India Currents February 2017 Digital Edition by India Currents

Get Out of My Country! By Jaya Padmanabhan

Of Wedding Bells and Hospital Bills By Lakshmi Palecanda

Celebrating 30 Years of Excellence

february 2017 • vol. 30 , no. 10 • indiacurrents.com • $3.95

An un-American American By Sarita Sarvate

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 1

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A Tale of Two Loves

his past weekend, I walked in a protest march for the first time and joined a quarter of a million of my fellow citizens in a historic women’s march in San Francisco. Across the world more than 3 million people marched together in solidarity, including thirty in Antarctica! After months of a bruising campaign where the rhetoric was vicious, I felt humanity surround me. The guy with a rainbow hat who stood for gay rights walked alongside a woman who was there to protect abortion rights. A young woman on a tram held a young child who was developmentally disabled. A sign in her hand read, “I march for my son.” An old woman in her wheelchair gripped the handle bars and streaks of water ran down her eyeglasses as she powered forward. She led a line of wheelchairs that inched forward, trying to navigate a path in the rain. A wave of voices cascaded over the crowd. “Love trumps Hate.” When we walked with sheets of rain pelting down, that visual in itself was the perfect metaphor for what we face today. We have to power forward every day with action. To have historic numbers that rivaled the numbers that came out for the inauguration was a powerful statement. It was action, not just talk. But we cannot forget that marching together is only the first step. Continued sustained action is needed. We also need to focus on the actions taken by the new Administration, not just their words. Let us not obsess about Sean Spicer’s press conference or President Trump’s tweets—instead, let us keep up to date about the healthcare proposals in the works and let us look at how federal actions affect California. Indian-Americans boast of high educational achievements in every arena. Take that knowledge of balance sheets and technical advancement and train the mind outward to look at public policy. In fact, decades ago, my grandfather gave up his goal of finishing college to join Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom struggle. The first in his family to go to college, it was a disappointment to his family elders who had no idea about how this decision would affect him. Years later, I met someone of my grandfather’s generation who told me,

“What he did was against what a lot of us did at the time. Many of us wanted to get that plum job in British companies and we wanted to live comfortably.” We cannot continue to “live comfortably.” Our country will be judged not by how it treats its most affluent citizens, but by how it treats the most vulnerable. I was heartened to read President Obama’s first remarks as a private citizen. He said, “This is a comma, not a period, in the continuing story of building America.” The sentence needs to be completed, and so must the essay. Let us make marks on the page through actions dictated by love. My life forever pulsates with another love—a love for India. I am blessed to have a felt experience of India through classical dance. As a young girl I had access to India’s finest artistic minds—I watched artists present fine poetry written a few hundred years before they were born. I watched senior citizens, young boys and girls strike their palms keeping time at classical music performances. I participat-

ed in experiences where a country’s culture expresses the finest parts of its being. But, I also walked past slums that were a world removed from mine. India forever draws you to soaring heights and plumbs you into depths of despair. The juxtaposition of life’s best and worst within India is inescapable. What is indeed the idea that is India? Our February cover story features passionate doers who love India. Those we have profiled did not just talk about nostalgic experiences of buying sliced mango with salt in the summer or sleeping on a cool tile floor in the summer with fans whirring above. They took that love and they acted upon it, each in their own way. All for love! It is, after all, February, isn’t it? n

Nirupama Vaidhyanathan, Managing Editor

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INDIA CURRENTS February 2017 • vol 30 • no 10

LIFESTYLE

3 | EDITORIAL A Tale of Two Loves

West Coast Edition www.indiacurrents.com

By Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

Find us on

PERSPECTIVES

40 | RECIPES 'N Dive Into Chickory By Praba Iyer

8 | BUSINESS People Managers, MYOB! By Nitin Deo

42 | FILMS Review of Growing Up Smith By Aniruddh Chawda

22 |NOW AND THEN Get Out of My Country By Jaya Padmanabhan

47 | TRAVEL From Leh to Lamayuru By Rama Shivakumar

38 | PERSPECTIVE Rivers of Brown By Sneha Abraham 51 | ON INGLISH Under the Peepal Tree By Kalpana Mohan

72 | HEALTHY LIFE A New Lease of Life By Bakialakshmi Ramachandran

32 | BOOKS Reviews of The Golden Son and Other Avenues Are Possible By Geetika Pathania Jain and Praba Iyer

58 | MUSIC Grammy Time Desi Style! By Priya Das

16 | My Love Story with India A Celebration of Valentine's Day! By Jeanne Fredriksen, Nirupama Vaidhyanathan, Nancy Swing and Russell Sunshine

26 | Viewpoint Of Wedding Bells and Hospital Bills

60 |RELATIONSHIP DIVA Five Tips to Avoid the Friend-Zone By Jasbina Ahluwalia 74 | DEAR DOCTOR A Sudden Feeling of Rage By Alzak Amlani

By Lakshmi Palecanda DEPARTMENTS

78 | Last Word An un-American American By Sarita Sarvate 4 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

6 28 29 30 62

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INDIA CURRENTS® (ISSN 0896-095X) is published monthly (except Dec/Jan, which is a combined issue) for $19.95 per year by India Currents, 2670 S. White Road, Suite 165, San Jose, CA 95148. Periodicals postage paid at San Jose, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to INDIA CURRENTS, 2670 S. WHITE ROAD, STE. 165, SAN JOSE, CA 95148 Information provided is accurate as of the date of going to press; India Currents is not responsible for errors or omissions. The opinions expressed in our published works are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions of India Currents Inc., or its editors. Advertising copy, logos, and artwork are the sole responsibility of individual advertisers, not of India Currents. Copyright © 2017 by India Currents All rights reserved.

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letters to the editor Trump Honest?

I am an avid reader of India Currents since its inception. I felt motivated to write after reading the letters in your last issue. (Letters to the Editor, India Currents, Dec’16-Jan’17) I commend you for endorsing Hillary Clinton for President. You supported her on reason and principles. That is how it should be. Some letter writers imply that you should be judged by the results— which results are they referring to? She lost the election, but won the popular vote by more than 2 million, with a massive win in California. A reader calls Trump an honest man. (Anjan Muhury, Letters to the Editor, India Currents, Dec’16-Jan’17). In my opinion, Trump is very clever, but ethical behaviour is not his forte. He has gone through four corporate bankruptcies. Trump University was at its core a bait and switch scheme based on falsehoods. Hardworking Americans who paid $35,000 were to be taught Trump’s methods to get ahead. He took their money and gave them nothing in return. Trump settled out of court by agreeing to pay $25 million dollars. Trump refused to release his tax returns as is customary for presidential candidates. When the press leaked that he took a massive 915 million dollars loss in 1995 to avoid paying taxes for 18 years, Trump’s response was that it showed that he was a smart businessman. Trump railed against Goldman Sachs and Wall Street but has filled his economic team with alumni of Goldman Sachs. All of this gives the picture of an ethically flawed person, not a born again savior of the working class. Birendra Prasada, email

Why do we need vegetarian food to be like non-vegetarian food?

The article about Holiday cooking in the December issue (Holiday Cooking, India Currents, Dec’16-Jan’17) was a big turnoff. Who wants to eat artificial/vegan buffalo wings and vegan fried fish, if one is a true vegetarian? I am a life-long vegetarian even after living in America for 55 years! I am vegetarian not because I am religious or an animal activist, but for health reasons.

6 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

The smell of non-vegetarian cooking tends to turn me off; that’s why I do not go to American restaurants which are full of the smells of beef, fish and pork. Instead, I enjoy the aroma of spiced vegetarian food, especially the smells of cilantro, mint and other herbs. These foods are really mouth-watering! I wonder why culinary experts try to attract vegetarians to taste their dishes by making vegetarian food smell like nonvegetarian food. Years ago, McDonalds and Burger King tried to sell veggie burgers made from quinoa and black beans in India, but had to discontinue because most Indians did not respond well. No need to pretend that you are nonvegetarian if you are really a vegetarian. Girish Modi, email

What We Need to Learn from the 60s to Help Us Act Now

While I am generally in accord with many of the views espoused by Sarita Sarvate, her December column titled “Democrats, Thanks For the Apocalypse”(India Currents, Dec’16-Jan’17) prompts this departure because of the emphasis placed midway through the text on marching and protest as responses to the political times in which we find ourselves in—even though she is admittedly reiterating the position being taken by many other commentators. The danger is that there is an inherent weakness in demonstrations in that they are looking for someone else to do something. Control is being turned over to the very perpetrators currently responsible for so much that threatens so many. I came of age chronologically and politically in the fabled San Francisco of the 60s. Here’s some of what happened then: Farmworkers formed a union; the Black Panther party sponsored breakfast programs; the Haight Ashbury free medical clinic was founded and is still operating today; Berkeley’s Book People started and lasted approximately fifty years as a distributor for small book publishers; Canyon Cinema was founded and it continues to provide services for independent filmmakers; the Huckleberry House for Runaways was founded and continues to this day to provide crisis services for youth aged 11 to 17; the Bay Guardian newspaper was up and running and lasted for approximately fifty years; the midwife movement forced commercial hospitals to adopt more civil

and sensitive approaches to maternal care and delivery of newborns; Buddhist teachings entered the regional mainstream of religious thought and practice. Elsewhere, now-iconic figures such as John Lewis and Julian Bond ran for elective office successfully, but it was a risk at the time. Today, I see lots of fulmination while attention is withheld from numerous comparable opportunities that abound: Getting involved with the Fight for 15 and the unionizing efforts of workers; Launching an educational campaign regarding sustainable energy, especially tidal energy. Even with existing technology, the tidal flow through the Golden Gate Bridge alone is described as capable of generating twice the electricity needed to power San Francisco; Tutoring new arrivals to the United States; Participating in Habitat for Humanity or their local counterpart, Rebuilding Together (check their website); Building up the urban agriculture movement, which will likely become increasingly important as climate change worsens; Running for elective office. I could go on. The strength of the 60s is that people actually did something. In contrast, so much of the chat currently in circulation is for the most part verbal hand wringing, giving short shrift to the hard work that needs to get done,while implicitly deferring to those toxic forces whose powers so badly need to be curbed. Hal Aigner, email

Yoga Article Was Relevant

The article (Stressfree Living Through Yoga, India Currents, Dec’16-Jan’17) was informative as life has become quite stressful. Please include more articles on health, education and scientific research. Vimala Vemuri, Santa Clara

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.

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 7

business

People Managers, MYOB! By Nitin Deo

We never faced any problems with timely payments from that customer going forward. So, as you can see, sometimes even customers need to be put in their place. That employee now runs the business development group—and does so very successfully, I might add.

ire, Motivate and Recognize. Sounds easy, right? Well, not so fast. Simply speaking, it consists of hiring, nurturing, motivating, recognizing, promoting as well as disciplining, firing and hiring again! But, the devil is in the details.

during our company’s all-hands meeting, and then I took him to Japan with me. He went on to head the Applications Engineering group and in later years became a serial entrepreneur. I call this, “the toothpaste principle.” When you want to brush your teeth in the morning, you don’t press at the mouth Hire Slow and Fire Slow! Tooth Paste Principle to Moti- of the toothpaste, you press somewhere below that and the toothpaste comes out A few years ago I had a really interestvate, Nurture, and Recognize at the mouth. Recognizing employees for ing experience. I was interviewing canA few years ago, I was managing busitheir hard work is one of the most impordidates for a junior marketing manager’s ness development for Japan and the entire tant responsibilities of a people manager, position in my organization, a pre-IPO Asia-Pacific region. We were engaged in a because, it has to be carried out all the company. A bright young man came along pretty competitive proof-of-concept stage time, irrespective of whether you have with technical experience and wanted to in negotiations with a very influential one employee or many. As human beings get into marketing. After completing the customer in Japan. As some of you might we have short term memory. And most first round of interviews successfully, I know, in Japan nobody wants to be the managers fall in the trap of writing perforasked him to come back. After talking for first, but nobody wants to be the third mance reviews in February based on what almost 45 minutes, I suddenly asked him, either! happened in January. We tend to forget “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” So, to get a strategic customer who is that the review is for the entire past year. He answered immediately, “I will eiwilling to be the first to use and endorse Once a marketing manager was workther be on the beaches of Maui celebrating your product, this was an important deal ing on a project in the first half of the year. our success or struggling to start a new at our end. The application engineer I was When it could not be finished on time, she company.” I said, “You are hired!” We had working with took technology from the blew up during a conference call since one fun taking our company public, and years customer’s R&D team, developed code, of the deliverables was not completed. I later that person went on become a suctested it and then made it work in the heard about this from someone else. I realcessful executive. customer’s environment. He had worked ized that she had been extremely worried A common belief that exists is to hire round the clock over the weekend and that it would reflect on her performance fast and fire fast. In today’s global workfinally made the demonstration successreview that was due in a few weeks. I place, it is extremely important that manful. So, after we got the purchase order calmed her down and told her that it agers take the time to hire and take even from the customer, I asked the customer would not—because it did not happen the longer to fire—unless, of course, there is to write a small note to me about that previous year, it will only show up on her misconduct or a blatant reason for firing. application engineer. I recognized him performance review for the following Not just you, but everyone around the year. She had time to make changes to employee has to invest a lot of time and the plan to deliver. Needless to say, she energy to work with the employee. Skills can be taught, attitude delivered the project and I recognized For example, I had a case where a business development manager insisted cannot be. While it is hard to her in the company all-hands meeting the following month for her passion. that we receive payment from a large judge attitude from an hourBottom-line: Hire for attitude. Hire strategic customer before their software slow and fire slow! Motivate with the licenses were renewed. He brought that long interview, this skill is what toothpaste principle. And most importo my attention and told me that this managers get paid the big bucks tantly—recognize at the right time. n delay had happened four times in the past six months and that we will face an issue in revenue recognition. My manager immediately asked me to fire that employee for mistreating the customer. However, I stuck with the employee. I escalated the matter of delay in payment to the customer’s management team.

for. Remember, first class managers hire first class employees, second class managers hire third class employees and third class managers hire idiots!

8 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

Nitin Deo is a high-tech industry executive with vast international business experience. He is in charge of product management for Aster Analytics Platform at Teradata. He has helped set up sales channels for emerging software products and services.

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 9

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cover

My Love Story with India By Jeanne E. Fredriksen, Nirupama Vaidhyanathan, Nancy Swing and Russell Sunshine

alentine’s Day is almost here! Newspapers and magazines are awash with stories about romantic getaways and spots for dinner dates. Flower sellers and chocolate makers are working overtime to fulfill orders. We, on the other hand, are choosing to showcase a different kind of love. A love for a land and a people. In our cover story, we celebrate people who were transformed by their love for India. How their dreams became inextricably linked with a country whose spirit bewitched and drew them in. What is indeed the idea that is India? Like a whirlpool that draws people from the periphery inside, it continues to draw people inward: Kattrell Christie operates a center for young women in Darjeeling, from the place where she buys her tea for her Atlanta tea shop; Nancy Swing and Russell Sunshine want to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary by taking a trip to India, the country that brought them together; Dr. Giri is a recipient of the Hind Rattan and NRI of the Year awards for his work in Indian universities. Katherine Kunhiraman talks about her artistic journey with her late husband Kunhiraman revealing the kind of passion one must feel for Indian classical dance to pursue it throughout one’s life with unwavering commitment. George and Kausalya Hart bonded over their love for Tamil, an ancient language that drew them into work, research and teaching for decades. Indeed, the work that we do at India Currents every day is based on a deep and abiding love for India. Celebrating the country that is indeed “Saarey Jahaan Se Achha!,” and loving India just a little deeper this Valentine’s Day! —Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

One Woman’s Quest to Erase Poverty in India

ndia was the farthest thing from Katrell Christie’s mind in 2007 when the former roller derby competitor and art buyer purchased a tea shop in her hometown of Atlanta. She christened the shop Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party simply because she liked the whimsical sound of it. Less than two years later, India was foremost in her mind. During an impulsive trip to India suggested by a customer, her organization, The Learning Tea was born and became a life-changing program for several young women in India and Christie herself. Call her an activist or call her a hero. Christie most likely will say she’s just doing what she loves. She’s a bundle of American can-do resourcefulness and focused passion, and when the two energies combined to empower girls in India, the fusion became the manifestation of Tagore’s words that guide Christie’s life: I slept and dreamt that life was joy I awoke and saw that life was service I acted and behold, service was joy.

