H-4: No More Waiting by Ritu Marwah
I Am India's Daughter Too by Sarita Sarvate
The Magic of Angkor by Riz Mithani
INDIA CURRENTS D.C.Edition
Celebrating 29 Years of Excellence
bal·ance balens/ noun
april 2015 • vol. 29 , no .1 • www. indiacurrents.com
Can you balance this baby? Working mothers tell their stories. by Kamala Thiagarajan
Living in the Wild, Wild West facebook.com/IndiaCurrents
Forgive me for sounding peevish, but some of us have not been very pleased at the direction that the Internet has been going of late. We had hoped for the emergence of the public sphere, but, instead, we got corporate and government interests that moved in and now know everything about us. We had hoped for a sense of interconnectedness (vasudhaiva kutumbakam and all that), but instead we got cybercascades of ever-polarizing discourse. We had hoped for world peace, but even our domestic peace was shattered by unsolicited phone calls from Collin Jones (real name Rajendra Upadhyaya) trying to sell us cheaper service. We had hoped for a sharing economy, but we got identity theft and hackers. No surprise, then, that we found ourselves agreeing when President Obama referred to the Internet recently as the “wild wild west.” Oh sure, there are bright spots in the internet. The cowboys are happy, but what about the Indians? So, it was with a glad heart that I heard about the Federal Communications Com-
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mision (FCC) having released rules on net neutrality. The FCC rules ban “blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.” Take that, blockers, throttlers and cattle rustlers! (Yes, still staying with the wild west analogy). While net neutrality as a concept sounds about as sexy as a single shade of grey, it affects all of us. The Internet must remain open. In the words of the FCC document, it must remain “open for commerce, innovation, and speech; open for consumers and for the innovation created by applications developers and content companies; and open for expansion and investment by America’s broadband providers.” The Internet, for better or worse, is an integral part of our lives. And regardless of which side of the digital divide you find yourself, a digital “native” or a later-arriving immigrant, let’s keep the lanes of the information highway open for all, as we ride off into the sunset.
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Deadline: 20th of every month April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 1
INDIA CURRENTS April 2015 • vol 29 • no 1
PERSPECTIVES 1 | EDITORIAL Living in the Wild, Wild West By Geetika Pathania Jain
Washington D.C. Edition
LIFESTYLE
www.indiacurrents.com
21 | COMMENTARY Empathy, or the Lack Thereof By Manikya Veena
Find us on
22 | TAX TALK Want to Come Clean About Taxes Overseas? The IRS is Willing to Help By Rita Bhayani
6 | A THOUSAND WORDS Anxieties About English By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 8 | IMMIGRATION H-4: No More Waiting By Ritu Marwah
27 | RELATIONSHIP DIVA Long-Distance Relationships By Jasbina Ahluwalia
10 | MEDIA Facebook Shmacebook By Dinakar Subramanian 17 | FINANCE Startups and Funding By Rahul Varshneya 24 | SCIENCE Genetically Modified Food By P. Mahadevan 25 | YOUTH The American By Maya Murthy 39 | PERSPECTIVE Empathy, or the Lack Thereof By Manikya Veena 44 | FEATURE The Road Less Traveled By Matt Stockamp and Holly McKenna
12 | bal·ance Can You Balance This Baby? By Kamala Thiagarajan
36 | RECIPES The Poetry in Burmese Cuisine By Praba Iyer
7 | Viewpoint Convent-educated
42 | HEALTHY LIFE Vision, Clarity and Cataracts By Mimm Patterson
By Melanie Kumar
43 | DEAR DOCTOR Handling Negative Feedback By Alzak Amlani
30| Films Reviews of Badlapur and Qissa By Aniruddh Chawda, Reena Kapoor
DEPARTMENTS 4 | Letters to the Editor 16 | Ask a Lawyer 18 | About Town
46 | ON INGLISH Not Just Another Jute Bag By Kalpana Mohan 48 | THE LAST WORD I Am India’s Daughter too By Sarita Sarvate
28 | BOOKS Reviews of A Faint Promise of Rain and Rearming Hinduism By Geetika Pathania Jain, Gaurav Rastogi
32 | Travel The Magic of Angkor By Riz Mithani
WHAT’S CURRENT 40 | Calendar
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 3
letters to the editor
Raising Children
Anitha Chakravarthi’s poignant “Ending the Sistah Wars” in IC’s Feb 2015 issue propelled me to write. Maybe these tips could bring some peace to the war-zone? Nurturing: get it so you can give it. Good sources include moms, aunties and friends with older children. Who leaves you drained vs. nourished? Create value: mothering (and fathering) is super important but has no price-tag, no grades, and no awards. Our theories on valuation need some catching up here. Balance: part-time work? Adult education? Back to college? Time alone? Whatever brings adult-ness in to a kid-centric life. Enjoy: kids can invigorate us with awe, wonder and excitement. They are changing and growing. Raising children is an easy, natural way to grow in love and life. Let us capitalize on it! Mala Setty, Long Beach, CA Editor: Mala, we hope you enjoy our cover story this month, which addresses some of these issues.
India’s Daughter
Leslee Udwin’s documentary, India’s Daughter chronicles the horrific gang-rape and murder in New Delhi on Dec. 16, 2012. It features interviews with the relatives of the victim and one of the men convicted of killing her; also included is the inflammatory views of the defendant’s lawyers. The unrepentant views of the killer who blamed the victim for venturing out in the evening with a male friend is symptomatic of unhealthy societal misogynistic attitudes towards women, a society that has always undervalued women. What was even more egregious was the outrageous comments of the one of killer’s lawyer who stated that women have no right to venture outdoors after sundown and would support dousing the woman in petrol and set her alight—“to maintain the family honor.” Clearly such lawyers should be disbarred and sent for remedial psychiatric care. The outrageous rantings of the defendant’s lawyers speaks volumes of the appalling bias against women—spinning gibberish to blame the victim. Predictably, the documentary has generated passionate debate and the dubious reasons for the Indian government’s decision to ban it. 4 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting claims the film will incite violence against women. The minister of parliamentary affairs makes the preposterous claim that it is “an international conspiracy to defame India.” What utter balderdash! How can India claim to be a democracy when it restricts free speech? Does our collective national pride triumph the welfare and safety of our women? The deafening silence of Prime Minister Modi was another huge disappointment. He missed an important opportunity to show leadership. The prior Congress government displayed utter callousness and incompetence when this rape occurred. Mr. Modi should have seized the moment and appealed to overturn the ban and called on all Indians to watch the film with an open mind and confront the issues it raises and demand a pledge from all men to respect women. He should have used his high profile position to further demand zero tolerance for such outrageous behavior. Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA
Schrödinger’s Cat and Shiva’s Dance.
It is pretty difficult to be precise about imprecise phenomena such as quantum mechanics, metaphysics and mythology. But that is exactly what book reviewer, Rajesh C. Oza is attempting to do by drawing a parallel connection between two imprecise concepts. The book under review is Geek Sublime (2014) by Vikram Chandra (Schrödinger’s Cat and Shiva’s Dance, India Currents, March 2015). Schrödinger, a physicist, proposed a clumsy mathematical model in which a confined cat trips a poison vial and drinks the poison when a radioactive particle in the confine decays by one emission. The cat, when examined, is either dead or alive, a superposition of two states. In Sivathandavam, the category known as ananda thandavam represents the cycle of life from birth, life
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.
and death, a three-state system. In rudra thandavam, however, it represents only one state, death. Siva is the assigned member of the pantheon of thrimoorthis in Indian mythology, to the process of samharam (death). Rajesh Oza’s components do not appear to have enough in common, even to draw a parallel. I would like to remind readers about the discovery at Cern, of the “God particle” in 2012 (Higgs Boson) at which time, the vibrant, thunderous, thandava dance was conspicuously identified, by the media, with the Boson, a composite of very high frequency electromagnetic radiation, with acquired mass. The particle was called a building block of the Universe. I have not read Chandra’s book yet, but have compared Oza’s review with a more detailed one by James Gleik in The New York Times Sunday book review (Aug. 2014). My comments do not detract anything from his book where this topic is not even mentioned. P. Mahadevan, email
More Charlie Hebdo
I disagree completely with views of Hemendra Acharya (Page 6) in March issue of India Currents about Charlie Hebdo cartoons (Stand Up and Speak Out, March 2015) that caused violent reactions from Muslim extremists. His example of NBA incident is out of place, because it is not related to a religion. Similarly, his comparison with Algerian French Struggle is out of place. I am a Hindu, who does not believe in idol worship. I am surprised that Hindus consider the Swastika symbol on their doors painted in red color as an omen, but if some one draws a Swastika on the outer wall of a temple in Washington State, they are outraged. Similarly, Hindus also paint the likeness of Ganesha on their doors, but if some one depicts Ganesha on the sandals, they get angry. My view is that as far as religion is concerned, people should stay away from ridiculing it or making fun of it, because it arouses peoples’ sentiments. Just as Christians do not like anyone making fun of Jesus, and Hindus don’t like anyone making fun of Hindu gods (such as Ganesha), Muslims do not like someone making fun of Prophet Mohammed. So I fully agree with Sarita Sarvate’s article. Arun Patel, Lilburn, GA
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April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 5
a thousand words
Anxieties About English By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan
M
y mother was an English major. After earning her B.A. from a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, she started working on a Ph.D., also in English. Raised in the elite clubrooms and halls of Anglophone India, schooled in the Western canon (“reading from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf"), studying English came naturally to my literary-minded mother. For one thing, it was the language she grew up speaking, at home and at school, even though Malayalam was technically her mother tongue. For another, it was the language vested with symbolic and cultural capital in the India in which she grew up. There, in the Calcutta before Kolkata, my mother played Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice and memorized long passages of Shakespeare, which she would later utilize to great effect in schooling her two American brats. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” she did Hamlet, as I tried in vain to argue that I had practiced the piano after all. She paraphrased Congreve in response to a film (“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”) and channeled Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner during a drive down the California coast (“Water, water, everywhere / Nor any drop to drink”). Wordsworth she saved for a moment of whimsy: “Strange fits of passion have I known: / And I will dare to tell, / But in the Lover’s ear alone…” My mother’s delivery was impeccable, thanks to years of training in “elocution:” an art of particular significance for convent-going schoolgirls of her set. Colonial hangover? Or, the peculiar predilection of Irish nuns? Whatever the case, thanks to her, I pronounced “laugh” like a good Britisher and was resoundingly “laughed” at by my American peers in the second grade. I’ve been thinking about the history and legacy of my mother’s English a lot lately, now that I’m close to completing my own Ph.D. in Rhetoric. Despite the name of my department, I have been writing a dissertation in Global Anglophone literary and cultural studies—in other words, in English. This was never my plan. When I went to college, I resolutely avoided the English department (though I would eventually earn a minor there), opting instead for the beguiling interdisciplinary formation of “Literature,” which was neither English nor Comparative Literature, but Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, by another name. Unsure what my disciplinary home should be, I then applied to doctoral programs in a number of fields, including American Studies and Communication. English wasn’t among them. I was determined to stay away from my mother’s subject and carve out a field of my own (this is probably why my brother, an avid builder of computers, and I avoided my father’s area, too: Computer Science). I also didn’t fancy writing about literature, when there was a not-insignificant part of me that wanted to produce it instead. Years later, and after considerable effort to school and re-skill myself in the disciplinary tradition, I can easily imagine teaching and conducting research in a Department of English. I’ve gotten over my ambivalence about English (the academic formation). What I’m left with, however, is the question of English (the language) itself. Of course, this is not “my” question alone. Anyone interested 6 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
in the literature of South Asia (for that matter, of the non-Western Anglophone world more generally) will be aware of the English language’s vexed history and status as a medium for the representation of South Asia. Just see Aatish Taseer’s recent polemic in The New York Times, “How English Ruined Indian Literature,” in which he argues that India’s “painful relationship” with English “has left it voiceless.” This is an old debate. Writing in 2000, Vikram Chandra emphatically rejected a nativist position like Taseer’s, which he called “the cult of authenticity.” “English has been spoken and written in on the Indian subcontinent for a few hundred years now,” Chandra declared. “If Hindi is my mother-tongue, then English has been my father-tongue.” On the one hand, the hegemony of English cannot be disentangled from the devaluation and endangerment of other languages worldwide. On the other hand, in countries like India, English has also been a vehicle for upward mobility, economic growth, and development, especially for lower-caste and class communities formerly barred access to institutions of English-language acquisition and education. Today, English is not only a global language, but also arguably an Indian language in its own right. Today’s young Indians speak an English more American in its orientation than British, that sooner cites Seinfeld than Wodehouse, and that is comfortably peppered with Hinglish and other vernacular slang. Contemporary novels frequently thematize the development of this new, non-elite form of Indian English. As call center agent Shyam slyly tells the reader in Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Center (2005), “My English is not that great…So if you’re looking for something sophisticated and highbrow, then I suggest you read another book with plenty of long words.” Bhagat, the “paperback king” of India who far outsells the likes of Rushdie and Roy, is pointing to the decline of a certain elite English language, culture, and structure of valuation in India: the decline of the English embodied and spoken by people like my mother, who belonged to the last generation of urban, cosmopolitan Indians raised to be “more British than the Brits.” Is the decline of this elite, Anglophone and Anglophile India something to celebrate or lament? Has English been democratized or bastardized in India? Or, is English now beside the point? As Samanth Subramanian wrote in 2014 in The New York Review of Books, much of India’s middle class now “prefers to read in its own regional languages.” In an “India after English,” he predicted, English would no longer serve as a gatekeeper to the halls of power and professional success. As a scholar of English, I welcome this change in the language’s status and embrace the inevitability of its evolution. And I have a new goal for the next stage of my education: to read and write Malayalam. n Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.
