50 going to a bank account in Tanzania.

When asked by prosecutor Caroline Haughey what she was supposed to do in her free time with just ￡10 a month she said Ms Mruke did not want to go out, and spent her time watching television.

She said: “I was buying everything for her, all the expense – household, food, lodging, leisure, going out anywhere.

“Everything was on me. She wanted £10 just in case she needed to

Mwanahanisi Mruke

spend it anywhere but all her wages should be paid in Tanzania to buy a plot of land to build a house.”

She is accused of leaving Ms Mruke to sleep on a thin mattress but the defendant claims she had the heating on 24 hours a day because of her arthritis and says the house was warm.

She said Ms Mruke had two blankets, a quilt and two sheets and also denies forcing her to work after an operation when she had been told by doctors to rest. Mrs Khan denies one offence of trafficking people for exploitation.

The trial continues.

Is putting Shrien in psychiatric care the right decision?

Four months after wife Anni's death, Shrien Dewani cuts a very different figure from the smart businessman he was. The social queries, loss of a beloved and the prying eyes trying to prove Shrien guilty of an alleged murder, completely changed the lively man he used to be.

He looked far older than his 31 years as he appeared at Woolwich Crown court on Tuesday, appearing jowly and sporting a greying beard.

Mr Dewani, who is accused of ordering Anni's murder and fighting extradition to South Africa, was sent to The Priory Hospital after taking an overdose last month.

Until now, he has been on bail at his family home in Bristol but the South African authorities asked that he should be taken into custody following the apparent suicide bid.

The Daily Mail

reports that the lawyers for both sides have now agreed that the care home owner, who is said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, should be admitted to the clinic in the city.

He remains subject to a £250,000 bail and strict conditions including a curfew and the requirement that he report daily to a local police station.

A psychiatric report by Professor Nigel Eastman, written after the overdose, suggested it was 'unlikely he intended to kill himself on this occasion'.

The court heard last month how Mr Dewani had been found by his sister lying semi-conscious on his bed after taking a 'massive overdose'. His family denied that he tried to kill himself.

South African lawyers had argued then that he should be put in custody for his own protection but the judge called for a second opinion on his mental health.

On Tuesday, district Judge Howard Riddle ruled that from Wednesday Dewani must live and sleep at the Priory, which specialises in treating mental health problems.

Scholars say- love often heals the deepest of wounds. In this situation, if being away from the warmth and care of family would hinder Shrien's health and mind furtherremains debatable! There are probably other ways of protecting him at home, and the doctors must consider them.

Boy becomes hero for his quick thinking On Tuesday 1 March, police officers from across the Metropolitan Police Service attended a Commissioner's Commendations ceremony at New Scotland Yard to receive awards in recognition of their exceptional commitment to making London a safer place. Amongst them was a 15 year old boy from Hayes in Middx who received a Royal Humane Society certificate.

Commissioner's Commendations were awarded to two officers who bravely tackled and disarmed a violent mentally unstable man armed with a 12 inch machete.

Another officer will also receive a Commissioner's Commendation for confronting and dispersing a group of youths who were terrorising a south London estate known for gang tensions.

A Royal Humane Society certificate was issued to 15-year-old Dhanesh Patel, who demonstrated commendable quick-thinking to help save two men from a burning flat. Officers were on their way to the scene

Dhanesh Patel at the Commissioner's Commendation

of a fire in October 2009 when they were notified that there were people in the premises who were intending to jump. When they arrived however, they found that Dhanesh, who was 13 at the time, had spotted the smoke and immediately obtained a ladder from a near-by carpet shop to help rescue the occupants, potentially saving their lives and preventing them from risking serious injury when they were about to jump.

Recognising Dhanesh Patel’s actions, Hillingdon Borough Commander Julian Worker said: “Our Heroes Week celebrated some stories of our offi-

cer’s admirable courage and bravery, which otherwise may have gone unrecognised. We also wanted to recognise Dhanesh for displaying remarkable personal courage and initiative when coming to the aid of two people who were trapped by fire. His efforts were brought to light when one of my officers PC Dean Stimpson arrived at the scene of a fire and he was really taken back by Dhanesh’s quick thinking who was aged 13 at the time. I am immensely proud of Dhanesh and he is absolutely deserving of the Royal Humane Society certificate.”

Festival of Colours marks start of Spring On Sunday 20th March are the combined full moon festivals called Holi and Gaura Purnima at Bhaktivedanta Manor Krishna temple in Aldenham. The festivities will include: from 4pm the throwing of Holi colours (Rang Mela). Colours are showered on the people who merge into a multicoloured canvas.

Throughout the day from 3.30pm, the Manor will host traditional dramas and dance, music in front of the world famous beautiful shrine and devotees will be serving sumptuous free vegetarian food. A traditional bonfire will be at 6 pm The bonfire is to remember the great saint named Prahlad who was taken into a huge blazing fire by Holika, by order of his demoniac father.

However, by divine providence Prahlad was not burned. Prahad is the symbol of faith and purity. The fire also represents the burning away of all the

impurities of, such as egoism, vanity and lust, through the fire of devotion and knowledge. It also ignites cosmic love, mercy, generosity, selflessness, truthfulness and purity.

The festival is also to remember the pastimes of Krishna for the light hearted and playful atmosphere of Holi. The young Krishna would run around and shower the villagers with colours but everyone loved Krishna so much, that soon their anger went

away and their hearts melted like the recently departed snow.

This is also the celebration of the birth of Lord Chaitanya, who was considered an incarnation of Lord Krishna. He lived about 500 years ago and showed by example the highest emotion and sentiment of worship and love of God. He also was the first to start the public chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, for which the Hare Krishna movement is famed.

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

COMMENT

Japan fights for its life Not for the first time, nor presumably for the last, Japan is fighting for its life. Last week's earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale is among the deadliest ever to occur As if this wasn't bad enough, the earthquake was followed by a devastating tsunami that reduced large swathes of territory on the east coast of the northern Japanese island of Sendai, 166 miles north of the country's capital, Tokyo, to rubble. Houses, cars, trees, telegraph lines and much else besides, including some reactors at the local nuclear power station, were hit by mountainous waves from the Pacific Ocean driving in with tremendous force. With reactor cores in meltdown after a series of explosions and radiation levels rising, perhaps a Chernobyl-type catastrophe looms. The death toll, which is already high, is set to rise as 10,000 people are declared missing. The loss of property has been severe.

Earthquakes are not new to Japan. The country is situated along one of the earth's major geological fault lines. The Kobe earthquake in January 1995 was devastating as was the one in 1923, which destroyed Tokyo.

Even with Japan's very stringent building standards it is impossible to devise foolproof structures to withstand Nature's wrath. But Japan has always done her best to maintain adequate safety procedures and precautions allied to well drilled provisions of relief, to be carried out by equally well trained personnel. But these are never enough in the face of a disaster such as this. It was thus natural for Japan, with the world's third largest economy including advanced industry, science and technology, to appeal to the international community to help

in the relief effort.

The response has been commendable. Ninety-one nations to date, including India and Britain, America and Russia, China and South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, which suffered recently from an earthquake of its own, not to speak of the leading EU powers Germany and France, have rushed to Japan's aid. People the world over remember their common humanity.

In the midst of this distress the fortitude and stoicism of the Japanese people are a cause for wonder.

Their discipline, self help and commitment to mutual aid are a marvel to behold and an inspiration to us all.

Amazingly, there has been no looting. But that is the story of Japan. The Japanese picked themselves up from the ashes of defeat after World War II, including the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and began the work of reconstruction. So successful were they that within 25 years of the war's closure, Japan boasted the world's third biggest economy, an industrial powerhouse led by export-driven growth.

The earthquake-tsunami tragedy may be the worst disaster to have befallen Japan since the Second World War, as the country's prime minister Nato Kan remarked. Industry has shut down and the economic blow overall is stark. But do not be surprised if Japan's recovery turns out to be almost as swift as the force that has laid it low. Adversity has been the country's spur. Japan's foremost treasure is (and has been) its human capital. The people's capacity for innovation, their sheer grit and determination will pull the country through.

Dalai Lama's call to Tibetans to fulfill their destiny The Dalai Lama has surprised his people and his admirers across the world by devolving political power to the elected representatives of the Tibetan movement. A Tibetan prime minister and cabinet should be in place by the end of the month, the 52nd anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight from Chinese captivity to freedom in India. He has lived in the Himachal Pradesh hill station of Dharamsala ever since, from where he has kept alive Tibet's unique flame amid the totalitarian darkness of Chinese rule. His Holiness has travelled to distant shores and met with world leaders and peoples of every religious faith and nationality. He has also striven to open a meaningful dialogue with the government in Beijing without success. China has spurned him with insults and calumny, biding its time for His Holiness to pass away and leaving a vacuum for Beijing to fill.

The Dalai Lama has wrong-footed Tibet's colonial overlords by facilitating the establishment of representative institutions based on the will of the Tibetan community. Colonial practices do not fit 21st century mores, as China is destined to learn in the fullness of time. Coercive diplomacy is doomed to failure, as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan learned to their cost.

That great Indian statesman Sardar Vallabbhai Patel saw through his glass, darkly way back in December 1950, when units of Mao Dzedong's People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet. Patel issued this prescient warning: “Chinese irredentism and Communist imperialism......conceal racial, national and historical claims......While our western and northwestern threats to security are still prominent as before: a new threat has developed from the north and

north-east.....India's defence has to concentrate itself on two fronts simultaneously. Our defence measures have so far been based on the calculations of a superiority over Pakistan.”

India's current war doctrine envisages a two-front conflict with Pakistan and China: strategic thought in India has caught up with the unfolding reality outlined

by Patel over sixry years ago. Little could be done then, as the surgery of Partition had left India in a weakened state; today the country speaks from a position of strength. There is full realisation that the Himalayas can offer no more protection to India now than the Maginot Line did in 1940 for France.

Tibet lies at the core of the Sino-Indian relationship, as a Chinese diplomat remarked in 1962. The flight of the Dalai Lama to India and the refuge accorded him there were taken as an affront by Beijing, where ideas such as 'loss of face' prevail. Perceiving itself as Asia's sole and rightful great power, Beijing will brook no rivals, least of all India, a nation it holds in contempt. But a warmed up tributary system from China's primordial past will not work, whatever the camouflage.

On Tibet's relations with India, the Dalai Lama said: “Our relationship is not just a matter of a few decades, but a few thousand years like the guru-chela relationship in the great Indian tradition – India our guru and we its chelas.” His Holiness referred to a letter written to him by the late Morarji Desai, as India's prime minister, who likened India and Tibet to two branches of a Buddhist tree: “that grew in India and spread its branch to Tibet. That is the basic sort of relationship with this country.” Enough said.

Blight of India's graft and corruption Graft and corruption are a continuing blight for India.

The telecoms scam involving $40 billion has proved the most sensational, but graft is an everyday occurrence in the land. Endless moralising is an exercise in futility. Pieties need to be replaced by effective measures on the ground. One such measure is surely the legal right to information. Early signs show that technology is helping. In a number of states, bids for government contracts are being run online, allowing anticorruption bodies to monitor them.

Gujarat, for instance, does this for all contracts over 500,000 rupees ($11,000). The state government also puts its land records and death certification online, reducing one form of graft.

Last year Swati Ramanathan established a website wwwipaidabribe.com. In seven months 5,000 reports of bribe-paying were registered. Reportedly Bangalore's transport commissioner fancies the site, as it lets him see how corrupt his junior officials have become. The lesson is that as India's citizens become better informed they will feel more empowered and refuse to pay.

But complementary measures, as a whole, are best

placed to tackle the problem at its roots. For example, Gujarat's anti-graft commissionerrr, Manjula Subramaniam, praises a tendering system where companieses bid online for public contracts such as road building.

Homeowners in Gujarat have the option of using a four-year-old system to assess property tax online, rather than depend upon crooked assessors visiting their homes. The benefits of this technology is spreading fast, as every Gujarat village has been hooked up to broad band and state databases.

For instance, in Uvarsad, a farming district, a privately managed local e-government office allows Suryakant Patel to print off his title deeds to his 20acre wheat and rice farm in two minutes. It costs him a ten rupee fee. He then crosses the street to a bank, to raise a loan to buy a new irrigation pump. In the bad old days the process would take days and the end result could depend on the whim of a civil servant.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi needs to move quickly and decisively to tackle graft and corruption. There is much work to be done and, maybe, elections to be won. Or lost.

Saudi Arabia's decision to deploy its troops in neighbouring Bahrain is irresponsible and dangerous. The Saudis are Wahhabi Sunnis, Bahrain's rulers are Sunni, their discontented populace, very much in evidence on the streets of the capital, are mainly Shia: what would

the Saudi rulers and their US patrons say to Iran's ayatollahs if Tehran decided to despatch its troops to aid their Shia co-religionists? This has the making of a broader conflict. A domestic political dialogue is the need of the day, not external military intervention.

www.abplgroup.com

Thought for the Week Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

-Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Lord Dolar Popat of Harrow, Conservative peer

NO to AV There is no doubt, in my mind as to the importance of politics. It affects absolutely everybody. This is why it captures so much of my attention, and why I have been so involved in the Conservative Party over the last 30 years. No matter what our beliefs or Party political views, we all have opinions, as well as dreams for ourselves, our families and our Country, we must make sure our voices are heard.

We are lucky in the UK to live in a democracy and have a legal say, so we must use this gift and be voters not victims.

I am, and have always been involved in the Conservative Party, simply because it is the party which most closely resembles my cultural beliefs in family, hard work and prudent finances. My Party understands the importance of cultivating an entrepreneurial society that looks for viable solutions and opportunities to generate genuine prosperity and well being, rather than creating obstacles and problems.

The Conservative Party stands for having the power over your own future, and not being held back from moving forwards, onwards and upwards.

An important event in relation to this maintenance of your individual liberty is taking place later this year.

On 5 May 2011 the UK will have its first national referendum for 35 years.

Everyone legally registered to vote in the UK will be asked whether they want to replace our existing voting system (First Past the Post) with the so-called ‘Alternative Vote (AV)’.

This referendum on AV was agreed to as part of the Coalition Agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Both parties in the Coalition support holding the referendum, but the Conservatives will be campaigning officially for a ‘NO’ vote to implementing AV– as the Prime Minister made clear at the Conservative Party Conference: ‘I don’t want to change our voting system any more than you do.

I am passionate about voting NO to AV, the resounding reason behind this is because, simply, I believe it is not a fair system. Despite the popular myth that AV is One Person, One Vote, it simply does not work this way in reality. Supporters of fringe parties can end up getting five or six votes, potentially deciding the outcome of the election, while people who back the moderate mainstream candidates only get one say. It is capable of disturbingly unpredictable outcomes.

For example, Ed Miliband was elected leader of the Labour Party by virtue of AV, he was the fourth preference least popular candidate in a five-horse race!

AV merely recycles the preferences of the losing candidates to cobble together an artificial ‘majority’. This is not genuine representation for the will of the people. AV completely rejects bold and committed candidate, who are willing to take a principled stand. It instead favours bland, identikit politicians.

Not only this, but it is obscure and unpopular within the Countries who already employ it. Only three countries in the world use AV for their elections: Fiji, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

Fiji are about to get rid of it and 6 out of 10 Australian voters want to return to the British system of First Past the Post.

Furthermore, it is complicated and expensive.

Elections will take longer to count because of the complicated transferral of preferences, leaving the taxpayer yet again to foot the bill, in many circumstances, without creating viable results.

Lastly, AV makes hung Parliaments much more likely. Instead of the people deciding who governs them, politicians decide through post-election backroom deals and political bargaining, as occurred after the summer 2010 election in Australia, 3 rogue MPs held the country hostage for 17 days while they conducted a policy auction with the two main parties.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Largest ever India-focused business conference Kartik.S.Raval More than 500 businesses were represented at UK's largest business conference with focus on India.

Staged at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on Monday and hosted by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC), Lord Bilimoria, President UKIBC, inaugurated the event by welcoming the delegates from the entire corporate spectrum.

It aimed to help boost UK's sluggish North-West exports to India, as the country continues to witness an annual 10 per cent growth in its economy. North west businesses investing in new markets and emerging cities in India can help drive growth in both countries, according to experts at a summit in Manchester.

Emerging cities in India were highlighted including Hyderabad, Calcutta and Pune, and its rapidly developing markets like pharmaceuticals, health, technology, education, advanced engineering, manufacturing and co-operatives were discussed.

The High Commissioner of India to the UK, Nalin Surie was also present and in his speech, he laid importance on the need for a mechanism to facilitate interaction between the SMEs in India and the UK. Richard Heald, UKIBC's Chief Executive, said investing in India was a 'no brainer.'' Addressing hundreds of businesses that are wanting to grow by strengthening trade links with India, he said “India is

Lord Bilimoria, President UKIBC inaugurates the largest business conference with a focus on India

Nalin Surie, Indian High Commissioner to the UK emphasizes on UK-India trade links

not going to suit all businesses, but with its GDP growing between 8-10 per cent yearly, and with India due to become the world's second largest economy, it is very important for businesses to be looking at all opportunities and creating trade links.”

The north west is the third largest region in the UK to export to India but UKIBC believes this link can be strengthened even further. For example, with the rise of Manchester’s digital commerce scene, especially with MediaCityUK being developed, there will be opportunities for media companies in both the UK and India, including India's largest Asian television channel, Star TV, to grow their content base here in

Manchester.

Keynote speaker Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive at Standard Chartered Bank, which was established in India in 1878, said, "The UK and India have a long historical tie through its culture and language and given this tie, more needs to be done to strengthen trade links.

Currently only 3.5 per cent of Indian exports come to the UK with only 1.5 per cent of UK exports to India.” With the pace of growth of India's economy making up the central theme of the conference, he adds, “It is likely that India's economy is going to grow faster than that of China and, given its current demographic, where half the population is under 25, we are going to see phenomenal growth.”

Kutch Madhapar Karyala raises £11,166 for BBC Children in Need

Kutch Madhapar Karyala (KMK), UK is a community of families who share their roots from Madhapar, one of the largest villages in Kutch, Gujarat. With the community as old as 1968 in the British Society, it has come a long way and have been regularly involved in charities for the needy.

This time, KMK has raised £11,166 through their dinner gathering for BBC charity 'Children in Need'.

Over the years, KMK has given funds to improve the facilities back in Gujarat, developing parks, schools, lakes and care homes for old people.

The community has also donated towards some of

the major world disasters including earthquakes, floods, droughts and the tsunami of 2004.

The committee also organises many varied events including cultural, social, education and sports to bring families together.

Spokesperson for KMK said, “We are continually adapting to the needs of the younger generation, including cultural workshops so that the community can continue with strong core values.

In order to keep the community intact we hold regular events like Bhajan, Children's Party, Sports tournaments, Dinner & Dance, Mehfil Night and Health Seminars."

Gandhi's letter of 1919 set for auction Continued from page 1 Gandhi states in the letter, "I venture to claim that I have rendered a service of the highest order by advising the Mohamedians of India to express their sentiments in a restrained manner and by advising the Hindus to make common cause with them.”

towards becoming a national communicator and leader through the press and Congress with a new message and new style. In 1919 Gandhi still had hope as a 'staunch loyalist' but by 1920 he had become 'an uncompromising non-co-operator' because of two events; custody of holy places in Turkey despite

Gandhi's letter for auction at Bonhams, London

In the letter, Gandhi also explains his attitude towards the British and his position in relation to the khilafat question asked by Edmund Candler in regards of the safeguarding of the holy places in the then newly conquered Turkey and also urged Indian Muslims to support Khalifah, the spiritual head of the worldwide Islamic community. In the words of Gandhi, "enable me to explain my position more fully than perhaps it has been by my writings & speeches' and references to the central concepts of Satya (Truth), Ahimsa or Satyagraha (non-violence) and the need for unity between Hindus and Muslims."

He adds, “My regard for the claims of the Turk is derived totally from my regard for my fellowcountrymen, the Mohamedians. I should forfeit the right to call them fellow-countrymen if I did not feel for them in everything vitally affecting them provided that the cause was just.

The peace of my country is likely to be placed in jeopardy not by my earnest effort to guide the Mohamedian feeling in the right channel but by any thoughtless or ignorant action of British ministers."

The year 1919-20 was critical for both Gandhi and India's national identity. He took a great step

sensitivity of Indian Muslims and the carnage of Jallianwalla Bagh.

In the letter Gandhi says, "I do not wish & have never wished to embarrass the government and I have never worked up an antiBritish campaign for any cause whatsoever. My personal religion would forbid me to do either the one or the other. My stubborn opposition to certain acts of the British Government must not be mistaken for unfriendliness.

Such peculiar notions are entertained about friendliness and loyalty in India that any strong expression of displeasure in regard to acts of Government passes for disloyalty."

This letter was printed in the Tribune on 18 December 1919. In July 1922 Candler published an important article about Gandhi in The Atlantic Monthly and also published 'Abdication', a novel set in India during the years of nationalist struggle, and containing, in the words of contemporary review, 'a brilliant description of Gandhi and his command of the multitude.'

This letter is considered to be one of the most significant letter/article

by Gandhi to come into light in more than 30 years. It is categorised under Papers & Portraits in The Roy Davids Collection Part II.

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

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Remembering the heroes Kartik.S.Raval Tribute was paid to the volunteers of the British Empire from five regions of the Indian subcontinent; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as Africa and the Caribbean, who served in the First World War and Second World War. 14 March 2011, also the Commonwealth Day, marked the ninth year of

planning permission to create the gates revealed, “It took over fifty years after World War Two ended to build a lasting memorial to honour the five million men and women from the Commonwealth nations who volunteered as part of the British Empire in both world wars. This reminds us that people must fight their corner to ensure recognition and dignity and that fight continues all over

Britain’s greatest need.”

The contribution that these men and women, their descendants and members of the Commonwealth family, continue to make to the rich diversity of British society was also recognised and celebrated. On 6 November 2002 HM The Queen officially inaugurated the Memorial Gates at the Hyde Park Corner end of Constitution Hill in

Baroness Shreela Flather pays her tribute while present in the front row (from left) Anthony Johnson- Jamaican High Commissioner to the UK, Dr. Suresh ChaliseAmbassador of Nepal to the UK, Major General Prasanna Silva- Defence Attache of the Sri Lanka High Commission and Nalin Surie- Indian High Commissioner to the UK

Army cadets with Victorian Cross holder Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry (fifth from right)

tribute paid at Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London.

At the ceremony Baroness Flather, who worked tirelessly for years to raise funds and receive

the developing and developed world even today.”

She adds, “This memorial belongs to all of us and it is here as a lasting reminder that we all stood together in the hour of

London, UK with an inscription stating that it took place in the Golden Jubilee year of her reign.

The ceremony at the Memorial Gates initiated with a Gurkha Bugler fol-

lowed by a minute’s silence. The tribute witnessed strong representation from various commonwealth countries as Nalin Surie, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK; Major General Prasanna Silva, Defence Attache of the Sri Lanka High Commission; Dr. Suresh Chalise, Ambassador of Nepal to the UK and Anthony Johnson,

Jamaican High Commissioner to the UK were all present. Guest of honour were Bishop of London, Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres and the Deputy Mayor of London, Richard Barnes.

Also, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, holder of a Victorian Cross was present at the event.

The Queen had set this year's theme as 'Woman as

agents of change' and hence deserving acknowledgement was made to the courage of all the women who supported their sons and husband to fight for the cause. Baroness Flather was right to mention, “The sacrifices weren’t just made by the men who fought. We also need to remember the bravery as well as the sufferings of all the mothers and wives."

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Pathologist who bungled G20 protest death might be struck off

By Spriha Srivastava

Exception that proves the rule It is seldom you find a Cambridge law graduate acting in a Bollywood flick! As rightly said, exception [often] proves the rule! Armaan Kirmani is a name that has become quite popular ever since Patiala House hit the screens. A British Asian actor from London, England, he is fluent in both Hindi and Urdu alongside English and has been trained to work in Cinema, Theatre and Television. He is based in London and Mumbai.

an extra-curricular activity that turned into a career, I joined acting school and took various trainings.

With Patiala House, it all paid off.

Q: How was it working with the Bollywood legends?

Working with big name actors was a tremendous opportunity in my debut film, but I thrive on challenges and it made me want to try and do my best in order to do justice to the film. My character in Patiala House was extremely

Actor Armaan Kirmani with members of St Luke's Hospice

Armaan trained as an actor at The Actor Prepares Institute run by veteran Indian actor Anupam Kher, he has also been trained by Hilary Wood from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and English actor Justin Pierre.

