Saathee Charlotte July 2024 by Shukla Entertainment

Hello Readers

There was a time not too long ago, when we used to spend hours making mixtapes. Take a trip down nostalgia lane in the essay "The Art of the MixTape” on page 24.

India’s election was awash in Deepfakes, but AI was a net positive for democracy. Read the analysis on page 28.

Read about "South Asians in America: Retelling Our History" in the essay on page 44.

Strong nominal growth has led to rising earnings boom. The details are in our Eye on the Markets column on page 46.

Microplastics are now getting into our food supplies. Read the informative Nutrition for Life column on page 54.

Retirement regrets. Can we avoid them? Find the details in Personal Finances on page 62.

Check out our newly updated Pops Puzzles and Toons on page 102.

Flip over to our redesigned classiﬁeds section beginning on page 108.

Share Saathee with friends and family. We would be happy to add anyone in the Carolinas to the Saathee subscription base at no charge, simply visit saathee.com/subscription and also sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter: saathee.com/weekly-e-newsletter

“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”

- Bertrand Russell

Cover: Prayer in Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta Caves are Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE and located in Maharashtra. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The caves are regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art and include paintings and rock-cut sculptures, considered as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art.

Photo:

Adobe Stock

2024 Issue # 314 - Saathee.comEditor Samir Shukla (Samir@Saathee.com) Publisher & Advertising Divakar Shukla

704-527-7570 or saatheemag@hotmail.com

Jennifer W. Allen

Design / Layout

Graphics & Manimaran

Contributors for this issue: Kirit Shukla, Brandie Erickson, Taige Shukla, Dipika Kohli, Dr. Maha Gingrich, Rishi P Oza, Mo Vidwans, Parul Kharod, Balaji Prasad, Raajeev Aggerwhil, Ketu Desai, Neal Dongre, and Jalendu Vaidya.

Mission: Our goal is to be a valuable source of information for the South Asian community and to be a vital advertising tool for businesses.

(USPS 021-116) (ISSN: 1543-8147) is published monthly by: Shukla Entertainment Inc.

612 Heather Ln., Charlotte, NC 28209

Periodicals postage paid at Charlotte, NC and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Saathee, P.O. Box 11468, Charlotte, NC 28220-1468

Opinions expressed herein are those of the writers and advertisers and not necessarily of the publisher or editor. Please contact us prior to submitting articles or photographs. Saathee is published monthly. Deadlines for advertisement, submissions and events information is 15th of the month.

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Page 18 Summer Events

Page 36 Film Clips: Sarfira Starring Akshay Kumar Opens in July Page 64: News Notes

Content

The Editor’s Desk pg. 14

Upcoming Events pg. 18

Mirror, Mirror pg. 24

India Elections

.pg. 28

Upcoming Movie Releases pg. 34

Film Clips .

.pg. 36

Thinking About Thinking pg. 40

South Asians in America pg. 44

Eye on the Markets pg. 46

Page 74 Recipe: Mango Cheesecake Flan

Kismuth and the Way II pg. 50

Nutrition for Life pg. 54

Spot the Differences pg. 56

Raajeev’s Corner .

. .pg. 58

Personal Finances pg. 62

News Notes .

.pg. 64

Community Focus pg. 68

Dances of India pg. 70

Recipe: Mango Cheesecake Flan pg. 74

Immigration Matters pg. 80

Tune Your Brain .

.pg. 100

Pop’s Puzzles & Toons pg. 102 Festivals and Holidays . .

.pg. 104

Puzzle Solutions pg. 104

AstroScope pg. 106

Classifieds pg. 108

Index of Advertisers pg. 112

July Jams — July Jams —

The Editor’s Desk

by Samir Shukla

Summer Still

The moon is hanging mellow, happy to contribute to this breezy summer night that upended a thick hot day a few hours earlier. The quiet darkness has won this bout, this stillness, this blanket covering all vistas within sight, until the sun pounces back out of the horizon in a few hours looking for a ﬁght.

The midnight hour approaches. This night is meditation and reﬂection rolled into one. I walk out, sit on the porch of this little house, on this land, beyond the glaring city lights, and become one with the soothing air and gaze at the stars poking tiny holes in the dark, clear sky.

I hear the faint noise of a distant train rolling along to its next destination, warming up those steel tracks while it passes. The darkness will cool the metal tracks once again after the behemoth has passed. The whistle dissipates into the night as the train rumbles along.

Even the train, that clickety clackety iron beast, seems to have quieted its metal cacophony on this stillest of nights.

I remember a similar summer night in western India a few years ago during a visit there. It was another similar night; it may have been even the same exact date. The air that night was heavier, as I sat in a balcony, yet with its own unique stillness. The only thing breaking the silence were the occasional howls and barks of street dogs. The incessant noises of an Indian city had quieted, decided to rest for a few hours, until the blazing sun returned with a bombastic morning chorus.

This night is in the American south, on a farm in one of the rural bands circling the city, replete with a quiet contentment, the air scented with unseen night blooms.

These two nights are separated by 15 summers, and the distance of distant lands, each tacked onto our ﬂoating blue marble on either side yet joined in a fraternal summer state of mind.

Right now, in this blackened realm, all noise is subdued. This moment, this presence belongs to the night, wholly, and nothing can breach that feeling.

Maybe the dry air is helping bring clarity. It hasn’t rained for 10 days now, and clouds just don’t seem to want to form. It’s now past midnight, sleep is still not cooperating, the body and the mind are like children, ﬁghting sleep, wanting to stay up all night. Yes, why sleep this perfect night away?

I don’t need dreams tonight; I’m in a sleepless trance. The subtle night sounds ﬂoat around, change and dissipate and new ones begin. No barking street dogs tonight. This night, the frogs and the crickets around the nearby pond are practicing their nocturnal musical composition.

I nod oﬀ for a moment, my mind ﬂies back and forth between that summer night in India and this night in the American south. The space and the years between are one long ethereal trance.

Generative Fakeness

Ok. It’s decided. We may be ﬁghting against a brewing hurricane, a tornado of inevitability, but I want human intelligence, not generative fakeness, aka AI, to create content that Saathee publishes. Notice I said create, not generate. Original, humancreated content. Yeah, I know, Artiﬁcial Intelligence is already lurking and slowly marking everything that is touched and felt by humans. It is inevitable that this technology will become all consuming. If we are smart, we will put brakes and regulations on this beast called AI. Once we have a handle on its

Upcoming Events

Ocean City Jazz Festival: Topsail, NC (July 5 – 7, 2024)

The 14th annual Ocean City Jazz Festival is a 3-day festival running from July 5-7, 2024 and featuring live jazz music from all genres. Musicians are nationally renowned and rising stars. Additional events are a Bourbon Tasting, a Historical Tour of the Community, White Party, and Pre-concert Party featuring radio personalities from WNCU. There will be an eclectic mix of food and beverages, vendors and visual artists. Info: Oceancityjazzfest.com

Ratha Yatra: Charlotte, NC (July 7, 2024)

The event will start with puja beginning at 8:30am along with ratha pulling, archana, cultural program and mahaprasad. Hindu Center is located at 7400 City View Dr., Charlotte. For more details, call 704-535-3440.

Beaufort Water Festival: (July 12 – 21, 2024)

This is one of the South’s biggest outdoor events. The Beaufort Water Festival continues to change around events to keep current with the interests of festivalgoers. This year’s Water Festival will be held for 10 days between July 12 & 21, 2024 throughout the town proper with a variety of events for the whole family to enjoy. Details: Bftwaterfestival.com.

Charlo

tte Water Lantern Festival: (July 13 – 14, 2024)

The Charlotte Water Lantern Festival is ﬁlled with fun, happiness, hope, and memories that you’ll cherish for a lifetime. This family friendly event will be held at Symphony Park in Charlotte on July 13 & 14, 2024 and can be shared by everyone. Friends, families, neighbors, and lots of people that you haven’t met can come together to create a peaceful, memorable experience. Details: Waterlanternfestival.com.

Life Mission Youth Camp:

Mebane, NC (July 14 – 20, 2024)

The weeklong camp’s theme is “Finding your true path in life: lessons from the Srimad Bhagavatam.” The camp for ages 9 – 17, includes yoga sessions, nature walks, Indian culture, personal development, sports, arts, drama, discussions and more. For details and registration, call 760-4734811 or visit Lifemissionusa.org.

Symphony By the Lake: Blowing Rock, NC (July 19, 2024)

Experience “Live from Vienna” by the Symphony of the Mountains, surrounded by the beautiful Blue Ridge. Take your seat on the grass by Chetola Lake and enjoy timeless Patriotic pieces from a variety of classical and modern composers. Bring a picnic to enjoy with friends and family, or purchase meals from caterers at the event. There will be ﬁreworks at the end. The concert will be held on Friday, July 19, 2024, starting at 7:30pm with an opening performance by East Tennessee’s own Fred Goodwin at 5:30pm. Details: Symphonybythelake.com.

Swami Mukundananda Discourse: Morrisville, NC (July 20 – 26, 2024)

Enjoy daily discourse on “Power of Thoughts” with Swami Mukundananda on July 20 - 26, 2024 at HSNC Temple, 309 Aviation Pkwy, Morrisville, NC. Discourses daily from 6:45 – 9pm. Dinner prasad will be served daily. He is the founder of JKYog. More details at Jkyog.org/NC.

Love Shine Play Festival: Asheville, NC (July 25 – 28, 2024) Downtown Asheville will be the retro-urban backdrop for the festival with 4 days of movement, music, connection, and adventure with yoga, music and other outdoor activities. Between classes you will have time to stroll through the beautiful outdoor Mountain Air Market, home to a variety of unique health & wellness vendors and tasty treats. The festival will be held between July 25 & 28, 2024. Info: Loveshineplay.com.

Upcoming Events

Sweetgrass Festival: Mount Pleasant, SC (July

27, 2024)

The 20th annual Sweetgrass Festival in Mount Pleasant will take place on July 27, 2024, from 10am to 3pm at Mt. Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. It is designed to bring attention to the contributions of the Gullah Geechee people’s history, culture, traditions and their sweetgrass basket art form that originated in Mount Pleasant and continues to exist in town and surrounding communities today. Oﬀering free admission, entertainment and activities, the fest is an opportunity for local basket makers to showcase and market their sweetgrass merchandise. Info: Experiencemountpleasant.com.

Sangamithra Charity Golf Tournament: Concord, NC (July

28, 2024)

TAGCA Volleyball and Throwball Tournament: Indian Trail, NC (August 3, 2024)

Telugu Association of Greater Charlotte Area presents its annual volleyball and throwball tournament on Saturday, August 3, 2024, beginning early at 7am. Entertainment, dance, and DJ in between games. Indian breakfast, lunch and snacks provided. Venue is Carolina Courts 240 Chestnut Pkwy, Indian Trail, NC. Details: Tagca.org.

Triangle Community Health Fair: Morrisville, NC (August 3, 2024)

The 11th annual Sangamithra Charity Golf Tournament, an event aimed at making a positive impact on the community, will take place on Sunday, July 28, 2024, at Rocky River Golf Club, Concord, NC. Support worthy causes along with an opportunity for networking. Registration begins at 10 am and Tee-oﬀ time is noon. For details write to team@sangamithra.org or visit Sangamithra.org/golf.

OBX Watermelon Festival: Nags Head, NC (August

1, 2024)

Enjoy games, food, face painting, tie-dye shirt making, arts and crafts activities, a climbing wall, watermelon fun and more at Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head on Thursday, August 1, 2024, from 10am to 4pm. The 18th annual OBX Watermelon Festival is free for guests to attend; however, the purchase of tickets will be required to play and eat. Compete in classic competitions like seed spitting and watermelon eating to win from a selection of prizes! This is a fundraiser beneﬁting The Outer Banks Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Coalition. Help keep OBX bicyclists and pedestrians safe! Info: Kittyhawk.com.

Mount

Mitchell Arts & Crafts

Fair:

Burnsville, NC (August 2 – 23, 2024)

Nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Burnsville is the home of the Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair. Come and enjoy beautiful downtown Burnsville, hometown hospitality, and a oneof-a-kind selection of handmade arts and crafts, music, and food. The fest will take place at the Yancey County Chamber of Commerce in Burnsville, NC between August 2 & 3, 2024. Details: Yanceychamber.com.

The Triangle community health fair is organized by Triangle area Hindu temples with support from Triangle Area Indian Americans Physicians Society (TIPS). Blood draw day is Saturday, July 27, 2024 (8am – 11am) and Health Fair is on Saturday, August 3, 2024 (9am – noon). Location is CFCC, 1050-B Town Hall Dr., Morrisville, NC. Info: Tahts.org.

Kiran Bazaar: Morrisville, NC (August 11, 2024)

Kiran presents the organization’s bazaar on Sunday, August 11, 2024, at HSNC Main Hall, 309 Aviation Pkwy, Morrisville, NC. Spend a day shopping with vendors, enjoying food and raﬄe prizes all to beneﬁt Kiran’s work of assisting domestic violence victims in the South Asian communities. For details, visit Kiraninc.org.

North Carolina Bluegrass State Festival: Marion, NC (August 15

– 17, 2024)

The annual North Carolina State Bluegrass Festival returns between August 15 & 17, 2024 with favorite bluegrass performers including Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and The Malpass Brothers. Bring your lawn

Anjana Patel RPH Speaks fluently in Gujarati and Hindi

Have a trusted licensed pharmacist review your medications to help pick the right Medicare plan.

