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Sightline Health Expands Westwards

Original facility just south of the Texas Medical Center has found widespread demand for its cancer treatment

From left: Dr. Julia Ho and Dr. Sanjay Mehta cut the ribbon of the new facility on the West Belt and Westheimer along with (from left) West Houston Chamber of Commerce President Jeannie Bollinger; Holle Wyble, Sightline Physician Liason; Mark Montodon, Sightline Vice Chairman; Dr. Julia Oh, Manager West Houston clinic; Tom Morris, Dosimetrist and Stephen King, member of West Houston Chamber.

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Sightline Medical Expands Westwards

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Moily Introduces NRI Voting Bill

Left to right: An accomplished drummer since junior high, Dr. Sanjay Mehta played a few pieces with fellow musicians Richard Saldivar (keyboard) and Arlandus Chimney at the ribbon cutting on Thursday, August 14 of the new Sightline Health facility off Westheimer (below).

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily has introduced a bill in the Rajya Sabha to provide voting rights to NRIs.

By Jawahar Malhotra HOUSTON: Sightline Health, a company founded in 2005 to bring leading technologies together in the non-invasive diagnosis and treatment of cancers, recently opened up its newest clinic on the city’s Westside at the corner of the West Belt and Westheimer. The company’s first 12,000 square-foot clinic located at 9106 Main St. , just south of the Texas Medical Center ; opened in July 2008 and is run by the chief radiologist and Medical Director, Dr. Sanjay Mehta.

Sightline specializes in the use of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) to map out a precise path for the follow-up radiation beams to converge on cancerous cells associated with prostate cancer.

“This is a mix of ‘high tech and high touch”, said the boyishly young looking Mehta, despite a sprinkling of grey in his short cropped hair.

“The idea is get to the cancerous cells without damaging the healthy cells,” explained Mehta as he peered over a computer screen where the yellow-colored radiation beams converged in a simulation onto the cancer cells and attacked them like in some

NEW DELHI (HT): A bill to provide voting rights to Indians living abroad was introduced in Rajya Sabha today, with the government saying it would enable NRIs to participate in their home country’s democratic process, which was their “legitimate” wish. Moving the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill 2010, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily explained the details regarding the manner of enrolment of NRIs, the mode of voting and conditionalities for contesting elections.

He earlier withdrew the 2006 draft of the same proposed legislation saying he was doing so as it did not have details regarding modalities on conferring voting rights to NRIs. “The fresh bill is more comprehensive,” Moily said. Pointing out that NRIs have been persistently demanding conferring of voting rights, he said though the issue had been

computer game. “This allows for more comfort to the patient,” continued Mehta eagerly, “and decreases chances of incontinence that can occur with the traditional ‘shotgun’ beam approach that can also destroy surrounding healthy tissue.”

Mehta spends most of his time at the Main St. clinic, but monitors the activity of the Westside clinic, which is managed by Dr. Julia Oh. To honor one of its newest members, the Westside Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony at Sightline’s offices recently on Tuesday, August 17. Many Chamber members, guests and patients attended the event which featured appetizers from Mumbai Spice, Carmelo’s Ristorante and Esther’s Cajun Café and Soul Food, with both Carmelo and Esther at hand to promote their dishes.

The ribbon cutting also featured several jazz and soul musical pieces by the trio of Richard Salvidar, Arlandus Chimney and Mehta, who has been playing the drums since junior high. Mehta is know for his skill on the drums, as well as his younger brother, Sanjeev,

and is the son of Deepi Mehta, the hostess from yesteryears of the Gateway to India radio program popular in the 70s and 80s.

In addition, several door prizes were given out by random draw, including a grand prize of three nights at the Breezes Runaway Bay Resort and Golf Club in Jamaica , courtesy of Travel leaders, the agency that Deepi owns near Memorial City Shopping Center .

Sightline is planning on opening another clinic on the city’s northside and is in the process of building new ones in Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley in California , which will open soon. Its other location is in Lubbock , Texas .

For more information, visit www. sightlinehealth.com

receiving attention of the government for quite some time, the demand could not be met because of practical difficulties in enrolling them in the electoral rolls and allowing them to cast votes from outside India.

He said the right to vote, as demanded by these citizens of India living abroad, is a legitimate one and conferring such rights will enable them to participate in the democratic process.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice examined the 2006 bill and recommended bringing a comprehensive one on the subject containing details regarding the manner of their enrolment, mode of voting and conditionalities for contesting elections.

“In pursuance of the committee’s recommendations, it has been decided to withdraw the 2006 bill and introduce a fresh one in the current session of Parliament,” Moily said.

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Olivier Bernheim: The Unstoppable Weil of Time When the Raymond Weil CEO is not dealing with a human resources crunch, he’s looking at China and India

By Veena Venugopal (Mint) What brings you to India?

I ask as a conversation starter. “I came to meet you,” exclaims Olivier Bernheim, president and CEO, Raymond Weil watches. It sounds rehearsed, like the 56-year-old had been telling people that all day, but he looks charming when he says it nevertheless.

Diminutive and trim, Bernheim is dressed in a black suit, jacket hanging off the back of his chair in a suite at Delhi’s Sheraton hotel. I notice he’s wearing two watches—one on each wrist. “When I am in India, it is easier because of the half an hour in the (four-and-a-half-hour) time difference between Europe and here,” he says. That’s hard to believe, Bernheim is too astute to let 30 minutes throw him off any kind of calculation.

As it turns out, Bernheim is here on an important mission. His company, the one started by and named after his father-in-law, is setting up its fully owned Indian subsidiary.

It is a demonstration of how key the Indian luxury watch buyer is to Raymond Weil, especially after the global economic shake-up of the last couple of years.

“My father-in-law was the first Swiss watchmaker to start selling in India, we have been available here since the early 1980s. But the market was quite stagnant for at least two de-

The salesman: There’s little difference between selling margarine and selling luxury watches if you have the passion for it, says Bernheim.

cades. It started growing a few years ago, but the last two years have been very exciting. It looks like it will be an unending story here,” he says.

Bernheim’s optimism is well founded. The first fully owned store had opened in Delhi’s Connaught Place earlier in the day and the sixth customer ended up buying the most expensive watch in the store (Rs7.8 lakh). “I wouldn’t have guessed that we would sell the watch on the first day. But I am not really surprised, there is so much money in India,” he says.

Though Bernheim, who has degrees in law and business management, has been working for Raymond Weil for 28 years (“only two other Swiss watch CEOs have that kind of experience”), he didn’t start his career selling luxury timekeepers. “Before all this I was working in Unilever, selling yogurt and margarine in Paris.

One day, my boss offered me another position within the company and at the same time, my father-in-law asked if I would be interested in working for his company,” he says.

Bernheim was certain he didn’t want to live in Paris; he was thinking of moving to Strasbourg, where he was born. “But when this offer came to join the family business, I thought Geneva is heaven. Let’s move there,” he says.

He did not face too many difficulties in the switch. “My father-in-law

was an exceptional person to work with. My wife always says I am the son he did not have. I consider him my second father, he thought of me as his son. So that made it easy. Also, I am passionate about marketing and selling to end consumers. Whether you are selling margarine or watches, it’s nearly the same—you need to understand who your consumer is and you need to be knowledgeable,” he says.

At the time, family owned Swiss watchmakers were going through a metamorphosis. Several families with long watchmaking histories and valuable brand names decided to sell their companies. But Raymond Weil persisted. Partly because the company does not make its own movements (the mechanism that makes the needles in the watch move), a process that involves investing a lot of money over several years. “We would rather use existing standard movements.

Investing in a new movement is not feasible in terms of price. When you are BMW, you cannot suddenly become Ferrari,” he says.

