May 03, 2013

VOICE OF ASIA

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FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

th

ANNIVERSARY 1987-2012

The Leading Community Weekly from Texas since 1987

Vol. 26 No. 18 Friday, May 3, 2013 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

Pratham Houston Gala 2013 raises USD 1.3m

A historical feat USD 1.3mn, raised this year breaks last year’s record of USD 1.235mn

by Leena and Ash Shah

P

ratham Houston set a new record high when USD 1.3 million was raised at its sold out fundraiser held on Saturday, April 27th at the Hilton Americas in Houston. This was yet another feat of its stalwart President and Pratham USA National Board Member, Swatantra Jain who surpassed and broke his previous record of USD 1.235 mil-

lion raised last year which led Pratham Houston to be ranked as the 5th best charity among the top 25 of Houston’s largest and healthiest charities by Houston Business Journal that year.

The Gala was an exceptionally successful with enthusiastic participation from all over Houston and world over, with more than 800 attendees.

The evening was inaugurated

Pratham USA National Board Member, Swatantra Jain and wife Bimla Jain. Photo Credit: Bijay Dixit

Sen. Cornyn Meets with Consul General Harish

by a riveting speech by Dr. Rukmini Banerji with a Q&A session, followed by a powerful preamble on Pratham highlights

by CEO and Co-founder of Pratham, Dr. Madhav Chavan, and jubilantly concluded with beautiful performances celebrating Indian culture from the Houston Symphony and Naach Houston. A singular

Dr. Madhav Chavan, CEO and Co-founder of Pratham giving his address. message that resonated all evening was that the sky is the limit to the human virtues of kindness and compassion.

million was raised in the gala in one single night! Swatantra Jain and his wife Bimla Jain,

A record breaking total of USD 1.3

Continued on Page 6

$5m India Studies Center Program for UH

Consul General of India in Houston Harish Parvathaneni (lt) with Sen Cornyn.

H

OUSTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Consul General of India in Houston Harish Parvathaneni met last week to discuss the economy, energy, trade and immigration, as well as express admiration for the active role Indian Americans are taking in Texas’ communities. They issued the following statements after their meeting: “I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Consul General Harish and discuss the issues that are so important to both our countries.

Today’s global environment provides many opportunities for our nations to partner, and it is encouraging to see all that Indian Americans in Texas are

doing to foster strong community,” said Sen. Cornyn, co-chairman and an original co-founder of the Senate India Caucus.

“Senator Cornyn has been a great votary of strong economic engagement between US and India. With enhanced prospects for cooperation in the field of energy in view of the US shale gas revolution, we will witness in the next few years LNG exports from US to India. This will have a huge significance for Indian households and the industry. We look forward to Senator Cornyn’s support to realize the promising prospects in this regard for Indian and US companies,” said Consul General Harish.

U of H President, Renu Khator, (center) with Judge Ed Emmett, Consul General, Hon. P. Harish, Dr. Arun Verma (not in order) and other supporters of the India Studies Program of UH.

A

pril 25, 2013 was an auspicious start on Hanuman Jayanthi day for the $5m India Studies Program of University of Houston at the residence of Dr. Arun and Vinnie Verma. Dr. Renu Khator,

president UH and Dr. Verma led the prayer and bhajan initiating the fundraiser dinner.

A group of distinguished invited guests, including Judge Ed Emmitt,

Chancellor Dr. Renu Khator, Consul General Mr. P. Harish, John Roberts, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Board of Directors, Professors and Deans from the University of Houston Continued on Page 4

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OP-ED/COMMENTS/VIEWS

VOICE OF ASIA 2

by Fabienne Faur

Publisher: Koshy Thomas Associate Publisher: Sherly Philip Editor: Shobana Muratee Austin Correspondent: Sherine Thomas Marketing: Jacob David Production: AR Vadlamani Office Manager Priyan Mathew

Voice of Asia Online Online Editor:

Shobana Muratee

All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the consent of the publisher.

Voice of Asia assumes no liability resulting from action taken based on the information included herein. Published weekly by Free Press LLC, 8303 SW Freeway, Suite # 325, Houston, TX 77074. Tel: 713-774-5140.

Fax: 713-774-5143. Email for editorial submissions: voiceasia@aol.com; Email for advertising inquiries and submissions: advertisingvoa@aol.com

STUDY

Secret to longer life may be in the brain: study

S

cientists said Wednesday they had found a brain region that controls physical ageing, and could target it to manipulate the lifespan of lab mice.

The findings may be a step towards finding the holy grail of slowing human ageing, but have yet to be tested in human subjects.

The research, published in the journal Nature, implicates the hypothalamus -- a brain region that regulates growth, reproduction and metabolism, in the gradual and coordinated bodily deterioration we call ageing.

Though the brain has long been suspected of orchestrating the process, this is the first evidence to that effect.

The team said they could speed up or slow down ageing in mice by activating or inhibiting the brain signalling molecule NFkB in the hypothalamus, which in turn affects levels of a hormone called GnRH that plays a role in the generation of neurons -- the data processing cells of the brain.

By stimulating NF-kB, they caused a decline in GnRH which led to impaired neurogenesis and ageing symptoms like muscle weakening, skin atrophy, bone loss and memory impairment.

NF-kB is generally responsible for regulating the body’s response to inflammation, the New

York-based team wrote.

The researchers could also slow ageing in mice by giving them the GnRH hormone.

“Our study provided interventional strategies to slow down ageing through targeting the hypothalamus,” the study’s senior author Dongsheng Cai, professor of molecular pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told AFP by email.

“It can help to slow down ageing, which is already a big breakthrough, as it can counteract against many ageingrelated diseases,” he said, while stipulating: “I don’t think ageing could be completely stopped.”

Cai said he believed the mouse results would translate into humans, “though it will need future efforts to develop safe and applicable approaches to humans.”

Commenting on the research, Harvard Medical School experts Dana Gabuzda and Bruce Yankner said the results, if validated, may have important implications for treatment of age-related diseases -- particularly those linked to inflammation.

“The idea also raises the intriguing possibility that hypothalamic regulation could be therapeutically manipulated to have broad effects on the ageing process,” they wrote in Nature.

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It is the policy of Voice of Asia to publish letters to the editor which evidence a variety of viewpoints. The opinions expressed in any particular letter to the editor are not necessarily those of the management. Voice of Asia welcomes letters in reply to issues raised in letters to editor. In as much letters to the editor are not articles written or researched by members of Voice of Asia, it is not the policy of the Voice of Asia to perform any investigation or confirmation of any facts or allegations contained in letters to the editor.

Moreover, Voice of Asia reserves the right to edit letters to the editor as necessary to correct errors of fact, punctuation, spelling and to comply with space constraints. - The Publisher

W

ASHINGTON, AFP: A majority of Muslims around the world want Shariah law to be implemented in their countries but are split on how it should be applied, according to a study released Tuesday.

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Most Muslims want Shariah law, split on interpretation: study pastimes are sometimes regarded as undermining morality.

An overwhelming majority viewed prostitution, homosexuality, suicide or alcohol consumption as immoral but there are sharp differences on issues such as polygamy.

The comprehensive Pew Research Center survey conducted between 2008 and 2012 focused on 38,000 people in 39 countries drawn from a global Muslim community of 2.2 billion people.

A solid majority, notably in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, were in favor of Shariah — traditional Islamic law — being adopted as “the law of the land” in their countries, it found.

“But I would also note that support for making Shariah law does vary,” said Jim Bell, Pew’s director of international survey research.

From 12 percent in Turkey, support for Shariah as official national law stood at 56 percent in Tunisia, 71 percent in Nigeria, 72 percent in Indonesia, 74 percent in Egypt and 99 percent in Afghanistan.

But Princeton University professor Amaney Jamal, a special adviser to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, emphasized there is no one common understanding of Shariah among all

T

here is simply no excuse for what happened to Sarabjit Singh in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. The death row prisoner was in judicial custody, and Pakistani jail officials were duty bound to ensure his safety, as of every other prisoner in their charge. In Sarabjit’s case, they were also aware of specific threats to his life.

Jihadi outfits had pledged to avenge the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, and later of Afzal Guru, and Sarabjit’s lawyer had petitioned the jail and the Punjab government for more security to his client. Condemned prisoners are locked up in individual cells. Going by reports, he was assaulted by two other inmates with bricks, rods, and sharp-edged utensils during his daily walk in the jail compound. The intention was to kill him. Even if not directly involved, the jail’s officials must be held responsible for dereliction.

Just three months ago, another Indian prisoner, Chamel Singh, was brutally murdered in Kot Lakhpat. It is not known if any prisoner

Only four percent polled in Bosnia and Herzegovina considered polygamy morally acceptable, against 87 percent in Niger.

Men read the Qur’an before a prayer service at the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Massachusetts. on April 26, 2013. A survey released on Tuesday showed that an overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide say violence in the name of Islam can “never” be justified. (AP) the world’s Muslims.

“Sharia has different meanings, definitions and understandings, based on the actual experiences of countries with or without sharia,” she said in a conference call with reporters analyzing the findings.

Titled “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society,” the study also revealed many Muslims favor applying Shariah in the private sphere to settle family or property disputes.

However,

in

most

countries surveyed, there was less support for severe punishments, such as cutting off the hands of thieves or executing people who convert from Islam to another faith.

A majority of Muslims are also in favor of freedom of religion, even while backing Shariah.

In Pakistan, for example, 84 percent of Muslims want Shariah enshrined as official law but 75 percent believe non-Muslims are free to practice their religion.

Prisoners, not pawns was charged for that killing, or if any officials were taken to task. But clearly, no one in authority was shaken enough to bring in measures to prevent such attacks from happening again. That would have emboldened Sarabjit’s attackers.

If this murderous attack does not awaken both Pakistan and India to the shabby treatment they mete out to each other’s nationals in their jails, nothing can. Sarabjit was convicted for carrying out four bomb attacks in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990 that killed 14 people and left 80 wounded, over his protestations that he was a victim of mistaken identity. Despite the opposition in Pakistan to the release of a terror convict, there was a time in 2008 when the newly elected Pakistan People’s Party government seriously considered this — it indefinitely put off his hanging — as a goodwill gesture towards India. This though is the real problem. Whether it

is Sarabjit, or the other Indians and Pakistanis locked up in each other’s jails for far less — overstaying, fishing in each other’s waters — their fate gets enmeshed in the larger bilateral relationship. Prisoners, most of them poor and marginal in their own countries, are treated like bargaining chips, to be released only if goodwill needs to be shown to the other side, long after sentence completion. Not surprisingly, the recommendations of a commission comprising judges from both countries for quick release and repatriation of prisoners charged with minor offences have been implemented only in fits and starts. In turn, sometimes a single prisoner’s case, such as Sarabjit’s or Khalil Chishti’s, haunts relations.

The first step out of this is for both countries to start treating each other’s nationals lodged in their jails as human beings instead of pawns.

AN APPEAL

Nalini Ambady Dear Friends, This is an appeal to help save the life of Nalini Ambady. She has been given a few weeks to find a bone marrow donor and time is running out!

Nalini is originally from Ernakulum. She is a renowned scientist whose work was featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s best selling book Blink. She is the first Indian woman to have been on the faculty of both Harvard and Stanford’s psychology department. She is also the mother of two young girls.

Nalini needs your help.

She is suffering from leukemia and needs a blood stem

cell donor soon in order to survive. Due to certain genetic markers, her match will almost certainly be a fellow Keralite. Right now, there is no match in the registry for her.

donor. If you can’t donate, you can help us find donors.

Would your organization be willing to host a bone marrow donor drive to register Keralites? Hosting a drive is easy! Be the Match, the national bone marrow registry, will help you every step of the way. Registering takes only minutes – a simple cheek swab and a little paperwork. Anyone between the ages of 18-44 can be a

Taylor Phillips: taylorp@ stanford.edu

Please call or email for more information: NaliniNeedsYou.com: (650) 318-1297

Sribala Subramanian: bsubra@nyc.rr.com Keep track of the latest developments in India and the US at nalinineedsyou. com Thanks for your help Thomas Abraham

Around half of Muslims in the survey expressed concerns about religious extremism, particularly in Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia.

In most countries, a majority of Muslims said a wife must obey her husband, although a majority also said a woman should decide whether or not to wear a veil.

Most Muslims said they do not feel tension between their religion and modern life, prefer a democratic regime, and enjoy music or Western movies, even if such

A strong majority surveyed said so-called honor killings could never be justified. The only exceptions came in Afghanistan and Iraq, where majorities condoned executions of women deemed to have shamed their families by engaging in premarital sex or adultery.

