November 2012 Southern California Edition

The Story of Brown Girl Surf

Finding Youth in a Retirement Home

Oh Brother

IndiaCurrents Celebrating 26 Years of Excellence

november 2012 • vol. 26, no .8 • www.indiacurrents.com

South Asian fashion designers are making their mark on the global scene. A few of them, like Prabal Gurung and Bibhu Mohapatra, are emerging wildly successful.

Is the East transforming fashion and style in the West?

“Sweet are the Uses of Adversity” IC Celebrates 25 years facebook.com/IndiaCurrents twitter.com/IndiaCurrents 1885 Lundy Ave, Suite 220, San Jose, CA 95131 Phone: (408) 324-0488 (714) 523-8788 Fax: (408) 324-0477 Email: info@indiacurrents.com www.indiacurrents.com Publisher & Editor: Vandana Kumar publisher@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 225 Advertising Manager: Derek Nunes ads@indiacurrents.com Northern California: (408) 324-0488 x 222 Southern California: (714) 523-8788 x 222 Marketing Associate: Raj Singh marketing@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x221 Graphic Designer: Nghia Vuong EDITORIAL BOARD Managing Editor: Jaya Padmanabhan editor@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 226 Events Editor: Mona Shah events@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 224

In Julie Otsuka’s historical novel, When the Emperor was Divine, a Japanese American Berkeley resident, in the process of returning a library book, sees a sign in a post office window, takes a few notes on the back of a bank receipt, goes home and begins to pack. In a few swiftly moving pages, she and her family are aboard a train to an internment camp. Otsuka’s novel is fictional, insofar as it contains fictional characters that she has textured into the arc of her plot; but the plot was constructed of America’s factual history. This is a story of immigrants rounded up and sent to barbed wire enclaves.

It is a story of becoming the “other” within the narratives of our assimilation.

The fortitude of the immigrant spirit is limitless. At every instance of estrangement, we often become stronger in our ability to withstand and endure. We come closer to others similarly marginalized. Every one of these damaged links in our society has the potential to become a stronger tie that knots silkily around our shared experiences.

This was an acknowledged shameful episode in America’s history. Sadly, little is known or told about immigrant internment experiences in India.

Chinese-Indian-American Berkeley resident Yin Marsh in her memoir, Doing Time with Nehru, relates how she and her family were “carted off like common criminals”

in India during the India-China war when ethnic Chinese were herded and dispatched to an internment camp in Rajasthan, while her neighbors looked on through their windows. In the camp, young Marsh and her brother forged friendships, learned strategies for survival and adjusted to their incarceration with youthful inventiveness.

Each one of us has personal experiences of being excluded or alienated. It is that feeling of becoming a mere observer in the events that shape our own lives. It gives wings to the sense of inferiority that lies latent in us. It could be as simple as being excluded from a work meeting; benched at a basketball game; dropped from an invite list; or unchosen during a picka-partner session.

But these very instances make us sit up, take stock, and reinvent ourselves. These are the ways that we begin to reorder our self-worth as individuals and as a community.

I admire the tenacity we have to overcome our various mistreatments. It was Ernest Hemingway who once said, that “the world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” We are the “some.”

Jaya Padmanabhan

COLUMNISTS Dear Doctor: Alzak Amlani Films: Aniruddh Chawda Forum: Rameysh Ramdas On Inglish: Kalpana Mohan The Last Word: Sarita Sarvate Uncubed: Krishna Sadasivam Zeitgeist: Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan Contributors: Jasbina Ahluwalia, Teresa Bergen, Indu Liladhar-Hathi, Farhana Huq, Praba Iyer, Geetika Pathania Jain, Kanniks Kannikeswaran, Shivam Khullar, Melanie Kumar, Lakshmi Mani, Ritu Marwah, Riz Mathani, Ranjani Mohanty, Rajesh Oza, Sujatha Ramprasad, Mani Subramani, Shashank Shekhar Cover Design: Nghia Vuong.

Cover Image: Masaba Collections INDIA CURRENTS® (ISSN 0896-095X) is published monthly (except Dec/Jan, which is a combined issue) for $19.95 per year by India Currents, 1885 Lundy Ave., Ste 220, San Jose, CA 95131. Periodicals postage paid at San Jose, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to INDIA CURRENTS, 1885 LUNDY AVE, STE. 220, SAN JOSE, CA 95131 Information provided is accurate as of the date of going to press; India Currents is not responsible for errors or omissions. Opinions expressed are those of individual authors. Advertising copy, logos, and artwork are the sole responsibility of individual advertisers, not of India Currents.

Copyright © 2012 by India Currents All rights reserved.

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by Ethnic Newswatch

india currents • november 2012 • 1

Southern California Edition

Haute Stuff

Indian and South Asian designers and designs are making inroads into the western couture marketplace.

By Ritu Soni Marwah

10

PERSPECTIVES 1

EDITORIAL: “Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity.” By Jaya Padmanabhan

6

FORUM: Should Obama Be Given a Second Term?

By Rameysh Ramdas and Mani Subramani

7

ZEITGEIST: Oh Brother. By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

8

ANALYSIS: Obsessed with Numbers. By Riz Mathani

By Aniruddh Chawda

16

DESI VOICE: What’s in a Name? By Sujatha Ramprasad

36

18

BOOKS: Reviews of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Tulip Season: A Mitra Basu Mystery. By Raj Oza and Geetika Jain

28

BUSINESS: Lessons From the Trenches. By Shashank Shekhar

Finding Youth in a Retirement Home

44

PERSPECTIVE: Intersections. By Ranjani Iyer Mohanty

By Lakshmi Mani

58

ON INGLISH: A Maharani in the Next Avatar, Perhaps?

By Kalpana Mohan

64

THE LAST WORD BY SARITA SARVATE: Bye, Bye Politics.

FILMS A Review of Barfi!, English Vinglish and Raaz 3-D

COMMENTARY

22

IN FOCUS

LIFESTYLE The Story of Brown Girl Surf

15

Q&A: Like Mother, Like Daughter. By Geetika Pathania Jain

34

MUSIC: The Western Music of Muthuswami Dikshitar. By Kanniks Kannikeswaran

42

RELATIONSHIP DIVA: A Compatible Travel Partner.

By Jasbina Ahluwalia

52

REFLECTIONS: The Corporatization of Gurudom.

By Melanie P. Kumar

54

HEALTHY LIFE: The Yoga and Dance Connection.

By Teresa Bergen

56

TRAVEL: Utah—A Tryst with Nature. By Shivam Khullar

60

RECIPES: The Miracle Tree. By Praba Iyer

63

DEAR DOCTOR: Caretaker Dilemma. By Alzak Amlani

By Farhana Huq

30

FEATURE Building Bridges—A Panel Discussion Photos from the India Currents event held on Oct 10, 2012

20 DEPARTMENTS 4 Voices 5 Popular Articles 2 • india currents • november 2012

WHAT’S CURRENT 26 Ask a Lawyer 27 Visa Dates

59 Classifieds 62 Uncubed

46 Cultural Calendar 53 Spiritual Calendar

india currents • november 2012 • 3

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voices

The Hidden Truth

The feature article on breast cancer by Ophira Ginsburg and Raywat Deonandan (India Currents, October 2012, Breast Cancer—The Hidden Epidemic) uses a host of statistics, but these statistics hide more than they reveal. For example, the article suggests that the survival rate—presumably referring to the commonly cited five-year survival rate (FSR)—for screened women is much higher than that for unscreened women. However, FSR is a flawed and misleading statistic.

Imagine a group of 100 women who are diagnosed with cancer because they feel a breast lump at age 60. With treatment, all of them live until 64. The FSR for this unscreened group is 0%. Now imagine that these women are screened and diagnosed with breast cancer at age 55. With early treatment, they live nine more years. The FSR for this group is 100% even though the women don’t live any longer. Moreover, the screened women end up spending five extra years suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.

No controlled study has shown that mammography screening increases the life expectancy of women significantly. A meta-analysis by the Cochrane group (that combines data from several studies) has estimated that such screening extends their life expectancy by about one day. However, the screening process itself takes longer than one day.

Screening also leads to a 30% overdiagnosis because of false positive results. This may largely explain the higher rates of breast cancer observed among the heavily screened white women compared to those in the lightly screened Asian-American women. Such overdiagnosis also inflates the overall survival statistics.

Finally, cancer treatments offered by modern medicine indiscriminately kill both the cancerous and the healthy cells thereby causing serious side effects while failing to address the root causes of cancer. Therefore, early detection and treatment offer no insurance against recurrence of cancer. Alternative medical systems, such as Ayurveda and Naturopathy, focus instead on preventing cancer through a healthy diet and lifestyle. Because when it comes to cancer, prevention is clearly the best cure.

Vijay Gupta, Cupertino, CA

Rules of Discouragement

Dilnavaz Bamboat’s article against intermarriage related restrictions for women, (India Currents, October 2012, Embracing Freedom), points out the different criteria applied to Parsi men and women regarding entry to consecrated temples in India, but it would 4 • india currents • november 2012

help us to understand some of the reasons behind this.

Parsis (followers of Prophet Zarathustra of Iran) are a very tiny community and intermarriages in general pose a grave danger to preserving their ethnic and religious identity, so community leaders with advice from their scholar-priests try to frame rules to discourage such marriages. Although orthodox Parsis would like to apply the restrictions equally to men and women, some of the mainstream leaders have accepted a compromise that considers the mostly male oriented society in India in which wives and children usually adopt the last name and religion of the husband/ father.

Entry to some Hindu temples in India is also prohibited to Hindus who have married non-Hindus. For example, Indira Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India, who married a Parsi freedom fighter, Feroze Gandhi, who adopted her husband’s last name (she was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter and not related to Mahatma Gandhi as some may think), was not allowed entry to a Hindu temple in South India because of her intermarriage. Non-Muslims are not allowed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and non-Mormons are not allowed in the inner sanctum of the Mormon (LDS) church.

In western countries, Zarathustrian (Zoroastrian) temples are not consecrated with ritual prayers and ceremonies like they are in India, and are more like simple prayer halls with a fire burning in the inner room, and western societies have different customs that allow more freedom not only to women but also to children (who sometimes even sue their parents).

Maneck Bhujwala, Huntington Beach, CA

Curious about Boson?

In the the article on Nobel history (India Currents, August 2012, Nobel Trivia) Mahadevan describes how the Indian scientist Satyendra Nath Bose was instrumental in working out the theoretical model for the existence of the Higgs Boson particles, and was ignored by the Nobel selection committee. This is not the only time Satyendra Nath Bose was ignored or forgotten by the West.

Let me explain.

Since last July 2012 many news releases and articles have appeared in the media all around the world on the existence of the subatomic particle, also known as the “God particle” since it is fundamental to the origin of the universe and explains the mystery of mass in the cosmos. The motion and movement (dance?) of these particles are believed to have led to the creation of the universe and hence its name.

Most of these science writers outside India did not bother to include an explanation for the term “boson” in the Higgs Boson discovery which helps to unravel the origin

of universe. For all the story-reporting in the west on such a huge discovery, the absence of a definition for boson has been a glaring and common omission.

The Higgs part everyone seems to know about. The first thing that we are told about the Higgs boson is that it’s named after Peter Higgs, a physicist at Edinburgh University who made the theoretical discovery. Should not one be curious enough to ask—what about Boson?—since Boson tends to follow as soon as the name Higgs shows up. Boson is, in fact, along with the Fermion (named after Enrico Fermi), one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particles.

In fact, as the article states, “Boson” is named after Satyendra Nath Bose, who formulated the statistical method to analyze the thermal behavior of gases and sent his paper on quantum statistics to Albert Einstein.

Bose’s formulation came to be known as the Bose-Einstein statistics, and became the basis of quantum mechanics. Einstein saw that Bose’s theory had profound implications for physics and believed that it opened the way for the existence of a class of subatomic particle, which he named, “Boson,” after his Indian collaborator. Thus we have the “Higgs boson.”

Now, let me give you another interesting angle to the experimental discovery of this “God Particle.” Here I transcribe the article written by S. Gurumurthi in the Tamil magazine, Thuglak.

On June 18, 2004, at the CERN Laboratory entrance grounds in Switzerland, the authorities unveiled a six foot statue of the Hindu God Lord Nataraja in recognition of the belief that the tandava of Shiva created the universe with a “big bang,” which is akin to the scientific theory based on the “dance” of the Higgs Boson particle. The commemorative plate at the foot of the statue includes a selected passage from the book, The Tao of Physics, by the well known American physicist and UC Berkeley professor Fritjof Capra. The displayed passage essentially describes how many thousands of years ago Hindu wisdom talked about Lord Shiva’s dance in the creation of the Universe is essentially the same as the “dance” of the subatomic particle as modeled by science.

Thiagas S. Sankar, Montreal, Canada

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Follow us at twitter.com/indiacurrents Like us facebook.com/India Currents Most Popular Articles Online October 2012: 1) Nirvana in my Tequila. Kalpana Mohan 2) On the American Story. Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 3) The Indian American Contenders. Rishi Kumar 4) Obama Is Our Only Option. Sarita Sarvate 5) Parody or Comedy. Anita Felicelli 6) Embracing Freedom. Dilnavaz Bamboat 7) Happy Birthday, Amitji. Madhumita Gupta 8) Under the Guise of Art. Jaya Padmanabhan 9) A Clear Choice. Vidya Pradhan 10) In Memory of Lakshmi. V.V. Sundaram

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india currents • november 2012 • 5

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forum

Should Obama Be Given a Second Term?

Rameysh Ramdas

Mani Subramani

No, Obama should not be given a second term

Yes, Obama should be given a second term

P

O

resident Obama’s inept and listless performance at the presidennly if the first presidential debate matters to you Mitt Romtial debate in Denver disappointed not just Democratic voters ney should get your vote. If not read on. A proper analysis of but confounded even his most ardent liberal admirers in the meObama’s and Romney’s policies should be a key part of this dia. But it was sadly a revealing and indicative snapshot of his inability process. A careful look at the jobs data is a starting point. According to rise and meet the demands of being President. The better rehearsed to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 650,000 jobs were lost feistiness of the President in the subsequent debates does nothing to every month from late 2008 to early 2009. Over 8 million jobs were lost change that revelation. between July 2007 and September 2010. Since then the economy has Buzz Bissinger, a liberal commentator for The Daily Beast, wrote been adding jobs. The composition of the jobs that are being added is a heartfelt piece declaring his vote for Mitt Romney. Referring to interesting to note. During the period from 2000 to 2010, federal and Obama, Bissinger commented: “He struck me as burnt out, tired of state governments were the largest employers, while the private sector selling his message although he has always been terrible at selling his was shedding them in large numbers. This trend is now completely message when it veers from idealism into the practical.” reversed and since September 2010, a majority of the added jobs have I agree with Bissinger. President, Obama has not shown the skills, been in the private sector. the aptitude, the temperament or the passion for the job. Obama has This means two things. Firstly, the disastrous job loss trends were failed to forge relationships in Congress, failed to shape successfully arrested and pointed in the right direction. Secnational dialog with the power of his ideas, nor engaged ondly, it seems that the Stimulus plan worked as envisioned. the nation to rally behind him. His signature accomplish- Check out past forum This happened in spite of the fact that not a single Republiment—Obamacare—was tirelessly and relentlessly pushed columns at indiacur- can voted for the Stimulus in the House. The few moderates

by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A Rasmussen poll on Oct 8, rents.com/articles/ that crossed the aisle in the Senate for the good of the councategories/forum 2012 showed that over 54% of likely voters favor repealing try are in a very tenuous position within their party today.

Obama’s Health Care Law. This despite a significant portion of the Stimulus being in Bob Woodward’s latest book The Price of Politics chronthe form of tax cuts as demanded by Republicans. Without icles what he calls “gaps” in leadership due to Obama’s failure to the Stimulus the nation cultivate congressional relationships that was glaringly evident in could have plunged into his failure to strike a deal Depression. The Repubwith Speaker Boehner lican refusal to countethat would have raised the nance anything Obama debt limit while also putput on the table was the ting in place a blueprint result of a concerted effort for a long term budget by the Republican party, balance. Woodward told spearheaded by Senate Diane Sawyer in a recent Minority Whip Mitch interview, “My concluMcConnell, who stated sion is President Clinton, in 2010 that his party’s President Reagan—and if top goal was to make you look at them, you can Barack Obama a one term criticize them for lots of President. Republicans things—they by and large were treasonous enough worked their will. On this, President Obama did not.” to stake the economy to President Obama has not instilled confidence in both corporate make a political point. So America and in consumers, thus impacting hiring. Rick Newmann a vote for Obama would be an endorsement of the principle that govwrote recently in The U.S News that the “real” unemployment number ernment can indeed be a force for good and a message against partisan is close to 14.7%—the percentage of adult Americans who are unembehavior. ployed, underemployed, or too discouraged to look for work or “marPresident Obama is keen to bring back manufacturing jobs. His ginally attached” to the labor force. The job creators, large and small plan involves reducing the deficit in a sensible way without choking businesses, are in pause mode as they do not see consistency or clarity recovery. He advocates progressive taxation, targeted incentives and a coming out of Washington D.C. strong emphasis on education to prepare Americans.

President Obama has clearly shown us that he revels in the poetry From what one can glean from Mitt Romney’s shifting, often of a campaign but is simply not capable of the dull and complex prose conflicting positions, he would favor an across the board tax cut for of governing. We voted for him in 2008 to create history. Regrettably, individuals and a lowering of the corporate tax rate. This is doubling Barack Obama sought and governed the presidency as an ongoing down on the supply side policy implemented by the prior administracampaign, as if it was all about him, we need to be wise enough today tion which was not effective. U.S. corporations are not hurting for cash, to vote for his opponent, mindful that the Presidency is and should be they have 3 trillion in cash reserves. They are lacking demand and good all about us. n ideas to invest in. By focusing on people Obama’s policies address the demand side of this economy. This is the right approach. n

President Obama has clearly shown us that he revels in the poetry of a campaign but is simply not capable of the dull and complex prose of governing.

Rameysh Ramdas, an SF Bay Area professional, writes as a hobby.

6 • india currents • november 2012

Republicans were treasonous enough to stake the economy to make a political point.

So a vote for Obama would be an endorsement of the principle that government can indeed be a force for good ...

Mani Subramani works in the semi-conductor industry in Silicon Valley.

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zeitgeist

Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

Oh Brother

T

here are always women: aunts, aunties, mothers, sisters, cousin My grandmothers each have many sisters. sisters, grandmothers, neighbors, friends. The women are rowdy, singing, dancing, telling bawdy jokes, laughing open mouthed, My mother, to whom I am particularly close, sharing sweets and snacks. They wear salwar kameez with colored chunhas one, too. And I have an unfortunate nis, festive but casual in comparison to the saris selected for the wedding, pressed and hung on doorknobs with matching petticoats and ziptendency to make friends with women who locked jewelry. The bride-to-be sits in the center of it all, arms and legs have sisters, which makes me feel all the extended, salwar bottoms rolled to the knee, submitting with smiles to more bereft. the ministrations of a mehendi artist, or two. A sister waits by her side, patiently offering a mouthful of lunch from her own manicured fingers, and a cousin is nearby, juice in hand, prepping a straw to bring to the bride’s lips. Later, when the juice is drunk too quickly, and the bride realizes she has to make a restroom trip without the use of either hand, favorite sister, daughter, granddaughter, niece. But mine are lonely an expert, laughing aunt comes to her rescue as attendant and aid. spoils.

I’d seen enough Hindi movies to know how the mehendi was supMy grandmothers each have many sisters. My mother, to whom I posed to go. Noise. Laughter. Women. So when Kamala came home to am particularly close, has one, too. And I have an unfortunate tendenapply my mehendi a couple days before my wedding, I knew she’d find cy to make friends with women who have sisters, which makes me feel the scene unorthodox. Our house was quiet. My mother and a few relaall the more bereft. These sisters are sometimes close, sometimes not. tives efficiently assembled favors in the dining room. My grandmother But I sense they communicate telepathically, commiserating over the napped. The television played old Billboard hits. Kamala and I set up in demands of parents, the follies of partners, the stresses of work, the the family room, where I took an olive recliner. Morning sun streamed labor of raising children. I imagine the clothes swapped and secrets in from the backyard as Kamala started on a peacock pair, nuzzling shared—from first bras and first kisses, to late life diagnoses, crises, heads in the palm of my left hand. Then traipsed in my brothers—all achievements, and decisions borne. I imagine a deep understanding. six of them.

