Dec 2014/Jan 2015

The Sari Story

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The Business of Fish

by Dilnavaz Bamboat

2014 Top Ten Movies

by Aniruddh Chawda

INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 28 Years of Excellence

Self Life dec ’14 - jan ’15 • vol. 28 , no .9 • www. indiacurrents.com

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When Do You Stop Parenting? facebook.com/IndiaCurrents twitter.com/IndiaCurrents Now published in three separate editions HEAD OFFICE 1885 Lundy Ave Ste 220, San Jose, CA 95131 Phone: (408) 324-0488 Fax: (408) 324-0477 Email: info@indiacurrents.com www.indiacurrents.com Publisher: Vandana Kumar publisher@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x225 Managing Director: Vijay Rajvaidya md@indiacurrents.com Editor: Jaya Padmanabhan editor@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x226 Events Editor: Mona Shah events@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x224 Advertising Manager: Derek Nunes ads@indiacurrents.com Northern California: (408) 324-0488 x 222 Southern California: (714) 523-8788 x 222 Marketing Associate: Pallavi Nemali marketing@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x221

“Did you eat breakfast this morning,” I asked my daughter, a few weeks after I’d dropped her off at her college dorm. There was an imperceptible pause before she answered, “No.” My daughter’s hesitation registered and it was a stunning moment of realization for me.

I’ve been on the parenting treadmill for 18 years. I confess that even after I dropped my twins in college I continued to mechanically run at the same speed, and at the same resistance, asking the same questions that I used to when they were around: Where are you? When are you coming back? Did you finish your homework? Are you dressed appropriately?

It took that moment of consideration in my daughter’s response to underscore my own resistance to their liberation. Had I begun to smother my kids with my mothering?

Parenting imposes an imbalance. It assumes that I, the mother, am superior by virtue of age, experience and kinship, to them, my children. This imbalance must be irksome to 18 year-olds who are adults in most of the United States and the world.

So, with each of my (concerned? inquisitive? intrusive?) questions, am I subverting the

principles of self-reliance and independence essential for adulthood?

I asked my friends the question: when do you stop parenting? And I got responses ranging from “never” to “now.” What became clear was that there was no one right answer, and no answer that could cover all scenarios. We, mothers and fathers, must find our own equation to stay connected to our children.

Eighteen years of parenting is a hard habit to break and it is difficult to let go.

Especially, when I am consumed by nostalgia as I find pieces of my kids’ presence in their now vacant rooms: photographs of friends, graded essays, a map of the world and the books they once devoured. I have to remind myself that part of me has also gone with my children.

These days, I have discovered how to converse with my children. We talk about politics, people, professors and parties. I listen. I breathe hard and fast at times, but remain even-voiced as I respond.

The treadmill still sits, occupying space in my psyche, and for now it rests unplugged.

Jaya Padmanabhan

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INDIA CURRENTS Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 • vol 28 • no 9

PERSPECTIVES 1 | EDITORIAL When Do You Stop Parenting?

By Jaya Padmanabhan

Southern California Edition

LIFESTYLE

www.indiacurrents.com

22 | FINANCE Investing in India

By Rahul Varshneya

Find us on

26 | TAX TALK Year End Tax Tips

By Rita Bhayani

6 | CURRENT AFFAIRS UC Fee Hikes are Not Justifiable

By Rameysh Ramdas

28 | BOOKS Reviews of Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Karadi Tales, and Why I Write

By Geetika Pathania Jain, Sarah Hafeez

7 | A THOUSAND WORDS Adultescence, or On Turning Thirty

By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

34 | MUSIC Top Ten Albums of 2014

By Vidya Sridhar

8 | VIEWPOINT Homesick in My Homeland

By Priyanka Sacheti 15 | LIVES Breasts, Cancer and Me

By Sudha Subramanian 16 | OPINION The Business of Fish

By Dilnavaz Bamboat 50 | REFLECTIONS Diwali, Dharma and De-cluttering

By Mala Setty 52 | HEALTHY LIFE Lose Inches Not Pounds

By Lakshmi Reguna 54 | POLITICS Obama’s Immigration Plan

By Vivek Wadhwa

10 | Self Life A collage of selfies, a visual record of our community

18 | FEATURE Classic Drive Bob Rupani

63 | DEAR DOCTOR Shy, Reserved or Introverted?

By Alzak Amlani

DEPARTMENTS

Top Ten Films of 2014

4 | Letters to the Editor 6 | Popular Articles

By Aniruddh Chawda

20 | Ask a Lawyer 21 | Visa Dates 61 | Classifieds 62 | Viewfinder

56 | Travel Bangkok: A River Runs Through It

By Kamala Thiagarajan

2 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

60 | RECIPES Comfort Cuisine

By Shata Sacharoff, Praba Iyer

37 | Films

58 | ON INGLISH The Sari Story

By Kalpana Mohan 64 | THE LAST WORD Has Democracy Been Compromised?

By Sarita Sarvate

43 | RELATIONSHIP DIVA My Husband Cheated On Me With a Younger Woman

By Jasbina Ahluwalia

WHAT’S CURRENT 44 | Events Calendar

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 3

letters to the editor On Religion and Blind Faith

I commend the editors at India Currents in their choice of letters responding to the article by Vamsee Juluri (Who is a Hindu?

India Currents, September 2014)—the more one contemplates this issue and hears others, the more the question becomes further answered. Although Sanatana Dharma externally has its four castes and stages of life (how every natural human society organizes), an intrinsic identity is left up to the individual.

The vapid ignorance of violent sectarianism is certainly not in the teachings of any of the major religious traditions—and most certainly not espoused by their founders.

That is why anyone and all actual religions —even atheists—can thrive in India. Yet the Vedic version does open up a cosmology where things can be better understood, just as an unabridged edition of a dictionary sheds more light on a subject. I write as a Western practitioner of over fifty years in the lifestyle and study of bhakti-yoga culture.

Am I a Hindu? Having the final read of the multi-tome, Indian-English edition of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism as its final copy editor, I just hope to have the humility to laugh and fall more deeply in love with its personalities and perspectives.

Roy Richard, Culver City, CA

M

ohammed Shoaib (Voices column, India Currents, November 2014) suggests banning all Blind Faith (religions) to build a better world and says that no religion can withstand scientific scrutiny or rational judgement. I agree with his opposition to blind faith, because if the religious leader is not interpreting the original teachings of religion correctly, he or she can mislead the followers to lead an evil life, harming themselves and others, like what ISIS is doing today and what Arab Muslim armies who invaded the Persian empire did in the seventh century, committing genocide, kidnapping women, forcing people of Iran to convert from their Zarathushti (Zoroastrian) religion to the religion of Islam, and looting the conquered country.

Religions or interpretations of religions do not demand blind faith. In the religion founded by His Holiness Prophet Zarathushtra (known as Zoroaster), the Prophet asks his followers to listen to him carefully, meditate on his teachings in order to understand them, and then exercise their free choice based on their understanding because each person has to be accountable for his/ her own rational choice with the possibility 4 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

of bad consequences for the wrong choices and vice versa.

Religion, being more about the spiritual dimension, cannot be proven or disproven by our current level of science, which is limited to the material dimension. When we follow the religious path with proper understanding of its teachings it gives us a sense of peace and lasting happiness in our heart and mind. So, it does involve some faith (not blind faith) in the spiritual experience of the founder and qualified follower-teachers to at least listen or read what they say, but after that it is up to us to try to think about them and understand them properly (with the help of qualified teachers) and make our own choices.

Religious teachings can, like any tool, help us if used correctly, and hurt us if not.

Maneck Bhujwala, Huntington Beach, CA

Mastering the Master’s Language

K. Shankar Pillai, the cartoonist, once wrote that all that the government of India does is put up white papers to describe the black deeds committed by yellow men who have gone red. Both Shashi Tharoor and Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan have fallen into this trap, lock, stock and barrel. They have mastered the Master’s language, and score cheap debating points instead of addressing real issues. There were no substantive ideas about brain drain in Ragini’s latest article (The Fourth India, India Currents, November 2014). And as Nirmala Seetharaman reminded Shashi Tharoor in a live debate on Indian television, he should convince his own party about his ideas. I admire both Shashi and his niece, Ragini, for their elegant syntax, but this time their articles lacked analysis.

Krishnamachar Sreenivasan, California

A Clarion Call

Jaya Padmanabhan has commented on India’s newest Nobelist, Kailash Sathyarti, as the silent striver who has, for over thirty years, pursued his passion for protecting children from forced slave labor in her editorial (Little Known Laureate, India Currents, November 2014). As we know his award comes jointly with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.

SPEAK YOUR MIND!

Have a thought or opinion to share?

Send us an original letter of up to 300 words, and include your name, address, and phone number. Letters are edited for clarity and brevity.

Write India Currents Letters, 1885 Lundy Ave. Suite 220, San Jose 95131 or email letters@indiacurrents.com.

In my opinion, Yousafzai was the catalyst for the award to Sathyarthi. When Malala was called out from her high school class room in Birmingham, England (in self exile from her mother country, Pakistan) to inform her of the Nobel award, with incredible presence of mind, she publicly invited the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India, to “join me” at the award ceremony at Oslo later in the year. Those two words reverberated through Pakistan, India and the rest of the world, like a clarion call. Malala has effectively demonstrated the power of words over swords and guns. She has emasculated and checkmated every adult in her country.

Malala is for real. I expect to hear a lot more from her over the years ahead.

P. Mahadevan, Fullerton, CA

Dark Colonial Legacy

Boris Johnson, in his latest book, The Churchill Factor, claims that Winston Churchill was the greatest statesman Britain had ever produced. Perhaps Johnson is unaware of Churchill’s dark colonial legacy.

In his article, (Debating the Indian-British Past, India Currents, October 2014) and in his recent book, Pax Indica, Shashi Tharoor, a high ranking Indian diplomat, rightly accuses Churchill’s conservative government of ruthlessly exploiting India. Between 15 and 29 million perished tragically from starvation and approximately four million died in the Great Bengal famine as a direct result of Churchill’s decision to divert critical food supplies to British soldiers and buttress European stockpiles. As mentioned in the article, Churchill arrogantly asserted that “starvation of underfed Bengalis is less serious than that of sturdy Greeks.” Contrary to Johnson’s assertions, history will expose Churchill as the last of a long line of ruthless and inhumane Prime Minister’s ruling over the last embers of the British Empire.

Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, California

Count My Bangles

It was a wonderful surprise to find an article on bangles (So Naked Without Bangles, India Currents, November 2014)! If I ever leave my home without at least one bangle, I do indeed feel naked. When I saw the title of the article, I jumped up to count my bangles stacked up on my bath countertop. I counted 32 and this number may increase if my youngest son (51) finds some bangles in a thrift shop during the holidays. I subscribe to India Currents because I find myself curious about other cultures. Both my parents were born in Ireland, and I was raised in Boston, and I recently asked my dentist, Vikram Rajan, what the word “desi” means!

Dee Lindner, Culver City, CA

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current affairs

University of California Fee Hikes Are Not Justifiable

India Currents is now available on the Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/IndiaCurrents/dp/B005LRAXNG

By Rameysh Ramdas

T

he University of California (UC) Regents have approved a whopping 28% increase in tuition over the next five years, if the state doesn’t give the system more funding. Many members of the California legislature and Governor Brown are understandably against this proposal. Governor Brown has already offered an increase of 4% in state funding each year for the next two years in exchange for a freeze on tuition.

Additionally, the Governor is demanding more efficiency from the UC system including offering more online courses and slots for transfers from community colleges. Our Governor should be applauded for his participation in the Regents meeting.

Richard Blum, one of the Regents and Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband, stated that “paying higher salaries to faculty and executives was essential to maintaining quality.” Governor Brown chided Blum saying “I want to point out that you run an investment banking industry and this is a public university.” “This is not Wall Street. This is the University of California. The public university has as its mission public service.”

Amen and kudos to Governor Brown. Let us remember this comment when we are asked to re-elect Dianne Fienstein.

George Skelton writing in the Los Angeles Times gave this tuition hike proposal “a failing grade.” Skelton goes to point out that the UC Regents gave pay hikes of up to 20% to leaders of many of its campuses, who already make $383,000 to $485,000 per year. Further, Skelton also pointed out in a startling statistical comparison that the UC President makes $570,000 annually, while the California Governor makes $177,466 and the United States President $400,000!

The increase in fees would raise in-state undergraduate fees, now $12,192 to almost $12,792 in 2015 and 5% annually every year up to $15,560 in 2019.

The UC system was established by the Organic Act signed into law by then Governor Henry H. Haight in 1868, and remains today, with its 10 campuses, a bastion of academic and research excellence. It is the only university system that boasts of more

6 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

The increase in fees would raise in-state undergraduate fees, now $12,192 to almost $12,792 in 2015 and 5% annually every year up to $15,560 in 2019. than 38 Nobel Laureates on its faculty. It is regrettable that Janet Napolitano and some of the Regents are reversing decades of planning and forethought. There was a time when ordinary middle class students could afford to attend a UC college and progress with their dreams. It is indefensible that Chancellors and administrators, not faculty, are given these raises, and then to demand even more from cash strapped hard working parents of students.

The UC system has been denying admission to California residents in order to take in out of state students to raise revenue— UCLA admitted only 59% of California residents as students in 2012.

As the Mercury News reported, “‘Students are caught in the middle of it.’ said Melvin Singh, a student leader at UC Santa Barbara.

Further, a law passed last year required the UC system to report on their spend on undergraduates, graduates and research, by discipline. The UC system missed the reporting deadline on this and is stonewalling efforts to show such transparency.

Janet Napolitano and the Regents need to understand that the primary goal of the UC system is to ensure that California students have a shot at affordable higher education, given that our tax dollars already subsidize them. Paying highly paid administrators and Chancellors a hike in salary, and challenging the Legislature for more state funds, while wanting to sock students and parents even more does not seem right at all. n Rameysh Ramdas, an S.F. Bay Area professional, writes as a hobby

Follow us at twitter.com/indiacurrents on facebook.com/IndiaCurrents Most Popular Articles Online November 2014 1) The Hidden Dangers of Over-Vaccination Vijay Gupta 2) So Naked Without Bangles Kalpana Mohan 3) I Will Survive Priya Das 4) Youth Depression Viji Sundaram 5) Films, Femme Fatales and Feminism Radhika Munshani 6) Mission Possible Karine Schomer 7) Needlessly Blind Ritu Marwah 8) Cooking with Quinoa Nirmala Garimella 9) A Moment in Time P. Mahadevan 10) Mojo Rising Aniruddh Chawda

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a thousand words

Adultescence, or On Turning Thirty

By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

I

remember when thirty seemed old. My parents were in their earlythirties then; I viewed them as aged specimens, too preoccupied with the labor of rearing two school-going children to realize their mounting years. Older friends of theirs, on the wrong side of thirtyfive, were more attuned to the specter of midlife. “Forty is the new thirty,” they chanted. “Fifty is the new forty.” They wielded articles about longer life spans and second careers. Someone got a motorcycle and a divorce. Another turned to religion. At a fortieth birthday party, “uncles” donned the sequined turbans of graying belly dancers and gifted each other naughty magazines, toys, and undergarments called “garter snakes.”

I was a kid, so the fine distinction of relocating the top of the “hill” from forty to fifty was lost on me. Forty seemed like eighty. Most exuberant adult performances of youthfulness were embarrassing. Now, approaching thirty myself, and resigned to forever being decrepit in my daughter’s eyes, I’m interested in those re-nominations of old-age as a gradually receding horizon. How dated and tentative they seem, in today’s world of ever-suspended “adultescence,” in which people don’t ever grow up—half because they can’t afford to move out of their parents’ houses; the other half because they reject the imperative of having children in their penthouses.

You’ve probably read about this: parents playing video games, adult fans of Young Adult novels (the-The Fault In Our Stars phenomenon), working people in the privileged corners throwing away their weekends on hangovers and the never-ending, mimosa-soaked brunch. What started as the economic imperative of “boomeranging” back into your childhood home with college loans and start-up aspirations has spiraled into a society-wide rejection of the normative form of personal and professional advancement during the decade of your twenties.

The popular cultural artifacts of our time—from Chetan Bhagat’s call center workers to Lena Dunham’s Girls—document this movement. Writing in the New York Times, A.O. Scott called it “The Death of Adulthood in American Culture:” everybody gets older, but “nobody grows up.” For Scott, growing up used to mean getting a job, getting married, having kids, “[balancing] the fulfillment of your wants with the carrying out of your duties.” That’s what my parents did, and their friends, too. If at all they rebelled against the dictates of age-appropriate behavior, they did so in ways that were expected (drinking too much at a Diwali party, buying a sports car) or invisible to the children and colleagues with whom they regularly interacted.

