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Business IndoAmerican News

STOCKS • FINANCE • SOUTH ASIAN MARKETS • TECHNOLOGY

India Unveils Prototype of $35 Tablet Computer

By Erika Kinetz MUMBAI (Washington Post): It looks like an iPad, only it’s 1/14th the cost: India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011.

If the government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating systembased computer would be the latest in a string of “world’s cheapest” innovations to hit the market out of India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee ($2,127) compact Nano car, the 749 rupees ($16) water purifier and the $2,000 open-heart surgery.

The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, web browsing and video-conferencing. It has a solar power option too - important for India’s energy-starved hinterlands though that add-on costs extra.

“This is our answer to MIT’s $100 computer,” human resource development minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times when he unveiled

the device Thursday.

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab unveiled a prototype of a $100 laptop for children in the developing world.

India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.

Negroponte’s laptop ended up costing about $200, but in May his nonprofit association, One Laptop Per Child, said it plans to launch a basic tablet computer for $99.

Sibal turned to students and professors at India’s elite technical universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a “lukewarm” response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 eventually.

Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and intelligent design make the price tag plausible. The tablet doesn’t have a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone.

The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source software also adds to savings, she said.

Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalized. She declined to name any of the companies.

India plans to subsidize the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $20.

“Depending on the quality of material they are using, certainly it’s plausible,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research.

“The question is, is it good enough for students?”

Profitability is also a question for the $35 machine.

Epps said government subsidies or dual marketing - where higher-priced sales in the developed world are used to subside low-cost sales in markets continued on page

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India’s Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal displays a low-cost tablet. The device looks like an iPad and is 1/14th the cost. The basic touch screen tablet is aimed at students, which India hopes to bring into production by 2011.

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

in d ia

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Kashmir Saffron Yields Hit By Drought, Smuggling and Trafficking by Traders SRINAGAR (The Guardian): For the moment the fields are bare, marked only by the occasional dry bulb lying on the pale earth. Within a few weeks the shoots will come and finally the flowers and the finest saffron in the world.

Yet after years of declining yields, the farmers of Pampore in the fertile valley of Kashmir fear that this year too will bring problems.

“Demand is rising everywhere so prices are rising. But the trafficking and smuggling is causing us huge problems,” said Mukhtiar Ahmed, 33.

The industry in Kashmir, where saffron has been grown for thousands of years, is in deep trouble. The once regular seasons that brought the wet springs and dry summers that ensure good crops have given way to unpredictable bouts of drought. Cheap imports from Iran and Spain are flooding the global market.

In recent months, however, there have been a series of high-profile seizures and arrests that have highlighted another growing problem: the illegal import of saffron made overseas.

The Pioneer newspaper reported recently that customs officers in India are uncovering every day up to three cases of saffron which were smuggled, mainly from Iran where the spice costs half the £2,000 a kilo it can fetch in India.

To avoid high import duties, criminals gangs based in the gulf are running mules to carry parcels of the spice in their luggage on international flights, the newspaper said, quoting customs spokesmen.

GM Pampori, the president of the Kashmiri saffron farmers and growers association, said that about 100kg each month was entering India illegally.

“I have tried to raise this problem with the government in Delhi but

India Unveils Prototype of $35 Tablet Computer continued from page

GM Pampori, president of the Kashmiri saffron farmers and growers association, said illegal traders were harming the industry. Photograph: Jason Burke without any success,” said Pampori.

“We have also had three cases of people faking saffron in Kashmir this year.” For many years there have been problems in India with unscrupulous dealers mixing grades of saffron or saffron from different countries. There is little regulation of the trade.

Ghulam Reshand Ghani, a dealer in Pampore who served a six-month jail sentence for trafficking fake highquality saffron, said he was framed by ignorant policemen. Local police officers insist however they got the right man. Sitting on the floor of his home surrounded by sacks of aromatic spice in the heart of the once celebrated saffron fields, Ghani admitted however that “when people are under financial pressure sometimes they do bad things”.

“Anyway there is almost no difference between Kashmiri saffron

and imported saffron,” he said. The industry in Kashmir is said to employ 120,000 people in 226 villages.

But there has been no investment for years and knowledge of modern farming techniques, let alone distribution or marketing, is low.

“In Iran they have the latest technology and can get four kilogrammes of saffron from one hectare. In Kashmir we get one kilo if we are lucky. As for Spanish or Italian saffron, it is just a different world,” said Pampori.

The growing international demand for the spice has pushed prices to record levels. Little of the cash generated has reached places like Pampore and the younger generation are turning away from the profession.

“None of our sons want to be saffron farmers,” said farmer Mukhtiar Ahmed. “They want to be doctors and engineers. It’s a shame but I cannot really blame them.”

Google on Wheels

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like India - could convince a manufacturer to come on board.

This and similar efforts - like the Kakai Kno and the Entourage Edge tablets - show that there is global demand for an affordable device to trim high textbook costs, she said.

If it works, Epps predicts the device could send a shiver of cost-consciousness through the industry.

“It puts pressure on all device manufacturers to keep costs down and innovate,” she said.

The project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative by the Indian government, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India’s 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online.

So far nearly 8,500 colleges have been connected and nearly 500 web and video-based courses have been uploaded on YouTube and other portals, the Ministry said.

(Mumbai Mirror)Google’s Internet bus, meant to make people aware of the usgae and benefits of the internet, arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. The bus has been to tier II and III cities of South India, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana before entering Gujarat. The project is an attempt to highlight the necessity and importance of Internet which is a strong medium of knowledge. The bus would showcase content in English and Gujarati, too, to make people aware of the usage and benefits of the Internet, said Google India Product Manager Jagjit Chawla

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BUSINESS

‘Flaws in Selection of Rupee Symbol’

By Mayank Aggarwal NEW DELHI (DNA): Days after its selection by the finance ministry, the symbol of the rupee has got embroiled in a controversy. Two of the unsuccessful candidates have claimed that the selection process to choose the new rupee symbol is full of discrepancies and is flawed. The duo — Anil Khatri and R K Singh — have used RTI replies given by the finance ministry to assert their claim. Designs of both were short-listed, but they didn’t make it to the last five.

Replying to a RTI application, the Union finance ministry told them that a total of 3,331 designs were finally put up for selection of which five designs were short-listed. The process that had started in February last year culminated after the Union Cabinet selected the entry by D Udaya Kumar.

The five designs were selected by a seven-member special jury, comprising representatives of the Union government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and prominent art institutes like the National Institute of Design and the JJ Institute of Applied Art. The designs were chosen in three meetings — September 29-30 and November 16 last year — in a span of 17 hours. Going by calculations, on average the jury spent 18.37s on every design, Singh said.

“The RTI reply also revealed that during the selection process jury members were not provided with brief explanations of design. The jury

Students make a formation of the new symbol of the Indian rupee at a school in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

was just handed over the 3,331 designs and of those they selected five.

It is disturbing that jury just went by design and not the explanation behind it,” Singh claimed.

“While selecting (the symbol), the jury did not give any grades or marks.

The grading or marks were only done when the five candidates made a final presentation before jury on Dec 15,

2009,” Singh told DNA. The ministry admitted that they did not upload the Hindi version of the guidelines on the Internet, which Singh said was a violation of Rajbhasha Act. As per the guidelines, the symbol should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.

The reply further revealed that among the seven-member jury, Dr T Kumar, who was representing cultural ministry was not present in any of the three meetings.

“She was appointed by the finance ministry but the ministry does not have any record of the reasons of her absence,” Khatri said.

In the meetings of September 2930, yet again three jury members including T Kumar were absent.

“As per the guidelines, the symbol has to be in the Indian national language script or a visual representation. But Kumar’s design is a combination of Devnagari and Roman script which is also a violation of the guidelines,” Khatri said.

Khatri also claimed that as per guidelines, a participant could have sent a maximum of two entries while Kumar had sent four designs which was a clear violation. “The ministry confirmed that they received four designs from Kumar but they considered the first two designs as the entry. When asked about which two came to finance ministry first, the ministry was not able to produce any document supporting that claim,” Khatri said.

Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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Gold and Beautiful

By Sudhir Suryavanshi MUMBAI(Mumbai Mirror: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the country’s richest municipal body and now it’s got a crown befitting that status.

The main dome of BMC’s headquarters at Fort in South Mumbai has a got a coat of gold. The gilding work, a part of a massive project to restore the colonial structure to its original glory, ended late on Monday evening.