I imagine a singular bond.

The oldest had bought champagne at the corner store and was ready There is only so close you can get to a woman with a sister. She is to pop it at just past ten, which he did. His twin searched the kitchen generally not looking for another one. She may have a best friend, or for glasses and returned, triumphant, with mugs in hand. Another, litmany, but she doesn’t need you the way the sisterless do. A brother tler brother stood watchfully by my side, leaning in too closely to see the will love you. A brother will carry your suitcases. A brother will take vines developing on my wrist. Yet another found a plate of watermelon you for a sprint workout and teach you the latest P90X routine. But a on the butcher block and, coming near to be part of the fun, dripped woman with a sister has a woman to call her own: a woman who knows juice and seeds all over Kamala’s bag and my left calf. My brother, something of what it means to be a woman in this family, to these sweaty from an early run and singing along to his iPod, stretched and parents, in this country, at this moment, faced with these obligations, headed for the fridge, oblivious to the proceedings. bearing these burdens, in this climate, harboring these disappointI have no sisters, no cousin sisters even, just one brother and half ments, nurturing these many dreams. a dozen cousins I owe rakhis. They crowded around while I had my *** mehendi applied, commenting sweetly and inexpertly, trading notes on soccer teams, until they got restless. Then a flash of inspiration and the uxtapose the scene of my mehendi with a clip from Hum Aapke fun began: a watermelon segment placed with glee in sister’s mouth Hain Kaun! or Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and I look like the (I protested, laughing first, then choking, face full of rind, both hands victim of a schoolyard prank, not a bride-to-be. There is no Nisha to outstretched and henna-covered); a sip of champagne jokingly offered my Pooja, no Chutki to my Simran. All through the wedding straight from the bottle, then spilled down sister’s front. planning, I grumbled to my mother. A sister would have been They hooted and clapped and filmed my sputtering on Check out past zeitmore involved, I said. A sister would have understood what I their cell-phones, while Kamala completed a drum on the geist columns at indihead of a peacock on the back of a hand. Then, as swiftly acurrents.com/articles/ was going through.

Later, seeing the photos and video of my handsome as they’d entered, my brothers blew out of the room, categories/zeitgeist brothers and brothers-in-law in kurta pyjama and suits, dispersing to read and nap, play video games, shower and shrugging off their coats to dance and lifting our chairs in the change. The mehendi continued until sundown. air during the Jewish horah, I felt a stirring warmth. Watching my brother’s full-throated toast and dedicated song, I felt pride. My *** brothers might not have paid attention to all the wedding details like love my brother more than anyone, but I have always felt keenly the a sister would; they might never know the crosswise pulls most women lack of a sister. (This cuts both ways. Growing up, I’m certain he bear. But they gave me their unaffected love in the form of champagne would have traded me gladly for his friend Andrew’s older brother.) But shower and watermelon face. And now I wait—for that other gift of being sisterless is my lot. Not only have I no sisters or female cousins, brothers, for my half a dozen sisters-in-law. n I’ve recently acquired two (wonderful, but unalterably male) brothersRagini Tharoor Srinivasan is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric at the in-law. Certainly, I am spoiled. I have acquired an inappropriate amount University of California, Berkeley. of the family jewelry, heirloom saris, attention from relatives. I am the

J

I

india currents • november 2012 • 7

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analysis

Riz Mathani

Obsessed with Numbers Is Western society more obsessed with numbers than the East?

H

aving lived half my life in the West and half in the East, I have noticed that in the West, we tend to use a lot of numbers in our conversations, while in the East, the conversations are more descriptive.

combinations, whereas the ancient ayurvedic science of the East tends to work more on the quality of the curative substances (which lack side effects) and not their specific quantities.

A hundred years of baseball statistics may

Topic

Typical Western Conversation

Weather

It’s 12 below zero and it’s expected Its freezing cold and we are going to be to snow 4 inches overnight. buried under snow overnight.

Food

Great, but I added 1,600 calories.

Great, and I can feel my waistline growing.

Economy

The DOW has gone up 3,000 points in the last 6 months, but the unemployment rate is hovering around 9%.

The share market is going gangbusters, but there are hardly any jobs out there.

Politics

President Clinton spoke for 48 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a ½ minutes at the Democratic Na- a very long speech and it was never endtional Convention. ing.

Sports

The hike is 6.1 miles long and gains The hike will take a couple of hours and an elevation of 2,300 feet and at its we should be high enough to get a good highest point you can see the Bay 5 view of the bay in the distance. miles away.

Movies

The Mercury News gave it 3 and half stars but I would give it 2 thumbs down.

The papers raved about the movie, but I hated it.

Children

My son is in the bottom 20 percentile of weight.

My son is underweight and looks like a stick.

As depicted by the examples in the table, the Western style of communication is decidedly low context where everything is spelled out in its ultimate numeric detail, whereas the Eastern style is high context where the facts behind the statements and conclusions are implied. In fact, in the high context Eastern cultures, anthropologists have argued that the tone, expressions and gestures of the speaker add significantly to what is being communicated.

Consider the example of a visit to a doctor in the West. They will more than likely collect large amounts of data on the patient starting with their weight, height, blood pressure to blood tests, x-rays and sonograms. On the other hand, in the East the doctor will visually inspect the patient as well as feel the vibrations of their body, a behavior that is not common practice in the west. It is no wonder that modern allopathic science of the West has an intricate system of highly specific numeric dosages of inorganic compounds in various 8 • india currents • november 2012

Typical Eastern Conversation

be an extreme, but there is a definite obsession for keeping sports records so that you are constantly striving to beat them leading to superhuman efforts that are assisted by artificial drugs. In many sports, the difference between a winner and a loser has now come down to milliseconds, and since you are really competing against an already established record, one could argue that the thrill for the spectator to visually observe the competition in action is diminished. Is the day very far when instead of running a race against one another in real time, Olympic contestants will insist that they run it alone and be measured without the distraction in terms of that change in wind direction by another contestant running alongside which slows them down a fraction of a millisecond making it unfair? This would deprive the spectator of that photo finish moment!

The obsession with numbers also spills into how decisions get made in the West vs. the East. In the West, there is an emphasis

on collecting and analyzing reams of data, whereas in the East, decision makers tend to look at the big picture from an intuitive or gut feel. Driven by this obsession, Big Data is being collected and analyzed by myriad Western companies in the hopes of precisely predicting buying behavior to be able to capture a larger share of a specific consumer’s wallet. On the flip side in the East, subjective advertising that uses fewer words continues to capitalize on the impulsive nature of the buyers. A paradox to the Western one-to-one targeted marketing could be that you could miss out on that significant white space where a consumer makes such impulsive buys that may seem to be out of character by just looking at a numeric pattern.

Blindly relying on data without using one’s own judgment does not appear to be any better or worse than relying on experience and intuition and thinking outside the box. Take the case of the recent financial meltdown which well trained Western economists from Ivy League universities were unable to see coming until it hit them in the face. Some are inclined to put forth the argument that the collapse was driven by greed which could not be anticipated or calculated. Au contraire, a high context Westerner, Warren Buffet, states it brilliantly in his famous quote: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestselling book Blink has developed the concept of “thinslicing” that the human brain goes through which allows one to make snap judgments in the absence of detailed data in any situation.

He discusses many experiments which have proved that over-analyzing or performing a detailed mathematical analysis do not make decisions any better, but they could make it worse. To quote Gladwell, “if we could not make sense of complicated situations in a flash, basketball would be chaotic, and birdwatchers would be helpless.” Think about it!

But while you are thinking, what will you have for lunch today—a 6 inch sub sandwich or a plate of vegetable biryani? n Riz Mithani is a graduate of IIT Bombay and ekes out a living by peddling simple business and technology solutions to highly complex problems that provide a real return on investment. When he is not dancing or traveling, he blogs occasionally at rizmit.wordpress.com

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india currents • november 2012 • 9

Haute Stuff

By Ritu Soni Marwah

The fact that Indian fashion has survived and adapted to the vogue onslaught from the west, is no surprise. The vibrant colors and homespun fabrics of India have the much coveted exotic feel.

Burgundies and brocades are now part of international fashion repertoire. Young talents in the fashion industry are exporting style that was once the purview of the southeast zone.

W

hen Indian fashion sensation Tarun Tahiliani was picked by global singing sensation Lady Gaga to outfit her in India, she was not the first celebrity to look eastward for sartorial elegance. Supermodel Heidi Klum, actress Mischa Barton, talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, and a whole host of other celebrities including Liz Hurley, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johannsen, Fergie, Rihanna and Madonna have endorsed Indian fashions. “India is definitely more on people’s radar than ever before.

From being a country identified for its exotic religion and palaces, it’s being seen differently today. There is an awareness about Indian fashion and its unique contribution which is different to that of the prescribed dress forms relevant in the western world,” said hi-fashion designer Ritu Kumar in an interview with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

Fashion designers capitalize on the sex-appeal of the six-yards with models and celebrities displaying dropped pallus, reverse pleats, bandeau blouses and innovative ways to rig the habiliment.

Chiffons, nets, crepes, cozy up together to create wispy ensembles that are there and yet not there, while natural colors create a homespun handloom mood. At the Wills Fashion Show in February 2012, models wore saris with belted jackets and fitted coats, creating a stark clean look. Cotton, wool and silk fabrics blended into practical and elegant designs. On the ramps, tradition is redesigned with belts snaking around saris, and trousers substituted for petticoats.

Twenty-three year old designer, Masaba Gupta, daughter of cine star Nina Gupta and cricketer Sir Vivian Richards, has reprised this thousand year old garment, the sari, calling her innovations “old songs in newer beats.”

She has overhauled style by moving the pleats Pimpin’ the Pallu Every so often Hollywood celebrities pay to the back, traded petticoats for palazzo homage to India’s little black dress, the ubiq- pants and made a statement with bold blocks uitous sari. Boundaries are pushed to redefine of colors.

Other designers have their own take on and re-innovate the traditional attire. In adfashion.

Textile designer Neeru Kumar weaves dition to being one of the most provocative garments, the sari has the weight of history ethnic handloom traditions into modern silbehind it that Indians in the west look for. houettes. Amit Aggarwal creates three-dimensional shapes using “wire mesh, silk, sleeves in silk and jersey, sumptuously molded into touchable looking bubbles, light as air.”

Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s collection showcased

by Bollywood stars, Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerjee and Aishwarya Rai, attracts the nouveau riche interest and dollar.

Pussycat Dolls on the Red Carpet For the local 10 • india currents • november 2012

Designer: Masaba

diaspora, Pia Ka Ghar houses the largest Sabyasachi collection in the Bay Area. Pia Ganguly, the owner of the retail collection, has come up with a marketing slogan that unerringly hits the target: “for the unforgettable woman ... you.” Based out of her Los Altos Hills home, Pia’s collection embodies an era of Tagore songs and timeless love. For the past seven years, Pia’s has become the go-to place for the well-dressed Bay Area resident planning for a special evening.

Global designers have now realized the value of the Indian market. In 2011, luxury brand Hermès launched a line of beautiful saris—an extension of their trademark scarves, costing a whopping $6,100 to $8,200. In his fall 2008 collection, Alexander McQueen, the celebrated British designer showcased a red silk and white tulle sari dress. It is rumored that a Bay Area socialite was seen wearing it at a charity dinner in San Francisco.

Tradition and Trends

When Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, rolled out the “Festival of India,” in the early 80s the glitterati of Delhi embraced the traditional arts as haute couture. Dhakai Jamdanis from Calcutta; Ikats from Orissa; Phulkaris from Punjab; the many-layered, painfully embroidered, one of a kind, Kantha saris from Bengal as well as the “inspired by the Ajanta paintings” Paithanis from Maharashtra found a glad welcome in the Delhi social scene. The work of indigenous weavers and traditional artists was in!

Hindu custom demands that new saris be worn on certain festival days like Durga Puja,

Lakshmi Puja, and Onam. “Every year, like clockwork, my clients come and buy a new sari for the occasion. The young buyers like the trendy saris we carry in our Nalli Next collection. The net saris, hard-to-find Pashmina saris with Kashmiri embroidery, modern twotone colored Kanjeevarmas saris with patterns from Amar Chitra Katha stories, crystals and embroidery are very popular. But the more mature buyer buys the traditional temple saris from Kanjeevaram,” says Sonya Wadhva, Executive VP, Nalli Silks U.S.A. When the young Bharatanatyam dancer is ready to perform the Arangetram (debut performance), the teacher and musical accompanists are usually gifted traditional saris.

The summer event pages of India Currents proves that the burgeoning dance community keeps the local sari shops in business. During karva chauth, which comes once a year, Punjabi brides fast all day long for the long life of their husbands and then gift a sari to their mothers-in-law. Young Tamilian girls are given a sari or a half sari when they come of age.

Religious tradition also dictates the time or “mahurat” when new saris should be bought. “Rahu kalam” must be avoided.

At the beginning of the new year I go to the Livermore temple and pick up a calendar which gives me all the days I know no brides are going to come shopping,” says Wadhva.

Anarkali churidaar sets named after the beautiful courtesan who ensnared the crown prince of the mighty Mughal Empire, are the flavor of the season, according to Wadhva.

Fitted on top, the shirt flares out over tight long bottoms that gather around the ankles to form “churis” or bangles. Shops all over India and overseas stock Anarkalis in a myriad of colors, the brighter colors being preferred in states like Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and the more pastel shades making their mark in Delhi and Mumbai.

The new trend of crossover fashion from Pakistan has increased the length of tops to skim the ankles. The churidaar bottom is seen only when the wearer twirls the skirt of her top or gently lifts it up as she steps up or down the stairs.

Prabal Gurung, the South Asian designer famous for outfitting First Lady, Michelle Obama, admits to being influenced by his roots. He was born in Singapore, raised in Nepal and worked in New Delhi, India. According to The Vogue, one of his designs is a “cornflower blue dancing dress over slim, dark pants.” A throwback to the traditional anarkali churidaar, perhaps?

The very successful Bibhu Mohapatra, the Orissa designer who presented his second runway collection during the New York Fashion week this September also played up the “ethereal looking” aspect of his collection.

Convenience Shopping Photo Credit: Borrow it Bindaas

With the Internet bringing the world to our doorstep, Indian fashion, is now but a click away. With the expansion of the online

Designer: Nalli Silks

Designer: Masaba

designer showrooms, Bay Area ladies are browsing the bazaars of Chennai, Punjab, Benares in the new Internet haat. Exclusively.In, a membersonly shopping site for fashion, jewelry and

Designer: Masaba

india currents • november 2012 • 11

and petticoats. In three easy steps you have a sari ordered and delivered to your doorstep.

Unlike tuxedo rental places where the rental clothes need to be returned within two days, online rental companies allow the return of outfits within eight days. “Menswear rental rates are $65 to $80 per outfit, so renting Indian party attire is cheaper than renting a tuxedo. Bridal packages, where eight of the groom’s or bride’s friends can rent matching outfits, make life so much easier for the wedding party,” says Niddhi Khara of Borrow it Bindaas.

Website borrowers are not limited to the Indian diaspora. When invited to an Indian wedding, Caucasian friends don’t want to be left behind and yet at the same time they may not want to dish out $1,000 for one evening.

This trend is not restricted to clothing alone.

Jewelry Designer: Masaba

home decor from Indian artisans and designers offers convenience to the shopper, who can’t walk into Nordstrom to buy Indian clothes. Flash sales were announced everyday and sent to the email accounts of the Indian diaspora.

“We sell fifteen to twenty saris a week from our internet site, says Wadhva. “Nalli saris, with their assurance and reputation of quality are available to people everywhere. We load pictures of saris we stock in our United States store on our Facebook page and often people call us, order their saris over the phone, pay with their credit cards and we mail their selections to them.”

Illinois-based Luxemi offers convenience of another kind. They offer Indian fashions for sale or rent to U.S. consumers. Other online sites joined the same bandwagon. “Most people have a small group of friends and repeating the same outfit at another function becomes difficult.” Says Riddhi Khara from Borrow it Bindaas, a Southern California based company that services the same need.

Due to the omnipresence of Facebook, when an expensive outfit is worn to a wedding or a party, it is being debuted on the world stage. I recently attended a wedding of a nephew in Kochi, India, and when I returned to California, a number of people complimented me on my wardrobe. These are people who are not in my immediate social circle but are my Facebook friends. Now for the next wedding, even if it is not within the same circle of friends, I need a new wardrobe.

The high price tag of designer saris puts me in a quandary. To the rescue comes a rental service like Borrow it Bindaas or Luxemi or Devi’sCloset.

Wearing a thousand dollar sari for hundred dollars becomes feasible with Devi’sCloset, who loans out designer couture by Ritu Kumar or Payal Singhal, with matching blouses 12 • india currents • november 2012

From representing the daughter’s share of parental wealth and a hedge against leaner times or “istridhan” (woman’s wealth), jewelry has now become a must-have fashion accessory. Designers have jumped to take advantage of this consumer need, whether in terms of design versatility or price.

Brides can now commission jewelry to match the embroidery on their wedding dress.

J.J. Vallya, who makes wedding outfits, has been known to encrust jewels onto the wedding dress itself. Girls getting married demand mang tikkas, jhoomars, armbands, rings for every finger, bangles, amulets and anklets.

“Brides are still choosing very traditional designs but a new color palette has taken over the age old choice of red,” says Shelly Gupta of Saloni Collection.

For the budget-conscious, this jewelry is available in gold plated silver. Parents balk at the price of what they consider costume jewelry but it is a smaller price to pay for the princess look.

There is the “one gram gold” jewelry where the gold plating is done using real gold, hence the term “one gram.” It comes with a “guarantee card” and looks like the real deal.

Anu, a housewife out of Chennai, has her store on Facebook called Anu’s Collection. “ I lived in Sunnyvale for nine years. We moved back to Chennai two years ago and I found the working environment very different in India.

Jewelry was my passion. It was also a way to stay connected to my friends in the bay area. I put pictures of some of the jewelry and clothes I can get for them on Facebook. Now they send me a message about what they want from Chennai and I just courier it to them. I am like their personal shopper.” She laughs gaily as she shows me a piece of the latest addition, “terracotta jewelry.”

Tribal jewelry is in great demand by the confident and trendy clientele. “Terracotta jewelry designed by an artist who has experimented with color is popular with the stylish, creative Bengali group who team it up with their cotton saris for an ethnic image.

It comes from the South of India. I recently brought some folk pieces in Dokra and Terracotta,” says Gupta.

As the quality of artificial materials improves, it has become harder and harder to tell the difference between a real stone and a glass bead from China. Buyers of jewelry are tempted by the cheaper price tag. The price of silver has shot through the roof as it is a metal used in batteries, cell phones, computer chips, flat screen televisions, iPods, RFID chips, and even solar panels. It even has medicinal applications. With silver becoming increasingly out of reach and newer amalagams and metals offering tarnish-free qualities, the jewelry market is being liberated from its traditional tether.

The market moves at a very fast rate. A designer may take a week to design an exclusive piece but within two hours the design can be copied and reproduced in cheaper materials. It is a world where “imitation” jostles on an equal footing with “genuine.”

“As I grow older, I see myself reach more and more for my strings of emeralds, carnelians, rubies, and pearls,” says a Bay Area resident. Expensive jewelry remains the domain of the over-forty woman who can afford the price tag.

