August 2011 So-CAl India Currents by Nirupama Vaidhyanathan

Dishing It Out 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 PR and Marketing Manager: Malini Patel subscribe@indiacurrents.com malini@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 221 Graphic Designer: Nghia Vuong EDITORIAL BOARD Managing Editor: Vidya Pradhan editor@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 226 Calendar Editor: Nadia Maiwandi events@indiacurrents.com (408) 324-0488 x 224 COLUMNISTS Forum: Rameysh Ramdas Films: Aniruddh Chawda Dear Doctor: Alzak Amlani The Last Word: Sarita Sarvate Zeitgeist: Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan Uncubed: Krishna Sadasivam Contributors: Jasbina Ahluwalia, Khorshed Alam, Anirvan Chatterjee, Priya Das, Sukanya Dasarathy, Shailaja Dixit, Madhumita Gupta, S. Gopikrishna, Anita Kainthla, Sharmila Mukherjee, Rajesh C. Oza, Jula Pereira, Meera Ramanathan, Shanta Sacharoff, Ranjit Souri, Vivek Wadhwa

Last month, a humorous article on one woman’s misadventures in her search for Mr. Right (“Shaadi Dot Kya”) generated a storm of comments online. While it is always gratifying to be able to engage our readers, it was immediately apparent that several commenters wanted to weigh in, not on the issue itself, but on the personal traits of the author. In a short span, the discussion was in danger of being hijacked and diverted to ad hominem attacks and accusations of misandry. Is incivility, engendered by anonymity, merely the norm of online discussions? Or do women bloggers attract particularly vile responses? When Rebecca Watson, founder of the Skepchick website, casually related her discomfort at being approached by a stranger in an elevator late at night, she was called a diva, an attention seeker, and other hateful appellations that cannot find a place in this magazine. Rekha Basu, a columnist at the Des Moines Register, was subjected to such vitriol that she changed her commenting policy to require real names. Even harmless (read: non-provocative) mommy blogger Heather Armstrong received such negative comments that she decided to compile them in an ad-supported site aptly termed “Monetizing the Hate!” Male bloggers and writers like David Yepsen and Nick Coleman agree that they get

their fair share of attacks, but point out that these attacks are rarely personal. In contrast, blogger Lena Chen classifies her hate mail as body-snarking, vengeful, racist, resentful, and sociopathic (the last segment spewing misogynistic fantasies). I checked out an online forum called datinghookup.com, where one male blogger referred to his dates as “Smokey” and “Psycho.” The response? Commiseration and sympathy. When Maureen Dowd, columnist for the New York Times, asked Alan Dundes, a renowned folklorist, about the unwarranted attacks on female writers, he replied, “Women are supposed to take it, not dish it out.” The feminist movement in the United States is nearly half a century old, but women are still significantly underrepresented in traditional media, which means our perspectives are still rarely heard. But the Internet has proved to be a boon to female voices that cannot find mainstream outlets. These new voices may be perceived as a threat to the established patriarchy, which could explain the hatred and sexism. But the numbers are growing and the gravy train of the privileged majority might soon be on its way to be decommissioned. Meanwhile, all comments will be moderated! Vidya Pradhan

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india currents • august 2011 • 1

Southern California Edition

PERSPECTIVES

Masala Gourmet Celebrity chefs on television have been successfully integrating desi flavors with American cuisine By Priya Das

10 Anirvan Chatterjee tackles the subject of climate change in his creative story Lanka is Drowning, which took second place in the Katha 2011 fiction contest

Hrithik Roshan talks about his new movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and where his film choices are taking him

26 27 62

Ask a Lawyer Visa Dates Uncubed

2 • india currents • august 2011

EDITORIAL: Dishing it out. By Vidya Pradhan

LETTERS

FORUM: Should California pass the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights? Two opinions. By Rameysh Ramdas and S. Gopikrishna

ZEITGEIST: Give and take. By Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

BUSINESS: The death of open government. By Vivek Wadhwa

TAXATION: Report your overseas financial assets now! By Khorshed Alam

DESI VOICES: Dark and beautiful. By Jula Pereira

PERSONAL ITEMS: The artistic bulge. By Ranjit Souri

REFLECTIONS: One’s faith needs regular practice. By Shailaja Dixit

25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: Twenty years of recipes. By Shanta Sacharoff

THE LAST WORD: A doyen of Indian literature. By Sarita Sarvate

LIFESTYLE

DEPARTMENTS

RELATIONSHIP DIVA: Dating tips for the frequent flier. By Jasbina Ahluwalia

RECIPES: Fire up the grill! By Meera Ramanathan

THE HEALTHY LIFE: Brain-based therapy. By Sukanya Dasarathy

TRAVEL: The Sidis of Murud Janjira. By Anita Kainthla

DEAR DOCTOR: Alternative therapies. By Alzak Amlani

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT 18

FILMS: Reviews of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Delhi Belly, and Bbuddha Hoga Tera Baap. By Aniruddh Chawda and Madhumita Gupta.

BOOKS: Reviews of India Calling and Indian by Choice. By Rajesh C. Oza and Sharmila Mukherjee

MUSIC: CD reviews of Vel and Cinema. By Priya Das

Q&A: Pratima Dharm is the U.S. Army’s first Hindu chaplain. By Vidya Pradhan

WHAT’S CURRENT 46 52 58

Cultural Calendar Spiritual Calendar Classifieds

India Currents is now on

www.indiacurrents.com Most Popular Articles Online: 1) Shaadi Dot Kya(July 2011) Preeti G. 2) Soma Rising (July 2011) Kalpana Mohan 3) The Party (June 2011) Pauline Chand 4) Keeping the Faith(July 2011) Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan 5) Northern California Cultural Events (July 2011) Nadia Maiwandi 6) Being Indian in America (July 2011) Alzak Amlani 7) Arriving in a New Country (June 2011) Madhumita Gupta 8) Top 10 Hindi Films of 2010 (December 2010) Aniruddh Chawda 9) Finding Your Roots (July 2011) Sarisha Kurup 10) Reverse Brain Drain (July 2011) Vivek Wadhwa

Online Extras: • Easily navigate past issues • Link to related articles • Search over 80,000 listings in the India Currents-Copper Pages directory • Learn how to advertise in print & online • Post comments, feedback, & reactions • Enjoy the full color experience • Subscribe to the print magazine • Subscribe to our online newsletter

india currents • august 2011 • 3

letters

Indians Can Enjoy Both Whiskey and Wine!