The staircase dome, as it is called, is now ready to glint in Tuesday’s first light.

Heritage architect Abha Narayan Lambha said her team had found specs of gold on the dome during the restoration work. Research later revealed the dome was gilded when the building was constructed in 1893.

“In 2002 too, when the civic body’s corporation hall caught fire, experts had spotted traces of gold,” said Lambha.

Gold of 23.5 carat purity has been used to cover the dome this time round. Every square metre of it is now covered with 10 gm of the precious metal.

The gilding was carried out by ‘swarnkars’ (goldsmiths) from the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. “We had learnt about these artists from their work at the convocation hall of the Mumbai University and also at some Oberoi hotels in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh,” another expert said.

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Water Dispute Increases India-Pakistan Tension

By Lydia Polgreen & Sabrina Tavernise BANDIPORE, Kashmir (NYT) : In this high Himalayan valley on the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, the latest battle line between India and Pakistan has been drawn.

This time it is not the ground underfoot, which has been disputed since the bloody partition of British India in 1947, but the water hurtling from mountain glaciers to parched farmers’ fields in Pakistan’s agricultural heartland.

Indian workers here are racing to build an expensive hydroelectric dam in a remote valley near here, one of several India plans to build over the next decade to feed its rapidly growing but power-starved economy.

In Pakistan, the project raises fears that India, its archrival and the upriver nation, would have the power to manipulate the water flowing to its agriculture industry — a quarter of its economy and employer of half its population. In May it filed a case with the international arbitration court to stop it.

Water has become a growing source of tension in many parts of the world between nations striving for growth.

Several African countries are arguing over water rights to the Nile. Israel and Jordan have competing claims to the Jordan River. Across the Himalayas, China’s own dam projects have piqued India, a rival for regional, and even global, power.

But the fight here is adding a new layer of volatility at a critical moment to one of the most fraught relationships anywhere, one between deeply distrustful, nuclear-armed nations who have already fought three wars.

The dispute threatens to upset delicate negotiations to renew peace talks, on hold since Pakistani militants killed at least 163 people in attacks in Mumbai, India, in November 2008. The United States has been particularly keen to ease tensions so that Pakistan can divert troops and matériel from its border with India to its frontier with Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents.

Anti-India nationalists and militant networks in Pakistan, already dangerously potent, have seized on the issue as a new source of rage to perpetuate 60 years of antagonism.

Jamaat-u-Dawa, the charity wing

The treaty, the result of a decade of painstaking negotiation that ended in 1960, gave Pakistan 80 percent of the waters in the Indus River system, a ratio that nationalists in Pakistan often forget.

India, the upriver nation, is permitted to use some of the water for farming, drinking and power generation, as long as it does not store too much.

WhiletheKishenganga dam is allowed under the treaty, the dispute is over how it should be built The Kishenganga dam project in Kashmir is a crucial part of India’s plans and the timely release of to feed its rapidly growing but power-starved economy. water. Pakistan contends that having the drainage at the very base of the dam will allow India to manipulate the water flow when it wants, for example, during a crucial period of a planting season.

It makes Pakistan very vulnerable,” said a lawyer who has worked on past water cases for Pakistan. “You can’t just tell us, ‘Hey, you should trust us.’ We don’t. That’s why we have a treaty.”

India has rejected any suggestion that it has violated the treaty or tried to steal water. In a speech on June 13, India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, called such allegations “breastbeating propaganda,” adding “the myth of water theft does not stand the The Kishenganga dam in Bandipore is allowed under a treaty. test of rational scrutiny or reason.” of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant larger, stronger neighbor.

Water experts concur, but say PakiFor India, the hydroprojects are vi- stan does have a legitimate cause for group behind the Mumbai attacks, has retooled its public relations effort tal to harnessing Himalayan water to concern. The real issue is timing. around the water dispute, where it fill in the serious energy shortfalls that If India chooses to fill its dams at a was once focused almost entirely on crimp its economy. About 40 percent crucial time for Pakistan, it has the land claims to Kashmir. Hafiz Saeed, of India’s population is off the power potential to ruin a crop. Mr. Briscoe Jamaat’s leader, now uses the dispute grid, and lack of electricity has ham- estimates that if India builds all its in his Friday sermons to whip up fresh pered industry. The Kishenganga planned projects, it could have the caproject is a crucial part of India’s plans pacity of holding up about a month’s hatreds.

With their populations rapidly ex- to close that gap. worth of river flow during Pakistan’s The Indian project has been on critical dry season, enough to wreck panding, water is critical to both nations. Pakistan contains the world’s the drawing board for decades, and an entire planting season. largest contiguous irrigation system, it falls under a 50-year-old treaty Here in Bandipore, where engiwater experts say. It has also become that divides the Indus River and its neers and laborers work long shifts an increasingly fertile recruiting tributaries between both countries. to build the powerhouse and tunnel ground for militant groups, who play “The treaty worked well in the past, for the long-awaited dam, the work on a lack of opportunity and abun- mostly because the Indians weren’t is not merely a matter of electricity. dant anti-India sentiment. The rivers building anything,” said John Bris- National pride is at stake, they said. that traverse Punjab, Pakistan’s most coe, an expert on South Asia’s water “This dam is a matter of our napopulous province and the heart of its issues at Harvard University. “This tional prestige,” one of the engineers agriculture industry, are the country’s is a completely different ballgame. on the project said. “It is our right lifeline, and the dispute over their use Now there’s a whole battery of these to build this dam, and our future goes to the heart of its fears about its hydroprojects.” depends on it.”

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Pakistanis say they have reason to be worried. In 1948, a year after Pakistan and India were established as states, an administrator in India shut off the water supply to a number of canals in Pakistani Punjab. Indian authorities later said it was a bureaucratic mix-up, but in Pakistan, the memory lingers.

“Once you’ve had a gun put to your head and it’s been cocked, you don’t forget it,” said the Pakistani lawyer, who asked that his name not be used because he was not part of the current legal team.

A genuine water shortage in Pakistan, and the country’s inability to store large quantities of water, has only made matters worse, exposing it to any small variation in rainfall or river flow. Pakistan is about to slip into a category of country the United Nations defines as “water scarce.”

“They are confronting a very serious water issue,” said a senior American official in Islamabad. “There’s a high amount of anxiety, and it’s not misplaced.”

The design of the dam requires that much of the water in the Kishenganga River be diverted for much of the year. That will kill off fish and harm the livelihoods of the people living in the Pakistan-administered side of Kashmir, Pakistani officials say.

Kaiser Bengali, an economist, argues that Pakistan’s water crisis has little to do with India, and says that the real way to ease it is to introduce water conservation methods and modern farming techniques. In a country where summer temperatures reach 120 degrees, as much as 40 percent of Pakistan’s water is lost before even reaching the roots of the plants, experts say.

The water dispute would not be nearly as acute, experts said, if India and Pakistan talked and shared data on water. Instead, the distrust and antagonism is such that bureaucrats have hoarded information, and are secretly gunning to finish projects on either side of the line of control in order to be the first to have an established fact on the ground.

“It’s like a bad marriage in which we have proscribed roles,” the Pakistani lawyer said. “Would it be better if we were communicating openly?

Yes. But in the present circumstances we are not.”

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

INDIA

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Fashion for Buntys and Bubblies via Stores, Online Shopping

By Aprita Basu

AGRA (Outlook): In Agra’s chaotic Raja Mandi market, Jaideep Khandelwal looks both at home and curiously out of place. At home, because this city is where the 42year-old businessman dealing in texturised yarn has lived all his life, and yet, sporting his Armani jeans, Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt and his prized online acquisition, a Dolce & Gabbana watch, he stands out from the crowd. So does Kim Manchong, as she boards the bus to her ngo office in Guwahati every morning, with her designer handbag slung on her shoulder. Her Rocky S. bag, which draws compliments and appreciative glances, is a recent purchase from a luxury shopping portal.

‘Shopping clubs’ like 99labels. com, fashionandyou.com, theprivatesales.com, brandmile.com and desiCouture.net, which offer the best of brands at even better prices, are increasingly clicking with customers in the smaller towns and cities of India.

So if you thought luxury was the preserve of big city slickers, or that small-towners were satisfied with cheap knock-offs rather than the real thing, it’s time you hit the delete button on those out-of-fashion notions.

“When we offered our customers Armani denims, Versace trousers and D&G shirts, 30 per cent of the buyers were located outside metros,” reveals Pearl Uppal, CEO of fashionandyou. com.