Men’s Fashion

As the mother of two boys who love wearing Indian clothes during weddings, dandiya, and Diwali, I am constantly looking out for the latest trend in menswear. To my delight, Indian men’s fashion has come of age. As I sat in a bridal store on my recent visit to Kochi, I found my boys trying out silks, cottons, embroidered, pleated and tucked kurta pajamas, matching Punjabi jootis, or pointed toe shoes, and slicking back their hair as they admired themselves in the mirror.

Men and boys can take their pick from

Designer: Masaba

achkans, sherwanis, Jodhpuri jackets, tuxedos, and waistcoats. They can team them up with dhotis, Aligari pajamas, churidaars, linen trousers, or Patiala salwars. Wearing long or short jackets, loose or tight bottoms, they build up their attire to complement their bodies.

Adorning themselves with thick karas or bangles, rings on their fingers and kalgis on their turbans, the Indian male doesn’t wear a watch alone as his ornament of choice anymore.

Brocade shawls and stoles drape around their shoulders. Some match the stoles to what their partner is wearing and others match them to those of their friends as they strut around on the dance floor. Complementary embroidered jootis on their feet and in some extreme cases topped by a feathery turban,

Designer: Masaba

the Indian male can now match the peacock’s flair to attract his mate. As he twirls on the bhangra floor or just walks into the room, the Indian male now enjoys the stage as much as the girl on his arm.

While the achkan is structured and straight, the sherwani falls over the trousers with a royal flare. The achkan is unembellished; the sherwani comes with detailing of thread embroidery or gold thread (zardozi) work. The achkan can be made from brocade or monochromatic prints.

The “Jodhpuri” looks like an achkan but it is the length of a suit jacket. The Jodhpuri has made its way into the international market and can be rented at tuxedo rental stores in California. It is customarily worn to business meetings in India and is considered formal wear. The equivalent of business casual are the waistcoats with high jodhpuri collars, also known as the “Nehru” jacket. The Nehru jacket is thrown over kurtas or shirts and paired with tailored linen trousers, jeans or pajamas depending on the occasion. Brocade waistcoats have made their way to wedding sangeets while woolen waistcoats make ideal fall wear.

Price

Does the Indian diaspora spend like their counterparts in India? Would you spend $800 to $1,000 on a single designer outfit? “Depends on the circle you move in. If everyone in your social circle wears designer saris then you would spend Rs.30,000 or Rs.50,000 ($600 to a $1,000) on a sari.” says a Los Altos resident.

“So I bought an outfit From Pia ka Ghar for Rs. 30,000 for my daughter because I want her to wear nice Indian clothes. But that is me. My daughters don’t want to spend that kind of money on an Indian outfit. They would rather put that money towards buying a BCBG dress” says another Atherton resident. “But as far as prices are concerned, Pia’s prices are the prices listed on the Indian designer’s website. For example a Sabyasachi’s retail price and Pia’s price is the same for the same outfit.”

The diaspora market is segmented along the lines of their counterparts in India and tends to shop within the segments. If your social group in India wears new Kanjeevaram silk saris every Navratri and Diwali or invests in new tangail and kantha saris for Durga Puja, then you would too. With the sharing of pictures on Facebook, the fuzzy lines of anonymity have melted and you can show off your new annual collection to friends and family the world over.

Active shopping is done near the festival and charity dinners season starting October. Wedding shopping happens in summer and winter. Typically, weddings are planned around school vacations. Temples set up Diwali melas, homes host trunk shows, restaurants like Mehran open their doors to Eid

exhibitions, and Facebook traffic jumps as photographs are uploaded by sellers and perused by buyers. The like button is as much a mark of wardrobe approval as is a verbal compliment. n Ritu Marwah is a resident of the Bay Area where she has pursued theater, writing, nonprofit marketing, high-tech marketing, startup management, raising children, coaching debate, and hiking. She recently completed a trek across the Siachen Glacier, walking on the highest battleground in the world. Ritu graduated from Delhi with masters in business, joined the Tata Administrative Service and worked in London for ten years before moving to the Bay Area.

Q&A with Siddhi Khara, Co-Founder, Borrow it Bindaas) What are the latest fashion trends this year?

This fall, Gotta Borders or Gold Pattis are being used in embroidery on hemlines of kurtas and borders of sarees or lehengas.

Brocade is being used in completely different ways, styled as a skirt or a printed jacket.

What’s nice about brocade is that it is a print that is classic and adds a touch of regality to any outfit. Another trend we see is a bit more emphasis on the embellishments of sleeves, sequin work & gemstone studded sleeves.

What’s in and What’s out?

Velvet trimmings are out this festive season. Detailed embellishments like chikankari and mirrorwork are in. Bright dual tones combined in a single outfit are popular, for example a hot pink color with bright orange/ vermillion. Big, chunky clutch bags are out, small glitter clutches in single shade are in.

On the jewelry front, women are opting for big dangling traditional earrings while heavy neckpieces or bib necklaces are out for this festive season. Broad cuffs and traditional kadhas are up for grabs.

What colors are finding traction?

Unlike every Autumn/Winter, this year, colors like royal blue, purples, emerald green, hot pinks, orange and yellow are finding a lot of takers. In short, think bright while choosing colors. Black, white and burgundy are out; instead different shades of blue are being used.

Do you have to buy every season to update your collection?

Our entire inventory is from India and we work exclusively with designers and suppliers based out there. We make sure to have everything available in the U.S. so when customers place their orders they can get it right away and do not have to wait six weeks to get an outfit! Team members travel to India up to two or three times a year and work with our director of merchandising, Manshi Gandhi, 26, who is based in Mumbai to help scour the market for the latest trends and styles. This way we ensure that our styles and inventory are fresh and current for our customers! india currents • november 2012 • 13

14 • india currents • november 2012

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q&a

Like Mother, Like Daughter A mother-daughter duo discuss the challenges of working together

A

mother daughter relationship can often be tumultuous. In the space of a few moments, emotions can swing wildly from anger to shared laughter and then to tears, say psychologists Dr. Charles Sophy and Brown Kogen in their book, “Side by Side: The Revolutionary Mother-Daughter Program for Conflict-Free Communication.”

After having dealt with colic crying, messy diapers, pre-teen brattiness and teenage insolence, it can be a tough job for mothers to settle down to adult workplace camaraderie. Not so, says Poonam Bajaj. She and her daughter, Kavita Arora, are the mother-daughter team behind Sitaarre TV, on the air since July 2007, a magazine style television show that features Bollywood and Hollywood stars and events.

Bajaj is the Executive Producer and Arora is the writer and anchor of the television show.

“When you are working with a family member and you both have the same interests, there are few complications. Kavita and I have excellent rapport. We complement each other in our skill sets and get along very well,” claims Bajaj. Her daughter does not disagree.

“We have excellent synergy. I have a very productive working relationship with my mother.

You could say that we are more like sisters.”

In a closely bound partnership, it can be difficult to be “like sisters,” and build distinct identities, especially in the case of the daughter. Used to heeding maternal authority, a daughter might find it difficult to separate her childhood from her adulthood.

The relationship must progress beyond the usual mother-daughter parameters of control and assertiveness. Arora believes that it’s a recognition of shared goals that makes the difference in their case. “It’s about passion and the level of commitment,” she emphasizes. As a family enterprise, both Arora and Bajaj share a vision for success. It’s a vested interest in each other and in the ideas that funnel their mutual interests, claim the mother-daughter duo. Bajaj recognized her daughter’s passion for the arts; theater and journalism, useful skills in their media enterprise.

Here are a few questions we asked them: How did the joint venture begin?

Poonam: Growing up, I remember I wanted to be an air hostess during my college years. Of course, coming from a traditional family, being an air hostess was out of the question. Our family moved to Delhi from Pakistan after the partition, and money was

tight. But my mother always wanted her Were the dynamics any different when you daughters to be financially independent. I've were growing up, Kavita?

Kavita: Mom and I have always been always wanted to do something creative. Meclose. I was a pretty uncomplicated teenager. dia seemed a very attractive option.

That might have helped. (smile) It finally came together.

Poonam: Our relationship was, perhaps, I retired from my job as an administralike most mother and daughter relationships. tor at the City of San Jose on a Friday. On I was very focused on my kids’ education, the next Monday, I launched Vista Group after-school activities and their careers. When Entertainment, producing Sitaarre TV. I have I see some parents having a difficult time always been interested in media, entertainwith their kids, I feel blessed. So our working ment and films. I had no knowledge of editing together was just a natural progression. or television production. But I took editing How do you manage to separate work and classes at Ohlone College and later hired a business life? private tutor to improve on my editing skills.

Poonam: For both of us, family comes first I also took moviemaking classes at CreaTV. and then work. Kavita has two boys and they What is the quality you admire most in take prime importance. On a few occasions, each other? we were all ready to go to a shoot and Kavita’s Poonam: Kavita’s work ethic. She is babysitter canceled. I told her to bring them knowledgeable about the Indian film industry along for the shoot. If she were not my daughand film history. She enjoys her work and it ter I would not be this accommodating. shows.

Kavita: Sometimes we have work activities Kavita: Poonam is extremely intelligent and other times we have family get-togethers and a good judge of character. that are focused just on family. The two are What frustrates you about working with naturally separate. But family comes first. each other?

Poonam: When we’re shooting a segment, Poonam: It frustrates me that she doesn’t Kavita’s the anchor and I’m the producer. pick up her phone! Being different people, When the shooting stops, we become mother we do have different points of view. Someand daughter again. n times, Kavita tells me that my ideas are oldfashioned. But I accept that since I think from Geetika Pathania Jain contributed to this intermy own limited point of view and there’s a view. Geetika Pathania Jain is an educator and whole world of knowledge out there that I’m writer living in the SF Bay Area. not familiar with. Take the case of a segment that Kavita put together. It was on Hindi songs of the 60s.

Kavita creatively combined the songs and showed how they were copies of Hollywood hits. This was a unique episode and I’m really proud of her for doing this. I would not have been able to do the same.

Kavita: I’d like an unlimited budget for my episodes but, my mother, the Executive Producer is unable to oblige!

Kavita Arora, Poonam Bajaj india currents • november 2012 • 15

IC

desi voice

Sujatha Ramprasad

What’s in a Name?

E

very South Asian immigrant has two stories. One is a green card saga and the other is a story about how his or her name was maimed, mauled or mutilated.

I too have my very own green-card novelette; but that is for another day. This one is all about naming the rose. Would the rose still smell sweet if it was called “gross?”

I don’t know about you, but I gave very little thought to my name when I was a kid, except that I hated that it started with “s.”

In a class of 50, my roll number used to be an unsightly 46. Our school library was a tad bigger than a closet and for the library period that occurred once every two weeks we were let in according to our roll number. What can I say, except that I got to read the same “Hardy Boys” fifty seven times! Tamil Selvi, if you are out there, yes, I shall not forget to mention your century with the Nancy Drew book “Mystery Of the Fire Dragon.”

My name and I chugged along through college. When I got married, all five foot-four of me was brimming with feminism.

“There is absolutely no reason to change my name,” I told my newly minted husband categorically.

“Absolutely,” he smiled and nodded.

Somewhere along the line he said, “You know what, if you win the Nobel Prize, it would be so cool if my name too was part of that history.”

How I fell for that, I can never recall but I started carrying his name and became “Sujatha Ramprasad.” For the record, neither of us have won any prize, let alone the Swedish kind. Acquaintances fail to understand why steam gushes through my ears whenever my husband politely smiles at me, nods, and says “absolutely.”

Marriage brought me to America and there were so many things to learn about the new country. Some things, I learnt by rote.

Whenever I wanted to turn on the light I stood before the switch and repeated the mantra “Indian switch-off-position is U.S. switch-on.”

Other things, I learnt the hard way; in a doctor’s office, over 103 degrees of body heat.

I pulled myself one afternoon into Camino Medical Center, with high fever, sore throat and bronchial infection of some sort.

I approached the reception, wrote my name on the waiting-list sheet and then fell into a chair, half dazed. After about an hour and a half of waiting, I dragged myself to the reception to ask when the doctor was going 16 • india currents • november 2012

to see me.

“Which one of this is you,” asked the friendly, slightly overweight receptionist handing me the waiting-list sheet.

I pointed to the fourth name on the list. I noticed that every other name on that page had been crossed out.

“I called out several times an hour ago,” she said, pointing to my last name, “Since no one responded, I marked you as a no-show.”

“But, that is my husband’s name,” I wailed.

“So, Ramprasad is not your name?”

“Well, it is my husband’s first name, but my last name.”

Now, she was totally confused.

“In Tamil Nadu; the part of India that I come from, people used to have their caste names as their last names. My grandfather, for instance was Srinivasan Iyengar. Iyengar refers to the caste. When the British left India, a secular society emerged and it was no longer cool to have the caste be included in any part of the name. So, it was dropped. But then we had to do something for our last names, didn’t we? So, the children took their fathers’ first names as their last names and wives took their husbands first names as their surnames.”

My history lesson alarmed the poor woman. She was sure I was delirious. She called out to a medical assistant and pleaded with her to squeeze me in before the next appointment.

After I recovered, I wrote a note to myself 1. You can be addressed by your last name.

2. Ramprasad is a guy’s name, but it is also your name.

3. If someone is talking about Ramprasad, it could be about you.

Life in America particularly in California was otherwise charming. The majestic mountains, the roaring oceans and everything in between make a lasting impression on all its denizens. California has a rich Hispanic heritage. I took quite a liking to Mexican food and tried my hand at salsa dancing. I have many, many pleasant memories of life in California.

Unfortunately, how my name evolved is not one of them. In Spanish “J” is pronounced as “H;” Hence San Jose for instance is pronounced San Hose. The “j” in my name got mutilated and I became Suhatha. Confused, I shortened my name to one syllable: “Sue.” Everything was fine and dandy until me

Photo Credit: A Creative Commons Image

and my one syllable name decided to take a trip to San Simeon, a quaint Californian coastal town along with extended family and friends. The entire assemblage settled down in the atrium of a restaurant. A gentleman who was performing live on stage walked up, smiled at me and asked me for a song choice.

Very proud, that I was the chosen one, I gleefully gave him a musical number and he started walking back. Voldemort must have waved his wand. The musician stopped and turned back.

“And, what is your name ma’am?”

“Sue,” I said.

“Hmm?” He strained his ears.

“Sue.. Sue” I repeated.

He got back on stage and sang the first stanza of my favorite song. Then the spotlight shone brightly on me.

“This song is for the lovely Susu ...” The public address system blared and the cool evening breeze carried the sound for every human and elephant seal on the coast to hear. I squirmed uneasily in my seat, looking anything but lovely.

For those of you who know what “susu” means, please hold that smirk till you turn this page of the magazine over, and start to read some other worthy writer’s column. Others forget what I just said and please don’t discuss this with any one else. I do have one piece of advice, though. If you are going to call out to someone in front of a huge crowd, through a public address system, make sure to double-check the pronunciation, especially, if the person is from a different culture. No, actually triple-check it.

Well, I tried to pick up what was left of my self-esteem.

“A rose by any other name will smell as sweet,” I said.

My dear ones yelled in unison.

“Susu by any other name will smell as bad.” n Sujatha Ramprasad loves to read poetry and philosophy. She is an ardent fan of Harry Potter.

india currents • november 2012 • 17

IC

books

Rajesh C. Oza

Dirty Water, Blistering Ice

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: LIFE, DEATH AND HOPE IN A MUMBAI UNDERCITY by Katherine Boo. Random House, 2012. 256 pages. Hardcover $15.88

“A

nother garbage trader had set up shop at Annawadi, filling the niche created by the demise of the Husains’ business. Abdul now spent his days in a tiny rented storage shed at the edge of the Saki Naka slums. His efforts at trading came to little. The Saki Naka scavengers had preexisting allegiances. But sitting idly in the doorway of the new shed, looking out over an alien maidan, Abdul found that he felt light. Annawadi tragedies did not rank here.

No one knew of Fatima, or his family’s trial, or of Kalu’s death, or that Sanjay and Meena had eaten rat poison ... Maybe because of the boiling sun, he thought about water and ice.

Water and ice were made of the same thing. He thought most people were made of the same thing, too. He himself was probably little different, constitutionally, from the cynical, corrupt people around him—the police officers and the special executive officer and the morgue doctor who fixed Kalu’s death …

But here was the interesting thing. Ice was

18 • india currents • november 2012

distinct from—and in his view, better than— what it was made of. He wanted to be better than what he was made of. In Mumbai’s dirty water, he wanted to be ice. He wanted to have ideals.”

Dear Reader, For the first time in a quarter century of reviewing books, I have opened with an extensive quote. I do so because I want you to get inside Abdul’s world-view, and I desperately implore that you buy, beg, or borrow Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. If you have a heart, please read this book. If you are lacking this vital organ, I’ll drop the polite niceties: just the read this book you apathetic, heartless brute (or at least read through to the end of this review and send a letter to the editor requesting that book reviewers refrain from insulting you).

The surface story of Annawadi will be familiar to anyone with a glancing understanding of Indian slum life. Even if your knowledge is lightly earned from filmi entertainment like Shree 420 or Slumdog Millionaire, you know the basic narrative: in the midst of plenty, there is want; and the want feeds illusory dreams. The undercity that Boo poignantly renders is filled with, if not fueled by, similar

dreams: Mirchi wants a job at a luxury hotel; Raja needs a heart valve; Meena desires a love marriage; Sunil would be happy to eat enough to grow an inch; Asha’s unbridled ambition is to be Annawadi’s first female slumlord; Manju aims to be the slum’s first female college graduate; Sita (a.k.a. Fatima or One Leg) wants to be desired; and Abdul dreams of a wife—an innocent, loving, supportive wife.

If grinding poverty was as romantic as Hollywood dream merchants would have us believe, Boo’s nonfiction would end with a rapturous community dance harmoniously celebrating rising incomes, improved health, good governance, educational equity, and, of course, love-sweet-love.

But Annawadi is real, grindingly real. The backstory involves death by self-immolation, rat-poison ingestion, malarial mosquito infestation, and economic destruction. What Boo does convincingly is to put faces under the mask of death. And rather than linger on the sadness of it all, she probes below the mask to unearth both hope and corruption, helping the reader find a lotus blossoming in a stinking lake of sewage.

Abdul Husain is the lotus, and his “death” is that of innocence lost. No time for this teenager to contemplate a present full of games and girls or a future replete with anything but the drudgery of sorting garbage into recyclable material. Abdul’s story is the engine that drives Boo’s narrative. Between 2007-2011, she methodically observed this boy’s work life, family life, social life, and inner life. His entrepreneurship in waste management enabled his Muslim family to thrive in Annawadi, a predominantly Hindu slum.

But as the Husain family grew, its prosperous business and pukka brick house attracted the envy of Fatima, a handicapped neighbor cruelly called “One Leg.” Fatima’s mental and familial instability were matched by her physical deformity: “One Leg’s crutches seemed to be too short, because when she walked, her butt stuck out—did some switchy thing that made people laugh.”

Instability is the law of slum life. Cruel hilarity mixed with growing ambition yield envy.

Envy turns to quarrel. Quarrelsome neighbors invite police intervention. And the police take advantage of a small matchstick which ignites

ordinary kitchen kerosene into an act of self-immolation that is extraordinary in its cunning and craziness: cunning because it wrongfully accuses the Husain family of murder; and crazy because it results in Fatima’s death and the demise of the Husain family’s modest fortune.

In reading about Abdul’s trial and that of his father and sister who together have been caught in a “great web of corruption,” I came to recognize that not only was a teenage boy’s innocence lost, but also that of this middleaged book reviewer. The India that I hold dear—a civilization that valorizes the monsoon in Sanskrit love poetry and mythologizes chaos into creative destruction—is nowhere to be seen in Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

Even the book’s title mocks my romanticized outlook: “The airport people had erected tall, gleaming fences on the side of the slum that most drivers passed before turning into the international terminal. Drivers approaching the terminal from the other direction would see only a concrete wall covered with sunshine-yellow advertisements. The ads were for Italianate floor tiles, and the corporate slogan ran the wall’s length: BEAUTIFUL FOREVER BEAUTIFUL FOREVER BEAUTIFUL FOREVER.” I am the airport person Boo indicts when she writes that while “rich people spoke of the romance of the monsoon …, at Annawadi, the sewage lake crept forward like a living thing.”