I was very happy to see an article about wine in your latest issue (Soma Rising, July 2011) since I do enjoy wine and, living in Northern California, frequent wineries in Napa, Sonoma, Carmel Valley, and Paso Robles. It was very disappointing though, to see a rather amateurish attempt at talking about wine and those who enjoy wines. Right up front, the remarks attributed to Rajat Parr came across as very condescending. Given that he himself is a first generation Indian American, it was rather inappropriate for him to say that first generation Indian Americans only love scotch. This was further reinforced by the owner of Sawkar Vineyards, again, a first generation Indian American. This attitude is wrong and needs to be called out as such. Rather than spending time putting down those who are not into wine, they should have instead spoken of the large number of us first generation Indian Americans who actually do enjoy wine. I also like scotch, whiskey, and rum. Having a preference for one does not preclude enjoying the other! Finally, it is clear that the writer is just learning about wines, since when she talked about Mushal Vineyards, she says that the owner strolls through 14 blocks of orchards; might I remind her that orchards bear fruit of another kind, while vineyards yield wine grapes? Also, she missed a few other significant players in the wine industry in Northern California—Deepak Gulrajani, co-owner of Nicholson Ranch in the Carneros region, Dhruv Khanna (co-founder of Covad Communications) of Kirigin Cellars in Gilroy and Deepak Manair of Diamond Oaks Vineyards (he recently sold this winery, though). Rupi Singh, via email

A Misleading Title to an Informative Article

It is unfortunate that Kalpana Mohan’s informative write up on Indian entrepreneurs in the wine industry of Napa Valley appears under the title of “Soma Rising” (July 2011). She correctly identifies the Vedic references to the elixir of life as “soma” but incorrectly labels it as “intoxicating.” The soma elixir is an extract from a rare lotus variety prepared in a very rigorous and almost ritualistic fashion. It is variously described as non-alcoholic, hallucinatory, rejuvenating and possibly sedating. I take the liberty of providing a reference to a fascinating book Soma: A Divine Hallucinogen by David L. Spess. Kalpana’s article is very informative and 4 • india currents • august 2011

entertaining to read. However, without knowing the acreage under cultivation, volume of sales, marketing sources etc., I wonder if this is still a hobby venture for some deep pocketed Indian expatriates. My palate still maintains a strong bias towards Johnny Walker, Bl and Bombay Sapphire. P.Mahadevan, Fullerton, CA

An Example of Misandry

I’m glad this kind of article (Shaadi Dot Kya, July 2011) gets published, because those with an ounce of intelligence can easily read behind the lines here, and see that we live in a society that goes on and on about how hard women have it, how they have to live up to so many pressures to be sexually attractive but also cultural icons, but no mention is given (especially in this new generation) to the pressures that women put on men—how something silly as plastic on a chair or saying “would you like to hang out” immediately writes you off, and even your own skin color can sometimes be seen as an immediate liability. Misogyny, or hatred towards women, is such a common word that gets thrown around and used ad nauseum. But misandry, hatred against men is almost never heard. Is it because it doesn’t happen as much or is it because acts of misandry are never identified as such? I’d call this article a clear example of misandry (desi misandry, which is all too common unfortunately). Guys Have Feelings Too, online

It’s Sauce For the Gander!

Give a little credit for the guts it took to post this (Shaadi Dot Kya, July 2011). Shallow? Sure. Funny? I thought so. Yes there are pressures on men, but in Indian culture there is so much pressure on women to be pretty, fair, look down, cook, clean, and be submissive that there is really no comparison. I have a friend who is not in the best of shape, dark, and the sweetest girl you could ever know. How many guys of these dating websites do you think scoffed at paying for her dinner, walked out on her on sight, or expected her to do things for them because she was “lucky” enough to be out on a date with them? I’ve heard horrible stories and each more heartbreaking than the others. Has a guy (like me), ever thought about how that might feel if guys were put under that kind of scrutiny instead of girls? It would suck, as the responses clearly show. Man or woman, not giving people a deeper chance beyond superficial impressions is what is wrong. But I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt on this one and, even if she does

turn out to be very shallow, hopefully this is a good learning experience for her and for the Indian community fortunate enough to see this perspective. No Guts No Glory, online Preeti G.’s article generated a number of comments online. To follow the entire discussion, please check out http://www.indiacurrents.com/ articles/2011/07/17/shaadi-dot-kya

“Unsavory Cultural Traits” are Very Real

The editorial (Paying Our Dues, June 2011) really laid bare the truth about the “unsavory cultural traits” that have migrated with our community from India. I have also observed these negative behaviors displayed and could not agree with you more. Once when my wife and I were taking a walk in the Evergreen area of San Jose, we noticed that the outside lawn of a house was totally neglected with weeds taking over, untrimmed bushes, etc. We talked to the owner who was from India about the need to keep a neat and clean appearance for the house, and he replied that he was here in the United States only to make money and then return to India. Many of our legal residents sponsor their old parents for a green card and then obtain hundreds of dollars/month/person in Supplementary Security Income (SSI) from the U.S. government, as well as free medical care for them on their “word of honor” that the parents do not have any assets even in India. Instead of taking responsibility for the upkeep of their parents who never worked a single day in the United States, these residents shift the burden on U.S. taxpayers. Not only is this practice shameful, but from a practical standpoint this burden will also be carried by their children and grandchildren. Low-wage earning American workers get a pittance in Social Security after working all their lives whereas non-working foreign migrants get large SSI payments, food stamps, and medical care. The United States is no longer a prosperous nation as it used to be, and cannot afford such largesse on fraudulent claims. Maneck Bhujwala, Huntington Beach, CA

Krishna Was Indeed Mortal

This is in response to the letter from Swami Avdoot (Krishna is Not Mortal, May 2011). If Krishna is immortal He should be living with us now. Hence Krishna was a mortal and the Bhagavad Gita is immortal. Jesus was mortal; the Bible is immortal. Mohammed was mortal; the Koran is immortal. Adi Sankara was mortal; the Baja Govindam is immortal. Gandhi was mortal; his teachings on non-violence are immortal. Ramki Durai, via email

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india currents • august 2011 • 5

forum

Does California Need a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights? Rameysh Ramdas

S. Gopikrishna

No, let us not make hiring difficult

Yes, domestic workers are not domesticated animals

he California State Assembly has passed a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (AB 889) and sent it to the State Senate for consideration. This bill would specially regulate the wages, hours, and working conditions of domestic work employees and would give them the same basic labor-law protections as other California workers. While I do not question the sponsors’ motives, I do question their judgment in passing this unnecessary and ill-advised legislation at this time. In a free market economy such as ours, goods and services should be priced by supply and demand. Any impediment from the government, local or federal, to hiring simply means that fewer jobs will be created. The large employers will take their jobs to anywhere in the world with a more conducive business climate while employers of domestic workers—often the frail and elderly on fixed income—will simply not hire a helper. Instead, many will simply move to assisted care and nursing homes and claim the subsidies from Med-Cal to pay for it, thus transferring the burden to the tax payers and straining the state budget. Also, adding a layer of bureaucracy will do little to stem “underground caregivers” from working with/for homeowners. California has over 4 million seniors, the highest in the nation, 19.2% of whom live on incomes less than the federal poverty level and most of them require assistance with daily living. Home care providers estimate that this bill will raise their costs by 30-40% that will be passed on to the senior citizen customers. Our nation is reeling from large scale unemployment at this time. California leads the pack with a 12% rate that discounts the folks that have stopped looking for work or are making do with seasonal or part time work. This is the time when governments at all levels should be using every lever available to allow every person to compete for every available opportunity for work or trade—from tax breaks and reducing onerous regulation. That is the only way we can dig ourselves out of this recession and restore our economic strength. The best thing to happen to anyone is a paycheck; this bill, however well intentioned, will have the unintended consequence of taking that paycheck away from many workers while hurting our neediest seniors and the disabled. Yes, President Bill Clinton raised the minimum wage in 1996 and still presided over the largest economic expansion in a generation—he was wise to do it on an economic upswing and had an astute ability to raise consumer, employer and corporate confidence. We do not have that luxury today Let Government get out of the way. Let domestic workers keep their jobs and the grandpas and grandmas enjoy their independent freedom of living in their own homes with caring assistants. n