That’s a perfect fit with what Praneeta Kochchar, director of the Luxury Lifestyle Showcase, an exhibition held in Ludhiana in April, has to say: “Luxury is certainly not limited to metros, and Ludhiana, known as the Benz City of India, is a testament to that. Brands are now moving out of stores and using innovative techniques to interact with buyers from smaller cities.”

The AT Kearney-Economic Times India Luxury Review 2007 report predicted that the market for luxury products in India would rise to $30 billion by 2015. A substantial chunk of that story lies, as Neelesh Hundekari of AT Kearney emphasises, “with the potential of towns and cities

like Chandigarh, Pune and Nashik, there is serious wealth, awareness, aspiration and education. And because of the lack of access, there is pent-up demand.” She also points out that the consumption bug spreads faster in smaller towns, where word of mouth really works. “It’s also easier,” she says, “to capture the mindspace of buyers in smallKim Manchong, 34, Guwahati, NGO Employee. Online shopping cart: er towns than Rocky S. handbag, Deborah Milano cosmetics, United Colors of those in bigger Benetton apparel, Calvin Klein and Burberry fragrances, Morgan de cities, who are bombarded with Toi watch. multiple ‘you must try this’ beyond the metros”. from a portal. messages.”

Most of that potential, Kochchar Clearly, wanting to wear a certain To the brand-conscious shopaholpoints out, is vested in people under brand has to do with what you think thirty, with their high awareness of that tag can do for you. “It’s about ics, the portals offer the pleasurable brands and global trends. Ask 28- image,” says Uppal. “For some, these prospect of indulging themselves for year-old Gaurav Goyal, who man- brands are a way of announcing that hours, hopping between the Calvin ages his father’s hotel business in Ro- they have arrived and are in tune with Kleins and Moschinos and flitting from apparel to accessories to home orkee, a Tier-IV city in Uttarakhand. what’s happening in Tier-I cities.”

He bought his Armani T-shirt from a Puneet Kumar, a public sector em- furnishings and grooming products luxury shopping site, and, if the portal ployee from Ludhiana, who bought a without so much as budging from can meet his budge (Rs 65,000), he’ll Gucci wallet, readily admits to close their seats, let alone making a trip to be wearing an Armani suit at his No- identification with brands. “I am in a metro.

And then: there’s the joy of havvember wedding. my 40s,” he says, “and brands are ing it all delivered by courier right “Roorkee has so many internation- a part of who I am.” Jaideep adds, al retail giants now—from a Jockey “Over the past four years or so, I’ve to your doorstep. Since products are to an Adidas to a Baskin Robbins. It seen my friends change. Where a displayed on portals from different goes to show how brand-conscious Titan would do earlier, it has to be a angles, desi designers are willing to the youth here have become,” he Rolex today. While there has always customise for individual clients, and says. For Bhabani Choudhury, a 29- been a handful of people who could as a last resort, the shirt that doesn’t year-old store officer in a construction afford such luxuries, it is only now fit can even be returned, shoppers are company warehouse in Rourkela, that the middle class has the confi- at ease while loading their trolleys. growing up in Orissa’s steel city dence to aspire to and own world- What keeps them hooked are sales that run for a few days or even just a meant little choice as far as retail famous brands.” players were concerned.

It’s a confidence that comes with few hours, during which prices can “We had to wear whatever was better access to the media, including drop lower than your jaw.

At times, the discounts are upwards available and, frankly, we didn’t care TV, films and the Internet, greatmuch. Now, however, people here er exposure through travel, easier of 80 per cent. So, you can splurge on are waking up to the kind of names availability of global brands, and of that luxe handbag running into a few you see in fashion magazines,” says course, having the moolah to pay for thousand rupees even if the houseBhabani, who recently gifted his wife it all. Says Ishita Swarup, CEO and hold budget hasn’t quite been taken with Diesel and gas shirts ordered founder, 99labels.com, “In places care of. For sellers, the advantages

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, july 30, 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

are obvious: They save on showroom and marketing costs, and are often able to offload slow movers, excess stocks or promotional fare.

Radhika Dhawan, who set up First Row, a travelling boutique that takes the likes of Rohit Bal and Ashish N. Soni to cities like Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad, says they offer designers’ samples and oneseason-old garments at attractive discounts. Uppal says 60-65 per cent of fashionandyou. com offerings are from current collections. As for the rest, “as long as the merchandise is good, people don’t have a problem if it is not up-to-date.”

If Bollywood’s spotlights single out a trend or brand, it becomes a sartorial blockbuster, whether in season or not. “When we see Ajay Devgan put on his Gucci shades or Salman Khan slip into a DKNY tee, we want to do the same,” declares Gaurav. “We’ve been getting enquiries about a hot pink Swarovski crystal-embellished sari that Katrina Kaif wore to a film premiere,” says Meghna Pradipak Reddy, founder of desiCouture.net, which even has a section dedicated to deconstructing a celebrity’s look by breaking it down into specific brands and pieces. Bollywood designer Neeta Lulla is one of those reaping the benefits—her creations are popular picks. “Cinema has always impacted people, wherever they are located,” says Lulla happily.

Thoughtheseportalshavedemocratised luxury, as it were, many are careful to maintain a veneer of exclusivity by accepting members only if they are invited by existing members or the site itself. It was one such e-mail from a site that opened the eyes of Alex Mathew, a 30-year-old IT professional settled in Thiruvalla in Kerala, to the luxury bazaar laid out in cyberspace.

Having treated himself to a Hugo Boss fragrance and Austin Reed’s Stephens Brothers shirts, he forwarded the mail to a few of his friends. So did self-confessed online shopaholic Inder Goyal, an engineer from Jodhpur, with a string of quirky purchases, of which the latest is a Wild Republic set of binoculars, walkie-talkie and compass for his children.

Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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Indo American News First Woman Photojournalist Gets National Photo Award NEW DELHI (Deccan Herald): Ninety seven-year-old Homai Vyarawalla, the first woman photojournalist of the country, is among four persons chosen for the first-ever national photo awards this year.

Vyarawalla, hailing from Vadodara, is known for her artistic work in the pre and post partition period. She started her career as a freelancer with the Illustrated Weekly of India.

Besides Vyarawalla, the award will also be conferred upon 79-yearold S Paul, an eminent photojournalist who was the Chief Photographer of the Indian Express from 1962 to 1988.

In the pictorialists category, the Life Time Achievement Award shall be conferred upon Benu Sen (79) of

Kolkata, a living legend in pictorial photography.

The second recipient in this category is K G Maheshwari (88) from Mumbai. The awards which have

been instituted to commemorate the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Photo Division shall be conferred upon by Vice President M Hamid Ansari on August 19. The awards include a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh, a shawl, a memento and a citation.

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South Asia News of the Diaspora

India, Myanmar Sign Pacts to Boost Cooperation

NEW DELHI (Deccan Herald): oping cross-border connectivity and site in central Myanmar, was also India signed a clutch of pacts with infrastructure development figured inked.

Against the backdrop of China’s energy-rich Myanmar to boost coop- prominently in the discussions. growing clout in Myanmar, India has The two sides also signed pacts in eration across wide areas, including rolled out the red carpet to welcome areas of small development projects, counter-terrorism.

Than Shwe, who The two countries signed began his five-day five pacts after Prime Minister visit to the country Manmohan Singh held talks Sunday by offerwith visiting Myanmar’s miliing prayers at the tary ruler, General Than Shwe, Mahabodhi temon a wide range of issues, ple at Bodh Gaya including counter-terror coopin Bihar. eration, enhanced energy ties Than Shwe, and collaboration in a string of who heads State developmental projects.

Peace and DevelAmong the pacts signed was opment Council, a treaty on mutual legal asas the junta calls sistance in criminal matters itself, was acthat will be crucial in enabling corded a ceremoIndia get access to insurgents nial welcome at from India’s northeast states the forecourt of who continue to shelter along the Rashtrapati the sprawling 1,650-km IndiaBhavan Tuesday Myanmar border.

Myanmar’s military ruler, General Than Shwe morning.

The treaty aims at deepenHe met Vice ing bilateral cooperation in combat- science and technology and informaPresident Hamid Ansari, External tion cooperation. ing transnational organized crime, Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and A memorandum of understanding terrorism, drug trafficking, money Leader of the Opposition Sushma laundering and smuggling of arms on Indian assistance in restoring the Ananda temple in Bagan, a renowned Sawraj before sitting down for talks and explosives.