I am the airport person Boo shames when she observes that “every country has its myths, and one that successful Indians liked to indulge was a romance of instability and adaptation—the idea that their country’s rapid rise derived in part from the chaotic unpredictability of daily life.”

Boo has not only given us a window to Mumbai’s miserable slum life but also a mirror to our attitudes that either perpetuate that misery or ignore it in a haze of selfcongratulation. For a moment (a reader’s privileged moment), trade places with the residents of Annawadi. Ask yourself if you would become a Fatima or an Asha: “powerless individuals [who] blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes, like Fatima, they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate, like Asha, they improved their lots by beggaring the life chances of other poor people.”

Or would you, like Abdul, hold on to hopeful ideals. “It is easy from a safe distance, to overlook the fact that in undercities, governed by corruption, where exhausted people vie on scant terrain for very, it is blisteringly hard to be good. The astonishment is that some people are good, and that many people try to be.” n RCO occasionally wonders what his life would have been like had he remained in his city of birth—Bombay—and traded places with the Abduls of the world.

Geetika Pathania Jain

The Bloom of Romystery TULIP SEASON: A MITRA BASU MYSTERY by Bharti Kirchner. Booktrope $14.95 246 pages. booktrope.com. bhartikirchner.com.

Available for digital readers.

T

his fast-paced mystery-romance novel will surely find favor with older teenage girls. The protagonist, Mitra, is a free-spirited young woman who is part sleuth and part landscape designer. An émigré of Indian origin, think grown-up desi Nancy Drew meets Harlequin heroine.

The narrative centers around the disappearance of Mitra’s friend, Kareena, a domestic violence counselor. Mitra’s strenuous efforts to find her friend are set against the beautiful backdrop of Seattle. Surely anyone who has visited the Pacific Northwest can attest to the beauty of the tulips in the Skagit valley, and these beautiful flowers become a motif for the state of Mitra’s investigation.

Could Kareena’s husband, Adi, have had a hand in this diabolical deed? Why else does he narrow his eyes menacingly whenever he sees Mitra? Articulating in business-speak and buzzwords, Adi provides proof that evil corporate executives can serve as convenient and acceptable scapegoats in mystery novels.

Even as recent real-life newspaper headlines tell of insider traders with last names such as Gupta and Kumar heading to jail, there is suspicion that the fictional Adi could be a well-dressed scoundrel. Stories of Ponzi schemes and industry’s wayward flagbearers have recently captured the popular imagination, and surely fictional novels in general and Adi’s character in particular can be inflected by this collective angst.

No less sinister, however, is the mysterious jhola man who revs his motorcycle threateningly at Mitra. This is the shady Jay Bahadur (ok, even a Bollywood outsider can see that that is a clever omission of vowels for the name of the Bollywood legend Jaya Bahaduri.)

But let me not give too much of the story away.

At many levels, the novel is a commentary on the angst of immigrants. Kirchner writes of the self-doubt that Mitra is filled with when she meets her college friend Preet, who has chosen to remain at “home,” which term serves as a metaphor for the home left behind as an immigrant. Upon meeting Preet’s son, Kirchner writes: “He reminded her, this treasured child, of the distinctness of her two lives, Indian and American, and how difficult it was to draw the halves closer. As

with a broken mirror, the parts simply didn’t fit; the view were distorted, dizzying.”

Mitra seems similarly conflicted in matters of the heart. It doesn’t help that Mitra appears besotted to a Jekyll and Hyde character, Ulrich. If only Mitra would listen to the good advice of Glow, a.k.a. Grandmother. Glow is a sprightly septuagenarian who has formed a deep bond with Mitra. We learn later that she is estranged from her own daughter, and that Mitra fills a very real void. A reminder that kinship transcends blood ties. The warm fuzzies generated by Mitra and Glow help Glow come to terms with the disappointments of thwarted expectations between kin.

To its credit, the blurring of the mystery and romance genre spares us the happily ever ending. Yet several tropes of the Mills and Boon genre are in evidence, the detailed attention to clothes being one of them. The colorful word pictures bring to mind the turning of the pages of a glossy fashion magazine.

An example: “It took Mitra no time to choose a pale green number with a blue-gold crystalline border.”

Yet despite the gloss and detail of Mitra’s attire, the characters she interacts with seem strangely flat and uni-dimensional. There is an uneven quality to the book, with some parts written as though in a rush. Non-sequiturs abound. At times, Kirchner’s style appears over-wrought, with excessive adjectives: “Adi’s red-ringed eyes sparked with anger, confusion, despair, and possibly even hatred.”

Still, Kirchner has delivered another tidy installment in this mystery series. After all loose ends of the mystery have been neatly tied, we are left asking a few questions at the end of the book. Will Mitra’s gardens bloom?

Will she ever find true love? And will Nobuo Yoshihama continue to cause Mitra’s heart to beat faster?

And as mystery romances go, those are fine questions to leave us with. n Geetika Pathania Jain lives in the SF Bay Area.

She wonders if Seattle has changed since the last time she lived there. india currents • november 2012 • 19

Building Bridges On Oct 10, 2012, India Currents in collaboration with the Indian Diaspora Project spearheaded a panel discussion in response to the incidences of violence directed against our community members, the most recent being the killings at the Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin. The primary objective of this discussion was to create, promote and render a thought-provoking civil discourse among members of our communities. These are some pictures from the event.

Photos: Nghia Vuong

Panelists—Simran Kaur (Sikh Coalition), Ash Kalra (San Jose City Councilmember), Harmeet Dhillon (Chairwoman, San Francisco Republican Party), Dennis Akizuki (Mercury News), Raj Jayadev (SV De-Bug)

Ajit Singh, Baldev Krishan, Local Sikh leader, Vandana Kumar, Madan Ahluwalia, Nathan Ganeshan

Ash Kalra, SJ City Councilmember

Jaya Padmanabhan, Editor, India Currents

Ajit Singh, Moderator, Partner, Artiman Ventures

Sharvari Dixit, Indian Diaspora Project

Vijay Rajvaidya, Vandana Kumar, Anand Kumar Jha (Consul, Reverend Terry Gleeson, All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto Community Affairs), Sharvari Dixit, Jaya Gautam

Vandana Kumar, Anand Kumar Jha (Consul, Community Affairs), Mike Coniff (Professor, SJSU)

20 • india currents • november 2012

Vandana Kumar, Publisher, India Currents

Meenakshi Srinivasan, Teacher

Mike Murray, Community Leader

Panelists Harmeet Dhillon and Dennis Akizuki; Dinesh Ramde (AP Reporter)

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IC

commentary

Lakshmi Mani

Finding Youth in a Retirement Home An octagenarian’s take on life in an assisted living facility

The Author sitting in the atrium by the fireplace

I

live at Ingersoll Place, an assisted living facility in Niskayuna, New York. I pay a monthly rent for a one bedroom apartment with three closets and a kitchenette. I am allowed a microwave oven in my kitchen, but I am forbidden to use it for major cooking. The rent covers services like food, laundry, bed making, changing bed linen at least once a week, transportation for doctors' and hospital visits, daily chair exercises for the infirm, social events, recreational events like bingo, card games, and spa day once a month.

It has been just over a year since I moved into Ingersoll Place. I have formed new friendships. I am finding out that though I am culturally different from all the other residents— I am the only Indian—we all have the same life experiences. Each one of us has lost loved ones, and we all rejoice that we are blessed with children, grandchildren, and even greatgrandchildren. At least two residents have died since I came here. Mortality reinforces the necessity to cherish every moment of our lives.

It was a long and winding road that brought me to my current place of residence. After I retired from teaching at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1989, I could have lived in Rochester with my husband Mani in our modest house, free of mortgage.

But he had suffered two heart attacks and I found it difficult to cope alone. My son, Ramani, invited us to live in his house in Niskayuna, NY, or, if we chose, an apartment that was close to his house where he could help us with some of the more onerous chores. My daughter, Uma, was a pediatrician in New Jersey and she was keen to have her father live with her and be close to medical help. The house where she practiced was big enough to accommodate Mani and me and she would be available most of the day. She and her husband Ram had built another house for themselves and their growing daughter and son, nearby.

Mani and I decided that it would be better for us to move in with my daughter, Uma. My son and daughter-in-law lived only three hours driving distance away from us.

My husband, Mani, lived only for a year 22 • india currents • november 2012

after our move to New Jersey, but it was the happiest year of his life, being close to the family.

After his death, I was glad to be available to my family. I was an integral part of my children’s lives. I was happy to witness all the important milestones of their children’s lives, too. This arrangement worked fine for about 18 years when suddenly tragedy struck. My daughter, Uma, was killed in an automobile accident when she was coming home from work. My life, after my beloved Uma’s death, was shattered and a blackness enveloped me.

With the passage of time, and what I felt was God’s will to keep me alive to provide emotional support to my precious grandchildren bereft of their mother, I slowly began to deal with my loss. There was no other choice.

Before my daughter’s untimely death at 62, when I was 85 years old, I was still fairly independent, driving around and taking care of

most of my needs. With age and grief came physical limitations. I fell down a few times at night when I was alone, and increasingly, I was unable to cope with some of the most basic household chores. That's when I realized that I could not live alone without assistance.

And so, here I am, with a new family not connected to me by biology, culture, language, or religion but by age, and diminished physical functions. Even though initially it felt strange to be uprooted from my familiar surroundings, my loved ones, and a life that I had known for 88 years, the warmth of fellow residents and the staff looking after me helped me cope with my new incarnation.

Mine is probably not the exception. The old family paradigm of seniors spending their twilight years with their children is increasingly giving way to some form of assisted, independent living as a choice for Indian seniors in this country. Seniors who do not have any ma-

jor health problems and need assistance only for chores like cooking, housekeeping, laundry, and driving find assisted living a viable option for life in a community without sacrificing dignity and independence. Many Indian seniors like me came to this country in the late 60s and have worked in various industries, and as a result receive social security, Medicare, and, in some cases, pension benefits, plus their rainy day savings in the form of assets in stocks and mutual funds, and in some cases. a mortgage-free house. These sources of income enable them to live in licensed Assisted Living facilities where they can maintain their independence as well as dignity during old age.

The National Census Bureau estimates that by 2050 the number of seniors over 65 years and older will be 88.5 million in this country, more than double the current population of elderly. This calls for timely planning for some kind of retirement living.

Once I moved in, I felt younger than I had felt in a long time. There are 8 residents between the ages of 95 and 101, and 24 residents between 90 and 101. About half the Ingersoll population are nonagenarians.

Life in Ingersoll Place has routine and is structured. The building is located in a quiet area, not too far from the Mohawk Mall which has a grocery store, several department stores and a few eateries. A well maintained garden with a wooded area in the background leads to a porch where residents enjoy the outdoors and very often socialize. The porch leads to an atrium with a fireplace and a comfortable sitting area. There is an Activities Room where most of the daily activities like exercise, bingo and other games take place. The facility has two stories and elevators. The dining hall where three meals are served is both comfortable and elegant. It is where Ingersoll residents come together, three times a day to eat and relax. Each table seats four people. I like our table which represents a sort of microcosm of the United States. I am from India, Bill Kurley and his wife Eleanor are of Irish heritage, and Jane Bohunicky is of Italian descent. Two of us are Democrats and Bill is an ardent Republican. I am not sure what Eleanor’s political preferences are. Laughter, friendly spats, and all round fun characterize our table.

One of the residents makes it a point to wish us at our table, everyday, without fail.

Just a simple “enjoy your meal.” But I look forward to the greeting. These are the simple gestures that are the lubricants of society and often make a huge difference.

The kitchen and dining hall staff are very courteous and friendly. I am the only vegetarian and the cooks serve me delicious, nutritious vegetarian meals, going out of their way to satisfy me. I do miss the sharp, tongue piercing taste of South Indian food but I can’t complain. There are a few Indian restaurants in the area which I visit occasionally when friends or relatives visit me. Occasional trips are arranged by Ingersoll Place to theaters,

area malls and restaurants. Visits are arranged to churches, and synagogues on weekends. Religious rites like Communion and Shabbat on the premises take care of the spiritual needs of some residents. There is a Hindu temple in the area which I visit sometimes with my son and daughter-in-law. Occasionally my family also take me to Karnatik music concerts held at the community center adjacent to the Hindu temple. Friends, both from the Schenectady Indian community and from Rochester, as well as my grandchildren visit me occasionally.

Is life perfect in my current incarnation?

No. I miss the joy of making coffee or lunch for my grandchildren, both of whom work in the same house where I lived in New Jersey.

I remember how their appreciation for my cooking would gladden my heart. I miss driving my Honda Civic to Patel Cash and Carry, a grocery store on Oaktree Road in New Jersey, or to Macy’s and Target whenever there was a sale. I miss talking in my mother tongue, Tamil, one of the oldest languages with a rich literature going back to the pre-Christian era.

I cannot sleep till nine in the morning here because breakfast is served between seven thirty and nine in the dining hall. Early to bed and early to rise has never worked for me in my adult life.

These are some of inconveniences that we have to trade for the luxury of not having to cook, clean, or grocery shop. I am frustrated that I tire easily and cannot do as much as I was able to do even last year. But the residents here teach me a lesson. In spite of diminishing faculties, they all seem to have a will to live. Many of them use walkers and are hard of hearing. Some are bent with severe osteoporosis. They are active in their own way. Bingo is a religion for them. Some of them do crossword puzzles. Another tends the garden and feeds the chipmunks and birds. Then there is the daily exercise class and last year I even participated in a Spring concert, singing some American favorites from the forties, another piece of Americana that I enjoyed immersing myself in. It was, of course, a far-cry from Karnatik music. It made me realize that I may leave India, but India never leaves me.

My laptop keeps me in touch with just about everything that is going on around me.

As Milton’s Satan put it so eloquently in Paradise Lost: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell and a Hell of Heaven.” Ironically, Satan’s words in defiance of God signify that happiness and misery are a state of the mind. The mind is invincible in the worst of circumstances and therefore can create its own heaven through the prism of the mind. n Lakshmi Mani taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology for 20 years. She writes on American and Indian-American literature, and is a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. india currents • november 2012 • 23

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I C ask a lawyer Indu Liladhar-Hathi

Immigration Sinkhole

Q

My aunt (mother’s sister) sponsored my mom about 12 years ago (in 2000), when I was 14 years old. On June 3, 2012, the date became current. Based on the approved petition, my mother, father, and my younger brother (who was four years old at the time of filing) all immigrated to the United States. However, I was not able to join them because I was advised that I had “aged out.” What should I do?

A

I have some good news to share with you. In late September, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of young adults, who due to long delays caused by visa backlogs, lost the opportunity to obtain their Green Cards before they turned 21. Before this decision was made, your only option was to have your parent file a separate petition for you under the family-based 2B preference (assuming that you remained un-

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married). Under this court decision, there is an automatic conversion and priority date retention to aged-out dependant beneficiaries.

This essentially means that you will automatically be categorized under family-based 2B preference category and will be able to retain your 2000 priority date. So, if you are born in India, then according to the October Visa Bulletin, the family-based 2B category has a priority date of September 15, 2004. This means that under this ruling, you would be able to reunite with your family immediately, once the paperwork is completed. At the time of writing this article, I am not sure if the government will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Court’s decision. If that happens, then it may take some time before this issue gets resolved.

carries a priority date of May 2008. If I change my employer, will I be able to use the same priority date? If yes, do I have to be employed in the same position?

Q

Immigration and business attorney Indu Liladhar-Hathi has an office in San Jose. (408) 453-5335.

I started my employment based Green Card process with Employer A four years ago. My I-140 is approved in EB-3 category and

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visa dates

Important Note: U.S. travelers seeking visas to India will now need to obtain them through Travisa Outsourcing. Call (415) 644-0149 or visit http://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/ for more information.

November 2012

T

his column carries priority dates and other transitional information as taken from the U.S. State Depart­ment’s Visa Bulletin. The information below is from the Visa Bulletin for November 2012.

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

FAMILY PREFERENCE VISA DATES Preference Dates for India 1st 2A 2B 3rd 4th

Nov 01, 2005 Jul 15, 2010 Oct 08, 2004 Jun 01, 2002 Mar 22, 2001

Note: For September, F2A numbers EXEMPT from per-country limit are available to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than Jun 22, 2010. F2A numbers SUBJECT to per-country limit are available to applicants with priority dates beginning May 15, 2010 and earlier than Jun 22, 2010.

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IC

business

Shashank Shekhar

Lessons From the Trenches Top three lessons of entrepreneurship

A

s an entrepreneur and an author, I get the privilege to speak to a lot of professionals, business owners and media producers. During my conversations I am frequently asked, “What are some of the most important lessons, you have learnt as an entrepreneur that you would like to share with other aspiring businesses?”

Mine is not an uncommon story. Like many others, I came to this country as an immigrant from India in the fall of 2005. I did not have a lot of things going for me when I decided to start my own business. Most businesses need two Cs to take off the ground— Capital and Contacts. I had neither. All I had was a vision, a dream of doing something on my own and making it big.

With nothing but a couple of thousand dollars, my laptop and a desk in my two bedroom apartment in San Jose, I founded Arcus Lending in 2008; the same year when the biggest financial crisis hit the U.S. economy.

Most people thought I was crazy and, well, I could not blame them. It is very easy to get disappointed and dejected from the initial failures and give up easily. And believe me, I did fail frequently, especially in the beginning. In fact if you are not failing, you are not trying. Almost everything that made me successful started as a failure—when I started writing blogs, I didn’t get a single lead. When I started speaking only a handful would turn up to hear me. When I went to other related business seeking business, I wouldn’t get any.

This lasted for months. But I persisted. I made sure to stay on track and kept plugging analyzing, monitoring and finding ways to improve continuously.

So, succeeding during one of the worst recessions didn’t come easy. But with a clear vision and a solid game plan I was able to create a thriving lending business in a span of four years.

There were several lessons learned along the way. Here are the three, I consider most important.

Build a Self-Brand

If you don’t blow your own trumpet, who else will? Many of you readers may have heard this. But most of us who grew up in India, find this really hard to do. It was hard for me as well, so I started the easy way. I realized that writing about my knowledge and sharing it in smaller groups was something I could

28 • india currents • november 2012

do. I started my own Lending Blog and began writing frequently. I started contributing to other blog sites in my industry and speaking at small industry events. Soon, the blog writing evolved into writing books and speaking at small events and led to my getting speaking invitations from national industry events. Media interviews followed and soon I was the goto person when it came to mortgage lending.

So in other words, own your own successes. Everyday there are significant events that happen in your business life. If you are not able to convey the message of your success, no one else will. Consider it an art form.

It’s not boasting and bragging but branding your own message.

Pick the medium that works best for you —text, video or audio. If text is your thing— write blogs and/or ebooks. If video works for you, record and distribute videos on YouTube, Facebook and other video sharing sites. You can start a Vlog (Video Blog) as well. And if you are good at talking, starting a radio show or podcast is the way to go. Whatever medium you pick, current technologies make it extremely inexpensive to share your message and engage with your audience. And if you are not a born public speaker like me, try Toastmasters. It’s one of the best investments you would make when it comes to personal development.

Learn and Evolve

The biggest lesson I perhaps learnt as an entrepreneur is to never stay stagnant; always engage in the process of evolving. Since I began my journey as an entrepreneur, I have spent hundreds of hours in learning new ideas, tools and technologies. The return on investment has been huge.

In today’s age there is no dearth of information. You need to take action after getting the information. Usually it’s not the lack of money or time that prevents people from executing. I was asked on a radio show what I thought was the number one reason why business owners do not implement ideas. I said it was inertia; lot of us are just stuck where we are. Even at this stage of my business, I spend several hours every week to learn new ideas.

It’s an investment in your own advancement.