Violence carried out in the name of Islam was also widely rejected.

In the United States, 81 percent of Muslims said such violence can “never” be justified — against a global median of 73 percent.

However, substantial minorities in Bangladesh, Egypt, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories said violence was permissible.

ISKCON Houston Beloved Grandmother Passes Away

Lore Garrick On Tuesday, April 30th at 1:08 p.m., Lore Garrick, loving 92-year-old mother of His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami and affectionately known as “Mother Lore,” passed away from this world in the presence of many devotees performing Sri Krishna kirtan in ISKCON Houston’s Hare Krishna Dhama community.

Her son, known to local devotees as Srila Gurudeva (1946-2002), was an initiating spiritual master in ISKCON, author and scholar who guided the Houston and Dallas temples for many years.

Houston devotee Rasikendra dasa described her departure. “Surrounded by chanting devotees, a sacred sila from Govardhan Hill resting on her forehead, with Srila Prabhupada’s and Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami’s pictures on her chest and holding a Sri Nrsimha Sila with both hands, Lore left this world most peacefully without any dificulty, lovingly cared for by devotees round the clock leading up to her departure.”

Kriyashakti Devi Dasi, who has been a live-in caregiver for her in Houston, was by her side at the end.

“She was so much loved and did such a nice service for Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada by being a good mother to a good son.” Nityananda Chandra Das, head pujari, Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji temple in Dallas, TX. said, “She is a beautiful tree surrounded by many wonderful fruits. One of them grew to a great Tamala tree which in turn produced many more wonderful fruit-bearing trees that are growing all across the world.”

Funeral service was held on Wednesday, May 1, 2013.

VOICE OF ASIA 3

COMMUNITY VOICE OF ASIA

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Second Front Page

Friday, May 3, 2013

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

Sri Meenakshi Temple Save a Mother Anniversary Gala Kalyana Mahotsavam Celebrating Women & Children

For Five Years

by Seema Kachru Pregnancy is not a disease, yet 15 percent of all pregnancies result in life threatening complications. Maternal health, a critical topic in global development, impacts families, communities and societies and has far reaching effects across socio-economic strata.

Elaborate decorations for the ‘Mahotsavam’

by Dr. Venugopal Menon Certain experiences happen but seldom; and they happen only to the destined.

Sri Meenakshi Temple in Pearland just concluded its ten-day grand commemoration of ‘Mahotsavam’, the magnificent, anniversary extravaganza. From Thursday, April 18 to Sunday the 28th, the entire temple atmosphere was transformed into one of supreme celestial ambiance with religious, cultural and social activities celebrating the divine glory of Goddess Meenakshi.

As per the legendary Agama traditions that guide Sri Meenakshi Temple, as supervised and performed by the honorable priests Sri Manicka Sundara Bhattar, Sri Kalyana Sundaram and others, and adhering to austere spiritual and religious requirements, the elaborate ceremony was planned and prepared with all the infinite details meshed in to their appropriate places.

The event was inaugurated on Thursday evening with the Vigneswara Pooja as is the auspicious custom of every Hindu religious function, getting the blessings from God Ganesha for its successful progression. The following day, there was Homam and special Abhishekam for all the Utsava Murthis performed in the tent pitched outside, where the ritual was repeated daily through the festival. The highlight of Friday morning was dhawjarohanam, hoisting of the flag that declares the traditional inauguration of ‘Utsavam’, the annual temple celebration.

On Saturday, the 20th was the ornate coronation of Goddess Meenakshi,

the heavenly ‘Pattabhishekam’, when Chairman Tupil Narasiman, bestowed with the customary honor on behalf of all the devotees, formally accepted and handed over the regal scepter. It was followed by the procession of the Utsava Murthis in the ‘Poo Pallakku’, the palanquin, beautifully decorated with flowers. It was a magnificent spectacle to watch the parade with the Murthis adorned in their godly vehicle wrapped up with over five thousand light golden and pink carnations. The festivities were enriched by the accompanying ‘Mangala Vadyam’, the auspicious Nadaswaram by Shri Murugadoss along with N. Ganesan and P. Shanmugasundaram on the Thavil, artists who were brought from Canada .

There was traditionally prescribed poojas every evening with the Utsava Murthis dressed up with resplendent radiance and taken out in a procession around the Outer Praharam.

Cultural programs were organized during the evenings of the Mahotsavam, which richly augmented the artistic elegance of the atmosphere.

The various groups who performed each day were, Smt Anuradha Subramaniam and Smt Chitra Dharmarajan with their groups and the students of Smt Rajeswary Bhat, all singing Devi Kruthis in praise of the Goddess, Sri Nagan Srinivasan doing Abhirami Andhadhi, the Houston Rudram group offering the Vedic chanting, Smt Roopa Bala and her group reciting Lalitha Sahasranamam, Smt Surabhi Veeraraghavan doing classical dance honoring Matha Parasakthi, Smt Deepa RaContinued on Page 7

Despite being among top ten countries of the world, India`s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is currently one of the highest in the world, at a rate of 236 deaths per 100,000, in comparison to an average of 16 for developing countries. As 2015 fast approaches, the time has come to assess the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the MDGs, the MMR should reduce at a rate of 5.5 percent annually, yet, in India the rate is only 2.3 percent.

India`s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is currently one of the highest in the world,

Such lofty goals are possible only due to the dedicated organizations like “Save a Mother” (SAM), that is working to improve and standardize care in India and beyond so that all pregnancies and births can be joyous occasions and maternal mortality a thing of the past.

1000 villages in 2008. The program has expanded in 50 districts of UP with execution by our NGO partner, RGMVP.

SAM, started in 2008; has grown its scope, increased the number of supporting chapters in the US and partnered with Save A Mother UK in London and India. Partner organizations in the UK and India operate independently towards the same mission of educating women about pregnancy, nutrition, immunization, delivery and care of the child. Working in tango with local NGOs in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, SAM has expanded health care solutions to Karnataka, India.

Launched TB Control Program in CSM Nagar in UP in 2012.

Within five years of its existence, SAM has achieved significant mile stones and impressed by the magical achievement in Sultanpur and 40 adjoining villages of UP, Deshpande foundation granted SAM $ 36000 in 2012, to support its initiatives of reducing the MMR and IMR in up to 100 Karnataka villages in Gadag. SAM over-exceeded its impact in 103 Gadag Villages and therefore grant by the Deshpande Foundation has now been extended till 2014.

Five Year Achievements: · Maternal Care in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India · SAM started maternal mortality reduction program in approximately

· Maternal Care in Karnataka Replicated maternal mortality reduction in Gadag district of Karnataka. · Tuberculosis Control

· Water Borne Diseases Launched a program to reduce water borne diseases in CSM Nagar in 2012.

Doctors working in primary health clinics will participate in this program.

Our target is to reduce water borne diseases by 80% in next 4 years. · Free Primary Health Clinics Participate in management of 16 free primary health clinics run by Asia Heart Foundation. Clinics serve 1000 to 1500 patients daily.

niversary Fundraising gala to be held on Friday, May 10th, 2012, at Le a Virage 12126 Westheimer. Gala will inspire, highlight accomplishments, and unveil plans for the next decade. The public and the media are invited and every dollar raised and donated will go directly to let another heart to beat in this world and live a healthy life.

Those, who cannot attend personally but are passionate about the cause can sign up and donate securely at www. saveamother.org or send a check to the registered 501(c)(3) organization in Houston, TX at : Nat Murthy, 633 Lake Shore drive, Sugar Land, TX 77478.

Since Mothers Day is right almost here, the need is to take up the big challenge where the cause is noble and the reward is high. No gift to your mother can ever equal her gift to you—Life.

When you support a mother, you uplift her family, when you uplift her family, you strengthen her community, when you strengthen her community, you change the world.

“SAM’s leadership has equipped various Indian villages of professionFor more information visit us @ als who serve mothers to make positive changes in community that will www.saveamother.org or email the benefit mothers and families for years author, a PTI correspondent based in to come”, said Veena Kaul, a philan- Houston--seemakachru@gmail.com thropist and a very dedicated SAM Levels of Support Houston President.

After a resounding success of its previous gala’s, “Save A Mother” Houston is celebrating 5 years of extraordinary service at its 5th An-

Platinum $5000 Gold $2500 Silver $1250 Copper $500 Individual $125

Premium Seating for 10 Premium Seating for 10 Seating for 10 Seating For 2 Seating For 1

RSVP: Nat Murthy Nat@sunitech.com, 832-264-9668

COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 4

The People’s Lawyer

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

BOOKS: ‘India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals’ - Author to visit Houston schools, bookstores

www.peopleslawyer.net Richard M. Alderman Interim Dean of the Law Center

We may love our dogs, but they still are just property Q. I heard that if someone kills your dog all you can recover is what it will cost to replace that dog.

Our dog is just a “mutt” but he has been a member of the family for many years. Our children would be heart-broken if someone were to kill or injure our dog. Is it really true that we could not collect any damages for the mental pain and anguish we would suffer from the loss of our “best friend.”

A. The law has long held that although we love our dogs dearly, they are property in the eyes of the law and we cannot recover non-economic damages based on the sentimental value we place on our pets. The Texas Supreme Court recently reaffirmed this rule. It also is the rule for any property, four footed or otherwise. For example, you may have your grandfather’s lawn chair that was his favorite.

To you, it has substantial sentimental value and you would be very upset if anything happened to it.

If it were wrongfully destroyed, however, your damages would be based on how much a replacement would cost at Walmart. It is special to you, but not in the eyes of the law.

The bottom line is that dog owners can recover only the “value” of the dog, which includes replacement costs and any additional value it has because of special training. Sentimental value does not enter into the equation.

Q. My friend was late on her rent at an apartment complex. One day she came home and found a lien notice where her TV used to be. They took both of her TVs in the apartment. This makes no sense to me, and I have never heard of this. Where I come from, that’s stealing!!! Is this legal for them to do?

A. This is stealing if someone else were to do it, but probably not when it is the landlord. Under Texas law, a landlord may have a “landlord’s lien” on the tenant’s property, and may be able to take it if the rent is not paid. For such a lien to exist it must be written in the lease and be bold or underlined. If there is no such provision in the lease, the landlord has no right to take the property. A landlord also may take only certain property. The list of protected property includes wearing apparel, food, some furniture, children’s toys and a car. Electronic equipment, such as a television is not protected and may be taken. Finally, if the landlord takes any property, he must leave a notice telling you what he took and what you must do to get it back. A landlord who violates this law is responsible for all the tenant’s damages, plus a penalty of $500 or one month’s rent, whichever is greater. To learn more about the landlord’s lien, look at the landlord tenant section on my website, www.peopleslawyer.net.

Q. My son purchased a vehicle, but did not have good credit. I had to sign as a co-signer. He has now been paying the note on time for over three years and has established good credit. I want to buy a house and it is hurting my credit to be a co-signer on his note. What can I do to have my name removed?

A. As I have said before, don’t co-sign unless you are willing to pay and willing to be obligated to pay until the note is paid-off. The only way you can have your name removed is for the creditor to agree to remove it, or for your son to refinance in his own name. The creditor is under no legal obligation to remove a co-signer, even if there is no longer any need for one. I suggest you talk with the creditor to see if it will agree to refinance the note in only your son’s name, or see if someone else will refinance the car for him. If his credit is good you should be able to work something out.

Kosa Ely

F

rom May 16 - 22, celebrated children’s author Kosa Ely will be presenting her latest illustrated book The Peaceable Forest to elementary school assemblies in Houston and Katy and bookstore signings. Subtitled ‘India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals’, in this ancient parable, a forest-dwelling hunter learns that cruelty has consequences and that compassion has rewards. When the hunter meets the wise man Narada, “Do unto others as they would do unto you” takes on a very concrete meaning as the sage leads the hunter on an imagined journey in which the hunter becomes the hunted.

When the hunter realizes how his actions affect other living beings, he has a change of heart and begins to live in peace with the animals he once pursued.

Kosa Ely adapts this traditional Indian tale into an inviting narrative that presents the universal golden rule in a

Cover of Kosa Ely’s latest book. new and appealing way. Anna Johansson’s richly detailed illustrations evoke the animal kingdom and enchanted forests with fine lines and luminous colors. The Peaceable Forest is the ideal picture book to inspire young readers

to respect life in all its forms.