viewpoint
I
Convent-Educated
n recent weeks, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) brought up the motives of the late Mother Teresa. When doing so, he joined other Hindutva supporters, who had expressed their suspicions about her activities and saw in them, a desire for religious conversion. For me, who had the largest part of my school education in convents, run by nuns, this sounded rather curious. When I look back and reminisce, I can hardly recall any attempts at conversion. Whilst our Catholic classmates went for Catechism in the first school hour, the rest of us had to do a subject called Moral Science, for which one had to write an exam every term. There was a Moral Science prize also at the end of every year, which I used to win quite regularly, eliciting some veiled comments from my mother! Many of these lessons came with a moral at the end but I cannot recall a single reference to Christ or any preaching of Christianity. During early-morning assembly, when each class gathered in front of the Sister Superior, the prayer was a neutral one. The closest that one might have come to learning a Christian prayer was “The Lord’s Prayer.” But since it speaks of a Father, who dwells in Heaven, no Hindutva supporter can really cast aspersions on the reciting of what I find to be, quite a universal prayer. Many of my friends from school, and some relatives, say that they find it the most convenient prayer to recite, on account of its neutrality! Of course, assembly chorus-singing did have some references to Christ, as in hymns like “Abide With Me,” but perhaps those were politically-incorrect times, when one just sang along, without thinking too much about the God who was being referred to! To date, I find the philosophy of this hymn absolutely endearing and heart-touching. The greatest advantage for a non-Christian to attend a school run by Christians is that it teaches respect for a religion outside of one’s own. Besides Moral Science, the one other lesson that was regularly visited was an awareness of a world, outside one’s privileged one. We were always being asked to bring clothes for “the poor” or make paper packets in which medicines were placed for “the poor.” As part of social service and Girl Guide activities, one also had a choice to visit the habitat of these deprived sections of society (now, often referred to as slums; never by our nuns, then!) and learn how they lived. In addition to the Moral Science Prize, there was the other more coveted award called a
By Melanie P. Kumar
A Creative Commons Image
The greatest advantage for a non-Christian to attend a school run by Christians is that it teaches respect for a religion outside of one’s own. “Prize for Social Service,” that was gifted across classes to one deserving girl. Amongst the many winners of academic awards whom I have all but forgotten, I am surprised that I recall the name of the winner of the Social Service Prize! In a country of great economic disparity and the ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots, I am most grateful to these nuns for creating this awareness, and a sense of duty and responsibility towards the less-privileged. Among my favourite Biblical quotations is the one which says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Perhaps, indirectly, our nuns in school were teaching us that a spirit of service to the less-privileged was a way of enhancing one’s spirituality, irrespective of the religion one belonged to. This Biblical quote also makes clear that Mother Teresa and her Sisters of Charity, were only living their religion in the truest sense of the term. The poor, the infirm and the diseased, whom Mother Teresa and her flock brought into their shelters, were the ones dumped by society. These outcastes, often on their death-bed, could really not have cared if they were administered the Holy Rites of Christianity. In Mother Teresa and her dedicated band of nuns, they would have already seen God on Earth, after being
shunned and condemned to lives of indignity. Perhaps Mother Teresa, with her faith, felt that she owed the assurance of a passage to Heaven, to each of these wretched beings. In the battle for the “harvesting of souls” between the different religions, it seems unfair to cast aspersions on someone so saintly. The city of Calcutta was thrown into deep gloom on the day of her passing and the feeling of loss went well beyond religions and communities. One has to only recall television images of the huge crowds that thronged the streets of the city, to get a last glimpse of Mother Teresa. Besides, who can say what happens to someone, after s/he leaves this world? Soul and rebirth is only conjecture. So how can someone like Mother Teresa or Christian schools be accused of conversion? If I have any fault with the nuns, it is to do with the huge burden of morality that they have often placed on their students, which often clashes with the realities of the real world. A colleague at the workplace once told me that in his group of friends, there was this joke cracked, when someone crossed the line on ethical decisions: “He did not study Moral Science!” It appears that in Christian institutions today, parents of a student have to sign an undertaking that they have no objection to their child being exposed to Christian moral instruction. My schooling happened during more innocent times, and our parents never feared any threat of conversion from the nuns! Thinking back, I realize that I might have forgotten some of my history and geography, but what has endured are those Moral Science lessons. And my school friends and I seem to agree that we are none the worse for those instructions! n
Melanie Kumar is a convent-educated Bangalore-based writer. From a young age, Melanie has been fascinated with the magic of words. She enjoys writing about life in its many manifestations. She also does literary reviews and is an avid traveler, who never misses an opportunity to pen her thoughts about her travels.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 7
immigration
H-4: No More Waiting By Ritu Marwah
C
handi Kapoor has been writing on the wall of the nearly 46,000 strong Facebook group, Euphoric Delights (ED). “Today, the ED family should be called ‘H4 Delights.’ Hoping to see a lot of dessert recipes today. Congratulations to everyone!!! It is a big day indeed!!!” A group that was initially formed simply to swap recipes quickly evolved into a support group for, and extended family to, many well-qualified women who were unable to work outside their homes because of their visa status. As news about the approval of employment authorization for H-4 visa holders spread, pictures of delightful desserts flashed in a virtual celebration. There had been innumerable conversations on why spouses of holders of other immigrant category visas like L-1, TN, E, J, and asylum visas were authorized to work but not the spouses of H-1 visa holders, the H-4s. Opening of, what many have called, the golden cage of H-4 set many hearts aflutter. The H-4 visa is issued to the dependent family members (spouse and children) of H-1 visa holders. The H-1B is a nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. H-4 visa holders are not authorized to be employed in the United States or get a Social Security number. They can get a driver’s license, pursue education, open bank accounts, apply for a Tax ID for IRS tax purposes, but they can’t earn an income. This has been particularly galling as, by and large, H-4 visa holders are well qualified, intelligent women who have been straitjacketed by this provision. In her documentary Hearts Suspended (heartssuspended.com), filmmaker Meghna Damani laments, “Work became this forbidden fruit I lusted after.” She presents a brutally honest portrait of her marriage as an H-4 spouse during this bleak period. “How bad could it be?” she wonders aloud about her impending life in America. “After all, I was going to the land of opportunity. I would take a break, and of course, I would get back and do something.” Damani’s story is the story of many young people who leave their lives behind in India as they follow their spouses to the United States. Neil Ruiz of the Brookings Institu-
8 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
tion says that Indian immigrants are the third-largest immigrant group in the United States. In 2012, they made up the largest proportion (64 percent) of temporary immigrants entering the U.S. on an H-1B visa for highly specialized workers. Rashi Bhatnagar came to the United States with her engineer husband in 2009. Despite having a master’s degree from Delhi University, she has not been able to get a job or start a business. Her frustration led her to start a Facebook group, “H-4 visa, a curse.” It quickly garnered more than 11,000 members. The tweets urging the government to take action on the pending legislation flew fast and furious. One very vocal tweeter, Juhi Singh @JuhiS12 had urged President Obama, “Please release us from this cage, give us the right to work!” “Pass #H4EAD now; end this agonizing wait. No more delay.”
“President Obama, please release us from this cage!” “Of all the provisions in President Obama’s Immigration Agenda,” says Mr. Jagannathan, an officer in Technosoftcorp, a software company in Southfield, Michigan. “The H-4 provision is the first one to be passed.” Now effective May 26, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants who are seeking employment-based lawful permanent resident (LPR) status. Eligible individuals include certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants who: are the principal beneficiaries of an approved Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; or have been granted H-1B status under sections 106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 as amended by the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act. “Work authorization that could take even up to ten years, may now be possible to obtain in fifteen months,” Jagannathan says. Eligible H-4 dependent spouses can file
Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, with supporting evidence and the required $380 fee in order to obtain employment authorization and receive a Form I-766, Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Once USCIS approves the Form I-765 and the H-4 dependent spouse receives an EAD, he or she may begin working in the United States. A flare of victorious happiness lit up the screens in many homes on February 26th, 2015, the day the new rule was announced. “Woot! Woot!” went Ranjani Shankar. “A heartfelt thank you,” tweeted Dr. Swati Sood. “Days of liberation are finally here!!!! Thank you so so so much” tweeted Sujata @ me_su. “Thank you for making us free from so called golden cage” tweeted Chinki; and “So so happy today! Just can’t believe! Thank you @Barack Obama @White House @USCIS @H4visaacurse” tweeted Cuiling Lui. The light at the end of the tunnel is now in sight for Alka Paradkar who, on the wall of Euphoric Delight group, wrote “Sitting at home dependent on a relative stranger was quite frightening and depressing. One can feel the years slipping away and it takes a massive toll on your pride.” Nearly 100,000 H-4 dependent spouses of certain H-1B guest workers would be eligible for work authorization in the United States under the new rule. The USICS estimates that as many as 179,600 people will be eligible to apply for work authorization in the first year, and an additional 55,000 people each annually in subsequent years. The rule also will bring U.S. immigration policies more in line with those laws of other countries that compete to attract similar highly skilled workers. Euphoria flooded the H-4s. They held hands virtually and thrust mouth-watering recipes at each other, the hope of tasting the forbidden fruit laced their dishes of the day. Ab Delhi door nahi! (the destination is not far) n Ritu Marwah has pursued theater, writing, marketing, startup management, raising children, coaching debate and hiking. Ritu graduated from Delhi with a master’s degree in business, joined the Tata Group and worked in London for ten years.
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media
Facebook Schmacebook By Dinakar Subramanian
Y
ou must be in a minority if you are not on Facebook (FB). If you are not currently on FB, then it is likely that you were on it, could not take it anymore and decided to deactivate your account at least temporarily. Since FB is now a part of our lives and of those around us, one can fondly look back at the time when we initially built our network. Fast forward a few years after being on FB, and here are my thoughts about it, manifested as a fictitious and anachronistic conversation between comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Younger readers can replace these two with any two of their favorite fictional characters. Laurel: Good evening, Ollie, what did you do on Facebook today? Did you check the updates from your friends? Hardy: no Stan, I try not to log on to FB when I am at work. Why do you ask? L: I have been pondering the fact that it is so easy to get FB fatigue. H: What do you mean—fatigue? L: You know the tiresome routine that plays out every day of people posting pictures or videos of their kids or themselves and a hundred people fawning immediately? H: Yes, it is indeed tiresome. Now that you mention it, how about the saccharinladen wishes for birthdays that also plays out frequently? L: I do admit, it is nice to be wished on your birthday on FB. It makes you feel wanted. It also gives you an idea of how many people actually remember your birthday. Have you ever tried not exposing your birthday to FB? People don’t get automatic notifications and have to rely on their memory to wish you. Like in the “old days.” H: I can’t see that as being a telling social experiment. L: Yes, that is exactly what FB is—you can think of FB as a great ongoing social experiment that you and everyone in your sphere of interaction are part of every day. It is almost like that Jim Carrey movie, The Truman Show, where everyone else is acting to prop him up. H: Stan, I have been thinking about FB etiquette. Do you have to acknowledge
10 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
A Creative Commons Image by Nate Bolt every reply to your post or every wish for your birthday? I hope not—though I can see you can inadvertently slight people by not responding. L: That is why you have the “like” button. You pretty much “like” everything you want without getting involved. That is one of the highlight features of FB—the “like” button—it allows you to be involved but not too involved. But you cannot realistically be on FB all the time to react to everything everyone of your friends post unless you have nothing else to do. H: That is funny, I have seen people update their statuses saying that they are “terribly busy” but still have the time to update FB with the fact that they are busy. Ironic indeed. L: Very amusing, Ollie. This leads me to another fascinating observation. There are some predictable responses for different events—a child performing, or a child being a child. “Cute!” “Adorable!” and a whole litany of sugary adjectives ensue. And of course you have to acknowledge all of them. H: Another way of looking at FB is that it is your personal performing stage where you can announce anything to the world. L: Not to be too accusatory, FB can be good for many things like announcing a family or an entertainment event, a sports victory or any such event. It is a one-stop blow horn to inform all your friends. It can also be used to convey your genuine happiness about something, or your dis-
gust about something you feel passionate about. H: Stan, another fascinating pastime is to look at the activity of FB friends with whom you are in regular contact outside of FB—for example someone living in your neighborhood or someone you meet socially on a frequent basis. Their FB posts add a new dimension to their personality. L: Ollie, you are right, what is even more interesting is how common friends react to the posts of someone in a circle. On the chatty side—one can also wonder why a friend did not respond to a specific post when they are known to comment or “like” almost everything. H: Yes, the bottom line is FB is an awesome entertainment medium where we have enthusiastic and serial posters, holier-than thou-posters, fawners, news posters, “kids achievement” posters, inveterate likers, good cause posters and of course, lurkers. L: It is great fun to lurk and watch the silliness on Fawnbook, er Facebook. Gotta go Ollie, I have to check out the latest post from my favorite FB’er. H: Bye Stan, have fun !! Thank God for FeeBee’s—I mean FB entertainers. n Dinakar Subramanian has been a long-time resident of the Philadelphia area after his graduate study at Penn State in the late 80s. He is an avid reader, blogger, Karnatik musician, music and cricket enthusiast. He can be contacted at dinasub@gmail.com
2 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
cover
bal·ance Indian-American women tell their stories By Kamala Thyagarajan
A Creative Commons Image by Richard Stephenson
It was a bright, chilly morning in March 2013 when Janani Sundarrajjan, 35, a New York-based finance professional, found herself sobbing uncontrollably at the wheel of her car.
S
he was parked outside the daycare where she had dropped off Neil, her five-month old son. Janani, who had resumed working after a six-week maternity leave (during which she was given only 60% of her salary as part of the “disability” pay) had at first enjoyed an excellent support system in her parents. They had arrived from Chennai, India to care for Neil for the first three months and her in-laws had taken over from them and cared for him for the next two months. Even then, Janani had never imagined how hard it would be to resume work after a baby. “It was a very emotional time for me,” she says. “It was not easy to leave Neil behind, even with my parents. It was so much harder to leave him in daycare. I remember feeling confusion, anxiety, fear (though I can’t quite understand nor explain why it is was that I felt so scared). I was doubtful about whether I was doing the
12 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
right thing and worried incessantly about whether I was being a good mom to Neil.” The Maternity Cultural Conflict It took Janani two weeks to stop crying after the drop-off, but she is grateful that Neil was such a good baby and that they settled into a routine fairly quickly. Most working women around the world can relate to this intense separation anxiety that follows birth. But in the case of Indian-Americans (and first-generation immigrants such as Janani), the dilemma is further complicated and compounded by conflicting cultural values. Even today, an Indian upbringing often involves a specific kind of social conditioning—one that demands women put their homes and children before their careers, period. Despite the changing times, one cannot deny that the ‘ideal’ Indian mother is still someone bound to home and hearth, exclusively nurtur-
ing children—an image that most working mothers (especially in the United States with its trying maternity laws) find disturbing, difficult and impractical. “I’ve refused several offers of marriage because my job is important to me and I’ve seen how professional fulfillment and financial stability rarely go hand-in-hand with the expectations of motherhood,” says 26 year-old Ashwini Kumar* (name changed to protect identity), a software professional working in Philadelphia. “Perhaps I may feel differently at a later date, but for now, I’ve worked too long and too hard to get where I am and I am reluctant to give this up.” Not surprising, then, is the news that top tech employers such as Apple and Facebook (with more corporates expected to follow) are offerring women employees a chance to delay giving birth by bearing the costs of freezing their eggs.
Working Women and Changing Dynamics in Personal Relationships.