Out-Hustle the Competition

There are a lot of things in your business that you probably don’t control or may not

Most businesses need two Cs to take off the ground— Capital and Contacts. I had neither. All I had was a vision, a dream of doing something on my own and making it big. have access to. When I started, I didn’t have any capital or contacts, both of which are critical to succeed in any kind of business.

The one thing that you can and must do is out-hustle your competition.

Very early in my entrepreneurship days I was listening to the 2007 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking, Vikas Jhingran speak about his victory. He wasn’t pegged as one of the favorites to win the competition.

After winning he was asked his secret and he said that he knew he wasn’t the best but he out-prepared all other competitors. He worked on and practiced his speech two times more than other competitors. I took his message to heart. I knew I had my limitations but I decided I would never let my competitor out prepare or out-hustle me.

Remember what novelist Greg Evans said.

“I do not have superior intelligence or faultless looks. I do not captivate a room or run a mile under six minutes. I only succeeded because I was still working after everyone else went to sleep.”

Entrepreneurship is a roller-coaster ride and not all days are sunny but with some imagination, a solid work ethic and a great attitude anyone can win this game. n Shashank Shekhar is the CEO, of Arcus Lending, a Silicon Valley based mortgage lending company. He is a national speaker, a blogger and an Amazon.com best-selling author. He can be reached at Shashank@ArcusLending. com.

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IC

in focus

The Story of Brown Girl Surf

M

y name is Farhana. I am the daughter of immigrant parents from Pakistan and Bangladesh. I am the founder and chief trailblazer of a unique idea—Brown Girl Surf. This is my story.

My family came to America nearly 40 years ago. My mother was the first woman in our family to graduate high school. She wore a traditional head covering while growing up and was arranged to marry someone at the age of 15. Her path was very much predetermined for her. She had little opportunity as a woman growing up in an eastern culture at that time.

After skirting an arranged marriage and immigrating to the United States, she found a way to re-invent herself. In doing so, she was one of the first women in our family to break the conventional barriers imposed on women.

However, she still held on to her traditions and values as a woman raised in the East. She read her namaz each morning, she cooked very good curry, and she wouldn’t let me wear short skirts ... forget about dating boys!

She and my father, whom she married of her own choosing, settled on the New Jersey Shore. Though I grew up five minutes from the ocean, there were no places to really learn surfing unless you happened to be born into a surfing family and besides girls really didn’t surf. I was, however, raised in a family that valued supporting girls in pursuit of their passions. One of my fondest childhood memories was fishing on my dad’s boat and playing at the beach. I still remember the day I caught 30 • india currents • november 2012

two flukes on my fishing line. I could barely reel them out of the water but I’ll never forget the feeling of wonder at seeing my catch and the waves of congratulations from all the fellow fishermen.

My girlhood shaped who I am today. I was athletic and loved sports. At 15, I was the first South Asian girl member of the U.S. National Karate Team. It was an amazing experience.

But I was aware early on of the privleges I enjoyed and I realized that life looked vastly different for most girls around the world. In Bangladesh, the country where my dad was born, I saw a girl who couldn’t be more than 13, with a baby, forced to beg on the streets to make a living. It really left an impression on me. I started volunteering in my teens at a transitional housing site for women and children. I witnessed how girls had to grow up quickly and shoulder responsibilities at a young age.

I went to college at Tufts and I also spent half a year studying in post-apartheid South Africa. I stumbled upon a Gender Studies class while I was there. We read about the status of women in the Bosnian War and learned about rape camps and ethnic genocide. It was a real turning point for me and I was somewhat naively in disbelief at this reality.

In my own family, I saw a favorite aunt of mine deal with domestic violence and go through a divorce. She had to raise her kids as a single mom on welfare, and that was a completely disempowering experience for her.

By the age of 22 I ended up moving to California to fulfill an Americorps project promoting women’s economic empowerment. I felt a sense of responsibility as a global citizen to make sure I addressed the status of women and girls in the world.

By the time I was 24, I had started a non-profit called C.E.O. Women to empower women just like my aunt. The organization was dedicated to helping low-income immigrant and refugee women to become entrepreneurs. I started the organization with just $1,000 and, with an awesome team, grew it to national acclaim. To this day, I am so honored I had the privilege to work with over 2,000 women in the eleven years I ran the organization. The work was amazing.

But, I found as the years went by, it took a lot out of me. I had a strong desire to reconnect with my health and my body. I took my first trip to Hawaii and decided on a whim to take a surf lesson there. Nobody in my family had ever done this. I had always wanted to learn. I sucked. I mean, really sucked. I tried a few more times over the years to learn but was frustrated. But, I was determined and decided to go to Costa Rica for three weeks to learn to surf. I was still horrible at surfing. I paddled out into the ocean, on my second day at Costa Rica, when a huge wave came and broke on me and dragged me halfway to shore. My board hit me over the head and left me with a huge bump. I became terrified of the power of the ocean for those weeks but when I came

home, I yearned for the feeling of being in the water. So I started braving the cold Northern Californian waters and was soon catching waves on my own. Before I knew it, I started traveling around the world in search of waves.

Something felt so empowering about being able to maneuver through the ocean, catch a wave and ride it.

In my tenth year at C.E.O. Women, I took a much needed sabbatical to travel the world on a surf adventure.

I came back rejuvenated and with newfound optimism. But three months later I started to get pains in my body. When I went to the doctors, they found a few cysts. I was a little scared, especially since I had lost many friends to cancer. My very first instinct when I got the news was “I have to surf and live in the moment now!” I also felt like I had a message to deliver to the world, and it felt like the time had come to explore what was next in my career journey. Thankfully the cysts were benign. But the process forced me to evaluate my life. I tendered my resignation and began thinking of other opportunities and ideas.

I went through several ideas and settled on becoming a professional big wave surfer just like Laird Hamilton! I’d tie a rock to my foot and sprint at the bottom of the ocean, run the sand dunes of Ocean Beach, get sponsors, and be on my merry way. You can only imagine the reaction I got from my parents at hearing this.

I started training with a coach down in Santa Cruz and even got a few sponsors. I ended up injuring myself and took it as a sign that this wasn’t my path. Last Fall, my coach sent me an article that made mention of India’s first female surfer. Surf and India? I was curious and fascinated at the same time.

Who is this female surfer? How did she do it? How did she get her family’s acceptance?

Does she compete? Is she encouraging other women and girls to partake? I then started to notice that women and girls in the most unlikely places were starting to surf or be the first to pursue this ocean loving sport—in Bangladesh, China and even amongst the war zone of the Gaza strip. I was intrigued.

I learned the stories of these girls and how they managed to break so many barriers to pursue this sport. My desire to want to meet and connect with them led me to start Brown Girl Surf, named so in honor of Polynesia’s first female surfers. Brown Girl Surf is a stage to share the stories and projects of trailblazing female surfers around the world. It is also a platform for me to speak up about larger environmental issues like plastics pollution and perception issues like self-image and identity. The goal of Brown Girl Surf is to elevate the significance of these women and

girls, to connect and support them through a global network and to use their stories to inspire and empower a culture of trailblazing females to live in possibility of their dreams.

So I know what your question is. Aside from the fact that surfing is really cool, why do I care about these stories? Why should you? To me, these stories matter because they represent living in possibility, and I think this is a message we all need to see more of in the world. We need to know about Argentina’s first female big wave surfer who picked up a surfboard at the age of 20 and then surfed every major big wave by the time she was 30. This represents possibility.

We need to know how Ishita, a journalism student at a college in India, picked up a surfboard and ended up moving to the coast to teach surfing to her community where women just don’t do that. That’s possibility. We need to know how the 15-year-old girl in Gaza manages to break tradition and surf past the age of 15 into her adulthood.

It’s her way of saying, “nobody will have control of what I do with my body.” That is possibility. These stories inspire others to go after their dreams. People see them and say, if they can do it, so can I. It’s like a domino affect to social change.

This November, I am proud to announce that I will be journeying to India and Bangladesh to meet the first female surfers. You can be part of our campaign for this unique project at www.indiegogo.com/surfingpossibility. Through Brown Girl Surf, I wish to inspire activism within girls of all cultures to live boldly in tune with their bodies and to inspire the world to embrace alternative images of risk taking in diverse cultures.

To me, surfing is just a metaphor for the waves of possibility. Our world, and our girls, need more examples of living in possibility.

I invite you all to hop on board and journey along with me. I also challenge you to surf your own wave, whatever it may be. n Farhana first stood on a surfboard at age 26, not realizing she would eventually fall in love with the sport that would lead her to start Brown Girl Surf. www.browngirlsurf.com.

Surfing Possibility: Stories of India and Bangladesh’s First Female Surfers: www.indiegogo. com/surfingpossibility

india currents • november 2012 • 31

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IC

music

Kanniks Kannikeswaran

The Western Music of Muthuswami Dikshitar A composer sets Sanskrit lyrics to western melodies Muthuswami Dikshitar

T

hose familiar with Indian classical music are aware of the raga-centered nature of the art. Those with even a peripheral awareness of Karnatik music are bound to know that much of what is heard in a kutcheri or concert is centered around the raga-based kritis (compositions) written by a trio of composers Swami Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri, popularly referred to as the trinity. Over 400 kritis are attributed to Dikshitar, over 700 to Tyagaraja and about a 100 to Syama Sastri. While the latter two wrote largely in Telugu, the former wrote mostly in Sanskrit.

Would anyone believe it if they were told that one of the “trinity” created a large body of compositions based on western music? And that too back in the early 1800s way before the advent of “fusion music?”

Yes, there is indeed a repertoire of “lesserknown” compositions based on western musical ideas attributed to the orthodox composer Dikshitar. A set of 39 compositions—all based on colonial tunes that came to India with the British East India Company written by Dikshitar. These compositions known as nottusvara sahityas (lyrics) came into being when Dikshitar wrote Sanskrit lyrics to the western tunes that he heard during his family’s sojourn at Manali near modern day Chennai.

The beauty of these nottuswara sahityas lies in the fact that the introduction of Sanskrit lyrics into Western melodic themes has not resulted in something jarring or incongruous; on the other hand, these compositions are uniquely Indian, although devoid of the characteristic gamakas that decorate Indian melodic passages.

Who is Dikshitar? What is his contribution to music? Why is it relevant today?

Muthusvami Dikshitar (1775-1835) was born in Tiruvarur and a part of his early life was spent in Manali, near Chennai, where his family lived a musically immersed life under the patronage of Dubash Muthukrishna Mudaliyar. It was during this phase that Dikshitar came into contact with tunes played by British bands, during a political period marked by the rise of the East India Company in India.

Dikshitar traveled widely and is often referred to as the eternal pilgrim. His sojourns covered his birthplace Tiruvarur, Manali near Chennai, Benares in North India, Kanchi, Thanjavur, Madurai and Ettaiyapuram in 34 • india currents • november 2012

deep southern Tamil Nadu. He traveled and composed kritis in praise of several temples en-route, as he covered all of these places on foot and on bullock cart.

Dikshitar delivers the essence of hundreds of ragas through his weighty kritis. Several of his compositions bear elements of structural similarity with North Indian compositional form of dhrupad. Dikshitar was a luminary with a pan Indian expression that at once integrated several ideas and traditions together and wove a wholesome tapestry that was uniquely Indian.

Approximately every twelfth composition of Dikshitar is based on western tunes such as jigs reels from the Irish repertoire, country dances, waltzes, marches and more. All of these tunes are in major scale conforming largely to the scale of the raga sankarabharana.

Dikshitar’s genius can be observed from the fact that he integrated his lyrical context and his medium of expression with western tunes and created a new genre of Indo-colonial music that is neither completely Indian nor Western but both. The nottuswara sahityas are a microcosmic introduction to the world of Dikshitar. His well known kritis (vatap ganapatim, kamalambambhajare, rangapura vihara, arunachala natham, surya murte, manasa guruguha) represent his pluralistic approach to religion and his grounding in non-dualistic monoism. The lyrical content seen in the nottusvara sahityas is nothing but a condensed presentation of the themes seen in some of his compositions in heavy duty ragas—while the tunes are colonially influenced such as the “British National Anthem,” “Lord McDonald’s Reel,” the “Gallopede” and many more.

The diversity in tunes that Dikshitar wrote lyrics to is staggering. The manner in which he integrated stotra lyrics with western tunes truly reflects his genius.

The nottusvaras do not find a logical space for performance in the kutcheri tradition. They however are not to be dismissed as flippant creations in the face of the other magnificent edifices created by Dikshitar in various ragas. On the contrary, they constitute a precious and largely unknown legacy left behind by the composer.

• They reveal a glimpse into the rich

world of Dikshitar’s sahityas that are full of esoteric and aesthetic significance. Their text reflects the universalistic outlook of the composer, who was open to using alien melodies in his creative expression, in addition to the large body of highly sophisticated melodies of his own creation.

• The Indo-colonial music of Dikshitar reveals the pluralistic approach of Indian culture and the unique ability of India to be open to new ideas and to transform an alien concept into something that is uniquely Indian.

• From a practical standpoint, the nottuswara sahityas constitute a series of exercises that introduce the beginner to the fascinating world of Dikshitar’s classical music. n Kanniks Kannikeswaran is an internationally renowned musician, composer and music educator, whose award winning research on the Indo-colonial music of Dikshitar is beginning to influence Indian music pedagogy. With several path breaking works to his credit, Kanniks is considered to be a pioneer of the Indian American choral movement. He has been teaching Indian classical music at the University of Cincinnati since 1994. www.kanniks.com

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films

Aniruddh Chawda

Hardest Road Forward Politics effectively became the unwitting second character. Even Black was tricky in that instead of “just” a blind student, there was also her gifted teacher who comes down with Alzheimer's. A limitation in just one character in a movie can elicit empathy. More than one character that falls into this peculiar niche forces the viewer to transcend into an uneasy domain of sympathy. For this reason, Barfi! creates a small void.

That may matter little. On the steady upwardly mobile trajectory that Basu’s work has traced from Murder (2004) to Life in a Metro (2007) to Kites (2010), Barfi! is Basu’s hardest road forward and his best work to date. Barfi! has garnered accolades far and wide. So much so that it is India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration for 2013. It is indeed a noteworthy entry and deserves to be so, perhaps not for the reasons so readily apparent. n

BARFI! Director: Anurag Basu. Players: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Ileana D’Cruz.

Music: Pritam. Theatrical release (Disney UTV).

O

n the very short list of movies that have convincingly attempted several nonlinear chapters of a storyline simultaneously were Kahaani (2012) and Ghajini (2008). To figure in a nonlinear pulse that keeps tracks of three unique experiences into one gelling modus is even trickier. Despite flaws—and to be fair, it is flawed—the movie succeeds in a huge part due to director Basu finessing many different speeds of the same script while keeping intact the central premise with both narrative and staging.

Basu has written a first rate story here.

Time-shifting from the present to the 70s when it is mostly set, Shruti (newcomer D’Cruz), a college-age beauty visits Darjeeling where her father is posted for work. The already-engaged Shruti’s chance meeting with Barfi (Kapoor), a local ruffian who is also deaf and mute, ends up unresolved and Shruti returns to Kolkata. Picking up the disappointing pieces in her absence, Barfi sets out for the city, not knowing that Jhilmil (Chopra), Barfi’s autistic neighbor and childhood pal, has gone missing and may be looking for Barfi.

For sheer entertainment, Barfi! scores very high. There are brilliant comic touches as the character Barfi tries staying one step ahead of a pudgy local constable (Saurabh Shukla) convinced that Barfi is behind an ill-conceived plot to kidnap Jhilmil. The language barrier that is a fact of life for Barfi also provides rich fodder for the comedy of lost translations. Then there are the indoor chases that bring to mind Kapoor’s grandfather Raj Kapoor channeling Charlie Chaplin.

The acting is first rate. D’Cruz’s young married woman during the 70s superbly harks back to an era when mainstream leading decorum could be summed by Jaya Bhadhuri or Moushumi Chatterji in simple saris graced by a sizable bindi on the forehead. Chopra is simply amazing in bringing into the fold stark realism of the everyday life of an otherwise privileged girl-woman having to cope with autism. As Barfi, Kapoor is carefree and, not 36 • india currents • november 2012

having spoken lines, strangely liberated from conventional male lead role-playing.

If there is just one reason to catch Barfi!, and there are certainly many reasons for not missing it, it is the soundtrack. The great music here is highly originally and refreshingly breaks the routine from Pritam’s sometimes over-orchestrated and heavily electric-sounding scores. From “Ala Barfi” to “Main Kya Karoon” there is ample evidence that if Pritam puts his mind to it, he can be highly creative while retaining an essentially Indian core to his work. Bravo for the fine score!

So here’s the nag on Barfi! It is cumbersome enough to have “only” one character with a limiting characteristic or handicap to follow, empathize with and ultimately, to root for. The central characters in Koi Mil Gaya, Guzaarish, My Brother Nikhil, Paa and Taare Zameen Par in Mumbai and My Left Foot and Rain Man in Hollywood worked because each had only one individual who symbolized a social prism through which they wrung out their spin on the human condition.

On the other hand, My Name is Khan felt watered down because on top of one character with a compelling story, the script sidetracked into making pseudo-political jabs.

EQ: B+

LATA’S S FLICK PICK ail Cockt fi! ur B Tha Tiger Ek i ari Ki Sawar Ferr ur yp of Wasse  Gangs r Joke imum Max Oh My God  Rathore adi Rowdy i Toh Nikal P irin Farhad K Sh    haani Teri Meri Ka 

Sari, Manhattan

ENGLISH VINGLISH. Director: Gauri Shinde. Players: Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou, Priya Anand. Music: Amit Trivedi.

Theatrical release (EROS).

T

hat a study titled “Hindi Filmdom— Bastion of Sexism” would preoccupy a doctoral dissertation or two will come as no surprise. Female actors hardly ever last more than a few years at the top and “Comebacks” —consider Madhuri Dixit with Aaja Nachle (2008)—are doomed because of expectations that the artist will take up exactly where they left off. Defying the odds even after a 15 year hiatus, English Vinglish captures the still-vivacious Sridevi in a fantastic turn as a woman of a certain age caught in a turbulent, humorous and touching cross-cultural coming-of-age parable.

In a marvelously structured original screenplay by director Shinde, Shashi Godbole (Sridevi), a dutiful, sari-first housewife from Pune versed in only Hindi, rather suddenly arrives in New York to help with her niece’s big fat Indian wedding. Taking a sizable risk with her station in life and also taking advantage of the lag before her family joins her in New York, Shashi decides that the only avenue to break the culturally-imposed linguistic barbwire holding her back is to enroll in an English language course in Manhattan. Unbeknownst to her husband Satish (Hussain) in India and finding an accomplice in her niece Radha (Anand), Shashi sneaks out by day to take language lessons.

In a brilliantly age-commensurate role, the gifted, chameleon-like astute Sridevi as Shashi is alternatively coy—within her “Indian housewife” image—and also adventurous— within her “me-Shashi-from-the-India” (sic) outburst in a tightly knit language class.

Always-clad in suburban-wear saris, Shashi’s tour is made even more memorable because she makes no apologies for her Indian identity. Sridevi’s Shashi nails not only TOEFL—that ubiquitous exam many

foreigners must pass to demonstrate English proficiency state side—but along the way, and without losing an iota of her Indian woman identity, also conquers New York as a Second Language.

Any immigrant who has arrived from far shores to the bemused other-worldly maze that Manhattan poses, will readily fall for this hook, line and cappuccino.

That brings us to what English Vinglish is lacking. A womandirector, a rare breed in Hindi cinema, teamed up with a huge female star, should be able to tear into the guts of film artistry, yet it is disappointing that the filmmaker makes Shashi’s journey merely rudimentary and resorts to formulaic filmmaking. Shashi seems truly happy in New York. Compared to her half-full life in Pune, New York offers Shashi a breath of fresh air, as if she is born again in Central Park. The midtown classroom with a gay teacher and a possible admirer in Laurent, the hunky French chef and fellow student (Nebbou), become Shashi’s surrogate family. To offer all this and then force Shashi into choosing is a small letdown.