Poverty Fuels the Plan

On that first trip, Christie experienced poverty that is, as she described it, “poor in a way that most Americans can’t even imagine”. She—who by American standards grew up poor—vowed to give back, and a chain of events propelled her onward. While stringing pearls with women in Hyderabad, she learned of a young woman whose father beat her. Christie decided that whatever she did, she would help a girl with a father 16 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

Kattrell Christie with the girls she supports in Darjeeling

who might keep her from achieving her potential. When Christie volunteered at a school, she was disturbed to see toddlers going hungry and families that were simply too poor to feed them. Feeling compelled to make a difference, she built raised garden boxes designed to provide lunch and a sustainable food source for the school. Christie then visited Darjeeling, the place where she sourced tea for her business. The lengthy trek allowed her to think, and by the time she arrived she had determined that she would involve her tea shop, her community, and the tea itself in her work in India. While there, she visited a local Buddhist orphanage from which girls had to leave when they turned 17, and her plans solidified. Focusing on three girls who would soon be forced out of the orphanage, she listened to their hopes, and their dreams. Those three girls, and their bleak futures compelled Christie to act: The Learning Tea project began.

Christie is honest, down-to-earth, and involved. Armed with those three attributes, she accomplished what others might call “crazy.” Instead of walking away from the girls she strode forward, setting them up in a house with things they would need. She promised to return in six months. True to her word, Christie returned after fundraising and scraping by at home. The girls, unsurprised when she showed up because they trusted her, gave her the name “Tiger Heart” because, they said, she is “fierce and will pounce” but she is “also protective” and has yellow hair. During the spring of 2016, Christie returned to India on one of her bi-annual trips, and took four girls on a nine-day trek across India via train. In November 2016, she used part of her trip to lay the groundwork for a Learning Tea center in Chennai that will take two years to complete and be ready for new students. When asked how these trips have changed her view of India, she responded in typical Christie fashion: positively. “I’ve been coming here for eight years, sometimes for three weeks, sometimes three months,” Christie said. “My mantra for India is “the more I go, the less I know.” Every time I think I have this place figured out, it laughs in my face and teaches me a new lesson. I love India because I’m always learning here.” The program that began with three girls has expanded because of Christie and others who have donated time, money, and effort —including traveling to India with Christie to help the program. In total, there have been 15 young women so far who are or have been in The Learning Tea program. Five have graduated college, two currently are in Master’s programs, and two have become teachers. Others are moving on to government jobs.

Education is the Key

The Learning Tea is more than food, clothes, and shelter for the girls in the program, the goal of which has been to fill the gap in young women’s lives when they need help getting into college and finding a career. Acceptance into the program hinges on agreement to certain rules. The girls must volunteer upto fifteen hours a month, depending upon their school schedule. They may choose tasks as varied as assisting elderly and indigent residents, caring for animals at farms, or tutoring children. The reason for this requirement? “It seems really obvious to me that what you

put out there you get back in return,” Christie said. “People overlook the amount of pleasure you get from giving.” The girls also must earn passing grades and marriage is out of the question while in the program. The Learning Tea ladies, as Christie calls them, come from different backgrounds, and focusing on education is the principal reason behind the program. “Education is freedom in the world,” Christie emphasized, “but in India, it can mean the difference between life and death.” Christie’s can-do attitude is engaging and infectious, allowing her to laugh at herself and the situations she encounters, but there’s no question that she’s deadly serious about her cause. “I just try to keep my eye on the prize, which for me is seeing the ladies graduate, get jobs, and become self-sufficient women. Things get tough sometimes, but there is always someone else that is having a rougher time. You just have to look on the sunny side.” Christie realizes that she’s working with a handful of girls in one isolated town, and she understands she can’t make others care about this program as much as she does. Nevertheless, she continues what her heart and passion drive her to do. “This hasn’t just been lollipops and ice cream cones,” Christie said. “You’re going to fail sometimes, that’s only human. It’s the getting back up until you get it right that counts.” She has learned many lessons over the years and offers them without bravado in her book, Tiger Heart. She easily expresses her love for India, its culture, and its people, and she isn’t shy about saying how much she loves the girls who are her family. With this project, however, there’s always one challenge that lingers. “The toughest challenge for me is running a business (in Atlanta) and a project on the other side of the world,” she explained. “But one thing depends on the other to survive.” “I’m just a regular person trying the best I can,” she continued. “Yes, I make mistakes, and I have failures, but you can’t succeed unless you try. If everyone can do something, no matter how big or small, just commit to doing one kind act, we all might live in a very different world.” n—Jeanne Fredriksen www.thelearningtea.com Tiger Heart: My unexpected adventures to make a difference in Darjeeling by Katrell Christie with Shannon McCaffrey is available as paperback, e-book, and as an Audible book.

How India Changed Our Lives

ometimes you take a decision without much thought, a plunge into an unknown future. We each travelled to India as students. The experience changed our lives.

Nancy’s Story

After my junior year in college, I was one among 18 students chosen to participate in Asian Seminar 1964. After spending a week each in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand, we moved to India to work for eight weeks in an ongoing project, so we’d

have field experience to complement our academic discussions. I joined a project in an extremely low-income community in Bombay, as it was known then. Each American was paired with an Indian student, surveying families which had just moved from villages to work in city factories. The goal of our project was to discover what services might best benefit them, as they faced intense disruption following the change. The result was the establishment of a kindergarten with a supplementary diet

Nancy Swing in 1964 in India

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 17

program and training for the women to earn while they stayed home to care for their families. Toiling alongside my partner, Suneeta, and living with other young Indian women in a hostel profoundly changed me. I discovered my life’s vocation—I decided to work at the grass-roots level in developing countries to help participants better their lives. I had been active on campus but when I returned, I found myself a stranger in a strange land. I no longer belonged there. I belonged in a different world, so I began to prepare for it. I maintained my Psychology-Sociology major but added Communication credits with an eye toward creating educational media. I went on to get a Master’s degree in Television production and a Ph.D. in International relations with a focus on International development. I worked for over 25 years, predominantly in Asia and Africa, as a consultant in educational media and adult training. Had it not been for India, none of this would have happened. But there’s more to this tale!

Russell’s Story

In the spring of 1968, I was selected to participate in the Berkeley Professional Schools Program in India. This innovative initiative chose one new graduate from each of the schools on the University of California’s Berkeley campus—Business, Law, Public Health, Social Work, etc., and transported us to India. In New Delhi, the dozen program fellows dispersed for four days every week to Indian agencies where we conducted individual research in our respective disciplines. Russell Sunshine, Rohtang Pass, 1969 Each Friday we reassembled for a rolling seminar on Indian culture and politics, featuring candid conversations with respected national leaders and thinkers. My research on the link between Indian legal education and law practice carried me from the Indian Law Institute and Delhi University to law faculties in Mumbai and Ernakulum. Living, working and traveling in India opened my mind as well as my eyes. Prior to participating in the Berkeley Program, my orientation had been overwhelmingly Western. My upbringing, education and travel had all focused on familiar American and European customs and cultures. Now suddenly, I’d parachuted into another world, where “normal” assumptions no longer applied. Whether the context was mundane daily routines—asking for directions, hailing a scooter-taxi, or legal rules and regulations, virtually every contact was a challenge. And while individual encounters often proved amusing or stimulating, their cumulative impact was exhausting. Steadily, after an initial period of awkward adjustments, I grew to savor the learning curve of a resident alien. In my personal life, I built relationships with my New Delhi neighbors like the Butalia and Gupta families. I also explored the subcontinent traveling 18 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

third-class on trains. By the end of my 16-month sojourn, India had nurtured a vision of a global-service path for my future. My resulting international development career carried me to 40 countries, including multi-year engagements in Asia and Africa.

Not Just Changes, Lessons Too

For us, India offered much more than a bridge between our studies and international careers. Our interactions with Indian co-workers and friends helped us learn how to be more effective in a foreign setting. We glimpsed the truth that local counterparts had at least as much to teach us as we had to teach them. We began to see the world not only through American eyes but also from the perspective of local participants and colleagues. We discovered that culture shock is an inevitable hazard of working in a different country, and we learned to work through it only to emerge blessed by a host culture that extended precious opportunities to explore, stretch and grow.

Our Story

When Russell returned to California in 1969, a mutual friend introduced us saying, “You have much in common; you’ve both been to India!” Over time, we discovered that we did share many things and we came to the conclusion that our separate dreams could best be realized together. In the fall of 1972, we got married. A year later, we left for Tanzania, our first international posting in tandem. Although we’ve each worked elsewhere on the subcontinent, we’ve sadly never been back to India. Five years from now, we’re hoping to change that with a 50th anniversary trip to celebrate the country that brought us together and changed our lives! n —Nancy Swing and Russell Sunshine -------------------------Nancy and Russell at a book fair recently

Nancy Swing is the author of Malice on the Mekong, featuring amateur sleuth Anjali Rao. Her best friend Suneeta is named in memory of Nancy’s long-ago partner in the Mumbai project. Russell Sunshine’s memoir, Far and Away: True Tales from an International Life, traces an exhilarating life journey of travel, employment and residence abroad. One of these stories “Rainbow Days,” recounts how the Butalia family broke the ice to welcome Russell and his American roommates as full members of their neighborhood community. Both are available on amazon.com

A Distinguished NRI

r. D.V. Giri received the Hind Rattan and the NRI of the Year awards during the 36th International Congress of NRIs in New Delhi, held on the eve of India’s Republic Day this year. Dr. Giri’s life and career embody the American Dream. Intent on joining the Indian Air Force in 1967, he passed the first round of tests only to fail in an attempt to scale a wall! Dr. Giri pursued higher studies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore before being admitted to Harvard University. With $8 in his pocket, the maximum foreign exchange allowed to be carried at that time, he landed at New York. A customs officer told him that he could either eat the two red apples he had bought or throw them into the trash. He promptly stepped aside to eat them. From that beginning, he went on to complete doctoral studies in the field of Electromagnetics. From the hard work ethic cultivated by working long hours in the laboratories and combing the lecture halls at Harvard, Dr. Giri embarked on a distinguished career in the field, publishing hundreds of papers and contributing original research in this arena. He is today a life fellow of the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“

Dr. D.V. Giri

Through his distinguished career, he has maintained a spirit of helping organizations in India by supporting philanthropic activities. He supported Dr. H. Sudarshan who worked with tribals in Mysore long before he was recognized with national and international awards. He finds interacting with young students especially invigorating and over many years, he has traveled to lecture frequently in Indian university classrooms. He recalls that a 3-week trip to IIT Kharagpur where he stayed with the students was a particularly memorable experience, because of the informal interactions he had. As an original founder of the ShivaVishnu temple in Livermore, California he looks back with a lot of satisfaction. From

its humble beginnings, the temple has grown to serve more than 15,000 visitors this past New Year’s day. In 1981 a few Indian Americans decided to build a Hindu place of worship. They wanted to buy a 4-acre parcel of land in what was then unincorporated Livermore. When they approached State Bank of India in Los Angeles for a loan of half a million dollars, they set their personal homes as collateral to start the work of construction. Dr. Giri says that the Livermore temple is the only one of its kind where the physical structure was built from the first day following strictures from the Shilpa Sastras. There is one guiding principle that has guided his work always. “Wherever I am in the world, I carry a bit of India with me. That has guided my actions.” It’s no wonder then that he is being honored in India with the Hind Rattan and NRI of the Year awards on the eve of India’s Republic Day as a Distinguished NRI. Indeed, he has consistently stepped out of personal achievements to give back to the community, both here and in India, in many different ways. He was a special guest during the Republic Day parade, a ceremony that he had only watched on television as a young boy.n —Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

Language, a Labor of Love

ndia has such a rich culture and lingusitic heritage that one can be proud of,” says George Hart, retired professor of Tamil from the University of California at Berkeley. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri for his work in translating the ancient Tamil text Purananooru into English under the title, Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom. When his roommate at Harvard University took a class in Buddhism, he decided to tag along. The professor was the famed Daniel Ingalls Sr., and he was intrigued. He abandoned the study of Physics and Chemistry and started studying Sanskrit. And, it was only later as a graduate student that he was exposed to Tamil, another ancient language from India. He

Kausalya and Geoge Hart in 1967

says, “Many people feel that the Vedas are the beginning of everything in India. And, while they do form a great corpus of the early literature, the study of Tamil is very valid in this context as the literary conventions and usage are of a very high order.” A.K. Ramanujam, the famed scholar, was conducting summer courses in Tamil at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and George delved deeper into the study of Tamil. It was here that he met Kausalya who had traveled from Madurai, the town which can be hailed as the place which nurtured the Sangam era, a golden era of creativity in Tamil poetry. Even though she grew up in a Tamil household, her parents initially wanted her to study medicine. She had been writing Tamil poetry from a young age and she February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 19

stuck to pursuing her studies based on her deep love for Tamil. When she traveled to America for graduate studies, she met a kindred spirit in George and they were married in Cambridge in 1966. When George Hart wrote his doctoral thesis, he decided to make a wellresearched argument that Sanskrit poetic conventions which were revered were not created in a vacuum. In fact, they drew heavily from Tamil classical and Southern folk traditions. After his marriage to Kausalya, he lived in India for a year where he honed his skills in Tamil and Sanskrit by learning from Indian teachers. Kausalya Hart was a lecturer in Tamil at the University of California at Berkeley for many years and she regularly invited students to her house during Hindu religious celebrations like Navarathri to give them a complete understanding of all aspects of Tamil culture. She was a long time volunteer for cultural activities at the Concord Shiva Murugan temple and interacted with artists and conducted many fundraisers on behalf of the temple. When I asked George about his favorite Tamil poem or poet, he immediately piped in with, “The Kamba Ramayanam is a text I admire, and Kamban, in my opinion was India’s greatest poet. Compared to Valmiki, through the retelling of the Ramayana he has dealt with a broader variety of human experience, drawing the reader into some of the darker aspects of human nature skilfully. It is indeed a fuller picture of the human condition that I see in his work that I admire.” “Just as those who study English look to Dante and Shakespeare as literary greats on the world stage, we can place Tamil poets on par with them any day—the sad thing is that we don’t venture back into our own languages to look far enough,” he says. George Hart has just finished translating another ancient Tamil text, the Agananooru, four hundred poems on love written in the Sangam era. Kausalya and George Hart continue to venture into the ancient world of Tamil civilization, building meaning and understanding one word and phrase at a time, creating a sense of wonder for themselves and for countless students who benefit from their life’s labor of love for language. n—Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

