August 2016 West Coast Edition

Under My Skin

by Parthiv Mohan

The Wisdom of Fearless Feet

by Neerja Raman

300 Instruments in the House

by Priya Das

Kashmir’s Girls

by Vibha Akkaraju

How one man is saving orphaned girls caught in the war-torn politics of the region

august 2016 • vol. 30 , no. 5 • indiacurrents.com • $3.95

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“B

It’s Not You, It’s Me

ullshit is everywhere. There is very little that you will encounter in life that has not been, in some ways, infused with bullshit.”

Those words formed the opening of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show exit monologue.

As breakup speeches go, Stewart’s was delightfully wry and provocative. In his trademark style, Stewart performed a rant about what’s wrong with the world.

When Margaret Sullivan quit her post as the public editor of the New York Times, she titled her last blog, “Five Things I Won’t Miss at the Times—and Seven I Will.” She was careful to put more on the positive side of the divide. Still, it read like a “This is why I’m leaving, and oh, by the way, I’ll miss you” diatribe.

Recently, there was the ingenious exit

by Sree Sreenivasan, the former Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sreenivasan, ostensibly performing his digital duties, wrote a short piece, which he titled “Onward & Upward: Leaving The Met After Three Magical Years,” and published it on social media.

Sreenivasan placed a stunning picture of a hawk circling and “enjoying The Met” above his article and compared the hawk to himself, “I feel like this every day when I walk into the museum—and even when I just think about it.” He invited readers to contact him for coffee and drinks or to go on a walk and brainstorm ideas on what he should be doing next. Brilliant!

My own exit from India Currents and from page 3 of this magazine is going to be more of an “It’s Not You, It’s Me” version.

After much deliberation, I have decided to walk on the somewhat riskier road of full time writing and publishing.

In the days ahead, I hope to give voice to the many essays that have, for some time, lived silently in my head; I hope to work on my half-finished novel; and I hope to read more.

When I arrived at my desk, over four years ago, I had a very clear personal objective: to learn as much as I could about the art of editing, in order to become a better writer. As the days flew by, I began to understand that it was really the art of reading that I had to re-learn. That revelation changed my relationship to words forever.

What I will miss dearly is the sheer thrill of receiving a submission that is so exquisitely stitched together that I’m forced to read it again and again. First, to re-experience the wonder of its words, and second, to critically examine its intricate layers.

Sure, there have been many challenges.

While print is still very much germane for India Currents, digital platforms are increasingly providing volume and diversity to our readership and content. The most interesting, and perhaps obvious, detail is that these platforms react in wholly different ways to our content.

So, if an essay rife with novel ideas and clear thinking does not perform as well as I think it should on our website, I’ve immersed myself in a world of numbers and analytics to get a better sense of the pulse of our online readership—to understand and predict how readers read, where they read, when they read, and what they read.

And if an article does do well across platforms, the challenge lies in replicating that success consistently.

While these dilemmas have kept me up many a night, the exhilaration of bringing out an issue every month, one that is brimming with promise, prose, and personality, has always been the compelling force that woke me up every morning.

Several of you have sent me beautiful notes that I will treasure always—perhaps even pin up on my wall in my new office.

As one reader wrote in an email, “It’s sad that you are leaving … However, I am sure The Show Will Go On.” He is absolutely right. With new direction and fresh ideas, the magazine can only evolve into something even more vibrant.

As I bid adieu, I take with me the knowledge that this magazine will remain in good hands with Nirupama Vaidyanathan, our new editor.

Thank you, dear India Currents readers, writers and my colleagues. It’s been an incredible journey. Ciao!

Jaya Padmanabhan, Editor

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INDIA CURRENTS August 2016 • vol 32 • no 5

PERSPECTIVES

West Coast Edition www.indiacurrents.com

3 | EDITORIAL It’s Not You, It’s Me

By Jaya Padmanabhan

Find us on

10 | ORDERS WITHOUT ORDERS Fast Food Enlightenment

By Atanu Dey

29 | RELATIONSHIP DIVA Nice Guys Can Have Game Too

By Jasbina Ahluwalia 38 | BOOKS Reviews of The Year of the Runaways and The Tusk that Did the Damage

By Rajesh C. Oza, Jeanne E. Fredriksen

15 | OPINION The Global Indian Phenomenon

By Vijay Rajvaidya 20 | VIEWPOINT Wisdom of Fearless Feet

By Neerja Raman

LIFESTYLE

16 | Kashmir’s Girls How one man is saving Kashmir’s children of conflict.

22| PERSPECTIVE Michael Kors, Jhola, and I

By Sandhya Acharya 32 | YOUTH This I Believe

By Madisen MacDonald` 42 | FICTION It Comes From Uranus

By R.K. Biswas 55 | ON INGLISH My One-Eyed Ayah

By Kalpana Mohan 94 | THE LAST WORD Northern Light

By Sarita Sarvate

By Vibha Akkaraju

8 | Commentary Under My Skin

By Parthiv Mohan

60 | Films Reviews of Raman Raghav 2.0 and Sultan

By Aniruddh Chawda

84 | Travel A Glimpse of Heaven— Kashmir

By Melanie P. Kumar

4 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

46 | RECIPES Brussel Sprouts the Indian Way

By Shanta Sacharoff 59 | MUSIC 300 Instruments in the House

By Priya Das 88 | HEALTHY LIFE Cold Comfort–Why Does a Hot Country Like India Have Few Cold Foods?

By Pritha Sen 90 | DEAR DOCTOR Critical Thinking and the Indian American Psyche

By Alzak Amlani

DEPARTMENTS 6 | Letters to the Editor 30 | Ask a Lawyer 31 | Visa Dates

WHAT’S CURRENT 66 | Cultural Calendar

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Copyright Š 2016 by India Currents All rights reserved.

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August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 5

letters to the editor

Whatever Happened to Assimilation?

I am getting a little tired of hearing complaints of people from the diaspora who complain about slights real and imagined, either regarding their dress, their accent and/or their skin color. Whatever happened to the concept of assimilation?

It’s as if the onus to make you feel comfortable in the United States rests entirely on the majority and you are not going to do anything to hold up your end of the choice you made, to come and live here, enjoy the liberties and freedoms this country provides, without ever contributing back to the system.

There are some implicit rules that govern this system: Keep religion separate from the secular space. If you choose to wear a religious symbol hijab, turban etc., be prepared to counter comments and take the long view.

Get on the airways and media to educate people rather than get into a shouting match.

Maintain certain standards of hygiene.

Wearing clean well pressed clothes in the workplace, managing body hair/odor, brushing your teeth after a spicy and garlicky meal, table manners, using the toilet correctly etc. Keeping jewelry to a minimum and not flaunting your gold and diamond jewels in the workplace.

Give back to the community. Get involved with the soccer group, girls scout troop—don’t simply take, but contribute to the success of the team.

Make friends with people of every background. Look beyond the outer surface to get to know and befriend people in your community instead of pre-judging based on color, attire or ethnic background.

Human beings are known to be tribal in nature veering towards similar people but you have the opportunity here, where everyone is from a different place to learn, share and grow together as a community based on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.

Welcome to the brave new world.

Asha Bajaj, email

6 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Hinduism and Secularism

Jaya Padmanabhan’s editorial on secularism (“The Audacity of My Secularism, India Currents, June 2016) compelled me to write this note.

I respect her thoughts on secularism but differ when she says, “indeed, it is easier to be an atheist and secular than to be a Hindu and secular.” I think this is fallacious and should have been avoided.

From her own admission, she was taught Christianity in her formative years and later she adopted “social” Hinduism and now practices atheism! That clearly tells me that she has no deep knowledge of Hinduism.

Firstly, to be an atheist or to have faith in religion is not a choice for convenience.

It is a conviction. Secondly, as a Hindu, it is easier to be secular than as an atheist.

Because Hinduism is an inclusive religion unlike others. Many aphorisms from Hindu scriptures like, “Ekum Sat, Vipraha Bahuda Vadanti” (One truth, many perceptions), “all rivers join the ocean,” “Vasudeva Kutumbakum” (world is one family), give credentials to secularism in Hindu philosophy. In practice too, because of Hindu secularism, many religions originated and thrived in India. India has the oldest church, people of the Zoroastrian faith, the Bohra community—all testimonials to our secularism. Hinduism is the only religion which respects your choice of “worship” or not to worship (charavakas) and the path for salvation.

Abrahamic religions are exclusive religions by definition and in their core belief.

Christianity prophesies, “Only through Jesus one can come to the father,” which is inherently not secular! In modern days

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, 2670 S. White Road, Suite 165 San Jose 95148 or email: letters@indiacurrents.com.

Christianity preaches tolerance to other religions but not necessarily “respect” or acceptance.

Hinduism has its own vices, superstitions, and absurdities. Even so, as Sam Harris, a declared atheist, puts it, “Among all religions, Hinduism is most secular and tolerant.” So the correct statement should have been, “It is easier to be secular as a Hindu.”

Krishna Upadhya, email

Of God and Things

I commend writer Hasan Zillur Rahman for his article (“An Islamic Argument Against Homophobia,” India Currents, July 2016).

Rahman urges his fellow-Muslims to refrain from blindly following the Shariah written by “mostly unchallenged scholars,” and having the hypocrisy of fighting injustice against Muslims while shunning other minority communities like the LGBT, quoting the Quranic instruction to “treat minority communities with care and respect.” And, reminding them that “it is in America that we can practice Islam with more freedom than any other so-called “Muslim country.” Rahman tells them to demand that “our Imams and scholars from the more than two thousand mosques throughout America” broadcast this message of “Live and let live with dignity and empathy.”

Followers have created a bad image for religions due to their insistence that their preferred interpretations and religions are the only or superior truth that must be imposed upon “others” at the penalty of death, torture, discrimination and persecution. In the past, Christians and nonChristians have suffered from this attitude of the dominant church, and Zoroastrians and Hindus have suffered from Muslim rulers after the Muslim invasions of Iran and India. Today, Christians, Yezidis, Hindus, Sikhs, and even fellow-Muslims are suffering from radical Muslims. There is hope, that interfaith education about the many beliefs we share, and remembering that we are all children of the same Creator, who alone has the right to deliver judgment for our moral failings, will eventually stop violence and discrimination in the name of religion.

Maneck Bhujwala, Huntington Beach, CA, email

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 7

commentary

Under My Skin Exploring brownness in Europe

By Parthiv Mohan

“W

here are you from?” she asked me. She owned the Prenzlauer Berg shop that I was wandering through. I opened my mouth to reply but she cut in, lowering her voice and stooping her head even though we were the only people in the shop: “Have you come from Syria?” During my semester in Berlin, I noticed that people stared at me. I realized that it wasn’t my good looks. I perplexed them.

I could pass for Middle Eastern, but I was much darker than all the Turkish folks.

The Turkish people who lived all around me could guess that I was of Indian ancestry, I discovered. However, the types of clothes I wore threw them off.

The morning after the attacks in Paris, I boarded a bus populated largely by white Germans. I toted a violin case and an unintentionally bushy beard, the latter due to, well, not having my life together. I wore muted colors, as per Berlin street couture, including a black beanie. As I walked through the bus to sit down, I knew that everyone on the bus was eyeing me. I imagined them praying that I wouldn’t make a sudden movement and whip a firearm out of the case.

There was another unsettling incident I experienced in Berlin. My first landlord all but booted me out the door. She became increasingly overbearing with each successive day that I stayed in her room until finally, as if she had been waiting for the moment, she told me that her white Austrian boyfriend had originally forbade her from renting me the room because he thought Indians weren’t trustworthy and that, only after she insisted I was from America, did he grudgingly allow it. I told her he was racist and that I’d find lodging somewhere else. During that fall, my particular body aside, issues of race and nationality were on headlines and minds in Berlin and all over Europe.

I left Berlin for two weeks during a break in the middle of October. In Barcelona, Sagrada Família loomed over me. I

8 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

A Wiki Commons image of Bethnal Green

ambled down alleyways in the Barri Gòtic and trekked up to Turo de la Rovira where the entire city stretched across my field of vision. A week later, I was wandering the floors of books at Waterstones in Picadilly Circus. I watched the ducks in St. James Park. I partied in Shoreditch.

While in London, my friend Sammy and I booked an Airbnb in Bethnal Green based on its proximity to the neighborhood where our British friend lived. Bethnal Green was like those surreal worlds we traverse in our dreams, reminiscent of places we’ve been, yet unmistakably warped. There, I saw hip young white folks and South Asian working class folks in equal numbers. “Curry houses” lined the streets. I knew that people of South Asian descent comprised an even bigger percentage of London than of the San Francisco Bay Area—approximately 6.6% and 3.5% respectively—but a Cupertino Indian strip mall was nothing compared to this ethnic enclave. It was as if I had entered a South Asian version of San Francisco’s Mission District with gentrification rewound by a few decades.

To the tastebuds on my Indian-Ameri-

can tongue, the Channa Masala dish didn’t taste like the thousands that I had eaten before. A “Halal” sign hung on the window of the place. Taqiyahs sat atop the heads of passers-by. Seeing “Bangla fluency required” emblazoned on multiple shop windows solved the mystery. I discovered, later, that British-Bangladeshis made up 40% of Bethnal Green’s population and that they had the highest poverty rate of any ethnic group in the UK, quite unlike the Bay Area’s South Asian population, which was largely Indian and affluent.

I stopped by the Sainsbury’s, down the street from our lodging, to pick up a box of Frosties, Europe’s Frosted Flakes. I got to the front of the checkout line. My eyes met the cashier’s. We exchanged the look. Every member of a minority group or identifiable subculture knows the look (and probably dishes it out, unless they’ve ascended to nonduality).

The look conveys the following: i. Acknowledgement of you as also being a member of some particular group and interest in you based on that common ground ii. Appraisal of how you stack up com-

pared to them (in that competition that virtually everyone participates in but no one openly acknowledges) based on your appearance iii. Feeling of one of the following a. Respect b. Condescension c. Some complicated combination of the two d. You go on to deem each other either friend or foe, updating that assignment based on further interaction.

The cashier and I proceeded to make small talk. We were brown men of a similar age but different in our garb and features.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

Like any person of color in a diaspora, I knew that this question was two-fold: “But, like, where are you from from?” So I preempted the follow-up.

“I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area but my parents emigrated there from South India.”

I learned that he was a Bangladeshi who had moved to Britain as a child.

Our conversation was genial—our kindred brownness added noticeable comfort to our interaction. The exchange left me with, in addition to the Frosties, a pleasant afterglow. I should try to move out here after college, I instinctively thought to myself.

I stepped out of the double doors of the supermarket. Brown working class folks and privileged white hipsters both streamed down the sidewalks. Suddenly, I began to feel like I was Jason Bourne.

Aftermath replaced afterglow. If I moved here, which of them would I be?

That night I found myself amidst the latter crowd. Liv, our British friend, had brought us to a house party. I got on well with this humanities major crowd.

We sighed over how dense Kant was. We exalted Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The 400 Blows. And though we were each distinct in our sense of humor and our particular sensibilities, we were united in our love of intoxication. Sure, I was the only person there who knew that Four Tet is half Indian (“I had no idea, mate!”) but we had plenty in common, from our class privilege all the way down to the pinrolled cuffs of our jeans.

At the close of ten days, I emerged from the London Underground into the Berlin U-Bahn and I found myself back in

my studio in the Schöneberg locality. Yes, I was back where I had begun, in physical terms. Mentally, however, the ground had shifted.

Visions of my younger self in California bombarded me. I remembered being made fun of in the middle school locker room for the thread that crossed my torso (a thread that I would only later realize was a signifier of quite a bit of privilege).

I weighed the involuntary hesitation with which I used to respond, “The South Asian one,” when non-Indian Berkeley students asked me “Wait, which A Cappella group were you in?” I recalled the exhortations to shave my beard before flying so that I wouldn’t get “randomly” chosen for a search. It was perhaps decent advice given that airport security took me to a separate room to swab my crotch for bombs when I flew out of Berlin. All this affectation stemmed from wanting, or needing, to appear “American.” But what did appearing “American” even entail? It occurred to me that this identity crisis presents itself in any country with many immigrants—like the UK or Germany.

The massive influx of refugees frightened many white Germans. It was partly about infrastructure, about resources. But it was also about much more, much of which remains unsaid. Once enough immigrants had moved in, what would it even mean to be German? And if they were to outnumber the white Europeans? What of the nation-state? Of the very notion of tribalism? But maybe this was all moot in the face of their previous colonial exploits.

In just two weeks of travel, I had vacillated between comfort and discomfort.

For me, identity was always something that could only be conceptualized relative to other entities. My encounters with different people and places had upended my own. I realized, more viscerally than I ever had before, that this mental displacement I had experienced was one important reason to venture outside of our own communities. n Parthiv Mohan recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in Computer Science and Cognitive Science and a minor in Creative Writing. He is interested in researching the ethical implications of technology’s increasingly wide-ranging role in society.

He wrote arts criticism for Cal’s student newspaper, The Daily Californian.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 9

order without orders

Fast Food Enlightenment

By Atanu Dey

M

arkets work. That’s the “First Law” of the Extended Order of Social Interactions. I just made up that EOoSI bit but the “markets work” bit is a genuine law in the sense that it expresses an observed regularity in human societies.

What does it mean? Among other things, it means that when the need (the demand) for something arises, the market spontaneously figures out a solution (the supply) without the need for some controlling authority passing orders to get that need met.

Those who address the needs of people are sometimes referred to as entrepreneurs.

These are the people who look around for unmet needs and figure out some way of meeting those needs.

The corner bicycle repair shop or the bakery is in a limited sense an entrepreneur. In these cases, the needs are quite evident and obvious, and so are the solutions. People need their bikes fixed and someone who knows how to fix them can go into the bike repair business. Nothing new has to be invented; just that the person has to be enterprising enough to get started and keep the customers satisfied at least as much the competitors do.

And then there are cutting-edge entrepreneurs. These respond to latent demand for some good or service. Latent demand refers to needs that are not even felt as a need until the supply occurs—and then the demand surfaces.

There was really no demand for smart phones until smart phones started showing up in the marketplace; and then everyone and his mother couldn’t live without one. (Amazingly, I am the only person I know who does not use a smart phone.)

Did you ever feel the need to use a micro-blogging platform like Twitter? Perhaps but only after Twitter came into existence. Before that, no one really wanted one.

Markets work.

10 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

When demand (latent or explicit) exists, markets figure out a solution. The solution consists of a set of suppliers, a range of goods, and a set of prices.

Who sets the prices? That depends on the market organization. If the market has only one supplier (a monopoly firm), the prices are set by the firm. But in markets that are served by a number of firms which compete with each other, the prices are set by no one and everyone.

Let’s just say that Samsung cannot price its TVs without regard to what competitors like LG and Sony are pricing their TVs. Burger King pays careful attention to what McDonalds’ prices are.

How much fast food, of what kind (the range of goods), will be supplied, and by whom (the sellers), and at what prices—are what the market discovers.

Order emerges without orders.

That is, firms enter or leave the business depending on their own calculations. Firms set their prices as they see fit.

Customers decide what to buy and from whom. There’s freedom all around—firms can enter the market or leave, customers freely choose to buy or not buy, etc. In the long run, there are no shortages and there are no surpluses.

That’s the magic of markets.

What motivated this line of thinking?

I came across an old email (from 2004) from a follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, or SSRS as he is known around here. Like many others, she (AA for short) wrote that I should enroll in an “Art of Living” course because then I may realize how amazing SSRS is. The signature line in her email read: ~~ “Life is sacred. Celebrate life.

Care for others and share whatever you have with those less fortunate than you.

Broaden your vision for the whole world belongs to you.”—Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Here is my reply, for the record.

Dear AA: I think you misread my opinion of

SSRS. I do believe that he adds value to the lives of people as demonstrated by the fact that people willingly pay handsomely for what he has to offer. Commercial success is a fairly reliable indicator of value that a person or an institution adds.

