India in New York - December 12, 2014

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VOL. XVIII NO. 25

India in New York A GUIDE TO EVENTS AND ENTERTAINMENT FROM INDIA ABROAD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014

OUR GRIEF TOO More and more desis join protests against police brutality ADVERTISEMENT

PARESH GANDHI

India in New York

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INDIA IN NEW YORK is published every Friday by India Abroad Publications, Inc. 42 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10004.

INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

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Prosecution wants stiff prison term for Chatwal GEORGE JOSEPH

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oretta Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who has been nominated as the next attorney general by President Barrack Obama, has asked a trial court to sentence hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, 70, to a term of 46 to 57 months for making more than $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions.

The sentencing by US District Judge Leo Glasser in Brooklyn is scheduled for December 18.

Chatwal, chairman of the $1.5 billion luxury Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating federal election law by illegally raising funds for Hillary Clinton, Senator Christopher J Dodd of Connecticut and Representative Kendrick B Meek of Florida, according to reports, through the use of straw donors and to witness tampering after he was caught on tape coaching a donor.

He agreed to forfeit $1 million to the government. He was released on $750,000 bail.

Lynch’s submission asked the judge to reject Chatwal’s appeal for leniency; he asked for a non-custodial sentence citing his history of charitable work and family circumstances — the severe medical disabilities of his two children.

A Padma Bhushan recipient, he also produced 300 letters from family and friends, including former Indian prime mnister Manmohan Singh, celebrity guru Deepak Chopra, former Indian consul general in New York Prabhu Dayal, Zee Network Chairman Subhash Chandra and others in support of leniency.

The prosecution noted that Chatwal ‘knowingly sought to undermine two key pillars of our system of government: First, our free, fair and transparent electoral system and second our criminal justice system by coaching a witness to lie on his behalf. The evidence in this case reveals a man who believes either that the rules do not apply to him or that they can be subverted in pursuit of his own ends.’

‘Such crimes are committed by people of substantial means, accomplishment and education, highly respected within their communities and with spotless criminal records.’

The submission also noted Chatwal’s intent. He was recorded as saying that that it was the only way to buy politicians and get in to the system.

The US Attorney noted that Chatwal’s incarceration would not cause loss of essential caretaking of his family: ‘The defendants spouse and extended family are available to step in as temporary substitutes. Though his incarceration poses a hardship, it would not extraordinary to as to merit a downward departure.’

As for his charitable work, the submission noted, ‘unlike many defendants, Chatwal’s wealth enabled him to make substantial charitable contributions and because of his life of privilege, he had the time and opportunity to perform good works.’

‘Chatwal,’ the submission added, ‘estimates his guidelines (for

HITESH HARISINGHANI

Rajeev Bhambri Chief Operating Officer-US Media

Sant Singh Chatwal

sentencing) range at either 10 to 16 months or 37 to 46 months. Chatwal seeks a departure from these guidelines and a non-custodial sentence. A departure from the guidelines range is not warranted. Chatwal should be sentenced within the guidelines range of 46 to 57 months imprisonment as set forth in his plea agreement.’

The prosecution also noted other cases in which defendants got severe punishments for lesser crimes and said that the Chatwal case warranted punishment with a term of imprisonment: ‘Such a sentence will provide for a just punishment, will specifically deter Chatwal, should he be tempted to resume his double life, and will allow for general deterrence by sending a loud and clear message that free, fair and transparent elections are to be cherished and protected.’

Chatwal’s lawyer Jonathan Sack said his client ‘comes before this court humbled — filled with remorse and shame for what he has done,’ in asking the court to show leniency.

‘Mr Chatwal deeply regrets his actions and accepts full responsibility for the consequences,’ Lesley Bogdanow, a spokeswoman for Chatwal had said earlier.

“The case will not affect the business. This is his personal matter,” Bogdanow had told India in New York then.

Bridgewater mosque case settled GEORGE JOSEPH

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he Al Falah Center reached a settlement with the Bridgewater Township in New Jersey allowing it to build the first mosque in the area, which will serve the needs of the large

Muslim community in the area, a majority of whom are of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi origin.

‘We applaud the Mayor and the Council for entering into this Agreement and look forward to working cooperatively with them to reach our objective,’ Yasser

Abdelkader, president, Al Falah Center, said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, the township has agreed to exchange a 10.75 acre piece

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GEORGE JOSEPH

f PAGE 2 of land on Route 202/206 in Bridgewater for the Redwood Inn property, a former banquet hall, which was originally proposed as the site for the mosque. When the community applied for a permit to build a mosque there, the town enacted a zoning change that prevented the building of the mosque there. The Muslim community then challenged the zoning.

‘The case, Al Falah Center vs the Township of Bridgewater, challenged the Township’s enactment of Ordinance 11-03 shortly after Al Falah Center filed an application with the Bridgewater Planning Board for site plan approval that would enable it to convert the Redwood Inn into a mosque. Ordinance 11-03 changed the rules so that houses of worship would be conditionally permitted only on designated roads that did not include Mountain Top Road, where the Redwood Inn is,’ Al Falah Center said in a statement. ‘This changed 75 years of settled zoning policy that had permitted or conditionally permitted houses of worship on all roads in Bridgewater’s residential zones.’

The center was represented by Arnold & Porter LLP, Archer & Greiner, PC, The Brennan Center for Justice, and the Asian

Neal Katyal

Bridgewater mosque case settled

Friday prayers at a mosque in New Jersey. Photographed published for representation only.

American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The lawsuit, filed September 26, 2011, in

He has also served as a law professor for 15 years at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was one of the youngest professors to have received tenure and a chaired professorship in the university’s history. He served as a visiting professor at both Harvard and Yale Law Schools.

He is a recipient of the Edmund Randolph Award, the highest award given to a civilian by the Department of Justice.

The Chief Justice of the United States appointed him in 2011 (and again in 2014) to the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules.

He was named as One of the 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Last Decade Nationwide by National Law Journal (2010); and one of the 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers Over the Last 30 Years by Legal Times (2008) The awards gala will be hosted by Juju Chang, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News, and Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art. All proceeds from the gala will go towards supporting AALDEF’s legal and educational programs.

New Jersey federal court, alleged that the Township violated Al Falah Center’s constitutional rights under the First Amendment

SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

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eal Katyal, a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States and currently a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm in Washington, DC and Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University, will be honored with the 2015 Justice in Action Awards by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Jessica Hagedorn, novelist, poet, and playwright; and John W Kuo, senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, Varian Medical Systems, are the other recipients. They will receive the awards at AALDEF’s Annual Lunar New Year Gala February 23, 2015 at Pier 60 in Chelsea Piers, New York City.

“I am thrilled to be accepting this award, and will do so in the presence of both my mom and sister. AALDEF is a great organization that stood by my side during the Voting Rights Act battles, and I’m deeply touched and honored by the award, which I accept on behalf of so many people who have fought alongside me for so many years,” Katyal said about the award that recognizes exceptional individuals for their achievements and efforts in advancing social justice.

Katyal was principal deputy solicitor general in the Justice

PARESH GANDHI

Justice in Action Award for Neal Katyal

Department. He served as acting solicitor general after solicitor general Elena Kagan departed the post to become a Supreme Court Justice.

As Acting Solicitor General, Katyal was responsible for representing the federal government of the United States in all appellate matters before the US Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. He argued several major Supreme Court cases, including the successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against eight states that sued the nation’s leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters.

Many expected him to become the solicitor general, but the President appointed White House attorney Don Verrilli to the post.

Katyal focuses on appellate and complex litigation. He has extensive experience in matters of patent, securities, criminal, employment, tort, and constitutional law. He has orally argued 22 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, with 20 of them in the last five years.

and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as corresponding protections of New Jersey’s Constitution. The suit also alleged violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

On September 30, 2013, according to the Al Falah Center statement, ‘The court ruled in favor of Al Falah Center, preliminarily enjoining the Township from applying the zoning ordinance to Al Falah Center’s mosque application. The court found that Al Falah Center had not only demonstrated irreparable injury to the Muslim community that had been deprived of the ability to use its property as a house of worship, but had also demonstrated that it was likely to succeed on the merits of at least its statutory claim.’

The ruling led to extensive settlement negotiations. As per the settlement, the exchange of properties will occur only after Al Falah Center has obtained all approvals necessary to construct a mosque on the new property. If those approvals are not obtained, the Al Falah Center can construct a mosque at the Redwood Inn site.

In addition, Al Falah Center has received a monetary settlement, which it can use to help finance construction of its mosque on either of the two properties.

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Samhita Murthy dances for cancer cure SUMAN GUHA MOZUMDER

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high school senior from Morristown, New Jersey, has donated over $2,000 — the entire amount she got as gifts from friends and relatives during her rangapravesha or arangetram (debut on-stage performance in Bharata Natyam) in September — to Rutgers Cancer Institute.

“Usually during the ceremony friends and relatives give you

flowers and money. One spends the money for their personal needs. I thought it would be better to donate the money for the cause of cancer,” Samhita Murthy, 17, tells India in New York.

Her passion for cancer research grew out of a personal tragedy. Her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in their ancestral home in Karnataka. Samhita was only about eight years old then but remembers the effect chemotherapy had on her grandmother.

“I was too young that time to understand fully what cancer really was all about and how devastating could it be. As I grew up, I started doing research on the Internet and learnt a lot about it, the methods to cure it, if possible, and how diagnosis is made etc,” says Samhita, who is a senior at the Math and Science Magnet Program.

By her own admission her grandmother’s cancer took an emotional toll on her and drew her towards science, particularly biology. She pursued opportunities to expand her knowledge of cancer research through independent study and through the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s BOLD Camp (BioCONECT Oncology Leadership Development), a summer program that teaches high school students about cellular biology and the genetics of cancer.

“I can tell you honestly that her cancer certainly was one of the biggest factors that influenced my choice of pursuing biomedical engineering,” Samhita says. “But that was one of the factors and not the only factor. There were friends and relatives who also influenced my decision. I studied various subjects like computers, biology in my freshman and sophomore years, and I was finally convinced that biomedical engineering was something that interests me most.”

Samhita, who has been learning Bharata Natyam since age 5, is equally passionate about the dance form and says she wants to keep both passions alive. Dance, she says, has taught her a lot about life, spiritually and otherwise.

While she plans to continue to raise funds for cancer research, she does not want to limit herself to it: “I also want to focus on doing something more tangible, like improving cancer treatment and contribute to that as a scientist. I really want to do something for people and society. That is my goal.”