Increased collaboration for devel- Buddhist shrine and a major tourist with the prime minister.

Book Won’t have My Blood: Tendulkar

MUMBAI (TOI): The news that a book on Sachin Tendulkar will have his blood mixed in the signature page surprised many - not least the legend himself. Busy with the Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, Tendulkar was unaware of the furore created by the claims of the publisher of the Sachin Tendulkar Opus. But on Friday, he clarified - exclusively to TOI - that he was not involved in any such bizarre plan.

“There is no truth in my blood being part of the book. It is basically a photographic publication and is not an autobiography or biography,” he said.

Clarifying on the subject, Tendulkar told TOI: “I understand this information came out during the Test match. As I was focusing on the game, I only got to hear about it yesterday (Thursday). There is no truth in my blood being part of the book. The book is basically a photographic publication that celebrates my life and is not an autobiography or a biography.”

The signature page of the special edition of the book will be a mix of Tendulkar’s blood

and pulp was what Karl Fowler of Kraken Media - publisher of the book - was reported to have said.

However, on Friday, Fowler told TOI in a statement, “The Opus will not carry any blood as mentioned in the several articles/TV reports that have appeared over the last few days. I believe that my thoughts on this have been misunderstood.”

The Tendulkar Opus, being touted as a definitive photographic publication celebrating the cricketer’s career from the early years till date, will be presented on an unprecedented scale measuring half a metre and will weigh over 40 kg, claim the publishers. It will include three pullout gatefolds two metres in length, and will showcase some of the finest photography of the genius in action. Each edition will be hand-crafted and finished in a silk covered clamshell presentation case with unique designs created exclusively. The Opus will be strictly limited in number (quantity/price to be decided), each one individually signed on a specially designed signature page by Tendulkar. A more affordable and smaller edition costing about Rs 12,000 will still weigh 14 kg.

“The proceeds from the book will go to charity. We will do more events that will benefit charities, but that will be decided once the book is completed,” said Tendulkar.

For the benefit of those who may not be able to afford the book, Tendulkar said, “The book will be available at different price points and in various new media formats which will be easily accessible and affordable for all. Free copies will also be given to libraries all over India.”

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, july 30 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

in d ia

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Jwala in, Bijli Out of Cricket Star Mohammed Azharuddin's Life?

A rumour about cricketer Mohd Azharuddin’s romantic dalliance with Jwala Gutta picked up momentum last friday to tarnish his image that was spread by BAOI. “Jwala is a very good player and she is a great prospect for the country. She has been doing well so I just want to request everybody to just leave her alone and not get her into this cheap controversy,” he added.

By Bharati Dubey MUMBAI (TOI): Indian badminton star Jwala Gutta, ranked No.7 in the world in mixed doubles, has blasted reports suggesting she was having an affair with former cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin.

Twenty-six-year-old Jwala Gutta, the woman being blamed for Sangeeta Bijlani walking out of her 14-year-old marriage to Mohammed Azharuddin, is angry. “I am disgusted by the reports,” she told TOI in a phone interview from Hyderabad. “It possibly makes a good story but everything about it is false and baseless. How am I involved if Sangeeta has gone back to Mumbai? How does it matter to me?”

Jwala said the rumours began a month ago. “I know they are being spread by people from the badminton

association because I am not on good terms with them,” she said. Asked if Azhar’s decision to contest the association’s polls could have led to this, she said, “Yes, that is the reason.”

Azharuddin, now an MP from Moradabad, also pooh-poohed the reports, saying his bid for the badminton body was being given an unhealthy twist. He described Jwala as a “good friend” and the reports as “disgusting and in bad taste”.

There have been reports that she and Azhar have been often spotted together and were also seen coming out together from Indian coach Pullela Gopichand’s academy. Jwala denied that as well. “I go to the academy to practice and not to meet anyone,” she said. Asked about her presence at the practice session for Azhar’s son, she said: “His son is almost my age and

we are friends. Besides, the last time I went for his practice session was three years ago.” Asked if she had spoken to Sangeeta about the rumours and if she knew where Azhar was presently, she said, “No, I have not spoken to anyone. Besides, I don’t keep track of where anyone is.” Jwala is married to national badminton champion Chetan Anand. “These reports have affected my family, and we all are disturbed,” she said. Azhar’s brother-in-law Rehman confirmed that Sangeeta was currently in Mumbai but rubbished the rumours about a split. “There is no truth in them and there is no problem in the marriage,” he said.

Meanwhile,Azharuddin told a news agency: “These reports are completely rubbish, baseless and are in bad taste.

I am very hurt by all these. I know Jwala, she is a good friend of mine

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and to write such reports, which are completely false and fabricated, is disgusting,” a livid Azharuddin said.

Azhar said these are motivated by people in the Badminton Association of India, who want to tarnish his image since he tried to contest for the presidential elections last month. “These are planted stories and motivated by people, who are against me in the Badminton Association of India.

I think they should look into their homes first before casting aspersions on others and make such allegations,” he said. “Jwala is a very good player and she is a great prospect for the country. She has been doing well and will win many medals for the country in future. So I just want to request everybody to just leave her alone and not get her into this cheap controversy,” he added.

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p a k is t an

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152 Die in Pakistan Plane Crash

By Anita Joshua ISLAMABAD (Hindu): A Pakistani private airline with 152 people on board crashed into the Margalla Hills skirting the Capital on the north this morning (Wednesday); leaving no survivors and an entire hillside charred. Though hopes of survivors were kept alive for some hours following the crash, the government announced six hours later that all on board were dead even as efforts were afoot to get the bodies till late in the evening.

The Airblue flight ED 202 was flying in from Karachi to Islamabad and had been asked to await landing clearance at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport. While circling through heavy rain, it flew very low over Islamabad before it headed off towards the thickly wooded Margalla Hills which, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, is a “no fly zone”.

Eye-witnesses claimed to have seen the aircraft fly very low over Blue Area the commercial quarters of the capital and from all accounts, the Airbus 321 had its landing gear down. According to a statement put out by Airblue, the flight crashed due to poor weather and thick fog.

The plane lost contact with the control tower shortly before the crash and late in the evening, television networks reported that it had been warned against heading towards Margalla Hills. An enquiry has been ordered into the crash and the government announced a day of mourning for the victims of what is being billed as one of the worst tragedies in Pakistan’s aviation history.

Rain slows rescue operations While the crash site itself was a good kilometer-and-a-half from the nearest road, rescue operations were further slowed down because much of the debris fell into a gorge. Accessing the debris and the site was made more difficult by the steady rain since Tuesday, rendering the terrain slippery and slow to negotiate.

Helicopters were pressed into service to send commandoes into the gorge with ropes to cut through the debris and pull up the bodies.

To ensure against a traffic snarl on the approach road, only rescue vehicles were allowed up. Since the crash site was visible from much of Islamabad particularly Margalla Road cars were lined up through the picturesque avenue as people tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

Several Islamabad-based relatives of passengers on the aircraft could be seen trying to access the site from other pathways suitable for trekking.

Emergency was declared in all hospitals in the city soon after the crash in anticipation of some survivors. However, as the day wore on, hopes faded and the focus changed towards identifying the bodies that were being brought in charred and mutilated. The deceased include two American nationals besides a couple of other foreigners.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani made an aerial survey of the crash site along with senior cabinet

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Pakistani rescuers surround the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Islamabad. A government official says all 152 people on board the plane were killed.

colleagues and Chief Ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa who were present in the capital for a cabinet meeting which has since been postponed as the terror-struck nation steeled itself for another pile of body bags.

PTI reports: “It saddens me to announce that (while) some intact bodies were showing signs of life, nobody has survived,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Bodies were mostly mutilated and in pieces, he said, adding they could not be identified immediately.

“It’s a big tragedy. It’s really a big tragedy,” he said. Malik said he had asked the Federal Investigation Agency to ascertain the details of all passengers and to look into the possibility whether the crash may have been caused by an act of sabotage or terrorism. Earlier, Malik and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira had said that rescuers had found some survivors.

Two Americans, five members of the same family and a newly married couple coming to Islamabad for their honeymoon were among passengers of the aircraft, which took off from Karachi at 7.50 am. Five children and 29 women were also on the aircraft.

The plane was about to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport when it lost radio contact with the control tower and later crashed into the thickly—forested hills overlooking the capital city, officials said. The wreckage fell into a deep ravine between two hills. Inaccessible hills impede rescue operations Several hours after the crash, rescue workers and military personnel pulled out the bodies from the smoldering and burning wreckage that lay scattered over a thickly forested area in inaccessible hills shrouded by clouds and fog.

