February 2016

Indra Nooyi–Reinventing the Future

By Scott S. Smith

Embarrassed by My Indianness

by Swathi Ramprasad

On the Difficulty of Making Friends

by Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

INDIA CURRENTS n at the

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Celebrating 29 Years of Excellence

Decoding Mindfulness

february 2016 • vol. 29 , no .10 • www. indiacurrents.com

Exploring the science behind the art of living in the moment

by Tamanna Raisinghani

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 1

2 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

L

set.

Do You Believe in Ghosts? ast summer I encountered a ghost.

It happened simply, unsuspectingly.

Perhaps the stage had already been

I had been invited to stay for a month at an artists’ residency in a French town called Marnay-sur-Seine. The setting was a 17th century priory next door to a 12th century church, which still carries the scars of war. Beneath my window, I could see the river Seine with its flowing gray-green scroll. I planned to spend my time writing about (and capturing the emotions of) those who were dead.

That first night, as I lay in my narrow bed, trying to acquaint myself to the voices of a starlit French night, I heard the wind whisper, the river murmur, and the stone walls echo with the sounds of strangers.

In a few days, I began to identify and sift through the nighttime noises. Those that came from outside my window—the hoot of an owl, the bark of a dog, the splash of a swimmer’s arms—and those that seemed to filter down directly from above me: the scrape of a chair, the heavy thud of footsteps, a cough, the clearing of a throat.

There were six other residents living in the three wings of the old priory. Anne Moses, a vivacious and talented artist, occupied the room adjoining mine. We were the only two in our wing.

Our building was covered in ivy and had a door that led to a long narrow spiral staircase providing access to three floors and each level had empty, lonely looking rooms, with lonely looking furniture. The turret at the top had been converted into a classroom and a studio. Anne and I occupied adjoining rooms on the second floor, and she used the studio upstairs for her work during the day. There were no beds on that level and we expected that the room was unoccupied at night.

One day, casually, as though it were not something of any great import, I asked Anne if she’d heard any movement coming from upstairs around midnight. She looked at me and, with something of a zombie look on her face, said yes, quickly, almost too quickly. I laughed to make light of it. But I could see that she was having none of it.

From the beginning, I toyed with the idea of a ghost. A notion so exciting as to

power my imagination. For the other possibility, that of a man or woman creeping into the building while we slept seemed infinitely more ominous.

We decided to text each other as soon as we heard the sounds. And so we did, that night, and the next, and the next. Till the idea of texting seemed somehow pointless, merely a corroboration that it was not the figment of one person’s imagination. It had quite conclusively become more than that, maybe a figment of two people’s imaginations, for, after all, we were both artists engaged in free expression.

To my surprise, Anne refused to accept anything other than the idea of a vagrant, or a kid playing a prank.

So we set vigil one night. That night, too, we heard movement upstairs. We sent a text to the other residents who met us near our rooms and then, armed with our iPhones, we crept up single file to the turret. Was it any surprise that there was no one there, and the furniture had not been moved?

I have never been afraid of the idea of

ghosts. That seems like an M. Night Shyamalan narrative. A little too expedient.

I would like to believe that a supernatural experience is a memory trapped in continuity or that ghosts are traces of the past making a presence in our present.

Though, that does seem fanciful.

So how do we interpret a supernatural experience rationally?

In an article on BBC, Adam Waytz from Northwestern University explains paranormal experiences thus: “We create beliefs in ghosts, because we don’t like believing that the universe is random.” In other words it’s a matter of control. The mind, when taken out of its usual, conjures up the unusual.

Scientists spend lifetimes trying to explain the mysteries of our universe. Still there is much we don’t know, including the wonderful enigma of “dark matter,” or matter that cannot be seen but has been proven to exist.

Sounds like my ghost.

Jaya Padmanabhan, Editor

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INDIA CURRENTS February 2016 • vol 29 • no 10

PERSPECTIVES

West Coast Edition

LIFESTYLE

3 | EDITORIAL Do You Believe in Ghosts?

By Jaya Padmanabhan

www.indiacurrents.com

26 | RELATIONSHIP DIVA Five Signs to Alert Guys Their Approach is Not Working

By Jasbina Ahluwalia

Find us on

8 | WORDS AND THINGS On the Difficulty of Making Friends

By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 13 | BUSINESS India Deserves Better than Mark Zuckerberg’s Watered Down Internet

By Vivek Wadhwa 14 | VIEWPOINT Pomegranates and Potatoes

By Usha Akella

36 | TAX TALK Is Your Pastime a Hobby or Business?

By Khorshed Alam 44 | TRAVEL Mesmerizing Muscat

By Kavita Wadhwani

16 | Decoding Mindfulness The practice of paying attention to the “now”

24 | YOUTH Embarassed By My Indianness

By Swathi Ramprasad 28 | OPINION No Country for Gray People

By Ranjani Iyer Mohanty 29 | PERSPECTIVE Magic from the Mundane

By Saraswathy Lakshmivaraham 74 | NEWS FEATURE Aishwary Rai Talks Films, Cannes and More with French President Francois Hollande

By IANS 100 | ON INGLISH Watching Jugaad at Work

By Kalpana Mohan 102 | THE LAST WORD Unfriended

By Sarita Sarvate 4 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

48 | BOOKS A Review of India Gray by Sujatha Massey

By Jeanne E. Fredriksen

By Tamanna Raisinghani

88 | HEALTHY LIFE Health Myth Busted

By Nickhil Jakatdar

34 | Films

90 | DEAR DOCTOR Feeling Lost Without Children

By Alzak Amlani

Reviews of Bajirao Mastani and Wazir

By Aniruddh Chawda

40 | Profile Indra K. Nooyi–Reinventing the Future

By Scott S. Smith

94 | RECIPES Recipes for Dalma and Mastani the Drink

By Jagruti Vedamati, Ritu Marwah

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

64 | Music

WHAT’S CURRENT

What’s Indian at the Grammys?

74 | NorCal Cultural Calendar

By Priya Das

82 | NorCal Spiritual Calendar

70 | SoCal Cultural Calendar

91 | SoCal Spiritual Calendar

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letters to the editor More Than a Travel Story

I really enjoyed Rajesh C. Oza’s article (“A Migrant’s Holiday” India Currents, Dec ‘15–January ‘16)and felt you captured the journey through the people you met. Images of the places you mentioned careened through my mind like a film that is slowed down and sped up at the same time, like stills on a reel forming a sequence of images.

I imagined myself being present on the train with you as an observer; hearing the conversations, watching the facial expressions, the countryside roll by, the gentle rocking and swaying of the train.

However the best part is how you captured the people.

You told your story through the people you met. So I imagined myself as being MARS+1. Not part of the inner group but a close observer. So I was popping in and out of the scenes like in the reel above.

I particularly like how you captured Gabri. You captured the essence of her character and conveyed that to the reader (makes me want to meet her and stay at her flat).

You describe your article as a travel piece but it is so much more. You artfully carried your theme of liberté, égalité, fraternité and what it truly means in a modern sense. Or how immigrants, race relations and your own immigrant story fit into this broader theme.

So it was the best of both worlds. It captured the essence of the places and the people. The article was thought provoking and definitely more than a travel piece.

There was a glimpse into your own heart and soul. Not just of the places or people you met.

Sid Prudil, website

family.) But in this family, women and shudras (lower castes) have lower status.

Manu (the progenitor of man and the legendary author of the Manu Smriti (laws of man))pleads that the woman be under the supervision of her father when she is unmarried, under the husband after the marriage, under the son when widowed.

For her there is no freedom.

We talk of swayamvara (marriage of one’s choice), but that is merely in name.

For example, Sita (in the epic Ramayana) did have a swayamvara (a ceremony to select her husband) but the choice was not really in her hands. Her father had a precondition. Whosoever broke the “shivadhanusha,” (Shiva’s bow) would get Sita’s hand in marriage.

There’s the story of Samyukta who wanted to marry Prithviraj Chauhan around the 12th century. But he was not invited for her swayamvara. Where was the choice for Sita and Samyukta?

Even today, I hear of cases where if the daughter brings home a boyfriend and requests permission to marry him, the first question asked is often about his religion If the family is Hindu then a Muslim boyfriend or a boy from a lower caste Hindu background is met with shock. This has been going on through the ages.

There is also the way we deal with rape as a society. When a woman is raped the general reaction is “uskaa sab kuch lut gayaa, ab rahaa hii kyaa hai?” (She’s lost everything, now what is left?) Can we not teach our girls to get back on her feet and to try to lead a normal life? In reality, however, it takes a long time for a raped woman to get back to leading a normal life.

Unless we as a society acknowledge this hypocrisy and address the root cause, we will continue to carry this burden through the ages.

Ram Prakash Saxena, Foster City, CA

Sex Inequality and Hinduism

Sarita Sarvate’s article (“We Were Midnight’s Daughters” India Currents, Dec ‘15–January ‘16) prompted me to write this letter. Sex inequality is ingrained in our sub-conscious and inherent in our culture and religion. We need to acknowledge this bias to get rid of inequality.

Sex inequality is given sanctity by our Hindu religion. Our scriptures plead Vasudheva kutumbakam (The world is one 6 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

SPEAK YOUR MIND!

Have a thought or opinion to share?

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

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

India Currents is available on the Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/IndiaCurrents/dp/B005LRAXNG Follow at twitter.com/indiacurrents on facebook.com/IndiaCurrents

Most Popular Articles December 2015–January 2016 1) A Palanquin of Wedding Bills Kalpana Mohan 2) The Lingering Flavors of Home Kamala Thiagarajan 3) A Migrant’s Holiday Rajesh C. Oza 5) A Diet Plan for Weight Loss Nishtha Chawla 6) We Were Midnight’s Daughters Sarita Sarvate 7) Bombay Bus Ravibala Shenoy 6) Snoring Shanmugam, and Other Cautionary Tales Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 8) A Holiday Food Canvas Praba Iyer 9) Flying Daggers, Avenging Widows and Ocean Motion Aniruddh Chawda 10) Tackling ISIS: Use Social Media!

Jaya Padmanabhan

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words and things

On the Difficulty of Making Friends

By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

T

he scene is a winter party, ChiPrinceton, and Chicago. We have friends cago, the year 2015. There in all of these places, which sometimes I am not sure what it would are large platters of powdered feels like none of them. take to become friends, what cookies and plates of soft cheese.

Academic life is like this for many There is an eight-quart stockpot of people for a very long time: a condition exchange of intimacies, what mulled wine on the stove, all floatof migrancy. Of always moving, never shared experience, how many ing orange segments and cinnamon settling. Of making and leaving friends, spice. And there is an older crowd: collecting contacts, moving through meetings, how many different professors and the partners of prorooms an outsider and interloper, here modes of contact and commufessors, the recently tenured and the only for the year, only for the semester, not-so-recently and the soon-to-be. only until the next appointment, only nication would be required.

In this mix, I, one of two graduuntil the gig is up. ate students present, seem quaintly Migrancy (before it leads to immigrayoung, with my heavily pigmented hair and asymmetrical cut. tion or naturalization, if it does) is a condition of betweenness, I find a glass, am poured wine. I talk to the lovely host. I smile double-consciousness, what the cultural theorist calls “‘not-here’ around the room, out of practice. The small talk I usually make is to stay.” Which is a good description of how I feel these days, with small people, under three feet tall. Small talk with grown-up in the third city I’ve lived in, in as many years, as a dissertationstrangers that is only moderately mediated by alcohol, but does writing spouse, following my husband around on a tour of this not take place over the dinner table, is a different game. country’s fancy universities.

I find a spot on a corner couch and begin conversing with a My parents were immigrants from India, but they decided man who, it turns out, shares my alma mater. But he was there to be here, in California, to stay. They could find their chosen some three or four decades before I was, and after a few minutes, family, and they did. We’re here, but not staying, so why bother it becomes apparent that we are not only talking about different making friends? Why do the coffees, the walk to the lake, the times, but different places entirely. texts, the emails and pleasantries and dinners, the clean-up after, “I loved it there,” I say. “I couldn’t stand it,” he counters. the food preparation, the table setting, the family introductions, After some time, I see someone I know. I stand; I make my the showing of albums, the telling of stories—all the things you way to a crowded part of the room in proximity to her elbow have to do to cultivate intimacy with would-be friends you didn’t and shoulder, tapping-distance. I don’t have much to say other grow up with, didn’t go to school with, don’t work with, don’t than hello, and after I say it, with what I hope is warmth, I have naturally run into every day? nothing else to say. I like this person, but I don’t know her very Maybe the answer is that it’s not about making friends, but well. I am not sure that we are friend-material. I am not sure what about flexing those socialization muscles. About cultivating the it would take to become friends, what exchange of intimacies, urban disposition that allows for strangerly and neighborly exwhat shared experience, how many meetings, how many different changes that need not develop into relationships, in the heaviest modes of contact and communication would be required. I myself sense of the word. Maybe small talk is small for a reason: you are chafe against over-familiarity and so try not to be too familiar, too supposed to hold back, inhabit the silences, find a way to sit with friendly. But I like her. I think she would be nice to get to know, the uncertainty of your own murky intentions and inch your way and I wonder what it would take to make something like that haptoward something approaching an honest exchange. pen: a friendship.

This, I find out belatedly, is a tenure party. Our host has just Later, after another abortive start, I find myself in conversation been tenured, which means that he is now effectively “married” with this woman and a friend of hers, who I like just as much. to the institution where he works—which happens to be the The talk moves forward in fits and starts. Then a pause, awkward institution near which I live, but to which I have no actual affiliasmiles, until someone takes up the football and runs. It feels very tion. This is his home. I imagine belonging here, buying a house, much like a sport that requires effort and perseverance, training, making and keeping friends. I imagine a rooted life. Then, I go muscle memory. Equally, it is a mental game, this social practice to grab my coat from the pile and, pulling it against my chest, I called making friends. make my way to the door. n Silence again, a smiling-apologetic parting of ways.

Awkwardness, and yet the stakes here are fairly low. I will likely not see most of these people again, as I don’t imagine that I will be Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan is a doctoral candidate living in this particular city for long. Actually, it is a matter of mere in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. months more. In the last 18 months, we have lived in Berkeley, 8 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

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business

India Deserves Better than Mark Zuckerberg’s Watered-down Internet

By Vivek Wadhwa

F

acebook chief executive, Mark drones, balloons, and microsatelThe debate centers on the concept Zuckerberg, is taking intense lites. fire in India over an initia- of net neutrality—whether a mobile With its Aquila Unmanned tive that his organization Internet.

Aircraft and laser technologies, carrier should be allowed to favor org launched, to provide limited InFacebook has demonstrated the ternet access to the masses. He seems ability to deliver data at a rate of which websites a person visits. genuine in his desire to bring digital tens of gigabytes per second to a equality to the world: in an op-ed target the size of a coin—from 10 Google searches and explore the web; they miles away. This is 10 times faster than for The Times of India, he defended this can only go to supported sites and search existing land-based technologies. With ininitiative, called “Free Basics,” citing the Facebook. example of a farmer named Ganesh, who terconnected drones, it will, within two or Zuckerberg compares this limited ser- three years, most likely be able to provide would be able to find weather informavice to libraries and hospitals. But imagine Internet access to the most remote regions tion and prepare for monsoons, look up a private corporation being allowed to of the world. commodity prices to get better deals, and decide which books your children could invest in new crops and livestock.

Google is further ahead in its efforts. It read and which videos they could watch— has already piloted a technology in Brazil, Zuckerberg is on the defensive because and to monitor everything that they did. Australia and New Zealand to beam Interhe doesn’t understand the culture and Imagine the corporation’s dictating what net data from the sky. Google’s balloons, values of Indians. He doesn’t realize that services your hospital would offer and called Loons, are essentially floating cell Ganesh cherishes the freedom that India what treatments it would provide. Would towers that can relay a signal to a mobile gained from its British colonizers in 1947 you accept that? and doesn’t want a handout from a Westdevice on the ground.

The debate centers on the concept of ern company. Ganesh may be poor, but he And then there are low-orbit microsatnet neutrality—whether a mobile carrier ellites, which Oneweb, SpaceX, and now doesn’t want anyone to dictate what sites should be allowed to favor which websites Samsung are building. These beam Interhe can visit, what movies he may watch, or a person visits. This is not an Indian issue; net signals by laser to ground stations. what applications he can download. we are fighting these battles in the UnitLike a billion other Indians, Ganesh Google was supposed to launch Loons ed States. The Federal Communications in India, but India’s defense, aviation, and can afford a cellphone that lets him call Commission enacted rules in March 2015 telecommunications ministries raised techand text anyone, anywhere. He is saving to require broadband providers to treat all nical and security concerns and stopped up for a beautiful new smartphone, just data equally rather than provide preference the project. When the telecom providers like the ones he sees other people usto some sites. A federal appeals court is figure out that with unlimited, inexpening, which costs around $40. He would challenging these rules at the behest of the sive, Internet access, their cell and data rather spend 50 cents a month for 100 telecommunications industry. megabytes of unrestricted data access than businesses will be decimated, they too Google has the same motivations as will place obstacles in the way of these compromise his freedom and dignity.

Facebook—to bring billions more people technologies.

Zuckerberg is right about the benefits online. But it is pursuing a more sensible of Internet access: it will enable village arThis, therefore, is the real battle that strategy: it is setting up fast and free WiFi Facebook should be fighting. If the goal tisans to access global markets; farmers to Internet access points at 400 railroad sta- is to provide everyone with Internet aclearn about weather and commodity prictions all over India. These are frequented cess, Facebook and the Internet-freedom es; and laborers and maids to find work by tens of millions of people. Facebook groups that it is fighting should be workthrough sharing-economy applications. could one-up Google by setting up access ing together to lobby for a change in With unrestricted Internet access, they will points at thousands of schools, libraries, government policies—for when the new have access to same ocean of knowledge as and villages. This “no strings attached” space-based technologies are ready. n we do and become our equals online. approach would earn it gratitude—and And here is the problem with Free Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned signups— rather than resentment.

Basics: the Internet access on offer is not The ultimate solution, unrestricted In- academic. You can follow him on Twitter at unrestricted. Facebook and the mobile carternet for everyone, is, however, some- @vwadhwa and find his research at www. riers get to decide what websites people thing that Facebook, Google and others wadhwa.com. First published in The Washcan visit, and Facebook becomes the cenare already working on providing, via ington Post. ter of the Internet universe. Users can’t do February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 13

viewpoint

Pomegranates and Potatoes

By Usha Akella

S

o, the pomegranate has gone down history as a celebrated fruit, ripe with burgundy sparkle and as a mysterious aphrodisiac. It boasts adjectives and laudatory verbiage like revitalizing, rich, anti-oxidants, fertility, eternal life, flavonoids polyphenols and anti-cancer.

This wonder food is toasted by doctors, nutritionists and like an energizer bunny goes about our body at astonishing speeds breaking down carotid arterial blockages with triumph.

As a sexy siren, she stimulates serotonin and estrogen. Her mere presence sets you salivating and lets your juices loose.

As a super heroine, she reigns in the hierarchy of fruits and vegetables as a gleaming queen. She delivers a head high kick to those god awful diseases lurking around the human organism. With her reserves of “punicalagin” she pronounces, “Be gone cancer! Be gone heart block! Be gone tumors, osteoporosis, platelet aggregation!”

If the potato and the pomegranate were to look in the mirror and ask, “mirror, mirror on the wall, the pom or the pot, who stands tall?” Undoubtedly, the mirror would curtsy and simper to the pomegranate, “But you, who else my queen?” And to the potato the mirror would say apologetically, “Dude, take a good look. You need to lose that girth a bit before you are in the running.” And the pomegranate would daintily laugh, flashing perfect little ruby teeth. Yes, we know who wears the crown.