Further Armaan has been vocally trained by veteran Urdu and Hindi radio artist Pervaiz Alam and trained in a variety of dance forms by Bollywood Choreographer Rakhi Sood and he has also performed as part of her troupe in 2009.

By many Armaan is considered as a perfectionist and his infectious enthusiasm allows him to develop successful professional relationships over a short period of time.

Armaan is the face of a new generation of British Indian actors who bring along with them intellect and quality education. Apart from his latest love for acting, he has also been involved in charity work. I caught up with him to find more about his charity work and his acting career.

Q: So what took you to acting after graduating from Cambridge?

I will be very honest. I did not grow up to become an actor. I was on the academic route. I went to Cambridge and studied law then I worked. It was somewhere there that I felt I needed a break and do something other than being stuck in libraries and offices. So it was more of

important and any actor would want to make the most of such a special opportunity.

It was a great learning experience working with Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Mam and Akshay Kumar. I have danced to Akshay Kumar’s songs ever since I was a kid and it was a great experience working with all of them.

Q: Any more Bollywood venture that you are looking at?

I hope so. I mean, the response from Patiala House has been amazing. I am very fortunate to have worked with such a great star cast and the movie has great reviews. So it was an extremely good debut. Now it’s about choosing the right projects and not rush into anything. So few things in the pipeline but I haven’t committed myself to anything yet.

Q: What kind of roles would you be looking at?

How do you see yourself as an actor?

At this stage I would like to try varied roles. I am very new into this career so my aspiration is to go and do good roles and good films just like every actor aspires. At this stage I can’t be too picky and choosey about which roles to pick up and which not. I am not in a position to dictate what roles should be given to me. But growing up, I have always wanted to work in a Yash Chopra style film so something like would be definitely a personal ambition.

But cinema is very very

diverse and I would like explore as many opportunities as I can.

Q: Do you look forward to going back to law or is acting going to be your full time career now?

I think my father would be very happy if I go back to law.

I am on the other hand hoping that the only time I will return to law is when I am playing a lawyer in my upcoming films.

Q: Tell us more on the charity work you are involved with.

I am involved with St. Luke’s hospital that is based in Harrow. Basically I am an Ambassador for them and I will be promoting the hospital, creating awareness and help in fundraising activities.

When I visited the hospital I was shown around the Hospice grounds to get a real insight of the work. And I am delighted to be supporting the incredible work that St Luke’s do. People often forget the support and care needed to help people with illnesses and their families – I am honoured that I can be part of this process and I hope that my contribution to St Luke’s helps. I really believe that the staff here are truly dedicated to their patients and are extremely passionate about what they do – from the bottom of my heart I hope that I too can make a difference.

Q: Why St Luke's?

What attracted me most to this was that basically the support that they lend out to the wider community goes unnoticed and a lot of work that they do is to go out in the homes of the communities, people who are ill and are unable to make their way to the hospitals. And a lot of work goes unnoticed so it’s very important to highlight the work done in the community. So that’s what mainly attracted me. I am trying to help as much as I can, depending on my schedule. So I am trying to take a handsdown approach and make my hands dirty as much as I can.

Q: How are you balancing it with your acting career?

Are there any particular projects that you are currently working on?

Absolutely, that’s correct.

I just finished doing Patiala House which just released.

And I have another film coming out in the summer which is called ‘London Life’ and I will be shooting for that in the next couple of weeks. London Life is more of a smaller budget British Asian film. So let’s see.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at spriha@abplgroup.com

A pathologist faces possibility of being struck off after flaws were discovered in his post-mortem of the first victim of 'Camden Ripper' Anthony Hardy.

Dr Freddy Patel, pictured, who has been criticised for his part in the investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests, has been facing a General Medical Council hearing over his examinations of 31-yearold prostitute Sally White.

Patel was accused of irresponsible conduct and a further charge of dishonesty over a CV entry.

The disciplinary panel found 29 allegations against Dr Patel were proved, a national daily has reported.

It found proved charges that Dr Patel's post mortem conclusions did not properly consider the available evidence relating to the location and position of the victim's body in a locked room in the flat of a man recently arrested by police, plus the location of her clothing.

The panel also found proved allegations he did not consider the presence and location of blood staining on the deceased's clothing and bedding, plus the presence of a warm bucket of water next to her body.

However, the panel till now found no proves against allegations that Dr Patel did not dissect the body to look for areas of counter-pressure bruising on the back of the victim and that he did not consider evidence of recent

sexual activity or the presence and position of blood staining on the wall near the bed.

It also found no proves against allegations that he did not consider the nature and extent of her external and internal injuries, or her personal history, or a statement from a witness before the second and third post mortem reports.

The panel also gave its findings on each specific aspect of Dr Patel's conduct in relation to whether it was irresponsible, not to standard and liable to bring the profession into disrepute.

The panel will this week hear submissions as to whether, on the basis of the facts found proved, Dr Patel's fitness to practise is impaired and if so what sanction should be imposed.

NO to AV Continued from page 3 Under AV, the smaller parties call the shots and act as kingmakers.

I believe the purpose of elections is to hire a government that represents people - but, more importantly, the purpose of elections is to fire governments who are no good. Under proportional representation (PR), the system the Lib Dems, and parties such as the BNP want, a government is harder to fire. Instead, after election day has come and gone, the politicians do deals with each other in a type of political musical chairs. Under PR the small parties become permanent and influential kingmakers.

Winston Churchill described the AV system as: “The most worthless votes for the most worthless candidates.”

And this is something I stand by.

Our democratic system and the fantastic tradition of freedom the UK affords those are legally eligible to vote in the UK, means that it should not be jeopardised, and the value of one’s vote should never be diminished. That is what I believe the AV system will do to the volume of the British peoples voice and this cannot be tolerated.

Even the ‘Yes’ campaigners don’t want AV. Before the general election, Nick Clegg described AV as ‘a miserable little compromise’.

Another senior Lib Dem, Chris Huhne, admitted ‘it does not give voters real power’. Most pro-AV

campaigners see AV as a ‘small step’ to full-blown, party list, constituency-free proportional representation – which could let the BNP and other fringe groups into the House of Commons.

When BNP leader Nick Griffin was elected to Brussels, the BBC said: “Mr Griffin was elected to Brussels … although the BNP came fifth in the popular vote in the region, it won a seat through the system of (PR) proportional representation used in the European elections.”

But most importantly friends, please read and be warned by the words of the leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin: ‘Under PR we could easily fill a bus with BNP MPs … The introduction of PR to Britain will dramatically change the face of British politics and propel the BNP into the mainstream political debate once and for all’ ('General Election 2010 Analysis by BNP Leader Nick Griffin', BNP website, 9 May 2010.)

I do not care which Party normally earns your vote, or if you have never voted before. This is not an issue of Party politics, but an issue of tremendous importance of which will change the very way we give power to those who represent us.

If ever there is a time to vote, this is it! Whilst it is guaranteed to mean something. Please join me in voting NO and keeping the UK moderate and power with the people.

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

British Asian Health reception held to share knowledge and save life

By Rupanjana Dutta A British Health Reception was organised on 14th March at the Private rooms in Buckingham gate, London. Some important people were invited to take part in a discussion with some of world's leading health experts. This reception was sponsored

by Tata Limited, bringing together many of the UK's key decision makers, including philanthropists, business leaders, politicians, media figures, health experts and Oxford university alumni.

The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the work of the Indox cancer research network.

Established in 2005, Indox is a medical partnership between cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford and nine of India's leading cancer hospitals and research centres. Through Indox, the Oxford University is conducting high quality research in order to reduce death and suffering from cancer in India.

The evening featured a discussion that included Professor Dame Valerie Beral, Dr Raghib Ali, Professor Sir John Bell and was chaired by Baroness Usha Prashar.

The evening started with a brief introduction by Anwar Hasan, Managing Director of Tata Ltd. The discussion not

Dr Raghib Ali, Professor Dame Valerie Beral, Professor Sir John Bell and Baroness Usha Prashar at the Indox discussion

only revealed the kind of research Dr Ali has undertaken to gather more informations about the type and kind of cancers affecting the British Asians and Indians, but it also focussed on questions regarding the causes of cancer and increasing number of affected people in India. Dr Ali posed very important insight on the causes that could be lifestyle and diet oriented, while the audience tried to find out if there could be other reasons leading to such a painful diseaseincluding genetics.

The audience engaged in a fruitful Q and A, as the importance of Ayurveda especially Turmeric took everybody by delight. Very important questions were raised by Mr Subash Thakrar and Dr Kartar Lalvani. As Mr Thakrar asked about the technique involved in the research about the cancer affecting different communities, remedies and offered help as a commu-

nity representative to spread awareness, Dr Lalvani spoke about the importance of Vitamin D. There were audience like Sarosh Zaiwala who shared their experience of turmeric as a drug for small ailments!

The reception also served as the official launch event for the Oxford University campaign to raise ￡2.5mn needed for Indox's research as Dr Vanita Sharma, the Communication head of Indox spoke about the significance of this research in the concluding note.

This research would be the largest ever study on the health of British Asians, and will focus on the impact of diet, lifestyle on the incidence of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other common diseases amongst the British Asians.

The evening ended with a canape reception and a meet and greet session.

Home Office-funded guide recommends CST model to other communities The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which monitors antisemitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, has published a new guide to help other minority communities establish their own hate crime monitoring systems.

A Guide to Fighting Hate Crime was written

by CST with the help of a grant from the Home Office Victims’ Fund. CST has recorded antisemitic hate crimes on behalf of the Jewish community since 1984, and became an official Third Party Reporter of hate crimes to the police in 2001.

The booklet includes guidance on defining and recognising hate crimes; how to respond to different types of hate crimes, such as assault, abusive graffiti or hate-mail; forming partnerships with the Police and other agencies; supporting victims; and examples of report forms that can be photocopied

and used to record hate crimes.

The guide was officially launched at CST’s annual dinner in London on 2nd March. The guest speaker at the dinner was Prime Minister David Cameron, who was joined in launching the booklet

by Conservative Party Chairman and Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi; James Brokenshire MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime Prevention; and CST Chairman Gerald Ronson.

James Brokenshire MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime Prevention, said: "Hate crime is totally unacceptable.

“The government is committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live free from fear of hostility or harassment.

“This guide imparts many years of CST’s valuable experience in successfully fighting hate crime and I hope it bene-

fits other communities who find themselves targeted.”

Richard Benson, Chief Executive of CST, said: “The Jewish community in Britain has long recognised the need for a strong response to hate crime, as part of our commitment to fighting all forms of bigotry in our society. It is CST’s hope that this experience in tackling hate crime can help other communities throughout the country.”

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, hate crime lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said: “CST is an excellent example of an effective body that has been able to form a true partnership with Police colleagues and to inspire confidence in communities. I believe they are one of the best examples of a Third Party Reporting structure and would provide an excellent model for emerging groups to emulate.”

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Cllr Rabi Martins Watford Borough Council

Reporting back from the Lib Dem Conference Liberal Democrats left Sheffield in strong heart after they heard Nick Clegg speak up for the millions of people in the country who have a hand to mouth existence.

Nick described this group as Alarm Clock Britain He said these were good people who simply wanted to “ to get up and get on. People who, unlike the wealthy, have no choice but to work hard to make ends meet. People who are proud to support themselves but are only ever one pay cheque from their overdraft. People who believe in selfreliance but who don't want to live in a dog-eat-dog world.”

He went out of his way to explain why the coalition government’s first priority was to get the finances under control. The legacy of the last government was a huge debt which had dented confidence in the British economy both at home and abroad. He argued that the decision to cut deep and cut fast had been necessary. He claimed that as a result the coalition government has helped “keep interest rates lower for longer” and that this was helping both families and businesses.

Nick went on to claim that the decisions taken by the coalition government had been hard – but also fair, most of all fair to our future generations - “ Racking up £400m of debt in their name every day is not right” he said “ Our generation has a responsibility to the next. We have protected spending on schools, on science and on health and found extra money for the pupil premium and apprenticeships” Clearly referring to the overseas aid package to India and other countries he

Deputy PM Nick Clegg, MP

said that that the government would not turn their backs on the “ on the world's poorest” people because he wanted to lay “the foundations of a stronger Britain and a fairer world” Conference delegates also got a preview of what was likely to drive the budget next week. couple of week’s time Nick says “We need a new economy. The deficit is the most obvious symptom of an unbalanced, unsound, unfair economy. An economy based on speculation and debt, rather than growth and investment. We need an economy that works for Alarm Clock Britain, not just for the financial elite “ People from ethnic minority communities were also given something to be pleased about. For the first time in its history the Party has made progress towards ending diversity deficit within the party as a whole and within its Parliamentary group in particular a strategic goal The task of making it happen will fall to Baroness Sal Brinton as chair of the Party’s Diversity Engagement Group.

Sonia Gandhi to speak in London Sonia Gandhi is due to speak in the 14th Commonwealth Lecture on 17th March 2011.

Mrs Gandhi will be speaking on the Commonwealth Day theme Women as Agents of Change and looking at how the role of women in society can have a positive impact on social, economic and political progress with Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth Lecture has become one of the most prestigious events in the Commonwealth cal-

Sonia Gandhi

endar. It aims to stimulate understanding, discussion and debate on the

Commonwealth, its role in world affairs, its institutions and its cultures.

Distinguished speakers from around the world have offered their personal observations and thoughts in the Commonwealth Lecture on issues of crucial importance to the global community. By so doing, they have helped to challenge established orthodoxies, advance new ideas, and mobilise the political will needed to deliver real change in the lives of Commonwealth citizens.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

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

Max Clifford – Promoting and Protecting Image is everything in business, and the best advert is achievement, according to Max Clifford, Britain’s most powerful PR man. I caught up with Mr Clifford last week.

“Your reputation is based on how the public perceive you”, Mr Clifford, pictured, told an 800strong audience. “And the media often have a big role to play in this”, he added. ‘My business is promotion and protection. When I started out it was mainly promotion.

Increasingly, it’s protection.’ Ahead of my meeting with Mr Clifford, I told a reporter friend of mine on a daily national that I was meeting Mr Clifford. He joked: “If you’re after a job from him, good luck. If you’re seeking to sell him a story, be careful.”

The well known publicist is currently handling PR for Shrien Dewani, the man accused of ordering the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in South Africa. Mr Clifford said he had recently received death threats over his involvement in the case, but he strongly believed Dewani

was innocent. ‘I’m 100 per cent convinced it’s untrue, without any foundation at all.’ On death threats, Mr Clifford, who will turn 68 next month, smiled: ‘It has not been the first time and hopefully it won’t be the last either.”

He also spoke about Prime Minister David Cameron’s Big Society initiative, appearing to agree with criticism that it is merely a cover for the Government’s cuts. ‘I think this whole Big Society is a PR exercise because a lot of people are going to be struggling,’ he said. He was also quizzed over the make-up of his agency, Max Clifford Associates.

He said: ‘There have been a few lads over the years.

They tend to be attractive young ladies for some reason. I don’t know why.’

Victoria Robinson, Head of Marketing and Communications at The

Association of Business Schools - which hosted the event - asked Mr Clifford about his PR qualifications. He has none. “There was nobody to teach us PR”. He explained how, in 1962, PR was unheard of, and that his enormous success was based on (1) being in the right place at the right time (2) luck and (3) backing his own judgement and going with his instincts. He added: “There is no substitute for experience.”

The professional body for PR is the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, or CIPR, which sadly appears to be more commercially-driven than ever before. Its diversity committee, in particular, has become a champion on box-ticking. The com-

mittee has been inactive for a number of years, yet CIPR continues to trumpet its ‘commitment’ to diversity.

In September 2008, CIPR’s Emma Hamilton – who has now left – told Asian Voice: “I am giving serious consideration to re-launching the committee”. Two-and-ahalf years on, the committee remains inactive.

Separately, only last week a new commission was launched by the Public Relations Consultants Association, or PRCA, which aims to address the lack of diversity in the PR industry, a report on which is due to be published in mid-May. Fingers crossed on this commission, only time will tell. On the brighter side, two organisations, in particular, which stand out from the rest on genuinely pushing on diversity, nationally, include fledgling charity, the Taylor Bennett Foundation, and Harrogate-based Northern Lights PR.

Three cheers to LABA on Silver milestone Scrolls of honour were bestowed on individuals for achievements in their respective trades and for remarkable contribution to British society, as part of Leicestershire Asian Business Association, or LABA’s Silver Anniversary celebration.

This glittering annual ceremony, held on Thursday a fortnight ago at Athena Conference Centre in Leicester, brought together almost 600 guests. In line with Indian tradition, chief guest, business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk, was welcomed by the LABA Committee with a garland, sweets and a red mark on his forehead. Following this, all guests were asked to be seated. In his opening address, Jaspal Singh Minhas, LABA’s president, flagged up issues and concerns facing the region’s small businesses and made a passionate plea to Mr Prisk for help, before inviting him on stage.

“I feel suitably lobbied,” replied Mr Prisk.

‘Mr President you are right. We understand the imperative of supporting small businesses and all of you have a role to free enterprise. There is still much to be done. This

Leicestershire’s High health, community and government is on your Sherrif-in-waiting Resham social enterprise work. A side,’ he added.

Singh Sandhu, former meal-for-four at the House Among those honWest Midlands’ oured were forMEP Neena Gill, mer Mayor of Keith Vaz MP and O a k h a m , Birmingham-based Captain Vijay Consul General of D i g h e , India Mr C Gururaj Councillor Rao. Veejay Patel, The roundLeader of table function Leicester City included south C o u n c i l , Asian food, drinks Kulwinder Singh and featured an Johal, Chief amazingly spectacSuperintendent ular performance Stephen Harrod, of Leicestershire Perween Warsi, centre, with Mark Prisk MP by a group of youngsters from the Constabulary and and Jaspal Singh Minhas Photo: Jas Sansi Kuntal School of Parminder Singh Bollywood Dancing. of Commons with Tory Sandhu, President of Credit, in particular, to MP Edward Garnier QC National Federation of LABA’s down-to-earth went for £300; the same Retail Newsagents. In Chairman Uday Dholakia, with Labour’s Keith Vaz addition, framed A3 cerwho continues to work MP went for £200. tificates were presented tirelessly behind the Distinguished guests to three new honorary scenes and has regained included BBC Asian patrons – Mr CB Patel, LABA’s credibility, which Network’s chief executive editor and publisher of Vijay Sharma, her husit so deserves. To find out Asian Voice and Gujarat band Surinder, more visit www.labauk.org Samachar, Perween Warsi CBE of Derbybased S&A Foods and Manzoor Moghal MBE. A charity auction on Rare, but refreshing to see Paul Thandi, the night raised £5,277 Chief Executive of the NEC Group, debfor the LABA Heritage iting credits to our nation’s ‘Go Green’ Fund, which will officialbank by taking a stroll along Broad ly be launched next year.

Street, instead of driving, or being drivThe Fund will assist en. Mr Thandi, pictured, Birmingham’s local people, who would most powerful and influential gent, not normally have an according to The Birmingham Post’s opportunity to travel Power 50 List, was spotted wearing a overseas, to bring back navy suit, on his mobile, carrying a black to Leicestershire new satchel at midday last Wednesday. ideas and practices in

Spotted…

News in Brief Collection for charity Saeeda Khan from Wednesfield has raised £396 for Comic Relief. She took a collection bucket round high street, shops and pubs in Wolverhampton to raise cash to support people living in Africa’s slums. Khan, 45, said she had been inspired to carry out the collection after seeing television footage of people living in poverty.

Tips for carers Melinder Kaur, of the Wolverhampton Carer Support Centre, will offer tips and advice on support for carers at the Wolverhampton Pensioners Convention next Friday (Mar 25). The meeting, in the council chamber of Wolverhampton Civic Centre, will begin at 10.30am.

New country, new role Best of luck to Oxfam’s Dr Sheeba Harma who is relocating to Afghanistan to join her colleagues. Dr Harma, 35, who has been the charity’s South Asian Manager in the UK since 2007, will take on a new role as Gender Coordinator.

Car mileage fiddler jailed A second hand car dealer from Birmingham, Mohammed Ibrar, who fiddled the mileage on vehicles he sold to trusting buyers has been jailed for 18 months. Ibrar, 32, from Ward End, who traded Countrywide Cars from his home address, wiped between 40,000 to 50,000 miles off the clock.

‘Committed’ to Diversity The 2011 Midlands Media Awards took place in Edgbaston, Birmingham last Thursday. Yet again, a glittering night. But sadly, the organisers’ Board still does not reflect, nor does it embrace, the diversity within the region’s talent pool. The 13-strong Board remains all white. Fortunately it does have four female members.

TV-philic Viewers in the West Midlands watch almost 22 hours of TV a week, compared with 18 hours for Londoners, according to a TV Licensing report. Last year, one in eight Midlanders bought a new flat screen TV. More than 97 per cent of UK homes have televisions and there are more than 25 million TV licences in force.

Patients unaware of dementia Nearly 60 per cent of the 10,000 people living in Birmingham with dementia have not been diagnosed, according to the Alzheimer’s Society. The society has teamed up with Tesco to raise £5 million to help people with dementia and raise diagnosis levels. To find out more visit www.alzeimers-tesco.org.uk

Headteacher steals kids’ cash

Birmingham headteacher Ann Regan has been given a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for stealing £7,238 from school funds saved up to treat the children. Regan, 44, sobbed in the dock at Wolverhampton Crown Court as she admitted defrauding Hamstead Infants School in Great Barr.

Regan, who told police she was struggling to clear her debts, was also ordered to carry out 240 hours’ community service. Parent Jo Healing said: “It’s disgusting. And she doesn’t go to prison. It sends out the wrong message.”

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

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YOUR VOICE

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

The Female Factor

Modern Day Hitler

No time change

Japanese people

On 9th March 2011, I attended a lively debate on the 100th anniversary of feminism movement. It was organised by International Herald Tribune, a publisher who’s Magazine “The Female Factor” wrote about women’s progress in Liberia, India, China, Norway, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Cambodia, USA, Sweden and Egypt.

The future of Arab nations will also very much depend on the role women will play in all Arab countries since they represent 50% of the population. Women are generally freer from corruption compared to men. Saida Sadoumi, a 71-year old Arab revolutionary, camped out in the bitter Tunisian cold for more two weeks in front of the Prime Minister’s house.

Asma Mahfoud, a 26-year old, while surfing the net in 2008, stumbled on calls for a general strike to demand an end to government corruption in Egypt, where networking speeded up the revolution.

The stereotype of the submissive, repressed victim has been shattered by female protestors in Tunis, Egypt and Yemen [The Guardian 12 March 2011 p38: Perceptions of Arab women have been revolutionised]. Arab women of today refuse to be treated with contempt, kept in isolation, etc. They are taking charge of their own destinies, determined to liberate themselves, as they liberate their societies from dictatorship.

It is said that when there is a fire, the wind blows it out, but what happens if the wind itself stokes the fire? This is exactly what is happening in Libya today.

The ruler or leader, who should protect his people and find peaceful solution to pacify them, has turned on his own people. Colonel Gaddafi’s army is using modern weapons, tanks, helicopters and planes to kill his own people and has mounted a full scale military action to crush them because they are striving for democracy and equality. The scenes of carnage and bloodshed in Libya are causing disgust and unrest in the rest of the world.

Our prime minister, David Cameron, has taken the initiative and suggested that the use of the air space in Libya be declared a no fly zone for Libyan air force. First Tunisia and then Egypt have given in to the wishes of their people but Gaddafi is clinging on to power. But this is at what expense? Killing ones’ own people cannot be the solution to the situation. Even the likes of Hitler did not kill his own German people.

Now it is high time government has to look into seriously as we have to change time twice a year. They should learn from India. India has adopted policy one time all over India. They have adopted time of Allahabad in India.

Technically Eastern India will have sun set early while Mumbai or Western India still has full light.

Geographically India so big, yet they manage to have the same time zone for the full country! I am sure UK can sensibly adopt one time. I suggest that Britain adopts a constant time for the whole year without changes in summer and winter!

Nagindas Khajuria Via Email

As a devotee of Sai temple, I have taken interest, for the past few months, in the way that Brent Council has handled the Planning application of Sai Temple.

Before the Planning Meeting of 15 December 2010, we were told two Hindu councillors Ramesh Patel and Ketan Sheth and one white councillor were removed from sitting in on the case.