Officials said they believed the crash was caused by bad weather.

However, the exact cause would be ascertained by an inquiry to be conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority, they said. Officials and rescue workers said they were unable to find even a single body that was fully intact.

“We’ve completed 98 per cent of the rescue operations and no bodies have been recovered intact...We

found heads, limbs and even fingers,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Bin Yamin.

The body parts were placed in bags that were tied with rope and removed from the crash site. Rescue workers said they had shouted out for possible survivors but received no response.

Army helicopters flew dozens of sorties to transport bags with body parts to a nearby helipad, from where they were brought by ambulances to different hospitals in Islamabad.

Experienced pilot Airblue official Raheel Ahmed told reporters in Karachi that the aircraft’s pilot, Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, had 35 years of experience and had logged over 25,000 flying hours. The Airbus A321 was 10 years old and had been used by Airblue for the past four years, he said.

“It would not be correct to speculate about the cause of the crash. The aircraft was fully serviceable and there were no technical faults in it.

The weather, no doubt, was bad but it was not below the parameters. The investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority will establish the facts,” Ahmed said.

Islamabad has been hit by heavy monsoon rains for the past three days and the city was covered by fog and low lying clouds. Local TV channels showed twisted metal parts hanging from trees and scattered across the ground. The crash occurred in an area that is not easily accessible as the Margalla Hills are covered by thick forests. Unexplained disappearance from radar Malik said the aircraft was at 2,600 feet when it was cleared to land. It then rose up to 3,000 feet for “unexplained” reasons before disappearing from radar screens, he said.

“The (control) tower did not receive any SOS message or report of a technical problem before the crash,” Malik said. Sources in the Civil Aviation Authority expressed surprise at authorities clearing the aircraft to land at Islamabad despite the poor visibility and bad weather.

Scores of anxious relatives of passengers gathered at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport and different hospitals in Islamabad to get information about their kin. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed shock and grief at the crash.

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

en t e r t ain m en t

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‘3-Idiots’ and Tamil Director Shankar CHENNAI (India Glitz): est in the film. In Tamil Vijay Ever since the Hindi film ‘3 was there in almost all casting Idiots’ hit the screens last Decontemplations and now it is cember and attained a cult almost certain Vijay will be status, there has been news Aamir Khan in Tamil. pouring in from all quarters But the biggest deal was who about its remakes in South will direct the remakes? A host Indian languages. There have of names were tossed up includbeen enough combinations ing Saran and K S Ravikumar. worked as to who would play Now reports say Shankar will the three idiots – Aamir Khan, Top Tamil director Shankar direct the versions in both KolMadhavan and Sharman Joshi lywood and Tollywood. in the southern versions.

Shankar who has just comFirst it was said Vikram will do the Aamir pleted the most expensive Indian film ‘EndhiKhan role and Madhavan will play the same in ran’ is now busy working on the release. With Tamil. Then Vijay’s name cropped up to it soon some of the biggest names in Indian media like began to take serious proportions. Jeevan and Rajinikanth, Kalanidhi Maran and Aishwarya Silambarasan were also discussed to take up a Rai - ‘Endhiran’ will stay as the biggest Tamil character and that will begin a new era in multi film ever for some time to come. Having distarrers in Tamil. Then suddenly Suriya’s name rected the biggest ever south Indian movie will was in media saying even he has shown inter- Shankar opt to direct a remake as his next?

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

lifestyle

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Life was Quite a Drudgery in My Childhood: Industrialist Ratan Tata

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By Soumyadipta Banerjee Mumbai: Unless you talk to the man, you don’t get a taste of the subtle sense of humor that he has.

Industrialist Ratan Naval Tata has a very simple definition of going to school. “It seems terrible when you are there, questionable when you get out of it, and cherishable in the later years of your life,” he told DNA at the fiftieth anniversary of The Old Campionites Association on Saturday.

Withthebusinessicon in a mood for nostalgia, it was but natural to ask about memories from his school life. So, was he interested in sports when he was a child?

“I don’t remember too much about sports [in school]. I remember that my grandmother used to have this huge antiquated Rolls Royce and she used to send that car to pick my brother and me up from school. Both of us used to be so ashamed of that car that we used to walk back home. That is the sport that I remember,” he said with a smile.

Talking about the subjects that he used to like when he was in school,Tata was forthcoming. “The Parsi community is very particular

about good education,” he said. “In those days, whether you liked it or not, most of us were forced to go to school. Most of us were forced to have tuitions whether you wanted it or not after school. Life was quite a drudgery in those days.

“I don’t know whether it was at Campion [Campion School in Colaba, his first school] or Cathedral [Cathedral and John Connon School, Fort], but I used to like physics a lot.

When I was older, I never liked chemistry. Later on, I quite enjoyed French and English literature.”

Tata said he always regretted the

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, july 30 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

fact that he never went back to his schools even once after passing out.

“I feel a sense of remorse that I never set foot in Campion School after I left,” he said. “Nor in Cathedral for that matter. Nor in college.

“Somebody took me to Cornell [Tata got his BSc degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962] again after close to 50 years and this had caused a tremendous resurgence of both nostalgia and reconnecting....”

It is very hard to get any advice out of Tata for the young generation; the industrialist only chooses to give an example. “The most important thing that you look back on is the quality of education that you were given. In school, in college... Campion, Cathedral, Cornell, and later the Harvard Business School [he did an advanced management programme from there in 1975] — each one of them was terrible when you were there, questionable when you got out, and later became something that you really cherished and considered worthwhile.”

Tata said the schools he went to laid the foundation of his value system.

“None of us were flamboyant in those days and it didn’t matter whether we were rich or poor,” he said. “There was a terrific amount of camaraderie there which, unfortunately, we tend to disengage from when we walk out of school or walk out of college, which we should, in fact, try to preserve.”

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advice

Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

How to Deal with Negative People

Negative people can often be very mean and selfish in their remarks. The golden rule is to learn to ignore what they say completely.

• Before they start talking, it’s a good idea to start the conversation on a positive note and avoid topics that even skim the edges of anything negative.

• Do not make the mistake of asking them, ‘So what’s up?’ Chances are that there’s a lot in their case and they are about to unload it all on you.

• Focussing on all the good things in your life is a good way to deal with the negativity heaped by them.

• You are not responsible for the person’s problems in life. Do not make them your own, even though you are an attentive listener. Don’t feel guilty about someone else’s mess-ups.

• If a person is hurt, chances are that he might want to see you hurt too. So, avoid falling for the trap when he or she tries to get a reaction out of you by hurting you anyhow.

• Empathise, but be firm in telling the person that it’s about time that they start being more positive in life. Or subtly put across the name of a self-help book on positivity and recommend it to the person.

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straight up food talk

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Great W’kana Cafe, First of its Kind in Texas, is a Gourmand’s Delight tone the spices accordingly to suit your taste buds. It’s a gift I’ve acquired along the way.” he says.

For diners who are in a hurry and want it to be a fast food experience because of its booth style seating arrangements, expectations can be pleasantly surprising.

The cozy restaurant that can seat 50 people, invites you to relax and spend an hour or two, get to know Chef Sunil and his intimate cuisine creations.

Great W’kana Cafe does not carry a regular menu.

Instead they have fliers Garlic naan a great accompaniment with that carry interChicken Tikka Masala. esting food items Chef Sunil Srivastava, born and from the expanse of India. This raised in Jaipur, Rajasthan, along is changed monthly or bi-weekly with managing partner, Jacob when inspiration hits Chef Sunil.

Mathews, from Mumbai. Anupa- “I want to keep the menu items ma Srivastava, like Chef Sunil, is fresh. I want my diners to try difa graduate of Indian Hotel Man- ferent dishes each month. That is agement, Chennai. She helps them our reward to them for visiting us both to brainstorm and run the Great W’kana Cafe.

Anupama is also a Certified Hospitality Educator awarded so by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

W’kana means harmony in vedic sanskrit.