It has approved by the Houston Public Library collection team for purchase and distribution.

Details on this book and the events planned are available at www.PeaceableForest.com

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www. voiceofasiaonline.com Advertise for best results

$5m India Studies Center Program ...

Q. My lease ended and I went month-to-month. My landlord says I still must give 60 days notice before I leave. Is this legal?

A. This has become a common question. As a general rule, when parties have a month-to-month tenancy, either party may end the relationship by giving thirty days notice. On the other hand, parties may always agree to extend or shorten this time period. My guess is that your lease has a clause saying that after the lease period ends you become a month-to-month tenant. It probably also says that even if you became a month-to-month tenant, you still had to give 60 days notice. In my opinion such clauses are unfair and deceptive, but unless you want to litigate the matter with no guarantee of success, you should give 60 days notice.

Want to know more about your legal rights? Visit my website, www.peopleslawyer.net

L-R: Consul General P. Harish, Sam Kannapan, Koshy Thomas and other guests at University of Houston India Studies Program fund raiser held at Dr. Arun Verma’s residence Continued from Page 1 participated in the fund raising event. Dr. and Mrs. Durga Agrawal, and Dr. and Mrs. Arun Verma generously opened their valet with $100K each.

Dr. Agrawal’s commitment of 100K will support postdoctoral research studies and Dr. Verma’s contribution will support India Studies Endowed Scholarship. Also among the donors were Dr. Rahul and Usha Nath with their $25K contribution.

Dr. Verma spoke about potential of the project to the guests and donors.

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Consul General of India P. Harish mentioned that a visiting chair for India Studies is to become a reality.

The University of Houston India Studies vision includes: Program Excellence for Campus and Community wherein an innovative curriculum in language, humanities and social sciences is incorporated.

Lectures, visiting scholars and artists, community programs, and international partnerships are included.

Student Success is primary.

Numerous opportunities for students to study abroad in In-

dia are provide via the Program Scholarship opportunities for students interested in pursuing the study of India, internship to provide experience and a global competitive edge are a part of the Program. The Program’s world-renowned faculty and additional faculty research resources are its attraction.

Visit us on VoiceofAsiaOnline. com for more news

VOICE OF ASIA 6

Pratham Houston Gala 2013...

COMMUNITY

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Bibi Magazine Celebrates its 20th Bridal Show in Houston

Event is a Testament to Growing Strength of the South Asian Community.

Fashion Show photography

by Angels Photography. Bridal show photography by My Block Media

A

Pratham Houston’s incoming President Marie Goradia, with husband Vijay Goradia, Pratham’s key supporter. Photo Credit: Bijay Dixit Continued from Page 1 in memory of their parents, challenged to match up to USD 100,000 with their own funds that inspired many more to come forward and donate at the gala towards Pratham’s noble cause. This proud patronage of the philanthropic attendees will now ensure that thousands of children in India get educated for an entire year, be extricated from the vulnerabilities emanating from poor circumstances, attend a vocational training institute, and

Secretary and Treasurer, for his intransigent dedication to Pratham’scause, and one of the key protagonists to organize the gala .Thanks to Divya Walia, for her motivating speech.Many thanks also, to Gala Chairs Hemant and Indrani Goradia and Hon Gala Chairs Amit and Arpita Bhandari, Drs. Jayendra and Meena Patel, Ash and Leena Shah, Dhiren and Anila Shethia who so generously donated to this noble cause. A special thanks to Ami Shah for creating such artistic and beautiful center-

Gala Chairs Hemant and Indrani Goradia

Directors and Gala Committee of Pratham Houston with members of Pratham USA and Houston Mayor, Annise Parker (center) be empowered with education and trained skills for a better future as famously quoted by Maya Angelou, “When you know better, you do better”.

But the good work does not stop here. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela. There are still millions of children waiting for an opportunity to equip themselves with education and training in order to attain their dreams.20 US dollars educates a child in India for an entire year!

“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it” – Mother Teresa. On this note, a special thanks to all the attendees and patrons who came to the gala from Houston and the world over, notwithstanding the bad weather conditions. Many thanks to all who worked hard to make the event so memorable. A very grateful note of thanks to Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who graced the event with her presence and beneficence.

A very special thanks to Brij Kathuria, Pratham Houston

pieces. Not to forget a special mention of Mahesh Shah, the CateringCollaborator with The Hilton Americas’ Catering ManagerBonita Beckham Bevel and the Executive Chef Rufy Suleiman. And also a special thanks to the emcee of the evening, the beautiful Rekha Muddaraj and the emcee of the VIP reception, Neeraj Salhotra, and to all who added zest to the delightful evening. Last but surely not the least, many thanks to Pratham Houston President, National Board Member and CFO, Swatantra Jain for his able leadership and enterprise.

Pratham Houston now also eagerly awaits to learn and gain and progress from the numerous years of experience, wisdom and philanthropy of Marie Goradia, the incoming President.

“The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, lie scattered at the feet of men like flowers” – Wordsworth. To donate now, please visit this link and learn more about Pratham’s programs, please log on to www.Pratham.org.

pril 28, 2013, Houston: To celebrate 20 of anything marks a big occasion but when it is the celebration of 20 bridal shows for the South Asian community, it is a testament to growing strength of the demographic.

Bibi Magazine celebrated its 20th Bridal Show at the Hyatt Regency Downtown with a packed house of upscale vendors, newly engaged couples (many with parents in tow), a grand fashion show featuring the collection preview of Houston’s new Baraat Bridal Studio and of course, a cake commemorating the occasion and bubbly champagne served in colorful, LED-lit glasses.

“When we held our first bridal show 10 years ago, we barely had about 30-40 brides and about 100 people in total.

Today, we have close to 200 brides who have pre-registered and about 400 attendees.

We’ve come along way!” says Ayesha Hakki, founder and publisher of Bibi Magazine, a national bridal publication established in 2000.

The room was aglow with washes of blue light along the walls and two mandaps (elaborate canopies under which Hindus get married) stood as anchors to the all white and gold stage. The stage, designed by The Perfect Touch Linens, looked like the entrance to a harem at an ancient Indian palace.

The rest of the room was an assortment of cakes, chocolate fountains, photographers, clothing and jewelry stalls, DJs, dancers and henna artists. Brides walked among the 28 booths clutching Bibi gift bags stuffed with Incipio cell phone cases, makeup samples, the latest issue of Bibi Bridal while sampling food, sipping champagne and gathering information for their upcoming weddings.

The highlight of the day was, however, the fashion show that presented the bridal collections of the soon-toopen Baraat Studio by the founders of Houston’s established South Asian boutique, Roop Sari Palace located on Harwin. Models walked out in glittering bridalwear for women featuring colorful saris, flowing anarkalis and rhinestone and zari-encrusted lehngas. For men, fitted sherwanis and suits were shown.

Colors ranged from metallics to jewel-toned with hints of neon. The cuts were flowing and layered.

The founders of the Bibi Magazine, Ayesha Hakki and Zooni, presented their Bridal show director Zeb Mamsa and board advisor Munir Ibrahim, each an award for 10-years of service. A mehndi-inspired cake design by Cake Creations

by Janeth, was cut to mark the occasion and the fashion show began. The opening was a musical piece played on the dulcimer by Joshua Messick, which culminated into a DJ-mixed soundtrack by DJ Ramping that accompanied the models. The show ended with the introduction of the lead designer behind Baraat Studio, Saniya Kaanji.

“The Bibi Bridal Shows are a bi-annual event held at hotels and venues around Houston

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Baraat Bridal Studio collection being displayed by a model.

The rich and vibrant colors of the Baraat Bridal Studio collection was spectacular. that can handle South Asian weddings,” adds Zeb Mamsa. “ South Asian weddings are large, multiday events that require a team of vendors. We hope that the Bibi Bridal Show makes it easier for couples to plan their special days.”

Bibi Bridal Shows are held in April and October of each year and are geared towards the luxury market. Each show features about 25 vendors that range from decorators, planners, photographers, invitations, DJs, cake designers, caterers, clothing, jewelry and more. Bibi Magazine, a national bridal magazine that began in Houston in 2000 and is now headquarted in New York City, puts on the shows. More information can be found at Bibi Magazine.com.

Ayesha Hakki and Zooni, Show director Zeb Mamsa and board advisor Munir Ibrahim cutting the cake to mark the celebration.

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VOICE OF ASIA 7

Indian-American wins Nora Ephron award at Tribeca filmfest

Meera Menon, a first time writer-director of Indian origin, has won the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize at the 12th annual Tribeca film festival.

NEW YORK: Meera Menon, a first time writer-director of Indian origin, has won the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize at the 12th annual Tribeca film festival here.

She was chosen from eight contenders for the USD 25,000 prize, constituted in honor of the late writer-filmmaker of iconic movies like ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Julie & Julia’.

Menon’s film ‘Farah Goes Bang’, showing in festival’s Viewpoints section, follows an awkward twenty-something trying to lose her virginity while campaigning for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

“As a filmmaker I had always been inspired by Nora, she emblematized how to take pain and suffering and turn them into laughter and joy. Those qualities inspired me and my

co-filmmakers.

“Receiving this incredible honor in her name means more than I could ever articulate,” said Menon after being presented with the prize by TFF co-founder Jane Rosenthal and Sally Singer, Vogue’s creative digital director at the annual Women’s Filmmaker Brunch here.

Rosenthal said Menon’s debut film “captures the spirit and themes of Nora’s work”.

Singer was impressed by the use of humor in Menon’s film to address questions related to cultural rifts.

“To me, this is a film that gives voice to deep emotions and cultural rifts with wry humor. Like the body of Nora’s work, Meera’s film is both immensely clever and compassionate,” said Singer. (Economic Times)

Indian-origin man shot dead in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: A 39-year-old Indian-origin man was shot dead in his car by motorcycle-borne gunmen near the Malaysian capital.

The victim identified as N Ragunathan was alone in his car after he had apparently conducted a transaction at the Road Transport Department office, when

two men on a motorcycle shot him yesterday.

“Ragunathan tried to flee but crashed his car some 40 metres away,” police said.

Malaysia’s population of 28 million comprises 60 per cent majority Malays, 25 per cent ethnic Chinese and eight per cent ethnic Indians, mostly Tamils.

DIASPORA

Sewa International launches Family Services hot line

Sewa International launched its Family Services initiative on April 20, 2013 at Keshav Smuriti in Houston.

It is a program to assist individuals or families walk through their most difficult times with the help of the community leaders, organizations and volunteers.

More than 60 representatives from various organizations like the Arya Samaj of Greater Houston and Hindus of Greater Houston participated in the modest inaugural ceremony and offered their support.

Along with the Houston supporters, Mr. Girish Mehta from Boston who is running a similar program, Ouricc.org, joined online, shared his experiences and encouraged the Family Services team of volunteers.

“It was an inspiring evening and a beautiful exchange of

experiences, stories and enthusiasm which concluded with High tea and delicious snacks.

The Family Services Team would like to thank the community for supporting the launch of the most awaited initiative,” said Sarojini Gupta, speaking on behalf of the team.

Those who missed the event, can visit http://cts.vresp.com/ c/?SewaInternationalUSA/ b 2 a 7 1 d 3 0 b b / TEST/ec96499c51/ authkey=CPCG3825nOLbCA and view photos from this event.

The Family Services team includes Sarojini Gupta, Dhara Arya, and Dinesh Shah of Sewa International, Houston Chapter.

The Family Services Hot Line is 932-900-9354.

For more information please log onto: www.familyserviceshouston.org.

MTS Kalyana Mahotsavam Continued from Page 3 machandran performing with her violin, Sri Mahesh Iyer and his students contributing the ‘Taala Vadhya Vrndha’ and the various Houston dance schools doing ‘Natyanjali’ as their offering. The programs were of such high caliber, especially with the young talents showing great promise and adding to the wealth and splendor of the festival.

The grand finale on Sunday was the Royal Nuptial ceremony, the ‘Thirukalyanam’, as the richly legitimate and delightful conclusion of the ten days of celebration. As plentiful and deserving as the occasion demanded, it was arranged in the Temple Kalyanamandapam, the wedding hall with all the pomp and glory of a stately wedding. The sophisticated process included every detail as prescribed for a celestial marriage ceremony.