For Love of “My Mother and Father”

alking to Katherine Kunhiraman, Artistic Director, Kalanjali Dances of India one feels drawn to all aspects of India’s culture—its dance, music and much more. You can feel the excitement in her voice. When I spoke to her, she had just returned from attending the Chennai music and dance festival which draws performers from around the world. Katherine comes from a family of artists in Pennsylvania and she went to India when her stepfather was sent with the Ford Foundation. Having just finished high school, she went to Kolkata and saw Rita Devi dance and was immediately struck in a manner akin to being struck by lightning. “This is something that I can do and want to do,” she thought. When she watched the famous trio sisters Kamala, Rhadha and Vasanthi, she witnessed, “such a complete understanding of their knowledge of bharatanaytam.” They took turns dancing, singing and conducting nattuvangam, and this multi-faceted ability made a deep impression on Katherine. After pursuing dance lessons in Kolkata for a little while, she decided to go to Kalakshetra to study bharatanatyam and kathakali full-time. During her entrance exam, she met her future husband, Kunhiraman, for the first time. He was one of the teachers conducting the exam. When asked to sing, she sang a Gregorian chant which is what she was familiar with and she laughs at this memory. “I am sure they were not expecting a Gregorian chant!” she says. When she was admitted to Kalakshetra the director, Rukmini Devi, kept calling the admissions office where she was waiting to register to ask her to choose between bharatanatyam or kathakali. And every time Katherine told the assistant that she was unable to choose. Three hours went by and finally when Rukmini Devi asked for her final answer, Katherine told the assistant, “Please tell her that I am being asked to choose between my mother and father.” That reply got her the opportunity to train in bharatanatyam and kathakali at Kalakshetra for over two years. When she graduated, she went to live with the Dhananjayans who were just starting to establish their institution Bharata Kalanjali, and she had the good

20 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

Katherine and Kunhiraman in 1975

fortune of working many hours under their guidance, learning and assimilating everything that was there to learn. During this time Kunhiraman continued to dance at Kalakshetra and to this day he is recognized as one of the greatest artists to have been part of the hallowed institution. His essaying of the roles in the dance dramas that they staged then are still referred to in awe and reverence. Kunhiraman and she had established a relationship by then, but they could not dance with each other since he was affiliated with Kalakshetra. After getting married, Katherine and Kunhiraman traveled back to the United States and two weeks after landing here, they started teaching Indian classical dance to American students. Their initial days of supporting themselves through art were indeed very tough. They traveled all over the country to perform and today the insitution they founded Kalanjali Dances of India is a premier arts organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even after Kunhiraman’s passing in 2014, she continues to teach dance. Katherine considers her greatest personal achievement to be, “the ability to fully understand two different cultures.” In India, she recently took a Kerala mural painting class, and she tells me that she felt psychically connected with the other Indian students in a deep cultural sense! As a young girl, I remember straining to see the stage when Kunhiraman electrified the stage along with the rest of the Kalakshetra greats. The experience is like a tiny video spool in my head unmarred by the years that separate me from that moment. Indeed Katherine’s life journey of pursuing Indian dance was fueled by that kind of “lightning” moment. “I am that kind of person,” she says. “When I feel something I feel it whole.” n—Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

OW EYEBR ING D THRE$A 00

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 21

Now and Then

Go Back to Your Country!

By Jaya Padmanabhan

for their anger to have much depth. unchtime at the intersection of Third and Geary in downtown San 1993 was the first time I was Their anger was not directed at me, Francisco is a concerto of movement. Cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, stroll- told to “go back to my coun- but the idea of me—a non-white, noners, bags, carts, pets perform a score try.” Since then I’ve received native, un-American looking person competing for scant resources. For as they make their way through narrow passageways that open and snap to shapes the words in a Target Health them, the words “going back …” were and bodies. Generally, all things great and and Beauty aisle; while leisure- neither compensable nor redemptive. It merely seized the inconvenience of small keep to the rhythm of the red, green ly walking into Le Boulanger the moment and illuminated a shallowand yellow lights. We broke that rhythm one day. café with my nine-year old twin seated aggravation, rooted in history and circumstance. It was 1993. I had been living in The notion of going back, it seems America since 1988 and the newness of daughters chattering away bemy American skin had just about begun side me; and on several occa- to me, demands a commitment to turn back time and space, both emotional to recede. I no longer looked around curiously. I no longer answered hesitantly. The sions in response to articles I’ve and geographical; to return what is gained and to prevent further acquisicountry I grew up in, India, was no longer written. tion. It doesn’t matter that what I have dominantly inhabiting my thoughts. I was gained has not come from someone now a citizen of the world. What I saw others seeing in me was a person from another land, different in else’s immediate loss. Being told to go back gave me pause, each time, then and many ways, and alike in many too. What I saw in others were now. The words reflect how people place a value on me, my body, people like me who’d grown up unlike me. So, it didn’t register that people were looking at me curiously, and my ideas. This value is inherently transient, for all three can be devalued instantly if I, my body or my ideas are not congruent hesitantly. My husband and I were meeting friends for lunch, and my with them, their bodies or their ideas. My children and I never talked about the incident that ochusband was driving. It might have been Whitney Houston or Kishore Kumar who was crooning over the car speakers as we curred eleven years ago at Le Boulanger. At the time, it could be both hummed along. The light turned yellow and he distractedly that they brushed it away as a rant, or they buried it because they kept the forward momentum going. And then the light turned could see that it disturbed me, or that they couldn’t understand red. We were caught with the nose of our car a foot or so into the what was said for they had never known any country other than the one they lived in. pedestrian walkway. I didn’t address the subject even in the years since because I Trapped, we looked out as folks converged on us from both sides of the walkway. One or two people glared at us as they made wanted my children to process the words “going back to your their way across. Most ignored us. But as we watched, a man on country” without my own aspirational interpretations. Their roller blades stopped directly in front of us. He pressed his hands belief in their belonging to America is something that they own. down on the hood of the car and banged once, twice, three times, This ownership shouldn’t need affirmation or confirmation. They hard and then harder with his fist, shaking the car, and then, were born into this relationship between personhood and citizenlooking directly at us, he yelled, “Go back to your country.” He ship. Yet I believe that they must prepare for the questions and paused, waiting for it to register before he turned and continued comments. And if they lose some of their agency because of these on. Whitney Houston or Kishore Kumar continued singing, but questions or comments, it is only because they doubt who they are and where they’ve lived. Yes, we do own our spaces, though we had stopped humming. The lights changed and we drove on. It was only the time with my twins that it scored painfully, for often we cannot choose our neighbors. We cannot control what the deliverer of the message could hear my children babbling in others say, how they say it, or where they say it, so we must learn to regulate how much we allow it to affect us. n their American accents, wearing their American clothes, and carrying their American books. Those words should not really hurt, though. The strangers Jaya Padmanabhan was the editor of India Curwho uttered the words were angry, yes, but it was a careless, rents from 2012-16. She is the author of the collecvaguely defined anger at their loss of momentum. They didn’t tion of short stories, Transactions of Belonging. know enough about me, what I stood for, how long I’d been sharing their country, or for that matter, which country I came from 22 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 23

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viewpoint

Of Wedding Bells and Hospital Bills By Lakshmi Palecanda

“N

ot another invite,” I groaned, picking up a thick cream and red colored envelope. I could practically feel the weight of the tree that had gone into making it. The names of the bride and groom were embossed on it in gilt letters. “Okay, you’ve got money,” I got the point. Inside it nestled the invite which was almost packing material thick. “Hope your marriage lasts longer than this invite takes to degrade,” I thought. The next instant, however, I was appalled at myself. Since when had I become so cynical? My family and I moved back to India seven years ago. Having been extremely isolated from family doings in the state of Montana in America, I was ripe for schmoozing. I would be there for family, I thought. By that, I meant weddings, funerals, baby christenings or “naming ceremonies” as they are known here, for the “head-shavings,” and “ear-piercings.” Mentally, I had images of myself decked to the “sevens” (even in my dreams, I haven’t been able to be decked to “nines”) meeting group after group of family members, introducing little ones around, reminiscing about our shared past, enquiring after their families, oohing and aahing over little ones who were all “growed-up” and talking about what the future holds for us all. In short, I would snuggle back in to the bosom of my family. When I got my first invite, I was all set for the start of my Back-In-India-andReady-to-Integrate scheme. However, I’d not reckoned witht a very important group —my own family. I showed my daughters the invite, explained the far-fetched family connection and explained in detail how we’d been brought up together. I also revealed my ace with a flourish: “Guess what, it’s on a weekend. You needn’t take the day off from school, either!” Then I sat back, beamed, and braced myself for the “Yeah, let’s go’s!” Instead I got a flat “No!” The reasons were valid: the kids had time to relax only during the weekends. They were not going

to waste it by wearing glittery-but-itchy clothes and going to the noisy wedding of someone they didn’t care about. They also wouldn’t know anybody. They would get introduced to innumerable people who would pinch their cheeks and ask which class they were studying in. All this for just a laddu, jalebi or mysorepak? No thanks! In vain I pushed the need for family. They didn’t budge. “You go if you think it’s that important!” was the final verdict. I looked at my husband. He looked at the newspaper in his hand. When I asked him, he looked up with a martyred air. “Someone will have to stay with the kids. I’ll do it. Meanwhile, you go and enjoy yourself.” I didn’t buy it for a minute. He didn’t want to go and luckily the kids had handed him the perfect excuse. Well, “It” was that important to me, so I went, togged in a too-grand sari with a too-tight blouse and some matching fake jewelry, all ready to meet and greet, only to find that the large family groups that I’d anticipated had dwindled into representation by one in the family, just like me! There were no kids over seven years of age. The older ones must have had the same ideas as mine. And since their offspring weren’t around to give lie to what they said, the parents were extremely free with their praise. “My son is so into technical things that I won’t be surprised if he became an inventor,” said one parent with a fatuous smile. “Mine has been always first in class, except the time she missed the exam. She

26 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

was in a Science Olympiad; she won the first prize,” another parent boasted. Yet another one turned to me then. “I suppose you don’t have to worry about that kind of thing with your daughters.” That was so mean that I retaliated, “My daughters are more into sports. They swim.” My voice trailed off dramatically, as if to imply “Michael Phelps, you better watch out.” The person in question opened his mouth to presumably deflate my claim, but luckily we were called for breakfast. Enough of the young parents crowd, I thought. The older aunts and uncles might be more fun to visit with. But after the initial pleasantries, I began getting a lot of scolds: why I’d come back to live in India, why I hadn’t come back earlier, why I’d put on weight, why I’d cut off my long braid, why I wasn’t working full-time, why I was working part-time, why I had come to this wedding and not to the one that they had conducted last year. It was just a bunch of rebukes. They say that women tend to forget the pain of child-birth until they are confronted with it the next time around. I found that the pain of attending weddings worked the same way. With all the years away, I’d forgotten the bad consequences of having many family members being present in one space. They still treated me like a little kid, but scolded me like an adult. In short, it was no fun at all. Well, to be fair, I was exaggerating when I said it was all either boasts or reprimands. There was another topic of conversation. During a lull in the dressing down I was getting, I asked an aunt if her husband had come to the wedding. She fixed a sapient eye on me and said, “He couldn’t come because he has PKD.” PKD? I knew about CID and LAPD. What was this PKD? The aunt looked at me pityingly. “Progressive Kidney Disease. His was in Stage 3 by the time he went to the doctor. Stage 4 would have meant dialysis. We had to hospitalize him. It cost Rs. 5 lakhs.” She settled back in her chair, her expression daring me to top it. Wait

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a minute—was she really proud that her husband had a disease? I honestly didn’t know what to say. Hesitantly, I replied, “At least you were in good health and could take care of him.” At that, she gave a merry laugh. “Oh, not at all! I have a long list of back problems. My spinal cord became compressed between my 10th and 11th vertebrae and I was in the hospital for a month. My treatment cost four lakhs and I still can’t sit or stand for any length of time. And my son has Ulcerative Colitis, while my poor daughter has borderline COPD.” I was flummoxed. This aunt who had barely passed her high school was talking like she edited the latest edition of a “What’s What of Human Pathology.” Secondly, her family seemed to be plagued by disease. But most importantly, she seemed to be proud of it! A few more conversations showed me that this kind of pride in having a disease or a health problem was the rule, especially when told along with treatment costs. Somewhere along the way, having a disease had become a status symbol, and if you didn’t have one, your name was mud. I realized this fully, a little later. I was

part of a group where everyone was talking about health problems, their own and that of their family members’. Suddenly there was a lull in the conversation. My head reeling with names of diseases and doctor’s fees and advice, I saw it was my one chance to regain some status. “I had knee surgery a few years ago. I had to be in bed for one and a half months. It cost $5000!” I saw a gleam of respect in their eyes and was gratified. Unfortunately, it made me a little reckless. “Thank God, I’m okay now,” I blurted out. They all, every last one of them, gave me a disgusted look and closed ranks to continue their descriptions of the operations they had, the size of their gall stone and the problems they still suffered, posttreatment. Mumbling something about having to meet someone else, I quickly made my exit. At least there is the wedding lunch, I thought. I’ll enjoy that. Alas, by the time I went to lunch, they were out of the special sweet they were serving. Unlike the old days when guests used to be God, it’s first come, first served, these days. Caterers cook exactly what is required for the number of ‘plates’ ordered, so if people take

seconds, latecomers lose. The rest of the food was so rich and oily that I came home with bad heartburn of both the physical and mental kind. So I faced the truth: weddings weren’t what they used to be. And neither was I. I wondered if I’d ever get back that eagerness with which I used to attend weddings. Recently, however, I had an epiphany. I’m going to enjoy the next wedding, just you watch. I’ve begun to turn my creativity to come up with glowing if not wholly veracious stories about my children. After all, they were not going to be there to verify them one way or another. As for the aunts and uncles, I’ve found a way to handle them. Talk to them about the old days, and they become as putty in my hands. And in the meanwhile, I’m also working on coming up with some diseases that are badass but not so badass as to be life-threatening. Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em … n

Lakshmi Palecanda moved from Montana to Mysore and is still adjusting. Lakshmi.palecanda@gmail.com

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 27

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Religious Discrimination Protections

Q A

By Bobby Shukla What protections do I have at work against discrimination based on my religion?

In California, employers are prohibited from discriminating against applicants and employees based on religion. “Religion” or “religious creed” is broadly defined under California law to include all aspects of religious belief or practices. These protections are not limited to traditional or readily recognized religions but extend to less recognized belief systems as long as they are “sincerely held.” Employers are also required to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs and observances of employees. Reasonable accommodation may include job restructuring, reassignment or modification of work practices, or allowing time off for religious observances. Employers must also accommodate “religious dress” and “religious grooming

practices.” Religious dress includes allowing employees to wear religious clothing, such as head or face coverings (including headscarves and turbans), jewelry, artifacts, and wear or carry any other item that is part of an individual’s religious observances. Religious grooming practices include all forms of head, facial, and body hair that are part of the observance of an individual’s religious beliefs. California law also expressly states that it is not a reasonable accommodation of a person’s religious dress or grooming practice to segregate that person from customers or the public. In other words, an employer cannot determine that it is a reasonable accommodation to ban an employee from face-to-face contact with the public if the employee’s religious dress conflicts with the company’s dress code. Notably, an employer is not required to provide an accommodation (i.e., such an accommodation would not be considered

28 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

reasonable) if it can demonstrate that doing so would cause an “undue hardship.” Under California law (unlike under federal law), “undue hardship” is not an easy standard for employers to meet and means an action requiring “significant difficulty or expense” in light of several factors outlined under the law. These factors include the type of operations of the company and the overall financial resources of the facilities at issue and the company as a whole, among other factors. If you believe you have been discriminated against on the basis of religion or denied a reasonable accommodation for your religious beliefs or observances, you should consult a lawyer immediately to determine potential remedies.n Bobby Shukla represents individuals in employment law matters at Shukla Law. She can be reached at (415) 986-1338.

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

February 2017

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 February 2017.

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.

FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCE DATES Preference Dates for India 1st Feb 22, 2010 2A Apr 15, 2015 2B July 08, 2010 3rd Mar 22, 2005 4th June 15, 2003 NOTE: For February, F2A numbers exempt from per-country limit are authorized for issuance to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than 01 April, 2015.

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Preference Dates for India 1st Current 2nd Apr 15, 2008 3rd Mar 22, 2005 Other Mar 22, 2005 Workers 4th Current Certain Religious Current Workers 5th Current Regional Center The Department of State has a recorded message with visa availability information at (202)485-7699, which is updated in the middle of each month. Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/ en/law-and-policy/bulletin/2017/visa-bulletin-for-february-2017.html

Email: info@vermafirm.com

www.vermafirm.com February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 29

tax talk

Backup Withholding By Khorshed Alam

f you took on a freelance gig, or opened a financial account that will pay interest, you most likely filled out IRS Form W-9. The form asks for your taxpayer identification number, and includes a certification that you sign stating youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not subject to backup withholding. But do you know what backup withholding is? Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an overview.

What is backup withholding?

Backup withholding is a way for the IRS to collect federal income tax on certain types of income. While your employer typically withholds federal income tax from your wages, certain other income, such as interest and dividends, patronage dividends, rent, royalties, commissions and fees paid to independent contractors, payments by brokers on transactions, and payments from fishing boat operations, generally do not have tax withheld. Backup withholding rules require the

payer of those items to withhold federal income tax at the rate of 28% in some circumstances.

When does backup withholding apply?

You might be subject to backup withholding if you fail to provide your social security number or taxpayer identification number to a company or individual who is paying you income that is subject to the tax. Backup withholding may also apply if you provide an incorrect identification number, or if you fail to sign the certification portion of Form W-9.

Can you get a refund of backup withholding?

If backup withholding was withheld by mistake from income you received and you act quickly to correct your records with

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the payer, you may be able to get a refund directly from the payer. Otherwise, you can claim the amount withheld on your individual income tax return along with other federal income tax withholding. The best way to avoid backup withholding is to provide the correct information up front. Contact us if you have questions about the backup withholding rules and how they apply to you. n

Khorshed Alam is a practicing CPA and business valuation analyst. He is the President and CEO of Alam Accountancy Corporation. Check out http://alamcpatax.com or call (408) 445-1120.

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 31

books

Longing For a Happy Ending By Geetika Pathania Jain The Golden Son. 2016. Shilpi Somaya Gowda. Publisher: William Morrow. 394 pp. $26.99

n a talk at Keplers bookstore in Menlo Park in the fall, Shilpi Somaya Gowda revealed that she had originally planned to title her book The Arbiter. Gowda laughs as she narrates how the titles of her books, The Golden Son coming after her previous book, The Secret Daughter might set her up to write a “whole weird family theme.” Instead, the book is about Anil Patel and Leena, children growing up in a village in Gujarat. “Their lives diverge when Anil goes off to America to become a doctor, and Leena goes to a neighboring village after having an arranged marriage. And it’s a story about their friendship, the choices they have to make, the impact that it has on their families and their communities,” Gowda offers. Certainly, Anil’s siblings are given some space in the narrative. There are references to his sister, and the games they play as children. Tensions arise when the brothers, Nikhil and Chandu who are of different temperaments, are sometimes jealous of Anil’s status as “the golden son.” Gowda relates how, in the book, this phrase had a sarcastic edge to it and yet became the title, displacing The Arbiter which sounded like a legal thriller. And Anil does seem to gently coruscate with a shiny golden quality, a medical student who does well enough at school to earn a fellowship to pursue medical studies in the United States. Certainly, he is most precious to his mother, even as his phone

conversations from America are carefully edited to omit the white girlfriend or the beef burgers. The new freedoms of America can be sampled and savored, but with a knowledge that these would incur parental disapproval. Later in the novel, Anil will reject this hypocrisy and assert himself even if this new-found independence dims the sheen of his mother’s approval. While the novel can be adept at its treatment of family dynamics, it focuses more on moving away from the obligations and pleasures of family relationships, and striking out on one’s own. It is his father who has encouraged Anil to cross the oceans to America, where the facilities and professional opportunities outshine those available in a city hospital in Gujarat. So, Anil trades his room in the big house of his village for an apartment in Dallas, which he shares with two other young Indian emigres. The tug of the homeland is frequently balanced with his new attachments and alliances in his new home, whether it is an affair of the heart with his neighbor Amber, or the professional bonds he forges with his supervisor Sonia. This push and pull of the adopted homeland has been better examined by writers before. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowlands come to mind. Still, Gouda competently creates a vignette of the early striving of young immigrants just out of graduate school, the trajectory of career goals, citizenship, and then a family. This particular arc of achievement has a shared meter and chronology and Gouda’s writ-

Despite well-written sections on medical terminology and procedures, the narrative comes alive not in the high-intensity events within shiny steel and glass buildings in Dallas, but in the tragic sequence of dowry-related events that Leena encounters. 32 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

ing evokes the long hours and soul-searching of those early “fresh off the boat” days. In a hybrid existence that makes neither land truly theirs, there are now two sets of moralities and affiliations. One part of this hybrid immigrant identity is clearly stronger than the other. For me, the more interesting parts of the novel happen in India. Despite well-written sections on medical terminology and procedures, the narrative comes alive not in the high-intensity events within shiny steel and glass buildings in Dallas, but in the tragic sequence of dowry-related events that Leena encounters. When Anil realizes that his father made an error in judgment that threatened Leena’s very life, he begins to relate this to his medical errors. There is also a humility of accepting that his high-minded adjudications from America can ignore realities and traditions that his brothers are better acquainted with. In a nod to local wisdom, Anil’s sister starts a clinic in the village that taps into ancient healing systems like Ayurveda. The Western medical system, it turns out, can be out-shone by these humble herbal cures. The ending is a damp squib. The happily-ever-after-does not happen. Instead, a female self-help narrative emerges. Leena does not get saved, but saves herself through her creativity and strength. Anil and Leena do not become family, but remain friends. “Part of writing is to create characters and then to torture them,” I remembered Gowda mentioning with a smile. Perhaps the readers too? The Golden Son left me feeling jilted at the altar. Verses from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice came to me as I neared the end: “All that glitters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold.” n Geetika Pathania Jain, Ph.D. is a frequent contributor to India Currents. She is excited to be teaching a media course at Santa Clara University in the 2017 Winter quarter.

books

The Food We Eat

Follow at twitter.com/indiacurrents on facebook.com/ IndiaCurrents

By Praba Iyer Most Read Articles in December 2016

Other Avenues Are Possible By Shanta Nimnark Sacharoff. PM Press. Available as paperback. amazon.com

1) Bhagavad Gita used in Historic Swearing-In at US Congress Geeta Goindi

hen I moved to the Bay Area in the 90s I came across a book called Flavors of India by Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff. I was intrigued by the recipes as they were Indian but they had a little twist. For example Shanta‘s sambhar (a soup made with vegetables and legumes) recipe called for ginger and lime juice. Being from the South of India, I had never made sambhar without tamarind using ginger and lime juice. When I tried it, I was in for a pleasant surprise. It was delicious. Shanta has been one of the very early writers for India Currents magazine and a pioneer in introducing Indian vegetarian cuisine to San Franciscans and others in the Bay Area. Her new book, Other Avenues Are Possible, is a comprehensive historical examination of the food co-op movement in the Bay Area and it talks of her involvement in The Other Avenues Co–Op Store. When she moved to the Bay Area in the early 70s, she joined the San Francisco natural food movement and thus began her lifetime of work with food and co-ops. This book is an in-depth look into the trials and tribulations of communities that have cooperated and supported sustainable farming and food sharing. It is also quite daunting to read about the obstacles and challenges co-ops face even to this day when farm to table is an approved and accepted way of life. In her opinion, there can never be too many organizations that work in the area of food co-ops. In her words, “The most valuable lesson that I got out of this journey is the symbiotic nature of the relationship between a co-op and the community it serves. When the Outer Sunset neighborhood where I live did not want a Starbucks in the neighborhood, we helped them, and when we needed financial backing, the community in turn helped us.”

2) Top 10 Hindi Movies of 2016 Aniruddh Chawda 3) Four Indian Americans Sworn Into US House of Representatives Staff Writer 4) New RBI Measures for NRIs Staff Writer

In the chapter titled “Keeping the Vision,” she lays out ways of encouraging and supporting sustainable healthy food communities. Even though I am a chef and educator, it was an eye-opener for me at many levels. We are so far removed from the process of growing and distributing food that we forget the committed work involved in keeping sustainable methods of production alive. When asked about how young people can get involved in the food movement, she refers to Michael Pollan who says, “Cooking your own meals can be your best weapon to fight agri-business.” Shantha’s passion and commitment is woven through the pages of her writing. The decades of hard work, determination and struggles to keep Other Avenues Co Op Store open and successful is fully evident. This book is for all those people who care about a green planet, food politics, communal engagement and like Gordon Edgar says, “a must-read for anyone who eats food.” n Praba Iyer is a chef instructor, food writer and a judge for cooking contests. She specializes in team building classes through cooking for tech companies in the Bay Area. praba@ cookingmastery.com.

5) Katha IC Fiction Contest Rules Staff Writer 6)Jeff Sessions opposes Legal Immigration Staff Writer 7) Jinnah’s Daughter Ritu Marwah 8) Skinny on a low-carb high-fat diet Ashok Jethanandani 9) The “Should” Issue Shilpa Sachdev and Shruthi Rao 10) A Fake White World Jaya Padmanabhan

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• Easy access to our current content and decade-old archives of diverse articles • Special web-only articles and videos • Digital issue of the magazine • Interactive event listings • Advertising access to a niche high-value segment of the community • Comments highlighted on home page • A full color experience • RSS feeds and newsletter subscriptions

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34 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

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perspective

Rivers of Brown By Sneha Abraham

silence and kind eyes shamed me. One of Ammachi’s tasks was to walk ressed in a salwar kameez, I A few years later, my grandmother me to and from school. I loved her. But, I twirled and danced inside my was back in India and I was now in sixth had two problems with this arrangement: room. I loved my long red tunic, grade. Sixth grade was the stuff of soap one, my grandmother never wore anythe loose flowing pants and the sweeping operas—and there was some fighting in thing but a sari; two, Ammachi’s English scarf looped around my neck. This salwar, our little group of friends. Annie was mad was broken and halting, so she would dotted with tiny mirrors that sparkled at Carly, so alliances realigned and Carly speak to me in Malayalam as we walked. when they caught the light, was embroispent recesses with me. I had acquired a I felt every stare and heard every comdered with zari, delicate threads of gold. best friend for at least the day. My heart ment as passing kids taunted and teased. I was thrilled whenever my dad brought warmed. But Annie was jealous and fumI dreaded the sound of the bell at the end me a new one from India. In my room ing. During the final recess of the day she of each day, because I knew Ammachi was I fingered the woven zari carefully and stomped up to me, narrowed her eyes, waiting for me and everyone in my class gazed at my reflection in what seemed to flipped her long, dark hair and spewed would walk by and laugh because my be hundreds of mirrors. words I feared: But on the playground “Why don’t you go back I soon discovered that my “Slowly, methodically, I shook the white to the country where you classmates didn’t find my outpowder onto my palms. I rubbed my brown came from? You don’t belong fit quite so lovely. A trip to the here.” bathroom and a game or two hands together. I dusted the powder over When I got home that of hopscotch led to sneering my nose, across my cheeks, into my arms day I locked myself in my and sidelong glances. Barely bathroom, undressed, and concealed giggles and mocking and across my budding chest. I covered evclimbed onto the toilet seat, whispers I was meant to hear ery inch of brown skin within my reach. standing and facing the mirfollowed me. ror. I took off the cap on “What is she wearing? a bottle of talcum powder. That is so ugly.” Slowly, methodically, I shook “Why did Sneha wear her grandmother looked nothing like theirs. pajamas to school?” the white powder into my palms. I rubbed It didn’t take long before I realized that Even as I held my seven-year-old head my brown hands together. The excess I could walk much faster in my sneakers high, I could feel the tears swimming powder fell like snow, flecking my bare and jeans than Ammachi could in her sandangerously in my eyes. My chin quivered brown feet. I dusted the powder over my dals and sari. In the mornings, as soon as and my face burned. The first time I wore nose, across my cheeks, into my arms and we were out of my mother’s sight, I would a salwar to school was also my last. Beacross my budding chest. Next, I covered break into a trot, my backpack jostling up ing brown-skinned in the first grade with my legs. I covered every inch of brown and down, trying to keep as much distance (what was for many) a stumbling block of skin within my reach. But I couldn’t manbetween us as I could. Every day the disa name at an overwhelmingly white school age to get to the small of my back where tance increased. Usually she was at least filled with Jennifers, Tiffanys and Jessicas there was a stubborn, untouched space. I one block behind. But she kept walking, —made me stand out as foreign despite recalled my mother’s oft-repeated refrain, steady and, to my chagrin, seen. When I being American by birth. Dressing my “No matter what, you’ll never be one of looked back over my shoulder, she was a brown skin in strange clothing didn’t help them.” tiny, colorful dot. No one will know we’re my cause. I was the only Indian at Deer I started to cry. The tears streaked my together, I told myself. When the bell rang Canyon Elementary School. And I wanted now white face and there were rivers at the end of the day, I would barely meet to be white. of brown. n my Ammachi’s eyes as I passed her on the The shame didn’t ease over the years. corner of the school grounds where she Sneha Abraham is a writer and assistant When I was in fourth grade my maternal waited, and raced as fast as I could to the director of news and strategic content at Pograndmother came from India to stay with first house at the top of our street. There, mona College. Her work has aired on NPR us for nine months to help my mother in out of sight of the other children, I’d stop, and has been published in The Huffington the final days of her pregnancy, and with heaving and heart pounding, and wait for Post and Sojourners Magazine. She is a the duties of caring for my sisters, my new her so we could cross our front step toformer journalist with the Press-Enterprise. baby brother and I. gether. Ammachi never spoke of it but her Twitter: @SnehaAbraham 38 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

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recipes

‘N Dive Into Chicory! By Praba Iyer

y childhood is filled with memories of waking up to the strong aroma of filter coffee. My grandmother needed her cup of coffee to be just the way she liked it. Her day began with brewing a huge steel filter full of coffee and it ended with her ritual of washing that huge filter and adding a heap of the coffee powder ready for brewing the next morning. Her coffee beans were bought at specialty coffee retailers like Narasus Coffee, Kannan Jubilee Coffee, and Leo Coffee. I remember going to these coffee retailers with my mother and she would buy a blend of three-fourths of Pea berry, Robusta or Arabica beans with a quarter of chicory. The beans were always roasted to perfection.

Filter Coffee and chicory root

I remember asking my mother, “What is chicory?” She told me that chicory was a root that was added to the expensive coffee powder for a slight bitter aftertaste, and it also helped extend the use of the coffee powder. Only quarter of the chicory was added since too much would take away the real flavor of the coffee beans. I still miss my grandmother’s chicory coffee and her morning coffee rituals.

Historical Origins

Chicory dates back to ancient Egypt.