She quotes her parents to say: “As long as I have a positive impact on society, it really does not matter what career or profession I chose. In fact, I saw my graduation (Rangapravesha) as a way I could directly benefit others.”

New Jersey adds 2 Hindu holidays to school list GEORGE JOSEPH

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he New Jersey State Board of Education added Goverdhan Puja (October 24) and Pongal (January 14) to its list of religious holidays permitting student absence from school at the urging of the Universal Society of Hinduism.

It already had 14 Hindu holidays — Raksha Bandhan, Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesha Chaturthi, Navaratri, Dussehra, Diwali, Makar Sankranti, Vasant Panchami, Maha Shivaratri, Holi, Chandramana Yugadi, Rami Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Souramana Yugadi — on the list with Navratri listed for nine days.

According to the board, ‘Any student absent from school because of a religious holiday may not be deprived of any award or of eligibility or opportunity to compete for any award because of such absence. Students who miss a test or examination because of absence on a religious holiday must be given the right to take an alternate test or examination.’

The Universal Society of Hinduism also requested Guru Purnima, Naga Panchami and Onam to be included in the list.

Anju Bhargava, Founder and Board Member of Hindu American Seva Communities, based in New Jersey, welcomed the decision. “Though it is a welcome move, what the community needs is to get Diwali accepted as a major holiday in the state. It is one holiday that almost all Indians celebrate. Such a decision will give more acceptance to the community,” she said and demanded the inclusion of Jain holidays in the list of state holidays.

StudentÊs death in India sparks alumni protest in New York GEORGE JOSEPH

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he alumni and friends of Sherwood College, Nainital, Uttarakhand, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in India, organized a peaceful candlelight march at Times Square, December 6, demanding action against the authorities responsible for the death of Shaan Prajapati, a 14-year-old Nepalese boy.

The protestors included 30-40 alumni.

They demanded a fair and prompt investigation into the death as well as the dismissal of Amandeep Singh Sandhu, the principal of the institute who has been accused of medical negligence resulting in Shaan’s death.

“We started the vigil at 5 pm in Times Square in front of the Red Steps. It was raining and the temperature was near freezing, because of the wind and rain, but we continued our protest,” Dr Shaeesta Khan, an alumna based in New Jersey said. “A lot of tourists were

town of Haldwani in a near-comatose drawn to our protest and asked us quescondition. tions. Some even joined us and held our He was diagnosed with septic shock, and banners and candles. Many clicked our the hospital recommended that he be pictures. The vigil lasted one-and-a-half transferred to a larger facility. Instead of hours. We were joined by Shaan’s utilizing better facilities in the same city, aunt Neera Shrestha and his cousin Shaan was put in an ambulance, without Binaya Joshi. We have signed an online trained personnel, and sent to Noida by petition (ipetitions.com/petition/justicefor-shaan) addressed to Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay to ensure a fair and prompt investigation in the death of the boy,” she said.

Shaan, a grade IX student, died from complications of pneumonia November 14 after ailing for several days. When he tried to seek medical attention, he was reportedly it was ignored till his condition got so bad that he was brought to a hospital in the neighboring The protest at Times Square December 6.

road, which took a travel time of 7 hours.

He was pronounced dead on arrival in the Noida hospital.

“His death was totally preventable if his symptoms were not ignored. Reportedly he was running high fevers and coughing blood for three days, during which time he did not receive appropriate medical care,” Khan said.

Shaan’s mother, Neena Shrestha has filed a first information report against the school authorities.

Sandhu denied all allegations and was quoted as saying in the Indian media, ‘The boy had been ill in the past. He had asthma. After he fell ill on November 11, he was treated at school. Later, we took him to a private hospital in Haldwani. The next day, when his vitals didn’t improve, we decided to bring him to Noida.’

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An Aam Aadmi in New York Arvind Kejriwal’s visit

PHOTOGRAPHS: MOHAMMED JAFFER-SNAPSINDIA

Snapshots from when Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal addressed supporters at a hotel in Times Square, December 7.

He also spoke to students and faculty at Columbia University at a closed-door event.

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Protesters demanding justice for the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island, Michael Brown in Ferguson and Akai Gurley in Brooklyn hold their hands to their throat in a chokehold gesture as they congregate at the Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, December 7.

OUR GRIEF TOO

ELIZABETH SHAFIROFF/REUTERS

Arthur J Pais reports on the outrage that has engulfed New York City because Black Lives Matter

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hat would you tell a 7-year-old as you get ready to take him to a protest event in New York with your husband?

Sunita Viswanath, a social worker and Brooklyn Bala Vihar teacher, says she told her son Satya about why so many people were upset and protesting the grand jury decisions not to send the white police officers who had killed the unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner, also unarmed and also black, to trial.

Viswanath told him that people were upset because there are too many cases where unarmed people, often black men and boys, were being killed by the police without any punishment.

“We’ve told him that it is very complicated,” she told India in New York, “but people are just very sad about all the violence and deaths, and that people also want there to be a change in the way the police do their job.”

“Satya said he thought it was all very sad,” she continued. “He was a bit overwhelmed (and very cold) at the

larger protest, but he really got into our mini protest this morning. At Bal Vihar, we talked about non-violent protest as a way of doing seva (service).”

Viswanath said her family had participated in protests in Manhattan, as “we have felt every bit of the collective grief and outrage that is being expressed by thousands of people in cities from coast to coast, and we hope that all the protests lead to structural changes in policing practices and police accountability.”

She added that her family, including her business owning husband, “will continue to join others in the streets for as long as this momentum lasts. We hope that the protesters keep the peace and stay focused on concrete advocacy for change in law and policy.”

Although the larger Indian origin population continued to seem apathetic towards the black fight for police accountability, hundreds of Indians across elite university campuses like Princeton, Stanford and Harvard; organizations like DRUM in New York City; and the faith community have been joining a broad coalition of men and women and children to espouse black causes.

Some of the desi protestors joined activists who sought

to disrupt businesses and traffic. Some decided to lie down with others for four-and-a-half minutes on the campus grounds to symbolize the four-and-a-half hours Brown’s body was lying in the open in Ferguson.

Many protestors said they looked at the larger picture — it was not just about Garner and Brown, but the discriminating and suffocating system that goes against many men and women in minority communities, ranging from the blacks to the Latinos and Asians.

Some desi protestors were from the radical left, some were Gandhians, some liberals and some combined leftist activities with religious convictions as in the case of Sonny Singh, a practicing Sikh, a labor organizer and a teacher. Some spoke of a Hindu dharmic duty to join the struggle and invoked the legacy of Indian social reformers.

At University of Pittsburgh, freshman Raghav Sharma, who joined many protests, said he was inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. “I did what I would have done if the two unarmed victims were from India or

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onny Singh had played dhol for abut five hours on Friday morning for a fast food workers strike/protest, and from that venue he joined the Eric Garner and Michael Brown protests in New York City.

And the clarinet and dhol player and community organizer told India in New York, “I will definitely play at the Millions March Day of Anger December 13,” Singh is a tireless protestor.

You might have seen him with dhol at the take over Wall Street agitation or at the Climate Change march in New York.

Some of the participants at the latter event also used it — with the raised hands gesture — to protest the killing of Michael Brown, the unarmed black man in a police encounter with a white officer in Ferguson.

Sonny Singh, center, at the Climate March in September. It saw some participants carry the message of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson with their hands up in the air.

‘MORE AND MORE OF US ARE SAYING ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’

Why did you feel the urgency to protest at the Eric Garner and Brown events?

I have been protesting because the pattern of police violence targeting the Black community is practically genocidal at this point. I’m angry and I’m heartbroken, so I, along with hundred of thousands others, take to the streets to express our anger, our heartbreak, our disappointment at our so-called justice system. Time and time again, police brutalize and murder Black people, mostly Black men, with complete impunity. These last two cases of impunity — the murders of Mike Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island — reflect a much larger problem of the role of the police in upholding a very, very old system in America: Racism.

Even with the entire choking of Eric Garner by an NYPD officer recorded on video for the world to see, there is still no indictment. Those of us protesting throughout the city and the country are realizing that the system is set up to protect cops and to dehumanize oppressed communities, especially Black people. Enough is enough.

How did you protest?

I joined hundreds of others in Union Square last week, the night of the Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson. I also joined the massive protest beginning in Foley Square last night (December 4), the day after the Staten Island jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, who was selling a few loose cigarettes off a Staten Island street.

Both protests led to spontaneous marches that blocked traffic, took over streets, and shut down bridges, tunnels, and highways. We are trying to send a message that business as usual cannot continue under these circumstances.

As long as black lives are deemed worthless by our law enforcement and (in)justice system, we cannot go on like everything is okay. I have felt so proud to be a New Yorker this last week because of the thousands and thousands of people of diverse backgrounds using their physical bodies to express their outrage at these grand jury decisions, their

ANIRVAN CHATTERJEE

I have hope that times are changing, and more and more desis are showing up in solidarity with other oppressed communities, musician Sonny Singh tells Arthur J Pais about the protests across the city outrage at police brutality, and ultimately their demand and hope and vision for a very different world — one where Black lives matter. This is what makes me hopeful right now.

Why aren’t many desis protesting?

I actually know lots of desis who have been out on the streets every day protesting, who are out there for the same reason as everyone else — to build a movement and take direct action to uproot racism out of our police forces, our justice system, and out of our society. This racism of course affects us South Asians as well, but in different ways. For me, being in solidarity with the Black community means seeing how our struggles are connected and intertwined but actually not the same.

I am not, by and large, the target for police harassment, stop and frisk, or police brutality. Maybe this is why some desis may not be out on the front lines — because they don’t see this as ‘our’ issue.

But to me, any issue of systemic injustice and institutional

violence should be a call to action for all people of conscience, whether that issue affects you or not. In the Sikh community, we call that sarbat da bhala — a spiritual obligation to work for the well being of all human beings.

On a deeper level, perhaps we are not seeing enough desis protesting because of deep set anti-Black racism that exists in our communities. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard family members tell me not to go to or live in a certain neighborhood because it is not safe — and either directly or indirectly tell me that’s because lots of Black people live there. South Asians in America, like many immigrant communities, have really tried to distance themselves from Black people, perhaps because they want to aspire to the top of the racial hierarchy. But I have hope that times are changing, and more and more desis are showing up in solidarity with other oppressed communities. More and more of us are saying enough is enough — we have to uproot anti-Black racism from our communities, our families, and our entire society, from Ferguson to Staten Island.