For many working mothers in the United States, a career isn’t a choice, but a basic necessity, especially when you need to pay back staggering student loans, not to mention keeping up with the high cost of living in big cities—something only a double income can cater to. “I earned my master’s degree, spent a lot of time (not to mention money) to get an education and didn’t want to waste it by not working,” says Janani. “Financial independence is extremely important to me and I wanted to share the burden of household finances. Also, I didn’t want to compromise. I want to give the best for my child, to provide him with a good education and other opportunities that my own parents gave me while growing up.” Many modern couples are now beginning to understand the immense value a working spouse can bring to her family. Interestingly, this has created a shift in the dynamics in marital and interpersonal relationships, especially so in the Indian-American community, which, like its counterpart in India, veers towards patriarchy. Earlier, it was considered a sign of weakness if men relied on their wives to help support the family, a school of thought that is now changing. As many women are assuming greater, and more demanding, roles in the workplace, they are quick to acknowledge that at the heart of this change is the new age Indian man—in the guise of an understanding and accommodating spouse. Sapna Aravind is the Vice President and Product Director at AllianceBernstein, a premier global asset management firm, headquartered in New York. Juggling myriad responsibilities, both at work and at home, as a mother of two energetic boys, (aged nine and four), Sapna describes her world as “a constant tug-of-war for attention and time; and these are scarce resources.” And yet, when she decided to attend business school at MIT in Boston, a few years after the birth of their first baby, her husband, an investment banker, offered to pitch in and care for their then-two-year old. “We had decided I would support him when he went to business school and he would support me when I did the same. So he stayed in New York with our then-two-year old and played Mr. Mom. I manage because I have a wonderful husband who understands that his wife loves, wants, and needs a career!” says Sapna. Finding a partner who is truly an equal is a rare feat, but it can be a critical to a woman’s success and peace of mind after marriage. This factor is stressed by Sheryl
A Creative Commons Image by MIke Kline
Sandberg, the COO of Facebook in her popular book, Lean In—Women, Work and the Will to Lead (2013). In an ideal world, both men and women would share the responsibilities of work and childcare equally, writes Sandberg. Not doing so would put women at a severe disadvantage, limiting their ability to get ahead in their careers. Perhaps that explains the dismal statistics that speak of a complete lack of women in the higher echelons of corporate circles in India. “In India, women hold about 5 percent of the directorships among the 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. 11 percent of the top 240 Indian companies had female CEOs,” writes Sandberg.
Dealing with Difficult Decisions
As women climb the corporate ladder, tucked away amidst spiraling ambitions and myriad responsibilities, are some very difficult decisions, involving more than just childcare and the work-life balance, though these continue to be top priority. There are days when it seems completely impossible,” says Sapna. “Äll around me, I see moms giving up their careers. Not that there is absolutely anything wrong with staying with the kids when they are growing up and need moms the most. I’ve done it myself—twice!” When her eldest son was four months old, Sapna decided that she
Women tell Nielsen they feel empowered to reach their goals and get what they want, but at the same time, this level of empowerment results in added stress. could not bear the thought of putting him in daycare, so she left her well-paying job at Lehman Brothers (where she was employed at the time) to care for her baby. She returned to work after his first birthday. “I was happy to return to work after my older one turned a year old because I felt the relief in knowing he was well taken care of in the daycare right next to where we lived.” With her second baby, the transition was harder, she says. As he was even younger when she returned to work, the family opted for a qualified nanny. “But I’m lucky that I’m in a senior-level position, work-wise. I know what needs to get done and I simply get it done. I don’t have anyone breathing down my neck making extraordinary demands on my time or resources. But it has not been an easy road and help has not always been forthcoming from many quarters.” In 2011, a research study conducted by
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 13
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Switching to Self-Employment
A Creative Commons Image by Sundaram Ramaswamy
Janani Sundarrajan
Janani: “Financial independence is extremely important to me and I wanted to share the burden of household finances.”
Nielsen (which tracks global trends) titled the “Women Of Tomorrow” revealed that even as women were empowered to reach their goals and felt a more hopeful future in terms of progress and education for their own daughters, they were crippled by overwhelming stress. Women who were perceived as having it all (kids, a well-run home and a successful career) weren’t as happy as one would expect them to be. The study mentioned that a whopping 87% of Indian women in particular suffered from severe stress and as much as 82% felt that they had no time to relax. “Women across the globe are achieving higher levels of education, joining the workforce in greater numbers and contributing more to the household income,” said Susan Whiting, Vice Chair at Nielsen, in a statement to Rueters.” Women tell Nielsen they feel empowered to reach their goals and get what they want, but at the same time, this level of empowerment results in added stress.”
Traditionally, Indian women aren’t risktakers, but the demanding nature of straddling childcare and a career are actually driving more women away from well-paying tech jobs and mid-level management positions to set up their own businesses and consider the entrepreneurial route. “I decided to start on my own business as I felt I was not giving a 100% to my job or my home,” says 33 year-old Shwetha Arjun (name changed to protect identity), an independent designer who lives in Boston, MA. “No one was happy and I was completely stressed out trying to please everyone. With my own business, I have the opportunity to create my own schedule, plan meetings around my kids’ schedules which allows me the flexibility to drop off and pick up my kids, and attend important events.” As Indian women around the world are now on the brink of change, many are discovering that all it takes to meet challenges is to dream big and plan ahead. Finding your passion and striking a harmonious balance between home and work, (pursuing both with equal vigor while supported ably by your spouse) play a vital role in defining new age success. n Kamala Thiagarajan writes on travel, health and lifestyle topics for a global audience. She has been widely published in over ten countries.
Are you thinking of getting back into the workforce? Here’s what you need to put on your checklist. l Know Your Mind: You’re not doing your children any favors if you deeply resent your decision to not work, but is a full-time career or being a stay-at-home mom what you really want at this point? Weigh your decision carefully before you take the plunge. “While I was home with my first, I realized I wasn’t capable of being a stay-at-home mom,” says Shweta. “It was depressing, not having anyone to interact with or to engage my mind doing something I love.” l Pick the right childcare option: Don’t opt for daycare if you’re not entirely happy with what’s available. Consider hiring a personal (but competent) nanny. Take your time to scour childcare options and pick the appropriate one, because this can give you great peace of mind while at work. l Don’t allow guilt to color your parenting decisions! It is natural for working mothers to find themselves compensating for their absence, by pampering or spoiling their children. Instead, giving them quality time and engaging in issues that matter to them is important, feels Sapna. “I do my best to attend my older son’s Publishing Parties (where they demo their written work) or Poetry recitation competitions or plays.” l Find ways to “lean in”: If you don’t see yourself resuming work immediately after birth, consider a more flexible option of working from home or freelancing with the occasional drop-by at the office. You don’t have to bow out professionally if that’s not what you want. Find ways to cut back while still keeping in touch with your core skills.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 15
ask a lawyer
California Family Rights Act By Bobby Shukla
Q
What rights do I have to take a leave of absence based on my own health or that of a family member?
A
The California Family Rights Act or “CFRA” provides job-protected leave to employees in such circumstances provided eligibility requirements are met. (The Family Medical Leave Act or “FMLA” is the federal counterpart of this law.) To be eligible for CFRA leave, you must have been employed for at least one year and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12-month period before the date the leave begins. You must also work at a location in which the employer has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius of your work site. CFRA leave may be used for the care of a child, parent or spouse with a serious health condition or for your own serious health condition. The CFRA also provides leave for bonding with baby or adopted/ foster care child.
Employees receive up to 12 weeks of jobprotected leave in a 12-month period, which may be used intermittently. Job-protected leave means that the employer must guarantee reinstatement to the same or comparable position at the end of the CFRA leave. An employer may only deny reinstatement if the position ceases to exist during the leave, such as due to a reduction in force. In that instance, the employer must notify the employee of the intent to refuse reinstatement at the time the employer determines that it is necessary and give the employee a reasonable opportunity to return to work. Employers may not eliminate an employee’s position on account of the employee being on CFRA leave and must demonstrate that it was based on legitimate business reasons. An employer need not provide paid CFRA leave but must continue health care coverage. You may also qualify for income
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replacement under State Disability Insurance for your own disability leave, for the care of a family member, or for baby bonding. As of July 1, 2015, all California employees are also entitled to paid sick leave under the Healthy Workplace Health Family Act. The paid sick leave may be used for oneself or to care for a family member. Notably, even if your employer has less than 50 employees but has at least 5, you may seek a leave of absence as a reasonable accommodation for your own serious health condition under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”). n
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finance
Startups and Funding By Rahul Varshneya
W
hen one thinks of American business, large multinational corporations come to mind. Contrary to popular belief, however, the majority of businesses in the United States are startups. Popularized by stories such as Facebook, Uber and Netflix—professionals are moving in droves to places like Silicon Valley and Austin to join or start the next big thing. As a professional looking to succeed in the startup space, one area that is often overlooked is funding. Startup funding is almost as important as the seed idea itself. A strong understanding of this space will allow you to overcome many of the early speed bumps you will invariably face and maybe even find a strong business partner for years to come.
Seed/Venture Stage
At the most basic level, startups follow a general growth cycle from seed stage to early stage, then late stage and finally an exit event. The seed stage is the first stage of a startup. There are no revenue-generating activities at this point and this stage is often referred to as the “valley of death.” An entrepreneur in this stage of financing generally receives funding from two sources: FFF or Angel investors. FFF consists of family, friends and fools, and is often the easiest group from whom to raise capital. Angel investors are extremely wealthy individuals or a group of individuals (angels) that invest their own capital in companies in return of equity ownership or convertible debt (debt that can be converted into equity). Angel investors take significant risks with their capital—with later rounds of financing, their equity ownership is often diluted. Angels invest their capital at the stage where the risk of startup failure is the highest. As such, angels require significant return on their investment—often 20-30 times over a five to seven year period. The majority of angel investment activity occurs in Silicon Valley, the #1 location for hopeful entrepreneurs.
Early Stage
The next stage of startups is early stage startups. In this stage, startups have typically gone through a seed round (internal funds) and an angel round of financing. Early stage
Startups follow a general growth cycle from seed stage to early stage, then late stage and finally an exit event. companies typically have one or two rounds of funding from venture capital or private equity firms called Series A and/or Series B. Firms that participate in Series A have the first chance at investing in an opportunity and generally receive proceeds in the form of convertible debt or preferred stock. Convertible debt is useful because in the event of failure, debt owners are repaid before equity owners. In the event of success, convertible debt owners can convert their ownership into equity. Preferred stock is better than common stock because it is impervious to dilution (from subsequent rounds of financing) and any unpaid dividends must first be paid to preferred shareholders before common shareholders. Series A funding is also the first time that the company is given a valuation, determined by the Series A amount divided by the equity ownership percentage. Buying into the startup in subsequent rounds will be more expensive than Series A and will continually adjust the startup’s valuation. Early stage startups generally have been in business less than three years, have started to generate revenue but are not yet making a profit. These first rounds are to help expand operations, generate sales, build a management team and propel these companies to the next level.
Later Stage
Startups are generally designated as late stage companies in the third round of financing—Series C and beyond. These companies have been in business for more than three years, have experienced significant revenue growth but may or may not be creating profit. While earlier round financing is designed to develop operations and spur growth, financing in this later stage are more strategic. They are used for specific expansion projects, targeted marketing efforts or prod-
uct improvement. There are also Mezzanine/ Bridge loans. Bridge loans can be raised between any significant venture round and are designed to provide companies with interim financing between the more traditional venture rounds. These loans are short-term (less than one year), high-interest loans usually “bridged” (backed) by some collateral, either real estate or other inventory. Mezzanine funds are used when the company is gearing towards an initial public offering (IPO).
Support
With the success of numerous startups in the last 20 years, it is an incredibly popular field. Whereas in the past, the most popular field was finance, young and experienced professionals are now moving towards entrepreneurship. Y Combinator is the world’s most famous early-stage incubator/accelerator. For many years, Y Combinator provided startup guidance, connections and seed capital in return for about 6% equity. In 2014, it changed its terms to $120,000 seed investment for 7% equity ownership. The combinator has an application process by which anyone can apply to be a Y Combinator member company. Notable graduates of the Y Combinator program include AirBnb, DropBox, and Reddit. It is just one of many incubators out there, a testament to how popular and successful startups are. With individuals’ access to information, funding and business connections, startups have essentially democratized business success. With the amount of support and interest that is in place for entrepreneurship today, anyone with a good idea should pursue it. 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.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 17
Holi celebrations in Virginia Holi, the festival of colors, was celebrated with great enthusiasm at the Durga temple in Virginia on March 14, 2015.In spite of the rain, people came in big numbers to celebrate Holi. It was a beautiful sight to see colors splashed everywhere, even on the snow piles. Many young participated in a day long fun.Two big tents were put up for the stalls because of the rain, one had various stalls of traditional Indian jewelry, clothes and menhdi tattoos, while the other had food stall. Hot snacks like chole bhature, masala dosa, dhokla, aalu kachiori were savored by people. Fresh sugar cane juices along with desi chai were also favorites.Along with the outdoor fun, an indoor cultural program included music and dance. The temple auditorium bellowed with the scintillating drum beat, while the youth showed their talent, presenting bhangra, Indian classical dances and popular Bollywood songs and dances. The fun just didn’t end there, after the cultural program, a ritual Holika dahan, burning of Holika effigy was performed. As the story goes Holika, a demoness, sister of KingHiranyakashipu and aunt of Prahlad. Tried to kill Prahlad but was burnt to death. The story of Holika dahan (Holika’s death) signifies the triumph of good over evil. Normally Holika is associated
with the annual bonfire on the night before Holi.Priests chanted mantras and offered coconuts, ghee and other stuff. Some young people sang and danced on traditional folk and Bollywood songs.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 18
As the darkness descended outside, another wonderful program was organized on the occasion, Holi Kavi Sammalan, Holi Poetry Recital, where a large number of people attended. Noted poet Narendra Tondon moderated the program. Many well known poets included Gulshan Madhur, Sukesha Chopra, Dr.Suman Vardaan, Rajiv Gupta, Surekha Vijh, Astha Naval, Ritu Chaudhari and others participated. According to Durga temple, the registration for the program began on January 24 and ended on February 14th, when the first 30 programs were received.Holi is celebrated at the approach of vernal equinox, on the Phalguna Purnima (Full Moon). The festival date varies every year, per the Hindu calendar, and typically comes in March, sometimes February in the Gregorian calendar. The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair ruptured relationships.n
Murthy to head Chamber of Commerce board simply be an agent for a greater cause, according to Baltimore Citybizlist. “We will continue to do the amazing work that the Chamber does with its pro-business lobbying activities to help every business owner and evry business with laws and regulations that will spur economic development in our State,” stated Murthy. “Our goal is to help Maryland State legislators who may have the best of intentions for the State and its inhabitants, but not the experience in running a company or a business, to understand the impact of their laws.” One manner in which Murthy aims to pick up the slack is taking charge of the Chamber’s Maryland Chamber Foundation, “that has apparently never been used.” Murthy’s goal for the Chamber is to reinvigorate the dormant foundation so it can focus on providing benefits for members like educational activities and discussions through the Business Policy Conference. “At the end of the day, we are all in this together. [The Chamber] can help Maryland and every business in our great State. For this, everyone needs to work together and really want to make a difference. We can help in this process,” said Murthy in her statement.n Sheela Murthy Photo Credit: Bala Chandran
Sheela Murthy, founder and president of the nation’s leading immigration law firm, Murthy Law Firm, is slated to take over as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. The reigns will formally be transitioned to Murthy on May 5 at the BWI Hilton. Murthy’s appointment marks the first time an Indian American or Asian American has served as Chairman of the Maryland Chamber Board and only the second time that a woman would lead the Board. Working with the Board members and the staff at the Chamber, Murthy intends to continue the Chamber’s work in making Maryland a “global leader in innovation and technology.” “The priorities of the new position will require us to focus on making Maryland the best that it can be for the benefit of all,” Murthy said in an official statement, to The American Bazaar. “Towards that end, we want to have all local Chambers of Commerce unite under the Maryland Chamber, as we are the leading voice for business in Maryland,” she continued. Murthy recognizes that her role is to
Photo Credit: Bala Chandran
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 19
Punjabi Mela in Richmond The members of Gajjdi Jawani who came from Raleigh, North Carolina to compete, danced rhythmically on stage in their vibrant costumes to bhangra music fused with modern hip-hop songs, using bells and saaps, [the wooden instruments that are opened and closed to the beat of the music], to enhance their performance. On Saturday March 28, people of all ages gathered to celebrate the culture of Punjab as one, at the annual Punjabi Mela hosted by the Sikh Association of Central Virginia. The festival had countless clothes stands, jewelry stands, food booths, vendors, performers, and much more. The entire hall for the Cultural Center of India in Chesterfield, Virginia, was filled to the brim with people buzzing and excitedly reuniting with old friends and simply enjoying the event. Vibrant attire, heart thumping music and dances entranced the audience. In the food section, there were several booths replete
with lassis, chats, makki di roti, sarsong ka saag and much more. Every seat was filled with people, their eyes glued to the energetic performances, all well-rehearsed and thoroughly planned, yet light-hearted and easy going. Dancers in the bhangra competition walked around in their bright costumes, complete with the turban and saaps. There were 10 groups in total from all over the East Coast, representing Baltimore, North Carolina, and New York. They came to compete against each other for the $1500 first place prize. Every team had enthusiastic and energetic performances with upbeat bhangra music that made everyone in the audience want to dance along. The guest speaker of the night was the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, also a pediatric neurologist. He highlighted the important contributions the Indian community makes to the Commonwealth of Virginia. “It is amazing to see how the community
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 20
comes together; it is great to see the gathering of all of these people singing and dancing so well,” he said. Jasveen Jung, the publicity lead and a regular attendee of the Punjabi Mela spoke enthusiastically about the mela “The first mela happened when I was 8 and now I’m 21 and it’s been so great to see all of the kids and all of my friends just have fun and flaunt their culture. I can really see them growing as people and performers,” she said. Jung was also pleased that there were a wide range of groups to compete in the bhangra competition and how important the mela has become to the entire community. It is one of the only major events for the Punjabi community and it really brings everyone together and allows the celebration of Punjabi culture. Going by the attendance, it was obvious that the festival was not only for those from Punjab. It was a huge attraction for people of all races and ages because of the experience the mela provided. It allowed for an insight into the vivid, boisterous culture of Punjab.