Adhering to the traditional ritualistic recipes, starting with Seervasai, procession from the Balalayam, Oonjal ceremony,

Sankalpam, Vigneswara Pooja, Punyavachanam, Raksha Bandhanam, Pravaram, Kanyadanam, Agni Prathishtai, Mangalya Dharanam, Lajahomam and Purnahuthi the event concluded with the Mangala Aarthi. Following the ceremony, there was the Rathotsavam, a magnificent procession around the temple with the Utsava Murthis honorably placed in their respective vahanams.

The concluding majestic parade to the accompaniment of the chanting of Rudram, recitation of Sahasranamam, Kolattam and Nadaswaram infused ecstatic spiritual vibes to all those who participated. And as required by the tradition, the Dwaja Avarohanam, the un-hoisting of the celestial flag marked the conclusion of the Utsavam.

Of course weddings cannot be complete without a meal; and in this case with the royal pageantry that befits the occasion. It was a sumptuous grand

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Overseas Citizenship of India*

The Constitution of India forbids dual citizenship or dual nationality, except for minors where the second nationality was involuntarily acquired. Indian authorities have interpreted the law to mean a person cannot have a second country’s passport simultaneously with an Indian one — even in the case of a child who is claimed by another country as a citizen of that country, and who may be required by the laws of the other country to use one of its passports for foreign travel (such as a child born in the United States to Indian parents), and the Indian courts have given the executive branch wide discretion over this matter. Therefore, Overseas Citizenship of India is not an actual citizenship of India and thus, does not amount to dual citizenship or dual nationality. Moreover, the OCI card is not a substitute for an Indian visa and therefore, the passport which displays the lifetime visa must be carried by OCI holders while traveling to India. .

The Central Indian Government, on application, may register any person as an Overseas Citizen of India if that Person is of Indian Origin and is from a country which allows dual citizenship in some form or the other. Broadly speaking, a “Person of Indian Origin” is a citizen of another country who: • was a citizen of India on 26 January 1950 or at any time thereafter; or • belonged to a territory that became part of India after 15 August 1947; or • and •

is the child or grandchild of a person described above; has never been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.

(Note that children of Indian parents do not automatically fulfil these requirements, and are therefore not automatically eligible for OCI).

The introduction of Overseas Indian Citizenship does not entitle people who have acquired, or are planning to acquire, foreign nationality or to retain their Indian passports. The law continues to require that Indian citizens who take foreign nationality must immediately surrender their Indian passports. Those who are only eligible can then apply for registration as Overseas Indian Citizens.

Indian Missions are authorized to grant applications for Overseas citizenship of India.

Rights available: An Overseas Citizen of India will enjoy i) all rights and privileges available to Non-Resident Indians on a parity basis excluding the right to invest in agriculture and plantation properties or hold public office. feast, with all the several dishes meticulously prepared in the temple kitchen by the staff and several volunteers under the supervision of Malar Narayanan and cordially served on banana leaves by the many affable volunteers.

The efficient and committed team of the temple from the chairman to the directors to the administrators to the employees along with a large squad of sincere volunteers deserves to

be abundantly applauded for a splendid job in organizing such a marvelous festivity. A most deserving compliment goes to Roopa Balakrishnan, the Pooja committee coordinator, working tirelessly and arduously, weaving the various filaments together, and involving an array of enthusiastic devotees in presenting to the public an exemplary spiritual bequest to be remembered for a very long time.

SOUTH ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 8

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Pakistani candidate escapes suicide bombing: police

Indian spy attacked in Pakistan jail dies: lawyer

ARACHI, May 1, 2013 (AFP) - An election candidate escaped unharmed Wednesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Pakistan wounding two passers-by, police said, in the latest in a wave of attacks to hit the campaign.

AHORE, Pakistan, May 01, 2013 (AFP) An Indian national on death row in Pakistan who was attacked last week by fellow inmates died early Thursday from his injuries, his lawyer and a doctor said.

K

The attack came in Shikarpur district of Sindh province, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Karachi, when Mohammad Ibrahim Jatoi, a candidate for the May 11 poll, was on the campaign trail.

Violence has spiked in the nuclear-armed country ahead of national elections on May 11, with at least 61 people killed in attacks on politicians and political parties since April 11, according to an AFP tally.

“A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near the car of Mr Jatoi, but he was unharmed,” local police station chief Zaheer Mahesar told AFP. Only the bomber died in the blast.

Jatoi, from the small National People’s Party, was returning from campaigning when the bomber targeted him at a toll collection point, Mahesar said, adding that two passers-by were wounded.

“We have found (the) arms and head of the suicide bomber,” he said.

District police chief Ghulam Azfar confirmed the suicide attack and said that up to six kilos of explosives were used.

While suicide attacks are a

L

A Pakistani cyclist rides past an election slogan along a street in Karachi on May 1, 2013 (AFP, Rizwan Tabassum)

Sarabjit Singh, who was sentenced to death 16 years ago on espionage charges, died at 1:00 am local time (2000 GMT) after lying in a comatose state for the last five days, a senior doctor at Jinnah hospital in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore told AFP.

common tactic used by Taliban and other militants in northwest Pakistan, they are rarely seen in the south.

Singh’s lawyer Owais Sheikh confirmed the 49-year-old’s death and said that his body “has been moved to the hospital mortuary”.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, a rocket attack close to an election rally by the conservative religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party in southwestern Baluchistan province wounded six people, a senior local official told AFP. The attack took place in Harnai district, some 360 kilometres east of Quetta, the capital of the troubled province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and has been wracked by years of sectarian, separatist and Islamist violence.

“More than a dozen rockets were fired, two rockets landed inside the city near the rally. Six people have been injured,” Yasir Khan, the deputy commissioner of Harnai city told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Khan said that soldiers deployed for the

security of the rally appeared to have been the target.

Six people including three police were wounded in a third attack on an election office in Quetta on Wednesday, Mubeen Ahmed, a senior police official told AFP. Ahmed said two men riding a motorcycle threw the grenade at the election office of Lashkari Raisani, a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and fled away.

“Three policemen and three party activists were injured in the grenade attack,” Ahmed said.

In another incident in the country’s troubled northwest, unidentified armed men late Wednesday kidnapped Akbar Khan, a candidate of nationalist Qaumi Watan Party in Khaisur village, some 40 kilometre in east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border, officials said.

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The doctor who spoke to AFP said arrangements were under way for an autopsy.

Singh sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull, when six prisoners attacked him on Friday last week, hitting him on the head with bricks. “(His death) was already feared. His condition was more than critical and he had less chances of survival,” Sheikh said.

Sheikh earlier told AFP that his client had received threats following the execution of a Kashmiri separatist in India.

Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged in New Delhi on February 9 for his part in a deadly Islamist attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

Singh was convicted for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan’s Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former president Pervez Musharraf.

His family insisted he was a victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border while drunk.

Four members of Singh’s

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Protesters turned out in large numbers when they heard of the attack on Sarabjit Singh earlier. family -- his wife, two daughters and his sister -- who travelled to Lahore on Tuesday have since returned to India, according to the Press Trust of India.

A senior official in Delhi had said diplomats from the high commission in Islamabad were not allowed to visit Singh in hospital, and had also complained about a lack of

sons.

“The authorities have obviously failed to do their elementary duty” of providing him safety and security, the commission said in a statement.

The attack made front-page news in Indian newspapers, with Indian television stations running frequent updates on his condition and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describ-

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The Pakistan foreign ministry however insisted Indian diplomats in Lahore were given access to Singh on two occasions.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the attack on Singh as a “dastardly act” and called on the government to make a thorough inquiry into the matter and punish the guilty per-

ing it as a “very sad incident”.

Pakistan last year released an Indian man who had served three decades in a Pakistani jail on espionage charges.

Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them and claimed by both.

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VOICE OF ASIA 9

Five missing after China bridge collapse: report BEIJING, May 01, 2013 (AFP) Rescue workers were searching for at least five people after a suspension bridge collapsed in central China late Wednesday, state media reported.

Around 40 people were on the bridge at the time it “overturned” in Fenghuang county, Hunan Province, at 9:20 pm, and 20 of them including children and elderly people fell into the river below, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Fifteen people managed to reach the banks of the river, the county’s deputy head Cai Long told Xinhua, adding that search and rescue work was under way for survivors.

Authorities in the region have instructed hotels in Fenghuang to check that their guests had returned for the night, the news agency reported.

S. Korean toddler gets first windpipe transplant WASHINGTON, (AFP) - An international team of surgeons has successfully given a South Korean-Canadian toddler a life-saving windpipe transplant made from plastic fibers and some of her own stem cells.

Hannah Warren, 2, was born without a trachea and is now the youngest person to ever receive a bio-engineered organ, after an operation in the United States.

She had spent her life in an intensive care unit in Seoul, with a feeding tube keeping her alive. Doctors had initially given her little chance of surviving.

The nine-hour transplant was a lifesaving surgery for the child, who was unable to breathe, speak, swallow, eat or drink on her own since birth.

Because the procedure used stems cells from Warren’s own bone marrow rather than a donor organ, her immune system is unlikely to reject the transplant. Doctors said she could return home and lead a normal life within months.

“The most amazing thing, which for a little girl is a miracle, is that this transplant has not only saved her life, but it will eventually enable her to eat, drink and swallow, even talk, just like any other normal child,” said lead surgeon Paolo Macchiarini of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Tiger Ball Guests Toast Brilliant First Year in Asia Society Texas Center’s New Home

by Fritz Lanham

As it enters its second year, it continues to present wide-ranging public programs across the fields of business and policy, arts and culture, and education. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, it promotes mutual understanding and strengthens partnerships among the peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States and serves as Houston’s portal to the fastest growing region in the world.

H

OUSTON, April 26, 2013 — First anniversaries are always special. Supporters of Asia Society Texas Center, marking one year since the grand opening of the organization’s spectacular home in the Museum District, celebrated Tiger Ball 2013 in grand style and amid lavish surroundings.

More than 500 of Houston’s social and civic worthies, many in gorgeous national dress, crowded into the Yoshio-Taniguchi-designed Center for scrumptious food by Jackson and Company and good conversation.

Tables were arrayed over both floors in intimate groupings while musicians—representing the diversity of Asia, from Indian sitarists to Vietnamese folk singers—entertained guests.

Golden limestone and rich cherrywood walls formed the backdrop to elegant décor by AJ’s Urban Petals.

The evening started in style with cocktails and sushi in a lighted pavilion in front of the Center. After brief remarks, guests moved into the building for the seated dinner. Following dessert DJ SUN cranked up the sounds for post-dinner dancing in the expansive Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall.

The annual gala raised $650,000 to support programs, exhibitions, educational activities, and operations of the Texas Center, all designed to further Asia Society’s mission of bringing Asians and Americans together for a shared future.

Charles Foster and William E. King Gina Bhatia, Nancy Allen, and Devinder Bhatia

Welcoming guests were gala chairs Gina and Dr. Devinder Bhatia and the Texas Center’s Acting Executive Director, John Bradshaw, Jr. Honorary chairs were Muffet Blake and Sheela and Ashok Rao. Seen in the crowd: Margaret Williams and Jim Daniel, Sima and Massoud Ladjevardian, Annette and George Strake, Tony and Isaac Arnold, Jr., Marian and Dr. Robert Stasney, Sushana and Jack Castle, Anu and Dr. Nat Bala, Monjula and Ravi Chidambaram, Dr. George Yang, Lily and Hamid Kooros, Y. Ping Sun and David Leebron.

Since its April 2012 opening the new Asia Society Texas Center has hosted internationally recognized performers, statesman, writers, and scholars.

Jeff Lee, Teri Lee, and John Bradshaw, Jr.

Back row: Dr. Nat Bala, Dr. Sumant Patel, and Prasad Menon; Seated: Ravi Chidambaram, Ashok Rao, and Dr. Ravi Mani

WORLD/US

VOICE OF ASIA 10

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Nirupama Rao discusses imThree charged with Boston migration reform with Senator bombing cover-up Mendez BOSTON, Massachusetts, - Three 19-year-old students -- two Kazakhs and an American -- were charged Wednesday with covering up for the suspected Boston marathon bombers, the US Justice Department said.

Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov were accused of conspiring to destroy a laptop and backpack containing fireworks belonging to the sus-

W

ASHINGTON: India’s Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao has flagged the concerns of the Indian companies on the proposed immigration reforms in her meeting with a top American Senator here.

“Highlighting the rapidly growing trade and economic engagement between India and the United States, Rao conveyed her deep appreciation to Senator (Robert) Menendez for his support for high-skilled immigration, an issue of significant interest for Indian businesses in the United States,” Indian Embassy spokesman M Sridharan said in a statement yesterday.