The industry is still recovering from the next shake-up, the global economic slowdown of 2008. Bernheim says Raymond Weil is cushioned since it has a wide global reach, even though the US is a large market. “Last year, we did not sell as much as we wished in the US. But China picked up quickly. This year, (the) US has

recovered.

Dubai is probably affected for me to leave. for a longer time because it does not have a big local market,” he says.

Bernheim is not optimistic about the prospects of a European recovery though. “I don’t think one can expect much from the old continent.

It does not produce anything any more. There is no wealth being created,” he says.

Slumping demand aside, the immediate challenge Swiss watchmakers face is a human resources issue. There simply aren’t many watch assemblers any more. “The whole process is done by hand and it’s getting difficult finding people who have the skills for this job,” he says.

When he’s not pondering over such issues, Bernheim can be found outdoors skiing, horseback riding and gardening. In the evenings, he attends concerts and operas. His wife, Diana, is a professional pianist, and he himself is a music aficionado— partial to the compositions of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert.

“I don’t listen to any of the modern composers. I stopped with Wagner in 1880,” he says. But he does listen to Rolling Stones and Jimmy Hendrix.

“I even used to have the Hendrix hair,” he says.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to ponder how this brisk businessman in front of me would pull off the Hendrix look. The watch on his right hand indicated it was time

A Formula Can Get You Cheapest Flights LONDON ( TOI): Japanese economists have come up with a formula that will help you bag the cheapest holiday flights. It is simple - buy tickets exactly eight weeks in advance and book in the afternoon.

T h e mind-boggling maths formula “A = gUG + min(k - g, (1 - g)(1 r)” has been prepared

by Makoto Watanabe and Marc Moller and published in the latest edition of The Economic Journal.

Japanese economists said that to get the most for your money, book exactly eight weeks in advance and buy the tickets in the afternoon.

Daily Mail reported that when we book our flight weeks ahead, we have to account for the possibility of unforeseen events which make our trip impossible.

In order to make consumers take their chances, airlines

have to offer advance purchase discounts. As a consequence, ticket prices increase as the travel date approaches.

If buying tickets more than eight weeks ahead look like the

They suggested that holidaymakers will book at home later on.

The report states: “The purchase of airline and theatre tickets are both examples where

best option, it could, however, mean that the consumer risks having to pay to alter booking if the plans change.

But, if one leaves it for later, there’s an increased risk that prices may go up or the flight could be fully booked.

Regarding booking the ticket in the afternoon, economists explained that business travellers, who are less concerned about price, tend to book trips from the office earlier in the day.

individual demand uncertainty and rationing risks interfere.

“However, there is empirical evidence which shows that airline ticket prices typically increase over time while theatre tickets are often sold at a discount on the day. When we purchase our theatre ticket last minute, there exists the possibility that the event has sold out. In order to make consumers bear this risk, theatres implement a clearance sale by offering lastminute discounts.”

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Fadeout for a Culture That’s Neither Indian Nor British

By Mian Ridge CALCUTTA (NYT) : Entering the crumbling mansion of the Lawrence D’Souza OldAge Home here is a visit to a vanishing world.

Breakfast tea from a cup and saucer, Agatha Christie murder mysteries and Mills & Boon romances, a weekly visit from the hairdresser, who sets a dowager’s delicate hair in a 1940s-style wave. Sometimes, a tailor comes to make the old-style garments beloved by Anglo-Indian women of a certain age. Floral tea dresses, for example.

“On Sundays, we listen to jive, although we don’t dance much anymore,” Sybil Martyr, a 96-year-old retired schoolteacher, said with a crisp English accent.

“We’re museum pieces,” she said.

The definition has varied over time, but under the Indian Constitution the term Anglo-Indian means an Indian citizen whose paternal line can be traced to Europe. Both of Mrs. Martyr’s grandfathers were Scots.

Like most Anglo-Indian women of her generation, she has lived all her life in India and has never been to Britain. But she converses only in English. At school, she said, she learned a little Latin and French and enough “kitchen Bengali” to speak to servants.

Before 1947, when the British left India, Anglo-Indians — also known at the time as half-castes, blackywhites and eight annas (there were 16 annas in a rupee, the official currency of India) — formed a distinct community of 300,000 to 500,000 people.

Most were employed in the railroads and other government services, and many lived in railroad towns built for them by the British, where their distinctive culture, neither Indian nor British, flourished.

But today that culture is fading fast, with Mrs. Martyr’s generation perhaps its last torchbearers.

No one is certain how many Anglo-Indians live in India today; they were last counted in a census in 1941. Intermarriage and successive waves of emigration after Indian independence are thought to have reduced their number to 150,000 at most, said Robyn Andrews, a social anthropologist at Massey University in New Zealand.

The children and grandchildren of those who stayed have become increasingly assimilated, marrying

Sybil Martyr, a retired schoolteacher, lives in Calcutta with other elderly Anglo-Indians. Both of her grandfathers were Scottish.

Indians without European ancestors and adopting local languages.

The president of India appoints two Anglo-Indian members of Parliament each session to ensure that the tiny community has political representation. The culture lives on, somewhat, in Anglo-Indian dishes like country chicken, a tangy dish seasoned with garlic and ginger, and pepper water, a spicy tomato-chili sauce, ladled on rice with meat on the side.

Barry O’Brien, an Anglo-Indian lawmaker in West Bengal’s State Assembly,saidmostAnglo-Indianswere Christians, but he acknowledged that there were no longer enough of them to fill their own churches. He said the distinct Anglo-Indian lifestyle, so faithfully adhered to by people like Mrs. Martyr, would probably not outlive them.

“It’s going to be gone, completely, within a few years, and with it, a unique memory of the British in India,” Mr. O’Brien said.

The culture dates to the late 18th century, when British employees of the East India Company began to marry Indian women in substantial numbers and have children. By the late 19th century, as more British women migrated to India, crosscultural marriages dwindled. But by then, Anglo-Indians had achieved a privileged, if curious, place in Indian life.Though their lifestyles were more British than Indian, Anglo-Indians rarely mixed with Britons as equals.

The British generally looked down on Anglo-Indians, who tended to consider themselves superior to Indians.

Some confusion persists among Anglo-Indians about what it means

to be British. When asked what food she likes, Mrs. Martyr replied: “Oh, English, like you eat in England — curries and cutlets. And some Indian food, like dal.”

In some respects, Anglo-Indians tended to be socially progressive, Mr. O’Brien said. By the early 20th century, he said, many Anglo-Indian women worked outside the home, at a time when few middle-class Indian women did. They established an English-language education system, financed by the British, and a vast network of social clubs.

“All the Indians wanted to be Anglo-Indian,” said Malcolm Booth, 83, the honorary general secretary of the All-India Anglo-Indian Association.

Portraits of dark-eyed, pale-skinned men in suits hung on the walls of his Delhi office, where, dressed in 1950sstyle paisley-patterned suspenders, he sipped tea.

A former railroad engineer, Mr. Booth defines Anglo-Indian more strictly than the Constitution does. He regards Goans with Portuguese and French ancestry as pretenders, even though the constitutional definition, once used to ensure job quotas and other privileges for Anglo-Indians, accepts any European ancestry on the father’s side.

Along with educational and social benefits, Anglo-Indians received preferential pay during British rule, according to Mr. Booth. In the 1940s, he said, a British train engineer earned around 300 rupees a month, while an Anglo-Indian would earn 200 and an Indian 100.

The demise of the British Raj was a shock from which the Anglo-In-

dian community took decades to recover. Many of the better off and more highly skilled left for new lives overseas. Those who stayed lost the privileges to which they had become accustomed. Government financing for separate Anglo-Indian schools, for instance, stopped in 1961.

After hiring quotas for Anglo-Indians were abolished, their inability to speak Hindi and other Indian languages took a toll on their employment opportunities.