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Cover Story INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

‘NOT JUSTICE FOR OUR OWN COMMUNITY, BUT JUSTICE FOR ALL’

Sunita Viswanath with her family.

COURTESY: SUNITA VISWANATH

In this conversation with Arthur J Pais Sunita Viswanath shares her vision for second-generation Hindus Americans who will stand with other communities

How have you taken the message of the protests to the young students?

This Sunday we decided to postpone our planned lesson on Ramah Avatar and instead, we focused on civil disobedience, linking to our Gandhi Jayanti discussions. Every Gandhi Jayanti we take our kids to the Gandhi statue at Union Square. This year we discussed the lives and legacies of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and also the contemporary struggles of Professor Prabhjot Singh (who was mugged and called names by a group of teenagers and who has forgiven his attackers) and Chaumtoli Huq (a former lawyer for the New York City public advocate’s office, who had filed a lawsuit against the NYPD for arresting and physically hurting her).

We also listened to and sang prayers and songs of protest, including Raghupati Raghava Rajaram and Hum Honge Kamyab.

We had an activity planned based on our Dashavatar studies. We asked the kids to imagine and draw an avatar that Vishnu might take to bring about racial justice. And then we made some simple signs and went on our own mini peace march!

The class was wonderful. Many of the children, the older ones and even some of the younger ones, came to class already quite aware about what has been happening. Some kids had already had discussions in their schools. Many were aware of the protests and had many questions and opinions. It felt important to give them the space to openly share their thoughts.

How did you become an activist?

I worked most of my adult life doing social justice work, mostly for women’s rights. My work was always something I saw as my dharma and I did it with all my heart, but I was never explicit about my Hindu upbringing being part of my motivation and fuel. Over the years I was a part of many

The peace march by Brooklyn Bala Vihar December 7.

Below, the children poured their thoughts into their handmade signs.

interfaith efforts for social justice, and yearned for Hindu representation in these efforts. I worked with women’s rights leaders who were Muslim, Christian and Jewish who made direct connections between their work and their faith, and I so wanted the same connection to be made in my faith community. It took me many years before I finally ‘came out’ as a Hindu, and along with friends created Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus.

We Hindus have a rich history of social justice reformers — just think of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, to name a few. There sim-

COURTESY: BBV

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unita Viswanath is a teacher and organizer of a children’s Hinduism class which takes place on Sunday mornings. The Brooklyn Bala Vihar has a strong emphasis on seva (community service, including speaking up for justice).

She speaks to India in New York about making the little ones, including her 7-year-old son, aware of justice.

ply haven’t been Hindu social justice reformers in our times, but perhaps this is changing.

There are many Hindus who are engaged in seva (community service) and social justice activism, but they (like me, for so many years) are quiet about their faith. The way we live our Hinduism is very personal and individualized.

Our faith teaches us to be humble and not desire fruits of our actions. Therefore, it seems boastful and egotistical to be open about the work we are doing as Hindus, almost as though we are bragging.

Another obstacle to the development of a selfconfident progressive Hindu voice is that in progressive circles people who identify openly as Hindu tend to automatically be seen as conservative and elitist, if not outright fundamentalist.

The work of groups like Hindu American Foundation, Sadhana, Hindu American Seva Charities, and other progressive Hindu organizations is changing the landscape.

And my hope is that second-generation Hindus Americans will help build a more progressive Hindu community that comes out in the streets with other communities to do seva and to speak up for justice. Not justice for our own community, but justice for all.

What I do: I am fortunate to be a full-time volunteer for the causes dear to my heart. My full-time work is with Women for Afghan Women, a human rights organization working in New York and ten provinces of Afghanistan. I also do a lot of work for Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus.

9

Cover Story INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

A massive protest in Foley Square, Manhattan, December 4, after the Staten Island jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, who was selling a few loose cigarettes off a Staten Island street.

Christopher Fici highlights the role of faith in the everyday struggle for justice against a system that is killing people and the planet

O

ur community at Union Theological Seminary in New York has been participating in a determined, deep-rooted, and compassionate 24/7 vigil since the decision came down not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner.

Many of us are marching, many of us are organizing for long-term actions, and we all are trying to hold each other up through our exhaustions and tensions (and all this is happening during Finals season here at Union!).

Next semester, beginning in late January, Dr Cornel West and Dr John Thatamanil, one of the leading comparative theologians in our country, working on the experiential bridges between Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism, is teaching a course on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, which myself and Sunita Viswanath (a community organizer who runs her own progressive Hindu Bal Vihar) will be participating in.

The waves of resistance which have come up in the past few weeks add a new urgency to this course and its potential to do what theology and faith do best, which is bring an incredible depth and ground of understanding to the everyday struggle for justice against a system which is killing people and also killing the planet.

One idea connected to the course at

‘POOL THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF OUR COLLECTIVE VOICES’ Union and our common struggle as Hindus to honor and participate in this struggle for justice. Perhaps we could write a series of essays on ‘Race, Caste, and the Bhagavad-Gita.’ I’m already planning to co-author an essay on this topic for the Huffington Post Religion section with Gadadhar Pandit Dasa, the Hindu chaplain at Columbia University/Interfaith

f PAGE 6 Indian origin,” he said.

At Princeton, Vineet Chander, who heads the Hindu Religious Life Program, collaborated with others in the Office of Religious Life to host an interfaith vigil. “It was a very powerful experience, bookended by opening and closing periods of silence (each for 4.5 minutes to evoke the 4.5 hours that Michael Brown lay dying on the ground) and including candle-lighting and prayers from different religious traditions delivered by student leaders,” he said.

He worked with one of the Hindu student leaders to prepare Hindu prayers that would be appropriate for the occasion. She chanted shanti mantras to evoke peace, happiness, and healing for all beings, he said.

Shruti Parekh, a documentary filmmaker in New York who works for the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, said, she joined the protests with a sign that said ‘Black Lives Matter’ because she “was outraged and deeply saddened by the grand jury decisions not to indict either of the cops who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner.”

She said, “Although some part of me knew that the sys-

chaplain at Union Seminary. It would be powerful if we could combine our voices through publishing essays we write together, and making a concerted effort to increase our commitment towards understanding how the realities of race and caste intersect with our personal and collective Hindu identities.

Perhaps we can also form a kind of for-

OUR GRIEF TOO

tem in place would always protect the police, I couldn’t believe that it would happen not only once, but twice. I was out of town during the Michael Brown non-indictment but I participated in protests after the Eric Garner hearing.”

She said, “We shut down many streets in Manhattan, including Broadway, and the West Side Highway. It was powerful to see people stopped in their cars by us, honking in solidarity or leaning out the windows to give high fives. It was also powerful to realize many people did not care about what made us so angry; they were upset by the inconvenience and wanted to get on with their lives.”

She added, “We have a national crisis on our hands of racist policing and a racist legal system. I feel it’s necessary to stand in solidarity with black folks, who are the main target of this policing and are apprehended, attacked, and put in jail disproportionately, often for minor offenses.”

Both Garner and Brown were apprehended for incredibly minor offenses and “executed wrongfully by police,”

PARESH GANDHI

mal think tank around these ideas to pool the power and potential of our collective voices in solidarity with our fellow people fighting for justice.

Christopher Fici is a Hindu minister/teacher and freelance writer who is working on a Master’s Degree at Union Theological Seminary.

she said. “The lack of punishment for the cops who killed them has been a slap in the face, showing that cops can get away with murder and a black man (Garner) can die for selling cigarettes on the street.”

As an Indian woman in this country whose parents are immigrants, she continued, she finds it necessary to stand in solidarity with the struggle of blacks: “My ability to exist in this country is directly a result of their struggles and fights for freedom and humanity.”

Parekh echoed the thoughts of the likes of Fahd Ahmad who leads DRUM and DRUM activists like Monami Maulik, who also joined many demonstrations.

Parekh said, “This country still runs on institutional racism, whether it be quiet and insidious or clear and out in the open, as in the recent weeks. We have a long way to go, and our own struggles of dealing with profiling by police and by the government can only be changed through addressing the disproportionate profiling and imprisonment of black people.”

People of color must stand together in this fight, and particularly with black people, who are and have always been leading struggles to dismantle institutionalized racism in this country, she added.

Special

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

‘The photography and the gayness — one thing fed into the other’

S

unil Gupta came to New York in 1976 to do an MBA program. It was then that he discovered the gay scene in Greenwich Village, especially on Christopher Street. With his camera, and black and white film he captured many gay men walking on the street, with bomber jackets, jeans, facial hair and sunglasses.

Now a leading photographer — based in London and New Delhi — whose works have been shown around the world, Gupta has spent a lot of time focusing his camera on the gay world and lives of the LGBT community. In recent years that included tracking gay subjects in Delhi in a series titled Mr Malhotra’s Party, a reference to private gay parties in Delhi.

For the first time, the two series — Christopher Street and Mr Malhotra’s Party — are being shown at the sepiaEYE galley in New York City’s Chelsea section. Out and About: New York and New Delhi runs through December 20.

What are your memories of when you came New York in the late-1970s and the gay scene that you discovered on Christopher Street in the Village?

For me it was a time when many things happened to me and the multiple feelings I

Christopher Street, a series shot by Sunil Gupta in the 1970s. The series has never been exhibited.

had. I was finally away from my home and my family. I was in a big city. I had original-

ly come from a big city — Delhi to Montreal for my undergraduate studies and it was a relatively smaller place in Canada.

Also it was the connection of two major interests in my life. One was being gay and suddenly I was living in the midst of visible gay men on the streets. I lived in Chelsea, but in those days the Village was more of a center of the gay world.

At the same time the photography scene happened and that was not something I had seen before. I arrived in New York when suddenly 15 photo galleries opened and that was a new phenomenon in the art world.

Had you started taking photographs at that time?

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY: SEPIAEYE

Two pivotal series from Sunil Gupta’s oeuvre come together for the first time in a New York gallery. The photographer in conversation with Aseem Chhabra

Yes. I had a childhood interest in it. My dad had a camera. And in school a friend and I would take elementary pictures and develop the film in his barsati (a small rooftop room) in Delhi.

In Montreal it became slightly more developed hobby when I was able to teach myself using a basic camera.

As an undergraduate I became a part of the gay liberation movement. It was a student group called Gay McGill, but it included outsiders also, since I was studying at Concordia University. One of the

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Special

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

‘The photography and the gayness — one thing fed into the other’ PAGE 10

activities we did was to bring out a newsletter and I was able to provide photographs. Our activism meant marching on the streets and becoming more visible. So the photography and the gayness — one thing fed into the other.