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By Rita Bhayani
Y
ou know that awful feeling you get when you have done something wrong and you just can’t wait to get it off your chest? It’s called guilt. Almost everyone has that guilty feeling at some time or another. When it comes to offshore accounts, for those who have been holding back for a while, or who have been hiding large sums of money, that feeling of guilt might have reached its peak.
Guilt vs. Anxiety
Maybe you have decided that it’s finally time to come clean and reveal your indiscretions. That can bring about another uncomfortable human emotion known as anxiety. That anxiety most likely stems from the fear of the IRS and the retribution you might face for your non-compliant lifestyle. Because no one really wants to live with either guilt or anxiety, in the end, coming clean to the IRS is probably the best decision.
you are willful or non-willful. According to the IRS, the distinction is defined this way: “Non-willful conduct is conduct that is due to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake or conduct that is the result of a good faith misunderstanding of the requirements of the law.” So there you have it. If you know you have been hiding or withholding money, then you are willful. If it’s an honest mistake, you are non-willful.
How to Come Clean
Be Aware of Changes
Of course, for the IRS, that decision is a no-brainer and to that end they want to do everything they can to help you clear things up regarding your offshore accounts. To help make this process easier for you, the IRS has even come up with several different forms for the many different possible scenarios that could apply to your situation. These forms include: lForm 14452—Foreign Account or Asset Statement lForm 14453— Penalty Computation Worksheet lForm 14454—Attachment to Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Letter lForm 14457—Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Letter lForm 14653—Foreign Streamlined Certification lForm 14654—Domestic Streamlined Certification
Which One Is Right for Me?
So now that you have decided to come clean and you are aware of these different options from the IRS, the question is: “Which form(s) is right for me? The first thing you need to do is to determine whether
The IRS recently made some changes to its disclosure programs, including making the process for both foreign and domestic disclosure more streamlined. The biggest change to the IRS’s Streamlined Guidance Update is a clarification to taxpayer eligibility. While you cannot use both the Streamlined program and the OVDP program at the same time, being pre-cleared for the OVDP program does not stop you from using the Streamlined program. If you have decided to come clean on offshore accounts, then no doubt you have some questions and concerns. Don’t worry, tax professionals and attorneys can help you with the feelings of anxiety. We know which forms you need and how to fill them out properly. Plus, after you come clean you can push aside those feelings of guilt as well. It’s a win-win. 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.
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Genetically Modified Foods: Facts and Myths
T
he shipwrecked sailor got washed ashore somewhere. As soon as he felt solid ground under his feet, he walked up to see a man coming along. Accosting him, he asked: “Sir, is there a government in this country?” The local replied: “Of course, we have a government in this country.” “Then, I am in the opposition,” said the sailor. “Why, Sir?” asked the local. “I oppose government wherever, whatever and whenever,” answered the sailor. There is a parallel between the sailor’s view of government and the opposition of an educated minority in technologically advanced countries like the U.S. and western Europe averse to crop modification at the molecular level, called genetic modification(GM). The population of the world doubled from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion in 1999 and to 7.2 billion now. It is the duty of everybody to ensure that the global food chain can supply the needed quantity and quality of food to meet the current needs and the new projections for the future. Towards this end, advances in production methods are rapidly evolving. The present discussion is restricted to what we can grow on the ground, such as corn, rice, wheat, millets, maize, fruits, vegetables, and a host of other plants. Seeds are the primary agents for germination and growth. Genetic modification is the method to produce better quality seeds. GM crops are plants whose DNA has been modified using advanced techniques. This introduces new traits to the plant, not possible naturally. These traits include resistance to certain pest diseases, environmental conditions, and reduction of spoilage rates. These techniques have been applied also to cattle feed such as alfalfa, non-food items like cotton, biofuels and pharmaceutical agents. It is estimated that by 2011, ten percent of the world’s arable land was under GM growth. The broad consensus now is that there are no greater threats to humans from GM than those from natural plants. As far as consumption is concerned, the European Union countries, collectively and individually are most averse to their use than the rest of the world. Jeffrey Smith, who has written two books on the topic: Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, also admits that by 2010, approximately 85% of the corn crop and 91% of the soybean crop in the U.S. was GM. He apparently called for a day of boycott of GM crops for Oct. 10, 2010. I do 24 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | April 2015
By P. Mahadevan
A Creative Commons Image
An unbiased assessment of ... GM foods across the world, would be to accept the position that the absence of evidence to the contrary so far does not justify a claim for the evidence of absence. not know if it happened and what effect it had on the industry. The main corporation that has worked on the technology and grows the developed seeds for commercial sale, is the century-old Monsanto. Many others are involved as well as a large number of independent researchers in academic institutions. Some unethical procedures and practices do exist in the general area of technology development. For instance, no research paper in peer-reviewed journals on related subjects can be published without corporate pre-approval. This is not a scientific approach. If a researcher wants to purchase specific sample seeds for research, he will have to enter into a detailed contractual agreement with the supplier. This is sought ostensibly for intellectual property protection as in the exercise of patent rights. I am inclined to believe that there is more to it than meets the eye. The commercial producers explain that no major or even minor incidents have occurred so far for the consuming public. This is a fragile argument. Scientists are working to ensure that there is no possibility of GM bacteria from hold-
ing tanks to spill and cause disease or even ecological destruction. But they hasten to add that such mishaps have never happened either. The defense is obviously feeble, here also. Michael Eisen, an activist critic of the technology has posed the question: “Why should I trust the big American technology corporations?” A simple answer would be to refer him back to the 1960s when Ralph Nader took on the American auto industry and published his muckracking book, Unsafe at Any Speed, (1965 ) specifically the General Motors model, Corvair, car with a rear engine. Nader was persuasive and the industry accepted responsibility, paying out compensation and penalties. In the current situation, however, the perception of GM crops appears to have the upper hand among the public and the regulators. A non-controversial technique to enhance the quality, safety and quantity of agricultural produce is grafting. In this, tissues from one plant are inserted into another to enable the vascular material to enjoin. This is possible only in similar species such as citrus, other fruit bearing systems like grapes, apples, peaches, plums and a whole host of berries. Examples are too easy to identify in the produce market shelves. The major difference of grafting from GM is that the latter is a fusion at the molecular level between dissimilar varieties. Active research and manipulative testing of plant species have resulted in the creation of some edible products that are not “God created” or original. The seedless water melon is one such. Many strains of berries such as raspberries and blueberries are reported to have been produced by the founders of the entertainment company, Knotts Berry Farm. An unbiased assessment of the technology, commercial production and sale of modified seeds and the widespread consumption of several GM foods across the world, would be to accept the position that the absence of evidence to the contrary so far does not justify a claim for the evidence of absence. n P. Mahadevan is a retired scientist with a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics from the University of London, England. His professional work includes basic and applied research and program management for the Dept. of Defense. He taught Physics at the Univ. of Kerala, at Thiruvananthapuram. He does very little now, very slowly.
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ometimes, when my mother and I are standing at a security checkpoint in middle America they’ll pull us over and search our luggage—digging through my underwear and that tatty shirt with the paint stains I should have probably thrown out three years ago, looking for what I presume is evidence of a bomb. They’ll open my mother’s jewelry boxes and touch the rounded points and the fake rubies and diamonds, bringing the necklace she bought for two dollars up to their eyes as they try to find a clue that will tell them of our deceit. They’ll take one look at our skin color, the black hair we’ve each tied up into a ponytail. They’ll look at our passports, the ones that pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. All they’ll ever see are the names that they can’t pronounce from a country that they probably can’t find on a map, and two people from a heist that brought their (our) country to its knees. Eventually they’ll grow bored of swabbing the inside of our carry-ons, tired of running tests that reveal no secret compartments or illegal drugs, but rather more underwear than we know what to do with, and a particularly expensive sari my mother didn’t want to risk losing in the depths of the Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Eventually they’ll let us go, far later than the old white couple that sniffed disdainfully as they walked past, far later than the soldier in his camouflage that seemed to take our presence as a personal affront. It takes more than a little effort on my part not to go running after them, screaming the preamble of the Constitution we all hold so dear in the accent that identifies me as one of them. One of us. Because every July I help my father hang up the flag of our country, smoothing down the cloth as I trace the stars and stripes of the only country I will ever call home. Not that they’d ever know that. No, all they see is the brown - the eyes and the hair, and all they expect the thick, rolling accent of the men the broadcast news uses to terrify the rest of us into submission. The men and women of the Transportation Security Administration that swore to protect this country of theirs (mine) never once realizing that I am one of the citizens supposed to be hiding behind their shields, instead of being
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Every July, I help my father hang up the ag of our country, s oothing down the cloth as trace the stars and stripes of the only country will e er call ho e dragged out to rot in their containment cells. I am an American before I am anything else, a citizen of a country forged in the blood of millions of immigrants that lattice together in fervor and hope and dreams. I am an American that sits on a blanket every Independence Day to watch fireworks that burst to the tune of my anthem, an American that lost a month’s sleep when I became old enough to comprehend the way the Twin Towers fell. I am an American that owes my blood and sweat to the country that tells me it will protect me to the utmost of its ability, solely based on the fact that I was born on its soil. I am an American before I am Indian, before I am a Hindu. I am the daughter of immigrants who have become Americans, the sister of an American. I speak no other languages, I think no other thoughts, and when I go to the airport I am looked over once, twice, thrice and deemed a disgrace to the passport I carry. Sometimes, when my mother and I are standing at a security checkpoint in middle America they’ll pull us over and search our luggage, and I’ll realize that for all that I am American, I will always just be a traitor to them. n Maya Murthy is a junior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino California, where she writes for her school newspaper and literary magazine. In her admittedly limited spare time, she sings Carnatic music and sometimes can be found walking the family dog.
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“ The ad looks superb. I also received a box of India Currents which flew faster than the hot samosas last weekend.” - N. Muralikrishnan Music Class on Demand “ You posted a full page ad for my show Eastern Structures Western Sounds. It was a great success and I want to thank you very much” - Saku Rodrigo Om Linga Perf. Arts I truly appreciate your coverage of the Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival... The advertisement in India Currents a played an important part in publicizing the event and making it the huge success it was” - Sheela Jayaram We continue to get interest from prospective students who read your magazine and see our ad. - Sandy Ariathurai University of San Francisco
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26 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | April 2015
relationship diva
Long-Distance Relationships By Jasbina Ahluwalia
Q A
Do you think long-distance relationships are feasible nowadays, or doomed to fail?
According to statistics, long-distance relationships (LDRs) used to have an expiration date of six months. But with tools available on the Internet, relationships that span even thousands of miles have a higher success rate than ever before. The ingredients to the secret sauce for keeping an LDR flourishing are easy, but both partners need to follow the recipe. 1. Making a commitment to make the relationship work over the miles. 2. Establishing parameters and to find agreement about where the relationship is heading. 3. Staying in contact. With Skype or Google Hangouts, daily scheduled contact is free and easy, and there is an added bonus of the two of you enjoying video chats. Surprise one another with a love note on IM. Schedule things you can do together on the Internet, such as playing a game or watching a movie at the same time.
