Friday, January 28, 2022 | Vol. 41, No. 04
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January 28, 2022
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Indo American News
Published weekly from Houston, TX
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73rd Republic Day Celebration at India House A Dream’s Frozen End
Indo-Americans in Houston gathered outside India House to unfurl the flags of India, United States, Texas and India House to celebrate India’s 73rd Republic Day on January 26 morning.
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Bodies of four people, believed to be an Indian family of four, including a baby and a teen, were found in Canada near the US border in what authorities believe was a failed crossing attempt during a freezing blizzard.
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WEDDINGS, SPECIAL EVENTS, TENTED EVENTS, OUTDOOR COURTYARD
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Indo-American News • Friday, JANUARY 28, 2022 • www.indoamerican-news.com
2 January 28, 2022 IMMIGRATION Family of Four Found Frozen to Death near US-Canada Border
Jagdish (35), his wife Vaishali (33) and their two children Vihanngi (12) and Dharmik (3) had hired one of many “agents” who advertise in newspapers and offer to get families into the US without valid visas (left). A border marker, between the US and Canada, just outside of Manitoba. Photo credit: Vibes of India, Indian Express, AP
Winnipeg: Bodies of four people, believed to be an Indian family of four, including a baby and a teen, were found in Canada near the US border in what authorities believe was a failed crossing attempt during a freezing blizzard. Investigators in the US and Canada believe the deaths are linked to a larger human smuggling operation that unravelled on Wednesday as the US law enforcement arrested Steve Shand, a 47-year-old from Florida, near the border and later came across more Indians who said that they were attempting to cross the border to get into the US. In India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said he was shocked to hear about the incident. Jaishankar tweeted, “Shocked by the report that four Indian nationals, including an infant, have lost their lives at the Canada-US border. Have asked our Ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation.” According to court documents, a US Border Patrol in North Dakota stopped a passenger van just south of the Canadian border on Wednesday. Shand was driving and was with two undocumented Indian nationals. Inside the vehicle, officers found cases of plastic cups, bottled water, bottled juice and snacks. As they were taking the three back to the border patrol station in North Dakota, the officers spotted another group of five Indian nationals walking. They said they had walked across the border and had expected to be picked up by someone. The group said they estimated they had been walking for more than 11 hours, the report added. A woman stopped breathing several times as she was transported to hospital. Court documents said she will require partial amputation of her hand. A man was also hospitalised for frostbite but was later released. One of the men in the group was carrying a backpack that had baby supplies in it — clothes, a diaper and a toy. Court documents said he told the officers that it belonged to
a family who got separated from their group overnight. MacLatchy said work is underway to ID the victims, but at this stage, it appears they all died from exposure to the cold, the report said. The bodies discovered in Canada have been tentatively identified as that of the family of four, the release from the US Attorney’s Office said. In Winnipeg, Canada, on Thursday, Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy told a news conference that once they were notified that the family may still be in Manitoba, officers immediately began to search the area. After a difficult search, she said, officers found three bodies together — a man, a woman and a baby — just 10 metres from the border. The search continued and a teen boy was found a short distance away. It is believed they died from exposure. “It is an absolute and heartbreaking tragedy,” MacLatchy said. They were wearing winter clothing, she said, but it would not have been enough to save them with the freezing conditions. “These victims faced not only the cold weather but also endless fields, large snowdrifts and complete darkness,” MacLatchy said, adding that wind chill had driven down the temperature to minus 35 C. On Friday, India’s Ambassador to Canada Ajay Bisaria tweeted that Indian authorities were working with Canadian officials. Calling it a “grave tragedy”, he said an “Indian consular team is travelling today” from the Indian embassy in Toronto to Manitoba “to coordinate and help…We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events.” Despite constant humiliation, deportation and even the loss of life, more and more Gujaratis are willing to undertake dangerous practises to reach the United States and get a shot at that elusive ‘Ameri-
can dream’. Now, one family from a nondescript village in the state has even frozen to death. The family hailed from Dingucha village, some 12 kilometre from the Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar, with a registered population of 3,000 people. Most of residents of this village give a wry, proud smile when they say, “More than 1,800 people from our village, the majority, live in America.” Every house in Dingucha is replete with Costco candy and jalepeño wafers. Locals from the Patel-dominated area take pride in the fact that people from there began migrating to America from the early 70s, “when there were no issues,” as an older resident of the village said. The death of the family is very sad, the residents of Dingucha said, noting that they will find the agent who promised a “first-class human smuggling exercise” and had charged them Rs 65 lakh to do so. They are trying to get in touch over the phone with the relatives of a family in the village which was part of another group trying to make their way into the US. Yet the fascination with the American dream in Dingucha continues. Vibes of India is trying to ascertain the exact number of people from the small hamlet who are living in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico, but has not yet been able to compile an exhaustive list. The question which arises is: what is this American dream that they continue to strive for? Do they dream of frozen nights; working in Indian-owned convenience stores at half the legal minimum wage; posing outside unremarkable concrete buildings on abandoned streets simply to send pictures on WhatsApp to – ironically – well-to-do Indian relatives, boasting of their new life? The stars and stripes of the American flag still hold an indescribable power over thousands of Gujaratis who start preparing for their ‘new life’ in America before even a passport application has been filed.
