SPAN: July/August, 2009 by SPAN magazine

he United States and India will face off on the polo field at the America's Polo Cup on June 11 and 12, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The announcement was made at the New Delhi American Center on July 4 by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Peter A. Burleigh; the captain of the U.S. polo team, Tareq Salahi; and representatives of ABSi Corporation, sponsors of the America's Polo Cup, who led the pin-up ceremony for the Indian players "In celebration of our shared values of friendship, sportsmanship and competition, the Indian team will travel to Washington next June to compete on the National Mall in front of thousands of fans," Burleigh said. The American team will come to India in early 2011 for an official rematch. International polo in the Washington, D.C. area has been a tradition since 1923, when it received its first patronage from President Warren Harding. The America's Polo Cup World Championships is an invitational event in wlii'(;h the United States and the visiting country compete annually in the spring The United States won 4-2 in the 2009 championship match against Australia earlier this year http//www.americaspolocup.com/

Top: U.S. Charge d'Affaires Peter A. Burleigh (left), Michaele and Tareq Salahi, Seema Sharma and ABSi Corporation CEO Rajeev Sharma. Above: Rajiv Luthra, Kunal Kapoor and Nafisa Ali. Left: Indian polo player Angad Kalaan with wife, Mandira.

July/August 2009 Front cover: "First Men-Neil Armstrong" by Alan Bean shows how Armstrong would have iooked (since there are no photos) while taking the iconic photo of his lunar companion, Buzz Aldrin. This painting is a mirror image of "First Men-Aldrin." Courtesy Smithsonian Institution.

SPAN Publisher: Editor in Chief: Editor: Associate Editor: Urdu Editor: Hindi Editor: Copy Editors: Art Director: Deputy Art Directors: Editorial Assistant: Production/Circulation Manager: Printing Assistant: Research Services:

Larry Schwartz Lisa A. Swenarski de Herrera Laurinda Keys Long Deepanjali Kakati Anjum Naim Giriraj Agarwal Richa Varma Shah Md. Tahsin Usmani Hemant Bhatnagar Khurshid Anwar Abbasi Qasim Raza Yugesh Mathur Rakesh Agrawal Alok Kaushik Bureau ot International Inforrnation Prograrns, The Arnerican Library

Indian Growth Story in Silicon Valley By Vivek Ranadive

Fashion: Designing a Change By Howard Cincotta and Deborah Conn

* Rashmi Sinha: Beyond the Boardroom By Richa Varma

Book Review: A Storytelling Duel Amid Delhi's Ruins By Anjum Naim

* Guggenheim Exhibition: 130 Years of

Asian Influence on American Art By Vibhuti Patel

By Diane Cole *

Holidays: Revisiting Freedom By Richa Varrna

* Seattle's

Pike Place Market: Home of Improvised Theater and Flying Fish

By Kaitlin McVey

19 20

On the Lighter Side *

Education: Opening Doors to Knowledge

Literature: "Category Is Not Destiny" Interview by Sonya Weakley

By Howard Cincotta

Religion: Living with Diversity By Carrie Loewenthal

Business: Patel Motels By Steve Fox

Museums: Talking Trash

By David Lyon

41 * Muslim Business Council By Rafique Anwar

Monte Ahuja: Businessman Shares Fruits of a Go-Go-Go Life By Barb Gaibincea

a: c;

44 * Marion Luna Brem: Courage is a Decision By Deepanjali Kakati

24 * Flood Tolerant Rice

45 * Peter Liu: Green Banker

By Giriraj Agarwal

By Judith Hasson

Flood Forecasting

By Giriraj Agarwal

Achievers: TaraAdiseshan By Deepanjali Kakati

Letters to the Editor

U.S.-India Business: New Partnerships for Prosperity By Erica Lee Nelson

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PUB LIS HE R his issue of SPAN celebrates the 40th anniversary of the day human beings first landed on the moon. Although long before the day of global satellite television, Americans and many others throughout the world watched U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin with awe, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said Armstrong, as he descended from his spacecraft on July 20, 1969. Check out the grainy video and space-guy jargon .~t~p~J.WWW.YQUlube.com/walch?v = HCl1awWa~g;A. The Apollo 11 mission's achievement was the result of nearly a decade of work by thousands of scientists, engineers, pilots and others. Everyone who saw it take place immediately understood the meaning of "a historic moment." In the four decades since then there have been other visits to the moon-yet only 12 men have walked upon its surface. Visitors to the Smithsonian's Natio.naI Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C, still thrill to touching a moon rock and examining Columbia, the Apollo 11 command module that transported the astronauts safely on their journey. A quick Web search will turn up hundreds of celebratory events being planned around the planet. The photos from space that Apollo 11 and others sent back to Earth were wonderful. The famous "Earth rising" images, taken as lunar orbiters pictured our planet from space, helped launch the contemporary environmental movement. It certainly launched a lot of music, as an American web company has documented, http://www.moorJlig~.~~r.Wtfleftl()()nltunes.html Space travel is a hazardous business, as we have sadly learned over the decades. Although the moment of landing lives in history, Armstrong and Aldrin could not have been sure, as they bounced over the moon's surface, that they would be able to return safely. It had never been done before, They didn't know until they succeeded. SPAN and our readers celebrate that success and eagerly look forward to future space adventures together. For this issue of SPAN, we have also prepared a series of articles celebrating the diversity and ingenuity of American business people, from shop owners to corporate CEOs. We hope you will find interesting the profiles of American entrepreneurs from many backgrounds who have used their unique life experiences to solve problems, dream big dreams and provide services and products to their customers. Many have an Indian connection, too. We are also presenting articles on literature, travel. religion and art that develop this theme of America's diversity. On American Independence Day, July 4, the crown of the Statue of Liberty was reopened for visitors for the first time in eight years. Climb all the way to the topthat's also an adventurel If you visit New York City, this year or any year, we hope you will enjoy climbing to the top of America's offer of freedom and opportunity-a site that never ceases to thrill. The Statue of Liberty reminds Americans that they are a nation of immigrants, "Give me your., .huddled masses yearning to breathe free .... I lift my lamp beside the golden door." btlp:!!.uJibertystatepark.comlemma.htm

Avellow caution light t 1,800 meters above the lunar surface a yellow caution light came on and the astronauts encountered one of the few potentially serious problems in the entire flight, a problem which might have caused them to abort the mission, had it not been for a man on the ground who really knew his job. Here are their recollections: Michael Collins: At five minutes into the burn, when I am nearly directly overhead, Eagle voices its first concern. "Program Alarm," barks Neil, "It's a 1202." What the hell is that? I don't have the alarm numbers memorized for my own computer, much less for the LM's. I jerk out my own checklist and start thumbing through it, but before I can find 1202, Houston says, "Roger, we're GO on that alarm." No problem, in other words. My checklist says 1202 is an "executive overflow," meaning simply that the computer has been called upon to do too many things at once and is forced to postpone some of them. A little farther along, at just three thousand feet above the surface, the computer flashes 1201, another overflow condition, and again' the ground is superquick to respond with reassurances.

Buzz Aldrin: Back in Houston, not to mention on board the Eagle, hearts shot up into throats while we waited to learn what would happen. We had received two of the caution lights when Steve Bales, the flight controller responsible for LM computer activity, told us to proceed, through Charlie Duke, the capsule communicator. We received three or four more warnings but kept on going. When Mike, Neil, and I were presented with Medals of Freedom by President Nixon, Steve also received one. He certainly deserved it, because without him we might not have landed. Neil Armstrong: In the final phases of the descent after a number of program alarms, we looked at the landing area and found a very large crater. This is the area we decided we would not go into; we extended the range downrange. The exhaust dust was kicked up by the engine

Terms explained: • • • • • • • •

LM means a lunar module. "Mike" refers to Michael Collins . 3,000 feet is equal to 914 meters. 3 1;2 feet is equal to a meter. EVA means extravehicular activity. 360 pounds is equal to 163 kilograms. 60 pounds is equal to 27 kilograms. EMU means an Extravehicular Mobility Unn.

Above left: The lunar module separates for its historic descent to the surface of the moon. Above: Leaving the ninth step of the ladder, Buzz Aldrin jumps down to the lunar surface.

and this caused some concern in that it degraded our ability to determine not only our altitude in the final phases but also our translational velocities over the ground. It's quite important not to stub your toe during the final phases of touchdown .... Houston: 30 seconds [fuel remaining). Eagle: Contact light! O.K., engine stop ...descent engine command override off ... Houston: We copy you down, Eagle. Eagle: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed! Houston: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. Tranquility: Thank you ...That may have seemed like a very long final phase. The auto targeting was taking us right into a football-field-sized crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks for about one or two crater-diameters around it, and it required flying manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area. Houston: Roger, we copy. It was beau-

"Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made .... Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world." -President Richard Nixon

Above: The Apollo 11 landing site viewed one orbit before the lunar module descent was begun. The rectangular shape to the left is part of the spacecraft. Right: The dusty lunar surface took footprints like damp sand. tiful from here, Tranquility. Over. Tranquility: We'll get to the details of what's around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape, angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock you could find. Houston: Roger, Tranquility. Be advised there's lots of smiling faces in this room, and all over the world. Tranquility: There are two of them up here. Columbia: And don't forget one in the command module. Armstrong: Once [we] settled on the surface, the dust settled immediately and we had an excellent view of the area surrounding the LM. We saw a crater surface, pockmarked with craters up to 15, 20, 30 feet, and many smaller craters down to a diameter of 1 foot and, of course, the surface was very fine-grained. There were a surprising number of rocks of all sizes. A number of experts had, prior to the flight, predicted that a good bit of difficul-

ty might be encountered by people due to the variety of strange atmosphelic and gravitational characteristics. This didn't prove to be the case and after landing we felt very comfortable in the lunar gravity. It was, in fact, in our view preferable both to weightlessness and to the Earth's gravity. When we actually descended the ladder it was found to be very much like the lunar-gravity simulations we had performed here on Earth. No difficulty was encountered in descending the ladder. The last step was about 3 Y2 feet from the sur-

face, and we were somewhat concerned that we might have difficulty in reentering the LM at the end of our activity period. So we practiced that before bringing the camera down. Aldrin: We opened the hatch and Neil, with me as his navigator, began backing out of the tiny opening. It seemed like a small eternity before I heard Neil say, "That's one small step for man ...one giant leap for mankind." In less than fifteen minutes I was backing awkwardly out of the hatch and onto the surface to join Neil,

Left: Buzz Aldrin unpacks scientific equipment. Left below: Aldrin drops off the retroreflector for laser ranging of the Earth-moon distance, and takes the seismometer experiment 4.5 meters away. The former gave new accuracy to the measurement of the moon's orbit and the seismometer was the first of an array of seismic stations placed on the moon. who, in the tradition of all tourists, had his camera ready to photograph my arrival. I felt buoyant and full of goose pimples when I stepped down on the surface. I immediately looked down at my feet and became intrigued with the peculiar properties of the lunar dust. If one kicks sand on a beach, it scatters in numerous directions with some grains traveling farther than others. On the Moon the dust travels exactly and precisely as it goes in various directions, and every grain of it lands nearly the same distance away.

The boy in the calidV store Armstrong: There were a lot of things to do, and we had a hard time getting them finished. We had very little trouble, much less trouble than expected, on the surface. It was a pleasant operation. Temperatures weren't high. They were very comfortable. The little EMU, the combination of spacesuit and backpack that sustained our life on the surface, operated magnificently. The primary difficulty was just far too little time to do the variety of things we would have liked. We had the problem of the five-year-old boy in a candy store. Aldrin: I took off jogging to test my maneuverability. The exercise gave me an odd sensation and looked even more odd when I later saw the films of it. With bulky suits on, we seemed to be moving in slow motion. I noticed immediately that my inertia seemed much greater. Earth-bound, I would have stopped my run in just one step, but I had to use three of four steps to sort of wind down. My Earth weight, with the big backpack and heavy suit, was 360

"The Apollo program itself produced technologies that have improved kidney dialysis and water purification systems; sensors to test for hazardous gasses; energy-saving building materials; and fire-resistant fabrics used by firefighters and soldiers. And, more broadly, the enormous investment of that era-in science and technology, in education and research funding-produced a great outpouring of curiosity and creativity, the benefits of which have been incalculable. " -President Barack Obama

pounds. On the Moon I weighed only 60 pounds. At one point I remarked that the smface was "Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation." I was struck by the contrast between the starkness of the shadows and the desert -like barrenness of the rest of the surface. It ranged from dusty gray to light tan and was unchanging except for one

he responsibility for this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who have preceded this effort; next with the American people, who have, through their will, indicated their desire; next with four administrations and...Congresses, for implementing that will; and then, with the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU, the spacesuit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We would like to give special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft; who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11." -Neil Armstrong

startling sight: our LM sitting there with its black, silver, and bright yellow-orange thermal coating shining brightly in the otherwise colorless landscape:~I had seen Neil in his suit thousands of times before, but on the Moon the unnatural whiteness of it seemed unusually brilliant. We could also look around and see the Earth, which, though much larger than the Moon the

ll this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people. First, the American workmen who put these pieces of machinery together in the factory. Second, the painstaking work done by various test teams during the assembly and retest after assembly. And finally, the people at the Manned Spacecraft Center, both in management, in mission planning, in flight control, and last but not least, in crew training. This operation is somewhat like the periscope of a submarine. All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, 'Thank you very much.'" -Michael Collins

Earth was seeing, seemed small-a beckoning oasis shining far away in the sky. As the sequence of lunar operations evolved, eil had the camera most of the time, and the majority of pictures taken on the Moon that include an astronaut are of me. It wasn't until we were back on Earth

his has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown. Today I feel we're really fully capable of accepting expanded roles in the exploration of space. In retrospect, we have all been particularly pleased with the call signs that we very laboriously chose for our spacecraft, Columbia and Eagle: We've been pleased with the emblem of our flight, the eagle carrying an olive branch, bringing the universal symbol of peace from the planet Earth to the Moon. Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind. 'When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?'" -Buzz Aldrin

and in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory looking over the pictures that we realized there were few pictures of Neil. My fault perhaps, but we had never simulated this in our training.

Coaxing the flag to stand Aldrin: During a pause in experiments, Neil suggested we proceed with the flag. It took both of us to set it up and it was nearly a disaster. Public Relations obviously needs practice just as everything else does.