In retrospect, “fifty is the new forty” didn’t really mean much, other than that you were less likely to die. Or rather, that you didn’t need to expend any more energy worry about dying at fifty than you had at forty, thanks to the advent of modern medicine. It didn’t mean that you could progress through life “by means of regression,” to live forever, as Scott writes, in a state of “arrested development.” You still had to raise a family and do right by your elders. If you were an immigrant “sandwiched” between home and host country, parents and children, you lumped it. You took pleasure in life, maybe even had passions, but overall, you did your time.

The balance of duties and wants. It’s a fair description of adult-

“Forty is the new thirty,” they chanted. “Fifty is the new forty.” They wielded articles about longer life spans and second careers. Someone got a motorcycle and a divorce. Another turned to religion. hood, though obviously the “duty-want” scale is differently balanced for men and women, rich and poor, those for whom duties supersede all other form of fulfillment, and those for whom the satisfaction of wants is approached as the task of a life. As one of a minority in my socioeconomic set to have reached thirty with a toddler in tow, it’s hard not to feel a little self-righteous about the duties I exact: the trivial things like leaving a party early to put baby to bed and Skyping with great-grandparents; and the weighty ones, too, like the job applications foregone, the nights in the hospital. More and more, I struggle to relate to adult friends without kids—I enjoy them and their company, but we do not share a fundamental limitexperience—and I wish they would join our ranks.

It’s not because, as the childless often assume, we parents want everyone else to participate in our misery. Although I chafe against the routine restraints of daily life like everyone else, I think it’s possible to thrive on a scale tipped in service of duty. I try to experience obligations as opportunities, and to create space for the performance and satisfaction of my personal and professional goals within a larger matrix of familial and communal involvement. If that sounds terribly optimistic and more than a little deluded, it probably is. But I prefer the pursuit of doing it all (not “having it all,” but doing it all; the latter is more about the attempt to live one’s vision of a full life than the acquisition of a socially acceptable one), whatever the short-term sacrifices, to the disavowal of doing certain things from the get-go.

I’m not saying that other people should get married or have kids or engage in particular forms of “adult” behavior. These are what we call regulatory norms, heteronormative, age-ist, culturally defined prescriptions trafficked as universal aspirations and which many experience as violent and coercive. I am saying that the embrace of an increasingly rare form of, for lack of a better word, grown-up comportment has made “getting older” easier for me. My life at thirty will seem thirty. There’s no mismatch between the age on my license and my position relative to those around me.

Did I have to have a child to feel this way? I don’t think so. But I did have to find my way out from under the equally coercive societal mandates to “find yourself ” and “follow your dreams.” I have other things to do with my time. The crucial aspirationalism of childhood has given way to a more mature apprehension of the real privilege of adulthood: the shorter the future, the greater the here and now. n Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 7

viewpoint

Homesick in my Homeland Longing for the life left behind in America

By Priyanka Sacheti

W

hen I step outside, the soles of my shoes noisily crunch upon scattered yellowing leaves; I pick one up and twirl it around and around, my eyes idly locating the point where green becomes yellow, life blurs into decay.

However, these leaves are not fall leaves; in fact, I am living nowhere close to a place where deciduous trees flourish.

I am in New Delhi, India and these are faux fall leaves only in my eyes. It is as if they have fallen and turned yellow simply to assuage a curious kind of yearning and homesickness I am experiencing for the last place I called home, the United States.

A year ago, I was standing in my Pittsburgh apartment balcony one morning, awestruck in admiration at how the tree outside had seemingly turned blood-red over night.

In the clear, sharp, autumn sunlight, it gleamed deeply and brightly, the sidewalk below thickly carpeted with fallen red leaves.

I remember scooping a few up and decorating my living room with them, mirroring the fall landscape outside. These days, as I glimpse one stunning image after another of fall foliage on social media, I can’t help but reminisce about and miss America even though I am now technically in my homeland.

Perhaps, that is what lies at the heart of the matter: I am in my homeland ... but not my home.

Having been born outside of and spent the majority of my life away from India, I and indeed, many of India’s Currents readers are very well accustomed to being familiar with what it is to be nostalgic for the homeland. It is ever-present in the food we consume, the cinema that we watch, the clothes we wear, the compatriots whom we gravitate to, and the shrines, religious or otherwise we build within our home, in our quest to accept and reconcile with the fact that we are not in our homeland.

Even though I lived in India only as a small child and that too very briefly before moving to the place I would (and still call) home for the next many years, Oman, I would nevertheless find myself missing India’s sheer presence every time we returned from there post vacations. When I moved to the States, I would find myself acutely

8 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

yearning for my home-town, Jodhpur, of all places, especially during the arctic winters.

Glimpsing the snow-blanketed landscape and nature at its most minimal, memories of the buzzing streets, vibrant festivals, irridescent clothing, and food would almost obsessively invade my mind. Even though technology allowed me to somewhat fulfill these above mentioned yearnings, it was never enough.

To employ a food metaphor, I could recreate India on my plate but it is as if a distance had rendered it unpalatable.

And yet, after I had arrived in India few months ago and began the gradual process of calling it home, I found myself in a peculiar dilemma; up till now, I had always essentially perceived India as a vacation space. I would arrive here, spend a few hectic weeks travelling around the country, and then, as vacation neared its end, inevitably begin missing Oman or wherever I happened to be living then. It was time to go back, I would tell myself. However, this time round, I realised I was no longer on a holiday: I was here to stay.

When I arrived in my new home, Delhi, I began to anchor myself to the notion of permanently living in India, as opposed to being a migratory bird. It was then I began to realise how much I missed the States.

What also struck me was how the very things in India that used to delight or provoke curiosity or stimulate my attention made me almost blasé; what I had once yearned for was now omnipresent for my consumption, any time, any day. It slowly dawned upon me that I was in the curious situation of being homesick in what was ostensibly my homeland. The truth was that it never had really been my homeland: it was merely yet another new home in the caravan of coun-

tries that I had inhabited through my life.

Would it ever feel like home? I asked myself.

A few days ago, I started to see how my question could be answered. I found myself at Shahpur Jat, a residential area in South Delhi, which was the subject of a pulsating street art festival earlier this year. My interest in street art had begun in Pittsburgh itself and I was now eager to experience street art in a Delhi urban context. When I arrived at Shahpur Jat, the almost-winter sun was disappearing into the dusk air. As I wandered through the narrow bylanes, excitedly spotting and admiring the fun, quirky murals, I was simultaneously aware of an atmosphere entirely specific to the area. I passed by crowded biryani and tea and samosa shops, cute boutiques, peanut sellers roasting peanuts, fish for sale, and children and puppies playing in the streets while their elders sat outside rainbow hued doors and gossiped. The deeper I explored the maze of lanes, shops, and houses, I felt as if I was transplanted in a similarly vibrant network of gullies in old Jodhpur, which I had so often missed when living in Oman or in America. In fact, at one point, I glanced up to see an ochre-hued house draped with freshly washed carpets—and that sight immediately transported me to Oman.

I had come looking for art in Shahpur Jat, but what I did not anticipate finding was home.

I moved to the country of my roots ... to put down new roots. While it will be time before I can truly acknowledge the home in my homeland, the project focuses on looking with your eyes open, rather than remaining lost in the rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia.

Also, significantly, knowing where to look.

And one dusk evening, as you are wolfing down warmly roasted peanuts and smelling woodsmoke in the air, you will start thinking, that, yes, perhaps, this place could be my home, after all. n Priyanka Sacheti is a writer based in India. She has authored 3 poetry volumes and her short stories have appeared in international anthologies.

When she’s not working on her short story collection or pursuing photography, she blogs at http:// iamjustavisualperson.blogspot.com/

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 9

cover

Self Life

The selfie, a self-portrait taken on smart phones for quick dissemination on social platforms, has changed the speed and frequency with which we seek to define ourselves. Selfies capture how we want the world to view us. It has become part of our autobiographical data, recording particular moments with quick precision. Here we present a selfie snapshot of our community.

10 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Words Matter

N

ot my Mississippi, but Mrinalini’s.

My Mrinalini, for whom I need to purchase life insurance, but who is, it turns out, far more powerfully the insurer of mine. She ensures that I am alive to connections I couldn’t see before. She ensures that I look at trees, that I watch the dust blow over a grave, and read the names of people past with wonder. She offers up her bloodline, her ancestry, her roots to me to share in, to write about. She is at home in both India and Indianola among the living and the dead.

And she is squealing now, a baby’s perfect sort of reverence.

Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Mrinalini’s Mississippi, February 2014

I

was named after Aruna Asaf Ali, the freedom fighter, he is saying. My birth name, it turns out, is indeed Aruna. I am destined to do great things in this world, he is telling me, and an incredible feeling is sweeping over me. I am special; I am to change the world, I believe.

Sarita Sarvate, Autobiography of a Freedom Fighter, May 2014

O

n my daily walks, I realize that I’ve yet to pick on Enrique. When he does come to fix that timer problem with my sprinkler, I’ll have to remind him, yet again, to paint that wall. And then I’ll show him the orange tree he transplanted whose leaves are now so jaundiced that I’m worried it’s a closet-Gingko. “Enrique, my man, tell you what,” I’ll say, when he visits.

“First, I think you need to know your orange.

Better than you do your own navel.”

Kalpana Mohan, An Orange Letdown, May 2014

F

inding Nemo may take place under the ocean but it’s actually a road movie.

And while the plot may seem to be the journey of father Marlin searching for and finding his son Nemo, in essence it’s the journey of Nemo finding himself. As in Nemo’s ocean, there may be set currents but no set paths. Kalpana will go to places we have never been. She will meet people we do not know. She will have adventures we will not be aware of—unless she wants to share them with us. I hope all she’s learned so far will serve her well. And if she’s ever feeling low, I hope she’ll remember how much she is loved.

Ranjani Iyer Mohanty, Finding Kalpana, September 2014

W

e belong to a moment in history when Hinduism is beginning to wake up, if not from a long slumber, then at least a long silence. We did not speak to the world, and to ourselves, as Hindus, in a very long time. For reasons of strategy and sensibility, we have been modest and easy-going about religion, despite some unpleasant encounters in history with forces to the contrary.

We prayed, no doubt, and we went to temples and we made deals with God. We enjoyed our festivals and sang our bhajans and watched our Ramayan serials. But we did not ask, until the present generation came of age really, that provocative question: what does it really mean to be Hindu today?

Vamsee Juluri, Who is a Hindu? September 2014

F

ace-to-face with another human being, we are usually reminded that there is context to their opinions—people’s lived experiences give them different lenses through which they perceive events. Online, however, many of us respond to this onslaught with unbridled anger.

Anita Felicelli, Mad, Mad World, February 2014

I

nexplicable flight-paths, deadly viruses, natural disasters, war zones, and revolutions at a global, community, and individual level seem to dominate the news these days. It is a wonder that life, the greatest show of all, goes on at all. And yet, it is true what they say about the human spirit, that it is indomitable and stands resolute in the face of calamities.

Priya Das, I Will Survive, November 2014

T

here ensued a lecture on B cells and T cells and proteins and triggers.

There were descriptions of the immune system and of the ultimate dilemma he was spending his years exploring: “Why do our bodies sometimes attack themselves?

And what keeps them from doing that all the time?” I was left cross-eyed by the cellular details, but charmed by his deep interest in the subject, so deep in fact, that it never occurred to him that he may be coming across as a complete nerd. Or that this very nerdiness—and his disregard for his image— would be, for me, his biggest appeal.

Vibha Akkaraju, How I Met My Husband, October 2014

A

rainless existence affects me in ways deeper than just the physical. It strains the connection to my past, highlights the flaws in this Valley I am learning to befriend, and keeps me hankering for home.

Dilnavaz Bamboat, Rain, Again, March 2014

W

hen my daughter was a toddler, she was at Macy’s with my husband, laughingly pushing her stroller up against his legs as he paid at the counter. The saleswoman snapped, “Ugh, wonder where the child’s mother is!” My husband replied that it was all right, and he was the child’s father. The woman responded, “No, you’re not.” Granted, my genes won in this case and there is not a trace of German in that beautiful little being I call my child, but my husband, shocked, and not knowing whether to laugh or be insulted, repeated that he was the dad. The woman retreated quickly with, “Oh, she just looks so exotic …” Nice save, lady, but not enough. Calling my child exotic did not negate all the insinuations of the previous five minutes.

Gayatri Subramaniam, Blind, August 2014

M

y own writing process is a function of my passion and paranoia.

Jaya Padmanabhan, Passion and Paranoia, April 2014

T

he accents? We slaughter the Queen’s and the President’s English with many victorious stabs. Indian characters in American sitcoms, Hari or Harry grill the consonants like steak. We wince at clichéd portrayals. Revenge is sweet via Bollywood waging its own gleeful takeover across the globe.

Usha Akella, Waving Stars and Warning Stripes, September 2014

A

merica is basically on a path to outstrip the 1984 Union Carbide Gas Disaster’s notorious place in history as the world’s worst industrial accident in history. According to the EPA, there are about 13,000 facilities across the United States storing or processing hazardous chemicals in amounts capable of endangering the public, not to mention all the transporting of those chemicals.

Jayshree Chander, Hazards of Toxic Spills and Leaks, July 2014 Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 11

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U know Indian parents have come to visit when we r loading two crates of mangoes into the car.

Aasif Mandvi At the Diwali party tomorrow I told people to wear color, and people are really stressed out by it Mindy Kaling

I’m running to transform the Republican Party in CA. Neel Kashkari

Life is not always black and white and every human being has a limit.

Sadly in India the fairer sex has to have a larger limit, more tolerance and worry about what people will say irrespective of the facts and the truth.

Preity Zinta

We are impressed by Australian speed as you are charmed by Indian spin, until of course Shane Warne came along.

Narendra Modi

With all due respect, people of China, stop seeing Transformers so much, you’re making movies worse for everyone!

Aziz Ansari Just add salt, water and electricity = a solution to help stop Ebola?

Hari Sreenivasan

Haha Flight attendant coming down the aisle: “Beverage? Would u like a Beverage?” Gets 2 me & starts miming a cup.

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“The qualities I most admire in women are confidence and kindness.”

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Padma Lakshmi

The Issues that Flew Off the Stands

September 2014

May 2014

Cover Stories You Loved

February 2014

Most Read Articles Desi Girl Gone Wild

by Aniruddh Chawda, May 2014 Who is a Hindu

by Vamsee Juluri, September 2014

Who Is a Hindu, Vamsee Juluri, September 2014

Mixed, Chopped and Stirred Radhika Dinesh, October 2014

The Help Effect, Ritu Marwah, April 2014

Matchmakers and Meat Eaters

by Mak Akhtar, August 2014 Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 13

14 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

lives

Breasts, Cancer and Me

By Sudha Subramanian

I

started feeling that I didn’t look good anymore. I hated the fact that I felt that way. But, the feeling stayed, lurking stealthily and showing its ugly head on occasion, making me feel less than I was.

I have always believed that looks are not paramount. Then why and how is it that I felt so insecure? It may had something to do with the monster that quietly disturbed my life. I call it the Big C—in other words, Breast Cancer.

Big C entered ever quietly but caused loud havoc. Tempers flared and emotions went topsy turvy. Then femininity’s biggest asset was in danger. One of my breasts had to go. A lot of people tried to reassure me.

“It has done its job,” I recall someone saying in an attempt to cheer me. But those words trailed off just like many other words of consolation from well wishers.

What is it about breasts and women? I asked myself this very often. The trouble is that I believe that breast size and shape define beauty in a woman. Why do I think so?

Well, pardon me, but is it not what is drilled into our heads?

I remember growing up and looking down at my chest and wondering if they had bloomed yet? Shouldn’t they have hit the right size by now? Some women have them big and some have them small, but seriously why should we all stress so much over a body part whose primary job is not to beautify a body but is meant to do something entirely different—to nurse babies? But, I think, the primary objective is lost in our crazily sexed world—where cleavages and bosoms drive attractiveness. So, obviously, when I was told that one of my breasts had to be removed, I floundered and felt a bit less womanly.

Losing my breast was one thing, but the next big hurdle was losing my hair. Hair-loss is one of the normal side effects that cancer patients have to deal with during the course of the treatment. I dreaded the day I would see my hairless scalp staring back at me in the mirror.

Watching, counting the hair strands on the pillow is heart wrenching. Gazing in the mirror to catch any changes in my appearance takes a toll—there is a constant battle— should I listen to my heart or the eyes that tell me what I wouldn’t like to hear.

Then femininity’s biggest asset was in danger. One of my breasts had to go.