Keeping the meaning alive, both Chef Sunil and Jacob Boneless Kalonji Murgh Kebab (chicken flavored onion seeds) with grilled shrimp, Sheekh have managed a with Kebab (lamb), mint chutney and salad harmony of earth tone colors along with contempo- again.” he says. The menu presrary wall hangings and unifying a ents an amazing array of tastes blend of flavors from Indian food - the mint chutney is the freshest cultures. The restaurant is painted your tongue will ever taste, with a match of red and yolk yellow a hint of lime and fresh yogurt. colors with brick patterns by the Tandoori Tilapia with a squeeze open kitchen divide that repre- of lime and lightly coated with sents Indian villages. The restau- spices is seared to perfection on rant plays healing ragas and Bud- both sides, yet steamy and tender inside as you cut in with your fork. The Northwestern frontier chicken also called Peshawari Murgh Tikka is succulent and juicy, the spices not too intense, but just right.

The chicken pieces flavored with onion seeds called the Kalonji Murgh Kebab is mild to the taste, Aged Basmati vegetable pilaf with Tandoori great in flavor.

Murgh, Peshawari Murgh Tikka, Tandoori The lamb from Machi, Dal, Mint Chutney and Vegetable salad.

New Zealand is dha Bar music. Chef Sunil cooks ground up with fresh broken pepdaily in front of his guests, in percorn and a mix of unique Inthe open space, what each diner dian spices in the right ratio and likes. “For me, it is important that grilled to perfection, then skewI know which region of India my ered also known as the Sheekh guests hail from. That helps me Kebab. The Palak (spinach) and

By Jacob David STAFFORD: When it comes to innovation in cuisine, restaurants fear to try anything out of the ordinary. The restaurant Great W’kana Cafe aims at serving people great tasting food from all regions of India. It is led by-

Dal is a blend, steamed just right that they compliment each other.

The Chicken Tikka Masala is all boneless tender chicken that falls apart and blends in the creamy tomato sauce. The aged basmati rice which is a superior quality rice, known for its aroma and consistency not to break apart, is used for the vegetable and meat pilafs. All meats are boneless. All spices are ground fresh in limited portions not to last for more than two days. “This helps increase the quality of taste in our food.

We take our spice preparation seriously.” Anupama Srivastava explains.

It is also the first Indian restaurant here in Houston to serve a regular line of breakfast items with Parathas, Omelettes, chai and kapi (tea and coffee, spelt the Indian way in the menu). People with a busy lifestyle who skip breakfast can now grab a quick brunch break from work to eat a hearty breakfast at Great W’kana Cafe.

Chef Sunil Srivastava, a graduate from the Indian Hotel Management Institute in Bangalore (1995), the 2nd best school of culinary arts in India, has schools in 17 states. He recalls the intensive selection process. Right from the start, he fell in love with the food and beverage services. “I felt comfortable in the kitchen, taking my time to understanding what good food was all about.”

Right after graduation, he did his chef training at the Grand Kakatiya, Sheraton, Hyderabad, for two years.

In 1997, Chef Sunil won the Best Chef and gold medal for excellence in French Culinary Creations while working at the ITC (Indian Tobacco Company) awarded by the Hyderabad Associates of Catering Professionals. Hearing of his achievement, he was approached by the Zerbounne Cruiselines, Germany, to be their Seafood Chef on their five star cruiseship Astor. He fondly remembers carving four inch steaks out of his first fresh catch Tuna that was ten and a half feet long, weighing roughly 850 lbs at Lisbon, Portugal. Traveling worldwide, meeting people, gaining experience on the Astor, Chef Sunil has touched most shores around the world. It has helped him understand the varied tastes people have. He has served high

level state dinners to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Atul Bihari Vajpayee, the 11th Indian Prime Minister, current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister, Chidambaram, His Royal Highness of Jaipur, and

three years, which ranks among the top 100 best restaurants in the Bay area for 12 years. He then moved to Houston and introduced the Dawat Catering concept, a full elegant North Indian Style Catering extravaganza that features a pre-plated food arrangement for

Chef Sunil Srivastava tackles three dishes in his open kitchen.

Baroda, Nawabs of Hyderabad, the King of Daspalla, Vishakapatinam, several French naval commanders and Captains. He also planned and hosted a cooking show for Miss India 2002. He has done cooking shows for Star Plus and been featured by major newspapers in India - Times of India, Indian Express, Hindu and a host of other publications. Chef Sunil Srivastava’s ultimate goal is to participate in the Iron Chef Championship and win.

Jacob Mathews, managing partner, has been associated in sales with several food service companies like Ali Raza in Saudi Arabia, Sea Rock, and Leela Kempinski, Mumbai. Meeting Chef Sunil Srivastava in Houston six months prior to starting the Great W’kana, they found they had common goals. With their passion being shared by Anupama Srivastava, there was no looking back.

This is their brainchild, the result of their hard work.

Coming to America on an O-1 visa, for extraordinary talent in the culinary arts and sciences, Chef Sunil Srivastava took 3 months in Virginia to help a friend develop a restaurant. He then worked at Amber India, California, for

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, july 30 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

big events. Starting on the journey to form his own restaurant, he dreamed of the “Beyond Curries” concept. Great W’kana’s menu features this everyday. Chef Sunil loves to cater to intimate parties of 100 to 200 people. He believes in small groups as quality of taste must not be compromised.

Loyal, repeat diners come in from as far as the Woodlands to taste Chef Sunil Srivastava’s creations.

“We don’t mind driving the distance for really good food,” said an elderly American couple who are connoisseurs of Indian food.

A British diner who was initially brusk, saying he would decide if it was Indian food or Indo American food is now in love with Chef Sunil’s food.

The news of Great W’kana Cafe’s spread of great taste is catching on fast. Great W’kana Cafe wins major points for innovation in menu and decor, consistency in food taste, quality control, food presentation, service and customer attention.

A cozy diner type, this restaurant has a five star aura to it.

Visit them at 11720 West Airport Blvd, Suite 600, Meadows Place, TX 77477. 832-886-4291. www. greatwkanacafe.com

india

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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Vaseline Skin-Lightening App Stirs Debate on Facebook in India

By Hillary Whiteman LONDON (CNN): Vaseline’s new skin-lightening application for Facebook users in India has re-ignited the debate over skin color and perceptions of beauty. The app, which was launched by Vaseline, invites Indian men to download their profile photos and drag a line across the screen to digitally “Lighten my Skin.”

It is being used to promote Vaseline Men UV Whitening Body Lotion, a new product launched in India in June into an already crowded market for skin-lightening creams.

The Vaseline facebook app On the Facebook page inviting reviews of the product, users have left a string of angry comments. One wrote: “I wish I could rate this less than 1...racist application. India has the biggest double standards. Imagine the horror and uproar if this were published by a western country.”

Another said he condemned the ad campaign, writing “It is insidious of them to take advantage and make profit out of a bias that unfortunately exists in the Indian society.”

Vaseline issued a statement defending the application and the company’s promotion of the product in India.

“Much like self-tanning products in North America and Europe, skin

Vaseline’s new skin-lightening app on Facebook has come in for criticism from some users in India

lightening products are culturally relevant in India,” the company said.

“In India, men use these products to lighten and even out their natural skin tone and to reduce the appearance of spots while protecting their skin from the sun.

The Facebook application was created for the Indian market as a culturally relevant and engaging way for Indian men to interact with this product,” it added. The site makes clear the application was not created by Facebook.

Bangalore-based businessman Kunnath Santhosh set up his own

Facebook page three months ago to campaign against so-called “fairness” creams in India.

Santhosh said the company’s reference to the creams’“cultural relevance” was a “poor excuse” for exploiting consumers who believe lighter skin will brighten their prospects.

“Non-tanned skin is not a basis for discrimination in U.S. and Europe. It is a lifestyle option there. You don’t find anyone looking for a bride who is tanned in U.S., do you?” he said, referring to classified ads in India specifying a preference for paler skin.

He said the application was the latest evidence of what he calls the “’I want

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to be fairer’ craze” sweeping India.

Santhosh calls the creams “unacceptably racist” and has urged the Indian government to ban them.

“My son saw one of the ads on TV showing his favorite hero Shahrukh Khan (a popular Bollywood superstar) peddling a whitening cream and he told me that he wants to be fairer and that he is ugly,” Santhosh told CNN in an email.

“Now, for a parent who thinks his son is blessed with good health and looks, I found it deeply offensive...

There are way too many companies offering such products and people use it without any regard for the consequence on their health and selfesteem,” he wrote.

Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan promotes the skin-lightening cream “Fair and Handsome,” launched by Indian-based consumer goods company Emami in 2005.

At the time, it was the first skinwhitening cream to target the male market. It now claims to be the world’s number one “fairness” cream for men. The first lightening creams for women were launched nearly 30 years ago.