The poverty and isolation that resulted still haunt Anglo-Indian retirement homes like Mrs. Martyr’s, an atmospheric, once-grand building

whose residents are far from affluent, paying $65 a month to live there.

Today, though, the fortunes of younger Anglo-Indians are generally rising, Mr. O’Brien said. Their English skills and what Ms.Andrews, the anthropologist, describes as their “Western bearing” make them attractive employees for multinationals and Indian outsourcing companies.

“You go for a job interview in a multinational with a name like O’Brien, and, well, it all flows pretty easily for our children these days,” Mr. O’Brien said. Samuel Moses, a recruitment consultant with Catalyst Consulting Services, an employment agency in Calcutta, agreed. “It’s their fluency in English that makes it easy for them to get positions in multinationals and customer care positions in call centers,” he said.

Greg Francis, a 30-year-old Anglo-Indian from Calcutta, where his forefathers worked on the railroads, works for I.B.M.’s call center division in Gurgaon, a high-rise satellite city on Delhi’s edge where many multinationals have their headquarters where he trains Indians on dealing with Westerners. “They need to learn a lot,” he said. His life is good, he said, but he could not shake the idea that his people’s best days were in the past.

“I feel kind of homesick for those old times,” he said, “although I never knew them.”

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In Remote Bengal, Postal ‘Runner’ of Old Exists Still

By Dola Mitra

Oh, Runner...

No one will ever know of your pain or your plight/ Your story will be a secret of the dark black night — from the Bengali poem ‘Runner’

by Sukanta Bhattacharya KOLKOTA (Outlook): Actually, it’s a bright sunny day on top of a hill in the rolling, forested landscape of Ayodhya Pahar in Bengal’s Purulia district, and 60-year-old Putuna Mura, a local tribal, seems only too willing to share her story with us—a runner’s story. Putuna is a surviving relic of this virtually defunct institution whose roots lie deep in the country’s postal past. In Bengal, the tribulations of these tireless messengers, traversing miles on foot, their bells jangling through the stillness of the night, delivering mail in remote regions and covering stipulated distances within strict timeframes, have for long fired the imagination of artists, writers and poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya. In Putuna’s case, the story has a special twist, not only is she one of the state’s three surviving runners—she is also the only woman known to have ever become a runner.

Explains Purulia division’s assistant superintendent of post, Gautam Ghosh: “She was given the job on sympathetic grounds when her husband, Buddheshwar, who was a runner, died 20 years ago.” At first, Putuna’s life turned topsy-turvy. She had to suddenly switch from being an ordinary housewife who cooked, cleaned and looked after children to, in her own words, “a postman going from door to door delivering letters”.

But two decades on, not only is she used to the drill, hill folk too are no longer shocked at the sight of a woman in white—being a widow, she wears only white—sprinting across dense forests and deep rivers in rain and sunshine alike, to deliver mail.

And sometimes in the moonlight too: “like a ghost”, she says eerily.

Nightrunner of Bengal Putuna Mura, widow of a runner, covers a minimum of 20-30 km a day, often braving bandits and wild beasts (Photograph by Sandipan Chatterjee) No matter how late she goes to bed, Putuna wakes up at the crack

of dawn and leaves the of the country.” house by 7 am sharp. She Indeed, Putuna is not the steps out of her little mud only runner operating in the hut in Ayodhya village region—there are two others. and hops across to the tiny Sixty-five-year-old Kalipada post office beyond the dirt Mura has been a runner since road. She reports to the the death of his famous father, postmaster, who scribbles Khepu Mura. Khepu, a runthe names on postcards ner during the Raj, became and envelopes piled up on a legend for his bravery in a table into his register, confronting dangers, be they stamps the mail with his wild beasts or bandicoots. Kaseal and puts it into a jute lipada’s colleague, 60-yearsack, which he hands over old Anath Sardar, is also the to Putuna. She places it son of a former runner from over her shoulder, looks the region, Dhananjoy Singh at the clock on the wall, Sardar. But, unlike Putuna, mutters a “7:10 already” these two don’t deliver mail under her breath and struts person-to-person or door to out of the door and into the door, but lug their mail bags street. There are 22 villages from postal point to postal across Ayodhya Hills, each point. Each of them walks a cluster of no more than 30 to 50 km per day to reach 10 to 20 houses. But the these outposts. While Putuna, villages are separated by being literate and able to read long stretches of dense fornames and addresses, gets a ests, deep rivers and wide Anath Sardar, whose father was a Raj-era runner, in monthly salary of Rs 6,000, the Ayodhya Hills region. For isolated villagers, the valleys. Putuna walks a few runners like him are a vital link with the world the two men, illiterate like minimum of 20-30 km a beyond. their fathers were, are paid day, often much more. If daily wages Rs 200 a day for there are too many letters do her job quickly. The presence their labour. and too much distance to be covered, of Maoists is not new in Purulia, So far the job seems to have been she leaves some of the work for the especially its Ayodhya Hills region. transferred seamlessly, from husband next day, but that is not encouraged— Surrounded by porous borders and to wife, from father to son, but will the mail could be urgent. “Today, I covered in dense have to cover 17 destinations, and forests, it is one the distances between each are long,” of the country’s she says stoically, as she gets into most remote reher stride. gions in terms “Yes, I get scared sometimes,” of accessibility she admits, as she makes her way. by road or rail, “There is much to fear in the jungles which makes and hills,” she whispers. “Snakes, it virtually a elephants, often even bears.” For run- haven for the ners, the other source of terror, tradi- insurgents. As tionally, has been bandits and dacoits. Rakesh Kumar, As the Ayodhya branch post master director of GenBibekananda Mahato explains, the eral Post Office, threat is accentuated because they South Bengal, carry money orders, apart from or- explains, “It is dinary mail. “Many of the hill folk this very inachave relatives living outside who cessibility which send money home. Runners could be makes runners a attacked and looted.” necessity even in However, the biggest danger right this day and age. now, in the Ayodhya Hills, is Maoist As you know, activity, of which this region is a hub. the designation No runner would want to rub the has been done Maoists the wrong way, says Putuna, away with in who tries her best to avoid them and most other parts

future generations want to carry on this tradition? The answer, from the sons, daughters and grandchildren of all three runners, is a firm “no.”

“Too dangerous,” is the common refrain. So how will the people of Ayodhya Hills get their letters after the current generation of runners is too old to carry on? That’s a question for the authorities to mull over; the runners themselves are content to be a vital link with the world beyond. The more affluent villagers have begun to acquire mobile connections, but these are unreliable. And most villages don’t have electricity—those which do have only a few TV-owning households. Letters, therefore, are vital. “I bring smiles to people’s faces when I bring them good news,” Putuna says proudly. It’s true. Twenty-five year old Suchitra Hansa is delighted when Putuna hands her a muchawaited envelope. “It’s from the state government. I’ve been called for a job interview,” says this wife of a local school teacher. But 18-year-old Shidhu Soren, who has applied for a clerk’s job, is still waiting for a reply.

“Is there a letter from me?” he calls out to Putuna, when he bumps into her on her run. “Not yet,” Putuna shakes her head. “But maybe tomorrow.”

That’s mles away.

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South Asia News of the Diaspora

India tries t using Cash Bonuses to Slow Population Birthrates

By JiM iM yardley SATARA (NYT): Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you.

It also will pay you.

“I want to tell you about our honeymoon package,” began Ms. Jadhav, an auxiliary nurse, during a recent house call on a new bride in this farming region in the state of Maharashtra.

Jadhav explained that the district government would pay 5,000 rupees, or about $106, if the couple waited to have children. Waiting, she promised, would allow them time to finish their schooling or to save money.