4. Seeing each other in real life, faceto-face. Having physical contact with your romantic partner is a necessity to sustain your relationship. A touch or kiss is impossible to replicate online. As a visit ends, begin planning the next one. 5. Nurturing each other’s security by having a crystal-clear understanding of where your relationship is at present and where you both want it to go. Establishing security occurs when the two of you make plans that are kept, such as visits to one another, communication times online, and talking about what comes next. The most important thing in nurturing security is agreeing that if either of you feel that the long-distance aspect of your relationship no longer works, you will tell your partner. 6. Trusting each other. This is the kingpin of all great relationships, including longdistance relationships. Insecurity passes, but trust keeps the relationship strong. See #9 below. 7. Treating your relationship with the respect it deserves. Many LDRs fail because
one or both members of the couple dwell on the loneliness and pain of being separated. This poisons all communications. Be upbeat and thankful that you have found each other. 8. Establishing a time that the longdistance relationship ends and being together begins is vital to keeping your relationship going. Uncertainty about the next step breeds anxiety and stress in the relationship and that is toxic. 9. Having your own social life and not staying at home while your significant other is out with friends at a concert or a movie. See #6 above. 10. Ignoring well-meaning friends who tell you that you are nuts, that no meaningful relationship needs to be so hard, and that LDRs never work. Ignore them. n Jasbina is the founder and president of Intersections Match, the only personalized matchmaking and dating coaching firm serving singles of South Asian descent in the United States. She is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio. Jasbina@intersectionsmatch.com.
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books
Memoirs of a Devdasi By Geetika Pathania Jain yet contemplate sati? The character of Girija is complex, and her actions may seem incongruous, but don’t we all know women like this? The woman who goes out in the street to fight for women’s rights and equality, then comes home to clean the house and cook dinner for her husband? In this case, sati is of course a drastic and, for most, unimaginable choice. I hadn’t originally planned on it, but at that moment in the story, it makes sense for her. Here was a woman who felt that she’d done everything she could for the people she loved. Their fates were now completely out of her hands. She was losing what little eyesight she’d ever had, her husband was gone, the whole tradition that had sustained her family, whether she liked it or not, had crumbled. And she’d always had a fascination with fire, with destruction, and with escape. It all came together not as political statement or something that I, as the author, wanted to bring up, but because it made sense for the story and the character.
A FAINT PROMISE OF RAIN by Anjali Mitter Duva. 2014. She Writes Press: Berkeley, CA. 289 pages. $16.95.
R
eaders who love the classical Indian dance form of kathak will find much to like in this lyrical first novel. This work of fiction is set in 16th century Rajasthan, a land so parched that “a child of five is likely never to have seen rain,” as Anjali Mitter Duva observes in the opening sentence. The story begins and ends with the monumental events of rainfall, and these serve as bookends to this tale of how young Adhira is dedicated to the temple, and becomes a devdasi (servant of god). Her father, Gandar, the temple dance master, has no doubt that it is Adhira’s destiny to be a temple dancer. “We do not choose our lives .... We do what we are meant to do, and we do so with joy.” He dismisses his wife’s concerns summarily, his faith unwavering. Gandar’s love of dance is echoed in the beauty of the author’s prose: “When I opened my eyes, I thought I saw a thousand deities looking down at me. They seemed to have stepped away from the walls and to have taken on color and movement. They were seated on the heads of cobras, emerging from lotus flowers, surrounded by auras of light. They held maces, conch shells, garlands of pearls. On their heads were peacock feathers, crescent moons, third eyes. I faltered for a moment, wondering if I had really called them forth.” Duva’s skillful rhythm of writing causes the dance to merge with the words: “He put his hand on the horse’s flank. Dha dhin dha kita dha dhin dha. Mahendra reached up farther and caught a handful of mane.” The ensuing word pictures come alive with movement. And what of the devdasi? Was Adhira a victim, oppressed and exploited, preyed upon by landowners and priests like the despicable Sai Prasad? Or did her marriage to a deity rather than a single man provide her with greater autonomy in the position she occupied, financially supported by the state, and far more in control of her destiny than her sister, a housewife? The author seems to 28 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | April 2015
suggest that both might have been true to some extent, while acknowledging that she has “taken some liberties” with historical fact. I felt that a keener student of the history of ideas would populate the interior lives of these women differently. Would a woman who chooses sati question the power of the priest, or the dedication of her daughter to the temple? Some of these anachronistic portrayals highlight the difficulty of doing good historical fiction. A thread of disturbing orientalism seems to have similarly crept into the writing. Every time I read a description of “Surya the Sun” or “Vayu the Wind,” it struck a jarring note. Then there is the authorial license to fictionalize. The generalization of the word devdasi, a specific nomenclature for temple dancers associated much more with bharatnatyam than kathak might trouble some purists. The choice to sacrifice the geographic particularity and specific historic experience of these devdasis, and relocate them to the arid locale of Rajasthan adds to the “tourist appeal” of the story, but detracts from its authenticity. I took these contradictions to author Anjali Mitter Duva, who candidly addressed some of these tensions in the writing. How can a mother have feminist thoughts and
A modern reader can find it hard to reconcile the sacred and the profane. How can a devadasi be sacred and yet a sanctioned provider of sexual services to wealthy patrons ? This dichotomy, or duality, is one that has existed in Indian society for so long, and still, to some extent, exists. Not so much as sacred/ profane but as revered/abused. There is still a tendency to revere the Mother—as creator, as Mother Earth, as provider of sustenance—and yet women are ogled and groped and much worse on a regular basis. Honestly, I have a hard time with this myself. Researching and writing this book, and the next ones in the set I have planned, has allowed me to explore this issue, to illuminate some aspects of it, but I can’t claim to be providing an explanation. Who is the imagined reader of your book? Me. I do believe in the saying that you should write the book you want to read. Beyond that, my imagined reader is one with a curiosity and openness about the world, one who wants to be transported to another place, and one who enjoys learning as part of the reading experience. n Geetika Pathania Jain is the Managing Editor of India Currents.
Who is a Hindu, Again? By Gaurav Rastogi REARMING HINDUISM: Nature, Hinduphobia and the Return of Indian Intelligence by Vamsee Juluri. 2015. Westland Limited. 250 pages.
W
e are far away from home, all of us immigrants, and we have forgotten the sensory world that cocooned us; the smell of fresh monsoons, the burning of skin in the noonday sun, the taste of ripe mangoes in summer, the riot of colors worn by smiling festival crowds, and walking narrow lanes. Memory fades a little every day. We don’t remember ourselves as well as we should. Hindus have had amnesia for millennia. So lost are we, so weak is our recollection of home, that we have come to think in a borrowed language, our history books written for us by kind civilizing experts, and our culture, mythology and economic system all force wrapped into this package called “religion” and handed to us as “Hinduism.” Why, we read that even the words “hindu” and “India” are borrowed from others who knew us better than we know ourselves now! We believe them, when some say our people were blond, blue-eyed European overlords, quick on the horse, and weak with them written scripts. Others told us that we split our society into four hardbands that were separated at birth. We learn also that our religion promotes indolence by its emphasis on fate and karma. Some tell us, with relish, that ancient Hindus were a randy bunch, complete with pantomimed animal sex built into their rituals. So deep our amnesia, and so pervasive this new conditioning, that we know these claims to be indisputable facts, not subject to scientific inquiry any more. But wait, there’s the other side that claims the exact opposite too, of a golden civilization that wasn’t just imaginative, but also infinitely (often comically) inventive. Flying airplanes, nuclear weapons, interstellar travel, test-tube babies ... these are all made in Bharat. Everything great ... all made in one great country. We want to believe them—because who wants to believe they were once lowly—but cringe at some claims, because we don’t know what sources they cite, and anyways don’t know the language and idiom of antiquity. Both schools of thought are loud. One, in English and written by the English and their descendants in academia, that simplifies a complex society into a comic-book
religion, and the Other, by reawakened and resurgent right-wingers, that seems to swing the pendulum widely in the other direction and makes claims that are evidently exaggerated, also a comic-book religion. But who speaks for practicing Hindus who believe there’s merit in knowing more about the historical, spiritual and cultural context into which they were born? Vamsee Juluri raises his arm, with “Rearming Hinduism,” published by Westland Books in India and available also as an eBook. The book’s title is a pun, not a warning, by the way, just in the way “A Farewell to Arms” might refer both to the loss of ordnance, as well as to the loss of limbs. Just use a brown paper cover while carrying this book at the airport. The book is a valiant attempt at opening up a third position in the cacophony around Hinduism. Written by someone who grew up in India but has been out of the country for a good part of his grown-up life, the book speaks up on behalf of many of us. Distance and time away from India have also given the author the perspective that’s needed to formulate his own, independent, opinion that is contrasted with the prevailing academic opinion in the west, and with extreme right-wing propaganda in India. The book is brave; here’s an academic taking a stance counter to the prevailing academic dogma of the time. (Wendy Doniger, please take note). Hinduism is defined internationally not by the Hindus themselves, but by India-watching academics who all deploy their shrill screeds to defend their own kind. This discourse on Hinduism has been an outsider’s perspective, informed only by
reading each others’ mutually congratulatory works and tempered not with any experience of living the dharma that’s still alive and full of life. Instead of looking at the flame in the tea-light-candle, the academics have fussed over the empty aluminum shells that carry neither the fire nor the fuel, and declared the religion devoid of life or substance. A friend (esteemed academic, he), joked to me once that academics look at an event that has happened, and think “this works in practice, but does it work in theory”?! Juluri has taken a sharp, humorous, and clear stance against this academic orthodoxy in this book. The book is also deft at avoiding the land-mines that might trip the intrepid independent thinker. Juluri questions the lame history of the academics but does not spend any ink in offering his own alternative “alternative history.” He does not get into the “my religion is better than yours” debate either, which is a wise choice, too. He has also not made the book into “banning bait” by directly attacking sharp-right positions on Hinduism, or even Hindutva. Well played, Sir, well played! I did find the author’s voice troublesome. He writes as if the book is to be read aloud by trained Hollywood trailer narrators (“IN A WORLD” ...). What could have been a pleasant airplane side-seat conversation over peanuts and over-iced soda turns out to be a harangue. Maybe the author felt obliged to take a louder voice to counter the shrill noise on the two other sides, we don’t know. It would have been better to have a calmer voice, given the importance of the subject and the fine mastery of nuance needed to have the conversation. The author also spends half the book with a somewhat lyrical take on the Hindu view on God. This is core to his understanding of Hinduism, and this half of the book certainly is a very personal take on the heart of all Hindu practice. Hinduism is coming out of its amnesia. There is a room for a calm practitioner’s perspective. Juluri’s book, “Rearming Hinduism” is a great place for sane voices to gather and rediscover dharma. This isn’t the final word on the subject, but is certainly a great ice-breaker to start the conversation. Go read it with your book club. n Gaurav is the author of Offshore: India’s Services Juggernaut. He lives in the Bay Area, where he’s also spreading Yoga and plotting a spiritual revolution.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 29
films
The Hollow Man By Aniruddh Chawda
BADLAPUR. Director: Sriram Raghavan. Players: Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddique, Huma Quereishi, Yami Gautami, Radhika Apte, Vinay Pathak, Divya Dutta, Kumud Mishra,. Music: Sachin-Jigar. Hindi with Eng. Sub-tit. Theatrical release (Eros)
Remarkably, it takes a couple of smaller roles to fully validate Raghav’s long, slow descent into darkness. Dutta as Shoba, a social worker, and Apte as Koko, a seemingly innocent restaurant-owner, are both perfectly amicable characters who get wronged by Raghav just because he associates them with Liak and Harman. Only Mishra, the detective who may be on to Raghav, can possibly counter Raghav’s end game. So why the less than fully enthusiastic endorsement? It’s simple. Plotting revenge where there is death involved–no matter how well played, stylishly depicted, well-acted or dramatic—still pretty much amounts to vigilantism. Having the friend of my enemy instantly become my enemy as well is a disturbing tangent to hitch a sail on. The actual act of redemption—when it comes—is somewhere far from where we started and a “victory” only befalls a hollow shell that was formerly a man. That leaves too much of a nagging feeling to overcome. n
F
ilmmaker Raghavan established his revenge-motif creds appreciably with the edgy psychological thriller Ek Hasina Thi (2004) with Urmila Matondkar in the lead. A decade later, Raghavan’s update of pretty much the same modus in another revenge story brings us to Badlapur, which stakes its claim on an opening sequence that the filmmakers like to plug often and have parked their fortunes on. When the curtain rises, there is a twisted, modern revenge story that in spite of provocative posturing does not go far enough to truly be brave when and where it counts the most. For young city-slicker Raghav (Dhawan), the biggest worry appears to be juggling a successful marketing career with catering to the whims of his wife Misha (Gautami) and young son. On a routine shopping stop on a busy street, Misha and her son are taken hostage by two bank robbers making a getaway with sizable loot. The tragic end for the hostages sets the stage for Raghav deciding to pursue the two robbers at any cost. As the wheels of justice churn in their tortuous path, Raghav single-mindedly sets out to hunt down Liak (Siddique), the robber who gets caught, and Harman (Pathak), the other robber who makes a getaway with the loot. The central, mostly one-sided, animosity pits two divergent and off-kilter personalities. Consumed by hate, Raghav gives up his comfortable life to become a virtually reclusive urban hermit. Liak, meanwhile, even during his lengthy jail sentence, contemplates repeated bouts of redemption egged on by his aging mother (Pratima Kazmi). Raghav, meanwhile, pursues the one figure that figures prominent in the lives for both he and his nemesis—the comely high-end escort Jhimli (Qureishi) who both men must come to terms with. Are both men making the same journey? Are they opposite sides of the same moral coin that has been tossed up and has yet to fall? Liak inches toward a frail trial by figurative self-immolation while Raghav 30 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | April 2015
takes increasingly darker circles in hopes of finding himself again. Both men also trace down Harman, who is now living a posh life off of the original bank loot. Raghav’s transgression with Harman will decide each man’s fate. Since making his jealous campus boy-toy debut in Karan Johar’s Student of the Year (2012), Dhawan, son of veteran cheezyfilmmaker extraordinaire David Dhawan, has made good strides and, along with Siddharth Malhotra, is all set to cash in on film budgets for which Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar or Hrithik Roshan are too expensive. His Raghav 2.0 here is a thickly-bearded barely living stranger who makes contours in a broad downward spiral that is captivating and yet not all that pleasant to witness. Siddique is becoming an amazing character actor. His on-again off-again down market hustler imbeds a teasingly vague perpetual smile—half mocking and half controlling. Raghav’s and Liak’s closely drawn enemies brings to mind Hollywood entries The Defiant Ones and especially Enemy Mine —down to the publicity poster. At the vortex of a very loose love triangle, Quereishi’s Jhimli offers a gutsy wanton woman who must face both affection and abuse in the hands of both men.
EQ: B+ Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.