The wig I got in replacement of my natural hair gave me a new look. People called me pretty. Yet, despite the reassurances I felt lonely, helpless and unattractive. My nails grew darker and my eyebrows started to thin, I evaluated myself despairingly each passing day.

Life surely cannot get more complicated than this. They say the real test of a person’s character shows in times of peril. The mind is a very powerful tool. It makes you feel terrible or good and it can play tricks on you without your knowing. I felt weak and in the sway of feelings I had no control over. Then one day things changed.

I was in my bedroom, sitting on my bed.

I had taken off my wig when I heard foot steps. It was my little ten-year-old boy. I hurried to put the wig back on or at least a cap. I didn’t want my son to see me with no hair. I had successfully hidden it from him till then.

But, he was already inside the room. At first, he didn’t notice. My son was talking and he usually cannot stop talking until he is asked to. He told me about his day, his friends and his school. I was apprehensive about what he would say or feel about my hairless state.

But he took me by surprise. He sat next to me and ever so quietly ran his hand along my scalp. I closed my eyes, not wanting to think, as my heart beat faster. I was ready to burst into tears when he suddenly planted a kiss on my cheek.

When I opened my eyes, I caught him staring at my shiny head. He said, “Amma, you look good like this too. I prefer you with a lot of hair but this is not so bad either.”

I turned and looked at him. I had no words. I hugged him instead.

Confidence probably comes in small packages. I am not sure. I walked up to the mirror again. I smiled as I took a long hard look at myself. I turned around and found my son staring at me. “See? You don’t look bad at all.” The longer and harder I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt more confident.

Yes. I looked better with eyebrows and hair.

But the current avatar was not so bad, I agreed.

That’s how it is done. Confidence has to be fed to the brain. And then to the heart.

In small portions and at regular intervals.

If only I could tell my son to take me by surprise and feed me with confidence every now and then. How strange that my child taught me more about myself and about life than I teach him.

The wig that I had hung in the bathroom rod was staring back at me. I picked it up, brushed the strands of hair and wore it. But, it felt warm. The hot summer afternoons are not the best of time to wear wigs. I struggled with the question of whether to wear the false hair or not when my son walked in again to fetch his cricket ball.

“Isn’t it hot?” I asked him. “It is,” he responded as he turned to go, but then he stopped and asked “Amma, do you feel very warm when you wear the wig?” I nodded because many times, these days, words just fail me. “You don’t have to wear the wig you know if you feel so warm. I don’t mind at all,” he said and gave me his brilliant smile.

Long after he left, I didn’t know, how to feel. It took me a very very long time to understand that, in my mad pursuit of pitying the loss of my breast, I had forgotten that I had gotten rid of the dreaded Big C. What we assume beauty to be is probably what we believe it is. It has been fed to us repetitively by media and our society that thin, curvy women with perfect hair wearing beautiful clothes and expensive accessories are beautiful.

It is due to my son that I am on the journey to understanding not just my own beauty, but also to be able to see it in others.

Three months after I finished the cancer treatment that caused the hairloss, I went out without my wig. I felt free, like a real person. It was me and it was liberating. The feeling of air hitting my scalp was unmistakably beautiful. And, to tell you the truth—I simply love this feeling. n Sudha Subramanian is an author and freelance writer based in Dubai, UAE. Sudha, despite everything, tries to be beautiful, only she doesn’t mean physical beauty.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 15

opinion

The Business of Fish Bangra, Boi, Boomla, Bombil anyone?

By Dilnavaz Bamboat

A

mong my earliest childhood memories is a shot of thrill up my spine on hearing a certain raspy, faraway voice calling “Paaplet! Kolmi! Bombil-waleeeaaay!”

That was Moti, our family fisherwoman for three generations, hawking the justcaught contents of her woven basket to a lane of Parsis willing to pay top rupee for their palates. Much hubbub would follow, as someone, typically a domestic or child tall enough to reach the window, was sent to wave her down. “Yete!” she’d screech, with all the decorum of a hurricane ripping through an island, and begin her ascent to our top-floor home, green glass bangles and thumping gait announcing her presence long before she huffingly-pufflingly made it.

Moti smelled of scales and salt and the sea, odors I came to associate with happiness. In a Parsi child’s life, especially one stereotypically expected to manage her own kitchen in adulthood, an education in fish is vital. The lessons of laal pani versus safed pani, and using your finger to scoop under the gills to check for freshness are Fish Purchasing 101 tips. The nose is your savviest instrument, and one as undiscerning as mine is a serious liability. Then there is a banquet of bliss to choose from—all those varieties of fresh and saltwater fish, seasonal and available the whole year through—bangra (mackerel) and raawas (salmon), boi (mullet marine) and boomla (bombay duck), and the thrill of discovering bonus gharab (roe) in one of your chosen future meals.

It is a messy business, the selection of fish. Not for those who aren’t accustomed to ooze and blood and scales. Its parts callously lopped into diagonal chunks, its silver-grey body glistening enticingly, a pre-purchase fish is a thing of beauty. It is here that I realize the staggering power of social conditioning, for a joyous childhood ritual that entails a dead creature’s guts can only be that. Or perhaps it is a lesson in focusing on the end result: the perfect, well-seasoned accompaniment to a meal of dhandar. H.e.a.v.e.n.

A trusting rapport with your machhiwali is expected to be one of life’s most enduring relationships. And when she moves on to a better place, where crispy-fried boomlas (I’ve mentioned them three times already in 300 words, can you tell they’re a favorite?) are 16 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Bombay Duck, Bombil, Boomla

dished hot and fresh by harp-strumming cherubs, you know better than to mess with the line of succession—her daughter or niece will become your supplier. Our Lady of Piscine Perfection is now Moti’s niece Tanuja, who has discarded the colorful nauvaris of her Koli roots and the ginormous beaded nath of Moti’s era, but thankfully, none of the accent or the mannerisms that we almost expect of our fisherwomen.

It is a centuries-old communication, this unique and frequently amusing haggling between housecoat-clad Gujarati speakers and the shrill and shrewd sellers of fish. Odd words fly in Marathi, exclamations peak like stiff egg whites and many an eyebrow does a Prabhu Deva, with flung arms for company.

Accusations of looting and starving little children are routinely hurled, as both parties bemoan a time when the catch was fresher, prices cheaper, and their respective communities were pretty much the only inhabitants of Bombay, apart from the Sahibs.

The last time I was in Bombay, I partook of this ritual gladly. From carrying out round thaals (plates) to pile the carefully-selected purchase on, to washing each piece carefully under running water, scrubbing the scales and poking fingers into icky crevices, anointing each piece with flour and salt, rubbing the mixture in, letting it sit 10 minutes, and then washing everything one more time, I was never more closely connected to my bloodline. It came to me easily, though it was the first time I had actually done it from beginning to end. I was a natural, I felt at ease.

I had learned my lessons well from years of bearing witness.

Here in America, the process is supremely sanitized. Cleaned, deboned and ready to cook, artfully-arranged slices are put on display, eliminating consumer participation in so many crucial steps of the acquisition process. It reminds me of a time when a friend confessed she hated having a C-Section. “I feel cheated of a natural birth,” she had said, “I know I should be grateful for a healthy delivery, but I can’t help feeling duped.” Oddly enough, this is exactly how I feel walking into my neighborhood Safeway or Chinese supermarket—clinical, disconnected, disappointingly sterile.

I can imagine how hard this must be for vegetarians to comprehend. They are as much products of their socialization as I am of mine, but the human relationship to food is an intimate one, and in a gourmand community like mine, it includes passion, devotion, and obsession. Having incorporated so many elements not quite our own on the long road from religious refugees to a privileged, respected, and still relatively unknown minority, our cuisine and its methods are understandably something we Parsis are immensely proud of. (So if you have considered offering a thoughtless suggestion like “Why don’t you turn vegetarian?” please know we’re already debating how much spice to marinate your brain in for those breakfast cutlets tomorrow.)

From what I’ve learned in my score and 15 years on god’s bounteous earth, it is that life has a way of presenting precisely what you fight. So a fishless future isn’t the worst fate that can befall me. (I’m so glad you can’t see my dilated pupils and crossed fingers right now.) But I also know that I am the honored carrier of the DNA of a long line of fin fans, and this—both the process and the end result— is one of my life’s joys. n Dilnavaz Bamboat manages communications and social media for a Silicon Valley non-profit, is a scriptwriter for iPad applications for children, a writer and editor at IDEX (idex.org), a section editor at Ultra Violet (ultraviolet.in), a feminist blogger at Women’s Web (womensweb. in) and a founder member of India Helps (indiahelps.blogspot.com). She lives in the SF Bay Area.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 17

Classic Drive

feature

Participating in the Crème 21 Youngtimer Classic Car Rallye

By Bob Rupani

C

Tim Westermann and Bob Rupani (the author) with their Volkswagen K 70

lassic car rallies are common in both Europe and the United States. But what’s not common or seen or heard as often, is an Indian teaming up with a German to participate in what is one of the most unique classic car events in the world.

The Crème 21 Youngtimer Classic Car Rallye was held in Germany in September 2014. The entry rules were simple, road worthy vehicles manufactured between 1970 and 1990 could participate in this rally and the idea was to have fun with these “youngtimer” classic cars.

For the first time an Indian (this writer) was invited to take part in this event. My co-driver was Tim Westermann—a German auto journalist and experienced racing driver.

Ours was the only Indo-German team at the event and Volkswagen Classic Museum loaned us a 1973 VW K 70-making about 100 bhp.

The Volkswagen K70 is quite rare and ours was the only one at 18 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

the event. It was originally developed by Neckarsulm Strickmaschinen Union (NSU), but in 1969 Volkswagen took over NSU and started marketing the K70 as a Volkswagen

The beautiful German countryside

product. Interestingly, the K70 was the first Volkswagen with a frontmounted engine, the first with water cooling, and also the first with front wheel drive. All very significant landmarks in the long history of Volkswagen.

The highlight of the Crème 21 Youngtimer event was its route and this year was no different.

The 200 participating teams drove over 1,000 kilometers in five days through the scenic back roads of Germany. The organizers of the event said “Many classic car events are about showing off your cars.

But our focus is completely different—you come to our event and get to enjoy driving your classic cars. We spend a lot of time doing surveys and locating the best driving roads for our rally. We look for picturesque and quiet country roads that take our participants to pretty places deep within Germany.”

The event started from Bremen—Oldenburg the University City, and proceeded to charming towns like Buckeburg, Alfeld, Braunlage, Oschersleben, Benneckenstein, Hann, Munden and Bielefeld before finishing in Borgholz-hausen.

As, in 2014, unified Germany celebrates its 25th anniversary or silver jubliee of the Fall of the Iron Curtain, the route of the rally often crisscrossed from West Germany to East Germany and back.

Even twenty five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and reunification of Germany, one can still see the stark contrasts between the two. Communism in East Germany between 1945 and 1990 is the reason that differences had started to develop.

In East Germany

Playing the Dice Game

Driving down country roads A cobblestone street

you can still find people who haven’t understood or reject capitalism, whereas in West Germany it’s all about enterprise and hard work and enjoying the good life—just like in the United States. Though the reunification has changed a lot of things, you can still see that East Germany has a lower standard of living and is not as prosperous when compared to West Germany.

The event attracted lots of amazing cars including Porsches, Mercedes Benzs, BMWs, Audis, Citroens, Renaults, Ford Mustangs, Alfa Romeos, Peugeots, Fiats, Minis, Aston Martins, Jaguars, a Lada and several Volkswagens.

Tim drove on two days and I drove on the other three days. I not only enjoyed the driving but also the navigation and though the road book was in German, I soon got the hang of giving navigation instructionslike 300 metres geradeaus (straight); 200 metres links (left) and 400 metres rechts (right). I am really proud of the fact that in the two days I navigated, we never got lost even once.

Wherever the rally went it attracted lots of enthusiastic spectators, some also coming to view the rally in their own classic cars.

The entire event had a festive atmosphere and in the evening all the participants would get together to party. I enjoyed the German beers and schnitzels at these events. What was very nice was that even the organizers joined the party and were completely informal with the participants. Everybody was really nice to me and very curious about India and wanted to know about the new Modi Government and its policies. They were particularly pleased that I had traveled all

the way from India to participate in a German event and went out of their way to make me comfortable.

One unique aspect of this rally was that though the competitors were given a road book and start and finish times for stages, the winners and scores of the event were actually decided by the games. Yes, games.

At various times and controls along the route a variety of contests were held for the competitors.

These ranged from quizzes, puzzles, to games that tested skills and luck.

For example at one control we were given a box containing sweets, chocolates, toys, etc. We were allowed to look into the box for 21 seconds and then asked a question. In our case we were asked—what was the total cost of the contents?

At another control participants were given a laptop that had clips of Hollywood films and we had to recognize and name the film. At another control a team member had to roll a dice while the other teammate moved on the board drawn on the ground as per the score.

All the participants enthusiastically took part in such games making the Crème 21 Youngtimer Classic Car Rallye a truly fun event. n Bob Rupani is a pioneering Indian automobile journalist and editor of Auto India magazine. He has authored several books and regularly writes for Indian and international publications.

A hippie couple we met along the way

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 19

ask a lawyer

Keeping Low Level Offenders Out of Prisons

By Naresh Rajan

Q

California voters passed Proposition 47 in the recent elections. What exactly is this proposition about?

A

With Proposition 47, California voters ushered in much needed criminal justice system reform. In addition to freeing up space in prison for violent offenders, the savings realized by keeping low-level offenders out of prison and jail will go a long way in providing afterschool programs and funding other ways to lower crime rates.

The Proposition has made all drug possession offenses either infractions (in the case of marijuana) or misdemeanors (for all other controlled substances) and it mandates that many property crimes, in which the value of the items taken is less than $950, be prosecuted as misdemeanors against all but a handful of defendants.

Now, possession of any controlled substance is nothing worse than a misdemeanor.

Prior to the election, possession of cocaine and some prescription drugs were a felony, and methamphetamine possession was either

20 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

a misdemeanor or a felony.

Before Proposition 47, shoplifting items valued at less than $950 could be charged as a felony if the shoplifter had previously been convicted of certain offenses. Now, shoplifting is a misdemeanor against all but a handful of defendants.

Other crimes affected are check forgery, writing bad checks, receiving stolen property and theft.

The penalty reductions apply to all defendants except those who have previously been convicted of truly heinous crimes, including such crimes as sexual acts with minors under fourteen years of age, murder and other crimes punishable by life imprisonment.

This reform makes the criminal justice system more fair by preventing prosecutors from charging felonies based on misdemeanor conduct.

For instance, one young man I represented last year was accused of commercial burglary and theft for taking two bottles of alcohol from a pharmacy. My client had a prior conviction for robbery because he took

a pair of gloves from a young man at a park at night. Because of this prior conviction that he suffered when he was twenty years old, my client received a two-year state prison sentence for taking $30 worth of alcohol.

Previously, sentencing in the case ofcontrolled substace was just as absurd. An addict typically uses again and again until he or she develops the resolve to combat the addiction and obtain the help he or she needs. Labeling these crimes as felonies and sending the offender to state prison for a relapse does not address the root cause of the problem and makes recidivism more likely.

As a criminal defense attorney and as a member of the community, I am very proud that California voters have realized that incarcerating non-violent offenders does not make our community safer. The passage of Proposition 47 is the first step in withdrawing from the practice of unnecessary mass incarceration. n Naresh Rajan is an attorney in San Mateo County. Email nrajanlaw@gmail.com.

legal visa dates Important Note: U.S. travelers seeking visas to India will now need to obtain them through Cox & Kings Global Services Pvt. Ltd. Call 1-866-978-0055, email enquiriesusa@ckgs.com or visit www.in.ckgs.us for more information.

December 2014

T

his column carries priority dates and other transitional information as taken from the U.S. State Depart­ment’s Visa Bulletin. The information below is from the Visa Bulletin for December 2014.

In the tables below, the listing of a date for any class indicates that the class is oversubscribed. “Current” means that numbers are available for all qualified applicants. “Unavailable” means no numbers are available.

FAMILY PREFERENCE VISA DATES Preference Dates for India 1st Jun 22, 2007 2A Mar 22, 2013 2B Feb 22, 2008 3rd Dec 15, 2003 4th Feb 22, 2002 NOTE: F2A numbers subject to percountry limit are available to applicants with priority dates beginning January 01, 2013 and earlier than March 22, 2013.