At the height of her reign during the 1980s, Sridevi rocked the Hindi screen with huge hits like Nagina, Mr. India and Chandni.

She had immense popularity and astounding appeal both in Bombay and the regional cinemas of her native southern India. Referring to Sridevi as “Lady Bachchan”—a testament to both her astronomical paychecks as well as popularity—was considered a boon. The legacy also made Sridevi the second richest female entertainer in India, behind only Lata Mangeshkar. Of all the female stars that have graced Hindi cinema over the last years 100 years, perhaps only Nargis was a bigger star than Sridevi.

Released simultaneously in Hindi and Tamil versions, English Vinglish got a huge boost and advanced accolades when it was not only released at the Toronto Film Festival in September but that rarest of events in India— a press screening exclusively for Indian media.

There is also the YouTube-friendly and highly clever trailer that for most of its two minutes features a sari-clad woman (Sridevi) reading a lifesize censor certificate with her back to the camera. Finally, who can deny the online buzz of a two minute scene-stealing appearance by Bachchan himself as a draw? Here, however, even Bachchan takes a backseat to Sridevi. n EQ: Aindia currents • november 2012 • 37

The Rage of Bollywood Zombies RAAZ 3-D. Director: Vikram Bhatt.

Players: Emraan Hashmi, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta. Music: Jeet Ganguly. Theatrical release (Fox Star). MPAA Rating: R. Parental discretion strongly recommended.

W

e know that flat screen TVs—ginormous monoliths alarmingly expanding their all-precious diagonal measurements by the week—have transformed home entertainment around the world and India is no different. To lure audiences back to multiplexes, movie makers around the globe have had to resort to new gimmicks. The Mahesh Bhatt camp has been at the forefront of a recent wave of 3-D releases from Mumbai.

First with Haunted last year and now with R-rated Raaz 3, Vishesh Films, the Bhatt label continues its notable success in delivering lower-budget entries that make no great artistic proclamations and yet provide a sizable bang for a gimmicky buck.

Writer Shagufta Rafique’s story has only slightly dressed over a popular tale of professional jealousy embedded in insecurities over fading youth. Shanaya (Basu), a prime-plus aged Hindi movie star with a string of successful movies in her past, is bypassed for a popular movie award in favor of younger newcomer Sanjana (Gupta). In a jealous rage to avenge the perceived loss of professional stature, Shanaya resorts to what any out-of-her mind diva would do—she turns to black magic and convinces her gullible film director-boyfriend Aditya (Hashmi) to lure Sanjana towards a dreaded curse. Shanaya’s plan, simply put, goes awry.

What the Bhatt brothers do very well is extract maximum suspense from scenes that would be, and sometimes are, laughably hokey—if only they weren’t so scary at the same time. A grown woman is hoodwinked into reliving her childhood terrors in an other-worldly abode with very long corridors, longer light-weight curtains that seem perennially blowing in an inexplicable indoor breeze, heavy footsteps from a just-aroundthe-corner-unseen-until-too-late presence,

38 • india currents • november 2012

and decaying body parts that pop out of the aforementioned giant flat TV screen (see, we told you!). The foundations for B-movie posturing for a higher grade could not have been packaged—or in this case, bandaged—with any more precision.

There is a recurring clown-bogeyman, a macabre figure deeply rooted in bedtime anxieties and thus uneasily exploiting a wider tongue-in-cheek collective neurosis. The bandaged, inter-dimensional ghouls and zombies (more the latter since you-know-what have of late been, um, revived in Hollywood) suspiciously resemble Egyptian mummies on ‘roids—as in steroids.

The cheesiest element—and one executed with good affect—are the nasties who cannot be seen with the naked eye and, in reversing the vampire theme, can only be seen with a mirror and never with a naked eye. Since sensibilities were checked in at the door when we plopped down $12 to grab the 3-D glasses, we don’t mind. Pay heed to the well-deserved R-rating!

The very first 3-D movie from India was Jijo Pussoose’s My Dear Kuttichatan, the 1984 Malayalam language entry re-related in Hindi as Chhota Chetan. It was an all-time Malayalam language blockbuster child-friendly

story of an evil magician who can control the minds of children—very telling of plot lines that can grab box office mass, if not critical mass, in 3-D. Following the Hollywood lead, recent Hindi releases Don 2, Ra. One, Dangerous Ishq were among big budget releases that were released in simultaneous traditional 2-D and techie 3-D versions. Raising the gimmick meter one notch, Yashraj’s heavily-anticipated 2013 release Dhoom 3 will be released in 2-D, 3-D and, for a first of its kind in India, will also debut on IMAX screens across the subcontinent.

In perspective, Haunted and Raaz 3, cost roughly half to one-third of what it costs to make a Salman Khan or Aamir Khan movie and yet the Bhatts deliver very solid box office. The Bhatt model is extremely profitable as a return on investment, proving that even extra layers of cheesiness, while not quite haute cuisine, can offer up their own scary morsels now and then. n EQ: BGlobe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator, Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.

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india currents • november 2012 • 41

I C relationship diva

Jasbina Ahluwalia

A Compatible Travel Partner Q

My boyfriend and I recently took our first trip together and now I find myself wondering whether we have a future, or are just too different to make it for the long-term.

While I’ve known for a while that I’m more adventurous than he is, I really never thought it might be an issue given that we both share similar life goals (we both want to have kids).

The differences during our trip seemed even more pronounced than when we’re together in the city where we both live. To give you just one example, while I was okay with checking out a couple of sights, I found my boyfriend’s idea of mapping out which sights to see and when (not to mention which meals we would eat and where) completely boring. I wanted our days to be unscheduled, so that we could head to different areas of the city depending on our mood that day, check out whatever sights we came across, and stop in at local restaurants along the way which looked promising. Any hope for us?

A

Your question reveals one of my dating guidelines: since people reveal themselves

through time and interaction, be open to exploring compatibility by allowing a relationship to unfold over time and interaction.

Your example reminded me of a presentation I attended at a matchmakers conference a few years ago. The presenter, a research professor of anthropology and the scientific advisor to a division of Match.com, Dr Helen Fisher, had developed a theory that while each of us is a combination of all four personality types, each person primarily expresses one of four broad personality types.

In her book, Why Him? Why Her?, Fisher explains how understanding your partner’s personality type can help you navigate the ups and downs in a relationship. From your example, it appears that you are primarily an “Explorer,” while your boyfriend is primarily a “Builder.” “Explorers” are typically described as novelty-seeking, energetic, risk-taking, and adventurous; whereas “Builders” are characteristically cautious, conventional, stable and respectful of rules and traditions.

While your differing temperaments can pose challenges, such as that experienced dur-

ing your travel, they can also result in powerful complementary teamwork. An example of this complementary teamwork: as you had mentioned the two of you share the life goal of wanting kids, your future family life can be enriched by the sense of adventure (provided by you) and security and stability (provided by your boyfriend).

Both of your mindsets will likely determine the prospects of your relationship. Do you positively focus on teamwork by viewing each other’s differences as contributing complementary strengths to the union; or alternatively, negatively focus on the challenges by viewing each other’s differences as weaknesses warranting modification? 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, a monthly lifestyle show. www.IntersectionsMatch.com. Jasbina@intersectionsmatch.com.

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IC

perspective

Intersections Ranjani Iyer Mohanty

Reflections while waiting for the light to turn green at intersections

I

’ve stopped at the intersection of Highway 183 and Loop 360 in Austin. I see a man standing on the meridian, next to a folding chair, holding up a sign. It reads: “My 4 year old son is dying of cancer. Please help me pay for his medical treatment.”

Austin is the lovely and sedate capital city of the state of Texas. Its population is about 800,000. It has rolling hills covered in trees, clear blue skies, and clean crisp air. It has roads without potholes. It does not have trash lying on the streets. It’s the home of cyclist Lance Armstrong and his Livestrong Foundation to support cancer survivors. It’s the home of large IT companies and the organic retail success story, Whole Foods.

Mornings see an exercise-conscious populace walking, running, and biking along the riverside walkways. Evenings see the affluent fill the upscale restaurants. In this land of plenty, even the down and out who need to beg for aid at intersections can afford a sign to state their case and a chair to adjourn to. The man looks tall, able-bodied, and hefty, weighing in at not less than 200 pounds.

And yet I’m disturbed. My own son died of cancer when he was almost four. My heart goes out to the man. It’s a terrible ordeal to go through even when you have no money issues, but I can imagine the added burden when you must worry about how to pay for the care—life-saving or palliative.

I wonder if there is something I can do or at least anyone I can contact to assist this man. But then I wonder if this is just a scheme to separate people from their money.

Does he really expect a stranger in a car to stop and give him $50,000?

Friends tell me that American hospitals cannot refuse anyone who comes into Emergency. I wonder if this man knows that and why he doesn’t take his child to one of Austin’s many good hospitals—like the Children’s Hospital of Austin or the Dell Children’s Medical Center. Surely there must be social workers to handle such situations. I wonder also about Obama’s recently approved healthcare reforms and if they could help this man and his child. It sounds promising. In general, 50 million Americans who are currently without insurance will be assured coverage.

In particular, two points may be particularly helpful: insurance companies cannot refuse coverage to children under the age of 19 with pre-existing conditions; and perhaps more 44 • india currents • november 2012

relevant, an expanded government Medicaid program will strive to provide more healthcare for those living below the poverty line—but this will also depend on the individual states.

At An Indian Intersection

I’ve stopped at the intersection of Africa Avenue and Ring Road in New Delhi. A distraught woman holding a small baby taps on my car window. She points to the baby and says it’s terribly ill and she must get it to the hospital immediately. She’s pleading for money.

New Delhi is a frenetic teeming mega-city and capital of India. Its population is roughly 14 million. It has hazy skies and discernible air pollution. It has potholes with roads. It has wealthy industrialists, private schools, large parks, and monuments from the Mughal Empire. It sees thousands of opulent weddings each year that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s the home of the rich and famous of Indian politics. Pranab Mukherjee, the ex-finance minister has just recently moved from his plush government-supplied home in central Delhi to occupy the 355-room presidential palace, the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

But Delhi is also the home of the poor. In this land of contrasts, more than half of Delhi’s populace lives in slums without basics like electricity and water.

And yet I’m disturbed. A woman with a sick child is asking for help; what mother would not empathize? Pressed to my car window, her face is harsh, dusty, and tearstreaked. Her hair is unkempt. Her sari is torn and dirty. Her bony arms hold out the child for me to better see. The baby’s head is lolling back and it looks only semi-conscious.

My first thought is to put both mother and child into my car and drive them to the nearest clinic. My family doctor is not far away in Vasant Vihar and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)—one of India’s biggest medical facilities—is less than two kilometers away. But then warning bells ring. Friends tell me these can be con artists working to separate you from your money. I also remember reading a news item about a nanny drugging her charge and then hiring out the baby during the day to beggars so they could get more alms. So instead, I give her Rs.50 and tell her to immediately take the autorickshaw standing just at the curb to the hospital. She takes my money silently and

moves on to the next car to ask for more.

While India does a thriving business in healthcare tourism for those who can afford it, the government’s healthcare programs for its poor have largely failed. Even so, there must be several charitable government-run and NGO-run clinics in Delhi who help the poor when they are sick—but I wonder whether this woman would know of such resources. Last year the Supreme Court ordered Delhi’s plush private hospitals to treat the poor free of charge but since then there have been reports that only some institutes have complied and others are making it difficult for the poor to access treatment.

The Global Intersection

Both the United States and India are experiencing economic slowdowns, although the U.S. would be happy with the Indian growth rate of 5.3% and India with the American GDP per capita of more than $48,000.

The United States unemployment rate is over 8%. The government of India claims its nation’s unemployment rate is 6.6%, but the figure is rendered meaningless by the vast and murky unorganized sector. The United States has a social security system that one political party thinks provides too much and the other, not enough. India’s mishmash of social security schemes (often corruptly administered) is unilaterally thought to be insufficient. In both countries, there are people who walk the tightrope without a net, and fall.

The Light Turns Green

Stopped at the intersections, I look out from the comfort and cocoon of my car. I don’t fully understand their situation. Several thoughts run through my head. One is “There but for the grace of God—or more likely, sheer dumb luck—go I.” Another is to question if their story is true. A third and most important thought is what I should be doing to help.

The light turns green for me. Feeling uneasy, I drive slowly through the intersection and away. n Ranjani Iyer Mohanty is a writer and academic editor, based in New Delhi. Her articles have appeared in several publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Altantic.

india currents • november 2012 • 45

Edited by: Mona

Shah

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cultural calendar

November

2 Friday

Documentary Screening on Spotlight!

Invoking Justice. In South India judicial

oversight is traditionally practiced by the “Jamaat,” an all-male body, dispensing justice based on Islamic Sharia law. The presence of women is not allowed—even to defend themselves. Deepa Dhanraj’s inspiring documentary profiles a women’s Jamaat, organized in 2004, whose influence has spread to 12 districts, empowering women and holding authorities to account 46 • india currents • november 2012

Nutcracker, a kathak ballet, November 17

for authentic justice. In Tamil w/ English subtitles, 85 min. Organized by UCLA Film and Television Archive. 7:30-9 p.m. Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. free. (310) 206-8013. archive@ucla. edu. www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2012-11-02/ invoking-justice-2011.

November

3 Saturday

Annual Diwali Celebration and Musical Extravaganza. Popular old and new Hindi movie songs. With musical orchestra by Aminder Singh, Mosmi Shah, Anish Chandani, and Rishi Thakar.

Organized by Indo American Senior

IC

recommends

Shyamal Randeria-leonard

A Concert to Remember F

ather daughter duo Pandit Ravi Shankar with Anoushka Shankar are set to transport Southern California’s multigenerational music loving audience into the ethereal world with spell-binding music of classical raga and rhythm.

Apart from playing alongside with her famed father, Anoushka, a two-time Grammy nominee is also known for her solo work which explores the hybridization of Indian music with a variety of genres including flamenco, electronica, jazz and Western classical music. Her recent album “Traveller” produced by flamenco expert, Javier Limón, combines Indian and Spanish musical traditions.

Although most of sitar maestro Shankar’s concerts are uninhibited improvisations, he typically begins with a melodic meditative prelude on the sitar nudging the audience into introspection with its low and mournful yet ecstatic phrases which often introduce notes one at a time. Shankar will later escalate to select evening ragas to accentuate not only the raga’s tonal beauty but also to stimulate moods and emotions in the audience particular to the time of night.

Smattered within the night’s musical finale will be a presentation of Ragamalika or a garland of ragas. Music flows and ragas smoothly transition from one to another as audiences revel in Shankar’s favorite original compositions with a bold fast-paced mix of Indian folk songs and ragas that exercise freedom, spontaneity and showcase the intense training of each artist.

Tanmoy Bose will accompany the artists on tabla “an indispensible member in the global fraternity of percussion,” explains Shekar Viswanathan, managing trustee of The Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego (IFAASD). Ravichandra Kulur will play the flute with B.C. Manjunath on mridangam.

Although fortune bestows itself to the lucky few, it is how one utilizes the proverbial silver spoon that distinguishes a winner, which Shankar aptly proved in his lifetime. Born into a well off Brahmin family and self admittedly spoiled by a life of world travels, Shankar explains how he adapted to the rigors of discipline, “My brother Uday Shankar inspired me to value the importance of the quality of performance and presentation while being a part of his

company.”

Shankar had already earned an early success as a musician and dancer and “realized that if I wanted to become an excellent sitar player I had to make the choice of giving up everything and to go and live in the village with my guru and contend with a very basic life.” Shankar expands “usually a student becomes eager to perform after learning a little, I fortunately did not have this urge as I had already experienced the thrill of performing in front of large audiences and instead spent more years than most students with my Guru Baba Allauddin, a traditionalist who took me under his wings and taught me the true Gurukul style.”

On the evolutionary shift of Indian music and training Shankar recommends good teachers and personal sincerity but also comments “the combination of technological advances and the desire to do something new have caused rapid changes which are sometimes jarring. Indian classical music is not just about display of speed, virtuosity and technical achievements. It is marked by the navarasa and bhavas. It is a deep spiritual and meditative approach as long as the musician does not lose his or her music it will be beautiful.”

The maestro also reflected on one of his

favorite performances that occurred in the mid-seventies. Shankar performed for the sage of Kanchi Maha Periyaval. “It was the circumstances under which I played which was memorable. An elephant was nearby and the sun was right above us, in scorching heat I was completely wet with sweat.

Normally the instruments would have been problematic under those circumstances but strangely the sitar did not go out of tune once through the entire hour long concert.”

Shankar continues “Dear Bhai Alla Rakha, my regular accompanist for 25 years was with me on that day, it was beautiful, I played Todi and Bhairavi, every one was in a trance.”

At the enriched age of 91, Shankar is far from grinding down and is constantly rejuvenating his musical repertoire with new compositions of ragas and songs.

The concert is presented by the Center for World Music and IFAASD, along with The Ravi Shankar Foundation.n Sunday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. Long Beach Convention Center, Terrace Theater, 300 East Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach. Tickets: $35 - $80. Box office: (562) 436-3661, (800) 745-3000. http://www.ticketmaster.com/RaviShankar-tickets/artist/734335. http://www. ravishankar.org. india currents • november 2012 • 47

Saturday, December 2. 2012 • 12:30 pm - 6:30 pm

48 • india currents • november 2012

Hollywood. Early Bird Deadline: November 16. Films under 40 min: $30. Films 40 min and over: $45. Final Deadline - January 11, 2013. Films under 40 min: $45. Films 40 min and over: $60. tsamundra@indianfilmfestival. org. www.indianfilmfestival.org/submissions. php.

November

17 Saturday

The Nutcracker, A Kathak Ballet. The

classic Christmas tale is re-imagined in kathak. The performer use the expressive traditions of bhaav and abhinaya to retell the story of young Clara and her Nutcracker prince. The detailed mime and dramatic characterization with footwork of kathak lends itself perfectly to this fairy tale.

Organized by Kathak Kala Academy and Indian Performing Art Center. 7-9:30 p.m.

Madrid Theater, 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park . $20, $30 at the door. (818) 882-3368, (818) 347-9419, (818) 272-1912. rachanau@yahoo.com. www.mykathak.com.

Saugata Roy Chowdhury in concert, November 17

Heritage. 5-11:50 p.m. Jain Center, 8072 Commonwealth Ave, Buena Park. $15 for members $20 for non members. (includes dinner). (714) 738-8372, (562) 286-4472, (909) 720-7479. www.IASHLA.org.

Halloween Banquet. The event will offer prizes to children and adults for the best Halloween costumes. Performances by Chili Beatz - a So-Cal based musical band, dances by talented troupes, a raffle and dinner. Organized by EducateAKid. 5-9 p.m.

Torch Restaurant, 7850 Beach Blvd. Buena Park. General, $35 (free for kids under 5yrs.) and $ 120 for a family of four. (909) 9045385, (714) 785-3117, (805) 341-3635. www. educateakid.org.

Hindustani Music Expressed in Two Resonances. Two diverse instrumentalists

are brought together. Jay Gandhi on flute and Suman Laha on veena, accompanied

by Salar Nader on tabla. Organized by The Music Circle. 8-11 p.m. Herrick Chapel at Occidental College, end of Alumni Drive. past Campus Road., Los Angeles. $35 General; $5 Students with ID. (626) 449-6987. MusicCircle@aol.com. www. musiccircle.org.

Dialogue on Preserving, Protecting and Promoting Hinduism in America.

Speaker Vineet Sharma shares insight on the importance of advocacy for the hindu American community. Organized by the Hindu American Foundation. 5:50-7:30 p.m. Riverside, RSVP at manvanshah@ yahoo.com, rkrish7136@aol.com to get the address. Free. http://www.hafsite.org.

4 Sunday Dialogue on Preserving, Protecting November

and Promoting Hinduism in America.

Speaker Vineet Sharma shares insight on the importance of advocacy for the hindu American community. Organized by the Hindu American Foundation. 1-3:30 p.m. Cerritos Library, Skyline Room A, 18025 Bloomfield Ave (Bloomfield & 183rd St Crossing), Cerritos.