Gujarat is a state where even a well-respected individual with an MBA wouldn’t mind pursuing this dream, even if it means selling Dunkin’ Donuts or cleaning toilets, all the while vaguely asserting that America really respects the dignity of labour. The Patel family mentioned above, the latest victims of this botched American dream, were not some poverty-stricken individuals with nowhere else to go. Jagdish, the family patriarch, was a respectable school teacher in Dingucha. Yet, they decided to try and make their way into the US. Jagdish (35), his wife Vaishali (33) and their two children Vihanngi (12) and Dharmik (3) had hired one of many “agents” who advertise in newspapers and offer to get families into the US without valid visas. The “agent” who the Patel family had found had promised the same and had taken Rs 65 lakh to do so, taking the money for the human trafficking operation up front, a resident of Dingucha told Vibes of India. The family was part of a group that had initially set out for Can-
Indo-American News • Friday, january 28, 2022 • www.indoamerican-news.com
ada which included several others from their village as well. Sources told Vibes of India that the other members of this group are still missing, hoping that they were able to find some shelter. The Patel family had planned to land up in North Dakota and then see where to go from there. Back in India, they had been saving money for a little over a decade. Another local who was well known to the Patel family told Vibes of India that Jagdish had wanted to move with his family to the US for many years and that more than half of his family members from the village are currently settled in America. The local said that most Patels in the region believe that it is a “family insult” if at least one member of the family doesn’t settle in the US. These Patels attach a lot of importance to settling in the US; doing so becomes a matter of dignity and social prestige for them. They are not content with being wealthy in India and feel the need to keep chasing the dream, no matter the cost. -- Indian Express, Vibes of India
3 73rd Republic Day Celebrated from Himalayas to Houston
REPUBLIC DAY 2022
The jawans of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) celebrated the 73rd Republic Day at the icy heights of Himalayas. From the heights ranging from 12,000 to 17,500 feet, the Himveers (ITBP jawans) unfurled the national flag in the border areas of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh where at places, the minimum temperature at places is minus (-) 45 degree Celsius.
January 28, 2022
India’s 73rd Republic Day was celebrated with unbridled enthusiasm throughout the Indian diaspora -- from the peaks of the Himalayas to Deccan plains of Hyderabad to our own City of Houston. The Indian tricolor was unfurled at the Indian Consulate, India House and Gujarati Samaj of Houston. In the evening, a celebration took place at the home of Consul General of Houston Aseem Mahajan. Among the dignitaries who attended included Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Congressman Al Green, FB County Judge KP George, Judge Juli Matthew, and UH Chancellor Renu Khator. A gathering of about 150 invited guests listened as the speakers spoke about the growing ties be- Consular staff gathered at the steps of the Indian Consulate after unfurling of the Indian tricolor by teen India and the US. Consul General Aseem Mahajan.