EMPLOYMENT-BASED VISA DATES Preference Dates for India 1st Current 2nd Feb 15, 2005 3rd Dec 01, 2003 Other Dec 01, 2003 Workers 4th Current Certain Current Religious Workers 5th Current Targeted Employment Areas The Department of State has a recorded message with visa availability information at (202)485-7699, which is updated in the middle of each month. Source: http://travel. state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/ bulletin/2015/visa-bulletin-for-december-2014. html

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Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 21

finance

Investing in India

By Rahul Varshneya

N

arendra Modi with his lofty rhetoric and ambitious plans has made India a popular topic of discussion on the world stage. Every head of state in the G7 (United Kingdom, United States, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada) has already met with Mr. Modi on topics of international trade, defense and foreign direct investment.

With Prime Minister Modi promising to take his country to new heights, investors around the world are looking to take advantage of the new opportunities in India.

Investment Landscape

The investment landscape in India has not been the most conducive to international investment, but is improving. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in 1988 and has continually expanded its powers to create a more organized and secure investment environment. In 2011, SEBI expanded its reach by requiring promoters (individuals who raise money for companies through alternative methods— investment vehicles or limited partnerships) to disclose their shares received for services rendered—just one example of oversight improvements.

Investors looking to invest in India can pursue one of two methods: either investing in investment products that mimic Indian offerings through American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or by investing in mutual funds listed on the exchange.

The first method is easier for investors living in the United States due to fewer disclosures and ease of use. The second method could be useful for more direct exposure to Indian markets and have the ability to be involved (not everyone can).

Investors interested in mutual funds will naturally gravitate to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), India’s biggest stock exchange located in Mumbai. The BSE provides investors with the whole universe of investment products—stocks, bonds, options, commodities etc.

Currently the majority of investments made in India’s stock market are foreign institutional investors (FIIs) such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and asset management companies. Individuals are not al-

22 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

lowed to invest directly into the Indian stock market unless they are high net-worth clients (more than $50M) and are registered as subaccounts of an FII. To that end, most individual investors will pursue the first method for their investment activities because if they choose the second method they will only have access to mutual funds.

Pro-Business Policies

If we have the Dow Jones Industrial average and the S&P 500 as proxies for American stock market activity then India has the Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty. The Sensex (like the DJIA) contains 30 stocks listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange and represents 45% of the market. The S&P CNX Nifty contains 50 stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) representing 62% of that exchange.

Trading occurs in a T+2 rolling settlement format where if a trade is placed on a Monday then settlement occurs on Wednesday. There are many attractive opportunities in India that can be pursued.

Having been a patron of business as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, investors expect Modi to continue his pro-business policies as the Prime Minister. One of his goals is to build 100 smart cities (modeled after Japan) all around the country. Smart cities are cities designed to enhance performance and wellbeing, to reduce consumption and to more effectively interact with its citizens.

The main sectors of focus in a smart city are more efficient transportation, energy use, increased cleanliness, healthcare and effective waste management. The main winners of this initiative would be telecommunications and Information Technology companies—as all the cities will require robust IT/communications infrastructure.

Pursuit of Yield

Investment in a developing economy is not without its risks. For all the positives India celebrates such as its exponential growth, burgeoning middle class with it’s accompanying spending power and the world’s largest information technology presence, India still has some challenges. A basic tenet of investment strategy is the pursuit of yield—a

reflection of the risk/reward principal. If an investor has the appetite to invest in something risky, she should be rewarded with a higher yield. India currently has a benchmark interest rate of 8%. If an investor were to compare that to the United States benchmark interest rate of 0.25%, he would make the decision to invest in India every time.

The aforementioned rates are something called nominal interest rates—they don’t account for inflation. Inflation is the increase in prices of goods and services in a country.

Nominal interest rates adjusted for inflation are called real interest rates—the real value of money over a period of time. Investing in a market should be determined by real interest rates. Simply put if you invest $1 into India for one year at 8%, the following year you will have $1.08. However with the average inflation rate of 9.23%, your dollar will have lost 1.23% of its value in real terms—a much less attractive prospect. This exorbitant inflation rate in India is what curbs many investors’ desires to invest in India. To create a more conducive investment environment, India must address its inflation problem.

Future

India has a bright future with a charismatic and intelligent leader. Investors are excited about the changes Narendra Modi is making, as it will have impacts on the investment landscape both in foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as private investment in the market. There are many structural changes to be made before investment becomes the efficient mechanism that it is in the United States or Western Europe. n

This article is the opinion of the author and is not shared by India Currents or any of its staff.

All investors should conduct their independent analysis before taking any actions and should not make any decisions on the information provided in this article alone.

Rahul Varshneya graduated from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University with a degree in finance and works in the tech industry as a financial analyst. If you have feedback or have a topic you would like addressed please contact Rahul at rahul89@gmail.com.

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tax talk

Save Money on Your 2014 Tax Returns Year end tax tips

By Rita Bhayani

A

s the year draws to a close, here are some useful maxims to keep in mind as you prepare your tax returns.

Maximize Deductions for Charitable Gifts

Your generosity this giving season could come back to you in the form of a charitable tax deduction. Here’s what to keep in mind: Keep good records of your contributions. All cash contributions require either a bank or credit card record or a receipt from the organization. If your cash contribution is more than $250, make sure to obtain, from the organization, a written acknowledgment or receipt that indicates the value (if any) of property or other benefits you received by making the contribution. A personal log of your contribution doesn’t cut it anymore.

If you donate clothing, household goods or other property valued at $500 or more for the year, you’ll have to file IRS form 8283 (Non-cash Charitable Contributions) with your return. The IRS is interested to see how you substantiate the value of your deduction.

Balance Capital Gains and Losses

Typically, you might realize capital gains from sales of securities or other property to offset capital losses or harvest losses to offset prior gains. The maximum tax rate on longterm capital gains is 15% (20% for those in top 39.6% ordinary income bracket).

Conversely, any excess loss may offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income before any remainder is carried over to next year. Note: A 3.85 surtax on net investment income (NII) may also apply.

Contribute to Retirement Plans

Maximizing your contributions to a qualified retirement plan can both reduce your current tax obligations and boost your retirement savings. For 2014, here are the contribution limits as set by the IRS: • 401(k) plan participants can defer up to $17,500 of pre-tax income ($23,000 if you’re age 50 and older). The deadline to

26 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

make these contributions for this year is December 31,2014.

• Individual retirement account (IRA) contribution limits are $5,500 ($6,500 if you’re age 50 or above).

Manage Your Benefits Savings Accounts

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) generally require annual re-enrollment if you want to continue to participate. If you do, review your 2014 out-of-pocket expenses and adjust your 2015 contribution amounts accordingly. Note: Many FSA arrangements are use-it-or-lose-it; balances are forfeited at year-end. A change in the law, however, now allows employers to offer either a two-and-ahalf month grace period to use up the money for the previous year or a carryover of $500 per year to use in the following year. The new flexibility isn’t automatic, so make sure you know the rules for your employer’s plan, or you will run the risk of losing some of the money in your FSA. However, HSA balances can be carried forward from year-to-year.

Estate Planning

If you intend to make substantial gifts to anyone, do so before the end of the year to help reduce your taxable estate: • You can give $14,000 in 2014 to any one person without paying a gift tax or using your lifetime gift/estate tax exclusion. This exclusion can be used to reduce the amount of your taxable estate. If you’re married, you can jointly gift up to $28,000 to a single recipient.

• Keep in mind that you can make as many gifts to as many people as you wish, related or not, without tax impact, as long as the total amount of gifts per recipient, per year, doesn’t exceed the annual exclusion limits.

• There is also an exclusion from gift tax for amounts paid directly to an institution for medical care or tuition.

Develop a Strategy for Company Stock Benefits

Exercising incentive stock options (ISO) or non-qualified stock options (NSO) or restricted stock grants vesting in 2014 could have significant tax consequences, including alternative minimum tax (AMT) implications. If you have been granted any type of company stock benefit, work closely with your tax professional to develop both a short and long term strategy for managing these valuable benefits tax efficiently.

Factor in the AMT

Despite recent increases in exemption amounts for the alternative minimum tax (AMT), many taxpayers still must pay this “stealth tax.” Generally, the AMT applies if you have an overabundance of “tax preference items,” especially if you reside in high-tax state. Have a review of your AMT liability conducted to determine whether you should shift income items or deductions at year-end.

Shift Income Between Family Members

When they appreciate in value, transfer income-producing properties to low-bracket family members. Note that a 0% rate on long-term capital gains applies to taxpayers in the two lowest ordinary income tax brackets. Caveat: Under the kiddie tax, unearned income of a young child generally is taxed at your tax rate to the extent it exceeds $2,000 in 2014.

D

epending on your situation, you may use one or more of these tips or others.

Have a year-end plan tailored to your needs.

Consult your tax advisor for guidance. n Rita Bhayani is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant practicing at Pleasanton, CA and she protects the clients from the IRS. For more information log on to www.ritacpa.net.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 27

books

Out of the Shadow of India

by Geetika Pathania Jain

ISLAND OF A THOUSAND MIRRORS: A NOVEL by Nayomi Munaweera. September, 2014. Published by St. Martin’s Press, New York. Hardcover. $24.99. 256 pages. (Also available as an e-book.)

THE GURKHA’S DAUGHTER: STORIES

by Prajwal Parajuly. September, 2014. Published

by Quercus, New York. Hardcover. $22.99. 227 pages.

T

hese two debut books by talented writers from Sri Lanka and Nepal made me think of these nations within the sub-continent which have attempted fiercely to step out of the shadow of India.

Both books refer to the bloody politics of the sub-continent. Both chide their people for their prejudices and orthodoxies. In both books, there are references to being mistaken in the West for Indians. Both have been short-listed for major literary awards. Both are available in bookstores now.

But they are very different books.

Told from multiple first person perspectives, Munaweera’s intense first novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Literature and traces the trajectory of the civil war that culminates in the murderous bloodletting between the Sinhala and Tamil population.

The story of Yashodhara Rajasinghe’s clan pours out in beautiful prose that evokes the halcyon preoccupations of this idyllic island in more peaceful times. Yet the seed of future communal conflicts are already present, fueling mutual suspicion and hostility. Interwoven within stories of love and heartbreak, gain and loss, the book documents how the Other community can be dehumanized and brutalized. How religion ceases to be a code of ethical conduct, and instead becomes a marker of identity, which must be protected.

The Sinhala children in the book hear voices of resentment and fear in statements around them.

From Seeni Banda, fisherman: “Tamil buggers, always crying that they are a minority, so small and helpless, but look! Just over our heads, hovering like a huge foot waiting to trample us, south India, full of Tamils. For the Sinhala, there is only this small island.”

From a voice in a violent mob: “They 28 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

take our land, our jobs. If we let them, they will take the whole country.”

From Uncle Ananda: “The government can’t fight these bastards without our help … You and your bloody principles. You sit on your arse in America and have principles.”

The book looks at ethnic violence from many vantage points. We hear the author’s voice in Yashodhara’s: “There are no martyrs here. It is a war between equally corrupt forces. I see their eyes glaze over. I realize they do not desire a complicated answer. They wanted clear distinctions between the cowboys and the Indians, the corrupt administration and the valiant freedom fighters, the democratic government and the raging terrorists. They want moral certainty, a thing I cannot give them. “ There is the perspective of onlookers, victims, and perpetrators. There is Sylvia Sunethra, the stern Sinhala matriarch, sternly lecturing the murderous mob that has arrived at her door. She is protecting the Tamil tenants upstairs from this mob, her private long-running feud over loud music and stolen mangoes fading in the face of such malevolence. But the mob will exact a much higher price for her descendants. On the other side, we meet Saraswathi, living in the War Zone, for whom the political war has become too personal, has taken everything that she and her family have to give and more. There is the smell of death everywhere, and only the

jasmine flowers provide respite with their fragrance. Munaweera writes that belonging and nationalism are replaced in Tamil minds by thoughts of “retribution, partition, secession.”

There are some light-hearted moments in the book, but the relentless gore in the second half, while central to the story, left me weighed down by the bleak storyline. And yet these scenes of communal violence are not so different from scenes that continue to erupt with frightening regularity in so many parts of the world. Particularly pernicious is the hint of state-sanctioned violence towards minorities. The violence that Munaweera describes seems depressingly familiar.

“In their earth-encrusted, calloused fingers, they clutched clean white pages, nearly corner-stapled. Census accounts, voting registration, pages detailing who lived where and most important, who was Tamil, Burgher, Muslim or Sinhala. And in these lists are revealed precision and orchestration in the midst of smoky, charred flesh-smelling chaos.”

The narrative confirms that there are no heroes in the war. That there are no winners in the war. Only those who come to collect what remains of the dead. We hear the keening sound made by Yashodhara: “A sound to make the war makers quake and flee like the ancient demons, taking with them their weapons, their land mines, their silvertongued rhetoric, their nationalism, their

Close to Grandmother’s Home martyrs, and sacred Buddhist doctrines, the whole pile of stinking bullshit.”

I

n The Gurkha’s Daughter, Parajuly, with his keen eye for social satire, comes across as the witty cousin who can do wicked-funny caricatures of the conservative, unpopular relatives. His stories cover a wide swathe of Nepali diaspora and include, but are not limited to emigres, displaced Nepali refugees, retired soldiers, widows, Maoists, prostitutes, unemployed youth, Christian missionaries, empty nesters whose kids are in the United States, whites going native, servants and dutiful daughters. Parajuly’s tone is much lighter, though there is a thread running through the stories of promises that have been broken. “The Gurkha’s daughter,” for instance, tells not of the much glorified military careers of loyal British warriors, but of the economic travails of families left behind.

In “A Father’s Journey,” a dutiful daughter is made aware of the limits of filial duty as the same-caste brahmin husband her father has chosen for her turns out to be an unworthy buffoon. We learn that the daughter has absorbed her parents’ upper caste preferences to her own detriment.

Parajuly is not afraid to overlay his stories with political developments. In “No Land is Her Land,” reference is made to the separatist movement for Gurkhaland and the expulsion of ethnic Nepalis from Burma. Police brutality is hinted at, but nowhere near the graphic detail of Munaweera’s narrative.

But whether Parajuly is referring to the lowly servant girl who seems to be the only one free of prejudice (“The Cleft”) or chronicling the plight of a shopkeeper when the tall thief is the daughter of a benevolent landlord (“Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”), the prose sparkles. “The Immigrants” is the tale of a recent arrival to America navigating an alien landscape while craving the taste of home.

“When I told people I was of Nepalese origin, they instinctively asked me if I had ever climbed Everest,” says the main character, who, like the author, is half Nepalese and half Indian.

Nepali words pepper the utterances of Parajuly’s characters. And though an English translation glossary exists at the end of the book, he is unabashed about the liberal smattering of words that only a Nepali would understand. Possibly this is payback for all the questions about Mt. Everest and Darjeeling tea that Prajwal Parajuly has encountered.

Perhaps he decided, as his character in “The Immigrants,” to just “let people continue living in their uninformed bubbles.” n

THE STORY AND THE SONG by Manasi Subramaniam. Illustrations by Ayswarya Sankaranarayanan. 2012. Published by Karadi Tales Company Pvt. Ltd. Distributed in North America by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. $9.95. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-81-8190273-3

T

he first time my children heard the basic seven notes of Indian classical music was over a Karadi Tales tape in my car in Dallas. As the Mom-mobile blasted to play-dates and gym classes, the soundtrack was: “Sa sing the sunflowers Re ring out the red roses Ga giggle the gulmohurs Ma murmur the marigolds Pa pop the pretty poppies Da dance the dahlias Ni nod the neem flowers Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa” Sometimes, bedtime story telling was delegated to a Karadi Tales tape, with Saeed Jaffrey’s singular voice telling the story of “The Foolish Crow,” Kauwwa, who was won over by the flattery of Lomdhri, the wily jackal.

“Hungry was he, and some roti he saw, being cooked by a granny, on a sunny verandah.”

Yes, Karadi, the anthropomorphic bear, had to compete for my children’s hearts and minds with a purple dinosaur called Barney and an aardvark called Arthur, but there was no doubt which fictional character was Mom’s favorite. Karadi the bear was from the home team, and his stories powerfully evoked the land that lay at the end of a long plane journey. Visitors from India were in-

variably asked to bring some of these books with them.

So it was with a lift in my heart that I heard that Karadi Tales was now available in the United States. I browsed through “The Story and the Song,” an adapted Tamil folktale titled published by Karadi Tales. The story recounts how Parvathi, so busy with her new domestic responsibilities, forgets to share the story and the song that the wise old Thayi had shared with her.

Written by Manasi Subramaniam and illustrated with loving, painstaking detail by Ayswarya Sankaranarayanan, this book takes you instantaneously into grandma’s village home. As I turned the pages, I was drawn into the evocative atmosphere of bygone life in a small village. The pages are strewn with familiar household items: brass oil lamps, idli molds, earthenware pots, mortar and pestle, kerosene lamps, the baby Krishna painting in a Tanjore style, and yes, that old relic of a bygone era, a newspaper.