Free. rmalladi@gmail.com. babugandhig@ gmail.com. http://www.hafsite.org.

November

9 Friday

Diwali Dinner and Club Night. Dinner on all three days with live music, a Bollywood dance show and DJ dancing. On the last day, there will be vendor exhibits, arts and crafts and story-telling. Ends Nov. 11. Organized

by Tanzore by Gaylord. 6-5 p.m. Tanzore, 50 N La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills . $49 for 3-course menu, $25 for diwali club night. (310) 652-3894, (818) 512-8888. nikki@tanzore. com, asha@tanzore.com, harneet@tanzore.com. www.tanzore.com.

November

House Concert by Saugata Roy Chowdhury. Performing on sarode,

accompanied by Abhiman Kaushal on tabla.

Organized by World Music West. 7:30 p.m.

Private Residence, Please RSVP for address information. $20. (323) 255-7783. david@ sarode.com. myspace/babui.

November

18 Sunday

Hindustani Music Performance. Saugata Roy Chowdhury performs on sarode, accompanied by Abhiman Kaushal on tabla.

Organized by The Sanctuary and World Music West. 6 p.m. The Sanctuary Wellness Center and Yoga Studio, 505 W. 1st St., Tustin. $20. (714) 617-4593, (323) 255-7783. welcome@awakensanctuary.com, david@ sarode.com. www.awakensanctuary.com/ register.html, myspace.com/babui.

16 Friday

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles—Call for Entries. Submit

narratives, documentaries, shorts, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format taking place April 9-14 2013. Jury and Audience Choice prizes will be awarded for best feature, documentary and short film. Organized by The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).

ArcLight Hollywood, 6360 W Sunset Blvd.,

Jay Gandhi performs on November 3

© Copyright 2012 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited. india currents • november 2012 • 49

Shyamal Randeria-leonard

SikhLens Eyes Punjabi Arts, Film S ikh Arts and Film Festival (SAFF) hosted by SikhLens is where Sikhcentric art meets actualization, where Sikh filmmakers, musicians and artists voice pride for their heritage and culture while mingling with entertainment industry notables for three days of intense showmanship.

“This oft popular, standing room only festival has drawn artists such as Parvesh Cheena and Guru Singh, filmmaker Mandeep Sethi and rapper Jagmeet Hoodini Singh, among many Sikh luminaries” SAFF co-chair, Ravin Kaur Kohli stated.

Industry insiders with ties to film schools, various public relation firms, independent filmmakers as well as film executives are also frequent panelists or guests of the event.

Although themes have often varied from a range of issues from farming to women’s issues, the brutality of suffering the disproportionate brunt of post 911 hate and discrimination faced by the Sikh Creative Sikhs panel community who at times see themselves as the “minority within the minority” has also sustained through the years, adds Kohli.

Singh, 12 is one of the many short films This year is no different, as apart from featured at SAFF which poignantly draws the overall high energy of the festival, attention to what it feels like to look foreign attendees will also mark a solemn homage and be bullied and teased for one’s distinct and tribute to the victims of the Wisconsin appearance.

Sikh Temple shooting on August 5 when Additionally, an interactive “Creative gunman Wade Michael Page, an army Sikhs” panel composed of artists who veteran shot and killed six people and perform live at the festival will also open wounded four at a Sikh temple in Oak discussion on their experiences and Creek, Wisconsin. Attorney General Eric struggles with audience members. A feature Holder labeled the attack as “an act of film presentation will be presented by the terrorism, an act of hatred, a hate crime.” evening’s end.

The festival will open with a packed In 2011, SAFF hosted the USA premiere agenda, which includes clustered viewings of the Bollywood-Canadian feature film of short non-feature films, artwork, and “Breakaway” which was met with great fashion designs punctuated with live reviews as the first “Sikh on Skates icemusical performances. Select film students hockey comedy” according to the Hollywood will also reap rewards for their efforts. SAFF, Reporter. through many of its generous benefactors Social dilemmas should open paths to awards sumptuous scholarships up to discussion and solutions and SAFF will not $10,000 to film school students. Six awards leave its audience gaped in bewilderment were presented in 2011 and the winning past some of its emotional laden line up. films will be viewed by the audience this The final day of the festival will focus on year. The evening will be capped with a issues afflicting the community and seek crowd favorite dessert and dance reception. to understand the impact of 9/11 and the The second day of the festival will Wisconsin Oak Creek tragedies in the past feature films and books created by children. decade. The last day will also feature movies Since 9/11, turbaned Sikhs children in the with Sikh based themes from around the United States have also been subject to world. racism. “Stand Out and Stand Up” by J.J.

50 • india currents • november 2012

A panorama of talent will converge in a 1.5 hour finale concert called Sikhlens Showcase featuring artists such as Mandeep Sethi, Gunjiv “Baagi” Singh, Jagmeet “Hoodini”, Jas Ahluwalia, Kamaljeet Ajimal under the guidance of producer Tej Gill.

SAFF receives roughly 150 submissions yearly encompassing short films and feature films, books and art out of which 25-30 works are selected.

Home-made as well as well budgeted films such as “Kisaan” and “Breakaway” have won stamps of approval from a “dedicated screening committee for each segment of the festival” according to Kohli.

SikhLens was established in 2009, but it was approximately 15 years ago that founder Bicky Singh, a software entrepreneur and an art collector by hobby, decided to explore the idea of mainstreaming Sikh history and culture. Singh would later win large support for this idea and armed with a small group of volunteers began the cultural venture.n Nov. 18-20, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University, 283 N. Cypress St., Orange. For tickets and detailed program, go to www.sikhlens.com. .

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reflections

Melanie P. Kumar

The Corporatization of Gurudom

I

n the Indian milieu, the Guru or preceptor holds an exalted place. The term, “guru,” would translate as the “dispeller of darkness.” Interestingly, the word has made its way into the English lexicon and is supported by Microsoft’s spell check. In the Hindu context and to some extent in the Buddhist and Sikh religions, the guru is supposed to grant the knowledge that connects an individual to God. It should be no surprise then that given the guru’s spiritual importance that people look up to gurus and view them as God-substitutes even in 21st century India. In ancient times, the gurus were perhaps revered for imparting knowledge and assisting in the path to spirituality.

Today, with most Indians being interested in matters more temporal, it may be only natural for gurus to adjust themselves to the changing worldview.

So it is that we have a plethora of gurus, ranging from Swami Sukhabodhananda, Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to name just a few. Whilst Sri Sri has improved on the Pranayama to evolve his own yogic method called Sudarshan Kriya, Jaggi Vasudev has formed his own technique of meditation and yogic practice called Isha Yoga, Swami Sukhabodhananda has written books like Oh Mind, Relax, please, Oh Life, Relax, please and regularly conducts workshops, often in air-conditioned comfort, for stressed out corporate executives.

What is significant is that almost all of today’s guru’s eschew simple living in favour of high-flying lifestyles and have a strong link with the corporate world. All of them have reinvented the Hindu religious scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to suit modern times. Apart from the gurus, many of these epics are being rewritten by corporate Gurus like Gurucharan Das who writes of The Difficulty of Being Good, linking stories from the Mahabharata with present-day happenings.

India-born, Deepak Chopra has reinterpreted Indian metaphysics to suit modern civilizations (particularly Western). His book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, has gone into many reprints and he can list amongst his fan following, famous names like Bill Clinton, Demi Moore, George Harrison and Michael Jackson!

Needless to say that he has materially 52 • india currents • november 2012

benefited in the process.

Can it be concluded that gurus have become corporatized because of modern India’s desire for wealth? But perhaps, there is a misconception here. In a country where the Goddess Lakshmi is alloted a day in the week, perhaps there was always a preoccupation with wealth. Most of India’s big temples are bursting at the coffers. Lord Balaji of Tirupati has recently been displaced as the richest god in India by Lord Padmanabhaswamy of Tiruvanthapuram.

The gurus of today have a better feel on the pulse of the people of this country and their preoccupations. Whilst spirituality has a place in the Hindu’s life, it comes at a later stage; in one’s sunset years. So, apparently, there is nothing wrong in the pursuit of wealth and the guru who tells you so is, not surprisingly, the most popular. It is little wonder then that the New Age gurus are more in demand than the old ones, like the Pejawar Mutt Swami.

For the poor of India, becoming rich is certainly an aspiration. So, if there is someone to reassure you that your poverty is because of your past karma, which tomorrow can reverse, either with the intervention of the guru or through the performance of religious rituals, why would that guru not have a following?

This piece is not meant to critique gurus who have reached great levels of spirituality like Sri Ramana Maharishi and so many before and after him. But there is no doubt that

there are gurus who feed into the fears of the general public and use it to consolidate their own positions of power. For their well-heeled followers, these leaders offer the reassurance that it is possible to be both rich and on the path to spirituality.

Baba Ramdev has garnered a world-wide following through his tele-evangelism and also amassed a fortune through a company selling Ayurvedic products.

For some it might be difficult to reconcile the link between the wealth that these gurus possess and the spirituality that they profess Still, I would like to end this piece on a positive note. When travelling on the train from Bangalore to Chennai, I met a devout lady who was returning after a ten-day stay at the Ashram of Swami Nityananda in Bidadi. In Tamil, she told me, “Avare paatha Kadavalai paatha madari,” which would translate as “Seeing him is like seeing God.” So, if “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” why fault the devotee who looks up and reveres the guru? If her devotion is pure, she might still find the salvation that is her due, with or without the intervention of the guru.n Melanie P. Kumar is a Bangalore-based writer and editor who has been freelancing forthe past 15 years. She has an Honors Degree in English and a post-graduate degree in Communications. Her areas of interest are human interest stories, observations on life, travel, development and human rights issues, the environment, gender, literature and culture.

IC

spirituality and health

November

2 Friday

Ahimsa and Sustainable Happiness Conference. The conference explores

the synergy, reciprocity, and unity between ahimsa and happiness. Ends Nov. 4. Organized by Ahimsa Center at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Cal Poly Pomona Bronco Student Center, 3801 West Temple Ave., Pomona. (909) 869-3868. tsethia@csupomona.edu, ahimsacenter@csupomona.edu. www.csupomona. edu/~ahimsacenter/conference/conference_12. shtml.

November

4 Sunday

A Spiritual Approah to World Peace.

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) 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.yoganan-

ization Fellowship. www.yogananda-srf.org.

da-srf.org.

November

11 Sunday

Habit: your Master or Slave? 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) 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.

November

18 Sunday

Giving Thanks for Life’s Blessings. Sun-

day 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) 295-0170.

Call temples for times. Organized by Self Real-

November

25 Sunday

The Purpose of Life. 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) 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.

December

2 Sunday

Maha Chandi Homan and Navagraha Homan. 15th anniversary celebrations under the guidance of guru Mathioli R. Saraswathy. Organized by Nandalala Mission Los Angeles. 12:30-6:30 p.m. Sanatan Dharma Temple, 15311 pioneer Blvd., Norwalk. $101 per family. (213) 219-1970, (626) 441-2019. senthilk8@hotmail.com. © Copyright 2012 India Currents. All rights reserved. Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited.

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india currents • november 2012 • 53

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the healthy life

Teresa Bergen

The Yoga and Dance Connection

O

n a Monday morning at Club Sport in Fremont, about 40 people nearly all of them women, dance together to American top 40/Bollywood mash-ups in a Bombay Jam class. Volunteers take turns coming up onstage to be the instructor’s back-up dancers. They pause to sing “Happy Birthday” to two regulars. Though a few moan and groan during the ab routine, it almost seems like they’re having too much fun to call it exercise.

The fun is what brings them back to the gym again and again. Fun is often the key to exercise adherence, which can protect against heart troubles, strokes, obesity and diabetes, all of which are more common among the South Asian population in the United States. According to the South Asian Public Health Association, premature heart disease is three to four times as likely to strike South Asians than whites.

South Asians typically also carry more belly-fat, which puts them at higher risk for metabolic syndrome, a condition that may lead to all the afflictions listed above.

The solution? Get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, five or more days per week, and eat a diet low in fat and high in whole foods, vegetables and fruits.

Finding Something You Like For a lot of people, the thought of exercise immediately conjures guilt. We know we should be doing it all: cardiovascular exercise, resistance training and stretching. Sometimes people doggedly pursue an exercise they don’t even like because they’re sure it’s good for them. At the gym

where I teach yoga and group exercise, a student recently told me how she ran for years, hating every step. When a physical therapist finally told her that running was terrible for her particular condition, she was thrilled to stop. Pursuing an exercise you hate is not sustainable!

Zumba has become phenomenally popular in the last few years. The dance-fitness program reports 12 million participants in 125 countries. Their motto sums up the reason why: “Ditch the workout. Join the party.”

While a few students may overlap, Zumba generally serves a different crowd than other leading group fitness trends, such as CrossFit or boot camp. Zumba is a haven for people who want to shimmy, smile and feel a bit sexy while sweating, rather than be yelled at by an instructor to keep doing push-ups when their arms feel like noodles. People who would tell you they don’t have an athletic bone in their body can enjoy Zumba.

Some of these same people also like yoga classes. In both these activities, the focus is more on feelings than accomplishment.

While someone might be excited to master a dance move or a yoga pose that had previously eluded them, the main idea is to show up, move for the allotted time, and have a pleasurable experience in the body.

Yoga teacher Jenny Gallagher, author of Mind Over Mat: Having Fun While Focusing on What Matters, has pondered the question “Is yoga exercise?” Yes, she says, it can be.

But it is also much more. “I believe the cornerstone to wellness is wellbeing, which is a feeling,” said Gallagher, who teaches in Sarasota, Florida. “Yes, some people enjoy the feeling of traditional exercise, but in many cases people exercise because they ‘should.’

Therefore the feelings may range from true dislike or a sense of having to push through it. Yoga means to yoke or unite and if you focus on aligning your feelings with what you want, you will experience wellbeing.” Yoga allows for introspection and stress reduction, she said.

Effectiveness of Dance Exercise

Zumba Class 54 • india currents • november 2012

While there’s no doubt people are having fun in classes like Zumba and Bombay Jam, are they really getting the exercise benefits of more serious-looking pursuits like running and cycling? The American Council on Exercise recently commissioned an independent study to find out. An exercise

Zumba Class

science research team from the University of Wisconsin measured energy expenditure and exercise intensity among Zumba enthusiasts.

They studied 19 healthy young women who had prior Zumba experience. The women participated in a Zumba class while wearing heart rate monitors. During the peak activity of the class, the women’s heart rates reached 80 percent of their maximum capacity, which is solidly in the recommended range for cardiovascular exercise. They burned about 9.5 calories per minute. These results surprised both the researchers and the participants, who didn’t perceive the workout as that challenging.

According to a National Institutes of Health study, yoga didn’t improve participants’ fitness level. However, it was equal or superior to other forms of exercise in all their other indicators, such as improving emotional and mental health, which in turn improves physical health.

As Gallagher pointed out, feelings of wellbeing improve your health. “I wish we could remove the words ‘diet’ and ‘exercise’ from our vocabulary and instead focus on nutrition and playful movement,” she said. “If you want to feel good then supply your body and mind with nutrients and activities that give you energy.”n Teresa Bergen lives in Portland, Oregon, where she writes about health, fitness, travel and the arts. She’s the author of the Vegetarian Asia Travel Guide. Find out more at www.teresabergen.com.

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india currents • november 2012 • 55

IC

travel

Shivam Khullar

A Tryst with Nature Exploring the national parks of Utah

U

tah, home to some of the world’s most famous and awe inspiring national parks, is a hidden gem of the mid-west. It is a pleasurable retreat for those who seek comfort in wilderness. To witness this spectacle of nature, we decided to spend a long weekend in Utah exploring two of its most famous national parks—Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.

In order to avoid the long weekend rush, we picked the week right after Memorial Day for our adventure. The airports nearby are Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and St. George. We chose St. George because of its proximity to the parks. If you do not want to spend a lot of time driving, pick St. George. Just make sure you book in advance, since there aren’t many airlines that fly there.

I would recommend staying inside the park, since it saves a lot of time and the experience is so much better. You can camp inside the park or stay at the lodge. The lodges usually sell out very soon, so book at least three to six months in advance.

Bryce Canyon

From St. George to Bryce Canyon is a three hour drive (including some rest breaks).

I was awed by the landscape around me as we started driving from the airport towards I-5 North. Vast open spaces reveal themselves as you drive up the highway. As you approach Bryce Canyon, you will come across the bright red hoodoos of Red Rock Canyon which will give you a sense of what you will see and experience in Bryce later on.

56 • india currents • november 2012

If you stay at Bryce Lodge, the famous “amphitheater” is just two hundred steps from your room.

The vastness and beauty of this amphitheater can leave you spellbound. I saw miles and miles of strange and beautiful formations unfolding before me. The fact that these natural formations have been there for several years give it a sense of timelessness. How amazing is nature! These formations have been standing, maintaining their balance, unshaken by rains and storms over several million years.

You can walk the rim of this amphitheater or take the shuttle that goes around the park, making stops at major tourist attractions like Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, Inspiration Point and more. If you are up for a short but steep hike going deep into the canyon, Navajo Loop trail is a good one. There is also a short hike that starts from Sunrise Point goes around The Queen’s Garden and Thor’s Hammer and brings you to the originating point of Navajo Loop. You must hike Inspiration Point. It is a very short hike, but steep climbs take you to one of the highest lookouts overlooking the amphitheater.

You can feel the air getting thinner as you climb up. The name is

Navajo Loop Trail, Bryce Canyon Bryce Canyon

The Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon

where bottled mineral water is not sold in stores or restaurants.

The gift shops sells reusable water bottles made with recyclable plastic that can be refilled at each shuttle stop.

The Temple of Sinawawa is the last stop of the park shuttle, and also the originating point of the famous river water hike, “The Narrows.” It is a 16-mile hike through the narrow rock formations on the Virgin River.

The water is not cold, and you can always do a part of this hike, instead of going all the way. It is quite an awesome feeling to paddle your way through water, as you balance yourself on the bed of rocks. Make sure you pick up walking sticks from the gift shop to help you on your way.

The Narrows at Zion National Park

than two hours.

Some other major attractions of the park are—Weeping Rock, The Great White Throne, (which can be best viewed from Angel’s Landing) and The Organ. You can also enjoy quick photo opportunities at the Court of Patriarchs and Canyon Junction. There is a short scenic trail that runs from Canyon junction to the Human History Museum, called the Pa’rus trail. Don’t miss a short break at a small waterfall, halfway through this trail.

The museum is a great place to catch the sunset and also offers great views of the West Temple, the Sundial and the Altar of Sacrifice. There is also a movie that is screened every hour about the origin and development of Zion National Park and the people who inhabited this region once upon a time. If you have additional time on hand, Kolob Canyon is a great area to explore and hike.

Unlike Bryce, Zion has plenty of food options in the vicinity and you don’t have to depend on the food available in the lodge and the cafe. The town of Springdale is eight miles from Zion lodge and offers plenty of options to satisfy your appetite.

Our three day tryst with nature in Utah left us wanting more of it. The silence and grandeur of these parks is imprinted in my memory and there is no doubt in my mind that I will be back to explore more of Utah in the coming months and years.

One of the pleasures of living in the United States and especially on the west coast is the proximity to natural wilderness that is well maintained and regulated by the National Park Services (NPS). We take the best things in life for granted and NPS is one such organization that is undervalued and is currently operating under severe budget cuts.

Let’s do our bit, and helps NPS maintain these splendors for us, so we can keep coming back. n

Like Yosemite, Zion is a favorite

Shivam Khullar is an astute business consultant, an opinionated writer, an avid reader, a creative cook, a hopeless coffee lover, a light traveler and a loving wife.

The Court of the Patriarchs at Zion National Park

apt—you will leave inspired by the variety and scale of the formations.

