Edito r’s View Dear Readers, Once again, it is a proud moment for all Indians and Indian Americans! Of the 12 finalists in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, 10 participants were Indian-Americans. The winner was Harini Logan, a 14-year-old Indian American girl from San Antonio,Texas. Social media and mainstream media in the US are trying to figure out why Indian Americans are winning every time. So called “experts” are offering their opinions on social media platforms, newspapers, and TV. Everyone is missing simple reasons, or they simply do not want to accept those reasons. The simple reasons boil down to hard work, practice, and parents’ involvement. This is not only for spelling bee competitions, but it also applies to many other fields whether it is their studies, sports, or music competitions. In the past issue of Desh-Videsh, whenever we have covered spelling bee winners, we have listed all valedictorians and salutatorians in the US along with their picture and other personal details. This time there are so many Indian Americans at the top of their class who have become valedictorian or salutatorian that if we were to include all of them, half of DeshVidesh would be full of their details. This is why we have decided to put it on our website. Please check out all of these top students on our website: https://bit.ly/3ntz8cU Now, let me talk about a legend in Music, A.R. Rahman. The Oscar-winning Indian music composer A.R. Rahman is performing all over the USA. A prodigy with music in his genes, he is the exceptional talent that has made Indian music rich and versatile. He successfully integrated Indian classical music with Western Classical music and Western instruments to create tunes that were one-of-a-kind and never heard before. We have listed all his shows in Community News. Tickets are going fast. Go out and reserve your seat. The issue of Desh-Videsh will not be complete until I talk about my modern day hero, Hon. PM Modi. As you know Hon. PM Modi has completed eight years of successful governance of India. Desh-Videsh is coming out with a Special Edition on PM Modi, highlighting Modi and his administration’s achievements over the past eight years. In this issue, we are covering one such achievement. Over the last eight years, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been instrumental in bringing Treasures of India, 200 stolen artifacts or antiquities worth millions of dollars back to India from across the world. Speaking of Treasures of India, Chahna has written a very good article on Preserving Our Roots and Ancient Knowledge. Be sure to check it out. As we all know for Indians, cricket is another religion. In Florida, there are several cricket teams. In this issue, we have included an article written by Tilak Mitra talking about the team he co-founded named Young Genius Cricketer’s Academy. In the next issue of Desh-Videsh, we will cover another such cricket team founded by Sanjay Paharia named Friendship Cup. After cricket, the second activity Indians love is Bollywood. In the Bollywood section, we have listed all IIFA’s (International Indian Film Academy Awards) 2022 Winners. I am not sure whether some of you have noticed or not, but these days, Indians living all over the world enjoy movies based on Indian history and achievements of Indians in the variety of fields such as sports or politics. Looking at IIFA winners such as Shershaah and 83 movies attest to this phenomena. In this issue, Immigration attorney Seth Finberg is talking about O-1 visas for persons of extraordinary ability. As we all know, Indians living in India or living in the US have extraordinary ability either in academia and/or business. Not too many people know about this type of Visa. I hope some of you can take advantage of this O-1 Visa. Last, but not least, we are announcing our Orlando show on August 28 at the same venue, Hilton Orlando. I hope and pray that this time we will not encounter any problems. So many of you have shown such great support for so many years of every activity Desh-Videsh has done. This time we hope we will get the same type of support. Until then, Be Healthy! Be safe! Raj Shah Managing Editor
~ A Magazine Promoting the Indian Subcontinent Since 1993 ~