● Apply for extra help to lower prescription copays for brand and generic medications (based on certain financial eligibility)

● Supplements, prescription drug plans, and Medicare Advantage plans (Part C which includes dental, vision, and hearing benefit)

● Assistance for individuals that are new to Medicare, individuals looking to switch to Medicare Advantage, or will be turning 65.

Upcoming Events

chairs for reserved and general seating. For more information about the performers, schedule or to purchase tickets, visit Evansmediasource.com.

India

Independence Day:

Morrisville, NC (August 17, 2024)

Hindi Vikas Mandal and other RTP organizations present a celebration of India’s Independence Day on Saturday, August 17, 2024 beginning at 10:30am with parade and ﬂag hoisting. Enjoy exhibitions, stalls, and cultural programs. HSNC, 309 Aviation Pkwy, Morrisville, NC. Call 919-6565224 for details.

York Summerfest: (August 24, 2024)

The York Summerfest will include 5k/10k road races, golf tournament, classic car show, music, kid’s activities, demonstrations, arts and crafts, entertainment, food trucks and more. The Kid’s area will feature water slides, face painting, balloon artist, petting zoo and lots of fun. The Fest will be held on August 24, 2024, along various streets in downtown York, SC. Details: Yorksummerfest.com.

Greensboro Food Truck Festival: (August 25, 2024)

The Greensboro Food Truck Festival will be held on August 25, 2024, from 3pm-9pm in downtown Greensboro, NC. Savor delicious food from 50+ food trucks. In addition, there will be craft beers, live music, kid’s activities, craft vendors, and more. Admission is free. For more details, visit: Greensborofoodtruckfestival.com.

Samskrita

Bharati Classes: Waxhaw, NC (September 10, 2024)

The Samskrita Bharati USA Charlotte Kendram presents Sanskrit classes starting on September 10, 2024, on Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm in Waxhaw, NC area. These are in-person classes for children and adults. Connect with your roots, understand sashtras, and enrich your life. For more details, visit Cltsk.sbusa.org.

Keep up with all the events happening in our region with Saathee Magazine. Upcoming events include Festival of India, many garba and navaratri events, music festivals and many more. The best way to find them is in these pages or online at our regularly updated events section: Saathee.com/events

The Art of the MixTape

Mirror, Mirror by Jennifer Allen

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” ~ Victor Hugo

As we slide headlong into the Summer of 2024, I’ve discovered a whole new sense of sentimentality within a particular activity that I had once upon a time become quite familiar with. Indeed, there is a peculiar joy lost to some in this day and age, and that is composing… the perfect Mixtape.

You see, back in the days of yesteryear before all this fancy technology to stash our beloved songs, we used to conceive of playlists by means of pen and paper, general music knowhow, and physical albums on hand at that particular time. We would then spend an entire afternoon with explicit care smacking Play & Record on two separate cassette docks. Switching cassettes (or LP albums) back and

forth, fast forwarding to the speciﬁc song we’d need, and then copying it onto a blank tape in the perfect order to ﬂow between the two other music choices on either side.

Such an arduous process could be perceived as something akin to painting bits and bobs onto a willing canvas.

And what would we then do with these personal compositions of auditory stimulation? Some would be gifted to friends or family, but for some young adults they were given to whomever they were dating (or wanted to date) at the time. Some others still were kept as personal mementos to pop in the car stereo for a long drive or slip into your personal Walkman in an attempt to drown out the world while hooﬁng it somewhere.

I made these tapes for a multitude of reasons. Even as the medium to record eventually shifted, the intent was still very much the same. Some of my most innovative mixes

Mirror Mirror continued on page 84

Asha Rajagopal, Owner

To register for the tournament, kindly visit our website or scan the QR code: sangamithra.org/golf

Anish Raghavan: 704-517-5850 or team@sangamithra.org For sponsorship opportunities, kindly visit our website or scan the QR code: sangamithra.org/sponsor

Poornima Rajendran: 937-344-3213 or team@sangamithra.org

Sangamithra Foundation is a non-profit 501(c) tax exempt organization (EIN - 27-4291040)

India’s Election Was Awash in Deepfakes

But AI Was a Net Positive for Democracy

By Vandinika Shukla and Bruce Schneier

As India concluded the world’s largest election on June 5, 2024, with over 640 million votes counted, observers could assess how the various parties and factions used artiﬁcial intelligence technologies – and what lessons that holds for the rest of the world.

The campaigns made extensive use of AI, including deepfake impersonations of candidates, celebrities and dead politicians. By some estimates, millions of Indian voters viewed deepfakes.

But, despite fears of widespread disinformation, for the most part the campaigns, candidates and activists used AI constructively in the election. They used AI for typical political activities, including mudslinging, but primarily to better connect with voters.

Deepfakes without the deception

Political parties in India spent an estimated US$50 million on authorized AI-generated content for targeted communication with their constituencies this election cycle. And it was largely successful.

Indian political strategists have long recognized the inﬂuence of personality and emotion on their constituents, and they started using AI to bolster their messaging. Young and upcoming AI companies like The Indian Deepfaker, which started out serving the entertainment industry, quickly responded to this growing demand for AI-generated campaign material.

In January, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, former chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu for two decades, appeared via video at his party’s youth wing conference. He wore his signature yellow scarf, white shirt, dark glasses and had his familiar stance – head slightly bent sideways. But Karunanidhi died in 2018. His party authorized the deepfake.

In February, the All-India Anna Dravidian Progressive Federation party’s oﬃcial X account posted an audio clip of Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the iconic superstar of Tamil politics colloquially called “Amma” or “Mother.” Jayalalithaa died in 2016.

Meanwhile, voters received calls from their local representatives to discuss local issues – except the leader on the other end of the phone was an AI impersonation. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers like Shakti Singh Rathore have been frequenting AI startups to send personalized videos to speciﬁc voters about the government beneﬁts they received and asking for their vote over WhatsApp.

Multilingual boost

Deepfakes were not the only manifestation of AI in the Indian elections. Long before the election began, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a tightly packed crowd celebrating links between the state of Tamil Nadu in the south of India and the city of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Instructing his audience to put on earphones, Modi proudly announced the launch of his “new AI technology” as his Hindi speech was translated to Tamil in real time.

In a country with 22 oﬃcial languages and almost 780 unoﬃcial recorded languages, the BJP adopted AI tools to make Modi’s personality accessible to voters in regions where Hindi is not easily understood.

Since 2022, Modi and his BJP have been using the AIpowered tool Bhashini, embedded in the NaMo mobile app, to translate Modi’s speeches with voiceovers in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia, Bengali, Marathi and Punjabi.

As part of their demos, some AI companies circulated their own viral versions of Modi’s famous monthly radio show “Mann Ki Baat,” which loosely translates to “From the Heart,” which they voice cloned to regional languages.

Adversarial uses

Indian political parties doubled down on online trolling, using AI to augment their ongoing meme wars. Early in the election season, the Indian National Congress released a short clip to its 6 million followers on Instagram, taking the title track from a new Hindi music album named “Chor” (thief). The video grafted Modi’s digital likeness onto the lead singer and cloned his voice with reworked lyrics critiquing his close ties to Indian business tycoons.

The BJP retaliated with its own video, on its 7-millionfollower Instagram account, featuring a supercut of Modi campaigning on the streets, mixed with clips of his supporters but set to unique music. It was an old patriotic Hindi song sung by famous singer Mahendra Kapoor, who passed away in 2008 but was resurrected with AI voice cloning.

Modi himself quote-tweeted an AI-created video of him dancing – a common meme that alters footage of rapper Lil Yachty on stage – commenting “such creativity in peak poll season is truly a delight.”

In some cases, the violent rhetoric in Modi’s campaign that put Muslims at risk and incited violence was conveyed using generative AI tools, but the harm can be traced back to the hateful rhetoric itself and not necessarily the AI tools used to spread it.

The

Indian experience

India is an early adopter, and the country’s experiments with AI serve as an illustration of what the rest of the world can expect in future elections.

The technology’s ability to produce nonconsensual deepfakes of anyone can make it harder to tell truth from ﬁction, but its consensual uses are likely to make democracy more accessible.

The Indian election’s embrace of AI that began with entertainment, political meme wars, emotional appeals to people, resurrected politicians and persuasion through personalized phone calls to voters has opened a pathway for the role of AI in participatory democracy.

The surprise outcome of the election, with the BJP’s failure to win its predicted parliamentary majority, and India’s return to a deeply competitive political system especially highlights the possibility for AI to have a positive role in deliberative democracy and representative governance.

Lessons for the world’s democracies

It’s a goal of any political party or candidate in a democracy to have more targeted touch points with their constituents. The Indian elections have shown a unique attempt at using AI for more individualized communication across linguistically and ethnically diverse constituencies, and making their messages more accessible, especially to rural, low-income populations.

AI and the future of participatory democracy could make constituent communication not just personalized but also a dialogue, so voters can share their demands and experiences directly with their representatives – at speed and scale.

India can be an example of taking its recent ﬂuency in AI-assisted party-to-people communications and moving it beyond politics. The government is already using these platforms to provide government services to citizens in their native languages.

If used safely and ethically, this technology could be an opportunity for a new era in representative governance, especially for the needs and experiences of people in rural areas to reach Parliament.

Article courtesy of theconversation.com

Vandinika Shukla is a Fellow, Practicing Democracy Project, Harvard Kennedy School

Bruce Schneier is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

RUBY REALT Y RUBY REALT Y

Upcoming Movie Releases

July 3-5

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha

(Director: Neeraj Pandey)

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Jimmy Sheirgill, and Shantanu Maheshwari

Despicable Me 4

(Director: Chris Renaud)

Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Soﬁa Vergara, and Stephen Colbert

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Director: Mark Molloy)

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Bronson Pinchot

Kill (Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat)

Cast: Laksh Lalwani, Raghav Juyal, and Tanya Maniktala

Ulajh (Director: Sudhanshu Saria)

Cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Meiyang Chang, and Roshan Mathew

MaXXXine (Director: Ti West)

Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon

Boneyard (Director: Asif Akbar)

Cast: Mel Gibson and Nora Zehetner

Mother, Couch (Director: Niclas Larsson)

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, and Ellen Burstyn

Murder Company (Director: Shane Dax Taylor)

Cast: William Moseley, Pooch Hall, and Kelsey Grammer

July 12

Fly Me to the Moon

(Director: Greg Berlanti)

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, and Woody Harrelson

Sarﬁra (Director: Sudha Kongara)

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, and Radhika Madan

Touch (Director: Baltasar Kormákur)

Cast: Egill Ólafsson and Kōki

National Anthem (Director: Luke Giﬀord)

Cast: Charlie Plummer, Rene Rosado, and Robyn Lively

Longlegs (Director: Osgood Perkins)

Cast: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, and Blair Underwood

July 19

Twisters (Director: Lee Isaac Chung)

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Paul Scheer

Bad Newz (Director: Anand Tiwari)

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri, and Ammy Virk

Find Me Falling (Streaming) (Director: Stelana Kliris)

Cast: Harry Connick, Jr, Agni Scott, and Ali Fumiko Whitney

My Spy: The Eternal City (Director: Peter Segal)

Cast: Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, and Craig Robinson

July 26

Deadpool & Wolverine (Director: Shawn Levy)

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Karan Soni

The Fabulous Four (Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse)

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, and Sheryl Lee Ralph

The Good Hall (Director: Robert Schwartzman)

Cast: Nick Jonas, Brittany Snow, David Arquette, and Elisabeth Shue

August 2

The Sabarmati Report (Director: Ranjan Chandel)

Cast: Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna, and Riddhi Dogra

The Instigators (Director: Doug Liman)

Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Aﬄeck, Ving Rhames, and Ron Perlman

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Director: Carlos Saldanha)

Cast: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, and Alfred Molina

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie (Director: Liza Johnson)

Cast: Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, and Wanda Sykes

Rob Peace (Director: Chiwetel Ejiofor)

Cast: Jay Will, Mary J Blige, Chiwetel Ejiofor, a nd Mare Winningham

F i l m C l i p s

Sarﬁra

An incredible story, set in the world of startups and aviation, Sarﬁra is a story that will inspire the common man to dream big and to chase your dreams even if the world calls you crazy. Sudha Kongara directs Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, and Radhika Madan in the ﬁlm slated to open on July 12, 2024

My Spy:

The Eternal City

This sequel follows a teenage Sophie as she convinces JJ to chaperone her school trip where they both end up as pawns in an international terrorist plot targeting CIA Chief, ad his son, who is Sophie’s best friend. Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman star in the Peter Segal directed movie opening July 19, 2024.

The Instigators

Director Doug Liman helms the crime drama starting Matt Damon, Casey Aﬄeck, Ving Rhames, and Ron Perlman. The story tells the tale of two robbers who must go on the run with the help of one of their therapists after a theft doesn’t go as planned. Look for the movie on August 2, 2024.

The Sabarmati Report

Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna, and Riddhi Dogra star in the real-life events in the movie that showcases the events of the morning of February 27, 2002, aboard the Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station in Gujarat. Ranjan Chandel directs The Sabarmati Report, releasing on August 2, 2024.

Stree 2

The Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao starrer Stree 2 is set to release on August 15, 2024. Amar Kaushik directed the sequel to the original horror comedy hit ﬁlm Stree that was released in 2018.