As for my taking an AoL course, I will do so only after I am convinced that the course will offer me something that I value. As of now, I have only come across obvious platitudes and generic be-good admonitions that I myself can produce in astounding amounts if I were so motivated.

For instance, take the quote in your signature line. Is there anything there that is not obvious, hackneyed, trite, platitudinous—in short, is there something that a person of average intelligence and moral sense cannot have figured out by the age of 10?

Having said that, I am sure that there are people who need to be told what to me is basic plain common sense and are willing to pay to be told basic truths because they are perhaps too lazy to have pondered these matters themselves. It is what I would call “fast food enlightenment.” You drive up, check out the menu, order “Happy Meal #4,” pay your money, are handed a prepackaged meal, and drive off with it effortlessly.

I don’t think that fast food vendors are evil. They add real value by providing meals for people who are either incapable of preparing a healthier meal or are unable to find the time to do it right. For myself, I like to take the time to cook a decent meal for myself. I have taken the time to consider the world and marvel at it and arrived at my own conclusions that I believe cannot be packaged into simple verities for mass consumption. n Atanu Dey, Ph.D., is an economist. His blog “Atanu Dey on India’s Development” is at deeshaa.org. Connect on twitter @atanudey.

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opinion

The Global Indian Phenomenon

By Vijay Rajvaidya

I

distinctly remember my response to the first question the interviewer asked in my first job interview in the United States. It was back in 1985, and the interviewer was an elderly gentleman of British origin. He asked me why I chose the United States for graduate studies and not the United Kingdom. I was taken aback, and therefore the answer that rushed out of my mouth represented my true feelings. I told him that the United States is far more advanced in technology than the Great Britain. I regretted the answer the moment I said it, but my response represented the thinking of my generation—Indians born in independent India.

Contrast this with the previous generation which grew up in British India.

A majority of them, in my opinion, demonstrated a pro-British attitude in their thinking. It is alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru wouldn’t take the United States seriously in world politics until the 1960s. He considered the United States an upstart in the comity of nations.

“Independent” India evolved with these two value systems. While many Asian nations which got independence after the Second World War were making big strides, India lurched from one crisis to another. If I can draw inference from my discussions with my elders, I believe that my previous generation didn’t think that India could provide services like phones and good quality transportation to its citizens. I recall reading an article in the mid 1970s in the Readers’ Digest, which categorically stated that India has no chance of survival because of its socialistic economic policies. “It was trying to run up a fast moving conveyor” were the exact words.

However, we did make it. My generation grew up watching India grow from 400 million to 1.2 billion, from being a net food importer to self-sufficiency in food, from a negligible middle

While an Indian citizen living in India may still be content with the progress it has made so far, the “global Indian” is forever demanding more. class to a 300 million strong and vibrant middle class of the size of the United States population, with a phenomenal growth in per capita income and living standards. According to the World Bank, the per capita in India was $90 in 1962 and rose to $1,590 in 2015.

We made progress because of a few star performers among an otherwise inefficient and stagnant bureaucracy and mediocre political leadership. But that alone couldn’t have helped. India made progress because of its vibrant democracy. None of the doomsayers could factor this into their prophecies. As a matter of fact, till today, China argues that a western style democracy is not feasible in poor countries.

However, all is not as it should be.

Unethical conduct by public officials and administration is the norm in India.

Judiciary is practically refusing to reform and therefore regulatory enforcement has suffered immensely. Regulations are openly flouted.

India is defensive in its foreign relations, despite being the victim of a most vicious terrorist campaign by its neighbor. India’s diplomats are used to pursuing risk-averse foreign policy.

India punches way below its weight in the international arena. Indian diplomats are forever shy of projecting India’s greatest achievement in sustaining a democratic form of government to the world. In the last millennium, it seemed that diplomats believed that it was rude to project democracy while so many of India’s friends were not practicing it.

They were happy to sacrifice the winning card of diplomacy.

India is at the verge of needing a second independence. There is a sizable India living outside of India now.

The oil crisis of the 1970s and the Y2K imbroglio in the 1990s caused two major migrations of Indians to other countries. Internet and mobile technology connected them with India.

Over the years these Indian emigrants have impacted India in many different ways. Indians working abroad sent close to $72 billion home to India in 2015, according to World Bank data.

These large remittances are changing the commodities and real estate markets in India. It has also created markets for Indian goods overseas. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this market is the brand Bollywood, a global brand today.

The non-resident Indian or NRI has acquired economic and political heft in the country of his/her residence. This is the “global India” that lives outside of India. Now this “global Indian” wants to be a proud Indian, which makes demands on India.

While an Indian citizen living in India may be content with the progress it has made so far, the “global Indian” demands more. He is not content with the prevalent chalta hai culture of India. He wants good service from officials and businesses in India. He wants efficient and effective law enforcement, functioning regulations, transparency, easy administrative processes and a functioning judicial system in India.

India got its independence from Great Britain after Mahatma Gandhi, an NRI, in some way, took over the leadership of Congress from Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Today’s NRI has become a global Indian and acquired gravity. Today’s “global Indian” wants to free India from its self-imposed shackles. n Vijay Rajvaidya is Managing Director of India Currents.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 15

cover

Kashmir’s Girls Helping children bereft by the ongoing conflict in Jammu-Kashmir

By Vibha Akkaraju

Wasia Jan was six years old when her father was killed in the India-Pakistan border conflict. The year was 1999. He was a tailor and had never been involved with the military, though his brother had been in the army, and Jan thinks that this may have had something to do with her father’s death. Jan’s mother had little education and no work experience, and now had to support her three kids—Jan and her younger siblings.

U

A young Kashmiri girl at her BWF home

lfat Nazir was three when her father was killed. She was one of four children. Her mother had only studied to sixth grade and she, too, was left to raise the family on her own.

By an estimate of the non-profit Save the Children, in 2014 there were 215,000 orphans in the Jammu-Kashmir area, 37% of whom had lost either their father or both their parents to the terrorism and chaos that drags on in that area. The conflict in the oft-forgotten reaches of India and Pakistan has raged on since 1947— always simmering, sometimes boiling over—creating hundreds of orphans even 16 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

during the quieter years.

The region’s weak economy renders it almost impossible for a woman alone to provide for her children, so a child who has lost her father is considered an orphan. If a widowed mother remarries, the children from the first marriage are often shunned by the new family. The situation becomes especially dire for girls, who in this patriarchal and conservative society, are left without any guardian, education, or hope of escaping the oppressive poverty.

While Jan and Nazir suffered tragedies, they were among the lucky ones.

It is what happened after the devastating

deaths of their fathers that altered the trajectories of their lives.

They not only escaped that downward spiral, but began to pursue careers that would be considered ambitious by any standard. Jan is in her first year in the engineering program at Kolhapur Institute of Technology and Nazir is pursuing a law degree there. An organization named Borderless World Foundation (BWF) is paying their full fare.

Two years before Jan’s father’s death, Adhik Kadam, the eventual founder of BWF, began to sew a metaphorical parachute for girls like Jan and Nazir.

As a student of political science at Pune University, Kadam had heard his Kashmiri classmates argue about the volatile situation back home. These arguments in cafes and mess halls carried a tangible undercurrent of real pain, anger, and often a sense of betrayal and loss. When Kadam considered going to Kashmir to observe the situation for himself, his professor urged him to “go deep,” Kadam recalled.

It was meant to be just an exploration trip with his friends. He collected what little funds he could—as the son of a poor farmer, he didn’t have much—and planned to go for three weeks. He ended up staying for six months.

What he found was a land more war torn than he had imagined. Regional rivalries were so intense that Kadam’s local contacts couldn’t host him in their homes for fear of reprisal from the militants. So he stayed at refugee camps with the very people he had gone to study.

For the first three months, Kadam and his colleagues went door to door taking a tally of homes that had lost a family member. The numbers were astounding.

Estimates vary, but by Kadam’s calculations, there are currently 1,000 orphans in a single village called Dardpora, a hamlet situated at the Line of Control, a line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, and where the two armies try to hold their ground.

Kadam looks a bit unlikely for the type of work he is doing. His sturdy build and good looks would appear to suit him better in a career as a Bollywood actor rather than as, what I term, a penniless vagabond. He claims no permanent residence, instead living with friends and supporters who are eager to contribute to his work in any way possible. In fact, when he jokes

Adhik Kadam with his girls. Yes, they are all girls.

that he lives with “fakirs,” the Muslim equivalent of sadhus, who subsist on alms, you get the feeling that he may actually be living as an ascetic—his focus is so singularly trained on his work that it seems to be like a life in meditation.

But he is a vagabond with a loyal following, as was clear when he made a presentation in Palo Alto, California, recently. Supporters had arranged his flights for him and provided him with room and board. His laptop and cell phone had been given to him by well-wishers. They drove him from place to place, as he spread the word about BWF to hopefully attract funding.

As most people seemed to have forgotten the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, in his presentation he had to begin by educating the audience about the situation. He talked about homes that BWF rents for the

girls, and the schooling and professional training they receive. He described how the organization tries to strengthen the children’s bonds with the community by enrolling them in area schools, even encouraging local service providers to pitch in for their welfare.

It is My Home

BWF offers creative outlets to allow the children to find their interests, develop talents, and grow in a well-rounded way.

A National Geographic photographer has been teaching photography to the BWF kids, some of whom have gone on to win prizes in national contests. If some girls need emotional support, they can seek help from the holistic doctor who visits regularly. A large cohort of friends and volunteers provide a steady source of parenting for the girls.

There are currently 1,000 orphans in a single village called Dardpora, a hamlet situated at the Line of Control, a line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, and where the two armies try to hold their ground.

Residents at the Anantnag home August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 17

When Jan, the engineering student, first moved into one of BWF’s homes as a child, she instinctively gravitated towards the structured setting and intellectual stimulation.

“When I first went to Anantnag [one of the four BWF homes], there was a sir named Abdul Aziz Parrey,” Jan said.

“He used to guide me as a father. He worked as a coordinator. He worked in the evenings, helped me with homework.

Everyone would eat, study, and sleep at the same time.”

Every two weeks, she visited her mother. “It was a little hard, going away from my mom, but I really liked studying, and there were other kids, so with them, I became friends,” Jan said. The kids helped out with the laundry and house cleaning.

A hired cook prepared all the meals and a manager oversaw everything. They prayed five times a day, and studied the Koran in the mornings.

“It felt very safe,” Jan said. “It didn’t just feel like home, it was home.”

What does she hope to do after college? “I want to do work like Adhik bhaiya.”

A Shock Absorber

Not many groups are willing to come and explore the mountainous area that has been serving as, in Adhik’s words, “a shock absorber” for the animosity between India and Pakistan. It’s remote, dangerous, and partitioned into Hindu and Muslim factions, where each group eyes the other with suspicion. Even the philanthropic organizations can’t seem to escape the divide.

Fascinated by animal photography

BWF girls trying their vertical jumps for the camera

“Other organizations tried to be there, but most were concentrating only on either Hindus or Muslims,” Kadam said.

“There were no homes for girls, only for boys. There’s always fear that when you have so many girls in a home, they’ll be in danger.”

Kadam started the organization with a home for four girls. The children were young—two-and-a-half to five years of age. He lived in the home with them, helping to feed and bathe them, taking them to the hospital, and taking care of their daily needs.

But that was just a drop in the sea of need. So he took in more kids. And more.

Today, BWF houses 250 Muslim and Hindu girls in four rental homes. As the

children have grown, Kadam no longer lives with the children, instead focusing on securing schooling for them, helping them develop careers, even arranging marriages for some older ones. He is also hoping to build homes instead of renting, so as to minimize instability due to home relocations.

Children Buzzing In and Out

Chitra Mandyam of Sunnyvale, California, has been supporting BWF for four years through her informal group of civicminded friends called “Caring Friends.”

She wanted to see for herself the work Kadam was doing, so she went to visit each of his homes.

These were lively places, with “children were buzzing in and out of the rooms,” Mandyam said. On one such occasion, one of the girls, maybe 10-11 years old, was dressed casually,—came out without her burka. Adhik talked to this child in the tone of a strict father, reminding her

“I’m not involved in any religious or political thing,” Kadam said, extending the “borderless” concept to his own spirituality.

18 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

to wear one immediately. He subsequently told us that he was stern because when this girl child is older and is at marriageable age, following the custom of her culture would be so important and he should not fail his responsibility in teaching her that.

“Born and raised a Hindu, he was fully aware of their culture and the need for the girls to follow it in the conservative society of Kashmir,” Mandyam said.

For himself, Kadam rejects any religious categorization.

“I’m not involved in any religious or political thing,” Kadam said, extending the “borderless” concept to his own spirituality. “Even taking this side or that side, that is a type of violence, because there would be conflict within me. I’m completely with no sides. I’m completely with the children.”

Unflappably Non-partisan

But not everyone around Kadam sees him as neutral. To date, he has been kidnapped 19 times—and released 19 times —by militants, army, or security personnel on both sides of the conflict.

“I’m a non-Muslim working in a Muslim area, the first question is ‘why?’ Because no one wants to go there, [but] that’s why I want to go there,” he said.

Kadam remains unflappably non-partisan though, refusing to even criticize his tormentors. When he ponders the frequency of the kidnappings, he describes it almost as standard protocol. “Every time there is a new district commander, they’ll start re-examining why these people are here,” he said.

For Kadam, these re-examinations have resulted in kidnappings both civil and brutal: he has been beaten several times.

Fortunately, his early training as a wrestler gave him the physique to endure them.

Under the ruse of inviting him to a friendly tea, purported friends have led him to a house where his kidnappers awaited.

To the question of whether he felt betrayed, he laughed and said, “that’s okay, even Christ was betrayed.”

To do this type of work, he said, you have to get past all religious and other biases, biases that lead to fear. First and foremost, you must overcome your own fear.

“Borderless is not just an organization name, you have to cross your own limitations also,” he said. “Fear is a great, great

barrier of human life.”

And then then there is the issue of other people’s distrust. Government agencies are obviously distrusted, but even NGOs are considered suspect because they may be funded by the opposition’s government. To eliminate any appearances of partisanship, BWF accepts no government funding. Seventy to eighty percent of BWF’s funding comes from donors in India, and the remainder comes from those in the United States.

Asha for Education, for example, a philanthropic organization based in the Bay Area, has been supporting BWF since 2003. Reshu Jain, a volunteer with Asha’s Silicon Valley chapter, points out that BWF’s aim is to re-seed the Kashmir valley with the fruits of the girls’ education and training.

“In the Kashmir area, there are no really good colleges, so for colleges, they’ve been going to Pune, Delhi, and there some of the girls learned to use the machines to make the sanitary napkins,” Jain said.

They developed a business plan for setting up a sanitary-napkin manufacturing plant in Srinagar, entered it into a contest, won a grant, and returned home to set up their business.

Jain cites the example of one of the girls Kadam rescued, and later arranged a

marriage for, who is now the elected sarpanch of her village, though she is only in her mid twenties: “... it’s very important that they not leave Kashmir valley, so they work in their native area, so that other kids get the same chance that these girls got. Be self-sufficient, take care of themselves, be independent and productive.”

Even as Kadam sees the value of his work in building an organization that has provided homes, education, and nurturing for hundreds of girls, he is aware that he hasn’t been fulfilling his duties as local tradition would have it. As the eldest son, he is supposed to be providing financial support for his parents. Instead, his work remains a mystery to them, and his financial support illusive. They have a vague notion of the work he is doing, but Kadam has not been able to collect the funds necessary to take them to Kashmir to see for themselves. “My parents are not very worldly —they still don’t understand exactly what I do,” he says, but they do accept that “the man is doing some good work,” he says. n Vibha Akkaraju is a mom of three girls, all energetic and excitable, at times temperamental, sometimes maddening, mostly endearing.

When she’s not cooking, cleaning, organizing, planning, and shuttling, she likes to read and sometimes write.

In a circle of acceptance August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 19

viewpoint

Wisdom of Fearless Feet

By Neerja Raman

M

aybe it is the political climate or maybe it is our enhanced expectations around safety and security but these days, I meet more people who handle unfamiliar situations with a great degree of trepidation if not downright fear. The old adage about what we don’t know we fear (and what we fear we destroy) seems truer today than when I was growing up.

Or maybe I just had a mother who taught me well. She taught me to look for security, not in my environment but within myself.

I remember, as an 8-year-old, being a pretty fearful child, afraid of all things real and imagined. I had difficulty making friends because I was afraid of anything new or different so it was not till I was 10 years old that my mother found an opportunity to give me my fearless feet.

I had auditioned and just been chosen for a small part in our annual school production of a Shakespeare play. It was a big deal for me and I was keen on proving myself and doing well. But play practice was late evening, after dark, and I had to traverse all sorts of winding lonely lanes to walk back and forth from my house to the theater.

I begged my mother to walk with me. She was busy. So was everyone else.

What to do? Do I drop out of the play?

“Are you afraid of the dark? It’s a perfectly safe area and the moonlight is beautiful,” said my mother. “You can walk by yourself.”

“I feel like somebody is following me. Or someone is going to jump out of the bushes and attack me. And then the feeling gets so strong, I just start running and keep running till I am back home.”

“You are right to be afraid. But how does it help to start running? Your fear just grows and grows and now it is stopping you from participating in the play.”

“But I can’t help it. What do I do?”

I whined.

“Here’s what you do” she said.

“Start walking at a steady pace. As you get scared, you’ll find you are walking faster and faster. That’s OK. First, distract yourself by looking around. When that stops working, you’ll find yourself wanting to break into a run. Just stop dead in your tracks.”

“What if I can’t?” I interrupted.

“I know it will be hard. So after you stop, this is what you do next. Turn around 180 degrees so you are facing the back. Plant your feet wide. Stand straight and yell “who’s there?”

“Okay. I’ll try but what if I can’t?”

By now I had figured out that my mother would not walk me to practice.

“I will tell you a secret: your feet are fearless even in the dark, so when your mind takes over and commands your feet to run you remember this secret and you just let your feet take over and give your mind something else to do—like yelling, or looking around to see who is following you. Your feet will not run and your brain will get time to figure out if there is real danger.”

“Got it. Don’t run.”

“Yes. Anyway if a dog is chasing you, you are better off throwing a pebble at it—you can’t outrun a dog.

If it’s a ghost, who knows maybe he is friendly.” She smiled. “You can’t outrun that either. Maybe you should try talking to it. And indeed if someone is chasing you, you can always turn and run again, but your feet will know why and you will be led by your fearless feet and not by a fearful mind.”

That night, after play practice, I found myself shaking even before I started the walk. Oh no! By the time I was midway, where the shadows were darkest, the urge to run was stronger than ever. I remembered my fearless feet so when my mind said run my feet

20 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

A Creative Commons Image

Courage is not the absence of fear but the skill that allows you to face fear. stayed grounded. I fell. I got up dusted myself, faced the back and planted my feet wide. In the few seconds it took to do this, my mind went from worrying about monsters to worrying about “Oh I hope no one saw me. I must be looking pretty silly.”

It was like a switch in my brain.

The night I learned to be fearless in the dark, I gained the ability to let my feet take over in the face of danger. Barking dogs and ghostly creatures of the night became friends that walked with me.

I learned the wisdom of fearless feet.

From school to college to career and family, I graduated from facing bullies in the playground, to venturing in unknown lands with people of unknown customs and finally to the unknown dark places inside my own mind like the demons of my 10-year-old self.

Courage is not the absence of fear but the skill that allows you to face fear.

Courage gives you the self-confidence to stop yourself in your tracks from having a knee-jerk reaction like running or lashing out. I have learned that if you approach people from a position of trust, you get trust in return; that you can dispel fear just by understanding it exists—in yourself as well as in others.

Fear is hardwired into the brain. It is

the life-preservation instinct that sharpens the senses, gets the adrenaline flowing, making the body ready for flight or fight. But for people in a civilized society, a threat, real or imagined, is not about life or death, but an opportunity for improving quality of life.