The Rainbow Tour is offered free to park visitors. You need to book it in advance at the Visitors Center, usually a day prior to your trip. It is a short three-hour trip that takes you to the highest elevation points in the park—Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point. The bus also makes several stops along the way and gives you ample time to explore some notable hoodoos. The tour guide also shares some interesting trivia about the local fauna, history and origins of the park. Some interesting points of interest on this tour are Natural Bridge, Aqua Canyon and Ponderosa Point.

If you are short on time then the attractions covered above are pretty much what you can cover in a day and a half at Bryce.

If you are staying at the park, the lodge offers a very comfortable stay and is walking distance to the shuttle bus. Dining options are limited in the area, but the lodge dining hall has an impressive menu and an even more impressive wine list. The dining hall takes reservations for all meals, but walk-ins are also welcome.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park is a ninety-minute drive from Bryce, and an hour’s drive from St. George. There are several entrances to the park but the one from the east side is the most scenic and gives you an opportunity to drive through the Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel.

Look out for Checkerboard Mesa and Zion Arch as you drive.

Zion receives thousands of visitors every day, and to avoid the traffic on what is mostly a single lane road, the park provides a shuttle that covers all the major points of interest.

The quickest and simplest way to see the park is to ride the shuttle and get off at stops that interest you. Simply leave your car in the parking lot and enjoy the recorded narration in the shuttle that tells you about the significance and history of each of the major attractions. Zion is an eco-friendly park,

for hikers. Some of the noteworthy hikes are Angel’s Landing and Observation Point, which are both quite strenuous. There are several small to medium hikes in the area and some of them are also wheelchair accessible. Make sure you get a daily park newsletter (or check with a ranger) to know which hikes are currently open. The Emerald Pools trail is small but interesting and starts right opposite Zion Lodge. This hike can be completed in less

Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon

india currents • november 2012 • 57

IC

on Inglish

Kalpana Mohan

A Maharani in the Next Avatar, Perhaps? avatar |avvatär| noun chiefly Hinduism • a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher.

• an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea

O

ne afternoon last July, I was sitting with the Queen of Baroda in her salon and she asked me if I would like to have some tea.

I said “No, thank you” somewhat instinctively but I reversed my stance a few minutes later. I could not refuse an offer to drink tea with a maharani. It would serve as a great opener if I ran into a Silicon Valley Indian mogul in the San Francisco Bay Area. To pass up on the opportunity to let my silver spoon clink against the bone china at the Laxmi Vilas Palace that afternoon would have been a tragedy.

I had considered riding in an autorickshaw to the palace just as the maharani had suggested in her email but I rode into the grounds, instead, on four wheels, in a beat-up purple Tata Indica with worn beige covers that my cousin had rented that morning for me and fitted with a young driver called Mansingh. A tall and lanky dude, Mansingh looked like a Bollywood hero but was really a bit of a zero. The words on his red T-shirt should have been a warning to me: “Hard work pays off later. Laziness pays off now.”

But Mansingh did do one thing right. He took memorable pictures of me outside the stunning Baroda palace built in the Indo-Saracenic style; in the pictures I stand—in front of those domes, balconies, stained glass panels and mosaics—looking almost regal, like a minor maharani about to glide into her Daimler.

Before I landed in Baroda I spent time reading about the life of royalty in India’s princely states. Native princes governed over two-fifths of the Indian subcontinent by the time Crown rule was established in 1858. India had 567 principalities and the British empire demanded that these big and small kingdoms owe allegiance to the Empire and to Queen Victoria who was proclaimed to be the Empress of India in 1876. The indigenous states ruled by the Indian princes retained their internal autonomy but their external relations and defense became the responsibility of the Crown. The Indian Princes were assured of protection from internal and external aggression through deployment of company troops. The Raj found many of these royals to be faithful military allies and used them as conduits to the people of India.

The Empire had a lot to gain by keeping these blue-blooded natives happy. Much of the charm of India and its exotic appeal lay in the courts of these Maharajahs. Furthermore, these royal vassals of the British really knew how to throw a party. The top officers of the Empire went hunting with the royals and took advantage of the lavish hospitality in these palaces. If India were viewed as the British Empire’s crown jewel, the pomp and glory of the princely states was a substantial part of its attraction. India’s royalty added color and heft to formal proceedings. At the Delhi darbar of 1911, all the princes were expected to be in attendance in their finery to commemorate the coronation in Britain a few months earlier of King George V and the announcement of India's new capital as New Delhi. However, not all princes swayed to the expectations of the emperor. At that darbar, Prince Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda, showed his displeasure at imperial rule by refusing to dress in full regalia. Sayajirao is supposed to have bowed only once (instead of the three bows) and he also turned his back on the emperor (princes were not supposed to show their backs to the king).

58 • india currents • november 2012

Lakshmi Vilas, Baroda

The stories I read about the maharanis of princely families made me wish I could be born a royal in my next avatar. The story of how Indira Devi, a scion of the Baroda royal family with its 21-gun salute, became the Maharani of Cooch Behar, which was only a 11-gun salute state, is one of the fairy-tale romances of India. In comparison, my life feels vapid—one without ferocity, passion, conquests, color and suitors, although I did have nine suitors followed by a tenth one who became my husband. I suppose, unlike the late Gayathri Devi, I will not die worrying about the proceeds of a large estate. Mine is all of about 3000 square feet minus a retinue of servants and plus a husband, who is an asset sometimes and a bit of a liability at other times.

Unlike my living room in Saratoga which is not larger than the smallest powder room in a palace, the darbar hall of the palace at Baroda is splashed with marble, mosaic and Venetian tiles.

The classics of painter Raja Ravi Varma adorn the walls of this hall, one of the most magnificent in all of India. Today, many of these palaces are art galleries to the glories of old India and some have evolved into heritage hotels that are playgrounds for the nouveaux riches from places like the Silicon Valley.

The kings of India were purveyors of tradition and custom and patronized art and craft. Today the royal families of India are stripped of their titles and their privy purses, yet their life of privilege continues and likewise a life of responsibility. Many continue to be active in politics and public service. One of the reasons I was at Baroda that afternoon to meet Maharani Shubhangini Devi Gaekwad was to talk about her patronage of sari weavers from the town of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh.

By the time I left Gujarat, I had experienced how life could be a royal pain with an ineffective underling. Mansingh did not only not know Baroda. Mansingh did not know Ahmedabad. And he didn’t know English. Still, Mansingh was a man with a ready smile and over the next three days, I would speak to my subject in the language of food, passing him burfi, laddoo and ribbon pakoda while we zipped around town, spinning our wheels going nowhere sometimes, thanks, of course, to Mansingh.

Despite everything I do feel privileged to have not been born into privilege. I’m happy I’m not the Maharani of Cooch Behar although, as I told my husband recently, it’s hard not to feel like the Maharani of Kuch Bhi-Nahin on some days. n Kalpana Mohan writes from Saratoga. To read more about her, go to http://kalpanamohan.org and http://saritorial.com.

IC

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recipes

Praba Iyer

The Miracle Tree

I

still remember the backyard of my childhood home in Chennai. It was a place of abundance. Along with the flowers and papaya trees were two huge mango trees, a henna tree and the one and only moringa oleifera. I remember its botanical name because it was the topic of my biology showand-tell at school. “Murungai” as we call it in Tamil was my grandmother’s go-to tree.

According to her, aside from the coconut tree, this was the other “Giving Tree.” It is also called the Tree of Life, The Miracle Tree, and the Gift from God. During the flowering months of February and March, my grandmother would spread out an old sari around the tree to collect the falling flowers. She would then make rasam (a flavorful tamarind soup) with these flowers, and it was always delicious.

The long pods on the tree, with fleshy pulp-filled sections, are called drumsticks.

April and May were drumstick months in our home. We got our daily dose in many different sauces and curries—sambar, mulaghutal, avial, morkuttan and much more. For the rest of the months, the murungai leaves ruled.

If we ran out of side dishes, we knew what

would be on the menu for the next meal—murungai ela thoran or sautéed moringa leaves. Once a week the evening snack would include murungai ela adai (thick rice pancakes made with moringa leaves). The crushed leaves also came in useful as remedies for stomach ailments. My sister-in-law’s postpartum diet was moringa with every meal.

Grandmom nurtured the tree carefully.

She made sure that it was watered, the surrounding area cleaned, all the drumsticks on the tree were well inside our backyard and not jutting over onto the neighbors property where they could pick it off the tree. The dried pods or seeds were thrown into our fresh water well, as she said it purified the water. She had a long pole with cloth dipped in kerosene that she lit. She would hold the lit pole next to the stump of the Moringa tree, to burn off all the caterpillars that were clinging to the huge stump. “These kambali poochis (wooly caterpillars) love the gum,” she would

Dal with Moringa Leaves

mustard seeds splutter add the green chilies.

Then add the chopped garlic, ginger and onions and sauté for a few minutes till the onions are translucent. Add the turmeric, garam masala, cayenne and the tomatoes and sauté for a few more minutes. Now add the soaked chana dal and mix well. Lastly add the fresh moringa leaves and 1 ½ cups of water. Place the lid and weight on the pressure pan and let it cook. Shut the stove after the 3rd whistle

Ingredients 1 cup chana dal soaked in water for 4-5 hours 1 tablespoon oil 1 tsp of panch phoran* whole spices 2 cloves of garlic chopped fine 1 medium red onion chopped fine 1 inch ginger chopped fine 2 Thai chilies sliced 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp garam masala ½ tsp cayenne 2 medium vine ripe tomatoes chopped 1 cup fresh moringa leaves (destemmed) Salt to taste Squeeze of lime (optional) ¼ cup cilantro leaves chopped for garnish *Panch Phoran spices – a mix of 5 spices, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds.

Method Heat the oil in a pressure pan and add the panch phoran spices. Once the 60 • india currents • november 2012

exclaim.

The picture of my grandmom sitting on the front porch, de-stemming a large bunch of moringa leaves remains evergreen in my mind.

Small Leaves with Big Values

Little did I know that there was a world out there that loved the moringa as much as my grandmother. There are activists, researchers, environmentalists, biologists and

and let it cool. Remove the lid and mix in the salt and check the seasoning. Add the cilantro and squeeze a lime and serve a healthy nutritious cup of Moringa Dal.

Red Curry Moringa Drumsticks

Ingredients 1 cup firm tofu (drained and cubed) 1 tbsp fresh lemon grass sliced 2 cloves of garlic 1 tbsp of Thai red curry paste 2 fresh drumsticks cut into 1inch pieces 1tsp of palm sugar 1 can (13 fl oz) of coconut milk Salt to taste Add the garlic, lemon grass, red curry and drumsticks to a saucepan along with 1/2 cup of water and let it cook. Once the drumsticks are soft and change color from the bright green to a graying green add the tofu, palm sugar and coconut milk and lower the heat. Let it simmer and season with salt.

Serve with a bowl of brown rice.

chefs dedicated to this one tree. Ayurveda calls it the tree that can cure 300 diseases.

The Trees for Life International says that moringa leaves can save millions of lives and can practically wipe out malnutrition from our planet.

The moringa tree dates back to 2000 B.C. and is native to the foothills of the Himalayas.

There are 13 species of Moringacae family and the most famous is the Moringa Oleifera. It is also called the Horseradish tree and Drumstick tree, or the Benzolive or Mulangay tree.

The leaves of the moringa contain a wealth of essential nutrients and minerals necessary to sustain life. According to the Moringa Supreme the leaves contain 9 times the protein of yogurt, 10 times the Vitamin A of carrots, 25 times the iron of spinach, 17 times the calcium of milk, 15 times the potassium of bananas. Fresh Moringa leaves also contain 7 times the vitamin C found in oranges. Wow! Every country uses moringa in different ways for its therapeutic value. It is widely used in African countries to treat malnutrition and disease control in women and children and for purification of water. The oil from the seeds has been used by ancient Greeks to heal skin ailments. In India it is used in the treatment of a huge list of diseases from anemia, anxiety, asthma, blackheads, blood impurities, bronchitis, catarrh, chest congestion, cholera ... Guatemalans treat skin infections and sores with moringa. In the Philippines, moringa is used to treat anemia, glandular swelling and for nursing mothers to increase lactation.

Now living here in California, we are fortunate that we can find Murungai leaves and fresh drumsticks in Indian and Asian grocery stores. Nutrition stores sell moringa powder, and some nurseries in Florida will mail you a moringa plant. The Moringa Chef uses the powder in pretty much everything from muffins to quiche. n Praba Iyer teaches custom cooking classes around the SF Bay Area. She also blogs about cooking at rocketbites.com. india currents • november 2012 • 61

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uncubed

Krishna M. Sadasivam is the cartoonist behind UNcubed, a weekly online auto-bio comic, focusing on life as an Indian guy in the United States.

When he’s not creating comics or working as a freelance illustrator, Krishna teaches full-time in the Media Arts and Animation department of the Art Institute of Tampa in Florida. See more of his work at http://www.uncubedthecomic.com/.

62 • india currents • november 2012

I C dear doctor

Alzak Amlani

Caretaker Dilemma Q

My sister and I take care of our aging mother, who might only have a few months to live. I am the only family in town, so I do most of the work of talking with doctors, hiring help and spending quality time with her. This is my choice. However, I also notice that I end up exhausted. My mother likes to be more independent than she is capable of—driving alone, cooking, doing chores and not resting enough. She doesn’t respond to my concerns and I get frustrated, so we end up in unresolvable arguments. I don’t know what to do anymore.

A

You are naming some core issues about aging: death, difficult conversations and managing serious responsibilities. As people age, unless they have done a lot of inner work on their personalities and relationships, they become more rigid and entrenched in their ways. Very few people soften in old age. Fear of illness, dependency and death become paramount and often families don’t talk about them. Older people tend to act out their fear through stubbornness and denial of

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dependency. The person who reminds your mother of these inevitable realities is you.

Thus, you get the wrath and are blamed for feelings and experiences she doesn’t want to encounter in herself and her changing life.

Having these difficult conversations is necessary. Ask your sister and other relatives to help and offer ideas and support. Elicit the support of an older person that your mother respects, such as an aunt or uncle.

Ask your mother questions that will draw out her concerns. Simply listening and empathizing will also engender safety and get you out of the power struggle. Let her know that you care about her well being and want to do what you can to support her at this time in her life. Then inform her of your responsibilities in the situation and why you need to make certain decisions and how you need her to cooperate with you. She might grieve her losses, which would help her let go and accept the right support.

She may even be angry at you for exposing these things to the rest of the family and taking her control away. You’ll have to simply

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accept this is as normal and allow her to have her feelings and be willing to not be liked for a few weeks.

You need as much support and help as you can get. This includes more relatives, friends, cleaning, driving and medical support. If you have the money it will be well spent. Knowing that you need the help and learning to ask for it is often a big step.

Why do you feel like you have to do it all by yourself? This is a lot to hold psychologically. Therefore, getting help on the material level, allows you to be more present to the emotional and familial realities.

Take care of your own emotional needs.

Some people avoid dealing with the depth of the changes as a parent ages, by being busy with the physical demands of caretaking. Fnd the strength to encounter and deal with your mother's changed circumstances. If you do, you will feel more inwardly supported. n Alzak Amlani, Ph.D. is a counseling psychologist in the Bay Area. (650)325-8393. Visit www.wholenesstherapy.com.

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the last word

Sarita Sarvate

Bye, Bye Politics; Bye, Bye America?

I

n this election cycle, I finally lost it. I cannot stomach American politics any more. There was a time when I used to relish it, when I used to like watching debates and discussing policy.

No more. The current election cycle has finally broken my back.

What happened?

The media happened. Romney happened. Citizens United happened.

For a while, it seemed that the Republican Party was going to be exposed for its lack of connection with America; for its tendency to have an autocratic party line requiring every politician to tow; for its hidden agenda of benefitting only the rich.

But when the media announced that Romney had “won” the first debate, I was flabbergasted. OK, so his style was aggressive, but what about the dozens of lies he told, I thought. Yes, Romney did tell lies; he said he would keep Obamacare’s provision about pre-existing conditions intact in his healthcare plan, even though that is not his platform and his advisor as usual corrected him the very next day; he also said he had no abortion legislation planned, even though he has until now always avowed to overturn Roe v. Wade, the position reiterated by Veep candidate Ryan asserted during the Vice Presidential debate.

Would a debater participating in college championships have won the trophy by asserting that the earth was flat and the sun rose in the West?

I think the American public is hungry for truth from their leaders. But the trouble is, Madison Avenue has long controlled the message in Washington, with the result that everything has become an ad campaign. And the public, busy worrying about work and family, does not have the resources to sort out the truth from the lies.

That is supposed to be the media’s job, but it has become a part of the advertising industry.

If you don’t believe me, read an article titled The Lie Factory, authored by Jill Lepore and published in the September 24 issue of The New Yorker. In it, she explains how Upton Sinclair lost the election for Governor of California in 1934 while running on an extremely popular platform titled End Poverty in California, or EPIC. His plan to create cooperative factories and farms to implement “production for use” rather than profit, to kill the sales tax, and to levy a thirty-per-cent income tax on people earning more than $50,000, was so attractive, it got support from leading writers, economists, academicians, senators, congressmen, and cities.

To defeat him, for months, The Los Angeles Times simply ran on its front page quotations from characters in Sinclair’s novels as quotes from Sinclair himself. And who was the brain behind this vicious idea?

An advertising agency named Campaign Inc., run by Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, who coined the slogan, Every Voter is a Consumer.

And who financed the company?

... campaign hacks have begun controlling messaging on Twitter and Facebook and brainwashing people into believing everything from who won the debate to who was more leader-like.

64 • india currents • november 2012

Republicans of course.

For decades, Campaigns Inc. controlled the future of America.

The company orchestrated Earl Warren’s campaign for Governor of California by maligning politicians who had protested the internment of Japanese citizens, using the banner “A Call to Arms in Defense of California.” Their advertising tactics were so nefarious that after Earl Warren won the election, he began to have a change of heart. After undergoing a serious illness, in 1945, Warren, who was a Republican, developed a plan for a comprehensive, compulsory health insurance for the state of California by using one and one half percent of contributions from employers and employees. The measure, in spite of being overwhelmingly popular, was defeated

by Campaigns Inc. through the placement of ad campaigns in four hundred newspapers financed by the California Medical Association, using the slogan, “Political medicine is bad medicine.”

Harry Truman, in the meanwhile, had proposed a national healthcare plan modeled on the California plan. But Campaigns Inc. successfully defeated the popular plan, using money poured in by rich doctors belonging to the American Medical Association and using the phrase socialized medicine.

That phrase is still bandied about today, providing a testimonial to the power of money, advertising, and spin in American politics.

Campaigns Inc. laid the framework for the successful use of lies in politics; others perfected the art. In the nineteen eighties, a Republican pundit came up with a brilliant piece of strategy, “Say anything in a debate—be it truth or a lie—because seventy million people will listen to it. The next day, you can disavow or clarify your statements but ninety percent of people will not bother to read the clarifications.”

In the Presidential debates, Romney obviously relied on this wisdom. And even though media have mushroomed in the age of the internet, people were unable to call him on his lies. In fact, in the new millennium, the publicity machine has not become more democratic. Instead, campaign hacks have begun controlling messaging on Twitter and Facebook and brainwashing people into believing everything from who won the debate to who was more leader-like.

Is it any wonder then that Obama seemed so dispirited during the first debate? With problems like Libya, Syria, and Iran, not to mention the economy, on his mind, perhaps he felt diminished to have to face a habitual liar and to have to call him on his obvious untruths. Perhaps he assumed the media would do it for him.

Well after this election is over, I will be thinking about the distortions and lies and spins that have become the mainstay of American politics.

And if Romney, in spite of his lies and flip flops and his retro attitudes to everything from women and contraceptives and abortion and energy policy and taxes and healthcare and Medicare and Social Security, wins the Presidency, I will be wondering whether to move to New Zealand.

If I were younger, I suppose I would seriously consider such a prospect. But perhaps I could just tune out the madness by seeking refuge in some vacation resort on election night? n Sarita Sarvate writes commentaries for Pacific News Service and KQED. Visit www.saritasarvate.com

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