Alien: Romulus

While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with a terrifying life form. Fede Alvarez directs the cast that includes Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, and Archie Renaux. It opens August 16, 2024.

Border 2

Sunny Deol has announced on social media that the sequel will hit cinema screens on January 23, 2026. The war drama is currently in the pre-production stage. Deol’s career was resurrected by the massive success of Gadar 2. He is now ready for the sequel to the patriotic hit ﬁlm Border. The sequel is written by Nidhi Dutta, daughter of ﬁlmmaker JP Dutta.

Variety: Requisite, Wreck-with-it,

or Exquisite?

Thinking About Thinking by

Balaji Prasad

“The secret of happiness is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of spices, is knowing when to use it .”

- Daniel Gilbert

We live in an immensely rich and inﬁnite universe. Life is like an obstacle course that presents various situations and challenges, many of which cannot be foreseen at all, or at least meaningfully grasped in advance, to the degree needed to adequately plan for these.

So how do we plan for the unplannable?

Fight ﬁre with ﬁre: Requisite variety

You are a child of the universe: the universe is not just outside you; it also extends into you, embedded deeply within you.

So maybe that is why you have been up to the many many challenges that have continually arrived. You have survived. Even thrived! You came here, not knowing how to walk. But you did. You didn’t know how to make sounds that could reach others around you so that they could get a sense for what runs through your head. But you learned this, even gaining extraordinary proﬁciency in the basic language and communication skills that we often take for granted.

Just as the universe sprung you from within it, it sprung all kinds of other things – fruits, vegetables, breathable air, and so many other resources – that, along with you, form a harmonious whole that makes everything work and sustain. Magically. Miraculously.

The many capabilities inside you – the capabilities that you are barely aware of – are the fire of nature that “fights” the fire of nature all around you and employs its bounty to your advantage. The variety of these

12/31/24

South Asians in America: Retelling Our History South Asians in America: Retelling Our History

Neal Dongre

The story of America cannot be told completely without the stories of its immigrants. As the American historian Oscar Handlin famously said, “[o]nce I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.”

The United States is undoubtedly a prosperous and powerful country. Many immigrants and their families count themselves incredibly fortunate to be living here. At the same time, we cannot ignore our country’s history of racial, ethnic, religious, and other prejudices which have not only harmed countless lives but have infected our social relations and civic institutions as well. As South Asian Americans, our skin color, values, food, and religious practices often diﬀer from those of our neighbors and communities, and these diﬀerences have impacted our daily lived experiences for generations.

Beyond these more obvious challenges, however, there can also be a deeper sense of unease that many of us have long felt. This is a feeling tied to a basic desire that all human beings share: a desire for inclusion and belonging. It is innate for us as human beings to seek inclusion, to avoid a sense of being cast out or excluded from the communities around us. At a basic level, being part of a group aﬀords a measure of personal safety and security; in the modern world, it means more. Feeling a true sense of belonging in our communities is critical to a good life, a life where we can step conﬁdently into our

My Voice by

South Asians continued on page 88

- CapEx BoomStrong Nominal Growth Has Led to a Rising Earnings Boom

Eye on the Markets

by Ketu Desai

What a difference a month makes! A month ago, the market was afraid of rate hikes and the potential for stagflation. The combination of cooler inflation data and resilient growth calmed both fears. Second quarter growth is tracking just under 3%. We are in a cycle that is driven by fiscal policy.

We are still in the early stages of the money from the infrastructure bill, inﬂation reduction act, and chips act being spent. This is $2.4 trillion in spending and less than 20% of that has been spent. Only a third of the infrastructure bill, the largest of the bills, has been awarded. Only 5.6% of the inﬂation reduction act has also been spent.

We will be feeling the impact for a while, likely years. We are also in a signiﬁcant corporate CapEx cycle driven by AI, which is also just getting started. Large cap tech alone will spend approximately $350bn this year in CapEx, up 40%. This is becoming an arms race.

Low unemployment, rising real wages, and low debt to income will keep consumers spending. The combination of ﬁscal policy, corporate CapEx, and a consumer that is in

good shape means that growth should remain supported. While we will likely get a rate cut this year, expect this cutting cycle to be gradual and shallow.

Strong nominal growth has led to rising earnings. Second quarter earnings are tracking up 10.6%. More importantly, earnings are expected to continue to hit records for the rest of the year.

The second half of the year should see 10% earnings growth. Not only is earnings growth strong, but earnings breadth is also strong. Nearly half of stocks are showing quarterly EPS growth greater than 10%.

By the fourth quarter 7 of the 11 sectors will have double digit growth. Leadership comes from cyclical sectors. Discretionary, ﬁnancials, communication services, materials, and technology are expected to have north of 15% growth.

The earnings growth is expected to stretch far beyond this year. Earnings are expected to grow another 14% next year and 13% in 2026. Stocks follow earnings. This type of earnings growth, sector leadership, CapEx cycle, and rate cuts are a lot more indicative of early cycle rather than late.

Choices

Kismuth and the Way II

by Dipika Kohli

In 2012, I had hosted a conversation salon named “Expat” back in Durham, just to see what might happen if I put that together and made an invitation into the world. I sent the blurb about it over to the Indy, and, thanks to that message, met someone who became one of the guest speakers.

In order to make it inclusive, I wrote emails to everyone I knew, back in those days. Twitter, too. I used to use it, and it worked, and people came to talk about this idea of having lived far away from the Triangle for a chunk of time, which was nice to hear about, or dreaming about it, which was also a major thread of the conversations in that time. I recall now how one couple, hearing about this later, and meeting me separately, said that there was big idea to move to Scandinavia and get inspired by it. I wonder if they ever did.

It’s easy to talk about doing big things. It’s harder to take the steps into the unknown, of course, and risk falling oﬀ a cliﬀ somewhere else, in a world quite apart from your own.

That’s okay with me, though. Chancing it wouldn’t be new. The ﬁrst international trip I took without my parents was right after graduating from high school, on a program through Youth for Understanding to a rural part of Japan. It was there I saw just how much more I had to go with learning Japanese; I focused on that, and got ﬂuent, but it took focused study in school and work abroad in Tokyo and lots of conversations with many, many acquaintances over the years to do it, but I did.

Kismuth continued on page 84

Microplastics Microplastics

There is a saying that, ‘you are what you eat.’ And what we are eating, unfortunately, is a lot of plastic! There is a saying that, ‘you are what you eat.’ And what we are eating, unfortunately, is a lot of plastic!

Nutrition

for Life

by Parul Kharod

Microplastics and nano plastics are very tiny plastic particles which get into our body through various sources.

Why is this important?

Ongoing research shows that microplastics cause damage to the human cells and tissues, aﬀecting the reproductive system, endocrine system, the immune system, and more.

• Cell damage can lead to inﬂammation and increased cases of food allergies and food sensitivities

• Reproductive system changes can cause infertility and/or changes in fetal growth and brain development

• Endocrine disruptions cause hormone imbalances aﬀecting puberty and menopause, thyroid, and appetite regulations

• Inﬂammation also increases risk of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity

• Immune system changes can cause more allergic reactions, oxidative stress, and increased risk of cancer

Kalgi Trivedi, CPA

Kirti Shah, CPA, Chartered Accountant (India)

Spot the Differences

See if you can spot the 15 diﬀerences between the original photo on left and modiﬁed one on right Answers are on page 104

Collateral Damage

by Raajeev Aggerwhil

My wife and I have been married for over 25 years. When people look at my wife and I, they get the impression that we are so happy. That comes from living in Hollywood for so long. Everything here is fake. Fake happiness. Fake smiles. Fake beer. Fake chicken. Fake tofu. Fake ﬂowers. Fake grass. Fake face. Fake man. Fake woman. Fake marriage.

OK, I admit our marriage is not fake. It is real. However, like any married couple, we have ups and downs in our marriage. As I have mentioned in my previous writings, my wife does comedy. It is much cheaper and more fun to talk about our problems in front of a live audience. People laugh and it is like a free marriage therapy session for us. Therapy is $150 an hour. Open mike is $5 an hour. That’s 30 open mikes for the price of one therapy.

People ask us if my wife and I perform comedy together. We generally don’t. On the lineup, she goes ﬁrst and makes fun of my cheapness, my absent-mindedness, and my relatives. Then I go up and make fun of my cheapness, absent-mindedness, and our dog. People persist in asking why we don’t perform together. I tell them that I don’t want to lose half of my jokes to divorce.

Jokes, like children, take time to develop. They take on a life of their own. Jokes can take up to months or sometimes years to fully mature. There can be issues with delivery. It is a painstaking process from conception to delivery. The delivery of a joke is sometimes as intensive as the delivery of a child. Imagine the dialogue:

“This one is overdue by 4 days. Can we induce?”

“No, honey. We don’t need it. It can have potential side eﬀects.”

“But it’s hurting. I have been at it for hours.”

“That’s OK, honey. That’s why it’s called labor.”

“This pain is unbearable. I need a shot now.”

“No, no. It can have side eﬀects on our future jokes. You can do without ChatGPT. Breathe In. And Breathe Out. And now push.”

“Yes, I can see the premise!” Now push more. “That’s it!” “Congratulations! It’s a blue.”

“PG or Blue. We welcome you.”

“I am happy as long as it’s funny.”

Like our kids, our jokes have their own strengths and weaknesses. One kid is better at basketball, another kid is Raajeev continued on page 110

Raajeev’s Corner

Retirement Regrets Can We Avoid Them?

Personal Finances by Mo Vidwans

Retirement is supposed to be fun and relaxing while enjoying time with your spouse, family, grandchildren and friends. Most of the time, though, that is not what I hear when such subject comes up. The undertone of what most people say is that they wished they had prepared better for their golden years; and I am not even thinking about personal, family or health issues or other unexpected calamities at this moment because those are other big issues for discussion.

Retirement is all about preparing and saving for the future years after full-time work has stopped. But many Americans reach the retirement age finding themselves regretting the past or, more appropriately, past actions. It is a sudden disclosure to oneself, at one of those unfortunate moments that we are not ready for retirement at least financially and then the push starts to catch up. Usually, depending on how early in life we recognize our financial short comings, we can still catch up by tightening the proverbial belt but it means some serious stringent actions become necessary; that too not for a short duration but for a long time. We always want and wish to avoid that.

key element here is to gaze into the crystal ball and to be able to imagine what the retirement would look like, in as much detail as possible. The point to emphasize here is that much detail needs to be worked out; just saying ‘I don’t want to have any regrets’ is not enough and is not a good definition. Much like the guest lists we make for planning a wedding where we have an inner list (a must), then the next outer list and the next one and so on we should have similar planning for retirement. Inner ‘must’ list could be as an example: travel to certain countries for a specific purpose, meet certain people you haven’t met in a long time, no home chores (lawn mowing, painting etc.). The more specific you get the more control you would have over what is needed in retirement and what you must do to achieve that. What you don’t wish to do is as important as what you do wish to do.

Not Saving Enough

This is the mother of all regrets. It is my observation, at younger age most of the saving is incidental, not deliberate. It can become deliberate if you have thought about it and have a plan. Saving for retirement should start from the first day on the first job; even if it is a few dollars a month or a week or whatever. And the reason is very simple: as I have mentioned before on numerous occasions the principle of compounding is helping you when you start that early. The other choice is of course to wake up around the age of 50 when the retirement starts coming into focus and we start putting away much more for retirement just when our expenses are also going up because of a variety of reasons like children’s college education, weddings etc. The other factor that comes in the picture here is inflation. We subconsciously assume that today’s costs are going to stay the same which is never the case. Even if we assume an inflation of 3%, the prices double in just over 23 years and we certainly would live that many years in our retirement. We could well appreciate now why the Federal Reserve is trying to bring down and keep the inflation around 2%.

An article published in National Bureau of Economic Research says that almost six in ten Americans aged 50 and older wish they had saved more. Other regrets are more speciﬁc: respondents wished they had prepared better for health expenses, stayed in the workforce longer and ﬁled for social security later. I have to say here that some of these events may not be controlled by the individual, such as staying in the workforce longer because of circumstances. But, the rest of them should be.

The good news is that there are ways to avoid these regrettable decisions before it is too late, or even afterwards, to mitigate their consequences. From my point of view the

Social Security

For whatever the reason, 90% of the population wants to start the social security as early as possible. When asked why, the sub-conscious answer is invariably something like, “What if I die tomorrow?” What they are saying is that they have contributed all their life to this account and they are going to get it out as fast as possible.

Even though nobody can forecast the future, the chances of anyone passing on tomorrow are very small and that is not the right line of thinking. There is about 10% of the

Narendra Modi Sworn in for a Third Term as Prime Minister The President, Smt. Droupadi Murmu administers the Oath of Oﬃce and Secrecy to the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi during the swearing-in ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 09, 2024.

Festival of India Charlotte

The 28th annual Festival of India, a celebration of India’s rich cultural heritage, will be held over two days in Charlotte. The festival, presented by India Association of Charlotte in partnership with CIAF (Charlotte International Arts Festival), will take place on Saturday, September 14, 2024 at Belk Theater, Tryon Street, from noon to 8pm and on Sunday, September 15, 2024 at Ballantyne’s Backyard, from noon to 6pm.