At the meeting on 15 December 2010, the officers came with a rejection on mind. Three Liberal councillors plus two Labour (Dhiraj Kataria and Jayesh Mistry) voted for the matter to be sent back for re-consideration. They were opposed by four Labour councillors. At this meeting, Cllr Jayesh Mistry was the replacement for Ketan Sheth.

Brent Council then removed Cllr Jayesh Mistry from the Planning Committee as replacement for Cllr Ketan Sheth at the January meeting of the council.

The matter was to come back to the Planning Committee on 23 February 2010. The Sai Temple trustees learnt reliably that Cllr Dhiraj Kataria had been removed from the Planning Committee for that meeting though Councillor Kataria refused to make comment on it.

With the tally of Hindu councillors removed from the Planning Committee having reached four, the Sai Temple Trustees had no option but to withdraw their planning application.

The purpose of such blatant removal and replacement of councillors was nothing but the planned rejection of the application. This is the sort of things that happen in banana republics.

I was in Japan last year in one of the places which is now devastated by the tsunami.

The Japanese nation since the World War Two became one of the leading economies, a peaceful and a generous nation that always helped nations that were less fortunate and faced natural and man made disasters. They had paid their dues so to say and emerged as a leading pragmatic, helpful responsible nation.

This mother of all recent tsunamis, struck Japan with vengeance unseen since WW2. The destruction is unbelievable and un imaginable. Mother nature unleashed its powers to flatten a nation, second time this century. The disturbing live footage on the box brings home a simple truth that Mother Nature is supreme.

I am amazed at the dignified way the Japanese seems to be accepting their fate.

I don't see them wailing, shouting, screaming, sobbing, beating their heads or chests and overly gesticulating as citizens of other nations do when disasters befall on them. One sees patient, calm, orderly lines of people waiting to receive water or other essentials. There is disturbing quietness in the way they are going about their business of coming to terms with what has happened. Ofcourse they are still shell shocked.

But what will be the consequence of this situation? How much pain and suffering of this magnitude a nation has to go on enduring again and for how long and why?

Bipin Patel Via Email

History repeats itself From last week’s Asian Voice I find that two of your readers are shocked at the double standards of Brent Council.

Let me start with the Battle of Plessey, which gave them rule over Bengal in 1757, and which was their first foothold of power in India. The British then started to isolate the Nawab Siraj Dowlah, who was 21 years old and had just inherited the throne of Bengal. On 15 June 1757, Lord Clive obtained a promise from Mir Jaffar, who was a commander to the Nawab not to join in the forthcoming battle. They also negotiated with Yar Lutuf Khan, Rai Durlabh, who were commanders of the Nawab. They also did a treaty with Omuchund, who was a paymaster to the Nawab. But two different sets of agreements were signed, so that one was to deceive Omuchund.

On 22 June 1757, the Battle of Plessey was fought. At that battle the left wing of the Nawab’s army was commanded by Mr Jaffer, the Centre by Yar Lutuf Khan and the Right wing by Rai Durlabh. At the crucial moment, all these commanders deserted the Nawab. Mir Jaffer was on the throne for barely two years. The British thought he would turn out to be a puppet. When he started to flex his muscles, they overthrew him and put his commander Mir Kassam on the throne. After some time, they overthrew him as well. Thus started the long journey of British misrule in India which turned one of the most prosperous countries into an extremely poor country.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Shami Bhardwaj Via Email

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Planned removal

Nalin Depala Via Email

Mother nature A most leading nation Japan, in the world is suffering due to the Earth Quake and Tsunami. Hundreds of people have died and many others are missing. We all know that Japanese people are sincere, hard working and loyal to their country. I am sure most of the people will be praying to the mother Nature to calm down.

Will our leaders of Great Nation sever understand that we must not use Bombs any where at any part of the world because it may cause hindrances in the movement of earth, which may bring disastrous results like in Japan. We all therefore must learn to respect the mother Nature and try to preserve it.

D.D.Sahdev Ilford

Step-sons of British establishment

Our prayers are with Japan & Mother Earth

The letter from Jagdish Patel in last week’s AV is an eye-opener. Although I am not an ardent supporter of Sai sect, as I have been told time and again by their followers that they believe in secularism.

But in common with most Hindus, we believe in religious freedom and Sai followers, along with ISKCON and SHM are entitled to have their own place, their temples, on equal terms with any other religion, may it be Islam, Christianity, Judaism or any other religion.

Why any one should be surprised if we are treated as step-sons by the British politicians, establishments. The fault line is within us. So often we are loyal to a particular political party, no matter how badly they treat us.

We should support any candidate who we feel is our friend, irrespective of their religious or political affiliation, who will stand by us in our hour of need and that candidate may not even be a Hindu.

Wake up Hindu community, get united and support the right candidate without being tied to a particular political party or an ideology.

Earthquake of unimaginable magnitude in Japan has shocked the world.

Japan lies on four tectonic plates, and prone to seismic tremors. Recent quake is worst in 140 years, no preparations are possible to meet such sudden calamity.

Resultant tsunami and nuclear meltdown has added to woes of Japan and whole world.

Global relief agencies, technicians and philanthropists have been activated to help Japan in all possible ways. Initial figure of loss of 1000 persons has been escalated to 10,000. We must pray for the dead and alleviation of suffering of survivors.

Continuous train of man made and natural calamities beginning as recently as 2008 must open eyes of thinkers as to what is wrong with mother nature, and whether such upheavals deep down in the innards of mother earth are cries of anguish in its sub-conscious, caused by sins of men towards nature and fellow humans.

At this juncture we must revive Vedic prayers of shaantipaath and fire ceremonies-havans. Modernists must also stop blind race to harness nuclear energy.

Bhupendra M Gandhi Via Email

Ramesh Jhalla Via Email

Dinesh Purohit Via 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 March 2011

Cab driver jailed for raping drunk woman Mohammad Hoque, 34, an unlicensed minicab driver was jailed on Monday for abducting and raping a 26year old woman on 19 December 2009. The court heard that Hoque targeted her after she had drunk more than two bottles of wine.

The woman, who has no memory of the attack, woke the next morning to find herself lying on a bed at a house in Whitechapel, East London, without her tights. She ran from the house and took a cab to hospital where she discovered that she had been

Stealing and killing for drugs Collin Clarke, 37, faces life in jail for the 'brutal, cold and ruthless murder' of Muneeb Nasir, whose drugs stash he was trying to steal.

The highly and brilliantly regarded student, originally from Bristol, had been using and dealing the onetime legal Mephedrone, also known as 'Miaow Miaow' or 'M-Cat'.

Clarke stabbed Mr Nasir at his student house in Liverpool last July.

raped. DNA evidence was later linked to Hoque, of Whitechapel, who was convicted in 2008 of illegally touting for taxi fares and arrested three months later.

Though Hoque claimed that he has consensual “casual sex” with the woman in his car, detectives believe the woman, whose career and relationship with her fiance have both ended as a result of the attack, may have also been raped by other men while at the flat.

After 15 months, final-

ly justice was served at Snaresbrook Crown Court as jurors convicted Mohammed Hoque for seven years in jail.

Recorder Nadine Radford QC said, “This young woman was abducted. You found yourself a vulnerable woman who was out with friends in the hope of celebrating Christmas.”

Hoque was made subject of a 12-year sexual offenses prevention order, banning him from touting for fares and driving lone females and was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life.

Panjab Radio expand air waves to North East England Panjab Radio, an iconic name in Asian broadcasting, has now launched in North East England and will cover Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Sunderland, Middlesborough and other surrounding areas on DAB digital radio.

The service will provide music, news and speech programming mainly in Punjabi and English. Music output includes a mix of modern and traditional Punjabi music. Other speech con-

tent includes lifestyle, entertainment and news/current affairs features.

Panjab Radio has come a long way since its launch as a satellite station in September 2000, when it was only available on SKY. In November 2003 it marked a milestone with its launch in London and West Yorkshire while in November 2007 it was launched in the West Midlands.

11

Computer savvy kids pass GCSE as early as seven Two young computer whizz kids from Pinner are celebrating passing their Information and Computer Technology (ICT) exam at the tender age of seven. Zayn Baig and Tashane Akarawita were ecstatic when they received the news that they had passed GCSE in ICT. As reported in Harrow Times, Zayn, who attends Reddiford School, in Cecil Park, Pinner, passed his GCSE with a B grade. His mother, Reshma Baig, said “I am really proud of him.

You learn a lot about your own child when they are in a situation like this. He worked really hard and organised himself well.”

Zayn’s older brother, Ishan, also passed his GCSE in ICT when he was just seven.

Mrs Baig added “His brother is really proud of him, more than anyone as he knows how much work is required when you do this. It’s funny as both my children want to be Prime Minister. It seems like the younger Miliband brother is catching up with the older one now.”

Tashane, who goes to Canon Lane Junior

Zayn (7) with his mother Reshma Baig

School, in Cannonbury Avenue, Pinner, passed with a C grade and is hoping to be a pilot or computer programmer in the future. His mother, Menaka Akarawita, said “He’s a self-learner. At the age of two, he learned the alphabet and then he started to type the alphabet on my computer.

When he started learning simple words he would type them on the keyboard. He was typing before he even learnt to write.”

She adds, “He is a master in shortcuts on the computer and what takes us ages to do he does very quickly. We are really happy for him and glad he could do this at this young age."

Tashane Akarawita (7) learned to type before writing

The two boys were taught by Dr Mike Ryde, Principal of Ryde Teaching. He said, “With both Zayn’s and Tashane’s achievements this year, it once again shows that students can pass their exams if given the opportunity. The current educational system holds back many of the younger students only allowing them to study and take their exams at the prescribed age, this I believe is wrong.”

Dr. Ryde further revealed, “Studying at a younger age can capitalise on a child’s subject interest and can often motivate them in their general education and stimulate academic ambition.”

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MEDIA WATCH

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Scrutator’s The good news for India is that direct taxes have grown by 20 per cent during the current financial year (Times of India February 26), the second item to warm Indian hearts relates to the 14.5 per cent increase in per capita income in the same period (Times of India March 8).

Another item to catch the eye appeared in The Times (London March 2). Reporting from the Geneva Motor Show, Robert Lea, the paper's Industrial Editor, introduced his subject with the upbeat headline : “Jaguar's success story brings 2,500 new jobs”. His opening paragraph set the context: “Britain's biggest motor manufacturer will take on 2,500 new workers to build the new baby Range Rover and engineer and design a new generation of Jaguars....Ralf Speth, the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, added that plans for the rapid expansion of the Jaguar portfolio – with a baby Jag and a new sports car in the pipeline, plus the move to produce an electric-petrol powered hybrid Range Rover, the Range – has already prompted the hiring of 1,000 engineers at its R&D facilities at Gaydon and at Warwick University.”

Mr Lea commented: “It is a remarkable turnaround for a company that was on its knees two years ago, when Tata Motors bought the ailing business from Ford. It is on course to make £1 billion profit for its Indian masters this financial year.”

Carl Peters, the CEO of Tata Motors, spoke of plans for a new Land Rover plant at Pune. The Pune plant, he said, would produce 2,000 Freelanders initially, to satisfy “demanding growth for the vehicle in India.” The House of Tata is on a roll.

This should give pause to the Financial Times's James Lamont and Tom Burgis (March 9), who aver that “Insider trading scandal [involving Rajat Gupta in the US] may reflect badly on country [India].” There would be greater justification, surely, for Indian businessmen to shun British banks, seeing how some of their honchos paid themselves millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money at a time of economic austerity. The said Mr Gupta is due to face trial for insider trading in New York, a charge he has denied. However, if he can bring an entire nation into disrepute, Tata alone should burnish India's image. Corrosive racial conceit blinds.

Tata Pixel, on show A Press Trust of India (PTI) report from Geneva told of the unveiling of Tata Pixel, based on Tata Nano, which is a new city concept for Europe. The Pixel, at about three metres in length, was the most package efficient

magazine writes: “But the Tata story is about more than its own transformation. Just as Tata played a leading role in nationbuilding from its foundation in 1868, creating India's first Indian-owned steel plant, power station, luxury hotel, domestic airline and sundry other firsts, it is now one of the stars of India's

Tata’s new car Pixel at the Geneva Motor Show

four-seater anywhere, said Tata officals.

Tata Motors CEO, Carl Peters, said: “Tata Motors holds true to its belief that there is an opportunity in Europe for a city car, which is optimal in space, manoeuvrability and environment-friendliness. The Tata Pixel is is a reflection of Tata Motors' idea of what such a car should be.”

The Economist (March 5) produced a composite, threepage profile of Ratan Tata and the Tata group including its trajectory to global status. The

globalisation. The group has also produced a new type of company onto the global stage more diversified than Western firms, more engaged in the life of the community and, if its employees are to be believed, better equipped to prosper in both developed and developing markets.” This is an article that will repay the reader for his/her time.

Dalai Lama to give up control The Dalai Lama's decision to

“step down as political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, potentially confounding the Chinese government 's efforts to control the succession process after his death.” In an address to his followers in Dharmasala the Indian hill station, which serves his government's capital, the Dalai Lama stated that the time had come for a transition to a new leadership.

“I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power,” he said.

The Financial Times report (March 11) was Dalai Lama will remain Tibetans' leader penned by James Lamont from New defence industries, and research Delhi and Jamil Anderlini in and development institutions.

Beijing., who explained: “While the Dalai Lama will remain New bombs Tibetans' spiritual leader, the decision to relinquish political A PTI report tells of the develpower before his death will make opment of an India-manufacit harder for the Chinese governtured Laser Guided Bomb ment to try and argue that his (LGB), a weapon that can hit its temporal authority has passed target with greater accuracy to a reincarnated successor of than before. The technological Beijing's choosing.” input for its manufacture came Says Stephanie Brigden, from the Dehra Dun-based director of the international Instrument Research and campaign group, Free Tibet: Development Establishment “China is making every effort to (IRDE), a Defence Research & control the reincarnation of the Development Organisation Dalai Lama because they believe (DRDO) laboratory. that is where the Tibetan politiThe LGB uses a laser desigcal and religious identity is held. nator to illuminate the target.

With this transfer of political The reflected laser light from the leadership the Dalai Lama is target is then identified by the divorcing the religious and the seeker which sends signals to political, diminishing the capacithe weapon's control surfaces to ty of the Chinese to manipulate guide it towards the designated the politics of Tibet through its point. religious identity.”

B a n g a l o re - b a s e d Rajiv Mehrotra, a close aide Aeronautics Development to the Dalai Lama, said: “The Establishment (ADE) developed Dalai Lama is progressively the guidance kit for for the 1000 implementing this withdrawal.

LGBs, The guidance kit of the There is additional significance LGB consists of a computer conbecause of prime ministerial trol group guidance canards elections coming up in the attached to the front of the warTibetan movement.” head to provide steering comThe Delhi-based Pioneer mands and a wing assembly newspaper hailed the event as fixed to the aft end to provide “A Historic Decision”. Its lift. Only a few select nations impact will be huge and the consuch as the US, Russia, France sequences profound. and Britain possess this system.

Russia has launched its Looking to defence Glonass satellite system with civilian and military applicaTibetan developments do not tions. India is the only country augur well for Sino-Indian relato share in the use of its military tions. Beijing is likely to apply capabilities, which include military and political pressure directing missiles to on New Delhi through its surrotheir targets with gate Pakistan and the forces of accuracy (The Hindu Islamism allied to Islamabad.

February 27).

Significantly, India unveiled its first ever defence production Dhanush, policy in mid-January (MoD website), with the goal of subPrithvi-II stantive self-reliance in design, development and production A Hindu newspaper and production of defence platreport (March 12) by forms. The policy aims to create T.S.Subramanian and conditions conducive for private Y.Mallikarjun said sector industries to play an India's Strategic active role in the process. The Forces Command had role of Small and Medium “fired the [surface-toEnterprises (SMEs) in particular surface] Dhanush and will be enhanced.

Prithvi-II missiles Releasing the document, within an hour of each Defence Minister A.K.Antony other, establishing the said government policy sought readiness of the counto maximise synergy between try's nuclear deterthe armed forces, public sector rence systems.” The

Dhanush is a naval missile, while the Prithvi-II is landbased. Both are short-range systems covering some 350 kilometres.

The report says, “The Dhanush and the Prithvi-II, both capable of carrying nuclear warheads, are products of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). The twin success, coming as it did after the DRDO had test-fired an interceptor on March 6 to bring down an 'enemy' ballistic missile in mid-flight has boosted the morale of DRDO missile technologists.”

US, India draw closer The Times of India's Washington Correspondent, Chidanand Rajghatta (March 13), told of a Defence Policy Group (DPG) meeting in the US capital involving military and political representatives of the Indian and armed services.

American Indian army chief General V.K.Singh and his US counterpart General George Casey held separate talks on issues of common interest.

In a largely anodyne statement, which contained much between the lines, the DPG spoke of “extensive discussion on further strengthening bilateral ties, under the auspices of the Defence Framework Agreement,” a Bush-era arrangement of far-reaching consequences.

The DPG meeting included “a policy-level dialogue on the global strategic and security situation,” diplomatese for common US and Indian concerns in the Gulf and the Arab world generally, Pakistan's continuing slide into Islamist anarchy, the volatility in Afghanistan, and China's muscle-flexing.

General Singh's talks at the Pentagon, over lunch and dinner, lasted the entire day.

US analyst Steve Huntley wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times (March 11): “India constitutes the logical hub for a new American alliance with Asian and Pacific nations to balance Beijing's growing military clout and to maintain stability in the region. Washington can't anticipate every foreign upheaval, but closer ties with India could could prepare for what may be gathering storms on the other side of the world.” Well put.

Dhanush, Prithvi-II

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Alpesh Patel’s Political Sketchbook: The Politics of Valour in the Face of the Enemy and the Big Society I have had bestowed upon me this past week the greatest honour I shall ever receive. Greater than most people have ever or will ever have. For this past week, on Constitution Hill, on Commonwealth Day, just before the Gurkha Bugle to commemorate 5million Commonwealth soldiers who fought in the World Wars, I shook hands with a hero.

A hero. A Victoria Cross recipient.

Corporal Johnson Beharry. He is the first living recipient of the VC in the British Army since Rambahudur Limbu, a Gurkha in 1965. The citation for Corporal Beharry read: "Private Beharry carried out two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades. Both were in direct face of the enemy, under intense fire, at great personal risk to himself (one leading to him sustaining very serious injuries). ... Beharry displayed repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valour, despite intense direct attacks, personal injury and damage to his vehicle in the face of relentless enemy action."

But here lies the problem and here is where politics has a role. You see the memorial service was to remember and commemorate. Field Marshall Inge read from Field Marshall Slim’s memoirs recounting the bravery of Indian soldiers in the Second World War, ‘but if you really want to know how brave the Indian soldier was…just ask the enemy’.

The problem is, as Corporal Beharry noted in February 2009, the lack of

support for ex-servicemen and women.

As Baroness Flather, chairwoman of the Memorial Gates Council of which I am a member, reiterated, the support for the widows of Indian soldiers was non-existent.

So it is, we ask boys to do a heroes job, then once it is done, we civilians walk away in case they may ask something of us. A couple of years ago, I did a favour for a friend, I introduced him to an investment and he made a lot of money in a short space of time. But after that, not a thanks, it was as if I had the plague. It is human nature.

Those who do things for us, then those of us without character or values avoid them who did us the favour, for fear they will ask us for something.

So when you consider your Big Society, consider the international society. Consider the soldier and consider too, whatever your view on war, if you do not honour the heroes, then for what do you want a society to begin with?

And in case you think soldiers are all brawn and no brain, Field Marshall Slim was awarded an honourary doctorate from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. I will leave you with thought as you contemplate difficulties at these harsh times, Viscount Slim described moral as this: ‘That intangible force which will move a whole group of men to give their last ounce to achieve something without counting the cost to themselves; that makes them feel they are part of something greater than themselves.’

Obituary

Geeta Dasgupta Amin passes away Geeta Dasgupta was born in 1948 in London, the daughter of a doctor who practised in Bermondsey throughout World War 2. She had been in poor health for some time before her sudden death. She was widowed and is survived by her brothers, sister, nieces and nephews, who live in London.

Geeta Dasgupta had been employed in Social Services in the London Borough of Hounslow until she took early retirement some years ago. She used her retirement to work actively in her borough to further her great passion – social interaction between different cultures and age groups. She felt that her birth in London before the influx of Asian immigrants gave her an unusual skill in bridging the gap between the host country and the Indian, especially Gujarati, communities. She was also concerned about older people being marginalised.

She volunteered and supported the Older People’s Pool, Age Concern, Diabetes UK,

13

A peep through the curtain

Equality of women 0In the last 30 years Britain has progressed in various areas. What has still not developed is equality in race relation, tolerance in immigration law and equality towards women especially in the ethnic communities.

Women still suffer from forced marriages, honour killings, domestic violence and discriminations in the heart of Britain.

The Tories are still trying to cut down on immigrants and a new set of laws are going to halve the skilled immigrants.

The most recent statistics show 1735 cases of actual or attempted case of forced marriages, as reported by BBC, despite of having an anti forced marriage legislation and unit.

In fact twice as many British women are actually beaten up after a RangersCeltic game – the socalled "Old Firm" match in Scotland.

According to Strathclyde police, offences of domestic violence in the west of Scotland rise by 138.8% when the game is played on a Saturday, with smaller but still significant rises (96.6% and 56.8%) for games played on Sundays and weekday evenings.

17th March 1978 l Police in Slough looked for a witness who watched a Pakistani woman drown herself and her three children in the Thames at Windsor.

Mrs Arshad Begum Akhtar aged 28, her two

sons, Asser (4), Aamer (2) and her daughter Sahida (6) were pulled out before their bodies reached the weir at Romney Lock, but they were all dead. The mother had left home in Beechwood Road, Slough, Berkshire with the children after a domestic incident in which her husband Mr Pervez Akhtar was showered with a pan of boiling fat.

The

woman's mother in law was taken to hospital too with head injuries. No one else was involved in that incident, the detectives reported. l Mr Mahendra Patel- a believer of Sarvoday movement in India rooted for party less democracy. But in Brent, he was a fully paid member of both Conservative and Labour party. However he was trying to get elected as a councillor since 1969, but he failed as a Labour candidate, since he did not have the requisite 2 years party

membership. He tried againbut as a Conservative member.

The Tories were shocked to learn he was a member of both Labour and Conservative and asked him to withdraw! A man for all seasons indeed! l A reception was held in the Indian YMCA at Central London to honour Uttar Pradesh MLA Sohan Singh Tomar and Himachal Pradesh Speaker Sravan Kumar. l The Begum Nusrat Bhutto, wife of Pakistan's detained former PM- Mr Z A Bhutto was put in a house arrest in Lahore after being accused by the military authorities of making provocative statements and instigating street demonstrations. l The number of immigrants accepted for settlement in the UK fell from 80,745 in 1976 to 69,313 in 1977 according to figures released by the Home Office. The number of commonwealth citizens fell by 24% . Of those who were allowed to settle on arrival- there was a fall of 47%, a fall of 44% in West Indian citizens and in 19% in Bangladeshi citizens.

But 15% more Pakistanis were allowed to settle.

Much of the drop was attributed to the introduction of amended rules in 1977, by which men were no longer allowed to settle immediately on marriage. The number of work permit holders and dependants also fell from 16,753 to 14,749.

Hounslow man charged with raping a child

Geeta Dasgupta with the Mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Colin Ellar

the Stroke and Falls Prevention Programmes.

She founded Golden Age Hounslow, and the Sager Gujarati Women’s Group at Age Concern. She organised trips, aimed at older people, to European cities. During the past year she had been active as a Health Trainer. She frequently organised widely acclaimed and hugely successful events, such as Antakshari in 2009, and the Gujarati Gala Day in 2010.

Geeta was extremely well known among all community activists (of all cultures) in the

A Hounslow man appeared in court after being charged for allegedly raping a child, as reported by the Hounslow Chronicle.

It further reported that Rajesh Patel, 53,

Borough. Both Council staff and many people in the wider community are quite shaken by her death.

She was kind hearted and hard working and will be greatly missed.

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Asian Voice wishes all its readers a Happy Holi

appeared at Ealing Magistrates' Court on Saturday (26 Feb), charged with rape of a girl under the age of 13.

She was 12. Patel was arrested at his home in Denbigh Road,

Hounslow. The incident is said to have happened on October 22, 2010 in Southall.

Patel was remanded in custody and appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on March 8.