Ticker tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts in New York City in August 1969. A small telescoping arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which should have been flat, had its own unique permanent wave. Then to our dismay the staff of the pole wouldn't go far enough into the lunar surface to support itself in an upright position. After much struggling we finally coaxed it to remain upright, but in a most precarious position. I dreaded the possibility of the

for more information: Apollo 11 40th anniversary 11 p: www.nasa.gov miSSion_pages7 apo IloL4OthLindex. htm 1 Apollo 11 video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = xLuOAk9Blog Apollo 11 objects at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. http://www.nasm.sLedu/events/apollo 11/objects/

American flag collapsing into the lunar dust in front of the television camera. On his fourth orbital pass above the landing site, Mission Control asks Collins "How's it going?" He answers, "The EVA is progressing beautifully. I believe they're setting up the flag now." Collins: Just let things keep going that way, and no surprises, please. Neil and Buzz sound good, with no huffing and

puffing to indicate they are overexerting themselves. But one surprise at least is in store. Houston comes on the air, not the slightest bit ruffled, and announces that the President of the United States would like to talk to Neil and Buzz. "That would be an honor," says Neil, with characteristic dignity. The President's voice smoothly fills the air waves with the unaccustomed cadence of the speechmaker, trained to convey inspiration, or at least emotion, instead of our usual diet of numbers and reminders. "Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made .... Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth ..." ...I never thought of all this bringing peace and tranquility to anyone. As far as I am concerned, this voyage is fraught with hazards

for the three of us-and especially two of us-and that is about as far as I have gotten in my thinking. Neil, however, pauses long enough to give as well as he receives. "It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, and with interest and a curiosity and a vision for the future." [Later] Houston cuts off the White House and returns to business as usual, with a long string of numbers for me to copy for future use ... .The juxtaposition of the incongruous: roll, pitch, and yaw; prayers, peace, and tranquility. What will it be like if we really carry this off and return to Earth in one piece, with our boxes full of rocks and our heads full of new perspectives for the planet? I have a little time to ponder this as I zing off out of sight of the White House and the Earth. Aldrin: We had a pulley system to load on the boxes 'of rocks. We found the process more time-consuming and dustscattering than anticipated. After the gear and both of us were inside, our first chore was to pressure the LM cabin and begin stowing the rock boxes, film magazines, and anything else we wouldn't need until we were connected once again with the Columbia. We removed our boots and the big backpacks, opened the LM hatch, and threw these items onto the lunar surface, along with a bagful of empty food packages and the LM urine bags. The exact moment we tossed every thing out was measured back on Earth-the seismometer we had put out was even more sensitive than we had expected. Before beginning liftoff procedures [we] settled down for our fitful rest. We didn't sleep much at all. Among other things we were elated-and also cold. Liftoff from the Moon, after a stay totaling twenty-one hours, was exactly on schedule and fairly uneventful. The ascent stage of the LM separated, sending out a shower of brilliant insulation particles which had been ripped off from the thrust of the ascent engine. There was no time to sightsee. I was concentrating on the computers, and Neil was studying the attitude indicator, but I looked up long enough to see the flag fall over. ... Three hours and ten minutes later we were connected once again with the Columbia.... ~

=-Back to the Moon: "The Nexileap" our decades after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, NASA has returned to Earth's nearest celestial neighbor with what it calls the "next leap in lunar exploration." The project involves flying two radar instruments to the moon to map the lunar poles, search for water ice and demonstrate new communication technologies. The instruments are orbiting the moon on two platforms: the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1, launched on October 22, 2008, and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18, 2009. During the first imaging season aboard Chandrayaan-1, from February to April 2009, NASA's Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) collected several strips of data each day from both lunar poles. These have been combined to form mosaics that cover an area of more than 250,000 square kilometers. This data "has revealed interesting features in the lunar polar areas, including craters which could contain water ice," says Stewart Nozette, principal investigator for the radar instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and co-investigator for Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1. The instrument has also shown volcanic deposits and other "interesting geological features on other parts of the moon," he says. The data must be calibrated and reviewed by scientists before final conclusions can be made on what it all means. The instruments on the Indian and American orbiters will work in tandem, in a way. Once the Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 spots suspected ice deposits as it whizzes over the lunar surface, NASA's orbiter will focus in to make more targeted observations. The next mapping season begins later this summer. Nozette says scientists are working to see if the instruments aboard both orbiters can make joint observations during this period. "The opportunity for joint ChandrayaanLRO observations is unique and will not occur again," he says These joint observations are called bistatic radar. It means Chandrayaan transmits data and the NASA lunar orbiter receives it. "Ice produces a unique signature in this mode," says Nozette. NASA's Mini-SAR is one of the 11 instruments on Chandrayaan-1, which

Top right corner: Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a composite image taken by the ÂŤ Moon Mineralogtj Mapper. â&#x20AC;˘.â&#x20AC;˘ Right: Coverage maps of the Mini-SAR as of March 2009. It has mapped about 80 percent of the moon's north (above) and south poles.

will map, the lunar surface for two years. The other NASA instrument on the unmanned Indian spacecraft is the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The data gathered from these instruments will contribute to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as the agency implements America's space exploration plan. The vision is for robotic and human missions to the moon. The moon mapper is the first instrument to provide highly uniform imaging of the moon's surface. Besides length and width, it analyzes a third dimension-color. "The Moon Mineralogy Mapper provides us with compositional information across the moon that we have never had access to before," Carle Pieters, the moon mapper's principal investigator, says in a statement on the NASA Web site. "Our ability to now identify and map the composition of the surface in geologic context provides a new level of detail needed to explore and understand Earth's nearest neighbor." At the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Texas in March, the mapper team reported that their instrument had found additional evidence of possible past magma activity on the moon. It detected a massive deposit of layer upon layer of anorthosite. On Earth, this rock is produced in magma, deep below the surface of the ground, and _ is exuded in volcanic ~ eruptions or in other ~ types of magma flow. :' ~ The finding is signif- . ~ icant because it finally . ~ validates the "lunar magma ocean" hypothesis, 40 years after Apollo 11 brought back the first samples of lunar soil. "There have been competing theories of the origin of the moon and the very early history of the lunar surface. The dominant theory was that the Earth was struck by another large body during the early formation of the Solar System, and as a result of this collision the moon formed, initially with a surface of liquid rock (known as magma)," says Thomas Glavich, project manager for the moon mapper until it was delivered to Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. Glavich, still an adviser on the project, explains that an important part of the proof of this theory would be the discovery of massive amounts of anorthosite in a large, continuous layer. "Anorthosite is feldspar (a minerai containing aluminum, silica, oxygen and usually either sodium or calcium) and is a relatively light rock. The feldspar crystallized and rose to the top of the magma ocean in a massive layer," he says. The moon mapper on Chandrayaan-1 found and mapped this layer. ~

Where Are They Now? Photographs courtesy NASA

Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, accompanied Neil Armstrong on the first moon landing. He resigned from NASA in 1971 and became commander of the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Aldrin retired from the Air Force in 1972 and became a consultant for Comprehensive Care Corporation in Newport Beach, California, which provides health care. He lectures and consults on space sciences with Starcraft Enterprises Aldrin has written several books, including one about the Apollo program, Men From Earth.

Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969, taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati for eight years after he resigned from NASA in 1971. From 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of computing technologies at Aviation, Inc., in Virginia, which develops software for flight scheduling. He then became chairman of the board of AIL Systems, Inc, a New York company that develops antennas. AIL Systems merged with EOO Corporation in 2000 and Armstrong retired as its chairman in 2002.

Michael Collins, the command module pilot of the Apollo 11 mission, remained in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. Collins left NASA in 1970, and became assistant U.S. secretary of state for public affairs. In 1971, he became director of the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution and was responsible for planning and construction of the new museum building, which opened in 1976. He worked with an aerospace and defense company in the 1980s and left to form Michael Collins Associates, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm. Collins has written several books on space.

Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space, in 1983, was part of three space missions. After retiring from NASA in 1987, she joined the University of California at San Diego in 1989 as a professor of physics and director of its California Space Institute. Ride is president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded in 2001 to support girls and young women interested in science and math. It creates science programs and publications for students. She has also written several science books for children.

The only scientist among the 12 astronauts who have walked on the moon, Harrison Schmitt has the varied experience of being a geologist, pilot, astronaut, administrator, businessman, writer and U.S. senator. A Fulbright scholar in Oslo, Norway, Schmitt earned a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University before serving as the lunar module pilot of Apollo 17, the final moon mission. Schmitt was elected to the US Senate in 1976, representing New Mexico for six years Since 1982, Schmitt has worked as a consultant, corporate director, writer and speaker on matters related to space, technology and public policy. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in New Mexico, where he is also engaged in research with its Fusion Technology Institute.

Sunita Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station in 2006-07. She holds the record for the longest single space flight by a woman at 195 days. Williams ran the Boston Marathon 338 kilometers above Earth at the space station in April 2007. It was the first time an astronaut was an official participant in a marathon. Williams is deputy chief at the NASA Astronaut Office.

A veterari of four space flights, Eileen Collins logged over 872 hours in space. She became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle when she flew aboard STS-63 Discovery in 1995, the first flight of the Russian American Space Program Collins earned the dual distinction of commanding a space shuttle, STS-93, in 1999. She retired from NASA in May 2006, and the following year became a director of the United Services Automobile Association, which provides insurance, online banking and financial advice to America's military families.

In 1962, John Glenn, Jr. piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 spacecraft, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. After resigning from NASA in 1964, and retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1965, Glenn was a business executive until his election as senator from Ohio in 1974. After a brief stint as governor to fill a vacancy, he was reelected to the Senate and continued until his retirement in 1999. At 77, Glenn returned to space as payload specialist aboard Discovery in 1998.

John W. Young first flew into space aboard Gemini 3 in 1965 and landed on the moon during the 1972 Apollo 16 mission. He also flew the first space shuttle. Young launched into space six times, seven counting his liftoff from the moon to return to Earth. He was chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, with responsibi 1ity for coordinating and scheduling activities of the astronauts. In 1996, Young became associate technical director responsible for operational and safety oversight at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He retired from NASA in 2004.

Eugene Cernan, the second American to walk in space, was also the last man to leave his footprints on the moon, as commander of Apollo 17. He left NASA in 1976 and joined Coral Petroleum, lnc, in Houston, Texas, as a vice president. His responsibilities were to develop a worldwide supply and marketing strategy During this period, Cernan continued his education at the Wharton School of Finance and Northwestern University. In 1981, he started The Cernan Corporation, a space-related technology and marketing consulting firm. .

Mae C. Jemison, the first African American woman in space, resigned from NASA in 1993 and founded a technology design company, The Jemison Group, in Houston, Texas. Projects included the use of satellite-based telecommunications to facilitate health care in West Africa. In 1994, Jemison started the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence in honor of her mother. It develops science materials for teachers and students. Jemison also founded The BioSentient Corp. in 1999 which develops equipment to provide mobile monitoring of the involuntary nervous system. She has also taught at Cornell University and Dartmouth College.

Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, left NASA in 1993 to accept a presidential appointment as chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There she oversaw research and technology programs ranging from climate change to satellites and marine biodiversity. From 1996 to 2005, Sullivan was president and CEO of the nonprofit COSI (Center of Science and Industry) in Columbus, Ohio. It is a museum and interactive center that stages parades, makes visits to schools, and conducts other activities to promote science. She is now director of the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy at The Ohio State University.

As lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, Edgar Mitchell became the sixth man to walk on the moon. He retired from NASA in 1972 and a year later, founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to sponsor research into the nature of consciousness. He also cofounded the Association of Space Explorers in 1984. Mitchell continues to write, speak and do research for new books. He is also a consultant to a number of corporations and foundations.

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Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, during the Apollo 12 misj sion, resigned from NASA in 1981 to ~ devote his time to painting His g paintings bear marks from the same :;; hammer he used to chip moon rock ~ 1! fragments to bring back to Earth and c% he incorporates tiny patches from the ~ emblems he wore on his space suit. ~ He also adds minute amounts of ~;;; moondust that got stuck to his suit ~(/) during his sojourn on the moon's (/) Ocean of Storms. His exhibit "Alan ::::J ~ Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on 8 Another World" opens July 16 at the j Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing One of his paintings is on the cover of this issue of SPAN. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/ us/25astronaul.html? _r= 1&emc=eta1 Iii

Seattle's Pike Place Market

Home of

Improvised Theater and

Flying Fish

ike Place Market, overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Fresh food of every kind-from colorful produce, just-picked home garden herbs to fresh-catch fish-abounds in the market's stalls. The stalls also feature handicrafts fashioned by artisans from local materials, antiques, flowers, ethnic cuisine, and a menagerie of curiosities tucked into every nook and cranny of this 4-hectare market. Before the market opened on August 17, ] 907 local farmers sold their crops to commission houses that would re-sell the

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products with a hefty mark-up to the public. Rampant rumors of corruption, ill treatment of fanners, and inflated prices charged by the wholesale houses caused the public and farmers to grow increasingly vocal in their unhappiness with the situation. The Seattle City Council, under the leadership of its president, Thomas Revelle, passed an ordinance establishing a public farmers' market on the west side of Pike Place. The ordinance's stated objective was to establish a public market whereby farmers and fishermen could sell directly to consumers and the public could "meet the producer." Over the next decade the market quickly grew from an average

of 64 to 150 participating farmers per day. The city continually worked on making improvements to the market through "the enlargement of the farmers' stalls area and the construction of arcades, public restrooms and a footbridge to the waterfront" (http://www.seattle.gov). Farmers gravi-

tated to the market from all over the surrounding region to sell their goods. The stalls were assigned by lottery; in 1912 rent was 10 cents per day. To rent a stall, farmers had to prove that all their produce was grown from their land, and that they lived on the land. By the 1930s, more than

600 sellers worked in the market every day. However, after World War II, the market went into a period of decline, which was arrested in 1974 when it was designated as a historic district, catalyzing its rejuvenation. Today the public-private complex houses 56 food vendors, 98

Above: Pike Place Market overlooks the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington.

Right from top: The Market Theater, located in Post Alley, is dedicated to the art of improvisation; II Swanton throws a fish during a salmon-tossing contest, held during the lOOth anniversary of Pike Place Market; Danna Caudill (right) and Ervin Anies shop for flowers at the market.

general merchants, 50 restaurants, 20 offices or service outlets, being world famous and came up with their own definition of 240 rotating street performers, 450 mostly low-income residents, "going beyond just providing outstanding service to people. It a senior center, a day care center, a food bank and a health clinic. means really being present with people and relating to them as It draws about 10 million visitors a year, half of them tourists. "human beings" (www.pikeplacefish.com). That dream has become Besides offering a plethora of good things to eat, Pike Place a reality as tourists from all over the world now flock to the marMarket is a haven for the arts. Local performers sing, dance and ket to witness the aerial acrobatics of flying fish. One can even perform mini plays in the labyrinth of streets and passageways watch from the comfort of home on the Pike Place Fish Webcam coursing around and through the market. The Market Theater is as the fishmongers routinely hurl and snag three-, four- and fivelocated in nearby Post Alley. The theater was originally built as feet salmon back and forth while maintaining a running banter of a stable and was completed (Ljibes, jokes and puns. in the early 1900s. The Another attraction of the building had revolving ten~ market is the original Starants until finally in 1990, ~ bucks Coffee shop, which Unexpected Productions, ~ opened in 1971. Yes, from this I the current occupant, took ~ humble shop sprang the world z possession of the premises. ~ chain of Starbucks. Besides Unexpected Productions being the first, a small detail has managed the space ever contributes to the uniqueness since and it is now one of of this shop. It is the only one the largest live theaters in that bears the original, foundthe Pacific Northwest dediing Starbucks logo. The sign cated to the art of improvihanging outside the store feasation. Gum Wall, a local tures a bare-breasted siren that landmark, can also be found was modeled after a 15th cenon the theater's red brick tury Norse woodcut. All other wall running along Post Starbucks logos, of course, Alley. sport the siren but in a more One of Pike Place's prime modest format. attractions is its fish market. Pike Place Market's unoffiThis is a market where, cial mascot is Rachel, a bronzeoddly enough, the emphasis cast piggy bank that weighs is not on fish that swim but 250 kilograms. Because of her rather on fish that fly (at enduring charm and the fact least momentarily). Sean that she rarely moves, she Wood, who frequents Pike has become a landmark for Place, explains: "When a friends and family to meet at customer orders a fish, an within the confines of the maremployee at the ice-covered ket. "Meet me at the pig" is

the common phrase used by fish table grabs the fish and Trond Goderstad clambers atop Rachel, the bronze-cast piggy bank at Pike literally hurls it over the Place Market. Rachel is considered the market's unofficial mascot. Seattleites to establish a countertop to another empguaranteed point of reference loyee who catches it (most among the maze of stalls and of the time!), and then cleans and preps it for wrapping." the masses of shoppers, tourists and idle gawkers. More than just This attraction was born when John Yokoyama purchased a acting as a meeting point, Rachel's main function is as a piggy small fish stand in 1965. As Yokoyama recalls, "One of the young bank to collect donations that are distributed to the market's charkids working for me said, 'Hey! Let's be world famous!' At first I itable social services through the nonprofit Market Foundation. thought, world famous ...what a stupid thing to say! But the more Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber and was modwe talked about it, the more we all got excited about being world eled after a real pig name Rachel that lived out her days on the famous. So we committed ourselves to being world famous." nearby island of Whidbey. Soon after, the team began to contemplate the meaning behind Today the market sees tens of thousands of tourists pass every day through its warren of stalls shopping for inexpensive flowFor more information: ers, fresh baked doughnuts, handmade crafts, organic vegetables Pike Place Market and much, much more. The market continues to draw new visitors and definitely contributes to Seattle's creative, municipal http://wwW pikeplacemarket. org/frameset.asp?flash =false personality.