I was 16 when I came to Montreal and until then I only knew Indians. But in Canada no one knew what Indian meant. It almost became a liability. It wasn’t cool in modern terms.

But in New York your being Indian became easier when you were taking pictures on Christopher Street?

In New York I was often mistaken for a Puerto Rican. And it seemed I was a threat to some people. They crossed the road when I would be walking towards them.

The Indian thing was not useful, but the gay thing was much more useful. It gave me something to do in my context.

When you took pictures on Christopher Street people were fine with that?

Yes, back then there was no problem with it. In fact, I had taken my hobby interest further and transitioned from the MBA to formal photography classes at the New School. Then I met people in the art business and I became aware of trends in photography and that the street was suitable subject matter. New York was ideal because its street corners were uniquely different.

And there was already the recent legacy of people taking street pictures in Chicago and New York. I just focused on Christopher Street because of the gay subject.

When did you first show these Christopher Street pictures?

Oh right now. They have never been seen publically. Some of them appeared in a magazine called BUTT — a kind of an artporn thing. But they have never been shown otherwise.

After New York I went to a proper art school in England. And there is a way in which people think that after you graduate you make real work. These pictures were before my schooling in photography.

But the gallery and I felt that somehow enough time has elapsed and there is a historical interest now.

Those black and white pictures really capture a time period, New York before the AIDS crisis. As much LGBT energy as Greenwich Village still has, you just don’t see men walking like that anymore…

I think partly the Internet has killed

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY: SEPIAEYE

f

Above, Manpreet. Right, Anoki. Mr Malhotra’s Party series was shot in Delhi. everything. Everyone is at home. In the 70s people used to go out.

Someone said ‘too many men, too little time.’ It was like there were so many men. I couldn’t have sex with them all so I took pictures.

Then many years later you started this colored series Mr Malhotra’s Party.

Yes, in Delhi. I have been doing these for the part four or five years.

I love the way here you had people posing as opposed to in the Christopher Street series. But they are posing with this real presence and saying ‘I am here.’

Yes, that was the plan. When I first went back to India in the ’80s to make pictures of gay life then and even to some extent now, and I realized that by and large people are not out and they do not want their pictures to be taken in a documentary way. They certainly didn’t want the pictures to be published.

So I then researched and found people who were willing to be out and open in public spaces. That’s why these became individual portraits and I put them in their locality, near where they live or work. This series I have shown in India. I have their names because compared to the ’80s when people would not even show their face, now many

of the people are happy to show their faces and give their names.

This is a lovely contrast – the color pictures from India and the black and white New York pictures. Are you planning to show them in India at some point?

That is a good idea that I need to propose in India. But right now I am going back to

shoot a new book about gay rights in India for an American NGO in New York. It will have more of a documentary style and not portraits like in the current series. I will work with 12-15 people — a cross section of people, who will also talk about how the law (Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code) in India affects their lives.

Aseem in New York

12

INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Aamir Khan spoke to the New York media via satellite in the basement screening room at the Bryant Park Hotel in Manhattan.

Aamir, PK and a slice of Chaplin

A

big Bollywood film is about to open in a week and its star made himself available to speak to the media. As happens in many such cases, the media had not seen the film.

Earlier this year, Salman Khan had appeared at a similar media conference for Kick. Last year, Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone had spoken to us before the release of Chennai Express.

Last week it was Aamir Khan’s turn to promote his film PK. He made time to speak to the New York media via satellite in the basement screening room at the Bryant Park Hotel in Manhattan.

Aamir was cheerful, relaxed, wearing a white shirt with his sleeves pulled up. He could not divulge details about PK. Instead, he

spoke about his character as we see him in PK’s promos.

Aamir, we were told, tried to bring a slice of Chaplin to his character PK, who does not move his arms and keeps his eyes wide open without blinking.

This was one of the hardest roles he played, Aamir added, which also involved having to learn to speak his dialogues in Bhojpuri.

He credited director Raj Kumar Hirani for the look of the film — the quirkiness of the characters and whimsical tone. Aamir hailed Hirani as the number one director in Bollywood.

PK, Aamir said, would be the same film with any other actor, but it wouldn’t be the same had Hirani not helmed it.

PK opens in theaters on Friday December 19.

R

T

his week I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see Henri Matisse: The Cut

Outs.

The large exhibit examined the French Master’s final years when he made collages, cutting out various shapes from different colored pieces of paper.

Matisse started this in the late 1940s and continued working on abstract forms — often commissioned by institutions and private collectors — until his death in 1954.

This is the largest collection of Matisse’s cut-outs shown at a museum, with nearly 100 pieces of art. The last time MoMA organized a similar show was in 1961.

The show includes a long video in color showing Matisse cutting paper with his scissors and then making his assistants nail the pieces of paper on canvas, often making them move things around a great many times until he was satisfied.

One of the marvels of the show is the recreation of The Swimming

Henri Matisse: Pool, a large collage that covered The Cut Outs at four walls of Matisse’s dining room MoMA is the in his apartment in Nice. MoMA largest collection acquired the original cut-out and of the artiste’s then restored it. cut-outs shown at On the sixth floor at MoMA, a museum, with where the show is exhibited, a spenearly 100 pieces cial room has been created to give of art. viewers the exact sense of being in The last time Matisse’s dining room, surrounded MoMA organized with blue cut-outs that resemble a similar show waves in a swimming pool. was in 1961.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs is on until February 8, 2015.

eese Witherspoon already has a best actress Oscar for her performance in Walk The Line. In recent years though her work has been less than satisfactory.

But Reese is back with a bang!

This week I saw her new film Wild (she also produced it) where she plays Cheryl Strayed, a Reese Witherspoon in Wild. real life character who went on a 1,000 mile trek along the Pacific Coast, from the border of Mexico to Canada.

Strayed wrote her memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was adapted into a screenplay by novelist and scriptwriter Nick Hornby.

Wild is a powerful story about a woman alone in the wilderness in California, Oregon and then Washington, lost in her thoughts. She has experienced the tragedy of losing her mother to cancer, and gone through crazy experimentation with drugs and sex with multiple partners that causes her marriage to fail.

The hike is her way to self discovery, understanding who she was, and who she has become.

Witherspoon’s strong performance in Wild makes her a front runner in the best actress Oscar race.

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Bollywood

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Arjun Kapoor discusses his new film, the dangers of doing too many action dramas and his working relationship with his father.

Sonil Dedhia listens in

A

rjun Kapoor was determined to prove himself as an actor before he worked in a home production, Tevar. He may be a part of a prominent filmi family but his first starring role in a home production came after he’d already starred in a string of successful films. Produced by Arjun’s uncle Sanjay Kapoor and father Boney Kapoor, Tevar also stars Sonakshi Sinha, Kader Khan and Manoj Bajpayee.

Kapoor discusses his new film, and his working relationship with his producer father.

Tevar is the first time you are working in a home production.

I enjoyed working on Tevar, and with Sanjay chachu (Kapoor) because I have grown up with him. We lived in the same house for more than 20 years. He is like a father figure, a brother, an uncle and more so, a friend.I had my first drink with him, travelled with him... So for me, it was having the right person on the sets.

He understands production because we have grown up in a household that knows cinema as producers. He was

ÂTEVAR WASNÊT DESIGNED TO DISPLAY MY STRENGTHSÊ also the ultimate bridge between my father and me if we had any difference of opinions on the set. Most importantly, he is a sensible person and hasn’t become a producer just for the sake of it. He has his own approach towards films.

Sanjay Kapoor mentioned that out of the younger crop of actors, only you could have done a film like Tevar.

He has no choice but to say that (winks).

So what sets you apart from your contemporaries?

I like sinking my teeth into the material I get. I am an actor and moldable enough to do films like 2 States, Gunday and Finding Fanny. I have never restricted myself to my strengths and abilities as they are unlimited and I am still discovering them. I am 29 and just five films old.

I enjoy doing action a lot more because my films have a sense of violence. That’s because I have a broad structure and if I hit someone, it looks believable. Maybe my contemporaries are meeker-looking in comparison.

At the same time, I have also played the boy-next-door equally well in my biggest success (2 States). Similarly,

Arjun Kapoor in Tevar.

Siddharth (Malhotra), who has a chocolate-boy image, did a film like Ek Villain. I will always try and do something unexpected.

I didn’t know I was capable of doing a character like Pintu in Tevar. I felt it would be similar to what I have done before, but our director (Amit Sharma) had a fresh approach, which was exciting.

You could have easily worked with your father Boney Kapoor in your first film. Were you proving a point by working with others first?

I want to be his strength, not his problem. I could have debuted with him but that would have been the most clichéd way of doing it. You take away from the film and yourself. Even a crackling film would have had that negative effect that a father is launching his son in a film designed to show his skills.

I chose to work harder. I don’t want it to be a designed film. We might make a designed film now (referring to

PAGE 15 g

Bollywood

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

ÂTEVAR WASNÊT DESIGNED TO DISPLAY MY STRENGTHSÊ

f PAGE 14 Tevar) but you won’t even notice because you have seen me as an individual and accepted me. Now that I’m five films old and have an identity, the credibility of Tevar remains intact.

Does it work to your advantage or disadvantage to work in a home production?

It’s actually neither an advantage nor a disadvantage because I still have to work with the same dedication and have to be as professional as I am for any other film. I was rather anxious because my father was going to be on the sets, observing me rather than watching the final product.

An actor should never be influenced by the surroundings because you have to submit completely, and trust me, it’s not a good feeling when you know that your father is going to come and watch you work every day!

I remember the first day I shot for the film, he didn’t interfere; he was on the periphery and wasn’t overtly involved, so I heaved a sigh of relief. After that, it was like doing any other film.

Please continue.

Tevar wasn’t designed to display my strengths or to showcase my skills. I had seen the original film (Okkadu in Telugu). Even before I became an actor I told my father that if the rights are available please buy it because that’s the kind of film I’d like to do.

Ironically, I debuted with Ishaqzaade that had elements of me being on the run with a girl but that was because we were in love. In Tevar, the story is about a boy who helps a girl escape. If people liked me in Ishaqzaade, I hope they like me in Tevar too.

Your father had tears in his eyes at one of the promotional events. He said you were the driving force and motivated him to make this film. Did you contribute to the film outside of your capacity as an actor?

With Sonakshi Sinha in his home production.

Any father wants to feel proud of his son. I had worked hard to be an asset to him.