14

ART/COMMUNITY

An unforgettable evening of Indian Music

Sunday the 6th of March 2011 witnessed a groundbreaking event in Indian Classical music with the presentation of the first ever National Indian Music Orchestra.

The event, aptly titled ‘Confluence’ marked the coming together of two existing Indian music orchestras, Samyo and Tarang, playing a new genre of Indian music which was at once modern, traditional, contemporary and classical.

Led by Samyo & Tarang conductors Gaurav Mazumdar and Manorama Prasad, the orchestra performed a repertoire of specially composed music which was entertaining and inspiring. The list of composers represented some of India’s best musicians, including Carnatic superstar Bombay Jayashri.

The evening ended on a high with a trip down memory lane, showcasing much-loved Bollywood songs from the 1960’s to present day, instantly con-

necting all generations present.

Confluence performed to a packed house at the Southbank Centre (London), filled with music enthusiasts and many notable dignitaries including the High Commissioner of India, H.E Mr. Nalin Surie and Director of Nehru Centre, Monika Mohta.

The show also included the launch of Samyo’s first CD, Tributes, presented on stage by Samyo and Tarang patrons, Mr. Mukund Jobanputra and Mrs. Urmila Jobanputra.

In addition to managing two orchestras Milapfest, the UK’s Indian Arts Development Trust, also supports talented young musicians and dancers with fellowships which provide opportunities for advanced training and career development.

Many young artists have benefited over the years, and the recent winners were awarded on stage by H.E Mr. Nalin Surie and Chief Editor of Asian

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Community could suffer with loss of 'Ashiana' The spending cuts proposed by the Coalition government has not only affected Brent's charities and local or social organisations, but have also affected other boroughs that have many ethnic minorities living in them.

In our news article on February 19th (page 2), we described the plight of organisations like BIA, who are suffering from the possibility of losing conventional festivals that symbolised the Indian community settled in Britain.

Mr Kanti Nagda of Sangat Community Centre also explained his fear of having less and less services available to the common people due to unavailability of requisite funds or aids.

Such fears have been raised for the future of services by a charity for young people with learning disabilities after a council grant of almost ￡ 29,000 was axed due to budget cuts.

Harrow Council is about to cut charity Ashiana's annual funding of ￡28,877, which it has

received for the last two years.

The charity, started in September 2000, has 86 services users and provides weekly activities, including yoga, Bollywood dancing, IT sessions, arts and crafts, swimming, badminton and snooker, as well as group befriending services. It has made considerable The Harrow Times, which was approached by Ashiana reported that the Harrow Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East, Conservative) highlighted the plight of the charity by raising a question in the House of Commons last Thursday asking Communities and Local Government secretary, Eric Pickles, about what steps are being taken to ensure councils protect voluntary organisations.

The charity will stop receiving funding on March 31 but charity managers believe it will be able to run services until the end of the year.

Arvind Joshi, who helps to run the charity told Asian Voice, "We are very disappointed that the

Voice, Shri C.B Patel, who was also announced as a new patron of Samyo and Tarang.

Samyo and Tarang will be auditioning for talented young musicians to join

the orchestras on April 9th & 10th in London.

For more information e m a i l samyotarang@milapfest.c om or call 0151 291 3310.

UK Telegu association celebrates International Women's Day 100 years of International Women’s Day was celebrated by UK Telugu Association on 7th March at the Nehru Centre, London. It was the first event of the series of events held at Nehru Centre to mark the occasion. The programme was inaugurated by Mrs. Monica Mohta, IFS, Director of the Nehru Centre. The event consisted of a panel discussion on the topic 'Being an Asian woman in Britain.' The panel was chaired by Baroness Shreela Flather, member of House of Lords and had Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, former Director of Arsenal Football Club, Mrs. Purnima Tanuku, CEO, National Day Nurseries Association and Dr. Rochana Bajpai, Assistant Professor, SOAS as the members.

The topic was introduced by Mrs Geetha Kaza, who explained the need for celebrating the International Women’s Day, even

after hundred years in view of the fact that women do 60 % of the World’s labour but own only 1 % of its landed property. The topic of the discussion focussed on the fact that Asian women in Britain not only faced the gender barrier but also the cultural barrier. The panel members had succeeded in overcoming these barriers and their experience, views and advice would be beneficial to other aspirants.

In her talk Lady Nina emphasised on the need for connecting and networking with people in order to succeed in man’s world.

Dr.Rochna felt that her experiences in dealing gender issues in India helped her in a lot in her dealings in Britain, especially in Oxford. Mrs. Purnima emphasised on the need for acquiring a basic qualification in Britain and then standing up for one self.

Baroness Flather in a remark-

ably rousing speech told women never to feel inferior and strive for their goals confidently. She recounted her personal experiences and advised the audience that they should never let failures stop them from trying again and again till they achieve what they want. She stressed that the income from women’s work always increased the household income and contributed in fully measure to the family’s standard of living.

Mr.Prabhakar Kaza, President, UKTA, explained the objectives of the Charity and mentioned appreciatively the struggles waged by women’s organisations over the last century all over the World.

The audience, about 100, participated enthusiastically in the programme which ended with a networking session and a Reception.

Harrow Council funding contract will not be renewed as of 31st March 2011. We would have welcomed an opportunity to have a dialogue prior to the decision being made.

It would have allowed us to demonstrate the benefits Harrow Council receives from the services provided by Ashiana. We are very grateful to the Council for giving us the funding of ￡29775 p.a. over the last two years.

We understand that the council has announced investment of ￡1.5m in Adults and Housing in relation to increase demand in the Learning and Physical Disability client group. We hope the council would

allow voluntary organisations like ours access the scheme and any other areas of funding which may be open within the council.

Ashiana on its own will be able to sustain it’s vital services until end of December 2011. After this period we will leave it in the hands of the Council to continue providing the services to meets the needs of this special group of people. We would like to work with Harrow Council if given the opportunity to develop the way forward."

(If you want to help Ashiana or want Harrrow Council to support them, send your appeals to sonal.teli@ashiana.org)

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

15

National Hindu Students Forum (UK)

By Rudrajoy Chakroborty, Interfaith PR NHSF (UK)

NHSF Sports Competition 2011 The National Hindu Students Forum UK (NHSF) hosted it's annual national sports competition on Saturday 5th March at England's top sporting university, Loughborough. Over 900 students descended upon Loughborough in their team coaches, and in a surprisingly chirpy mood despite the early morning start. The day incorporates the traditional elements of kabaddi and kho-kho, alongside the contemporary sports of football, netball, cricket and the newly introduced dodgeball.

The competitive battles on the fields of play seem to step up in quality every year, but amidst the strive to test one's abilities against those from across the land, the unity between players, supporters, organisers and guests shines through in the sporting spirit that NHSF (UK) inspires to foster. As ever, the day was about more than sport, with sewa activities going on all day to display the potential opportunities for students to make a

difference to their local, national and international communities. A Maha Shivaratri puja was conducted in the morning to show students a key practicing aspect of the Hindu faith, and a plethora of philosophical and religious literature was present for those who wished to mix learning and intellectual pursuits with the sporting challenges of the day.

A change in format meant all the finals were played at the end of the day, and that set the perfect scene for sporting drama as the natural light faded and those who had managed to reach the latter stages displayed their many talents. Manchester 1sts came through a physical battle with Brunel to triumph in the football, which was reward for the excellent passing football they had employed throughout the duration of the tournament.

Westminster opened up their trophy account with kho- kho victory, as their evasive running in particular proved too elusive for their opponent catchers. Birmingham over-

came Leicester in the hotly anticipated kabbadi finale, with the competition witnessing a number of bruising but fantastically good-spirited encounters between experienced and newcomers to the classic sport.

A day of sporting action always throws teams and individuals a combination of ups and downs, but despite only one team claiming the winners' trophies at the end of the day, it was truly a pleasure to witness the sheer grit and determination of every competitor, regardless of their previous experience, perhaps pointing towards a bright future for Hindu sportsmen and women of the future. The London Olympics looms close in the minds of sports lover all over the world, and it is a testament to the multi-talented British people, that students who are excelling in their academic institutions across the board, are able to put on such an impressive sporting performance at a national level.

Dentist with 'roving eyes' victimise fairer sex Continued from page 1 Hundle, regularly features on Channel 4 show Ten Years Younger, in which participants are given a makeover in an attempt to make them look more youthful. He has also appeared on Tomorrow’s World and GMTV. A fitness to practise hearing was told that after meeting in November 2000, Hundle and Patient A made regular appointments to have sex at the Lund Osler clinic where he worked, a stone’s throw from Harrods in Knightsbridge.

She claimed she had no idea he was married until his receptionist told her that his wife had just had a baby in 2007. But the affair continued.

She said that in September 2008 – by which time Hundle was separated – he invited her to his home.

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But she claimed that after having sex at 1am in front of a film called Hot Sex In St Tropez, he made her stay in a dark bedroom for five hours as was allegedly afraid of being caught by his ‘psycho’ practice nurse, with whom he was also having an affair..

She said: ‘He told me I probably would not be able to go to school the next day and that he might have to lock me in another room as it would not be safe for me, which really frightened me.

‘He told me I must not use or flush the loo or switch on any lights.

‘I thought I could make things worse if I went downstairs and demanded to be let out.’

When she tried to creep downstairs at around 4am, he barked: ‘I thought I told you to stay.’

She claims he told her: ‘I never promised her anything, I can have sex with

who I want. I’m going through a divorce. She is a psycho.’

She eventually managed to get away at 6am.

Patient A said that on another occasion they were having sex in the reception area of his clinic when they were interrupted by a noise. Hundle told her it was his wife, and that she was ‘stalking’ him.

Sean Larkin, for the General Dental Council, said Hundle’s behaviour had left Patient A ‘intimidated and vulnerable’, reports Daily Mail.

After their final meeting at his home, she claimed he put pressure on her to keep quiet about the relationship.

When she contacted the nurse and Hundle’s wife, he allegedly sent her a text saying she was ‘destroying his life’ and had ‘caused enormous damage’.

By Swati Bhan

Costumes during Punjabi wedding

The Punjabis are known for their zest for life and their colorful lifestyle. Similarly, the wedding in Punjab is celebrated with great pomp and show. Marriage ceremony in Punjab is a grand celebration and followed with a number of rituals. It is a lively function. People wear traditional Punjabi costumes which is a reflection of Punjabi culture and tradition. Wedding is very sweet moment for brides. They want to look best on her wedding night. They explore the market to get best wedding costumes. Punjabi brides are fond of wedding Salwar suits and designer Lehnga. Salwar suit is the traditional costume of Punjab. However, these days wedding Lehnga is also preferred as wedding costume.

Wedding Salwar suit is always a flavor of wedding season. Trendy saree and Lehnga may temporarily get out of fashion in Punjab but Indian Salwar suits are evergreen fashion statements in Punjab. Suits for wedding are designed especially to suit the brides’ look. The kameez are heavily embroidered with golden and silver thread, resham, zari, gota, etc to give bridal look. The brides in designer Salwar kameez dazzle on her wedding night. To get perfect look they wear matching heavy jewelry of gold and Hundle admits he had sex with Patient A at his home but denies anything took place at his surgery.

He accepts she went to his house for sex on September 24, 2008, but denies the incident with his nurse.

He has accepted his behaviour was inappropriate but not that it was sexually motivated or an abuse of his position. The hearing continues.

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diamond. Bangles are the main wedding jewelry in Punjabi wedding.

One can get Salwar suit in different fabric and different style. Different styles are available separately for Salwar and suits. These days pleated Salwar is in demand. Pleats in the Salwar add touch of elegance in the women’s gait. Various types of neckline are also available for suit. You can get stitched your wedding suit in the style you want. You must keep in mind fitting of the suit. Right fitting is must for smart look. You must get your suit stitched with the current figure size.

Indian bridal Lehnga is also preferred as wedding costume in Punjab. This is a trendy wedding costume in Punjab. You can explore the market to get a beautiful Lehnga for your wedding night. Lehnga is basically a wedding costume that has a Ghaghra and a Choli. The Ghaghra and Choli are heavily designed with embroidery and stone. Brides look very elegant in Indian Lehnga Choli. Bridal Lehnga comes mainly in bright colors. Explore the market well to get a right wedding costume. It is suggested to go for those wedding costume that really suit your personality. Get ready in traditional Punjabi style as wedding is reflection of culture and tradition.

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Bollywood

16 Asian Voice Saturday 19th March 2011

‘7 Aum Arivu’ to include a mega dance track The music launch of film maker Murugadoss' much awaited '7Aum Arivu' will take place at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai on March 28. The film is based on a circus artiste and Suriya plays the role of a trapeze artiste cum animal trainer.

Meanwhile music director Harris Jayaraj is busy recording a mega dance track for the film.

"Started recording a mega dance track for the film '7Aum Arivu' for which 1,000 dancers have practised to shake their legs," Harris tweeted.

Interestingly, in the film Suriya has performed all the circus acts himself without using a body double in any of the sequences. Besides his circus acts, the actor will

also perform several innovative stunts in the film. A special trainer from Rajkamal Circus was appointed to teach him the jumps and other special items he performs in the movie.

According to sources, Suriya is also planning to perform the circus stunts he has learnt during the '7Aum Arivu' music launch for his fans.

Yuvan on ‘Billa 2’ board

Yuvan Shankar Raja, who had composed memorable chartbusters for Ajith in the past, has been roped in as the music director of “Billa 2,” the movie directed by Chakri Toleti.

This has been confirmed by the producers of the movie. Sunir Kheterpal, one of the pro-

ducers said, “With Chakri Toleti coming on board to helm directorial reigns of ‘Billa 2’, pre-production work has gathered steam.

We are currently meeting with key technicians and holding auditions for the remaining cast.”

“We should be able to announce key members of the cast and crew soon and we plan to commence shooting for the film in the first week of May 2011,” Kheterpal said.

On his part, Ajith says, “I am looking forward to be working with Chakri Toleti, who, in a short period of less than a fortnight, has brought in the freshness, energy and vigour required for this project.”

Telugu horror movie to be dubbed in Tamil

Bollywood dancers to perform at Prince William’s wedding Bollywood choreographer/dancer Sandip Soparrkar and his wife Jesse Randhawa are all set to enthrall English audiences with Bollywood waltz as the closing piece of the reception dinner of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the April 29, at Buckingham Palace.

The royal wedding is expected to be attended by 600 of the world’s most high profile leaders and celebrities. For someone who has choreographed the likes of Penelope Cruz (Nine), Priyanka Chopra (Saat Khoon Maaf), Hrithik Roshan (Kites), performed at Madonna’s 50th birthday and Kate Perry 2010 nuptials to Russell Brand, Sandip feels honoured that the Royal family decided to approach him. “The invitation clearly mentioned that they wanted us to do a combination of Bollywood and English waltz. They wanted a special dinner dance piece at the reception hosted by Prince Charles,

done exclusively for the occasion.”

On his experience of being associated with the royal family in 2004, Sandip says that he was chosen by the Ballroom Dancing Association, UK in 2004 to promote ballroom dancing in the world. The association is funded by the royal family and this happened after Sandip opened his dancing school in India. His second interaction with the royal family was when Prince Charles was invited for the muharat shot of Mangal Pandey-The Rising in Mumbai.

Sandip is planning to prepare a medley and showcase India’s dance culture in front of the august audience. “I think dance has romance and celebration. This celebration is a coming together of different cultures and different themes to mark the special occasion. And it feels good that the royal family have chosen us,” adds Sandip.

Ranbir find new love in Nargis Fakri?

“Whom is Ranbir Kapoor dating”?, this is the most curious question in minds of the tabloids and the media. Is he stuck with Katrina or have found new date in Nargis Fakri? According latest gossip the actor was recently seen spending some quality time with his 'Rockstar' co-star Nargis Fakhri. Ranbir certainly has a knack for getting cozy with his co- actors According to reports, the two were recently watching a movie together in a multiplex! They made an attempt to escape prying eyes by leaving the venue separately. Ranbir is said to have walked out with Ayan Mukherjee while Nargis stayed back for some minutes. Ranbir's friends claim that the actor is simply playing escort to show Bollywood newcomer Nargis around. With Ranbir's record, it is difficult to believe.

Insiders say that it is just a part of the publicity ploy for their upcoming film ‘Rockstar’ directed by Imtiaz Ali. The half Czech and half Pakistani model is making her debut opposite Ranbir in the film and the buzz of her romancing RK junior off-screen surely gives her the mileage that many would seek in Bollywood.

Hence it is not surprising that everytime Ranbir and Katrina story comes up Nargis gets the mention too. The publicity ploy is working good as the lady is now known to everyone in spite of not having a single release yet Nargis is already joining the list of the Bollywood brigade. So while everyone is eager to know whether these two are dating or not people who know the Kapoor junior will tell that they are engaged in some harmless flirtations. Also eventually giving the film the right promotion much before its release and putting Nargis on the map.

People plant stories to malign me: Kangna

Horror and thriller films are working big time in the Tamil Nadu box office and so does dubbed Telugu films. A testimony to this fact would be Anushka's Arundathi which was dubbed in Tamil and went on to become a huge hit.

Cashing in on the popularity of the genre, Mangala a Telugu horror film starring Charmi is being dubbed into Tamil.

The film is directed by Osho Tulasi Ram who has directed another hit horror film called Mantra a few years ago. Mangala stars Subhash, Pradeep Rawat, Chitram Seenu, Uttej, Sarika Ramachandra Rao alongside Charmi and is filled with Indian Voodo and bewitching black magic. Let is see if Mangala weaves the same magic that Arundathi did in Tamil Nadu.

She’s outspoken and not the one who’s afraid to rustle a few feathers with her comments. Kangna Ranaut has claimed in an interview that a lot of people in the film industry plant stories against each other, and she is also one of the victims.

She also feels like an outsider in the industry as she is not a star kid.

“I’m angry at some people in the industry. If the star kids fly a kite, so much is written about it. And when people like me win international awards, we are ignored. There are so many people in Bollywood, who spend their time and money to plant stories against another,” says Ranaut. She also feels that there is no place for love and compassion in the industry and people are jealous of each other.

Salman Rushdie to host a bash Popular Indian –origin author Salman Rushdie is all set to throw a party to the cast of “Midnight’s Children.” The party will be held at his London home prior to the shoot of film, based on his award-winning 1991 book.

It would be a very lavish affair with “who’s who’s of London society expected to attend.

With the elite crowd and cast as his guests, he would also invite his friends from all over the world. The guest-list and the date of the party is not finalished as yet, but it would take place right before the shooting commences.

As this film is based on his novel which had been a big hype all around, there are lots of expectations pinned on this project. The novel had won him many awards also. So he is keen that the film will be made in such a way that it can match the book’s success.

The 61-year-old author is very emotional about the project and has spent close to a year working with Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, to ensure that the screenplay did justice to the book.

He who was honoured with a Knighthood last year, was reported to have met Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan and Shabana-Javed Akhtar while in Mumbai last December.

Katrina to launch her sister Isabel Katrina goes the Salman way to launch her sister Isabel. Like Salman Khan, who tried hard to launch his brothers in Bollywood, by either acting in the film with them or by helping them with their acting skills, ex-beau Katrina Kaif is all set to follow his path. Katrina, who has almost known the trick of the trade in Bollywood is all set to launch her younger sister Isabel Kaif in Bollywood.

Katrina, will be turning into a producer for the film and alongside will star with Isabel in the film, so as to draw eye balls for her in the film.

Katrina has finally learned that a brand family name works wonders in Bollywood. She is all geared up to give an easy platform to her sister to showcase her acting talent.

Reportedly, She has been planning to get into production for a longtime now and this can be the best chance to help her sister out. She was initially reluctant to feature in her sister's debut film as she wanted to avoid comparisons between her and Isabel, but later

she realised she needed to be in the film to ensure guarantee audience for Isabel.

She said that the script of the film is still under process and they won't be playing sisters in the film for sure, but being elder sister in real life, she will make sure that her little sis gets well established and has her own stand in Bollywood. She finds that it is going to be tough for her sister as she (Katrina) will be making her first film but she will do everything to make her well known to audience. She will make sure that Isabel understands the language of Hindi and will try to boost up her confidence. Isabel has been accompanying Kat in filmi parties to pick up the nittygritties of the industry and now Kat has taken her totally under her wings. Its heard that Katrina insists Isabel to converse in Hindi.

Tusshar Kapoor learning to make love He may have worked in films that have adult-rated content but Tusshar Kapoor has never had to indulge in lovemaking scenes on screen till now.

The actor features in his sister Ekta's production of “Dirty Pictures,” a biopic on South sex siren, Silk Smitha, starring Vidya Balan in the lead role.

He plays the only man Smitha truly loved and is slated to shoot intimate scenes with Vidya sometime soon.

To help him lose his inhibitions, didi Ekta has suggested rigorous workshop sessions with the lead actress, where the two will get emotionally and physically comfortable around one another.

Tushar confirms, "It's true I'm doing the film. But I trust my director Milan Luthria enough to know he will make the content aesthetic. There's a lot of intense passion in my relationship with Vidya Balan.

I play the only guy who accepted her for what she was and insisted that she keep her career out of their relationship."

Workshops with Vidya would be vital since Tusshar doesn't know her that well.

"She acted in Ekta's ‘Hum Paanch’ long time ago.

That's how I remember her. People are saying she's older and that we will be mismatched.

That isn't true. I'm a year older. We'll work towards looking compatible on screen."

Curiously Tusshar doesn't figure in Ekta's other big production, the “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai” sequel.

"I didn't suit any of the parts. Besides, I don't have to be part of all our home productions,” he chuckles.

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

17

No intimate lovemaking scenes for Sonakshi Sinha

First condition of Sonakshi Sinha that her film with Kamal Haasan has no lovemaking scenes While Kamal Haasan got his actress of choice -Sonakshi Sinha -- for his next, a supposed remake of Hollywood film, Hannibal, there will be no lovemaking scenes between the two.

The untitled film begins its first schedule in a few weeks and will be shot in London.

Initially, Shatrughan Sinha's daughter was hesitant to take the project, but once the veteran actor sat with her for the narration, she was convinced about it.

The conditions: It will be a Tamil film that will be dubbed into Telugu and Hindi. Sources reveal the Sinha gal laid down conditions that she won't be doing any kissing or intimate scenes.

The script did have a few intimate sequences between the two initially but the Dabangg actress explained to Kamal that she doesn't want to expose or do any suggestive scenes. The lovemaking shot was done away with."

Bipasha's molestation inspires Kareena!

John hurt while doing stunt

Citing a recent incident involving Bipasha Basu as the trigger, Kareena Kapoor has joined a campaign that aims to create "a safe India for women".

A source close to Bebo says, "She feels that her association will aid awareness to the problem.

When someone like Bipasha is not spared, no woman truly is safe."

"Kareena joining our campaign is a major boost for us, because she represents the modern, fearless woman of today and her endorsement will enable others to look up to her as a role model to speak out as well, " says a source spearheading the initiative.

The actress wants the hard facts to be highlighted and getting citizens to sign a petition to be presented to President Pratibha Patil, also a woman! According to a source, "The Shakti campaign is a way of reminding India that violence against women is indiscriminate, regardless of a woman's earning power, class or caste. We need to reclaim and reinforce the indisputable fact that any violence against women, be it physical, sexual or mental is unacceptable.”

Bollywood star John Abraham of late is under bad weather. Recently, while shooting for Vipul Shah's production, ‘Force’, the actor was seriously injured while doing a stunt scene. While jumping on moving trains, the actor lost his balance and fell over a heap of stones. The stunt required him to jump from one moving goods train to another; instead of landing on his feet he lost his balance and fell on his back over a heap of stones. He suffered 40 injury marks on his back.

Producer Vipul Shah said, “although all precautions were taken, this is something that can never be controlled.

He was supposed to land on his feet but he fell on his back and got hurt badly."

A source reveals, "Kamal was very clear that he wanted Sonakshi for the film. He wasn't even thinking of any second or third choices.

After watching Dabangg he was so impressed with her, that he asked his people to persuade her to do the film.

He even blindly agreed to her every term and condition."

Be natural: The South superstar has also asked his new co-star to be impromptu for the film.

"Even though it's her first South film, Haasan has asked her not to attend any workshops. He wants her to just land on the set and start shooting.

The only preparation she's doing is watching some Tamil films to get accustomed to the language. She's currently in Chandigarh shooting for Joker with Akshay, and watches South Indian films in her trailer during the breaks."

Clear-cut: Even while signing Race 2, Shotgun's daughter made it clear to the makers that she will not do any bedroom or lovemaking scenes in the flick.