Even at the nomenclature level, test “punita granatum” in the cave of your month vs “solanum tuberosum.” “Punita” brings visions of a Caribbean island with a canvas of sunset hues in which dreams and life forces burgeon. And “grantum” sounds like the creator is saying “So be it.”

Now say “potato” and you want to sag to the ground, depleted and defeated by the cholesterol in your body. You want to sit on that couch in your living room

starchy-humored and watch reruns of Seinfeld. There’s something about potato that says “You are doomed. Be round and heavy, lead a second best life, never get the girl …”

One is God’s masterpiece created on Day 1 in his divine plan. The pomegranate rind is a Van Gogh canvas. You want to dive into the red and wake up to nights of passion. They grow high up in the air basking in the sun’s glorious light. Cut it open length-wise and a whirl studded with deep set gems greets your vision. Layered in crown, skin, pith, membrane and seeds, it is so masterfully designed as to be Nature’s crowning glory.

The potato is an afterthought on Day 7. The Divine Lord had tossed it all out— the planets, the starry skies and constellations, oceans, vertebrae, non-vertebrae organisms, jewel-toned fish, the diaphanous jelly fish, algae, minerals, the animal kingdom and Adam and Eve frolicking in a verdurous Eden. His glorious creativity spent, he lay on his hammock suspended between Orion and the morning star. And just as he was about to sink into a cosmic sleep, Adam whined, “we need to eat, the nations need to eat.” God grunted and woke up. And thus began the human inability to be content or grateful. From his grunt, rolled out the potato, thick with God’s annoyance. It slunk off to grow in subterranean depths ashamed to show its plain face.

I am just saying it’s no contest at all.

But have you tried to eat the pomegranate? The work! The torture! There are manuals needed on how to unseed this

14 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

fruit. When you greedily stuff your mouth with a mound of glistening red—your mouth explodes with juice and seed, a garbage of good and bad.

And all that juice in your mouth subsides into a rocky mess like an excavated pit filled with bones and debris. Your teeth are invaded, chipped and inhabited. You mouth is the site of a ship sink. Flotsam and jetsam, a bloody mess! The panic begins … do you swallow or not, what if you choke, what if the seeds clog the intestines, what if you can’t ever get them out of your body … what if they sneak into pancreatic crevices … what if … what if…

Potatoes—wash, peel and set them on your cutting board—cherubic, good natured minions filled with the intention to serve and make human beings happy. So compliant, you can do what you want with them. Fries, hash brown, pierogies, roundels, gnocchi, pakodas—a medley of comfort foods. Mash them—paradisiacal puffs of cloud whipped with cream and kale keep you going for a week. Dice them, fry them, serve hot with omelets or bise bele bhath. Grate them—golden hash browns like lace adorn your plate. Salt them, pepper them, ketchup them, bhajji them and serve with fluffy pooris or bhatura. Knead them into kababs, serve with hot rice.

They stop your mind from becoming nebulous. They do exactly what Adam asked for. They feed you and make you happier by a few pounds. n Usha Akella is an internationally known poet.

She lives in Austin, Texas. Occasionally she writes whimsical prose.

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cover

Decoding Mindfulness

By Tamanna Raisinghani

On average, 46.9% of our waking time is spent in thinking and letting our minds wander.

When we spend close to half of our waking moments in this manner we better have some monitoring in place unless we want to live caged by our thoughts.

16 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

B

ack in my college days, my friends and I decided to visit Dharamshala, one of the famous tourist attractions in the state of Himachal Pradesh, bestknown for its magnificently breath-taking snow-covered Dhaula Dhar mountains.

During the trip, I visited a Buddhist monastery located in McLeodganj, a suburb of Dharamshala. As soon as I entered the monastery, a sense of calm came upon me.

I felt a connectedness to everything around and within myself. I had never experienced anything like this before.

The sight of meditating monks, the sounds of gongs at prayer time, the spinning wheels around the sidewalks and the vibe of that monastery stayed with me for a long time. The effect was so profound that I decided I would visit the place again.

Two years later I did visit the monastery again with my family. Both times, it was not just the memory of the beautiful and astonishing monastery surrounded by the splendid Himalayas that lingered on, but the feelings associated with the experience, the revelation of something surreal, pleasant and peaceful.

It was many years later that I had the opportunity to investigate those feelings.

I was introduced to the concept of meditation three years ago when in a very casual conversation with my friend she mentioned Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra.

I had never read any of Deepak Chopra’s books nor was I planning to. With a little baby and a toddler and a full time job, my plate was already full. Severely sleep-deprived, reading was the last thing I wanted to do. But I was intrigued by its title.

As I began reading, what really caught my attention was the emphasis on meditation. I didn’t quite understand the quantum physics application to healing and I attribute it to my ignorance of quantum physics in general, but the concept of meditation got the bells ringing in my head.

Being a skeptic, it was not easy for me to embrace the idea of meditation right away. This book was just a pointer to look in a direction that I had not considered before. With my newfound interest and curiosity on the subject, I dived into the subject of meditation and mindfulness and gradually things started registering.

Making Friends With Yourself

Meditation (dhyana in Sanskrit) is the practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, image, breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, gradually relaxing the mind to enhance personal and spiritual growth. Meditation is a way of becoming so familiar with your thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns and attitudes that it becomes a way to get to know yourself intimately. It’s a process of making

friends with yourself.

Instead of turning your attention outward, to other people or the external world, you turn it inward back on yourself. As a result, it could change the way you relate to the world.

The practice of meditation is believed to have its roots in the ancient Vedic traditions of India. It is speculated that it originated more than 5,000 years ago and served as a means to understand and get closer to the true nature of God (Brahman) by Hindus.

And almost 2,500 years ago, meditation evolved when one of the best-known figures in the history of meditation, Siddhartha Gautama, attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree and became Buddha.

He practiced meditation to achieve his personal awakening to truth and reality.

Meditation became an essential part of Buddhism in this era and spread to Tibet, China, Japan, and the rest of Asia. The essential difference in the ancient Vedic meditation technique and the one used

by Buddhist followers is that the former

serves as a means of getting closer to an understanding of a higher being, the latter serves as a means of realizing one’s interconnectedness with all things.

Some forms of meditation were introduced in the United States in the early 1900s, but gained momentum in the mid-twentieth century when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual teacher

introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique (the one based on ancient Vedic tradition of enlightenment) to the Western world.

In Transcendental Meditation (TM), the meditator sits with closed eyes and concentrates on a single syllable or word (mantra) for 20 minutes at a time. During TM, ordinary waking mental activity is said to settle down, until the thinking mind is transcended and a self-referential state of pure wakefulness or awareness is experienced.

Not a Religious Practice

In the 1960s and 1970s meditation caught the attention of many researchers and professors and became the subject of academic research. Until then, meditation was not adopted in healthcare as it was considered to be a religious practice.

Dr. Herbert Benson did pioneering re

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 17

search at Harvard University that showed that meditation acts as an antidote to stress and can be effectively used to promote general well-being and relaxation. After studying the physiology of meditation, he developed an approach very similar to TM called “Relaxation Response,” where he taught patients to focus upon the repetition of a word, sound, or phrase for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. The phrase for repetition does not have to be in Sanskrit.

This strips meditation of its association with religion.

Better Things To Do In Life vs Doing Things Much Better In Life

Twelve years ago my cousin started a Buddhist mantra chanting group.

She suggested I should do the same if I wanted my wishes to come true. She wrote the mantra on a piece of paper which I accepted politely.

But the rebel in my head said, “You are only 25 and you have better things to do in life than letting this bunch of superstitious people convert you to Buddhism. Just disappear.”

I am glad I did the disappearing act then. I am not critical of what she was doing, but the reasoning she gave me was enough to steer me against it. The transformation (though pretty ironical) from someone who thinks that I have better things to do in life to someone who wants to do things much better with meditation didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual process, which involved wrapping my head around the concepts, realizing that I can be wise and sane in the middle of chaos. The realization that I could feel a little less miserable during challenging times; That I can tame my monkey mind that grasps and holds onto trivial things; That I can face my worries, fears, insecurities bang on; That I can accept the impermanence of every thought, emotion and feeling, and above all have some control over the constant chatter going on in my head.

I started meditating on my own with the help of guided meditations available online. Meditation does sound simple at first as all you have to do is to sit and watch your breath and do nothing. But our mind has never learnt to do nothing.

My mind kept slipping to its default mode

and my attention kept wandering to everything other than my breath. Out of the five minutes, I was spacing out for more than 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Nevertheless, I continued my practice. It felt like going to the gym and dealing with sore muscles.

Initially, the mind does offer a lot of inertia to your practice, but slowly the attention muscles start developing and I began to exprience that relaxation that all the studies have claimed. I noticed improvements in my sleep patterns within a few days. Not only was I falling asleep faster, with less tossing and turning, I was able to remain asleep for

The author meditating

longer hours.

Mindfulness Meditation

Another form of meditation which became the subject of research and gained some traction in recent years. Also known as Vipassana, or Insight Meditation, Mindfulness is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist meditation. Among all the different forms of meditation, mindfulness is unique as it is not directed to take us someplace other than where we are. It teaches us to be more present to everything that is, fully aware, without judgment or analysis.

Mindfulness means paying complete attention to a particular experience.

For example, drinking tea or coffee can be a mindful exercise if you choose to pay attention to every sensation in your body

18 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

as you drink the beverage. How does it feel as it’s going down your throat? Is it warm or hot? How is the taste? Sweet or strong? Stay with the experience of drinking without looking at your phone or TV and also without telling yourself a story like: “I wish it tasted more like the one I drank yesterday,” or “It would have been better if I bought it from a coffee shop instead of making it myself.” It is the idea of consciously remaining unattached yet observant.

In the words of Dr. Swati Desai, founder of 2meditate, and a long-term mindfulness teacher, “The power of Mindfulness lies in this: it is Secular and yet Sacred, Simple yet Serious, Ancient yet backed by Modern Science, and it gets you out of “me and mine” by paying attention to “me and mine.”

The practice of Mindfulness Meditation involves sitting in a comfortable position (either on a chair or a cushion) with your spine straight and allowing your posture to be upright. Take a few deep breaths in and out, exhaling and inhaling fully. As breathing becomes simple and natural, direct your attention to the natural rhythm of your breath, noticing the sensations as you breathe in and out. If your attention wanders, gently bring it back to your breath. When thoughts arise, acknowledge them without getting caught in the story, gently returning to the breath. By stepping outside the story we can begin to non-identify. Developing this moment by moment awareness of any experience without pushing it away or holding on to it is mindfulness.

In Mindfulness we don’t label an experience as good or bad. Whether it’s painful or pleasant we treat it the same way.

This is called the emotionally non-reactive state or equanimity (stillness and balance of mind). If left to itself, the mind keeps ruminating about the past or imagining the future and has trouble remaining in the “NOW.” We are slaves to our deeply ingrained mental habits and patterns and Mindfulness changes that relationship by purposefully directing our attention to the object of our focus.

There are five primary benefits of mindfulness, according to Dr. Desai. She summarizes them in an easy to remember acronym CREST. C is for Concentration, R is for Relaxation (reducing stress and

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 19

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C

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The essential difference in the ancient Vedic meditation technique and the one used by Buddhist followers is that the former serves as a means of getting closer to an understanding of a higher being, the latter serves as a means of realizing one’s interconnectedness with all things. anxiety), E is for Equanimity (evenness of mind which helps in dealing with ups and downs of life better), S is Self-Awareness and T is for Taming self-sabotaging habits. Some of the secondary benefits may include a better immune system, lower inflammation, decreased pain, better cognitive capabilities, more empathy and compassion, more resilience, and a better ability to relate to people.

The Science Behind It

One of the most compelling studies on mindfulness was done by Sara Lazar at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Participants (who never meditated before) meditated for eight weeks every day for 30 minutes and MRI brain scans were taken before starting the practice and after its completion. The results showed that 8 weeks of practice can change the gray matter in the areas associated with learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. Most particularly, there was a decrease in the gray matter in the amygdala (the area associated with the flight and fight response) which resulted in reduction in stress and anxiety.

One of the studies that came out of the University of Toronto shows that long term meditators are better in keeping two neuronal circuits of the brains disengaged compared to non-meditators.

One circuit is called the default circuit which is active when we are daydreaming,

I continued to focus on my breath for 10 to 15 minutes more and as the plane got up to speed on the runway to take off, my small dose of meditation was fueling my brain by clearing the fog of anxiety and gearing me towards the take-off on my own mental runway.

A Creative Commons Image

ruminating, or planning for the future.

This is also called the narrative circuit of the brain, which is active for most of the waking period and doesn’t take much effort to operate. The other circuit is called the direct experience circuit that gets activated when you are experiencing the information coming to you in real time.

It enables more sensory information to be perceived, which allows you to get closer to the reality of any event. The ability to switch between the circuits is more developed in meditators where as non-meditators are more likely to automatically take the narrative path. That explains the better cognitive and decision-making capabilities in meditators.

Neuroscientist David Richardson carried out brain imaging tests on Tibetan monks who are long term meditators and also on novice meditators. The results show that monks have greater gamma wave activity in their brains compared to the other group. Gamma wave activity is associated with higher mental processes like increased sensory perception, cognition and memory formation and recall.

All these studies eventually prove the ability of the brain to continuously evolve structurally and functionally. On average, 46.9% of our waking time is spent in thinking and letting our minds wander.

When we spend close to half of our time in this manner we better have some monitoring in place unless we want to live caged by our thoughts.

My Aha Moment

It happened when I boarded a flight to India and had a panic attack before the flight took off. I knew I was anxious but

didn’t realize that my travel anxiety had grown big enough to throw me into a fullfledged panic attack. My heart started racing and I was shivering, hyperventilating, and gasping for breath. It was very embarrassing to be surrounded by the flight crew trying to help and assure me that flying was not that hard. When one of the flight attendants told us that they can’t let us fly in this condition, my husband whispered in my ears—“tickets are non-refundable, you better pull yourself together, and I know you can do it.”

I went to my seat, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath. A few minutes later my breathing returned to normal.

My heart stopped racing and my nerves stopped acting out. I continued to focus on my breath for 10 to 15 minutes more and as the plane picked up speed on the runway, my small dose of meditation was fueling my brain by clearing the fog of anxiety and gearing me towards the takeoff on my own mental runway.

That day I gained a valuable insight into how my compulsively obsessive fear of travel overpowered me putting me in a situation where I was caught off-guard, vulnerable and weak.

Here is a definition of meditation which aptly describes what happened to me: “A practice to rediscover our hidden neuroses and our hidden sanity at the same time.”

Mindfulness is heavily influenced by Eastern culture but what makes it attrac

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

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tive to the modern world is the science behind it.

Big companies like Google, Ford, Target, General Mills, and Aetna have started offering mindfulness practices to their employees. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction techniques—MBSR (launched by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979) have been widely used by psychologists in treating stress, anxiety and depression in their patients. Models similar to MBSR are also getting adopted in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans’ centers, and beyond.

A program called Quiet Time was launched at San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley Middle School in 2007. The students at the school were reportedly stressed and agitated due to gang violence and drugs in the community. Just a month after meditation began, teachers reported that bullying went down, kids were happier, less stressed, paying more attention, working harder and results improved considerably.

friends, school, peers or environment on the whole that we grew up in. When layers of conditioning are sliced one by one, we are able to see ourselves unadulterated, complete, and absolute.

Equipped with this new lens to view every situation and circumstance, we start responding instead of reacting. Instead of dwelling inside our thoughts we start dwelling in the awareness behind those thoughts.

But is this the reason I want to adopt this practice?

Will I be able to remain truthful to the practice if my reasons are based on some external validations beyond my control?

The answer is, of course, no.

I realized that by incorporating meditation into my daily life I was not learning anything new, but unlearning everything that I had learnt so far (not that it’s causing any amnesia or memory loss).

Unlearning habitual patterns of thinking and reacting, which is a result of years of conditioning either by society, family,

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Responding instead of Reacting

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For anyone who wants to take a plunge in this practice, my advice would be to not adopt it for the sake of being part of some trend which appears cool. You might get the benefits but sticking to it and gaining discipline will be a challenge.

Try to understand what it is and why you want to do it. Is it to ease stress and feel more relaxed, or deal with anger or difficult emotions or develop more compassion and resilience?

Figure which part of you is getting nourished by it. Ask the right questions and choose mindfulness mindfully. This way you will be more open and receptive to its benefits.

And remember—don’t try too hard.

There will be days when your mind wanders more, just acknowledge that too. n Thanks to Dr. Swati Desai, founder of 2Meditate (www.2meditatetogether.com) for her valuable insights into Mindfulness A software engineer by profession, Tamanna Raisinghani intends to add more meaning to life by pursuing interests in mind body relationship and meditation.

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5

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youth

Embarassed by My Indianness

By Swathi Ramprasad

I

was seated on the kitchen counter, my favorite perch as a four-year old.

I watched my thatha, my maternal grandfather, draw a “U” shaped white figure on his forehead with what looked like a metal toothpick. Carefully, he placed a red substance with water on the heel of his hand, and with the precision of a chemist, mixed them to the perfect consistency. He washed the ever-silver rod, and, in one stroke, drew a red line in the center of his forehead. I begged him to draw one on my head as well. He simply laughed and said, “This is not for you, ma.” Seeing my wide eyes, he placed a small red line on my forehead and lifted me away.

Daily, I would watch my Ramanju thatha repeat the same process over and over again. A deeply pious man, he would bathe early in the mornings, draw his thiruman, and say his prayers for the day. The thiruman is a mark or symbol that Iyengars (members of a sub-sect of Hindus who worship Vishnu) wear on their foreheads in order to show their subservience to God. When I was eight, I had a birthday party at my school. I was more than thrilled to celebrate with my friends and my favorite teacher. Being the bossy thirdgrader I was, I ordered my mom to bring cupcakes to school to share. Not wanting to anger me on my special day, she agreed to heed my wishes, but asked me to do her a small favor in return. She asked, “Swathi chellam, please can Patti and Thatha come to see your birthday celebrations? Patti would love to see your friends, and you can introduce Ms. Roberts to Thatha.”

I contemplated about this for a few

days, and I came to a conclusion. My grandparents could come to my school, only if thatha erased his thiruman for the day.

“It’s too Indian, Amma, I just want to have a normal American birthday, and I don’t want my friends to keep asking questions.”

My grandfather was indignant, “Do you understand the purpose of this mark, Swathi? All my ancestors wore this on their foreheads.” I tuned out the rest of his tirade, and all I can remember is a blur of some Sanskrit phrases, and the word “God” multiple times. I never bothered to understand the significance. He never agreed to take it off.

The next day, my mom came to school at 2:00 sharp, as per Queen now-nineyears-old’s wishes. My thatha stepped out of the car, and I looked up at him. He now had a bare forehead; the first time I had ever seen this. Pleased that my thatha had chosen my side, I skipped off to play with

24 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

my friends. No one asked questions about my grandparents, and no one bothered me about my Indian-ness. I was a happy birthday girl.

The symbols of tradition, in that moment, were so insignificant to me. They were a reminder of the past that we had left behind to come to America.

Every first-generation child of immigrants undergoes this inner turmoil, attempting to find the balance between culture and the American ideal.

Whether being embarrassed about the parent’s over-emphasis of the “w” in “jewel” or bringing a peanut butter sandwich to school every day, we all go through the process of shunning our roots.