I was 10 years old when I learned to channel misplaced energy through fearless feet for ghost encounters. But soon the skill translated into everyday action and thought to create an appropriate response to situations I faced.

When I came to the United States for graduate studies in August 1970, I knew no one. I had my admissions information, 8 dollars in my pocket, a suitcase full of books, and my fearless feet. I made friendships with students of all nationalities, teachers of different disciplines, and found mentors in the community. I took the initiative to befriend strangers even if I did not speak their language, share their nationality, dress like them or have the same religion. In doing so, I found adventure, trust, and lasting relationships. You see, the critical aspect of fearless feet

is not naiveté but an informed enthusiasm for every possible outcome—even if it means backtracking to get where you need to go. Fearless feet gave me a trusting mindset; the world became my village.

As a child of midnight freedom, or independent India, I came to know many women who walked on fearless feet, like my mother. I saw or heard stories of adventure and courage; how they turned enemies into friends, foreigners into neighbors and barbarians into community. I read about inner strength in Indian classics and ancient yoga books.

I grew up with values like “unity in diversity” and the sayings of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi. I learned that the only way to break a cycle of cruelty is through compassion. At ten years of age I did not understand Gandhiji’s exhortation of courage for peaceful action: “if someone slaps you on one cheek, turn your face and show them the other cheek.”

Today it is a basic value system in all my negotiations—work as well as personal.

I understand that taking a calculated risk to open a communication channel is

an act of courage and the only winning strategy. In civil society, flight or fight is not a long term win-win approach.

Nowhere are fearless feet more useful than in the workplace. Manager, leader or employee, our feet remind us to negotiate for the long term. Trust others and do the right thing yourself.

I found my fearless feet thanks to women in my life like my mother. Now, I pack them in my handbag, first thing, every morning, along with my wallet and driving license as I head off to live another day.

The wisdom of fearless feet has allowed me to live a life that is so much brighter and fulfilling than it might otherwise have been. Thanks to my mother. n Neerja Raman is a research scholar at Stanford University, inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame in 2005 by Women in Technology International (WITI).

She considers herself fortunate to have had parents who encouraged her to study science in school. She maintains a social entrepreneurship blog (From Good to Gold).

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August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 21

perspective

Michael Kors, Jhola and I

By Sandhya Acharya

T

his is a story of temptation, of failing and finally redemption.

Last holiday season, I fell prey to a craven desire. It was as if I didn’t recognize myself. I was being irrational and impulsive. No amount of reasoning assuaged my restlessness. So I gave in. I needed to tell my husband, but at that moment I could not stop. I got ready in a hurry, threw away my cotton bag and rushed to the car with just a wallet in hand. I drove impatiently and sprinted into the mall longing for only one thing.

I ran through the store, eyes flitting, peering at the shelves. At last, I found Michael —Michael Kors.

It was a beautiful maroon with a pronounced golden emblem screaming MK. I held it gingerly, feeling the smooth firm texture. I slung it on my shoulders and gazed admiringly in the mirror. We made quite a pair. Still in a trance, I paid the $300 to the jubilant saleswoman. Then picking up the object of my adoration I walked away. As soon as I sat in the car, I texted my husband politely thanking him for his very thoughtful gift.

“Look what you gave me! I excitedly displayed my new purse that evening. I ramp-walked up and down in the house for him. He mumbled an obligatory acknowledgement and went back to sipping his tea. I was too elated to mind.

Over the next few days, MK and I had many happy moments. At first, it felt a little awkward. Being seen with MK was a new experience. I had had cloth, jute, fake leather bags in the past. I was neither a fashionista nor a conscientious leather refuser. A bag was a purely functional object for me. It served as a sack to dump my daily needs.

But life with MK gave me a different perspective. I realized the role of a purse

could be much more. I got a lot of unsolicited compliments from people. “Nice purse!” they would say. “What a bright color!” another would add. At first, it felt good. But then I started feeling uncomfortable. I was not used to this kind of pointed attention.

I felt eyes on me when I entered a room. In crowded buses, I felt defensive.

Aunts coveted it. Neighbors envied it.

Strangers stared at it. I began to question if MK and me were really suited for each other. I felt small against MK’s large frame, the golden unabashed two-lettered logo felt inexplicably heavy.

The novelty started wearing off and I began to treat MK with a little less respect.

I had been carefully storing my phone in one pocket, keys in another and wallet tucked neatly in the middle. Now I began to dump things without restraint. A halfeaten muffin, old crumpled bills, my toddlers half eaten lollipop wrapped in a tissue, the artwork of my three-year-old—all found home in the far corners of my purse.

Then one day, I was in a hurry to meet a friend. I pushed my laptop, charger, a kindle, a tablet into MK. It was a bit too much. MK couldn’t take it anymore. On

22 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

my walk back to the car, a handle ripped off and a big gash stared at me. I reached home and tenderly slid MK off my shoulders. I lay it on the bed and emptied the contents. It was over.

Then I opened my closet and rummaged through the drawers. Stuffed in a corner was my once discarded cotton bag—my jhola. I had purchased it in Ladakh—a hill station in India on our honeymoon. My husband must have put it through a laundry cycle. It looked clean and fresh. A simple white with soothing blue and pink embroidery. It had cost me Rs. 300 i.e. roughly 2% of MK’s price tag.

It had a single flap with a press button that dutifully clicked to close. There were no compartments inside, just empty space to use in whichever manner suited me. The handle was long and comfortable. I slid it across my shoulder and let it hang against my hip. I looked at myself in the mirror.

Jhola and I looked happy. n Sandhya Acharya has worked in the area of corporate finance and is now actively pursuing her passion for words. She is a mother of two boys and a dance enthusiast living in Santa Clara

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 23

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relationship diva

Nice Guys Can Have Game Too Five tips for becoming irresistibly edgy

T

here’s an old saying that “nice guys finish last.” If you’re someone who believes in karma and being a decent human being, you’ll still strive to be a nice guy. However, being “nice” doesn’t have to be bland and boring. Use these five tips to keep your edge and appeal to the opposite sex: i) Find and Pursue Your Passions: A man who knows what he wants out of life isn’t just intoxicatingly sexy to women —he’s also far more likely to be happy and successful in his own life.

Find your true passions and interests outside of dating. It will energize you in a way that makes you more magnetic, interesting and appealing to women. ii) Focus On Bringing Value to Women’s Lives: As a nice guy, you like to help people when you can. This ethos can be applied to the dating world, too. How

By Jasbina Ahluwalia can you enhance the lives of the women you’re interested in?

Focus on knowing ahead of time what kinds of positive experiences you want to bring them. From lavish dinners and gifts to unforgettable experiences that uplift them, your nice guy traits can be synonymous with killer game in the dating scene. iii) Downplay Your Niceness: This may seem counter-intuitive, but bad boys can be more alluring than nice guys—at least on the surface. Many women hope they can help bring out the “heart of gold” in even the worst bad boy. So retain your nice guy values, but at the same time, allow an air of mystery. iv) Be Decisive: Another pitfall some nice guys fall into is deferring too much to the women they date. They think they’re “being nice,” when many women find this behavior annoying.

Make it a habit of being decisive on dates. From choosing a restaurant to deciding where to park to going in for the kiss after an amazing time, being focused and decisive shows your confidence. v) Value Your Own Time, Energy and Effort: Being a nice guy with game means being nice to yourself, too. Never fall into the “nice guy trap” of letting women walk all over you and take advantage of your nice guy nature. Women who don’t respect your time, effort and value don’t deserve you. 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.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 29

ask a lawyer

F-1, H-4, and H-1B Cap-Gap

By Indu Liladhar-Hathi

Q

I am currently in the United States on an F-1 (Student Visa). While I am studying, I am interested in a volunteer position that is related to my field of study.

Can I legally take this position?

A

No, volunteering while you are on an F-1 status is not allowed. Your employer (or the entity) for whom you are volunteering is required to pay your wages and even if you are not paid, you will be in violation of your status.

You cannot work without explicit work authorization.

Q

I am currently in the United States on an H-4 status. When my husband’s employer extended his H-1B status, I did not receive an extension for my H-4 status. I was under the impression that my status is automatically extended when my husband’s H-1B is extended. My I-94 expired 3 months ago. What do I do?

A

It is important to note that there is no automatic H-4 extension.

You have two options: you can file a request with the USCIS (called nunc pro tunc) requesting an extension of your status even though you are late and out of status. Your other option is to step out before you accumulate 180 days of unlawful presence. This way you can apply for a new H-4 visa at the US consulate in your home country and still be able to return to the United States without any legal issues.

If you decide to apply for your extension in the USA, even though your status has expired, you must show that your i) Failure to file was due to extraordinary circumstances ii) The extraordinary circumstances were beyond your control iii) Your explanation must be reasonable in the context of what happened iv) You have not otherwise violated your status

30 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

v) You must not be in removal/deportation proceedings It is important to consult an experienced attorney if you decide to take this chance because if your application with the USCIS is denied, you may accumulate 180 days of unlawful presence and would be subject to a 3-year bar upon leaving the US.

Q A

Can I travel during the H-1B CapGap?

If you have cap-gap relief and you decide to travel outside the United States, you will not be able to return until the last 10 days in September, assuming that you have secured your H-1B visa. n Immigration and business attorney Indu Liladhar-Hathi has an office in San Jose. (408) 453-5335.

Legal visa dates

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August 2016

T

his column carries final action dates and other transitional information as taken from the U.S. State Depart­ment’s Visa Bulletin. The information below is from the Visa Bulletin for August 2016.

In the tables below, the listing of a date for any class indicates that the class is oversubscribed. “Current” means that numbers are available for all qualified applicants.

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Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/ en/law-and-policy/bulletin/2016/visa-bulletin-for-august-2016.html

Email: info@vermafirm.com

www.vermafirm.com August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 31

youth

This I Believe

By Madisen MacDonald

T

his is the year. This is the year my friends and I choose colleges, select majors, and are endlessly asked, “What do you want to do? What do you want to be?”

As I watch students around me struggle to choose a school and a single goal to focus on for the next four years, I begin to feel grateful. I know with certainty where I want to go, what I want to study, and what I want to do after college (or at least where I want to start).

I am passionate about passion. I believe in the power of passion and I believe in each individual’s capability of finding that burning fire within. I want teachers and schools to help our children look inward and discover the benefits of passion.

I want fewer standardized tests for our children. I want less persuasion to “... just do what you’re told.” I want less emphasis on making a lot of money. I want more opportunities for exploration and learning ... and most of all, to truly find our passions.

I am lucky. I have been directly involved with what I want to do since I was a child. As a student attending public schools, I have had the opportunity to discover flaws in the very system I want to improve. In my life, I have been surrounded with experiences that have led me to my passion. But what about those whose interests aren’t staring them in the face every day? I believe in an education system that provides all children and adolescents the opportunity to discover what makes them want to get out of bed each morning for the rest of their life.

Passion is what makes getting out of bed at 6 a.m. not so bad. Passion is what drives people to work hard, to discover, to succeed, and to accomplish. I believe in passion that extends to relationships, to hobbies, and to the words we speak. I believe that having things to cling to with passion is what makes life so beautiful.

This I truly believe. n Madisen MacDonald graduated from Pioneer High School, San Jose, CA in June of this year and will be going to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall to study Child Development.

32 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

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books

The Elephant Never Forgets

By Jeanne E. Fredriksen THE TUSK THAT DID THE DAMAGE by Tania James. Alfred A. Knopf: New York. Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book. Hardcover $22.73.

W

ith novels constructed on interlocking stories, authors run the risk of one or more of the tales not meeting the same mark on the compelling scale, leaving perhaps, a story that doesn’t hold its own against the others. In The Tusk That Did the Damage, short-listed for the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize, Tania James (The Atlas of Unknowns—reviewed in IC August 2009; Aerogrammes— reviewed in IC October 2012) nearly falls into that trap but manages to step back before being completely snared.

Taking the reader into the jungles of South India, James’ writing continues to refine in her third book and second novel. In it, she takes on the reprehensible slaughter of elephants for the ivory trade.

James tells three stories that alternate and converge, and the book begins with beautifully-written chapters that ooze with the promise of continued excellence: “The Elephant,” “The Poacher,” “The Filmmaker,” each introduced in succession, and as it happens, each in their proper order of accomplished storytelling.

“The Elephant,” also known as “The Gravedigger,” has his own story. It is a biography of hardship, loneliness, misunderstanding, and struggle. Told in third person, this is arguably the most compelling of the three stories, with James nearly getting into the elephant’s head close enough to have written it in first person. However, by resisting that first-person temptation, “The 38 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Gravedigger” isn’t self-viewed as a victim. Rather, he is developed as a product of his environment and personal history.

By accomplishing this feat, the debate over elephants being living, breathing creatures of beauty vs. killers, destroyers of life and property, becomes all the more complex.

The poacher’s story, like the filmmaker’s, is told in first person, but unlike the other two stories, it could well have been a standalone novella. Here, the covert world of the ivory trade is introduced along with the poverty that drives men to think there will be fast, easy cash involved. Manu, who desires acceptance like his poacher brother Jayan, wrestles

with his moral compass in an attempt to seek revenge for a family death and impress the woman he loves.

The filmmaker’s story brings an “observer” factor to the novel and, in comparison, loses strength even as it adds a thorny layer when the focus shifts to sex and 23-year old Emma—the narrator and filmmaker—goes against her own code of not getting involved with her subjects. Eventually, this story recharges itself when Emma uncovers much more than what her documentary of a renowned elephant veterinarian was meant to be; she discovers dark proceedings that only lead to danger and tragedy.

Tusk raises important questions about conservationism, morality, and mortality. There is a near-human embodiment of “The Elephant”—as imperfect as we humans and as vulnerable as any of us in situations we don’t understand—and a creative examination of those who engage in the illegal ivory trade. In the end, the haunting question that lingers is not “Is poaching a crime?” for we know that it is.

The question becomes, “When the tusk did the damage, what damage was done to whom?” n

Jeanne E. Fredriksen lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where she is the managing editor of a monthly newspaper and is a Books for Youth reviewer for Booklist magazine, a publication of the American Library Association. Between assignments, she writes fiction, hunts for the perfect Bloody Mary, and heads to the beach as often as she can.

books

Unsentimental Seasons

By Rajesh C. Oza

THE YEAR OF THE RUNAWAYS by Sunjeev Sahota. Knopf, 2016. 484 pages.

Hardcover $18.74

I

have grown up in parts of the world that have memorable seasons: Rajasthan with its summer “Loo,” a dry, hot wind that is the very opposite of a gentle summer breeze; Bombay with its monsoon outbursts that seem to be the only phenomenon that can slow down this ever-moving metropolis; Ontario with its winter that is whiter than its very white hockey leagues; and Chicago with its variegated autumn that brings baseball fans of all colors together to bemoan yet another failed season for their “lovable losers,” the Cubs.

Thus, I have for a long time been sentimental about the charm and change of weather. Indeed, whenever I listen to the singer-songwriter James Taylor croon, “Winter, spring, summer, or fall,” I join in with a teenager’s enthusiasm, “All you have to do is call.” And Sweet Baby James responds, “and I’ll be there, yeah, yeah, you’ve got a friend.” A warm, comfortable smile spreads across my face, as I conveniently forget the song’s darker lyrics.

While Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways is also structured across four seasons, the chapters—Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn—are all dark chords until the Epilogue sheds a softer strum at the end of a trying year for four not-quite friends.

Inhabiting seasonal struggles, Sahota has etched four inter-connected protagonists: Narinder, Randeep, Avtar, and Tochi. The reader empathetically meets these memorable runaways in the dead cold of England: “The street lamps were still on, spreading their winter yellow. The chill was as sharp as needles … The National Lottery sign reverberated in the wind.”

Sahota’s United Kingdom is united only in a dreamy way. Avtar, Tochi, and Randeep

arrive from India with hopes of rich earnings and heroic returns to India; they’ve left modest, fractured lives behind, believing that the gardens of London are “everyone’s” egalitarian possibility, imagining “it’s like we have the city, then the gardens, then the countryside.” But the “freshies” learn soon enough that there is no jackpot, no lottery winning to save the day. Dreams confront nightmarish reality.

This is not the London of Fodor’s Travel Guides—Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and all that. This is Sheffield, Southall, and other “little Punjabs” where residents are more likely to go to a gurdwara than to Westminster Abbey. This is Rawmarsh, Pitsmoor, Crosspool, Burngreave, Killamarsh, places “that sounded so angry … like they wanted to do you harm.”

These are emotionally distant lands that some readers will need to search on the Internet, and others might search into

their own internal ethical maps. These are places where undocumented day laborers are ferried about in the back of vans that serve as holding pens, places where lowpaying work dries up suddenly, and migrant workers of London’s underground, who shiver together in dank, dilapidated urban abandonments during the night, find themselves competing with each other during the day like scabby mongrel puppies sucking on a dry teat.

All this and more in this inventive novel for readers who have time and energy for an intensely disturbing and morally challenging narrative. Such readers may not be unlike the well-established professor in the novel who struggles with his Indian origin and the sense of not belonging to England; this comfortable complacency inspires Avtar’s disdain: “What decadence this belonging rubbish was, what time the rich must have if they could sit around and weave great worries out of such threadbare things.”

Newness for Randeep, Avtar, and Tochi is different: it is like a sudden winter wind on a false spring day that gives lie to Alexander Pope’s aphorism that hope springs eternal; it is a wind that demands that one face the elements or return home, vanquished. And while Narinder is not new to England, England is new to her; she has run away from a protective home and gurdwara to do good, to make amends for having failed to help a young man leave India on the back of a visa marriage; thus her marriage to Randeep is a means of expiating guilt. Her story is the most psychologically transformative of the bunch.

Slowly, “imperceptibly, in the way that the night gives way to dawn,” Narinder evolves from a cloistered saintly life to one where she chooses her very human path while staying true to her essence, her goodness, her friendship with those in need.

Sahota opens his book with a seeming-

August 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 39

ly domestic scene. A newly married man (Randeep) welcomes his bride (Narinder) to their cozy flat in the Brightside section of Sheffield. A handful of pages in, and it is clear that all is not sunny and warm in Brightside. Randeep shuffles off to a grimy hell-hole he shares with other men in similar dire straits; but he’s a lucky one because he and British-Indian Narinder have their visa marriage: quick ceremony in Punjab, one year of pretending with fake photos of domestic bliss for the government investigators, a divorce of convenience, and Randeep will have legal rights to a British life. The others are so-called illegals or on the edge. Avtar has arrived on a student visa, but it is a precarious lifeline because technically he cannot work in England, and he must give the visa fixer more money than he earns on London’s mean streets, otherwise he jeopardizes his family’s life back in Punjab; there is no time for the dream of an education that enables a solid job; indeed Avtar’s first year report card is a “column of Fs,” matching the furious string of F-bombs he and his compatriots regularly hurl to stave off

the grueling work, the growing bitterness.

Tochi’s low caste follows him from Bihar to Punjab to England; even if he had legal papers, his birth status would have rendered the passport into a fail-port: doors that open ever so slightly are slammed shut in his face when Indians ask him about his last name—Kumar—an indicator that he is a chamar, an untouchable, thought to be polluted by the leather-making occupation of his forebears.

The tour de force plot of this Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel begins with all four strivers at the center, as if they’ve taken different routes to arrive at some downtrodden Trafalgar Square. While London remains the hub, Sahota moves the narrative’s many threads back to his runaways’ origin stories. The technique of beginning with convergence and then pulling back to the divergent back-stories makes for a compelling, and at times harrowing, mystery.