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n California, a middle school student recovering from a long-term illness checks a class Web site for homework assignments. In IIlin~is, a busy professional collaborates on a project with colleagues scattered throughout America, earning credits for a master's degree in business administration. Individually, neither of these innovations in education is revolutionary or even new; the Internet, after all, is more than 10 years old. Collectively, however, online instruction is rapidly achieving a critical mass that is transforming education in the United States from the elementary grades to the university level.

Online groWlh 0.

Almost 3.5 million, or 20 percent, of all students took one or more online courses during the 2006- 2007 academic year-an increase of almost 10 percent over the previous year, according to Sloan Consortium, a foundation-supported organization in Newburyport, Massachusetts working to improve online education. "The 9.7 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher-education student population," says Sloan in its most recent annual report, Online Nation. Roughly half of all online students are enrolled in two-year--{)r associate-degreeprograms at America's many community colleges, where the most popular courses are in business, education, engineering, nursing, public health and library science. One mark of online education's explo-

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Top: Elisabeth Larson, a homeschooled student, is also enrolled in an online school, Minnesota Connections Academy. Above: Billy Jenkins graduated from BlueSky, a Minnesota-based charter K-12 school that offers exclusively online courses.

sive growth: the largest private university in the United States today is the online University of Phoenix in Arizona, with an enrollment of more than 397,700 students in the 2008-2009 academic year. The University of Maryland's separate University College has over 177,000 online students; other public and private schools with substantial online enrollments are Baker College in Michigan, Central Texas College, Walden University and Capella University in Minnesota.

lifelong learning A number of factors are driving the expansion of online education in the United States and around the world, chief among them the growing demand for specialized knowledge in today's complex, information-based society. Not only is knowledge expanding, experts point out, but current information can become obsolete quickly-especially in fields like biotechnology and computer science. The dilemma for many professionals is that, although their education cannot stop with a college or professional degree anymore, few can afford to return to school full time. Their best solution, the United States Distance Learning Association points out, may well be flexible, targeted online courses that can be integrated into their family and work schedules. Advances in digital tech....••••••••• nology, moreover, allow for much __ greater interaction with instructors and other students-including multimedia

For more information: The Sloan Consortium applications and real-time conversationsfor anyone with a reliable broadband connection to the Internet.

Open classrooms The online education movement also is opening the classroom doors of many of America's top universities to the general public. Online visitors cannot earn college credits, but institutions from the University of California at Berkeley to Yale University in Connecticut are offering full course materials-lectures, notes, readings and class syllabi-for anyone with the time and inclination, according to The Washington Post. The most ambitious online offering comes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has posted a remarkable 1,900 classes online. "MIT is trying to redefine the role of the institution in the digital age," says Stephen Carson, external relations director of MIT's online injtiative. MIT reports that 31 million people have accessed the school's course offerings, of which half describe themselves as self-learners.

QualitY and accreditation The proliferation of Internet-based programs has raised questions of how to maintain and measure educational standards. Online courses may be recognized locally, but few have yet been accredited by nationally

recognized professional associahttp://www.sloan-c.org/ tions, according to the professional University of Phoenix journal Educause Quarterly. The Sloan Consortium "has http://www .phoenix.edu/ launched an ambitious initiative to Free online course materials at MIT establish nationwide standards http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index. htm accrediting online and other kinds Why Distance Education is Better for the Environment of technology-based education. p: www. IS ance-e uca IOn.org r IC es7Golng-Green-Following Hurricane Katrina's Why-D istance- Educat i0 n- is- Better-for-the- Environmentdevastation of New Orleans, for 46.html example, Sloan established a temporary "vil1ual" university within a Vil1ual High School, offers online courses week that offered displaced students to supplement conventional classroom 1,300 free courses from over 150 educa- instruction in pal1nership with more than tional institutions. 550 high schools across the United States, and in 52 other countries. Virtual high schools As one education expert says, "Students Online education is playing an increas- are moving in and out of face-to-face and ingly important role in many of America's online encounters with such rapidity that it high schools as well. The EI Paso school doesn't make sense to make sharp disdistrict in Texas is using digital video con- tinctions between the two anymore." ferences to link students and teachers in For Susan Patrick, president of over 75 locations. the North American Council for More commonly, however, online educa- Online Learning, the critical tion can link schools with students unable issue is not whether education is to attend classes in person. Among those delivered electronically or in enrolled at Orange Lutheran High School person, but making education Online in Orange County, California, is a accessible to every student student living on an isolated ranch in everywhere. Nebraska, another recovering from a kid"And we can make that ney transplant, and an athlete who travels true with online learning," frequently with his ice hockey team. she says. ~ "We try to meet the needs of many people in many different ways," says school Howard Cincotta is a director Patty Young. special correspondent for Another program, called simply America.gov

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a In A Connecticut museum makes clear to kids what happens to all that stuff the family throws away, graphically shows how much of it there is and explains how waste can be recycled.

ne of the signal events of my childhood was the year that my school friend Willie's father won the contract for the town dump. This meant I could ride my bike to Willie's house, and we could spend afternoons in the farm's back lot scavenging old inner tubes for slingshots, picking up radios and clocks to repair and sell, or aiming said slingshots at the vigorous population of rats. If you'd asked me what "recycling" was, I would have guessed it had something to do with pedaling a bicycle back the way you'd come. I would have loved the Children's Garbage Museum [at Stratford]. Connecticut kids don't have to muck through a dirty and dangerous landfill. (The day I came home from Willie's reeking of the garbage pit where r d fallen was my last visit.) They can come to this facility and see big trucks disgorging heaps of trash and watch as drivers use bulldozers and front-end loaders to push it around. There's not a rat in sight. "It's our job to get the kids to nag," says Audrey Sciuto, museum educator. "We want them to go home and bug their parents until

bed of his truck, and tips a load. Bottles and cans gush out and spill across the concrete floor like a trash tsunami. Watching from above, Richard and Will are ecstatic. "We recycle stuff at home," Larcheveque says. "We tell the kids that the stuff that was picked up in front of our house ends up here. We play games like looking for our orange juice container." Obviously Gibson and Larcheveque need no nagging to recycle, and their sons are tom between watching the trucks, following the line of trash as it moves along a conveyor belt to the baler, and simply running up and down the hall with unrestrained glee. Will stops and points as a yellow Caterpillar machine with snapping jaws lunges into a pile of paper and cardboard. The operator is a whiz at using the mechanical fingers to push cardboard one Richard Larcheveque (left) and Will Gibson at the Stratford, Connecticut recycling center. direction, newspaper another. "Consumer demand is one reason why they get a recycling bin and start using it." If there's so much call for recycled materithat means luring them with a big, noisy, als," explains Paul Nonnenmacher, public messy, colorful trash spectacle, so be it. affairs director for the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, the quasiThe Garbage Museum is an outgrowth of the adjacent processing center that governmental agency that operates the receives paper, plastics and metals from museum and which derives its operating curbside recycling programs in [12] budget largely from selling recyclables. southern Connecticut communities. The "By law, Connecticut newspapers have to walkway on the museum's second floor be printed on newspaper with a certain peroverlooks dumping stations on one side, centage of recycled fiber." (The state manand processing and baling stations on the dates at least 50 percent recycled fiber in other. Neat blocks of pressed cans bound all newsprint.) He points to the tough, mulwith steel wire await shipment to a metals ticolored wall-to-wall carpet on the hallcenter. Other bales contain plastic bags. way floor. "This used to be soda bottles." The chief plastics that Connecticut Bales of paper are stacked 10 kids high. Anne Larcheveque and Nina Gibson recycles in curbside programs are PETE of nearby Bridgeport and their 3Y2-year- and high-density polyethylene or HDPE, marked numbers 1 and 2 on the bottom of old sons, Richard and Will, are frequent visitors. "They love the trucks," says For more information: Larcheveque, "all the types of trucksConnecticut Resources Recovery Authority and the garbage." (What little boy wouldn't?) "It's not just an activity for them. http://www.crra.org/08.html They learn a little." As she's speaking, a Garbage and recycling trash hauler backs into a bay, raises up the

http://www .epa.gov/kids/garbage.hIm

Above: Visitors check out the Trash-o-saurus at the Children's Garbage Museum. Above right: A museum display shows it is more economical to make new aluminum cans from old ones than to start from scratch. Below: The Children's Garbage Museum.

containers. The PETE is spun into fibers for such applications as carpeting and synthetic fleece for clothing. The HDPE usually ends us as construction lumber, curb stops and decking. Although the paper baling continues unabated-except to remove a plastic garbage bag that's snagged the machinery-the container processing line is down for maintenance. As Nonnenmacher explains the process, I can only imagine how excited Richard and Will would have been. (OK, me too.) "A magnet pulls out all the steel containers," he says. "Then the aluminum is popped out with an eddy current, a spinning electrical charge that makes nonferrous metals just pop off the belt. The cans just go flying, and we catch them in a collection bin. Everything that's left is plastic." The Stratford facility still sorts plastics by hand, he says. [A machine that can do

it has not yet been installed.] "It sends a beam of light that measures the density of the material and separates the ones and twos." The facility [processes 250 tons of trash per day], which seems phenomenal until you consider that, on average, each American throws away a ton of trash each year. To make that volume tangible, in 1993 the agency commissioned artist Leo Sewell to create a [7-meter]-long dinosaur sculpture using one ton of discarded materials. The dinosaur is hard to miss. The rounded hump of its back nearly grazes the ceiling. A school child would be hard-pressed to wrap his or her arms around one of the stout legs (which doesn't keep them from trying). "We ask the kids to imagine that they get a Trash-o-saurus made with all the stuff they threw away," says Nonnenmacher. "That sounds pretty cool. But then suppose you get another one the next year? And the next year? And each member of your family gets one? Where are you going to put them? That gets the kids thinking." Elementary school children often become fascinated by the Trash-o-saurus treasure hunt; in fact, there are seven such hunts, and somt( kids are determined to compl r.e them all. Spotting the , ash-o-saurus components can be mind-bog-

gling. The surface alone shows a clock face, a plastic knife, squirt guns, corrugated metal trash cans, a kitchen colander, snow shovel, plastic pail, flashlight, false teeth, stop sign, Frisbees, combs, a tennis racket, a plastic Halloween pumpkin, sandals, a no smoking sign, a plastic yard flamingo .... The kids are particularly alarmed at discovering toys on the Trash-o-saurus: a doll, remote-controlled cars, a football, plastic dinosaurs .... Who tossed all of that stuff? It could have been them. Sciuto suggests that there's a take-home lesson for every age. "With the high school kids, we talk a lot about the trash-to-energy projects," she says. The museum has a few small displays that show how those projects work, although the facilities are elsewhere. Stacked soda cans graphically demonstrate how much easier and more economical it is to make new aluminum cans from old ones, rather than digging bauxite from the earth and refining it. Small fry, on the other hand, love to crawl through the mock-up of a compost heap, complete with oversize bugs and worms. "With the 3-year-olds," Sciuto says, "we just try to get them to turn the bottles over and identify the number and send them home to nag their parents until they get a recycling bin." And when they've succeeded with that, there's always the compost heap. Wow! Worms! ~ David Lyon is a freelance Cambridge, Massachusetts.

writer

Beginning of another green revolution? reakthrough research by three American agricultural scientists has given new hope to rice farmers in India and Bangladesh, where several million tons of rice are lost to flooding every year. The new rice varieties, one of which is being used in Uttar Pradesh and Orissa this season, can withstand water submergence for more than two weeks and the yield is much higher in comparison to varieties that have been popular until now. The new varieties were developed by introducing a f1oodresistant gene into normal rice vatieties. Researchers introduced the gene from the low-yielding, submergence-tolerant FR13A variety found in Orissa to popular Indian varieties Swarna, IR64 and BRll. The U.S. Department of Agriculture honored the scientists involved in the reseat'ch with the National Research Initiative Discovery Award in December 2008.