The description on the product’s Web site reads: “A fair complexion has always been associated with success and popularity. Men and women alike desire fairness, it is believed to be the key to a successful life.”

Around 240 products promising lighter skin have been launched in India in the last five years, according to data from market research company Mintel.

Nica Lewis, the company’s beauty analyst, described skin-lightening products as “an established trend” in Asia with India by no means the largest market for such products.

According to Mintel, More than 2,800 products promising to lighten skin have been launched in China in the past five years. During the same period, more than 1,000 hit shelves in Japan, and around 560 in the Philippines. Lewis told CNN that similar products are on the market in the West, but different terminology is used to promote them.

“The whitening trend in the West has been repositioned as brightening and lightening. And even in Asia now they are starting to use similar terminology,” she said.

Manit Malhotra, a 20-year-old single student from Pune, in western India told CNN that he doesn’t agree there is pressure on men in India to have paler skin.

He has used both the Vaseline application on Facebook and the cream.

Malhotra refuted the suggestion that the Vaseline Facebook application was racist, saying “Never... I don’t think that. This product is only for our face-care. That’s it.”

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Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

travel

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A Beloved Bollywood Scene Draws Indians to Switzerland

By John Tagliabue ENGELBERG, Switzerland (NYT): Vishal and Jagruti Purohit had traveled here from Mumbai, India, on their honeymoon, but they had a greater mission: to find the small village church that provided the backdrop for a scene in their favorite movie, a 1995 Bollywood blockbuster called “The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride.”

In the scene, two young Indians, played by Purohit’s favorite actor and actress, see their love seeming to come to an end. She kneels and prays, while he cavorts in the dark, neo-Gothic church. In the end, she breaks off an engagement and he wins her hand. The young couple knew that the scene had been shot on location in a church in the small town of Montbovon, a couple of hours drive from this Alpine village of winding streets, low chalets and abundant geraniums.

But which church?

The first church Purohit, 24, spied had the sharply pointed steeple that he and his wife recognized from the film, but the interior was not right.

The altars were different, the vaulting not rounded but sharp. Disappointed, they left the church and returned to their tour bus, where a tour guide helped solve the puzzle.

The exterior scenes in the film had been shot around this church with the sharply pointed steeple, he told them. For the interior shots, though, the director had chosen the church of St. Grat, a short distance away. Delighted, Purohit and his wife bounded over to the second church with its familiar interior and struck poses for honeymoon photographs, aping the Bollywood stars they so admired.

For years, Bollywood’s producers and directors have favored the pristine backdrop of Switzerland for their films. The greatest of the Bollywood filmmakers, Yash Chopra, is a self-professed romantic who has made a point of including in virtually all his films scenes shot on location in this country’s high Alpine meadows, around its serene lakes, and in its charming towns and cities to convey an ideal of sunshine, happiness and tranquillity.

In the process, they have created an enormous curiosity about things Swiss in generations of middleclass Indians, who are now earning enough to travel here in search of their dreams.

“The moment you cross the border it is something else,” Purohit said, “where the scenario changes.”

“No noise, no pollution, no crowds,” said Kamalakar Tarkasband, 72, a retired army officer.

Swiss tourism officials and their Indian counterparts are capitalizing on this obsession. The number of nights spent by Indian tourists, who come mostly in summer (few ski), has doubled in the last decade to 325,000, and the numbers continue to grow.

Tarkasband was traveling with the Purohits and a busload of other Indians who had spent the last 12 hours visiting movie locations around Switzerland. Most of the sites were from “The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride,” produced by Chopra and

Participants in a guided tour of Swiss sites featured in Bollywood movies stopped in Saanen. The number of nights spent by Indian tourists in Switzerland has doubled in the last decade.

or roll in the snow in unlikely flimsy Indian garb on wintry slopes.

The fascination proved to be infectious, and by now about 200 Bollywood films feature sequences shot in Switzerland. Between stops for photographs, the travelers laughed at clips of films by Chopra and other directors, sang along to tunes from film soundtracks, and competed for prizes in Bollywood trivia quizzes.

A church in Montbovon was featured in a BollySince Kuoni wood film. and its partners began the Endirected by his son Aditya Chopra.

On their 12-day tour, marketed as chanted Journey tours in April, about the Enchanted Journey and organized 55 groups have signed up for tours. by the Indian affiliate of the Swiss The company, whose shareholders travel agency Kuoni, the travelers include Chopra’s Yash Raj Films watched DVDs of Bollywood film studio, now plans to add a 15-day scenes shot in Switzerland while trav- tour, individual customized film tours eling from site to site. They posed, and honeymoon trips. “It’s dream laughing, for snapshots imitating their tourism,” said Marco Casanova, a Swiss businessman and partner in the film heartthrobs.

“This is the way Switzerland is po- tour group.

Cashing in on the enthusiasm, the sitioned in our minds; it was the place for romance and natural beauty,” said town of Thun held its first Bollywood Sanket Shah, 21, from Pune, India, film festival in May. But not everyone shares the dream. who got a degree in management and went to work as a guide for Enchanted In June, the Zurich newspaper TagesAnzeiger featured an article with the Journey.

Raj Kapoor may have been the first headline “Into the Luxury Hotel with Indian director to use foreign sites for a Gas Cooker,” noting that “in some shooting on location — in Venice, hotels an entire caste of guests is no Paris and Switzerland — when he longer desired: the Indians.”

The article catalogued the comfilmed his 1964 hit, “Sangam.” But the entire bus knew the story of how plaints of hotel managers: guests who Chopra spent his honeymoon in the cook curry dishes on camping stoves in their rooms; guests who use bath Swiss resort of Gstaad.

“He promised his wife on his hon- oils that blacken tubs; guests who eymoon that every movie he made book for a husband and wife, only to would have to have one romantic show up with the entire family.

In Engelberg, where a visitor is song or scene in Switzerland,” said Rajendra Choudhary, 24, who also more likely to encounter a woman studied management in Pune and in a sari than hear the clang of a joined the Enchanted Journey. Chop- cowbell, some European tourists are ra, now 77, kept his promise. Most of unsettled.

“I can imagine that a German or a the Swiss sequences are dream scenes in which lovers dance or romp on Dutchman might not imagine SwitAlpine meadows strewn with flowers zerland this way,” Casanova said.

“They want the Swiss pastoral idyll.”

Swiss animosity toward foreigners

was directed at immigrants, not tourists. “Tourists come, but leave again,” he said. For the last 23 years, André Gobat has managed the Hotel Cathrin, in the shadow of 10,623-foot Mount Titlis. He acknowledges benefits to the town from the Indian tourism, like the recent prosperity of the elegant Terrace Hotel, a landmark since 1905 that now accommodates Indian tour groups. For him, the contrast is not so much Indians or Chinese versus Germans and Dutch, but rather individual tourists versus groups.

“We built a golf course, hiking trails, for private tourists,” Gobat said of the town. “Group tourists don’t use them.” Moreover, tour groups dine in their hotels and do not frequent local restaurants. “For me, the mixture is not as good as it should be,” he said.

“Go out in the evening; the village is empty.”

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AJIT GIANI

advice

online edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

Get the ‘Hold the Door Open’ Habit.

Here’s Why!

Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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India Travel & Tourism to Emerge as Second Largest Employer by 2019

The HTDO habit doesn’t merely make other people feel good. It makes you feel good, too, according to Executive Coach Prakash Iyer.

By Prakash Iyer IT has probably happened to you before.

Sometime, somewhere. As you walked towards the door of an office or a hotel, the person walking in front held the door open for you. Remember that time? Remember how good it made you feel – if only for that moment? The other person may have been a perfect stranger – but that one act made you feel you had a friend. Remember?

And isn’t it surprising that although we all feel good when someone else holds the door open for us, we seldom do the same for others. How come? It’s probably because we are all pre-occupied with ourselves and with what’s good for us. We are obsessed with getting ahead. Here then is a life-changing lesson they don’t teach you in any B-School: ‘Hold The Door Open’. HTDO! The world is divided into two types of people. Those who push open a door, walk past and let the door slam behind them. That’s about 99% of the population. And there’s the 1% who open the door and hold it open to allow the next person to walk through. Learn to do that, and you could join the select 1% club too.

Holding the door open is not just an act of chivalry, it’s a mindset. It says you care for other people, that you are not so caught up in your own progress that you have scant regard for other folks. It shows that while you may be in a hurry, you still have time for others. It marks you out as a leader who walks faster, pushes ahead, opens doors – but is then mindful of his team, checking their progress, helping them get past barriers. HTDO doesn’t merely make other people feel good. It makes you feel good too.