Deepika to sizzle on Dum Maaro Dum track Deepika Padukone has done an item song in the upcoming film of Rohan Sippy, Dum Maaro Dum. The pictures of Deepika Padukone in this song are out in the media. The pictures are superb and she looks quite hot and bold in these pictures. But for this, all the credit goes to the hard works of the actress.

She has spent many hours in the gym to make her gorgeous looks.

Now Deepika Padukone has become more important in the film with display of her gorgeous figure and the dum maaro dum tattoo on it rather than the leading actors Abhishek Bachchan or Bips.

18

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Alpesh Patel Consultant Editor Financial Voice Dear Financial Voice Reader, The markets are amoral. Some would say immoral.

But amoral for sure. The market does not care how many people died in Japan, how many parents lost their children, children lost their families and became orphaned. The market does not care.

So when a trader friend asked me this weekend if the markets will suffer as a result of what happened in Japan, I had to answer in an objective market way. I asked him, ‘how many cars did you see floating in the Tsunami?’. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. All those will need to be replaced. How many homes destroyed?

How many factories? All those will need to be replaced.

Who will pay? Japan runs a huge budget surplus.

It has lots of money. Thank god. And the world’s largest insurance companies are very efficient at spreading risk. Take Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Its share price, as a major insurer, hardly moved.

Homes need copper. Factories need concrete.

Share prices of car makers and commodities will all increase. I am not being callous and I am not profiting from the dead. I am telling you the way it is. Out of respect for the dead, my own trades and portfolio has not changed. But I can tell you hedge funds and investment managers will all be looking at investment opportunities.

In fact, after a suitable period of mourning the American and Europeans will be over on trade missions. But what about Japan? Recession again? Quite possibly, but China and the spending from reconstruction will take up the slack. Remember China in growth terms throws up the equivalent of a UK every two years. And don’t forget the world’s second and third largest economies for the first time in history are from this year in the Far East. Not the West.

And the Japanese will be back. In the history of the world the only country to have suffered atomic explosions on its cities in war bounced back to be the world’s second largest economy. After nuclear devastation the Japanese became the only proof Asia had for a long time we Asians were not all basket cases in the 20th century.

So immensely strong has the Japanese spirit been, overshadowed by the more showy American sprit it is easy to forget these peoples have never been conquered until the Second World War. That their greatest ever military defeat before 1945 was scarcely known – it was by most measures so small – it occurred in Kohima in India. So unconquerable has been the spirit of this nation it took the most devastating explosive devices known to man to bring them to the surrender table.

So let the markets make their gains and falls. The Japanese will rise high again. Richter’s scale can measure the power of a quake, but not the power of a peoples. Humanity has yet to find a measure for the human spirit.

Now also Japan knows why it has an army. It used to be they wondered why a country avowedly peaceful by constitution needed an army. Now consider the Nikkei – the main Japanese index. Here is a simple trade if you believe in the Japanese spirit. As I write it is at around 10,000. It has been trading a few months ago at 11,000. No matter which way you look at it, it will go back to 11,000 – the question is when. You lock in at least 10%. Now if it takes a year, then that is 10% in a year. Not bad. Bet on Japan recovering.

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Sebi clearance for Cairn-Vedanta deal

India’s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has cleared the acquisition of Cairn India by Londonbased billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources, removing a major hurdle for the $9.6billion deal announced about seven months ago.

The deal was announced in August 2010 and has since then been awaiting approvals from Sebi and the government.

The government is yet to approve the deal, wherein British energy giant Cairn Energy agreed to sell its majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta group.

After seeking numerous clarifications on the deal from acquirer over the past seven months, Sebi has issued its final observations on the mandatory open offer to be made to

the public shareholders as part of the deal.

Any deal involving acquisition of 15 per cent or more stake in a listed company requires the acquirer to make an open offer for 20 per cent stake purchase from public shareholders and this offer should be approved by Sebi.

Soon after announcing the deal to acquire up to 51 per cent stake in Cairn India, Vedanta group had sought Sebi's approval for the mandatory open offer to be made to the public shareholders of the target company.

In the public offer announced on August 17, Vedanta group had offered to acquire up to 20 per cent stake from public shareholders for a price of Rs 355 per share.

The Rs 136 billion open offer was first scheduled to open on October 11 and close on October 30, but was held back on delay in Sebi approval for the same.

The company will now have to announce a fresh schedule for the open offer, where it may have to incorporate various clarifications sought by Sebi during the course of its due diligence on the proposed transaction.

The deal is currently awaiting an approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The oil ministry last month circulated a draft note for the CCEA

Air India earns Rs 360 mn a day, spends Rs 570 mn India’s flag carrier Air India is passing through a precarious financial condition. While it earns Rs 360 million a day from its operations it spends 570 million at the same time.

"We are paying compulsory payment abroad of Rs 160 million and committed payment in India is Rs 200 million. But the total expenditure comes to about Rs 57 million," Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said in parliament while answering a question.

Air India is facing a major problem of payment overdues for aviation fuel to oil companies. The overdues to oil PSUs have soared to over Rs 22 billion as on February this year.

"The government has infused Rs 12 billion, out of this, we have given Rs 4.75 billion to the oil com-

panies. As it is, it is true that Rs 19 billion is still pending," he said.

Besides, an amount of Rs 125 million is being paid daily by Air India to oil companies on cash-andcarry basis. Till date, Air India has paid Rs 11.47 billion under this scheme.

Ravi said that the oil companies were not at all yielding to government's requests of any concession. They (oil PSUs) have extended the credit facility to all the private airlines but not to Air India. "We are requesting that Air India must get the treatment which is being extended to the private companies," Ravi said.

Pilots to go on strike: Meanwhile, a group of Air India pilots said they would go on strike from March 16 over pay hike

and other issues. "We will go strike from March 16, as the Air India management has failed to come up with an interim solution to our issues till now," an official of the agitating pilots group said.

The official further said that the interim solution for pay-parity would be a stop-gap solution until a committee under a retired judge and two other members comes up with its suggestions.

Earlier, the same group of pilots had postponed their planned strike March 9 after an initiative taken by Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi .

According to the official, the unions' patience with the airline management was dwindling and strike was the only solution.

approval, but comments on the same have not been received from all the ministries.

Oil ministry will move CCEA once comments from ministries of finance, law, home, environment and corporate affairs are received.

In all probability, the CCEA is likely to give an in-principal nod to the deal where London-based mining group Vedanta, which has no prior experience in oil sector, is buying up to 51 per cent stake of UK's Cairn Energy Plc. Oil ministry has watered down its preconditions and has almost withdrawn its condition that Rs. 218 billion in royalty and cess paid by ONGC on behalf of Cairn India from the Rajasthan oilfields should be equitably shared.

Indian exports up by 50% in Feb Indian exports grew by 49.8 per cent in February, the fastest pace of expansion in 11 months.

Provisional numbers estimated exports at $23.6 billion during February and took the cumulative numbers for the current financial year beyond the $200 billion target for 2010-11.

Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said that exports rose 31.4% during April-February to $208.2 billion and prompted the government to revise the annual projection. “We crossed the $200 billionmark in February and now our forecast this fiscal is around $235 billion,” he said.

This year, exports have been propelled by traditional areas of strength such as engineering as well as newer items such as petroleum and pharmaceuticals.

SBI opens new branch in East Ham The State Bank of India (SBI) UK has opened a new and spacious branch at East Ham in East London on March 1 so that it can serve its customers in a better way. In this branch you can have easy access to the manager as he will be seated in a glass office at the front of the branch.

SBI has also plans to open two similar type branches in Coventry and Wolverhampton before the end of the year and also intends to refurbish its existing network of seven branches in the same style.

Rajnish Kumar, SBI Regional Head of UK, said: ‘We are committed to providing value to our ustomers and want to support this nation’s tradition of branch-based banking by bringing people from a wide range of communities into branches and giv-

New SBI branch in East Ham

ing them first-class faceto-face service.’

Deepak Ahuja, SBI Head of Consumer Banking & Wealth – UK, said: ‘The aim of these branches is not only to create a more spacious, comfortable atmosphere for our customers, but also to highlight our focus in bringing fair, simple and transparent products to our customers. We intend to provide more tailored

solutions for our customers in future, including investment products, residential mortgages and wealth management.’

SBI has a high customer satisfaction rate due in part to its fair and simple banking products. For example, a previous product launched last year which proved to be popular was the Five-year Stepped-rate Bond with a rate of 4.5% but – unique-

ly among UK savings bonds – allowed customers to access their cash early and in full at any time after two years without any penalties or loss of interest. The bond was withdrawn last year after being oversubscribed. The bank has branches in the heart of the City and Golders Green in London, as well as Birmingham, Harrow, Leicester, Manchester and Southall.

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

19

Time And Tide Wait For No Man

Suresh Vagjiani Managing Director Sow & Reap A Property Investment & Financing company.

We are this week looking at a flat in Maida Vale which is coming up for sale in the Barnard Marcus auction on Wednesday the 16th March 2011.

By the time you read this article it would have been sold to our client or not as the case may be.

We looked at many properties in strong locations and decided this is one of the best to go for.

The property consists of roughly 450 Sq Ft. It is comes in dilapidated condition and therefore there is an added margin in the development on this property.

Our research on this property shows it has come in auction previously and remained unsold in 8th February 2011. The last bid was £256,000 and the reserve was set at £275,000 this is assuming the auctioneer was not using the back wall to bid up the price, which often happens. A similar property was sold for £277,500 in the Allsops auction in 13th February 2008.

Allsops is a much popular auctioneer I remember attending one and the doors were closed as there were too many people and it became a health and safety issue.

The property is on the ground floor of a period conversion. The main selling point of this flat is its huge garden which comes with the property. A garden is extremely rare in a flat in this location. The flat is in the borough of Westminster and is equidistant between Queens Park and Maida Vale Stations. Westminster College is only a stone throw away from the property. A college like this would fuel the demand for rentals from the student sector of the market. Shirland Rd runs parallel and is a very desirable road for people wanting to live in Maida Vale. The Paddington recreation ground is close by, it is always good to have a large patch of greenery near a property this helps wild life and air quality which although is not a main factor for driving up the demand but it enhances it. Though dilapidated this property has a good feel about it with plenty of day light coming to the living room due to it being south facing.

It comes with a new lease of 125 years and low service charge of £1150 pa.

The vendor is Network Housing, this means it is very unlikely to be sold pre auction. As a company they need to be seen as being transparent in its dealings. If it was sold pre auction they would need to justify why it did not go to the room.

W hen doin g research on properties we check comparables as well as what is on t he mark et A comparable is the actual price a property has been sold for as opposed to one that’s on the market. Any one is free to put their own property on the market at whatever price they wish. This means market prices may not be a true indication of the actual worth of a property .

Don’t sell a Cash Cow 4 2 bedrooms flat close to Edgware Rd 4 Comes with the benefit of a tenancy paying £550pw 4 Guaranteed for 21 months at least

4 Purchase price of £320,000

4 Low service, long lease 4 25% deposit gives £80,000 into this deal

4 You will get £13,000 net after paying service charges, management fee and mortgage

4This is a cash cow you will get this return every month

This is why comparables take precedence, bank valuers use these when valuing a property. Our comparables led us to give a valuation of £325,000 to £350,000 for this property.

Therefore a purchase price of up to £280,000 at the auction would still yield a good return on this property for buying and selling. And don’t forget you can always refinance at the new valuation after a 6 month period at 85% LTV. If the property is valued at £350,000 you would release £297,500. This is all your money for the flat plus some of the refurbishment money would come back to you and you would still own this property and carrying on enjoying the uplift. This would allow you to carry on purchasing and holding on to your properties.

If you sold this property your margin would be reduced as the entrance cost would have been in the region of £12,000 allowing for 3% stamp duty and legal costs etc.

The above is some of the research we do when sourcing a property for our clients. There is still the legal pack to be read and understood as well as ensuring the finance is in place. 10% will be required on the day followed by the rest in 28 days.

Things you should know when purchasing in a Society Following on form last weeks article this week we look at documents required for a society property. This means your purchasing a property which is part of a dveleopment, the development will have communal aeras normally owned by all mememberof the development who are part of a societ.

The chain of original conveyance and sale deeds from right from the outset fromprior purchasers and sellers of the property is needed.

Missing links could prove a hinderence later when you try to sell the property.

The Share certificate issued by the society in favour of the seller indicating his membership to the society.

No objection certificate from the cooperative group housing society certifying that the society has no objection to the transfer of the share in favour of the purchaser. The certificate should also certify that the seller has no defaults or dues to his c re d i t to the society Copies of stamped receipts of payments made to previous sellers would be good to establish a complete history.

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

UK Sales 0207 706 0187 India Sales 0203 384 5323

Missing documents or links are a hindrance while disposing off the property later.A property with clear documentation and title commands a higher price in the market as compared to one with a title defect.

IN CASE YOU ARE BUYING A FLAT IN A SOCIETY THAT HAS NOT BEEN REGISTERED AS YET, THESE DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE OBTAINED Transfer permission from a competent authority - development authority or society signifying ownership of the seller Copy of approved building plan and occupation certificate issued by a competent authority to the seller.

Original stamped receipts of payments made to previous and present sellers by the builder or the development authority.

The chain of previous agreements with past owners in original with original receipts of registration or the original letter of allotment issued to the first owner by the development authority.

Tips of the Week l Visit a broker and check the legal pack before you bid in an auction l Resist using a bridging company they charge a huge amount of interest and a mortgage can usually be arranged in the given time l Don't forget you still have 10 working days after the normal 28 days

20

finanCial voicE

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Leadership Matters

Maria Fernandes

What Message for Our Children?

maria@abplgroup.com

European Union Judgment – Extending the rights of children?

In a recent European Union case, the European Court of Justice ruled that the parents of a child who is a national of a member state must be granted the right of residence in that member state in order to protect the right of the child to live in Europe.

This particular case concerned a Columbian couple who had applied for Asylum, had been refused but were never removed from the country. They had two children who were Belgian nationals.

The Court concluded that non-EU

Sensex plunges over Japan disaster Following Japan earthquake and tsunami, like other bourses, the Bombay Stock Exchange also suffered a melt down on Tuesday. The Sensex initially lost nearly 500 points but later recovered to end at a loss of 250 points.

The 30-share index touched a low of 17920.55 and high of 18326.33 intra-day.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 5455.25, down 76.25 points or 1.38 per cent.

The broader index touched a low of 5373.65 and high of 5497.85 intra-day.

BSE Midcap Index was down 1.41 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 1.166 per cent lower.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index fell 3.22 per cent, BSE Capital Goods Index declined 1.96 per cent and BSE Power Index was down 1.95 per cent.

Jaiprakash Associates (-3.86%), Maruti (-3.52%), ONGC (-3.24%), Sterlite Industries (-3.22%) and DLF (-3.20%) were the major Sensex losers.

Reliance Industries (1.70%) was the only index gainer.

Market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1910 declines against 901 advance.

either an independent source of financial support or have a legal right to work.

It appears that this case pushes the boundaries. Within the UK the affects of this case is that it would allow parents of a child who is a British citizen to live and work in the UK. European Union law is regarded as a living instrument i.e. that it changes in response to circumstances. This case may signal a change of direction in the way that these cases are interpreted.

nationals upon who minor children are dependent must not be removed from permission to work as it deprives the children of the rights that are attached to European Union citizenship.

This case is particularly interesting because so far the law has extensively explored this issue in the UK and has stated that: 1.

In order to benefit from these rights the child must move from one EU country to another to benefit.

2.

That the parents of the child must have

British minister to seek transparency in doing business with India

examination."

"I think we'll see a significant increase in investment in both directions," he said in an interview in New Delhi. "In order to facilitate that ... we need to have predictability, transparency on both sides."

India has been in the grip of a series of corruption scandals in the past year that piled pressure on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, put the brakes on economic reforms and added to a sense of regulatory uncertainty.

India presents a huge business opportunity for British exporters and service providers. Britain is already the fourth largest foreign direct investor into the South Asian giant.

India and Britain want to unlock what both sides agree is huge trade and investment potential that has already seen bilateral goods trade grow from $4.7 billion in 2000 to $11 billion last year, according to Indian government data.

Cameron visited India in July as part of an early diplomatic push to court Indian business and tap new sources of economic growth after Britain's worst recession since World War Two.

British trade minister Stephen Green will be visiting India this week. He is expected to seek transparency for doing business in India and will raise specific concerns from British firms with the Indian government.

Mr Green will promote British expertise in areas such as railways, as part of Prime Minister David Cameron's strategic trade push to emerging giants like India and China to help Britain's economic recovery.

Britain has raised concerns over India's business climate after regulatory delays over London-listed Cairn Energy's $9.6 billion asset sale to India's Vedanta Resources and legal wrangling over India's $2.6 billion Vodafone tax demand.

Britain will also complain to the Indian government about unpaid bills of more than $74 million owed to firms from their nations from contracts relating to the Commonwealth Games.

Asked whether he would raise the CairnVedanta deal and Vodafone tax issue, Mr Green said he would discuss "specific business situations which are under

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By Amit Patel

Last year, I attended a parents evening at my sons nursery. Each parent was allocated a ten minute slot to speak with the manager, however, the couple ahead of us took almost 20 minutes.

Being in the same room I could not help but overhear that they spent only a few minutes discussing their child development and the rest of the time talking about the best private schools in the area.

Consequently, we did not get the whole of our 10 minute slot as they were running late, but it was interesting to note that the manager didn’t know the local state schools, nor did she display any real interest in them.

Now you may be wondering what the big deal is?

So what if I didn’t get my 10 minutes? So what if the manager did not know all the local state schools? And more to the point, what has this got to do with leadership?

During the general election, the Labour party went to great pains to point out that David Cameron and George

Osborne were both public schoolboys from Eton.

Actually they are not the first; remarkably there have been 19 prime ministers who have studied at Eton. Now while Labour were suggesting that due to their public schoolboy background they could not possibly comprehend the problems of the middle and lower classes.

However, many aspiring politicians and indeed aspiring parents will probably have taken the exact opposite message from this. That if you want to be someone of importance then a public school education is almost essential.

I never really appreciated the pressure on parents and children to get a place at the best schools, the ones with the best reputation. It is considerable and constant. I still remember the look on some peoples faces when I tell them that my son is at a state school. They almost seem sympathetic as if to say, ‘oh that’s a shame but never mind, everything will be ok’. A private education is certainly benefi-

Amit Patel has over 15 years experience in the field of Leadership and Human Resource Management cial, but it is not the defining line between success and failure.

Is the message to all state educated children going to be ‘Sorry to hear that you didn’t get into the best school, but all is not lost, you could still win the lottery!’ Or should we quote the words of John Kenneth Galbraith, ‘All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.’ As elders, it is our responsibility not make barriers seem bigger, but to inspire our children to reach higher.

Mukesh Ambani slips to 9th place in rich list Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani who was the fourth richest person in the world last year has slipped to the ninth position this year, while NRI steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has ranked sixth, according to the US magazine Forbes.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim remained the richest person in the world with $74 billion in assets.

Telecom tycoon Helu, whose worth increased by $20.4 billion from last year's $53.5 billion, is followed by Microsoft founder and now a full time philanthropist William Gates III (popularly known as Bill Gates) with a net worth of $56 billion.

Investment guru Warren Buffet was at the third spot with assets worth $50 billion.

Total number of billionaires, this year, has increased to a record 1,210 from 1,011 last year.

Though America has the 33 per cent of the megarich, Asia-Pacific region

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Lakshmi Mittal ranked sixth and Mukesh Ambani

has surged forward and overtook Europe for the first time.

Chairman of French luxury good outfit, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), Bernard Arnault has been placed at fourth spot. With net worth of $41 billion, he is the richest person in Europe. He has replaced Ambani this year.

Fifth place has been taken over by Larry Ellison of Oracle. The Oracle chief sits atop a fortune of $39.5 billion, which is $11.5 billion bigger than last year, thanks to a 30 per cent jump in his software company's shares.

Mittal ranked sixth with $31.1 billion of wealth. His wealth grew

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from $28.7 billion last year as his company ArcelorMittal, world's largest steel-maker, registered profits of $2.9 billion due to recovery in steel demand and higher margins in 2010, Forbes said.

Mukesh Ambani, with net asset of value $27 billion, lost five places and was placed at ninth position in this year's list. Last year, Ambani held the fourth spot, with net asset of $29 billion, followed by Mittal at fifth place.

According to Forbes, the number of billionaires has increased from 49 to 55 in India, 69 to 115 in China, 25 to 36 in Hong Kong, and across AsiaPacific it surged from 243 to 332.

Other Indians among top 100 include, Wipro chief Azim Premji at 36th spot ($16.8bn), Shahi and Ravi Ruia at 42nd place ($15.8 bn), Savitri Jindal has been ranked 56th ($13.2 bn), Gautam Adani at 87th ($10 bn) and Kumar Birla at 97th ($9.2 billion).

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FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

21

Foreign Exchange Rajesh Agrawal is the Chairman & CEO of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

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

Earthquake in Japan Could Topple Recovery The recent earthquake and consequent tsunami has been not only a grave human disaster but the markets have and will continue to try to predict the effect on Japan’s fragile economic recovery.

The Kobe quake in 1995 was the most recent comparable disaster, in both human and economic terms. Six thousand lives lost and the financial cost estimated at around $100 billion.

The geographical area this time represents a relatively small share of Japan’s industrial output as opposed to the previous disaster in Kobe, which is both a major seaport and a major logistics hub affecting supply chains all over Japan.

The impact of this present disaster can only be viewed in some areas as negative for the Japanese economic recovery, partly because of physical damage to infrastructure and somewhat more worrying a strong feeling by the investment population of Japan that it is prudent to return to a policy of risk avoidance and therefore causing a likely drop in consumer confidence inspired by an increased urge to make personal savings a priority and avoid risk investment.

The Japanese Government

may however have to compile an emergency budget, probably leading to a new sale of government bonds to raise capital. This would create funds to cover the emergency disaster recovery package rather than money forced into the economy via quantative easing policies therefore not necessarily seen as negative for the economy.

In the wider aspect the necessary re-building programmes will probably stimulate the Japanese economy, creating jobs

and forcing capital spending.

The Bank of Japan has already agreed to provide liquidity for whatever is required and so the overall effect on gross domestic product may well be positive.

There is no real way to judge the direct damage to the Japanese economy. Although the quake’s damage is still being assessed it is not believed by many analysts to be a major economic disaster.

The full impact of this horrific natural disaster on the Nikkei

index has yet to be realised. Most often in Japan when there is a demand for capital, foreign assets are likely to be the holdings that get sold off first, with liquid assets such as US treasury bonds being sold off by insurance companies to meet the high claims demands.

The immediate response by the foreign exchange currency markets was to sell off the Japanese Yen as it ceased to be seen as one of the safe haven currencies and became risk apparent, the hot money flowed out of the Yen and back into the US$.

Last Fridays earthquake could not have come at a worse economic time, with global markets on the edge of turmoil, the uncertainty of North Africa and the Middle East causing the price of oil to push further upwards, coupled worries about higher inflation figures being posted in China and serious concerns in the Euro zone with both Spain and Greece being downgraded over sovereign debt.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 15th March 2011 @ 10.30am GBP - INR = 72.48 USD - INR = 45.29 EUR - INR = 62.84 GBP - USD = 1.60 GBP - EUR = 1.15 EUR - USD = 1.39 GBP - AED = 5.88 GBP - CAD = 1.58 GBP - NZD = 2.19 GBP - AUD = 1.62 GBP - ZAR = 11.14 GBP - HUF = 314.75

www.rationalfx.com Information provided by RationalFX. None of the information on this page constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. The exchange rates used are the commercial foreign exchange rates provided by RationalFX. For a live quote or to find out more about how RationalFX can help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

22

Pakistan-Bangladesh-Sri Lanka

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Pakistan refuses to give India access to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi New Delhi: Pakistan has refused to allow Indian investigators to question Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six other accused in a Pakistan jail.

In a move ahead of the home secretaries' meeting on March 28-29, Pakistan has declined a request by Indian home minister P Chidambaram for access to Lakhvi. Lakhvi is believed to be the mastermind for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

Pakistan's refusal appears to be built on the absence of a legal provision under which such a request can be accommodated. "There is no law under which we could allow Indian investigators to grill the seven accused, who are already in judicial custody," a senior interior ministry official told Pakistani media. Reports said Wajid Zia, chief of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, had sent the reply which would

It took 20 years to deliver urgent mail in Pak Islamabad: An urgent mail sent from Pakistan's Toba Tek Singh town to Karachi 20 years ago in 1991 has finally been delivered.