Waiting also would allow India more time to curb a rapidly growing population that threatens to turn its demography from a prized asset into a crippling burden. With almost 1.2 billion people, India is disproportionately young; roughly half the population is younger than 25. This “demographic dividend” is one rea-

Dr. Archana R. Khade (left), and a nurse, Sunita Laxman Jadhav, right, explained incentives to delay childbirth to a new bride near Satara this month.

son some economists predict that India could surpass China in economic growth rates within five years. India will have a young, vast work force while a rapidly aging China will face the burden of supporting an older population.

But if youth is India’s advantage, the sheer size of its population poses looming pressures on resources and presents an enormous challenge for an already inefficient government to expand schooling and other services.

In coming decades, India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation, and the critical uncertainty is just how populous it will be. Estimates range from 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion people, and Indian leaders recognize that that must be avoided.

Yet unlike authoritarian China, where the governing Communist Party long ago instituted the world’s strictest population policy, India is an unruly democracy where the central government has set population

targets but where state governments carry out separate efforts to limit the birthrate. While some states have reacted to population fears with coercion, forbidding parents with more than two children from holding local office, or disqualifying government workers from certain benefits if they have larger families, other states have done little.

Meanwhile, many national politicians have been wary of promoting population control ever since an angry public backlash against a scandal over forced vasectomies during the 1970s. It was considered a sign of progress that India’s Parliament debated “population stabilization” this month after largely ignoring the issue for years.

“It’s already late,” said Sabu Padmadas, a demographer with the University of Southampton who has worked extensively in India. “It’s definitely high time for India to act.”

The program here in Satara is a pilot program, one of several initiatives across the country that have used a softer approach trying to slow down population growth by challenging deeply ingrained rural

customs. Experts say far too many rural women wed as teenagers, usually in arranged marriages, and then have babies in quick succession, a pattern that exacerbates poverty and spurs what demographers call “population momentum” by bunching children together. In Satara, local health officials have led campaigns to curb teenage weddings, as well as promoting the “honeymoon package” of cash bonuses and encouraging the use of contraceptives so that couples wait to start a family.

“This is how population stabilization will come,” said Rohini Lahane, an administrator in the district health office.

India averages about 2.6 children per family, far below what it was a half century ago, yet still above the rate of 2.1 that would stabilize the population. Many states with higher income and education levels are already near or below an average of two children per family. Yet the poorest and most populous states, notably Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, average almost four children per family and have some of the lowest levels of

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Cash Bonuses to Slow Birthrates

Mahesh Waghmare and his wife, Sarika, outside their home near Satara. The couple could not wait to have children because of family pressure. continued from page

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female literacy.

“An educated girl is your best contraception,” said Dr. Amarjit Singh, executive director of the National Population Stabilization Fund, a quasi-governmental advisory agency.

He said that roughly half of India’s future excess population growth was expected to come from its six poorest states.

Maharashtra is not in that category, but its population is still growing too fast. A farming district ringed with green hills, Satara has three million people. A 1997 survey found that almost a quarter of all women were marrying before the legal age of 18, while roughly 45 percent of all infants and young children in the district were malnourished.

In response, the district began a campaign to reduce the number of child brides and more than 27,000 parents signed a written pledge agreeing not to allow their daughters to wed before age 18. Within a few years, the marrying age rose and the rate of child malnutrition dropped. Today, officials say about 15 percent of children are malnourished. But if couples were marrying a little later, they were usually producing a child within the first year of marriage, followed by another soon after. So in August 2009, Satara introduced its honeymoon package as an incentive to delay childbirths. So far, 2,366 couples have enrolled.

“The response has been good,” said Dr. Archana Khade, a physician at the primary health care center in the village of Kahner. “But the money is a secondary thing. It’s about the other things, for better future prospects.”

Now, health officials in other states have come to Satara to study the program. Every day, auxiliary nurses like Jadhav canvass villages to disseminate information about family planning and solicit new couples for the honeymoon package. In India, a new couple usually resides with the family of the groom and it is the older generation that represents Jadhav’s biggest challenge.

“The first time I go, they always defy you,” she said. “They say, ‘No, we don’t want to do that.’ The older generation believes that the moment a couple gets married, they want a baby

in their house.”

On a recent afternoon, Jadhav and Dr. Khade made their pitch to a 20-year-old bride, who stared silently down as her mother-in-law hovered in an adjacent room of their farmhouse.

“You can delay your first pregnancy,” Dr. Khade said. “Have you talked to your husband about family planning or when you want to have a child?”

“He doesn’t want to have children early,” the bride answered, almost in a whisper.

“Do you think your in-laws will be happy with your decision?” Dr. Khade asked.

The young bride was silent. Her in-laws did not know that she was already using birth-control pills.

Many experts emphasize that easing India’s population burden will require a holistic response centered on improving health services and teaching about a full range of contraception.

Many rural women know little about family planning, and female sterilization is the most commonly used form of birth control. During the 1990s, officials in the state of Andhra Pradesh advocated sterilization of mothers after a second child, an approach that brought a sharp drop in the birthrate but was criticized as coercive in some cases.

In Satara, the birthrate has fallen to about 1.9 children per family, partly because of the honeymoon package, with many women opting for sterilization after their second child. Problems persist, such as a sharp gender imbalance in Satara and many other regions of India because of a cultural bias toward having sons.

With more pressure to limit families to two children, female fetuses are often aborted after a couple sees an ultrasound.

Yet the idea of waiting appeals to many women. One new bride, Reshma Yogesh Sawand, 25, said she and her husband wanted to wait to have a child and only one in order to save money and move to a bigger city.

“If I have just one,” said Sawand, who is taking a computer course and has a job selling insurance policies, “I can take better care of it.”

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Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

e n t e r t ain m e n t

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Endhiran: Rajni-Ash Film is Costliest Indian Film to Date

By Pushpa Iyengar

CHENNAI (Outlook): With S. Shankar, big seems to get only bigger with every new film.

The Chennai-based filmmaker, notorious for overshooting his films’ assigned budgets, is set to deliver what Aishwarya Rai Bachchan calls “a landmark in the history of Indian cinema”, with his latest trilingual Endhiran (Robot). The film that took two years to make has cost a jaw-dropping Rs 150 crore—twice the budget of the costliest film to date, the Bollywood multi-starrer Blue (which, incidentally, sank like a stone at the box office). Forty per cent of the money is believed to have been spent on special effects alone. Rajnikanth’s make-up was worth the cost of a small film—Rs 3 crore—and the set (which, the publicity machine emphasises, is “eco-friendly”) was worth Rs 5 crore. Gossip has it that it was Shankar’s location scouting— the film has been shot in Vienna, Machu Picchu in Peru, US and Brazil, apart from Goa, KuluManali, Pune, Vellore and Chennai—in the time of recession that led the first producer, Ayngaran International, to pull out soon after the movie went on floors, after which Kalanidhi Maran had to step in to back the project through Sun TV Network’s movie production arm. Last heard, Think Music had acquired the music rights of the Tamil version for a whopping Rs 7 crore, the highest ever for a South Indian film.

There’s more than big money to attract the viewer to this futuristic sci-fi set in 2020. For one, there’s superstar Rajnikanth, playing a scientist who builds a robot that looks like him to save people from an evil force represented by Danny Denzongpa. (Shades of The Terminator?

And the Hindi flop from last year, Love Story 2050?). What’s more, the film has Aishwarya playing Rajni’s love interest for the first time—a pairing that excites interest against a backdrop of swirling stories about how he unsuccessfully

The costliest Indian film, a Rajni-Ash starrer with international collaborations. Will it work?

tried to make her the heroine of three of his earlier films—Baba, Chandramukhi and Shivaji—and finally hit a home run with Endhiran on her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan’s intervention. The two stars will be dancing to the tunes of Oscar winner A.R. Rahman and mouthing lyrics written by poet Vairamuthu. The music will be mixed by another Oscar winner, Resul Pookutty.