I interpreted the importance of sharing the story and the song, as an imperative for Parvathi to retain her pre-marriage identity. After her marriage to Kamban, Parvathi moves to his small house by the riverside, and in page after page, we see her engaged in domestic tasks. She is seen shining the peacock-shaped brass lamp, helping with Kamban’s accounts, writing letters, teaching the village children, and roasting coriander and chilies. She is surely an economic asset to her husband, but the story and the song in her are languishing. Thayi’s request is for Parvathi to retain some of her own identity, and to take time to nourish her creativity.

“A woman’s work is never done,” the saying goes, and this tale comes with a message that regardless of the demands on this young married woman, she must strive mightily to Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 29

not allow any part of herself to die.

This same sentiment can be applied to a diasporic culture, carefully maintained and nourished to thrive. Looking through these brightly illustrated books reminded me of a conversation I had with film maker Mira Nair earlier last year. “The mantra of my work and my life is: if we don’t tell our stories, no one else will.” (Mistress of Emotions, India Currents, April 2013.)

Research has repeatedly shown that audi-

ences prefer local stories from their own culture, even if these are lower in production values than global products. With Karadi Tales books, no such tradeoff is required. Beautifully written and illustrated, they represent the best of Indian culture.

Frequently, Karadi Tales stories are drawn from the Panchatantra and Jataka tales or the epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

So, much like Thayi calls upon Parvathi to preserve the traditional arts of literature

and music, Karadi the bear reminds us that the spirit is refreshed by a story or a song.

Many of us have fond childhood memories of bedtime stories from a grandmother, vivid in a way that only childhood memories can be.

With books like the ones available on Karadi Tales, it is more likely that another generation of children will have fond memories that are closer to grandma’s home. n Geetika Pathania Jain lives in the bay area. She is a regular contributor to India Currents.

Witness to Life

by Sarah Hafeez WHY I WRITE. Non Fiction Essays. By Saadat Hasan Manto. Edited and Translated By: Aakar Patel. Published By: Tranquebar Press. 194 pages. $17.48

S

aadat Hassan Manto, writes journalist Aakar Patel, was essentially an “Indian trapped in Pakistan.” Aakar Patel’s dalliance with Urdu two decades ago turned into the obsession of a man in love and he put his fetish for the language to test with a translation of the non-fiction essays (bought from the Urdu Bazaar near Jama Mazjid) by Manto, one of the greatest Urdu short story writers born to India.

Manto is best known for his everyman stories of Bombay’s seamy underbelly and the horrors of Partition. “Toba Tek Singh,” the iconic short story about a lunatic stuck in an asylum in Pakistan has come to epitomize the insanity that went into the making of the Partition.

It is Manto’s non-fiction essays, however, which open a new window to the writer’s life and his thoughts, for instance, on why and how he writes, the hearty story of his marriage and his happy and lighter days in Bombay as a hopelessly underpaid scriptwriter in Bollywood.

Manto’s essays become a rare witness to how dark his life gradually becomes, especially around 1946 as communalism begins taking over his city just before Independence.

Manto writes, “when we left home we would carry two caps. A Hindu topi and a Rumi topi ... Religion used to be felt in the heart, but now, in the new Bombay, it must be worn on the head.”

By the time a worried and misled Manto has moved to Pakistan with his family, he

30 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

realises the smothering puritanism in The Land of the Pure can never be the home Bombay had been to him. Manto becomes the Orwellian chronicler of “the age of barbarism” an already intolerant, absolute and violent Pakistan that he had entered.

Lashing out at religious moralists and fundamentalists who had become increasingly intolerant about his sexually explicit stories, Manto snidely remarked, “Creation is the preserve of Allah ... not the business of His servant, man.”

Manto was an artist supremely conscious of his art. “When the fountain pen is not in my hand, I am merely Saadat Hasan ... It is the pen that transforms me into Manto,” he writes in his essay “Why I Write.”

Which is perhaps why Manto, the writer, managed to pull through four tri-

als against him on charges of obscenity, and why Manto, the man, could no longer stand the utter depravity and humiliation he was being subjected to at the hands of “the New Pakistan.”

He, who was convicted in the fifth trial in Lahore for his essay “Oopar Neeche aur Darmiyan,” had become bitter and frustrated with the State and moralists trying to get at him, which, says Patel, was unusual for Manto.

Manto, in his essays, reveals how he had in fact, become paranoid about courtrooms and trials. “A court is a place where every humiliation is inflicted and where it must be suffered in silence.”

A harrowed Manto says he neither had the money to buy himself poison nor tickets to Lahore for the repeated court summons.

He was immensely worried about the fate of his family if he were to be convicted and he began drinking heavily.

Manto’s life, after he died in 1955, came to be for Urdu literature what D.H. Lawrence’s had become to English in the 20th century—the elemental struggle between the Artist and the State. Which is what makes him ever so crucially relevant in our times and representative of the growing intolerance with art and literature.

“I am,” he poignantly writes, “...a teller of stories. My imagination soars, true, but it plummets in the face of reality and I think to myself...why was it that I even soared in the first place?” n Sarah Hafeez is a Delhi-based journalist. She holds a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, India.

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music

A Musical Feast Top Ten Albums of 2014

By Vidya Sridhar

T

here were plenty of tunes to hum and shimmy to in 2014. Moving and poetic lyrics bolstered melodies such as “Jaisa Mera Tu” from Happy Ending and “Ang Laga De” from Ram Leela. The year 2014 saw a number of new singers replacing the vocals of established crooners. The Singhs reigned singing supreme for much of the year, that is Yo Yo Honey Singh and Arijit Singh. Some trends continued on with music directors like A.R. Rahman and Shankar Mahadevan singing in their own albums.

And the Bollywood formula continued to reap dividends—A hit song can change the fortunes of Bollywood stars and directors.

So music directors worked hard in 2014 to produce that super-peppy, super-sexy, superromantic tune. Did they succeed? You be the judge. n

10

Vidya Sridhar works at NASA and is a mom of two elementary school children. She lives and breathes all things filmi.

Happy Ending. This is the latest offering from the Saif Ali Khan camp. The music is enhanced with beautiful lyrics and soothing melodies. “Mileya Mileya” is a must hear and “Jaisa Mera Tu” is rivetingly cohabited with edgy visuals. This album is very promising.

7

9 Main Tera Hero. This album has the flavor of Govinda movies from the 90s. The track “Besharmi Ki Height” is young and gets your adrenaline going and is sure to be a New Year’s Eve favorite. “Palat Tera Hero Idhar Hai” is the best song in the album.

8 Bang Bang. Hrithik and Katrina Kaif feature in many of the tracks.

I loved “Meherbaan,” “Tu Meri,” and “Uff.” The soundtrack has only five songs but they are youthful and memorable.

34 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Kick. Himesh Reshamiya pairs up with Salman Khan and delivers a toe tapping paisa vasool album with all the necessary elements. It opens with “Jumme ki Raat,” and the album includes a version sung by Salman himself. The songs are sure to be hits on the dance floor.

4

6 Hasee Toh Phasee. Vishal and Shekar have come up with a refreshing formula in this album. With a total of six tracks, the film has a perfect blend of foot tapping dance numbers and romantic ballads. “Punjabi Wedding Song” and “Zehnaseeb” are my favorites.

5

Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. This album is a good mix of desi and club numbers.

Composed by Sharib-Toshi the songs will appeal to a younger crowd. The songs blend rhythm and hard-grooving sounds that push the energy envelope. My favorite is “Saturday, Saturday.”

2 States. Shankar Ahsaan Loy deliver mainly because of fresh voices, very little repetition, comforting music and lyrics that you can actually make sense of, all of which make this album a treat. The most memorable number is “Offo” sung by Aditi Singh Sharma and Amitabh Bhattacharya. The guitar and rhythm form a seamless union with the vocals.

3 Ek Villain. A beautiful, sombre melodious soundtrack. Thankfully the music does not reflect the violence in the film.

The songs of the movie haunt you. The song “Galliyan” is one you can imagine listening to watching a sun set into a tranquil sea.

1

2 Ram Leela. Packed with 10 culturally nourished songs, the Ram Leela soundtrack has no cliched remix or reprised versions. It’s a feast for music lovers. I have “Ang Laga De” and “Nagada Sang Dhol” on repeat.

Happy New Year. This is the best album of the year. It has incredibly peppy numbers typical of an Shah Rukh Khan film. I loved “Indiawale,” which is sure to become a catchy anthem. “Manwa Lage” is a beautiful romantic number and “Lovely,” stays with you long after the song is over. Already a hit at the box office the songs of this movie deliver as well as the film does.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 35

music

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36 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

films

Kicking Lasses, Kidnap Capers and Charming Princes Top Ten Films of 2014

By Aniruddh Chawda

I

n an unusual turn of events—unplanned, no doubt—2014 proved to be an especially strong year for better Hindi movies dominated by strong central female characters. While the biggest box office hits of the year featured male actors (Happy New Year, Kick, Bang Bang, and Holiday: A Solder is Never Off Duty), none of them passed critical muster for this list. With international film houses—most notably Viacom and Disney—increasingly turning to India to agree to either make or market Hindi movies to vast Hindi movies audiences across the globe, the profile for Hindi movies just keeps being raised higher and higher. While Hindi release dates are still primarily keyed in with Indian national or religious holidays in mind, perhaps someday the release dates with be synched with noted dates on the international calendar, such as Memorial Day or Labor Day.

1. HAIDER. If the sacred principle of all art is to reflect on the human condition—warts and all—then Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider, based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, exceeds that lofty goal by several furlongs. A monumental tragedy set in Kashmir against an Islamist insurgency, Shahid Kapoor as Haider, Tabu as his estranged mother and Kay Kay Menon as Haider’s uncle reprise a classic Oedipalshaded love triangle without missing as much as a beat. Bharadwaj gets right all the highlights of the Bard’s play—including double-crossing constables, foreshadowing events, spies and ghosts. Supported by a beautiful Bharadwaj-Gulzar musical score, hauntingly evokes the unpleasant reality of killings—both political and pedestrian—that penetrate a perennially uneasy truce over this picturesque yet troubled vista, Haider left the competition behind. Bharadwaj bags the best movie experience and best music score.

2. QUEEN. Kangana Ranaut’s desi-girlgone-wild in the Eurozone was a comedy home run from the get go. Ranaut’s “Rani” character is a memorable underdog—an awkward, uncertain geek from Delhi with uncertain footing­—who goes on a goofy misadventure after being jilted on her wedding day. By bringing into the fold an equally eclectic cast that did absolute wonders, this Vikas Bahl’s entry walked away with well-deserved kudos. Yes, heartbreaks are unpleasant business. Rather than crying and prolonging the heartache, Rani goes on an eventful European vacation. Few Hindi movies of late

have so successfully aligned this much script originality, original humor and plain old fun.

We are still covering up our giggles at how Rani unknowingly mishandles (or is it manhandles?) an adult toy in an Amsterdam sex parlor. Girlfriend, they did not just show that in a Hindi movie, did they?

3. FILMISTAAN. Even though this Nitin Kakkar 2012 black comedy won the best Hindi language movie National Award— India’s most prestigious film prize—it did not get a wide release until 2014. No reason Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 37

to worry because every minute was worth the wait. Braving nothing short of a minidétente through Islamist border-runners mismanaging a cross-border kidnapping that goes badly and hilariously awry, Kakkar’s movie succeeded by simply being as tonguein-cheek self-deprecating as possible. It turns out that Pakistani peeps are just as moviecrazy as Indian peeps—go figure! In celebrating the power of cinema to break down a seemingly impervious sub-continental Cold War firewall straddling two would-be mortal enemy countries, this rare true satire worked despite having not a single household name in front of or behind the camera. Kakkar’s bare-bones entry was pure joy.

4. MARDAANI. Rani Mukerji’s focused rage as a New Delhi cop who investigates the disappearance of a street urchin and stumbles onto a sex trafficking network is exciting uncharted territory for the normally squeaky-clean Yashraj label story lines. Mukerji is a tough cop on a deadly mission. Filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar and Gopi Puthran’s script drive all roads back to a battle of wits between the mature (and strong) female copper and the diabolical Gen Y-age (and cunning) male human trafficking mastermind (played to perverse perfection by new newcomer Tahir Bhasin). The staging turns on ageism, sexism and the anonymity of new social media connectivity stacked up against the sheer bravado of old school brawn. Even though Sarkar and company can’t resist resorting to vigilantism just as going gets really good, it does not detract from this first rate crime thriller.

5.

MARY KOM. Omung Kumar’s nononsense etching of the life of Indian box champion Mary Kom, played here with ferocious bloody-glove precision by Priyanka Chopra, emerged as a critical success and sleeper box office hit. Kumar’s movie and Chopra’s presence go the distance to finesse the outline of Kom’s story from a peasant remote northeastern Indian frontier upbringing to being selected as flag

7. DEDH ISHQIYA. Producer Vishal Bharadwaj and director Abhishek Chaubey turn up the bawdiness factor several notches in this sequel to their wonderfully quirky Ishqiya (2010). Bringing back Naseerudin Shah and Arshad Warsi as bumbling nocarrier for India’s Olympic team. The wellmade biopic, or even biopics generally, are a rarity in Hindi movies. Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar (2010) with Irrfan Khan and Rakeysh Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) with Farhan Akhtar were rare entries. The smaller scale entry also featured a very decent Shashi-Shivam music score. After tapping into these huge critical and respectable box office goldmines, here’s hoping that script writers finally decide that India’s sporting legends are not all from the world of cricket.

6. HIGHWAY. Imtiaz Ali, who earlier came up with Jab We Met (2008), returned with another sensational road movie with much deeper pathos and a higher human toll. Thrusting forward the fast-rising Alia Bhatt as a rich princess who gets kidnapped on her wedding day by an unwitting down-

38 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

and-out robber wonderfully played by Randip Hooda, Ali transforms the kidnapper’s journey as nothing short of a map of the emotional luggage tormenting both central players and which, remarkably, has little to with the kidnapping itself. Adding to Ali’s ability to zero in on strong female leads, there is also a bittersweet sidebar about a sex abuse victim who gets to confront their victimizer. Drawing on close ups to capture the claustrophobia that the kidnap victim experiences initially—camera work that even the viewer’s eyes beg to eventually ease up from—and support from a fine cast, Ali cleverly rattles up figurative skeletons old and new that leave us almost breathless by the time it all ends.

good ruffians who scope out a rich widow, played by Madhuri Dixit, who, it turns out, it setting up a delightful trap of sorts of her own. In this school for scoundrels, there is no shortage of downwardly mobile characters that all take on airs of self-importance and are only out to con each other. Adding to the ensemble cast, there is also Huma Qureishi as Dixit’s maid-in-waiting and Vijay Raaz as an opportunist suitor with eyes on the rich widow. Along with sumptuous pseudocourtly rituals filled with quaint poetry, the script also added a gay love story in a strikingly non-judgmental tone. When the dust settles, it turns out that women can be just as notable dirty rotten scoundrels as men.

8. KHOOBSOORAT. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1980 comedy by the same name and staring Rekha got a Disney 2014 makeover in what is substantially a Disney fairy tale for Indian shores. In somewhat of a reversal of the Hello Dolly–type story, Shashanka Ghosh’s romantic comedy gets right the onagain off-again tussle between a goofy physical therapist (Sonam Kapoor) hired by a

new-India royal family that has a dashingly handsome prince (Fawad Khan) who is already engaged. The clash of values—the stuffy formality of palace life injected with the therapist’s anything goes upper middle class ways—is staged entertainingly. While musically lacking, the surprisingly spry chemistry between Kapoor and Khan (a Lahorebased actor who also fronts for Pakistani pop group Entity Paradigm) is counteranchored by Kiron Kher and Ratna Pathak tearing through as two especially domineering movie mom tarts from recent memory.

9. THE SHAUKEENS. Abhishek Sharma, who earlier turned in the coming-to-America comedy Tere Bin Laden (2010), offered up the equally insightful The Shaukeens, an offbeat entry that traces three 60-something lovelorn Delhi buddies (Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra and Anupam Kher) who take a vacation in Mauritius in hopes of finding romance on the tropical island. Their plans get completely off-kilter when all three of them fall for the owner of the villa they are renting (played by Lisa Haydon, who also featured as Kangana Ranaut’s Euro BFF in Queen).

Filmed on lush and beautiful island with endless beaches, also thrown into the mix was Akshay Kumar who plays a caricature of his real self. While Sharma’s movie was not as ground-breaking as Basu Chatterjee’s original 1982 comedy of the same name with Ashok Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty and Rati Agnihotri, Sharma’s film offered sufficient

laughs while providing pause for the relationship struggles that some older men in India’s rigid social structure must cope with.