A total of 24 tableaux were a part of the Republic Day parade, including a dozen from People hold a 300-meter long Indian national flag on the eve of India’s 73rd Republic the states and UTs, nine Union Government and three from the Armed Forces. Day celebrations in the old city of Hyderabad. (Str/Xinhua)
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January 28, 2022
Sewa Ranked as Leading Corporate Charity
Houston: Benevity Inc., the leading provider of global corporate purpose software, ranked Sewa International among the top of charitable organizations supported by companies and their employees in 2021. In 2020 Sewa International was ranked 375 in Benevity’s list, and at 690 in 2019. Benevity announced on January 20, 2022, its list of the annual top 10 causes receiving support from companies, including those that offer matching funds to employee contributions, demonstrating that the pandemic and other global events and crises influenced the generous attitude of corporations and their employees. “We are grateful to these companies and their thousands of employees who thought it fit to offer their generous support to Sewa International. They saw in us both our dedication to serving humanity as well as the will, the enterprise, and the commitment to delivering support efficiently, quickly, and professionally in a time of crisis by our volunteers and mission-oriented staff. This recognition of our work and of our standing will energize us to rededicate our efforts to come to the aid of society in times of crises here in the US and around the world,” said Arun Kankani, President, Sewa International. According to Benevity, five of the top ten causes from 2020 remained on the list in 2021, while health-focused non-profits, including national and state cancer societies, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Planned Parenthood, returned to the top 10 in 2021. “When the Delta variant hit India last year, we saw companies and their employees mobilize to help,” said Birger Stamperdahl, Give2A-
sia’s President and CEO. “Their generosity made lifesaving projects possible that delivered oxygen concentrators, protective gear for health workers and emergency food rations to those hit hardest by the pandemic.” “Non-profits supporting India’s COVID-19 crisis received a
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groundswell of support, including Sewa International. Our earnest thanks to Benevity Inc. for keeping track of these trends and identifying Sewa’s increasing support from corporations and their people,” said Sandeep Khadkekar, Sewa’s Vice President for Marketing and Fund Development.
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HOUSTON
January 28, 2022
Rabotics in Teach for America via Faiza Qazi Houston: As a firstyear teacher, Faiza Qazi wanted to inspire and challenge her middle school students at Hartman Middle School in Houston Independent School District. Without any prior knowledge or experience, she set out to create a curriculum that focused on robotics and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) – the first of its kind at the school. “I wanted to impart the importance of problem-solving to my students and teach it to them in a fun and engaging way,” said Faiza. Faiza knew she would need to find a way to provide tools and resources for her students to actively participate in the lessons, so she took it upon herself to raise money through crowdfunding to obtain iPads for all of her robotics classes. “Every student deserves access to the resources they need to obtain a quality education. The iPads gave every one of my students the chance to be successful in our robotics and STEM classes,” she said. This philosophy of transforming outcomes for underserved students is something Faiza has learned as a corps member of Teach For America Houston, a local nonprofit organization that works to confront educational inequity to ensure all
students have the opportunity to not only survive but thrive in the classroom and beyond. Members of the corps program commit to teaching for at least two years in disenfranchised communities and then become alumni with a commitment to advocate for change in the public school system – whether that be in teaching or in a different profession. “I’m fortunate to be part of the Teach For America Houston network, especially since this is my first-year teaching. I would have been lost without them,” said Faiza. “Being a part of this program provides me with the opportunity to connect with teachers from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.” With roots in Pakistan, Faiza is grateful for her family’s support of her endeavors and the full-ride scholarship she received from Colby College, a top-ranking liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. Her original aspiration was to go into medicine, but when a teacher demonstrated a belief in Faiza and her abilities, she changed her mind and decided to pursue a career in education. “I wanted to give back to the community that gave so much to me,” she said.
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HOUSTON
January 28, 2022
Foundation for India Studies Joins MLK Parade
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Netra Tallavajhula (left), Nishant Revanur, Chandu Revanur, Pooja Revanur, Vivek Tallavajhula, Krishna Vavilala, Arun Kashyap, Sudhakar Tallavajhula (Event Chair.), Ariana Morales, Manav Vishwanath, Anand Morales. [Photo by: ASVM]
Houston: On January 17, 2022, members and supporters of the Foundation for India Studies (FIS) braved the morning wintry weather and walked in the 28th Martin Luther King Jr. Grande Parade held in midtown, Houston. FIS, a 15 year old organization, has routinely participated in MLK parades for 10 years and also won the paarde’s Grand Marshall Award in 2015. FIS’s participation in the MLK parades was to pay homage to the late civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. who had adopted Mahatma Gandhi ji’s methods of passive resistance and non-violence in his struggle to achieve equal civil rights for the Black community, thus enabling a permanent bondage between people of America and the people of India. This relationship is expected to endure the test of times for many generations to come. The theme of this year’s MLK parade was aptly named “Social
Inclusion” referring to the oppression and inequities experienced by the communities of color particularly the Black community. Despite the resurgence of Covid19 Omicron cases, the spirit of MLK Jr. prevailed throughout the parade which saw enthusiastic participation by numerous college, and school kids marching alongside bands and floats. The organizers restarted the parade this year after suspending it last year due to Covid-19. FIS Event chair Mr. Sudhakar Tallavajhula said, all student participants will be presented with Certificates of Appreciation for rendering help in the parade walk. He was supported by the student co-chairs, Anand Morales and Nishant Revanur, Manav Vishwanath and Netra Tallavajhula, helped plan the event and assisted in organizing other students to carry the FIS banner. In the spirit of unity in diversity, FIS was joined by middle and high
school students from the greater Houston area. FIS Founder and Chairman, Krishna Vavilala, led the group; dressed like Gandhi ji, a trend he started in 2006 which is now followed by others. As a nine year old boy, Mr. Vavilala had experienced the aura of Gandhi ji in person in his native town, Rajahmundry and later on as an immigrant in Houston had proposed and served as the Project Chair of the Gandhi statue project in the Herman park (2003). Spectators of the MLK parade stood on the curbside and cheered for the students, exclaiming phrases such as, “Peace!” or “Non-violence” or “Gandhi”. FIS remains committed to commemorating Gandhi and Dr. King’s legacies of non-violence and peaceful co-existence. For information about FIS projects, please visit: www.foundationforindiastudies.org.