Day one at the Belk Theater, features captivating performances blending Bollywood glamor and classical Indian dance, with original choreography and soul-stirring music. Explore vibrant showcases of art, crafts, attire, and cuisine from across India, and shop for Indian clothing and jewelry outside on Tryon Street.

Day two at the Ballantyne Backyard, experience cultural immersion and exploration set amidst natural rolling hills and lush greenery. Enjoy live workshops, learn Indian dance moves, and try your hand at traditional Rangoli-making. Indulge in the intricate art of henna design or adorn yourself in a silk sari, with the chance to capture the moment with a memorable photo keepsake.

India Association of Charlotte is dedicated to sharing Indian culture and celebrating the artistic and cultural diversity in an attempt to nurture an inclusive community. CIAF’s mission is to uniquely bring together Charlotte’s local and international communities, with global artists in a cultural celebration of live performances, art installations, food from around the world, and more.

For more details, visit Indiafestival.net.

U.S. Mission to India Meets Skyrocketing Student Visa Demand

Students pursuing higher education in the United States at the 8th annual Student Visa Day held at U.S. Consulate General Chennai on Thursday June 13, 2024.

On June 13, 2024, Consular Team India interviewed 3900 student visa applicants during its 8th annual Student Visa Day held in Chennai. Mission India highlights its strong commitment to higher education in the United States and the growing educational ties between the United States and India by organizing programming for Student Visa Day, where Mission members and EducationUSA colleagues interact with applicants to share information on studying in the United States.

Ambassador Eric Garcetti shared his best wishes for all Indian students, stating, “Every international student on a U.S. campus represents tremendous accomplishment – years of study and hard work that went into preparing for academic excellence. Like those who went before, today’s Indian students also represent tremendous potential – the knowledge you will unlock, the new skills and opportunities you will experience, and the relationships you will build are worth the investment. Each student is an ambassador for India. Together we are taking the U.S.-India relationship forward!”

Minister-Counselor for Consular Aﬀairs Russel Brown acknowledged the occasion stating, “This year, as Indian students are poised to become the largest group of international students in the United States, the Department of State and our EducationUSA colleagues are excited to welcome student visa applicants on Student Visa Day and throughout the student season.”

The number of Indians who choose to study in the United States has increased signiﬁcantly in the past three years. In 2023, the U.S. Mission to India issued more student visas than in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined. This unprecedented growth

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ects the ongoing commitment by the U.S. Government to prioritize students and to facilitate their travel, even as the Mission met a 400 percent rise in demand for all other visas between 2021 and 2023.

The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India anticipate continued increase in student visa applicants from India and have expanded the student visa season for 2024 to meet this growing demand.

The United States remains the number one higher education destination for Indian students, with studies showing 69 percent of Indian students prefer a U.S. education to any other destination. Indian students are the largest group of international graduate students in the United States.

IACC Call for Submissions

The Indo-American Arts Council has announced the call for submissions for our 2024 literary festival. The in-person festival is slated to be held in NYC on the weekend of November 9 – 10, 2024.

This festival celebrates and explores the vibrant and diverse cultures of India through the written word. It features works written by Indian and diaspora authors, works related to India, and works inspired by the many rich facets of the country. IACC invites submissions of published books of poetry, ﬁction, non-ﬁction, drama, and children’s literature. “Words have the power to connect worlds and look for works that examine and showcase the beauty, challenges, complexity, diversity, and richness of Indian culture and its relationship to society, history, politics, spirit, and the human experience. We accept original works in English and the languages of India with English translations,” stated IACC.

In the past, the IAAC Literary Festival has hosted prominent authors such as Salman Rushdie, Suketu Mehta, Dr. Amartya Sen, Indra Nooyi, Barkha Dutt, Deepti Naval, Deepak Chopra, Anupam Kher, Rakesh Kaul, Meena Kandasamy, Dr. Ravi Shankar, Award-winning journalists Barkha Dutt & Neerja Chowdhury, Newbery Honor recipient Veera Hiranandani, Booker Nominee Avni Doshi, Dr. Sudha Murthy, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, OBE recipient Vandana Saxena Poria, Sarah Thankam Mathews, Narayan Hegde, Megha Majumdar, John Guy, International Booker Prize winner Daisy Rockwell, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Kailash Satyarthi, Kal Penn, Vishakha Desai, Anupam Kher, Ambassador Haksar and Member of Parliament Dr. Shashi Tharoor.

The only criteria besides a focus on India or work by an Indian or diaspora author is literary excellence, whether you are a children’s book author or a poet.

The Indo-American Arts Council is dedicated to promoting, showcasing, and building an awareness of the arts and artists whose heritage lies in the Indian subcontinent in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, and folk arts.

For more details, visit Iaac.us.

Beyond Open Grant for Charlotte Area Small Businesses

Beyond Open has launched an applicant awareness and support campaign as the ﬁrst phase of the third round in the

small business grant program. Applicants can now begin to learn more about the program and prepare to apply for a Round 3 grant award. Grant applications will be accepted from August 5 through August 30, 2024. In the third round, Beyond Open will award up to $5 million to small businesses located within Charlotte’s diverse Corridors of Opportunity. Grant awards may be awarded in amounts from $10,000–$150,000.

Beyond Open oﬀers grant awards, which do not need to be repaid, to build economic mobility by helping local small business owners in Charlotte’s diverse Corridors of Opportunity acquire capital assets including equipment, technology, real estate and inventory. Beyond Open grants cannot be used for operating expenses such as payroll, advertising/marketing, professional services, maintenance costs, insurance, utilities, debt repayment and investment properties. The program is focused on diverse (minority, woman, veteran, LGBTQ, persons with disabilities) small business owners within the six Corridors of Opportunity as identiﬁed by the City of Charlotte. Businesses must be physically located within one of the Corridors to be eligible to receive an award in Round 3.

“We used a Beyond Open grant to purchase new technology that has allowed me to employ five additional tutors to serve in our day tutoring programs,” said Carmon Blackmon, the owner and founder of Above and Beyond Learning Center. “We use the equipment for staff to do training and workshops, and for us to conduct small group tutoring sessions. I can say without hesitation that the grant award made a significant impact in my business and has resulted in other schools desiring our tutorial program.”

The Beyond Open program, established with a $20 million philanthropic investment to Foundation for The Carolinas from the Wells Fargo Open for Business Fund, has distributed a combined total of more than $10 million to local small business owners and select nonproﬁts in its ﬁrst two rounds. Round 3 is the last planned application round for the program.

Interested small business owners are strongly encouraged to learn more and prepare early to build a Beyond Open application by visiting Beyondopenclt.com.

Grant applications will be accepted from August 5 through August 30, 2024. All applicants will receive notiﬁcation of the status of their application by the end of November 2024.

India Day Parade

The world’s largest India Day Parade will take place on Sunday August 18, 2024 at 38th St and Madison Ave., New York City beginning at noon. It is organized by Federation of Indian Associations. Floats, music, performances, food, and celebrities will help mark the day. For more details, visit Fianynjct.org.

Community Focus BAPS Charlotte Temple Breaks Ground with Bhoomi-Pujan Ceremony

The BAPS Charlotte Mandir held its bhoomi-pujan ceremony on Sunday, June 9, 2024 with the divine grace of Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan and the blessings of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj and His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj. The ceremony, attended by over 900 devotees from Charlotte and surrounding areas, marked a milestone in the construction of the new mandir. The event was graced by the presence of revered Swamis, including Pujya Yagnavallabh Swami, Pujya Shantmurti Swami, Pujya Shukmuni Swami, Pujya Munitilak Swami, Pujya Adarshnayan Swami, and Pujya Agampriya Swami.

The bhoomi-pujan ceremony signiﬁes the beginning of a new chapter in BAPS Charlotte’s history, which dates back to 1996 when His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj inaugurated the ﬁrst mandir.

The new mandir will serve as a hub for spiritual growth, community service, and cultural heritage, promoting love, peace, harmony, and unity among all.

Distinguished guests included:

• Ken McCool - Matthews Board of Commissioners

• John Higdon - Mayor of Matthews

• Gina Hoover - Mayor Pro Tem of Matthews

• Mary-Ann Baldwin - Mayor of Raleigh

• Charlotte City Councilmen and Councilwomen

• Kevin Kennedy, Principal - Cluck Design Architects

• David Klausman, Senior Project Engineer - V3 Southeast Engineering

• Brittany Evans, Principal - Phillips Gradick Engineering

• Maxwell Karr, Project Engineer - Bennett & Pless Engineering

• John D. Cooper, CEO & President - Cooper Tacia Contractors

Swamis gracing the groundbreaking

BAPS Mandir groundbreaking

Matthews Mayor John Higdon

Reduce Arangetram Stress

Dances of India

by Dr. Maha Gingrich

It is time for high school graduations and dance arangetrams (dance graduations), and its grand preparations that mimic weddings along with student and teacher rehearsals, stamina practices etc., just to name a few. Many teachers are busy with preparations. I celebrated an 86th arangetram of my dance academy in June 2024. Which means, I have gone through this arangetram stress 86 times.

That sounds funny but that is the truth. My goal is to make it as easy as possible for parents. Their stress is to invite people, ﬁnd a venue and make dinner arrangements.

An arangetram is a monumental task, often as diﬃcult as planning weddings. I want to congratulate the many dance teachers who make this happen. Recently, my student Shefali Parmar, who completed her arangetram with me despite moving to Raleigh, celebrated her daughter’s arangetram. Supriya Desai who celebrated 30 years of teaching in that area has

blessed my student’s daughter with this achievement. My students worked hard and were ready to meet the challenges of the one and only arangetram day. All the excitement and hard work comes to fruition.

It becomes one of the most memorable times of their lives. It passes too quickly once they are on the stage. Their adrenalin is pumping and stress levels are high. However, their positive experience is now being passed on to next generations.

As parents, irrespective of whether you are planning a virtual celebration or in-person celebration, I have a few suggestions for organizing this very important and once in a life time event to reduce stress. I thought I will share 10 most important planning tips with all the readers, just in case you are also thinking of planning an arangetram in the future or know of someone who may be planning. In my opinion, the key to a successful arangetram with reduced stress is planning, planning and planning.

This planning includes many things such as dance practices in person or virtual, setting the date, ﬁnding a venue to accommodate your expected audience, invitation cards or evites, budgets, ordering costumes, planning lunches and dinners. If you are anything like me, I am not good at asking for help from anyone.

Dances of India continued on page 96

Dr. Henry E. Rice

Dr. Ferzaan A. Ali

by Taige Shukla Instagram: @whatsthe_chai

Mango Cheesecake Flan

Happy Summer Saathee fam! We are officially in the heat of July, and even better, peak mango season! Nothing beats the heat like a nice juicy mango, so why not create a refreshing summer dessert with our star ingredient. For most people, you really can’t go wrong with this combination of flavors, and if you are a fan of the flan texture, this recipe is for you. When I initially set out to make this, the intention was to pass along a “no bake” cheesecake recipe. This was done by using gelatin to firm up the filling, however when using the gelatin, the texture of cheesecake became more like a flan, therefore we are now calling this a Mango Cheesecake Flan! The flavor is still so delicious, and it is now light and bouncy vs dense and creamy. If you are a massive mango fan like myself, I highly recommend adding even more slices on top of the cake when serving. Give this unique dessert a try for your next summer gathering.

Ingredients Directions

Crust——

2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

½ cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 Tbsp brown sugar

¼ Tbsp cardamom powder

½ Tbsp cinnamon

¼ Tbsp ginger powder

¼ Tbsp all spice

Filling——

3-4 ripe mangos, 1 cup pureed

16oz cream cheese

1 ½ cups powder sugar

2 tsp gelatin (sub vegan gelatin if desired)

¼ cup cold water

1/3 cup sour cream

½ cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Mango Jelly Topping——

2 ripe mangos (1/2 cup pureed)

2 tsp gelatin

¼ cup water

1-2 tsp lemon juice

Servings: About 12

Prep Time: 45 minues / Setting Time: 2 - 3 hours

Start by prepping the crust. Blend the graham crackers, brown sugar, butter, and spices together until ﬁne crumbs form. Press down ﬁrmly in a spring form pan and set aside in the refrigerator for at least 15 mins.

For the ﬁlling, start by mixing 2 tsp of gelatin with ¼ cup water and let sit for at least 5 mins, set aside.

Next, using an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese, sour cream, and vanilla until well combined, then mix in the powdered sugar. Melt the set aside gelatin in a microwave, add it into the cream cheese mixture, and mix in 1 cup of pureed mango until smooth.

Finally for the ﬁlling, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks have formed (should look like whipped cream). Gradually add it into the cream cheese mixture and pour into the cake pan on top of the crust. Make sure the top is evenly smoothed out and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Once an hour has passed make the mango jelly topping. Again, start by mixing 2 tsp of gelatin with ¼ cup water and let sit for at least 5 mins. Re-melt the gelatin in the microwave and let cool down slightly. Mix in ½ cup mango puree, and lemon juice. Pour the mango mixture on top of the cooled ﬁlling layer and let set in the refrigerator for at least 2 more hours.

Top with more mango or any additional fruit you may like and it’s ready to serve!

Hindu Center Expansion

Leave a Lasting Memory on HC Wall. Sponsor Plates for $1001, $5,001, $10,001, $25,001 or more Expansion project update:

Work Completed: Grading, Parking Lot , foundation, stone work inside and outside.

Work Continues: Main Shikhar and electrical.