In her meeting with Senator Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday, Rao also discussed the bilateral relationship with the US lawmaker who in his current capacity plays a key role in shaping the US foreign policy.

During the meeting, Rao and Menendez exchanged views on the latest developments in India-US relations and high-

fine.

Boston police earlier announced the trio’s arrests in the investigation of the April 15 bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which killed three people and wounded more than 260.

One of two ethnic Chechens, 19-year-old student Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is already in custody and has been charged with carrying out the bombing.

US condemns upsurge of violence in Pakistan Nirupama Rao has flagged the concerns of the Indian companies on the proposed immigration reforms in her meeting with a top American Senator here. lighted the shared values and interests binding their strategic partnership.

Menendez, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey, is also a member of the bipartisan group of eight Senators called the gang of eight - who have tabled the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate last week.

The two expressed appreciation for the strength provided to this partnership by the rich and vibrant contributions of the Indian American community in the United States.

Rao also exchanged views on the regional situation in South Asia and extended an invitation to Menendez to visit India, the press statement said.

Five year old accidently shoots and kills sister

by Mira Oberman CHICAGO, May 1, 2013 (AFP) - A five-year-old boy who was playing with a .22 caliber rifle he’d been given as a gift accidentally shot and killed his little sister in their Kentucky home, officials said.

The shooting happened Tuesday in rural Cumberland county and the two-year-old girl was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, the state police said.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White identified the girl as Caroline Starks and said the children’s mother was cleaning

pected bombers.

Robel Phillipos, an American, was charged with making false statements to law enforcement officials.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, Kazakh nationals in the United States on a student visa, face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said.

Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison and a $250,000

the house at the time and had stepped outside onto the porch.

“She said no more than three minutes had went by and she actually heard the rifle go off.

She ran back in and found the little girl,” White told WKYT news.

The rifle had been given to the boy last year and was kept in the corner of a room. The parents didn’t realize a shell had been left in it.

“It’s a Crickett,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It’s a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun.”

An autopsy was set to be conducted on Wednesday, but White said he expects the shooting will be ruled accidental.

“Just one of those crazy accidents,” White said.

There were 851 deaths caused by accidental discharges of firearms in the United States in 2011, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A further 14,675 people were injured by accidental discharges of firearms in 2011, of whom 7,991 were under the age of 18 and 3,569 were under the age of 13.

The US today condemned political violence in Pakistan ahead of the country’s historic May 11 general elections and hoped that people would be able to cast their votes without any fear.

“The US condemns the recent violence that has targeted politicians and their supporters during the electoral campaign in Pakistan. We likewise condemn recent statements by militant groups indicating their intent to disrupt Pakistan’s democratic process,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.

“We support the right of the Pakistani people to participate fully in the election of their representatives and their ability to fulfill their aspirations for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic nation,” he said in response to a question.

“More broadly, the US looks forward to witnessing timely, transparent, free and fair elections on May 11th. These elections will mark an important democratic transition and historic development of which the people of Pakistan can be very proud,” Ventrell said.

The United States, he said,

does not support any particular political party or any individual candidate.

“We look forward to engaging the next democratically elected government in Pakistan,” he said.

“We condemn the violence surrounding the elections. We do continue to urge Pakistanis to get out and vote and express their free will, so that democracy can prevail and the people’s voice can be heard. And so we’re concerned about the violence but we urge the electoral process to continue,” Ventrell said.

US calls on Sri Lanka to ensure freedom of press Expressing deep concern over the recent surge in attacks on Sri Lankan media organizations, the US today called on the country to ensure freedom of press.

“The US calls on Sri Lankan authorities to demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law and freedom of expression by conducting thorough investigations into all attacks and killings of journalists and bringing perpetrators to justice,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, told reporters.

“We urge Sri Lankan authorities to protect freedom of expression,” he said, adding that the necessity of upholding this fundamental right was not only a component of the UN Human Rights Council resolution in Geneva this March but it was also central recommendation of the Sri Lankan government’s own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission.

The US, he said, has seen the Amnesty International report and noted that it echoes many of the concerns the US raised

in its own human rights report.

“So as we have said many times, we remain extremely concerned about threats to freedom of expression in Sri Lanka and continue to support the need for justice and accountability for serious human rights abuses in Sri Lanka,” he said.

As part of the “Free the Press” campaign, Ventrell highlighted the case of Utheyan, a Tamillanguage newspaper in Sri Lanka.

VOICE OF ASIA 11

LIFESTYLE

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Vol. 26

No. 18

by Caroline Nelly PERROT

N

ICOSIA, (AFP) - With recession-hit Cyprus facing an even deeper slump on the back of a draconian EU-IMF bailout, thousands of Asian housemaids, nannies and caregivers on the small Mediterranean island fear for their jobs and futures.

For years, Filipina, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese women have been a status symbol in Cypriot homes, working six days a week, often for very long hours, in exchange for room, board and 330 euros ($430) a month.

The island’s overall unemployment is already around 15 percent and is expected to grow sharply this year and next, as GDP plunges a forecast 8.7 percent in 2013 and another 3.9 percent in 2014.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Asian housemaids fear for future amid Cyprus slump

nior immigration official.

For those who lose their jobs, the outlook is stark.

To begin with, they have no right to unemployment compensation, and if they fail to find a new employer within 30 days of being laid off, they become illegal.

Polydefkis said the number of domestic workers, which peaked in 2010, dropped by a thousand in 2012, and by another thousand in the past two months.

“The number of domestic workers was more than the estimated needs, and I think that there is going to be a correc-

“If I go home, my children, 12 and 14, will drop from school because I will not be able to pay for them,” said Lynn, who suggested she might go to Turkishoccupied northern Cyprus, where some of her friends have found work.

Fely, a Filipina who has been working as a cleaner in offices and homes for the past five years, is already feeling the pinch.

Migrant workers are pictured in Nicosia’s main bus station in Old City on April 7, 2013.

Doros Polykarpou, who works with KISA, an NGO offering support to migrant workers, spells out many of the problems these women face.

“Many of these people still have to provide for their family, so they are not able to leave the island despite the difficulties,” and will be “willing to accept any condition at all in order to earn whatever money they can to support their families abroad.”

She was referring to the fact that the bailout deal included a “haircut” on deposits above 100,000 euros, meaning some businesses and individual depositors will lose large amounts of capital.

And “more and more of these people are not being able to get their salary, or they are asked to work longer hours, for several employers, without extra pay.”

Cypriot immigration officials say there are around 35,400 domestic workers in Cyprus, but with increasing pressure on big bank accounts and soaring unemployment, some households are looking to share their “help.”

“Domestic workers are considered to be a luxury for most of our citizens, so when you are in a financial crisis, the first thing that you need to cut is the luxury,” said Riginos Polydefkis, a se-

She is married to a Romanian she met in Cyprus, where their daughter was born three years ago. He has lost his job and will return to Romania with their daughter, while Fely stays on in hope of a turnaround.

Her plight highlights another dilemma for these women -- whether to stay on in Cyprus, taking ever more poorly paid and onerous jobs, if they can find them, or throwing in the towel and going home.

So the luxuries of expensive cars, fancy holidays abroad and domestic help will become increasingly unaffordable.

“One of my part-time employers told me I should stop coming... They told me if they settle this problem about their money at the bank they will call me again.”

Fely said: “We need to find a job somewhere, but we don’t know where to go.”

Lynn is another Filipina. She has been laid off and is still looking for a new job.

With the harsh austerity measures imposed by the deal to rescue Cyprus’s failing banks and bankrupt government, businesses will close, many people will lose their jobs and those who keep them will see their incomes reduced.

“They cut my work hours by half,” she said worriedly.

tion right now,” he said.

Shemaine Kyriakides, the Philippine honorary consul in Cyprus, said: “I don’t think the number will lessen too much, because it is hard work and I don’t think a lot of other people would assume that for the amount they are paid.”

Migrant workers at a public park gather on their day off in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia on April 7, 2013. Thousands of Asian migrant workers on the small island fear for their jobs and futures.

The result, Polykarpou said, will be “more exploitation, more vulnerability, more undocumented people.”

Tel: 713-774-5140

Search for 9/11 body parts resumes in NY

by Brigitte Dusseau NEW YORK - Criminal investigators combed for human remains Tuesday in a narrow gap between two Manhattan buildings where a piece of plane wreckage from the 9/11 attacks 12 years ago was unexpectedly discovered last week.

Dozens of firefighters and investigators in white suits were on hand for the search two blocks from the World Trade Center, where on September 11, 2001 two hijacked airliners smashed into the Twin Towers, causing massive destruction and nearly 3,000 deaths.

Last week a large chunk of one of the Boeing airliners used in the attacks was found jammed into the passageway and was later identified as being part of a rear wing flap system.

The discovery recalled the incredible chaos of 9/11 in the heart of the world’s biggest financial center and prompted authorities to expand their off-and-on, often fruitless effort to identify the remains of those who died.

Of the total 2,753 people reported missing in the Twin Towers attacks, 1,118 literally vanished in the inferno and have not been matched to the large quantity of bone fragments or other human remains collected from the area.

“We made a promise to the families, that as long as there is science available for us to try to make identifications, we are going to keep trying to identify every single human remain that we have,” Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office, said. “The goal is of course to try to identify every person that died in the attacks.”

At the start of April, the coroner’s office had begun a broader search for human remains, its first such effort in three years. Investigators sifting through huge quantities of debris from the World Trade Center rebuilding site will carry on working for eight weeks, Borakove said.

So far they’ve found about 74 pieces of what may be human remains.

VOICE OF ASIA 12

Friday, May 3, 2013

by Bill Weir, Andrew Lampard, David Miller, David Kovenetsky

C

ritics assail “for-profit” colleges for overpricing their education and not preparing students for today’s job market. But one such school is shredding that label with its innovative tuition promise: If you don’t get a job, they don’t get paid.

The school is called App Academy, and it teaches novice developers how to code software. The intensive course, operational in New York City and San Francisco, lasts only nine weeks but crams in a gigantic curriculum. Students learn multiple software languages, like SQL and JavaScript, and solve rigorous problem sets.

“Our goal is to place students as software engineers,” said Kush Patel, one of App Academy’s co-founders. “We don’t care so much if they can do graph theory or algorithms or other obscure kinds of CS topics. We want to give them real-world skills they can use and actually get them a job.”

Young Life Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Back to School And Into a Job Here’s how the tuition scheme works: Students study free-of-charge during the course’s duration. Upon gaining employment after graduation, alumni forward 15 percent of their annual base salary to App Academy, but not all at once. Instead, that sum -- typically around $12,000 for the average graduate -- is deducted incrementally from an employed graduate’s bi-weekly pay check for six months.

If a student isn’t hired within one year of completing App Academy, that student won’t be charged tuition. But that hasn’t been a problem for App Academy: Ninety-three percent of its graduates have received offers or are working in tech jobs.

According to Patel, the average App Academy graduate earns $83,000 a year – not bad for someone making a career

change or who was previously unemployed. But the course is anything but easy. App Academy’s acceptance rate is less than 10 percent, and once admitted, students put in 80 to 90 hours a week in the lab.

As for who App Acacemy accepts, Patel says it takes students from every background.

They just need to be fast learners and excellent problem solvers.

“Some of our most successful students in the class have been a yoga instructor and a rug salesman,” he said.

Interested applicants should visit App Academy’s website to learn more. As for other forprofit schools, Patel suggested that they take notice of App Academy’s tuition model, as well.

“We just turned a profit,” he said.

A

A jacket (not the one in pic) is designed with ‘special features’ gun similar to the ones used by a policeman which can can discharge electricity up to 110 volt and catch a person off-guard.

The principle is to momentarily shock the person into immobility with a low-voltage pulse delivered between two electrodes,” says professor Noopur Anand who mentored Nishant Priya and Shahzad Ahmad, students of the Bachelor’s program in technology to create two prototypes of the “anti-molestation” jacket.

The jacket bears no special appearance but has “special features”.

• “There were so many cases of molestation and rapes and that became the motivation for our graduation project. Guided by Noopur, the basic idea was hers and was taken from a similar concept done by NIFT students in 2004. The idea was to make a piece of clothing that will give the girl or the woman time to make a quick getaway if assaulted. It also should be wearable as well as washable,” says Nishant Priya.

The duo took help from an engineer to fashion the self defence jackets - one in acrylic and another in trendy denim - with metal embroidery that can conduct 100 volts of shock to molesters

when triggered by a button on the waistband of the wearer.