My father is a flamboyant filmmaker. There is a saying in the industry about Boney Kapoor, ‘You ask for an Ambassador car and you get a Mercedes.’ He is that large-hearted.

It’s not easy to find acceptance in our profession. It is very rare to get the kind of love and adulation I have got in just two years of my career. The confidence he from my success encouraged him to make a film with me.

I was involved in cutting the trailer for Tevar as I am fond of that work. I just wanted to be a part of it so I got together with Ravi and Binny Padda and worked on the trailer.

Ishaqzaade, Aurangzeb, Gunday and now Tevar — they are all action dramas. Won’t you get stereotyped as an action hero?

If the audience likes it, I’d love to do more roles like that. Also, I think I’m so new that I can’t really be stereotyped yet unless I make at least another three action films.

That said, I wouldn’t have passed up a film like Tevar even if I had done a lot of action before.

Sanjay Kapoor said that you wouldn’t have done Tevar had you not liked the script of the film.

Yes, I wouldn’t have done it because it took me a year and half to say yes to Tevar.

Filmmaking is not a joke. Just because you have a producer and an actor, you just can’t get up one day and start making a film. I wanted this film to be done in a certain way. I didn’t want it to be a masala entertainer where the film is only about heroism.

It’s a commercial entertainer about an ordinary boy in an extraordinary situation.

Amit Sharma is making his directorial debut with the film and I liked the five or six narrations we did between

May and October 2013. We didn’t want to be complacent and just improvise with everything on the sets.

Is there a possibility that you could say no to a home production?

I have said no to my father in the past. He came up with scripts I wasn’t convinced about. There have also been times when I went to him with a script that he wasn’t sure about. That is something between him and me.

I think this working relationship is here to stay. At the end of the day, both of us should be excited to work on a film together.

With Tevar, you will get to see a quintessential old school Hindi film with a slightly new sensibility or new attitude which isn’t frivolous. This film has an emotional connect.

We recently saw you in All India Bakchod’s spoof featuring Alia Bhatt. Recently, Shah Rukh Khan and the Kill Dill team appeared for a spoof interviews for The Viral Fever to promote their respective films. Would you do something like that to promote your own film?

When Shah Rukh Khan does it, he does it really well.

His stardom is so big that he can afford to laugh at himself. As an audience, you laugh with him and not at him.

He is doing it because there is nothing that he has not heard before. He can handle it with ease and he’s got the gift of the gab.

I would love to do it at a personal level and never to encourage or promote a film. I would not like to demean my film to promote it. If you are talking about a film and if you are getting insulted then your film is also getting insulted.

In a personal capacity, I would love to do something similar to what Alia did. Ranveer (Singh) and I are doing a show along with AIB and we know that they are going to bajao our case (laughs).

16

Bollywood INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Soha, Kunal set the date

N

eeraj Pandey, who we once mistook for an art house filmmaker because of his hit debut, A Wednesday, reunites with his Special 26 producer and leading man Akshay Kumar for Baby, an espionage thriller.

The film features Akshay as an intelligence agent tackling some serious threats emanating from nations looking to yank Kashmir away from India.

Pakistani actor Rasheed Naz — looking for all the world like an angrier version of Nitin Mukesh — seems to be the antagonist here, and Pandey’s film, from this first look, looks slick and expansive.

Akshay, mouthing halting English with sincerity, looks to be in form given the film allows him all his aggression and thankfully little tomfoolery. At least from the first trailer, anyway.

Rana Daggubatti’s around looking suitably (and inevitably) tough, Danny Dengzongpa and Anupam Kher are in attendance wearing bad wigs, and Kay Kay Menon is around shooting people and making cracks about Kasab.

The girl in the film is Taapsee Pannu, and it is when looking at her that I realized nobody in the trailer smiles at all. It’s all pretty intense stuff (unless you inadvertently crack up at the sight of Kumar’s Balraj Sahni moustache) but at the crescendo, as the words ‘History Is Made By Those Who Give A Damn’ thud onto the screen, so does the film’s anything-but-obvious title, Baby, rather jarringly.

I wish we had some hint about why Baby is called Baby, but if the makers were aiming for curiosity, job done.

The film releases January 23.

— Raja Sen

Shiney, back in business hiney Ahuja has returned to the sets with Welcome Back, S his first film after he was convicted in a rape case.

The Anees Bazmee film stars Shruti Haasan, who was not a part of the original 2007 comedy Welcome. She takes over from Katrina Kaif.

John Abraham takes over from Akshay Kumar, who led the cast in the original film.

March 30, 2011, a court in Mumbai sentenced Ahuja to seven years rigorous imprisonment for raping his domestic help. Shiney appealed to the Bombay high court, where it awaits a hearing.

Ahuja is out on bail.

Shiney Ahuja on the sets at Mumbai’s Mehboob studio.

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu in the garden of their home in Mumbai.

All is well

ilip Kumar was admitted to a Mumbai hospital to D treat a chest infection, December 6. He was recuperating well at press time and was to be released hopefully before his 92nd birthday, December 11.

Shekhar Kapur to direct US horror drama series hekhar Kapur is all set to make his television S directorial debut with

Damien, the follow-up to the classic horror film The Omen.

Kapur took to Twitter to share the news.

‘Remember the classic film ‘Omen’? We’re doing the sequel ‘Damien’. Very, very exciting script,’ posted Kapur. He will be the executive producer of the first episode as well.

Damien will be Lifetime’s straight-toseries drama and will feature Merlin star Bradley James in the titular role, reported Deadline.

Produced by Fox TV Studios, the six-episode Damien follows the adult life of Damien Thorn, the mysterious child from the 1976 film who has grown up, seemingly unaware of the satanic forces around him.

GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR DIFF

Akshay Kumar’s Baby looks intense

“Kunal and Soha will keep it very simple. There will be just the immediate family and a few close friends present,” says a source.

A close friend of the couple laughs off the ‘simple wedding’ plans as wishful thinking. “How can a wedding in the Khan-Tagore parivar be simple? Even the Saif-Kareena wedding was meant to be attended by just a select few.

Soha and Kunal have planned an austere wedding but it will finally turn into a big fat wedding,” says the friend.

Here’s wishing the couple a lifetime of bliss!

— Subhash K Jha

COURTESY:/DILIP KUMAR/TWITTER

oha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemmu, who got engaged in July, have decided to take their relationship to the next S level. They will get married January 25.

Bollywood

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

A charity art auction hosted by the Samvedna Foundation — proceeds to go towards funding medical camps and medical aid — was attended by several stars. Clockwise from top, Parineeti Chopra, Karisma Kapoor, Huma Qureshi and Aditi Rao Hydari.

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

Rajat Sharma, center, celebrated 21 years of his popular television show, Aap Ki Adalat, at New Delhi's Pragati Maidan, December 2. Indian President Pranab Mukherejee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the occasion.

Above, Sharma also roped in the Khan superstars. He joined, from left, Salman, Aamir and Shah Rukh for the towel dance in the song Jeene Ke Hai Chaar Din from Salman’s film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi.

Left, Salman and SRK recereated their now famous patch-up pose.

ALL THAT GLITTERS

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

A PEEK INTO THE WEEK’S GLITZIEST TINSEL TOWN EVENTS

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Bollywood INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

Filmmakers Farah Khan and Punit Malhotra.

ALL THAT GLITTERS

PRADEEP BANDEKAR

Designer Manish Malhotra’s 48th birthday party December 5 was a star-studded affair.

Urmila Matondkar put in a rare appearance.

Shah Rukh Khan, right, anchored the Got Talent franchise’s first live show in Mumbai, December 8.

A PEEK INTO THE WEEK’S GLITZIEST TINSEL TOWN EVENTS

Gauri Khan, Shah Rukh Khan’s wife.

The event saw performances

by Varun Dhawan, above, and Priyanka Chopra, left.

Bollywood Apur Sansar

19 Satyakam

INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

An Evening In Paris

Kashmir Ki Kali

Aradhana

RAISING A TOAST

Anupama

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rom doe-eyed ingénue to bikiniclad stunner, from commercial superstar to censor board chief, Sharmila Tagore has worn many hats very memorably indeed.

The star turned 70 December 8.Happy birthday, Sharmilaji! Long may you continue to make us swoon. And may some filmmaker today find the courage to write you a part to rival these films, your very best. Presented here, then, in chronological order, the Sharmila Tagore top 10:

Apur Sansar (1959)

Tagore’s debut film happened to be a cinematic landmark, the actress making her bow during the final act of Satyajit Ray’s iconic Apu Trilogy.

Translated as The World Of Apu, Apur Sansar is heartbreaking and eventually bleak, with Soumitra Chatterjee’s Apu forced to marry Tagore’s Aparna. Between all the sadness, Sharmila incandescently lights up the screen, and their tender romance remains a part of movie lore.

Devi (1960)

While her debut might have been more Chatterjee’s film, Tagore’s next — also featuring the same leading man — was decidedly the author-backed central character.

A Ray satire on societal conventions and religious dogma, Devi sees Tagore hoisted onto a pedestal one day because her father-in-law dreams she is an avatar of the goddess Kali.

Supplicants begin to build, and Tagore is

Aranyer Din Ratri

As the actress turns 70, Raja Sen lists 10 of her finest performances

phenomenal in the part as she too begins to believe in her own divinity.

Kashmir Ki Kali (1964)

be on the train with her.

Uttam Kumar, as the star, is splendid but it is Tagore’s performance that gives the film its narrative heft and holds it together.

Anupama (1966)

Yet another Shakti Samanta film, An Evening In Paris saw Sharmila not just at her most varied — she starred in a double role as heiress and cabaret dancer — but also at her absolute sexiest, as she became the first mainstream Hindi film heroine to wear a bikini on screen.

She did so with marvelous nonchalance, and embraced the film’s commercial aspects very gamely indeed, making for a rollicking performance alongside longtime screen companion Shammi Kapoor.

Nayak (1966)

A profound moral and philosophical tale dealing with rationalism and, eventually, absolutism, this Hrishikesh Mukherjee drama saw the director and leading man Dharmendra arguably at their very peak.

Tagore herself has a conflicted, morally grey role, a demanding one that the actress handles beautifully.

It is a thoughtful performance in a thought-provoking film.

Tagore’s Bollywood innings began diametrically different from her intense work with Ray. Director Shakti Samanta decided to use the dazzling actress to enchant the audience.

It was a clever call because Tagore was rather atypical to the Hindi screen considering then-heroines like Sadhana, Saira Banu and Vyajantimala, and she forged immediate (and delightful) chemistry with her irrepressible leading man, Shammi Kapoor. The elfin and the impish made for quite a pair.