The reader is drawn in close to Narinder, Randeep, Avtar, and Tochi, sympathetic to their plight, rooting for them to survive; on edge, I found myself contemplating

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the socio-economic systems—caste, creed, and capitalism—that envelop these flawed heroes. A few pointed questions kept rattling my cage: Would their lives remain wedded to these systems that churn like inexorable wheels? Is The Year of the Runaways a fictionalized version of Leviathan, with its semi-lovable characters populating Thomas Hobbes’ classic treatise, which postulated that absent strong governance, man lived in “continual fear, and danger of violent death … and the life of man [would be] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short?” Or is there foreshadowing at work early in the novel when Tochi gazes incoherently at a map of the subcontinent and considers Kanyakumari?

“The place of ends and oceans. It seemed amazing to him that there could be an end to India, one you could point to and identify and work towards. That things needn’t go on as they are forever.” n

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fiction

It Comes From Uranus Katha Fiction Contest 2016 • Second Place

By R.K. Biswas

T

college. he last straw, according to Sarbani, “Nothing happened,” she had quickly was her passing gas in the car. Utclarified. “He took me to his place in his tam was driving, with Sarbani in car. Both of us were so … I could barely the passenger seat next to him and Ritu in walk! I saw a picture of this woman at his the back seat. Sarbani wrinkled her nose bedside table. And asked who she was? and spoke loudly to make it obvious. She He kind of straightened up then. And I exchanged glances with Uttam and rolled said, ‘can you please take me back.’ Must down the window. Ritu had a beatific have been an angel looking after me that smile, her eyes staring at the darkness outday. He drove me back to my dorm, you side. This was not the first time. Sarbani know.” concluded she didn’t respect them. Didn’t “No angel. He was a good guy,” said care what they thought.

Sarbani.

“I can’t believe this!” she fumed. “How Ritu told them that before she had dare she?!” been married to her Polish American “She’s an Indian born American rusex-husband and father of her two girls, tic,” said Uttam. “Doesn’t she remind you she’d been married off to a psycho Indiof a ding?” an guy by her cousin who lived there, the Ritu or Rits as Sarbani had been afsame cousin who had sponsored her visa fectionately calling her had bright burto America. She related her great escape gundy hair. She noted that the hair could story. And how have matched Ritu’s light she’d worked as green-brown eyes if she a live-in nanny weren’t so swarthy, and “Was it love at first sight?” for a couple of Sarbani had involuntariRitu shrugged. “Not for me. I mean I wasn’t so much years. Her first ly glanced at her own nearly yellow complexinto white guys you know. But he kind of grew on me. real job.

“They were ion. Yes, she did have Anyway he was very persuasive. I think he wanted to fall so good to me. that Anglo look about her. Nevertheless she had in love with an Indian woman. He knew so much about Young couple with three kids. an air about her, as if the Kali! Then I guess the exotic appeal waned. He didn’t They helped color of her eyes gave me. Gave me her American passport like the food I cooked. And I hate blue cheese. Yuck!” their old car. greater legitimacy. She Put me on to had talked about how the a good divorce chap at the immigration lawyer, cheap. counter at New York had Ritu was proud of her struggles, and You know, Bani,” she said confidentially, remarked on her eyes. eager to talk. By the second evening and “the whites have helped me much more.

“There I was Bani, with just $20 in my third bottle of wine (expensive wine, as I’m proud to be a Bengali, but I don’t pocket. Just back from Kolkata. I didn’t Uttam whispered later when they were know … Can’t relate to the Bong comknow if my citizenship had been approved alone, referring to the $30 bottles of Cabmunity. Went to a Durga Puja one time or not. But no choice. How long can a ernet, Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noir with my cousin. Didn’t know who to talk married daughter stay with her parents? I he had picked up on his return trip from to there.” mean, I had responsibilities. I told myself, the United Kingdom a few months back), She had trouble with Douglas too. heck I’ve got my return ticket. Something they knew about her drunken encounter He was a professor of philosophy and will turn up.” with an equally drunk American guy in 42 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

an Indophile, her words. They had met at a commune she had landed up in after taking a wrong turn. This was after she’d finished her masters in physiotherapy or psychotherapy or geriatric therapy—Sarbani never got the hang of Ritu’s degrees —and begun her first full time job.

“Was it love at first sight?”

Ritu shrugged. “Not for me. I mean I wasn’t so much into white guys you know.

But he kind of grew on me. Anyway he was very persuasive. I think he wanted to fall in love with an Indian woman. He knew so much about Kali! Then I guess the exotic appeal waned. He didn’t like the food I cooked. And I hate blue cheese.

Yuck!”

Most of Ritu’s friends on Facebook were white or black. The Indian ones were all old school mates, like Sarbani. But unlike the others they were not old “old” school mates. Sarbani had met Ritu at a Protestant school in Kolkata which they both had attended for the West Bengal board XI and XII course. It was a frumpy institution, nearly as old as Kolkata. Sarbani didn’t have a clear memory about her own reason for going there after her whitenun-run convent school, where she’d been a boarder. Perhaps it was because there were fewer choices for those who needed hostel accommodation. Ritu used to be a day-scholar. She was also from a convent, but had lived with her maternal aunt and uncle throughout her school years. She had stories to share about her abuse by her cousin brother and uncle too. She told Sarbani how the whole thing had come out at a shrink’s clinic, literally burst out of her. Douglas had insisted she see one. He had hugged her later, really tight, and said he understood why she was so fucked up.

“The whole world seems to have molested your friend,” Uttam observed afterwards.

Sarbani was more inclined to be sympathetic. But that was before the scene Ritu created at the crafts fair, and her wind pass marathon on the way back from Mahabalipuram. Afterwards, she wondered how they had become friends. She didn’t know anything about Ritu. And Ritu had assumed that she came from the same kind of backward and therefore equally ambitious family like her own.

It annoyed Sarbani that Ritu didn’t know she was familiar with all the British rock groups; had been listening to them

since her school days. That she had played squash and gone swimming at the club in her town. And they had jam sessions and disco nights there. That she had grown up in an environment where many white people lived, were their neighbors, in fact.

That her mom played Canasta and Whist with them along with other Indian ladies.

That ham and eggs were staple breakfast fare, and they’d had turkey during Christmas. While Ritu had returned every day to her provincial Kolkata suburb, narrow streets with open drains, power cuts and hard smelly water. They must have eaten from steel plates on the floor, Sarbani told Uttam, right after Ritu left for the airport, creating a small sentimental scene at the car park in front of a bemused taxi driver.

In retrospect, Ritu had been annoying right from the start. From the excess of gifts, and that huge bottle of Jim Beam —did she think they couldn’t afford good whisky? She expected them to be impressed with Jim Beam?! Uttam had shown her their little bar, chock-a-block with Glenmorangie, Glenfidil and Glenfidich and Jameson and Johnny Walker Blue label. They kept Teachers’ and Black Dog for every day drinking. Then there was their stash of Hennessey and Martel, Bombay Sapphire and Beefeater. And of course Absolut Vodka jostling for space against a bottle of Old Monk rum. Their bar was good by any international standards. Her 600 litre (about 158 gallons) double-door fridge had a whole shelf on its door filled with wine bottles. They planned to buy an electric cooler for their wine collection soon. The kind that shops kept for storing cold drinks.

Ritu didn’t seem to notice any of it.

Not the air conditioned rooms and hall, the fans and geysers in the bathrooms, the porcelain soap dishes and shampoo dispensers. She didn’t comment on Sarbani’s crystal collection, the nearly four feet wide almost wafer thin television. She noticed nothing except for the dishwasher, and that too obliquely. She said that it was more hygienic to wash dishes by machine than by hand on account of the steaming hot water. Sarbani agreed, even though she used the dishwasher only when the maid didn’t turn up or after using her fine china and glassware.

Ritu had emptied a bag full of goodies on the first evening itself. Then onwards she kept thrusting something or the other

A Creative Commons Image

Katha 2016 Results FIRST PLACE: dmanabhan Tea Time by Mallika Pa Washington, D.C.

SECOND PLACE: R.K. Biswas, It Comes From Uranus by Chennai, India THIRD PLACE:

by JYOTHI Memory of a Fragrance ia VINOD, Bangalore, Ind ION: HONORABLE MENT wala, Healthy by Iqbal Pittal California ION: HONORABLE MENT nvannan The End by Gayatri Po Dubai, UAE

into Sarbani’s reluctant hands. She even clasped a white metal and plastic charm bracelet around Sarbani’s wrist, a thing the latter would never wear. Hadn’t she noticed her diamond earrings and pendant?

The large Star Ruby ring she wore and of course her solitaire? She wished she’d told her flat on her face that she didn’t wear artificial jewellery. Ritu had refused her without hesitation when Sarbani had tried to give her the top she’d lent her to wear.

And this was another annoying thing; another rustic quality. Why did she need to borrow clothes? It was not as if she hadn’t

August 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 43

It didn’t take long for Ritu to start again—how she loved the smell of coffee in the mornings, how she just had to have her blah blah blah latte.

brought enough. Two suitcases full for less than a week. But that typical suburban Bengali habit of putting on other people’s clothes hadn’t left her despite her three decades overseas. And then she had the nerve to say that she wouldn’t ever wear the top in California.

Ritu had retained other tell-tale signs of her origins. She wore an oval shaped coral on a silver ring for some astrological reason. She said she was a manglik, (a person born under an unlucky star) which was why men felt intimidated, and left her.

Uttam guffawed when they were alone.

“I thought manglik was a Hindi-belt thing? Where did a fish-curry-and-rice Bong like her start to believe in these things?”

Sarbani wondered how Ritu had been able to intimidate her white husband.

Ritu confided one morning that during one of their quarrels, when her mother was visiting, Douglas had told Ritu to return to India. Her mother had walked up to him then, and said, “Doglaaas, why you say haar go back? You not breeng haar here.” Ritu, mimicking her mother’s broken English had sounded indulgent, not ashamed. She was proud of her mom.

Proud that she had helped her family financially, and even settled her younger brother in the United States.

“Does he visit you often?”

“Him? No. He wants to be independent. He’s being kept by an older white woman, literally. She knows what he’s up to. Him, and his used car business.”

Her Mercedes was a deal he had worked out for her. Sarbani gathered that they were in touch, but the brother didn’t want his big sister’s help anymore.

Her daughters were grown and were living with their respective boyfriends. They didn’t speak Bengali, and hadn’t hooked up with Indian boys. When she got a craving for Bengali food, she cooked rice and

potatoes, mixed it with salt and butter and sometimes a hard-boiled egg. Cooking a Bengali meal for one person was too much hassle and the leftovers seemed to last an age. There was nowhere she could get real and proper Bengali food even though there were many Indian restaurants.

She didn’t pray she said, but wore a cross on a thin silver chain, and kept a framed picture of Saradama and Ramkrishnadeb and another of Kalima on an alcove tucked away in an unobtrusive corner of her large house with a swimming pool, inherited from Douglas as part of her divorce settlement. She had girlfriends who helped her “do the divorce.” Ritu didn’t know how to swim. Her horoscope said she would die in water.

Sarbani dutifully took her sightseeing to Kapaleeshwarar Temple, one of the few that allowed foreigners, not that anyone would be the wiser as far as Ritu was concerned. After that they went to the craft exhibition at Valuvar Kottam, and that was where Ritu misbehaved.

One minute they were admiring terracotta planters and pots. Next thing she knew, Ritu was furiously rummaging in her large bag, looking sterner by the second.

“I’ve been robbed,” she announced.

Sarbani flushed. “Oh God! How? When? What … what happened?”

“My long purse,” Ritu hissed. “It had my travelers’ cheques. My dollars. Credit card. All gone!”

The travelers’ cheque part had Sarbani flummoxed for a minute. That was so last century. Didn’t she have an international debit card? But her announcement had caused a stir. A few people now surrounded them. Sympathetic, ashamed, curious. Sarbani was mortified. Ritu with her foreign speak was a curiosity. Some kind people directed them to a police station nearby.

Before they left Ritu muttered loud enough for all to hear and Sarbani to

44 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

cringe: “Anything can happen in this country. Den of thieves!”

Sarbani harried her driver to be quick; he drove on the wrong side of the road in his haste. Ritu didn’t notice, but Sarbani wanted to duck her head. Worse was to follow. The police station was almost vacant. It was their lunch hour. Ritu made a face.

“Nobody works in this country! How does it run?”

A constable looked at Ritu, pondered something and ushered them upstairs.

They were in luck. A deputy commissioner of police was visiting the station that day. Sarbani explained that her American friend’s purse had been stolen. The officer looked grave.

“Madam, please describe,” he said gently.

“What is there to describe? I didn’t see the thief. Does anyone speak English here?!”

The officer glanced at Sarbani. Embarrassed and flustered she apologized.

“My friend is a guest in this country …

My guest. Sir sorry to trouble you. As her host I am ashamed she got robbed.”

“Yes, I know,” he replied kindly. “Her English is also very different from ours.”

“Yes, yes sir. You are right.” Sarbani gave a vigorous Indian head nod, which she had picked up during her five-year stay in Chennai. Uttam told her often enough that this head nod thing was unheard of in Bengal.

“Please ask her to fill out a form.” He waved a hand and the constable rushed forward with one. “Don’t worry. We will do our best,” he paused, before adding, “I know how you feel.”

Sarbani thanked him and the constable profusely. Ritu remained stony faced. She jabbed at the form, a deep frown ridging her brow. They returned home in silence.

Ritu filled the car with silent stink bombs from time to time.

The first thing she did was to throw

open the cupboard Sarbani had half emptied for her, and pull out her things. After ten minutes of rummaging she emerged victorious.

“It was here all the time. I’d taken the other one by mistake.

That one has my small cash.”

Sarbani itched to slap her then and there.

“Congrats!” She punched in the number the constable had given her on her cell phone.

“Hello? Egmore Police station? Uh, I was there this afternoon with my American friend? Uh yes, yes. No, no trouble.

You all have been so kind. Sorry to trouble all of you. Very sorry. No. No. I mean my friend made a mistake. Yes. Big mistake.

She found her purse. Thank you, thank you. So sorry.”

“It’s too late to go back, right?” said Ritu.

“Yes. Would you like some tea?”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

It didn’t take long for Ritu to start again—how she loved the smell of coffee in the mornings, how she just had to have her blah blah blah latte.

They ate dinner outside, at an expensive Thai restaurant, which Sarbani insisted on paying for. Ritu discovered how pricey India was only when she took them out for a treat at a five star restaurant near Mahabalipuram the next day. Uttam wanted to pay, but she would have none of it. Afterwards she proclaimed that she’d never spent a hundred dollars on ordinary food in California. Perhaps that was why she had gas all the way back.

Ritu accused Sarbani of being testy the day before she left. Sarbani hadn’t realized that she had been responding curtly.

She wasn’t aware that she’d been given a chance to speak at all. But Ritu was probably right. Sarbani was finding her intolerable and it was showing. Everything Ritu said or did or wore got on her nerves.

She complimented her cooking and said Sarbani cooked just the way she herself did. She praised Uttam, then told Sarbani to hold on to her good man, for she had got herself a great find! She yawned when Uttam and Sarbani sat down to watch ET during a random channel surf, and said that she had watched it when she was oh so young.

Uttam said, “So were we,” and drew Sarbani close. He then got up to insert a

hard drive into the TV and put on Pink Floyd.

Ritu looked surprised.

“Takes us straight back to our college days,” said Uttam.

“Yeah, because school days was for ABBA,” Sarbani giggled.

“Oh I still enjoy ABBA,” said Ritu sipping on her Bloody Mary.

“So do we,” Sarbani replied.

Uttam handed her a glass with two fingers of Jameson in it. He raised his own glass. “To the seventies! When we were young and romantic.”

But before Sarbani could respond, Ritu launched into a long story about how naïve she was when they had met.

“Do you remember?” she said turning eagerly towards Sarbani. “That day when we thought we’d bunk class and took a bus to Esplanade?”

Sarbani thought she should tell her that she wasn’t part of that escapade as she was a boarder then, but changed her mind.

After she left, Sarbani called her once to find out if she’d had a safe flight, and Ritu kept saying that both of them had gone out of their way, beyond the call of duty for her.

Then, almost six months later she emailed her complaining that she had never understood why Sarbani had turned cold etc. etc. etc. Two months later Sarbani feeling suddenly sentimental called her on Skype. But Ritu cut her short saying she was busy. The next time she visited India, she emailed Sarbani about her impending journey, but didn’t contact her after landing. And the year after that Sarbani didn’t tell her she was relocating to the United States since Uttam was being “kicked upstairs” as he liked to put it. n RK Biswas is the author of two books—Culling Mynahs and Crows and Breasts and Other Afflictions of Women. Her third book Immoderate Men is forthcoming in June 2016. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in Per Contra, Eclectica,

Nth Position, Etchings, The Little Magazine (India), Cha; An Asian Literary Journal, Markings, Asia Literary Review, Flash: An International Journal of Short Short Fiction, among others. She was long listed in the 2006 Bridport poetry prize and also short listed in the 2010 Aesthetica Creative Works Contest. Her story Ahalya’s Valhalla was among Story South’s Notable stories of the net in 2007. Her poem Bones was a Pushcart Nominee in 2010. In 2012 she won first prize in the Anam Cara Writer’s Retreat Short Story Contest. She blogs at http://biswasrk.wordpress.com.

Comments from the judges: Prajwal: I laughed my way through this.

The writer is fantastic at humor writing.

Amulya: School friend turns houseguest in this comic and well-written short story about uncomfortable friendships and awkward friends—you find plenty to connect with because it has happened to you.

About the judges: Prajwal Parajuly is the son of an Indian father and a Nepalese mother. The Gurkha’s Daughter, his widely acclaimed debut collection of short stories, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Land Where I Flee, his first novel, was an Independent (London) book of the year and a Kansas City Star best book of 2015. He is the Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. He has been homeless for three years now.

Amulya Malladi is the author of six novels, including The Sound of Language and The Mango Season. Her books have been translated into several languages, including Dutch, German, Spanish, Danish, Romanian, Serbian, and Tamil. She has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in journalism. When she’s not writing, she works as a marketing executive for a global medical device company. She lives in Copenhagen with her husband and two children.

Connect with Amulya at www.amulyamalladi.com. Her latest book, A House for Happy Mothers, will be released in June 2016.

August 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 45

recipes

Brussel Sprouts the Indian Way

M

y older sister is a phenomenal cook! When she came to visit from India, she invented recipes from local vegetables that she had never cooked before. She had never seen brussel sprouts before, but she was intrigued by the shape and size. She called them nani-

By Shanta Sacharoff kobi (small cabbage) and came up with two recipes that can please even the fussiest eater. I modified the recipes to make them less spicy.

Brussel sprouts got its name because of its popularity in Belgium. According to Wikipedia, the first written reference dates

Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts Curry sprouts to the tomato sauce and saute for Ingredients 4–5 small red or Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 ½ cups when cubed) 12 brussel sprouts 3–4 Roma tomatoes 3 tbsp olive oil ½ cup finely chopped onion 1 or 2 cloves of mince garlic 2 tsp minced or shredded fresh ginger root ½ tsp turmeric powder ½ tsp cumin powder ½ tsp coriander powder ¼ tsp cayenne powder 1 tsp or less salt Juice of one lime 2 tbsp chopped cilantro for topping

Method Peel and cut the potatoes into approximately 1 inch chunks. Set them aside. Rinse the brussel sprouts and cut off their stems.

As you cut their stems, some outer leaves will come out, discard them along with the stems. Cut the brussel sprouts into halves.

(If they are really tiny, keep them whole.)

Set them aside. Chop the tomatoes into small chunks and set them aside.

Next, heat the oil in a sauce pan and add the onion. Over a moderate heat, stir fry onions for a few minutes until they begin to get limp. Then add the ginger and garlic and continue to stir fry for two more minutes.

Add the tomatoes and stir fry for a few additional minutes. Lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook for five minutes, then uncover and add a few tablespoons of water. Break the tomato pieces with a wooden spoon to transform the mixture into a chunky sauce.