omestic workers fill crucial gaps in modern America by helping accomplish all the things that need to be done but don’t attract mainstream workers—this spans a wide spectrum, ranging from looking after children to seniors. Candidates for such jobs probably realize that such work is not the typical 9-5 job since human relationships work with neither clockwork periodicity nor predictability. However, the fact that they have jobs which may require longer hours on a frequent basis should not make domestic workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Such abuse and exploitation of domestic workers is so common that it may be taken to be the norm. The phenomenon seems to involve pillars of society, as evidenced by the conviction of the Sabnanis of Muttontown, New York, in 2007 for exploiting their Indonesian domestic workers.The horrors inflicted on the poor domestic workers included being beaten with brooms for “stealing” food from garbage bags due to inadequate nutrition. The exploited parties in such cases are no longer domestic workers, they are more like slaves. The profile of domestic workers in California is ideal for exploitation—they may be undocumented, invariably don’t speak English, have no awareness of their rights, and are prepared to do anything not to return or be returned to the pain and poverty of their homelands. They take up the work that nobody else wants, are underpaid when not unpaid, and are systematically exploited physically, emotionally, and psychologically. One wonders what the employers’ incentives are in hiring workers who are untrained and are difficult to communicate with. Wouldn’t hiring a worker to assist seniors involve checking for certification besides a criminal check to see if the candidate has abused vulnerable seniors in the past? The only way of making sense of hiring a person whose lack of qualification confronts the employer is the potential for economic exploitation. Arguments about allowing market forces to “set” wages in such situations are euphemisms that make exploitation legal and acceptable; there is an incentive to be abusive. The Bill of Rights actually works towards the employers’ advantage by allowing them to set qualifications and minimum standards for employment in exchange for a decent wage. Lastly, the proof of such laws is in the pudding—the skies have not crashed in New York state which passed a similar law in 2010. One doesn’t hear about the exploitation of au pairs because their rights are protected under federal law. The Bill of Rights introduces much needed legislation and levels the ground between employers and employee. It should be applauded and upheld for preventing the reduction of domestic workers to domesticated animals.n

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

Toronto based S.Gopikrishna writes on issues of importance to Indians.

This bill, however well intentioned, will have the unintended consequence of taking a paycheck away from many workers.

6 • india currents • august 2011

Arguments about allowing market forces to “set” wages in such situations are euphemisms that make exploitation legal.

zeitgeist

Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

Give and Take

Photo Credit: Project Hotsauce

ne of the striking aspects of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India is that his Indian “natives” are characterized by their repeated acts of strained and naïve generosity. Strained and naïve, I say, because their gestures are more self-effacing than selfless, childlike but not considered. Take, for instance, Dr. Aziz’s removal of his own collar stud to give it to Mr. Fielding. “Not if you’re wearing it yourself,” Fielding protests. “No, no, one in my pocket,” comes the lie from Aziz, who then wrenches off his own collar and removes the gold stud that was gifted to him by his brother-in-law. Later in the novel, Aziz plays host to two English ladies, taking them via train for an elaborate picnic in the Marabar Caves. In order to host them, he spends the entire preceding night in the train station, borrows money and servants from friends, and incurs the wrath of his boss. Yet this is how Forster imagines Aziz’s take on the event: “[Aziz] had been allowed to show courtesy to visitors from another country, which is what all Indians long to do…Hospitality had been achieved, they were ‘his’ guests; his honour was involved in their happiness, and any discomfort they endured would tear his own soul.” Forster pointedly (and patronizingly) exaggerates Aziz’s desire to extend his hospitality, but the irony is not lost on the reader. The individual Indian goes to considerable lengths to play host to individual Brits, while as a group the British are uninvited guests in India—guests of the worst kind: domineering ones, who have made themselves at home and refuse to leave. What, then, was Forster trying to say about Indian hospitality? Is Aziz a slavish mimic man whose self-image requires the approval of an Englishman? Does he give out of a desire for power, for the satisfaction that the colonist is enjoying something in his possession? Or are his acts of generosity driven by a simple desire to feel … competent? What does the Indian expect in return? As children, our earliest lessons are arguably in the politics and conventions of giving and receiving, the coded languages of “please” and “thank you.” Over time, certain norms are ingrained in us. Their absence in others is deplorable, evidence of poor rearing, or a deliber-

ate effort to slight someone. My brother and I learned early that you never go to anyone’s home empty handed. A container borrowed should never be returned empty, but with something inside it—even if just fruit. Birthdays always warrant gifts. Thank you’s must always be timely. And my mother’s cardinal rule: never question an impulse to give, to be generous. I think about that a lot when I find myself battling my inner curmudgeon: “Why take the $20 bottle when they serve $5 wine?”; “Why buy the tickets when you already paid for the dinner?”; “Why give a gift when ___ never does?” I haven’t the space to delve deeply into the dynamics and regulations of the gift economy. Scores of social scientists have written on this subject, including Jonathan Parry’s famous work on “the Indian gift.” I am simply interested here in the stories we tell ourselves about why and how we give and receive. What does the achievement of hospitality do for the giver? How do we receive what is given to us, and how does the identity of the giver condition our stance in reception? Sometimes, we give in an effort to equalize a relationship within which we have previously received much. We give out of feelings of obligation to those who have done something for us or our loved ones. We give to kin we are bound to by familial expectation. We give out of love and on whims; we give in bursts of generosity or to spread our good fortune. In our lesser moments, we give to draw attention to ourselves. We give because everyone else is doing it. We give because we feel we have to. And although we have all been cautioned that true giving means giving without expectation of receiving, we give because we want something back. She gives to be liked. He gives to look good. Of course, it gets more complicated. We grow wary of the friend who gives too much or too often. A gift given in ill-spirit or with undue expectation may need to be returned. Even the most well-intentioned hosts grow cranky when guests overstay their welcome. We re-gift gifts we don’t want. And who isn’t guilty of looking some gift horse or the other in the mouth? Then there’s the fact that some givers do not wish to be recognized for what they have given; recognition and thanks only creates awkwardness in the face of a natural gesture. My grandmother loves to surprise her grandchildren with our favorite foods and treats, but she positively squirms when we thank her. “What thank you, what thank you,” she shakes her head in annoyance. “You don’t say thanks for all these things.” American that I am, I’ve noted with curiosity the Indian injunction to perform, not speak, one’s gratitude. My grandfather, too, used to laugh at what he saw as the superficial British politesse of “sorry, sorry,” and “thank you, thank you.” You are sorry. You act thankful. You don’t say those things. Which brings me back to Aziz, his gold stud, and his hospitality, which I’ve been thinking about as I write a not-insignificant number of thank you cards to my own wedding guests and gift givers. Suddenly Aziz seems less naïve and more noble, giving what he had in the hope of establishing some relation for the future: He never questioned the impulse to be generous. He did not doubt the worth of the recipient. He did the best he could. n Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. india currents • august 2011 • 7

business

Vivek Wadhwa

The Death of Open Government Vivek Kundra’s departure from government does not bode well for data.gov