10. HASEE TOH PHASEE. Well done romantic comedies never go out of style.

Cashing in on the popularity of rising stars Sidharth Malholtra and especially Parineeti Chopra, director Vinil Matthew did a nice job of cooking up what is essentially a twist on Ali Zafar’s 2011 hit Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. Struggling in his business, Nikhil (Malhotra) plans to marry Karishma (Adah Sharma) and runs into complications when Karishma’s sister Meeta (Chopra), Nikhil’s old flame, re-enters the picture. In a refreshing twist on how female characters are drawn, Chopra’s Meeta is a Ph.D. engineer with awkward social graces and a criminal past (she stole money from her own dad!)

Producer Karan Johar turned this smartly made entry into a modest box office hit, validating both Malhotra and Chopra’s abilities to bring in audiences. It doesn’t matter that Chopra is now typecast into romantic comedies, as long as the movies are fun to watch, we don’t mind at all.

Desi Turkey Award: Farah Khan-Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year! Synoptic: Like a three-hour Fourth of July fireworks show without the Fourth of July. Abhishek Bachchan drop trou not enough to salvage this colossal bore. Suggestion: Re-release as 20-minute video featuring only Depeeka Padukone song-and-dances. Verdict: Still three hours we’ll never get back.

On to 2015. Happy movie watching! n Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 39

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dance

Do You Have a Picture That Tells a Story?

India Currents invites readers to send in a picture and caption to publish in our magazine. We’ll pick the best picture every month and award a cash prize to the winning entry. Entries will be judged on the originality and creativity of the visual and the clarity and storytelling of the caption. So pick up that camera and click away.

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Send the picture as a jpeg image to editor@indiacurrents.com with Subject: A Picture That Tells a Story.

Deadline for entries: 10th of every month.

CELEBRATING DANCE 1977 to 2014

Viji Prakash Founder/Director

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“To learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.”

Martha Graham

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Head of Kathak Department (Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, London, UK) Contact: 1.714.595.3735 1.714.299.3525 shankaradance@gmail.com www.shankaradance.com

relationship diva

My Husband Cheated on Me With a Younger Woman

By Jasbina Ahluwalia I just discovered that my husband slept with a woman 20 years younger than me.

He said he made a mistake and wants to stay together. What should I do?

A

It’s completely understandable if you feel devastated. Below are five suggestions to keep in mind as you figure out whether or not you would like to stay together.

Quit thinking about her age: So what if she was 20 years younger than you? Age is not a factor here. He cheated. Would it have made it better if he had cheated on you with someone your own age? Of course it wouldn’t, and just like you, that 23-year-old girl will eventually get older.

Be honest with yourself: Sure, he was the one who wasn’t honest with you, but now that it’s out in the open, it’s time for you to be honest with yourself.

If you want the marriage to work, you must assess the entirety of the situation and determine whether or not it’s actually worth sav-

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yourself sexually healthy, then take steps to ing. What is it about the marriage that makes change it. This doesn’t mean that you are you want to stay with him after cheating? If the culprit of the affair, but if you want to you can’t find any good reasons, then there’s save your marriage, you will need to ensure a good chance that your efforts will render that the two of you have pleasurable sexual useless. If, however, you find yourself with a encounters—with each other. list of factors that push you toward making Ask yourself if it was a mistake: things work, then hold on to these things Everyone makes mistakes. Yeah, his misand think about them every day. take was stupid, idiotic and downright hurtKnow who you are, and be comfortful, but it was a mistake, right? Maybe it able with that knowledge: wasn’t. You know your husband better than For goodness sake, do not start acting anyone else, and you should be able to see younger. Just because he had an affair with whether or not his affair was an actual misa younger woman doesn’t mean he liked take or whether it’s something that is likely everything about her. In fact, there’s probto happen again. If you do determine that it ably only one thing that he was after, and it was a legitimate mistake, then there’s a good wasn’t her immaturity. So keep your head up chance that your marriage can be saved. n and act your age.

Evaluate your sexual health:Kathak Kala Academy Your husband cheated on you with a Jasbina is the founder and president of Intersecwww.mykathak.com younger girl because he liked having sex with tions Match, the only personalized matchmakher. That’s all there is to it. And any healthy ing and dating coaching firm serving singles of marriage requires a good sex life, however, South Asian descent in the United States. She the sex should of course stay between the is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio. wife and the husband. If you don’t find Jasbina@intersectionsmatch.com.

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events DEC. 2014/JAN. 2015

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events Edited by: Mona Shah List your event for FREE! FEB. 2015 issue deadline: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 To list your event in the Calendar, go to www.indiacurrents.com and click on List Your Event

Check us out on

special dates Christmas Day

Dec. 25

New Year’s Eve

Dec. 31

New Year’s Day

Guru Govind’s B’day

Makara Sankranti

Jan. 1 Jan. 5

Jan. 14

Pongal

Jan. 16

M.L. King Jr. Day

Jan. 19

India’s Republic Day

Jan. 26

Saraswati Puja

Vasant Panchami

Jan 24 Jan 24

CULTURAL CALENDER December

1 Monday

Aryasamaj Havan Yagna. Ends March 29. Organized by Ramesh Lohia. 10 a.m.12 p.m. 12 Cosenza, Irvine CA 92614. Free.

(949) 667-5940, (949) 466-1518. lohiarc@ hotmail.com.

December

10 Wednesday

Presentation on Woman’s Health and Hormones. By a certified hormone

balancing specialist D.V. , Dushyant Viswanathan and Elaina Heather, yoga therapist

44 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Film Screening of Chittagong and Q&A with director, Jan. 10

and Integrative Alchemist. Organized by The Columbia Center Of Integrative Medicine and Central Pharmacy. 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Central Pharmacy, 900 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. Free. (818) 716-6043, (310) 3953294. lvav46@gmail.com. www.ccimhealth. com.

December

15 Monday

Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se—Musical Program. Organized by Sailesh Shah and

Sur Mandir. 6:30 p.m. Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se, 17705 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia . Free. (562) 860-6699. sjshah0930@yahoo.com, surmandir-

la@gmail.com.

January

10 Saturday

Film Screening. Hindi feature film Chittagong with English subtitles. The director, Dr. Bedabrata (Bedo) will be present on the stage to talk about the movie and answer questions. Organized by Kalanjali. 7 p.m.

Rameshwaram Main Hall, Chinmaya Mission LA, 14451 Franklin Ave., Tustin. $10, Free for Chinmaya families. (714) 469-6268. www. chinmayala.org. © Copyright 2014 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

recommends

Ambassador of Bollywood Dance

By Shyamal Randeria-Leonard

H

e moved from anonymity to becoming one of America’s most visible faces in Hollywood as the ambassador of Bollywood dance, and in a career that spans 20 years, Nakul Dev Mahajan of NDM Production and Dance Studios, continues to break boundaries professionally and personally while peppering the American dance culture with an Indian flavor.

Mahajan’s rapid rise not only includes spreading Bollywood fever at the White House with the First Lady, Michelle Obama and coaching Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri on a Bollywood dance routine for the talent portion of the program, but also extends to working with his childhood idol, Paula Abdul.

Mahajan has also participated on NBC’s Superstars of Dance and ABC’s Good Morning America Oscar Coverage and is a returning favorite for his Bollywood choreography, on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (SYTCD) seasons 4 through 11, affirming for him that viewers in “America are loving this style of dance.”

In 2013, one of SYTYCD’s huge fans, the First Lady, inquired on Mahajan to assist the White House’s continued thrust to welcome diverse cultures and celebrate Diwali.

At the heels of the Davuluri win in September, Mahajan received an invitation to lead his Bollywood Master class in October 2013, in the State Dining room with 50 inner city children along with Michelle Obama.

Excited beyond imagination, Mahajan’s compared his comfort level with Mrs. Obama to talking to his “next door neighbor.” The rapport Mahajan established worked well as he was invited to return and attend the prestigious White House holiday reception as a guest that December.

By summer of the following year in 2014, Mahajan met singer, choreographer, Paula Abdul at an Emmy reception and was surprised that the television judge knew who he was.

“My room was filled with her posters, I saw her concerts and aspired to dance like her,” recalled Mahajan of his childhood idol.

Abdul followed by booking Mahajan for a

Mahajan with Michelle Obama

piece of choreography on her Avon Breast Cancer Crusade song and dance video called “Check Yourself PSA.” As Mahajan humorously jostled with his new moniker as the “Bollywood guy” of America, the poignant realization that all that glitters is not gold as the saying goes, also became a reminder of the lifetime of altering challenges which morphed his private battles into a public story of perseverance.

Dancers are accustomed to pain due to their rigorous work, but after a year of ignoring a growing ache in his body, Mahajan, in 2012, was diagnosed with Stage 2 testicular cancer which had spread to his abdomen.

Nine weeks of chemotherapy and eleven weeks of quarantine from physical activity etched a new struggle of hope for Mahajan, a workaholic by nature.

His personal battle and pain was buffered by a gush of support from not only his public fans, family and friends, but also by two of his fiercest supporters, Khushy Naizi, his assistant director of his dance studio and his longtime partner who he married in 2014 after the 2013 lift of the gay marriage ban in California.

Now at the age of 40, Mahajan says he feels “better than ever” and is cancer free.

With healing as a prime agenda, he is also

taking more time to be with “family members like his mother, along with his modern family” who each suffered in anguish through the scare.

Reflecting on the birth of his career, Mahajan’s direction in life was carved via old Bollywood movies as a five year old boy who mimed Rekha and Amitabh Bachan dance movements.

But, fearful echoes of “boys do not dance, they play with forts” advanced a secret life as his passion shifted from the bustle of his living room to behind closed doors of his bedroom.

As years elapsed and regardless of his traditional Punjabi upbringing, Mahajan’s parents noted their son’s artistic tendencies and eventually showcased his talent at a Diwali gathering.

The 15 year old, had perfected numerous dance moves by then with no formal lessons and had learned to wed gesture, classical techniques of Bollywood dance with “Paula Abdulesque” styles. He was the “hit” of the evening and was soon provided formal Indian dance lessons by his parents.

By 2003 and as the founder and artistic director of NDM Dance Productions and Studios based in Artesia, Mahajan honed his reputation by “opening his first Bollywood dance school in North America,” which has serviced nearly 7,000 students from varying nationalities says Naizi.

The firsts, though are not lacking as although crediting the 2008 “Slumdog” phenomenon for giving a national face to Bollywood in Hollywood, Mahajan also pointed to his preceding daytime and prime time performances with shows such as NBC’s Passions and The Office which peaked the Bollywood dance curiosity.

NDM has five satellite locations through Southern California and via the meticulous selection of dance teachers who have perfected his brand of dance, a unique fusion of Indian dance and American, Western staples such as Latin and Jazz, is aiming to start new locations in parts of California.n

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 45

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Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 47

48 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

New Year’s Day

Jan. 1

Easter

April 5

Guru Govind’s B'day

Jan. 5

Baisakhi

Makara Sankranti

Jan. 14

Tamil New Year

Pongal

Jan. 16

Buddha Purnima

May 3

M.L. King Jr. Day

Jan. 19

Mother’s Day

India’s Republic Day

Jan. 26

Saraswati Puja Vasant Panchami Presidents Day Maha Shivaratri

Mahatma Gandhi’s B’day

Oct. 2

April 14

Navaratri

Oct. 13-21

April 14

Dussehra

Oct. 22

Sharad Purnima

Oct. 26

May 10

Karva Chauth

Oct. 29

Memorial Day

June 21

Dhan Teras

Nov. 8

Jan 24

Father’s Day

June 15

Diwali

Nov. 11

Jan 24

Ramadan

June 18

Govardhana Puja

Nov. 12

Feb. 16

Ratha Yatra

July 17

Bhai Duj

Nov. 13

Feb. 17

U.S. Independence Day

July 4

Guru Nanak’s B’day

Nov. 25

Ash Wednesday

Feb. 18

Eid ul Fitr

July 17

Guru Teg Bahadur Day

Nov. 24

Holi

March 6

Guru Purnima

July 31

Thanksgiving Day

Nov. 26

Now Roz

April 12

India Independence Day

Aug. 15

Christmas Day

Dec. 25

Ugadi

March 21

Onam

Aug. 28

Gudi Padva

March 21

Raksha Bandhan

Aug. 29

Ramanavami

March 28

Krishna Janamashtami

Sept. 5

Mahavir Jayanti

April 2

Ganesh Chaturthi

Sept. 17

Hanuman Jayanti

April 3

Labor Day

Sept. 7

Good Friday

April 3

Idu’l Zuha

Sept. 25

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reflections

Diwali, Dharma and De-cluttering

By Mala Setty

A

nother Diwali has come and gone. The desi stores of Artesia’s Little India were busy as usual this year. Sweets and savories were flying off the shelves at my favorite desi restaurant. I don’t do gold, but I suspect the many jewelry stores did brisk business as well. The next surge will be around Christmas.

At another end of my social spectrum a couple of non-desi friends were going through the arduous job of decluttering their homes. One was inspired by all the time, money and muscle-power she spent sorting and schlepping stuff for an invalid relative up in NorCal. Must have been quite a job since it took several trips.

Both friends tell me with glowing smiles and a lilt in their voices about all the stuff they’ve unloaded.

They remind me of the time I helped my father sort through his home after my mother’s death. It, too, was quite a job.

Over my 3-month stay we went through papers, clothes, dishes, photos and many more accruements of 45 years of homemaking. Dad and I even had a small bonfire in his backyard. Heaps of dead paper reduced to ashes as we watched the flames.

How cleansing and lightening it felt.

Weight off Dad’s old shoulders! Not to say the easing of cognitive overload on Dad’s aging senses.

Well, that bonfire was more than a decade ago. But the lightness of that feeling is still fresh in my memory. It inspires me to keep a sharp eye on my own stuff. So, OK, I am an empty-nester and my 2Bed2Bath condo sets real limits on what I get to keep, buy or give a pass on. Inside home or outside in the markets, a part of me questions: What stays? What goes?

What do I kick out if I bring this in?

Earlier, gift-giving and gift-taking was a sweet part of my life. Now, I think twice.

Earlier I bought books on a whim. Now I question myself. Granted my bookshelves have some unused space, so do I really 50 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

want that book? Really, really want it? Want and Need, Beauty and Clutter, they battle it out in my head and heart.

Each Diwali, Lakshmi is propitiated and asked to bless our homes and businesses. She is Vishnu’s consort and helps him in upholding dharma. She is, of course, the goddess of prosperity. Now I am beginning to see her in the small things around me.

I wonder if one way to honor Lakshmi is to get rid of stuff we don’t need. And, as well, to not burden another by giving needless gifts. I wonder if it isn’t a better gift to help another declutter. A new set of discerning eyes and helping hands may just be what an invalid friend or an aging parent needs.

And yes, maybe even your perfectly healthy adult child doing a relocation.

All this ties in with the idea of the fully lived life per the Hindu worldview: the last two ashrama’s of vaanaprashta (forest-dweller) and sannyasa (renunciate). Yes, we don’t leave our homes to dwell in forests nor give

up everything and wear the saffron robes any more. I wonder if many ever did. Yet one small way to observe the intent of this worldview is to let go of stuff that has lived out its usefulness.

Dad and I felt Lakshmi’s divine blessings way back that year when mom died and he entered the third ashrama. That year, being a year of mourning, he did not celebrate Diwali. The only lighted lamp that graced Dad’s veranda was the one where Mom’s inert body had laid.

As we bid goodbye, all he said was a cryptic, “Thanks, Amma.” But the gratitude in his eyes as they swept his re-ordered home spoke volumes to me. Prosperity, order and cognitive-comfort are incontrovertibly related to the things in our lives. So, too, it seems is Lakshmi’s presence in Diwali, dharma and decluttering. n Mala Setty writes from the second bedroom of her 2Bed2Bath condo in Long Beach.

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healthy life

Lose Inches Not Pounds

F

ed up that I was not losing weight as fast as I could, I started skipping dinner and limiting my calorie intake as much as I could. I was actively doing strength training so my metabolic rate was high. I kept feeling hungry all the time and I just kept telling myself, “Burn the fat, burn the fat.” Pretty soon I was 10 pounds lighter. I was so proud of myself.

But the bubble popped. When my personal trainer took my measurements again the results told a different story. I had lost 6 lbs but my body fat percentage had increased significantly. She was so surprised that she did the measurements twice. But the results were the same each time.