The international contributions to what Rajni labels Shankar’s “dream project” are just as eyebrow-raising. Yuen Woo Ping, who has directed Jackie Chan and was the action choreographer in the Matrix and Kill Bill sequels, is Endhiran’s stunt coordinator while Mary E.Vogt, the costume designer for the Men in Black series, will showcase her work for the first time in an Indian film. The film has made extensive use of Stanwinston Studio’s animatronics technology, putting it in the exalted company of Jurassic

Park, Predator, Terminator, Iron Man and the recent Avatar, which used the same studio.

In the run-up to the film’s likely release in late September (September 24 is the rumoured date), the Tamil film industry is full of Endhiran buzz.

(Even the latest Amul ad features it: Rai’bot, The Makhanical Wonder...”) Every little nugget of information has found its way into the media, including the story of how the film got its doublebarrelled title: Shankar’s fondness for English names for his films, Gentleman, Indian, Jeans, Boys was initially extended to Endhiran, too, which started out being called Robot (its title in both the Hindi and Telugu versions). But it was quickly changed when the Tamil Nadu government declared that its entertainment tax waiver would apply only to films with a Tamil title.

Apart from the title, the film boasts of other elements that might just fetch it a waiver. It is inspired by famous stories of the late novelist

Sujatha, En Iniya Enthira (My Beloved Robot) and Jeano (A Robotic Dog). Rajni plays both human and robot. Shahrukh Khan had initially been approached for these twin roles but quit the project “because of creative differences”. Rajni himself confirmed this at the music release of the Hindi version of the film in Mumbai last weekend, with the comment, “Daane daane pe likha hai khaane waale ka naam” (i.e. he was destined to play this role).

At the music release of the Tamil version in Kuala Lumpur, however, he sounded a bit like a callow youth, when he said, “You’ll never be able to see a beauty like Aishwarya in our generation. She is a true artist.” But his effusive praise notwithstanding, the Mumbai star is said to be “seriously” unhappy with some of her costumes and her garish headgear, feathers and all. So, will Endhiran make the cash registers ring? Will the audience in B and C centres be able to connect with a sci-fi? Film experts hold that “the Marans are too astute to back a film unless they know it’s a winner”. Writer Raji Monisha Cherian says, “There’s no reason why a film in which Shankar has blended all the formula elements should flop.” The word from art critic Sadanand Menon is: “Shankar is comfortable with romance, drama, stunts and the use of technology.” But he is quick to add, tongue in cheek, “I was thinking that all these days they (actors in Tamil cinema) were playacting as robots. With this film, they actually are robots.

A truthful moment for Tamil cinema!”

But, ultimately it’s Thalaivar Rajnikanth’s word that matters. Rajni, said to have been noncommittal after seeing his films i and Padiyappa, is believed to have told Shankar after seeing the rushes of Endhiran: “The film will do well.” Five more reassuring and loaded words were never spoken by a superstar to his director in the history of Indian cinema.

The former Miss World and famous Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with Rajnikanth, veteran actor of South India in a S. Shankar-directed Tamil movie, Endhiran-The Robot. The release of the film is to be in two different versions, Hindi and Telugu, is scheduled on September 24.

In Indian film history, Robot is one of the most expensive cinematic adventures till date. A whopping 150-190 crore rupees has been gone to the making of the movie.

The Oscar winning music director A. R. Rahman has composed the music for the film. The ceremonial launch of the music of Sun Pictures’ Robot, was held on August 14 in Mumbai, was a stunning affair to witness.

The biggies from Bollywood and South Indian film industries were director S. Shankar, A. R. Rahman, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Rajnikanth.

The presence of Danny Denzongpa, an eminent personality who plays a negative role in the movie, was to be noticed in the event.

The show was hosted by Ratan Jain and Kalanidhi Maran. He gave an amazing speech in Hindi.

Excited about the rise of her career with the release of Endhiran, Aishwarya said that the movie is a landmark in the history of Indian film industry.

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Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

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Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

IndIa

Chinese Soldiers Invade India in Pursuit of Valuable Aphrodisiac ‘Love Flower’

Chinese soldiers are crossing the Indian border to gather rare mushrooms, reputed to have aphrodisiac properties, that sell for £3,000 for 2 lbs

By Dean nelson security officials the Chinese military highly sensitive for both countries

NEW DELHI (DT): The ‘jelly- personnel usually say they have en- which fought a border war in 1962 like fungus,’ a mushroom known as tered Indian territory to collect wild in which China captured but later recordyceps sinensis, turned Tawang district, which grows inside which it claims is part the bodies of dead of Tibet. insect lavae.

General Singh said It grows at high altalks between the two titude on remote Hicountries were currently malayan peaks along trying to clarify the exact the border areas of position of ‘MacMahon Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan Line’- the border drawn and India and has in pencil on a map by a been prized as a herbSir Henry MacMahon, al medicine in Tibet British India’s foreign and China since the secretary in 1914.

15th century.

General Singh said the Indianofficialssaid ‘pencil line’ on the map troops from China’s is more than two miles People’s Liberation wide on the ground.

Army (PLA) are “Our people carry sneaking across the out tours based on our disputed MacMahon perception of the border Almost a shade darker that the turmeric yellow, these and leave souvenirs like Line border.

While the fun- mushrooms known as Cordyceps Sinesis is also known biscuits to show they gus, which has been as the famous love flower and is considered as a valuable were there and they [the aphrodisiac that are tempting Chinese Soldiers to cross the dubbed the ‘love MacMahon border to pluck these mushrooms in India Chinese] do the same,” flower,’ is not par parhe said. ticularly valued in He had seen the ‘love India, its value has soared in China fungus from the mountains. They call flowers’ growing in water-filled as an aphrodisiac. it the ‘love flower”. mountain crannies and described “There have been instances of spoGen J.J Singh, Arunachal Pradesh’s them as “opaque, like jelly, and tasteradic intrusion into the Indian side Governor, sought to play down the less. by the PLA in small groups .They seriousness of ‘incursions’ yesterday, The price has shot up and there are come, stay there for a while and then and said Chinese villagers were the villagers of hunter gatherers on both go back,” said Arunachal Pradesh’s main smugglers coming across into sides who make a living out of it,” he home minister Tako Dabi. “When India. said. “You get a feeling of…well it they meet locals or are challenged by The issue of incursion remains makes you feel strong,” he said.

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Fresh Cilantro Bursts with Unrivaled Zesty Flavor By norman Winter

Cilantro is to Mexican food what fuel is to a race car -- an absolutely essential item.

It is grown for the aromatic foliage not only popular in Mexican dishes but also used in Middle East and Asian cuisine. As a further testimony to the zest cilantro provides, it is known as Chinese parsley, too.

The mildly narcotic seed known as coriander is popular in pickles, liqueurs, curries and dishes such as ratatouille. The root is added to curries and the stems to beans and soups. It was even considered an Egyptian aphrodisiac.

Because of the popularity of Mexican food, the English word coriander is now being overshadowed by the Spanish word cilantro.

The good news for the gardeners is that cilantro is easily grown from seeds in well-prepared gardens.

It grows so fast you may want to sow multiple or succession crops to keep it around all season.

It is also good as a pot or container plant. Last year I saw a wonderful tub filled with cilantro, tomatoes and peppers. Everything you needed for a tasty salsa in one pot.

In the garden sow seeds 1/2-inch deep in rows 12 to 18 inches apart.

The plants will reach 18 to 24 inches tall. You can have plants where you cut the leaves for fresh cilantro, or

harvest the whole plant when the fruits begin to turn gray brown and the seeds are ripe.