ivek Kundra’s resignation last week from his post as the nation’s Chief Information Officer is an ominous

event. Kundra’s goal was to set government data free via an expansive Internet effort called Data.gov, and encourage innovation with government-collected data through the Open Government Initiative. He had hoped to slash tens of billions of dollars from the government information technology budget by democratizing who and which types of companies can deliver IT solutions to the government. The most radical part of his program was to make public data available to entrepreneurs, allowing them to build new applications that solved problems for the government and their communities. The program was off to a great start, with hundreds of thousands of data sets becoming available, and entrepreneurs building thousands of innovative applications. Then the ill-considered race to slash the federal deficit started. The Obama administration agreed to cut e-government initiative funding from $35 million to $8 million. Never mind that Kundra’s programs had already saved taxpayers $3 billion over the past two years. Not surprisingly, Kundra resigned. Why preside over a portfolio of shuttered initiatives? In a phone interview, Kundra acknowledged that he is worried about the program’s funding, but told me that he believes that the open data initiative has so much momentum that it is unstoppable, echoing the sentiment issued in his formal statement that he is “confident progress will continue.” But, with Kundra gone, I am not optimistic about the program. Whenever a program loses its key evangelist, it normally dies. The Open Government Initiative is likely to suffer a slow, inevitable death. We may live in the richest nation on Earth, but most government agencies and large corporations still process their mission-critical transactions on ’60s-era legacy systems that were designed for machines with less processing power than an iPhone. And they’re more expensive. The IT systems for these mainframes typically took years to build and cost millions of dollars—and that doesn’t include the hundreds of millions more we spend to maintain them. Today, software developers can churn out more sophisticated applications for thousands—not millions—of dollars. So, while 8 • india currents • august 2011

grandma flips through photo albums on her iPad and watches streaming videos from Netflix, our government relies on cumbersome web-based systems that function by tricking mainframes into thinking that they are connected to cathode ray tube (CRT) terminals. The problem is catching very prominent attention. When President Obama could not get a late-model Blackberry, he complained that the U.S. government was 30 years behind when it comes to technology. But, while he may have noticed and pushed for reforms in the early part of his administration, President Obama certainly has not made a priority of advocating for Kundra and his laudable goals. In January 2010, I issued a challenge to Silicon Valley to bid on a rewrite of an unemployment benefits check-processing system that the California government had budgeted $50 million just to maintain. I was met with a hail of criticism from government IT contractors who claimed that complying with government mandates for security was complicated and that their experience best positioned them to keep the government’s systems humming. A senior vice president of one of these firms went so far as to call me “naïve” and to say that I should not “kick something” that I “know absolutely squat about.” Meanwhile, half a dozen Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with deep domain experience came forward. They all believed they could build a better government IT system for a mere fraction of the annual operating

Vivek Kundra

costs—as low as $1 million. A year later, no one has taken these entrepreneurs up on their offer, even as California prepares for a draconian round of budget cuts that will hammer poor children and the education system. Meanwhile, featured on the home page of the data.gov is a picture of a cupcake with two lit candles and the festive words “Happy 2nd Anniversary, Data.gov.” It’s a hollow celebration marking the gutting of a rare win–win scenario that resulted, while it lasted, in both less spending and better government.n Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.

katha

India Currents and Khabar are pleased to announce the results of

First Place:

DESI FICTION CONTEST 2011

• Tapas and I by SHREYAN MAYUKH MITRA, Santa Clara, Calif. Cash award $300

Second Place:

• Lanka is Drowning by ANIRVAN CHATTERJEE, Berkeley, Calif. Cash award $200

Third Place:

• Mustard Seeds by JAYA PADMANABHAN, Los Altos Hills, Calif. Cash award $100

Honorable Mention:

• Windhorse (extract) by KAUSHIK BARUA, Rome, Italy. • Two Gurus by SHEELA JAYWANT, Mumbai, India.

The winning entries will be considered for publication in upcoming issues of India Currents and Khabar magazines. We received a total of 134 entries for Katha 2011. This year's judges were Shilpa Agarwal and Ronica Dhar. Please note that the judging process was completely blind. Shilpa Agarwal is the author of the bestselling novel, Haunting Bombay, a literary ghost story set in 1960's India. She is a founder of the ArtWallah Arts Festival and served as a writing mentor for the PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship Program. Please visit: www.shilpaagarwal.com Ronica Dhar holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Michigan and teaches English. In 2006, she was a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellow in Fiction. In 2010, St. Martin's Press published her debut novel, Bijou Roy. www.ronicadhar.com We thank you for taking part in the contest and encourage you to continue writing.

IndiaCurrents

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india currents • august 2011 • 9

Photo Credit: La Catholique

Masala Gourmet

Celebrity chefs bring an Indian twist to American cuisine By Priya Das

he history of any society, be it contained within a country’s borders or in the transitory settling of a people, can be traced by its culinary development. Indian culture and cuisine have matured over several centuries; assimilating foreign elements whenever they needed to. Staple desi favorites such as chilies are said to have come from Portugal; the Punjabi tandoor is from Afghanistan; even some of the “Indian” spices, such as asafetida, come from the Arabs. What defines these “foreign” elements as Indian is the adoption by Indians not just within India, but to wherever Indians go. For centuries America, too, has been assimilating immigrants and their culture; and the multi-rooted cohesiveness of settled Americans has in turn, continually asserted its own stamp. Several different cultural legacies can be traced by just browsing through a menu at any American diner. Consider the quintessential hamburger: it’s origins can be traced to the popularity enjoyed by a patty made of minced meat in Europe in the 18th century. New York City harbor eateries featured this dish in an attempt to attract German sailors. In time it was widely adopted by Americans, who added the bun and the onions. This is why it is interesting to see the emergence of desi food culture in the United States. What will happen when the cuisines of these two diverse societies meet at the corner of Main and Union? When will a desi-influenced dish become an American holiday tradition like the English pie? 10 • india currents • august 2011

ne can say that a beginning has been made; Chef Vikas Khanna has been invited to the White House, and has been voted hottest chef in New York City, the gourmet capital of the United States. Diplomatic circles aside, things seem to be spicing up in America’s homes too—desi chefs are now gaining celebrity status, by winning over food critics and peers on televised contests and shows. More importantly, their use of accepted culinary and gourmet practices and ingredients makes for an easier crossover. Viewers and chef-peers alike can understand what desi cooking is all about, instead of having an isolated experience of mysterious delicacies at niche gourmet Indian restaurants. To be mainstream, a cuisine must seem doable to a regular Joe or Jane. Weekly appearances on TV by these desi chefs endears the Indian cuisine by peer and critical acclaim and demystifies it by letting regular Americans look over their chef-tunic-adorned shoulders. Where does one find turmeric? And how much do you use in the boiled lentils? These celebrity chefs answer these very questions. With style, charm, grit, integrity, and creativity, they are slowly taking the flavors of India to American homes.

hief among the celebrities is Floyd Cardoz, who battled it out week after week with other chefs on the televised Bravo Channel show, Top Chef. His final competitors came from mainstreamed cuisines—one had a modern Mexican culinary background, the other French-Californian. Each chef has an impressive culinary resume. Chef Cardoz himself was executive chef at New York’s famous Tabla restaurant, which was known for its “American Food With An Indian Soul.” In spite of the race against time in every round, Cardoz personified style and quality by his dogged attention to flavor. He almost missed prepping for the menu in his final round because he refused to give up on seeking out the right ingredients. It underscores his approach to cooking: “I believe some of the blame for the un-gourmet-like perception of Indian cooking is with us Indi-