The scientists-Pamela Ronald of the University of California, Davis; Julia Bailey-Serres of the University of California, Riverside; and David J. Mackill of the International Rice Research Institute, Manila, who was earlier a researcher at University of California, Davis-received nearly $1.45 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work on this project since 1996. "I knew that India and Bangladesh were the countries that had a lot of problems with submergence, so we used the varieties from these countries to start," says Mackill, who had been working on flood tolerant rice since 1982. He discovered, with his graduate student, Kenong Xu, that an Indian variety had a flood tolerant gene. In 2006, the American scientists collaborated with the Central Rice Research Institute at Cuttack and Narendra Dev University of Agricultural Technology at Faizabad for evaluating the new varieties. "They performed very well. Now, the variety Swarna Subl has been approved for release in Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, and seed production and dissemination is going on this season with strong support from the Indian government," says Mackill. The new varieties were developed through precision breeding in which the new strain is genetically improved but not genetically modified. How do the new varieties survive long periods under water? When submerged, rice plants do not get enough carbon dioxide and light, and photosynthesis gets disturbed. The plant tries to grow out of the water but in the process uses up its energy and dies. "Subl encodes a master regulator protein that coordinates important responses such as cessation of shoot growth. It also slows down other metabolic processes, which recommence when flooding is gone," Ronald explains. This breakthrough can bling huge gains to rice fatmers of eastern India where rice crops at'e frequently destroyed by floods, "About 4.4 million hectares of rice cultivation area in

For more information: Flood tolerant rice: A solution for India? nttp: asiasociety. org/nus Iness-econom Ics7deve lopmenV flood-to lerant -ri ce-a-so Iution- ind ia USDA honors California researchers http://www .csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2008news/ 120511_ discovery _award.html

From far left: The popular Indian rice variettj Swarna (left) and its genetically improved, flood tolerant version, Swarna Sub 1; Asha Ram Pal, who used Swarna SuM, at his submerged field in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh; the same field, with lush crops, after three months. India are highly flood prone. Another 16.1 million hectares are in the rain-fed lowland area. New varieties have the potential to usher in a second green revolution in India by enhancing productivity in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam," says Uma Shankar Singh, South Asia coordinator of the International Rice Research Institute project on stress tolerant rice. This project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Singh and other scientists, under Mackill's leadership, are also working to improve rice productivity in flood, drought and salinity prone areas. "This project started in March 2008 and

illions of Indians lose their property, hundreds lose their lives, and India loses billions of rupees in destroyed infrastructure every year because of floods. The damage could be minimized if the timing and extent of floods could be predicted ahead of time. A U.S.-India project on disaster management has tried to address this issue by helping Indian agencies develop the capacity to forecast floods. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Provid~d ~7.2 million over ~ period of five years, beginning. 200~, for a disaster management support project In India which included climate forecasting systems. Reducing the consequences of cyclones and earthquakes were other elements of the project. American and Indian scientists, engineers and researchers came together to help the Indian Meteorological Department, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to improve ways of collecting data and providing early warnings of floods. The meteorological department and the center for forecasting are responsible for weather forecasts, whereas the Central Water Commission handles flood forecasting. "More than 200 scientists and engineers were trained in the United States on climate and flood forecasting models, data collection and analysis techniques, and use of proper software," says N.M. Prusty of the International Resource Group, the agency which coordinated the USAID project. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency were among

will continue for about 10 years. The first phase will end by October 2010," says Singh. He is hopeful that this will increase rice productivity in India to an additional 23.5 million hectares in areas that are either saline or drought prone. Ronald agrees that this is a big achievement in U.S.-India agricultural cooperation. "Four rnillion tons of rice, enough to feed 30 rnillion people, is lost to flooding each year in India and Bangladesh," she says. She doesn't see any problems in adoption of the new varieties by Indian farmers. "The variety is ... available to the public .... There is no difference in quality. Under flooding though, the new variety yields three- to five-fold more." ~

~ ~ ~ ~

8 Above: B. Manikiam (from left) of the Indian Space Research Organisation, U.c. Mohanty of lIT Delhi and Scott Kelly of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during a training session at the National Weather Service in Florida. Right: Rampur, situated in the Slttlej river basin, faces the risk of flash floods. the US. partners on the project. It focused specifically on the Mahanadi and Sutlej river basins as demonstration projects to show what can be achieved once correct information is gathered. "The implementation of the National Weather Service River Forecast System for the Mahanadi river basin has provided the CWC with a useful tool for providing their users with river and flood forecasts," says Robert W. Jubach, general manager with the Hydrological Research Center in San Diego, California. He was one of the U.S. experts involved in the project. "A forecast system was also implemented for the Sutlej river basin for flash flood alerts and warnings. The system provides CWC with the capacity to detect the occurrence of a flash flood in the basin, calculate its magnitude and propa-

gation speed and then issue appropriate warnings in order to protect lives and infrastructure," says Jubach. Cloud bursts, failure of debris dams and sudden melting of glaciers can lead to floods within a very short time in the Sutlej basin. As flood waves move at high speed, rapid relay of information is vital. "The approach of U.S. experts was positive and models were appropriate. Our people are now capable of using and issuing forecasts based on the National Weather Service River Forecast System," says N.M. Krishnanunni, superintending engineer with the Central Water Commission in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. ~ 1'A1\I.J.lJlXLAllGllST.2009

The Empire State Building, seen through the filigree of a wrought iron railing in a hotel room on New York's Lower East Side.

nsearch 0 immigrant history, I t ong streets whose very redolent of the Yiddish-speaking pushcart culture of the tum-of-the-20th-century Lower East Side-Hester, Delancey Orchard, to name a few. What I j) was a distinctly 21st-century hood, where the hip mixes ditional â&#x20AC;˘

arrivals. Guided tours of the furnished rooms reveal the stories of immigrant families and sweatshop workers-primarily German and Eastern European Jews and Italian Catholics-who resided here. In one sense, the neighborhood itself is a living museum, and a tasty one at that. At Guss Pickles (85-87 Orchard Street, the last pickle store of 80 that once existed here), you can snack on aromatic full or half sours. Katz's Delicatessen (205 East Houston Street) has been serving spicy hot pastrami and brisket since 1888. My favorite is Russ & Daughters (179 East Houston Street), a smoked-fish and cheese emporium run by the same family for four generations. Their chocolate chip bagel (instead of bread) pudding is to die for. To track more recent immigration waves, start by sampling the international treats at any number of kebab, tapas, falafel, Latino sandwich or Asian noodle shops. Or just look at the multilingual signs on every block. "You used to be lost around here if you didn't know Yiddish. Now you're almost lost if you don't know Chinese," says Hanna Griff-Sleven, director of the family history center at the Eldridge Street Project, whose dual mis-

sion is to preserve the 122-year-old Eldridge Street Synagogue and foster cultural exchange among the area's diverse ethnic populations." Part of the fun of wandering down here is the quirky juxtaposition of old and new. On a once-gritty strip of Rivington Street, it's "in" to pause for a vegan muffin and rosebud tea at teany, a well-lit cafe owned by musician Moby. Directly across the street you'll see the Romanesque arched windows and red brick facade of the First Roumanian-American Congregation, the synagogue where opera stars Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker began their careersas cantors. In another contrast, the curvilinear Ali Baba-like entrance to the gleaming steel and glass 21-story-high Hotel on Rivington directly faces the old-style storefront of aptly named Economy Candy, founded in 1937. But my favorite is ...an experimental art gallery known as the Matzo Files. Don white curator's gloves, and a volunteer will guide you through any of 250 art portfolios (from tiny metal sculptures to eerie photos) stored in file cabinet drawers or in stacks of tan cardboard boxes

For more inlormation: Lower East Side Tenement Museum littp :77www,tenement.org! Katz's Delicatessen http://www.katzdeli.com! Russ & Daughters http://www.russanddaughters.com! Eldridge Street Project http://www .eldridgestreet. org! teany https:/!www.teany.com! Hotel on Rivington ttp:/ !www.hotelonrivington.com! Economy Candy http://www.economycandy.com/ Matzo Files http://www,aai-nyc,org/Gallery_Spaces/Matzo Files/index,html that are about the size of an unleavened bread (i.e., matzo) box. Like each block in the neighborhood itself, each box holds an unexpected surprise. ~ Diane Cole is a contributing News & World Report.

editor with U.S.

Left: Klezmer musicians at a parade on New York's Lower East Side to mark the start of a lO-day celebration rooted in their Eastern European cultures.

Above from top: The Tenement Museum preserves the Lower East Side's immigrant history; guide Stephen Flicker in an apartment in the museum, showing the way immigrants lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; a mural depicting the Tenement Museum and a nearby subway stop on the Lower East Side; and bags of colorful sweets at Economy Candy.

Above top: Miriam Isaac with a cutout of President Barack Obama at Katz's Delicatessen. Above: Rhonda (Ron i-Sue) Kaye at her chocolate shop at Essex Street Market on New York's Lower East Side.

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scending 354, 19-inch-wide steps to a cramped, enclosed area in sweltering weather after undergoing stiff security checks may not be everyone's idea of a perfect weekend. Yet, on July 4, climbing to the reopened crown of the Statue of Liberty in New York was a fiercely coveted journey. The entire statue was closed to the public after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and remained so until 2004 That yea limited access was made available, with visitors permitted to enter only the pedestal July 4 marked the first time visitors were allowed to tour the crown once again. Carrying small American flags and wearing green foam crowns, 30 people beat hundreds of other aspirants in buying online tickets to visit the small room overlooking New York Harbor. Located on a 12 acre island, the Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the'~ . United States and is considered a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. While about 240 visitors will be able to tour the crown daily. anybody can visit the monument from home by taking;, e Statue of Liberty National Monument virtual tour. http://www.nps.gov/stli/photosmultimedialvirtualtour.htm ~

Downtown Manhattan, as seen from the crown ,of the Statue of Liberty, in." New York on July 4, 2009.

The neighborhood of Flushing in New York City is home to more than 200 places of worship. he street blocks in Flushing, New York City, may seem long to walk on a hot summer day, but they make the distance between the world's many religions seem short. On one block alone, the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir neighbors the Boon Church of Overseas Chinese Mission, which faces the Singh Sabha gurdwara. This block exemplifies the rest of Flushing, a neighborhood 16 kilometers east of Manhattan that compacts more than 200 places of religious worship into 6.5 square kilometers. Flushing is a community in Queens, one of the five boroughs that make up New York City. A short walk around the neighborhood takes a visitor past 151 Christian churches (many are Korean), 30 Buddhist temples, seven Hindu temples, three Jewish synagogues, four Muslim mosques, two Sikh gurdwaras, two Taoist temples and a group practicing Falun Gong, according to statistics compiled in 2007 by R. Scott

Hanson, visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton. His book, City of Gods: Religious Freedom, Immigration, and Pluralism in Flushing, Queens-New York City, 1945-2001, will be published in 2010. "Flushing was founded in 1645, when it was known as Vlissingen after a town of the same name in Holland. By the 1660s, when the British took over the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (and it became known as New York), Vlissingen was also Anglicized and became Flushing," Hanson says. "Some English settlers in Vlissingen had already started to refer to it as Vlishing before then, so one gets the sense that Vlissingen was just too hard to say, even for locals." Local residents also proudly claim Flushing is the "birthplace of religious freedom in America" because of the Flushing Remonstrance, a petition by Flushing residents in 1657 asking the Dutch colonial government to uphold the

religious freedom provisions of the town charter. It is recognized as the earliest political assertion of freedom of conscience and religion in New York. Several factors came together over time to make Flushing one of the most religiously diverse communities in the United States. It is centrally located, with two major New York airports nearby, subway, bus and railroad stops and major roads. International visitors came to the area for two major World's Fairs (1939-40 and 1964-65). Many immigrants wanted to get away from overcrowded Manhattan to find a little bit more space, grass and trees in the outer boroughs like Queens. Also, a loophole in the zoning law made it possible for many different immigrant groups to build so-called "community facilities," including houses of worship, in residential neighborhoods, Hanson says. Converted houses and storefronts serve as churches and temples, scattered up and down blocks

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between larger places of prayer. These conditions attract scores of immigrants to the area because it is easier to establish faith-based community centers that bling some familiarity to a new, foreign home. Waves of Irish, Russians, Greeks, Italians and Africans, over time, have shared space with and made way for Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Afghan, Korean, Mexican and Central American residents, according to The New York Times. Over half the residents of Flushing were Asian American at the time of the last census in 2000. The community's main street "has the kind of business diversity, foot traffic, liveliness and buzz Middle American main streets only dream of," says New York magazine. Despite Flushing's capacity to provide a home for so many different groups of people, learning to live together has taken time because "people become more accustomed to diversity over time," Hanson says. "The 1970s was a period of growing pains, and into the 1980s and 1990s, when diversity really escalated," he says. Now, Hanson adds, "people are at least aware.

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Flushing is called the "birthplace of religious freedom in America" because of the Flushing Remonstrance. Signed in 1657 in the neighborhood of Flushing, New York, it is the earliest known document in America to argue for religious freedom. The map indicates the many houses of worship in Flushing today.

The Melting Pot on a High Boil in Flushing There is a sensitivity that's there." 11 p:77www.nytlmes.com 20-OC3T057027arts702exp . Ganapathy Padmanabhan, the public html? r=2&oref=sI0 in relations officer for the Hindu Temple The Pluralism Project at Harvard University Society of North America, agrees. "We httR://12 Iuralism. org!affi Iiates! shanson!i noex.QhQ find Flushing to be respectful and tolerpractices." ant," he says. Other places in the United States where The Hindu temple was consecrated in Flushing in 1977 and members work to be diversity has become commonplace include good neighbors, Padmanabhan says; the Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of temple welcomes about 500 people during Washington; Fremont, California, near San Francisco; and Rogers Park, Illinois, in the week and up to 3,000 on weekends. "We make very good neighborly rela- Chicago. Like Flushing, these areas all bortions. We take care that [neighborhood res- der urban centers. idents are] not disturbed," he says. Hanson acknowledges that even in Beyond maintaining peace with the Flushing, with all its diversity, interaction neighbors, the temple does have some among groups is often "superficial." In a interaction with people of other religions lecture at the Queens Museum of Art, in the area. After all, it sits one block away Hanson said, "City people value their privafrom the Boon Church and Singh Sabha cy, so while residents of Flushing may live, gurdwara and about four blocks away work, and worship near each other, overall from one of the oldest mosques in Queens, there is not much meaningful, lasting interaction among different ethnic/raciaVrelithe Muslim Center of New York. Although occasional incidents of van- gious groups." But Flushing should continue to flourish dalism and hate crimes have taken place over the years, and tempers flare over as a model of religious pluralism, Hanson parking problems on weekends, diversity predicts. He credits Flushing City Councilman John Liu, the first and only Asian exists "without warfare and bloodshed," Hanson says. People cannot connect any American on the New York City Council, conflict to the past, which allows for a with making great efforts to bridge remaining gaps between the groups in the area. spirit of "live and let live." 'Tm hopeful about the future," Hanson "Many Muslims, Christians and Jews come here," says Padmanabhan. "People says. ~, from other faiths visit the temple, particu- -----~ larly students. We take them around the Carrie Loewenthal is a special correspondent temple and tell them about our religious for America.gov

J1!el;ica's youth, lacking memories of racial segregation and the inte" ration movement, offer unique perspectives on the concept of a multira" cial society. Indian American author Chandra Prasad, editor and contributor of Mixed : An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, says her urge to explain .her mixed"race identity aud get past superficial categorizations inspired her to create the book. Race stili matters, but so do other factors, she says.

What does it mean to be American? To nurture and provide for family, com" munity, nation and planet. To keep the les" sons of his tory in your back pocket and refer to them frequently. To protect the young, impressionable and vulnerable. To make mistakes, get up, brush off your knees, wipe the sweat from your face and try again-harder this time. To see. equal beauty in difference and commonality. To listen to people from other places with different perspectives. To have faith and proceed boldly. To create, refashion, imagine and invigorate. To hold dear the words democracy and freedom, and to hold just as dear every human life.

When did yon realize that race and ethnicity are factors in how people interact? I can pinpoint the exact moment and it's a rather silly one: elementary school, first grade, recess. I'm one of several earnest, excited girls discussing the fact that a fifth-grader from our school had gone to New York to audition for Annie: the Broadway Musical. The character Annie is a slight, freckled redhead who laments her "hard-knock life" in an orphanage. I loved Annie-both character and musical. Despite being blackhaired and dark-skinned, I wanted desperately to be the next Annie and couldn't

ties, and more devastatingly, holocausts and eugenics. If President Obama'sleadership has taught us nothing else, I think it shows that we must recognize difference, and acknowledge the context for it, but also realize our extensive common ground.

understand why my classmates seemed skeptical when r mentioned this. Later, my mother broke it to me: "AhalHndian Annie? Well ... I'm not sureY

Can individnals snccessfully challenge ethnic labels or categories society imposes?