Some of us find the equilibrium between the cultures, and others reject either side in favor of the other. To each their own. But these visible marks of tradition, in language, in symbols, and in food, are dog-tags that point us out as “others,” not part of the American standard. Attempting to fit in, we try to minimize the exposure of this immigrant side of us, until we can understand where we truly fit in. This innocent, albeit rude, rejection of my thatha’s thiruman was an expression of the culture wars that I faced, even at nine years old.

But, as time progressed, I learned to appreciate my heritage more and more.

The simplicities of rituals and wealth of knowledge in my Indian blood mean a great deal to me now.

Through many of my thatha’s visits, I began to learn more about the Hindu religion. He taught me many of the slokams and their meanings. He instilled a great sense of tradition within me, with his stories of mythology and staunch beliefs that

he continues to impart to me. Although we argue about many facets of the differences between the cultures, we respect one another immensely. And as I developed a closer relationship with my thatha, I came to associate that familiar thiruman with him, his ideologies, and the tradition that he represents in my mind.

“Thatha, it isn’t just. How can you continue to be so rooted in your misogynistic ways?” At fourteen, I found each and every reason to reject the patriarchy. A number of our conversations would start and end the same way: with me criticizing the backwardness of the South Indian cultural processes.

He tried to explain to me, “Illa, ma, appidi illa. It isn’t like that. The woman was always given control of the wealth and the gold that the man brought home.

She had an equal part in the control of the household as the protector of the family’s riches. Only she could decide when to sell the jewelry for money.” I, a sharp-tongued teenager, could not take this as an answer.

I could not accept the inequality that continues even to this day. “How come only men can don the sacred thread or even the

thiruman you wear as opposed to a devout lady?” Again, my thatha was the poster face of tradition. All qualms I had with the culture were directed at him. He was always ready with a response, “Women wear the bindi. Wouldn’t it look weird if I wore a sari and Patti wore a veshti?” I kept quiet for a minute. Quickly, my next rebuttal came to me. It followed the rule of my family: when all hope fails, change the subject, even if ever-so slightly. “Thatha, American people treat men and women more equally, why can’t we?” Once again, I held the American culture to an executive ideal.

Last summer, my thatha and I decided to embark on a mission: to use the Silicon Valley public transportation system. We would take these, mostly empty buses, to places around our neighborhood. A bus driver one day, noticed the mark on my thatha’s forehead, and asked him what it was. With his thick accent and expressive hand gestures, my thatha said, “It is the Lord’s feet. When we worship Him, we must remember that we are simply his subordinates who bow down to Him.” I remember clearly the pride that my

thatha felt that day that someone from another culture cared enough to ask about his thiruman, a symbol of our religion and his faith.

It was then that I learned that in order to be “American” or “modern” it does not mean we all have to be the same, factorymade people with no story or no heritage.

Being American means accepting and taking an interest in what each person of every background has to offer us. We are known as the melting pot, a seamless mixture of countries all over the world.

Accepting the American character is having a certain blend of old and new, custom and innovation.

My thatha’s adherence to the role of ancient practices but to the acceptance of modern convention reflects this duality. As paradoxical as it may sound, my thatha’s thiruman, which I once repudiated so greatly has actually not only come to be a symbol of tradition for me but also of being American. n Swathi Ramprasad is currently a junior at Presentation High School. She enjoys being a child of two cultures.

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relationship diva

Five Signs You Have No Game

By Jasbina Ahluwalia

Q

My cousin hasn’t dated much, and he’s a little awkward with women. Since he’s really a decent guy, I was surprised to find him checking out “pick-up artist” stuff online recently. My girlfriends and I can’t stand getting approached by guys with canned pick up lines. Any ideas on how to deter him?

A

Yes, lots of women find those “pickup artist” approaches a turn-off. To point him towards a more promising approach with women, let him know that all he really needs is confidence and attentiveness. Consider sharing with him the following five signs to alert guys that course-correction is warranted for greater success with women.

1. Your Jokes Meet Silence Ever tell a joke and the entire room goes quiet? It’s happened to everyone once or twice, but if it happens a lot, just stop.

2. Too Nervous to Try

So many men see a woman they’d like to talk to and get nervous; they talk themselves out of even trying.

The truth is, some women will reject you. And some won’t and the more women you approach, the more comfortable you’ll be with the process.

3. She Looks Bored Many women won’t reject you outright because they’re trying to be polite. You can change the game if you pay attention to her body language. If she leans away from you and looks around the room, you know she’s trying to find a way to leave.

Two ways to improve your odds here— start talking to another female (this seems shady, but it works), or have a rehearsed story you know always gets a reaction.

4. Putting Them On A Pedestal So many men fall into this with attractive women; our entire body language tells them we think they’re exceptionally

attractive.

The thing is, most women will overlook a guy who’s already into them in favor of someone they have to “win.”

5. Your Own Body Language Pay attention to your own body language to make sure you’re sending the right messages. Leaning into the girl too much may come off as desperate. Shoulders back, hands at sides expresses a confident personality.

There will be women who reject you anyway, but that shouldn’t stop you from approaching them. n Jasbina is the founder and president of Intersections Match, the only personalized matchmaking and dating coaching firm serving singles of South Asian descent in the United States. She is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio. Jasbina@intersectionsmatch. com.

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SOME OF OUR AVAILABLE PLANTS: BANANA • CHIKU/SAPOTA • FIG • JAKFRUIT • LITCHEE • MANGO • PAPAYA • POMEGRANATE • JAMUN • SHEHTOOT/MULBERRY • SITAPHAL/SHARIFA

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Alex@PapayaTreeNursery.com • www.PapayaTreeNursery.com

INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 27 Years of Excellence

www.indiacurrents.com February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 27

opinion

No Country for Gray People

Sporting a head full of gray is still disdained in many parts of the world

By Ranjani Iyer Mohanty

S

everal years ago, when henna to cover gray. FurtherFrom having had black hair all I was nearly fifty years more, it requires little money old, I had gone from one’s life, going to the opposite end and only one afternoon of your Delhi to one of the smaller time to get highly visible results. of the spectrum can be too much to towns to visit my extended With their Viagra and flibanfamily. I hadn’t seen them bear. serin, Americans may be changfor some time and was looking to a bottom-up anti-aging ing forward to re-establishing battle strategy, but Indians are ties. Many members had gathstill sticking to the top-down apered together under one roof to meet me. proach.

I felt things were going well, there was For those with light hair (blondes, laughter and exchange of information, and around at least as far back as ancient redheads, brunettes), going gray is a more we were really connecting, when suddenly Egypt, synthetic hair dye was created in gentle and a less perceptible process. For the eldest lady in the room —probably in the mid 1800s, with L’Oréal and Clairol those with black hair, it is a dramatic and her late sixties—asked me, “Why do you bringing it to the consumer market in the traumatic change. From having had black have gray hair?”

1900s. Understandably, the most common hair all one’s life, going to the opposite I was speechless—but I understood color of dye amongst Indians is black since end of the spectrum can be too much to where she was coming from. For women, the key purpose of hair dye is generally bear. And therefore, the primeval desire there is no country for gray people. You’d not to change the color of the hair but to and now the facility to seemingly control be hard pressed to find elderly high-profile cover the gray. There are no blonde hair two uncontrollable processes—graying, women in India with gray hair. It’s true dyes or shades of gray on the store shelves and with it, aging—is too hard to resist. that Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi in India. Gray may have been all the rage Which puts us few grayers in a dif(age 68) has a few gray hairs, but they in the Europe of King Louis XIV and even ficult position; if everyone around you probably set her apart as much as her Italmaking something of a comeback in the has jet black hair, it’s intimidating to go ian origin. And there are a few like ArundWest over the last few years, but in India, against the current. The young look at hati Roy (53), Medha Patkar (60), and black is indeed black. you with awe and curiosity; despite livAnu Aga (73), but they can be dismissed When actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan ing with grandparents, they may not have as NGO-types, perhaps even consciously swings around her luscious black locks in seen someone with gray hair before. The cultivating an “I only care about the envithe L’Oréal advertisement and says, “Be- old, with their jet black hair, look at you ronment” look. cause I’m worth it,” she’s implying that if suspiciously. Instead of admiring you for By and large, raven locks are the norm. you don’t cover your gray, you’re lacking your naturalness and welcoming you into In India, business-woman Kiran Mazumin self-esteem; you’ve let yourself go. their club, they wonder what you’re trying dar-Shaw (62), minister of external affairs Interestingly, the same attention is not to prove. With that question, my aging Sushma Swaraj (63), actress Hema Malini given to exercise or nutritious eating— relative may have been rebuking me, “I’m (66), popular columnist Shoba De (67), which are more substantial ways of retain- 70 and sitting here pretty with my raven chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa ing youth. A healthy lifestyle, however, locks, and you walk in 50 and gray. Are (67), designer Ritu Kumar (age 70), all doesn’t offer the same commercial oppor- you trying to blow my cover?!” the way up to dancer Vyjayanthimala (79), tunity from a manufacturer’s perspective, Or, upon kinder interpretation, perall sport jet-black hair. and from a consumer’s perspective, it haps she was merely offering advice: “LisIn the United States, prominent exrequires long, hard work, not to mention ten GF, do not go gentle into that good amples are news anchor Uma Pemmaraju a shift in thinking. night—at least, not with gray hair.” n (57), director Mira Nair (58), PepsiCo You would think Indians would be head Indra Nooyi (60), former Iowa state more comfortable than most other cultures Ranjani Iyer Mohanty is a writer, editor, senator Swati Dandekar (64), and auwith the idea of aging. We are an ancient and commentator. She has contributed to sevthor Bharati Mukherjee (75). And that culture, we are philosophical, and we are eral publications, including the International color permeates down the pyramid to the religious. Coloring hair is in some sense Herald Tribune, the New York Times, the middle class. just a continuation of the centuries-old WSJ, the Financial Times, the Globe & While natural hair dyes have been tradition in some parts of India of using Mail, and the Atlantic.

28 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

perspective

Magic From the Mundane

By Saraswathy Lakshmivaraham

A

t this point in my life I feel like I’m surrounded by children; children of my own, children I teach and then children I hang out with, those would be my nieces, nephews and friends’ kids, of course. But the most amusing two children that I look forward to spending time with are the ones on my everyday commute. The cause of amusement is their intriguing conversations and delightful games to which I’m nothing but a mute observer, a silent listener. I learn so much from them every day. I have reason to believe, from what I picked up from their innumerable discussions, ranging anywhere and everywhere from the weather that odd Wednesday to how one of them is in charge of making sure the other’s earrings are never lost to if the new building constructed on Washington avenue is going to be a toy store or a beauty parlor, that they may be best friends or what they call it today, BFFs. Recently, I got to experience how creative and funny these six-year-olds could be. Our car was stuck in traffic for about 15 minutes when I saw one of them point to the nearest palm tree and exclaim, “How I wish I could be, Up on top of that tree!” The other immediately picked up this cue with “And how silly it would be When you fall down and hurt your knee.”

This continued for a while and neither dropped the rhyme or the theme.

Being a teacher I have observed many times how something starts off creative but, in a matter of seconds, silliness sets in and giggles erupt or words are uttered that make no sense. But these two ladies, while they kept working on their little number, choosing their adjectives carefully so as to not let the rhyme drop, stayed the course.

Paired with their limitless imagination was their creative vocabulary to describe what

they associated with the art of climbing trees and the risk of getting hurt with a lot of emphasis on how fun it was, indeed, to climb a tall tree and see the view from up there. They turned the language upside down, inside out, and played with words showcasing their love of it and their desire to express their thoughts poetically. They made a great team, a family of two. How I wish I had written it down, verse by verse, to capture the lyrical simplicity of these budding poets to share it with the world.

I’m forever grateful for the innocent and endearing laughter that these two children bring to my life, reminding me of the bygone years of how you could take an utterly ordinary subject–stuck in traffic on a Tuesday, a bothersome sibling, the bubble that a raindrop makes on the surface of our swimming pool—and turn it into something extraordinary.

A dreamy, almost heart breaking, nos-

A Creative Commons Image

talgia rose up inside of me as I was given a glimpse of life before there was any complexity, when confusion was an emotion that made you laugh, when happiness was putting on a raincoat and rubber boots and stomping out in the rain.

Now, as I watch them hop off to school in their brightly colored dresses carrying their pink and blue school bags I feel so refreshed and motivated. I dedicate this writing to my favorite ladies—Ms. Spot Splatter Splash and Ms. Bea Spells-a-lot for inspiring me to remember to bring the magic out of the mundane. n Saraswathy Lakshmivaraham is a mother of two, an art enthusiast and lives in Fremont, CA. She loves to read, cook and travel with her family.

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

ask a lawyer

Can I Change Jobs While My Green Card is Pending?

By Indu Liladhar-Hathi

Q

I applied for my Green Card with my employer, but now I want to change jobs. Can I look for a new employer before I get my Green Card?

A

Perhaps. To change jobs while your Green Card application is pending (officially called your “Application to Adjust Status,” Form I-485), you need to meet three criteria.

First, your Application to Adjust Status must be pending for 180 days or longer. Second, your Application to Adjust Status must be based on the Immigrant Worker Petition, Form I-140, which your employer submitted for you. Third, the new job must be in “the same or a similar occupational classification” as your current job.

The third criterion is not easy to determine. Thankfully, USCIS recently issued a memorandum to provide guidance to determine whether two jobs are consid-

ered in “the same or similar occupational classification.”

As noted in the memorandum, you must establish by the preponderance of evidence standard (a requirement that more than 50% of the evidence points to something) that the two jobs are in the “the same or similar occupational classification.” This should be done by considering the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, which is from the Department of Labor (DOL). The SOC system organizes jobs into different categories based on a six-digit number system. For example, a Web Developer has SOC number 15-1134. If your current position has the same six-digit SOC number as your new position, they are likely to be considered to be in “the same or a similar occupational classification.” Or when the first 2 or 3 numbers of the six-digit SOC numbers are the same, they may be considered to be in the “same or similar occupational

30 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

classification.”

In some cases, two positions with varying combinations of six-digit SOC numbers may be considered in “the same or similar occupational categories.” Thus, you should also consider whether the job duties, experience, and education required for the positions are similar, and, if so, use that information to evaluate your situation.

If you meet all three criteria, you should be able change jobs. Due to the complexity in determining this, we encourage you to contact an employmentbased immigration attorney for a professional opinion while your Application to Adjust Status is pending. It is also important to consider notifying the USCIS that you are changing employers. n Immigration and business attorney Indu Liladhar-Hathi has an office in San Jose.(408) 453-5335

Legal

UMA SUBRAMANIAN, J.D.

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 2016

T

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

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

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Preference Dates for India 1st Current 2nd Jul 01, 2009 3rd Jul 01, 2005 Other Jul 01, 2005 Workers 4th Current Certain Current Religious Workers 5th Current Targeted Employment Areas The Department of State has a recorded message with visa availability information at (202)485-7699, which is updated in the middle of each month. Source: https://travel. state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bulletin/2016/visa-bulletin-for-february-2016.html

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

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immigration@bhatiaco.com February 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 33

films

Lion in the Winter

By Aniruddh Chawda

BAJIRAO MASTANI. Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Players: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Tanvi Azmi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Aditya Pancholi, Milind Sonam. Music: Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Hindi with Eng. sub-tit. Theatrical release (Eros)

A

s one of the most-talked about Hindi filmmakers of modern era, Bhansali’s works have included noteworthy movies some of which were huge box office hits (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Black, Ram Leela, and Guzarish). Bhansali’s pet project since Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) was Bajirao Mastani. Finally seeing the light of marquee during Christmas in 2015, Bajirao Mastani, a period costume and action-adventure epic, achieves both a box office juggernaut and makes a commanding artistic statement.

Faced with fractures from possible overreach into huge sections of the subcontinent, the expansive 18th century Maratha empire, based in Pune, urgently needs a new Peshwa (prime minister).

Overcoming strong rivals with a show of successful military campaigns and single feats of bravery, the dashing Bajirao (Singh) clinches the much-coveted post.

On one such military campaign, Bajirao comes to the aid of the beautiful warriorprincess Mastani (Padukone) and gets drawn to her even though he is already married to the influential and equally beautiful Kashibai (Chopra).

The concept of a flawed leader who is at a major crossroads of his life is the stuff of legends. On that level Prakash Kapadia’s script posits Bajirao as a conflicted man, a lion caught in the doldrums of a personal winter. Or more precisely, his world forces him into conflict he can’t easily navigate. The battlefront emissary, a shrewd war tactician and by all accounts a hardy and brave warrior, strangely, is more-or-less at peace when he is van-

quishing his elephant-back or horse-back foes in the empire’s far-flung vistas.

The other, more urgent, battle Bajirao must overcome is on the home front, where Bajirao’s secret marriage to Mastani makes not only Kashibai unhappy but has the entire capital in an uproar.

There are also the palace politics of Mastani’s arrival into the household, albeit at first housed with courtesans—thanks to the icy reception from Bajirao’s mother (Azmi). Then there is Bajirao’s political nemesis (Pancholi) who harbors a hidden agenda. Finally, the fact that Mastani —who has a Rajput father and Persian mother—is of Muslim background is used as a ruse by the local priestly class to instigate the nobility against Bajirao.

A sizable boost to Bajirao’s success has to do with music. Bhansali, who previously scored the soundtrack for Guzarish and Ram Leela, again takes up the baton.

The result is a spell binding score that more than once touches light classical ragas, especially “Mohe Rang Do Laal,” a duet with Pandit Birju Maharaj and Shreya Ghosal and Ghosal’s “Deewani Mastani.” The hit “Pinga” duet, choregraphed superbly by Remo D’Souza, is a fetching tandem dance featuring both Padukone and Chopra in a dazzling explosion of sights, colors and sounds.

34 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

The box-office results for Bajirao have been nothing short of amazing. As if validating the raves, there was the near sweep of many of the popular industry awards. Now that Filmfare gives out its famed awards in early January for the previous calendar year, Bajirao won Best Film, Best Director (Bhansali), Best Actor (Singh) and Best Supporting Actress (Chopra). In an amazing achievement, Bhansali’s film won nine out of the 12 categories it was nominated for. In the Awards’ 61-year history, only three other movies have won more Filmfare Awards; Bhansali’s Black (2011) won 11, while Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Bhansali’s Devdas (2002) each won 10.

Bhansali and a small army of artisans and craftspeople make it seem effortless.

Sriram Iyengar, Sujeet Sawant and Saloni Dhatrak’s gorgeous set pieces evoke upper crust chivalry from an era when tradition ruled and stepping out of line was tantamount to treason. The period precise sensibility is extended to first-rate culturally-appropriate costumes for both Mastani with her Mughal gowns and Kashibai in her queen-like Hindu attire.

While the lingo at times gets annoying going from street-wise Mumbai Hindi to classical Marathi, the eyes are too busy chewing up the scenery.

Based on respected Marathi writer Nagnath Inamdar’s historic (and fictitious) novel Rau and set on southern India’s vast Deccan Plateau during the 18th century when the Mughal empire was generally in decline and the Maratha empire was in its glory, Bhansali’s Bajirao captures the historical imagination like few other recent Hindi movie entries.