In 4000 BC, it was documented as a medicinal plant for the treatment of intestinal worms and as an aid to digestion. Later the Greeks and Romans used chicory as a liver tonic. It is said that the Roman poet Horace ate chicory as a part of his vegan diet. During the Middle Ages, medieval monks cultivated chicory and thus introduced it to Europe. The Dutch were the first to use the roots as an enhancer for coffee. According to Peter Simmonds, a 19th century writer, coffee was introduced to France by M. Orban and M. Giraud. By the 1800s, France, Denmark and Germany were exporting more than 1 million pounds of chicory. In the 19th century the French brought their chicory and coffee to Louisiana. During the Great Depression and the Second World War, coffee was expensive and in short supply. Chicory became a popular substitute drink. Sometime during the 1850’s New Orleans became the second largest importer of coffee. During the Civil War when the ports were blocked and coffee shipments were halted, chicory found its place as a substitute. That’s how, even to this day, you can find a good cup of Chicory coffee at Café Du Monde in New Orleans as it has become a part of their cultural history. My grandmother and I are indebted to a 17th century Sufi saint named Baba Budan for bringing coffee to South India. Legend has it that, Baba Budan smuggled seven coffee beans from Yemen on his way back from his holy Hajj pilgrimage and planted it in Karnataka, South India. Later on, chicory was introduced by the British. Till the 1950s chicory was imported in India. Later, imported seeds from France were cultivated in the North West. Now India is the largest producer of premium grade chicory in the world.

40 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

Roots, Leaves and Flowers are Used in Chicory

1) Root chicory is roasted, ground and brewed as a substitute for coffee. 2) Leaf Chicory has two kinds—wild leaf used in many Turkish and Greek dishes and cultivated leaf chicory that is of three main kinds: Radicchio or red chicory, Belgian endive (pronounced as En-Deeve); we grow Californian endives too, and Sugarloaf chicory which looks like a hybrid of Napa cabbage and romaine lettuce. Apart from these varieties, we also have salad greens such as escaroles, curly endive (pronounced as N-Dive) and frisee. 3) Chicory flowers are predominantly blue but sometimes are pink and white too. These flowers are used in tonics for the prevention of gallstones, sinus issues etc. These February flowers are known as a symbol of love, desire and inspiration.

Chicory the Champion of Health

We know that the Egyptians had planted chicory for its medicinal use. In India chicory roots are used in the treatment for jaundice and liver enlargement. The Native Cherokee and Iroquois tribes used chicory in treating sores, lesions and as a laxative. Chicory is well known for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities. It is also used in the treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, acne, cellulite, constipation, diabetes, eczema, gallstones, gastritis, gout, hepatitis, jaundice, liver enlargement, rheumatism, and urinary ailments. Chicory promotes a heart healthy diet as it contains inulin a carbohydrate fiber called fructan, that helps reduce LDL or bad cholesterol and triglycerides and thereby reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. The inulin also helps in the prevention of diabetes and obesity in humans, by amanaging and aiding digestion and appetite regulation. Chicory is a great source of calcium, potassium and vitamins. It also helps in absorbing calcium thereby aiding bone density and reducing osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. n

Farm to Table

small salads. This hearty au gratin is an all-time favorite.

Here are some chicory dishes to warm your cold February days.

Ingredients

Roasted Radicchio Winter Salad

My friend Poornima makes the best Radicchio Summer Salad. I’ve adopted her recipe to make a warm winter salad. Radicchio has a bitter and spicy taste. Roasting radicchio reduces the bitterness.

For Roasting

1 head Radicchio torn into large wedges 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves of garlic minced 1 tablespoon dried herbs (thyme, parsley, basil) Salt to taste

Endive and Mushroom Stir Fry

For the Salad

2 steamed beets cut into matchsticks 1 green apple cut into matchsticks ½ cup fresh corn 1 avocado cubed

Belgian Endive, Tomatoes and Mushroom Stir Fry

According to Chinese medicine, endives help preserve the qi (energy) in the heart. They use it in many stir fry dishes.

Ingredients

Radicchio

Dressing

½ teaspoon honey 1 clove garlic minced ½ jalapeno pepper minced 2 tablespoons of Muscat vinegar (optional) Juice of 1 lemon Salt and pepper to taste Rub the radicchio wedges with olive oil, garlic, dried herbs and salt. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place inside for 12-15 minutes till it is charred. Remove, cut up into large pieces and place in a large bowl. Add rest of the salad ingredients—beets, apples, corn, avocados and mix gently. Drizzle the dressing and mix. Serve.

Variation: Roasted Radicchio Walnut Piz-

za. Place the roasted radicchio in a layer over pizza dough along with gorgonzola and mozzarella cheeses and toasted walnuts. Cook the pizza in the oven.

2 bulbs of red and green endive halved and sliced crosswise. 1 tablespoon oil 2 cloves of garlic minced 1 inch fresh ginger minced 1 cup Shitake mushroom sliced 1 large vine ripe tomato cut into wedges 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce ½ teaspoon brown sugar ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in a large pan and add the minced garlic and ginger. Then add the sliced endive, sliced shitake mushrooms and sauté in high heat for a few minutes. Now, add the tomatoes, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, salt and red pepper. Cook until the endives are wilted and mushroom slices are soft. Adjust the seasonings and serve hot as a side dish with rice.

2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic minced Salt and pepper to taste 1 small fennel bulb sliced 1 red Belgian endive sliced lengthwise 1 green Belgian endive sliced lengthwise 8 red potatoes sliced into ½ rounds 1 tablespoon butter 1 ½ cups milk 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon fresh herbs (basil, parsley rosemary) ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese ½ cup grated mozzarella cheese Heat olive oil in a flat pan and add garlic. Now place the fennel and endive in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, and then brown them. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add butter and garlic. Now add 1 ½ cup of milk and layer the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes. Remove from stove and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking pan with butter and layer the potatoes, roasted fennel and endive slices. Sprinkle half of the Gruyere cheese and Mozzarella cheese. Add the remaining milk mixture on top. Sprinkle the rest of the two cheeses at the top. Place it in the hot oven and cook until the top is bubbling golden brown and the potatoes are well cooked. Remove and serve. n Praba Iyer is a chef instructor, food writer and a judge for cooking contests. She specializes in team building classes through cooking for tech companies in the Bay Area praba@ cookingmastery.com

Roasted Fennel, Endive Potato Gratin

Belgian endive is mostly used for appetizers. Each leaf serves as a holder for

Chcory Leaves

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 41

films

Scenes of the Fathers By Aniruddh Chawda

itle: Growing Up Smith. Director: Frank Lotito. Players: Jason Lee, Anjul Nigam, Poorna Jagannathan, Hillary Burton, Roni Akurati, Brighton Sharbino, Shobha Narayan. English (with Hindi). No sub-titles. Theatrical release (Brittany House) For Smith Bhatnagar, the precocious 10-year old youth from India now living in middle America circa 1979, the entire cosmos, you see, can neatly be broken down into two galactic neighborhoods. Galaxy A: His parents’ trim-bordered ranch-style home on a leafy suburban street where stern old country discipline has transformed the household into a virtual replica of Smith’s father’s India boyhood homestead. Galaxy B: Outside the front door, the rest of the world, of all things American. Baseball, hot dogs and polyester. Temptation with a small t. The inevitable collision between these two seemingly immovable forces is only the beginning of a heart-warming coming-ofage comic drama that echoes far beyond its Indian-American roots. That the Bhatnagar brood—dad Bhaaskar (Nigam), mom Nalini (Jagannathan), sister Asha (Narayan) and the mini-protagonist Smith (Akurati) want to take in the American dream is no secret. The fact that assimilation must be orchestrated with dad Bhaaskar calling the shots, however, could create anachronistic tripwires. Bhaaskar named his son Smith after a common American name, overlooking that it is a common American last name, not a first name. Smith must wear a bicycle helmet—never mind that it is actually a motor cycle helmet. The mom, still clad in her sari, rides the same bicycle—sans helmet, mind you— to fetch some needle and thread, literally, from the corner store. Smith’s family has no money problems—dad Bhaaskar is a CPA. Smith does, however, have a honey problem. Their next-door neighbors are the Brun-

ners, dad Butch (Lee), mom Nancy (Burton) and daughter Amy (Sharbino), who Smith has a major crush on. In Butch’s working-class, carefree denim-and-cowboy boots swagger, Smith sees a fatherhood that is the opposite of his own father Bhaaskar. As Smith bonds with Butch, the life lessons come in small, affirming doses. An ill-fated Halloween trick-or-treat outing, a hunting trip with unintended consequences, learning to stand up to schoolyard bullies and the toll to be paid for telling small truths to avoid a larger lie. Lee’s Butch is effective as Smith’s cowboy-hero ever in danger of accidentally stepping on that pothole that may dent his halo. Nigam’s well-delivered Bhaaskar is a heavily-accented, no nonsense captain of his S.S Domestic where “punishment” can, and often does, outweigh the “crime.” While the mom role gets short-circuited though it is not altogether invisible, the offspring experiences become the driving engine. It is Akurati’s vivacious, meandering and mindful Smith that really succeeds

42 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

in pulling together the several overlapping live wires. In a nation where practically everyone is from somewhere else, Smith’s awkwardly-patched, rag tag preteen emerges as quintessentially American. To ponder, a father constantly berating his offspring with threats of shipping them “back to India” so they can learn “discipline and respect,” even if brushed off with new-arrival posturing, carries an element of cruelty that flies against the larger American narrative. The daughter caught kissing her white boyfriend is said to have “enjoyed” herself in, presumably, all the wrong ways. Loose translation: While America appears inviting, “evil manners” lurk behind every suburban tree and therefore no good can come from either dating or wearing anything other than the mom-designed unintentionallyghastly Ganesha costume at Halloween. Caught in this parental barbwire, a boy’s sadness can be just as profound and the pain just as real. An amusing period piece immigrant experience neatly tucked inside a sometimes-bittersweet slice of Americana sprinkled with Indian spices, Growing Up Smith is also essentially a story of boyhood seen through two different takes on fatherhood. The generational divide Growing Up Smith straddles—that for new arrivals the kids often assimilate faster than the parents—attests to the invisible burdens that children sometimes lift and may not be limited to any one group of new arrivals. How both the parents and the offspring cope is a story that director Lotito and company present appreciably. n EQ: A Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

Q&A With Anjul Nigam

njul Nigam co-wrote and appears as Bhaaskar Bhatnagar, the father to the titular character in Growing Up Smith. Our film reviewer Aniruddh Chadha caught up with him for an exclusive interview. Q: How much of the story resonates with your own experience? A: My family from India settled in Connecticut in 1967 when I was two. My family was very much in line with how the Bhatnagars live in the movie. We lived in a “bubble” within the Indian perspective. My father, who is 83 years old now, still carries some of that with him. Q: Smith’s father Bhaaskar Bhatnagar is a CPA who often communicates better with his numbers than he does with his kids. Is there any danger of this perpetuating a stereotype of Indian professionals? A: All of cinema is based on certain truths. I grew up knowing Indians who owned 7-Elevens and also those who were doctors and engineers. There are certain professions some groups gravitate towards. You tend look for roles with significance. Al Pacino, for example, has taken on roles where he played characters with an Italian background. It’s all about perspective. Q: Your resume features a lengthy list of TV acting credits, including Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer and even Growing Pains. How different were those experiences compared to working on Growing Up Smith? A: As a guest on TV roles, you come into the fold, you join that family for about 8 weeks. You work on your part of the

script, complete the work and then move on. I got my start playing “Raj” on Growing Pains in 1989! Movies, on the other hand, require a much longer planning span. It is a journey. There is the story that needs writing, the financing, the casting and the actual filming. It is a very different approach. Q: There is a strong contrast between the two neighboring fathers in Smith. They are often polar opposites when it comes to raising their kids. Is this a function of the immigrant experience or of American experience in general? A: All parents want their kids to grow up with the best opportunities and want them to succeed – be it in America or anywhere. The immigrant part becomes interesting when there is overlap. For example, Diwali always falls close to Halloween. So, we thought, why not have Diwali fall on the same day as Halloween? There is also a “letter” that is sent via a cassette recording. That also comes from a personal experience. Q: Could there be a sequel, perhaps called Grown Up Smith? A: (Laughs) That is not a bad idea. I have had discussions about a possible television series in the future that would continue Smith’s journey. Q: Parting thoughts on Growing Up Smith? A: There is no violence or profanity. It is wholesome family entertainment that is not animated. It is a unique coming-of-age story like Stand By Me. It is about hero worship and first crushes. Everyone should see it!n

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travel

From Leh To Lamayuru By Rama Shivakumar

ere in the valley of the Indus, the sharp peaks of the Ladakh and Zanskar Ranges pierce the sky like jagged swords. The Indus River flows through the high Ladakhi plateau swiftly, sculpting the greater Himalayan landscape. Fifty million years ago, the Indian plate surged across the Tethys Sea to collide with the stationary Eurasian plate. This dramatic impact resulted in a colossal pileup as sediment from the bottom of

Maitreya Buddha at Deskit Monastery

the sea was thrown up to form some of the Earth’s highest plateaus and mountain ranges. Today, the high desert landscape of Ladakh looks sepia toned in the unfiltered light of the mid-morning sun. Mountains of limestone, red sandstone and shale dominate the horizon. We follow the Indus River from Leh to Lamayuru in a SUV as it curves along the mountain ridges; the foamy white water rapids catching the sun now and then. Several Himalayan villages dot

the water’s edge like welcome desert oases. The valley at Nimmu village is stunning. Here the Indus meets its tributary Zanskar in an eddying confluence. Small green farms grow wheat, barley, vegetables, apples and juicy apricots. Poplar trees shimmer in the wind. Further down river, Basgo village is shaped like a cow’s head. Traditional Ladakhi women walk uphill, their hair in two long pigtails; their top hats decorated with rows of bright turquoise; their faces creased like weathered

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 47

mountain ridges. Basgo Village is characterized by a Buddhist monastery (or Gompa) that is built into the mountain sitting precariously at the edge of a high ridge like a fortress, overlooking the fertile valley below. Like the quintessential churches that one finds in English villages, these Himalayan monasteries are the sites for social gatherings and cultural events for the local village folk. We veer left on a bridge towards Alchi Gompa. Prayer flags—blue, white, red, green and yellow line the edge of the bridge, and flutter wildly in the wind while the brimming Indus flows rapidly below. Chortens, the little white mounds that house the relics and offerings, sit like meditating Buddhas along the roads and on the mountainsides. Alchi Gompa is unique in that it is situated downriver; we walk downhill in the shade of the poplars and willows past the stalls selling Tibetan wares, to the crumbling monastic complex or chos‘khor. The enclave is attributed to the great Tibetan scholar Rinchen Zangpo, a visionary. When he sought to incorporate Tibetan Buddhism into the local culture around the 11th century, he employed Kashmiri artists in the area to create murals and sculptures to adorn the temples in the chos-‘khor. The Alchi Sumsteg is a three-storied building within the enclave with elegant columns and ornate Kashmiri woodwork. We walk though to the main ceremonial hall, the Dukhang, where the monks assemble for worship and meals. Colorful

Apple orchard in Upper Manali 48 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition |February 2017

mandalas and thangkhas hang down from the ceiling like prayer confetti. It is dark inside the inner sanctum, where the bejeweled miniature idol of Maitreya sits in eternal meditation. The chos-‘khor has a central courtyard with short apricot trees and faded prayer flags in the center and little shrines lining the perimeter. The temple of Manjushri dedicated to Buddha’s disciple of the same name, has a very small, ornate entryway with a cave like interior. Once inside, we are awed by four gigantic figures of Manjushri sitting back to back on a common brightly colored pedestal. A naked bulb hangs from the ceiling, lighting up Manjushri’s red effeminate body adorned with bright jewelry—gold, green and turquoise. The murals of the meditating Buddha are repetitive, like Warhol’s screen paintings. They line the walls of the temples

and also the interior of the chortens in the temple complex. It is noon by the time we leave Alchi. The sky is a limitless blue; a blazing sun sears the barren peaks to purples and reds. The scenery at Lamayuru is like a desolate moonscape. The wind has weathered the mountains here to form conical rocks. We are at once bathed in a golden light. We part with the Indus at Khalste. The river snakes away from us towards the border town of Kargil, then past the border into Pakistan. The bucolic Ladakhi village houses have given way to military barracks. The Indian Army fought a war not far from here in 1999. Soldiers perform their exercises; long convoys of green trucks carry supplies, choking the road. On the hill above us, a soldier rests his gun on a pole bearing prayer flags. It is paradoxical: prayer flags blow mantras in Confluence of Indus and Zanskar Rivers