Do you see路 signs of our society moving away from categorizing people by race?

Race., ethnicity, and class are categories people use to make sense of differences. It's a human tendency tocategorize; the process helps make a complicated world a little simpler. Sometimes compartmentalizing is useful, but just as often

My son, who was born in An1erica, is Indian, Swedish, Italian, English and Russian. When he gets older, I have no idea how he will self"identify. I want him to know about his ancestors and the ~ lives they had and the sacrifices they ~ made.! want him to know that this CoUll" @ try has transformed many times over. My husband and I want hirnto know his" .8 tory. But how my son looks ahead: that's up to him. As I write in the foreword to Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, multiracial people can literally act as the solder between communities. They can straddle cultural expectations. Since multiracial teens resist classification, they have the capacity to view the world in a broad, open"minded it's misleading. All human beings have way, to resist stereotypes and to show oth" multifaceted identities that cannot be ers that many boundaries are false. America's young people are already quantified simplistically. Time and again, in sports, politics, arts and on the world making a lot of positive change. There stage, determined individuals beat the are dozens, if not hundreds, of online odds, proving that category is not destiny. communities for mixed"race kids and To me, this is the most beautiful aspect teenagers. In high schools and colleges of America: one's destiny is not carved across the nation, diverse student groups from either categorization or the circum- are proliferating. There are all kinds of stances one is born into. President Barack avenues for advocacy, outreach and netObama's inspiring, largely unpredicted working across racial and ethnic lines. rise to America's highest office supports Most didn't exist 20 years ago. this. Our ancestors came to America Yeah, race still matters. Of course it because it is the land of opportunity, where does. But so do many other variables and anything is possible. This is still true. factors. I advocate-in all parts of lifeBracketing people based on appearance more focus on the inside, less on the has led to isolation and reduced opportuni- outside.

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Travelers in the United States stop every night at hotels and motels owned by Indian Americans. merica's summer vacation season is in full swing and tonight, in towns all across the COillltry, many travelers will check into a hotel or motel run by someone named Patel. The establishment will probably be what's called a middle-market property, perhaps 100 or so reasonablypriced rooms, and is likely to be located near one of the major interstate highways that crisscross America's landscape. Indian Americans now own an estimated 40 percent of all the hotels and motels in America, according to the Atlanta, Georgia-based Asian American Hotel Owners Association, whose 9,300 members control more than 22,000 hotels

The Best Western Inn and Suites in Battle Ground, Washington state, is one of Alkesh R. "AI" Patel's properties.

worth more than $60 billion. Most association members share the family surname Patel, whose origins are described by the group's secretary, Alkesh R. "AI" Patel. He came to the United States in 1984 from Nadiad, Gujarat, bought his first motel in 1994, and now owns eight. "The ancient kings in Gujarat appointed men to keep track of the crops that were being grown on parcels of land called 'pats,''' he says. "People started calling these men Patel, which means something like 'innkeeper of the land,' and the name has been passed down ever since." While they may not know the history, American travelers-both business and

pleasure-are well aware of Indian Amelican penetration of the lodging industry, with some travelers even using the words hotel, motel and Patel synonymously. "Indian Americans are a very significant factor in the lodging industry and have been for at least 25 years," says Joe McInerny, CEO and president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the industry's primary trade group. ''They are becoming even more important because today the Indian American hotel '. owners have a significant number of properties and you're now getting into the second and third-generation, ! who have been educated

One Patel's Story Represents Those of Manv Others f you had to choose one person whose life story sums up the experience of Indian Americans in the motel industry, it might be ChandraKant "C.K." I. Patel, who lives outside Atlanta, Georgia. Born in Kenya and educated in India, Patel came to the United States in 1979 to study mechanical engineering. He quickly found a job in the oil industry and also worked nights at a Dallas hotel. In 1982, with his employer laying off co-workers, he decided to look for a motel property. "I had never refused any overtime, because my motive was to earn money, and I asked my boss for a month off," he recalls. "I went to Knoxville (Tennessee) to see the World's Fair and from there I drove south on the scenic highway 441. I spent a night at a motel in Homerville, Georgia. I found out it was owned by a gentleman from Zambia who was also of Indian descent. We got to talking and I

found out he might sell. I had saved money from my job, my family helped me with some funding and a friend of mine and I made an offer." Patel, then 23, was in the motel business. He and his 22-year-old wife, Alka, ran the 48-unit motel by themselves for the first two years "I was scared initially because I had paid a little higher than the place was worth and that's why my wife and I didn't hire anybody. We worked 24 hours a day for almost two years, and then my parents came and my brother came and we had some help." Like other Indian American motel owners, Patel encountered some discrimination from competitors, lenders and insurers. "There were a lot of difficulties in the early days," he said. "I don't blame anyone for it. I had come from a foreign country and the people here did not know my culture. They did not know if they could trust me. But when you leave your country of birth

here in the U.S. at hotel or business schools and are now moving their family businesses out of the economy segment and up into the higher-end and luxury hotels." McInerny, a 48-year veteran of the lodging industry, gives this capsule description of how and why Indian Americans came to be identified with the hotel and motel business: "Many of the Indians who came to the United States had been professionals in India or Africa or wherever they came from, but in their new country they couldn't be a lawyer or doctor or whatever they were. So they pooled their money as a

For more information: Asian American Hotel Owners Association http://www.aahoa.com/

Pate/s: A Gujarati Community History in the United States hI p:7 wwwamazon.com/PalelsujurallCommunity-Hislory-Uniled/dp/0934052395#

and go to another country, there is a motive behind it. Your motive is to become someone, to make money. You are planting your roots to make sure your foundation is solid." Patel went on to acquire another 10 hotel properties and a variety of other real estate. He also helped found an Atlanta bank that lends to Indian Americans. It's a long way from the original financing model. "Patels are a very close network," he says. "We believe in close ties and in helping each other. Families come together and loan you $5,000 or $10,000 to help you buy your first business. They don't charge you interest, and when you start making money, they are the people you pay first. Then you do the same thing for someone else, and when his business grows you are happy for him and also because you know you don't have to support him any longer." Patel's daughter, Shama, is going into medicine. His son, Deepum, is a

family and bought a motel, which gave them a place to live, and they banded together as a family to operate the property. They worked very, very hard. They had to be successful because if they failed, they had no place to go. They had to make things work and they put in 18 and 20 hours a day to make certain they would be. They should be very proud of what they have accomplished." Although the exact chronology is unclear, veterans of the hotel business generally agree that Indian American ownership of U.S. lodging properties dates to the 1940s, when an immigrant named Kanjibhai Desai bought a San Francisco hotel. Some years later, another immigrant, Bhulabhai Vanmalibhai Patel, acquired a hotel in the San Francisco area. Other . Patels followed, but the trend remamed largely confined to California until the mid-1970s, when several factors came

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management consultant. "He'll come back into my business eventually bul I wanted him to work in the corporate world, know how to make a dollar and learn how things work in this country before he joins my company," he says Although he's sold many of his holdings, Patel kept that first motel. "That's where my family grew up," he says. "My parents lived there with us, and my brother. We raised my sister's kids there and my brother's kids, too-14 in all. There are a lot 01 good memories there." -Sf

together to spread Indian American ownership nationwide. David Mumford, senior principal at the Mumford Company, a leading hotel brokerage firm, picks up the narrative from there. "When the (1973-74) Arab oil embargo hit, travel ground to a halt and lenders took back a lot of motels from owners who couldn't make the payments anymore,"

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Mumford says. "The lenders employed brokers such as ourselves to dispose of these properties and what we found was that a lot of the buyers who stepped up were people from the Asian/Indian community who saw an opportunity to buy assets at distressed prices and, through hard work, turn them around." Motels, which proliferated in the United States after World War II and the completion of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, were attractive to Indian Americans for several reasons, according to Mumford. "First of all, it was a cash business they Below left: Ron Patel at the Super 8 motel he owns in Richardson, Texas. Below: The board of directors of the Asian American Hotels Owners Association.

could operate that didn't require the skill sets from a communications or marketing perspective that other businesses did," he says. "If they bought something in a good location next to a major highway and offered good value, they had a good chance of making it go. Another thing was that they could employ a lot of relatives. If they had family members back in the home country, they could bring them in, put them to work and get them a green (legal immigrant) card and they could earn a way into this country. Most of these properties had living qualiers, so the extended family also got a place to live." The early reluctance of lenders and insurance companies to work with Indian

Alkesh Patel (left) owns the Hampton Inn in Clackamas, Oregon (above).

Americans is long gone, Mumford says. "What lenders and insurers found is that Indian American operators would get in there and run their motels very well and build great relationships," he says. "Today they are regarded as people who have a great work ethic, are very frugal and have a reputation for paying their obligations." Business considerations aside, Patels are simply good hosts, says ChandraKant "C.K." I. Patel, a Georgia hotelier. (See box.) "We believe in hosting people," he says. "If someone I know is in town and he doesn't come to visit me, I feel bad. We believe in keeping up relationships. And we are also very savvy entrepreneurs. If you go to any part of the world, _y_o_u_w_i_ll_fi_lll_d_a_p_a_te_I_.'_' ~ Steve Fox is a freelance writer, former newspaper publisher and reporter based in Ventura, California.

hen U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January, the agenda waiting for his administration was daunting. Many wondered how, and when, he would be able to build on the closer ties established with India after the successful completion of the U.S.-India agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation in 2008. That speculation was put to rest on June 17 at the U.S.-India Business Council's (USIBC) 34th Anniversary Synergies Summit in Washington, D.C. where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged that India would be "one of a few key partners worldwide who will help us shape the 21st century." Accompanied by a phalanx of U.S. administration officials, and joined by India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand

"We need to make sure that the partnership between Washington and New Delhi, our capitals, will be as advanced and fruitful as the linkages that already exist between Manhattan and Mumbai, or Boston and Bangalore."

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rl Sharma, Clinton announced a new push forward in the areas of economics, security, education, high technology and beyond. "In a world where, let's admit it, frankly, the headlines can get depressing, our relationship with India is a good news story. And I think it's going to get even better," she said. Clinton took the opportunity to inaugurate a new era of relations, which she called, "U.S.-India 3.0." In her speech, she described the deep personal and business ties already in place between the two countries, and urged both governments forward. "We need to make sure that the partnership between Washington and New Delhi, our capitals, will be as advanced and fruitful as the linkages that already exist between Manhattan and Mumbai, or Boston and Bangalore." .

A new business model Signs of this new chapter were all over the richly-carved ballroom filled to capacity with business leaders. For many years, the story most often heard was one of U.S. businesses investing in India. Yet today, in the crowd of shaking hands and flying business cards, the playing field had more than evened out. Indian investors were out to acquire, and Indian companies were out to hire-a sign that in addition to the over 90,000 Inclian students in the United States, human capital is fast flowing the other way as well. Just ask Sandhya Mehta, a lawyer for Baker Donelson LLP, who helps small and medium Indian businesses enter the U.S. market. Indian companies are generally on the lookout for larger, established businesses with pre-existing customer sets, Mehta says. This is because they often see the United States as a daunting market to enter without name recognition. The current eco-

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nomic climate has put many such businesses up for sale-a perfect opportunity for Indian investors. "If someone has money or access to funds, now is a great time," she says. "We have worked with some rather small companies who have ambitions many orders of magnitude larger than they are," Mehta comments, relating the story of a small Indian genomics company that recently acquired a large -but ailing-business in Maryland. That company is now on the road to recovery, and its employees are still at work, she says. A recently-released report by the Federation of Indian Chanlbers of Commerce and Industry, and Ernst and Young found

Left: USIBC President Ron Somers (from left), senior director with Stonebridge India Scott Bayman, Wipro

Chairman Azim Premji, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra K. Nooyi. Above: Delegates at the Synergies Summit.

that in 2007-2009, Indian companies made 143 acquisitions in the United States, with the total value in excess of $5 billion. After his speech on new trends emerging out of the gloomy financial climate, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji spoke about his plans to hire more Americans for his U.S. subsidiaries and train them for cutting-edge, high-tech projects. "We want to localize more and more the people-force which we have working in the United States," he said. He has also begun recruiting directly from U.S. universities, and has opened up training centers in Michigan and Georgia. Mentioning that these measures will not only help his company be more competitive, he pointed out that they will also allay the fears of some Americans who may be skeptical of the increasing presence of foreign companies.

Technologv on center stage Meanwhile, S.R. Upadhyay, Chairman of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, is looking to hire American experts and harness American technology for India's mining sector. He came to the

India's Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar (above), and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma (above right) at the USIBC Synergies Summit in Washington, D.C.

Muslim Business Council he Muslim Business Council benefits of Islamic banking for the of India inaugurated its economic growth of not only Kolkata branch during an Muslims in India, but also for the interactive session with more than entire country The business council's Web site 160 people, at the American Center, in June. Consul General (http://www.mbcoLcorn/), which is Beth Payne highlighted President expected to link more than 500 Barack Obama's commitment to Muslim-owned businesses across forge stronger ties with Muslim India, was unveiled at the event. A communities, underscoring mes- special edition of the e-book sages delivered in the president's Muslim Educational Uplift: How to June 4 speech in Cairo, Egypt. Achieve This Goal? by M.KA General secretary of the council, Siddiqui was also released during Mohammed Ariff, explained the the program

United States especially for the usmc event, and had meetings planned all week. "We have resources but we don't have the expertise, which the United States has ...! came to have discussions with our friends here, to bring dynamism to the sector," he said. India's miners are looking to dig deeper than before, and also for clean coal technology-both areas of U.S. advantage. Cooperation in clean energy was a major theme among both businessmen and government officials. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke praised India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, and spoke about the March trade mission of 14 U.S. solar-energy companies. "This was the first U.S. government trade mission to India under President Obama's administration, and it focused on exactly the kind of strategic trade development that we see in our future relationship," he said. India's Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar also described energy goals as a priority. "I would like to see the nuclear agreement between India and the U.S. transformed into concrete prospects for business collaboration in the nuclear energy sector," she said. Former U.S. Ambassador to India David C. Mulford had similar thoughts. "India understands that they now have the challenge to build a modern, sophisticated, well-regulated, national civil nuclear industry," he said, "and that in doing so, they will make a major contribution to the efficiency of their growth and the cleaning, over time, of the world's atmosphere."

Having come so far Candidly looking back on how much the U.S.-India relationship has evolved, Clinton characterized the period between India's founding and the end of the Cold War, as "colored by uncertainty." The second stage saw the two countries moving closer under President Bill Clinton and culminating in the nuclear agreement under President George W. Bush. Participants agreed that the transformation from the 1990s was remarkable. They credited India's economic liberalization, thriving democracy, global trade, and one more important entity, the USmc. "I have to say that Ron Somers, the president of the

usmc, has brought a passion to his job," Ambassador Shankar said in an interview. "It's more than a job ... it's a mission." Somers participated in every event of the busy summit, despite undergoing chemotherapy. And he was already planning for the future, describing the second annual "Green India" summit, an event centered around clean water and energy that will take place this October in New Delhi. With tough times all around, Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo CEO and usmc chairman, summed up the sentiment of many present. "I suspect that the key to emerging from this economic crisis as quickly and strongly as possible is strengthening relationships around the world. This very relationship ... " Nooyi said, "is a great example of what I am talking about." A., --------~

Erica Lee Nelson is a Washington, D.C-based writer. She and her husband, Indian photographer Sebastian John, married in New Delhi.