2024 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Annual Membership: $101, Students & Seniors $31 Become life member for $1001!

Upcoming Hindu Center Events & Activities:

Rath Yatra: July 7th, Sunday

Hindu Center’s 42nd Anniversary: July 20th, Saturday & July 21st, Sunday

General Body Meeting / Mela / Health Fair

Independence Day: August 17th, Saturday

Janmastami: August 26th, Monday

Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations: September 6th, Friday Thru September 11th, Wednesday

Ganesh Visarjan: September 11th, Wednesday

O F C HARLOTTE

Center and Gujarati Samaj

Hindu Center 42nd Anniversary!

July 20 & July 21 2024 (Sat & Sun)

Lunch / Anand Bazaar

1 PM- 6 PM (Sat) Vihar Hall Foyer

To sponsor a food stall or for more info ontact:

Sunder Mirchandani: 704-691-2974

Nilesh Chuadhry: 704-307-6979

Narain and Deepa: 704-307-0942

Ajay: 678-978-3952

Jatin Patel: 678-602-0935

General Body Meeting

1 PM - 2 PM

Cultural Program

2 PM - 7 PM (Sat) Vihar Hall

Participate in the cultural program or come enjoy the show!!

For Details Contact:

Anitha Gowtam 704-206-9348

Rashmikaben 980-322-3505

Sarika Milhoutra 201-696-1877

Poonam Rojra 704-682-1388

Riya Annesha 980-349-9476, Hemant Amin 704-258-3588

Reena Roy 704-607-8412 reena.roy@hcclt.org

Health Fair Sun, July 21

Noon - 4 PM Vihar Hall

Learn about your health and how to improve it.

For more information contact:

Rajeev Puri: 704-649-2165

Vipul Mistry: 704-392-8789

Dr. Anoop Kalia: 704-674-3632

Dr. Mahesh Duggal: 704-793-3208

For donations / sponsors contact: Pujari, Bal Gupta, Ravi Patel or Hemant Amin.

To sponsor food for a stall or volunteer, contact Hemant Amin, or anyone above.

42nd Anniversary Celebration and Anand Bazaar

Cultural Program Contacts

Email: hc_cultural@yahoo.com

Anitha Gowtam 704-206-9348

Sponsorships

Nirav Pandya 570-205-2636

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The Strange Power of the Presidency: Executive Actions versus Law

Immigration Matters

by Rishi P. Oza

President Joe Biden recently announced a sprawling Executive Action (“EA”) attempting to tackle the ongoing migrant crisis impacting the nation’s southern border. The new action, which aims to curb the ability of migrants to claim asylum between ports of entry during surges at the border, amounts to one of the most restrictive measures governing access to asylum in decades. It eﬀectively provides Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the ability to expel any individual encountered at the southern border that is not seeking to enter through an authorized entry point.

These restrictions will become eﬀective after seven consecutive days of more than 2,500 encounters along the southern border, but does not impact those individuals seeking to claim for asylum at an authorized port of entry, such as a customs land access point or airport.

President Biden’s action highlights an often used, but commonly misunderstood and often asked question regarding the government’s workings: what is an executive action? In short, executive actions are mechanisms through which the President can attempt to institute policy changes that are controlled by the Executive branch without seeking the assistance of congressional approval.

EAs can be implemented quickly, but have speciﬁc limitations, as they cannot appropriate funds or create new law, which are solely under the purview of Congress. As with virtually everything in today’s age, EAs can be challenged in court and can be overturned by judicial action.

In 2014, the-President Obama attempted to pass a Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which was fashioned upon the successful DACA program that helped approximately 11 million undocumented individuals brought to the United States as children obtain work permits. After being challenged by Republican governors and Attorneys General nationwide, the DAPA program was indeﬁnitely put on hold until the program was rescinded under the Trump Administration.

The legacy of DAPA underscores the main weakness of EAs – they are not law. They can be revoked or modified under subsequent presidential administrations and are not considered permanent. Once enacted, they do absorb some protections from the courts, as revoking a benefit is often much more difficult than granting it in the first place, but Executive Actions are susceptible to immediate court intervention and scrutiny in a way that statutory law is not.

Conversely, statutes or laws are passed by Congress through an exhaustive legislative process. They must be passed by both the US House of Representatives and the Senate and then signed by the President. This

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continued from page 50

I like setting and achieving goals. (Just that I recognize now that my personal goals will have largely been very diﬀerent from most people reading this magazine, because I think that the Indian diaspora puts a lot of pressure on itself to conform to other people’s expectations; just an opinion of mine, one that I’ve had since I was, oh, maybe nine.)

On that occasion of hosting “Expat” in Durham 12 years ago, I guess I really wanted to hear how some of us who were in North Carolina were feeling about the insular nature of it. This was good to design an occasion for, and after that, I realized I was ready to try it out for real. I started making plans to get going, and the next spring was on my way to Southeast Asia.

Didn’t expect this initially, but I’ve been here ever since. Talk about a world apart.

I had already lived in Ireland for three years, but this was going to be diﬀerent. This time, I knew more what it would be like, when the major US holidays rolled around that no one around me was going to be celebrating. I knew and I was more ready. It never quite fully goes away, the nostalgia, but it eases up, for sure, with time.

“Have you been in Cambodia the whole time?”

“Sort of. Yeah.”

What can I say now that I’m here in Phnom Penh, writing this?, except: this existing here wouldn’t have happened were it not for the informal sharings that percolated out of that conversational salon. This coming week, I’ll host something similar but it’ll be virtual. This works for me nowadays; informal and easier to put together than traveling around and trying to get people to talk to each other in person.

That’s quite the eﬀort and I feel less inclined, now, than I did before. Maybe the pandemic changed me. Maybe the way we don’t make time for talking as much, in general.

As much as I wanted to keep going with that, it became too hard. The eﬀort to get together for just a cup of coﬀee with someone else can sometimes feel like too much work. Even if I liked it, I can’t enjoy that pre-start labor, and I don’t want to do it. So I don’t, now.

I writ my own things and I write my own magazine and share with just a handful of people, every week; it’s okay with me to do it this way. Less bloggy. Less tweety. But more me, rawer and more honest in those quieter, lessviewed places. In many ways, less is more. I feel that way. It might come from my minimalist approach to most things; life is short, focus on what you like, and do those things while releasing yourself from obligations to do what you don’t. Easier said than done, perhaps, but then again, as one of the people on the road said, ‘Not everyone can do what you’re doing.’

Can’t, or won’t? The choice is always yours.

Dipika Kohli

is an author who is based in Phnom Penh. Discover her books at kismuth.com and other projects at dipikakohli.com.

Mirror continued from page 24

were given away while others remain neatly packed away in a dusty cassette carrier. It doesn’t even matter that I no longer have the means to properly replay these tiny bundles of plastic and magnetic tape. The simple act of tugging them out to read each weathered label is enough to bloom a smile or four.

As a reminder… this was in the dark ages before Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify, or even YouTube. Musical performers gained most of their loyal fanbase through months and months of rigorous touring and the occasional record store signing.

MTV was just gaining its footing within our cultural zeitgeist; a new promotional vehicle which would eventually spark both good and bad consequences for various bands due to the added exposure and pressure to achieve and later maintain a certain ‘look’ n order to stay relevant.

While the creative method of the Mixtape may have evolved… ﬁrst to burnable CD’s, then MP3 lists, and ﬁnally digital streaming, its purpose has remained relatively unchanged.

This is because music at its core is a creative force best capable of giving voice and shape to our most transcendent experiences (both real and imagined) by containing and expanding them simultaneously.

When you hear, feel, and think of a particular song you enjoy, there is a connection to which a speciﬁc life moment can be relived through a series of notes and phrases.

As painter, poet, and writer John Berger once wrote:

“A song, as distinct from the bodies it takes over, is unfixed in time and place. A song narrates a past experience. While it is being sung it fills the present. Stories do the same. But songs have another dimension, which is uniquely theirs. A song fills the present, while it hopes to reach a listening ear in some future somewhere. It leans forward, farther and farther. Without the persistence of this hope, songs would not exist. Songs lean forward.”

More simply put… Music has the capacity to reach beyond language, culture, belief, and even time itself to unify those who dare to appreciate it.

These days, I’ve traded in my archaic cassettes for curated playlists on YouTube, which I often explore by succumbing to the platform’s recommendation algorithm. It’s not a perfect practice, but these little side bar endorsements have sparked my curiosity and led me on an entire evening’s treasure hunt of musical discoveries.

And occasionally I still tug out that dusty cassette box just to peek at the labels… and reminisce on those moments personiﬁed through carefully selected tunes etched forever into my consciousness.

Now… where can I ﬁnd a good Walkman on sale?

Jennifer Allen works at Saathee and is also a Podcaster, Blogger, Photographer, Graphic Artist, Gamer, Martial Arts Practitioner, and an all around Pop Culture Geek. You can reach her at Saathee@Saathee.com

Kismuth

Mirror

South Asians

continued from page 44

academic, professional, and social lives knowing that we are welcomed among our classmates, colleagues, and neighbors as our authentic selves. For many of us, sometimes a sense of true inclusion and belonging in the American story often feels out of reach.

Each immigrant family has its own unique story of migration, assimilation, and identity. In large part, the contemporary story of South Asian America is widely understood to have begun in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s in the wake of the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act. This federal law ended decades of de facto discrimination against would-be immigrants from Asia, as well as peoples of Southern and Eastern Europe.

After its passage, the first major wave of immigrants from these areas, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and other South Asian countries, allowed thousands of South Asian families to begin new lives in America. My own family was part of this wave of immigration. These South Asian Americans and their succeeding generations have made important contributions to the United States’ economy, culture, scientific achievements, higher education, and many other areas. Yet to many South Asians, it feels as though these contributions have often been recognized by the mainstream American culture as transactional in nature: as if South Asians’ presence in America is valued only on the condition of what we can offer to the country.

Part of the reason for the lack of a sense of belonging has been the failure of American historians and educators to recognize and include the South Asian American story in their telling of the history of America. As far as I remember, the immigration history sprinkled into my elementary and secondary education in North Carolina in the 1980’s and 1990s did not include any mention of South Asians. Even today, the Hart-Cellar Act and its impacts are rarely, if ever, taught in classrooms, despite the law’s monumental impacts on the demographics and culture of this country. Worse yet, going almost completely ignored is the longer history of South Asians in America dating back farther.

Take the story of Amir Haider Khan, an 18-year-old from Kashmir who had worked for four years as an indentured laborer on a British trade ship. On a cold night in 1918, Khan and a fellow laborer, with only the meager clothes they were wearing, escaped into the frigid New York City night. They were taken in by a Black boardinghouse keeper who gave them shelter and food, and a place to hide. Khan spent several years working around the U.S., before eventually returning to India to join its independence movement. Others with similar stories would go on to settle in the U.S.

Not only have South Asians been part of the American story for generations, but throughout that time we have also been central to the push and pull of American social progress and to eﬀorts to broaden the deﬁnition of what it means to be American. Yet, because the story of South Asian America, in all its depth and variety, is mostly omitted from American history lessons, many of us have long felt uncertain as to our place in American society, past and present.

The good news is that things have begun to change. In recent years, in both academia and the broader culture, there has been a growing recognition of the important role that South Asians have played in the American story. Organizations like the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) have taken on the mission of giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent our unique and diverse experiences in America. Just one example of SAADA’s wide-ranging work is its repository of resources for educators, including lesson plans and activities that have been created to support high school and college-level educators in bringing South Asian American history and stories into their classrooms.

As a strong supporter of SAADA, I am heartened to know that current and future generations of South Asian Americans will beneﬁt from its work. The inclusion of South Asian American history into the story of America is long overdue. Thankfully, each of us has an opportunity to help write a new American history by sharing our families’ stories and by supporting the work of organizations like SAADA that are working to document these stories so they can be retold again and again.

Neal Dongre

is a North Carolina native with family roots in India. He sits on the board of SAADA. If you want to learn more about SAADA, visit www.saada.org for information, or contact Neal at nealdongre@gmail.com.

IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY

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Find the latest Job Openings, Matrimonials, Business Opportunities and more Classiﬁeds here.

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Editor’s Desk: Read the essay “Good Bones” here.

Find the article about Brain Health in our Nutrition column here.

Go to our Movies Page Here: Find all the latest releases coming up as well as ﬁlms opening this week.

Go to our Recipes Page Here: Lots of delicious recipes found in Saathee are gathered here.

capabilities has been clearly adequate to the programmedin goal of survival in a vagary- and uncertainty-studded universe that continually throws things at you for you to catch and handle.

The universe outside is big! The one inside is not as big. But it is good enough to deal with a lifetime of challenges that will be thrown at you. It has requisite variety – a set of elemental capabilities, the most important of which is an ability to weave these elements together along with other resources available outside you, so that you can meet each situation and circumstance as it appears, almost as if you are conquering a challenging and unpredictable video game that is not designed by you.

But alas! It is possible to stray far from the real universe, inﬁnite though it may be, into some strange parallel worlds that yield nightmarish experiences.

Don’t throw cold water on the ﬁre!

The very capability – imagination – that helps you adapt, innovate and ﬂex to real-world demands can do much more than it should, taking you down some very destructive paths. We see this phenomenon in our emerging artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) systems, something that has been labeled by those in this industry as “hallucination”. But the same phenomenon is much harder to see in yourself although it exists and is the motherlode from which the AI hallucinations derive.