My trainer told me that I had burnt up the muscle mass that I had built very quickly. She had always warned me against fasting especially after doing intense workouts. She would often emphasize on the importance of feeding the body just enough calories and eating as clean as possible so that the system can continuing burning fat and building muscle. I confessed to her that I had been skipping meals when possible. This explained the muscle loss and body fat percentage gain. By skipping meals I was effectively putting my body on starvation mode.

Let us look at the results again. In spite of my hard work the reason I had not been losing much weight in mid July was because I had gained muscle mass. I had lost inches but not pounds. I got frustrated because the bathroom scale was not tipping in my favor. So when possible I would skip dinner and have a light breakfast. So my body was entering starvation mode. When the body goes in starvation mode it will burn up the energy that it can use up most easily which is the glycogen stored in the muscle. As a result gradually the muscle mass begins to disappear. The body tries to increase the fat reserves because it thinks it is going into starvation mode. That is why by late August I had lost weight but my body fat percentage had increased. If you check the

52 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

By Lakshmi Reguna Date

Weight

Total Inch Loss

Body Fat %

6/14/2014

146 lb

None

22.9

7/16/2014

145 lb

Lost 8 inches

19.8

8/25/2014

139 lb

0 inches

27

table you will notice that the inch loss from July to August was zero. The weight loss was not reflected in July because I had built my muscle mass and lowered my body fat percentage. Remember lean muscle is much more denser than fat so it weighs much more than fat.

The most important take away from this was to stop thinking in terms of pounds and start thinking in terms of inches. The goal is not just to lose weight but also to be fit, healthy and strong.

One of my classmates in my Body Pump class was a true inspiration. She was a Japanese grandma around 65 years. She did not have a single strand of black hair on her head and she would regularly do strength training three times a week. Believe it or not the Japanese super grandma would do bench presses with 40 lbs. on the barbell during the Body Pump class and I am almost half her age but I would struggle to do the chest track with just 25 lbs. on my barbell. She was a living

role model of good health and clean living.

So don’t shy away from building muscle.

Start today. Many women fear that strength training would cause them to bulk up. The truth is that women can’t naturally grow massive muscles like men do, it would take heavy weights, hours of dedication, the right nutrition, even years to get lean muscle definition and you still wouldn’t get bulky.

Men have more testosterone than women, that’s why they can build more muscle than us, and still, men will have to work hard for a long period of time, and eat right to see the muscle gains they want and maintain it. I have seen some really strong women in the gym who are really lean and toned.

There are several benefits of building muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. So this means you are burning more calories even while sleeping, as your body needs to use more calories to fuel your muscles, which helps you to burn more fat. Resistance exercise can reduce bone deterioration and build bone mass, preventing osteoporosis. It has been proven to have a positive effect on insulin resistance, resting metabolism, blood pressure, body fat and gastrointestinal transit time, factors that are linked to illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. So don’t just obsess about your weight loss goals and get into fad diets. Make fitness and healthy eating a lifestyle choice.n Lakshmi Reguna lives in Fremont and works as a cloud engineer at Cisco Systems. She teaches yoga and is passionate about fitness. She loves hiking, swimming and blogging about fitness.

Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 53

politics

Obama’s Immigration Plan Why it came as a pleasant surprise

By Vivek Wadhwa

I

had expected—or feared—that President Obama would once again let Silicon Valley down with his executive order on immigration. But he hasn’t.

The President has done practically everything in his power to address the needs of the technology community. The larger problem is that this is only a band-aid. What is worse is that this will likely be the only immigration reform we see in the near future. It will take many years for the wounds to heal from the battles that will now start.

A Huge Step Forward

There are more than one million immigrant doctors, scientists, engineers, and teachers who entered the country legally and are stuck in limbo while they wait for permanent resident visas, which are in short supply. It can take decades for people of some nationalities to get a green card, and once the application process has started, they cannot change jobs without getting to the back of the queue.

Employers know that these workers won’t be leaving them, so they often take advantage of the situation by offering lower salary increases and lesser roles. The president’s executive order provides “portable work authorization,” which means that they will be able to change jobs. This is a big deal because it will fix one of the issues that opponents of skilled immigration have complained the most about: The salary differential between people on H-1B visas and American workers. No longer can skilled immigrants be considered “cheap labor.”

As well, this fixes another major problem: the purgatory that spouses of H-1B workers have been placed in. Highly skilled professionals—mostly women—have seen their careers stagnate and been confined to their homes because they were not allowed to work. The administrative order authorizes work visas for the spouses of immigrants who have filed for permanent resident visas.

54 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

The President’s executive order provides “portable work authorization,” which means that they will be able to change jobs. This is a big deal because ... it will fix the salary differential between people on H-1B visas and American workers. No longer can skilled immigrants be considered “cheap labor.”

This is a huge step forward.

The Devil is in the Details

The president also announced administrative changes to improve the processing of visas, expanded immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs, and extensions to training visas for foreign students. These

are all good, but the devil is in the details.

It really depends on how the immigration bureaucracy interprets these orders and what additional hurdles are placed in the way of skilled immigrants.

What the president didn’t announce was an increase in the numbers of temporary and permanent resident visas and a proper Startup Visa. This is a big concern—because these are the core needs of Silicon Valley. It needs more highly skilled workers and tens of thousands of new start-ups.

The extreme wing of the Republican Party is now likely to go on the warpath because the president used his executive privileges and cut them out of the decision process.

They will likely spread more misinformation about immigration and poison the waters even more. They will accuse Obama of providing amnesty to the undocumented, say that foreigners are taking American jobs away, and spread false rumors. The truth will be a casualty of these battles and large segments of the American population will rally against all immigration. So this executive order may be the last progress we see on immigration for many years—until the anger has subdued.

The tragedy is that millions of undocumented workers were left out of the executive order and hundreds of thousands of skilled immigrants will still remain in limbo.

The tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who would have come to the United States to start their companies will not be able to do so and the brain drain will continue. The only hope now is that sanity does prevail— and that level-headed Republicans work with the Democrats to craft legislation to do what is right for America. n Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. You can follow him on Twitter at @ vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa. com. First published in The Washington Post.

Reformation Thesis

PART IV OF V (LOOK FOR PART V IN THE FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE)

IV. What is the Gospel?

Good news (Gospel) is only good news to those whom God has chosen to save. The un-elect hate the good news, and they hate it because they are not Christ's sheep.

Jesus said to those who hated him, “…but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me” – John 10:26, 27. The unelect cannot make themselves sheep. Being sheep is something God determined before creation itself.

How is then manifested the particular love of God? It is manifested in that, for a small group of people, God does not give a choice, but saves them despite of their complete spiritual deadness, and causes them to be born again. Christ died for this group of people atoning for their sins and he preserves each one eternally, not losing any that the Father gave him. For this reason it says in I Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again.” Man cannot cause himself to be born again; God causes him to be born again. This is why Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes and where it is going; so is everyone born of the Spirit.” Man doesn't possess the authority to command, or “invite”, the Holy Spirit into his own life, just like he cannot command the wind. It is the Holy Spirit that “blows where it wishes.” Preachers who tell people to make a “decision for Christ” or “invite Jesus” into their hearts are not teaching what Jesus said. Altar calls, “sinner's prayers” and “decisions” are not Biblical because they give the false impression that man is in control of his salvation.

“And what is the heresy of Arminianism [free-will Christianity] but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer. Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the Gospel, and nothing else. I do not think we can preach the Gospel…unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace.” – Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1894).

God's love is manifested to sinners in that He sought an elect group of them and saved them, apart from their ability to seek and choose Him. The Bible says of the true followers of Christ, and of them only, in Ephesians 1:4, 5, “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Like a loving father who wouldn't give his infant son a choice between a cup of milk or a cup of poison, a loving God does not give his elect sons a choice between life or death, heaven or hell.

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travel

A River Runs Through It Bangkok, a city of color and character

By Kamala Thiagarajan

B

angkok is home to some of the world’s most versatile and colorful market places, the most agonizing traffic jams and the most breathtaking sculptural legacies. A marriage of legendary history and stunning architecture, in Bangkok a thriving commerce intermingles with life and tourism along Chao Phraya River …

In the sweltering midday heat, I pause to admire some chillies. These fine specimens are blood red and glow like rubies, strewn carelessly over a mint green banana leaf. I soon learn that this particular batch isn’t for sale—instead, these are spliced and sold with marinated clams. It’s, quite literally, a hot local favorite!

As I join the jostling crowds at Meaklong Market, an hour’s drive in bumper to bumper traffic from Bangkok, I am wooed by vendors of salted fish, rainbow colored mussel shells and even dried grasshoppers (which an adventurous friend of mine insists tastes like potato chips and wood fired pizza). Being vegetarian, I greet the burst of mint green vegetables with a familiar kind

of relief. But I am not here to buy. Peoplewatching has become my favorite pastime and the streets of Bangkok provide the ideal fodder. I watch in amazement (and not a little horror) as a banana yellow freight train bursts onto the scene (slicing right into the middle of the market).

Vendors on either side uproot the roof of their stalls with practiced ease. And it’s all snatched away in a flash—spring onions, salted fish and pickled frogs, expensive saffron and cheap, gaily coloured scarves—only to be whisked out again moments later. It’s rather like a magic act, I think as I watch in

The Grand Palace with its ornate carvings in rich gold 56 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

awe at the split-second efficiency in which these space-starved vendors operate. I am told this happens up to eight times a day.

I marvel at the fact that there is no safety gate, nothing to indicate that a train will soon come careening out of the horizon, nothing except the sound of a long siren. It is this that I have come to see, for seeing is believing.

As the crowds swirl around me, I realize that this isn’t the only quaint market in Bangkok.

Not by a long shot. Another early morning excursion sees me greeting the dawn at the infamous rural floating market of Damnoen Saduak, situated 110 kilometers (69 miles) west of the capital.

After counting out the entrance fee, (cash is king here and they don’t accept credit cards), my daughter and I are ushered into a waiting boat.

It’s an experience I’ll never forget. Boat after boat filled with fresh produce floats past us as we glide our way through the chaotic water market. There’s even an ATM in this wilderness! My boatman heads there first, since we’ve run out of cash in just fifteen minutes. And who can blame us? The green-

A traditional Thai dragon dance performance.

backs do tend to fly when you’re surrounded by stunning paintings, handmade parchment, exquisite stationary, hand woven baskets, toys and baby clothes. But what I truly found incredible were the smart knock-offs of Louis Vuitton handbags being peddled for fifty dollars apiece (less if you have good bargaining skills). I’m willing to bet the designer himself would have had trouble telling them apart! There’s also a lot of tacky plastic, the usual touristy mugs, key chains and Tshirts-—the kind of cheap souvenirs you can buy practically anywhere. It’s the experience I valued most—the floating market experience for me will always bring to mind a canal choked with traders on boats, wearing long brimmed straw hats and furiously peddling their wares. Little alcoves filled to the brim with the most colorful knick-knacks I’ve ever seen, surrounded by adults and children leaning out of boats, laughing, bargaining and pointing excitedly.

But beyond these vibrant marketplaces, lies a city that practically throbs with modernity as well as historical importance. A cruise along the clear waters of the Chao Phraya river in the heart of Bangkok, past the stun-

ning business districts with their towering skyscrapers and luxury hotels, will take you to the utterly gorgeous Grand Palace. You can see its golden spires glinting in the sunlight miles away. The palace has been the official residence of the royal family for centuries. However, the current monarch resides in another palace and this one is used for official ceremonies.

Entering the palace is overwhelming. It has vast open spaces filled with greenery at every turn. Built in 1782, some guides say the massive palace is around 2,350,000 square feet! That’s a lot of ground to cover and it takes us through numerous state buildings, long halls, decorated archways, impressive pavilions and intricately carved statues, brandishing swords.

The architecture is breathtaking quite simply because all that glitters here is definitely gold! Solid gold. From heavy domes to delicate filigree work on the walls of the temples, the sparkle is mesmerizing. And so is the rich blue, red and green enamel work that mingles with the gold. Glowing gold leaf paintings depicting scenes from the Ramayana jump out at you, making you realize how alike the Indian and Thai cultures are.

The star attraction here is undoubtedly the temple of the Emerald Buddha, called the Wat Phra Kaew. Made out of solid shimmering jade, it’s the most beautiful statue of Buddha I’ve ever seen and it’s considered the most sacred temple in Thailand. No one except the Thai king is allowed to touch the statue. Interestingly, the king himself is required to change the Buddha’s garments three times a year—during the onset of the rainy season, winter and summer. A ritual is performed for the good fortune of the country every time there’s a change of season and dress. When we saw it, the idol was dressed in solid gold clothes! Golden memories those!

Kamala Thiagarajan writes on travel, health and lifestyle topics for a global audience. She has been widely published in over ten countries.

The Reclining Buddha

WHEN TO GO November-January is a good season to visit Bangkok. It’s not as blisteringly hot and you’ll avoid the rain.

WHERE TO STAY Luxury hotels dot the city and there are plenty of budget stays as well. We highly recommend the Shangrila http://www.shangri-la.com/bangkok/ which is right on the waterfront, making it an ideal location for a gorgeous view and easy to get around.

GETTING AROUND River boats and ferries: You’ll have no trouble at all getting around in Bangkok if you go by the river route. If you chose the roads, then be prepared to face some of the most daunting traffic jams, often lasting for an hour or more. You’ll find the river easy to navigate as five public boat lines, all operated by the Chao Phraya Express Boat company, ply the route. The local line, orange, yellow, blue and green-yellow, operate between 06:00 and 19:30 daily, identifiable by the colored flag swinging from the back.

The rush-hour local line stops at all 34 piers, while the other four are express lines stopping at only selected piers. Only the Orange Flag Line, with its flat fee of 15 baht, runs all day and on weekends and for most journeys around the city, this is perfectly adequate. Be prepared to hop on and hop off.

You can check out the Express Boat Tourist guide for more information. n

Bangkok’s famed floating market Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15 | www.indiacurrents.com | 57

On Inglish

The Sari Story

By Kalpana Mohan

sari [sa-ari]: noun, also saree, long, wrapping garment of silk or cotton worn by Hindu women, 1785, from Hindi sari, from Prakrit sadi, from Sanskrit sati “garment, petticoat.”

T

he south Indian town of Coimbatore—bursting with cotton spinning and weaving mills—as well as the old locality called Ram Nagar reminded me of early, postcolonial India.

The roads did not choke with the flashing metal of wheels. I heard fewer honks. I wasn’t asphyxiated by the growing flesh of pedestrians.

This old textile town yawned into leafy lanes. It stretched out into elegant bungalows. We were less than an hour from forest reserves, dams, tea estates, hill stations and wildlife sanctuaries. Coconut orchards sprang up in short stretches of roads around town. Tender green coconuts hung in clumps to the backs of vendor’s bicycles as we drove through town.

I was being escorted in a car by a fast-talking obstetrician, Radhika Prithvi, who had found the sari trade so compelling three decades ago that she severed her ties to the world of wombs.

I loved the sari long before I met this ambassador of the sari but she certainly fired up my imagination in the way she talked about the garment. The word sari is derived from the Sanskrit that in fact means “strip of cloth,” although the definition, in my opinion, is as uninventive as referring to a Persian silk rug as a doormat.

The owner of Tharakaram Silk House promised me expensive bottles of hard liquor at the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club as we drove up Ramar Koyil Road. I found out later that the club was founded in 1891—“For Indian Members Only”—in a not-so-veiled insult to the British Coimbatore Club which did not admit Indians until the 1950s.

I noticed that the town’s fiery temperament and competitive spirit still bubbled up in residents like Radhika.

As we burrowed a path between cars and bikes in the direction of Satyamurthy Road where her shop was located, Radhika lamented the retention rate of employees in her business. Workers were now drawn to jobs in information technology; the retail business was not as attractive anymore. “They know they can make the rules. They know we are at their bloody mercy. Still, if they are dishonest in my shop, I take them out by their balls,” she said, making a snipping action as if she were wielding an imaginary pair of umbilical cord scissors. I figured that Radhika, who had once welcomed naked arrivals onto this earth, could also hasten exits, au naturel, from this world. Behind us, at the Rama temple in the heart of the neighborhood, the bells pealed. Clanging in agreement, good lord, was Rama himself, one of the ten supreme avatars of Vishnu, who herded believers into heaven.

Heaven assumes many forms in different parts of India. Some may claim that heaven is when you slip into the air-conditioned luxury of a sari store in the fervid heat of summer. At Tharakaram Silk Store, visitors were showered with personal attention and advice, both on the philosophical and the sartorial, from its hostess.