Businessman Shares Fruits of_a_Go路 ute he paved drive to Monte Ahuja's [4.5 hectare] estate in Hunting Valley, Ohio, weaves up a wooded hillside, serene behind electronic gates and flanked companionably by black iron lights sheltering faux candles. The tranquil setting belies the way Ahuja got to the top: By driving himself flat-out. Only recently, he says, has he taken time to really enjoy the journey. That journey continues today. [In 2007, Ahuja,] founder of Transtar Industries Inc., saw ground broken for the Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood .... University Hospitals presented Ahuja and his family with its Samuel Mather Award, named for one of its earliest supporters and honoring outstanding philanthropy. Both events are linked to the family's $30 million gift to the hospital system in 2006, the largest donation in its 143-year history. The Ahuja gift also ranked among the nation's 60 most generous donors, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, an American publication that covers the nonprofit world. Pretty heady stuff for a guy who left his nati ve India for graduate school at Ohio State University almost 40 years ago with less than 20 bucks in his pocket. To the young man, who had just earned a degree in mechanical engineering, traveling abroad was a daunting prospect. He had never left India, had never been on a plane and wouldn't know a soul. But "America was a land of opportuni-

ty," Ahuja says simply. The trip was a nightmare, with airline delays and snags that stretched what was supposed to be a two-day trip into five. By the time he got to Columbus, he had about $4 left, $2 less than what he needed for cab fare to campus. A long-haired, "not your normal suitand-tie kind of guy"-who turned out to be an Ohio State University professoroffered Ahuja a ride. He spent his first night in Ohio on a rooming house couch, wondering if he had made a mistake in leaving home. "That's how I started my American dream," he says. "But no matter how much I missed home, no matter how much anxiety I had, I realized that I had to make it work. That was the only option." He was the oldest son, with eight siblings, in a middle-class family. His father, says Ahuja, was "stubbornly ambitious for me," programming him to become an engineer from boyhood. The elder Ahuja even moved the whole family to be near a college he had picked out for his sonfive years before the youngster could actually enroll. Monte Ahuja met his wife, Usha, at Ohio State University. Her brother was a resident of the same rooming house. An accomplished woman in her own right, she has a doctorate in mathematics, has taught on the college level and is a valued adviser to her husband. Ahuja likes to tell people that he had to get two master's degrees to keep pace with her.

After earning the graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University, he moved to Northeast Ohio, got ajob with an automotive-parts company and took night classes at Cleveland State University to earn an MBA. He and Usha lived in Hudson, a 90minute commute in those days. There was no time for a social life. He worked and went to school. A business plan that he developed for a Cleveland State University class-earning an A-plus-became the basis for the company that he still calls "my baby." Now a worldwide distributor of auto transmission repair parts, the Walton Hills-based firm bought a Pittsburgh competitor in 2007 .... In 2005, Linsalata Capital Partners of Cleveland bought a majority stake in Transtar. But Ahuja continues as its chairman and chief executive. He launched his company in 1975, when he was 28. It was just him, a partner and meager capital. They stocked the warehouse and packaged parts themselves, often working until 2 or 3 a.m., Ahuja says. The first office was "a hole in the wall,"

For more information: Transtar Industries Inc. http://www.transtar1.com/about.asp The Chronicle of Philanthropy http://philanthropy. com/topdonors/gifts.php?view =donor&donor=PGDON2105&year=2006 Monte Ahuja's Ohio mega home http://www .homesoftheri ch.neV2009/02/monteahujas-oh io-mega-home. htm I

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Ahuja, holding his grandson, Rohan, with his family in their Hunting Valley home. From left are daughter, Ritu; son-inlaw Neil Sethi and his wife, Manisha; and Ahuja's wife, Usha.

Ritu, is single and splits her time between Hunting Valley and New York. Adelman said one of the reasons that he and Ahuja bonded is that they share similar values. "He's Hindu and I'm Jewish, but our value system, the moral fiber is the same," said Adelman. "Family's first, no matter what." Rohan's engaging face is on the coffee cup Ahuja uses in his office, and pictures of the child are liberally displayed. To those who know Ahuja as a driven and intensely serious businessman, the way he enthusiastically embraces his role as "Nana," or maternal grandfather, might seem out of character. He clearly dotes on the boy. "I see great things for him," Chairman, Transiar Ahuja says of Rohan. "He Industries Inc., Ohio. wants to do everything himLOVES: self. It's always, 'I do it.'" His grandson, golf The fust time he was up Especially since Rohan's HATES: for a country club membirth, he says, he has conWasting time. bership, Ahuja says, he sciously taken more time to was denied "because my enjoy the life that he and PASSIONATE ABOUT: Usha have built. Besides last name didn't sound Fancy cars. acceptable." He vowed owning the Hunting Valley estate, they have homes in then that he would someday buy a course. He wound up buying an New York, Florida and Arizona, and they interest in two, although he has since sold travel regularly. his share in both. But "nothing gives me more of a sense Ahuja also started a company that made of belonging, a sense of happiness than high-end golf clubs. They were a hit in when I'm in Cleveland," says Ahuja. Japan but couldn't crack the American "This is home. My friends are here, my market, so he got out at a loss. civic contacts and now, most importantly, Another of Ahuja's passions is fancy my grandson." cars. One is a Bentley that he bought for Still, weaning himself from what he $1.3 million during a charity auction in calls his "go-go-go" style may take some time. Almost 63, Ahuja says he can't Florida. He also has a Ferrari, a MercedesBenz McLaren, a Lexus and a few other imagine ever completely retiring. vehicles. Even after a few days on vacation, he But his biggest passion these days is his says, ''I'm climbing the walls. I feel like almost 5-year-old grandson, Rohan, the I'm wasting time." ~ son of his daughter Manisha and her husband, Neil Sethi, who is Transtar's group Barb Galbincea is the assistant metro editor vice president. Ahuja's other daughter, at plaindealer.com

Monte Ahuia

[460 square meters] of space that was in bad shape but-more important-cheap. By 1985, the company had moved to a [7,400-square-meter] building at the current site in an industrial park. With additions over the years, the [area] now tops [13,000]. "I like things in stages," he says. "The first goal was to survive. Then I looked at the next five years. At each step, I kept enlarging. And the steps were pretty aggressi ve." That wouldn't surprise Shelly Adelman, Ahuja's best friend. "He's incredibly competitive," said Adelman, who has known Ahuja for about 20 years and refers to him as his brother. "Don't think you're going to beat him in business or anything else." Ahuja is an avid golfer, with a nine handicap, though he didn't even take up the game until the rnid-1980s. He says he never took a lesson, preferring to learn from friends or by watching pros on TV. He's now a member at seven country clubs.

Courageisa

Decision arion Luna Brem was 30 when she was told she was dying Within opened her own car dealership, Love Chrysler, in Corpus Christi, Texas. "I would lay awake at night thinking up names for my dealership-to-be, much a space of three months she had been diagnosed with cervical and breast cancer and doctors told her she had two to five years to live. like a pregnant woman dreams up names for her expected child," she says. "I That was more than 20 years ago. A stay-at-home mom, Brem knew I didn't care to have my name on a sign so I began to think of nouns that prounderwent surgery and started chemotherapy Then, her husband moted positive images. Heritage, integrity, etc. Then it hit mel What more positive lost his medical insurance. The stress proved too much for the marriage and the word is there than love? It's a noun and a verb. I knew that's the way I would feel couple divorced. for my customers and my employees It projected my passion for my work." She Left with two small boys and no means to support them, Brem looked within. bought out her partner within two years and became CEO of her own company. "My courage to go on came from a decision. My mantra has always been that Now in her 50s, Brem is the owner of two auto dealerships in Texas, an ad anyone can be courageous who decides to be. Courage is not a gift. It cannot be agency, and a real estate holding company. She is also the author of two books, inherited. It comes from looking in the mirror and saying, 'Today I am going to be Women Make the Best Salesmen and The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful courageous,' " she says. Women. "I suppose having been told I had two to five years to live, accelerated One day her sons, then 7 and 12, were cooking their own lunch, while Brem lay my journey toward success. I never apologized for my ambitions. The peek I had on the bathroom floor, sick and weak from the effects of the chemotherapy At one at my own mortality taught me that my someday was NOW." point, she smelled something burning but did not have the energy to get up and "I started out with seven employees, including my oldest son (then 19). I check. Her elder son then came in, holding a smoking pan of macaroni and cheese. quickly grew to 50 employees before I learned that many businesses go broke but He said, "Don't worry mom. Only the bottom is burned. The top part is still good" more grow broke. In any event, I purchased a second dealership on the fifth "I got up from the floor and knew that dying was not an option," she says. "In anniversary of my first. I now have 65 employees and have navigated my way fact, that macaroni and cheese became a metaphor for my life. When something through a number of challenges. .," she says. in your life gets destroyed, there is still a top part that is still good I try to always Brem's parents had divorced when she was 5. She, her three brothers and her focus on that part." mother were taken in by her grand parThough Brem was pursuing an engients. She recalls how her grandfather, a retired school teacher, taught her a couneering degree at the time, she had CEO, Love Chrysler, Texas ple of stratagems that stuck with her. to drop out of college and look for FAVORITE HOBBY: Reading histories of u.s. presidents. "Number 1, always do more than what is a job She later graduated from the LOVES TO: Travel and watch classic movies. Executive Education program at the expected (When asked by my first FAVORITE INDULGENCE: Spas, five-star hotels, fine dining. Harvard Business School in Boston, grade teacher to come up with 10 synMassachusetts. ~ onyms, my grandfather had me turn in At that time, she had little in the way ~ 100) And number 2, he emphasized the of hard skills and at the urging of a ~ importance of language. 'A person who friend, decided to try sales. She had ~ can speak more than one language is at G> least as important as two people,' he lost her hair during chemotherapy, so Brem threw on a wig and set out to find ~ would say" a job She had once worked as a parto Her mother remarried when Brem time telephone switchboard operator at was 8 and they moved to Arizona and many places after that. She attended an auto dealership and that seemed like a good place to start. After a chain of numerous schools in four different states rejections, the 17th dealer she visited before graduating from high school. "It agreed to give her a chance. In October was difficult always being the 'new girl' 1984, she sold her first car at age 32 But, it taught me to embrace change and and two months later was "salesman of convert obstacles into opportunities." the month." Twelve months later she She acknowledges that many people was "salesman of the year" have contributed to her success, includThe cancer returned in 1985 and ing loyal employees who have been with Brem had to undergo another mastecher for most of her corporate journey. tomy Her cancer was eventually But she keeps going back to her granddeclared in remission in 1995. father's teaching Always do more than While fighting the disease, she took what is expected. "That advice is timethe help of a silent investor and in 1989 less." ~

Marion Luna Brem

----1 Banker Insurance Corporation and find investors to get the bank off the ground His partners include a wide array of investors-including Bob Epstein, founder of computer software company Sybase, and Mitch Kapor of Lotus Development. Epstein says that he and Liu started by exploring whether a commercial and chartered bank could support green businesses and consumers. "Businesses that pay attention to environmental ÂŤ . fl; performance do better than businesses that don't. ~ That seems to be the case in every industry," says <:,3 Epstein, founder of E2, a firm that helps governments and companies develop green policies. There is no shortage of green projects seeking financing, especially in California. The bank is financing a housing development in Martinez, California. It has provided loans to City CarShare, a business involving sharing rental cars for short periods, and to construct commuter drop-off points connected to the public transportation systems in Berkeley and Oakland It provides capital to help sustainable food producers and renewable-energy entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Environmental protection is not the bank's only interest. It also launched itself as a bank that makes a variety of loans available to anyone in the community When a person applies for a loan, the bank makes two offers-one for a traditional loan and one Founder and vice chairman, New Resource that is discounted for green construction. Bank, San Francisco. Its loans are creative. For instance, the bank introIMMIGRATED FROM: Taiwan. duced a new solar financial program that helps AIMED TO: Work with the biggest homeowners finance solar energy projects with no company that paid him the most, when he down payment. It also provides a discount on loans was fresh out of college. for green projects in the commercial real estate or multiunit residential sectors. "It's becoming something where a blend of good have great people, it's often hard to turn around a big options for the consumer work just as well as conship. It needs government leadership or entrepre- ventional ones, but it also is much more sustainneurial innovation," Liu says able," Liu says After a stop at Princeton University where he With his early success, Liu has plans to expand received a master's degree in public policy, he spent his green bank to other parts of the United States. "We don't intend to be everything to everyone. We time working for two financial institutions-Credit Suisse and Chase Manhattan. Then he had the idea are looking to go to communities where the belief is for a green bank. that sustainability can be a real market option," Liu for more information: It took Liu and his part- says. ~ ners more than a year to Peter Liu make it through the regula- Judith Hasson is a special correspondent with http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0.9171.1604882.00.html tory system, get backing Arnerica.gov. Marie Zisa contributed to this EPA 2009 Environmental Awards from the Federal Deposit article.

eter Liu started his career in chemical engineering But he moved on, parlaying his interest in environmental issues into founding what he believes is the first "green" bank in the United States. It sounds like a real stretch to go from a job with a big oil company to starting a bank that specializes in making loans for environmentally sustainable construction projects But Liu had a good idea at a great time. He founded the New Resource Bank in San Francisco in November 2006 with $24.7 million in assets. It has been growing since then. It now has $170 million in assets and more than 1,500 customers, individuals and companies "I think the focus in the world on the climate change issue raised green consciousness," Liu says. "We have become the preferred bank for green businesses because we understand it." In the past, environmental consciousness was a social issue, not a business one. Today, he says, it means saving energy and represents good business. "People are realizing that green makes sense economically and creates new jobs. The old mischaracterizations have gone away," he says In April 2009, the New Resource Bank won the US Environment Protection Agency's Honor for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of its impact. It is unusual to start a niche bank, says Mark Tenhundfeld, senior vice president in the Office of Regulatory Policy at the American Bankers Association in Washington, D.C. But, Tenhundfeld adds, "Banks are realizing there are a lot of opportunities to be the solutions to the problems that our economy is having and our environment is having." Liu, 42, immigrated with his family to the United States from Taiwan when he was 12 years old. After high school, he earned an engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley and started his career at oil giant Chevron.

"When I first got out of college, I wanted to get a job with the biggest company that paid me the most," he says But over time, his passion for the environment grew, as he saw that refineries in Japan, for example, were far cleaner than the ones on the US Gulf Coast. "While Chevron and many of these companies

http://www .epa.gov/region09/awards/09/ # business

Indian Growth Story in Silicon Entrepreneurs of Indian origin in the United States have evolved beyond technical leadership to become global business leaders. first came to the U.S. in 1974 with only $50 in my pocket and a desire to get the best technical education I could. In the process, I also discovered that I had a passion to create and grow businesses, something that I have now been pursuing as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur for over 20 years. Over these years, I've watched a fascinating evolution among the Indian entrepreneurs of the Valley. It is interesting to note that in 1970, 51,000 immigrants from India were recorded living in the United States. [By 2007, that number had grown to over 2.5 million.] Many of this group have found a home in the U.S. start-up culture and thrived. Today, they have become the most dominant ethnic group in Silicon Valley, running over 700 technology companies with aggregate sales of billions of dollars. But beyond the statistics, what I find fascinating is how Indian entrepreneurialism has evolved from technical leadership to global business leadership in what I believe are four distinct phasesor, in the parlance of enterprise software, four major "versions." Each version has broken new ground and provided the basis for growth in the version that followed. It's important to note that sometimes the versions represent different generations and sometimes they represent the stages of evolution within the same individual.