Harvest fresh tender leaves from the top and cut several inches down to bring on rapid new growth. You can prune the central stalk as it develops, which will help delay flower formation a little, but you best have some new seedlings already growing to ensure a continual supply.

At my house, I like to smoke eight to 10 chicken leg quarters for about three hours or until they are just barely done. Then I will cut the meat off the bone and into small pieces, placing them in a foil roasting pan.

I include 1 1/2 large bell peppers, one large chopped onion, chopped jalapenos, the amount depending on how wimpy the guests are, and 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro.

I then cook it directly over the coals until the vegetables become cooked. Place the chicken on flour tortillas with refried beans, guacamole, cheese and homemade salsa, and you have mouth-watering homemade fajitas.

If you like Mexican food but haven’t tried growing cilantro, get a package of seeds and plant them this weekend. In the fall, start small pots to be grown in brightly lighted areas indoors once cold weather arrives.

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, AUGUST 27 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

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nutrItIon

Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

Research: ‘Electric Shock Helps Potatoes Much More Nutritious’

LONDON (Zee): Want to make the humble potato more nutritious? Then give it an electric shock.

Researchers at Japan’s Obihiro University have found that zapping the vegetable with electricity trick it into producing a rush of antioxidants credited with keeping the human body and brain healthy.

Scaled up to an industrial level, the inexpensive process could give potatoes a whole new image, the scientists said at a conference.

Other tests in the same study, which used potatoes as the sample vegetable, found that using ultrasound on them had a similarly beneficial effect.

Lead researcher Kazunori Hironaka said: “Antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables are considered to be of nutritional importance in the prevention of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease-various cancers, diabetes and neurological diseases.”

Inspired by the observation that drought, bruising and other natural challenges, or stresses, led to vegetables making more antioxidants, Dr Hironaka decided to investigate man-made means.

“We found that there hadn’t been any research done on the healthful effects of using mechanical processes to stress vegetables,” Dr Hironaka

was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

“So we decided to evaluate the effect of ultrasound and electric treatments on antioxidants on potatoes.”

For their study, the researchers dipped whole potatoes in salty water, to help them conduct electricity, and then they zapped the vegetables with a small charge for up to half an hour.

Subsequent tests revealed that antioxidant levels had risen by up to 60 per cent.

Five minutes of ultrasound -- a technique normally associated with scanning babies in the womb -- had a similar effect, the researchers found.

Dr Hironaka said the study showed that the non-destructive treatment was a simple and inexpensive way of making one of our favourite foods even more appealing.

He added: “The potato is one of the most important crops, ranking fifth in terms of human consumption and fourth in worldwide productions.”

However, the researchers neglected to say whether the process affects the taste.

While baked and boiled potatoes may be an even more attractive option for the healthconscious, chips will still likely be bad for the waistline, they said.

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Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

Wildlife

online edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

Nepal Zoo Opens ‘Honeymoon Suite’ MP Turns Tiger Reserves Endangered Rhinos to Start Mating into Havens for Tourists Nepal’s only zoo has opened a new “honeymoon suite” for its two one-horned rhinos in the hope of persuading the endangered pair to breed for the first time JAWALAKHEL, KATHMANDU (Telegraph): Kancha, 20, and 22-year-old Kanchi have lived together in captivity for most of their

large ponds for them to wallow in, will persuade them to finally start mating.

“As far as we can tell, Kancha and

once roamed the plains of Nepal and northern India, but their numbers have dwindled in recent decades as they have fallen victim to poaching and human encroachment on their habitat.

The animal’s horn is highly valued as an aphrodisiac in China, where a single one can fetch as much as £9,000 on the black market.

Experts say Nepal’s rhino population fell dramatically during the 10-year Maoist rebellion that ended in 2006, as army guards stationed in wildlife reserves to poachers left Nepalese one-horned rhinoceros Kancha (L) and Kanchih (R) deter to fight the rebels. stand at the central zoo at Jawalakhel in Kathmandu Only around 435 remain in Nepal, adult lives, but have never bred - Kanchi have never mated,” she told Ms Jnawali said. something the zoo’s manager Sarita AFP on Friday.

Nepal’s zoo relies solely on a 50-ruJnawali attributes to the quality of “Before, we didn’t have the proper pee (43p) entry charge for funding, their enclosure. facilities for the rhinos to breed, and and Ace Development Bank, a local She hopes that their new, much we hope this new enclosure will help bank that uses the one-horned rhino as larger home, which features mud us to increase species numbers.” its logo covered the 1.5 million rupee rather than concrete floors and two Thousands of one-horned rhinos (£12,800) cost of the new enclosure.

The Madhya Pradesh government has ordered that tiger reserves and all parks and sanctuaries in the state be opened to rampant tourism by turning even the forest guard posts deep in the tiger havens into tourist halts.

Contrary to communications from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to some states asking to stop tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves and regulate it in the surroundings, MP has gone just the other way by ordering that tourists would now be even allowed to follow the forest guards and officers on routine patrolling.

In what could turn the safe haven for tigers into noisy picnic spots, the state government has ordered that tourists would even be allowed to carry their food and water deep into the forest department posts where they would be given accommodation.

Getting off designated vehicles in tiger reserves and national parks is prohibited to prevent disturbance to the natural habitat. The tourists, the Union environment and forests ministry has routinely advised, should only be allowed to go on designated tourist routes accompanied by official guides to prevent the wildlife being disturbed -- especially the tiger in its

breeding grounds.

In Kanha tiger reserve in fact, the state government is now thinking of turning all forest beat offices inside into two-storied buildings with one floor being dedicated for

tourists. Coming at a time when the state and Centre are both working overtime to relocate tribals and other forest dwellers from the core of tiger reserves.

The step by state government comes even as the Union government has dithered on coming out with strict tourism guidelines as had been earlier prescribed by the Tiger Task Force in the wake of the Sariska fiasco. The MP government had earlier also proposed to turn over a patch of wildlife zone to a private party to be run for high-end exclusive tourism which too the Centre had rejected outright.

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IndIa

Bangalore Beggars’ Death Toll Rises to 27 BANGALORE: One more Commissioners have been inmate of the Beggars Relief asked to ensure proper facilities Centre here died while being to beggars at the 14 other relief brought back from hospital centres in various districts, inlast Tuesday, taking the toll in cluding Gulbarga, Mangalore, the government run centre to Mysore, Chitradurga, Kolar, 27 in the past week.

Belgaum, Bijapur and Dhar“The beggar who had eswad. caped from the Centre a week Ramaiah, Secretary Central ago died while he was being Relief Committee, said solar brought back in a vehicle”, heaters are being installed, water Principal Secretary, Social filters are being purchased and Welfare, Venkateshaiah said. borewells repaired to provide Police said over 600 beggars clean drinking water. Besides, had fled in the last one week new kitchen utensils, clothes, “as they were being badly bedspreads and other toiletries beaten up at the centre”. are also being being provided.

The government had drawn “We will also install heavy a lot of flak for the “dismal” The Bangalore beggars relief center duty washing machines with hot conditions at the centre, which is now catching a lot of flak for the wash facilities to contain spread resulted in the deaths of 26 in- cruelty and inhumane treatment of its of infection”, he said. mates in the last six days. inmates, as many as 27 beggars have On reports about a GovernVenkateshaiah said the gov- died because of being beaten up and ment Order envisaging transferernment has taken many steps ring over 123 of 160 acres of ill treated to improve living conditions prime land on which the centre patients”, he said. at the centre, the biggest in the is located to Bangalore DevelThe number of staff would be opment Authority for a convention state with around 2,500 inmates.