While the historical Bajirao, Mastani and Kashibai were real life figures, Bhansali goes to pains to point out that this movie is a work of fiction. Fiction that is worth standing up and cheering for! n EQ: A

Wheelies of Justice WAZIR. Director: Bejoy Nambiar. Players: Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari, John Abraham, Manav Kaul, Neil Nitin Mukesh. Hindi with Eng. sub-tit. Theatrical release (Reliance)

E

ver since it’s advent in India more than 1,500 years ago, chess has evolved as a powerful tool for testing one’s discipline to anticipate the opponent’s moves. The symbolism of chess pieces—each with its own highly precise movements that can only be overcome by the next hierarchical piece—is a teasing play on power and cunningness. For their part, scenarists have woven chess strategy and chess pieces into elaborate plot lines since ancient times. In Nambiar’s well-made and thought-provoking terrorist conspiracy riddle Wazir, a real life chess match is afoot and the wrong outcome may well invite total mayhem.

Set mostly in Delhi, the name of the game is male bonding as a most unlikely pair of virtual single men find common ground while poring over a chessboard.

One guy is anti-terrorist cop Daanish (Akhtar), who is taking time off as he recovers from the recent death of his young daughter. The other is the wheelchairbound retired teacher and chess expert Pandit Omkar Dhar (Bachchan), who is, coincidentally, also mourning the loss of his daughter. Over a game of chess— Daanish is learning the game from the retired expert—both men find common threads to their stories. Not only did both men’s daughters know each other but they also had the same friends and frequented some of the same places. Could this be sheer coincidence?

Daanish has bankable insider connections; chief amongst those is superintendent S.P. (Abraham) whose team is chasing down the same bomb conspirators while assuring the safety of rising political star Minister Qureshi (Manav). Pandit, on the other hand, provides a sounding board for Daanish not only to get him back to

work but also possibly help him reconcile with his estranged wife Ruhana (Hydari).

Pandit may be wheelchair bound. His mind, however, appears to be doing figurative wheelies.

The clever script by Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (who also produces) creates a mood of distrust early on. Because there is death—and death at a young age at that—at the root of what appears to be driving both Daanish and Pandit, the script can’t help but offer a sympathetic eye towards the two fathers. It’s the others characters we gotta worry about. For added uncertainty, there is the diabolical, mysterious Wazir (Mukesh), a ruthless, shadowy assassin linked to the bombing conspiracy that, out of the blue, zeroes in on making nocturnal rounds of Pandit’s house in a very scary way.

Ever since Chopra roped in Akhtar and Bachchan together in Lakshya (2004), he had been toying with the Wazir storyline with Akhtar and Bachchan. That casting pays off. Akhtar, who put on weight for the command-in-lead role here, and Bachchan, in his wheelchair-bound scholarly best, offer an unusual stamp of male bonding against a background of chaos.

As the distant estranged spouse, Hydari does a decent turn and while Abraham’s role is limited, Mukesh’s knife-wielding night prowler is downright creepy.

On an eclectic soundtrack, with many lyricist and music directors making contributions, the standout tunes are Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghosal in Shantanu Moi-

tra’s “Tere Bin,” a heartfelt lilt to a loved one and also Ankit Tiwari’s “Tu Mere Paas,” about loss, which the singer also provided the music for. For added measure, try Bachchan’s rich baritone anchoring “Khel Khel Mein.” This song’s ominous lyrics and sizable thematic appeal rounds off a good score.

Nambiar, who earlier made the note-worthy three-in-one David (2013) featuring Mukesh as a lead, has a trick or two up his sleeve here. As Daanish and his team shuttle between Delhi and Kashmir, where Minister Qureshi is giving a speech and also exactly where the cryptic Wazir threatened violence, the mission may necessarily need to change from a race to protect a VIP to a frantic effort to restore public safety. The big reveal at the end— and mind you, it may pop a surprise—is a twist that departs from Hindi movie conventions on several different and satisfying levels. Take notice! n EQ: B+ Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

LATA’S

FLICK PICKS ao Mastani  Bajir e  Dilwal Gun  Guddu Ki  Jazbaa Payo R atan Dhan  Prem r aa  Shaand is Bliing  Singh ha  Tamas

February 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 35

tax talk

Is Your Pastime a Hobby or Business?

By Khorshed Alam

I

f you’re like some taxpayers, you have a pastime that brings in cash but produces a loss after you deduct your expenses.

Example: an amateur artist who spends money for paint and canvas but who only occasionally sells a painting. If you could deduct “hobby” losses on your tax return, you could reduce taxes owed on your salary or other income.

Actually, you can deduct your losses, but only if you establish that you are carrying on your pastime with the motive of making a profit.

If you can’t prove you have a profit motive, the IRS views your activity as a hobby, not as a business. Expenses of a hobby can be deducted only up to the amount of income from the hobby. You

can’t deduct hobby losses from your salary or other income.

You can help establish your profit motive in one of two ways. If you show a profit in three out of five years (two out of seven years for horse activities), the IRS will presume you’ve got a business and not a hobby. However, you can’t simply manipulate deductions and income to create profit years.

The other way to demonstrate that you’re operating with a profit motive is to conduct your activity in a business-like manner.

Get advice from an accountant to assist with keeping accurate books and records.

Maintain a separate checking account, advertise your services or products, and get a business phone listing.

36 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

If you have losses, try to turn your business around by taking classes, consulting with experts, and changing your methods of operation.

Be sure you spend enough time at your activity to demonstrate that you’re serious about profits.

Remember, you don’t have to earn a profit, but you must try to do so. If you don’t have profits in three out of five years, the burden of proof will be on you to show the IRS that this activity is a business and not a hobby. 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 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 37

tax . accounting

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profile

Indra K. Nooyi–Reinventing the Future PepsiCo CEO Nooyi transforming the business of nutrition

By Scott S. Smith

“T

he company operates in an ecosystem and you cannot ignore any part: employees, customers, suppliers, non-governmental organizations, multilateral organizations, governments, and shareholders.”

Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo since 2006, was ranked by Fortune in 2014 at No. 3 on the list of the most powerful women in global business (just behind the CEOs of GM and IBM).

More importantly, she has led the company through the most socially-critical changes in its history. Founded to promote its cola in 1902 and then turned into a snack food conglomerate with a merger in 1965, PepsiCo is transforming itself under Nooyi’s leadership into a major source of healthier nutrition.

She wasn’t destined to be a business leader. Born in 1955 to a traditional family in what is now Chennai in southern India,

her mother was a housewife and her father a bank manager.

But she wasn’t an ordinary Indian girl: she was the guitarist in an all-female rock band (she still sometimes sings at corporate events) and played a mean game of cricket.

Like most middle class Indian families, her parents insisted she get top grades in high school. An academic whiz kid, at 18 she earned a degree at a Christian college in physics, chemistry, and math.

But enticed by the prospect of being a business executive (despite her parents’ protest that this would ruin her prospects for marriage), she received her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta in 1976.

Nooyi is the highest-ranked Indian American female in business and PepsiCo is No. 93 on Forbes’ list of world’s largest public companies, with 2013 sales of

40 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

$66.4 billion, net income of $6.7 billion, and 274,000 employees.

Changing the Formula

Nooyi has boldly tampered with a company that already had a solid formula for success (and I understand the resistance she faced, since I worked in the Dark Ages of the natural food industry in the 1970s). Forbes now rates it, seven years after she took the helm, at No. 25 on the list of the most valuable global brands.

Her first real job was with a local office of the British textile firm Tootal. She then served as a product manager for Johnson & Johnson with a very tough assignment: promoting the Stayfree line of sanitary pads. They were not even allowed to be advertised in India at the time and many retailers refused to stock them. Nooyi marketed by going to schools and talking directly with young women.

Nooyi had always wanted to live in the United States and when she saw an ad for the Yale School of Management, she applied and was given a scholarship in 1978.

She interviewed for internships wearing her sari, for lack of money to buy a suit, and won a position with consultant Booz Allen Hamilton. To make ends meet, she also acted as the dorm receptionist on the graveyard shift because it paid an extra 50 cents an hour.

After graduating, she was hired by the Boston Consulting Group, where she stayed for six years, then joined Motorola as a strategic planner. In 1990, she became a top executive at the engineering firm Asea Brown Bovari.

Four years later, the ambitious Nooyi received two impressive offers. One came from General Electric, the more prestigious company, but the CEO of PepsiCo, Wayne Calloway, convinced her that she could make a bigger difference there and he would create a new position for her, chief strategist.

PepsiCo had been running second to Coca-Cola in the caffeinated soda war forever, but had become a diversified food and beverage conglomerate. Over the next couple of years, Nooyi did intensive research and came up with a shocking recommendation to jump the company to the next level: spin off its profitable fast food restaurant division, which consisted of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken). By then, Calloway had died and the new CEO, Roger Enrico, resisted, but Nooyi prevailed in 1997.

The divestitures brought in $35 billion. Then she convinced the board to back her new vision of the company as a major source of healthier food. She advocated some fresh acquisitions with this in mind and oversaw buying Tropicana, with its juices, for $3 billion in 1998 and Quaker Oats, for whole grain cereals, for $14 billion in 2001.

Nooyi was promoted to chief financial officer and president in 2001, while the chief operating officer, Steve Reinemund, became CEO. A former Marine and seven years her senior, he came across as the archetypal buttoned-down executive, while her more spontaneous personality and analytical skills were complementary, as they explained their new direction to Wall Street. BusinessWeek called them “one of

the most unusual management teams in Corporate America.” Within a year of their ascension, the stock had risen 30%.

Still, the favorite to succeed Reinemund was Mike White, who had turned around the international business, while Nooyi had never been a line manager, the standard background for running the entire global operation of the corporation headquartered in Purchase, N.Y. But as CFO, she had also been in charge of IT systems and supply chain management, very complex challenges, and a CEO didn’t really require hands-on operational experience.

Revolutionary CEO

When she was finally tapped, her first call was to White, persuading him to stay on as her most senior advisor. She also courted other managers, but if they didn’t buy into her long-term plans, they had to find a more compatible home elsewhere.

There were plenty of skeptics in and outside the company, including shareholders who protested the strategy. It was always assumed that corporate efforts to do good were in conflict with making money, while the Great Recession put a lot of pressure on PepsiCo’s bottom line.

But Nooyi, 50, a lifelong vegetarian and Baby Boomer who grew up in an emerging market, knew that expanding the line of products that were better nutritionally would appeal to two important groups. Boomers everywhere were increasingly concerned about improving their diets, while consumers in developing economies needed affordable and healthy foods and drinks.

“I was like a missionary with everyone

and the transformation was rough against some headwinds, and many times I questioned whether I should abandon this path,” she said. “Then suddenly, people were saying, ‘It’s so logical.’”

She knew the transition needed to be gradual, but aligned her “Performance with Purpose” program with global campaigns to reduce obesity and prevent disease. With 22 of the brands bringing in over $1 billion in sales each year, she divided products into three groups: • “Fun for You” included traditional refreshments, like regular cola and potato chips.

• “Better for You” included snacks that were given more nutritional value, while maintaining good taste, with diet beverages and baked chips with reduced fat, sodium, sugar, and calories.

• “Good for You” was “where the tailwinds were, constituting 20% of net revenue in 2013,” she said, with yogurt, high-fiber cereals and snacks, fresh dips like hummus, and the premium line of Naked Juice.

“Trends such as a desire for more convenient, functional nutrition, local and natural ingredients, and better-for-you snack and beverage options have firmly taken hold and will continue to accelerate around the world,” PepsiCo’s 2013 annual report noted. “We anticipated these trends early on and have taken significant actions to balance our portfolio of offerings to capture this growth opportunity.”

In 2013, the company had nine of the top 50 new food and beverage product introductions across all U.S. retail channels.

The stronger push into developing markets has meant that overseas executive

February 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 41

assignments were more likely to mean Beijing or New Delhi, rather than London or Paris, so some managers left when given the choices.

Emerging markets in 2013 for PepsiCo produced an impressive average 10% organic growth (which excludes acquisitions). This included very strong performances by China, Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey. With an acquisition finalized in 2011, the company became the largest food and beverage maker in Russia.

“By 2030, an additional three billion people may join the middle class in developing and emerging markets,” the annual report projected. “We will continue to invest in building our capabilities there.”

But Nooyi recognized that the company by itself is limited in what it can do to improve public health. She chairs the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a coalition of 150 U.S. retailers, manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods makers, insurance companies, trade associations, professional sports and non-governmental organizations. It has funded a wide variety of school, community, and nonprofit efforts to provide meals to underprivileged children, educate students on good nutrition, sponsor exercise programs, and create public fruit and vegetable gardens.

Greening PepsiCo

As if all this progress were not enough, Nooyi has pushed to reduce PepsiCo’s impact on the environment worldwide as part of “Performance with Purpose.”

Both in the United States and in other countries, the company uses a tremendous amount of clean water, which is often scarce in the communities where it operates, especially where there are droughts.

In response, PepsiCo has done a variety of innovative things, including integrating conservation efforts into its systems, using purified air to clean bottles, and capturing water that is naturally contained in potatoes before turning them into chips.

By 2009, it was saving 12 billion liters of water a year, compared with 2006.

The company also stepped up its recycling efforts, developed bottles that reduced the weight by 40%, and created the first plant-based recyclable plastic for the

PepsiCo’s Clean Water Initiatve in India

Green Bottle.

The company has been recognized for such efforts. It has been included for six years in a row on the Dow Jones World Sustainability Index and Newsweek ranked it third on its Green Rankings for its industry in the U.S. PepsiCo has also encouraged employees to conserve resources, eat better and exercise more.

I

n ranking Nooyi at No. 13 on the 2014 list of “World’s Most Powerful Women,” Forbes noted that she is among just a handful who have been on since its inauguration in 2004. “She once again exceeded analysts’ expectations and dour forecasts: despite a global decline in the consumption of sugary drinks, the company’s earnings have increased 3.1% while the S&P 500 Index added less than 1%.

How did she do it? Thinking outside the soda can, with innovations such as smaller sizes.”

Wall Street tends to reward short-term corporate performance, which is why most CEOs have a primary focus on improving quarterly results, no matter the sacrifice of long-term goals that this requires.

But Nooyi has pleased investors as a contrarian with a vision of doing good to work towards global dominance.

When she joined PepsiCo two decades ago, its stock was $19 and declining. After she guided dramatic improvements for

42 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

a dozen years, it had reached $64 by the time she was named CEO. As of mid2014, it is $84. In 2013, investors also received their 41st consecutive dividend increase.

Not bad for a girl who wasn’t supposed to become an executive. And she did get married and has two daughters, one of whom is attending the Yale School of Management.

Real Life Lessons

• You can get to bold long-term goals if you are a pragmatist in the short-run.

• Give persuading your internal opponents your best shot, then move obstructionists out of the way.

• The ceiling that has prevented more women from corporate advancement is a powerful barrier that is nonetheless made of glass.

• Indian families are role models for cultivating high achievement.

• Good nutrition is one of the secret keys to having the energy to do great things. n

Scott Smith is the author of The Soul of Your Pet: Evidence for the Survival of Animals After Death. This is an excerpt from Extraordinary People: Real Life Lessons on What It Takes to Achieve Success: www.

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travel

Kantab Beach, Muscat

Mesmerizing Muscat

By Kavita Wadhwani

W

e picked Muscat as a travel destination because it brought to mind the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and high peaks of the AlHajar mountains.

Muscat is a stunning port city and the capital of Oman. It is home to people from all across the world, including India, Iran, Baluchistan, Phillipines, East Africa, Zanzibar and Europe.

As we drove toward the city of Muscat from the airport, we took in the clean roads, green parks, luxuriant flower gardens, and a whole lot of low lying pastel hued houses. Muscat has an old world

charm which is novel and inviting.

Mosques and Museums

The city is dotted with mosques. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is one of the best known, and is named after the current ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said. Sultan Qaboos came to power in 1970 after he overthrew his father Said bin Taimur in a palace coup. He is the eighth sultan of Oman. On his website, it is said that he built more than 100 mosques at his own expense.

With its dome and four minarets, the Grand Mosque is an architectural splen-

44 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

dor. The building was undertaken in 1992 and finished in six years. It is reputed to have been constructed from 330,593 tons of Indian sandstone.

It does seem like the autocratic ruler has indeed made way for development where the city’s trade and beauty is concerned.

With a huge Indian population residing in Muscat for decades, it is little surprise to come across two Hindu temples— a Shiva and Krishna temple with a host of Hindu devotees around.

Muscat houses a number of stunning museums. Oman National Museum is

Muscat is considered a progressive and modern city in the Gulf and has stylish women who love to shop and men who flaunt their gadgets and cars. a jewel in their crown where we can see Oman’s well preserved rich cultural heritage, including an 8th century letter from the Prophet Mohammed to the rulers of Oman.

Sand and Dunes

The pristine and fun beaches of Oman with its stunning cliffs, attracts tourists from all over the world. The Qurum Beach is very popular for fishing and picnicking. There are many café and coffee shops around the beach so a lot of youngsters can be seen in the area.

The summer comes with heat and humidity but calm seas. Kantab Beach is the perfect place if you wish to have a BBQ, play a game of throw ball, swim, snorkel, or simply laze around on the beach.

And if you are a dolphin lover, then head straight to the Marina Bandar where you can watch spinner dolphins horsing around. It’s a treat for the eyes to see the friendly creatures taking spins and leaps.

We drove around the Mutrah Corniche and harbor. This is a 1.9 mile stretch with flowers and water fountains. At one end of the Corniche is the dhow harbor where fishermen can be seen unloading the catches of the day. The Muttrah Corniche was part of vital trading routes since ancient times and, thankfully, the old city hasn’t been replaced by grander buildings or newer inventions. The Muttrah souk or market alongside the Corniche carries traditional items for sale and you’re likely to get a good price here, if you’re up for some bargaining.

Standing guard over Muscat’s harbor are the massive Mirani and Jalali forts or museums (overlooking the Royal Palace), built way back when Oman was a major military base in the 16th century. The ancient cannon protected forts are still operated by the military and the palace is essentially the seat of Oman’s government.

Ruwi is a preferred commercial hub

of Muscat and it includes a massive marketplace which has a number of fine jewellery shops, cloth merchants, craft shops, grocery stores, export goods and small local designer malls.

The Muscat Clock Tower, located in Ruwi is the oldest monument in modern Oman and showcases the Sultanate’s commitment to modernization.

If you are the adventurous kind, then try dune bashing in the desert which is about a two-hour road journey from Muscat city to Wahiba Sands where the Wadi bashing desert safari is located.

On the way to the safari, at the Wadi Bani Khalid, we took a walk along cascading riverbeds and peered into crystal clear waters of blue-green pools. All of this is surrounded by picturesque limestone hills. If willing to go further, one can also check out the Turtle resort which is a hit with most kids. It’s a turtle nesting ground to watch turtles hatch or lay eggs.

Clock Tower; Photo credit: By Shoestring via Wikimedia Commons

Culture and Commerce

Muscat is considered a progressive and modern city in the Gulf and has stylish women who love to shop and men who flaunt their gadgets and cars. The main shopping area is situated in the Al Qurum commercial area; however there are shopping malls throughout Wadi Bani Khalid; the city and boast world Photo credit: By Andries Oudshoorn via Wikimedia Commons class brands.

People here love traarts in several outdoor venues around the dition, which is why, annually, for four city. In 2016, the festival takes place from weeks, the Muscat Festival is held to showJanuary 14 until February 13. The event case the country’s heritage, culture, and sees a huge number of visitors from February 2016| West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 45

The Royal Palace

around the globe. The festival is a mix of poetry recitals, folk music, dance and acrobatic acts, handicraft and firework displays from Oman and surrounding countries.

Omani jewellery, costumes, weaponry, camels and dates are very popular so one can pick them up in souvenirs.

Football is the favorite sport in Oman.

Young boys in Muscat are passionate about the game and can be seeing playing around

their houses. Crowds come out in thousands at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex to watch their national team play.