TIBeo http://www.tibco.com/ How David Beats Goliath http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/ 2009/05/11/090511 fa_facUladwell

Valley Thee •••• n The 1970s roughly marks this first version, where larger numbers of technically skilled Indians began coming to Silicon Valley. They were well educated, having studied at highly competitive technical schools in India, such as lIT schools. They were also highly motivated and attracted to the notion of working at a large, global corporation, such as HP, where they could capitalize on their expert skills and have the chance to contribute to significant new innovations that could make a broad impact.

The manager The 1980s saw Indians start to transition toward larger roles running entire business functions or business units. These individuals were entrepreneurs in the sense that many of them were breaking new ground by leading early phases of expansion across a broad crop of new technology companies. Some even went

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so far as to establish and even bankroll a new set of companies that would later turn into stalwarts of the technology industry. A great example of this is Vinod Khosla and the contributions he made by helping to start companies like Sun Microsystems and dozens of others.

The visionary In version 3.0, we saw the emergence of a large number of Indians pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams and starting new companies. This version of entrepreneurship was usually characterized by a focus on the "exit," as in a sale of the company, before the founded company became too large. I also refer to this version as the "serial entrepreneur," because many of these individuals never stopped innovating and created one new company after another.

The global business leader As we entered the new millennium, ver-

11 sion 4.0 emerged and it is this version that

Ec we are watching evolve today. In version

c3 4.0, the aspiration has become not just cre-

Iating new value and being rewarded

for it, ~ but building a global brand and a company <9 that withstands the test of time. This version of the Indian entrepreneur is also influenced by the dynamics of the global economy and is looking for ways to make an impact across borders and geographies, including investing back into India. As I reflect on the growing impact of Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, as well as my own experiences, it strikes me that three key ingredients are critical to the success of any entrepreneurial endeavor: Anything that has been done before can be done better. Nike proved this by transfonning our notion of footwear, despite shoes being a pretty well developed con·

cept already. Truly understanding the customer, finding their needs and pain points, and creating new ways to deliver value can lead to tremendous business success even in what are perceived to be well established industries. Sunound yourself with people smarter than you. I have been doing this for years. There is no substitute for raw IQ. Don't hire people who only agree with you, but rather seek people who dare to disagree and show you a different path. Team players are okay, but it is the quirks of "prima donnas" that can help spot the emerging trend and how to capitalize on it. Persevere and don't ever, ever give up. We all experience ups and downs and it is a long haul on the road to success. But ultimately, a core element of the successful entrepreneur is just the pure tenacity to turn your 1 vision into reality. You must also ~ stay nimble and avoid complacency, %.'" always searching for the edge to \ accelerate your business. Finally, 0 don't worry too much about the competition, as it can be a fatal distraction. Perfectly profitable companies disappeared overnight trying to beat competitors that didn't have to be defeated. Stay focused on developing your own company's value to your customers. There is no magic formula involved. These are just some of my reflections from the past 20 years. As I look back, I take great pride in the collective accomplishments of Indian entrepreneurs and I, along with many others, eagerly look forward to the still-to-come, increasingly important, and truly global contributions of tomorrow's class. ~

Vivek Ranadive is the chairman and CEO of the California-based TIBCO SC!ftwareInc.

Nyla Hashmi (left) and Ft'a lIna Monkush.

omewhere along her journey from dusty Allahabad to swanky San Francisco, Rashmi Sinha, the young Indian American CEO and cofounder of the Internet startup SlideShare, decided to live life on her own terms. "I enjoy people I like to build things. My job comprises all these things. I feel lucky that I make money doing things I love. But I also choose to do things that I enjoy. At many stages of my life, there were opportunities to make more money or to have a more regular work life. I always chose doing the thing that I enjoyed more," says Sinha. SlideShare grew out of a realization by Sinha and her American techie husband, Jon Boutelle, that it was time to move business presentations and slide shows beyond boardrooms. Hailed as the "YouTube of PowerPoint presentations" on several tech sites and blogs, SlideShare enables users to upload presentations on the Internet. Anyone can tag, download and embed presentations into their own blogs and Web sites. CEO, SlideShare, Based in San Francisco and New Delhi, SlideShare has California. "about 1.5 million registered users overall," Sinha says. LOVES: With an academic background in psychology, how Technology and the Web. easy was it for a person "who had never touched a comLIKES TO: puter while at Allahabad" to veer toward the Internet? Create things. Sinha says she changed gears once she realized the slow pace of academia was not for her. "When I was at technology is true both in India and the U.S It's striking to INSPIRATION: Brown University .. it felt too isolated, too ivory tower. see product teams mostly comprised of men," she says Parents. When I discovered the Web, and how you could build for So every Wednesday, SlideShare features women it and constantly iterate, it seemed a far more exciting speakers on its homepage. "If you are a woman who speaks prospect than sitting in a lab doing made-up experiments at conferences (or want to speak at conferences), please on people," she says on her blog. http://rashmisinha.com/ upload your presentations to SlideShare and tag them "womanspeaker" .. Sinha earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University in Rhode am personally (and publicly) committed to highlighting it in every way I Island. During the first year, she also signed up for a course in computer can," Sinha blogs While tagging their presentations may not guarantee science. Later, she did research in cognitive neuroscience at the University women a spot on SlideShare, it helps identify women speakers for everyone, of California at Berkeley. especially conference organizers. Deciding that she enjoyed practical problems more, she co-founded A regular speaker at tech conferences and universities, Sinha offers a Uzanto, a web consulting company, and worked on projects for compa360-degree view of design that she acquired as she moved from academnies like eBay. Her first foray into products was with MindCanvas, a ics to consulting and finally entrepreneurship. She constantly emphasizes game-like software for customer research released in 2005. This experi"how designers need to avoid thinking too much and start taking risks." ence eventually contributed to developing SlideShare. "I realize that a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. I cannot afford to get Sinha's confidence in her work and professional colleagues was evident burnt out. So I try to take time off so I can keep doing this at the same when she slept through the launch of a major feature of SlideShare and woke speed," says Sinha. She frets that she doesn't get enough time to listen to up next morning to realize that it was already generating "a bit of enthusiasm." music, though she feels she watches too many movies. "When one founds a company, one wants to build a company that Sinha says her vision for SlideShare is clear. "We made a decision early grows beyond oneself, to have smart, responsible people who take own- on that we want to change the way people share presentations and build a ership I felt that this had finally happened with SlideShare and it was a great company," she says on her blog. "I did science because I enjoyed it; I great feeling," she says. did user experience design because product design is fun. And I run Not content to be watching from the sidelines, Sinha says she wanted to SlideShare, because there is nowhere else I would rather be at this moment." For her next career, though, she wants to write a book about strange things do something about the fact that there are an embarrassingly small number of women, especially speakers, at tech conferpeople do on social networking Web sites A" ences. "I think the situation regarding few women in wwwslideshareneVrashmi ~

Rashmi Sinha

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A Storytelling Duel Amid Delhi's Ruins Omair Ahmad's tale of love and violence weaves together diverse influences.

story teller returns to his beloved Delhi two and a half centuries ago, only to find it devastated by the violence of Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali. The plunder, the loss of lives, the destruction of a culture and a civilization, breaks his heart. The dejected storyteller finds a roof over his head in a beautiful mansion, thanks to the invitation of Begum, who is living a secluded life with her servants. Little does he know, the storytelling competition of a lifetime awaits him. This is the setting of Omair Ahmad's The Storyteller's Tale, his third book, released earlier this year at the American Center in New Delhi. Ahmad, 34, is a journalist and a storytelling connoisseur who told stories on campus while earning his master's degree in international relations at Syracuse University, New York from 2001 to 2003. There he learned about the American form of storytelling, known as Tall Tales, exaggerated and imaginary stories about bravery and adventure from the wild west of the 1800s, often told around campfires. Ahmad grew up listening to Urdu and Persian stories, which were read in his family, and the epic, Mahabharata. "That is why I felt no difficulty in expressing my thoughts in this form," he says. Fictional elements of all the four stories presented in his novella are based on the Panchatantra, parables from the Bible and quotes from the Quran. In The Storyteller's Tale, Begum challenges the storyteller to a competition. While the two narrate four stories to each other, a new story takes place, a love story between Begum and the storyteller. Begum's sentiments are intense while the storyteller resists as he knows the suffer-

ing of love. And in this way, their stories become the expression of their failed love affair. Violence permeates every scenario, crossing the limits of time and space. Different forms of violence collide in the mjnd of the storyteller. Ahmad says, "We are unable to ignore this fact because violence and violent tendencies are affecting all of us in one form or the other. It has become the central reference of lives of people like us." Ahmad chooses storytelling as his means of communication, comparing it to the efficacy of Biblical parables and Quranic stories at conveying a message. "Moreover, stories heard in childhood also become a part of our psyche," he says. Ahmad writes for Outlook magazine and Voice of America and is also an active political analyst. His collection of stories on the lives of common people living in the towns and villages of India was published under the title Sense Terra by Pages Editor in 2008. His novel, Encounters, published by Tara Press in 2007, depicts the growing rigidity in a section of Muslims. The Storyteller's Tale and all of Ahmad's writings make the issue of extremism in words and deeds, their subject matter. And the winner of the storytelling duel? You decide.

Guggenheim Exhibition: 130 Years od

James Lee Byars The Death of James Lee Byars, 1982/94 Gold leaf crystals and plexiglas, Dimensions variable

Asian Influence on American Art

John Cage New River Watercolor Series 1, #5, 1988 Watercolor on parchment paper 45.7 x 91.4 em

Asian writings, philosophy, religion, colors, dances and crafts have influenced American art for more than a century. Many American artists have traveled in Asia, and many are Asian. A recent, ambitious exhibition at one of New York's premier museums gathered the threads together to present a new view of America's art history. he exhibition entitled "The Third Mind: American Artists ContemplateAsia 1860-1989"

that opened earlier this year at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, revised American art history forever by shifting the focus of the influence on U.S. artists from Europe to Asia. It is surprising that though many artists' individual engagement with Asia has been documented, this is the. first time ASian thought has been ~xamIned a~ a fundamental undercurrent In the creatIOn of a new visual and conceptual language in American creative culture.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Above: The unique rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Above right: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright (left) looks over his spiral shaped proposal for the Guggenheim Museum with artist Baroness Hilla Rebay and arts patron Solomon R. Guggenheim in 1945.

The title of the show, taken from a collage-like work in the exhibit, reflects these artists' eclectic, random appropriation of Asian ideas into their own, new narrative of self-expression. "This is not about the East or the West, it's something new-a 'third' -something other, that's created from this new alchemy, a new alloy of culture and expression," explains Alexandra Munroe, the Guggenheim's senior curator for Asian art. "As for 'mind,' artists were looking to Asian philosophies, religious texts, meditative practices, aesthetics, performance traditions, literature, poetry for a new model of consciousness, of the act of living itself." In short, the show is nothing less than an intellectual history of 130 years of modern American culture being traced back to Asia. The huge exhibition, on display from January 30 through April 19, 2009, was divided into seven thematic sections that

spiraled upward in the Guggenheim's unique rotunda. Designed in 1959 by Frank Lloyd Wright (whose monumental legacy is on display in a retrospective to celebrate the Guggenheim's 50th anniversary), the museum has no walls, no rooms,

no separated floors. It is one continuous whorl with huge, open bays where the art is displayed around a vast, open central shaft, down which you can look from every level. The first section, "Aestheticism and

James McNeill Whistler Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks, 1864 Oil on canvas 93.3 x 61.3 cm

Mary Cassatt The Letter, 1890-91, Drypoint and aquatint on cream laid paper, 34.4 x 21.1 cm

Japan: the Cult of the Orient," displays the works of Japanese-inspired artists like James McNeill Willstler and Mary Cassatt from the 19th century. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry opened U.S. trade with Japan and overnight, that long-closed island nation kindled Americans' cUliosity with its seductive mystique. The export of woodblock prints, ceramics and screen paintings brought Japanese aesthetics into American homes. Indeed, Japanese influence is felt overwhelmingly throughout the exhibit. Asked about the comparative dearth of Indian-inspired pieces, Munroe explains, "We're a Pacific power, so East Asian immigrants outnumbered South Asians.

So many artists and art teachers were Japanese-born, they influenced our aesthetic." Interestingly, she continues, "Indian art did not take hold because it's too fleshy. America is a Protestant country, 19th century intellectual discourse was shaped by the Boston elite for whom disembodied East Asian art-quasi ethereal, abstract-was more acceptable." Another perspective is offered by Sandhini Poddar, an Indian from Mumbai who, at 32, is the museum's assistant curator for Asian art: "Japanese art got integrated earlier than Indian because Japanese Buddhism can be applied to daily ~ life. India resists that-India's g about the narrative, the symbolism. ~ It's less accessible for American ยง artists to apply in their lives and ~ their art-making practices." ~ Where India's intellectual influ- ~ ence was keenly felt was through ~ Hinduism. In the 19th century,' writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and later, in the 20th century, poet T.S. Eliot, read the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. Later still, yoga and transcendental meditation became popular; Indian music with its ragas and improvisation, first brought to America ~ by Ravi Shankar, impacted American ~ rock music through the Beatles. But thereยง was no political awareness of India in this ~ period other than America's continuing ~ fascination with Mohandas K. Gandhi. ~ The show's cutoff date, 1989, is a historic ~ of the Internet, ~ marking point-rise beginning of globalization. E Section two, "Landscapes of the Mind: ~ New Conceptions of Nature," moves into the early 20th century. As Chinese paint- and Japanese Noh plays radicalized free verse, influenced Eliot's poetry and W.B. ing and philosophy became accessible, West Coast artists appropriated ink brush- Yeats' plays, and ushered in a poetic revowork and multiple viewpoints from lution that profoundly affected English litChinese landscapes. American intellectuerature worldwide. Pound's Cathay, a small als looked to Asia for spiritual values, book of 15 Chinese poems driven by conthey read the Theosophists and Swami crete images and few adjectives, is given Vivekananda, and artist Morris Graves prime space. Eliot's groundbreaking poem criticized the "Western world's highly "The Wasteland" is here in manuscript, technicized, rational-mindedness." Rabindranath Tagore's "Gitanjali" with "Ezra Pound, Modern Poetry, and Dance Yeats' introduction is present, too. In 1935, Theater" offers seminal riches going sculptor Isamu Noguchi and choreographer beyond visual art in section three. Pound's Martha Graham collaborated to create their innovative translations of Chinese poetry Noh-inspired dance theater. Eastern aes-

Above: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela Dream House, sound and light installation, 1962present. La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and The Just Alap Raga Ensemble performing Raga Sundara, 2008.