L ATA’S FLICK PICKS old Hotel
Marig
ur
Badlap
a ke Haisha Dum Lag Roy Rang
Rasiya
Rahasya
Dark, Beautiful and Heartbreaking By Reena Kapoor from her father’s sculpting, is heart wrenching to watch. Rasika Dugal plays Neeli – the young, spirited daughter-in-law who shocks everyone by refusing to comply with the status quo. However she does care for Kanwar and tries in vain to help her overcome her crisis. There is a lovely, delicate scene between the two women when they laugh in tears about how each of them fell in love with another woman! All in all this film is a rare treat. It took Anup Singh 13 years to make this. And you can see why—it’s a carefully crafted tale that deserves the most discerning and appreciative of audience. I for one had been rooting for it as India’s entry for “Best Foreign Film” at the 2015 Oscars. It was that good, Mr. Singh! n
QISSA. Director: Anup Singh. Players: Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal and Tisca Chopra. Music: Beatrice Thiriet and Manish J Tipu. Punjabi with English Sub-titles.
I
had the pleasure of watching Qissa —The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (Punjabi with English sub-titles) at its North America premier at The Sikh Lens Arts & Film Festival in Orange County, CA on Nov 22nd, 2014. This is an intricate, heart-wrenching tale powerfully etched by the dexterous hands of Anup Singh. The movie starts with the backdrop of the 1947 Partition of India and the theme of loss runs right through it. The film then goes on to mercilessly expose the ridiculous limits a patriarchy must go to, in order to preserve itself. Umber Singh, played by the incomparable Irrfan Khan, is a Sikh man uprooted (along with his wife and three young daughters) from his village in West Punjab, and forced to flee eastward to the new India formed as a result of Partition. Soon after he is somewhat re-established in India, his wife delivers a fourth daughter, Kanwar. At this point, Umber declares they have had a son and brushing aside all objections, proceeds to raise Kanwar as a boy. This charade continues unchecked even up to the point when Umber marries Kanwar off as a man! The absolutism of the patriarchy, accompanied by the threat of violence, runs as menacing undercurrents throughout the film. When she is giving birth for the fourth time, Umber’s wife, who somehow expects the newborn to be female, asks Umber if he plans to kill her if she does not produce the elusive son. In a later scene when young Kanwar is injured accidentally in a scuffle with one of her sisters, Umber unleashes his wrath at the older siblings by beating the sisters in a locked room. As the drama of Kanwar’s misplaced gender identity unfolds, the women mostly watch on helplessly. That is until Umber’s daughter-in-law, a lower caste girl expected to gratefully comply with this charade, surprises everyone by questioning this status quo. But by then it is too late and the story unfolds inexorably into a disaster for all concerned. Thematically, Partition as the starting point for the film is a powerful and relevant
one. The patriarchy that so cherished the concept of “honor” built off the backs of its helpless women, then greatly exploited it during Partition—women, girls on all sides and as a matter of priority, were raped, mutilated, and devastated in ways unimaginable. That same patriarchy so bound to its feudal origins, the land it owned and a limited imagination, could only consider sons bearing its name. And this notion was so embedded in that reality that not having a male heir became as much a matter of economic devastation as of social shame. As the director and screenplay writer, Anup Singh displays admirable restraint with minimal dialog, nuanced performances elicited from his cast, and the straightforward telling of an explosive tale. A metaphorical twist in the story leaves you stunned yet believing. I would be remiss if I did not call out the three women actors—Tilottama Shome, Tisca Chopra and Rasika Dugal—who were perfect in their respective roles, each holding her own vis-a-vis Irrfan Khan. Tisca Chopra is perfectly cast as the mother, Umber’s wife, who is at once strong in somehow bearing through this farce and yet infuriatingly aware of her own powerlessness and place. Tilottama Shome, who plays Kanwar during the teenage years and as a young adult, does an incredible job providing a window into Kanwar’s deep suffering. Her fundamental crisis of identity shifting between her desire to be true to herself yet unable to divorce herself
Reena Kapoor graduated with a B.Tech in Engineering from IIT Delhi followed by an MS from Northwestern University, USA. Reena lives and works in Silicon Valley, and has been a founding donor, and a Citizen Historian collecting stories for The 1947 Partition Archive since 2011.
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April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 31
travel
The Magic of Angkor–Build it and They Will Come By Riz Mithani
Angkor Wat reflected in the Lotus Pool at sunrise
A
lthough most South East Asian countries boast the Tuk Tuk as being a very common mode of transportation, their comfort element in general leaves much to be desired, what with slim benches as seats, noisy powerless engines handling over-capacity loads, and wheels that seem specifically designed to give you a bumpy ride. Not so in the muggy crowded city of Siem Reap in Cambodia, that is home to the beautiful Temples of Angkor, a few kilometers away from its city center. Siem Reap’s Tuk Tuks are really remork-motos, little motorcycles with carriages not unlike the romantic horse-driven kind, with names emblazoned on their backsides like “Batman” or “Angel” or “Rolls Royce,” depending presumably on the personality of the Tuk Tuk driver, and not necessarily the condition of the vehicle.
Tourist Currency
The entire tourist economy of Siem Reap and Angkor works on US dollars as the official currency; even after spending five days, I have no idea what things are actually supposed to cost. The bargaining goes
32 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C. | April 2015
something like this: say a vendor stops you on the street; he or she will start “Sir, would you like this t-shirt for six dollars?” (Now mind you, as an aside, these local vendors at a minimum speak German, Japanese and Korean too; simply incredible what people are capable of learning when it comes to the survival of the fittest!) Anyway, while you are attempting to digest what this vendor is trying to hawk, they consider your hesitation to signify that you are looking for a lower price, and without you having uttered a word, they would say “How about two t-shirts for ten dollars?” and while you continue to stare, the price drops to “How about three t-shirts for eight dollars?” and as you start to walk away confused, “just take one then for two dollars!” The ways to get to and around the temples of Angkor are as varied in style and cost as the choices for your stay in and around Siem Reap. You could splurge at the Raffles Grand Hotel for $250 a night if ostentatious opulence is your style, or stay at the equally comfortable but decidedly less ornate boutique guest houses in the Psar Chaa area for
under $50, which puts you close to the night action on Pub Street and its surrounding Night Markets. In the former case, there are some who simply then take in the vastness of the Angkor Complex from a helicopter ride without setting foot in any of the temples, and see the temple’s looted artifacts in the air-conditioned comfort of the Angkor National museum instead. Most people end up either joining bus or minibus tours, or hire private cars or Tuk Tuks; we chose to tour by a simple retro Tuk Tuk driven by the amicable Mr. Khorn who chose to emblazon the back side of his ride as “Sweet Corn” (No really! It does rhyme with Khorn!)
Myths and History
The Temples of Angkor were built over a period of centuries starting with the 9th under the rule of Jayavarman II, followed by each monarch building bigger and larger number of temples, until the death of Jayavarman VII in the 13th century. Each wanted to be known by history to be the biggest builder, their quest leaving us a fascinating legacy to marvel at a thousand years later.
As you tour the temple circuit, you will end up learning a lot regarding Hindu mythology, starting from the Brahma-VishnuShiva trilogy to tales from Ramayana and Mahabharata; you will end up wishing you had remembered some details on those from your childhood as the tour guides definitely look at you suspiciously when you are uncertain where Kashyapa fits into the grand scheme of things despite your obviously uber Indian good looks. Well if you must know, Rishi Kashyapa had married two sisters Kadru and Vinata, the latter of the two lost a wager bounding her into eternal servitude of Kadru. Kadru had borne Kashyapa a 100 Nagas (snakes) while Vinata had borne him Garuda, the king of birds. To break his mother free from bondage, Garuda promised the Nagas that he would fetch them the divine nectar in return, which, to his credit, he was successful in procuring. The selfless Garuda did not end up partaking this liquid of eternal life, but ended up begetting immortality from Vishnu himself anyway for his demonstration of devotion, while the Nagas ended up with forked tongues as they were tricked into licking some very sharp grass that they believed might have been contaminated by the divine nectar. Now you know! ngkor Wat, the temple that boasts the moniker of the entire region, includes hundreds of feet of wall carved with tales of Ramayana, another equally long wall shows Mahabharata, and yet another has stories and images of Suryavaraman, the king who commissioned its construction, proving that selfies were in fashion even then. These carvings were originally gilded, and even though the gold is now completely gone, you find some of the walls painted red. The red paint was added by the Buddhists who took over four centuries later, it being their religious color of choice. They also moved the Hindu idols to the outer areas of the temples, and replaced the inner sacristies with statues of the Buddha in various poses— sleeping, standing or sitting in the Dhyana or Boomi Mudra. There is, at this time, no rhyme or reason why you are allowed to wear shoes in some of the sacred areas but not others. Whether to take your shoes off or keep them on can be confusing in other places too like stores, restaurants, salons and even your own hotel lobby!
A
The Feminine Touch at Bnteay Srei
More Myths and History
It took 37 years and 38,500 volunteers to build. It is amazing that workers did this out of love and dedication and were not slave labor like builders of other ancient marvelous structures like the Taj Mahal or the Pyramid. How do we know such precise information? Interestingly, there are intact Sanskrit inscriptions in stone that describe these statistics and the procedure of building these temples; most of these are now housed in the airconditioned Angkor National Museum. The sandstone walls of the temple have holes bored into them as that was the way to drag them with rope from almost 70 kms away. These holes are not to be confused with the smaller holes in the walls that you will find in the inner sanctums; these held gemstones during the glorious past, and are now part
of the loot that never made it to that airconditioned Angkor National Museum. Angkor Wat is best seen at sunrise; taking this advice to heart, there are at least 2,000 people who line up (more like crowd around) the lotus pool before dawn to catch a glimpse of the magnificence of the changing colors of the Wat’s reflection as the sun rises. Even if you are not an early riser in general, this experience is highly recommended. When you look at the picture of Agnkor Wat or any of the other temples, you see a quintet of towers that appear to be in a single line; this is an illusion as, in reality, the four smaller towers are laid out in a square with the taller central one smack in the center of the square. The reason they appear in a line is that these temples are so vast that the photographer has no choice but to snap them from a very long distance to enclose them in a single frame in their entirety, thus distorting their actual dimensionality.
Practical Matters
Unlike in other Asian countries, after your bladder is full from drinking coconut water, sugarcane juice or palm juice (that drink of Neera which turns into alcoholic toddy upon fermentation), and you are still wandering around ornate temples with names like Preah Khan or Bnteay Kdei, neither of which are to be Angkor Wat Apsaras April 2015 | Washington, D.C. | www.indiacurrents.com | 33
missed, do not fear about where you will relieve yourself, as the Angkor area possibly has the cleanest public restrooms on the entire continent, thanks to the portion of your $20 per day ticket being put to work for this absolute biological necessity.
Still More Myths and History
Trust me when I say that Preah Khan is no relation to any of the Bollywood Khans, but its name means Temple of the Sacred Sword, which we never managed to locate during our visit, not for the lack of trying. It’s for reasons like this that hiring a good tour guide is important; ours was not knowledgeable about the sword, but did show us the ensconced statues of Jayavarman VII’s two sisterwives, Queens Indradevi and Jayarajadevi. Hey, don’t blame him; it was Rishi Kashyapa who started the tradition, but at least Jayavarman VII married the younger after the older sister passed away. On our own, neither would we have found these statues nor would we have known the interesting tale that the younger wife had wrapped her soul in a shawl that the king carried with him to war. It was this shawl that protected him from certain death during a battle, but that virtual injury cost the wife back home her life!
Celestial Beauties
Although many of the temples have a similar layout, it is most evident in Preah Neak Pean (the Temple of the Intertwined Nagas) where you can visualize the high point of the temple to symbolize the Hindu Heaven of Mount Meru, as the Asuras (demons holding the head of the serpent rope) and Devas (demigods holding the tail of that same serpent rope) on the pathways leading to it, churn the ocean of milk. When milk churns, it creates foam and what does this foam give birth to? You guessed it— Apsaras, the celestial maidens of yore. Carvings of these heavenly beauties are found wily-nilly along various walls, nooks and crannies of the temple; these ensconced statues are bare from the waist up but are bedecked with heavy jewelry around their necks and ears. The tradition of dances by Apsaras continues into these modern times, possibly for the benefit of the tourist economy and you can catch these for free at the Night Market, or pay 10-15 US dollars for a buf-
34 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
The Indian Jones Tomb Raider Experience at Ta Prohm
fet dinner while you watch, or maybe go all out to grand stage productions like Smile Apsara which would set you back 40-50 US dollars a pop. They are all “Same Same But Different,” an expression whose meaning you will only grasp if you travel to countries in that part of South East Asia. Oh, and do not fear if you have children in tow on your trip, these modern Apsara Dancers are family friendly and dressed up from the waist (as well as waist down).
Finally Templed Out
Unless you are a scholar of ancient architecture, it is very likely that you will be templed out; we ended up skipping the twin temples of Thomanon and Chau Say Tevoda. The one you do not want to miss is Ta Prohm, as many of its sights look straight out of an Indiana Jones movie (or Tomb Raider for the Angelina Jolie fans amongst us). A visit here serves to demonstrate how nature is much stronger than anything man made as you will see gigantic tree roots that have crept all over the abandoned site. Our Mother Earth will find a way to survive regardless of the destruction by her children. Amen! The Temple of Bnteay Srei is 25 km away from the rest of the temple circuit, but it’s well worth the trip; this is where you will see the most delicate of the Angkor carvings (mostly about the stories of the various Avatars of Lord Vishnu), that survived for
over a 1,000 years! The guidebook claims that these were made by women, again out of love and dedication, not enslavement. While you are in that vicinity, and if you are physically fit, do make the steep climb up to Kbal Spean along a well marked trail to reach the sacred waterfall of fertility, made so as it flows over a 1,000 lingas representing the male organ of generation and a single yoni representing the female reproductive organ. When you are really really templed out, you may be tempted to go visit one of the floating villages, but I would recommend you avoid it; I am convinced that the waterways are highly contaminated with sewage and you will breathe in airborne bacteria, which was the most likely reason I almost threw up the delicious Amok curry I had for lunch later that afternoon. Instead, head to the free tour of the silk farm, where although you know this subconsciously, you will actually see for yourself that the production of silk is not a vegan enterprise; the worms are boiled to death in their cocoons before the silk threads can be spun. With that thought, let me end spinning my travelogue to the Magical Angkor! n Riz Mithani is a graduate of IIT Bombay and ekes out a living in the Bay Area by peddling simple business and technology solutions to highly complex problems that provide a real return on investment. When he is not dancing or traveling, he blogs occasionally at rizmit.wordpress.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 35 |
recipes
The Poetry in Burmese Cuisine By Praba Iyer
M
y grandmother loved to reminisce about her life in Palakkad, Kerala. She would talk about many local characters: some bums, some quirky and a few fascinating outliers. When we moved to Coimbatore, we got to meet one such outlier, Mani Kuttan. He was dressed “tiptop and clean-cut,” as she would describe it. A high school dropout, he had managed to find work in faraway Calcutta, and from there moved on to Burma. The rumor was that he had married a Burmese woman and had a family there. He would come down South to spend time with his aging mother. On his way home, he would stop at our place with a small tin of Burmese tea. I distinctly remember the Burma that he would describe with so much love, saying “the sizzling, hot Burmese road-side food will make you forget that you are a vegetarian!” This is an ode to Mani Kuttan, who had introduced Burma to me. Burma has been the favorite of many a
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poet. As Kipling says in “Mandalay:” “If you’ve ‘eard the East a-callin’, you won’t never ‘eed naught else.” No! you won’t ‘eed nothin’ else But them spicy garlic smells, An’ the sunshine an’ the palm-trees an’ the tinkly temple-bells; On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’-fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay! There is a lot of poetry in Burmese cuisine, as we are discovering right here in SoCal, through restaurants such as Daw Yee Myanmar Cafe and Yoma Myanmar. The cuisine is a distinct blend of its neighbors, from Indian (lentils and spices) to Thai (chilies, lime and peanuts), Chinese (noodles and soy) and Bangladeshi (seafood). It has the subtlety of Chinese, the spiciness of Thai, and the depth of Indian spices. Yet Burmese food has a distinct and unique flavor that is all its own.