The habit of holding the door open translates into a behaviour of helping and caring. On the night before the Math exam, you help a friend who is struggling to pass – rather than focusing on scoring an extra mark yourself.

The friend will never forget that. At the buffet table, the HDTO habit makes you pick up a plate and offer it to the lady behind you in the queue. The smile you see on her face is quite priceless. Small gestures all – but they make a huge difference. HDTO marks you out as someone special.

Try it. Become a HTDO person. And get the habit that separates winners from losers.

I love the story of what happened to a hot-shot sales manager (let’s call him Vijay) on a Sunday evening in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The parking lot was packed.

Cars were crawling with anxious drivers looking for that one vacant slot. And Vijay, sharp and aggressive as he was

known to be, spotted a vacant space ahead and quickly zoomed in. He could see another car trying to back into the same slot, but Vijay was determined to beat the other man to it. And he did! Vijay felt jubilant – as we all sometimes do with life’s little victories.

The old man was disappointed. He looked Vijay in the eye and continued his search Prakash Iyer is MD, for another parking Kimberly-Clark and slot.

Executive Coach Two days later, Vijay was preparing for one of the biggest moments of his career. He was close to winning a big contract for his company. And all that was left now was the formal handshake meeting with the client’s CEO. As Vijay walked into the client’s office and eyed the CEO, he felt a sudden sense of discomfort. Yes, it was the same man whom he had snatched the parking slot from on Sunday. And you can guess what happened thereafter.

Alas! If only Vijay had grown up with the HTDO habit! The habit of caring for other people! Winning in life is less about naked ambition, and more about helping other people win. As someone once said, ‘It’s nice to be important. But it’s more important to be nice!’ Make a beginning. Hold the door open!

NEW DELHI: India’s travel and tourism sector is expected to be the 2nd largest employer in the world which is likely to employ over 40,037,000 people by 2019, considering the way the travel and tourism industry has started growing, according to a joint study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India and YES Bank.

The study says the share of India in the world employment is expected to be significant as in the next couple of years, India would have developed a good number of sites for travel and tourism with an extensive focus on agri tourism.

The study has projected that India would get capital investment worth $94.5 billion by 2019 in the tourism and travel sector since it is expected to grow at 8.8 per cent between the period 2011 and 2019.

Besides, the two institutions are of the view that growing travel and tourism industry will place India at the third position in the world in a decade’s time.

The travel and tourism will finally transform not only the urban India but also the rural part of the country and eventually promote agri tourism by involving thousands of farmers into it and their farming will witness huge changes.

According to the study, tourism

Babulbhai

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, july 30 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

would be the largest service industry in the country. Its importance would lie in being an instrument for economic development and employment generation particularly in the remote and backward areas.

The increasing tourism activities will help India build environmental and cultural awareness, provide positive experience for both visitors and hosts, and give direct financial benefits for conservation. It will also provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people and raise sensitivity to host countries political, environmental and social climate besides supporting human rights and labor agreements.

Agri tourism will be special beneficiary of development of tourism and travel industry which will comprise agri museums, agriculture related festivals and fairs, including farmers’ markets. Agri museums will have the benefits for farm vacations, heritage trails, farm tours and farm activities.

Growth in tourism and travel industry will stimulate investment and create opportunities in ancillary and support line of business. It will showcase the environmental, cultural and heritage aspects of the region as also further showcase local cuisine and culinary practices, handicrafts and vernacular skills.

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sports

Indo American News • Friday, July 30 , 2010

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Muralitharan Reaches 800-Wicket Record on Last Ball of Last Match

By Mike Selvey

GALLE, Sri Lanka (Guardian): What theatre. What drama. Oh to have been in the stands at Galle, or perched on the flag-fluttering ramparts of the fort, as Murali, shoulder twingeing, twirled down over after fruitless over, 23 of them, in search of that final wicket.

When Hirst and Rhodes famously “got ‘em in singles”, a spectator is said to have gnawed his way through the handle of his umbrella such was the tension. No brolly would have been safe yesterday. And what a roar must have echoed off the fort walls as Mahela Jayawardene plunged to pilfer the catch that sealed the innings and, as if it ever needed further defining, Muttiah Muralitharan’s place in the pantheon. An 800th Test wicket, the final one of his final innings, with his last ball on the final day of a peerless career.

Metaphorically, the roar echoed round the world too, as we followed the progress ball by ball on Cricinfo, waiting to be told “WICKET!” and then “MURALI”. If this was Murali’s day then we should not forget the catcher, for this was the dream ending by the most deadly combination of fielder and bowler the game has seen, the 77th catch that Mahela had taken off the bowling of Murali, the most by any non‑wicketkeeper from a single bowler, a record that will almost certainly stand the test of time. Only Rahul Dravid, who took 55 catches from Anil Kumble’s bowling, and Mark Taylor, who pouched

51 from Shane Warne, have reached 50.

I still have memories of sitting at The Oval in 1964 as Fred Trueman went into lunch on a hat-trick, and with 299 Test wickets. And the moment of sheer relief when finally, as Ted Dexter was about to withdraw him from the attack, Neil Hawke edged to Colin Cowdrey at slip and a dishevelled, wrung-out Fred draped himself round the shoulders of the catcher.

Will anyone else ever get to 300, he was asked. “They’ll be bloody knackered if they do,” he replied. If only he had known then that he had hardly seen the shine off. Murali had scarcely warmed up when he got to 300. Since then, the milestones have been ticked off relentlessly: Lance Gibbs, a solitary spinner amongst the pace pack, Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev (who took so long to crawl over the line that one Indian observer said that he had not broken the record, merely exceeded it).

As I write, I have in front of me a keyring in the shape of a miniature cricket ball which commemorates Courtney Walsh’s then Test record

Shiv Sagar

of 519 wickets. Then came the spinners once more, Shane Warne and Murali pushing ever onwards: 600, then 700. They passed the record between them as if playing pat-a-cake until one afternoon in Murali’s home town of Kandy, with Warne retired from Tests, the Sri Lankan broke the record for the last time and afterwards wrote in my son’s autograph book: “To Josh, 709 to beat!”

From then on he extended only his own record. They said he could get 1,000, but that was wishful thinking.

By now his shoulder was screaming with the years of violent rotation and his knees were creaking. Age was catching up, and besides the snap had begun to go from his bowling. Batsmen began to get the hang of him. He bowled more overs for less reward.

The doosra, on the surface a potent weapon and fundamental to over-

coming left‑handers, also became a hindrance because of the line adjustment he needed to make to his stock delivery so as not to telegraph it. Thus his off‑break became less threatening to right‑handers.

Records, so it goes, are there to be broken. Not this one, though.

To Benjamin Franklin’s assertion that death and taxes are the only certainties can now be added the eternal nature of Murali’s 800.

Unless it changes drastically, the nature of the modern game will see to that. Even then it would require an unlikely set of circumstances. First a spinner who starts early and has the fitness and stamina to send down the best part of 9,000 overs that it would take. Next the surfaces on which to flourish, as Murali had in Sri Lanka (it was no coincidence his final tilt came in Galle, where he has taken more than one in eight of his wickets).

And finally a player able to dominate the bowling to the extent Murali did; he bowled a third of Sri Lanka’s overs during his time.

The age of the great spinners seems to have gone, though, with the passing first of Warne, then Kumble and now Murali. Of current bowlers, the

only credible ones to retain a hope of even getting to 500 would be the Turbanator, Harbhajan Singh, who has 355 wickets, the New Zealand captain, Daniel Vettori, on 325 and, as a long shot, the South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn, who strikes faster than anyone.

There simply is not the number of Test matches for the two spinners, however (Vettori has already played 100 matches), while the very high‑octane nature of Steyn’s job, or that of any aspiring fast bowler, evokes “live fast, die young” more than any hint of longevity.

Harbhajan, who is 30, would at his current strike rate and average number of overs per Test need to play around another 105 matches, which at his present seven a year would mean bowling until he is 45, which seems unlikely. By the same criteria, Vettori would be 51. Murali’s record is safe.

Sri Lankans Score 625, India at 95-0 in Reply GALLE: Lanka reached a seemingly invincible position in the second Test on another day of toil for the Indian bowlers with their two batting mainstays, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, achieving individual landmarks on a placid track against a spineless attack that has left India’s batsmen with another Test to save. India is at 95-0 in the first inning reply.

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