Monastery at Lamayuru

the wind, promoting peace, compassion, strength and wisdom against the harsh backdrop of war and unrest. Centuries ago, the Buddha looked eastward to spread his teachings. In Deskit Gompa, a gigantic golden sculpture of the Maitreya Buddha dominates the barren landscape of the Nubra Valley. In Thiksey Gompa, the statue of the Maitreya is 3 stories high. Also revered in this land of monasteries is the 14th Dalai Lama. He traveled westward as a young boy, across this unforgiving terrain to escape the Chinese invasion, to preserve the teachings of the Buddha. We encounter many monks in these monasteries. Some are Tibetan refugees, some are pariahs ostracized by their families. Clad in maroon and yellow robes,

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shops and mountain passes close, shutting the mountains from the plains, bringing life to a halt. The road trip in Ladakh stirs the soul. We are diminished, humbled and speck like in the midst of the great Himalayan peaks. We are touched by the warmth and openness of the mountain people. We learn from the Indus River, which knows no boundaries. Originating in China, the Indus, like Alfred Tennyson’s Brook chatters as it slips and slides through India before winding into Pakistan and finally curving and flowing into the Arabian Sea. Men may come and men may go, but the Indus seems to go on. Forever.n

Prayer flags with Chortens

their guttural chants rise and fall like spiritual waves. Some monks lead very simple lives, detached from the material pleasures of the world below them. The hard life of the Ladakhi people is tied to the seasons. In the ephemeral days of summer, they earn a living by cultivat-

ing crops, driving tourists around and doing business in town. Markets are bustling, cattle graze on the banks of the Indus and children go to school in packed school buses. Then winter comes quickly, harshly. The cattle hurry into the sheds, their fodder is stored on the rooftops. Schools,

How to Get there

What to Buy

Leh is most accessible from New Delhi or Mumbai. There are direct 90-minute flights that take off from New Delhi or Mumbai to Leh every morning at 6 am. You need to arrange for a reliable car and driver once you land at Leh to navigate the difficult mountain roads and high passes. Our trip was organized by Odati Adventure Tours and Travels. We had a Ladakhi driver Sonam, who drove his own SUV. Whilst driving us around, he also gave us insights into the Ladakhi life, which is incorporated into the essay.

The market at Leh is bustling with Himalayan wares—pashmina shawls, Kashmiri carpets, prayer flags and figurines of Tara Devi and the Maitreya Buddha. There are a number of restaurants featuring the local cuisine.

Best Time to Visit The best time to visit Leh is August, when the weather is dry and there is plenty of sunshine. The trip duration should be a minimum of 8 days to allow a day or two to acclimatize to the high altitude. We stayed in a resort in the village of Saboo.

50 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition |February 2017

Other Sights The article follows the Indus, a day trip that we took during our extended stay there. There are many sights to see in Leh like the Shanti Stupa, Thiksey Gompa, Hemis Gompa and the Army museum. Nubra Valley is a lovely overnight trip from Leh. The journey here is spectacular as we drive through the highest motorable pass, KhardungLa. Pangog Tso (lake) is another much-visited tourist destination. I chose to omit the more touristy sights from the travelogue and covered the day trip along the banks of the Indus, as it was a more poignant drive in many ways. The Indus Valley and the backdrop of an ongoing conflict also was personally more interesting to me from a literary perspective.

Rama Shivakumar’s travel writing has been published in India Currents, InTravel Magazine and Coldnoon Diaries. Her short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Hailing from Bangalore, Rama now lives in the Washington DC area and works as a scientist in a biotechnology firm. This article first appeared in inTravel magazine.

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On Inglish

Under The Peepal Tree By Kalpana Mohan

Peepal < fig tree of India noted for great size and longevity; lacks the prop roots of the banyan; regarded as sacred by Buddhists >

across her chest from which she would fish out knew that the word peepal origiInside the ancient Mahaher botanical encyclopedia several times to nated in Hindi and that it referred to the species of sacred fig native bodhi temple at Bodhgaya, I explain the details of every specimen. I learned about the difference between the kapok and to the Indian subcontinent. It was only when I went to Bodhgaya in Bihar, how- felt the tree’s might, memory the silk cotton that were so similar and yet so ever, that I discovered how little I knew and wisdom of many thou- unique. We walked past twenty-three species of palms in that small garden that had been about this medicinal tree. The peepal tree, called the Tree of Creation, is the sand years. The roots of the thoughtfully curated with a row of native speoldest recorded species, according to a tree traveled very long dis- cies and another row of non-native species. She pointed to the “Cycad Revoluta,” one of seal discovered in the Mohenjo-daro. I knew another most celebrated detail, of tances. Its branches were the most primitive living seed plants known as course: The peepal tree—called “ficus large-hearted, expansive. the sago palm and growing a nano inch a year in my backyard in Saratoga. The time Renee religiosa” and known commonly as the Bodhi—was the storied canopy under Surely, deep in its heart, it gave me that evening seemed prescient when, which Gautama Buddha attained en- held the quintessence of the on December 12th, a cyclone ravaged all the foliage and every manmade cable or object lightenment. I imagined it had soaked in the soul of the Buddha who had lying in its trajectory in my city of Chennai. As the 90-mile wind thundered through thoughts of Sita, and Krishna and all been transformed under it? the neighborhood it felled large chunks of those wise men who had pondered the giant trees. In the city that had ruthlessly course of their lives under it. Inside the chopped up trees to build sideways and upwards grey stone of the temple, I felt its vibrations as we neared the gold-painted pillars enclosing the tree. Scores of and forwards, the cyclone cordoned off neighborhoods, decimatdevotees chanted around it. Some were deep in meditation. Some ing power supply for days. Down our road, a falling branch of the put their faces to the pillars, loathe, it seemed, to pry themselves kapok tree had split a brick wall. Outside our home, a million red away. Many worshippers, including several 8 and 9-year-old seeds of the manjadi tree glistened by their twisted pods. The tree monks, counted rosaries and chanted as they circumambulated stood, however, proving once again that the love of its owners in grim introspection. Men and women fell to the ground chant- could overpower the potency of nature. In the next many days, Chennai reeked of rotting leaves and ing, and then, as they measured three paces with their feet, they fell down to prostrate yet again, measuring the perimeter of the algae. A week after, as foliage baked in the sun, the city faced temple. In this timeless place, I was as inconsequential as an aging the peril of fire hazard as it hurried to clear the debris from the mosquito contemplating the tenuous, tapered end of the peepal’s disaster. At Jeeva Park, my late father’s stomping grounds, the destruction from the cyclone was total. heart-shaped leaf as it taxied over it. Now, the canopy over Jeeva Park—of neem braiding into During my long stay in India, and in December in particular, the idea of the tree—as a symbol of life and immanence, as a pro- peepal, gulmohar, mango, kapok and ashoka—had vanished. The vider of shade and succor, as an object of beauty, as a giver of life, sun seared our heads as we walked. Even though the park’s railas that something we hold meaningful to our lives—would haunt ings had been torqued and the pathways rent open as trees stood uprooted, one thing had been untouched. The idol of Ganesha me many times over as the new year approached. One evening in the first week of December, I was standing in still sat under a new, much diminished arbor of the central peepal line at Prithvi Theater in Mumbai’s Juhu suburb when I struck up tree.n a conversation with a stranger waiting behind me. By the time we finished exchanging details about our lives, she had offered to lead me on a tree walk to show me the thoughtful curation of the city’s Kalpana Mohan writes from California’s Silicon Hiranandani gardens. Valley. To read more about her, go to http://kalpanAt 5 pm, Renee Vyas, a tree expert who had led enthusiasts on amohan.com. over a hundred walks in Mumbai, was awaiting me, a bag drawn February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 51

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Happy Valentine’s Day! CALL: (408) 324-0488 | (714) 523-8788 Email: ads@indiacurrents.com www.indiacurrents.com Write: 2670 S White Rd., Suite 165, San Jose, CA 95148 Deadline: 20th of every month 52 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition |February 2017

NRITYODAYA KATHAK ACADEMY Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself~ Havelock Ellis

BHAIRAVI KUMAR

Founder/Director Since 1989 Contact: 909-630-8558 bhairavipkumar@yahoo.com www.kathaksocal.com

Kathak classes offered in Walnut/ Diamond Bar, Tustin/Irvine, Santa Ana

Affiliated with Hindustan art & music society, Calcutta. Students receives official accreditation, diplomas and degrees from India.

Nupur Academy LA Inc.

Institute for Indian Clasical Performing Arts - A Not For Profit Organization

Geeta & Sanjiv Munshi Arts Academy “Bringing you Music & Dance for 25 successful years!” Call us for LIVE MUSIC & DANCE PERFORMANCES!

• Vocal Classes • Instrument Classes • Dance Classes

Prachi Dixit Founder/Director Kathak | Tabla | Vocal Torrance, Cerritos & Venice

Call for classes in your location GSartsacademy@yahoo.com www.GSArtsAcademy.com

(310) 872-7061

Nishi Munshi

nupuracademyla@gmail.com • www.nupuracademyla.org

Miss India California

(562) 946-0496 (909) 556-6070

CELEBRATING DANCE 1977 to 2016

Viji Prakash Founder/Director

Shakti School of Bharata Natyam Classes in West Los Angeles, Torrance, Cerritos, Orange/Irvine, Woodland Hills

“dance is the song of the soul” www.shaktibharatanatyam.com info@shaktibharatanatyam.com

ACADEMY OF KATHAK DANCE Classes offered at La Habra Heights, Whittier, Cerritos, Yorba Linda ( Classes can potentially be offered in your area - inquiries welcome)

Visiting Artist and Teacher Abhay Shankar Mishra Aarti Manek

Head of Kathak Department (Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, London, UK)

Contact: 1.714.595.3735 1.714.299.3525 shankaradance@gmail.com www.shankaradance.com

Bharata Natyam Folk Dances Classes: Duarte,Cerritos, Riverside,Chino Hills

Paulomi Pandit Recipient of Post Diploma from

Kalakshetra, India paulomi@rangashree.com www.rangashree.com

626-590-5547 February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 53

dance

Shivam arts ol of Kath

Do you know that you can get India Currents for Free * at your home ?

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Artistic Director:

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New classes coming to Santan Mandir, Norwalk Classes also offered at:

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714-293-4539 714-891-3799 Punam.kathak@yahoo.com www.shivamarts.org

Rangoli Dance Company

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Artistic Director: Malathiu lyengar, MFA

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Nurturing & Preserving Bharata Natyam at

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56 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition |February 2017

SIFA welcomes sponsors and music lovers to our 2017 Spring & Fall Concert Series Kum. Manasa Suresh - Vocal Vidushi Rama Vaidyanathan Bharatanatyam

Saturday, March 4, 2017 - 2:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater 701 Vine St., San Jose, CA 95110

“Sri Thyagaraja Ramayanam” by illustrious vocalists comprising: Dr. S. Sowmya, Smt. K. Gayathri, Sri. Bharath Sundar, Sri. Ashwath Narayan, and Kum. Vidya Kalyanaraman

Saturday, April 29, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater, San Jose

Vidushi Suchitra's “Katha Kutcheri”

Sunday, March 26, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater 701 Vine St., San Jose, CA 95110

Jugalbandhi: Vidwan Shashank Subramanyam - Flute, Vidwan Purbayan Chatterjee - Sitar

Saturday, May 6, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater 701 Vine St., San Jose, CA 95110

Vidwan T.M. Krishna - Vocal

Saturday, April 1, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

Carrington Hall, Sequoia High School 1201 Brewster Ave., Redwood City, CA 94062

Hyderabad Brothers - Vocal

Vidushi Nityasree Mahadevan - Vocal

Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater 701 Vine St., San Jose, CA 95110

Sunday, April 23, 2017

4:00 p.m.

Santa Clara Convention Center 5001 Great America Pkwy., Santa Clara, CA 95054

Vidwan O. S. Thiagarajan – Vocal

Saturday, May 27, 2017 - 4:00 p.m.

CET - Soto Theater 701 Vine St., San Jose, CA 95110

Here are a few upcoming concerts for the Fall Season

Vidwan Abhishek Raghuram - Vocal

Vidwan Lalgudi GJR & Vidushi Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi - Violin Duo

SIFA Sponsors are entitled to FREE admission to most concerts. An automatic Email reminder will be sent to the sponsors prior to the concert dates. For more information on Sponsorship, please visit http://www.southindiafinearts.org/sponsorship.shtml SIFA Sponsorship is now open. Please visit www.southindiafinearts.org for details and updates to concerts

P.O. BOX 2544, CUPERTINO CA 95015-2544

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 57

music

Desis in the Grammy House! By Priya Das

t’s Grammys-time again and as has been for a few years now, there are a few desi names on the nominee list:

Best Dance Recording, Dance/ Electronic Music Field

“Don’t Let Me Down”—The Chainsmokers featuring Daya

Daya is multi-talented; she also plays the guitar, saxophone, ukulele, and flute.

Best World Music Album/World Music Field Land of Gold—Anoushka Shankar

“Sing your song with ease and pride, I’ll be there not far behind, Find the kind heart, rest your feet and soul, May your kind heart find the land of gold.” Beginning with compelling sitar playing to stark words sung

through trade routes Affiliated with Harvard University since 2005, The Silk Road Project is made up of artists from more than 20 countries (including Grammy-nominated Sandeep Das from the Benaras gharana) and the group has produced six albums. Sing Me Home is a collection that explores “the ever-changing idea of home,” and includes pieces by Ustad Shujaat Khan on the sitar and singer Sarah Jarosz. Incidentally, Jarosz’s album Undercurrent is a Grammynominee in another category.