Floyd Cardoz

ans. Restaurant owners try and keep the food cheap, by using the cheapest i n g re d i e n t s . I have never understood why that is so, since everybody in India has memories of their mum or dad haggling with the neighborhood vendor to provide the best quality produce or meat. Why, then, do something different when you open a restaurant?” Cardoz also doesn’t understand why a menu must be fabricated, when the locals want to just get a taste of India. One of the first tasks he undertook at his first job in a desi restaurant in the United States was to strike down one such incredible dish, Chicken Marango, a dish made with chicken and ripe alphonso mangoes. “Who tries that in India?” he asks. For him, staying true to the ingredients is foremost in creating a recipe. His flair for Indian techniques and spices works the rest of the magic. For example, a Cardoz recipe suggests marinating a hanger steak (a smaller piece of flesh that hangs from the diaphragm of the cow) in a blended mix of coriander and mustard seeds among others, to retain the rich flavor of the meat while adding an Indian twist. His recipes enable Americans anywhere to spice up their everyday dishes using supermarket items.

arti Sequeira, one-time contestant and now Food Network Star, hosts her own show, Aarti Party, on the network. A focus group participant during the contest owned up to feeling as if Sequeira was a friend showing how to cook Indian, such was her charm. Chef Sequeira’s secret does indeed seem to be the warmth she exudes on camera, and into the potential yumminess of her recipes. She breaks through the diehard willnot-give-upmy-Americancomfort-food barrier by simply adopting American or gourmet dishes and making them Asian, such as fried green tomatoes and the raw vegetable soup,

Suvir Saran

gazpacho. For the former, she recommends a cumin tadka, excuse me, “finishing oil;” and uses lychee fruit in the latter. With a typical girly flourish she says, “Lychees taste like the color pink.” And in those simple words, she has gently demystified unknown, daunting flavors. Roshni Mansukhani-Gurnani, champion of Food Network’s show Chopped, showed, during the contest, that a menu can be desified in 30 minutes or less. Chopped is famous for its mystery and unlikely ingredients. In one round, Mansukhani-Gurnani combined mandatory ingredients duck breast, persimmon, and polenta into a Curry Duck Breast With Ginger Polenta Salad.

he trick seems to be in understanding the ingredients and developing an instinct for pairing them up, like the patty in a bun that became the hamburger. Making a successful marriage of Indian cuisine and American ingredients seems to be the key to achieving red, white and blue success. This is brought home also by contestant on Food Network’s Top Chef and judge on their Iron Chef series, Suvir Saran. Chef Saran is co-founder of American Masala, the name for his culinary philosophy, book, and farm, all representing the best in Indian and American cooking. A testament to this is a cocktail served at Devi, the NY restaurant where Saran is executive chef—Cilantro Tonic is a combination of vodka or gin, tonic, and cilantro (coriander leaves). He also boldly experiments with strictly desi ingredients; a lunch item on the menu is kathal (jackfruit) biryani. Saran’s contribution to change in America’s neighborhood culinary scene is not just via TV. In 2008, he was one among the panel of gourmet chefs chosen by UC Berkeley to get the students eating in their cafeteria. In a piece in the SF Chronicle, student Christopher Hogue, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering from Ohio said, “I was a meat-and-potatoes Midwest kind of guy. Now naan and dal is my comfort food. It’s the California equivalent of mashed potatoes and gravy.” india currents • august 2011 • 11

hat kind of training makes a gourmet chef? What enabled these desis to change perspectives? Interestingly, most got a solid start in India. Says Chef Maneet Chauhan, executive chef at Vermillion (Chicago and New York), Food Network’s Iron Chef contestant, and Chopped judge, “When it was time for me to choose a path to being chef, the institute in Manipal came up tops in Hotel Management, so I trained there first. The training in India is rigorous, and we follow the same textbooks based on the French Gastronomique as other countries. Working in five-star hotels in India also provided me great exposure to international ingredients and recipes; you get to work with the finest international ingredients. I was astonished to see fresh [vegetable and fruit] purees from New Zealand!” She was hired on campus by the Taj Group, but wanted to study some more. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) beckoned, and she landed at her sister’s place in Chicago in 2000. She remembers, “When I got here, my sister was incredulous that I would only ask to visit produce markets, when all other visitors from India would make a beeline for the malls … At the CIA, the emphasis on knowing your ingredients is allconsuming—a class on product identification taught us the look, taste, smell, and ways of treating 15 different apples.”

hite House guest chef and Amritsar-born Vikas Khanna graduated out of the WelcomGroup Institute in India, and continued on to study at the Culinary Institute of America, Cornell University, New York University, and the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. In addition, he has worked with some of the most

Vikas Khanna

Photo Cre dit

The Chronicle went on to claim that “…the improved food at Cal Dining … is broadening the palates and perspectives of the country’s future leaders.”

: Jonatha n Gregson

Authentic Anjum

Meet the host of BBC’s Indian Food Made Easy television series, Anjum Anand. Her latest book is called I Love Curry. “My approach to Indian food is flavour without too much fuss or fat.” The no-fuss style is mirrored in her culinary background as well; Anand has had no formal training, and is self and family taught. Her influences include her mother’s cooking, and father’s drive and work ethic. Anand’s website and fourth book, Eat Right For Your Body Type emphasizes another inspiration—the benefits of adopting Ayurveda and how food is key to good health. Anand definitely believes in making every day cooking Anjum comforting by bringing back authentic and simple techAnand niques; she frequently uses the mortar-pestle on TV to grind up spices, for example. Anand experimented with business school at first, but then decided it was better to make a career out of something she loved—cooking—rather than spending her life working for a pay check and waiting for the weekend. “My family were surprised by my decision; cooking was not considered a ‘respectable’ career,” she shares. For the future, she is working on a range of sauces under the brand name The Spice Tailor, due to come out in the United Kingdom this summer. In keeping with her healthy attitude to cooking, her next cookbook will be about vegetarian Indian recipes. honored chefs in America, and now is executive chef at Junoon in New York. He has appeared on shows on NBC, ABC, and Fox. Martha Stewart considers his cooking “exquisite and unusual.” Khanna considers his time in his grandmother’s kitchen as part of the foundational training. Being born with misaligned legs, he could not join his peers outdoors, so he spent a lot of time in the kitchen with his grandmother. In a blog he writes, “Before preparing every meal my grandmother had a cup of tea and thought through everything she would be making before she started. I later came to understand that this technique is called visualization. When it gets hectic at Junoon, I try to remember her technique.” Mansukhani-Gurnani was born and raised on Sindhi food in Canada. She developed a flair for presenting early on, watching the Urban Peasant cooking show in Canada. She says, “Watching this show I would find myself in

my kitchen at home cooking and talking to the walls pretending that they are my audience.” Cardoz credits his European education with rounding off his culinary skills, in addition to his degree in Hotel Management. “After graduation in Mumbai, social life was difficult, my hours weren’t conducive to partying, besides, nobody wanted to hang out with a cook!” Switzerland was where he was accorded respect, where he could settle into his profession. He started cooking in his apartment, rolling out dough with a wine bottle to make chapatis (the flat unleavened bread that is the staple of the Indian home cook). Soon word spread, and “I had a decent clientele!” he says. His journey to the United States was not to earn further experience; it was to be at his brother’s wedding while he waited for his Australian paperwork. As fate would have it, the paperwork got delayed, and he decided to give the United States a try. After some time at an Indian restaurant, he caught a break at the St. Regis, where he manned every station in the kitchen, starting with three months at the salad station, followed by stations dealing with hot appetizers, vegetables, protein (fish and meat), roasting, and sauces before moving on to becoming chef de cuisine. “I don’t have an ego, and am not afraid of hard work,” he comments.