No other Hindi filmmaker quite tapped into Tagore’s talent like Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The master director first cast her in this unconventional drama about a deeply introverted girl.

Tagore, as the reticent Uma, delivers an evocative performance alongside leading man Dharmendra, who plays a writer and teacher, and Deven Varma, who left us so recently.

Satyajit Ray’s fantastically introspective look at the life of an actor and the very nature of celebrity was grounded and held in place by Sharmila Tagore playing a young journalist, determinedly hacking away at a superstar actor, who happens to

An Evening In Paris (1967)

Satyakam (1969)

Aradhana (1969)

Melodramas are rarely as unforgettable as this Shakti Samanta weepie featuring Rajesh Khanna in a double role.

Tagore’s is the miserable role, that of a briefly wooed, secretly-married wife who is widowed quickly and has to pretend to be her son’s nurse. It is a painful part, and Tagore is masterful on a near-operatic level as she nobly takes all the hurt in her stride.

Aranyer Din Ratri (1970)

In Satyajit Ray’s 1970 adaptation of Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel of the same name — translated to Days And Nights In The Forest — Tagore plays Aparna, a progressive and elegant woman out for a getaway in the forest.

She’s sophisticated, sharp and clever enough to not be taken in by casually charming men, who might not know what they want just yet. It’s a deliciously wellbalanced character, and nobody but Tagore could have played it as gracefully.

Mausam (1975)

Gulzar’s 1975 drama almost let Sharmila play out her Aradhana character in reverse, here starring in a double role as the mother who went insane and the daughter who doesn’t know her father’s identity.

This is an even more depressing set of characters, with Tagore first, as the mother, sliding into dementia and later, as the daughter, working in a brothel. It all sounds like high-melodrama, but Gulzar treats the subject with his trademark sensitivity, and gives Tagore all the room for a truly special performance.

Special

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

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to suit commercial tastes.

How many professional male ballet dancers do we have in India?

There are many who do a little bit of ballet and mix it with other dance forms. I don’t know of any other Indian who has pursued it as a profession and performed with companies like the Universal Ballet Company and the American Ballet Theatre.

How do you feel now that ballet is a major part of your life? Does it help you financially as well?

It has been a passion for me. I am blessed to be able to do something I love.

I feel content when I teach. One of my students, Prince Sharma, has gone to the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC on a 100 percent artistic scholarship. He is the first Indian student there. It is a matter of great pride for me and for our country.

In ballet, there’s the Italian style, the Russian and the French style.

Did you have a preference for and train in anything particular?

Personally, I like the Vaganova (Russian) style. This is the style in which I trained.

There are only minor differences between all of them... for example, head positions, port de bras (movement of arms from one position to another) and some feet movements. Otherwise, the essence of ballet is the same.

If you see shows and videos now, people stress a lot on flexibility, practicing the splits (where the legs are extended in opposite directions) and the over splits (like the split, but one leg is raised higher than the other) for the perfect Grand Jete (a jump in which the dancer starts on one foot and ends on the other).

When they do the Adagio (slow fluid movements), they mostly have their legs above 90º. They mostly do more than two pirouettes (a turn on one leg) and fouettes (turning on one leg on a flat foot as the other leg first extends out and then fold, so that the toes touch the knee. Lauren Gottlieb performed steps in the movie ABCD: Any Body Can Dance and as a contestant on Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa).

Did all that ever make you feel nervous when you started?

All the steps you I have mentioned actually challenged me instead of making me nervous. I wanted to perform all these like Mikhail Baryshnikov (the Russian dancer and actor, considered one of the greatest ballet dancers ever).

Maybe that is the reason I have been doing ballet for more than 11 years now.

As I have matured, I have realized ballet is not about how many pirouettes you can do; it is more about the artistry of the dance form. It’s about doing the movements with all your heart and feeling the music.

Do you have any tips for aspiring dancers?

My only advice to aspiring dancers is not to maintain an unhealthy competition with each other. We are all unique and special. We should not kill this aspect of our personality because we want to be like someone else or because we want to compete with someone else. Rather, we should enjoy the art and cherish the great experiences that life offers us.

‘GIRLS ARE CURIOUS ABOUT MY SEXUAL ORIENTATION’

Heard you started learning ballet at the age of 19!

It may sound clichéd, but I did not choose ballet. Ballet chose me.

Before the age of 19, I had never heard of ballet. Then, I got an opportunity to audition for a ballet class. I was fascinated by the turns and jumps and fell in love with the dance form. From then onwards, I have been pursuing it wholeheartedly.

It was difficult to start at the age of 19. I had to work hard to develop the required agility and the arched feet. I pushed my body to the limit.

Did your age ever bother you?

There were many times when I wondered why I did not start earlier, but everything worked out for the best.

Did you have any prior training in dance before taking up ballet?

No, I had absolutely no training in any dance form prior to my encounter with ballet.

How did your family/friends react?

My mother never stopped me; she always supported me.

My relatives could not understand ballet so they ridiculed and discouraged me.

How do girls react when they find out that you are a ballet dancer?

Some of them are curious about my sexual orientation.

Did you face any discrimination as a male dancer?

Yes, many times. People do not want to help a Western classical dance form; they’d rather support an Indian classical dance form.

What other difficulties did you face?

There were many challenges; the biggest was to carve a space for myself at the international level. Whenever I tried auditioning, I would be asked about my ballet background and the school I learnt from. As a result, I was rejected many times.

In 2012, South Korea’s Universal Ballet Company gave me the opportunity to audition as a professional ballet dancer. I was selected and became the first Indian to work with them.

Later, I got an opportunity to work with the American Ballet Theatre; it was another dream come true.

You have been teaching for 11 years now. In terms of students and shows, is ballet accepted in India? How many male students do you have?

Compared to a decade ago, there is more awareness now.

Dancers have recognized the benefits of ballet; it helps in all dance forms.

India's first male ballet dancer Sanjay Khatri tells Jahnavi Sheriff why he was felled by the dance form’s charms

We have around 20 male students in our young artiste program, which provides long-term professional ballet training.

What pieces and roles did you get to do? What has been your most memorable performance?

My most memorable performance was The Nutcracker with the Universal Ballet Company in December 2012. I have performed in Argentina, South Korea and London.

We have an upcoming show for the Central Contemporary Ballet in Delhi on March 8, 2015.

What were some of the funny situations you had to face?

And the most difficult?

Once, while performing, my leotard came off. It was pretty embarrassing for me and funny for the audience.

My most difficult moment was my audition for the Universal Ballet Company.

What can be done to remove the misconceptions about classical dance forms, especially where boys are concerned, in India?

We have to spread awareness that ballet is not just for girls and encourage youngsters to pursue it if it is their passion.

Has the popularity of dance reality shows helped you in any way?

People are more aware about ballet and other dance forms. I can now go anywhere in India and teach ballet.

Would you like to choreograph for films?

I would love to as long as I do not have to mold my art

COURTESY: SANJAY KHATRI

anjay Khatri was just 19 when he fell in love for the first time. His beloved was beautiful, graceful and elegant. Although dance has been part of India’s ancient tradition, ballet has not been able to draw many male dancers. Sanjay had to face many disappointments due to his ‘lack of background’ in ballet. But that did not deter him and he has been learning ballet for the last 11 years.

Today, the 30-year-old New Delhibased dancer also teaches ballet in the national capital and in Mumbai.

“We opened the Central Contemporary Ballet academy in 2010. I have been teaching since 2005,” he says.

Health

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

KEEP CALM

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verybody knows of tranquilizers today, since they seem to be more commonly used. One may even say they are casually used and often for things that may have to do with lifestyle triggers or nutrition deficiency.

Not many know that there are instances of over-prescription, litigation (where the patient has felt his/her doctor had overprescribed), side-effects of suicidal depression that suggests perhaps they may not be commonly used.

As nutritional medicine becomes more assertive, you can safely say that a lot of victims of anxiety and phobias can actually find relief by choosing the right foods or supplements.

These are safer options to long-term abuse (that often leads to addiction) of tranquilizers. Because prescription tranquilizers can make you unwilling to tackle a problem, create an ostrich syndrome (refuse to acknowledge a crisis), plus make you addicted to them, to the point you feel nervous without popping one and find that your dosage keeps increasing, instead of weaning you away from them.

You may be surprised how a lack in healthy eating habits may actually mess us up emotionally and trigger fears and anxieties that may destroy our daily lives.

Carrots

These humble vegetable, seen more as beauty or fitness food, is also said to be a powerful tranquilizer because it contains a natural pain-killer phenylalanine.

Lack of this hormone produced by our body is said to cause anxiety, depression and muscle or body aches.

Carrots also contain a high amount of the calming nutrient magnesium which is much needed by the nervous system. Lack of magnesium is said to be behind many

emotional woes — depression, confusion, panic attacks, cramps, muscular tension, premenstrual syndrome to name a few. It is also high in natural sedative like Vitamin B6.

Spinach

This leafy green vegetable must surely be one of the wonder super foods for all time. It contains a high dose of the natural stress-buster Vitamin C, needed to block dopamine in the brain.

High levels of dopamine can cause emotional upheavals.

Spinach is rich in a host of nutrients and minerals that are calm-inducing: zinc, vitamin C, a cluster of vitamin Bs, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, to name a few.

It is also rich in many other minerals that help the overall health of the body tissues, thus acting as a powerful ‘healing’ food, which may explain how it helps to counteract the fall-out of stress in our bodies and even prevent it.

It is also rich in the calming calcium, which helps clear the body of the anxiety-inducing blood lactates.

It also positively affects heart health by clearing the body of bad cholesterol.

Capsicum

This is another humble wonder food. It contains natural pain-killing agent like capsaicin. It has a bouquet of antioxidants that help prevent a build-up of free radicals. It is rich in vitamin C, a natural tranquilizer.

Barley

Intriguingly, the neglected barley is apparently a wonder food that helps keep us calm. This may explain why barley

KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS

Yogacharya Shameem Akthar offers five humble food items, more efficacious than the tranquilizer pills you take to fight anxiety

water is given to an irritable baby, to settle its stomach!

It is rich in the ‘happy’ vitamin Bs, the calming Vitamin C and a whole host of other nutrients, including manganese and magnesium needed for the health of the nervous system.

It also has the soothing selenium, an antioxidant. It helps ease the work of the heart by clearing the blood and body of the bad cholesterol.

Barley also manages the blood sugar so we do not suffer the emotional yo-yos which come when our blood sugar dips or spikes.