It would be hard to miss or not notice the edgy “Don’t Let Me Down, down, down” song when you turn on your local hit-music raBest Engineered Album, Nondio station. Well you’re Classical (Production, Non-Clasin for a surprise: that sical Field) edgy voice belongs to Daya Tandon Grace Tandon, who Anoushka Shankar’s Land of Gold gives goes by her middle by Alev Lenz, Land of name Daya. Daya means “mercy” in HinGold gives voice and voice to the international refugee crisis. di, and she probably got the name, in stirring sound to the She says “Becoming a parent has really part, because her grandfather is of Indian international refugee origin. crisis. Speaking of its changed the way that I feel impacted by Daya’s start in music was unintentionmaking, Anoushka what’s going on in the world. I can’t hide al; her first piano lessons were at age three, said in an interview, and she started only because her older sis“My experience was from what I imagine other parents must ter Rachel insisted on taking her along to that of a human being be going through. That was the central her lessons. Her involvement in music was viewing the world. I constant, and she has just graduated from think becoming a par- impetus for making the album.” high school last year. In a recent interview ent has made me feel she shared that she got on a plane the day impacted by what’s after her prom to record her first extended going on in the world Undercurrent—Shani Gandhi & Gary play. Her hit track “Hide Away” was a part around me. It makes one so much more Paczosa, engineers; Paul Blakemore, masof that extended play. One version of how vulnerable to things—having children. tering engineer (Sarah Jarosz) she got together with The Chainsmokers is And so it just feels like I can’t hide from Gandhi is a rare breed among music that they had reached out to her after they what I imagine other parents must be goengineers, there aren’t too many women heard, “Hide Away.” ing through. That was kind of the central mixing sound. A music engineer is tasked Daya believes it’s important to write impetus for making this album.” Alev with making sure the sound of the muher own songs because then the music is Lenz is a London-based German artist sic—instruments, vocals, effects sound the truly, “authentic.” One of the videos starts born to a Turkish mother. best that it can. Gandhi has been described with a few DADDs, Dads Against Daughas superlative at her work by both Paczosa ters Dating, with Daya belting out, Sing Me Home—Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk and Jarosz, among other artists. n Road Ensemble “Boys seem to like girls who laugh at anything, Their website says, “Silk Road has been The Grammys award ceremony will be teleThe ones who get undressed before the second guided by two principles: that we cannot vised by CBS on February 12, 2017 from the date, afford not to know our neighbors, and Staples Center in Los Angeles. Girls seem to like the boys who don’t apprecithat music can help us connect.” World ate, renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma was inspired to Priya Das is an enthusiastic follower of world All the money and the time that it takes, To found this ensemble by the historic Silk music, and avidly tracks inbtersecting points be fly as a mother.” Road that connected Asia with Europe between folk, classical, jazz and other genres. 58 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition |February 2017

dance . music

BharathaKala Kutiram

Music Performing Class Enrich it by listening to Dr. Madhuwanti Mirashi

Artistic Director:

Jayanthi Sridharan

(disciple of Pt. Omkarnath Thakur) Available for performances for all occasions.

offers Bharathanatyam Classes in Berryessa, North San Jose

Vocal Music: Light and Classical Instruments: Tabla, Harmonium, Synthesizer (Casio, Yamaha) Music Appreciation: (Hindustani) Voice Culture: (Indian Method)

Call: (408) 251-3438

Phone:(408)

e-mail: bkkdanceschool@gmail.com

Private Lessons

School of Tabla

ALL AGES & LEVELS

MUSIC Lessons with Peter Block

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ENGLISH Lessons with Sita

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• 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)

Experienced tabla player offers tabla lessons for all ages. Must have own instrument. For further details, please contact

253-1051

Email: rhythmsnet@yahoo.com phone: 510-656-5803

s_tyar@comcast.net

Vocal Music Classes By DR

246-1643

msmirashi@hotmail.com

/ indiacurrents

MOUSOOMI BANERJI

(disciple of late Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh and Ustad Munawar Ali Khan)

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* 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.

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INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 30 Years of Excellence

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

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 59

relationship diva

Five Tips to Avoid the Friend-Zone By Jasbina Ahluwalia

think it would be best if we’re just friends.” The dreaded friend-zone happens to almost everyone. However, it can be frustrating when it happens to you over and over again. If you’ve been friend zoned one too many times, you may want to try these strategies.

3. Don’t be too available

If you’re instantly available and “such a nice guy,” she may fall into the familiarity trap where she sees you as more of a brother or cousin. You may not want to call her back immediately every time. Also, don’t try to solve everything. You want a relationship of equals, and you want a woman who can also solve her own problems. Jumping in to fix everything has the net result of the guy being taken for granted.

1. Early on, take your time

If you’ve not dated for too long, take your time getting to know her. Getting too pushy quickly can backfire. She’ll feel that she has to friend zone you without really knowing you. Express your interest, but don’t smother her.

4. Don’t go on too long with your attentions

Treat her in ways that make it clear that you want a relationship, but don’t take too long to make your move. A few weeks is long enough for her to get the idea that you want to be more than friends.

2. Spend time just with her

Spending time in groups is good, but don’t let that go on too long. Single her out for special treatment. Pay attention to her likes and dislikes to let her know that you’re not interested in just being pals.

5. Don’t fear rejection

INDIA CURRENTS GRAPHIC (408) 324-0488

After you’ve figured out that you’re interested in going further, go ahead and

60 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

tell her of your feelings. It’s scary to put yourself out there. But sooner or later, you have to make a move. If you feel that the time is right, mention that you’d like to pursue something more serious. At worst, she’ll turn you down. At least you won’t be in the twilight zone of uncertainty. Move on to try to find that special someone. If it does work out, and she’s excited about pursuing something serious, that’s great! Enjoy your relationship, and have fun getting to know someone special.n Jasbina Ahluwalia has pioneered an approach to matchmaking, which blends the best of the East and the West. She is the FounderPresident of Intersections Match by Jasbina, the only premier dating coaching firm for Indian singles in the US, Canada and the UK. Jasbina@Intersectionsmatch.com

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Making Dreams Come True, One Home at a Time©. Happy Valentine’s Day! REPRESENT BUYERS FOR NEW HOME SALES / NEW CONSTRUCTION / RESALE

“We would like to thank India Currents for the wonderful opportunity it has offered ‘Most Unique Parties & Ponies’ to meet and entertain the fun and friendly Indian families of the Bay Area.” - Mike & Sari Most Unique Parties & Ponies “ ...The best advertising in the valley is done thru India Currents......” - Pia Ganguly, @ Pia Ka Ghar

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Deadline: 20th of every month

Sang Le February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 61

events FEBRUARY

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events Edited by: Mona Shah List your event for FREE!

MARCH issue deadline: Monday, February 20 To list your event in the Calendar, go to www.indiacurrents.com/Events and click on Create Event

Check us out on

special dates Vasant Panchami

Feb. 1

Saraswati Puja

Feb. 1

Presidents Day

Feb. 20

Maha Shivaratri

Feb. 25

Ash Wednesday

Mar. 1

Holi

Mar. 13

CULTURAL CALENDER

February

1 Wednesday

Disgraced—A Play by Ayad Akhtar.

Can anyone ever truly escape their past? Amir Kapoor is living the American Dream and quickly climbing the corporate ladder at his powerful Manhattan law firm. But when Amir and his wife Emily, an artist, host a dinner party for friends and colleagues the pleasant evening quickly erupts into a volatile cultural debate over race religion and class in the modern world. San Jose Stage Company. 490 S 1st St., San Jose. https://www.Events4.

Sammy Obeid—Make America Great Again Again, comedy show, Feb. 10-11

Us/ic/events2. https://www.thestage.org.

Watermark Conference For Women. Watermark is a community of

executive women in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose mission is to increase the representation of women at executive levels to drive innovation, human development and economic growth. 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. San Jose Convention Center, 150 W San Carlos St, San Jose. registration@conferenceforwomen.org, (866) 848-9571.

February

62 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

4 Saturday

Pallavi Festival. Five local artists will be presenting Ragam Thanam Pallavi in five unique ragams.They will be supported by artists who are all from Bay Area. Organized by SR Fine Arts 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Community Of Infinite Spirit 1540 Hicks Ave., San Jose. https://www.Events4.Us/ic/srfine-arts, 408-DES-8809. https://sites.google. com/site/shreerangaramanujafinearts/

The Colors of India—Bollywood Dance Party. Featuring Dholrhythms

Dance. A dance production telling the story of women in the villages of Punjab told through dance choreography weaved in with music, visuals, props, narration,

Cinequest 2017

By Mona Shah

t’s that time of the year when the Cinequest Film Festival runs from Feb. 28 - Mar. 12 to delight movie lovers. This year’s Cinequest Film Festival will present 13 days of films, fusing the world of the filmed arts with that of Silicon Valley’s innovation to empower youth, artists and innovators to create and connect. http://www.cinequest.org, (408) 295-9600. Below are the film details. n

The Black Prince

India In A Day

An engaging true tale of the last king of the magnificent kingdom of Punjab, Maharaja Duleep Singh (Satinder Pal Singh). Kidnapped from his throne at age 5, Duleep grows up under the supervision of Queen Victoria (Amanda Root, The Iron Lady) as an English prince. After thirteen years, he meets his birth mother and uncovers his true past, the King of Punjab. As his two identities begin to fight one another, what will Singh choose as his true destiny? The Black Prince, featuring the acting premiere of Punjabi, singer-songwriter, Satinder Pal Singh and British stars Amanda Root and Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is a captivating tale of self-realization and identity.

It’s the story of a single day: October 10, 2015. It’s the story of you, me, family, love, passion, and of us. It’s a remarkable and poetic journey of what it means to live. Through an initiative backed by Google, millions of people across India turned on their cameras and smartphones for one day to show the world what their everyday is like. Director Richie Mehta (Amal) took the thousands of hours of footage submitted and created a celebratory poem to the human spirit. The result is not only India’s largest crowdsourced documentary, but also it is a breathtaking, moving, and inspiring journey that captures the enduring spirit of a country, its vibrant energy and culture, as well as the most tender moments that fill all of our lives.

Kingdom Of Clay Subjects

The Valley

Instead of spending his youth playing, Jamal is forced to face the harsh realities of life at the tender age of 10. When his only friend in the village is married off as a child bride, Jamal withdraws from his duties in rebellion, and demands to be enrolled in school. Jamal tries to pave his own path towards happiness and success, but is met with brutal obstacles surrounding his mother’s past as he does so. He slowly uncovers the truth behind his status and isolation, but learns to stand up to social oppression to find that all is not lost.

Neal has it all: the foreign cars, the Palo Alto mansion, a stunning wife, and he’s the father to two beautiful girls. But like Icarus flying too close to the sun, his life comes crashing down with the suicide of his youngest daughter. Pointing a mirror directly at our modern culture, director Saila Kariat’s poignant and haunting film addresses pressing issues about our humanity, through the story of the love of a father as he tries to search for whose hands are dirtied by the blood of his daughter. In his search of possible lovers, roommates, virtually anything that could help him figure out what happened, what he uncovers will change his life forever. February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 63

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events in Math and Business from UC Berkeley to solve our biggest economic problems and his over a decade of comedy experience to give solid campaign speeches. 5 people in the state of California already voted for him in the 2016 election. As well as 2 in Ohio. Possibly even more if we do a recount! Organized by Enacte Arts 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Cubberley Community Theater 4000 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto. www.enacte.org.

Valentines Day Celebration. Featuring dinner and dance with Kirit and Bharat and the Konodia Beats Orchestra. 7 p.m. Amaya Resturant, 7850 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. $45. (714) 728-8788, (909) 982-3616. William Rossel in a tabla solo performs at an evening of North Indian classical music, Feb. 18

live drumming and song. 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Osher Marin JCC 200 N. San Pedro Road San Rafael. https://www.Events4.Us/ic/ events8, 408-DES-8809 x 6463. http://www. marinjcc.org/

Ashta-Prahar—Annual Recital of Darshana Bhuta Music Academy. A

Journey of raagaa, Bhatiyaar to Bhairavi, dawn to dusk. Conceived and composed

February

11 Saturday

Ancient Future Concert. Featuring

Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar), Vishal Nagar(tabla) and Mariah Parker (pianist/santurist). $20 general, $15 for seniors/disabled/students. Organized by Ancient Future. 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. Trinity Chapel Trinity Chapel 2320 Dana St., Berkeley. (510) 778-1719, info@trinitychamberconcerts.com.

Valentines Day Celebration. Fea-

turing dinner and dance with Kirit and Bharat and the Konodia Beats Orchestra. 7 p.m. Hoover Middle School Auditorium, 3501 Country Club Dr., Lakewood. $30, $25. (714) 728-8788, (909) 982-3616.

Sammy Obeid—Make America Great Again Again. Lebanese-Palestinian-Syrian-Italian-American born in Oakland California uses his background in Math and Business from UC Berkeley to solve our biggest economic problems and his over a decade of comedy experience to give solid campaign speeches. 5 people in the state of California already voted for him in the 2016 election. As well as 2 in Ohio. Possibly even more if we do a recount! Organized by Enacte Arts 6 p.m. Cubberley Community Theater 4000 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto. www.enacte.org.

February

Valentines Day Celebration. Featuring dinner and dance with Kirit and Bharat and the Konodia Beats Orchestra. 6:30 p.m. Peacock Gardens Cuisine, 23347 Golden Springs Dr., Diamond Bar. $45. (714) 728-8788, (909) 982-3616. Infinite Facets—A Bharatanatyam Ballet. A dance production emphasizing

by Ashit Desai. 5 p.m. 722 S Main St., Milpitas. 408-DES-8809 x 6562.

Sanskriti 2017. An annual festival

exploring Indian cultural heritage through classical dance and music. Organized by North Bay Hindu Center and Sangam Arts. 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Marin Center 10 Ave of the Flags San Rafael. https://www. Events4.Us/ic/north-bay-hindu-center-andsangam-arts, 408-DES-8809 x6567. www. sangamarts.org.

February

10 Friday

Sammy Obeid—Make America Great Again Again. Lebanese-Pales-

tinian-Syrian-Italian-American born in Oakland California uses his background

Airport Insecurity, a play by Naatak, Feb 24-March 4

64 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

12 Sunday

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

Unity in Diversity at a time when divisions among countries and even people within one country loom larger than they ever have threatening to disrupt peaceful coexistence. Shreelata Suresh, Artistic Director of Vishwa Shanti and 20 principal dancers will illustrate through song dance and drama. Noon- 2 p.m. Menlo Atherton Center for the Performing Arts 555 Middlefield Rd. Atherton visit https://www.Events4. Us/ic/events4 or call 408-DES-8809 x 6501.

February

18 Saturday

An Evening of North Indian Classical Music. Featuring Rachel Un-

terseher (viola), Samrat Kakkeri (tabla) and William Rossel (tabla solo). 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Ali Akbar College of Music 215 West End Ave. San Rafael. General $20, $15 members/students/seniors. https://www. Events4.Us/ic/events1 or call 408-DES-8809 x 6521. http://www.aacm.org. (415) 4546372.

GiTPROWorld17. Annual daylong

conference on technology and startups is a networking platform for Technology Professionals. 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Jewish Cultural Centre 3921 Fabian Way Palo Alto visit https://www.Events4.Us/ic/gitproorg or call 408-DES-8809 x 6549.

February

23 Thursday

Sleepless in Santa Clara. A talk on

Ayurveda by Ashok Jethanandani. Have you been experiencing difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep at night? If sleep is not restorative the doshas get out of balance causing fatigue and distress during the day and this takes its toll on one’s mental and physical health. We will discuss various causes of insomnia good sleep habits and ayurvedic remedies

IBPW annual book reading event, March 5

for improving sleep. 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Cupertino Community Hall. 10350 Torre Ave., Cupertino. https://www.Events4.Us/ic/ events10, (408) DES-8809 x 6399.

February

24 Friday

Airport Insecurity—A Play. Based

on a true story, the play is the quirky entertaining Kafkaesque tale of an Indian techie stuck at Frankfurt Airport without a passport visa or mobile phone. Over forty-eight hours in the airport lounge he encounters a diverse cast of characters while navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth. The resolution of his troubles surprises everyone even him. Organized by Naatak. 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Cubberley Theater 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. https://www. Events4.Us/ic/naatak2, (408) DES-8809 x 6488. www.naatak.com.

February

25 Saturday

Maitri Gala 2017. Performances by

Harker Cantilena, a student choir from Harker School. Entertainment and dinner to follow. Organized by Maitri 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Crowne Plaza 4290 El Camino Real Palo Alto. https://www.Events4.Us/ic/ maitri. (408) DES-8809 x 6564. http:// maitri.org.

Airport Insecurity—A Play. Based

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 65

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events Airport Insecurity—A Play. Based

on a true story, the play is the quirky entertaining Kafkaesque tale of an Indian techie stuck at Frankfurt Airport without a passport visa or mobile phone. Over forty-eight hours in the airport lounge he encounters a diverse cast of characters while navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth. The resolution of his troubles surprises everyone even him. Organized by Naatak. 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Cubberley Theater 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. https://www. Events4.Us/ic/naatak2, (408) DES-8809 x 6488. www.naatak.com.