iven the 16-18 hour days on their feet, in hot and humid conditions while under pressure to please discerning palates, hours in front of the camera, and days of experimenting to come up with gourmet-recipes, how do these chefs keep up their energy? Cardoz finds the flavors from his childhood inspirational. One of the dishes responsible for Cardoz’s win on Top Chef is the humble upma, a savory semolina pudding, which he would eat when he got home from school in Mumbai (the chef’s upma was made with kokum, coconut milk, and wild mushrooms). He knew he wanted to be a chef the day his dad took him to a big hotel in Mumbai for a sit-down dinner, 12 • india currents • august 2011

Aarti Sequeira

Her Indian-Latin American menu features among other fused dishes, a salad of shaved beef and curry flavored vermicelli. Vermillion is popular also for its fusion Thanksgiving meal, attracting regulars every year. The holiday menu appears on desi steroids: cumin-star anise turkey stuffed with rice and lentils, cranberry chutney laced with panch puran (Bengali blend of five herb/spice seeds) and greens, sarson da saag (Indian mustard), served with pumpkin empanadas. While Chauhan is proud of the how far her clientele has come along the spice road, she laments those that walk in asking for the “curry powder”—many Americans still believe there is one magic concoction that makes a curry.

with several forks and knives. That was when food became an experience for young Cardoz. Chauhan too attributes her love of food to her childhood memories. She grew up in Ranchi in eastern India, where the multi-regional neighborhood literally whetted her appetite. “I would go to the next-door aunties and tell them, feed me!” confesses Chauhan, talking about her delight at the various different tastes she got to experience at such a young age. Her mettle was tested when she had to sponsor her own education at the CIA. “I didn’t have financial aid at the beginning so I had to get creative. Culinary school is not cheap, especially for immigrants. On weekends, I volunteered to help chefs do events and demos, so I didn’t have to worry about meals. I acted as a tour guide to get coupons to the bookstore. I also was dorm manager in return for certain free privileges.” Chauhan graduated top of her class and in all award-categories.

here does this courage of conviction come from? Is it not daunting for an immigrant to represent a not-yet-perceived-tobe-gourmet cuisine on TV? Sequeira admits to feeling that her knowledge of desi cooking didn’t amount to much in the early days of the contest (Food Network Star). “I felt out-matched by the professional cooks. Desi cooking was so ingrained in me that I felt like I had nothing worth offering.” Sequeira took to cooking as a creative outlet only when jobs weren’t easy to come by after her move to Los Angeles in 2004. She started to recreate childhood recipes, but kept feeling that “making lasagna seemed easier, the ingredients were all available, and I could pick up the recipe from anywhere.” This gap between what she wanted to do and what she could easily access got her experimenting, and she began hosting her own shows on YouTube. It took a while for her to realize that her knowledge of spices and Indian techniques, while seeming meager to her, was still more than what others knew.

“I’d wanted a career in journalism, I wanted to change people’s lives. Now, I achieve change by touching the lives of so many people through my show.” Chef Khanna is spiritually charged and devotes a large portion of his energies in the service of people. One of his programs, called Cooking For Life gets top chefs from the world over to collaborate on gastronomic events to raise money and awareness for different causes around the world. His documentary series, Holy Kitchens, captures the essence of food within the context of religion, tying it up with the real world experience of sharing food (trailers are at holykitchens.com ). His invitation to the White House is due in part to his spiritual bent; his food will be featured at the Hindu American Seva Conference to be held there. In a similar vein of keeping it true, Junoon’s menu reflects ancient Indian techniques such as cooking in the handi (pot), tandoor (clay oven), patthar (stones), tawa (cast iron utensils), and sigri (an open pit fire). Chauhan has a different muse, and takes on fusion cuisine with a flair, saying, “Vermillion is unabashedly bold, we celebrate spices; at the same time, fusion is dear to me. I’m inspired by everything, every day, and by everybody.”

Roshni Mansukhani-Gurnani

efore taking on a spice-challenged clientele and televised contests though, some of these chefs had to take on their families. Like in a typical desi family, MansukhaniGurnani’s decision to not pursue medicine or law for a career was met with disdain. “You are crazy and confused,” is the reaction I got from everybody”, she says. “I’ve wanted to be a cook even before I knew of chefs. When I was a teen, I worked in a restaurant clearing tables and serving coffee. One Sunday, the kitchen was backed up and my boss asked me to help out. I spent my whole eight-hour shift peeling potatoes. It was then I realized I belong in the kitchen.” She did do a two year stint towards a Bachelors of Business, but then headed for Culinary Institute of Canada. Winning the Chopped title was for her a personal victory, a vindication. Mansukhani-Gurnani is now an executive chef consultant in Boston and aims to promote non-mainstream professions among traditional cultures. She certainly has chosen the right cuisine at the right time! The United States food scene seems to be going through an India-themed Woodstock, and like those Flower Power days, when Pandits Zakir Hussain and Ravi Shankar among others, were infusing ragas into American melodies, Chefs Cardoz, Chauhan, Khanna, Mansukhani-Gurnani, Saran, and Sequeira are starting to hold America in a delicious “Spice Vise.” We seem to be on the cusp of it becoming convention to sport turmeric and curry leaves alongside rosemary and thyme in Main Street kitchens. These pioneering chefs have chosen to adopt fine regional ingredients but stayed true to an Indian flavor profile; have dared to authenticate and amplify desi food; have taken Indian dishes through the gourmet-culinary grinder, thus delectably ambushing everyday American palates. Who knows, maybe McDonalds will import their McAloo Tikki from India to the United States due to popular demand.n Priya Das is a marketer with an interest in tracking grass-roots change in society and niche markets. india currents • august 2011 • 13

fiction

Lanka is Drowning!

anka was finally drowning. At the worst possible time. Prime Minister Rama was in the middle of a press conference about Ayodhya’s upcoming Olympic bid, when a voice squawked in his ear with the news. He kept smiling. Maybe they wouldn’t notice. “Sir, how will Ayodhya respond to the Lankan crisis?” “Sir, will this affect Ayodhya’s climate policy?” “Sir, does this increase the risk of Asura suicide bombings on Ayodhyan soil?” Rama put on his caring face. “Ayodhyans stand with the Lankan people during their hour of need. We are very concerned about sea level rise in low-lying Lanka, and I have already assigned General Hanuman to be my point person to monitor the situation, and ensure that Ayodhya is doing all it can to help.” He switched to his serious face. “To the people of Lanka, I want you to know that when natural disasters strike, we are always ready to help. In return, we ask you to reject the terror tactics that have given your once-peaceful land a bad name. Thank you.