Avocado

Perhaps it is the most expensive in this list. But it is easily available. To enjoy its benefits you need just a sliver of it: it is better to eat less of it, since it is also high in calories.

Avocado is rich in fats that keep your nervous system happy. It helps manage nutrient absorption, so that other elements that are needed from your food, are absorbed easily, thus fast-forwarding the nervous system’s ability to maintain inner peace. But its most important impact on this comes from it facilitating the natural the feel good and calming serotonin levels in your brain and body.

Shameem Akthar is a yogacharya trained with the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. Catch Shameem’s yoga tips on http://jaisivananda.blogspot.com Disclaimer: This column shares the columnist’s passion for alternative therapies, which are ideally learned under the guidance of an expert

The Week That Was

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Twitter suspends 26/11 mastermind’s account

Indian soldiers search for suspected terrorists as smoke rises from a bunker after a gun battle at Mohra, in Uri, December 5.

Taking action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks mastermind Muhammad Saeed, the micro-bogging site Twitter December 8 suspended his account. Saeed had asked Pakistanis to help Kashmiris get ‘freedom’ from India. Saeed’s Twitter account @HafizSaeedJUD now reads ‘account suspended.’

The site can suspend user accounts for violation of rules which include impersonation, copyright infringement, violence and threats.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis December 6 allocated portfolios to the 20-member council of ministers, including 10 of the Shiv Sena. The Sena did not get any crucial portfolios like home, revenue and water resources.

Fadnavis had earlier said he had urged the Sena to join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government as it was the people’s mandate.

Hydro projects affect Uttarakhand floods Hydropower projects had ‘direct and indirect impact in the aggravation of floods’ that hit Uttarakhand in 2013, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless, the government admitted December 9 for the very first time. The projects caused, the government said, ‘irreversible damage’ to the environment and enhanced landslides and other disasters.

NIA arrests another accused in Burdwan blast case The National Investigation Agency arrested Shahnoor Alam, a key suspect in the October 2 Burdwan blast, from Assam’s Nalbari district, December 5.

Alam is alleged to be the financial brain of the Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terror group. The NIA had arrested his wife last month but Alam escaped.

Northeasterners feel Delhi is the most unsafe city for them Seventy-four percent of people from the Northeast residing in Delhi and the National Capital Region feel Delhi is the most unsafe place in terms of ethnic discrimination, says a survey conducted by the ReachOut Foundation with the help of Policy Research.

Of the total 1,000 respondents, 54 percent felt that discrimination is a

DANISH ISMAIL/REUTERS

Fadnavis inducts 10 Shiv Sena ministers, BJP retains key portfolios

Terror hits Kashmir: Four attacks in a day In four separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir December 5, terrorists stormed an Indian Army camp in Uri in Baramulla disctrict, attacked a police station in Shopian, hurled a grenade at a bus stop in Pulwama, and opened fire on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Eleven troopers, including a lieutenant colonel, died in the camp in Uri 12.4 miles from the Line of Control, as did the six suicide attackers. The army later said it had enough evidence to show that the terrorists belonged to LeT and were highly trained for special operations.

In Shopian, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist was killed. Seven civilians were injured in the grenade attack in Pulwama, and in Srinagar one of the terrorists was killed while his accomplice managed to flee.

Amid tight security the valley December 9 went to vote in the third phase of polling in 16 seats spread across Budgam, Pulwama and Baramulla districts.

Sushma Swaraj wants Gita declared as national Modi win Time readers’ poll scripture for ‘Person of the Year’ India’s External Affair Minister Sushma reality in Delhi.

Securing more than 16 percent of the almost 5 million votes cast in an online poll conducted by Time magazine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was named the readers’ ‘Person of the Year.’

Modi could not make it to the final eight selected by the publication for the annual title.

Meanwhile, for being focused on India’s development and getting the world excited about the prospects of the country again, Singapore Press Holdings Limited named Narendra Modi as Asian of the Year. ‘Despite being relatively new to the job, he has already made a mark on Asia, reaching out to neighbors and receiving national leaders,’ the group said.

Swaraj December 7 kicked up a storm by pressing for the Center to declare the Bhagwad Gita a ‘Rashtriya Granth’ (national scripture).

Speaking at the Gita Prerna Diwas, organized to celebrate 5,151 years of the book at Red Fort, New Delhi, she claimed that only a formality remained to be done in this regard.

India sets new world record for largest human flag India December 7 set a new world record for the largest human flag, formed by 50,000 volunteers. The event was organized at the YMCA grounds in Chennai

under My Flag My India campaign.

The previous world record was held by the Sports Club of Lahore in Pakistan with 28,957 people forming the flag.

Chhattisgarh: 13 infants died in a week With their families alleging mismanagement and medical negligence, 13 infants, most of them reportedly born premature, died at the state-run Chhatisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences in Bilaspur district.

The infants died, the doctors said, due to various reasons and most of them were born premature as well as underweight.

Twelve more infants were reported to be in critical condition and were undergoing treatment.

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The Week That Was

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INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Punjab: People lose sight after cataract surgery Many people — figures varied from 14 to 60 — lost their eyesight after they underwent cataract surgery at an eye camp organized in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, December 5.

BJP gains in polls after riots: Yale study The Bharatiya Janata Party saw a 0.8 percentage point increase in its vote share following every riot in the year prior to an election, says a recent study conducted by three political scientists at Yale University.

In their paper, titled ‘Do parties matter for ethnic violence? Evidence from India’, the researchers said there could have been 10 percent more communal riots in the country had the Congress party lost all close elections in India between 1962 and 2000.

Anil Sinha, new CBI director Anil Kumar Sinha December 3 took charge as director, Central Bureau of Investigation. Sinha, a senior Bihar cadre Indian Police Service officer, succeeds the controversial Ranjit Sinha who the Supreme Court directed off the 2G spectrum allocation scam case probe.

Bengaluru: Another girl raped in school A 3-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted twice in a private school in Bengaluru. A school attendant was arrested after the girl’s mother registered a police complaint November 29. This is the fifth such incident in the city in the last couple of months.

Meanwhile, A six-month-old girl was allegedly raped

by Bhavanji Thakor, a man known to her family, in Gujarat’s Patan district December 3. The victim was reported to be in critical condition.

ANINDITO MUKHERJEE/REUTERS

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Members of the All India Mahila Congress, the women’s wing of the Congress party, during a protest against the Uber cab rape incident, December 8.

Activists ask government not to erode rural employment scheme More than 15,000 people marched in New Delhi December 2, protesting against the government’s proposed changes in the Land Acquisition Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The rally, headlined ‘Abki Baar, Hamara Adhikar,’ was led by social activists Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar and Nikhil Dey, who accused the government of pushing a ‘clear pro-corporate agenda.’

Ensure black money probe

by March: Supreme Court The Supreme Court December 3 asked the Center to complete the prosecution of

Uber cab driver rapes woman in Delhi, arrested A radio cab driver, who allegedly raped a 27-year-old woman in north Delhi’s Sarai Rohilla area December 5, was arrested two days later from Mathura and sent to police custody for three days. The Uber cabbie, identified as Shiv Kumar Yadav, was planning to flee to Nepal, the police said.

The Delhi government banned the operations of the San Francisco-based taxi company after the incident. A case of cheating was also registered against Uber.

the 627 Indians account holders in Geneva’s HSBC bank under the Income Tax Act by March 31, 2015.

Astrology top science, ancient India conducted nuclear test: Lawmaker

When in Jammu & Kashmir

Astrology is ‘the number one science for the entire world,’ and the sage Kanad conducted a nuclear test around the 2nd century BC, claimed Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the Lok Sabha, December 3.

He also declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s was right that Lord Ganesha’s elephant head was the result of plastic surgery.

DANISH ISMAIL/REUTERS

Salman Khan was drunk, testifies blood analyst

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he addressed an election rally in Srinagar, December 8. ‘The people of Kashmir have given me a lot of trust and love. I will repay this love and trust with interest in the form of development. I can die for this love and trust showered on me,’ he said.

The alcohol level in Bollywood star Salman Khan’s blood sample was much higher than the permissible limit, chemical analyst Bal Shankar last week told a Mumbai court hearing the case of the actor’s alleged hit-and-run incident of 2002 in which one person died and four were wounded.

Country-wide alert as SIMI men may be planning terror strike Five members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, who had fled a

Madhya Pradesh prison in September 2013, are planning to carry out terror attacks, the Intelligence Bureau warned December 8.

Meanwhile, Citing reports of an attempt by terrorists to hijack a Pakistani navy frigate, PNS Zulfiqar, in Karachi in September, Indian Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan December 3 said Pakistani ships in the high seas could pose a jihadi threat.

The threat of maritime terrorism, he said, was increasing and the force was prepared for it. Dhowan also said mishandling of weapons led to the explosion on the INS Sindhurakshak submarine last year.

Uproar in Parliament over minister’s communal remark A united Opposition took the government to task and Parliament nearly came to a standstill last week after Niranjan Jyoti, a minister of state in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, declared that the people of Delhi have to choose between a government of Ramzaadon (followers of Ram) and haraamzaadon (bastards). She later apologized, but it was deemed less than heartfelt.

Modi told the Rajya Sabha December 4 he ‘strongly disapproved’ of Jyoti’s comments, asked members to accept her apology, and let the House function. He also urged lawmakers to see her remarks in light of Jyoti’s rural background, a statement that drew more flak.

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Sports INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

India stage late fight back after Warner’s century on Day 1

The players and spectators stand for 63 seconds of applause in memory of Phillip Hughes during day one of the first Test between Australia and India at Adelaide Oval, December 9.

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he Supreme Court December 8 observed it is very difficult to accept Narayanaswami Srinivasan’s plea that there is no conflict of interest arising out of owning the Indian Premier League team the Chennai Super Kings and heading the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Conflict of interest is equal to bias and even though actual bias may not be in the case, even likelihood of bias is important, said the bench headed by Justice T S Thakur.

The judges said purity of cricket has to be maintained and all persons at the helm of its affairs should be above suspicion.

‘Taking all circumstances in account, it is very difficult to accept your contention that there is no conflict of interest,’ the bench, also comprising Justice F M I Kalifulla, told Srinivasan’s lawyer, Kapil Sibal.

‘You being the managing director of India Cements, India Cements owning CSK, an official of CSK involved in betting and you heading the BCCI.’ Conflict of interest, said Sibal, is prevalent in every sphere of activities and noted that the Hockey Federation and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association allow it.

SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES

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lasting a quick fire century, opening batsman David Warner drove Australia to 354-6 at stumps on day one of the first Test against India, December 9. The Aussies’ joy was tempered with another injury to captain Michael Clarke.

After solemn tributes to Phillip Hughes, Warner fired up an emotional Adelaide Oval crowd. Winning the toss, Clarke decided to bat first. Though India’s pacers took two early wickets, Warner put Australia in a solid position to exploit the flat pitch in the afternoon. His 145 from 136 balls got the hosts off to a flying start. India captured a flurry of late wickets but it couldn’t stop Steven Smith to add an unbeaten 72 to the first day’s total.

Warner’s opening partner Chris Rogers drove recklessly at an Ishant Sharma delivery, edging to Shikhar Dhawan at second slip. He was out for nine.

Batting at three, Shane Watson added 14 runs before edging Varun Aaron to the same fielder.

Virat Kohli endured a tough debut in charge of the Test team, losing the all-important toss and watching his bowlers toil for much of the day on a flat wicket.

Clarke retired hurt on 60 with a lower back injury after he twisted to avoid a short ball from Ishant Sharma.

Debutant leg spinner Karn Sharma took Warner’s wicket while Smith and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh added another 87 runs before the latter was caught in the slips off Varun Aaron.

The opening match of the four Test series, which was originally scheduled in Brisbane, was delayed and switched to Adelaide to give players time to mourn batsman Hughes.

The number 408 was painted on the turf in front of the Sir Donald Bradman Pavilion, recognizing Hughes as the 408th player to represent Australia in a Test match.

Both teams wore black armbands and Hughes was named the honorary ‘13th man’ in Australia’s MICHAEL DODGE/GETTY IMAGES squad.

Ishant Sharma celebrates his dismissal of Chris Rogers.

David Warner celebrates his century.

Difficult to accept there is no conflict of interest: Supreme Court to Srinivasan

The bench proposed that any action on the basis of the Justice Mukul Mudgal report should be taken by the board, which will be constituted after the election.

But it asked which people should be allowed to fight the BCCI’s elections.

‘The BCCI must be free from any blemish if we allow it to decide,’ it said, adding, ‘who should be allowed to contest? Can a person indicted by the (Mudgal) committee be allowed to contest the elections?’

In order to decide the action to be taken on the basis of findings of the Mudgal report, the bench said, the cricket administrator ‘should be above board and above all the allegations.’

‘We are not saying that there is a fraud in getting franchise but once you become a team owner, your interest in team and as a cricket administrator pull you in opposite directions,’ the bench told Srinivasan. ‘You are a contractor

SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES

(being CSK owner) and also head of a contracting party (BCCI),’ it said.

The bench said the issue has to be seen from the perspective of people for whom cricket is a passion and a religion.

A day later, the court asked the BCCI to take punitive action against former CSK official and Srinivasan’s son-inlaw Gurunath Meiyappan who was indicted of betting during the IPL in 2013.

The court was clear that it did not want to short-circuit the BCCI’s working machinery and offered four options to the BCCI: Srinivasan steps aside and a BCCI committee takes a decision on Meiyappan; two independent judges are appointed to look into the punishment for him; the IPL governing council decides on punishment for him; and the Mudgal committee decides what punishment to hand out to Meiyappan.

25

Sports INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

Yuvraj, Sehwag, Bhajji left out of World Cup probables I

ndia’s selection committee went on expected lines, leaving out former champions while giving the nod to top performers in domestic circuit in the 30-man probables’ list for the 2015 World Cup released December 4.

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra who were all part of India’s World Cup in triumph in 2011, were omitted, while consistent performers in domestic cricket, like Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson, Parvez Rasool, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey, were rewarded with a place in the shortlist.

The International Cricket Council rules stipulate that the list must be pruned to 15 on or before January 7, 2015.

Only four players from the previous World Cup got the nod; they include captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Mohit Sharma, one of the nine fast bowlers in the list, is eying another successful Ranji Trophy season to make it to the final squad in a highly competitive environment. ‘It obviously feels good to be amongst the probables,’ Sharma told Press Trust of India. ‘I have been working hard on my fitness after I got injured. The competition (for making the final 15 for World Cup) is surely tough but selection anyway is not in my hands.

What I can and want to do is give my best in the Ranji Trophy.’

HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES Robin Uthappa is also hopeful of making it into the final list. ‘I have done well in last two seasons,’ Team India at McLean Park in Napier, New Zealand, earlier this year. he said. ‘I am the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy as well as the Indian Premiere League. Extremely confisaid, ‘Yes, the World Cup probables was there at the back of my mind.’ dent of my ability as far as ODI is concerned. So, I am definitely He added, ‘But if you let those things affect you, then you can’t looking forward for an opportunity.’

Talking about making it to the 30-member list, Manoj Tiwary focus on the job. My job is to score runs. I just want to do that.’

Probables list: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, Ravichandran Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav, Murali Vijay.

‘India may field World Cup team in tri-series’

CHANDRESH NARAYANAN

I

ndia’s hopes of defending the title at the World Cup has received various voices of support from former Australia captain Ian Chappell, Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

While Tendulkar and Sehwag have hope in India’s balanced squad, Chappell believes the seamers will bring glory or make the side perish in the showpiece event.

India’s skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes he has found 12 of the 15 players who will play under him in the tournament, from February 14 to March 29, 2015.

The squad of 30 is meant to be announced for purely administrative purposes, with players outside the shortlist also having an opportunity to make the cut for the mega event.

By the time the tri-series in Australia, India’s final ODI

engagement before the World Cup, gets underway on January 16, the final squad of 15 would have been chosen, as the deadline for that announcement is January 7.

It is possible that the World Cup squad will play the triseries, also featuring England.

India will go in with just four players from its 2011 squad, becoming the defending champions to go into a World Cup with the least number of survivors from the previous tournament.

In 1987, India went in with six players from its 1983 World Cup-winning team: Captain Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Roger Binny and Sunil Gavaskar.

1996 champions Sri Lanka entered the 1999 World Cup with the most number of survivors: 11. Sri Lanka got knocked out in the league stages and skipper Arjuna Ranatunga lost his job.

Before Sri Lanka, the West Indies, in 1983, went in with 10 survivors from its 1979 World Cup champion team, including skipper Clive Lloyd.

At home in 1992, Australia went in with nine players from its 1987 World Cup-winning squad. During its title defenses in 2003, 2007 and 2011, Australia had seven surviving members from each of the previous editions.

Pakistan, in 1996, also had nine members from the champion 1992 squad, of course, minus iconic captain, Imran Khan, who had retired.

The number of survivors can be looked at in two ways: Either as a sign of stability, or as an aging squad that will soon be replaced by a new order.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, on its part, had advanced the dates of the domestic one-day tournaments to enable the selectors choose the best possible team.

26

Sports

ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS

INDIA IN NEW YORK DECEMBER 12, 2014

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 schedule T

he ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be staged in Australia and New Zealand from February 14 to March 29.

India will begin its title defense against traditional rivals Pakistan in a high-voltage clash in Adelaide, February 15.

India, who won the 2011 event when

it defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final in Mumbai, will complete its group fixtures against Zimbabwe at Eden Park, Auckland, March 14.

In the group, India will also play South Africa (in Melbourne, February 22), UAE (in Perth, February 28), West Indies (in Perth, March 6) and Ireland (in Hamilton, March 10).

27

India in New York December 12, 2014

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Om Sham Sanaischaraya Namaha:

Sri Saneeswara Temple of New York 95-30 225th Street Queens Village NY 11429 Ph: 718 740 9400 Email: temple.navagraha@gmail.com Every SATURDAY: 8.00 am Sri Saneeswara Japam, Homam, Poornahuti & Arti 10.00 am Sri Saneeswara Abhisheka Aaradhana & Aarthi 11.00 am onwards: Sri Saneeswara Parikara Pooja

Shri Saneeswara Temple NY, the only temple in the world outside India dedicated to Lord Saneeswara is performing special Pooja & Homas for Shani peyarchi (Lord Saturn’s transition of the Planetary Position)

2014 Shani Peyarchi (Lord Saturn’s Transition) Tuesday, Dec 16th 2014 According to Vakya Panchangam, on this date the Saturn transit from Thula to Vrishchika rasi Shani Graha or Saturn planet plays a key role in reflecting the personality of a person. It signifies the mental and emotional abilities to live a happy life. The transition of Saturn planet from one rashi to other may lead to several complications that cannot be resolved quickly. The shani graha shanthi homam at the time of transition provides methods for those who want to recover from the so called malefic effects of Saturn by addressing exact needs.

Shani Peyarchi Puja/Homam (Havan) & Abhishekam to Shaneeswara will be held at Sri Shaneeswara Temple NY, on November 2, 2014, and December 16, 2014 The Saneeswara Parihara Shanti would be held from 09 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Both Days, We requested you to participate in the Puja/homam & Abhishekam , to receive the blessings Saneeswara Graha. Participating in this event will result in improving your financial status, concentration, memory power and obtain peace in family The Sani Peyarchi yagnam would be particularly required for those in the rashis (Moon Signs) Mesham (Aries), Simham (Leo), Thulam(Libra), Vrichikam (Scorpio), and Dhanu (Sagittarius), and for those undergoing Sani dasha and Sani bukthi.

You can participate in the yagam or you can sponsor the event and give your family details we will do the Puja, Havan & Abhishekam behalf of you and send you the Prasadam,

Program Details: 09:00am - Ganapathi Puja,Punyahavachanam,Sankalpam,Kalasha Sthapanam & Upachara Puja 10:00am - Navagraha & Shri Saneeshwara Gayatri & Moola Mantra Japam & Homam 12:00 noon - Poornahuthi, Uthara Puja,Kalasha Yatra & Saneeshwara Mula Murthi Abhishekam 01:00pm - Vishesha Puja, Archana & Arati followed by Prasadam

Shri Saneeswara Parihara Shanthi Homam: $201.00 • Shri Saneeswara Abhishekam: $101.00 Shri Shani Preethi Pooja: $75.00 • Shri Shani Preeti Archana: $25.00

All Pooja and Havans are conducted by Shri Bhramashri Kasiram Ramakrishna Deekshithar Ji / Shri Balasubramaniam Iyer Ji For all sponsorship, consultation & Donations - Pl contact Temple office: 718 740 9400 Please make all checks & Donations payable to Shri Navagraha Devasthanam of North America, Inc. All Donations are Tax Deductible.