The typical Omani food is rich, delicious and heavily flavored with herbs, spices, garlic, and lime, and show Arabic, Indian, and African influences. Also popular is the Omani sweet or halwa made of dates and sprinkled with dry fruits.

Omanis love diverse food and this is

46 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

obvious from the fact that there are a host of restaurants in the city with cuisines from all over the world.

One of the best Indian restaurants in the city is the Mumtaz Mahal which serves outstanding Indian food and musical entertainment alongside a panoramic view of the city from its hilltop.

When packing gifts or souvenirs for kith and kin, don’t forget to buy boxes of dates or date chocolates/date sweets.

If you get a chance, pick up baked goods from the famous Muscat Bakery Shop which makes some melt-in-the-mouth cakes, biscuits, breads and confectionaries.

There is no rail or metro network in the country. So traveling must be done by road (taxi/cars/buses) or by air. However, this is not a reason for you to shy away from exploring this exciting destination.

So take your next holiday trip to Muscat and live this dream. n

Kavita Wadhwani is a dreamer with nine years of writing experience on subjects ranging from fashion, fitness, dĂŠcor, to food and travelogues.

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books

A Quartet of Mighty Women

By Jeanne E. Fredriksen

INDIA GRAY: HISTORICAL FICTION

by Sujata Massey. Ikat Press, Baltimore.

2015. Available as an e-book and print paperpack. $16 paperback. 316 pages.

I

f you’re looking for something fresh that offers variety and suspense in storytelling, Sujata Massey’s latest book, India Gray: Historical Fiction, is the perfect read. Even if the genre isn’t your first choice for reading material, Massey’s writing is so fluid and captivating that her smartly-drawn characters—definitely products of their time—are easy to love for who they are and what they champion: truth, love, compassion, and determination.

The book contains two novellas and two short stories that offer something for everyone. Each of the four stories features a strong female lead that demands the reader’s attention, supporting characters that satisfy, and conflicts that intrigue.

“Outnumbered” is a novella set in 1919 at St. Hilda’s and Balliol Colleges at Oxford. Perveen Mistry of Bombay, a law student with a secret, and her lively friend, mathematics student the Honourable Alice Hobson-Jones, are drawn into a missing person case when an Indian domestic disappears along with a male student’s proprietary paper.

Like characters in good buddy stories, Perveen and Alice turn stuffy Oxford on its heels and deliver the yin and the yang that make the story fun. Watch out for a good amount of intellectual adventurousness tempered by a dash of daredevil decorum in the pursuit of truth.

The novella, however, happily is not the end of Perveen and Alice, who are slated to star in their own series. In late 2015, Massey signed a contract with Soho Crime,

and the series will be set in Bombay where Perveen has returned to her father’s law practice.

There she’ll encounter “all kinds of fascinating characters and clients,” according Massey. Alice tags along to give her a hand as they tackle cases drawn from real events of the time. Look for the first book in 2017.

The second novella in the collection is “The Ayah’s Tale,” a story that heartbreakingly demonstrates the triumphs and failings of humans delicately bound by relationships complicated by race, education, culture, and colonialism.

“The Ayah’s Tale” was originally published as a standalone novella by Sujata Massey and Ikat Press in 2013.

In 1952 Malaya, a collection of stories by a British war hero stuns Menakshi because the author writes of his childhood in India when she was his caregiver.

As she reads, Menakshi is swept back to the 1920s when she was a 16-year old ruled not only by the Raj but also

by Julian’s cruelly-domineering mother and unsympathetic father. Alternating between Julian’s stories and Menakshi’s own memories, the full picture of her dashed personal dreams and love for the children are laid bare against the lavishness and

48 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

deception within the household.

Readers who enjoyed Massey’s The Sleeping Dictionary (IC, September 2014) will be pleased to read “India Gray,” a short story featuring Kamala, the steadfast heroine of the novel, and her husband, Simon Lewes.

The year is 1945, and as a high-ranking British official with the Indian Civil Service, Simon is temporarily moved from

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Kamala’s innate compassion, coupled with being the wife of the man who will decide the prisoners’ fates, puts her in a challenging situation with hospital personnel and Simon.

When asked about a sequel to her novel, Massey said, “a full sequel … is years away because [I’m] so busy with Perveen and Alice and their series.” Alas, this is a catch-22 simply because a “Dictionary” sequel would be wonderful, but the new series is thoroughly appealing.

Taking a leap into more recent memory, the short story “Bitter Tea” moves us to Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier when the Taliban imposed their strict religious laws on villages. This story originally appeared titled “The Mayor’s Movie” in the

short story anthology Politics Noir: Dark Tales From the Corridors of Power, edited

by Gary Philips and published by Verso in 2008. In the story, fourteen-year old Shazia, annoyed that she can neither go to school nor leave the house (unless covered by a burka and accompanied by a male), discovers that a friend and her friend’s mother have been forced into a situation that could be dangerous.

Restless but determined to find a way to rescue them, Shazia and her trusted cousins devise a bold plan to free Farida and her mother. With that plan comes the knowledge that failure will result in the worst of all punishments. A simple twist of fate, however, shocks them all.

Sujata Massey is a seasoned author with eleven books in her popular Rei Shimura series plus her superb aforementioned entrance into India-centric historical fiction.

Despite her publishing prowess, India Gray: Historical Fiction is a departure for her because it is self-published under her own Ikat Press imprint.

Aside from having a traditional pub-

lishing history, her motive for self-publishing is simple: “It allows me to publish more frequently … material that might not seem profitable to a publisher,” she explained.

To maintain the quality of her traditionally-published books, she personally hires independent pre-production personnel. The result is this beautiful and inspiring collection of extraordinary female protagonists that well represent their histories and cultures.

Crafted with Massey’s special brand of mystery, this volume is a gem that might otherwise have gone unexcavated. n Jeanne E. Fredriksen lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where she is the managing editor of a monthly newspaper and is a Books for Youth reviewer for Booklist magazine, a publication of the American Library Association. Between assignments, she writes fiction, hunts for the perfect Bloody Mary, and heads to the beach as often as she can.

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 49

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62 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

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music

What’s Indian at the Grammys?

By Priya Das

T

he Grammys award ceremony this year is scheduled for February 15 and has quite a few India(n) related nominees. Take a read below:

Record of the Year and Producer of the Year (Non Classical)

Uptown Funk Jeff Bhasker (Producer) Released in November 2014, Uptown Funk has cruised the top positions in music charts in the United States, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Australia and Brazil. It was co-produced by Jeff Bhasker, who was born to an American mother and an Indian-origin father.

Music producers are typically the unsung heroes of any song: they rarely appear on camera, but are responsible for literally everything to be camera-ready.

Bhasker prefers to maintain a low profile, he has been reported to say, “…A lot of people think you can make a beat and be a producer. But there’s so much more that goes into it: having a vision, knowing how to get a really great performance out of the artist, stuff like that… to get an Adele-like

vocal performance out of someone or to write a great song or capture multi-layers and levels of music, it’s an entire tradition of producing...”

Bhasker is a Grammy veteran, before this year, he has been nominated 11 times and won three; namely Best Rap Song for “Run this town”(2009) and “All of the lights”(2012) and Song of the Year for “We are young”(2013).

He attributes his music-sense in part, to years of playing in a wedding band. In an interview, he said “I would play classical music for the ceremony, jazz for the cocktail reception, and we’d play all the hit music from the 40s until current at dinner.

I was spanning 600 years of music in six hours.”

Before forging his own path, Bhasker worked with Kanye West, who he describes as the modern Miles Davis.

poisoning.

London-born Indian Asif Kapadia directed the film. He believes that the art of documentary making begins with questions that one wants answers to. Winehouse was visibly not in control of herself at public appearances leading up to her death. In an interview Kapadia says, “How did it transpire that she was in that state on stage. Every one saw it and yet nobody stopped it. People were making decisions to have her on TV shows … keeping her in the limelight when she was trying to escape.”

Kapadia is no stranger to awards, having won BAFTA’s (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) 2012 Best Documentary and Best Editing for “Senna,” a movie based on three-time Formula One racing champion, Ayrton Senna.

Best Music FilmAmy

Home Anoushka Shankar Anoushka Shankar pays tribute to her father and guru Pandit Ravi Shankar in Home. It features Raga Jogeshwari, which

Asif Kapadia (Video Director) Amy is a documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, a British songwriter and singer who died in her twenties of alcohol

Jeff Bhasker 64 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

Best World Music Album

Asif Kapadia

is a creation of Ravi Shankars.

Shankar has been nominated for a Grammy four times before this year, and was the youngest-ever and first woman nominee in the World Music category in 2003. Her father won five Grammys between the years of 1967 and 2013, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Incidentally, the Grammy Museum is hosting an exhibit called Ravi Shankar: A Life In Music, which will be on display through April 2016.

Best Instrumental Composition

Confetti Man David Balakrishnan, composer (Turtle Island Quartet) Their website best describes them: “Winner of the 2006 and … the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles.” The St. Louis PostDispatch said of them, “It must have been like this when Beethoven was

taking Vienna by storm—the exhilaration of seeing the future of classical music unfold before your eyes and ears.”

The Quartet was formed by violinist David Balakrishnan, who was himself a fan of rock persona Jimi Hendrix growing up. In an interview online, he says, “I remember my mouth falling open, and experiencing a feeling of astounding joy … It’s like falling in love for the first time.

That’s what created the first intense love of music for me, not playing classical music … listening to Hendrix, I realized that I could do that on violin.”

Yo-Yo Ma (world renowned cellist) has proclaimed the Quartet to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground —authentic and passionate—a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”

Best Instrumental Composition and Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album The Afro Latin Jazz Suite Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa)

Apparently, the night after the Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra played in U.S. Interest Section in Havana, President Obama announced the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba after 50+ years.

The Grammy nominated track features saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. It’s from the album Cuba: The Conversation Continues, which features compositions by six American and four Cuban composers, played by 24 musicians. Throughout, Mahanthappa moves through several genres, including salsa, cha cha, and jazz.

Others

Two other India(n) related nominations are Seeing; Kabir Padavali by Christopher Rouse/ Labl-Maxos for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album and Bhakti Without Borders by Madi Das for Best New Age Album. n Priya Das is an enthusiastic follower of world music and avidly tracks intersecting points between folk, classical, jazz and other genres.

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

66 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 67

If you can walk, you can dance - join us!

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Your first visit is free. Come dance with us and find out why we love it! www.indiandancecenter.com

68 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

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Kalanjaliusa@aol.com February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 69

events FEBRUARY

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

Check us out on

special dates Ash Wednesday

Feb. 10

Vasant Panchami

Feb. 12

Saraswati Puja

Feb. 12

Presidents Day

Feb. 15

Maha Shivaratri

March 8 Ahmad Saeedi, live in concert on February 13, in Beverly Hills

CULTURAL CALENDER

February

6 Saturday

Workshop on Wills and Trusts.

Organized by Sahara and South Asian Bar Association. 10:30 a.m. Matiya Patidar Center (Sanatan Temple), 15311 Pioneer Blvd., Norwalk. (562) 402-4132.

HTHF Valentine Anual Gala.

Raffles, prize, auction and dance. Live Entertainment by Vivek Arya and Sujhata Padman Bhan, dinner by Manohar of Delhi Palace. Organized by Shital Wadhwa. 7

p.m. Arcadia Community Center Hall, 365 Campus Drive, Arcadia. $60 adults, $30 kids. (626) 574-0760.

February

12 Friday

Valentine’s Day With Dipali and Vishal. 8 p.m. Amaya Restaurant, 7850

Beach Blvd., Buena Park. $40. (909) 3191899. balbir.s@sbcglobal.net.

February

13 Saturday

Max Amini Live In Concert. 6 p.m.

Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles.

70 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

www.sulekha.com.

Valentine 2016. Skits, shayari, comedy, dance, music. Organized by Mehfil Entertainment. 6:30 p.m. Royal Delhi Palace Restaurant, 22323 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. $45, $50. (818) 992-0913, (805) 208-0244. anu.j0709@yahoo.com.

Ahmad Saeedi Live In Conert. 7 p.m. Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. www.sulekha.com.

February

20 Saturday

Valentine Call for Universal Love

By Shyamal Randeria Leonard

W

hat better way to spread the word of universal love while taking time away from the demands of daily life than to kick off a spiritually infused Valentine’s weekend with Her Holiness, Sai Maa and her upcoming seminar on Wisdom and Enlightenment.

Internationally recognized, Indian spiritual healer and humanitarian Sai Maa, is in San Diego for a 3-day speaking event featuring a range of free-to-cost events entwining her message of love, wisdom and enlightenment. Said the Colorado based advocate of interfaith dialogue about the upcoming visit, “With the momentum of the quickly expanding community, we can move into even deeper levels of transformational work expressed as love, wisdom and light, my greatest desire is for people to know they are divine and to live as that divinity in daily life.”

The weekend’s event will include an opportunity to receive darshan or energetic activations and teachings which will serve to create a life of inner fulfillment and joy.

The goal of this event remains consistent with one of her life’s missions, put into full thrust since the early 1990s when she began touring Asia, Europe and North America to educate and spread global enlightenment through a range of spiritual, social and psychological topics.

“I am not good with devotees; I am here to create masters. A state has come for spiritual empowerment which allows you to be deeply involved at a higher level of leadership in the evolution of the

Ashiqui Tere Naam. Evergreen romantic melodies from the 90’s. Organized by Sharad Mehta. 8 p.m. Jain Center, 8072 Commonwealth Ave., Buena Park. (310) 430-6612. © Copyright 2016 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

plan, of the grand design for this galaxy, universe, solar system, this world, and for each one of us,” said Sai Maa. Born on the island of Mauritius, which laid the foundation for interfaith cooperation, Sai Maa’s early twenties were based in France, where she enjoyed a life of marriage and children, practiced homeopathic

Sai Maa also became the recipient of the title of Jagadguru or Guru of the world, the highest title in the Vedic tradition not “bestowed to a woman in 2,700 years of the Vishnuswami lineage and in recognition for her humanitarian service and spiritual mastery,” per Sai Maa’s website. n Feb 13-14. Hilton San Diego Del Mar, 15575 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. $425, $299 students. www.sai-maa.com/ sandiego2016.

Schedule of events: Friday, February 12: 7:30-9:30 p.m. “Enlightened Conversations with Sai Maa” Sai Maa will discuss topics suggested by the audience, ranging from practices for overcoming life’s challenges, global transformation, parenting and relationships. ($25)

to osteopathic therapies, acted as a city council member in Bordeaux.

After her children reached adulthood, Sai Maa also began aligning her spiritual beliefs with the Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba and later became his disciple.

Another calling to uplift humanity manifested as Sai Maa forged on to establish the nonprofit, Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust in 2007 which focused on humanitarian efforts in India to empower women, assist the needy and provide disaster relief amongst other services. In the same year,

Saturday, February 13: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Wisdom of the Soul with Sai Maa’s Successors ($150). 3 to 4:30 p.m.: Vegetarian Buffet at Hilton San Diego ($25). 5 p.m. until complete: Darshan with Sai Maa (free).

Presented by Sai Maa’s successors, Lucinda Hanover and Adam Rizvi, with discussions on creating an expansive experience of one’s divine nature, inner wisdom and boundless joy.

Sunday, February 14: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Enlightened Heart with Sai Maa and Teachers ($275) Participants will have the opportunity to experience the unconditional love of Sai Maa and her successors who will guide attendees into so they can consciously expand love through their lives.

Share your stories on health with India Currents readers!

We are accepting original submissions that focus on health and wellness.

Send your 600-800-word essay on disease prevention, exercise, ayurvedic cooking, or any other health-related topic to Mona Shah at events@indiacurrents.com.

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 71

Institute of Manipuri Dance Artistic Director:

Dr. SOHINI RAY (disciple of late Guru Bipin Singh)

Classes in Pasadena & Woodland Hills

DANCE

Manipuri Dance Visions

For more information::

(818) 790-2897

Email: sohiniray@yahoo.com

www.manipuridancevisions.com

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.

Shivam arts ol of Kath ho Sc

ak d a

n ce

Artistic director:

Punam Kumar (Holds a master's degree in art of Kathak) Beginning and advanced classes for children all ages Adults dance class Special events choreography New classes coming to Santan Mandir, Norwalk Classes also offered at: Cypress Diamond Bar Irvine For information call:

714-293-4539 714-891-3799 Email: Punam.kathak@yahoo.com

Kalapeetham Foundation Established in 1990

Director: Smt. Kalyani Shanmugarajah (Alumnus of Kalakshetra, 1974) Offering Classes In:

Kalakshetra style of Bharathanatyam, Traditional Folk Dances and Theory Class Locations: Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Northridge, Simi Valley,

INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 27 Years of Excellence

www.indiacurrents.com 72 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

Valencia, Santa Clarita, Palmdale/Lancaster, Santa Monica, Irvine

(818) 892-4890 • KalapeethamFoundation@gmail.com www.Kalapeetham.com • www.facebook.com/Kalapeetham

dance . music

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

Kathak

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

Kala Academy (310) 872-7061

Nishi Munshi

Estalished in 1998

nupuracademyla@gmail.com • www.nupuracademyla.org www.mykathak.com  Classes Available on Weekdays and Weekends  Private Lessons also available Founder and Instructor  Students of the Academy have performed CELEBRATING DANCE all over the Los Angeles Community

Serving San Fernando Valley and in Pasadena

Now

Offered by the talented member of the Academy

For information Call

(818) 882-3368

Miss India California

Kathak

Rachana 1977 to 2015 Upadhyay Viji Prakash

MA in Kathak ( Nipun) Bhatkhande University

Kala Academy Estalished in 1998

www.mykathak.com

Founder/Director

Lucknow Shakti School of Bharata Natyam email:Classes in West Los Angeles, Torrance, rachanau@yahoo.com Cerritos, Orange/Irvine, Woodland Hills

www.mykathak.com

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

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

“Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life.”

Picasso

Serving

• Classes Available on Weekdays and Weekends • Private Lessons also available • Students of the Academy have performed all over the Los Angeles Community

San Fernando Valley and now in

Pasadena Offered by the talented member of the Academy

Anvita Kohli Founder and Instructor

Rachana Upadhyay MA in Kathak (Nipun) Bhatkhande University, Lucknow For Information Call

Arpana School of Dance www. danceramya.com (949) 874-3662

(818) 882-3368

email: rachanau@yahoo.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 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 73

news feature

Aishwarya Rai Talks Films, Cannes and More with French President Francois Hollande

Aishwarya Rai greeting French President Francois Hollande

A

ctress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is said to have had a “hospitable” experience when she met French President François Hollande at a special luncheon in New Delhi on January 26, looking radiant and ravishing in a red Banarasi sari.

Their conversation ranged from talking about movies to her experiences at Cannes, a guest at the lunch told IANS, adding that Hollande even made Aishwarya join him at his table.

“The French president was very warm,” the insider said.

Aishwarya, who has been in the midst of shooting her new film Sarbjit, took out time from her busy schedule to attend the lunch, which was hosted by French Ambassador Francois Richier.

The former beauty queen, a past recipient of the prestigious Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, a civilian award by the French government, was the only Indian

Aishwarya Rai in a specially woven red Banarasi sari

actor to be present.

Hollande attended the lunch following his appearance at the country’s colorful Republic Day parade on Rajpath in New Delhi as the chief guest.

Other guests at the lunch included designers Ritu Beri, who has earlier received the Chevalier Des Arts et Des Lettres award, one of the highest civilian awards by the French government, for her contribution to the enrichment of Indo-French cultural relations; and Manish Arora, who shares a deep connect with Paris, the source said.