“Apart from cleaning up op- increased as most inmates are centre, Venkateshaiah he said only erations, medical set up is being already suffering from many a part of it was being given to BDA strengthened with more number of ailments and cannot take care to develop a park. “The dilapidated doctors being deployed on a regu- of their personal hygiene, “As a relief centre willbe replaced with lar basis. Specialists, including result, we need more number of a modern building with all amenigynaecologists will also be avail- hands”, he said. ties,” he said.

Venkateshaiah said Deputy able, depending on the need of the

Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

39

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sports

Indo American News • Friday, August 27 , 2010

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Sehwag Leads India to Final

Arjun Atwal: India’s First PGA Winner

By mick elliott GREENSBORO, N.C.: It was more than the deciding stoke in a one-shot victory. It was just crazy significant. Count the ways.

The 37-year-old from Asansol, India became his country’s first PGA Tour winner.

Without PGA Tour status after losing his card when a minor medical exemption ran out, he earned a spot in the tournament field through Monday qualifying -- and a Monday qualifier had not won on the PGA Tour in 24 years.

Also, not only was Atwal previously winless on the PGA Tour, just three times in seven seasons had he held a tournament lead and never after 54 holes. But he set the pace at Sedgefield Country Club from an opening round 61 and headed into Sunday with a three- The 37-year-old from Asansol, India shot advantage.

Tour winner.

If you need a reminder of the difficulty that accompanies a fiHe led the field for the week in total nal-round lead, consider last week’s putts with 109. He was T3 in fairways PGA Championship: Nick Watney hit (45 of 56). held a 3-stroke lead three days before The reward is two years of exempt a final-round 81 resulted in a T18 status, not to mention an invitation to finish. next year’s Masters.

So give it up for Atwal.

However, without PGATour mem“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, you bership, Atwal still does not qualify know, seriously,” he said. “Obvi- for the playoffs -- but that does not ously, (it) was a long time dream of mean the victory does not advance mine to win out here but, you know, his cause. until it happens, you know, you just Until now, other than being menkeep doubting yourself. And believe tioned occasionally as Tiger Woods’ me, I had my doubts teeing it up today practice partner back home in Or Oreven with the lead, with a three-shot lando, Fla., most of Atwal’s notoriety lead or whatever it was. was for a police investigation.

“Until you do it, you don’t know Three years ago, a driver trying to and I’m just so glad that putt went in. race him down an Orlando road died I was really nervous over that putt. It in a crash. The investigation focused was the most nervous I’ve ever been on allegations of drag racing, but Atin my whole entire life.” wal was cleared of any wrongdoing.

The Wyndham was the PGATour’s Still a yearlong investigation took an final regular-season event, the last emotional toll. opportunity for golfers to play their “I try not to bring that up or talk way into the four-event FedEx Cup about it,” Atwal said. “It was an acplayoff series that begins this week. cident, you know, it was bad time The top 125 on the money list after for both the families involved. ObviSunday qualify to move on to the ously theirs was more painful. But it Barclays, so there was all kinds of was an accident. There was no one 11th-hour opportunity. to blame.”

Atwal didn’t let it happen.

At least in the end there was not.

A final-round 67 pushed him to During the investigation, Atwal was 20-under, one shot better than Davis looking at the possibility of serious Toms (64). Two shots back were John charges. It dragged out over a long Mallinger and Michael Sims, both period. with 62s, along with John Rollins and “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he Justin Leonard, each after with 65. reiterated. “But it took so long, it took

Shiv Sagar

became his country’s first PGA

a year, you know, and there were so many details our lawyers were going into.

“So you would have doubts, you know, but I mean I knew that I didn’t do anything wrong and the other person didn’t. It was no one’s fault. It was an accident. That was it.”

Then another challenge.

He missed more than four months of last season with a shoulder injury.

A medical exemption gave him eight events in 2010 to earn $586,007, which would have retained exempt status, but he fell short and lost tour membership.

Atwal only got into this week’s field through Monday qualifying, and the victory makes him the first player since somebody named Fred Wadsworth won the 1986 Southern Open after winning a Monday qualifier.

It’s pretty heady stuff for a player who took up the game as a 14-yearold in India and is self-taught.

“You know, the only thing I remember about the whole week was as soon as I Monday qualified, I told my caddie we got nothing to lose this week,” Atwal said. “Just go out there and try and win it. Guys are going to be out there trying to secure their FedEx Cup spots or whatever.

“We got nothing to do. I don’t have a card or anything. Just go out and freewheel it. That’s what I did.”

By KanishK anishKaa Kaa Balachandran DAMBULLA (Cricinfo): A combination of belligerent hitting by Virender Sehwag and potent seam bowling helped India storm into the final of the tri-series with a comprehensive thrashing of New Zealand in the last league game. On a day when a majority of specialist batsmen on both sides batted with two left feet in bowler-friendly conditions, Sehwag found a way to carve out an aggressive century, scoring more than what 11 New Zealanders managed.

The target of 224 was out of New Zealand’s reach after their top or order crumbled against a four-pronged seam attack, a bowling combination you wouldn’t associate with Indian sides, especially in the subcontinent.

By the end of the night, you could imagine batsmen queuing up outside Sehwag’s door for the inside story on how he managed to dominate everything thrown at him. It was as though he was batting on another surface.

Sehwag was unfazed by the early movement and nip off the wicket, which made the seamers potent. He played in a style known only to him and, with the final in three days’ time, his innings today will undoubtedly be analysed in detail.

MS Dhoni took the gamble of batting on a fresh pitch, despite India having collapsed for 103 after batting first in their previous match against Sri Lanka. New Zealand’s seamers nipped out four wickets by the end of the 13th over with a combination of swing, cut and bounce and those strikes took the sheen off an entertaining start from Sehwag.

Not known for exaggerated foot movements, Sehwag used the crease to loft the seamers over the off side.

He barely moved across the stumps but such was his confidence that he stretched to scoop and slash power powerfully over backward point. He backed away and slapped the slower bowlers past the infield as well. A more conventional punch through cover brought up his 1000th ODI four, one that was part of a sequence of three consecutive fours off Tim Southee.

India were lucky to have MS Dhoni at the other end for he rotated strike and built a solid partnership with Sehwag. Their stand produced 107, but India needed more from their last capable pair, having only Ravindra

Jadeja, who is still trying to find his feet in ODIs, and a long tail to follow. Sehwag, however, didn’t alter his approach. He continued to charge the spinners, lifting Kane Williamson inside out over extra cover for boundaries, and also cleverly picked the gaps at fine leg off the seamers. He played an upper cut over the vacant slip cordon shortly after getting to his century, but the fun ended for India when Sehwag found deep midwicket when on 110. His dismissal was against the run of play.

Dhoni, who had batted carefully, had to try and reclaim the advantage for India but New Zealand took control. Having grafted to 38 off 75 balls, Dhoni edged a Nathan McCullum delivery while trying to drive. The dismissals of Sehwag and Dhoni in quick succession meant a premature end to the innings was inevitable.

Soon after New Zealand picked up the final wicket, though, their control over the game came to a grinding halt.

They had no-one with Sehwag’s calibre and temperament to take the initiative, irrespective of the damage being done at the other end. There was no respite from the other end as Ashish Nehra, with his extra pace when compared to Praveen, got the ball to nip in sharply to the righthanders, slicing them in half. A lot depended on the experienced Ross Taylor, but he was just as circumspect as the rest.

New Zealand’s chase was irreparably damaged when their senior-most batsman, Scott Styris, chopped one on to his stumps without moving his feet.

Grant Elliott knew that the best way to counter the swing was to cover the line and smother the movement. He regularly shuffled across the stumps, committing to the movement even before delivery, but his method didn’t yield runs as almost every defensive push found fielders. Williamson, who finally scored an international run in his third innings, was dismissed by an Ishant Sharma delivery which cut in and took the edge onto the stumps.