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INDIA
January 28, 2022
‘Marginal Improvement’ is Seen for Lata
Mumbai: Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s health has “marginally improved” but she continues to remain in the ICU, her family said on Tuesday. The 92-year-old singer tested positive for coronavirus with mild symptoms and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai on January 8. The Mangeshkar family, through the official Twitter account of the singer, once again asked people to not indulge in spreading “disturbing rumours” about her health condition. “There is a marginal improvement in Lata Didi’s health and she continues to be in the ICU. Kindly refrain from spreading disturbing rumours or falling prey to random messages regarding Didi’s health. Thank you,” read a tweet on Mangeshkar’s official Twitter
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Serving the Greater Houston area (Licensed to serve all of Texas) account. In a separate statement from the family, they said Lata Mangeshkar is being treated by a team of doctors, headed by Dr Pratit Samdani. “It’s not possible to give updates daily as that is a direct intrusion in the privacy of the family. We request each one of you to be sensitive to this issue,” read the statement, shared by close family
friend Anusha Srinivasan Iyer. Regarded as one of Indian cinema’s greatest singers, Lata Mangeshkar started her career at the age of 13 in 1942 and has over 30,000 songs to her credit in several Indian languages. The singer — known as Melody Queen of India — has been lauded with numerous awards and honours. -- Times of Inda
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SUDOKU/MOVIE REVIEW Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.
Send us the correct answer before February 1. 2022. Email us at indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Please send us your solved Sudoku for your name to be published.
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January 28, 2022
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ZEE5 Presents ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’
Mumbai: ZEE5 Global, the world’s largest streaming platform for South Asian content, brings you a host of new movies and series across languages. This New Year, has a plethora of exciting new titles across languages to keep you glued to the edge of your seats through the month. Featuring a powerhouse ensemble cast including veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta, Kritika Kamra and Soha Ali Khan, the highly-anticipated comedy drama Kaun Banegi Shikharwati released on 7th January. Directed by Gaurav Chawla and Ananya Banerjee, the ZEE5 original series is a royal family-drama that follows the story of four daughters competing in a series of royal games to be chosen as heir of Naseeruddin’s kingdom Shikharwati. Continuing the theme of sibling rivalry, watch a fight to the finish between three siblings to own their mother’s will in ZEE5 Original family-drama film 36 Farmhouse. Slated for a January release, the gripping feature is directed by Ram Ramesh Sharma and stars Amol Parashar, Sanjay Mishra,
Flora Saini and Ashwini Kalsekar in the lead. Fans of Bengali movies have reasons to celebrate as ZEE5 brings you four eagerly-awaited titles on the service in January 2022. Atanu Ghosh’s film Binisutoy starring Ritwik Chakraborty, Jaya Ehsaan hit the ZEE5 screens on 7th January. The film dealing with the void people face in their busy urban lives is a must watch gripping drama. Furthermore, Mukti, the Bengali 9 episode web-series starring Ritwick Chakraborty, Arjun Chakroborty, Ditipriya Roy will be released on 26 January.
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Enjoy a dose of rib-tickling comedy with Naga Shaurya and Ritu Verma starrer Varudu Kaavalenu. Directed by Lakshmi Sowjanya, the Telugu romantic-comedy released on 7 January. Finally, Marathi viewers can stream the premiere of Pandu, starring Bhau Kadam and Sonali Kulkarni, released on 2nd January. Users can download the ZEE5 app from Google Play Store / iOS App Store, on Roku devices, Apple TVs, Android TVs, and Amazon Fire Stick. ZEE5 is also available on www.ZEE5.com.
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