For the occasion, Aishwarya chose a perfectly suited ensemble—a sari from designer duo Swati and Sunaina.

Made in Banaras, the six-yard wonder that the actress wore, was woven with fine mulberry silk and zari (gold embroidery) made from pure silver threads dipped in gold.

Only natural fibers and eco-friendly

74 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

dyeing was used in the making of the sari, a source close to the designers told IANS. It was only fitting that Aishwarya chose a creation so deeply rooted in Indian technique and craft to meet the president of France, a country that she’s had a great connection with for a long time.

She’s a regular at the Cannes International Film Festival, where the first look of Jazbaa—her comeback film post pregnancy—was launched last year.

An actress who has featured in Bollywood films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Dhoom 2, Guru and Devdas, Aishwarya is also an ambassador of French cosmetics company L’Oréal Paris, for which she recently starred in an ad with Eva Longoria.

In fact, she even shot for her international film Pink Panther 2 in Paris. n

This is an IANS news story.

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

events FEBRUARY

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

Check us out on

special dates Ash Wednesday

Feb. 10

Vasant Panchami

Feb. 12

Saraswati Puja

Feb. 12

Presidents Day

Feb. 15

Maha Shivaratri

March 8

CULTURAL CALENDER

February

1 Monday

Growing Up Asian in America. Art,

essay and video contest for K-12 students.

2016 contest theme: Give Someone a Gold Medal. Organized by Asian Pacific Fund. (415) 395-9985 x500. contest@ asianpacificfund.org. www.asianpacificfund. com.

February

6 Saturday

10th Annual India Republic Day

August: Osage County—A Play by Naatak theater Company, Feb 20-28 in Palo Alto.

Celebration. Kids painting/art competi-

tion, talent contest (dance, music, singing, public speaking). Dance and cultural performances. Awards, honors and trophies to be awarded by elected officials and dignitaries present. Organized by Radio Zindagi and Young Leaders Academy and Divine Vastu. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Performance Pavilion, Lake Elizabeth Park, 40204 Paseo Padre Pkwy., Fremont. (510) 378-0698. docs.google.com/forms/d/1EC3HB3JD8q5UUkJ_UOsPEql5mEvi8xzjKHchv7XoQg/ viewform?c=0&w=1.

Karnatik Vocal Concert—Double Header. 2-4 p.m. Sowmya

Subramanian(vocal),accompanied by Karthik Lakshminarayanan (violin) and Natarajan Srinivasan (mridangam).

76 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

4:15-6:45 p.m. Hari Devanath and Vivek Sundararaman (vocal duet), accompanied

by Saravanapriyan Sriraman (violin) and Vignesh Venkataraman (mridangam).

Organized by SR Fine Arts. 2-6:45 p.m.

Community Of Infinite Spirit, 1540, Hick’s Ave., San Jose . Free. (408) 569-0860. dirsrfa@gmail.com.

Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi Recital. By Mangala Maddali, Shraddha Jo-

glekar, and Priya Ramdoss. Organized by Yuva Bharati. 4 p.m. Mission City Center for Performing Arts, 3250 Monroe St., Santa Clara . (650) 565-8859. yuva_bharati@ yahoo.com. www.yuvabharati.org.

Samara—A Woman’s Fight. A solo thematic presentation exploring the

recommends

Who Loves Ya, Baby?

Experience the best of Valentine night-out in the Bay Area

L

By Mona Shah

ooking for a little mohabbat this Valentine’s Day? Some fun for the entire family, or a chance to meet other singles? Or maybe an opportunity to ignore Valentine’s Day entirely and party in a place where red clothing is banned?

Whatever your Valentine’s Day desire, the Bay Area has an event guaranteed to make your commemoration of Saint Valentine recommends memorable.

Valentine’s Day commemorates the actions of Saint Valentine. When Emperor Claudius II ordered that all young men within the Roman Empire must remain single, Saint Valentine married young men in secret. Whether you choose to remember Saint Valentine’s actions by attending an event that supports nonprofit work in the arts, have a smashing good time at a 10 p.m. Aura Nightclub, 389 S 1st St., San DJ party, meet other singles, or thumb Jose. www.facebook.com/3MBollywood/. your nose at the entire holiday, everyone will find an appropriate venue this ValenSaturday, Feb. 13 tine’s Day.

“

“

Friday, Feb. 12 Valentine Bash 2016 with Mastani.

Bring out your inner diva! Dinner, Dance, DJ. Red and Black dress code. Organized

by Peter Sahjani.

7 p.m. ICC, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. $45, $55, $75. www.indiacc.org.

I Hate Luv Stories Party. As single

as I wanna be! If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the red roses, chocolates, and champagne? Not so sure about cheesy Hallmark cards? Sign up for the tonguein-cheek Bay Area V-Day event,Red clothing is banned and the organizers have sworn that no love songs will be played at the event. Great club anthems and classic party rockers will be played. It’s also the Official Birthday bash for DJ Asif Ali. Organized by 3M Productions.

A Valentine’s Special with Hari Kondabolu. Kondabolu is a Brooklynbased, Queens-raised comic, promises some rip-roaring fun. Organized by Enacte Arts.

6-9:30 p.m. DeAnza Center for Performing Arts, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino. $30, $10 students w/ID. enacte.org/production/hari-kondabolu-a-valentines-special/.

Valentine’s Candle Light Dinner. DJ

dance, ladies fashion show, photo shoot.

Bring your favorite song to perform or do a couples dance.

7:30 p.m. Dosa Bawarchi, 1380 South Main St., Milpitas. (650) 669-0281.

Bollywood Blast—Dil Dhadakne Do Valentine’s Eve Party. Valentine

Party Bollywood Istyle.

9 p.m. Club OMG, 43 6th St., San Fran-

cisco. www.eventbrite.com/e/bollywood-blastdil-dhadakne-do-valentines-eve-party-tickets-20648369830.

Love Affair Celebration With Daisy Shah. Bollywood’s best DJ will rock the house with the beats of Bollywood, UK Bhangra, Electro House, Pop House, R & D, and Hip-Hop. 7 p.m. ICC Milpitas, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. www.facebook.com/ events/1678140305733093/.

Sunday, Feb. 14 Valentine Party with Evelyn Sharma. Dance to the mix by DJ Realdeal.

MC for the evening, Jagruti Shah. Organized by 777 Entertainment.

7:30 p.m. ICC, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. $50, $100, $150. (510) 396-2956, (510) 491-7141. www.777entertainment.us, events.sulekha.com/valentine-party-2016with-evelyn-sharma-in-milpitas_event-in_ milpitas-ca_305319, www.tickethungama. com/event/953/777-entertainment-presentsvalentine-party-2016-with-evelyn-sharma.

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

events

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

Seasonal Allergies: An Ayurvedic Approach to Prevention and Management. A talk by Ashok Jethanandani.

As winter turns to spring, the body’s doshic balance is disturbed, precipitating in some people a distressing spate of allergies. In this talk we will discuss the underlying causes of allergies and practical ways to navigate this seasonal change.

What role do incompatible foods play?

Does sluggish digestion exacerbate the problem? Learn simple tips and remedies to alleviate and prevent your springtime suffering. 6-7 p.m. India Community Center, Classrooms 2/3, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. Free, re-registeration required. www.indiacc.org/ayurveda.

An evening of Hindustani music with Manik Khan on sarode, Feb. 13 in San Rafael

various battles fought by women told through stories from mythology, history and everyday lives. Some of the pieces have been specially composed for this performance by K.V Ramprasad and Snigdha Venkataramani. Live music accompaniment by Snigdha Venkataramani (vocal), Chethana Sastry (nattuvangam), Ravindrabharathy (mridangam), Susheela Narasimhan (violin) and Prasanna Rajan (flute). Portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Chennai Flood Relief efforts.

Organized by Naina Shastri and Ushanjali School of Dance. 4 p.m. Sunnyvale Theater, 550 E Remington Drive., Sunnyvale . General $12, VIP/Donor: $50. (510) 742-9303, (408) 930-2229, (925) 719-5706. ushanjali2008@gmail.com. www.ushanjali.com.

Odissi Dance Open House. With Jyoti Rout, Artistic Director of Jyoti Kala Mandir. Jyoti Kala Mandir College of Indian Classical Arts, 3767 Union St., Fremont. Free. (510) 589-3989. jyotikalamandir@gmail.com. www.jyotikalamandir. org.

February

7 Sunday

Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. Discover 100

plus years of Bay Area Desi history, from 1908-2014. You’ll visit original sites, hear stories, and leave inspired by our community’s struggles for justice, from the independence movement to women’s organizing and beyond. Morning (10 a.m.–1 p.m.) and afternoon (2 p.m.–5 p.m.) tours. Tour is stroller and wheelchair accessible. Organized by Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Berkeley. $5-$15.

(510) 520-0545. info@berkeleysouthasian. org. www.berkeleysouthasian.org.

Odissi Dance Open House. With Jyoti Rout, Artistic Director of Jyoti Kala Mandir. Organized by Jyoti Kala Mandir College of Indian Classical Arts. Santa Clara. Free. (510) 589-3989. jyotikalamandir@gmail.com. www.jyotikalamandir.org.

February 78 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

12 Friday

Karnatik Music Concert. With Gautam Tejas Ganeshan and New Directions. Original songs along traditional lines, improvisations backed by tambura drone lutes, mridangam double drum and ghatam clay percussion. 7-9:30 p.m.

Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia St., San Francisco. $10. (415) 824-3890. ata@ atasite.org. carnatic-ata.eventbrite.com.

Valentine Bash 2016 with Mastani.

Dinner, Dance, DJ. Red and Black dress code. Organized by Peter Sahjani. 7 p.m.

ICC, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. $45, $55, $75. www.indiacc.org.

Valentine’s Day With Dipali and Vishal. 8 p.m. Amaya Restaurant, 7850

Beach Blvd., Buena Park. $40. (909) 3191899. balbir.s@sbcglobal.net.

I Hate Luv Stories Party. As single as I wanna be! If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the red roses, chocolates, and champagne? Not so sure about cheesy Hallmark cards? Sign up for the tonguein-cheek Bay Area V-Day event,Red clothing is banned and the organizers have sworn that no love songs will be played at the event. Great club anthems and classic party rockers will be played. Its also the Official Birthday bash for DJ Asif Ali. Organized by 3M Productions. 10 p.m.

Aura Nightclub, 389 S 1st St., San Jose. www.facebook.com/3MBollywood/.

events February

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events

13 Saturday

An Evening of North Indian Classical Music. Performances by Manik

Khan (sarode), Nilan Chaudhuri (tabla), Benjamin Araki (sitar) and William Rossel (tabla). 7:30 p.m. Ali Akbar College of Music, 215 West End Ave., San Rafael. $20 General, $15 members, seniors and students.

(415) 454-6372. office@aacm.org. www. aacm.org.

A Valentine’s Special with Hari Kondabolu. Kondabolu is a Brooklyn-

based, Queens-raised comic. Organized

by Enacte Arts. 6-9:30 p.m. DeAnza Center for Performing Arts, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino. $30, $10 students w/ID. enacte.org/production/hari-kondabolua-valentines-special/.

Valentine Party. Organized by Me-

hfil Entertainment. 6 p.m. Delhi Palace Banquet Hall, 22323 Sherman Way, Los Angeles. $45-$50. (805) 404-9836.

Love Affair Celebration With Daisy Shah. Bollywood’s best DJ will rock the

house with the beats of Bollywood, UK Bhangra, Electro House, Pop House, R & D, and Hip-Hop. 7 p.m. ICC Milpitas, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. www.facebook. com/events/1678140305733093/.

Valentine’s Candle Light Dinner. DJ

dance, ladies fashion show, photo shoot.

Bring your favorite song to perform or do a couples dance. 7:30 p.m. Dosa Bawarchi, 1380 South Main St., Milpitas. (650) 6690281.

Bollywood Blast—Dil Dhadakne Do Valentine’s Eve Party. Valentine

Party Bollywood Istyle. 9 p.m. Club OMG, 43 6th St., San Francisco. www.eventbrite. com/e/bollywood-blast-dil-dhadakne-do-valentines-eve-party-tickets-20648369830.

February

14 Sunday

Valentine Party with Evelyn Sharma. Dance to the mix by DJ Realdeal.

MC for the evening, Jagruti Shah. Orga-

An ayurvedic approach to seasonal allergies, Feb. 12 in Milpitas

nized by 777 Entertainment. 7:30 p.m.

ICC, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas. $50, $100, $150. (510) 396-2956, (510) 4917141. www.777entertainment.us, events. sulekha.com/valentine-party-2016-withevelyn-sharma-in-milpitas_event-in_milpitas-ca_305319, www.tickethungama.com/ event/953/777-entertainment-presents-valentine-party-2016-with-evelyn-sharma.

February

20 Saturday

The Language of Colors—A Discussion of Guru Nanak’s Janamsakhi Life Stories. Explore the legacy

of Guru Nanak, through the museum’s collection of Janamsakhi paintings, which share the miraculous story of his birth and life. The program begins with artist Rupy C. Tut demonstrating traditional miniature painting in the North Court. At 2 p.m., the program continues with a public conversation in Samsung Hall, featuring guest speakers Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh of Colby College; Kamla Kapur, author of The Singing Guru: Legends and Adventures of Guru Nanak, the First Sikh; and docent Shivi LeghaKapur will sing a shabad (Sikh hymn), and Qamar Adamjee, associate curator of South Asian and Islamic art, will introduce paintings on display in the collection galleries. 1-4 p.m. Asian Art Museum—North Court and

Samsung Hall, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco. Free with museum admission. www. asianart.org/events/812.

Karnatik Vocal Concert— Double Header. 2-3 p.m. Anusha

Kutchibotla(vocal), accompanied by Aparna Thyagarajan (violin) and Shreyas Ramaswami (mridangam). 3:15-6:15 p.m. Subiksha(vocal), accompanied by Lavanya Raman (violin), Amit Ranganathan (kanjira) and Ravindrabharathy Sridharan (mridangam). Organized by SR Fine Arts. 2-6:15 p.m. Community Of Infinite Spirit, 1540, Hick’s Av., San Jose .

First concert: free, Second concert: $10 general, $5 students/seniors. (408) 569-0860. dirsrfa@gmail.com. www.srfinearts.info.

August: Osage County—A Play.

An unflinching, and uproarious, look at the dark warrens inside a Goan Christian home. When the large Pinto family reunites after Dad goes missing, their Goan family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets, presided over by Helen, the drugged-up, acidic matriarch of the family. Based on August: Osage County, the Pulitzer-prize winning play that was turned into a film. Ends Feb. 28.

Organized by Naatak. 6-8 p.m. Cubberley Theater, 4000 Middlefield Road., Palo Alto . General $25, VIP $35. (408) 335-9247. surender@naatak.com, rajiv@naatak.com,

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 79

events harish@naatak.com. www.naatak.com/portfolio/asylum-2016/.

February

27 Saturday

Maitri Gala 2016. Maitri turns 25.

Celebrate the journey, share in future plans and raise a glass to you. Dance the night away with videsi band, Black Mahal.

5:30 p.m. Crowne Plaza Palo Alto, 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. (408) 436-8393. maitri@maitri.org. maitri.org.

February

28 Sunday

Hindustani Classical and Semi Classical Concert. Arshad Syed on

tabla. Arshad will explain how traditional folk music from different states of India is developed into melodious film songs and how tabla and folk drums provide the authentic colors and moods of the songs and help fusion of Indian and western melo-

California’s Best Guide to Indian Events dies. Organized by Sangeet Dhwani. 1-5 p.m. Milpitas Library Auditorium, 160 N Main St., Milpitas. pradjoshi@gmail.com.

Karnatik Music Concert. Featuring Sikkil Gurucharan, V. Sanjeev and Patri Satishkumar. Organized by SanKritiLaya.

4 p.m. CET-SOTO Theater, 701 Vine St., San Jose. www.sankritilaya.org.

March

12 Saturday

Laasya 2016. The nation’s oldest

intercollegiate Indian classical dance competition. Ten collegiate teams will visit UC Berkeley to perform pieces they have choreographed. Teams grapple with a wide range of subjects, from retelling classic Indian tales from a different perspective, exploring world cultures, or highlighting societal issues. Organized by Laasya Board 2016 and Asha for Education. 5-8:30 p.m. El Cerrito Performing Arts Theater, 540 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito .

80 | INDIA CURRENTS | West Coast Edition | February 2016

A discussion of Guru Nanak’s janamasakhi life stories, Feb. 20 in San Francisco

$18 General, $15 students/professors. (408) 507-6422. laasya2016@gmail.com. www. desidancenetwork.org/laasya. © Copyright 2016 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

Om Sri Mathre Namaha

Vaidica Vidhya Ganapathi Center

SRI LAKSHMI GANAPATHI TEMPLE 32B Rancho Drive, San Jose, CA 95111

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

(408) 226-3600 • www.vvgc.org or siliconvalleyhindutemple.com Saturday February 6th At 4:00 Pm Sri Venkateswara Abhisheka continued with Sri Vishnu Sahasra Nama Chanting Sani Pradosham Shiva Sri Rudra Abhisheka Aarati and Manthra Pushpa Friday February 12th At 4:00 Pm Vasantha Panchami Sri Bhuwaneswari / Sri Lalitha Devi Abhisheka Continued With Sri Lalitha Shasra Nama Chanting Aarati and Manthra Pushpa Saturday February 13th At 8:30 Pm Sukla Sashti Vratha Sri Valli Deva Sena Sametha Sri Subramanya Sahasra Nama Archana

Sunday February 14th At 10:30 Am Sri Ratha Sapthami Spcial Sri Surya Narayana Pooja Aarati and Manthra Pushpa Monday February 15th Presidents Day Week End Timings Sri Beeshma Ashtami Kritika Vratha At 4:00 Pm Sri Valli Deva Sena Sametha Sri Subramanya Abhisheka Aarati and Manthra Puspa Thursday February 18th Sri Beeshma Ekadasi Saturday February 20th Sri Venkateswara Abhisheka continued with Sri Vishnu Sahasra Nama Chanting Sani Pradosham Shiv Sri Rudra Abhisheka

Aarati and Manthra Pushpa Monday February 22nd At 5:00 Pm Sri Shvia Abhisheka Aarati and Manthra Pushpa At 6:00 Pm Masi Makham Maha Maham Pournami Vratha/ Pooja Sri Sathya Narayana Swamy Vratha/ Pooja Friday February 26th At 4:00 Pm Sri Bhuwaneswari/ Sri Lalitha Devi Abhisheka Continued with Sri Lalitha Sahasra Nama Chanting At 5:00pm Sri Sankata Hara Chathurthi Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Homa/ Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Abhisheka Aarati and Manthra Pushpa

Please Make A Note: Temple Address: 32 Rancho Drive, San Jose CA 95111 Temple Timings: Week Days Morning 10.00 Am To 12 Noon, Evening At 6.00 pm To 8.00 pm - Week Ends And Holidays 10.00 am To 8.00 pm FOR BHAJAN'S RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES, MUSIC AND DANCE PERFORMANCES, PRIVATE POOJAS PLEASE CONTACT TEMPLE FOR FURTHER DETAILS MANGALANI BHAVANTHU,SUBHAM BHUYATH,LOKA SAMASTHA SUKINO BHAVANTHU, LOVE ALL SERVE ALL LOVE IS ALL

For Pujas & Rituals Contact: PANDIT GANESH SHASTHRY 245-5443 / Cell: (925) 209-7637 E-mail: srikalahatheeswara@yahoo.com

880 E. Fremont Ave., #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 — Home: (408)

ö XI m;;F;e n;m;/ All kinds of Hindu traditional Pujas and homas Ganapathi, Navagraha, Vasthu, Ayushya Homas, Marriages, Seemantham, Nama-karnam, Upanayanam, Sathyanarayana Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Durga Sapthasathi Yanthra Puja. Hiranya Sradha and last rites. American born children’s horoscopes.