Katha 2011 Results

sh award $300): FIRST PLACE (ca YAN RE Tapas and I by SH , RA IT M MAYUKH Santa Clara, Calif. (cash award $200): SECOND PLACE ANIRVAN by g Lanka is Drownin , EE CHATTERJ Berkeley, Calif. sh award $100): THIRD PLACE (ca YA JA Mustard Seeds by PADMANABHAN, lif. Los Altos Hills, Ca ENTION: HONORABLE M by KAUSHIK ct) Windhorse (extra ly. Ita , me BARUA, Ro ENTION: HONORABLE M LA JAYWANT, EE SH by s ru Two Gu Mumbai, India.

14 • india currents • august 2011

My thoughts are with the Lankan people.” He closed his eyes, murmured a prayer, and walked off stage. Rama switched on the news on the way home. Scenes of devastation from the lowlying island nation. The ticker below read: “Rising tides consume 30% of Lanka: Rama demands end to terror.” Damn damn damn. That was exactly the opposite of the caring tone he’d been meaning to convey. He hated speaking off the cuff on issues like this. Where was Sita when he needed her? She did caring so much better than him, and audiences lapped it up. She was due to return that evening from yet another state visit to Kishkindha, where she was inaugurating the new Ayodhyan military base. Sita, with her film star looks, was much more popular in Kishkindha than President Sugriva’s caretaker government, so the embassy tried to have her fly out as often as possible. Rama glanced up. There she was on TV, knee deep in water, hugging a crying Asura mother and child. The heading ran “Ayodhya’s response: Sita on the scene.” A clutch of microphones were stuck in her face. She was visibly shaken. “Coastal areas are drowning faster than rescue crews can evacuate them. We knew this would happen. We’ve failed Lanka.” The camera wobbled, recovered. “We need to cut emissions, accept Lankan climate refugees. Ayodhya will do everything it can. We can’t have this happen again. No more Lankas.” Tensions ran high at the cabinet meeting the next morning. “What is this ‘no more Lankas’ business?” demanded finance minister Bharata. “There will be ten, hundred, a lakh more Lankas. Surely Sita-bhabi isn’t proposing that we bring growth rates down to zero for a generation just to save a few island states and coastal regions.” He paused. “This isn’t very responsible, with the climate talks coming up.” Rama sighed. This wasn’t the first time that Sita’s big mouth had gotten him in trouble with the man who held the purse strings. She was a farmer’s daughter, not the kind of girl the eldest of the Raghu clan was likely to end up marrying. But party leaders were full of praise when he proposed to his secret college girlfriend. Her chatty and direct approach helped soften Rama’s image going into elections,

Anirvan Chatterjee Katha 2011 Second Place Winner

humanizing the heir apparent of Ayodhya’s leading political family. He won the election by a landslide with Sita at his side. But Sita kept on going after the election, making expensive public pledges left and right: crop insurance for farmers, restrictions on moneylenders, homes for earthquake victims. Every new budget-busting promise ended the same way: Sita repentant, Rama frustrated, and Bharata left furiously tweaking budget numbers. Things improved after Rama had his brother Lakshmana doing fulltime Sita-handling duty, but she’d managed to escape her minder yesterday, taking the first flight out from Kishkindha to Lanka as soon as she heard the news. “Don’t worry,” Rama assured his team. “We’ll work through this.”

ita had never felt more tired. She’d been up for 20 hours: flying to Kishkindha, watching the news, giving Lakshmana the slip, flying to Lanka, and getting out to the coastal zone, where she accompanied the stream of homeless Asuras trudging inland, hounded by press the entire way. She felt that she would pass out, but didn’t have any of her assistants to ask for help. She managed to flag down a passing police car. A few minutes later, a wide-eyed officer was rushing her off to the Ayodhyan embassy, but they couldn’t get anywhere near it, because of the huge crowd of asylum seekers surrounding the building. She grew agitated. “Can you take me to Ravana?” she asked the officer. The car sped away toward the Presidential Palace. As she was being buzzed in, she heard the din of voices from the refugee encampment in the park across the street. General Ravana was nicer than he looked, dressed in full Asura warrior regalia, including the traditional horned headgear that could get one stopped at airports the world over. Yet he’d invited her into his situation room, where he was taking reports. Sita sat off to the side, trying not to fall asleep. The evacuation effort was going largely as planned, explained the home minister. Emergency stockpiles had not been situated in the right places, and the military had to step in to help. The situation was peaceful now, but might deteriorate. Lanka might lose substantially more land mass in the days ahead if coastal defenses failed. Ravana turned to Sita. “Why are you here?” She opened her drooping eyes. “When

them back to drown?” “Mass migration? Do you want to condemn Asuras to life as perpetual second class citizens? Outsiders subject to eternal suspicion?” “Not second-class citizens, Ravana. Advocates. Truth-tellers. Would you prefer that Lanka become a fairy tale, some mythological land remembered only by old women? You’ll go to the conference, won’t you? For Lanka?” “Who will accept Asuras? Ayodhya? You know perfectly well how they demonize us.” Sita remained silent. “Sita, we’ve had a stressful day. Why don’t you come join me in my quarters?” She glared daggers at him. Ravana rose, sat down again, and finally called an attendant, asking him to show Sita to a guest room. She followed, and found herself in an ornate bedroom. She slammed the door shut, locked it, and finally blocked it with a chair for good measure. Then she finally breathed. As Sita lay in bed, she thought of everything she’d seen that day. The look on the refugees’ faces. The dire predictions of future loss. Ravana’s passion for Lanka. She remembered what they said about Asura men. And then slept. Photo C redit: N isho Aru

I saw the rising waters, I had to come.” She tried to recollect her thoughts, but Ravana interrupted. “Of course I appreciate your being here—it’s the only reason the media’s covering us. What does the situation look like from the field?” Sita was awake now. “Things are miserable. One of the families I walked with got separated from their youngest son on the road, and the army men wouldn’t let them stop to look. I saw an old man die on the way. The refugees I talked to are tired, hungry, angry. If they have relatives in town, they’re staying with them, but many of the families don’t have anybody to turn to.” She paused, and caught her breath. “I’ve been seeing emergency services teams around the city, but they’re not getting where they need to be quickly enough. I’m particularly worried about the elders. They’re having a hard time getting evacuated, and slowing things down. If more coastal regions drown, families need to start getting evacuation orders earlier to give them more time to prepare.” Sita was trembling. “I never quite believed this could happen.” “Five thousand years of Asura civilization, and we may not survive as a nation past next week,” said Ravana deliberatively. “We’ve begged and pleaded with industrialized and industrializing nations, but we were consistently ignored. You can talk all you want about Ayodhya’s Rama-rajya, but it was Ayodhya that led the charge to scuttle the global agreement. We’re not sitting around waiting for your aid. It’s your Rama, back at home, who’s the problem.” “But why the terrorism,” interjected Sita. “Blowing up oil tankers or factories doesn’t win you friends. Any child knows that. Go to the climate talks. Dialogue is the only thing that can ever work.” Ravana replied, “You said something on TV about ‘no more Lankas.’ We believe the same. We may be the first to go, but rising seas will affect low-lying areas the world over unless we act. Lanka has many friends. Can you blame them for trying to slow down the rising tide?” His face hardened. “What choice do we have left? Can you expect the young Asura men you saw today to accept the destruction of their homes? We’ve tried rocking the boat, but it’s the whole ship that needs to be taken down.” Asked Sita, “What does that mean? Do you expect every citizen of Lanka to become a terrorist? Lanka’s shrinking. Where will the Asura people go?” “Some of us will join the climate resistance. Others will drown. We will drown, but we won’t leave. Lanka is our home. It may not mean much to your climate negotiators, but to us, Lanka is swarga.” “Have you seen the state of the refugees? I have. Do you mean to condemn women, children, elders to drown? They’re already victims. Why make it even worse? I’ve seen the lines outside the Ayodhyan embassy. People want to get out. Will you be the one to forcibly hold