Now, add the potatoes and brussel 46 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | August 2016

two minutes. Next, add powdered spices and salt, and continue to stir gently for a few minutes. Then cover and cook the curry for 15 to 20 minutes, over low to moderate heat, until both potatoes and brussel sprouts are soft. The mixture should simmer gently while it is cooking.

Uncover the pot every five minutes to check the consistency of the curry. Add a bit of water if the sauce is getting too dry.

Add the lime juice and stir the curry gently to mix the ingredients. Top with chopped cilantro and serve hot with flat bread and/ or rice.

Brussel Sprouts Pakora

Ingredients 12 brussel sprouts, cut into halves 1 cup of garbanzo or chick-pea flour (besan) 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced ¼ tsp ground cumin ¼ tsp ground coriander a few pinches of ground cayenne pepper to taste ½ tsp (or to taste) salt Juice of ½ lemon or lime ¾ cup or more water 2 cups light oil such as canola Method Remove a few outer leaves of the sprouts and discard. Rinse and then cut each brussel sprout into half. Set them aside in a colander to drip off the excess water.

In a mixing bowl, combine the garbanzo flour, spices, salt and lemon juice.

Add water as needed to make a batter that

back to the 13th century. n Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, author of Flavors Of India: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine is a co-owner of Other Avenues Food Cooperative in San Francisco.

is thin like a pourable consistency.

Heat the oil in a wok or a heavy frying pan until it is very hot. Check that the oil is hot enough by dropping a small piece of batter into the oil. If the piece bubbles and rises to the surface right away the oil is ready.

Next, dip a few pieces of brussel sprouts into the bowl to cover them with batter. Slide the dough-covered vegetable pieces into the hot oil carefully. Turn the vegetables using a slotted spoon to cook them evenly into a light brown color. Then remove them from the oil and lay them on a platter lined with paper towels to drain off excess oil. Deep fry the rest of the Brussel sprouts in small batches until all of them are done. You may have some batter left over which can be refrigerated for future use. Serve hot or at room temperature with a green chutney; recipe to follow.

Coriander or Mint Chutney

Ingredients 1 cup coriander leaves (cilantro) or fresh mint leaves, stems removed ½ cup chopped scallions, including greens 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger root 1 or 2 hot chilies, seeds and veins removed, chopped fine 1 tsp salt ½ cup plain yogurt (or unflavored soy yogurt) blended with ¼ cup of water Place the ingredients in the jar of a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Keep it chilled until ready to use.

If refrigerated in a covered jar, the chutney will keep for a week. n

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August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 47

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My One-Eyed Ayah

By Kalpana Mohan

ayah, noun. (in India) a native maid or nurse.<1775-85; < Hindi āyā < Portuguese aia maidservant < Latin avia grandmother, equivalent to av (us) grandfather + -ia feminine suffix

“W

missed a spot—although my e felt truly sorWhen my mother was reduced to tears for mother tried to, on occasion. ry for the nanShe ate most of her meals ny-children,” any reason at all, Kannamma was at her in our home. In monsoon writes M. M. Kaye in The Sun feet, commiserating and consoling, the and in heat, Kannamma, the In The Morning, a memoir of human dishwasher, stood by, her magical childhood in In- divisions of caste and class melting at the awaiting the arrival of dirty dia. While Mollie Kaye was universality of frustration and grief. dishes so she could begin the cared for by native ayahs, most washing. In the early afterof her English friends were noon, she would be at the supervised by governesses or clothes’ stone, slapping our nannies. soaked, soaped clothes on the rock in the backyard, until she “The nanny-children envied our greater freedom and our abilrid them of ground-in dirt. Then she rinsed and wrung them ity to chatter to any Indian we met in the Bazaar or the Mall, in dry and hung them over the clothes line. When my mother our own or other people’s houses,” she writes, describing how was reduced to tears for any reason at all, Kannamma was at ayahs let their charges run wild in a way that no British nanny her feet, commiserating and consoling, the divisions of caste would have permitted in a post-Victorian era. “Ayah” describes and class melting at the universality of frustration and grief. this category of native maids employed by Europeans living in Kannamma was part of our extended family and as far as I India during the time of empire. The word had its origins in the was concerned we would never part ways. As M. M. Kaye Portuguese aia which meant nurse or governess. A cryptography observes in her discussions about being close to servants and expert in the army stationed in India, Kaye’s father was a polyglot their families, the notion of caste was something children who could speak seven or eight languages, including Hindustani acquired later on, in adulthood “together with prejudice and (a melange of Hindi and Urdu). He wanted his children to grow intolerance.” up loving India. Learning the local language was one route to When I was in my late teens, Kannamma fussed over my making sense of the country and its people. Thus Kaye’s memoir hair and grooming. She ground up the leaves of hibiscus to details the warmth of the native helpers, the beauty of the Indian make a thick paste that she applied weekly to my hair. No countryside and, most of all, her love for India, especially for shampoo could make my hair shine and bounce like KanSimla, her birthplace. namma’s dextrous fingers.

While reading Kaye’s affectionate accounts of Teeta-ayah and For two decades, Kannamma was a familiar face in our Punj-ayah, I was reminded of the staff in my parents’ employ. One bungalow from dawn to sunset until one day in 1982 when of my longest associations was with an ayah named Kannamma. she did not show up for work. We found out—when we ran A one-eyed woman, Kannamma had hollow cheeks and a bird-like to knock on her door—that she had left for her village in gait. The skinny, dark-skinned woman came into our lives when I the hinterlands of Tamil Nadu. Later, my mother discovered was about four years of age. When I was little, Kannamma would that Kannamma had stolen some money and that her son, bring lunch every afternoon, walking a mile and a half to and from a drunkard, had pushed her to steal. In shame and remorse, Vidhyodaya, my school, in the heat of Chennai without a pair of Kannamma must have stopped working altogether. Despite sandals to shield her callused feet. In the lunch room, she cajoled her only transgression, Kannamma epitomized loyalty and me to finish all my food. Sometimes she told me stories to help me perfection. For years after, her memory lit up a corner of along, just like Kaye’s ayahs who “would tell us enthralling tales our lives, her work ethic and compassion about the doings of gods and heroes. We learned early why Ganesh making her a legend in our circle of family has the body of a man and the head of an elephant …” and friends. n Unlike Kaye’s maid, Kannamma was more than just an ayah.

Her presence in our bungalow preserved my mother’s sanity. From Kalpana Mohan writes from California’s Sili5 a.m. until sundown, Kannamma made everything gleam. She con Valley. To read more about her, go to http:// swept and washed our courtyard. She dusted and mopped the kalpanamohan.com. length and breadth of our home. No one told her that she had August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 55

SHRUTI MUSIC ACADEMY

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music

300 Instruments in the House

By Priya Das

W

hen Randy Armstrong has to create a specific piece of music that must evoke an Indian feel, he just orders a sitar from India. “Every piece of music has to be original in its creation and cultural fidelity,” he explains.

That is how he has over 300 instruments in his collection, including 14 types of guitars, three sets of tablas, and a bansuri flute in every key.

PBS viewers may recognize his name from the primetime mini-series, Dinner on the Diner, following the cooking by celebrity chefs on various trains across Spain, South Africa, Scotland, and Southeast Asia.

In 2014, Armstrong composed for the dance and drama presentation of The Mahabharata at The Philip Exeter Academy’s Fisher Theater in Exeter, New Hampshire.

He used classical Indian instruments to create original music, which included an arrangement of Raga Kafi by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and the song “Shanti Om” from his Beyond Borders CD dedicated to Ravi Shankar and George Harrison.

For several months now, Armstrong has been composing for a dance theater adaptation of another epic poem, this time Persian, called The Conference of the Birds.

The original was written by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar.

The epic poem is being presented in an epic way: San Francisco Bay Area California audiences will experience it for the first time with actors whose ages range between 8 and 85, along with thirty dancers across ten different dance-forms from around the world. These details assume enormous significance for the musician, who has to get each of them to move to his tune, and move the audience at the same time.

Armstrong expands on this, saying, “The dancers are originally from these cultures, so the music has to be authentic.

I have to deliver my highest performance.”

Thus, for the Chinese traditional dance, he

used the gu sheng; for belly dancing, he used the Darbuka drum and the oud; for hula, he used the ukelele and slide guitar. For extra percussive authenticity, he ordered the ipu heke from Hawaii.

“When Vinita [Belani, of Enacte Arts, co-presenter, along with Sangam Arts] approached me last summer to compose music for The Conference of the Birds, she was familiar with my work; she had worked with Jean Claude Carriere, the playwright of The Mahabharata, and had come to watch the one in Fisher Theater,” says Armstrong. “I was reminded of The Seven Valleys, written by Baha’u’llah; both works have made an impression on me.”

Almost immediately, he started composing the opening piece called “The Awakening.” “It is important for the opening to transport the audience to Persia and it has a personal connection, I had studied the Persian santoor with an Iranian doctor many years ago,” says Armstrong. “It was like coming home in many ways.”

Given the myriad cultures and that he would need to use multitudinous instruments, it was important for Armstrong to find a unifying factor, musically speaking.

“I decided to use the note C as the center of this whole orchestration of multicultural music. So the various musical elements relate to that—Indian, Persian, Chinese, Egyptian …,” shares Armstrong. It was a non-trivial task, since each instrument and sub-culture has a sound of its own.

Armstrong travels with Volker Nahrmann—a German bassist he has worked with for several years—to absorb new world sounds. Their 2015 CD, Beyond Borders, was nominated for two awards and “is a global voyage with 35 musicians from around the world,” featuring music from Havana, Rio de Janeiro, India, Mid-

Randy Armstrong

dle East, France, Italy, Native America, West Africa, and the Caribbean. A 1988 CD called World Dance reached the top 10 of several national charts including #7 in Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It also featured a track composed by Armstrong for the 1986 United Nations International Year of Peace.

It is fascinating to hear him speak about music composition for the different mediums. “When you compose for dance, rhythm, duration, speed, beats-per-minute is critical. A beat and here or there can make all the difference. For theater, timing is most important, music becomes a servant to the emotional fabric of the piece, as it is for film too. When it’s live, the musician and listener are feeling it in realtime, it’s completely different, you capture the energy from the audience.”

Armstrong summarizes his musical career: “I am so fortunate that I have been able to play my own music, since my early 20s, and been able to go deep within that pursuit. As a musician, you don’t know if you can sustain yourself in these changing times. Just looking at the technological changes in the music industry, I feel like I have lived three lifetimes!” n Priya Das is an enthusiastic follower of world music and avidly tracks intersecting points between folk, classical, jazz and other genres.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 59

films

The Guerilla and the Gorilla

By Aniruddh Chawda

RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0. Director: Anurag Kashyap. Players: Nawazuddin Siddique, Vicky Kaushal, Amruta Subhash, Sobhita Dhulipata. Music: Ram Sampath. Hindi with Eng. sub-tit. Theatrical release (Reliance)

A

brutal serial killer on the loose, a city on edge, and a cop who will leave no stone unturned to find the killer can be nicely folded into a made-for-TV movie. Give the same devices to respected filmmaker Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur, That Girl in Yellow Boots) and the results could take one of two opposite outcomes. The end product could well be an imprecise and yet pricey salute to bygone era, say, Bombay Velvet (2014), or something else. Raman Raghav 2.0 has Kashyap drawing up an incredibly captivating, small-budget and chilling entry fueled by adrenaline and a dose of heebie-jeebies.

In the late 1960s a real life serial killer, eventually known as Raman Raghav, terrorized what was then Bombay. In addition to gaining notoriety as India’s most infamous serial killer, Raman Raghav also became a celebrated and morbid case study into a psychopathic mind operating in pretty much an alternate reality. Taking loose, major departures from that real life outline, Raman Ragav 2.0 provides a modern update with a twist of two tossed in.

As far as killers go, the main suspect in the brutal bludgeoning killings appears to be a certain Raman (Siddique), a down and out, shadowy figure who lives in the night (or does he stalk the night?) and could be schizophrenic. Cold on his trail lurks Inspector Raghavan (Kaushal), who finds himself both drawn to the killer’s brilliant persona as much as he is repulsed by the brutality of the killings. The killer, whoever he is—for there is circumstantial evidence placing Raman with loose alibis from time to time—likes to taunt the police by leaving behind, often bloody and horrific clues.

Perhaps Kashyap is most in command

working with limited budgets where he can micro-manage to a greater degree than when he can wield large budgets.

For Raman Raghav 2.0, a story Kashyap co-wrote with Vasan Bala, Kashyap resorts to what can only be described as guerilla filmmaking, which calls for shooting in actual, often off-street, settings and, sometimes, even without permission. Gone are the plush studio interiors where even grime can look polished. Here, the grime will not cleanse easily and the tenement

sounds and traffic noises are real. Unlike larger budget entries that may have dozens of mostly-pricey takes most of which end up on the editor’s floor, Kashyap shot hundreds of scenes, over days and not months. The amazing result is an expanded span of controlled settings that give a larger impact to the story then its limited purse would otherwise signal.

Like with Navdeep Singh’s brilliant NH10 (2015), the fear lurks (mostly) in

60 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

a subterranean maze that is Raman’s reality. In NH10, an ominous and symbolic revenge is delivered in a scene involving a wronged woman deliberately dragging a thick metal rod against the pavement. The dragging metal screech is angry, cantankerous and promises violence to a brutal finish. Twisted logic is intertwined with guilty satisfaction in the means to that end. That scene was an antithesis to what Raman Raghav 2.0 lashes out with. Here, a metal rod grinding on pavement, in an apartment lobby or in a dark alley, raises both fears and anticipation of mayhem. Surely, whoever swings this rod can’t be all that bad, can they? And yet, no rays of sun, no birds chirping or the break of dawn await the ritual.

There is only more darkness.

The other side of the coin to Raman’s seedy world is Inspector Raghavan’s parcel. Even though slightly more disciplined under the guise of law, Inspector Raghavan is not beyond resorting to full-fledged torture to extract the truth, whatever it may be, from Raman. Well played by Kaushal, Inspector Raghavan wants to, no, needs to, solve the perplexing serial killer case. His broken moral compass points to a man who strayed beyond his mission some time ago. What is lacking is two strong characters engaging with each other. Instead they mostly engage with their environment.

Siddique’s application to the role is stunning. His Raman effectively views himself as an animal that is settling a warped cosmic “score” where he is judge, jury, and executioner. His psychopathic outbursts are harmonized with a narrative where he is both a victim and the perpetrator. His most chilling legacy, in addition to an especially creepy ghoul-pose in the publicity poster, is the built in anxiety that subtly taps into the imagery of masked contemporary terrorists. Bravo! n EQ: A

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 61

Fist Full of Dirt SULTAN. Director: Ali Abbas Zafar. Players: Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma, Randeep Hooda, Anand Vidhaat Sharma, Amit Sadh, Parikshit Sahni. Music: Vishal-Shekhar. Hindi and Punjabi with Eng. sub-tit. Theatrical release (Yash Raj)

T

he relative new sport of mixed martial arts has of late made huge inroads recently and continues to conquer new markets and large arenas.

The sport mixes classical wrestling with grappling and even kicking. To catch the surging wave on the upswing, Yash Raj turned to Salman Khan, who, in addition to having platinum box office creds, also hands down the most controversial player in Hindi cinema. Hitting the bull’s crosshairs between romance and sporting choreography, Sultan lands an entertaining punch.

Played out almost backwards in the first half of the Zafar-penned story, Sultan (Khan) pines away in a clerical job in a village in Haryana. The over-the-hill former wrestling champ now appears to have given up that past. A very long shot chance at a do-over of his career arrives in the form of Akash (Sadh), a mixed martial arts promoter, with a proposition for Sultan to return to the sporting arena and just possibly re-kindle his lost mojo. Even as Sultan contemplates the offer, we rewind eight years to when Sultan was smitten with Aarfa (Anushka Sharma), a state level wrestling champ and daughter of a local wrestling coach, a connection that sets the stage for Sultan’s existential tug between the promise of redemption in the sporting arena and finding true love.

Filmmaker Zafar, who tasted success with Yash Raj’s Gunday and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, taps into production values that are nothing short of exquisite. Polish cinematographer Artur Zurowski’s camerawork can zoom in on the fine particles of sand in the dusty backwoods jousting joints where a younger Sultan gets his start. The wheat fields where Sultan romances Aarfa appear verdant and endless, bounded only by abundantly filled canals far and wide. This ethnic vibe of Sultan’s 62 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Punjabi-inflected origin story creates a sharp contrast between his humble, rural background and the international showcases that beckon after reluctantly agreeing to return to the ring.

Khan, never one to shy away from going shirtless, here opts for formhugging wrestling shorts. Buffed to fit a brawn that is required, this extended stint spent in micro-briefs and nothing else, while appearing starling at first for an Alist star, eventually becomes inseparable from Sultan’s identity, thus enlivening the role. Strangely, as the stakes rise—for that elusive mojo, for his relationship with his now-wife Aarfa, for salvation both for himself as well as his steel-edged new coach Fateh Singh (Hooda)—as long as Sultan dons that scant uniform, there is a hint of hope. The nearly three-hour long story flashes by fairly quickly.

Countering Khan’s Sultan, there is Anushka Sharma’s strongly played Aarfa.

While no slouch to big screen success (Rab Ne Bane Di Jodi, PK, NH10), she has the thankless task of blending into the background due to the demands of being married to a wrestling star. Sadly she, and not he, may have to choose between career and family. Hooda injects believable second-chance toughness into a boxing corner where he may unknowingly help Sultan find lost footing. This troika of strong-willed characters makes the story stand apart.

On Vishal-Shekhar’s decent soundtrack, two songs stand out. “Jag Ghoomeya” has two versions, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s male version and Neha Bhasin’s female version. Originally recorded by Arijit Singh who had a falling out with Salman Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s offering is both soulful and effervesces to that cloud just out of reach. A call to the sojourner to return home, the rich, silken vocals linger long after the stereo is turned off. “Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai” is the other number worth pausing for. The

catchy dance tune is crooned by a group of singers lead by Vishal Dadlani and it is about, egad, a bass-crazed babe. It is the festive opposite of both versions of “Jag Ghoomeya.”

By press time, Sultan had virtually vanquished the box office. With no major competing releases since a July 6 rollout, the movie stormed to a phenomenal $75 million global take—colossal by Indian standards and enough to make it the 5th highest grossing movie in Indian history within two weeks. Mixed martial arts is an unregulated sport in India, which means it is rife for exploitation and corruption. Sultan may just blaze the trail to expand the explosive new sport’s mass appeal to gain a foothold and respectability into a new bull market made up of more than one-and-ahalf billion South Asian noses. n EQ: A

Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

LATA’S

FLICK PICKS h  Aligar ar zh A   ll 3  Housefu n e3 T  jab  Udta Pun

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 63

64 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

dance . music

BharathaKala Kutiram Artistic Director:

Jayanthi Sridharan

offers Bharathanatyam Classes in Berryessa, North San Jose

Call: (408) 251-3438 e-mail: bkkdanceschool@gmail.com

Private Lessons ALL AGES & LEVELS

MUSIC Lessons with Peter Block

ENGLISH Lessons with Sita

• Saxophone, Guitar, Flute, Clarinet Writing, reading & speaking skills • Classical, Jazz & Pop styles • Prepare for high school and college • Includes comprehensive program of playing, • Word choice, vocabulary, grammar, diction rhythm & ear training, theory, recitals, etc.

• Essay, academic & creative writing • Qualify for local youth symphonies, wind ensembles, jazz bands, & college music.

Peter: (408)

839-2476

1/2 or Full Hour Lessons

music_lessons@comcast.net

Sita: (408)

253-1051

s_tyar@comcast.net

Vocal Music Classes

By DR

INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 27 Years of Excellence

www.indiacurrents.com

KALANJALI Dances of India

MOUSOOMI BANERJI

(disciple of late Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh and Ustad Munawar Ali Khan) * Teacher of repute and artiste having numerous stage and TV shows. * Elementary lessons for beginners in Indian Classical Music (Hindusthani style) and Light Classical Music - including bhajan, ghazal, etc.