The charge in the jacket is delivered to the surface through the metallic contact points which are camouflaged in the embellishments of the jacket.

“We had to keep in mind that the jacket should be functional and affordable. The electric current should be mild, else it would turn into a weapon and that would entail getting a license and thereby raising the cost of the garment,” says Nishant Priya who adds the garment can “render the assaulter immobile for at least 10 to 15 minutes.”

Both the “anti-molestation jacket” and the SHE “anti-rape underwear” have been designed with insulation, that protects the wearer from the shocks through perspiration.

“Along with our gadget, we aim to provide the user with a manual with instructions on washing the garment,” says Nishant.

Also, Manisha says that for the SHE device they are “trying to bring down the cost of production and also working on the fabric. We need some time to cope up with the loop holes,” says the teenager.

The SRM students are also

Tel: 713-774-5140

Systemic’ sex abuse at elite NY school: prosecutors

N

EW YORK, (AFP) - Students at one of America’s most prestigious schools were abused by pedophile teachers for more than three decades but prosecutors are unable to file charges because the crimes happened too long ago, officials in New York said Friday.

The Bronx District Attorney’s Office said in a statement police had uncovered evidence of “systemic” abuse of pupils at the famous Horace Mann School, spanning a 34-year period from from 1962 to 1996.

However no charges would be filed because of New York State’s statute of limitations laws.

Horace Mann, seen as offering the best education money can buy with an annual tuition of almost $40,000, was the subject of an expose in the New York Times Magazine last June

Students come up with anti-rape gadgets nti-rape underwear, a fashionable vest that can jolt molesters out of their wits or a watch-like device fitted to give abusers an electric shock - students from various colleges and schools in the country are channeling their outrage and anger over sexual attacks on women in the country through several futuristic innovations.

Externally, it looks like a nightgown, ordinarily worn by women or teenage girls, but the garment is literally a power packed GPS and sensor-enabled device capable of temporarily incapacitating assaulters off their feet by triggering an 3800 kv electric shock at the press of button by the wearer.

“It was the pain of every women, which triggered the idea. All the more, it was hatred against molesters and eve-teasers which led to this design,” says Manisha Mohan the inventor of the “anti-rape underwear” and what she calls ‘SHE’ or Society Harnessing Equipment.

Apart from administering a powerful shock to the assaulter the garment is also devised to send an alert to the police when the sensors are activated.

Manisha, a student of Aeronautical Engineering, along with collaborators Niladri Basu and Rimpi Tripathy, students of Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Chennai’s SRM University got together to build the device after the December 2012 horrific gang-rape of a 23year-old woman in Delhi.

Similarly, two fashion designing students of NIFT reworked a concept developed earlier in 2004 to create a ‘anti-molestation’ jacket, an innovation for which patent is awaited and subsequent commercial sale “hopefully” by 2014.

“We took the concept of a stun

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

working to ensure the product is water-resistant and can be interfaced with mobile via Bluetooth.

Meanwhile, Noopur Anand, the guiding force behind the NIFT student’s innovation, has several ideas that she would like to see the light of the day.

“I want to explore a porcupine jacket one whose bristles will stand up and ward off a molester. I also have plans on my mind to explore the concept of smell and sound. Something which can emit a shrill noise or one that can give off a pungent odour that can deter assault. The puzzle, though is to protect the wearer,” says Noopur.

The professor, who has expertise in working with such “Smart Garment” technology says they are on the look out for collaborators who can “work beyond the lab.”

• “I am aware that organisations like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have worked with some electrical fabric but it is not easily available commercially in India and the cost is also prohibitive. We want to do something which comes for less than Rs 1500,” says Noopur.

There are also reports of a school student from Delhi who has designed a device that can be worn on the wrist like a watch and immobilise an assaulter giving the prospective victim enough time to flee and call for help.

When activated, the anti-molestation device records a significant rise in nerve speed and pulse rate of the victim, asks for an activation command and once it comes in contact with the attacker’s skin, it delivers a shock of 0.1 ampere.

It is also capable of taking images of the attacker using an inbuilt camera. (Courtesy: PTI).

Attorney Gloria Allred with men and women who claim to be Horace Mann abuse survivors on April 22, 2013 in New York City (Getty Images/AFP/File, Rob Kim) in which a former student alleged there had been numerous cases of sexual contact between students and teachers during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

After the publication of the article, a number of alleged victims came forward saying they had also suffered sexual abuse at the school.

Prosecutors said Friday that a police investigation uncovered a “systemic pattern of alleged abuse” which exceeded the crimes detailed by the New

York Times.

“In total, we received direct information regarding at least 12 separate alleged abusers,” the statement from the Bronx District Attorney’s office read.

“The reported abuse ranges from what may be characterized as inappropriate behavior to child endangerment, actual

instances of sexual contact, sexual intercourse and criminal sexual acts,” according to the prosecutors’ statement, which said the abuse went on from 1962 to 1996.

But because so much time has elapsed, prosecutors said they are unable to file charges in the cases. In most of the cases, the statute of limitation for pedophilia-related charges was five years or less, they said.

Horace Mann was founded in 1887 and is located in River-

dale in the Bronx.

The prestigious school offers a rigorous classical education, with students from preschoolers to high school, and ranks among the most highly regarded schools in the United States with a large percentage of graduates matriculating at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and other Ivy League schools.

US student shoots himself in classroom

C

HICAGO - An Ohio high school student shot himself in front of his classmates in a failed suicide attempt Monday, officials said.

“It was a very isolated incident,” said Greg Tankersley, a spokesman for LaSalle High School, a private all-boys academy in Cincinnati. “There were no threats.”

The shooting happened in a classroom during the first period of the day, he told reporters.

“He’s fighting for his life,” Tankersley said of the student.

“Please keep this young man

and his mom and dad in your prayers.”

Local media reported that the boy shot himself in the head.

Parents were notified of the incident and asked to come pick up their children, who were dismissed for the day after a brief lockdown.

The archdiocese was providing grief counselors for any students who needed them, Tankersley said.

Police said they had not yet determined how the boy obtained the gun.

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VOICE OF ASIA 13

BOLLYWOOD MASALA

Friday, May 3, 2013

Section 2

Sophie Choudry to collaborate with Snoop Dogg for a desi number

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Tel: 713-774-5140

Dubai fans wowed by ‘Shootout at Wadala’ stars

by Bindu Suresh Rai

They came, they smiled and that was all it took for Dubaibased Bollywood fans to be impressed by the star power that descended onto the city Thursday, in a bid to promote the upcoming ‘Shootout at Wadala’.

The glitterati included John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Sunny Leone, Tusshar Kapoor and Sophie Choudhary, who gushed, danced and simply made merry for all of 15 minutes at Ibn Battuta, but yet managed to bring the house down with their media savvy stance.

Hundreds descended upon the popular shopping mall hours before the 6pm start time for the concert, which ultimately kicked off with the celebs in action only at 7.45pm.

But fans didn’t appear to care, as many performed routine song and dances on stage with the presenters, while sending up cheers every few minutes thinking the stars have finally arrived.

Sophie Choudry

by Swasti Chatterjee

S

inger-actor Sophie Choudry is all set to collaborate with international rapper Snoop Dogg for a desi number this summer.

Sophie will visit Snoop in the next two months and work on an Indian track with him.

Snoop Dogg had earlier sung for Singh Is Kingg along with Akshay Kumar.

“Snoop Dogg is such a sweetheart. He was great to interact with when I met him in Delhi after his show last year.

We discussed a lot of music and collaborations. I hope that we can take things forward from there,” she said.

The singer is also planning other international collaborations with French artistes. “I am in talks with some casting directors from France for some projects as well,” she added.

Recently, there were reports

about why Sophie was cast in the Aala Re Aala song with John Abraham in Shootout At Wadala and not the film’s actor Kangana Ranaut.

Sophie says, “All I know is that I am the one who is in the song. At the end of the day, Kangana is the heroine of the film, and I am sure that the makers have decided to go with who they think is best for the song. People have loved the chemistry between John and me. It is untrue that I was roped in overnight. Kangana is a fabulous actress but I think it was the makers’ prerogative to decide who would be in the song.”

For Sophie, the pressure to deliver was way higher as Priyanka Chopra and Sunny Leone are part of two other songs in the film. “PeeCee is a huge name and with Sunny, there was a lot of media hype. Thus there was a lot of pressure for me,” she adds. (TNN )

Life is full of unexpected events: Manju Warrier

And when they did, the deafening noise was enough to drown out the attempts by the stars, until finally Anil Kapoor made the appeal to pipe the chords down so they could interact with fans.

John Abraham,Manoj Bajpayee, Sophie Choudhary, Tusshar Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, and Sunny Leone.

Mouthing their most famous dialogues from Bollywood films, Anil did his “jhakaas” routine, while Tusshar aped his character from the “Golmaal” series.

“SAW”.

Ala”.

The short-lived 15 minute appearance was over before it started, but for fans present, the memory will certainly live on.

Manoj, of course, couldn’t escape without a stint from “Satya”, but the crowd wanted John and they got his raw power as the hunky actor mouthed a dialogue from the upcoming

Fans were also pleased to see Sunny finally unleased onto the emirate, minus the cage that saw her gig cancelled last weekend.

The stunning starlet shook a hip to her item song “Laila” with John and Tusshar in two, while Sophie put her vocal chords to the test with “Ala re

As for the box office returns for “SAW” in the UAE, we can certainly expect a bumper opening if this 500 plus crowd was anything to go by. (Emerites 24/7)

Salman Khan refuses to work with Shah Rukh

M

uch has been written about the big Khan war, and taking it one step further is the beefy Salman Khan, who has refused to work on a film because Shah Rukh Khan was linked to it.

The ‘Dabangg’ star refused to be part of a song as his rival King Khan was also part of it.

Although Aamir Khan had graciously accepted to shake a leg for a movie track, Salman bluntly denied he will work with SRK. If it had happened, it would’ve been historical to get all three Khans in one frame.

But, that wasn’t meant to be.

It does appear that Salman can’t set aside his differences with SRK, even if it was for a movie song.

Hindustan Times quotes a source who said, “Salman didn’t want to be in the same frame as Shah Rukh. It’s common knowledge that after their spat a few years ago, the two don’t see eye-to-eye. And when he found out that SRK has given his nod for the song,

he didn’t show much interest.

Though SRK hasn’t shot for it yet, it looks difficult to get both these actors together for the song.”

‘Bombay Talkies’ is a unique collaboration between four filmmakers – Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar, Dibankar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap – on four unique Mumbai stories.

This collection of four short films is a tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema.

It will feature a theme song for the entire film.

Apart from SRK and Aamir, the song will also feature Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone.

Choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, the song will be played during the opening or closing credits.

Aamir and SRK will film for the song separately.

“Bombay Talkies” will be screened at the 66th Cannes Film Festival and will hit theatres on May 3.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. (AFP) During happier times, the two warring Khans had shared screen space for ‘Karan Arjun’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam’.

But, never have the three Khans shared screen space.

While on Salman, we also hear that he has skipped a heartbeat for his ‘Mental’ costar Daisy Shah and the two are spending a lot of time together.

The 47-year-old actor has been seen taking a liking for Daisy, who is reportedly half his age.

During the shoot in Lavasa, Salman and Daisy have been going on long walks post the film-shoot.

The Times of India reported; “Salman really likes spending time with Daisy these days.

They go on bicycle rides during the late hours of the night.”

Not worthy of being in ‘The Great Gatsby’ poster: Big B Manju Warrier.

by Ammu Zachariah,

O

ne actress M-Town would love to welcome back to the silver screen is Manju Warrier.

It was her exclusive photo shoot for a magazine recently that once again sparked off the rumours of her comeback.

There was even buzz that the actress would be seen on the big screen with a Sathyan Anthikkad project. However, when we

contacted Manju, she said it is not true. “I’m in no hurry. As of now I don’t have any plans to enter movies,” she says.

Though, unlike earlier, the actress seems to be changing her stand slowly. “Life is full of unexpected events. It was without much planning that I started giving dance performances once again. It just happened quite unexpectedly,” she says.

(Courtesy TNN).

M

egastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is making his international debut with Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”, feels it’s “not worth” being part of the film’s poster keeping in mind his blink-andmiss appearance. However, he cant’s deny the order of the director.