Munaf, who was miserly to begin with, bagged two lbws with with his probing line.

Kyle Mills’ blitz only succeeded in saving New Zealand the embarrassment of being bowled out for less than 100.

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Success 101: Positive vs. Power Thinking People use positive thinking to pretend that everything is rosy when they really believe it is not.

With power thinking, though, we understand that something is neutral until we assign it meaning by creating a story.

This is the difference between a positive thinker and a power thinker. A positive thinker believes their thoughts are true. Whereas a power thinker recognizes that their thoughts are not true, but since they are making up a story any-

way, they might as well make up a story that supports themselves.

Why do we do this? Not because our new thoughts are true in an absolute sense, but because they are more useful to us and feel a heck of a lot better than nonsupportive ones.

Observe yourself and your thought patterns, and entertain only the thoughts that support your happiness and success. Challenge that little voice in your head whenever it tells you, “I can’t” or

“I don’t want to” or “I don’t feel like it.” Don’t allow this fearbased, comfort-based voice to get the better of you. Make a pact with yourself that whenever the little voice in your head tries to stop you from doing something to support your success, you will do it anyway to tell it that you are the boss. Not only will you increase your confidence dramatically, but eventually, the voice will get quieter and quieter as it recognizes it has little effect on you.

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Some Children Still Study Under a Tree in 21st Century India

By Mhd Anis ur Rehman Khan PATNA(NI): Evoking highest spirit of education in the early 20th century, Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote about the wonder of children studying under a tree in the open air, imbibing knowledge and values in the lap of nature which is being practiced in Shantiniketan, the stellar institution of learning, based on Tagore’s principles.

In the 21st century India that recently marked its 64 Independence Day, Tagore’s dream seems to have been recreated in quite a different scenario.

One such example of that is visible in district Sitamarhi of north Bihar. Here, village students from Gainpur Tola of Madhuban Purbi Basaha Panchayat, Baj Patti Block, come carrying sacks. They require it everyday to sit on the ground to study under a tree.

A quiet place at Shantiniketan, a cement circle under a tree where classes are held These students are taught by a government appointed teacher, who all sections of the society are getting girls. The scheme is being extended government proposed to build a takes his regular class with the help benefit”-have been made. to boys as well. school in their village, several villagof a blackboard and runs this ‘open Primary school education, unYet this Gainpur Tola in Madhuban ers came forward to offer their land, air’ school. doubtedly the most crucial phase of Purbi Basaha Panchayat, has not got as per general practice.

According to Charkha Features, a student’s life, has been much touted what it deserves and what is talked Naveen Kumar and Bhola Mahto, this flies in the face of the govern- by the government as a high-priority. about at the policy level. who is Open-air school’s secretary, ment’s commitment for ‘education Construction of school buildings, This forgotten tola of Sitamarhi were foremost in this. But the school for all’, which is meant to impress provision of sports facilities, toilets, does not have the basics-a school building could not come up. upon the people its commitment to drinking water, even picnics are said building, not to mention the rest According to Jagat Kumar, the support and promote education as to be part of the Chief Minister’s Sa- of the State government’s elaborate school headmaster, “Everything was an independent policy and not rid- magra Vidyalaya Vikas Program. schemes. The community here which ready for the school. But we couldnt ing the bandwagon of the Central There have been references to dif- is a mix of different castes and reli- build the school. It requires headmasGovernment’s intent and initiative ferent schemes like appointment of gions, is bound by commonalities, ter’s signature on the agreement. But clearly spelt in the scheme “Right to teachers, schools administered by poverty and illiteracy.

I am not signing because the building Education”.

Panchayats, approval of new schools They wish a better future for their material is very costly in the market In the recent past many high-sound- and school buildings, providing children through education. And they whereas the government has fixed a ing statements like-”Today, we don’t money for cycle and uniform for girl have not spared themselves to walk cheap rate [to meet the cost] for the solely depend on Central Govt.’s students. that extra mile to turn it into a real- same.” schemes. We have introduced more According to reports, the Bihar ity.

Clearly there is a yawning gap than 40 schemes on our own in the government has distributed 36,81000 In 2008, when they heard that the between the stated policy and the State through which people from uniforms and 13,60000 cycles to

lacunae in their implementation. A gap that needs to be filled to live up to the expectations of the people in Gainpur Tola.

It is equally for the state government to place its hand on its heart and fulfill its claims.

Also in the absence of a school building, children are deprived of many facilities such as the Mid-Day meal.

“Where will we keep these things, if something happens who will take the responsibility?,” the headmaster asks.

The innocent children suffer without complaint while feeling dejected by the state of affairs in their school.

Gita Kumari, one of the students says, “During storms, our clothes, mouth, nose and eyes get filled with dust, it is difficult to breath then.”

According to Dhanish, a fourth standard student, “When we meet students from schools in nearby villages they say that they get food in the day and facilities to play. We don’t get any such things.

Students like Gita and Dhanish are conscious that these children sit on benches and study on desks. They feel all the more painful on comparison.

Dhanish says, “They only take their bags and go. While we have to carry our sacks along to sit on. I feel ashamed of it. I don’t mention to anyone where I study.”

Gainpur Tola in Sitamarhi district needs urgent correction. One expects the government to respond, to take action. We look forward to Gita Kumari and Dhanish along with the 150 odd students in Gainpur Tola being able to learn their lessons, sitting on benches, protected from the sun and the sand.

the framework of international cooperation and proposed structure of partnership which would govern the re-establishment of this University.

The NMG also has representatives from Singapore, China, Japan and Thailand.

The re-built university will focus

on Buddhist studies, philosophy and comparative religions, historical studies, international relations and peace studies, business Management in relation to public policy and development studies, languages and literature and ecology and environmental studies.

Rajya Sabha Passes Bill to Rebuild Ancient Nalanda University

NEW DELHI (IEN): The Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed a bill to re-establish the historic Nalanda University in Bihar as an international institute of learning.

The Nalanda University Bill, 2010, will establish a central university in Nalanda district of Bihar, on the lines of the ancient university which was founded there in 5th century AD and became a centre of learning for students from across South Asia.

Giving clarifications on the bill, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said the bill was being introduced by the ministry as 16 other countries are partnering in the re-establishment of the university.

“The name and motto of the university will be decided by the group of mentors, an international architecture competition will be held for finalizing the design of the university,” Kaur said replying to members’ suggestions.

Participating in the debate, senior Congress member Karan Singh requested the government to pay special attention to the architecture of the university and not build it “with PWD (public works department) architecture”, a demand which was backed by many other members.

Agreeing with the suggestions

made by members in the course of debate, the minister said the present bill was only a skeleton and the suggestions made by the members will be accommodated in it.

Kaur stressed on increasing the reach of the university beyond South Asia to countries across the world.

While introducing the bill, the minister had earlier informed the house that Singapore government has committed to give assistance of 5 million dollars for this purpose.

Karan Singh also underlined that the ancient seat of learning which thrived for 800 years, was destroyed

by Turkish invader Bakhtiyar Khilji and is now being rebuilt again after 800 years. Communist Party of IndiaMarxist member Sitaram Yechury, however, pointed out that the reestablishment of the university must not be to “settle scores of the past but to build a glorious future”.

“Nalanda was not only a temple of knowledge but also a temple of religious tolerance which we need to learn today,” Yechury said.

Janata Dal-United member N.K. Singh, who is also a member of a mentor group led by noted economist Amartya Sen looking after the reestablishment of the ancient university, said that the university will be an

“icon of Asian renaissance”.

The University of Nalanda is proposed to be re-established under the aegis of the East Asia Summit (EAS), as a regional initiative. The central government constituted a Nalanda Mentor Group (NMG) in 2007, under the chairmanship of Sen, to examine

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