* Special lessons in Bangla Gaan - (Bengali) ClassesseIn, San Jo Puraatani, Tappa, Nazrulgeeti, Sunnyvale ra Atulprosad, Raagprodhan, etc. & Santa Cla mousumi_999@yahoo.com Contact: (408) 799-1102 • (408) 823-3918 mousumi.banerji@gmail.com

Establshed in 1975

CLASSES IN BHARATANATYAM

India's most ancient classical dance

Following traditional Kalakshetra syllabus - all levels

SACRAMENTO, LAFAYETTE, BERKELEY Registration and Information:

510-526-2183

Kalanjaliusa@aol.com

Bansuri Bamboo Flute

Jeff Whittier

Director:

Srividya Eashwar

• Flutes of the Highest Quality • Lessons in North Indian Music in Palo Alto & Fremont • Video Instructions Available • Light Classical Music for Indian Weddings

(650) 493-2187

E-mail: Bansijeff@aol.com

10th Year of Artistic Excellence Classes offered in a combination of styles including Folk, Semi-Classical, and Fusion at various locations in Cupertino and San Jose.

CONTACT INFORMATION

408-246-3005 / 408-838-3079 Email: vidyasdance@gmail.com  Web: www.xpressionsdancemusic.com

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 65

events AUGUST 2016

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events Edited by: Mona Shah List your event for FREE! SEPT. issue deadline: Friday, August 19 To list your event in the Calendar, go to www.indiacurrents.com and click on List Your Event

Check us out on

special dates India Independence Day Aug. 15 Raksha Bandhan

Aug. 18

Krishna Janmashtami

Aug. 25

Ganesh Chaturthi

Sept. 5

Labor Day

Sept. 5

Bakri Id

As part of the Women Changing India exhibit, Matine Franck, A group of KMVS embroiderers gather in Namaben Bijal Marwara’s (centre) house. Dhrobana village, Kutch, Gujarat. July 8 – August 19; 531 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, 555 Market Street, San Francisco.

Sept. 12

Onam

Sept. 13

CULTURAL CALENDER

August

1 Monday

Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent. This presentation is the

first in North America to celebrate the diversity of South Asian art by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Ends Aug. 28. Santa Barbara 66 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

As part of the Women Changing India exhibit, Olivia Arthur, Karuna Nundy at the shrine of Muslim Sufi saint, Sheik Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Chisti, during the Urs festival. Nizamuddin Dargah, New Delhi. July 8 – August 19; 531 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, 555 Market Street, San Francisco.

events

What’s hot this month EXHIBITION

T

he Women Changing India exhibit showcases the work of six Magnum Agency photographers and six leading Indian writers, each of whom explores the world of Indian women through the medium of pictures and words.

The exhibition takes as its premise the fact that India is currently in the midst of deep change and at the heart of this change are women who, in the many large and small things they do, are quietly creating the conditions for a new and more equitable world.

Their contributions are not well recognized, and yet, they cannot be ignored. Whether it is in self help groups or in local governance, in protecting their homelands, in Information Technology, or as scientists, lawyers, corporate

FESTIVAL

T

he Federation of Indo Americans of Northern California (FIA) presents their annual Festival of India and Parade to celebrate the richness of India’s culture and heritage.

Festival of Globe (FOG) is a 10-day celebration and will include Movie Fest, Awards, Music Fest, Summit, Fashion Fest, FoodFest, India Day Fair and Grand Parade.

On August 13th, the uncrowned kings of Rap music Fetty Wap, Rick Ross, French Montana, Berner and Anjali World will enthrall the music lovers at SAP center.

The event will continue in Fremont with a mela, dance

competitions, cultural programs, Bollywood musical extravaganzas, and a parade.

The popular health fair will have more than 50 physicians and allied health professionals available to provide free health services. There will be a kid’s corner at the fair with rides and games for children, as well as booths of arts and craft, boutique shops and food stalls.n Aug 5-14. Various locations.

India Day Mela / Fair -Saturday August 13, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sunday August 14, 1-6 p.m.

39439 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont. For more information visit www.fiaonline.org.

bankers, writers, women are creating change in every aspect of Indian life. It is important to focus on this aspect of women’s lives in India too, so that the overall picture is more nuanced and rich and Indian women are not always portrayed as victims of violence.

The exhibition brings to life Urvashi Butalia’s book, Women Changing India, which shines a spotlight on stories captured through imagery by photographers Raghu Rai, Martine Franck, Olivia Arthur, Alex Webb, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Patrick Zachmann from acclaimed Magnum Photos an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members. n July 8 – August 19; 531 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, 555 Market Street, San Francisco.

MUSIC Ajoy Chakrabarty a Hindustani classical vocalist is considered a scion and doyen of the Patiala-Kasur gharana, primarily representing Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ustad Barkat Ali Khan sahibs gayaki. He can equally portray even the most subtle features of other major classical gharanas of India like Indore, Delhi, Jaipur, Gwalior, Agra, $30 (Includes admission, tea, light Kirana, Rampur and even snacks at interval, and dinner).

Karnatik music. n (714) 483-0853, (562) 704-2720, (323) 610-2620. bidhanray@ August 14, 2-5 p.m. William yahoo.com, sampurnadube@gmail. and Jane Bristol Civic Audicom, subharoop@gmail.com. www. torium, 16600 Civic Center dakshini.org.

Drive,. Bellflower. $100, $50, August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 67

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events adults writing for young audiences: Kaitlyn Dai, Sanjana Dantuluri, Neha Mandava, Aashka Pandya, Madison Tomihiro and Makenzie Tomihiro, Mona Ahuja, Novella Genelza, Ruchira Khanna Yalda Alexandra Saii, and Jyoti Yelagalawadi.

Organized by Lekha Publishers. 12-4 p.m.

Saratoga Prospect Center, 19848 Prospect Road, Saratoga . Free. (408) 429-8880. info@lekhaink.com. lekhaink.com.

Karnatik Vocal Concert—Double Header. 2:15-3:15 p.m. Ahana Na-

Bhartanatyam arangetram of Tanuja Gobbur, August 14 in Woodside.

Museum of Art, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara. www.sbma.net.

Women Changing India-Photography Exhibition. The exhibition brings

to life Urvashi Butalia’s book, Women Changing India, which shines a spotlight on stories captured through imagery by photographers Raghu Rai, Martine Franck, Olivia Arthur, Alex Webb, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Patrick Zachmann from acclaimed Magnum Photos an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members. The display captures the work of women who are making contributions in fields from politics to economics to business while forging new paths for themselves and other women in India. The book features contributions from leading writers to elucidate on the unique stories behind each photograph. Ends Aug. 19. Bank of the West Wealth Management Centers, 531 Cowper St., Palo Alto and 555 Market St., San Francisco.

August

6 Saturday

Lekha Booknic—A Family Book Picnic. A children’s book fair in a pic-

nic setting. Meet the authors, listen to readings and lunch. Authors presenting include both young published authors and

rayanan (vocal), accompanied by Akash Gururaja (violin) and Santhosh Ravindrabharathy (mridangam). 3:30 pm5:30 p.m. Pranav Narayanan (vocal), accompanied by Akash Gururaja (violin) and Shreyas Ramaswami (mridangam).

Organized by SR Fine Arts. 2:15-5:30 p.m. Community Of Infinite Spirit, 1540 Hick’s Ave., San Jose. Free. (408) 569-0860. dirsrfa@gmail.com. www.srfinearts.info.

A Gift of Music by Niravroh Laha.

Laha has been learning sitar from his father and guru Sri Suman Laha from the age of five. All donations from this event will be contributed to the Innersight project. Organized by Niravroh Laha. 5-7:30 p.m. Hoover Middle School, 3501 Country Club Drive., Lakewood. RSVP required.

(310) 462-2241. niravrohlaha@gmail.com.

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Skanda Suresh. Son and student of

Upcoming Exhibit—The Rama Epic. Curator Robert McGill will present

an overview of the exhibition and scenes from the Ramayana will be interpreted by dancers from the Abhinaya Dance Company and an Asian Art Museum storyteller. Organized by ICC and Asian Art Museum. 4-6 p.m. India Community Center, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. Free. imungal@asianart.org.

Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal Music Examinations. Registration is open for:

Prarambhik (1st yr.) to Visharad (7th yr. ) In vocal, tabla and dance (kathak/ bharatanatyam). Tabla Niketan, 7844 Mcclellan Road, Cupertino. (408) 792-7014. satish_tare@tablaniketan.com. tablaniketan.com/notifications.php.

August

10 Wednesday

Preventing and Reversing Diabetes.

A talk on ayurveda by Ashok Jethanandani. Have your blood glucose levels been creeping up in your annual tests? Are your triglycerides elevated? Have you added inches of fat around your waist? All of these may be clues to the same metabolic dysfunction that can be corrected by addressing the underlying causes. We will discuss dietary choices that can reverse the

Shreelata Suresh, Artistic Director of Vishwa Shanthi Dance Academy. Accompanied by V. Krishnamoorthi, Harini Krishnan, Shanthi and N. Narayanan.

5-6:30 p.m. Theater at College of San Mateo, 1700 W. Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo.

Free. (650) 248-3269. www.vishwashanthi. org.

August

7 Sunday

Ki Banu Duniya Da Gurudas Maan Live in Concert. Organized by New Delhi Palace, Pasadena. La Mirada Theater, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.

(626) 483-0510.

Preview of Asian Art Museums

68 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Bhartanatyam arangetram of Abinaya Srikant, August 21 in Santa Clara.

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

Karti Kaaljaat Ghusali, a Marathi play with Prashant Damle, Tejashri Pradhan, Sept. 3 in Los Altos Hills

progression, and ayurvedic herbal medicines that help restore balance of health.

6-7:30 p.m. Joyce Ellington Library, 491 E. Empire St., San Jose. Free. (408) 472-9705. www.classical-ayurveda.com.

August

11 Thursday

The 3rd Annual Desi Comedy Fest.

The 11-day festival will feature 50 South Asian comedians from 9 countries. Produced by San Francisco Bay Area-based Indian-born comedians, Samson Koletkar and Abhay Nadkarni. The idea for the festival was born on August 14 and 15, 2013 (Pakistani and Indian Independence Days, respectively) when Koletkar produced a couple of San Francisco Bay Area comedy shows featuring Pakistani and Indian comedians, talking about the

cultural zeitgeist in the South Asian community, where usually introverted South Asians are taking to the stage and openly talking about their cultural quirks while also addressing immigration, race, and other personal experiences of the South Asian diaspora. Ends Aug. 21. San Francisco, Berkeley, Mill Valley, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Union City, Livermore, Kenwood, and Sacramento. www.desicomedyfest.com, www. facebook.com/desicomedyfest.

August

12 Friday

Global Guitar Summit. Featuring

Konarak Reddy (India), Matthew Montfort (USA), and Teja Gerken (Germany) performing solo and ensemble pieces.

Organized by Acoustic Guitar Sonoma. 8 p.m. Sebastopol Community Center Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol. $20 advance,

$23 door. (707) 824-1858. krussellmft@aol. com. www.seb.org, www.ancient-future.com/ pr_global_guitar_trio_2016.html.

August

13 Saturday

FOG India Day Fair and Grand Parade. Two day fair with over 300 booths and exhibits on products, services, arts, crafts, literature, fashion and designs. Free health fair (August 13, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.) food fest, and culture fest. The Grand Parade, August 14 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on, with famous Bollywood and Hollywood Grand Marshals riding in more than 100 open cars along with over 50 colorful floats. FOG Food Festival is focused on facilitating growth and modernization of the industry by providing a platform for global vendors and sourcing professionals.

Ends

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 69

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

Rath Yatrafestival and parade, August 14 in San Francisco.

Aug. 14. Organized by Festival of Globe (FOG) and FIA. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Crosssection of Paseo Padre Pkwy and Walnut Avenue, 39439 Paseo Padre Pkwy., Fremont . Free. (510) 304-5619. ritu_m_usa@yahoo. com. www.FOGSV.org.

Awaaz—An Evening of Indian Contemporary Dance Vignettes.

Several of the works deal with relevant social issues faced by many in today’s world while others explore the intersection of Indian classical and contemporary dance forms. Ends Aug. 14. Organized

by Mona Khan Company. 3 p.m. ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco. $25. payalkela+indiacurrents@gmail.com. www. monakhancompany.com.

An Evening of Classical Ragas.

Featuring Lyon Leifer (flute), Joita Bose Mandal (vocal) and Apurva Mandal (vocal) , accompanied by Gopal Marathe (harmonium), Debasish Chaudhuri and Jyoti Prakas on tabla. Organized by Kamalanjali Jayanti Sangeet Samaroh and Los Angeles Sangeet Sankalp. 5:30 p.m.

Comprehensive Cultural and Spiritual Calendars Online The India Currents Spiritual and Yoga Calendar is available online at: https://www.indiacurrents.com/events The India Currents Cultural Calendar is available online at: https://www.indiacurrents.com/events 70 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

SRI RAMA LALITHA KALA MANDIR School of Fine Arts Founder and Artistic Director Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan presents

A Carnatic Vocal Debut Concert by

Kum.Sravya Rallapalli (Disciple of Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan) Accompanied by Kum.Sahana Srinivasan- Violin Vidvan Sri.Ramesh Srinivasan- Mridangam Sunday, August 14th, 2016 at 4:00pm Heritage Theatre 1 West Campbell Ave Campbell, CA 95008 Contact: (408) 531-9470

www.srirama.net

Free Admission

SarvaGuna

presents

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of

Aparna Date: Saturday, Aug 20th 2016 @3:30pm Venue: Starbright Theater 1770 W. Campbell Ave, Campbell

Orchestra: Mohana Narayan (Nattuvangam), Chandrika Pai (Vocal), Balaji Mahadevan (Mrudangam), Krishna Parthasarathy (Violin), Prasanna Rajan (Flute) Please RSVP(Limited Seating) @408-372-7638 or 408-476-3592 For more info, visit SarvaGuna School of Bharatanatyam

Website: www.sarvaguna.com Ph: 408-476-3592 Artistic Directors: Guru Usha Narayan & Mohana Narayan August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 71

GLORIOUS SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST J

esus Christ is coming back again to this world as "the King of Kings & the Lord of Lords" to judge Nations with HIS righteousness, to be with HIS people who have accepted Christ into their hearts & lived/living a life acceptable to Christ, having their names written in "the Book of Life" & to live with them forever. For the Lord Jesus Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we, who are alive and remain, shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

No one knows the day & hour when Jesus Christ will come back, not even the angels of heaven, but only the Father God in heaven.

The day of Christ coming also called as "the Day of the Lord" will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Nevertheless we, according to HIS promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Jesus Christ coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but MY words will by no means pass away”

What will happen to people who are left behind during Christ Second coming?

Who will not be with Christ forever?

For people whose names are written in "the Book of Life" it will be a glorious day & for others it will be a day of destruction. The Lord will consume with the breath of HIS mouth and destroy with the brightness of HIS coming.

What will be the signs before Second coming of Christ & of the end age?

After coming of Christ, Satan will be bound for 1000 years. Saints of God will rule with Christ during these 1000 years. There will be no death and everyone will live happy with joy & peace, since the Prince of Peace will rule them. After 1000 years of Christ reign, satan will be released to see the reign of Christ with righteousness. Satan will go around nations deceiving people one more time and gather few folks to fight against HIS saints. God will send fire and devour them. Satan will be sent to hell forever.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Only people whose sins are cleansed by the Blood of Christ, lived/living righteous life before Christ & have their names written in "the Book of Life" will inherit the Kingdom of God or to be with HIM forever. The Bible says in 1Cor 6:9-10, Gal 5:19-21, Rom 1:29-32, Rev 21:8, Rev 14:9-11 that the unrighteous people will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Many will be deceived during last days saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ therefore do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end will not come immediately. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Many will be persecuted, beaten, killed, offended, betrayed and hated for Christ sake even by parents, brothers, relatives, friends and children. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the entire world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation

1000 years of Christ reign

The Great White Throne Judgment

After casting Satan into the Lake of fire (hell), Christ will judge the dead & the Nations with HIS Righteousness. If anyone’s name is not found in “the Book of Life”, then they will be cast into the Lake of fire. Whomsoever name is found in “the Book of Life” will have eternal life with Christ in New Heaven, New Earth & New Jerusalem. There is no death, no sorrow, no crying & no pain.

Now how can I redeem this Gift of Salvation in my life, so I can be with Christ forever?

All we have to do is to believe Jesus, accept HIM into your heart, ask HIM to cleanse your sins by HIS precious blood & live a life acceptable to Christ every day from now on. (Repeat this simple prayer - Prayer means talking to God in your heart)

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, and then know that its desolation is near. Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place where it ought not, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Jesus predicts the destruction of Temple of God to his disciples saying, “The days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down”. For in those days there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of creation of this world. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved.

Lord Jesus, Thank you for coming into this world for me and my sins. I truly accept you just as I am. Come into my heart; cleanse me and my sins with your precious Blood. Be in my heart forever and help me to live and lead a Holy life like you. I also invite YOU & Your Holy Spirit to come into my heart and give me the Joy, Peace, Happiness, Deliverance from sins, bondages and sickness forever. Thank you for giving me the assurance of being with me forever. In Jesus name I pray Amen.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, there will be signs like the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see

If you have truly meant this prayer, then you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart & your name will be written in “the Book of Life”. HE will be with you forever. HE will not leave you nor forsake you. If you need prayers or would like to know more about Jesus, then you can visit nearby Christian churches who believes in Trinity (The Father God, Lord Jesus Christ & The Holy Spirit) or email us at : info@christforworld.org

72 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Kuchipudi Art Center

(Artisitic Director: Smt. Sunita Pendekanti)

Kuchipudi Rangapravesam

Kaivalya Tallam On Sunday, August 28, 2016, 4:00 PM Musicians Nattuvangam : Smt.Sunita Pendekanti Vocal : Smt.Chandrika Pai Flute : Sri. Prasanna Rajan Veena : Smt.Usha Bharat Mridangam : Sri. Raghu Chakravarthy Violin : Sri. Susheela Narasimhan Venue Dougherty Valley Performing Arts Center 10550 Albion Rd, San Ramon, CA 94582, United States For More Info contact: Pallavi Tallam (408)– 667–1508 Email: pallavital@yahoo.com

ADMISSION FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 73

events

Californiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Guide to Indian Events

Preview of Asian Art Museums Upcoming Exhibit-The Rama Epic, August 7 at ICC, Milpitas

George Nakano Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive., Torrance. RSVP required. (314) 520-8831, (314) 277-5795. joitabosemandal@gmail.com.

Dream Team Live in Concert. 8 of

Bollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top stars: Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Karan Johar, Parineeti Chopra, Varun Dhawan, Badshah, Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra. Organized by Bikram, Ray and Kay Walia with B&B Entertainments, Akash Sharma and Praveen Singh of Modesto. 7:30 p.m. Oracle Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. $39-$199. (925) 366-8466, (650) 771-0933, (408) 2305210.

August

11 day, Desi Comedy Fest, featuring Samson Koletkar, Aug 11-21 in various Bay Area cities.

74 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

14 Sunday

Ratha Yatra Parade. 50th annual Festival of the Chariots, with entertainment, cultural dances, live music, exhibits and darshan of the original Lord Jagannath.

Free vegetarian food provided. Organized

by Iskcon Berekeley. 11 a.m. Transverse

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events economic, political and religious injustice with non-violence. Participants include Michael Nagler, Founder and President of The Metta Center for Nonviolence; Maha Elgenaidi, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Islamic Networks group; Subba Raoji, Chairman of National Youth Project, India. Moderated by Prasad Kaipa. Followed by an interactive discussion with audience. Organized by SIVIC Pacifica. 2-5 p.m. Pacifica Institute, 1257 Tasman Drive., Sunnyvale. Free, RSVP required. (408) 530-2733, (669) 292-1475. sulolulla@gmail.com. Silicon valley interreligious council, sivic.org, Pacifica .org.