The rich fertile land has enabled the abundant supply of fruits, vegetables and crops throughout the year. Rice is the main staple and constitutes 70% of the meal. A Burmese meal starts with a spicy soup, opening one’s palate to the complex flavors of dishes to follow. Then an array of fresh salads (thoke) with fresh, raw, fermented, crunchy, and crispy textures add as accompaniments. The main dishes are fish, meat and vegetables simmered in curries. The rice in the center is surrounded by all the dishes. People sit on the floor and eat with their right hand. The desserts resemble many familiar Indian desserts like jamuns, sweet parathas, halwa and more. Here are some famous Burmese dishes for you to try at home. n Praba Iyer is a Chef Instructor who teaches team- building through cooking classes and custom cooking classes in the bay area. She is a consulting Chef at Kitchit (www.kitchit.com). You can reach her at praba@rocketbites.com.
A Creative Commons Image
salt to taste Juice of 1 lime 1 teaspoon salt
Sizzling Spicy Samosa Soup
This is a great soup to make with leftover samosas and falafels. I used black and white chole (garbanzo beans) instead of falafels in this recipe. 1 cup toor dal (split pigeon peas) (cooked in 4 cups of water) ½ cup cooked black garbanzo beans ½ cup cooked white garbanzo beans 1 tablespoon ghee 3 large shallots chopped fine 1 tablespoon ginger/garlic paste 1 vine ripe tomato chopped fine 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon cayenne powder 1½ teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon coriander powder 1 tablespoon cumin powder 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate 1 cup Napa cabbage torn into pieces 6 cups vegetable broth 1 tablespoon garam masala 1 cup sprouts ½ cup scallions chopped Salt to taste ¼ cup cilantro chopped 5-6 mint leaves chopped Squeeze of lime at the table 6-8 hot samosas 6-8 falafels (optional) Heat ghee in a saucepan and add the shallots and saute for a few minutes until slightly brown, Now add the ginger garlic paste, tomato, turmeric, cayenne, black pepper, coriander and cumin powders and mix well for a minute. Add the napa cabbage and tamarind concentrate and mix well. Season with salt. Now add the cooked toor dal with water, cooked black and white garbanzo beans along with the vegetable broth. Let it simmer on medium heat till all the flavors are mixed. Now add the garam masala, sprouts and scallions. Check seasonings and adjust. Place the hot samosa into each soup bowl. Cut it in the center to open and then pour the hot soup on top. Then garnish it with cilantro, mint and squeeze of lime if needed.
Fermented Tea Leaf Salad (Lahpet Thoke)
This is a show stopper salad. It takes a little time and four meticulous steps, but guaranteed to win you accolades. I used a combination of all unused tea leaves like jasmine, green, white, oolong to make the salad. Step 1: Preparing the Tea Leaves 1 cup tea leaves Steep the tea in hot water for 15 minutes, strain and repeat the process a few times. This removes the bitterness of the tea. Now steep it in cold water overnight. Drain and squeeze out the liquid next morning. Step 2: Fermenting Tea Leaves 1 cup kale leaves 3 cloves of garlic 1 inch piece fresh ginger ½ cup cilantro 3 scallions 2-3 green chilies
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Sizzling Spicy Samosa Soup
Place all the above ingredients in a food processor and chop it up into tiny pieces along with the tea leaves. Place this mixture in a glass bowl. Cover it tightly and place it in a dark place for two days. Remove and place it in the refrigerator. The fermented tea is ready to be served. Step 3: Garnishes 2 cups shredded napa cabbage ½ cup roasted green peas, coarsely chopped ½ cup roasted pumpkin seeds, coarsely chopped ½ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed 1 Tablespoon garlic chopped and fried in oil (save the oil a handful cherry tomatoes halved Lime slices Step 4 : Assemble and Serve Place the shredded Napa cabbage in a large bowl Assemble all the garnishes in small bowls around this large bowl. Tightly pack a greased bowl with the fermented tea leaves. Flip the tea leaves on to the center of the shredded Napa cabbage. When ready to serve, add all the garnishes green peas, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, fried garlic with oil and cherry tomatoes and to the big bowl and mix the tea leaf salad. Squeeze a little lime and serve. n
Fermented Tea Leaf Salad April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 37 |
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perspective
Empathy or the Lack Thereof By Manikya Veena
O
ver the past few weeks, I have come across several articles written on empathy, or the lack thereof. These articles have caused me to wonder if we have stopped seeing humans as beings of spirit with feelings and emotions; compassionate and empathetic beings. In her New York Times article “In my Cat’s Death, a Human Comfort,” Margo Rabb talks about the end-of-life scenarios, the process of death and grief and compares them between her cat, her mother, and her father who have died over the past three decades. Her cat’s illness incited a lot more understanding and compassion, and she was allowed to take her time grieving, whereas she says her experience with her parents was met with apathy. Unbelievable, but I have to believe her. Suffering of pets evoke more empathy in American society than the suffering of humans. We’ve watched in disbelief how George Zimmerman got away scot-free when he pleaded Florida’s “ Stand your Ground” law after he killed 19-year-old Treyvon Martin, who posthumously made the “Hoodie” a symbolic feature of race and the oppressed. All this, whilst Melissa Alexander, a black woman with an abusive husband was in jail. Melissa lost her case pleading the same law despite the fact that she did not kill or hurt anyone, but merely fired a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison (after a mere five-minute hearing). We’ve accepted this as just the way things are. We continue condoning NFL by way of our patronage despite its entire sub-culture of turning a blind eye to all the violations of human dignity that many of its players display. Not only do we not care that much, we actually go to an extent of thinking of victims of abuse as stupid because we actually believe that they “choose” to stay. Because we tell ourselves that domestic violence is a personal matter. Not true. It’s a crime, and perpetrators must be duly punished. In his Op Ed for The New York Times, titled “Where’s the Empathy,” Nicolas Kristof talks of his high school buddy Kevin Green, who died early due to the lack of a life of opportunity and equality. He goes on to show how despite being hardworking and showing promise, the system cheated him of upward mobility, and how most Americans tend to feel disdain and shun such people who they believe are mooching off the sys-
A Creative Commons Image by Sean MacEntee tem. We have heard this rhetoric time and again. We also do not care enough to track or investigate stories such as Kevin Green’s. Because it’s not our business. We wouldn’t know or care. At times, I’ve felt that the lack of empathy is perhaps ingrained in our culture, in our media. An American sense of humor focuses a lot on mocking others, the way they look, or behave, or make fools of themselves. We watch TV shows and laugh hysterically at videos where others are scared, or hurting without flinching to say “ouch,” or ask oneself: what if that were one of my own, or me? We also look at a video of people being killed as if it was a horror movie, or a subject of conversation over drinks and dinner. We even do our part by taking videos of persons being beaten and killed like Oscar Grant was at the Fruitvale Bart station in Oakland, without stepping up to the plate as a human race to collectively stop a life from being taken away right before our eyes. Instead we post them on social media. It may be true that inequalities naturally tend to exist, but both injustices and equalities are also created and supported by our failing systems. But it’s not right that we as a human race have become so accustomed to the unfeelingness. This is the empathy gap that Kristof is talking about in his post. As if it’s not our fault. As if we can’t do much. Think how strange it is that Michael Vick gets jail time for indulging in dog-fighting, and someone like Daniel Panteleo gets away scot-free for choking and killing Eric Garner? Or that Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson didn’t penalize officer Darren Wilson? One would imagine that these assaults and crimes on humans are far more horrifying. We tend to have feelings of compassion for animals in distress, and although that’s not bad in and of itself, it’s unacceptable and shameful that the same empathy and compassion does not hold true for a human life. To understand this absurdness, just imagine
this scenario. Officer Panteleo is choking a labrador to death because the dog is snarling and growling. Panteleo is afraid that the dog might attack and, just to be safe, he kills the labrador with a chokehold. And all this is being filmed. The video would have been enough evidence to put Panteleo away in jail for animal abuse. Now imagine Ray Rice beat a dog to pulp in the privacy of an elevator? Loyal or not, the dog would have no say in sending him to prison. Yet Janey Palmer, Rice’s wife had a say in preventing assault charges against him. Evidently a human life does not deserve as much dignity as an animal does. Now, that’s the problem of apathy. However, all is not lost because we do care. We’ve raised a hue and cry about all of this. There are thousands of examples where we as a human race have courageously demonstrated that we care, but it’s still not enough. It may be necessary to get into someone else’s shoes and feel and live and breathe their lives, enough to evoke compassion and the feeling of empathy. Studies have shown that compassion can be developed. For example, the research done at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that adults can be trained to be more compassionate. They have found that meditation changes the maps of the brain to evoke certain feelings that lean towards being compassionate and sympathetic to others. Researcher Helen Weng says “It’s kind of like weight training ... we found that people can actually build up their compassion ‘muscle’ and respond to others’ suffering with care and a desire to help.” None of us may have all the answers but together we can all make a difference.n Manikya has worked as a journalist and tech writer for much of her adult life. She lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband, their three children and the family dog. Her personal blog is: mywriterstudio.wordpress.com
April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 39 |
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healthy life
Vision, Clarity and Cataracts By Mimm Patterson
F
or the twenty-four months that I was in graduate school I struggled to complete reading assignments. I labeled myself lazy. I was convinced I lacked discipline when it felt impossible to read more than three or four pages at a time. The truth was I struggled to complete reading assignments because I was struggling to see. Over twenty million Americans over the age of forty have cataracts and in 2015 approximately three million will have cataract surgery. I am one of those three million. Two weeks ago the vision in my left eye hovered around 20/400. Today my distance vision in the same eye is 20/20. In a few months I’ll have the cataract in my right eye removed. I hope for the same sparkling results. It’s true. The world, through my left eye, sparkles. I’m shocked by the clarity
42 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
and crisp edges, the color and the detail. How did I not know what I was missing? I guess cataracts sneak up on us. The diminishing light isn’t noticed. It’s not until an ophthalmologist sees the clouding of the lens and says, “Oh! You have a cataract!” that we realize we’ve been missing out. We’ve not been able to see all that this beautiful world has to offer. In that way, cataracts are a bit like habits we ignore until we can no longer notice the impact they have on our lives. I have some habits, some cycles I go through, that diminish the quality of my life in the same way that pesky cataract diminished my vision. The patterns that I bump into again and again dull my spirit. They include disparaging thought loops and actions that I know are harmful. They include choices that do not support health and wellness and spoken words that weaken the positive energy I wish to carry into the studio classes
I teach, my work with individual clients and the loving relationships I’m blessed to have in my life. Becoming aware of the patterns that make it difficult to live our best and brightest life and then taking action to bring about a return to clarity reminds us that we all hold a vision in our hearts. This simple procedure to repair my broken vision has led me to ask myself once again, “How do I want to walk through this life?” For now, at least, I can see that walk a little more clearly. n Mimm has been a yoga teacher, massage therapist, reflexologist and writer. When she’s not balancing in Ardha Chandrasana or wrestling with a sentence, Mimm’s either playing her guitar or doing homework. She is working towards a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology.
dear doctor
Handling Negative Feedback By Alzak Amlani
Q
Recently, I was leading a meeting at work with about fifteen colleagues to get some feedback about the culture at work. I put out some questions and informed them that their responses would be confidential and their feedback would be used to evaluate different aspects of the workplace and management. Although I know various people feel very positive about their jobs and organization, the unhappy and more critical employees spoke up first with a lot of passion. They were then joined by several others who kept finding fault. I didn’t know how to balance the meeting by asking them to comment on things they liked. I felt so embarrassed and felt it was my fault. Even though none of them targeted me, I still took it personally. I went home feeling exhausted, confused, scared and resentful. I don’t know quite how to understand what happened or ways to run a meeting so it doesn’t turn into a totally negative complaint session? Wow, this sounds very challenging, and there are several aspects of this situation that are worth a deeper look.