Left: Jack Kerouac Face of the Buddha, 1958? Pencil on paper, 16.5 x 20.9 cm

thetics changed American dance forever. "Abstract Art, Calligraphy, and Metaphysics" brings us to the heart of this show: the experimentation that arose from the marriage of Eastern calligraphy with abstract painting. Calligraphic brush stroke and ink were used not for writing but as a symbol prized for its shape. It led to Abstract Expressionism as practiced by fine mid-century artists like Mark Tobey, David Smith, Jackson Pollock, Brice Marden and Indian-born Natvar Bhavsar, who uses dry pigment to create huge, brilliantly colored, mural-like paintings. "We

placed Natvar in the context of the early genesis of abstract art in America because his method of building up the sUlface through layers of dry pigment is his own," says Poddar. His enOlTI10US"Delwara"172.7 x 428 cm-reigns over an entire wall because, as Poddar explains, " 'Delwara' is a lyrical work I chose for scale, it holds its own in that big bay. Many choices were made in response to the Guggenheim's architecture." Then she notes, "Though ragas, Sanskrit literature, Indian aesthetics and seasons are Natvar's sources of inspiration, his approach is similar to these Americans." Bhavsar is an American, proud of his Indian heritage. He came to the United States in 1962, with a diploma from the Sir IJ. School of Art in Mumbai. He has Jackson Pollock Untitled [Red Painting 1-7}, circa 1950 Oil on canvas in six parts, and enamel on canvas; smallest 50.8 cm x 20.3 cm, largest 53.3 x 33 cm

had numerous museum shows and over 1,000 works in major Western collections. "I learned art from life," he says. "In India, we absorb aesthetics from Holi, Diwali, rangoli. We don't put art in museums. I was born into a family of printers. As a child, I was surrounded by tubs of color, I saw miles of fabrics drying in the sun. Motes of light coming through our tiled roof were like a universe." He adds, "My work is about formlessness, about movement-of motes, leaves, ripples in water, forms in clouds. This is a charge for me, so static art-still life and portraiture which I'd learned-went out of my vocabulary." Bhavsar was changed by seeing master works for the first time in Philadelphia. "I felt a closeness to them. In India, I had seen a [Mark] Rothko painting in a Museum of Modern Art show that came to Ahmedabad in 1957. That stuck with me. I painted "Trees" then, which is all red and black; you can't see the trees. In America, I realized I was interested not in storytelling or painting

Natvar Bhavsar Delwam, 1982 Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 172.7 x 428 cm

from objects or nature but in color, which fills the universe. Color invites you to explore yourself. I removed all references that might shift the focus away from the expressive strength of spacious experience. I was excited, I felt at home in America." For Bhavsar, the colorist, the whiteness of "Delwara" evokes silence: "Complete silence of the cave, of speechlessness, of meditation. Looking at nature, you're entranced .... Your physicality melts into the largeness of the experience, you become part of the work. When I enter my studio, everything disappears-including myself. That power which draws me-I never know why-is what compels me to paint." He expounds on his innovative dry pigment process: "I work with colored powders. As a young man, I'd made an 80-by-25-foot rangoli in Ahmedabad. It

took 15 days and nights to make. I have enormous energy and put down colors fast-in layers. Multitudes of color presences are laid out with dry pigment, through a mesh screen, onto the canvas. Then strokes are brushed over it with huge, specially made brushes that move the pigment upward or downward; the whole is sprayed with oil and a plastic medium which makes the colors stick to the canvas. Up to 200 layers embrace each other, craters build up. Laying down color with such freedom is a unique process, similar to rangoli-which you can't hang on a wall-but more complex, more sophisticated. The idea of rangoli was important because of the visual power of dry pigment: paint loses luster. Just as Jackson Pollock did something new with the drip method by freeing himself of brushes, mine is a new, freer process." The following section, "Buddhism and the Neo-Avant-Garde," deals with disillusioned postwar artists who turned to East Asian Buddhist thought and created an anti-art movement that rejected the bourgeois values of the 1950s for the poetry of quotidian existence. Zen musician John Cage, in deference to Buddhism's ideal of emptiness, wrote silent music (literally, with the piano closed!). But Cage was a visual artist, too, and the exhibit showcases 20 of his abstract paintings. His statement, "Art is not self-expression but selfalteration," summed up these artists' zeal for Zen. Contrastingly, India's appeal emanates from an abstract painting by Lee Mullican titled "Evening Raga," and in "Dream House," a sound-and-light installation by minimalist composer La Monte Young and light artist Marian Zazeela. The two were disciples of Hindustani vocalist Pandit Pran Nath who taught, "Nada Brahma" (sound is god). Their large installation encouraged viewers to walk through without shoes. Young claimed that the sound and light could transform the listener's psychic state into a "drone state of mind." The work of the Beat writers claims its own area. Novelist Jack Kerouac discovered Buddhism, published Dharma Bums, and advocated total freedom. Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl" defined a generation that defied conservative postwar thinking. Cultivating yogic

l .~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ @

John La Farge The Last Waterlilies, 1862 Oil on wood, 23.5 x 19.1 em

breathing and mantra chanting, Ginsberg developed a new poetic measure corresponding to human breath. In the exhibit, his numerous black and white photographs chart his travels through Japan and India. Scattered throughout are fascinating works by big-name artists: Robert Rauschenberg's "Gold Standard," assembled from street-collected junk in an onstage Tokyo performance; Jasper Johns' abstract-seeming "Dancers on a Plane," focused on a Tantric, Tibetan Buddhist deity adorned with skulls, which Johns dedicated to dancer-choreographer Merce Cunningham. Next, "Art of Perceptual Experience: Pure Abstraction and Ecstatic Mini-

malism" displays monochromatic minimalist works by artists like Ad Reinhardt, Agnes Martin and Indian American Zarina, who all drew upon the self-transformative powers of contemplation (late 1950s to mid-1970s). Reinhardt's dark abstract paintings induce intense concentration by focusing the mind. In shifting consciousness, they are like prayer. Zarina's two minimalist works similarly quiet the mind. "Zarina's poetic pin drawings are rooted in minimalist practice," Poddar observes.

For more information: Guggenheim Museum http://www .guggenheim. org/ The Third Mind http://web .guggenheim. org/exh ibitions/exh ibition_ pages/thirdmind/index.html_ Us

Morris Graves

her work thus: "When you take stitches apart, unravel the thread, it leaves a mark, a texture on the surface. The little indentation's like a tear, a wound, a memory of that gesture. I was playing, trying different things, when I realized the thread's not necessary. In 1977, I did not have a studio, I was in a new city, living on my own, I did not know many people. This is what I did then, late at night, alone in my loft. I like small work-you have to come very close to see the texture-and love the tactile quality of the material." Zarina called this "pleasurable" process "unraveling memory" after the Urdu word for breaking stitches, removing them. "It's o also rentiniscent of the holes insects make ~ on the pages of a book. My father had a ~ library in Aligarh-I'd seen insects come ~ out of a shell, leaving holes in it. Growing @ up in a small town, I watched everything: insects, ants going up the wall. My work is based on such observations, watching nature, being connected to it. I didn't go to art school, never had formal training, I've taught myself." Her method consists in lantinating two thin sheets of paper with rice paste, then passing them through a press so it becomes layered like cardboard. "This process was used in Japan and in Indian miniatures," Zarina says. The lantinated sheet is put on styrofoam and perforated with a needle. "There's no pattern; the hand does what it wants. I let my hand guide me intuitively, I don't edit. An outside force guides the hand and the material-it's divine intervention. I'm a small instrument in the large scheme of things. It's hard to explain why I do what I do. Something I've seen in passing may emerge years later, one doesn't know where in the antipodes of one's mind that sound or sensation was hiding. Then one says, 'Oh, I knew this;' or, 'Here it is.'" Does she wait for inspiration? "I think Zarina concurs. "I've been here 30 years, I knew the work of these artists. I'm about what I want to do for a long time; curious, I see many shows and think about then I just do it. Even if I plan it, once I'm the works. People connect my work to with the material, it takes over. I never Japan and I do like the sparse all-white know how it will look because it's about Shinto aesthetic. But these 'pin draw- creativity, it's not reproduction." That could ings' -[printmaker] Krishna Reddy called describe everyone of the 234 diverse pieces them that--came from 'woman's work' in this encyclopedic show: each is about which I learned growing up in India. I find creativity, none about reproduction. ~ it comforting to sew. I'm into systems, I like order, putting things together." Vibhuti Patel is a contributing editor with She comments on the provenance of Newsweek International in New York. Time of Change, 1943 Tempera on paper, cm 61 x 76.2 Âˇtâ&#x20AC;˘..

Zarina Untitled, 1977 Laminated paper, pierced with sewing needle, 60 x 50 cm

"She uses the grid as a framework with a feminist overlay. It's an intellectual, compositional method sintilar to the conceptual frameworks of Martin and Reinhardt. This great body of work hadn't been shown before so we integrated Zarina into the canon by putting her on the same democratic platform. Her later, better-known, woodblock prints about home have a political mUTative about displacement; the pin drawings are a pure response to ntinimalist abstraction."

Tara Adiseshan ,.

Dream Win he thought it was allover. As the second place winners were announced in the buzzing hall hosting the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), Tara Adiseshan thought she wasn't going to win anything this year. But then, she heard her name called, "for first place, best in category, and the Young Scientist Award. I was ecstaticl I am still shocked that my project was chosen," says the 14-year-old Indian American from Charlottesville, Virginia. Adiseshan received a $50,000 college scholarship at the Reno, Nevada event in May. Intel says it is the world's largest pre-college science fair and more than 1,500 young scientists from 56 countries, regions and territories competed this year. For her project, Adiseshan says she identified and classified evolutionary relationships between sweat bees and the microscopic worms that live inside them. "Doing well at ISEF has been one of my dreams for a long time. I have participated in science fairs for seven years, and this is the last year that I can participate in pre-collegiate science fairs. This has definitely been a very satisfying closure for my science fair journey," says Adiseshan. "More than anything, I hope that this award is an indication that I will be able to help change the world through science in the future." A homeschooled high school senior, Adiseshan will enter Stanford University in California for undergraduatestudies this fall. She later wants to

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pursue a Ph.D. in biology. "I hope that in the future, I would be doing as much as possible to help save the inhabitants of the Earth, more specifically conserving animal species," she says. Adiseshan says that she has always loved animals and wildlife. "I feel that since animals cannot speak human languages, they need people to stand up for them and help them." An aspiring animal scientist, she also credits her success to homeschooling. "I know that I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for homeschooling. I was able to travel, pursue a rigorous education, conduct researchand participate in other extracurricular activities. Homeschooling offers freedom and flexibility to pursue one's interests," says Adiseshan, whose parents moved to the United States in the early 1990s. The famiIy visits India almost every year. Adiseshan is an active member of her community and is on the Roots and Shoots National Youth Leadership Council. Roots and Shoots is an international environmental and humanitarian youth program run by the Virginia-based Jane Goodall Institute. "I startedthe Charlottesville

Roots and Shoots Club. We are planning on working on a campaign to raise awareness about the amphibian extinction crisis," she says. For the past year, Adiseshan was the vice president of the Virginia Junior Academy of Science. In November, she collaborated with the University of Virginia's Office for Diversity and Equity to organize a Science Career Symposium. It featured "scientist speakers who were known not only for their research, but also for the level of involvement in their own communities ... There were over 120 students in attendance, and almost as many on the waiting list. The students listened to presentations and participated in interactive lab stations. It was very gratifying to see so many kids from diverse backgrounds having fun learning about science." This studious teenager doesn't, however, spend all her time cooped up in a research lab. Adiseshan is a certified scuba diver and has gone diving in the Caribbean. "I like playing sports, particularly basketball, and camping. I also enjoy performing in theater productions, especially improvisation," she says. Adiseshan is an active competitor in speech For more information: and debate contests, likes pop and rock music Intel InternationalScience and EngineeringFair and loves to read. "I enjoy reading fantasy http://wwwsocietyforscience.org/ISEF/ ~ books, but I will usually read anything that I find l interesting, no matter what genre the book is ~ in." She doesn't watch TV, but does enjoy i watching movies. ~ Her advice to young people interested in ~ research is, "Don't give up! One of the biggest ~ challenges for students interested in science or ~ mathematics lies in finding a research mentor. ~ It was very hard for me to find a mentor. I had to ~ send out my resume to at least 100 scientists ~ before 1 was able to find a good fit. Once you do finally get a mentor and get access to research facilities, it is definitely worth it." ~

Udita Chatterjee, Kolkat~

th t the article "Designing for the Disabled,"

I wOJu~i~i~s~~r~~a~~:~~~:eo~eha~ilitatiOn section greatly interests me as Itam on a working in an NGO named Assocla Ion for Women with Disabilities in Kolkata. I have downloaded this article from the SPAN Web site and have shared It with all my colleagues. This article. will help us in increasing networks working for the disabled in society and will also help In tapping the persons/institutions .involved in accessibility issues concerning persons with disabilities in India and abroad. Anticipating more and more such social themes in the coming issues of the magazine.

John Alexander

Sami Rafiq, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh I have been reading SPAN ever since I was a high school student and residing in Chandausi, a small town in U.P I remember waiting impatiently for the postman to deliver my precious copy of SPAN when I came home for the summer holidays I can still recall those lovely colorful articles on American food and culture. Through the years I have observed that your magazine has developed a larger vision, bringing in more incisive cultural articles. I especially enjoyed the article "Summertime .... " It brought back some nostalgic memories of my own summer holidays in India, filled with cycle rides, capering in the backyards and lounging in green, mango orchards. I also remember my mother's special khichdi which we gulped down with ghee and curd and then we were back again playing outside. The article, through personal narratives, also revealed what we in India have lost, because now children have got so wrapped up with technology and computer games that they cannot enjoy the holidays the way the previous generation did.

Nagpur, Maharashtra Deepanjali Kakati's profile of Sadia Shepard brings to the fore a person who has in herself the rare mixture of three religions-Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Indeed to be a tri-cultural individual, where religion is a very divisive issue, is a good augury for people to live in amity and harmony. I hope Sadia Shepard, through her writings, brings out more interesting nuggets of cultures and religions all integrating and mixing with one another. Rohan Dharesh, Bangalore Although celebrating the contributions of women is most welcome, I do not agree with the theory that women in America earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. The intricacies of the research are not clear and on what basis it has been made. It's absolutely ridiculous that in a feminist country like the US., a claim is made that women earn less than men for the same work .... Having said this, the same census does not take into account the discrimination that men are facing in terms of alimony, maintenance and other forms of discrimination. Every story has two sides. Nothing is clear until both sides are heard. One-sided popfeminist stories do not serve the cause of genuine women ...

Mrinmayee Ranade, Mumbai The summers I spent at my grandparents' house in Ganesh Gule, on the coast of the Arabian Sea, are etched in my mind forever. Although my grandparents had died much earlier, the mud house, which was at least 200 years old, was kept running by my mother's elder brother, whom we called Mama. Reaching my remote village, some 350 kilometers to the south of Mumbai, was a very tough deal 30 years ago Mami, my aunt, would welcome us at the gate, next to which stood a fully bloomed, red magnolia. With a cool drink of raw mango or refreshing hot tea, we would be inducted in the household for the fortnight. It was amok after that and we kids would spend the days going to the paddy fields, picking mangoes, from the very sour to very sweet, and eating some kind of a meal every now and then.