“The poster of ‘The Great Gatsby’, something I thought to be too presumptuous but Baz Luhrmann insisted that it

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be done so there,” the 70-year- In the film, Amitabh will be old tweeted with a picture of seen sharing the screen space himself wearing a hat and beard with Hollywood stars Tobey on his face.

Maguire and Leonardo Di Big B plays Meyer Wolf- Caprio. sheim in the $125 million 3D Other cast members for project, an adaptation of F. the film include Joel EdgerScott Fitzgerald’s novel of the ton, Carey Mulligan and Isla same name.

Fisher.

“The poster of mine for ‘The Great Gatsby’... not worthy of being there, considering my minuscule role, but Baz Luhrmann,” he further tweeted.

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“The Great Gatsby” will open the 66th edition of Cannes International Film Festival, starting May 15. and Amitabh will walk the red carpet with the team at the gala event.

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ENTERTAINMENT

VOICE OF ASIA 14

Fatwa-free Rushdie says ‘Midnight’ film closes circle

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Miss India I will be making films 2013 not in- till I become 105-yearsterested in old: Eastwood films now ctor-director Clint

A

Eastwood is 82-yearsold, but he dreams of making films for two more decades.

Navneet Kaur Dhillon

Poster of Salman Rushdie’s film based on his novel.

L

OS ANGELES (AFP): Three decades after “Midnight’s Children” catapulted Salman Rushdie to literary glory, a film of the novel feels like “closing the circle” after his dark years in hiding, he says.

But while fatwa-free life is now “pretty good”, he admitted there are occasional “slippages” – including during a trip last year to India, the land of his birth, while promoting the movie.

In an interview timed with its US release, he discussed hopes for more film adaptations, Quentin Tarantino’s unlikely influence on “Midnight’s Children” – and his feelings about Margaret Thatcher as a motherfigure.

The movie tells the story of two boys born on the stroke of midnight, August 15, 1947, at the precise moment India gained independence from its British colonial masters, but then switched shortly after birth.

taneously” from Indian director Deepa Mehta, said Rushdie, who wrote the screenplay and narrates the movie.

At one point he thought of acting in it. “But when we came to actually make the film, I thought, you know, it’s distracting, it’s kind of stunt casting,” said Rushdie, who had a cameo part as himself in 2001′s “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”

He praised Tarantino, who also takes cameo roles, but said: “He’s a pretty experienced actor, so it’s different” – and admitted that he was having trouble writing a torture scene towards the climax of “Midnight’s Children”.

“It was a difficult scene to write for a long time, until I thought that the way to write it was almost as comedy. That’s where I thought of Tarantino. I thought of ‘Reservoir Dogs’, a very, very black comic tone of voice.”

The 1981 novel won the coveted Booker Prize and launched the Anglo-Indian writer’s career – but seven years later the glamorous literary life came to an abrupt stop when Iran slapped a death sentence on him for “The Satanic Verses”.

The finished work manages to weave the novel’s allegorical complexity and strands of magic realism into a coherent and visually spectacular two-anda-half-hour long movie. One of the most important places for him to take the movie was his native India, and above all Mumbai, or Bombay, the city of his birth.

Rushdie recounted his years in hiding in last year’s autobiographical “Joseph Anton” – the pseudonym he chose to keep would-be assassins off his trail – which he hopes will be the next book to be adapted for the big screen.

“It was extraordinary to show the film to an audience whose history it also tells… It was very moving for me. It felt like closing a circle, to bring that film back to Bombay, to the city from which the novel was born,” he said.

But he was in Los Angeles this month to talk about “Midnight’s Children”, which came out in several countries including India last year, ahead of its release in the United States from Friday, April 26.

But the trip to India – where “The Satanic Verses” remains banned for allegedly insulting Islam – was not without incident.

The idea of adapting the novel came “completely spon-

“Obviously it’s very annoying,” he said. “The chief min-

He was forced to cancel a trip to the eastern city of Kolkata.

ister of Bengal decided in her wisdom to prevent me from coming. It’s horrible actually.”

Talking generally about his security now, Rushdie said his life in hiding has “been over for longer than it went on”.

“That’s why, when these occasional kind of slippages into the past take place … now it really catches me by surprise. Because I’m not expecting it any more. Life is pretty good these days,” he added.

Of other adaptations, he said he was “optimistic” that a film version will be made of “Joseph Anton”, with a British production company potentially involved, although a deal has not yet been signed.

He has also been writing a TV show called “Next People” for US cable channel Showtime, and hopes one day to see film versions of his children’s books, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” and “Luka and the Fire of Life”.

“Satanic Verses”, however, appears unlikely ever to make the big screen, he admitted.

“There isn’t a great stampede for the rights, I have to say, so I doubt it.”

But in the comfortable surroundings of the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles, he paid an unexpected tribute to Thatcher, whose government provided him with round-the-clock protection against the Iranian fatwa threat.

“Our politics were very, very opposed, and I think that’s still true today,” he said, but he noted that, on the one occasion he did meet her, she was very charming.

“One of the ways in which she was charming was to be very physically affectionate…

She’d speak to you in a kind of almost aunt-like way. That was unexpected. The Iron Lady as your mother .. that was disarming.”

Kolkata: Aware of the fact that no Miss Universe or Miss World crown came to India`s way in the past few years, the Miss India 2013 winner Navneet Kaur Dhillon is focusing on getting the crown home.

“My dream is to be crowned as the 62nd Miss Universe by last year`s winner Olivia Culpo of US later this year. We have it, our girls have it to make it to the number one spot. I wish to end the 12-year-long drought,” Navneet told reporters over phone from Mumbai.

The doe-eyed girl, who has turned down two film offers, is concentrating on the pageant right now.

“This could be a gradual progression from Miss India to film roles and modelling but I will give it a serious thought only later.

“Also my courses on media studies in Punjab University remain high on my priority list as your stint in showbiz can be a transitory phase, having a particular time span, and there always remains a career prospect which is permanent,” she said.

“Again being in media studies means you are not far off from the world of films and modelling and can always straddle between the two fields,” she added.

“I will cross the bridge when it comes but after the Miss Universe show only,” she said.

Recalling the moment her name was called at the pageant final in Mumbai, Navneet said, “I can recall the moment as I screamed in joy and felt so proud for my family. From any other city girl hanging out at coffee joints and stealing a glance of film actors, this was the transition.

“I felt I can`t do things as I like before public eye every time, but at times you can`t check your emotion. And all my co-contestants and mentor Marc Robinson were also so happy, they understood my emotions.”

Navneet said she did not have much idea about Bengali films but read about Pather Panchali and its maker maestro Satyajit Ray. (PTI).

Obama jokes about himself, opponents at reporters’ dinner

W

ASHINGTON President Barack Obama poked fun at himself, his political opponents and the news media at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday, an annual event where the US leader takes good-natured jabs at his adversaries.

Obama joked about how he his re-election would give him the chance to carry out a radical agenda. But he had aged in the job. “These days I look in the mirror and have to admit, I’m not the strapping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be,” he said, mocking that belief among a radical conservative fringe of Americans.

He then showed a montage of pictures showing him in a haircut with bangs like his wife Michelle had on inauguration day.

Some of the targets of Obama’s jokes included billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who spent a fortune backing Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates in the 2012 race; the three major cable news networks; and several Republican members of Congress.

Obama ended on a serious note, praising the role of the media as well as the first responders at the Boston marathon bombings and the deadly Texas fertilizer explosion.

The annual dinner, where around 3,000 guests chow down in a massive hotel ballroom, is greeted with near hysteria in Washington, nor-

Eastwood, who attended a wide-ranging conversation about the art of film directing at the recently concluded Tribeca Film Festival, expressed his admiration for the 104-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, reported the Huffington Post.

“It would be great to be 105 and still making films and that would be the ultimate optimism,” he said.

Eastwood last directed 2011’s “J Edgar,” a biopic of the FBI head J Edgar Hoover.

After acting in last year’s baseball drama “Trouble With

mally a strait-laced town where celebrity is calculated in degrees of political power rather than pulling power at the box office.

The “Million Dollar Baby” and “Unforgiven” director joined fellow filmmaker Darren Aronofsky for a staged talk at the the film extravaganza following a screening of Richard Schickel’s documentary “Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story.”

NEW DELHI- A weeklong festival showcasing dance genres from across the globe is being held here to mark the International Dance Day. SPANDAN, a unique celebration of the human spirit in the form of dance under the aegis of India Habitat Centre, has been conceived by noted photographer R Sreenivasan.

International Dance Day was introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), a UNESCO partner NGO, and is celebrated on April 29 every year.

A collection of Sreenivasan’s photos featuring 16 compilations of dance forms from around the world has also been put up for display. The exhibition will be on till May 5.

The main event, which begun on April 26, will come

to end on May 3 with performances by international dancers.

Prominent among them are Nikolina Nikoleski (Croatia - Bharatanatyam and Ballet), Carolina Prada (Colombia - Chhau and Colombian), Quincy Kendell Charles (Trinidad and Tobago - Kathak) and Paola Santa Cruz (Peru - Flamenco).

Last night, a jam packed audience enjoyed a non-stop 90 minutes of performances by renowned dancers.

Among those who enthralled the audience were renowned Kuchipudi Guru Jayarama Rao, noted Kathak dancer Rajendra Gangani and leading Odissi exponent Ranjana Gauhar.

However, the loudest applause was reserved for a group of young dancers who performed on Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Jodi Tor Daak Shune’ sung by Amitabh Bachchan.

tables with celebrities.

“The breaking point for me was Lindsay Lohan,” Brokaw told Politico.

The featured comedian at the event was Conan O’Brien, who ended his presentation with a montage of photos that included cartoon characters of who would play top Washington personalities if a movie were ever made.

For the first time, celebrity cable news network E! was covering the Oscars-style red carpet entrance to the party at the Washington Hilton hotel live as the stars rolled up.

In recent years, the dinner has been transformed from an event where journalists and their editors and corporate bosses broke bread with government officials into a full bore celebrity party.

But the Hollywood-meetsWashington power clutch is now fueling a backlash from some who believe that the spectacle of the fourth estate partying with Hollywood elite and top power players is an unflattering one.

A long list of pre- and -after parties sponsored by media giants such as Bloomberg and MSNBC, vie to attract the biggest names, and big television and web outlets stack their

Famed NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw caused a stir last year when he hit out against the growing glitziness of the dinner and declined his invitation this year.

Time Magazine’s Michael Scherer (L), comedian Conan O’Brien (C) and US First Lady Michelle Obama raise their glasses for a toast during the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

the Curve,” he has several films in development.

Delhi hosts week-long fest of global dance genres

Among stars sighted were South Korean rapper Psy, singer Barbra Streisand, Hollywood actors Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Kevin Spacey and Michael Douglas, and movie directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

US President Barack Obama speaks during the White House Correspondents? Association Dinner April 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama poked fun at himself, his political opponents and the news media at the dinner, an annual event where the US leader takes good-natured jabs at his adversaries.

Clint Eastwood

“She became a big star at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Give me a break.”

This year’s White House Correspondents Association president Ed Henry of Fox News has taken steps to try to damp down the Hollywood influence, reserving tables for news organizations that cover the White House, and cutting back on firms which rarely do so.

Henry also points out that the dinner raises tens of thousands of dollars to provide journalism scholarships for needy students.

The highlight of the dinner is the jokey address from the president, who often uses his own political starpower to outdo the comedian that is annually hired to roast the press, and sometimes the commander-in-chief back.

Smetimes, the president has to show restraint. In 2011, Obama laughed along with a joke about Osama bin Laden, in the knowledge that a top secret raid to kill the Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan was hours from beginning.

HEALTHY LIVING HEALTH

VOICE OF ASIA 15

Friday, May 3, 2013

Section 2

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

Cancer research often falls short: study

by Kerry Sheridan

C

ancer research tends to involve small studies focused on a single therapy, often falling short of scientific standards seen in other medical investigations, said a study released Monday.

The trend may be driven by a desire to speed treatments to market, but raises questions about how well experimental cancer-fighting therapies will work in practice, said the findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“By increasing transparency, I think we can understand what works and what doesn’t,” lead author Bradford Hirsch, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University, told AFP. Researchers looked at the US government’s database of clinical trials and found that about 22 percent of all research is devoted to cancer, the largest single discipline, followed by mental health (nine percent) and infectious disease (8.3 percent).

Sixty-two percent of cancer trials were based on one drug,

drug companies. But the majority of studies were funded otherwise: 15.3 percent by government and 42.9 percent by outside funders including academic groups and foundations.