Bharathanatyam Arangetram of Prathibha Kattirasetty. Student of

Anushya Rajendra, Artistic Director of Nritta School of Dance. Accompanied by Babu Parameswaran and his crew from Keerthana School of Music. Organized by Nritta School of Dance, Elk Grove. 3 p.m.

Richards Brunelle Performance Hall, Davis Sr. High School, 315 W 14th St., Davis.

Free. (408) 229-2691. pshettyarangetram@ yahoo.com. nrittadance.org.

Arangetram of Prathibha Kattirasetty, August 14 in Davis

and JFK Drive, East of Sharon Meadows, San Francisco. Free. (510) 540-9215, (707) 426-4672. www.iskonberkeley.net.

Ajoy Chakrabarty in Concert. A scion and doyen of the Patiala-Kasur Gharana (style), primarily representing Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ustad Barkat Ali Khan sahibs gayak. He will be accompanied by musicians from India.

Organized by Dakshini Bengali Association of California. 2-5 p.m. William and Jane Bristol Civic Auditorium, 16600 Civic Center Drive,. Bellflower. $100, $50, $30 (Includes admission, tea, light snacks at interval, and dinner). (714) 483-0853, (562) 704-2720, (323) 610-2620. bidhanray@yahoo.com, sampurnadube@gmail.com, subharoop@gmail.com. www.dakshini.org.

Non Violence in Today’s Violent World. How to solve issues of racial,

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Nanditha Embar. Student of Sangita

Vasudevan. Accompanied by Sangita Vasudevan (nattuvangam), Jayanthi Umesh (vocals), Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan (mridangam), Vikram Ragukumar (violin), Shreyas Bhardwaj (flute). 4 p.m.

Mexican Heritage Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. meeraraghu@yahoo.com.

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Tanuja Gobbur. Student of Mythili Ku-

mar, Artistic Director of Abhinaya Dance Company. Accompanied by Mythili Kumar and Malavika Kumar Walia on nattuvangam, Asha Ramesh on vocals, Amit Ranganathan on mridangam, and Sruti Sarathy on violin. Organized by Abhinaya Dance Company. 4-7 p.m. Woodside High School Performing Arts Center, 199 Woodside Ave., Woodside. Free. (408) 871-5959. abdanceco@gmail.com. www.abhinaya.org.

Vocal Debut Concert of Sravya Rallapalli. Student of Jayashree Varadarajan Founder and Artistic Director Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandir School of Fine Arts.

Accompanied by Sahana Srinivasan (violin) and Ramesh Srinivasan (mridangam).

4 p.m. Heritage Theatre, 1 West Campbell Ave., Campbell. Free. www.srirama.net.

August

15 Monday

Transgender Female Documentary.

Black Sheep is a 70-minute feature length documentary following a group of Hijras and the crew as they create new bonds of friendship while they proactively, through empowering events, break the barriers of popular myth and prejudice. The cinematic journey will move beyond the gritty slums of Mumbai to celebrate the real-life joys and multi-faceted personalities of this unique community of trans genders in India. From empathetic glimpses into their everyday lives, the narrative will encapsulate a series of adventures ranging from photo-shoots to fashion and talent shows, to celebrate the glorious femininity of the Hijra protagonists. Empowering adventures will include a DIY makeover for their currently grim workplace to bridging the emotional space between society, the families and the Hijras. The film shines a light on these inspiring Hijras who have demonstrated the courage to go up against society’s strictures to fulfill their true destiny. Releases in the United States in mid-August. www.facebook.com/ Black-Sheep-1684114848497771/?fref=ts, blacksheepdocumentary.com.

August

17 Wednesday

Preventing and Reversing Diabetes.

A talk on ayurveda by Ashok Jethanandani. Have your blood glucose levels been creeping up in your annual tests? Are your triglycerides elevated? Have you added inches of fat around your waist? All of these may be clues to the same metabolic dysfunction that can be corrected by addressing the underlying causes. We will discuss dietary choices that can reverse the progression, and ayurvedic herbal medicines that help restore balance of health.

6:30-8 p.m. Willow Glen Library, 1157 Minnesota Ave., San Jose. Free. (408) 4729705. www.classical-ayurveda.com.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 75

events August

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

19 Friday

Meera—The Soul Divine. Featuring

Chitra Visweswaran and Chidambaram Dance Company with music composed by Bombay Jayashri. The vision of All India Movement(AIM)for Seva is to bring value based education to the least privileged in India. AIM for Seva tackles the problems related to rural education through a residential concept called the Free Student Home(FSH). Organized by All India Movement(AIM)for Seva. 7:30-10:30 p.m.

David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre, 4126 Executive Drive., La Jolla. (858) 880-8609. aimforsevasd@gmail.com. www.aimforseva. org, veenupv12@gmail.com.

Ayurvedic Cooking with Bharata Surya. Learn the science of the 6 tastes,

a unique feature of Ayurvedic nutrition to insure proper digestion, assimilation of nutrients and elimination. The use of spices and sattvic food, based on grains, pulses and vegetables, savories and sweetmeats as prescribed in Ayurveda bring about a wholesome experience of well-being. Relaxation and spiritual environment of the Ashram, with daily yoga classes, satsang, meditation, chanting and time for hiking and visiting our temples and many shrines. Ends Aug. 21. 3-2 p.m. Sivananda Yoga Farm Ashram, 14651 Ballantree Ln., Grass Valley. $100 tuition, plus accommodations. (530) 272-9322. yogafarmregistration@sivananda.org. www.yogafarm.org, sivanandayogafarm.org/course/ayurvediccooking-course-california-august.

August

20 Saturday

Independence Day Celebration. Free

health fair, food booths, Indian jewellery and fashion booths. Organized by India Association of Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley). 3-10 p.m. Chatsworth High School, 10027 Lurline Ave., Chatsworth. (818) 6001495. www.IndiaAssociationLA.org.

Dream Team Live in Concert. 8 of

Bollywood’s top stars: Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Karan Johar, Parineeti Chopra, Varun Dhawan, Badshah, Alia Bhatt,

76 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Bharathanatyam Rangapravesha of Adithi Anand, Sept. 3 in Palo Alto

Sidharth Malhotra. Organized by Super/ Dylan Entertainment. 7:30 p.m. Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. $59$225. (310) 829-2860, (213) 422-2475, (714) 349-1876.

Youth Music Festival. Organized by

SR Fine Arts. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Community Of Infinite Spirit, 1540, Hick’s Ave., San Jose.

Free. (408) 569-0860. dirsrfa@gmail.com. www.srfinearts.info.

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Aparna. Student of Mohana Narayan,

Artistic Director of SarvaGuna School of Bharatanatyam. Accompanied by Mohana Narayan (nattuvangam), Chandrika Pai (vocal), Bela Devan (mridangam), Krishna Parthasarathy (violin) and Prasanna Rajan (flute). 3:30 p.m. Starbright Theater, 1770 W.Campbell Ave., Campbell. (408) 476-3592. www.sarvaguna.com.

August

21 Sunday

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Abinaya Srikant. Student of Mythili

Kumar, Artistic Director of Abhinaya Dance Company. Accompanied by Mythili Kumar and Malavika Kumar Walia on nattuvangam, Asha Ramesh on vocals, N. Narayan on mridangam, and Shanthi Narayan on violin. Organized by Abhinaya Dance Company. 4-7 p.m. Mission City Center for Performing Arts, 3250 Monroe St., Santa Clara. Free. (408) 871-5959. abdanceco@gmail.com. abhinaya.org.

Classical Music Concert. Featuring a new generation of young musicians from the UK. Arnab Chakrabarty (sarode), Roopa Panesar (sitar) and Sanju Sahai

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

(tabla). Organized by SACHI (Society for Art & Cultural Heritage of India), SOHARA, and Palo Alto Art Center. 4-6 p.m. Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto. $25 (Non-Members); $20 (SACHI and Palo Alto Art Center Members). (650) 400-3696. info@sachi.org. www. eventbrite.com/e/indian-classical-music-thenext-generation-in-a-sarod-sitar-and-tablarecital-tickets-26478166910.

Meera—The Soul Divine, A Fund Raiser for All India Movement for Seva. Depicting the story of Meera with

artists Padmashree Chitra Visweswaran and Oscar nominated Bombay Jayashree. Organized by AIM for Seva, Bay Area. 5-7 p.m. California Theater, 345 S 1st St., San Jose. Number of passes are made available based on the level of donation. A donation of $125 offers you one pass, $225: two passes, $450: 4 passes, $1000-$2000: 10 passes, and over $2000: >10 passes. (650) 208 9565, (408) 792-4111. info@aimforsevabayarea.org. www.aimforsevabayarea.org, www.meerathesouldivine.com/index.html, www.sanjose.com/california-theatre-b2385.

August

27 Saturday

Gandabandhan Concert—Hindustani Classical Sitar by Kailash Ranganathan. Student of of Pandit

Habib Khan. Organized by Habib Khan Saraswati Temple and Gurukul. 3:30-5 p.m. Woodside High School, 199 Churchill Ave., Woodside. kailash@kailashsitar.com. kailashsitar.com.

Bharathanatyam Arangetram of

Hiruni Ranawaka. Student of Nalini Natarajan, Artistic Director of Thalam School of Fine Arts. Organized by Thalam School of Fine Arts. 4-6:30 p.m.

Scherr Forum of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center, 2100, Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. Attendance by invitation only. (818) 987 6915. thalamschool@yahoo. com.

Kalanityam Arangetram of Mashia Mazumder. Student of Selvi Pragasam,

Artistic Director of Kalanityam School Of Bharathanatyam. All pieces of the arangetram are on Lord Shiva. 4 p.m. CET Soto Theater, 701 Vine St., San Jose. Free.

(408) 238-4034, (408) 410-5365. selvipragasam@gmail.com, rkmohammed@gmail. com. www.kalanityam.org, www.facebook. com/Kalanityam.

August

28 Sunday

Bharatanatyam Arangetram of Anjana Rajamani Parasuram. Student

ing Arts Center, 10550 Albion Road., San Ramon. Free. (408) 667–1508. pallavital@ yahoo.com.

September

3 Saturday

Marathi Play—Karti Kaaljaat Ghusali. Starring Prashant Damle and

Tejashri Pradhan. Organized by Swar Sudha. 6-9:30 p.m. Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road., Los Altos Hills . VVIP $100, VIP: 75, preferred: $50, general: $25. (408) 461-8390, (510) 579-8211. swarsudha@swarsudha.org. www.

SwarSudha.org, www.TicketHungama.com/ SwarSudha, sganu@yahoo.com.

Bharathanatya Rangapravesha of Adithi Anand. Student of Roopa

Anand, Artistic Director of Nrityaarpana Dance Academy. Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.

Free. (408) 874-6214. roopa2004@gmail. com.

of Shreelata Suresh, Artistic Director of Vishwa Shanthi Dance Academy. 4-7 p.m.

McAfee Performing Arts Center, 20300 Herriman Ave., Saratoga. Free. (408) 5691335. www.vishwashanth.org.

Kuchipudi Rangapravesam of Kaivalya Tallam. Student of Sunita

Pendekanti, Artisitic Director of Kuchipudi Art Center. Accompanied by Sunita Pendekanti (nattuvangam), Chandrika Pai (vocal), Prasanna Rajan (flute), Usha Bharat (veena), Susheela Narasimhan (violin) and Raghu Chakravarthy (mridangam). 4 p.m. Dougherty Valley Perform-

Lekha Booknic, August 6 in Saratoga

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Comprehensive Cultural and Spiritual Calendars Online The India Currents Spiritual and Yoga Calendar is available online at: https://www.indiacurrents.com/events The India Currents Cultural Calendar is available online at: https://www.indiacurrents.com/events

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 77

Om Sri Mathre Namaha SRI LAKSHMI GANAPATHI TEMPLE

(408) 226-3600

32B Rancho Drive, San Jose, CA 95111

(Capitol Expressway West and Montrey Road Junction, Opposite and 1 Block from Capitol Cal Train Station)

www.vvgc.org or siliconvalleyhindutemple.com

Please contact the temple for further details

Friday August 5th: Thiruvadi pooram, At 5.00 PM Sri Bhuwaneswari/Sri Lalihta Devi abhihsheka. Sri bhoga Srinivasa Murthy abhisheka continued with Sri Lalitha sahasra nama chanting aarati and manthra pushpa.

Sunday August 7th: Rig Veda upakarma, At 8.00 AM (only one batch)

Please bring the following Items tor the Rig Veda upakarma pancha pathra uttrharani, plate (thambalam), rice, moong dhal, black seasame seeds (black ellu/till, nalla nuvulu), variety of fruits, flowers, coconut, beetel leaves 4 nos, beetel nuts 2 nos, prasadam for naivedyam For first time thala Rig Veda upakarma prathama sravanam brahmacharis sundal, prasadam. For naivedyam, please contact the temple for further details.

Monday August 8th: Sukla sashti vratha, At 8.30 PM Sri Valli Deva Sena sametha sri subramanya sahasra nama archanS Friday August 12th: Sri Varalakshmi vratha pooja 6.00 AM 1st Batch 7.00 AM 2nd Batch 8.00 AM 3rd Batch

9.00 AM 4th Batch 10.00 AM 5th Batch 12.00 Noon 6th Batch Please bring the following items for the Sri Varalakshmi vratha pooja turmeric powder, kum kum, sandal powder, agarbathi, camphor, beetel leaves 6 nos, beetel nuts 4 nos, coconut, varieties of fruits, flowers, sri varalakshmi silver mukham, silver kalasam if you have in your house, pancha pathira uttrani, kalasa vasthram, small deepam and any prasadam for naivedyam.

At 4.00 PM Sri Bhuwaneswari/Sri Lalihta Devi abhisheka continued with sri lalihta sahasra nama chanting aarati and manthra pushpa.

At 6.00 PM Samoohika Sri Varalakshmi vratha pooja aarati and manthra pushpa.

Please bring following items for Sri Varalakshmi vratha samoohika pooja turumeric powder, kum kum, flowers, varieities of fruits, any prasadam for naivedyam.

Monday August 15th: At 6.00 PM Soma pradosham Shiva Sri Rudra abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa.

Wednesday August 17th: Pournima vratha Raksha Bhandan, At 6.00 PM Sri Sathya Narayana swamy vratha/pooja. All are welcome to participate with family.

Thursday August 18 : Yajur upakarma th

yajur veda avani avittam.

Brahmacharis samithathanam, kamo karishith japam, brahma yagnam maha sankalpam, noothana yagnopaveedha dharanam, kandha raishi tharpanam, sri Vigneswara/Sri Viswekshana aaradhana pooja, varuna sahitha, Sri Veda Vysa pooja homa, sri veda arambham, aaseervadham theertha prasada viniyogam

At 5.50 AM 1 Batch 8.00 AM 2nd Batch st

10.00 AM 3rd Batch Please bring the following items for the yajur veda upakarma/avani avittam pancha pathira uttarani, plate (thambalam), rice, moong dhall, jaggery, black seaseme seeds, (black ellu/till, nalla nuvulu) vairieties of fruits, flowers, coconut, beetel leaves, 4 nos, beetel nuts 2 nos, prasadam for naivedyam.

Please bring the following items for the thalai avani avittam (1st year brahmacharis) prathama sravanam vadus brahamacharis sundal, appam, prasadam for naivedyam.

Please contact the temple for further details.

Friday August 19th: 7.00 AM Sri Gayathri japam/homam aarati and manthra pushpa.

Please contact the temple for further details.

Sunday August 21st: Sri Maha Sankata hara chathurthi.

At 4.00 PM Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi homa/Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi abhisheka, Sri Valli Deva Sena sametha Sri Subramanya abhisheka, Sri Shiva abhisheka, aarati and manthra pushpa.

Wednesday August 24th: Kritika vratha.

At 6.30 PM Sri Valli Deva Sena sametha Sri Subramanaya abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa.

Thursday August 25th: Evening at 6.00 PM Sri Gokula ashtami, Sri Krishna Janma Ashtami, vaikanasa munithreya Sri Jayanthi special pooja aarati and manthra pushpa.

Friday August 26th: Sri Pancha rathra Sri Jayanthi.

Monday August 29th: At 6.00 PM soma pradosham Shiva Sri Rudra abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa.

Please Make A Note:: Temple Address:: 32 Rancho Drive, San Jose CA 95111 Temple Timings: Week Days Morning 10.00 Am To 12 Noon, Evening At 6.00 pm To 8.00 pm Week Ends And Holidays 10.00 am To 8.00 pm

FOR BHAJAN'S RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES, MUSIC AND DANCE PERFORMANCES, PRIVATE POOJAS PLEASE CONTACT TEMPLE FOR FURTHER DETAILS MANGALANI BHAVANTHU,SUBHAM BHUYATH,LOKA SAMASTHA SUKINO BHAVANTHU, LOVE ALL SERVE ALL LOVE IS ALL For Pujas & Rituals Contact: PANDIT GANESH SHASTHRY 880 East Fremont Ave #302, Cupertino Villas, Sunnyvale, CA 94087

(408) 245-5443 / Cell: (925) 209-7637 E-mail: srikalahatheeswara@yahoo.com

Home:

78 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

INDIA CURRENTS GRAPHICS (408) 324-0488

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Guru peyarchi guru transition from simha raasi to kanya raasi uttraphalguni 234 padas, hastha, chitra 1, 2 pada. at 6.00 PM: Guru peyarchi guru transition special homa In general parihara required and essential raasis are kanya raasi janma guru thula raasi, dhanur raasi,kumbha raasi,mesha raasi,mithunaraasi kataka raasi.

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travel

A Glimpse of Heaven–Kashmir

By Melanie P. Kumar

The Dal Lake

A

s soon as our flight begins its descent into Srinagar, I see a glimpse of heaven as snow-capped mountains, flowing rivulets, and Chinar trees appear and take shape below.

This is a family holiday and in the next eight days, I will see many more sights that will make me realize what the poet Hazrat Amir Khusro is said to have penned about Kashmir—“Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast, Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast” translating as, “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.”

The rush at the airport and the conveyor belt makes me wonder whether the whole country has made a beeline for Kashmir. With tourism opening up in the last couple of years, it seems to be a popular destination for travelers. But the road blocks and the re-routes that our driver is forced to make gives us an idea of what

the average Kashmiri has to live with every day—a state of uncertainty. Yet, when I look around, I see peaceful faces, perhaps even resigned faces. One driver, seeing our bewildered look, leans and yells out, “This is Kashmir!” The only frustration that is visible is the constant tooting of horns, making one wish for a set of ear plugs.

At Bloomingdale Cottage, our homestay, we are greeted with the rich Kashmiri tea called kahwa and cookies and the warm welcome of one of the best hoteliers that I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

Firdaus Saheb is the quintessential gentleman host who takes us sightseeing in his car on our first evening in Srinagar (and shopping on our last one), when we have our first sighting of the Dal Lake and the famous houseboats.

Bloomingdale turns out to be our home away from home, thanks to Firdaus

84 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

Saheb’s familial warmth and the care of his two Man Fridays, both of whom see to all our comforts and needs.

A visit to Srinagar is incomplete without a visit to the Mughal Gardens. As the name suggests these tastefully landscaped spaces were set up during the era of the Mughals and reveal their love for natural beauty. Chashme Shahi, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar and the Botanical Gardens play host to a variety of flowers, fountains and waterfalls, which are a feast for the eyes.

Kashmir ki Kali and many other Hindi films of the ’60s and ’70s made use of the valley’s scenic sights for the romantic duets of the leading pairs.

At Chasme Shahi we scoop fresh water from mountain springs and enjoy the feel of the ice cold water going down our throats.