A
First, there seems to have been a trust in the room for employees to speak pretty candidly and say things that you wouldn’t like. Do you think that your inviting them to share in confidence allowed them to be more open? This is a credit to your listening without defensive reacting and shutting them down. From what you have written, it doesn’t sound like it was directed at you personally. I can appreciate that since you are listening to everything and they are speaking to you in the room, you would feel responsible. Nonetheless, if you look at the whole culture at work, how much do you think is true and why would this group let it out so directly? There is also the phenomenon of people bonding through complaining and groupmind. Negativity unfortunately brings people together, especially when they can focus that on an organization or a leader. Is your management authoritative and out of touch with the various employees and levels of management? If so, you can see why these folks would speak this way. To balance the
situation at the meeting a bit, you could frame the questions more specifically so that both sides—negative and positive are spoken. You would need to specifically ask people to name what they like for a part of the meeting and what they want different for another part of the meeting. You could also add how they contribute to each side or ways they could make things better for themselves. Human nature wants leaders, parents and government, to fix things. We are realizing that change happens very slowly. Is your organization ready for some change and why did they ask you to get this feedback? If your boss sees at least some of these complaints as legitimate, then here is an opportunity to create change. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650-325-8393. Visit www. wholenesstherapy.com
April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 43 |
feature
The Road Less Traveled
Two young adults visit India on a Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship By Matt Stockamp and Holly McKenna
I
took off my muddy sandals outside the door, and walked under a small doorframe into another world. The interior of the home was small yet beautiful. Ornate Hindu symbols hung on the walls and an altar adorned the back of the room. The central living space was about 10×15 feet, with a small door on the left that led to the kitchen. Opposite the kitchen was a small bedroom. The fragrance of incense was in the air, and the place was spotless, as these women had prepared for our visit. The home was special because of the people who inhabited its space. Three middle aged women and a younger girl of around 20, all dressed in beautiful saris sat with us, and in true Indian style, we packed about ten of us into the living room that only sat around five comfortably. We sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch across from the women, sipping on the hot chai they had generously prepared for us. There’s a unique fellowship in India that comes from drinking chai together, and when I took the chai then, I didn’t understand its full significance. When I reflect on the moment now, I know that these women weren’t only opening their home to us. They were also opening up their hearts. But let me back up a bit. When I heard about a Social Entrepreneurship fellowship, at the Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, I was captivated by its mission of educating the whole student through sending him/her abroad to work with a social enterprise employing entrepreneurial methods for solving complex social issues. I saw this fellowship as a
Matt Stockamp 44 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
Women at the Textile Factory Photo credit: Holly McKenna
Who was I, as a white, privileged American male to tell them they ought to change? unique opportunity to combine my passion for working with marginalized communities with my academic background in anthropology and international business. Saying yes to its acceptance would take me all the way to India, and the experience I had there. I came to appreciate how working at social enterprises, such as Good World Solutions (the company I worked with) is not easy and demands great adaptability. Back to Bangalore. The monsoon rains were coming down hard as I meandered through the muddy streets of a village on the outskirts of Bangalore. After visiting four clothing factories, I was frustrated not to have had the opportunity to spend more time with workers to hear about their lives and build trusting relationships. The factory’s productivity was too important, so interviewing time was limited with respondents. It wasn’t until that rainy July 6th in 2014 that I was able to talk with women outside of the confines of the factory, and further discover the amazing and difficult lives they lead, which would leave a lifelong impact on me. In the factories we visitied, labor unions
are highly castigated by management, and anyone who is suspected of starting one typically gets fired and refused employment in surrounding factories. There’s a culture of fear among workers, and it’s so intense that most refuse to talk with anyone about the hardships and treatment they endure in the workplace. In southern India, where approximately 80 per cent of factory workers are women, many of whom are uneducated, the environment is ripe for mistreatment and abuse. It was only through a labor union activist in the local community that I was permitted to enter into one of these women’s homes. It took a while for them to become comfortable with us, as sharing sensitive things about their lives both in the factory and at home was no easy thing to delve into. There was so much fear about what might happen to them if they opened up and we misused the information. So, we started talking about lighter things: our research and experiences in India, our love of Indian food and chai, for instance. When we had built a little bit of trust and the labor union advocate ensured the women it was okay to speak, they began to tell us more about their lives. The women had disturbing stories, explaining the verbal abuse and other difficulties they deal with in the factory. The average woman that works in a clothing factory wakes up at the break of dawn to prepare
food and do what it takes to get her children to school, followed by a grueling day in the workplace that lasts for 10 plus hours for all of 3 dollars a day, a small sum even by Indian standards. She goes home, prepares dinner, and continues her household chores late into the night only to do the same thing the following day. “Where is the agency and freedom to dream in the lives of these women?” I asked myself. I felt helpless and heartbroken, looking into the eyes of these women who had accepted this to be their share of life. Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram, wrote: “Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears.” That’s how I felt after talking with these women. Who was I, as a white, privileged American male to tell them they ought to change the way they see themselves in their society. It wasn’t my culture or place to say something like that. India was unlike any other place I had ever traveled to before. While I enjoyed seeing the “pretty side” of India, this fellowship also gave me access to conversing with workers in clothing factories that expressed the hardships and realities they faced in their day-to-day lives. I find myself inspired by people like Che Guevara (during his youth in The Motorcycle Diaries) and Mother Teresa, people who committed themselves to live with and fight for the rights of marginalized communities. It wasn’t until I got back from this experience that I’ve started to process and piece all of these former experiences together like a puzzle, which has revealed its image to me. And I will be forever thankful to these women for opening up their home and heart to me. n — Matt Stockamp Matt’s blog—http://blogs.scu.edu/mattstockamp.
Holly at the Golden Temple Photo credit: Holly McKenna
R
unning through the dimly lit factories, my mind was pounding with anxiety. The pictures were blurry at first, I didn’t know the culturally appropriate photographic behavior in India, and I didn’t know the language or the people. I just didn’t feel right snapping pictures of their faces. I have never been so negatively affected by photography in my life. I consider portrait photography one of my most valued hobbies. I get to know people, creatively figure out how to capture “who they are,” and take a picture with them. But I didn’t know these factory workers. I was just clicking away like a wealthy, white foreigner getting a high-class factory tour of this fascinating sight. I was taking pictures of this “fascinating sight” during a short trip, but for them, it is their life. I realized in this first factory visit, that I have an extremely hard time carrying the stereotype of a white, wealthy, American college student. I try so hard to portray my humble, non-
After some time, I started to realize my cultural sensitivity was a gift, not a curse.
judgmental, and culturally respectful attitude because it pains me inside when people think otherwise. Although I love photography, I couldn’t fathom raising my camera to snap a picture of a passed-out person on the street. I even felt guilt every time I brought out my fancy camera and took pictures in the factory, even with the consent of the factory managers. After some time, I started to realize that my cultural sensitivity was a gift, not a curse. Understanding India more, and feeling more comfortable in the culture as a whole, my anxiety decreased and the quality of the photos increased. Roaming the streets and factories of India reminded me of how sensitive I am to what other people are thinking and feeling. I could have shot some incredible, shocking, and outrageous photographs, but I was too afraid to create an exploitative image of myself. Maybe I regret not taking more photos, but I also remember the intense inner struggle I was battling with most of the time that gutted all the photographic energy out of me. At the end of the day, I feel like I developed my photographic skills in the least exploitative manner, which is something invaluable for my personal development and future endeavors. I was thrown a difficult ethical challenge to wrestle with, and since I wrestled, I am much stronger than before. n — Holly McKenna Holly’s blog—http://blogs.scu.edu/hollymckenna22/2014/10/03/vocational-essay-1-fallquarter-2014/ Matt and Holly are undergraduates at Santa Clara University. They would like to express their thanks to Emile McAnany, Keith Warner, Thane Kreiner, and many others.
Holly Makes New Friends Photo credit: Matt Stockamp April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 45 |
On Inglish
Not Just Another Jute Bag By Kalpana Mohan
ute oot noun rough fiber ade fro the ste s of sian plants, Corchorus olitorius and C. capsularis) used for making twine and rope or woven into sacking or matting the herbaceous plant that is culti ated for ute fiber, with edible young shoots
I
own a bag made of jute—about 18 inches long and a foot wide— that holds my laptop and the mingle-mangle of my writing life. Its handles are now frayed so badly that I suspect I won’t be able to use it at all unless I take it to India to have it repaired. Years ago, I might have tossed out that bag altogether. My mind changed following a drive into the hinterlands of Bengal a few years ago. My destinations included the weaving towns of Shanthipur and Phulia as well as Shantiniketan; however, as it often happens, the journey trumped the destination. An hour after we escaped the sound and dust of Kolkata, clean air filtered in. The sun streamed in. The landscape rippled into a verdant blur. Massive logs of wood striated the green. Soon, the scene thickened to something even thinner: jute. Biswajit, my Bengali guide, chattered on as we drove through the countryside. I learned that the plant was called “jute” even in Bengali. The word was borrowed from the vernacular of the adjacent state. Natives of Orissa called the jute plant and its fiber by the name “jhuto.” Jute fiber, as I had experienced it in my early years, was uninteresting: brown like mud, rough as bark, dull as husk. I’d forever been surrounded by gunny sacks made of jute—swollen with cement, coconuts, rice, wheat, mangoes. Ropes of varying heft and length—fashioned from jute and coir—lay coiled by the well of my parents’ old bungalow in Chennai. So I had scant respect for the lackluster length of doodad— until that day on the outskirts of Kolkata as we cruised on National Highway 34. On either side of the highway, in thickets between banana trees and coconut trees, jute stems poked the sky, emerging as reeds close to the earth and thickening on the top at seven feet where they sprouted into a shower of leaves. Here and there, clusters of jute reeds were knotted on top, like wigwams, awaiting their summer harvest. Most of the world’s jute cultivation, some 85%, was concentrated in this delta of the Ganga river. For miles around, jute fed and clothed the locals, permeating the soul of man and animal. After jute was harvested, farmers stacked them up to dry for three or four days in the sun. Then they threw the long reeds into lagoons where they rotted for up to fifteen or twenty days at a time. The men bashed the stems with a long wooden hammer to loosen the fiber from the core. “Can we stop to talk to them?” I asked Biswajit when, around the bend of the road, we came upon farmers pounding at stalks in the water. The main road had narrowed into a thin ribbon. Little inlets of water had sprung up around us. The stink of rotting stem diffused into the air. Mosquitoes infested the swamps, Biswajit warned, as he led me down to the water to show me the first stage in the processing of jute. Below, five men stood in waist-length water. The steady thwack of a wooden board on reed slashed the silence of the late morning. Severed reeds slid back in, casting ripples in the greenish-brown waters. I recalled something I’d heard earlier that morning in Kolkata from Ruby Pal Choudhury. A visionary in the Crafts Council of India, Ruby helped West Bengal’s weavers market their products through her outfit, 46 | INDIA CURRENTS | Washington, D.C.| April 2015
Artisana, a showroom stocking exquisite crafts and textiles from the northeastern region. In her hands, she had held a featherlight jamdhani silk scarf bordered with muga wild silk from Assam. It was expensive, she had said. It was positioned for a niche market, for the affluent, discerning customer. But Ruby wanted India to continue making them despite the mounting prices and the waning clientele. “Doesn’t matter. It should be there. We must not lose it. And we must not use Korean and Chinese muga.” She paused, glaring at me through her steelrimmed glasses. “Why? We have to support our weavers and our spinners and our farmers.” Ruby’s words haunted me that morning as I stood, later, beside my guide watching farmers thrash jute. Biswajit translated one of the men’s protests. “Don’t shoot photos. No photos, you hear?” Waist-deep in water the color of ten-day old wheatgrass juice, the farmer fielded my questions in a colorless way. He said that he stood amid the rotting jute for five hours a day, typically, from 7 AM until noon. “I get about 450 Rupees,” he said, without raising his head, his arm swinging as he stripped the cane. He tossed the eviscerated reed to his right. He loosened the jutes strands in the water. Fibers fanned out in the rotting swamp. Wherever I turned that day, oceans of jute swayed until the horizon. Closer to the road, washed fibers baked on bamboo poles, toasting like golden snakes catching the rays of the sun. Dried hairs sat coiled on the ground in tight bundles, Rapunzel’s locks sheared from the soil. In the last few years, jute is turning up, dyed in ravishing colors, in the form of artistic goodie bags at Indian weddings. At handloom exhibitions in Chennai, I would hear potential clients argue with middle men who peddled jute artifacts created by craftsmen back in West Bengal. I wanted to tell buyers my stories of dour men pickling in water for hours day after day. I wished to let them know that those men were the reason I would never ever part with my jute bags, or my jute chain, or my jute earrings, or my jute tussar sari. I wished they would hear my spiel while they were lost in the heat of their virulent bargain: “Just give him what he asks. Because what you see here is skin shorn by sodden limbs. This thing here was once a clump of stalks stripped by the salt of shriveled fingers, a lot of pale reeds, broken, by pale, broken men.” n Kalpana Mohan writes from Saratoga. To read more about her, go to http://kalpanamohan.org and http://saritorial.com.
April 2015 | Washington, D.C.| www.indiacurrents.com | 47 |
the last word
I Am India’s Daughter Too By Sarita Sarvate
I
saw the documentary, India’s Daughter. I did not want to see it; I was wary of an outsider judging India. But my curiosity got the better of me. Shall I tell you why, watching the film, I cried? If I told you that I cried for Nirbhaya, it would be true and also untrue. If I told you that I cried for the perpetrators’ hardened apathy, born out of neglect and poverty and deprivation, it would be only partially true. If I told you that I cried for a society where people live in such inhuman conditions that inhumanity becomes the norm, I would be telling you the truth but also not quite the truth. Shall I tell you that I cried because I felt powerless? Shall I tell you that I was supposed to rule the world? My father certainly told me so. But he and I were ahead of our times. So that when my husband demanded a dowry, my father felt pressured to I grant it, even though I begged him not to. So that during the suspect few years that I was married to my first husband, I felt a that almost deep sense of disrespect and every woman distrust toward him. Shall I tell you that who has looked at when I divorced him, I her life in the wake did not tell my parents the reason, because I did of the Delhi rapes of not wish to burden them? 2012 has realized that Shall I tell you that when my brother heard of it, she has not lived up he said that he felt sorry, not for me, but for my to her potential ... husband? I do not want to tell Hence the outrage you all this but it keeps ... The causes bubbling up inside me. Shall I tell you that my run very, very mother, a modern, ambitious, and intelligent woman, nevdeep. ertheless subconsciously favored my brother? Did she coddle him because, like most boys, he was colicky and fussy? Most certainly! Did she pamper him because as a baby he had been hospitalized with diphtheria and nearly died? Of course! Did my parents, even my progressive father, cater to his demands for special foods like sheera and rosogolla because they were afraid for his life? Perhaps! In later years, even after he began to look like the Bournvita boy, did they give him more food than they gave me because of some subconscious conditioning?
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I do not know. Shall I tell you that being a woman who is hardworking and capable and tenacious and successful is not easy? That I have been a focus of resentments for years? Shall I tell you that if the roles were reversed and I was the man and my brother the woman, life would be unremarkable? Shall I tell you that powerful women are made into witches and burned at the stakes? I suspect that almost every woman who has looked at her life in the wake of the Delhi rape of 2012 has realized that she has not lived up to her potential; that either she has made less money than a man or been denied promotions or, if she is more successful than her husband, been abandoned for a younger model. Or she has simply been denied her inheritance, which is still passed only to male offspring. Hence the outrage. The rapes are just the symptoms. The causes run very, very deep. Shall I tell you that twice in my life I have been in mortal danger in Delhi? The first time was decades ago, when I was living in India. I had gone for an interview for the position of a Probationary Officer with the Bank of India and stayed with my favorite uncle. The interview was miles away and the buses kept crawling, never making a stop. The job would be my ticket out of my life as a dowry bride; I had to go there. So, when a man asked me to share an auto-rickshaw, I agreed. But when he began to waylay me, I shouted, I threatened. I worked my big mouth. I survived. The second time was in 2008, when I had arrived in Delhi after signing off my parents’ property to my brother. My nephew was supposed to pick me up but he never arrived. I took a taxi to a hotel I knew nothing about. The driver waylaid me. I shouted, I threatened. I worked my big mouth. I was saved. But that is not what I really wanted to tell you about. What I want to tell you is this. I signed the property papers because I wanted my dying mother to be happy. I signed the papers because I wanted to show my brother that I loved him. I believed that my sacrifice would prove to him beyond doubt my loyalty to my family. When no one showed up at the airport, I did not immediately realize that I had served my usefulness. It is only now I realize that I had been discarded, just as Nirbhaya had been thrown out of the bus. That is why I cried when I watched India’s Daughter.
Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has published commentaries for New America Media, KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, and many nationwide publitions.