March Disgraced, a play by Ayad Akhtar at The San Jose Stage Company, Feb 1-26.

wami (mridangam). 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Rupa Ramanathan (vocal) accompanied by Aparna Thyagarajan on the violin Vignesh Venkataraman (mridangam) and Krishnakumar Ravikumar (kanjira). Organized by SR Fine Arts. 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Community Of Infinite Spirit. 1540 Hicks Ave., San Jose. https://www.Events4. Us/ic/shobana-sujitkumar, (408) DES-8809 x 6512. http://www.communityofinfinitespirit.org.

February

26 Sunday

The Waiting Rooms—A Play. A Gujrati romantic comedy. 6 p.m. William Bristol Auditorium. 16600 Civic Center Dr., Bell Flower. (562) 860-1135, (909) 8617074. Airport Insecurity—A Play. Based

on a true story, the play is the quirky entertaining Kafkaesque tale of an Indian techie stuck at Frankfurt Airport without a passport visa or mobile phone. Over forty-eight hours in the airport lounge he encounters a diverse cast of characters while navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth. The resolution of his troubles surprises everyone even him. Organized by Naatak. 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Cubberley Theater 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. https://www.

Events4.Us/ic/naatak2, (408) DES-8809 x 6488. www.naatak.com.

Talk on Life and Legacy of Mirra Alfassa Mother of Sri. Aurobindo Ashram by Kundan Singh. 11 a.m.

to 12:15 p.m. Cultural Integration Fellowship. 2650 Fulton St., San Francisco. https:// www.Events4.Us/ic/events, (408) DES-8809 x 6528. http://culturalintegrationfellowship. org.

March

3 Friday

Airport Insecurity—A Play. Based

March

66 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

4 Saturday

5 Sunday

IBPW Annual Book Reading Event. A panel discussion to examine

our biases towards race culture education religion financial status and demographics. The topics will explore our comfort zones and expand our perspective to become more tolerant open and nonjudgmental human beings. Organized by Indian Business and Professional Women. 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. ICC 525 Los Coches Street, Milpitas. https://www.Events4.Us/ic/ indian-business-and-professional-women or call 408-DES-8809 x 6551. http://www. indiacc.org/IBPW_bookreading.

March

11 Saturday

SEF Holi. Raffle prizes food DJ music. Organized by SEF. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Alameda County Fairgrounds 4501 Pleasanton Ave., Pleasanton. https://www. Events4.Us/ic/sef. (408) DES-8809 x 6566. venture FWD—For Women and Diversity. The country’s most focused

summit supporting women and minorityrun businesses by facilitating connections to investment capital and opportunity. San Francisco. $50. www.venturefwd.io, info@venturefwd.io, @venturefwdio. http:// venturefwd.io/event/2371. © Copyright 2017 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

February 2017 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 67

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Om Sri Mathre Namaha

At 6.00 PM, Pradosham Shiva Sri Ganapathi abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa Rudra abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa Monday February 20th: Presidents th Day week end timings Thursday February 9 : At 6.00 PM, Thai Poosam Kavadi Friday February 24th: Temple festival Sri Valli Deva Sena Thursday February 2nd: opens morning 9.00 AM, Sri At 8.30 PM, Sukla Shashti Sri Valli sametha, Sri Subramanya Venkateswara suprabhatam abhisheka aarati and manthra Deva Sena sametha Sri continued with Sri Bhuwaneswari pushpa Subramanya sahasra nama abhisheka continued with Sri archana th Lalitha sahasra nama chanting Friday February 10 : rd At 11.00 AM, Sri Shiva abhisheka, aarati and manthra pushpa Friday February 3 : Ratha continued with Sri Maha Sri Bhuwaneswari abhisheka Sapthami Shivarathri Mahothsavam, Sri continued with Sri Lalitha Saturday February 4th: Bhishma sahasranama chanting aarati and Mahanyasam kalasa sthapanam, Ashtami Shiva abhisheka continuous Shiva manthra pushpa abhisheka. Sunday February 5th: Madhwa At 4.00 PM, Pradosham special Navami, evening at 4.00 PM, Thai At 2.34 PM to 6.53 PM - Lunar kritikai kavadi festival kritika vratha Eclipse. Temple opens evening at Sri Shiva Rudra abhisheka aarati and manthra pushpa continuous 6.00 PM. Pournami Vratha, Sri Valli Deva Sena sametha Sri Shiva abhisheka, Last kala Shiva evening at 7.00 PM Suddhi Subramanya abhisheka, Sri abhisheka Lakshmi Ganapathi abhisheka, Sri Punyaha Vachanam continued with Sri Sathya Narayana Swami Shiva abhisheka aarati and pooja aarati and manthra pushpa Saturday February 25th: manthra pushpa At 5.30 AM, aarati and manthra th th pushpa; and the temple closes. Tuesday February 7 : Beeshma Tuesday February 14 : Morning at 10.00 AM Temple At 5.00 PM, Sankata Hara Ekadasi opens with Sri Venkateswara Chathurthi, Sri Lakshmi th Ganapathi homa and Sri Lakshmi suprabhatam Wednesday February 8 :

Wednesday February 1 : Vasantha Panchami aksharabhyasam, At 7.00 PM. Please contact the temple for further details. st

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

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INDIA CURRENTS GRAPHICS (408) 324-0488

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

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

70 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

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healthy life

A New Lease of Life How an Indian grandmother started making heart-healthy choices By Bakialakshmi Ramachandran

am a 57 year-old grandmother of four delightful and energetic elementary school-aged grandchildren. My husband and I visited our daughtersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; families in the Bay Area recently. This visit was memorable because it was life changing. I learned to make healthy lifestyle choices based on practical advice allowing me to enjoy the time I spend with my husband and family. I have a history of hypertension, and was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and fatty liver. I was severely overweight. Both my legs were swollen and I was bothered by tingling and burning sensations. I could not even go on walks in familiar neighborhoods with my husband, who loves his daily walk. In fact, he has always been very active and practices yoga everyday as well. One afternoon, soon after my arrival from India, I set out behind my husband on a short walk. I had reluctantly laced up my shoes and rolled out of the house. Barely ten minutes into the walk, I tripped and fell. Filled with shame and pain, I picked myself up with difficulty and got back home with my husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s help. I was so embarrassed and my spirits were dampened by this incident. My daughters and husband believed that I needed to walk to help bring my weight down. I knew I had to lose weight, but was nervous about stepping out and hurting myself. I was in a Catch 22, and quite upset with my family for not understanding my plight, and empathizing with me. If I managed to walk for a day or two, it would take me several days to recover. My daughters were not very impressed with my 2 days on, 2 weeks off routine. They were also concerned about my unsuccessful attempts at managing hypertension. They were determined to help me find a solution.

Bakialakshmi with her daughters

I saw a doctor at the India Community Center who examined me and pointed out that my weight of 205 lbs put me in the obese category, and that losing weight would be my first step towards getting healthy. The doctor suggested that I call the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital. My daughters signed me up for the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preventive program in August 2016. Assessments confirmed that I was pre-diabetic and of course obese. Included in this program were not only advanced assessments, but also expert lifestyle counseling and weeks of personalized coaching to combat my health conditions. For the

72 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

first time in my life I felt hopeful. I was able to build trust in the clinician, which was a game changer. She spoke my language and put me at ease, cared about my wellbeing, and was patient with my family members who wanted to be involved. Through consultations and webinars I learned actionable tips on lifestyle changes, which I wholeheartedly implemented. Before enrolling in the program, I cooked and consumed traditional, mostly grain-based South Indian meals. I sweetened my coffee and tea with sugar and snacked on Indian biscuits multiple times a day. Over the course of the program, I made significant changes to my diet. First, I eliminated sugar in my coffee and tea. I started including vegetables with every meal, decreased grain portions, and stopped consuming processed and refined grains in the form of cereals and biscuits. The lifestyle changes seemed easy and effortless to make. In hindsight, I realize what helped was that the changes were introduced in baby steps. I did not have to make drastic modifications all at once to my diet or for that matter exercise. The clinician did not mention exercise in the initial weeks at all. Movement was gradually added to the daily routine. The dietary recommendations were easy to sustain because I did not have to give up everything dear to my South Indian palate. I was able to replace rice with a blend of minced bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato, salad greens and sprouted channa dal. I still enjoy my vegetable-rich sambhar, rasam and yogurt with this rice substitute. I loved how my nutritionist even gave me an alternative to the pickle I missed. She taught me to prepare spicy, sprouted methi as a pickle substitute. When I had trouble with bloating with the new foods, the nutritionist

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Bakialakshmi on a hike

asked me to sauté the salad greens, and add probiotics in my diet. For my daughters it was a new experience as well. Unlike in the past when they were used to facing resistance, they were surprised to see me happy and motivated to comply with suggested dietary changes. My trust in the program, translated to my daughters having confidence in it as well—so they did not question me when I broke our family’s breakfast traditions and started having cottage cheese with carrot, cucumber and fruit for breakfast. Four months after I signed up for the program, I lost 23 lbs., and my 3-month blood sugar levels dropped from 6.4 to 6.0. I went from walking 0 minutes to 300 minutes per week. I feel more energetic and light. I am now able to walk with my husband and keep up with him. I have been able to reconnect with my grandkids by playing and exercising with them. My biggest achievement was hiking a steep trail in Red Canyon in Nevada, without any support. I am excited to be returning to India with a host of practical tools in my toolkit, to manage my weight and stay on the path to success. I am proof that lifestyle changes can be made at any stage in life. n Bakialakshmi Ramachandran lives in Coimbatore, India. This essay has been featured in February because it is American Heart Month.

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dear doctor

A Sudden Feeling of Rage By Alzak Amlani

I find that I am spending a lot of time alone. I have a busy job that takes up time in the evenings and on weekends. When I am alone I like to read, take walks, watch TV, surf the Internet, and take naps. Sometimes I just sit and enjoy watching the clouds. When I have opportunities to be with friends or family, I do not make the effort to reach out. As a child I used to imagine moving from Texas to Alaska to be by myself. Recently when I was sharing some of these things with a friend, he mentioned that behind my withdrawal there might be some hatred. At first I was shocked but as I think about it, I suddenly feel anger and even rage towards others. I usually don’t express it, but I can feel it. I would like to understand this issue.

Withdrawing and isolating can have many aspects, and can be different for each person. However, there are some underlying issues worth exploring. Fear

of social situations is a common reason people spend time alone. Shame and low self-esteem are other reasons. You’re willing to look at a tough one: hatred. Frustration and hatred are definitely a part of human experience from childhood. When a child’s desires are thwarted, he or she can feel frustrated. Instead of being kind, if the adults were mean, then, the child can experience their responses as hateful. This gets internalized as selfloathing and self-criticism. A child can also feel helpless, ineffective and powerless. Unless these feelings are understood and processed with someone the child trusts, they can fester into hatred of others— individuals, groups, organizations. Some people express this through criticism or revenge and others through withdrawing. To withhold and deny others who want your presence can be an act of power. It’s a passive way of saying “No.” Does any of

74 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

this speak to you? If you were to express these feelings, rather than withdrawing, what would you say and to whom? Making room to explore these feelings and memories will unlock the deeper hurt. Wanting to move to Alaska could also mean other things at this time. It’s obviously cold and remote there. When we don’t trust others, we want to go somewhere where they can’t reach us. If you had a lot of chaos in your early life, you might be seeking somewhere quiet, cool and clean. Your question is important and has many dimensions to it. Taking the time to understand your situation and feelings will help you gain some of the insight you’re seeking. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650-325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com

/ indiacurrents @ indiacurrents

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the last word

The un-American American By Sarita Sarvate

Elsewhere in the world, you would have been heralded as the ou have gazed at the world from distant shores; you have usher of a new beginning. But you are in America, where half the lived far away from the center of action. You know how population does not even understand you. Where being ignorant it feels to be an outsider, not only because of the color of is the hallmark of being a “regular guy.” Where being erudite is your skin, but also because of your past. You are as comfortable being a sissy. Where aggressiveness is mistaken for strength, where in South Asia as you are in Europe; one of your closest college humility is seen as a weakness, where peace is confused with surfriends happens to be a Pakistani. You have resided on three difrender, where war is the status quo. ferent continents, two of which are Asian in character. You have An Indian writer once recounted a bus trip he had taken across been a part of the Islamic world. You are of the new earth, where America. The woman sitting next to him had asked what he was the melting pot is the norm. reading. Hemingway, he had replied. “Is it very good?” She had Endowed with a writer’s sensibility, you can’t help seeing all asked. The incident had highlighted for him the national character sides of a problem. Introspection and self-analysis come naturally of America, he had said afterwards. For he could not envision to you. taking a bus trip across India and being asked if Tagore was any You are a cultural critic. Words and stories matter to you. good. The difference between America and the rest of the world, Browsing the list of your all-time favorite TV shows, movies, he had commented, was that in the latter, being cultured was an songs, and books, I am moved to the core. Your list is so identiasset, while, in the former, it was a liability. cal to mine we might as well be soul mates. You are the first Still, you did try to be a reguman I have come across who loves lar guy; you attempted to fit in. the work of Marilyn Robinson, the Like leaders of the stature of Nehru, But the system just chewed you writer. Many haven’t even heard of Gandhi, and King, you attempted to up and spat you out until I could her. When you interviewed her in 2015, I wished I was sitting beside elevate your world to a higher plane. hardly recognize you. I got frustrated with you. I wished then you so I could ask her where the But a leader is only as effective as that you possessed the swagger of idea for Housekeeping, her tragic surrealistic novel had come from. You his followers. People could not envi- a John Wayne and the glibness of a Ronald Reagan. Your problem are a fan of Al Green, the soul and sion a higher level of consciousness, was that, like many intellectuals, blues singer; you once broke into a rendering of I am so in love on a a greater good, a world built on love you knew that the purpose of education was to know what you public occasion. Breaking Bad is your and compassion. did not know. So you agonized favorite TV show; One Flew Over the over every decision. You inspected Cuckoo’s Nest your favorite movie. every step in the light of history. You admired Lauren Groff ’s Fates You reached out to your self-proclaimed enemies. and Furies, a book so feminist I can’t imagine a man reading it, Like leaders of the stature of Nehru, Gandhi, and King, you let alone getting it. attempted to elevate your world to a higher plane. But a leader is It is not just the island fever and the marginality and the only as effective as his followers. People could not envision a highworldly sensibility that we have in common. You have written a er level of consciousness, a greater good, a world built on love and memoir. A memoir so moving, one day it will become an icon of compassion. You faced such hatred, opposition, and blockade that our era. all you could do was to maintain a semblance of a civility. Surely, our paths have crossed. Along that misty trail bordered At times, instead of executing the promise you had made to by ferns and hibiscus we have walked, from the university campus your people, you seemed to carry out the legacy of those who to the lush rain forest beyond, dotted with Japanese bungalows came before you. You refused to play the power game, or maybe and koi ponds. Past the wooden pagodas we have ambled, to the you did not know how to. waterfalls and beyond, during those evenings of the late nineteenBut I am sure history will judge you kindly. seventies, when the world seemed such a big place and every naAnd I will miss you terribly. n tion possessed a unique identity. At the Safeway in the valley we have stopped on occasion for a snack. Our skins have tingled with the same liquid sunshine as we hiked up the mountain dividing Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has pubthe leeward side from the windward side. lished commentaries for New America Media, Now that you are going away, I realize what a gift it has been KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland to know you. Tribune, and many nationwide publications. 78 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2017

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