A visit to the Shankaracharya Hill re-

veals a bird’s eye view of Srinagar from the ramparts of the temple.

There are crowds milling everywhere except perhaps at the Hazratbal Mosque, where there is a strict dress code for men.

Women can only have a view from the outside.

Abdul Majeed, our well-informed driver who ferries us around, becomes our friend, philosopher and guide for the rest of our stay in Kashmir. Our first stop is Gulmarg, where a steep trek by foot to the ticketing counter is followed by a long wait for a cable car—a gondola that operates in two phases. It has to be mentioned here that though Kashmir thrives on tourism, there is complete mismanagement in several places. In Gulmarg, we see touts running the whole show and allowing people who have paid speed money, to jump the queue. The ride on the gondola affords scenic views and we decide to get off at the second phase, which is higher than the first. I’m excited to be walking on snow, for the first time, a task easier achieved with a pair of rubber boots (compulsory and available on hire) as also a ride on a sled.

Pahalgam is the next stop on our itinerary. En-route, we get off at the Avantipura Ruins, where the Pandavas are said to have stopped by. It is a beautiful place for photographs and we click away to our heart’s content. We stop by some apple orchards, where a few green apples are making their appearance. Our driver also shows us almond, walnut, chinar and pine trees.

The Himalaya Discover Resort at Pahalgam turns out to be a great shock, as what we booked on the Internet is different from what we actually find. We are fortunate enough to find an alternative and use the rest of the day to take rides through the Aru and Betaab valleys and Chandanwadi, from where the Amarnath yatris start their pilgrimage. These journeys are compulsorily done with the use of a local car and driver and we stare spellbound at the sights of the lakes and springs and snowy mountain tops, as he drives us up and down the valleys. One can only say that in Kashmir the journeys can be as pleasurable as the destinations and we request the driver to stop so that we can sit on the rocks and dip our feet in ice-cold streams we encounter along the way.

Pahalgam turns out to be memorable in more ways than one because here is

Mist shrouding Sonamarg

The flowing waters at Kokernag

where I take a toss along with a mountain horse whilst heading up to Baisaran Valley, also known as mini Switzerland because of the hill and dale view. Luckily my wounds are superficial but what is disturbing is the lack of first aid for such possibilities. Nevertheless, I sit back on the horse again and enjoy the rest of the journey, opting for first aid at a civil hospital in Pahalgam town. The doctors tell me that I am fortunate, as they have seen much worse.

There is a saying that wherever you throw a stone in Kashmir, you will find a beautiful sight to behold. We realize this again en-route to Hotel Paradise Resort in Daksum. The hotel is luxury personified and my room has a small sitting area overlooking the mountains, where I spend some happy moments just gazing out at nature’s bounties.

After breakfast the next morning, we climb approximately 14,500 feet to the snowy Sinthan Top. As always, the views along the way are enthralling. At the top,

A view from the aircraft

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 85

the stream waters slide down and drench the road so the driver has to be proficient.

On account of a sprained foot, I climb only a portion of the mountain and spend the rest of the time just enjoying and photographing the wondrous sights around me.

At our next halt in Kokarnag, we stay at a quaint cottage run by Jammu and Kashmir Tourism. The service here is passable but the staff is friendly and the greatest attraction is its location, which is inside a park. After the tourist crowd leaves, it is like having the park to oneself whilst walking past the waterfalls and stopping to smell the multi-hued roses, which are huge in size and blooming in gay profusion.

One cannot visit Kashmir without picking up dried fruits, the famed Kashmiri chillies and saffron. We do this in a place The ruins of Avantipura

The fountains of Chashme Shahi

piece, I wonder if those were portents for what was to follow. Everywhere we went, people spoke of the lack of security and the breakdown of systems. One young lad said, “Please offer dua that peace is restored in the valley.” Having seen the beauty of the Heaven on earth that is Kashmir, what else can I do but pray for peace there. n Melanie Kumar is a Bangalore-based writer and literary fiction reviewer who has been freelancing for more than 15 years now. She holds degrees in English and mass communications.

called Paunpur and are surprised to find the driver pointing out bullet pockmarked buildings along the way; battlegrounds between security forces and militants. In many of the tourist spots, it seems a little eerie to see uniformed police keeping guard—a reminder of the insecurities that beset this valley.

Farah’s Homestay on the way up to Sonamarg is the saving grace for this part of our journey. It is a charming little place run by a Kashmiri and French couple, who have named it after their perky four and a half year-old daughter, Farah, who barges into our room, demanding chocolates.

This part of our journey is marred by bad weather and the climb up to Sonamarg is dark and dreary. The sky is overcast and the mountains are out of sight.

Now, that I am back and writing this 86 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

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healthy life

Cold Comfort Why does a hot country like India have few cold foods?

By Pritha Sen

I

t all began when I asked my mother what I could make for lunch. The temperature was hovering between 46-47 degrees Celsius in Gurgaon, near Delhi, and all I could come up with was curd rice. But I had made it for her just a day ago and, however eclectic her tastes may be, feeding a Bengali (and a gourmet cook in her time) curd rice two days in a row would not go down well.

So then?

She looked at me matter-of-factly and said, “Make some moong dal with green mangoes.” But this is not her vegetarian day (when masoor, the other commonly consumed dal, is taboo, since it’s considered non-vegetarian in Bengali cuisine). “Look up one of those books you bury your nose into all the time,” she said. “Urad dal is cooling as well.”

Cooling? That got me thinking. Regional cuisine is the offspring of geography and climate. India’s complex topography has, therefore, given rise to varied cuisines, with common threads among those that share weather conditions. The moong bean or dal, known as mudga in Sanskrit, has been the queen among summer foods in India for 5,000 years. From hot and humid eastern India to the dry and arid west and north-west, to the Deccan, the moong rules as a cooked meal—thin, runny dals, homely khichdis, light curries with vegetables or souring agents like fruits and berries—or simply as a cold food, something the West would call a salad.

Eat it cold

For instance, kosumalli is a celebrated cold dish in Tamil Nadu: Moong dal is soaked in water till it swells and softens and then tossed with grated carrots or cucumber, lemon juice, salt, pepper and green chillies. Cut across to eastern India, where soaked moong beans are paired with moori or khoi (puffed or popped rice), sweetened with grated co-

88 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

conut and sugar and topped with sliced banana. Institutionalized as a ritual food, it is widely relished as a breakfast or snack in summer. Then there is the uppa hesaru in Karnataka, a roasted whole moong broth with tamarind, which is never served hot.

Like all other legumes, the moong bean is packed with nutrients and is easy to digest. And its alkaline nature makes it the perfect cooling food.

Gota sheddho. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint Bengal, interestingly, has a little recognized tradition of cold foods. At the top dal, young peas in their pods, drumsticks, of the pile is the kancha phalaahar (literdrumstick flowers, sweet potatoes, new ally, uncooked fruit victuals), or phalaar. potatoes, brinjal, sheem (Italian beans), It comprises fruits, curd, cheerey (flattened sheesh palong (spinach shoots and roots) rice) or murki (popped rice with jaggery and kochu (or taro) root, this is served cold and ginger) and mithai (a sweet made with with a lashing of mustard oil. besan or gram flour or moong dal, ghee Bihar has the one-stop sattu meal: and jaggery or sugar) and/or monda (difroasted gram flour kneaded to a dough, ferent kinds of cooked sugar lumps such as mixed with chopped onions, green chillies batasha, kodma, nokuldana). and mustard oil and relished as a staple Eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch or round the year, with some pickles on the dinner, the concoction also goes by differside. ent, occasion-specific names: dodhikarma However, the concept of cooling foods (when offered as puja prasad with the in India is not so much about foods served addition of honey and tulsi leaves), dhodicold as it is about foods with heating and mangal (a pre-dawn meal for the bride cooling properties.

Very cold foods and and groom on the wedding day, when they drinks, the ancient texts say, lower body fast) and as kancha phalaahar. temperatures and slow down the digestive Besides ubiquitous cold foods, like mechanism.

Moreover, as writer Sudha G. sago or rice and milk with mashed baTilak says, “Because of the high temperananas, or flattened rice and yogurt, again tures, raw foods are almost non-existent in with bananas, mangoes or sandesh, and Tamil Nadu—where I come from—as in curd rice (untempered, unlike the south other parts of our country. Cooking averts Indian curd rice), West Bengal also has the spoilage.” gota sheddho, a one-dish cold meal eaten According to traditional wisdom, heat the day after Saraswati Puja, which heralds and cold are properties generated within spring. Cooked with green and black urad the human body in response to certain

kinds of food, irrespective of their temperature or spice content. Cooling foods include tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, gourds, greens, oranges, sweet limes, green mangoes, carrots, radishes, buttermilk, etc. And traditional Indian dishes in summer are generally made up of a combination of all these and more.

Chilled to the grain

A case in point is rice, described in Ayurveda as the perfect nourishing and healing food. While raw rice is said to induce heat, cooked rice is considered the first among foods, as Ratna Rajaiah writes in her delightful book on health foods, How The Banana Goes To Heaven—And Other Secrets Of Health From The Indian Kitchen, “It is cooling, easily digestible, zero cholesterol, low in fat and sodium, a slow-digesting carbohydrate, rich in most of the B vitamins and minerals like iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc and completely free of allergens.” Which explains the widespread consumption of kanji, fermented rice gruel, in summer: It’s drunk both hot and cold in southern India.

In Bengal, Assam and Odisha, panta or pakhala—cooked rice soaked overnight and eaten for breakfast or lunch with mustard oil, green chillies, raw onions and, perhaps, pickles—has been a staple for centuries. The fermented water is also highly prized, the slight alcohol content adding to the tanginess of it all. The ancient Ayurvedic text Sushruta Samhita prescribes fermented kanji or panta water mixed with a little salt as the best and most effective oral rehydration for diarrhea.

A grain that’s right up there with rice on the goodness scale is ragi, or finger millet. Alkaline in nature, some varieties of ragi have twice as much protein as rice.

Rich in minerals and vitamins, roasted and ground, ragi flour can be used as a filling one-dish meal with hot milk, grated coconut, jaggery, fruits and nuts.

However, the real filler on a hot day is the ragi malt described in Rajaiah’s book: “Ragi Malt, to the uninitiated, (is) a beverage made by adding a mixture of ragi flour and sugar to hot milk.... It is a nutrition-packed health drink. Firstly, of course, because it is made out of ragi. The second reason is in the word ‘malt’. Malting is a process by which cereals are made to sprout and then processed further. The sprouting activates enzymes in the grain

The Godly Gourd—The dish that sums up summer Ma’s Chaalkumro Tarkari with Dill

Ingredients (serves 4): 1 tbsp oil 100g red pumpkin, cut into fine juliennes 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds 1 whole dried red chilli 500g ash gourd (chaalkumro in Bangla), cut long and thin 1 tbsp ginger paste Sugar and salt, to taste 1 tbsp coconut, grated 1 level tsp of dried or fresh dill Green chillies, to taste Quarter cup of milk 1 tsp ghee Method Heat the oil, fry the pumpkin till golden and keep aside. In the remaining oil, temper the cumin and fenugreek seeds and the chilli. Add the ash gourd, ginger paste, sugar and salt to taste. Let the vegetables cook in their own juices.

When done, add the pumpkin, coconut and dried dill and mix well. If using fresh dill, add just a little bit and let it cook for a few minutes.

Add green chillies, milk and ghee and take off the fire.

If you don’t have dill, you can use 1 tsp roasted paanch phoron, powdered.

which break down complex nutrients like carbohydrates and proteins to easily digestible forms and also produces other nutrients that did not even exist in the original grain—like Vitamin C.” One large glass of ragi malt is as filling as two meals.

Summer smoothies

As the ragi malt indicates, not all of India’s summer foods are meant to eaten: Some have to be drunk. First among the desi smoothies is the sattu sherbet, a filling, nutritious energy drink. Sattu is mixed with cold water or buttermilk, and

flavoured with chopped onions, mint or a twist of lime. The sherbet is a meal in itself.

Rice starch, tempered with onions and chillies, is also a very common, wholesome meal among peasant communities.

Kolkata-based Farah Malik, a social worker and educationist, talks about a 1,400-year-old energy drink that’s made regularly in their home. Called nabeez in Arabic, it requires sultanas or seedless dates (khajoor) to be soaked overnight and the water consumed—along with the sultanas or the dates—the next morning. High in alkaline properties and soluble fiber, it cools the body and cleanses the digestive system. Architect (and Mint Lounge blogger) Nandita Amin, born and brought up in Gujarat, corroborates this: “My mother used to make me drink the water and chew kali draksh (black raisins) as it is cooling.”

Alka Bhayana, entrepreneur and owner of Sunshine Organic Farm in Hissar, Haryana, remembers a drink called sardai (called so in Punjab and Pakistan, this becomes the more popularly known thandai in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan). “Just the name evokes a lost era, of lazy, hot afternoons, listless kids and ever-smiling, energetic female relatives pounding almonds, charmagaz (melon seeds), poppy seeds (khus khus), peppercorn and cardamom in a stone pestle and mortar to create this chilled drink with cold milk, garnished with pistachios and rose petals.”

Of course, all the ingredients used in this drink are cooling.

Amid the more regular cooling drinks such as barley water, sugar-cane juice, tender coconut water, watermelon juice and aam panna, khus sherbet, there is one that seems endangered—nannari (in Tamil), made with the root of anantmool, a medicinal plant. Known in other Indian languages as naruneendi, sugandhi, suguddimalo, anamtamula and anantamool, it’s ace at combating dehydration, summer fevers, dysentery and urinary tract infections.

Summer, obviously, is no reason to lose your cool. n Former journalist Pritha Sen is a Gurgaon-based development consultant. She enjoys delving into the history of regional cuisines, eastern India being her forte. ©Reprinted with permission of HT media Ltd. All rights reserved.

August 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 89

dear doctor

Critical Thinking and the Indian American Psyche

By Alzak Amlani

Q

I have recently been working as a teacher with students from different parts of Asia primarily India, Thailand, China and some other countries as well.

I am struck by a few things that I find curious. Asian immigrant students in general are very respectful to me as a teacher and an elder in their community. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very easy get them to follow directions and finish assignments on time with a fair amount of thoroughness.

However, I struggle with engaging many of them into critical thinking and discussions.

They seem to understand the information quite well, but do not bring in their own ideas and questions into this topic as readily.

Sometimes they seems almost afraid of challenging the authority or saying something disrespectful. This is endearing in one way, but I believe limits their level of exploration of a topic and their own personal growth. I am not sure quite how to work with some of these challenges.

90 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

A

Understanding the familial and cultural roles that many of these children have grown up with is helpful. Deference and respect for an elder, especially a teacher, is deeply embedded in their psyche. Hierarchy and social organization are based on age, gender, social roles, knowledge and other qualities.

For a child to go against some of these expectations and norms is to challenge tradition and authority. Although limiting, there is a certain kind of security in the predictable roles people find themselves in.

Having the students do exercises where they explore their ideas and reactions in small groups or even on their own is helpful. Let them know they are not being graded for these inquiries and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only for their own curiosity to look at something in a personal and new way.

Setting up little conversations and even debates where students are asked to take

different positions and argue them fosters self-exploration. They may need time to prepare for this. Making this fun and peeroriented will facilitate more dialog. Bringing play into the experience helps them let go of the critic or performative aspect and focus on just learning and trying out new things.

I believe that curiosity and a desire to learn are intrinsic to human experiences.

We delight in learning something new or being able to see things from different sides. Teaching in ways that fosters this kind of spirit will help open up these students. portant moments. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650-325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com

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the last word

Northern Light

By Sarita Sarvate

T

Coming here, you feel you are witnessing the primordial he land is rolling, understated, desert like. Lava fields, earth, but ironies abound. It turns out that the landscape that volcanic craters, and boiling, sulfurous pools of water is so mythologized in HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones is anyabound. But what I notice first is the light. A flat, sooththing but natural. When the Nordic people came here, they ing white light that envelops the land. A light that caresses your cleared the forests for grazing. The ground eroded, creating senses. A light that is never harsh or dull, but always luminesthis denuded landscape that has become America’s latest cent, be it day or night. A light that wakes me up at 3:30 playground. a.m., makes me pull the curtain aside, and shows me an I myself have come here to escape. Yet, I’ve orange sun peeking from behind the mountains linI am alive; been full of misgivings. “Don’t expect too ing the North Atlantic harbor. But mysteriously, I am breathing; I much,” I’ve told myself. “The other residents the light remains a translucent white, brightenat the artists’ colony may not like you.” ing the sky all night long. have ventured where “Or you might hate the food. You might It is said that Tolkien invented hobbits, few Indian women have not discover the sanctuary you long for.” goblins, elves, and dwarves. But like most But this land is so serene, I sleep here legacies that are claimed to be English, Tolkgone on their own, I for hours. I discover that, for once, the stars ien appropriated the creatures from a far away remind myself in mo- and the planets have aligned in my favor, and people. the residents, all women, are accommodating No fan of Tolkien, I am staying in this far ments of vulneryet genuine. away land. And I can see why its ancient settlers ability.

From this vantage point, my life in America dreamt of magical creatures. One minute the green recedes into the distance; all the disappointments and hills would be feeding the goats here, the next minute traumas and stresses don’t exactly melt away but take on the they would be spewing hot magma, paving everything with optical illusion of being just as miniature-sized as mythological nature’s tar. A volcano would erupt sometimes, and its lava, creatures. I am alive; I am breathing; I have ventured where cooled by the glaciers, would turn into basalt columns that few Indian women have gone on their own, I remind myself in would resemble walls little gremlins built. On occasion, ash from moments of vulnerability. If someone hasn’t given me a prize, an eruption would cover the farms, forming such a large cloud then I must reward myself for my valor. that a nuclear winter would prevail, followed by an ice age. And This land may be small, its people may be few and isolated, people would huddle in their stone-and-wood huts, writing the sharing the same genealogical tree, but their circumstances sagas of their clan which they feared might not survive. have not made them small-minded. Our hosts, Alda and Jon, I visit the Viking house, located in a desolate valley covadopted two lovely children from India nearly twenty years ago ered with volcanic ash, still treeless after a thousand years; it and often talk about their recipes for tandoori chicken and aloo resembles a wasteland even today, though a river has always run gobi. through it.

Standing on the rim of a miniature black canyon, I meet an As a child, reading Uncle Moon magazine, I used to think of Indian rafting guide named Ravi who is spurring his charges the Vikings with their horned-hats as mythological creatures; it to jump into the waters below. And I am touched. I so long to never occurred to me that one day I would visit their houses. learn his story, but he is preoccupied.

From my desk now, I look upon the snow-covered Mt. Yet the looming disaster of Donald Trump and Brexit are Hekla, the culprit that destroyed the Vikings’ valley. And beside never far away from my mind. But at least here, far away from it, in the far distance, lies Mt. Eyjafjallajökull, which erupted in the Republican Convention and its 24/7 cable coverage, I feel 2010, creating havoc for European air traffic. In the foreground, safe. I wish I could stay forever. I long to inhabit a country merely a few hundred yards away, is the Laugar, the lake, out of where strong women are respected, where men are genuinely which steam spouts, living up to the town’s name, Laugarvatn, interested in the outside world, and where children have a vilHot Spring Lake. Somehow, I find its acrid odor comforting. lage willing to raise them.

There are crater lakes here too, in the serene waters of which I heart you Iceland, I whisper. n stand trolls, stone figures resembling humans frozen by daylight, the legend goes.

The goblins are not the only things that are miniature-sized Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has pubin this land. Even canyons and rivers appear that way. You arrive lished commentaries for New America Media, at a famed waterfall and all you see is an empty lot. You cannot KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the imagine more than a finger of water flowing here but when you Oakland Tribune, and many nationwide publiwalk a hundred yards, a magnificent torrent gushes out of a hole cations. in the ground, reminding you of Niagara.

94 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | August 2016

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