The issue arises from the fact that we have become way more than the naturally intelligent systems we were born as. We have extended ourselves with our symbols – words and numbers – effectively layering these on top of our natural resources. The means of words, numbers and the “logic” around these have effectively become ends unto themselves, allowing us to create infinite worlds that bear no resemblance to the real world that we must live in.

This is how we lose our way. If we fabricate all kinds of nonsensical ideas and theories that sit alongside the realworld parallels in our heads, it can lead to a couple of problems. First, we are limited-resource creatures. If we end up using up these resources to deal with windmills as Don Quixote did, we will have little bandwidth to recognize and engage with the things that actually matter using our embedded gifts from nature. Secondly, voodoo doesn’t work! If we imagine that our actions in the parallel worlds we fabricate yield anything useful in the real one, we will be sadly mistaken. We will end up seeing the symptom of this mode of operation – an intermittent and unpredictable lack of successes in the real world – and blame it on fate, uncertainty and the erratic nature of the real universe rather than on the generation of strange hallucinations inside ourselves.

To keep the ﬁre of the universe alive within you, you may need to look suspiciously at the words and numbers, and the shenanigans you may be performing with them. Those are not the requisite variety needed to thrive; they are often things that can best be seen as a “wreck-with-it” variety, something that you should look to use with extreme caution.

Toward an exquisite ﬁre

Words are not the only things we need to be careful about. It is important not to bring things and people around you that can limit your ability to deal effectively with the various things that the universe will certainly throw at you over time and in different circumstances that cannot be fully fathomed right now. A thoughtful life involves building or acquiring new elements that increase your internal variety beyond the natural gifts that the universe has blessed you with. If the fire within you keeps getting extended with valuable external elements rather than getting diminished and constrained, you are well on your way. Toward exquisite variety!

Balaji Prasad is an IIT/IIM graduate, a published author, SAT/ACT Online and in-person Coach, and K-12 Math Tutor at NewCranium. balaji.prasad@newcranium.com.

Personal Finances continued from page 62

population that does need the money as soon as possible, like now, and for them it does make sense to start social security immediately but for most of the others some strategic thinking has to take place. It is in their best interest to usually delay starting SSA payments as late as possible. Of course, there is no advantage delaying it beyond the age of 70.

Retiring Too Early

Subconsciously, we are thinking the grass is greener, the sky is blue with no clouds around, water is ﬁne and the beer is cold; I am talking about the imagined world of retirement. If you retire too early that may not be the case, at times. Lot of deliberation and calculations have to be done before such major step is taken. Especially for early retirees, there is a world of about 25 to 35 years that needs to be fathomed and mapped.

Healthcare Costs

Medicare does not cover everything and if one retires before 65 there is no Medicare and we need to ﬁnd our own healthcare arrangement till then. Fidelity has estimated that a couple may spend about $300,000 over their lifetime in medical expenses including the premiums; this is directly out of your own pocket and assuming no major calamities happen. Long term care is another issue. It is estimated that 46% regret not buying LTC at the right time or not at all. LTC premiums are becoming quite prohibitive but so is the cost of not having it since medical expenses are rising at not less than 10% annually.

Many hard decisions are to be made and at the right time. That time is in the ﬁrst 10 years of your working lives if not within the ﬁrst year. Take charge of your retirement when you are not even thinking of it. Yes, indeed.

Mo Vidwans

is an independent, board certified financial planner. For details visit, VidwansFinancial.com, call 734-476-0579 or write to: mvfinancial@yahoo.com

Nutrition continued from page 54

• Research shows possible connections to mood disorders including anxiety, depression, anger issues, and attention deﬁcit disorders

Once microplastics enter our body, it is extremely hard to remove them. They stay in our body and continue to cause damage. They can also absorb other harmful chemicals, further weakening the immune system and causing tissue damage. Therefore, the best way to reduce damage from microplastics is to limit getting it into our system in the ﬁrst place.

Sources of Plastics and Microplastics

• Plastic containers – this is a big one, especially for our South Asian community!

• Home catering, Takeout Restaurant Food, Leftover Party Food – this is probably the largest source of plastics in our community. How many of us have the 8 oz or 16 oz clear plastic containers that were ﬁlled with food?

• Packaged ready to eat foods such as yogurt, idli-dosa batters, frozen foods, etc.

• In our in-built mindset to save money, we reuse these plastic dabbas for yogurt, and any other such store-bought containers to pack leftovers at home

• Grocery store bags – Plastic bags from grocery stores, plus the thin small plastic bags we use to get vegetables

• Bottled Water and other beverages: Water and other drinks such as juices all come in plastic bottles. Water bottles are used not just at home, but more frequently in home parties and get-togethers and business meetings

• Packaged snacks – All packaged snacks from American and Desi stores are all made from plastic materials

Besides these obvious sources, you may be surprised to know a few other sources of microplastics:

Fish & seafood: Oceanographers have been studying the global waters and have found twenty-four trillion pieces of microplastics in the ocean and counting! If you choose to eat ﬁsh or shellﬁsh, you are ingesting some of these microplastics.

Tea bags: Most tea bags are made from plastic, so if you use any boxed/bagged teas, you may be getting some of these microplastics

Fruits and Vegetables: Besides being packed in plastic bags and plastic shell containers, fruits and vegetables may also absorb plastics through their roots from the soil.

Beer: Beer is made from water and crops such as wheat, which both contain microplastics due to plastic pollution. There are about twenty-eight microplastic particles per liter of beer which outpaces other drinks such as soda, iced tea, and energy drinks.

Condiments: Ketchup and other sauces and seasonings come in plastic bottles.

What can we do?

It is quite a grim picture what we are doing to our planet and to our bodies. How can we attempt to save ourselves?

• Get Educated: The theme for Earth Day this year is Planet versus Plastics! To join Earthday.org’s eﬀort to achieve a 60% reduction in plastics by 2040. Sign a petition and urge companies to reduce plastic packaging.

• Use reusable water bottles – carry your glass or metal bottle everywhere you go. For parties and get-togethers, avoid buying plastic water bottles for everyone. Ask people to bring their own reusable water bottles or steel glasses.

• Reduce plastic cutlery and plates – host an environmentally friendly party – ask your guests to bring their own dinner plates and cutlery or serve food in washable plates if possible. Use compostable plates.

• Reduce plastic trash bags: Stack disposable plates to reduce the number of trash bags used at parties. Compost if possible.

• Take cloth bags when you go shopping. Keep a stack of cloth bags in your car. There are also cloth bags available for buying produce to avoid getting thin plastic bags for vegetables. Get as many reusable items as you can. If you forget to take your own bags, choose paper over plastic.

• Shop for produce at farmer’s markets thus reducing the plastic packed produce containers.

• Home caterers and restaurant owners – perhaps have a meeting about what you can do you reduce plastic containers. Remember how years ago milk and soda used to be sold in glass bottles? We would get money back when we returned the bottles! Perhaps something like that may be needed, where food is packed in reusable steel or glass containers and people get a discount for returning and extra charge for not returning the containers?

• Reduce packaged processed foods – it is not only healthy for our body but also good for the environment.

• Eat more beans! – Reduce animal proteins and eat more beans. The growing and cultivation of beans adds nitrogen and other important minerals to the soil. Beans use signiﬁcantly less amount of water, land, and petroleum than livestock, and they do not pollute the planet with harmful byproducts like methane, and other greenhouse gases.

Every little step helps. Let us all take a pledge to reduce plastic use in our own daily lives and help further this movement by encouraging friends and neighbors to do the same.

Parul Kharod

is a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist and works as a Clinical Dietitian. She can be reached at parulkharod@gmail.com

laborious process, which includes markups through Congressional committees and negotiations between legislative houses give statutes a heft that are absent from the quick and nimble EA process.

Statutes undergo debate and voting and are subject to the scrutiny of stakeholders and public hearings. Statutes appropriate government funding, can establish new agencies and can create enforceable standards, thus providing the executive branch with the will of the people through their duly elected representatives. Most importantly, laws remain in eﬀect permanently and while they can be amended and repealed (and also challenged in the court system), the deliberative process that they undergo provides statutes with an insulation that EAs simply do not possess.

This juxtaposition will play itself out in the coming months, as the American Civil Liberties Union has already indicated that it will challenge Biden’s Executive Action in court. Critics on both sides of the isle have also criticized the effectiveness of Biden’s action – many have rightly pointed out that while the EA will lessen the number of incoming filings that need to be adjudicated by the nation’s current adjudications system, that same system is virtually beyond saving – applicants for asylum can commonly expect to wait between 5 – 10 years for their claim to be heard by a USCIS officer; those applicants that are denied are then forwarded to an immigration court system that has been buckling for years with millions of backlogged cases, which may mean another number of years before their cases are adjudicated.

Biden’s eﬀorts do little to address this backlog or help to staﬀ up a woefully under-resourced system. Critics additionally point to Biden’s inaction on the southern border for nearly three years and argue that he is only now pushing enforcement policies for political purposes.

As has been argued in this column for years, the President’s shortcomings in this area are hardly of his own making. Quite contrarily, Congressional inaction and cowardice has led to current sorry state of aﬀairs – too many members of Congress have a vested interest in keeping immigration as a political wedge issue, to be argued over on cable news networks and through social media, instead of addressing it as the policy, humanitarian and economic issue it truly is.

As such, the American public will be left with the imperfect and temporary oﬀerings of each presidential administration, trying to bandage the problem for a short time longer. Sadly, the current immigration system seems to be held together by the policy-equivalent of popsicle sticks and duct tape, which makes the current system of disorder utterly predictable. Therefore, while we may want to criticize each presidential administration, Democratic or Republican, for its speciﬁc immigration shortcomings, we should collectively consider that many of the problems that we are hoping to be addressed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would probably be better heard 2 ½ miles away on Capitol Hill.

Rishi P. Oza

is Partner at Brown Immigration Law, a firm that focuses solely on immigration law; he practices in Durham. roza@rbrownllc.com

Dances of India

continued from page 70

Here are my ten major suggestions:

Plan for the event in advance and have a budget limit in mind. Start saving as soon as you can. Do not postpone anything for later, as Murphy’s Law may take over. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

It is a major event in the student’s life and the family’s life. There is a lot of pressure for the parents to make this event perfect. Do not compete with others. Find the level that is good for you and do your best.

Set the date and book the venue ﬁrst. After you book the venue, plan ahead on invitations/evites, costumes, decorations, guest list, menu for the reception etc.

The number of attendees should match your venue. Make sure you know the capacity of the auditorium and match it with your guest list. Cut down or add to the guest list as needed. Remember to gather the email or physical addresses of your guests well in advance.

Book your photographer and the videographer in advance. Write up a contract if you wish. Set up your expectations with their tech capabilities for a virtual show if needed and be very clear about your event needs.

It is a stressful time not only for parents but also for the student. An arangetram is the culmination of many years of training, investment and hard work. Let the student focus on the dance. The student rises to a new level of performance, and moreover, develops the discipline to achieve a long-term goal. Students have to meet many expectations and it is not easy for them. Help the student to relax and keep them engaged with rehearsals.

Take some time off for the event. Do not do what I did by working all the way to the arangetram day. You will be guaranteed to stress out. Make sure you take at least a week or two off before the event and take a couple of days off after the event to recoup and get your house back together.

It may also be the time for a huge family gathering. Your house could be full of guests with diﬀerent needs. Couple of days before the event, you cannot cook and clean or even let them cook as they do not know your house. Make sure you understand their needs and plan ahead to arrange for food either by catering or by asking your friends to send a major dish or two to help you.

Parents have to seek help from close friends and delegate the work. I was blessed with many good friends who literally taught me to seek and accept help during my daughter’s arangetram. Assign tasks to friends and delegate clearly and reaﬃrm the duties a week before the event.

Most important of all, enjoy the arangetram It will never come back again!

Dr. Maha Gingrich

For questions or comments, contact via email at GingrichMaha@gmail.com

unknowable tentacles, and we are able to use its awesome technological potential to do good in the world, we can take the brakes oﬀ and reduce regulation.

In the meantime, in something I can control, I hereby post the ﬁrst rule and regulation for Saathee magazine and all its digital incarnations in the incoming AI age. No content will be generated using AI. It will be written, drawn, and photographed by humans. It will be ﬁlmed by humans. Yes, this will be tricky as AI consumes more and more bandwidth.

This obviously doesn’t mean we don’t use all means available to conduct factual research or cross-reference sources. This doesn’t mean we can’t tweak photos a little for contrast or brightness. It doesn’t mean we don’t use spell checkers and grammar software, use technology to increase productivity and eﬃciency.

We use software for magazine design, operate our website and media platforms, and I’m sure AI lurks in these, but that is the backend. It’s sort of like using an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. I’m talking about content, stuﬀ you read, watch, and listen to, this will be created by humans, the old school way. Analog, real, maybe even cut and paste, with all its human emotions, anxieties and joys.

Tech companies and search engines are piling on top of each other, jumping over each other, pushing the limits of copyright laws in their rush and ﬂush to implement AI. It’s all about market share. If one company doesn’t do it, another certainly will.

The bottom line is that Generative AI is already ripping off publishers, writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, photographers and other content creators. There are slew of lawsuits against Tech companies using AI to steal content. This is a good thing. Stealing copyrighted material and intellectual property is the same as stealing physical stuff at your local stores. There’s no difference. Deepfakes are also troubling AI generated content we must deal with.