Pt. Ganesh Shasthry 880 E. Fremont Ave., #302 Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Home (408) 245-5443 Cell (925) 209-7637 Kabalikarpaga@hotmail.com

l;ek:; s;m;st;; s;uiK;n;;e B;v;nt;u

VEDIC SAMPRADAYA RITUALS ALL TRADITIONAL HINDU PUJAS & HOMAS LIKE:

• Ganapati, Navagraha Homas • Upanayana, Seemantham, Marriages • Sradha, Funeral Services Classes in Puja Vidhi & Veda Chanting

PANDIT RAVICHANDRAN Veda Pandit • Sahitya Siromani 1193 Bluebell Drive, Livermore, CA 94550

(925) 449-0620

E-mail: panditravi@comcast.net

BALU SHASTRI is now available in the Bay Area to conduct all Hindu religious rituals both in North and South Indian manner.

• Poojas of all Kinds • Ceremonies • Homams, etc.

Please contact: Phone: (408) 738-0571 Cell: (408) 393-7722 Email: balushastri@hotmail.com

6211 Prospect Rd., San Jose, CA 95129

INDIA CURRENTS Celebrating 27 Years of Excellence

www.indiacurrents.com February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 81

SPIRITUALITY & HEALTH

February

1 Monday

A Taste of Relaxation and Meditation. Four class meditation series. Ends

Feb. 22. Organized by Heartfulness Institute. 7:30-8:30 p.m. ICC Milpitas, 525 Los Coches St., Milpitas . Free. (408) 888-5949. meenavishnampet@gmail.com, iccheartfulness@gmail.com. en-us.heartfulness.org.

February

5 Friday

Ribhu Gita. Silent meditation, reading and commentary by Nome. 8-9:30 p.m.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831 )425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/ web/events/calendar/, satramana.org/web/ events/boundless-wisdom/.

February

6 Saturday

Venkateswara Abhishekha. 4 p.m. Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Temple. 32B Rancho Drive, San Jose. (408) 226-3600. www.vvgc. org. www.siliconvalleyhindutemple.com.

Celebration in Honor of Swami Vivekananda. Formal worship, devo-

tional singing, readings from the Life and Teachings of Swami Vivekananda, flower offerings, lunch and prasad. 10 a.m. Vedanta Society of Northern California, 2323 Vallejo St., San Francisco. (415) 922-2323. temple@sfvedanta.org. www.sfvedanta.org.

Sri Sundarakanda Ramayana of Goswami Tulsidas. This group chant-

ing tells the heroic story of Sri Hanumanji’s journey to Lanka in search of Sita. Through chanting and reflection on Hanumans dedication and devotion, spiritual and mental strength is developed and peace abides. 2:30 p.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free.

(510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. www. badarikashrama.org.

February

7 Sunday

Does Satan Really Exist? Every Sun-

day. Organized by Self-Realization Fellowship. SRF Center Sacramento, 4513 North Ave., Sacramento. (916) 483-9644. SRF Center Los Gatos, 303 E. Main St., Los Gatos.

(408) 252-5299. Berkeley Temple, 3201 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 984-0084. www. yogananda-srf.org. Contact temples for times.

Satsang. Silent meditation, discourse

and dialogues on Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry. Recitation in Sanskrit and English of Vedantic texts. Recitation of Tamil Ribhu Gita, followed by prasad, and puja to Lord Siva and Sri Ramana. 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz.

Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/web/events/satsangs/, satramana.org/web/events/calendar/.

Sri Haridas Day. The Haridasa tradiCelebration in honor of Swami Vivekananda, Feb. tion was a devotional movement taking 6 in San Francisco place over a span of nearly 6 centuries with major developments in the 13th Celebrations. Worship and meditation, through 16th centuries. Haridasa saints devotional singing, readings and flower ofand mystics influenced the culture, phiferings. 7:30 p.m. Vedanta Society of Northlosophy, music, and art of Karnataka and ern California, 2323 Vallejo St., San Franthe rest of South India. Throughout the cisco. (415) 922-2323. temple@sfvedanta. day Karnatik singers throughout the Bay org. www.sfvedanta.org.

Area will fill the stage for anticipated performances. 10 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free. (510) February Friday 278-2444. www.badarikashrama.org.

12

Lecture on His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Buddha and Christ. By Robert McDermott. 11 a.m.-12 p.m. Cultural Integration Fellowship, 2650 Fulton St., San Francisco. (415) 668-1559. culturalfellowhsip@sbcglobal.net. www.culturalintegraitonfellowship.org.

Sri Ramanama Sankirtana and Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The program

beings with chanting and meditating on Sri Rama followed with selected readings from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The teachings will be elaborated on by ashrama devotees. 11 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free.

(510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. www. badarikashrama.org.

February

10 Wednesday

Swami Brahmananda’s Birthday

82 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

Meditation. Self-inquiry meditation instruction by Nome, silent meditation, dialogues. 8-9:30 p.m. Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio. com. satramana.org/web/events/calendar/, satramana.org/web/events/meditation/.

Vasantha Panchami Sri Bhuwaneswari/Sri Lalitha Devi Abhishekha. 4 p.m. Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi

Temple. 32B Rancho Drive, San Jose. (408) 226-3600. www.vvgc.org. www.siliconvalleyhindutemple.com.

February

13 Saturday

Archana. 8:30 p.m. Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Temple. 32B Rancho Drive, San Jose. (408) 226-3600. www.vvgc.org. www.siliconvalleyhindutemple.com.

February

14 Sunday

Sri Ratha Sapthami Special Sri Surya Narayana Pooja and Aarti.

Mahalakshami Yaagam. Sri Suktam

32B Rancho Drive, San Jose. (408) 226-3600. www.vvgc.org. www.siliconvalleyhindutemple. com.

will be chamted 1600 times by 16 ritwiks while performing homan. Ends Feb. 21.

Livermore Temple, 1232 Arrowhead Ave., Livermore. www.livermoretemple. org.

The True Meaning of Self-Realization. Every Sunday. Organized by

February

10:30 a.m. Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Temple.

Self-Realization Fellowship. SRF Center Sacramento, 4513 North Ave., Sacramento. (916) 483-9644. SRF Center Los Gatos, 303 E. Main St., Los Gatos. (408) 252-5299. Berkeley Temple, 3201 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 984-0084. www.yogananda-srf.org. Contact temples for times.

Sri Saraswathi Puja and Dance.

Once a year students bring their books, instruments, ghungru, flowers and fruits to offer to Sri Saraswathi for blessings of knowledge and success in the arts and sciences. All the students will sit on the alter to participate in the puja. There will be a special Odissi dance performance by Jyoti Kala Mandir from Fremont. Donations will help support Badarikashrama’s school project and it’s many other humanitarian projects. 10 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. www. badarikashrama.org.

Satsang. Silent meditation, discourse

and dialogues on Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry. Recitation in Sanskrit and English of Vedantic texts. Recitation of Tamil Ribhu Gita, followed by prasad, and puja to Lord Siva and Sri Ramana.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/ web/events/satsangs/, satramana.org/web/ events/calendar/.

February

16 Monday

Learn to Meditate. Ends Feb. 29.

9:30-11 a.m. Sri Rama Chandra Mission, 485 Mowry Ave., Fremont. Free. (408) 3078637. naturalpath.california@gmail.com, fremont.ashram@gmail.com. www.sahajmarg.com, www.srcm.org/home.

February

17 Wednesday

19 Friday

Ramana Darshanam. Silent medita-

English of Vedantic texts. Recitation of Tamil Ribhu Gita, followed by prasad, and puja to Lord Siva and Sri Ramana.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/ web/events/satsangs/, satramana.org/web/ events/calendar/.

February

26 Friday

tion, reading and commentary by Nome.

8-9:30 p.m. Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio. com. satramana.org/web/events/calendar/, satramana.org/web/events/ramana-darshanam/.

Meditation. Self-inquiry meditation instruction by Nome, silent meditation, dialogues. 8-9:30 p.m. Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@ cruzio.com. satramana.org/web/events/calendar/, satramana.org/web/events/meditation/.

February

Sri Bhuwaneswari/Sri Lalitha Devi Ahbisheka. 4:00 p.m. Sri Lakshmi Ga-

21 Sunday

The Way to Mental Freedom. Every Sunday. Organized by Self-Realization Fellowship. SRF Center Sacramento, 4513 North Ave., Sacramento. (916) 483-9644. SRF Center Los Gatos, 303 E. Main St., Los Gatos.

(408) 252-5299. Berkeley Temple, 3201 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 984-0084. www. yogananda-srf.org. Contact temples for times.

Lecture on the Life and Legacy of the Mother. This talk is a celebration of

the Mother’s (of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram) 138th birthday and will focus on her external biography. It will be given by a scholar-practitioner of integral yoga, Kundan Singh. 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Cultural Integration Fellowship, 2650 Fulton St., San Francisco. (415) 668-1559. culturalfellowship@sbcglobal.net. www.culturalintegrationfellowship.org.

Sri Satyanarayana Puja and Kirtan.

Composed by ancient Vedic Rishis as a simple form of worship during busy life, this puja brings God’s presence in day to day life. It develops bhakti and shradha and brings blessings to those with sincere prayer. It is practiced every full moon or auspicious day once a month. 11 a.m.

Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@ pacbell.net. www.badarikashrama.org.

Satsang. Silent meditation, discourse and dialogues on Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry. Recitation in Sanskrit and

napathi Temple. 32B Rancho Drive, San Jose.

(408) 226-3600. www.vvgc.org. www.siliconvalleyhindutemple.com.

February

28 Sunday

Choosing to Be Happy. Every Sun-

day. Organized by Self-Realization Fellowship. SRF Center Sacramento, 4513 North Ave., Sacramento. (916) 483-9644. SRF Center Los Gatos, 303 E. Main St., Los Gatos.

(408) 252-5299. Berkeley Temple, 3201 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 984-0084. www. yogananda-srf.org. Contact temples for times.

Sri Bhagavad Gita Talk and Kirtan. Suman Shah will offer an inspiring

and insightful talk on the Gita. Sargam Shah will lead the kirtan. 11 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@ pacbell.net. badarik@pacbell.net.

Satsang. Silent meditation, discourse

and dialogues on Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry. Recitation in Sanskrit and English of Vedantic texts. Recitation of Tamil Ribhu Gita, followed by prasad, and puja to Lord Siva and Sri Ramana.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/ web/events/satsangs/, satramana.org/web/ events/calendar/.

February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 83

March

5 Saturday

Sri Sundarakanda Ramayana of Goswami Tulsidas. Group chanting

tells the heroic story of Sri Hanumanji’s journey to Lanka in search of Mata Sita.

2:30 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro. Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. badarik@pacbell.net.

Shri Gajanan Maharaj Pragat Din Utsav 2016. Palakhi-sohola (pro-

cession) with lezim dance, bhajan by professional singers and naam-smaran (chanting) session. The celebration will conclude with bhandara. Mahaprasad will be prepared using shidha collected from devotees. Organized by Shri Gajanan Maharaj America Parivar. 9:45 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, 450 Persian Drive, Sunnyvale. Free. (562) 396-8545, (408) 828-3345, (408) 597-7991. gmapbayarea@gmail.com. www.shrigmap.org, www.facebook.com/shrigmap, tinyurl.com/ gajanan2016.

March

6 Sunday

Sri Mrityunjaya Japa and Homa. A

day of sadhana. Chanting of Mrityunja mantra from 9 a.m.-noon, followed by a Mritunjaya homa. Following will be sharing of mahaprasad. 9 a.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro.

Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. badarik@pacbell.net.

Satsang. Silent meditation, discourse

and dialogues on Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry. Recitation in Sanskrit and English of Vedantic texts. Recitation of Tamil Ribhu Gita, followed by prasad, and puja to Lord Siva and Sri Ramana.

Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple), 1834 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. Free. (831) 425-7287. sat@cruzio.com. satramana.org/ web/events/satsangs/, satramana.org/web/ events/calendar/.

March

13 Sunday

Lecture and Chanting. In this lec-

ture and group chanting experience, join

84 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

Indira and Shanta Bulkin, teachers and Sanskrit chanters, to experience the joy of the Sanskrit language. 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Cultural Integration Fellowship, 2650 Fulton St., San Francisco. (415) 668-1559. culturalfellowship@sbcgloal.net. culturalintegrationfellowship.org.

Sri Ramakrishna Jayanthi Celebration. This celebration of the life and

teachings of Sri Ramakrishna will be an afternoon of music and satsang. Susheel Narasimhan and family will offer a violin concert. Srimat Swami Tattwamayanandaji Maharaj will show us the relevance of Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings and life to our spiritual practices. Following the performance and talk aarati, mahaprasad will be shared by all. 2 p.m. Badarikashrama, 15602 Maubert Ave., San Leandro.

Free. (510) 278-2444. badarik@pacbell.net. www.badarikashrama.org.

© Copyright 2016 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

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

God's Unfailing Love……

Do you have the real Joy, Peace and happiness in your life? Have you ever asked this question What is the purpose of my

existence in this world? What is a person profited, if he/she shall gain the whole world, and lose his/her own soul? (Or) What shall a person give in exchange for his/her own soul? Is there anyone in this world who can truly love me? Many times we are lost and finally end up asking these questions. There is no one in this world, who can truly love us, except God. Initially, God created human kind (both man and woman) in HIS own image. The purpose of creating mankind was to be with God. But human kind sinned against God and lost the greatest gift of being with HIM. God is Holy. A person with sin cannot dwell or exist with God. Also with sin, human kind earned curses from God. The result of sin was death & curses.

What is sin?

Anything we do that separates us from God’s presence is called SIN. We cannot hide anything from God. God knows our troubles, problems & everything. What the World can offer us is the Lust of flesh, the Lust of eyes & the Pride of life.

Anyone who takes what the World offers ends up committing sin against God.

What is the result of committing sin?

The result of committing sin is a broken heart & soul,having guilt which makes us weak before God, with sadness, no peace, sickness, curses and separation from God. The Bible says, when we were born, we were born with sin because our parents brought us into this world with a sinful nature. For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The wages of sin is death.

No one in this world including our parents or spouse or kids or friends or relatives can love us more than God. The Bible says, God is Love and HE manifested HIS love by sending God's only Holy SON Jesus Christ into this world to save us from all our sins and redeem us from this sinful world. For God so loved the world, that HE gave HIS only begotten Son Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life, the life after death with God in Heaven.

Jesus came to this earth only to die for us and shed HIS blood so that we can be saved by HIS grace and then receive HIS gift of Salvation. Without HIS shedding of blood there is no redemption from sins. So God sent Jesus Christ to this world to die for you and me. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. If we confess our sins to Jesus, HE is faithful and just to forgive us from our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus said "Come unto ME, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

For every sin we commit, we need to pay the penalty individually. However, Jesus took all our sins upon himself, when HE died for us. By giving HIS every drop of blood, we are saved and free from the penalty of sin & death. Jesus 86 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

died for our sins and on the third day, HE rose again from death and became victorious over death, hell and sins. Jesus is a living God. HE is the same yesterday, today & forever. In the Name of Jesus there is Victory, Deliverance from sins & curses and there is Healing from sickness & Miracles in our life.

Jesus Christ is the ONLY WAY to God the Father, HE is the Truth and HE is the Life. No one can go to God the Father & Heaven, except through Jesus Christ.

Our family or friends, our caste or creed, our education or position, our money or riches or status, or by doing charity or by doing yoga or by doing fasting will not take us to God or to Heaven. When we accept & ask Jesus Christ to come into our heart & cleanse our sins with HIS precious blood, Jesus comes into our heart and makes us a new creature, by giving us HIS Love, Joy, HIS Peace, Hope & eternal Life with HIM. This is the TRUTH and the truth shall set you free.

Now how can I redeem HIS gift of Salvation in my life?

All we have to do is to believe Jesus, accept HIM into our heart & ask him to cleanse our sins by HIS blood by repeating this simple prayer. (Prayer means talking to God in your heart)

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.

If you have truly meant this prayer, then you have accepted Jesus into your heart. 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 Churches or email us at info@christforworld.org

health

HOMEOPATHY Practicing under SB577

CLASSICAL HOMEOPATH

Ph.D. Dip-NIH GCEH CCH

In practice since 1987, Meenakshi has 7 years of graduate study in homeopathic medicine. She is a graduate of a world-renowned Homeopathic Medical Institute NIH Calcutta, was a lecturer at CMP Medical College in Bombay, and Advisor to Central Council of Homeopathy in New Delhi * Asthma * Allergies * Sinusitis * Migraines * Colitis * Menopause * Teething * Colic * Ear Infections * Acne * Eczema * Stress/Anxiety * Chr. Fatigue Syndrome Others...

15750 Winchester Blvd., Suite 206, Los Gatos, CA 95030

www.homeopathicdoctor.net •

(408) 884-1992

Pacific Homeopathy THE GENTLE PATH TO HEALING

3275 Stevens Creek Blvd #245 San Jose, CA

(408) 835-7420

Gentle and Personalized Care Integrated Homeopathy care for the whole family * Migraines * Allergies and Asthma * Skin * Female health * Depression * Anxiety and many more conditions

Weekend appointments available

Rina Valia

LCEH, MD(HOM), CCH (Over 25 Years Expereince)

email: rina@pacifichomeopathy.com | Visit www.pacifichomeopathy.com for consultation specials February 2016 | West Coast Edition | www.indiacurrents.com | 87

healthy life

Health Myth Busted!

How to prevent, treat and reverse heart disease

W

hen we think of heart disease, we often picture a certain type of person—someone obese, perhaps. Someone who smokes, eats sweets and fried foods and isn’t physically active. We use this image to reassure ourselves when we are symptom-free, that we can’t possibly be at risk.

At a glance, I look the picture of good health. A 43-year-old serial entrepreneur, I run a startup company in Silicon Valley. At 6 feet tall, I weighed 164 pounds and was at an optimal BMI of 22. I don’t smoke, nor do I consume alcohol or soda. I’m very active, and play soccer in a competitive league. When my primary care physician mentioned that as a South Asian I should get my markers for heart disease checked, I did not feel compelled to follow through.

After all, how could I possibly be prone to heart disease when I had done everything right? A year later I went to El Camino Hospital’s South Asian Heart Center, where my wife had made an appointment—still a little reluctant and skeptical, because I looked and felt perfectly healthy.

The results shocked me. The first advanced, comprehensive risk assessment showed that I was at a high risk for heart disease and the clinical educator at the Center recommended a set of therapeutic lifestyle changes. A subsequent Calcium CT scan revealed that I had coronary artery disease already, and that the level of calcification was at an incredibly high 98th percentile for people of my age and gender.

I immediately made arrangements to meet with a cardiologist, who explained my risk and recommended that I start statin therapy in addition to making the lifestyle changes recommended by the Center. Knowing that I wasn’t as healthy as I had assumed, was a rude wake up call for me. I now had to come face-to-face with my own mortality.

By Nickhil Jakatdar My perspective on lifestyle choices changed. I realized that although I had a problem, I also had a solution. I met with the registered dietician at the South Asian Heart Center to create an individualized meal plan that made modifications to my diet.