The evening I was there, Jayanthi, the chairman of a headhunting firm in Singapore, was shopping, for the very first time, at the store. A woman with sharp, graceful features and a quiet self-assurance, Jayanthi seemed to know what she wanted. I doubted that she would let any madam of any shop tell her what flattered her. She stood before the wall of mirrors in the shop emblazoned in sari after sari, appraising what was looking back at her with a stern eye while Radhika, the Amazon of sari retail, flattered her client’s good taste, tut-tutted along with her during

58 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Jayanthi’s doubtful stances, and pushed her, at critical moments, into taking risks with color choices and, hopefully, money.

Now and then, at cathartic points during the emotional transaction, Radhika hurled a a pineapple grenade. “It’s got nothing to do with the sari, believe me, my dear,” she cut in when Jayanthi swore that pink was neither her color nor her style, especially because of the ungainly stripes in the border of the sari. “What’s working is, in fact, between your ears. You wouldn’t buy that sari if it were plain, trust me!”

Jayanthi posed in over two-dozen silk saris. Two sari-clad store clerks shook the folds of the six-yard masterpieces in silk, letting the dramatic palloo cascade over Jayanthi’s left shoulder in soft silence. Stone-faced and swift, they swathed her hips once, and then once again, quickly, with the fabric, making a fan of five or six pleats in front, tucking them into the waistband of Jayanthi’s pants, conjuring up the impression of a fully draped sari in less than a minute. With a cast of the blouse portion of the fabric, they whipped up a short-sleeved blouse over Jayanthi’s right arm so that she could see how the sari contrasted with the blouse.Watching Jayanthi, I was reminded of the tale of Draupadi and the sempiternal sari.

Growing up, every child raised in an Indian household has associated the sari with the mythological figure from the legend of the Mahabharatha. The sari story is sewn into every Hindu’s consciousness. As Dushasana unreeled layers and layers of Draupadi’s sari in an attempt to shame her, he discovered that the fabric had transmuted into an endless train before he crumbled in exhaustion. Draupadi’s quest for an endless sari symbolized her infinite faith in the divine.

That evening, I sensed Dushashana’s helplessness in Jayanthi at the curlicue of silk bombarding her in six yards increments: among them, the peacock blue with a sandalwood colored border, the beige tassar silk with a palloo in the jamdhani weave traditional to West Bengal, the peach and pink bailou silkcotton, the off-beat two-in-one sari in a reversible black and aubergine with contrasting borders, the sari in shocking pink with coffee brown striations on the edges, the tassar silk in burgundy and black, called matka (terracotta pot) because the fabric had been rubbed on terracotta to the desired finish.

While Jayanthi stood transfixed by her own reflection, discombobulated by the waves of fabric rising from the floor and tugging at her heart, Radhika, the Scylla of sales, told her to simply quit worrying.

“Just buy them all,” she said, pursing her lips. “Because buying saris is like eating piping hot dosas. You don’t count!” n Kalpana Mohan writes from Saratoga. To read more about her, go to http://kalpanamohan.org and http://saritorial.com.

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recipes

Comfort Cuisine

By Shanta Sacharoff

I

n Gujarat, where I grew up, the dinner menu was almost always the same: kadhi—a yogurt soup, and khichadi—a porridge-like dish made with brown rice and mung beans, or with a thick millet bread and a cooked seasonal vegetable if one was available. They also happen to be unprocessed, healthy foods. In fact, the oldest man in my village attributed his longevity to a daily diet of kadhi and khichadi.

Kadhi, the yogurt soup, provides essential hydration and is good for digestion.

Khichadi, made with rice and beans, pairs two complimentary amino acids and therefore provides an ample amount of protein.

Kadhi is also considered to be medicinal, and is served at any time to anyone feeling low-energy or perhaps coming down with

a cold. Today, in my home in the United States, kadhi and khichadi are still comfort foods; when there is sniffling going around in the family, I reach out for my kadhi!

Ola, a roasted eggplant dish, is another traditional Gujarati village food, now often served in upscale Gujarati restaurants that attempt to “bring the village to the city.” A north Indian version of Ola, slightly different, is known as Baingan Bhartha. Here is a recipe for a traditonal Gujarati Ola, and the North Indian variation—Baingan Bhartha.

Enjoy!!

Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, author of Flavors of India: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine, lives in San Francisco, where she is manager and coowner of Other Avenues, a health-food store.

Illustration by Serena Sacharoff

Khichadi

Ingredients 3½ cup water 1 tsp salt 1 cup short-grain brown rice, rinsed thoroughly and drained completely ½ to 1/3 cup mung dal with skins 1 tbsp butter or oil (optional) Method In a heavy-bottomed pot bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the rice and beans and stir. Allow the mixture to return to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer gently, covered for 30-40 minutes. Uncover and check to see if both grains are done. Unlike traditional cooked rice, which is done when it is tender and fluffy, kichadi should be mushy; both the rice and the beans should be cooked until very soft. If necessary, add a few tbsps of water, cover and cook for 5 to 10 more minutes. Uncover, add the optional butter or oil, cover, and keep the pot covered for a few minutes before serving. Serve Kichadi with Kadhi and a vegetable dish and/or a flat bread.

Ola—Roasted Eggplant Dish from Gujarat

The roasted eggplant recipe featured here is known in Gujarat as Olo or Ola. In Punjab and other Northern Indian states a similar dish is called Baingan Bharta. This dish has a unique smokey flavor and is traditionally cooked outdoors on an open fire, or in a 60 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

tandoor (a pit oven) at dhabas or roadside diners that are found all over India serving food to travelers.

Small Japanese eggplants are more suitable for this dish than larger ones because they are easier to turn while roasting on an open fire or stove-top burner. They also cook faster than the big global variety. Smaller eggplants are less seedy and tastier than the big ones.

Ingredients 4 to 5 small Japanese eggplants ½ cup yogurt blended with 2 tbsps water Or, for a vegan alternative, ¼ cup water blended with 2 tbsps of lemon juice 2 tbsps safflower or olive oil 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced ¼ tsp whole cumin seeds 1 small jalapeno pepper, minced after removing seeds and inner veins Or ¼ tsp cayenne pepper ½ tsp powdered coriander 1 tsp salt or to taste 2 tbsp fresh, chopped cilantro leaves Method Wash and dry the eggplants. Then roast them on an open flame, one or two at a time, turning frequently with tongs so that they cook evenly on all sides. This can be done easily on a gas burner or on an electric stove top. After roasting the eggplants for ten minutes, their skins will char and they will begin to soften. Check with a fork to see that they are cooked through and soft inside. Set them

on a platter to cool.

When the roasted eggplants are cool, cut off the ends and peel off the charred skin using a table knife. Do not soak or rinse them in water as this will remove the desired smokey flavor. Next, with a knife or two forks, chop the eggplant into small pieces, but do not use a blender or a food processor for this. Place the eggplant in a bowl with the yogurt and water mixture (or the lemon juice and water mixture). Stir to blend and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and add the minced garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until fragrant, and add the cumin seeds.

Add the eggplant/yogurt mixture (or eggplant/lemon juice/water mixture) and stir-fry for just a few minutes. Add the rest of the spices and salt, and stir-fry just until the liquids have evaporated. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with cilantro.

Variation: Punjabi Baingan Bhartha In the north Indian version of Ola the roasted eggplant is cooked with tomatoes instead of yogurt (or lemon juice). In addition, chopped onion and minced ginger are included with minced garlic.

Follow the directions for the recipe above, but prepare 4-6 finely chopped tomatoes (about 1 ½ cups) in place of the yogurt and water mixture. Just before adding garlic to the hot oil in the frying pan, add a finely chopped small onion and two teaspoons of minced ginger. Next add the garlic and follow the rest of the method as described. n

Kadhi Connection

T

By Praba Iyer

he dark cold winters in my college dorm in Coimbatore often made me crave a bowl of my mom’s spicy Molagu Vellum along with a piece of crispy fried papad and steaming hot rice. Comfort food is food that provides you “consolation or a feeling of well-being” and what you think about when you think of “home.”

For me it has always been Molagu Vellum (molagu is pepper and vellum is water), which is a simpler version of Kadhi and, just like in Gujarat, an antidote to colds, coughs and stomach ailments. Mor Kuzhambu (Tamil Nadu) and Kaalan (Kerala) are Kadhis enriched with coconut and green chillies and vegetables. Just as in the past, I still seek the connection to home in my Kadhi dishes during winters here in California. n Praba Iyer teaches custom cooking classes around the SF Bay Area. She also blogs about cooking at rocketbites.com.

Molagu Vellum, Kadhi from Kerala Ingredients 1 teaspoons ghee (clarified butter) 1 tsp mustard seeds ½ tsp fenugreek seeds 2 dry red chilli peppers broken into half a pinch of asafoetida 3-4 curry leaves 1 cup of whipped yogurt ½ tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp black pepper ½ tsp cayenne salt to taste ½ cup water

Method Heat ghee in a sauce pan and add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the fenugreek seeds, dry red peppers, asafoetida and curry leaves. Lower the heat and add the yogurt, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne and water. Season with salt. Stir on low heat, until the yogurt is warm. Make sure that the yogurt does not boil as it can split apart and become thready.

Kadhi from Gujarat

My Gujarati friends have taught me to make this sweeter kadhi and its my all time

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Kadhi from Gujarat

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Ingredients 2 cups yogurt 2 tbsps chickpea flour 1 tbsp ginger paste 2-3 green chillies 2 tbsps jaggery a pinch turmeric powder Salt to taste 1½ cups of water 1 tsp ghee (clarified butter) 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp cumin ½ tsp fenugreek seeds 1-2 dry red chilli peppers broken 1 inch cinnamon stick 2-3 cloves a pinch asafoetida cilantro leaves (optional) Method Whisk the yogurt with chickpea flour, ginger paste, green chillies, jaggery, turmeric and salt. Heat the ghee in a saucepan and add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dry red chilli pepper, cinnamon stick, cloves and asafoetida. Lower the heat and add the yogurt mixture with water. Stir carefully, to make sure that the yogurt does not boil and break. Check seasoning. Garnish with cilantro. Serve warm. n

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viewfinder

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

By Amruta Patil

r winne

B

eing a Bay Area native, I always took “The City” for granted.

After a long time apart—moving away for college and taking the better part of the year to travel to Australia, Japan, Korea and China—this picture captures a glimpse of a city that will always hold a special place in my heart. n

Amruta Patil works in the San Francisco startup bustle and is a neuroscience enthusiast. She’s an adventurer and daydreams of the beach. Find her on twitter: @thatAmrutaPatil

India Currents invites readers to submit to this column. Send us a picture with caption and we’ll pick the best entry every month. There will be a cash prize awarded to the lucky entrant. Entries will be judged on the originality and creativity of the visual and the clarity and storytelling of the caption. So pick up that camera and click away.

Send the picture as a jpeg image to editor@indiacurrents.com with Subject: A Picture That Tells a Story.

Deadline for entries: 10th of every month.

62 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

dear doctor

Shy, Reserved or Introverted?

By Alzak Amlani

Q

I find that I am pretty quiet in social settings. People have often referred to me as shy. I enjoy one-on-one contact and find groups kind of superficial or even scary to be in.

I am trying to fit into my community by getting involved in teams that do projects together. I am fine working on things together, but really I am not a major talker or social butterfly. Sometimes I feel there is something wrong with me. I can’t seem to just accept myself as different from others.

What can I do about this?

A

There can be a lot of pressure in social situations to be very engaged, talkative and knowledgeable about the topics being conversed about. This doesn’t work for everybody.

Some of the questions you need to ask are what is scary about groups for you? Are you afraid of criticism? Often the first group we belonged to is our immediate family, when we are children. What was that experience like for you? Did things happen that scared you? If so, you may need to revisit the events to understand the issues. You may also

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want to ask your parents or grandparents what you were like as a very young child and how you were perceived with your siblings, relatives and friends closer to your age. Were you ostracized or bullied? Shy people are often afraid of what others will think of them, and become too self-conscious and then nervous, afraid and quiet.

Introversion is a bit different. Introverts get energized by deeper contact with few people and drained by groups and especially chit chat. Noise and crowds often cause too much stimulation which can drain and distract an introvert, who then needs to recharge by being alone. It’s best for an introvert to find a quieter place to focus on work or hobbies and be behind the scenes a bit. Although many public speakers are introverts who can connect well with a crowd if they are not too close to them. In groups, introverts speak less, however, because they listen and are very observant, their contributions can be thoughtful and interesting.

Sorting out where you are in the spectrum of introversion and extroversion can be

useful for you.

People are also affected by the relationships and settings they are in. Finding a group or setting that allows you to be yourself is the key to self-acceptance.

The United States is a more extroverted society and introverts feel at odds here.

However, I suspect you are harder on yourself than your friends or family. Many people really appreciate being around quieter, more thoughtful and observant people. Have you experienced that? It might be difficult for you to ask for space when you don’t want to listen or interact too much. Therefore, limiting your time in groups, leaving a social event early, sitting with a friend or two at a lecture can all be ways of respecting your introversion. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com

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the last word

Has Democracy Been Compromised?

By Sarita Sarvate

A

fter nearly a decade, I am back in Washington, D.C. wandering the majestic monuments. And even though I have been to DC several times during the aughts, I feel inexplicably nostalgic.

Is it because I first walked these streets nearly three and a half decades ago, I wonder? Or is it because the city, like me, has changed, in body as well as in spirit? And all of a sudden, I long to do something I never did before; I want to stop by the places I saw that first time, in 1979.

I walk into the National Gallery and pause in front of Monet’s Cathedral in Rouen, recalling the awe of the young woman seeing it for the first time. I had only seen impressionist art in books until then, in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) library. Seeing it for real had given me a jolt.

But now in 2014, I fail to summon the excitement I once felt. I have been to the D’Orsay in Paris by now; I have seen Van Gogh’s house in Arles; I Often, have stood in the basilica of Assisi, surrounded by El Greco’s I would slip ... frescoes. But it is not just the of knowledge and wander over accumulation and experience that have blunted my senses. There to the is an undercurrent of disArlington Cemetery quiet inhabiting my persona. I have not fulfilled the or the Vietnam promise of those long bygone decades, I feel. And memorial to recreate neither has the country.

So I go into the recessin my mind the es of my mind and summon up the classmate’s house I land of the free had stayed in during that first visit. It was near Dupont and the home Circle, I recall, not far from Rock Creek Park. I walk into of the brave. the area, amble past Embassy Row, and am surprised to come across a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the Indian Embassy.

From there, I retrace my steps down memory lane, but cannot find the house.

All I can remember is the elation I felt back then to be working in the energy field. My classmate was a staffer on the Hill and had taken me to the corridors of power. And even though I had just graduated from Berkeley and had been in the country less than three years, I felt I belonged in those halls. I went by the White House, which was accessible to anyone then, and marveled at how small it was. Jimmy Carter, our last idealistic president, lived inside. Little did I know how precious the moment was or how quickly it would pass.

64 | INDIA CURRENTS | Dec ‘14 - Jan ‘15

Three months later, a group of Iranian students took over the American Embassy. In the wake of the hostage crisis, the hawkish Ronald Reagan came to power. The first thing he did was pull back the funding from research in renewable energy and energy efficiency. I went to live in New Zealand for a few years, and after suffering from a personal crisis, came back to California with scaled back dreams.

Reagan was still the president.

I did not return to DC until the new millennium. By then the city had all but been sold to the highest bidder in the wake of Bush v. Gore. I avoided going near the White House but there was enough to turn me off at the business conferences I attended; backroom deals struck over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres; exclusive receptions in penthouse suites; the erosion of federal regulation. Often, I would slip out of some underground windowless dungeon with freezing air conditioning that required sweaters in the middle of summer and wander over to the Arlington Cemetery or the Vietnam memorial to recreate in my mind the land of the free and the home of the brave.

This time, I am here after the midterm elections, attending a conference where everyone is talking about the future of social security, or rather, the lack thereof. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, elections have been bought more easily than ever. There seems to be an air of gloom hanging over the city.

I go over to the Supreme Court to see who the people are that have upended our democracy. Oral arguments in some cellular tower case are ongoing but I am not impressed. So I continue my explorations. In Georgetown, where once I had only encountered white faces, I am intimidated by young and hip Indian-Americans, who, judging by their dress and demeanor, are clearly the new elite. Just about then I hear Spanish voices.

Latinos, I discover, are everywhere. They, to me, are oddly comforting. In a few years, I think, the elections will be theirs.

In a few years, candidates like Chris Christie and Ted Cruz will not have a prayer.

At the end of the day, I climb the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and look down upon the Washington Monument and the Capitol Mall beyond. Tears come to my eyes at the thought of what this nation once was and what it has now become.

Yet, in the vista ahead of me, I see a promise for the future.

And I recall the words of Lincoln’s second inaugural: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Solaced, I descend the steps. n Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has published commentaries for New America Media, KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, and many nationwide publications.

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