Musicians, writers, poets, filmmakers, and others have given away their creations in the past. This is done by choice. AI simply finds content, copies, aggregates and spits it back out. This is essentially stealing. Three-year-olds with the ability to speak into a phone can ask ChatGPT to make fake stuff. Anything that AI generates should come with credits, sort of like the credits that roll after a movie, where even the smallest participant gets a shoutout.

Excitement and the potential beneﬁts of AI are palpable. Spreading disinformation, misinformation and fakeness, stealing content generated by humans, these are the darker aspects of AI.

The world will become more artiﬁcial, but Saathee’s content will be created by humans, as much as, well, humanly possible.

Samir Shukla

is the Editor of Saathee Magazine

Contact: Samir@Saathee.com

Twitter: @ShuklaWrites Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com

Eye on Markets continued from page 46

It’s not just earnings that are supporting the market, but the technicals themselves. Corporate buybacks are going to hit nearly $1 trillion this year and hit a record $1.075 trillion in 2025, a 16% increase from this year’s total. There is $6.3 trillion in money market assets. As rates get cut, money market assets are less attractive. If the stock market remains strong, it’s likely FOMO will set in for those sitting with high cash positions.

Equities have been net-sold for four consecutive weeks. CTAs still have room to add to positioning. Hedge funds (just in the 27th percentile) continue to add short positioning while S&P futures positioning is still net short. With this kind of ﬁre power on the sidelines, dips are likely to be bought.

The major driver of earnings growth is the new CapEx cycle. It spans infrastructure, clean energy, manufacturing, and technology. It is funded by ﬁscal spending from the infrastructure bill, chips act, and inﬂation reduction act, as well as corporate CapEx, and private capital. At the heart of it is AI.

The AI infrastructure buildout is signiﬁcant, it includes data centers, building semiconductor fabrication plants, and supplying signiﬁcant energy to power them.

We are in the early stages of infrastructure buildout. Areas that are beneﬁting, range from semiconductors to infrastructure companies, industrials, and utilities.

The company Vertiv, which makes cooling systems for data centers, said that their AI project pipeline doubled from January to March.

The market is just starting to reward such derivative plays as it grasps the magnitude of the buildout. Utilities are now one of the hottest sectors in the market as the required energy for AI buildout will be signiﬁcant.

Electricity Inﬂation

An AI search consumes 10x more electricity than a regular Google search. Electricity inﬂation is the highest in 40 years. NextEra said on its earnings call that electricity demand from data centers alone would grow 15%/year through the end of the decade.

Companies such as NRG and Vistra are guiding up by over 20%. Three of this year’s ﬁve best performing stocks are utilities. Utilities are beating tech this year. As more and more sectors get impacted by the CapEx boom, the rally will broaden.

It will eventually broaden from the infrastructure plays to applications and to the consumers of AI, including healthcare, ﬁnancials, and discretionary.

Looking forward, the market will focus on the economic data, geopolitics, and the 2024 US election.

Ketu Desai

is the principal of i-squared Wealth Management Inc. (www.isquaredwealth.com), an investment management firm based in New Jersey. ketu@isquaredwealth.com

Tune Your Brain

Solve these brain teasers - Solutions on Page 110

PUZZLES & TOONS

Key Word Search

Fill in blanks of these clues, then take the ﬁrst letter of each word and unscramble them to ﬁnd this month’s Key Word.

___ say can you see, by the... Mom and dad are your ___. Monday, ___, Wednesday,... ___, white, and blue (American ﬂag) ___ pledge allegiance to the ﬂag... America ___ Beautiful Unites States of ___.

Answers on page 104

Hello Readers

We are adding new puzzles and cartoons to these pages over the next few issues. We welcome comments and suggestions. Send your thoughts to Samir@Saathee.com

Magic Maze Answers on page 110

Go Figure! Answers on page 104

Festivals & Holidays Puzzle Solutions

JULY 2024

Jul. 1 - Canada Day

Jul. 2 - Yogini Ekadashi

Jul. 4 - Independence Day (USA)

Jul. 5 - Darsh Amas (No Moon)

Jul. 7 - Muharram

Jul. 7 - Ratha Yatra

Jul. 11 - World Population Day

Jul. 16 - Ashura

Jul. 17 - Gauri Vrat Begins

Jul. 17 - Devshayani Ekadashi

Jul. 20 - International Chess Day

Jul. 21 - Gauri Vrat Ends

Jul. 21 - Ashadha / Guru Purnima (Full Moon)

Jul. 23 - Fast of Tammuz

Jul. 28 - Parents’ Day

Jul. 29 - International Tiger Day

Jul. 30 - International Day of Friendship

Jul. 31 - Kamika Ekadashi

Astroscope

Aries

(March 21 – April 20)

After a negative start, things should take a positive turn. It is advisable to wait until the second week before making any decisions. You could enjoy a slew of successes this month as your conﬁdence will be on par, and those efforts may earn you more income. You will receive great help from friends and business partners. Be sure to drive cautiously to avoid any potential mishaps.

Taurus

(April 21 – May 20)

This is a very favorable time to take on long-term opportunities. You may make an important family/career related decision this month but be prepared for a healthy bit of competition. Try to work through any partnership disputes as any manner of deceit could ruin your plans. Students may have to work harder to achieve their desired grade. Try to avoid shady politics. Some good news from afar may delight you by the end of the month. Watch your health .

Gemini

(May 21 – June 20)

You may experience two very distinct life paths during the first and second half of the month. Great opportunities may come your way so be sure to grab them while destiny favors you. Try maintaining your confidence under the influence of excitement or anger. Your partner along with self-discipline may prove very helpful with this. Watch your health seriously this month. Avoid driving during the last week, if possible.

Cancer

(June 21 – July 22)

You will perform exemplarily at work but see no immediate beneﬁt. You will be on the verge of positive change during the last days of the month, so don’t wait to make any important decisions. A friendly discussion with your parents can even help with this choice, so try to avoid deciding this on your own. Some ﬁnancial loss is also possible.

Leo

(July 23 – August 22)

You may experience life akin to a roller coaster ride right now. Carelessness could become the catalyst for some serious health problems. Try to adopt a ﬂexible attitude during the second half of the month. Support from your friends and associates will delight you. A new venture could be on the horizon but be sure to listen to your children before making any bold decisions.

Virgo

(August 23 – September 21)

Your life will be controlled by fate. You may struggle at work, but the third week of the month will help open up new opportunities for you. A family gathering during the last week could bring good luck. A steady state of health is clearly indicated. Avoid any aggression and don’t make any decision based on a friend’s advice. Avoid short distance travel.

Libra

(September 22 – October 20)

You may enjoy steady progress this month with the help of a close sibling. Enjoy your success, however, try not to move too fast. You may feel content during the middle of the month. You should see a rise in income and the stock market may even offer some relief by the third week. For students, now is not the time to slack on your study habits. A long drive somewhere could prove fruitful.

Scorpio (October 21 – November 20)

This is a period of great achievement and celebration. Your friends and elders may also bask in your tremendous success. You will enjoy appreciation and respect from higher authorities. This is a good time to invest in business or home affairs. Students may experience a minor setback this month. Your enemies won’t even dare harm you. Use your self-conﬁdence to achieve success.

Sagittarius

(November 21 – December 21)

After a positive start, you will experience a minor setback this month. You could lose your conﬁdence and make bad decisions; try to maintain an easy temperament and work hard. Don’t take on any new debt this month. A strong para-psychic experience may generate negative emotions amongst your friends and family. Focus on studying and reading.

Capricorn

(December 22 – January 21)

You should experience minor positive changes at the beginning of the month. You may feel relaxed, despite an increase in workload. Support from family and your partner will bring good business results. Continue watching your health carefully and avoid enmity with anyone. Also don’t make any social plans, as you might be forced to change them at the last minute.

Aquarius

(January 22 – February 18)

Try to be practical this month and concentrate on enjoying both your family and social life. This is not a good time for students. If working, a promotion and rise in income are both possible. Be aware of surreptitious enemies as they could destroy your happiness. If involved in a legal dispute, the outcome should turn in your favor.

Pisces

(February 19 – March 20)

Even though it will feel like things are improving, some new problems could arise during the last week of the month. Minor health issues could become much more acute. Remain cautious and avoid taking risks. Old family problems may come back to the forefront. Your work performance could be poor, but luck will protect you. Long-term planning is now extremely essential.

CLASSIFIEDS

Business Opportunities

Find your Dream Business Call for Commercial Lots and Businesses for Sale in the Carolinas. 704-649-9095.

16-Room Motel for Sale with 2 bed/2 bath mobile home on 1.6Ac lot in McCormick, SC. Great location! Continuously updated. Increasing revenues $170k. Owner financing. Potential for expansion. Check out barmel-inn.com. Call 240-357-7023.

Dry

Cleaners for Sale

Prime Locations in Charlotte. One Plant and One Drop off. Nice equipment & plenty of space to grow. Call Alka 704-942-7965.

Properties for Sale

Commercial & Investment Property: Claremont, NC, $96000, Convenience Store: Hickory, NC $625000. Contact: County South: 704-440-4433 or Countysouth.biz.

Employment Opportunities

Store Help Needed at Perfume Stores in Charlotte & Pineville. For details, please call Veer Singh at 415-265-8686.

Front Desk Manager & Housekeeping Couple Wanted for franchise hotel in Columbia, SC. Accommodations provided. Fluent English required. Text / call 704-701-9975.

Hotel Help Wanted

Front Desk / Manager, Night Auditor & Housekeeper (Single / Couple) for franchise hotels in Charlotte, Gastonia, High Point, NC & Columbia, SC. Accommodations provided. Call 704-460-0379 between 6-9pm.

Seeking Live-in Single/Couple with good communication skills to manage 64-room branded hotel near Florence, SC. Prior hotel experience preferred. Competitive pay and 3BD/2BR apartment provided. Contact 865-566-1559.

Sales & Marketing Person Wanted with college degree in related field for manufacturing company. Must be fluent in communication , familiar with MS office & computers, possess great personality & be able to work in team environment. Willing to sponsor if candidate is suitable to requirements. Contact Raj 336-558-3410 or rajm@amerifabintl.com.

Hotel Help Wanted

Front Desk + Laundry and Housekeeping for Motel in Greenville / Simpsonville, SC. Couple preferred. Accommodations provided. Call or text 828-386-5184.

Front Desk & Laundry Help needed for Franchise Hotel in Concord, NC. Accommodations provided. Call 704772-5554.

House Help Needed

Gujarati cook in Charlotte, NC. Other duties include laundry and light housekeeping. Part-time: 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Driver’s license preferred. Call 330-858-4324.

Gas Station Seeking Help in Rock Hill, SC. Single or couple. Good pay for an experienced person! No accommodations. Call 803-659-3330.

Manager / Front Desk needed for a Franchise Hotel in Rock Hill, SC. Accommodations Provided. Please call 803-517-4662.

Hotel Help Wanted

Front Desk / Manager, Night Auditor & Housekeeper (Single/Couple) for franchise hotels in Charlotte (Airport Area) & Winston-Salem (Near Hanes Mall). Accommodations provided. Call 704-626-4849 between 4-8pm.

Hiring Eyebrow Threader & Esthetician in Kannapolis, NC. Please text 704-4502900 with your information.

Cashier Wanted for Convenience Store near Kannapolis, NC. Very attractive salary! Accommodations provided. Text or Call 704-701-9482.

For Immediate Hire

Accounting manager (must have experience). Hotel GMs - Wyndham, Choice, and Hilton brands (must have experience). Front Desk (multiple locations). Pay rates higher than the competition. Contact 704-649-6833 or abcone@abcinns.com.

Autobody Shop Hiring Now!

Auto Body technician needed in Charlotte / Mooresville, NC. Great pay! Willing to sponsor a Visa for well qualified applicant. Call 704-663-0032 or email: VS@ColorMasterPremium.com.

Saathee Classified ads

Sell your business, or property. Find the perfect job, hire the perfect employee. Get great adversting results with Saathee Call 704-527-7570 or email saathee@saathee.com.

Customer Service Associate Wanted

Looking for responsible, full-time candidate for Postal Annex franchise store in Concord, NC. Duties include shipping, printing & more. Fluent English a must. Submit your Resume to pa18019@postalannex.com or text 647822-2536. www.postalannex.com.

Matrimonial / Seeking Companion

Seeking Bride

Well-educated MD Internist / Hospitalist (Non-Interventional Cardio Fellowship) Man. 35 year-old, never married, wellsettled, and good-looking. Vegetarian, Spiritual, Gujarati, only child, US Citizen. Looking for Girl, preferably Medical professional but will accept any higher education. Text Shailesh with details 260602-3354.

US citizen, Hindu, business graduate, 33 currently working in Raleigh, NC looking for educated bride. Contact 336683-7631 or cstore1947@yahoo.com.

Looking for a life partner? Saathee can help you reach hundreds of potential matches. Cost is only $15 per month. Call 704-527-7570.

LearnAboutLand.com

Prime Siler Site US 64 West

18 AC

Call Bob!

Affordable Wedding Photography

20 years of experience in Indian wedding photography. Specializing in film & digital photos. Engagement, Wedding, and Receptions. Contact Vivek: email: vivekweddingmemories@gmail.com or call 347-321-4746.