ama boarded the plane with his laptop, along with a stack of briefing papers and cuttings. He was tired of making edits to his opening speech for the new climate talks; he’d been given a plum primetime spot, but things had suddenly gotten so complicated. He started flipping through the cuttings. “’No More Lankas’ Surprise” warned an Ayodhya business journal. “Sita’s Lankan Fling,” announced a local paper; the accompanying photo showed Ravana and Sita sitting next to each other at a press conference. “TREASON?” read the headline in the opposition paper. There was more. A foreign newsweekly had a picture of Sita on the cover, holding a refugee Asura child: “Sita in Lanka: Human Rights Hits the Climate Talks.” An international paper lauded “No More Lankas: Ayodhya’s New Climate Strategy,” while an editorial in a typically unfriendly overseas paper derided “Sita’s Lankan Photo-Op: Same Policies, Better Marketing.” He looked up. There was Ravana, sitting three rows ahead. Suddenly first class felt too crowded; he should fire his assistant. Rama’s father had told him to always Do the Right Thing, but things must have been easier for a national leader in a simpler time. Greater moral clarity and all that. Or perhaps not. He remembered the complications his father had to deal with around succession issues. Politics was brutal. Sometime he felt like giving it all

up, just to avoid having to continuously disappoint people he cared about. Dharma was a bitch. Someone was walking up the aisle; Ravana was heading his way, the twin horns of his headgear bobbing up and down. Rama feigned sleep. When the plane arrived, Rama was quickly whisked away into a waiting limo. He’d made some major edits to his speech, and finally felt good about it. Bharata might not approve, but he knew what he had to do. Several police cars joined his vehicle as they progressed toward the conference center. He heard chanting outside, and saw a flurry of signs. As the car approached the building, Rama saw a large group of Asuras in horned headgear. “No More Lankas,” several signs read. A young woman silently clutched a hand-lettered poster: “Sita speaks for me.” Rama turned away. Where the hell was Sita? He’d waited day after day, but she hadn’t left Lanka. When they spoke on the phone, she kept asking him for time. She always had one more press conference. One more emergency. One more day. He’d feel better if she’d just come out and tell him what to do about Ayodhya’s climate position, but when he finally asked about it, she just broke down. “Haven’t you been listening? You’re the prime minister. You have all the facts. You’ve always had all the facts.” Sita may have been speaking for the young girl on the street, but she had stopped speaking to her husband. Rama’s car stopped inside the conference center perimeter, surrounded by a thick ring of guards. He found his way to the main hall; he’d arrived just in time. Rama was seated with delegates and leaders from several other South Asian nations, but Ravana wasn’t there. In fact, the entire Lankan block lay empty. Half an hour of boring introductions, and it was finally time for his rewritten opening speech. Lanka was still missing. india currents • august 2011 • 15

“Welcome, friends. We are in a time of shared crisis, and Ayodhya is finally ready to take responsibility, as we should have in the past.” A few claps from the audience. Overhead, appeared an image of a forlorn Asura child. “When disaster struck our friends in Lanka last week, Ayodhya jumped into action. My wife Sita is there now, leading rescue efforts. The Lankan delegation apparently couldn’t be with us today, but it’s up to all of us to speak on their behalf. We’re proud to report that Ayodhya is responding on every front.” Overhead, an image appeared of a group of Ayodhyan children wearing matching green t-shirts. “Ayodhya’s schools are rolling out the greenest curriculum ever.” Next, an image of smiling Ayodhyans in suits. “Our top industrialists are partnering with environmental NGOs, voluntarily going green. In Ayodhya, we believe caring for the planet never has to conflict with profits.” Rama’s speech was being televised outside on huge screens outside the convention center. A massive multi-hued crowd jostled in front of the security line. Extra police had been stationed outside after an attempted breach in event security. The protesters’ chants and cries grew louder as Rama spoke: “NO MORE LANKAS. NO MORE LANKAS. NO MORE LANKAS. NO MORE LANKAS.” Near the front of the crowd, a lone man in horned headgear fought his way to the front and tried to call out to the guards, only to be

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roughly shoved back. He emerged elsewhere in the crowd, and pushed his way forward again. Behind him had gathered other Asuras. Inside, above Rama’s head, appeared a massive image of Sita. Rama beamed. “I’m so proud to announce the launch of the Sita Global Fund, to help victims of climate change. The people of Lanka will be the first recipients. Ayodhya will send every citizen of Lanka a bucket, to help impacted communities adapt to changing conditions. Ayodhya has made its bold commitment to the people of Lanka. Who will join us?” Wild cheers and claps from the Ayodhyan delegation. Rama stood at the podium, soaking up the love. Outside the building, chaos reigned. “Hornheads!” Panicked security guards teargassed a large cluster of Asuras. As the crowd backed up, one man kept walking toward the entrance, his voice drowned out by screams. He tried to fish a badge out of his pocket, but it was too late. A volley of rifle fire. Ravana fell. Rama spent the day in meetings and headlined the green business summit that night. He checked in with Bharata, who was, for once, pleased with his performance. Jet lag struck, and he fell asleep in his clothes. Rama was woken up by a call in the middle of the night. A familiar voice. “I’ll drown if I need to, but I’m never coming back.” Click. The leader of Ayodhya lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, trying to make sense of it all.n

Author’s Note: This story was written after the Copenhagen climate conference as I was interviewing climate activists in Bangladesh and India, the two most climate-vulnerable nations in the world over the coming 30 years. The Ramayana is a timeless story of crisis and statecraft, and I enjoyed seeing the characters find their way into a contemporary South Asia. The interviews that inspired this story are at http://www.facebook.com/l/1050ejhuKmdPoX 3EULLe3zU42lQ/www.YearOfNoFlying.com. . Judges’ comments: Shilpa Agarwal: The timeless characters of Rama, Sita, and Ravana are evoked within a modern, political crisis which sheds light on the complexity of their humanity. Rama is not all virtuous. Ravana is not a demon. But most humorous and moving of all is Sita: not at all the dutiful, obedient wife we know, but a compassionate, fearless “big mouth” who is not afraid to stand up for what is right. Ronica Dhar: I loved the gesture this story makes: to take an old, old story and modernize it in such a way that it sheds light on both the original setting and the new one is a great challenge. This story succeeds in that effort. Anirvan Chatterjee is a techie and entrepreneur from Berkeley, California. He spent 2009-2010 documenting the work of climate justice activists and policy analysts across Asia and Europe as part of the Year of No Flying project.

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