For years, I enjoyed a breakfast of sweet cereal (who could resist Banana

Nut Crunch?), and was religious about getting a Chipotle rice bowl for lunch.

With the help of my dietician, I’ve moved away from these not-so-healthy favorites and made better choices for breakfast and lunch. She showed me how I could still enjoy the traditional Indian foods I loved, while adjusting them to be healthier. For instance, she helped me migrate from a dinner of wild rice, dal and chivda to whole grain brown rice, and a more satiating chili-like mix of dals, beans and green leafy vegetables (masoor, moong, thoor, black eyed peas, and channa with spinach), had me replacing my plain dosas with stuffed moong dosas (stuffed with savory preparation of spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and any left over vegetable

88 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

sabjis), supplementing my idli sambhar meals with a green salad or stir fried vegetables and using fresh cucumber and nuts instead of chivda to satisfy my craving for a crunchy topping.

I learned new, yet easy ways to change my surprisingly sugar-rich dietary practices, such as the high intake of fresh fruit juices and fruits which I thought were good for me. I never realized how much sugar I was consuming. I now drink water instead of juice and eat some fresh fruit every day. Just a couple of weeks after making these changes, I began to notice that I was sleeping longer. While I am not at the disease prevention ideal of 7-8 hours yet, I am already waking up feeling much more energized and refreshed.

Four months after my initial assessment, I was retested to see if the changes in my diet and sleep patterns had impacted my markers. My cholesterol and triglycerides have dramatically improved (50% and 75% drop in those markers respectively) and I have lost 18 lbs. I was thrilled with the results, which proved that my choices had, in fact, improved my health. I finally feel that my insides have caught up with my outward appearance, and I can truly say that I am as healthy as I look. And, I am motivated to sustain the behavioral changes I have made.

The reason I am telling my story is that no one, including myself, would have ever known that a serious health problem was lurking underneath my seemingly healthy exterior, without a comprehensive risk evaluation. Regardless of our level of health, it is my belief that we are all capable of making smarter lifestyle choices, and that through this we can minimize our risk for heart disease and in the process, lead better lives.n Nickhil Jakatdar is CEO and co-founder of Vuclip, a mobile video service and a participant in South Asian Heart Center’s AIM to Prevent™ program.

health

ARD in 2013 xAceW llence for E vedic Ayur e Practic

Ayurveda Clinic Dr. Vivek Shanbhag, ND, MD (Ayu), BAMS, CYEd. • Ayurveda Doctor & Professor for over 30 years • Licensed Naturopathic Doctor for over 20 years.

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dear doctor

Feeling Lost Without Children

By Alzak Amlani

Q

I am a male in my mid-forties. I have a decent career and an OK marriage.

For various reasons my wife and I never had children and that opportunity is essentially over. We have not gotten closer, but there isn’t a good reason for us to separate. Most people my age are very busy raising their kids.

I feel a bit like a misfit and even lost since I don’t have many family responsibilities. I work a lot but can’t seem to reach the next level of success in my career. How do I create a more satisfying life for myself?

ingful way can fulfill some of those needs.

There are many ways of doing this: nieces and nephews; volunteering in a school or an organization that need elders to mentor children; becoming a “big brother;” teaching a class or becoming a tutor. This can be done in the evenings or weekends.

You can make a significant difference in a young person’s life and children are hungry for nurturing and stimulating contact with other adults.

Is working a lot a form of escape from some of the emptiness you feel? It’s hard to be creative in your career, unless you’re motivated by an interest deeper than staying busy.

Moving towards fifty, is am important life-stage. Underneath some of your angst are these answers to these questions: What have I done with my life? What legacy will I leave behind? What is most meaningful to me? These are not easy questions to consider, nevertheless they can lead you to

A

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If you’ve decided that having children is not an option anymore, you’ll need to deal with that reality.

Life is indeed different without the presence of children. Although you have a lot more time and freedom, you may also feel lonely and isolated. Do you have natural inclinations towards parenting? Being with young children or teenagers where you can participate in their lives in a mean-

90 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

getting clearer about what you want from the next decade.

Try creating a fuller life where more of yourself is engaged. Here are some options: Pick up a sport or activity where you are moving your body. There are so many benefits to recreation and exercise from a healthy heart and brain, to creativity, to a sense of optimism and well being. Lifelong learning by taking a class on a subject or activity that you are curious about is stimulating, helps build friendships and supports brain development. Doing art, gardening or cooking is great for men, as it engages the right-hemisphere of the brain and gets us in touch with life more intimately. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist of Indian descent in the Bay Area. 650-325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com

SPIRITUALITY & HEALTH

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(818) 543-0800. Fullerton Temple, 142 East Chapman Ave., Fullerton. (714) 525-1291.

Encinitas Temple, 939 Second Street, Encinitas.

(760) 436-7220. San Diego Temple, 3072 First Avenue, San Diego. (619) 295-0170. Call temples for times. Organized by Self Realization Fellowship. www.yogananda-srf.org.

February

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February

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Choosing to Be Happy. Sunday Ser-

vice. Lake Shrine Temple and Retreat, 17190 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. (310) 454-4114.

Hollywood Temple, 4860 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 661-8006. Glendale Temple, 2146 East Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale.

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The Way to Mental Freedom. Sunday Service. Lake Shrine Temple and Retreat, 17190 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. (310) 454-4114. Hollywood Temple, 4860 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 661-8006. Glendale Temple, 2146 East Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale. (818) 543-0800. Fullerton Temple, 142 East Chapman Ave., Fullerton. (714) 5251291. Encinitas Temple, 939 Second Street, Encinitas. (760) 436-7220. San Diego Temple, 3072 First Avenue, San Diego. (619) 2950170. Call temples for times. Organized by Self Realization Fellowship. www.yogananda-srf.org.

© Copyright 2016 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

PARU'S

and Retreat, 17190 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. (310) 454-4114. Hollywood Temple, 4860 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 6618006. Glendale Temple, 2146 East Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale. (818) 543-0800.

Fullerton Temple, 142 East Chapman Ave., Fullerton. (714) 525-1291. Encinitas Temple, 939 Second Street, Encinitas. (760) 436-7220.

San Diego Temple, 3072 First Avenue, San Diego. (619) 295-0170. Call temples for times.

Organized by Self Realization Fellowship. www. yogananda-srf.org.

February

Chapman Ave., Fullerton. (714) 525-1291.

Encinitas Temple, 939 Second Street, Encinitas.

(760) 436-7220. San Diego Temple, 3072 First Avenue, San Diego. (619) 295-0170. Call temples for times. Organized by Self Realization Fellowship. www.yogananda-srf.org.

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recipes

Dalma and the Odia Thali

“I

f you had to name a dish that would sum up the essence of Odisha, what would it be?” This is the question I get asked a lot. To that my first instantaneous answer is always—the humble, unassuming Odia comfort offering—dalma. For me, dalma is to Odisha what undhiyo is to Gujarat or pav bhaji is to Mumbai—that core, essential dish that sums up the palate of its people.

Dalma’s simplicity and ease of preparation, mélange of flavors and the history behind it makes it the contender and winner for the honor of being the Odisha state dish.

Dalma lends itself to all seasons and reasons. Simply described, it is a surprisingly effortless, yet utterly delicious lentil stew with seasonal vegetables that gets the

By Jagruti Vedamati final punch from a delicious tadka (seasoning) of cumin seeds and a pinch of jeeralanka powder (commonly used in Odia dishes—red chilli-cumin powder).

It is most famously known for being served at the holy deity Jagannath’s abode in Puri. As very aptly put by writer James Osland, “For worshippers at Odisha’s Jagannath Temple, a dish of lentil stew with coconut is itself a form of prayer.”

Couldn’t have been said better.

This idea of dalma being a prayer and an offering rings especially true in our house. I remember Sunday lunches with the family when it was almost a ritual to have arua bhata (a special kind of rice), alu bharta (mashed potatoes with a hint of cumin seeds and red chillies), and of course dalma with its various accompani-

Jagruti Vedamati is a post-doctoral student at Stanford University.

plan to pressure cook the dal.

Boil all the vegetables (pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, green beans, eggplant) with the toor dal, along with turmeric powder, crushed ginger and bay leaf. You can also pressure cook for one whistle. Note: I usually add seasonal vegetables, although the very typical dalma that I have grown up with has potatoes, eggplant, pumpkin and carrots.

Dalma

Yield: 4 servings Cooking Time: 20 minutes Ingredients: 2 potatoes, diced ½ cup pumpkin, diced ½ cup carrots, diced ½ cup green beans, diced ½ cup eggplant/brinjal, diced ½ cup split toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 cup water ½ tbsp crushed ginger 1 bay leaf 2 whole red chilies 3 tbsp ghee 1 tbsp cumin seeds 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp red chilli & cumin powder (jeera lanka powder) To taste: salt 1 tsp sugar ½ tsp amchur powder (dry mango powder)

ments for lunch.

There are some distinct, joyous memories of these lunches. To trouble my younger brother, I would often hide his serving of alu bharta (mashed potatoes), which was his favorite side dish, inside his mound of rice. Initially he genuinely got upset and then later, as he caught on, he pretended to be upset, as he frantically searched for his portion of alu bharta. We broke out into fits of laughter when he found his favorite dish hidden inside his rice mound. Now, every time I eat this meal, I always think of those days with nostalgia. n

For the tadka (garnish): In a pan, add ghee and let it

Method: Soak the toor dal at least 10 mins prior, to get a soft and smooth dal. You will notice the difference, especially if you

94 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

heat up.

Then add cumin seeds and after it splutters, add red chilies and saute. Add in half a cup of water to the ghee and let it boil. Then add in the jeera lanka powder (red chilli and cumin seed powder) and amchur. Boil over low medium heat till the ghee floats to the top.

Add the tadka to the dalma and then add salt and sugar and adjust for taste.

Simmer for 10-15 mins. Sprinkle with fresh grated coconut, and chopped cilantro. Serve hot. n

Mastani, the Drink

By Ritu Marwah

I

t was called the ice-cream-cold-drink for years. Around every corner in Pune this version of an ice cream shake was slurped up. Layers of velvety yumminess, fruity melt-in-your-mouth goodness, translucent pieces of tutti-fruiti, crunchy pistachios and meaty almonds made for a ‘mast’ (alluring) drink. Thirty years ago a restaurant renamed it Mastani.

When two flavors, orange and pineapple were combined, a new drink was born. It was called, Mastani, named after the famous Princess of Bundelkhand, Mastani and her husband Peshwa Bajirao 1, the Prime Minister of the Maratha Empire under Chattrapati Sahuji.

Pineapple ice cream and pineapple pieces bob in orange flavored milk. The first sip through the straw brings a rush of delicious sweet pineapple syrup from the bottom.

Mastani seems a royal name when compared to pina colada or fruit punch.

An eatery in Pune, “Sujata Mastani”

sells over twenty flavors of the drink.

Recipe for Mango Mastani

Ingredients 2 cups of mango pulp 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream ½ cup milk ½ cup of chopped cashews, pistachios and almonds 3-4 chopped glazed cherries

Method: Blend together the pulp, milk and 3 scoops of ice cream in a blender. Pour the thick shake into serving glasses.

Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream into the shake.

Sprinkle the nuts and glazed cherries on top.

Other options: This shake can be made with other fruits like sugar-apple (sitaphal) or sapodilla (chikoo) n A Flickr Image by Hari Chandana

Ritu Marwah is Social Media Editor at India Currents.

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On Inglish

Watching Jugaad at Work

By Kalpana Mohan

jugaad, noun. < Jugaad (alternatively Juggaar) is a colloquial Hindi and Punjabi word that can mean an innovative fix or a simple work-around, used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue

A

tion network. day after I arrived in Chennai When Chennai flooded, Ola, Hande’s innovative thinking— during the first week of the in disseminating a solution across a new year, I saw a car languish- India’s leading cab-hailing app huge population—was seen even during on the road behind ours. I stared startup, began plying fishermen’s ing the natural disaster in Chennai, in disbelief at the dust-covered relic. especially when the city administra“Dead from being waterlogged for boats through streets addressing tion failed to address every emergency days,” Vinayagam, my late father’s rescue and relief operations. in a timely fashion. When Chennai chauffeur, said. The car was a bone-dry flooded, Ola, India’s leading cabtestament to the titanic ferocity of the hailing app startup, began plying fishermen’s boats through massive floods that upended Chennai in December 2015. With streets addressing rescue and relief operations. Days after the a finger, someone had etched a “Happy New Year” on the car’s worst downpour, a businessman unleashed his grandfather’s sightless window. military vehicle for reaching food to marooned residents.

One month after the deluge, the city’s vehicles still await their He maneuvered his 1943 Ford GPA Amphibious Seep—a turn at the repair shop. My father’s car is waiting for a spare part, vehicle that had once put thousands of Allied troops on the too. Now, whenever Vinayagam wants to honk—which is almost Normandy beach during World War II—through Chennai’s always—the sound of his brand new car horn floods the air. A wily rough waters to supply food packets. mechanic engineered a quick workaround for our car: He fixed a The spirit of jugaad was on display everywhere in 10-rupee doorbell to the right of the steering wheel.

Chennai during the crisis. Aruna Subramaniam, one of the “That is India, madam,” Vinayagam said to me as I poked fun volunteers coordinating food production, told me about the at the contraption. “In India, we find economical, efficient patches crafty improvisations of helpers as they went about conjurto problems.” Indians refer to this spirit by a Hindi term that is ing up thrifty and environmentally sound measures to pack now in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: jugaad. This food and relief supplies. They eschewed manmade products crude and expedient “make-do” quality is a modus operandi in and used banana leaves instead. Storm drains had been developing nations. Businessmen in the west envy it because it’s choked by plastic during the deluge and volunteers had to often a precursor to innovation. devise bio-degradable alternatives that would not add to the I see jugaad at work every day in Chennai outside my father’s garbage mounting all around town as residents discarded apartment. Azhagappan, the mobile ironing man, works ten hour household objects destroyed by rain. days on the roadside pressing clothes with a hot coal iron. He lacks Aruna shared a heartwarming story that showed yet a table; but he uses the burls and branches of a neem tree right by another facet of jugaad. In response to a natural disaster, him as a shelf, a table top and a coat rack for the accoutrements of relief volunteers drove towards solutions in harmony with his ironing business. nature—and with one another. When all that mattered was The leitmotif of jugaad rises into cadence in most places in to feed hungry mouths, a Hindu wedding cook taught and India because adversity offers opportunity. Decades ago, the Inworked alongside a Muslim chef to make large batches dian government started a daily “midday meals” scheme for poor of tamarind rice; at times during the course of the week, children in rural communities. Children who craved one decent another culinary expert strode into their kitchen. His name meal a day were concurrently force-fed an education. was Xavier.

I read a story about an entrepreneur, Harish Hande, who “To live and to let live” thus became Chennai’s refrain soldered the midday meal concept into his business goal. He sold as the year turned, a significant byproduct, more than 100,000 modular solar lighting systems in the remote I suppose, of this ineffable thing called corners of India even as the Indian government was groping in the jugaad. n dark on how to bring electricity to Indians who lived off the grid.

Solar panels were installed on school premises and batteries were Kalpana Mohan writes from California’s Siligiven to children who charged them at school. If a child did not con Valley. To read more about her, go to http:// attend school daily, there would be no light at home. Hande also kalpanamohan.com. implemented the idea through a cost-effective grassroots distribu100 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

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the last word

Unfriended!

Eleven Reasons Why I Hate Social Media

I

By Sarita Sarvate

bedrooms regardless of whether you want to or not. Take the was browsing the web recently when I realized that someexample of an acquaintance who has been posting the progress one whose posts I used to see regularly had been flying of her medical treatments. TMI, I want to scream at her. Too under the radar lately. Curious, I checked my profile and much information! Please! Don’t tell me so much! I don’t want discovered that indeed, the person was no longer listed as my to become a peeping tom, a voyeur, a fly on your wall. “friend.”

Six. Most of us who have any qualms about privacy can’t My heart missed a beat. I hadn’t actually paid a lot of attenshare honestly on Facebook so we are reduced to sharing only tion to the woman’s posts, still the idea of being “unfriended” the good times. The result is that we have all become a brand rankled. What crime had I committed to deserve such a snub? name, an advertising slogan, a commercial. If Don Was I no longer hip? Was I too old? Had I offended Draper were to rise from his grave, he would cringe the person in some way? at the evolution of his industry.

Or heaven forbid, had I unwittingly clicked Seven.

Social media requires us to no lonThe masthead the wrong icon and “unfriended” her? ger have any original thought. What with the And what was I to do now? Was I to at the top of these sharing of news clips, jokes, political propago back and beg to be let back into the ganda, music, videos of cats, dogs, and little social media sites might fold? Was I to ignore her, not only on children, not to mention old photographs social media but elsewhere too? well announce, “No of our parents and grandparents, there is no I considered closing my account and space left in which to share our actual lives thinking required.” opening a new one. or feelings or thoughts.

The masthead at the I pondered how much I resented the top of these social media sites might well ansocial media. nounce, “No thinking required.”

Shall I count the ways?

Eight.

Social media gives us the illusion of connecOne. Social media encourages us all to become tion without any real camaraderie. We see pictures of mouthMrs. Bucket—pronounced Bouquet—the main character in the watering foods, gorgeous children, men and women in love.

PBS comedy Keeping up Appearances. We are all forced to display And we crave for more.

But we can’t eat them or touch them or our best china and post pictures of candlelit suppers with the upembrace them.

All we can do is salivate. per crust. The pressure to keep up with the Joneses—or rather Nine.

Social media has made us all stars of our own TV the Buckets—is so intense that we no longer know who we are shows.

When Andy Warhol coined the phrase fifteen minutes of and what is important to us. fame, he had not imagined the existence of social media. Today, Two. Our “friends” on social media aren’t actually our we have attained, not only fifteen minutes, but fame twenty“friends,” but rather a collection of people who a web algorithm four-seven.

We have become Truman, the poignant character in told us we might know and who we “friended” simply because the Jim Carey movie the Truman Show, who does not know that we were too afraid to offend them by declining their invitations. his life is a TV drama in which everyone is an actor.

As opposed to our actual friends who we might sometimes see Ten. In what world is one able to get away with “unfriendin real life and have some kind of a relationship with. ing” someone in such a blasé fashion? And what does that say Three. On social media, people no longer talk to one anothabout the “friendship” that existed before such an act of cruelty? er, they simply swap jokes. Where people find these gems, I have In the town I grew up, you couldn’t look your neighbor in the no idea. There must be a deep, deep mine somewhere on the eye and “unfriend” him or her. It was just not done. And with hidden Internet, I imagine, where poor jokes are hidden. Here good reason too. is a typical posting on WhatsApp, a site Indians are crazy about.

Eleven.

If I don’t post, do I exist?

Dear Ladies: There are two types of husbands ….

This last one frankly frightens me. So I go through the First: Calm, handsome, responsible, understanding, caring, motions.

I am afraid to go off the grid, to sign off, to be vanloving, and one who listens to his wife quished. n Second Type: Your own husband.

Huh? Are we scraping the bottom of the humor barrel now?

Four. Social media makes no distinction between close Sarita Sarvate (www.saritasarvate.com) has pubfriends who might know our intimate secrets and people who lished commentaries for New America Media, we have never even met. In real life, we might moderate our KQED FM, San Jose Mercury News, the behavior based on whom we are talking to. In social media, our Oakland Tribune, and many nationwide publilife is an open book anyone can read. cations.

Five. Social media forces you to peek into other people’s 102 | INDIA CURRENTS |West Coast Edition | February 2016

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