Magician & Mentalist

Financial Professional:

Plan for tax-free retirement. Protect your wealth from taxes, inflation, market risks, and the unexpected. Build a lasting legacy. Call Vijay Machiraju at 984-664-1864 for a free 1hour discovery call.

Gujarati Priest

Atkinson Properties Group 919-362-6999

Sell Your Property Fast!

Place a classified ad here and on Saathee.com for $25. visit: saathee.com/classifieds or email saathee@saathee.com or call and ask for Jennifer: 704-527-7570.

Home for Sale

in active adult community (55 and older). Sunroom, deck, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths in Indian Land, SC (minutes from Charlotte). Community offers swimming pool, tennis, pickle ball, shuffleboard & many community activities. New asking price: $690,000. Call Rhonda for details: 980-226-7665.

Adjacent to Wolfspeed Site Services

Make-Up Artist

Weddings, anniversaries, special occasions, editorial makeup. For rates and availability, Email mithi.shukla99@gmail.com or yeshajani@yahoo.com.

Financial Professional:

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Priest Available

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Spiritual Guidance

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Tabla Lessons

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Priest:

Ganesh, Shiv, Lakshmi, Randal, Paduka Pujans; Wedding, Baby Shower, Housewarming, Satyanaryan Katha, Mundan & Yagnopavit; Funeral, Navchandi, Tarpan, Havans, etc. Online puja also available. Call Rajendra Bhatt 732-841-7832.

Travel Passion

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Business ads are $25 Personal ads are $15 RED text: additional $10 or a BOX for $15 Ads up to 25 words . Deadline for print is the 20th. Saathee.com ads posted daily

better at tennis and the third one is stronger in chess. Just like when we were raising our children, we like to focus on the strengths of the jokes.

Some jokes do better in front of an Indian audience and other jokes are more suitable for an American audience. Some work better in club settings when people are more comfortable laughing in the anonymous dark.

I wondered if something happened to our marriage, how would the jokes be divided? Then I consoled myself that it shouldn’t be too bad … as long as I get to keep the good ones.

When I asked my wife about this hypothetical scenario, she said, “It shouldn’t be too bad … as long as I get to keep the good ones.”

This is very subjective thinking and since our thinking is very similar this could be a diﬃcult decision.

I have some jokes of my own. My wife has some jokes of her own. These jokes were developed individually, so these jokes were born out of immaculate conception. My wife has some jokes that she developed with a friend. I call those jokes my step-jokes. Then we have some jokes that we have developed jointly. Those are the ones that are diﬃcult. Who gets custody?

One thought would be that she would take the premises and I would keep the punchlines. But that not only seems unfair, but it also seems inhumane. Jokes are like living breathing entities. They can’t be divided in the middle. California is a community property state. We have joint custody of the jokes … the ones we developed together. We brainstormed to do some contingent planning. We decided if our situation at home takes a wrong turn in the future, she could tell jokes on Friday to Sunday. I get them from Monday to Thursday.

If there is a special occasion like a comedy festival or a special gathering, I get the ﬁrst rights. But I need to give 2 weeks’ notice. That’s what you get for living in a community property state.

By the way, our real children are precious too, but they are all grown up. They make their own decisions about custody. But our poor little jokes are dependent on us. And we both love all of them equally.

Last year, we got invited to do a duo gig at a wedding and we couldn’t say no. We told them that we would be honored to bless their wedding with our jokes. They are divorced now! Luckily, they had no children and no shared jokes to worry about.

In our case, we have our children, our jokes and shared memories of over 25 years … and all of these make our marriage resilient to the tumultuous challenges of life! And that’s no joke!

Raajeev Aggerwhil

is a Los Angeles-based comedian. Follow him on Instagram @raajeevcomedy or on his YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/raajeevcomedy

Raajeev

Advertisers

Index for Charlotte, South Carolina & Atlanta Region

360insureall.com (Maqsood Khan)...................101

A2Z Cash & Carry Wholesale..............................39

Aishwarya Majumdar (Live in Charlotte)...............5

Anand, Versha (Real Estate) ...............................53

Apex Financial (Investment Hub)........................53

Atul Purohit (Garba Event)................................11

Bala Sure (Broker / Realtor, NC & SC)................61

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Charlotte)16-17

Bashyam Global LLP - Immigration Law..........111

Beyond Open (Small Business Grants)..................60

Bhindi Jewelers .................................................2

Blooming Buds...............................................105

Blooming Smiles Pediatric Dentistry...................67

Blumenthal Performing Arts (Events)..................26

Brahma Kumaris...............................................10

Brijal Shah (Keller Williams - Real Estate)...........81

British International School of Charlotte..............9

Brown Immigration Law (Rishi Oza, Partner)......38

Carolina Asthma & Allergy Center.......................72

Carolina Law Group .........................................52

Carolina Medical Associates................................73

Carolina Medical Partners..................................87

Carolinas Pediatrics .................................................63

Charlotte Chess Center ......................................29

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat .......................86

Chess Klub (Klub Ventures)..................................4

Chiro-Carolina .............................................72

CliqStudios (Custom Cabinets)...........................41

Concha, David (Immigration Attorney)...............88

Concord Children's Clinic .................................81

Copper Restaurant (Charlotte)...........................31

Countywide Commercial (Pavement Solutions)....39

Desai & Mehta CPAs PLLC ...............................65

DJ Lalit (Lalit Hemnani)...................................45

Dosa n' More (Fort Mill, SC)..............................85

Eesha Realty, LLC.............................................49

Experior Financial Services ................................43

Falguni Pathak (Garba Event)..............................7

Founders Insurance (Anjana Patel)......................21

Four Points by Sheraton (Myrtle Beach)............114

Geological Resources, Inc...................................99

Global Mall / Legacy Jewels .............................115

H2 Laser & Skin................................................71

Health Markets (Medicare, Health, Life, Supplemental)113

Hindu Center of Charlotte (Events)................76-79

Hitch Hiker's Guide to College............................65

Hitesh Rathod (Real Estate)...............................25

Home Decorators Of America (Atlanta)...............37

HX Imports (Smoke Shops, C-Store, Vape Shops).48

Insurance - Tushar Barot, Supreme Insurance Serv.105

Insurance Shopping (Sonal Patel - Independent Agent)51

JVC Realty (Balaji Tatineni Realtor / Broker).......95

Kamini Wood - Human Potential Coach..............51

Kaur, Karamjit (New York Life Insurance)...........32

KB Zaveree (Atlanta).........................................19

Khanna & Sons Jewelers.....................................15

Life Mission USA (Summer Youth Camp)............89

Maadhurya Photography...................................99

Maharani Indian Cuisine (Charlotte)...................73

Makeup Artist (Mithi Arts).................................22

Malak Jewelers..................................................35

Malani Jewelers...............................................116

Malaya Kitchen.................................................81

Malleswar Varikuti Realtor (Realty One Group)...65

Mathur, Gitanjali (Allen Tate Realtors)................23

Maxim Tours.....................................................45

Meenakshi Creations LLC..................................69

Meghana (The Vedic Power Astrologer)..............107

Mehta & McConnell, PLLC (Injury Lawyers).......91

Mint MedSpa & Laser Studio..............................87

Neeta's Beauty Parlor........................................65

North American Bancard ....................................3

NRS PAY Credit Card Processing..........................6

NSD Tax & Accounting Services..........................47

Om Tours & Travel..............................................55

One 2 Entertainment.........................................55

Patel & Samatova, Law....................................105

Patel, Mrugesh (Law Offices)..............................93

Patel, Tony (Real Estate).....................................71

Pathak, Atul (Real Estate)..................................43

Persis Indian Grill (Fort Mill, SC).......................85

Pramukh Mandapam.........................................93

Queen City Smiles (Dr. Kanupriya Tewari)...........63

Ram Mortgage (Mayank Patel)...........................51

Ruby Realty LLC (Neil Pathak)..........................33

Ryan Shah (Tabla Lessons)..................................63

Saffron Restaurant and Catering.........................67

Samskrita Bharati .............................................23

Sangamithra Charity Golf Tournament...............25

Shah & Associates, CPA, PLLC.........................101

Shah & Trivedi CPA, PLLC.................................55

Shah, Anish (Real Estate)..............................82-83

Sheraton Chapel Hill (ATMA Hotel Group).........42

Shisha Café - Hookah Lounge - Charlotte............27

Sona Realty (Venkat Suryadevara).......................97

Technone LLC (Securtiy Systems)........................45

The Blue Taj......................................................31

Travel Passion...................................................51

Umesh Barot (Garba Event)...............................13

Union Family Eye Associates (Dr. Keshav Bhat)....69

Uniworld Travel...............................................101

VAS Realty LLC (Ashwani Dalal).......................47

Vema Mortgage LLC (Chirag Rachhadia)...... 22/69

Venu Parepalli (Insurance & Real Estate) ...........59

Vimal Realty (Vimal Patel - Realtor)..................75

Worldwide Travels..............................................47

Yoga Six (Asha Rajagopal - Owner).....................25

Index for Raleigh (Triangle), Greensboro (Triad) & Virginia

A2Z Cash & Carry Wholesale..............................39

Aishwarya Majumdar (Live in Charlotte)...............5

Allstate (Krish Parlikad)....................................27

Apex Financial (Investment Hub)........................53

Apna Bazar (Morrisville)....................................76

Apna RTP Realty (Ananth Chivukula)................59

Atul Purohit (Garba Event)................................11

Aura Skin & Laser (Dipan Patel).........................23

Bashyam Global LLP - Immigration Law..........111

Bharath Bazar and Café (Cary)...........................89

Bhat & Associates (General Dentistry)..................71

Bhindi Jewelers .................................................2

Blooming Buds...............................................105

Bombay Central (Grocery & Take Out Food)........87

Brown Immigration Law (Rishi Oza, Partner)......38

Carolina Law Group .........................................52

Cary Internal Medicine & Diabetes Center, PA......63

Cary Medical Clinic...........................................61

Chandni's Beauty Salon .....................................59

Classifieds.......................................................108

CliqStudios (Custom Cabinets)...........................41

Corner Stone Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.....81

Countywide Commercial (Pavment Solutions)......39

Crescent Dental (Dr. Kavita Ghai).......................63

Darji, Iyer, Joshi & Patel (Accounting & Tax Services)79

DJ Lalit (Lalit Hemnani)...................................45

Eesha Realty, LLC.............................................49

Experior Financial Services ................................43

Falguni Pathak (Garba Event)..............................7

Four Points by Sheraton (Myrtle Beach)............114

Geological Resources, Inc...................................99

Global Bazaar (Dhaba & Grocery)......................33

Global Mall / Legacy Jewels .............................115

Health Markets (Medicare, Health, Life, Supplemental)113

Hindi Vikas Mandal (Independence Day Celebration)16

Hindu Center Charlotte .....................................78

Home Decorators Of America (Atlanta)...............37

HX Imports (Smoke Shops, C-Store, Vape Shops).48

Inchin's Bamboo Garden....................................77

Insurance - Tushar Barot, Supreme Insurance Serv.105

Insurance Shopping (Sonal Patel - Independent Agent)51 International Community Church.......................79

JK Yog Events.....................................................9

JVC Realty (Balaji Tatineni Realtor / Broker).......95

Kamini Wood - Human Potential Coach..............51

KB Zaveree (Atlanta).........................................19

KDP CPA.........................................................29

Khanna & Sons Jewelers.....................................15

Kiran Bazaar....................................................25

(The Vedic Power Astrologer)..............107

Mehta & McConnell, PLLC (Injury Lawyers).......91

Patel, Mrugesh (Law Offices)..............................93

Pathak, Atul (Real Estate)..................................43

Pramukh Mandapam.........................................93

PreJuve Medspa & Wellness (Neelu Agarwal MD)..61

Prism Lending (Madan Khatri)..........................25

PSR CPA PLLC................................................67

Rajeev Devgon, CPA .........................................71

RB Realty Group (Ravi Bheemarao)....................65

Real Triangle Properties (Joe Mathews)................31

Shah & Associates, CPA, PLLC.........................101

Shah & Trivedi CPA, PLLC.................................55

Sheraton Chapel Hill (ATMA Hotel Group).........42

Singh, Manny (Real Estate)................................23

Smile Forever Family Dentistry (Dr. Narender Dudee)85

Sona Realty (Venkat Suryadevara).......................97

Spectrum Family Medicine (Sujatha Sajeevan, MD)22

Spices Hut ........................................................26

Stylish Me.........................................................27

Taaza Fresh Indian Bistro...................................29

TAHTs (Triangle Area Hindu Temples) Health Fair.4

Technone LLC (Securtiy Systems)........................45

360insureall.com (Maqsood Khan)...................101

Travel Passion...................................................51

Triangle Gujarati Association (Garba Ni Ramzat).17

Tutoring (Nirmala Koripella - A+ Tutoring)........32

Umesh Barot (Garba Event)...............................13

Uniworld Travel...............................................101

VAS Realty LLC (Ashwani Dalal).......................47

Vema Mortgage LLC (Vipul Hapani)............. 22/59

Versha Anand Realty .........................................53

Vimal Realty (Vimal Patel - Realtor)..................75

Wake Spine & Pain............................................31

West Cary Medicine (Dr. Kareem M.D.)...............25

Worldwide Travels..............................................47