The urgent mail reached the destination recently. Rafiq Chishti, who had waited endlessly to receive the mail, said his parents had sent his academic certificates to him in Karachi in 1991. The documents were posted through the Urgent Mail Service.

It's a postal department service for quick delivery.

The mail didn't reach him and he made several representations to the authorities, but to no avail. Chishti said he was informed by the present occupant of his Karachi residence that his mail had reached the destination at last.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi

be sent to the Indian government via its foreign ministry.

On March 2, Chidambaram said India would allow Pakistan to send a commission to question Ajmal Kasab, a long-standing demand by Pakistan. Chidambaram added that India too wanted access to Lakhvi.

Pakistan's decision to deny that access may also endanger its own access to Kasab. This issue is likely

to figure in the March 28 talks.

Zia's letter reportedly said Pakistan's request for sending a commission to India to interrogate persons, including the magistrate who recorded the lone surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab's statement, is based on sections 503, 505 and 507 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Pakistani media reported.

The letter also states that the seven Pakistani

accused Lakhvi, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu Al-Qama, Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah, Mohammad Younas Anjum, Shahid Jameel Riaz and Jamil Ahmed have been remanded to judicial custody. They are lodged in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.

Chidambaram had told journalists on March 2, "We have sent them a request asking them if they would agree to a team from India to question the people who are suspects."

Analysts said Pakistan would find it very difficult to accede to India's requests, because they may be seen by the country's increased hardline opinion as "bowing" to India. In the wake of the Raymond Davis incident, Pakistan's fragile civilian government is hemmed into a position where its actions could bring extremist wrath down on them.

Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus moves supreme court for relief

Dhaka: Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi pioneer of "microfinance" has moved the supreme court against a lower court’s order concurring with the government order of his removal from the leadership of Grameen Bank which was set up by him.

The Nobel laureate has also asked the court to immediately suspend the central bank's order removing him from the bank which provides collateral-free loans to eight million rural borrowers.

Yunus, 70, who is celebrated worldwide for tackling poverty through microfinance cash loans, has fallen out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and his supporters say he has been targeted in a bitter smear campaign.

Muhammad Yunus

He was fired as Grameen Bank managing director last week by order of the central bank, which he challenged in a high court but his appeal was dismissed.

Backed by a high-profile international lobby group, he defied the order by returning to work at Grameen Bank's headquarters and launched his

legal battle.

"The appeal has been submitted at the supreme court seeking a stay on the high court verdict and challenging the central bank order that removed him from his post," Tanim Hussain Shawon, one of Yunus' lawyers, said.

The central bank -which is nominally independent from the government - removed Yunus on the basis that he had been in his position illegally since failing to seek its approval when he was reappointed indefinitely in 1999.

Analysts say Yunus' troubles stem from 2007, when he floated the idea of forming a political party, earning the wrath of Prime Minister Hasina, who has publicly disparaged his work.

LTTE being trained in India, alleges Lanka PM Colombo: The Sri Lankan government argued that there was a need to extend emergency laws in the country as the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were trying to re-emerge after training in camps in Tamil Nadu.

Prime Minister D M Jayaratne, quoting intelligence reports, told Parliament that three training camps for LTTE cadres were being run and in one of the camps, the cadres were being trained to target VIPs. Jayaratne, 81, who was appointed Prime Minister

by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010, said three remnants of diaspora LTTE were involved in

Prime Minister D M Jayaratne

providing logistics to the camps: US-based Ru d r a k u m a r a n , Nediyavan from Norway and a certain Vinayagam who allegedly fled to India during the last stages of the civil conflict in 2009.

Lankan Tamil rebels were known to have been trained in several parts of

India from late '70s to mid '80s. However, the policy was gradually reversed before the Indian Peace Keeping Force’s arrival in Sri Lanka. After former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, LTTE was banned in India; the ban continues even today.

The continuation of emergency comes up for renewal every month in Parliament. It is inevitably passed by the government which has a huge majority in the house. Diplomats in Colombo were cautious in reacting to Jayaratne’s unexpected assertion. "The allegation is without foundation. If the camps were mentioned to bolster the argument to extend emergency, then the argument is very fragile; like the last straw," a diplomat said.

During the debate, Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe put up the query whether the information with Jayaratne was shared with Indian officials during recent talks.

In focuS Pak to acquire submarines from China

Islamabad: After inducting advanced fighter jets from China, Pakistan plans to buy six state of the art submarines from the neighbouring country in an apparent bid to boost its under-sea warfare capabilities.

Islamabad is planning to buy six submarines outright with options of joint development of conventional submarines with China. The Defence Ministry has asked the federal Cabinet to approve the purchase of Chinese submarines to counter emerging threats faced by Pakistan, the paper said. Pakistan has a total of five active diesel electric submarines plus 3 midget submarines. While the three submarines are of German SSK class, Islamabad had recently inducted two French Agosta class submarines as well.

59 killed in Pak suicide attacks

Islamabad: At least 59 people were killed and scores of others were injured when militants strike at two places in Pakistan last week. In the first incident 34 people were killed and 45 others injured when a suicide bomber targeted members of an anti-Taliban militia at a funeral in northwestern Pakistan. Police and witnesses said the bomber had slipped into the congregation of more than 200 people attending funeral prayers for the wife of a known anti-Taliban militiaman in Adezai village, near Peshawar city. In the second incident, a car heavily laden with explosives went off near the office of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's spy agency, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 120 in Faisalabad. Pakistani Taliban took the responsibility for the attack. Taliban insurgents have frequently attacked civilian and military targets across the country as Pakistan battles extremism. The blast took place at a CNG filling station where the car with explosives was parked.

Britain won't accept Musharraf arrest warrant

London: The British government is disinclined to entertain a request from Islamabad to extradite former Pakistani dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, a "wanted fugitive" in his country in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. The UK Home Office said on Friday, "There are no general extradition arrangements between the UK and Pakistan." In absence of such a pact, a spokesman said the two countries can enter into a special protocol, but this would "involve negotiating effectively a 'mini-treaty' for the extradition of one individual". This is almost unheard of. The home office did not confirm or deny the extradition request, although the Pakistani high commissioner claimed such a note was handed over to UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The British reaction followed a Pakistani anti-terrorism court issuing an arrest warrant for Musharraf for failing to provide adequate security to Bhutto, who was murdered in 2008. Musharraf's spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said, "There is no basis for the case. This is a politically motivated court ruling and won't comply."

Indian warships feature in Pak Navy ad

Islamabad: An advertisement issued by the Pakistan Navy last week for a multi-national exercise prominently featured images of Indian Navy warships even though India is not among the countries participating in the manoeuvres being held in the Arabian Sea. The fullpage advertisement for the Aman-11 exercise, which appeared in The Nation and Nawa-e-Waqt newspapers, featured images of the Indian Navy's Delhi, Godavari and Talwar-class warships. It also featured images of US warships under the slogan: "Together for peace".

Warships, aircraft, Special Forces and representatives from 39 countries are participating in the manoeuvres aimed at fostering peace in the region and enhancing cooperation to counter maritime threats like piracy.

End operations in Afghanistan, Karzai tells Nato

Asadabad (Afghanistan): An emotional Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday urged international troops to “stop their operations in our land”, his strongest salvo yet in a row over mistaken civilian killings. Karzai's comments came after a week in which a relative of his was killed in a raid by foreign forces and he rejected an apology by the US commander of troops General David Petraeus for the deaths of nine children in a Nato strike. “I would like to ask Nato and the US with honour and humbleness and not with arrogance to stop their operations in our land,” Karzai said, visiting the dead children's relatives in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan. “We are very tolerant people but now our tolerance has run out.” He added that Kabul and his Western backers in the war against the Taliban were well aware that Pakistan's border areas, where insurgents have hideouts, ought to be the focus of international military campaigns. Karzai also met relatives of those caught up in another incident in Kunar.

world

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Indian Navy rescues 13 crew members from Somali pirates

Mozambique: In a significant anti-piracy operation, Indian Navy apprehended 61 pirates and rescued 13 crew members of a merchant vessel, which was being used by the pirates as a mother ship.

On Saturday night, the Southern Naval Command-based Fast Attack Craft INS Kalpeni intercepted Vega 5, a pirate mother vessel, about 600 nautical miles west of India in the Arabian Sea and nabbed the pirates on board.

A naval Dornier maritime recce aircraft on Friday responded to a call from MV Vancouver Bridge under pirate attack and located Vega 5 in the area. Seeing the naval aircraft, the pirates aborted their attack and tried to flee. While the Dornier continued to track the pirate mother vessel Vega 5, the Navy’s missile corvette Khukri and FAC Kalpeni, which had been deployed in the area for anti-piracy patrol, were diverted to intercept and investigate Vega 5, said a defence media release.

“INS Kalpeni closed Vega 5 on Saturday night.

In the darkness, the pirate mother vessel launched two skiffs which fired at Kalpeni. The warship returned limited fire.

Thereafter, it was observed

Indian naval officers distribute food among the captured pirates

that a fire had broken out on Vega 5 (mother vessels are known to carry additional fuel drums to fuel the skiffs). Personnel were also seen jumping overboard.

INS Kalpeni in conjunction with INS Khukri recovered 74 personnel comprising 61 pirates and 13 members of the original crew of the fishing vessel.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the pirates were carrying about 80 to 90 small arms/rifles and a few heavier weapons (likely to be rocket-propelled grenades),” said the release.

Vega 5, a Mozambique flagged fishing vessel was pirated on December 28 last year and has since been used as a mother vessel for launching skiffs to carry out hijacking. This

vessel had been a risk to international shipping for the last four months, said the release.

The Navy had earlier apprehended 43 pirates from two mother ships in operations on January 28 and February 11 in the Arabian Sea.

23

Saudi Arabian troops in Bahrain to crush protests Cairo: Troops crossed from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain on Monday to help quell protests that sealed off the capital's financial sector there, a move Bahraini opposition groups denounced as an "occupation," while progovernment legislators urged the king to impose martial law.

An unnamed Saudi official said that military vehicles carrying more than 1,000 Saudi troops had crossed the bridge linking Saudi Arabia to the tiny island kingdom.

His account was corroborated by witnesses in Bahrain, who said they saw more than 100 trucks crossing the bridge, but there was still no official confirmation from the Bahraini government.

A military-run clamp-

down would risk further polarizing the strategic island kingdom - home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet and send a chill through the many international banking and financial companies that use Bahrain as their Gulf hub.

A Saudi security official said the troops came from a special unit of the sixnation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and that they were there to protect critical buildings and installation such as oil facilities.

The opposition statement said it considered the arrival of any soldier or military vehicle "an overt occupation of the kingdom of Bahrain and a conspiracy against the unarmed people of Bahrain".

The pro-government

lawmakers, called the Independent Bloc, asked the government to enforce martial law for three months to insure public safety and national stability threatened by what it called "extremist" elements, the state-supported Bahrain News Agency reported.

Anti-government protesters remained in the streets of Manama, the capital, on Monday, a day after thousands clashed with security forces in the worst day of confrontation since demonstrations began a month ago. The protests are part of the regional turmoil against autocracy but are fed in Bahrain by tensions between the majority Shiite population and the Sunni royal family and elite.

Indian girl raped, murdered in Australia Sydney: Tosha Thakkar, 24-year-old Indian student hailing from Vadodara, Gujarat, has been found raped and murdered after her body was located stuffed inside a suitcase near a canal in Sydney last week.

"On 11 March morning, construction workers found the suitcase containing the woman's body in a water canal near

Tosha Thakkar

Meadowbank Park and alerted police," said a statement issued by the

local police.

The victim was identified and police were now waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination to determine exactly how she died. They have confirmed she was last seen alive on March 9.

Thakkar was studying accounting at the Sydney College of Business and IT, which collaborates with Southern Cross University,

and was a permanent resident of Australia. Her family stays in Baroda and she was going to return back to India after finishing her studies.

Police arrested 19year-old Daniel StaniReginald in connection with the murder and the accused was questioned by detectives and charged with murder and aggravated sexual assault.

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24

INDIA

Any ques tions

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Life style

write t om amta@ abplgroup.com

By Mamta Bhatia, Psychologist

Time waits for no man

You are born with two fears in life, falling over and loud noises. Every other fear you have is learnt and man made.

Think back to a time in your life where you felt the most invincible. Now go back to that time in your mind, feel the strength in your core as you close your eyes and visualise that moment. Re- experience those emotions and let them come back to you, feel the sensations again and visualise all the emotions being bottled and captured in your body’s centre. Know that this is your supply/reserve of ‘confidence and greatness’ that you can always come back to whenever you may need a top up.

Remember and allow yourself to feel these emotions again. Don’t let any historical battle scars of emotion that are left as hurdles of residue, stop you from feeling that strength.

Stop relying on the approval of others to justify who you are, what you are and how you choose to live your life.

When you use others opinion of you as a barometer of your self esteem you are at their mercy. Humans have millions of opinions, which mean they are prone to being fickle.

No one knows you better then you.

Revise your strengths and stand up tall. We all have faults, no one is perfect, and we know this. But, remember, you have strengths too. List 50 reasons why you are excellent, read this morning, day and night. See it and believe it, be your own best friend, not your own worst enemy.

Make the choice to have confidence to discover your strengths.

Read the truth about you and have the courage to believe, draw and trust

that it is true.

Draw strength and develop armour. Have a shield of protection, an energy that is made up of all your strengths. Think about what is in your control, what can you actively drive, influence and preserve? The vacuum created by our consciousness as it separates from the old to adapt to the new is disorientating.

And the chaos that ensues cannot be prevented or ignored; it simply has to be lived through. Would you like to progress or regress?

Lastly, it is so important to trust, really trust that any upheavals we encounter happen for a good reason and come to us to make us stronger.

Crises are opportunities in disguise. I am running a feel good confidence workshop this summer, to get your name on the list email mamta@thinkspalondon.c om today.

Harvard varsity to honour SEWA founder Ela Bhatt

N D Tiwari has to undergo DNA test : SC

the developing world is one of its dominant themes," the Institute said.

Recipient of several prestigious awards, Ela Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972. Conceived as a women's trade union, SEWA has grown into an NGO that offers microlending , health and life insurance and child care all overseen by more than a hundred women-run cooperatives.

In January 2010, SEWA membership had reached 1.2 million.

Bhatt has been recognised for her long battle for social justice.

In November last year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honoured Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence.

Radcliffe Day is the Institute's annual celebration of women, as well as the alumnae and fellows of Radcliffe College and the Radcliffe Institute.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University is a scholarly community where individuals pursue advanced work across a wide range of academic disciplines, professions and creative arts. Within this broad purpose , the institute sustains a continuing commitment to the study of women, gender and the society.

The Supreme Court of India refused to stay the Delhi high court order asking veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari to undergo DNA test in a paternity case.

However, a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha made it clear that the findings of the test would not be made public until and unless it is required by the court to decide the paternity suit against Tiwari.

The bench said the report would be kept in a sealed envelope and directed the 85-year-old leader to suggest soon the procedure preferred by him to undergo the DNA test.

Refusing to grant any relief, the apex court said that considering the age of the leader, it is necessary to have a DNA test so that the young man claiming to be his son is not left without any remedy if something happens to Tiwari.

Challenging the high court order, Tiwari pleaded before the apex court for immediate stay on the ruling as the process of the DNA test has already been set in motion by the court in the three-year-old paternity suit filed by a 31-yearold man claiming to be his biological son.

In his appeal, the former governor of AP submitted that such tests were not 100 per cent accurate and cannot be relied upon.

Ela Bhatt

The prestigious Harvard University will honour Ela Bhatt, founder of the SelfEmployed Women's Association (SEWA), for her life and work that has had a significant impact on society .

Bhatt (77), whose trade union has helped over a million women in India gain access to opportunities for themselves and their families, will be awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal by Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

She would be presented the medal, awarded annually to individuals who have substantially and positively influenced society, on May 27. Some of the illustrious past winners include Toni Morrison in 2007, Margaret Atwood in 2003, Billie Jean King in 2002 and Alice Walker in 1992.

"The Radcliffe Institute is proud to honour her this year, in which gender in

In divine light

By Rajen Vakil

Burning of the Khandava Forest Part 7 : Story of Sarang Birds (continued) In the last article, we saw how Jarita was crying over what she thought would befall her children. She and her children were unaware that Agni had promised Mandapala that he would not burn the young birds.

Even though their mother was in deep anguish and was worried about their fate, the young birds were wise and intelligent.

After all, they were the children of a rishi who had practised great austerity. They tried to convince their mother to leave them in the forest and run away herself.

They told her: “Try to drop your attachment to us and go to a place of safety where the fire cannot hurt you. If we, your children, die you can always have children again, this way our lineage will not be wiped out. Our father has had children to fulfil his obligation, let not this act go in vain. If our lineage is destroyed then his efforts will be useless.”

Previously in many articles we have spoken of purifying the emotional centre. In Sanskrit, we say we have two kinds of emotions, namely (1) laagni and (2) bhaav. In English we could say lower and higher emotions. The lower emotions are those that easily get attached; the higher emotions just objectively love. With attachment comes possessiveness leading to jealousy and violence.

The higher emotion can never be violent. The lower emotions are selective in that they love someone and hate someone else and this arrangement can reciprocate at any time. The higher emotions are like lamps of bright light and the light just falls on whomsoever with no choice of whether the light likes or dislikes a person.

In the story, the young birds are telling their mother that it was time for her to free herself of the attachment towards them. To the modern mind, this is difficult to understand – to love our children without imposing our possessiveness on them; only through practice one can reach that level of love.

The children tell their mother that she can have children again implying that if attachment is dropped only then will one has an

opportunity to work towards love. As we shall see in the story, it is nearly impossible for a mother to sacrifice the attachment she has for her children.

The mother told the children that nearby was a rat-hole and all of them could hide in it, which she would then cover with mud. She also told them that once the fire has burnt out, she would come and remove the mud and free them. The young birds argued that they were still incapable of defending themselves and that the rats would eat them up, and so they would not hide there. They told their mother that even if she tried to fly away with them, the flames of the fire would reach unto her and they would all die.

The rat-hole signifies samskaras lying in our unconscious mind and flying in the air symbolises escaping into daydreaming. Agni was going to burn the forest and the children are telling the mother that this is the time to purify her emotions, but the mind wants to escape – it does not want to work on self. But our lower or logical mind is cunning and lazy – it too does not want to work on itself and so looks for excuses and arguments. Similar to Jarita’s stance, we always escape into old memories or imagination when it is actually the time to purify our emotions.

The mother Jarita tells her children that the rat that lived in the hole was taken away as food by a kite a few days ago and so they would have nothing to fear about hiding there. The children are wise and tell their mother not to waste time in useless arguments but to fly away and have children again.

We all have a logical intelligence and an intuitive one. The intuitive intelligence is buried deep in our psychic nature and must be dug out by meditative practices. Usually we spend our lives living with and relying on our logical mind. To go back to intuition we must become innocent like young children, represented here

by the young birds speaking words of wisdom to their mother.

Further then, the young ones speak even deeper words. They tell their mother: “Your mind is not steady, it is coloured by your attachment to us and so any decision or solution you offer can only be wrong as it comes from a disturbed mind. The parents do not give birth to the child but the child decides to be born to these parents. Thus, the total responsibility is ours. You do not know who we are and where we have come from and so you only speak from your limited vision.

Please go and leave us to our fate in this burning forest.”

Here, we see that there are two dimensions to life – the seen and the unseen. To penetrate into the unseen, one needs a different kind of perception and thinking. My guru called this as spiritual reading.

In the seen, every child feels it is the parents who are responsible for calling them but if we could penetrate a little deeper, we realise that the child actually chooses the parents. If only children could see and realise this, then most parent-child conflicts would not exist. It would give children a new responsibility about their lives and would change their attitudes completely.

Jarita understood that even though her children were young they spoke very wisely and she decided to follow what they said. She flew away to a place of safety. The flames of Agni were now very close and it was just a matter of time before the four young birds would be burnt to cinders. They were not frightened and they decide to invoke Agni’s grace by reciting a prayer – they knew in their hearts that Agni would grace them and not take their lives.

In the next article, we will recite the conversation between Agni and the four young birds.

The great Rishi Vyasa has also written that whosoever recites these words will be free of suffering and good fortune would grace their lives.

All past articles on the Mahabharata can be accessed from http://epaper.asianvoice.com or from http://www.3stepbreath.com/mahabharata.html

INDIA

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Ahmedabad auto drivers want to drive on a different road 2,200 of them want to appear for SSC examination for repeaters

Asian Voice Correspondent They have been driving people and criss-crossing roads, but now they want to be the drivers of their own destines. As many as 2,200 autorickshaw drivers across Ahmedabad propose to undertake the SSC board examinations for the repeaters. Most of these drivers have been either school drop outs or had to discontinue studies due to their financial constraints but now they realise that they need to look beyond. ``It is difficult at this stage to pick up studies and go back to school after so many years but we have now realised the growing importance of education on a day to day basis,’’ said Imitiaz Shaikh, one of the members of the autorickshaw drivers association.

Dev Patel falls ill during Gujarat visit

“Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel fell ill during his visit to his ancestral place in Saurashtra, Gujarat on Monday. Even when he visited India when he was 10 to attend a family wedding in Gujarat, he had acute diarrhoea.

The star is currently visiting his relatives in Gujarat. During the visit he went to Unzha, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and was in Junagadh to meet his relatives. Dev Patel is second cousin of Dr D P Chikhaliya, who resides in Junagadh.

Dev Patel along with Dr Chikhaliya and his family were visiting Sasan, and then they were scheduled to visit Somnath temple.

Bhavna Chikhaliya, wife of Dr Chikhaliya and former BJP MP said that Dev Patel was not critically ill. He had suffered from diarrhoea due to a stomach infection. In Junagadh, Patel is scheduled to meet the Junagadh Agriculture University students, and also visit some of the backward areas of the city and then visit Somnath Temple.

Shaikh pointed out that it was not just education but some were facing difficulties even to obtain driving licence. “When some of our friends realised that they were not able to apply for licence, they realised the need to pursue education,’’ said Shaikh.

Another member of the association, Jayesh Parmar who is also a school drop out said that though he had obtained his driving licence but now realised that for other jobs too it was necessary for him to obtain an SSC certificate at least. Another member of the association, Rajesh Parmar said, ``It is indeed difficult because we cannot take leave even for a day as it means loss of income but at the same time if we do not pursue

education now then it will be difficult later on.’’ He said that they are already in their late thirties and it would be difficult henceforth so they decided that this time they would take the plunge and work hard in achieving their goal.

The members of the Principal’s association too have welcomed the decision of the autorickshaw drivers association.

General Secretary of the Principal’s Association Rakesh Pandya said, ``SSC certificate is a necessary for every person and it is like the basic education for anybody.’’

He said that the principal’s association was ready to help in whatever way possible so that these 2,200 drivers could undertake the board examinations and think of a better future.

Another member of the principal’s association Jagdish Bhavsar said, ``If they want to seek admissions, the principal’s association can help them and guide them since many of them have been out of education for so many years.’’ Bhavsar said that they would have to first appear for their examinations which are held for repeaters after March.

Bangalore youth clinches Guinness Record Spelling the word 'Hippopotomonstrosesqui pedaliophobia' could stump many, but not 25year-old Guinness Book record holder Shishir Hathwar, who can not only do it without batting an eyelid but in the reverse order as well. It is not just this word (which means fear of long words) but a number of others including 'grotesqueness' which he can rattle off.

Bangalore-based Hatwar, an electronics engineer in BHEL, clinched the world record this week for the "fastest backwards spelling of 50 words" in one minute 22.53 seconds, beating the record of Job Pottas from Kerala who clocked one minute 40.14 seconds in March 2010. The earlier record was held by Deborah Prebble from UK (two min 21 seconds).

Shishir won by a comfortable margin of over 17 seconds when he spelt 50 randomly chosen words, including 20 six letter word, 15-seven letter words and 15-eight letter words.

The time included that taken by a person to read out the words and spell it backward. "I took just 1.6 seconds per word including the time taken to read out the word", said Shishir, who was asked to spell out words chosen from a variety of fields, including literature, arts and science. The words he spelt out backwards during the event included 'desolate', 'lavish', 'pharynx', 'excavate' and 'fragrant.' A voracious reader, Shishir attributes his success to the environment provided by his parents, his reading habit and out of the box thinking.

25

India emerges as world’s largest arms importer

India has now overtaken China to emerge as the world’s largest arms importer, claims a report by a Swedish think-tank.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), in its report said India accounted for 9% of all international arms imports between 2006-2010, making it the world`s largest weapons importer.

China was relegated to second place, notching 6% of global arms imports, Siemon Wezeman of Sipri said. The US remains the largest arms exporter, followed by Russia and Germany, as per the report.

This is not the first time that India has topped such an international list.

In 2004 and 05, also, US Congressional Research Service's reports on conventional arms transfers placed India right at the top in 2004 and 2005, with agreements worth $5.7 billion and $5.4 billion respectively.

China, however, hides more than what it reveals.

Beijing`s military expenditure figures as well as its acquisition of advanced weapon systems and platforms remain shrouded behind a thick iron curtain, which global monitors cannot penetrate easily.

Unlike India, China has rapidly built a robust domestic defence-industrial base (DIB) over the last couple of decades, which often also revels in reverse-engineering topof-the-line weapon systems developed by other countries.

"China does spend staggering amounts in importing weapons from countries like Russia, often displacing even India as Russia`s largest defence customer,`` said an Indian defence official.

If India`s defence budget for the coming fiscal is pegged at $36 billion, China is "officially`` going to spend $91.5 billion.

Experts, however, reckon that it will spend almost twice the amount on its 2.5-million strong People`s Liberation Army.

But all this does not take away from the fact that India has certainly cranked up the modernization of its armed forces since the 1999 Kargil conflict, inking arms deals worth over $50 billion since then, the majority of them with foreign armament majors from Russia, Israel, France, UK and now, increasingly the US, as tracked by TOI. With limited private sector participation, coupled with DRDO, eight defence PSUs and 39 ordnance factories largely failing to deliver, India remains saddled with a poor DIB. So, with the armed forces continuing to import almost 70% of their requirements from abroad, India will remain a big time arms importer for the foreseeable future.

26

INDIA `46 bn additional aid for Narmada canal

Gujarat’s lifeline, Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is all set to get an additional aid of `46 billion from the central government. The funds are meant for building a network of canals for irrigating about 8,500 hectares (ha) in Kutch, North Gujarat and Saurashtra, which is about 47 per cent of the total Narmada command area. The entire area falls under the "desert zone" category, so was not entitled for the huge aid.

However, on state government's request, the Centre has decided to change the criterion of declaring an area as desert zone. "Now, the entire area will be treated as drought prone," a senior bureaucrat said, adding, "After a Planning Commission nod, the Union water resources ministry has sent a note to the Government of India's Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure to change the criterion to provide the money."

If the area is treated as desert zone, then it will receive just 25 per cent of the project cost for building canal network. This is because deserts, as a rule, can have very little irrigation. "However, with the

change in category, the state government's implementing agency, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), will get 90 per cent of the project cost, which is equal to `46 billion," a senior official said.

"The matter is under process. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot also wants the desert zones of his state to be changed into drought prone. He has been campaigning for this with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union water resources ministry. We have been told, the Cabinet will clear it very soon," the official said.

In 74 per cent of the total 18.45 lakh ha command area of Narmada canal, the water channel network has not been constructed yet. Of this, 27 per cent fell under drought prone category, while the rest, 47 per cent, is desert zone. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by SSNNL with GoI a year back for funding the canal networking in the entire area. The MoU, however, could not be implemented because of this technical hitch.

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

Dalai Lama turns down plea to continue as Tibetan political head

The spiritual and the political leader of the exiled Tibetans, Dalai Lama formally conveyed to the Tibetan Parliament-inExile his decision to devolve "political authority" to pave the way for putting in place a new democratic system to pursue the cause of Tibet.

He even turned down the requests by his followers to continue. In his message to the Assembly of the Tibetan Peoples Deputies (ATPD), he said, "I wish to devolve authority solely for the benefit of the Tibetan people in the long run.

"It is extremely important that we ensure the continuity of our exiled Tibetan administration and our struggle until the issue of Tibet has been

successfully resolved," the 75-year-old leader, who had come to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The Speaker read out the message on the opening day of the budget session.

He will, however, continue to be the spiritual leader of the community.

"My intention to devolve political authority derives neither from a wish to shirk responsibility nor because I am disheartened and on the contrary, I wish to devolve authority solely for the benefit of the Tibetan people in the long run," he said.

However, he assured the Tibetans that he will continue to serve them so long as he was able and healthy. "As one among

the six million Tibetans, bearing in mind that the Dalai Lamas have a special historic and karmic relationship with the Tibetan people, and as long as Tibetans place their trust and faith in me, I will continue to serve the cause of Tibet," he said.

He added "Given that the line of Dalai Lamas has provided political leadership for nearly four centuries, it might be difficult for Tibetans generally and especially those in Tibet to envisage and accept a political system that is not led by the Dalai Lama and, therefore, over the past 50 years I have tried in various ways to raise peoples political awareness and encourage their participation in our democratic process".

Obituary

Mahendrabhai Patel, born in Mwanza Tanzania on 11th Oct, 1936. He was the fourth son of Manibhai Purshotambhai Patel of Bhadran., Gujarat.

Married to Dharaben of Nadiad. He survived by his wife and two sons Nainesh, Tushar and four grandchildren.

- Nainesh

Billionaire on trial in US for insider trading Continued from page 1 India-American Kumar, who has already pleaded guilty said, that he received a $1 million "bonus" for the information he gave on the AMD-ATI deal.

Kumar, 52, said that his ex-Wharton school classmate told him, "I just wanted to thank you...

You're a star... You're a hero." Kumar said he “nearly fell off my chair” when Rajaratnam paid him $1 million for information on AMD’s $5.4 billion buyout of ATI. The deal was announced in July 2006 and completed three months later.

Rajaratnam made more than $20 million on his trades, according to the

government.

The case has embarrassed McKinsey, an elite management consultancy.

At its annual partner meeting in Washington this week, global managing director Dominic Barton is expected to speak with partners about the trial and the separate civil charges against former McKinsey top executive Rajat Gupta.

McKinsey itself has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

John Dowd, Rajaratanam's lawyer, has asserted that Kumar had hidden from McKinsey the money he received from Rajaratnam for aboveboard consultations and that Kumar was guilty of

tax evasion from the IRS for five years. So far, 19 people have pleaded guilty, but Rajaratnam, who has been charged with 14 counts of conspiracy and security fraud, denies any wrongdoing.

Another IndianAmerican, Rajat Gupta, a former board member of Goldman Sachs and Proctor & Gamble, has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for sharing confidential information with Rajaratnam.

Kumar also admitted that he told Rajaratnam that McKinsey's client, AMD, was planning to spin off its manufacturing operations and get a multi-billion dollar investment from

Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Co. On the second day of Kumar's testimony, the prosecutors played several phone recordings of conversations between him and Rajaratnam including one on August 15, 2008, in which Kumar said that parties had a "shake hand" on the deal.

After speaking with Kumar, the Lankan billionaire called Danielle Chiesi, a hedge fund trader, who has already pleaded guilty.

"AMD will not go bankrupt," he told her. A month later when Kumar told Rajaratnam that the deal was going through, the latter again called Chiesi and told her the date was set for October 7.

Panic grips Japan as radiation level soars Continued from page 1 Friday's massive quake and tsunami. But scared Tokyo residents filled outbound trains and rushed to shops to stock up on face masks and emergency supplies amid heightening fears of radiation headed their way and 1,40,000 people were asked to seal themselves indoors.

The quake and the Tsunami had its effect on the Indian population as well. An Indian family from Haryana which was missing since Friday has been traced and they are safe.

Several Indian- based IT companies too are taking steps to ensure the safety of their staff first and hence, leading IT companies have said they were ready to relocate employees from quake ravaged Japan. India's biggest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said, "We are ready to relocate our Indian employees and their families back to India as well as move our local Japanese

employees and their families to other locations of safety."

"The safety of our employees is our top priority. We are in close touch with our team in Japan round the clock. We have set up a communications system to provide all employees in Japan with frequent updates and stay in touch with them," the company's statement said.

TCS has a facility about 250 km from Tokyo with over 200 employees. IT major Infosys has over 250 employees in Japan with offices in Tokyo, Fukuoka and Nagoya. Infosys said, "We are taking appropriate action to keep our employees safe. In cases where employees and their families have expressed a desire to return temporarily to safety we are facilitating their travel."

"Employees in Japan are being apprised of the situation on a periodic basis and being monitored for safety. We will continue to advise them of appropriate course of action as the

on Friday.

The UK International Search and Rescue (Isar) team said pictures of Ofunato indicated there were many large buildings damaged but still standing in which there may be survivors. Though there have not been any confirmed UK deaths, but the number of people contacting the Foreign Office's emergency line, to express concern about British friends and relatives in Japan, rose with the rising disaster.

Fire, explosion hit nuclear plant

situation develops," the company's statement said.

Another major IT firm Wipro has approximately 400 employees in two locations in Japan apart from customer locations.

An increasing number of Britons too were raising concerns about friends and relatives who may have been caught up in the

earthquake and tsunami in Japan. More than 4,000 people have so far contacted a Foreign Office helpline for those worried about relatives in Japan.

The family of a British teacher feared dead in the Japanese earthquake have spoken of their miracle after discovering that he and his family are alive.

Missing Brian Hickebottom, 34, finally managed to send a oneline email to sister Emma, saying, they were safe.

Hickebottom, his Japanese wife, Sanae, and the couple's six-month-old daughter, Erin, had not been heard from since the massive earthquake struck the town where the family live

Radiation levels increase : High levels of radiation leaked from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunamiravaged northeastern Japan after a third reactor was rocked by an explosion Tuesday and a fourth caught fire in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old Tokyo also reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) away.

HEAlTH Watch

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

By Radhika Madlani

Raising a bi-lingual child According to research, one in four families house a parent who speaks a language other than English. This means that many of us are battling with raising our toddlers with a desire for them to master the English language as soon as possible whilst teaching them the odd word in the mother tongue.

I had an amusing experience when I recently picked up my daughter from nursery. The children had spent the day tasting different fruits.

On enquiring about her day, Rias key-worker mentioned that Ria had enjoyed tasting lots of different ‘mam-mam’ which is Gujarati for food.

Coming from the mouth of an English girl, I smirked as I realised Ria had managed to teach her key-worker the Guajarati word for food.

In the coming days, I started to monitor Rias vocabulary and to my astonishment, Ria has started to ask for her milk by using the Guajarati name for it at home whilst at nursery, she uses the English alternative. Other than mastering two languages, I am impressed at her ability to adapt to two different environments using different languages to communicate her needs.

I started to research strategies for raising children in bi-lingual homes and found that the opti-

mal ‘window’ of learning new languages actually starts from 10 months.

Of course, infants can hear from the womb but it is clear that they start to imitate noises in their first year. So, despite my initial concern that trying to teach two languages might confuse Ria, I now believe that it is entirely possible to teach an infant another language as long as you are consistent and follow a method.

Experts in bi-lingual strategies believe that the optimal age for learning languages is between 10 months and 2 years.

After that, you have up to the age of 7 to teach them language skills as they are still inquisitive. After these windows disappear, it becomes incredibly hard to learn a new language. It should therefore be entirely possible to teach an infant two or even three languages. In the rest of Europe, many toddlers speak multiple languages without any difficulty. In my opinion, it is a rather out-dated view that the English language dominates the world, hence there is no ‘need’ for children in the UK to master an alternative language.

When you look at the fact that approximately 3% of UK adults are illiterate and growing numbers of children (one in four) join school without basic literacy and numeracy skills, it seems like a

massive challenge to add the task of teaching children an additional language on top. However, the flip side is that by focusing on communication skills from an early age, parents can teach their children the importance of language and vocabulary.

It may seem like hard work teaching toddlers more than one language but here are some tips.

Refer to objects with their English name and then your mother tongue straight afterwards.

Research suggests that kids need to hear the ’other language’ at least 30% of the time so ask grandparents to use your mother tongue when conversing with your children. Play ‘I spy’ with older children but use words in native language to help them expand their vocabulary. I am sure many of you will agree it is easier to keep your little ones busy learning languages in their early years rather than send them to weekend schools later on in life when the ‘optimal’ appetite to master languages will slowly disappear. This will allow your children in later life to focus on school and other extra-curricular activities rather than drag their heels to ‘language school’ at weekends.

Quote: A different language is a different vision of life.

- Federico Fellini

Should you have any comments or want to get in touch with me you can email on avmamaria@gmail.com

Almonds will make you fat is a myth

It’s a common myth that consuming almonds will pile layers of fat on the body. On the contrary when it is consumed in moderation it work wonders for the body. It is quite beneficial as they are full of good nutrients.

Because almonds contain calcium, potassium and magnesium, they help in regulating blood pressure and prevent osteoporosis.

Almonds also contain vita-

min E that can prevent heart diseases and slow the process of ageing.

They are good for the skin and hair too. Folic acid present in almonds can lower homocystein levels in the body. The accumulation of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries are prevented to some extent by amino acids.

Almonds has the right kind of fat, besides antioxidants, they contain

monounsaturated and some polyunsaturated fats, which tend to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also known as the bad cholesterol. The accumulation of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries are prevented to some extent by amino acids.

Almonds can be eaten in a variety of ways. It can be taken whole or sliced and sprinkle over dishes as a garnish. Eating a handful of almonds as a snack can keep hunger away as they are a good source of protein.

Few tips to eat almond: Whip blanched almonds in a food processor to form a smooth paste. You can add this paste to your sauces and soups as well. Sprinkle sliced almonds over your salads, oatmeal porridge, cereal or muesli. Roast almonds, to make them crunchy as this also enhances their taste. Eat these as a snack without getting worried about being fat.

27

Ayurveda Threat Imminent in the EU Why we need to speak with one voice to protect our ancient tradition Herbal medicine, particularly Ayurveda, is under severe threat in the European Union (EU) due to an EU Directive known as the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD).

Key facts about the THMPD • The THMPD (Directive 2004/24/EC) was passed in 2004 but was given until 30th April 2011 for full implementation.

Under the THMPD registration scheme, manufacturers of herbal medicinal products must apply for a license to sell their products. After the transitional phase ends on 30th April 2011, any unlicensed products become illegal • The THMPD specifically regulates manufactured herbal medicines that are bought off-the-shelf in health-food shops or online, and which are meant for treatment of minor conditions, without input from a practitioner Good idea, bad implementation The original idea of the THMPD was sound: to provide a simplified registration scheme for herbal medicinal products, which was both inexpensive and open to all herbal traditions. The EU’s stated reason for the Directive was to protect the public from tainted products that could cause harm.

However, a herbal product can only be considered for a THMPD license if it has been safely used for 30 years in total worldwide, which must include 15 years’ use within the EU. Most Ayurvedic herbal products are new to Europe and fail at this first hurdle. The expense of registering a single product is in the range £80,000–150,000 for multi-herb products, which is beyond the reach of most companies who manufacture Ayurvedic herbal remedies.

What’s the result?

• No licenses at all have been issued for herbal products associated with Ayurveda or traditional Chinese medicine, and only 79 registrations have been issued in total in the UK so far • Only 34 plant species are included in these registrations, out of a total of more than 1000 that are commonly used as medic-

inal herbs With so few products and plant species registered, many hundreds of off-the-shelf herbal products will become illegal in the EU on 1st May 2011.

This will force many users of herbal medicines to the black market for replacements, where there is no regulation and unsafe products are common. If this happens, the EU will have failed in its supposed primary goal of protecting the public by making this scheme inaccessible to Ayurvedic and other nonEuropean herbal products.

Is it too late?…….... NO! The Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) is preparing a legal chal-

lenge to the THMPD. Funds are currently being raised, as the case will need to be initiated in the High Court in London and then, if successful, it will be referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Opinions from ANH-Intl’s firstclass EU lawyers indicate strong grounds for challenge. A win should make the EU look again at the provisions of the THMPD, to make it inclusive of all traditions as was originally intended.

As well as donations, ANH-Intl is delighted to accept help in any form, be it time, ideas or spreading the word!

ANH-Intl executive and scientific director, Robert Verkerk PhD, told us, “This is no time to sit back. The EU and the implementing authorities in countries like the UK and Germany are deadly serious about implementation that will see age-old traditions like Ayurveda decimated. These traditions are more relevant than ever, given the incontrovertible evidence that all the major chronic diseases – that are not only the biggest killers but also present the greatest burden on our health systems – are directly linked to diet and

lifestyle.“ A wider campaign behind herbal medicine is gathering momentum.

Members of the European Parliament have been deluged with emails and letters from their constituents, worried that the herbal remedies they rely on will soon be lost and expressing their outrage at an unjustified attack on freedom of choice and self-determination.

Questions in the European Parliament have led to a unique meeting between EU lawmakers and members of the non-orthodox healthcare community.

The EU itself is perfectly aware of the inadequacies of the THMPD. Back in 2008, it commissioned a report on experi-

ence so far with the THMPD, which concluded that the Directive was wholly unsuitable for regulating Ayurveda and other holistic medical traditions. Although campaigners have a fight on their hands, it is useful to know that there are people within the EU who know the truth of the situation!

As is so often the case in struggles between the people and the powersthat-be, only by standing together and speaking powerfully with one voice will the people make the legislators see sense.

What can you do to help?

1. Write to your MEP objecting to this unfair directive in your own words. You can do this at h t t p : / / w w w. w r i t e tothem.com/ which is a very useful facility provided by MySociety.Org 2. Donate whatever you can to ANH-Intl at: h t t p : / / w w w. a n h europe.org/ to help them mount a legal challenge.

3. Forward this article to all your friends and family as quickly as possible as the deadline is round the corner This article has been sponsored by FUDCO.

28

UK

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

As announced last week, there will be a special CB Live program for the forthcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

In April, Prince Williams will marry Kate Middleton, his long standing sweetheart. This Royal wedding has all the good omens for enhancing the happiness of the Royal Family. CB live will celebrate the forthcoming Royal wedding with some songs in English presented by Mr. Manu Thakker which includes the "DISTANT DRUM by JIM REEVES".

Up and down the country the Asian community is planning to celebrate this future King's Royal Wedding in various ways. Viewers are welcome to participate with their own songs and prayers during the entire 1 hour program.

Mr. Ketan Makwana has sent a poem in English, dedicated to the Royal family. Any budding poet willing to participate with her/his poetry composition, please contact CB Live producer, Alka Shah immediately on 0207 749 4002 or alka.shah@abplgroup.com§

If you do not have a tv, go to www.tvunetworks.com and watch CB Live on TVU Player Channel 75203

To ask questions please call on: 020 8963 1001

For more information e-mail: cblive_matv@yahoo.co.uk

Don't miss !!!

Only on CB Live - MATV Sky 793 - Thursday 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Coming Events l Lions Club of London Kingsbury organises Mehfil night Kal ki yadeen Golden Hits with Bankim Pathak & Anila Gohil on Saturday 02nd April at R n B Hall, Kingsbury NW9 9AA. Contact: Dinesh Sonchhatra on 020 8424 8686/07956 810 647 l Sanatan Dharma Mandal & Hindu Community Centre cordially invites you with your family and friends to participate in Ganesh , Kalash & Vastu Pooja. Sanatan Mandir & Hindu Community Centre. Cardiff, CF24 5EL, 21st March 2011 from 3.00pm onwards. Contact: 07979 155 320. l Saathi Sammelan on 10th April 2011 by the Federation of Brahmin Associations of Europe.

Contact: HetalUpadhyaya Tel: 07415 903 198 l Saaheli's of SKLPC in association with "Woman from the East" (A Mediabuzz & Reel Entertainment Company Ltd Production) A screening of a film based on true stories by Jeet Matharru , at Safari Cinema, Station Road, Harrow HA1 2TU, On Saturday 26th March 2011@ 8 pm. l Busy Bee Ladies Club presentd 'Ek geet bhari shaam apke naam' on Saturday 26th March, 7pm onwards at Wembley Banqueting Hall, HA9 0HD. Contact: Rashmi 020 8200 0021 Holi l Jalaram Jyot Repton Avenue, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx HA0 3DW celebrates Holi on Saturday 19th March, 4pm onwards Contact: 07958 275 222 l Holi will be celebrated at Sanatan Dharma Mandir, 22 The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AB on Saturday, 19th March 2011 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm. Contact Vinodbhai on 02920623760 or Vimla on 07979 155 320.

l Shree Hari Om Shivaya Satsang Mandal celebrate Holikadhan on Saturday 19th March, 20 Sunny Croft Road, Hounslow, TW3 4DR, 6:30pm onwards, Contact: Shree Girishbhai on 0208 572 2204. l Samuha Satya Narayan Katha on Saturday 19th March 2011 at 3.00pm to celebrate HOLI at the Temple. For bookings and further information please phone. on Sunday 20th March, 2011 - Bhajans at 3.00pm to 5.30pm. l "Shree Bavis Gam Patidar Samaj (UK) invites to Chaitramas Garba Night on Saturday 09.04.2011, Venue: The Copland Community School, Middlesex HA9 7DU, 7.30 pm onwards.

Contact: www.22gamuk.org/07745 942 203 l Swaminarayan Temple Stanmore presents Holi on 19th March 2011 from 6:30pm. Contact: 020 8954 0205

Win Ideal Home Show Tickets!!

ABPL Group has teamed up with Shreem Events to give away 2 sets of 4 tickets to the Ideal Home Show. Answer a simple question- Where is the Ideal Home show being held this year? Send your answer with your full address to alka.shah@abplgroup.com by Monday 21st March 5pm. The winners will be chosen on first cum first serve basis.

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Sneh Joshi - 020 8518 5500 Things get a little easier now and you can relax.

It's been a hectic time as you've tried to accomplish a great deal. It is a good time to consolidate your gains.

You need to be cautious with investments so seek guidance from a professional. Relationships need to be reassessed, though a positive outcome is indicated.

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

You seem to have an insight into what makes people tick and this understanding nature may help someone to move forward with their life. This week your mind turns to family and the good spiritual values you hold dear. You will get a lot of things done if you discipline yourself and be focused on your task in hand.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

If you are single and fancy free then this is a good time to attract new people into your life. You may have been hoping for a new relationship for some time but now is the right time. Married Geminis will see a rekindling of their love and share happy memories of their past.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 You need patience this week. You have been stepping on people's toes and it may be upsetting everyone around you. Calm down and you'll find that everything works out much more easily. You need to to settle down and remember patience brings happiness and new friends.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 Your self-confidence is riding high and at times totally misplaced. It's good to be positive and optimistic but it can be destructive when you don't listen to others and always think that you are right. This can lead to a fall in grace, so it is important to become a little more humble. Travel to far off lands are indicated.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23 No sooner do you please one person, then you tend to upset someone else - no amount of weighing up of the issues will solve the problem if you complicate matters. You have to do good by everybody and try to keep it simple as you can't please everyone. Follow your own heart when it comes to relationship issues.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 You have too many insincere people around you who try to influence you the wrong way - stay steady and do not lose sight of your goals. Everyone around you is emotionally overcharged but you must keep calm and advise people accordingly. This is the time to keep a steady nerve and set your sights in the right direction.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 This is a good time for relationships and expressing your deep feelings for each other openly. You are a deep person and seek intense experiences in your love life. You are fully aware of your hidden personality traits and want to achieve hitherto unexplored talents and interests.

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SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 During this period you are planning for your future and become excited about an idea that promises much greener pastures for you. You are very positive and optimistic but you should not get carried away by your enthusiasm.

Keep both your feet firmly on the ground to realise your goals.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20 This is a good time to buy or sell property or carry out those long standing repairs and renovations which you have promised but not found the time for. You must sort out matters in your home front and ensure that you do not step on anyone's toes when proposing new ideas. Be disciplined in your approach.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

You will feel energetic and confident as the week begins. It is an excellent time for exercising your mental energies, claryfying your and other people's ideas and getting involved in discussion. You need to push ahead with personal interests and to assert yourself with added force will take precedence over everything else.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

As you are maturing, you become more in tune with your inner needs and tendencies. You make changes that allow you to spend more time doing the things that you really enjoy and are instinctively attracted to. Focus on essentials and establish a solid foundation.

celebration & history

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

history Matters

Holi the festival of colours and its significance in india Holi, the festival of colour, was originally an agricultural festival celebrating the arrival of spring. It is also the time when man and nature alike throw off the gloom of winter and rejoice in the colours and liveliness of spring. It has been celebrated in India since ancient times.

Holi also commemorates various events in Hindu mythology, but for most Hindus it provides a temporary opportunity to disregard social norms and indulge in merrymaking.

The legend commemorated by the festival of Holi involves an evil king named Hiranyakashipu.

He forbade his son Prahlad from worshipping Vishnu, but he continued to do offer prayers to the god. Getting angry with his son, Hiranyakashipu challenged Prahlad to sit

known for his meditative nature and spent many hours in solitude and deep meditation. Madana, the God of love, decided to test his resolve and appeared to Shiva in the form of a beautiful nymph. But Shiva recognized Madana and became very angry. In a fit of rage he shot fire out of his third eye and reduced her to ashes. This is sometimes given as the basis of Holi's bonfire.

The festival of Holi is also associated with the enduring love between Lord Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) and Radha. According to legend, the young Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about why Radha was so fair and he so dark.

Yashoda advised him to apply colour on Radha's face and see how her complexion would change.

on a pyre with his wicked aunt Holika who was believed to be immune to fire. (In another version, Holika put herself and Prahlad on the fire on orders from her brother.)

Prahlad accepted the challenge and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe.

When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika was burnt to death, while Prahlad survived without a scar. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. According to some accounts, Holika begged Prahlad for forgiveness before her demise, and he decreed that she would be remembered every year at Holi.

According to another version, Holi is associated with a legend involving Lord Shiva, one of the major Hindu gods. Shiva is

Because of this associated with Krishna, Holi is extended over a longer period in Vrindavan and Mathura, two cities with which Krishna is closely associated. Krishna's followers everywhere find special meaning in the joyous festival, as general frivolity is considered to be in imitation of Krishna's play with the gopis (wives and daughters of cowherds). Holi is spread out over two days (it used to be five, and in some places it is longer). On the evening of the first day of Holi, a public bonfire is held, commemorating the burning of Holika.

Traditionally, boys spend the weeks prior to Holi combing the neighbourhood for any waste wood they can find for the bonfire. The fire is lit sometime between 10 pm and

29

By Dr Anil Mehta

Voyages of Captain Cook midnight (at the rising of the moon), not generally in an orderly fashion.

Everyone gathers in the street for the event, and the air rings with shouts, catcalls, curses and general mayhem.

How Holi is celebrated In some communities, people roast barley seeds in the fire to eat and it is believed that the yield of the coming harvest season can be predicted by reading the direction of the flames or the state of the roasted seeds. The ashes of the Holi fire are believed to have some medicinal properties. Next morning, it is Dhuleti or the main day of the festival where adults and kids alike splash each other with coloured powder and water jets known as 'pichkaris'. Traditionally, only natural colours prepared from flowers and herbal products were used but today, artificial colours have taken over. Now people often use coloured foams and balloons filled with coloured water to pop-up at anybody they can play prank upon. The colour frenzy of oranges and reds, greens and blues, purples and blacks soon wash away all the enmity and hatred amongst the festival and serves to bring the community closer. Holi sweets and delicacies are an important part of the festival as one can relish 'Gujhias' in Northern India and 'Puran Poli' in Maharashtra. 'Thandai' (a cold drink of milk) mixed with 'bhang' (an intoxicating substance) is also very common during Holi.

Lord Krishna spent most of his childhood in Mathura and Vrindavana.

He was the one to introduce the modern form of Holi and thus Holi is celebrated with great enthusiasm at these places for about a week. Situated in Uttar Pradesh, all the major temples of the region dedicated to Krishna and Radha celebrate Holi on a different day. In these parts celebrating Holi means getting drenched with coloured water during these celebrations and it is considered to be a blessing from god and it is also an auspicious time.

Since Radha belonged to Barsana while Krishna belonged to Nandagaon, on the day of Holi, men from Nandagaon go to Barsana to celebrate Holi with the women there. The playful teasing of women and attempts to colour them with 'gulal' and wet colours from 'pichkari' is returned by them by attempts to escape and beating the men with sticks to scamper them away.

Captain James Cook (1728-79, pictured), British navigator, famous for his three great voyages of exploration in the Pacific, was born in Yorkshire, the son of a farm worker. Though he had little formal education, he taught himself mathematics and astronomy. At 18, he was apprenticed to a firm of ship owners in Whitby – a job that brought him in contact with ships and the sea. In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy where his work during 7 years’ war between Britain and France of carrying out surveys of coastal waters of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and of St. Lawrence River significantly contributed to the British victory in Canada.

First voyage (1768-71) : Now recognised as an expert navigator, Cook was chosen to lead the expedition to the South Pacific by the Royal Society and the Admiralty. In 1768 he set sail from Plymouth with a crew that included scientists (botanist, astronomer), and artists (to provide visual records) in a ship called ‘Endeavour’. His mission was to observe the transit of the planet Venus across the sun in Tahiti (which was considered to be the most appropriate spot to observe this phenomenon), and to find the long predicted huge landmass of ‘Great Southern Continent’ (Terra Australis). He reached Tahiti via Cape Horn (South America), observed Venus, and proceeded south-westwards.

He charted the whole of New Zealand first time, and sailed along the length of east coast of Australia, surveying as he went. He named it New South Wales and claimed it for Britain. He returned to England via Indonesia and Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) with a vast collection of scientific data. The circumnavigation of the globe took three years.

Second voyage (1772-75) : Cook led a second expedition from Plymouth to the South Seas in two ships ‘Resolution’ and ‘Adventure’ and made the first circumnavigation of Antarctica, and charted much of the southern hemisphere.

Sailing east he discovered New Caledonia, and Niue, and charted many islands such as New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), Tonga, and Easter Island.

Although not discovered by Cook, the 15 islands NE of New Zealand are called Cook Islands in his honour. While returning via south Atlantic he discovered the South Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia. However, he found no traces of ‘Great Southern Continent’.

Third voyage (1776-79) : Cook left Plymouth again in the same two ships to find an east-west passage (sea route)

around the frozen waters of North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

While sailing north in the Pacific, he discovered a group of islands he called Sandwich Islands (now Hawaiian Islands) of which he studied people, plants, and wildlife. Although he sailed further north, he failed in his main task of finding an east-west passage. He returned to Hawaii for much needed repairs and supplies, but sadly, was killed there by islanders during a skirmish over a theft of one of the ship’s boats.

Assessment and legacy : Cook’s three voyages added greatly to scientific knowledge of the people, natural history, and geography of the Pacific region and laid the foundation of British colonisation of islands and countries like New Zealand and Australia. His expeditions proved that no Asia-sized ‘Southern Continent’ existed, only the large landmasses of Australia, New Zealand, and the ice-covered Antarctica. His voyages were also remarkable for the health of his crew. His insistence on proper hygiene and diet eradicated scurvy on board among crew members during expeditions, though, some had died of dysentery in Indonesia. Cook was married with children but his voyages left him little time for family life.

Cook’s epic journeys stimulated interest not only in the discovery of new lands but also in the application of science at sea. His voyages were the first of the great scientific expeditions that were to become so common in the 19th century. In recognition of his achievements he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. No surprise, he is considered the greatest maritime explorer of scientific era.

A replica of Endeavour in Whitby harbour

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Sport

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

World Cup Results • India beat Netherlands by 5 wickets in a Group B match on Wednesday, 9th March.. Brief Scores: India 191-5 (Yuvraj 51, Sehwag 39; Seelaar 3-53) beat Netherlands 189 all-out in 46.4 overs (Borren 38, Cooper 29; Zaheer 3-20) • Srilanka beat Zimbabwe by 139 runs in a Group A match on Thursday, 10th March. Brief Score: Srilanka 327-6 [Dilshan 144, Tharanga 113, Zimbabwe 188, Taylor 80. Dilshan 4.

• West Indies beat Ireland by 44 runs in a Group B match on Friday, March 11. Brief Score: West Indies 275 (Smith 107, Pollard 94, O'Brien 4-71). Ireland : 231 (Joyce 84, Wilson 61, Sammy 3-31, Benn 4-53].

• Bangladesh beat England by two wickets in a Group B match on Friday, March 11. Brief Score: Bangladesh 227 for 8 (Kayes 60, Shahzad 3-63).

England 225 (Trott 67, Morgan 63).o wickets • South Africa beat India by three wickets in a World Cup Group B game on Saturday, March 12. Scores: India 296 (Sachin Tendulkar 111, Virender Sehwag 73, Gautam Gambhir 69; Dale Steyn 5-50). South Africa 300-7 (Hashim Amla 61, Jacques Kallis 69, AB de Villiers 52. Harbhajan Singh 3-53 • New Zealand beat Canada by 97 runs in a Group A match on Sunday, March 13 Brief Score: NZ 358-6 [B McCullum 101, Taylor 74, Baidwan 84-3. Canada 2619 [ Bagai 84, Hansra 70, Oram 47-3].

• Australia beat Kenya by 60 runs in a Group A match on Sunday, March 13. Brief score: Kenya 264-4 [Collins Obuya 98 not out, Tanmay Mishra 72] Australia 324-6[ Brad Haddin 65, Michael Clarke 93, Michale Hussey 54] • Bangaladesh beat Netherlands by 6 wickets in a Group B match on Monday, March 14. Brief Score: Netherlands 160 [Ryan ten Doeschate 53 not out, Abdul Razzak 29-3. Bangladesh 166-4 [Imrul Kayes 73 not out] • Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 7 wickets in a rainshortned group A match on Monday, 14th March.

Brief Score: Zimbabwe 151-7 [39.4 overs], Craig Ervine 52, Umar Gul 36-3. Pakistan 164-3 [34.1 overs], Asad Shafiq 78, Mohammad Hafeez 49.

• South Africa beat Ireland by 131 runs in a Group B match on Tuesday, March 15. Brief Score : South Africa 272 for 7 (Duminy 99, Ingram 46, van Wyk 42) Ireland 141 (Peterson 3-32, Morkel 3-33).

EPL Matches this week Saturday, 19 March Tottenham v West Ham ……….White Hart Lane 12.45 Aston Villa v Wolverhampton….Villa Park 15:00 Blackburn v Blackpool………….Ewood Park 15:00 Man Utd v Bolton……………….Old Trafford 15:00 Stoke v Newcastle……………Britannia Stadium 15:00 West Brom v Arsenal…………The Hawthorns 15:00 Wigan v Birmingham…………DW Stadium 15:00 Everton v Fulham……………..Goodison Park 17:30 Sunday, 20 March Sunderland v Liverpool……….Stadium of Light 13:30 Chelsea v Man City…………….Stamford Bridge 16:00

Sale of Olympics tickets begins The sale of tickets to 2012 London Olympics began on Tuesday (March 15) and will close on April 26.

Now the challenge is to work on ticket application that best suits your availability, sports tastes and obviously the amount you are ready to spend.

For sport freaks, nothing can be more tempting than this full-fledged sports entertainment.

Tickets start at just £20 and there are special prices for young people and seniors in more than 220 sessions.

Tickets will not be sold on a first come, first served basis, so take your time to plan, And don’t forget your Visa card.

Olympic clock starts ticking: 500 day countdown to the London Olympic Games began on Monday with unveiling of a countdown clock at Trafalgar Square.

The clock was put on display by four Olympic gold medalists from Britain. It will count down to the evening of July 27, 2012.

Dhoni blew it: How India lost a game in the bag

By Premen Addy At 267 for 1, with the nonpareil Sachin Tendulkar comfortably past yet another sublime ODI century, this time against the formidable South Africans, among whom was Dale Steyn, the world's fastest and most penetrative bowler; with Tendulkar’s left-hand partner, Gautam Gambhir, motoring past a compact half-century, an Indian total in excess of 350 loomed.

Earlier, Virender Sehwag's blistering 73 had got the Indian innings to a dream 142-run start in record time.

But Tendulkar fell for 111, Gambhir went for 69 and India collapsed to 296 all out. Nightmare subsumed the vision of paradise, with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the role of the fallen Archangel. What Satanic whisper induced him to reorder the Indian batting line-up yet again, we shall never know, but sending in Yusuf Pathan at No 3 was clearly the wrong choice wrapped round a wrong message: that India were in desperate need of quick runs when all that was required was the existing easy canter – so far ahead was the side in the asking rate of runs to overs.

Pathan, a public park slogger departed without troubling the scorers and others were clearly bent on assisted suicide, courtesy the South African bowlers.

The spectacle was low farce, something neither the Nagpur crowd, nor fans across the country had bargained for.

Dhoni whimsy was in evidence in the England match, when he chose to relegate Viral Kohli, with an unbeaten hundred in the previous encounter against Bangladesh, banished to an unaccustomed No 7. As at Nagpur, the Indian innings folded unexpectedly for 338, and

South Africa's AB de Villiers, left, plays a shot for six off the bowling of India's Harbhajan Singh during the Cricket World Cup match between India and South Africa in Nagpur, India, Saturday, March 12

England sniffed the possibility of an unlikely victory, which they were within a whisker of pulling off.

Nothing learned, Dhoni's fateful decision at Nagpur led to a tectonic shift: South Africa could scarcely believe their luck as a match given up as lost was handed back to them on a platter, with Steyn returning figures of 5 for 50. Fine side as they are South Africa took their opportunity well with steadfast batsmanship.

The visitors crossed the line guns blazing and three wickets in hand and a ball to spare. They had replied to India's 296 with 300 for 7, a victory by 3 wickets.

Where does traumatised India go from here?

Do they have the character to recover under Dhoni's capricious leadership?

Some in the team need to take responsibility. They cannot allow their captain to bear the guilt alone.

Dhoni in Blunderland is not nearly as entertaining as Alice in Wonderland.

The day before Nagpur, the Indian captain let it be known to reporters that the opening pair of Sehwag and Tendulkar were found wanting for not scoring enough runs to put India's middle order in a comfort zone. When they do, and do so in cavalier fashion, what happens? Indian

team selection leaves much to be desired. The core of the selectors' brain power is clearly in meltdown.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh pulled out the proverbial rabbit out of their hat by beating fancied England by 2 wickets at Chittagong.

England struggled to 225 all out against the Bangladesh spinners. The home side began well and held steady in the middle, but a sudden clatter of wickets turned at complexion of the game at 169 for 8. However, tailenders Mahmudullah (21 not out) and Shafiul Islam (24 not out) in a never-say-die partnership got their side home.

Bangladesh disposed of the Netherlands with surprising ease. The visitors were dismissed for 160, which total Bangladesh passed in 46.2 overs for the loss of 4 wickets.

Whether Bangladesh qualify for the quarterfinals rests on England's tie with West Indies. An England win would take them through. Bangladesh will have their fingers crossed. As for India, they must beat West Indies to be absolutely sure of a quarter-final place, otherwise their fate in the tournament will rest on how their rivals perform. Things don't look bright. India has been conned often enough by pretenders.

World Cup Cricket Points Table (as on 15/3/11) Teams New Zealand Pakistan Sri Lanka Australia Zimbabwe Canada

Mat 5 5 5 4 5 5

Won 4 4 3 3 1 1

Teams South Africa India West Indies Bangladesh England Ireland

Mat 5 5 4 5 5 5

Won 4 3 3 3 2 1

Group A Lost Tied 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 4 0 Group B Lost Tied 1 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 2 1 4 0

N/R 0 0 1 1 0 0

Pts 8 8 7 7 2 2

Net RR +1.957 +0.729 +2.705 +1.645 -0.669 -2.046

N/R 0 0 0 0 0 0

Pts 8 7 6 6 5 2

Net RR +1.606 +0.768 +2.206 -0.765 +0.013 -0.881

Sachin Tendulkar @99 Just another century and batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar will make another milestone- century of centuries. In a group B match of the World Cup cricket, he hammered one of his aggressive ton against South Africa on Saturday.

The 99th century (111 off 101 balls) could not have come in a better ambience. The atmosphere was electric at the VCA stadium as Sachin torn apart Protease bowling attack into shambles.

Tendulkar seems to be getting younger by each passing day and year. He was at his usual discipline best, respecting the good balls and thrashing the bad ones. He was never slow in

taking runs. At 37, he was running like Usain Bolt. He was one of the fastest runners between the wickets.

He started off patiently by letting his partner Virender Sehwag do the scoring. Initially, he tried to cut, flick and nudge the bowlers. Once he got into the groove, there was no stopping him.

He was tested by bouncers from Steyn, but they were well left.

Everything went right for Tendulkar. He got his first boundary with a flick off the pads off Jacques Kallis.

He followed it with back-to back drives through covers to Morkel.

The next shot was simply superb and drew the

biggest roar from the crowd. Steyn pitched it short and Tendulkar pulled it with authority, a flat shot straight that went out of the ground.

The South African spinners weren’t spared either.

Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and a surprised second change bowler JP Duminy fell prey to the master’s elegant stroke-play.

He stepped out to both hitting them over long-on on a few occasions.He also

enjoyed two hundred-run partnerships with Sehwag (142 for the first wicket) and Gautam Gambhir (125 for the second wicket).

Although every single run drew cheers from the crowd, the single that brought his 48th century drew the loudest cheer from the crowd. It came off a delivery from Kallis.

He looked for another big score but he fell playing a pull shot to Morkel in the batting powerplay.

Sport World

Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011

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Somdev to meet Nadal in Indian Wells 4th round For the record India's ace tennis player Somdev Devvarman continued his golden run in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, setting up a fourth-round clash with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal after winning his thirdround match on Monday.

Somdev beat Xavier Malisse in a keenly contested match 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 to reach the fourth round.

The Indian No. 1 breezed past Malisse 6-1 in the first set but the latter recovered in the second set to win it 6-3.

Somdev, who is playing his third main draw here, was down 2-5 in the tie break when he reeled off five points to win the hardfought match on Monday in two hours.

Somdev Devvarman

The 26-year-old India No. 1, ranked 84, who had never won a Masters 1000 match before coming here, beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and then upset 19th seed and World No. 22 Marcos Baghdatis of

David Beckham begins search for another trophy

David Beckham began his quest for another trophy to add a Major League Soccer championship to titles won in England and Spain as the Los Angeles Galaxy kicked off the 2011 season on Tuesday at Seattle.

Beckham, who won six English Premier League titles with Manchester United and a Spanish championship with Real Madrid, says that he is more interested in helping the club than seeking private glory.

"It's not about validating my time here with the

Galaxy. It's not all about myself being a success," Beckham said. "Of course I want to win trophies and championships, but the most important thing is the club."

The Galaxy's hopes last season ended with a Western Conference finals loss to Dallas, who went on to fall to Colorado in the title match. But once again Los Angeles appear to have the pieces they need to let Beckham leave America a winner.

The Galaxy have arguably the league's best player in Landon Donovan and one of its top coaches in Bruce Arena. The departure of Edson Buddle to Europe has been offset with the acquisition of Juan Pablo Angel from the New York Red Bulls, and while the aging Angel is no doubt slowing down, he remains a lethal finisher.

As Beckham enters his final season with the Galaxy, former French international Thierry Henry begins his first full campaign with a Red Bulls team that are title contenders in the East.

Cyprus in the first two rounds.

Nadal, whom Somdev will meet in the round of 16, had an easy passage into the fourth round after beating American qualifier Ryan Sweeting 6-3, 6-1 in

a third-round match on Monday and also delayed the start of his post-match interview to watch the tiebreaker between Malisse and Devvarman to know who he will face in the fourth round.

Earlier, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick each launched their title bids in triumphant style on Sunday without losing a set in the second round. Second seed Federer beat Russia’s Igor Andreev 7-5 7-6, thirdseeded Serb Djokovic crushed Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-0 6-4 and eighth seed Roddick overpowered fellow American James Blake 6-3 7-5 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Serena Williams undergoes emergency surgery Tennis star Serena Williams has undergone an emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in her lung last week. She has described the experience as “the scariest moment in my life.” However, the former world No 1 said she did not think the health crisis would affect her game.

“Luckily enough, I was able to catch it soon enough that my career won’t be affected,” she was quoted as saying. “I love tennis and now more than anything I have so much to look forward to

just playing,” she said, adding the crisis was “the scariest moment in my life”. “I really just want to come back and do well,” she added.

Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism in late February, which required her to undergo an emergency operation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles last week. The 13-time Grand Slam singles champion is now recovering from the surgery. “My lungs are fairly healthy and I’m just on the road to recovery,” she said.

• Ross Taylor of New Zealand became the fourth batsman to register a birthday century in ODIs-the first three being Vinod Kambli, Sachin tendulkar and Sanath Jayasurya.

Ross Taylor was at one stage made 76 runs from 111 balls. He then hit 55 runs off last 13 balls.[ the sequence read 4,6,6,0,4,6,1,4,6,6,2,4,6].

In comparison, Sanath Jaysuriya took 17 balls to make the fastest fifty in One-day cricket.

• Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday, March 9 became the first batsman to aggregate 2,000 runs in World Cup history. During the tenth edition of the world cup, Tendulkar also became the first batsman to complete 200 fours He scored 27 runs in India's five-wicket win during the India-Netherlands Group B match and took his World Cup tally to 2009 in 40 games at an average of 57.40, including five hundreds and 13 fifties.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting is placed second in the list of the top run-getters in the world cup with 1577 runs at an average of 46.38, including four hundreds and six fifties, in 42 matches • The Sri Lanka openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan's first-wicket stand of 282 in a Group A match against Zimbabwe on Thursday, March 10 was the highest in a World Cup. It just fell just short of the best one-day international opening partnership of all time, which Tharanga holds with Sanath Jayasuriya.

Dilshan and Tharanga both hit centuries.. Dilshan hammered 144 off 131 balls while the left-handed Tharanga scored 133 in the co-host's strong total of 327-6.

Sporting talent may put Jaffna on world cricket map Before the civil war ended, Sri Lanka’s Jaffna city was known as fortress of the LTTE, It was recognized for the bloody gun battles that the separatists engaged in against the Lankan army. “Now that the war is over, we are getting some talented cricketers from that region,” said former Lankan pacer Ravindra Pushpakumara, who is now coaching the budding cricketers in the north province.

If the former Lankan pacer and the Lanka Cricket Board have their way, in a short time Jaffna will be producing interna-

Ravindra Pushpakumara

tional quality fast bowlers.

While Colombo has the most planned cricket structure with Kandy and Galle coming next, Puhspakumara knows

spotting talent in far-flung areas and polishing it won’t be easy. “There is plenty of talent at the under-15 and U-17 levels.

We are identifying them and bringing the players in batches of 30 to Colombo.

We will then make the players play club cricket here,” said the 35-year-old.

Pushpakumara also stated that some of his wards were bowling in the P Sara Oval nets to the Aussies during practice and the Australian players were impressed with them. To bowl to the likes of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke must have been an

experience of a lifetime to the boys. “The days of the war were very bad as the boys were keen to play cricket, but they just didn’t get the platform and facilities. But now there is nothing to complain about,” adds Pushpakumara.

He is thankful to SLC chief D S De Silva, who hired his services to go talent-hunting in the north of the country. “Our board chairman has been very encouraging. Whatever I have asked for, be it bowling shoes for the boys or balls, my demands have been met within 24 hours,” he said.

Anand, Kramnik in deadlock at Amber The clash between the current and former world champions ended in a deadlock. If former champion Vladimir Kramnik should be happy with the 1-1 result he got against world champion Viswanathan Anand in the second round, the Russian has more reasons to regret based on what happened over the board than the Indian.

Kramnik seemed to have done enough in the second game (rapid) to win a pawn but could not prevent Anand from walk-

ing away with a draw in the Amber chess tournament at Monaco. The result meant that Anand stayed a half point behind leaders Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) who logged 3.5 points each.

In the first game (blindfold) against Kramnik, Anand sacrificed a pawn with black and was defending for the major part, but in the second, he lost one and was delighted to see the

Russian lose it in no time.

Anand has three points to Kramnik’s 1.5.

Anand gave up a pawn after Kramnik’s17th move with an eye on putting up

solid defence. Analysts questioned the soundness of the sacrifice as they did not see black’ defence getting any better. However, they could not come to a

conclusion that it was bad either as white failed to find a breakthrough.

But the Russian seemed to rue his draw in the rapid game. “You work hard to get an extra pawn and when you have it you just give it away in one move,” the former World champion said after the game. Though the pawn was not too big an advantage at that stage to give him a point, Kramnik believed he could have worked out something with the material. However, after he

lost the pawn on move 36, he did not have anything.

Magnus Carlsen joined the leaders in overall standings with a 2-0 defeat of Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan while overnight leaders Aronian and Grischuk recorded similar 1.5-0.5 wins against Hikaru Nakamura (US) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) Carlsen’s rapid win with black pieces against Gashimov was worth 1,000 Euros for the Game of the Day prize.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 19th March 2011