Only around a quarter of other research specialties did these types of single-arm studies.

“The design of trials is often blamed on drug companies. The feeling is that they fund the vast majority of research. But we found that ultimately that was not the case,” Hirsch told AFP.

And although the amount of breast cancer research was in proportion to its prevalence in the general population, one in four breast cancer studies focused not on treatment but on supportive care, diagnosis or prevention.

“The positive is, I think, that there is a significant opportunity to help guide the portfolio and improve the rigor of the trials as a result of that finding.”

The study also found that just over a third of cancer trials registered by the US government take place entirely outside the United States.

The analysis also found that certain cancers may be receiving more research attention than they are due.

Peter Bach, a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, wrote in an accompanying JAMA editorial that he hopes more can be learned about how to improve the state of cancer research.

Cancer studies tended to be smaller in enrollment, with a median size of 51 patients compared to 72 elsewhere, and nearly two-thirds of cancer research was not randomized, compared to less than a quarter in other fields.

Also, clinicians were less likely to be “blinded” to the drug being used to avoid bias -- nearly nine out of ten cancer trials were “open-label” compared to just under half in other studies.

The analysis is part of a project known as the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, a partnership between Duke and the US Food and Drug Administration to improve research practices.

Nearly 42 percent of the studies reviewed were funded by

Lymphoma, for example, accounted for 6.6 percent of cancer research, while its incidence in the population is 4.8 percent and its mortality rate is 3.8 percent.

Other cancers, like lung cancer and bladder cancer may deserve more study.

Lung cancer was the focus of nine percent of clinical trials in cancer, but makes up 14.5 per-

A

Mediterranean-style diet packed with fish, chicken and olive oil and low on fatty dairy products and meat may lower the risk of memory problems later in life, a large US study said on Monday.

There were no major difference in cognitive decline seen between blacks and whites.

The study is “necessarily a flyover, a view from high altitude, and thus may gloss over some important dimensions of the research enterprise, but I am optimistic that the database will yield important insights as it continues to be augmented,” Bach wrote.

The “most intriguing finding” is how “it is readily apparent that the clinical research endeavor as a whole is not a coordinated effort guided by any particular set of agreed-upon principles,” he said.

David Jeyaraj, MD

W

ho needs nutritional supplements? The answer is everyone. Even those people who eat healthy and exercise.

One theory of aging holds that it is the oxidative damage from the free radicals that causes the cellular changes associated with aging . Anti- oxidants such as Vitamin C, Zinc and Selenium prevent these cellular changes from occurring.

Environmental pollution, nutrient-depleted soil, modern methods of farming and handling of food, they all play a role in the nutritionally depleted state of our food. Even if your diet is optimal, you are not getting sufficient nutrients from your food.

We were not built to stay indoors most of the day, sit for hours in front of a computer or TV, drive or do any of the

things we do everyday. We are built to be out in the open, walk or run for transportation and eat fresh food. Our modern lifestyle has a lot to do with illness in general and more specifically, nutritional deficiencies. If I was a betting man, I would wager that if you are not taking Vitamin D supplements, you have Vitamin D deficiency.

Research is consistently demonstrating that the truly therapeutic doses of vitamins and minerals are far higher than the paltry amounts in the RDA’s (recommended daily allowances).

In the next four articles I will cover four supplements that everyone can use and then after that, supplements specific for illness.

Dr David Jeyaraj is board certified in Internal Medicine and has been in practice for 14 years. When he faced a personal health crisis, he at first turned to conventional medicine. He exercised, ate right, took his medications regularly. He transitioned from conventional medicine to full time age management medicine . Dr Jeyaraj is certified in age management by Cengenics Institute, Las Vegas and is a member of the Age Management Medicine Group. He can be reached at: 713.271.0705 www.texasami.com

More money buys more happiness: US researchers

by Rob Lever

W

ASHINGTON Money does indeed buy happiness, and more money leads to more happiness, according to a study released Monday by economic researchers.

But the beneficial effects of eating a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids do not extend to people with diabetes, according to the research published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

In healthy people, those who regularly ate a Mediterraneantype diet were 19 percent less likely to develop problems in their thinking and memory skills than people who did not eat that way.

cent of all diagnoses, and it has the highest mortality rate (27.6 percent of all cancer deaths in 2010).

without comparing it to other therapies, said the analysis of nearly 41,000 studies from 2007 to 2010 contained in the online registry www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study

The findings, described as the largest study of its kind to date, were based on dietary information from 17,478 African-American and Caucasian people with an average age of 64.

Nutritional Supplements

A woman pours olive oil on bread on October 4, 2012 in Wardija, Malta (AFP/File, Matthew Mirabelli) “Diet is an important modifiable activity that could help in preserving cognitive functioning in late life,” said Georgios Tsivgoulis, a doctor with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Athens, Greece.

“However, it is only one of several important lifestyle activities that might play a role in late-life mental functioning.

“Exercise, avoiding obesity, not smoking cigarettes and taking medications for conditions like diabetes and hypertension are also important.”

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, and by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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While a link between money and well-being is not surprising, the new study contradicts some earlier research which suggested the effect diminished above a certain level of income which allows people to meet basic needs.

University of Michigan economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers say in their paper in the May 2013 American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings that there is no evidence of a “satiation” point in the money-happiness equation.

“We find no evidence of a satiation point,” they wrote.

“The income-well-being link that one finds when examining only the poor, is similar to that found when examining only the rich.”

They found that the link is valid “when making crossnational comparisons between rich and poor countries as when

making comparisons between rich and poor people within a country.”

The study is the latest in a hotly debated field, and appears to contradict a theory dubbed the “Easterlin Paradox,” developed in 1974 by Richard Easterlin, now at the University of Southern California.

Easterlin’s research, which drew notably on surveys from Japan, suggested little or no increase in national happiness despite the country’s post-World War II economic miracle.

Later research pointed to annual incomes in the United States of $75,000 and in poorer countries in a range of between $8,000 and $25,000, beyond which money no longer impacts well-being.

But Stevenson and Wolfers said their research showed the Easterlin Paradox and similar theories are just wrong.

“If there is a satiation point, we are yet to reach it,” they wrote.

“We find no evidence of a significant break in either the happiness-income relationship, nor in the life satisfaction-income relationship, even at an-

nual incomes up to half a million dollars.”

Stevenson and Wolfers used data from three different crosscountry studies, including the Pew Global Attitudes survey, the Gallup World Poll and the International Social Survey Program.

“They show a clear relationship between the average level of well-being in a country with its average ... income,” they wrote.

“While the gains from income slow down as countries get richer, they never disappear. Doubling the income of a country has the same impact on the well-being of its citizens regardless of the initial starting point.”

Stevenson and Wolfers, who is also a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, have been studying the field for years, and the latest research supports their conclusions in a 2008 study.

“While the idea that there is some critical level of income beyond which income no longer impacts well-being is intuitively appealing, it is at odds with the data,” they concluded.

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BUSINESS

VOICE OF ASIA 16

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Section 2

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Bangladesh bosses plead to Western firms after tragedy

by Kamrul Hasan Khan

D

HAKA - Bangladeshi textile bosses pleaded Monday with Western clothing giants to keep doing business with them after nearly 400 people died in a factory collapse as hopes of finding more survivors faded.

Organisers of the mammoth rescue effort ordered in cranes on Monday to clear the ruins of what was once an eight-storey factory compound before it caved in five days ago while some 3,000 textile workers were on shift.

As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid her first visit to the tangle of concrete, the confirmed number of dead stood at 382.

But the toll is expected to shoot up now heavy lifting equipment is being used. Rescuers had earlier been wary of using anything but hand-held drills, over fears that machinery could force more masonry to collapse onto survivors.

Emergency workers, who have been battling the stench of rotting corpses, were shattered by the death late Sunday of a female garment worker who had clung to life against the odds before being overwhelmed by a fire at the scene.

The tragedy has once again focused attention on the poor safety conditions in the $20 billion Bangladeshi garment industry, which is the world’s second biggest after China.

Britain’s Primark and Spain’s Mango have confirmed their products were made in the block. Italy’s Benetton acknowledged having its clothes made in Rana Plaza recently, but claimed it was a “one-time order”.

Worried that Western firms

could look elsewhere, manufacturers met representatives of at least 30 leading brand names such as Walmart, H&M and Gap on Monday in a bid to assure them about safety standards.

The meeting ended with an announcement that the manufacturers and buyers had agreed to form a joint panel to come up with a firm safety action plan.

Shahidullah Azim, of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the brands were told “that we’re taking action to prevent a repeat of such tragedies” and urged them “not to cancel orders and shipments”.

“We need their help -- they are part of us,” said Azim, whose organisation represents more than 4,500 factories.

Roger Hubert, the country vice-president of Hong Hong-based Li and Fung, acknowledged retailers were considering their futures in Bangladesh.

“Today, I believe, in most countries... the buyers are sitting together to consider whether or not they can still buy from Bangladesh. I think that is a fact. It might sound very harsh, but that’s the reality,” he told AFP. Jenefa Jabbar, the regional social responsibilities director of the US clothing chain JC Penney said retailers wanted to see “a top-down approach... to address the fire safety and building safety issues.”

A fire at another factory last November in the industrial hub of Ashulia, where clothing for the likes of Walmart was being made, killed 111 people.

The industry accounts for 80 percent of the country’s exports

and more than 40 percent of the country’s industrial workforce.

A typical textile worker earns less than 40 dollars a month, with most working around 10 hours a day, six days a week.

It is not known how many people are trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building. There are still hundreds of relatives at the scene, many clutching photos of their loved ones, but officials held out little hope.

The death of the female garment worker identified as Shannaz, whose courageous struggle became a symbol of hope, cast a deep pall over the rescue effort.

Firefighters were seen weeping after the widowed motherof-one lost her battle for life when the fire broke out.

One of the leaders of the rescue operation said Monday the emergency services would be “doing things very carefully” in case anyone else had somehow managed to stay alive but they were “assuming that there is no survivor”.

Seventeen-year-old Mohammad Badhon, whose mother is a sewing operator and among those still missing, has been waiting at the scene for any news. “I am still hopeful my mother will be rescued alive,” he said, holding her photo.

Seven people have so far been arrested over the disaster, including the overall owner of the complex, property tycoon Sohel Rana, who was detained as he attempted to cross into India and was flown back to Dhaka.

Among the others also facing charges of causing “death by negligence” are two engineers who are alleged to have given the building the all-clear on Tuesday night after large cracks were found in the walls.

Swedish retail giant H&M seeks India entry

N

EW DELHI - Swedish fashion retail giant H&M aims to open 50 stores in India to tap the South Asian nation’s growing middle-class market, an Indian government statement said Monday.

It is the second Swedish chain to seek entry into India after the government last year relaxed legislation to allow foreign retailers to set up shop in India and sell directly to Indian consumers to boost investment from abroad.

H&M, one of the world’s leading clothing retailers by

sales, has applied to make a 100-million-euro ($131-million) investment and “will establish 50 stores”, the Indian government said in a press release.

But Stockholm-based H&M added in a statement that there “are no concrete plans” yet for when it would open its first stores in India.

Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said in New Delhi he welcomed the application by H&M. “After the liberalisation of FDI (foreign direct investment)

policy in single brand retail, there has been a considerable interest shown by all global retail majors,” Sharma said.

“The government remains committed to a liberal economic reforms agenda,” he added, saying foreign investment was “a source of technology, finance and means of creating gainful employment”.

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Tel: 713-774-5140

IACCGH and Southside Group welcome Indian delegates to the MD Anderson Annual GAP Summit

H

OUSTON - On Friday April 5, 2013 The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) hosted a dinner reception sponsored by the Southside Group in honor of the Indian delegates to the MD Anderson Annual GAP Summit and local MD Anderson faculty at the HESS Club. The guests included Dr. Kian Ang MD PhD, Vice President, Global Academic Programs, MD Anderson Cancer Center, South Africa’s first lady Madam Tobeka Madiba Zuma, IDA Houston President Dr. Kulvinder S. Bajwa and Delhi State Cancer Institute Director Dr. Rakesh Kumar Grover. IACCGH President Pankaj Dhume welcomed Madam Zuma and the over 70 guests by reminding them of an important alliance between the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Tata Cancer Institute that was facilitated by the IACCGH ten years ago. Past President of the Chamber, Deepa Thakur walked the audience down memory lane thanking founding Presidents Dr. Durga Agrawal and Ashoke Nath for their efforts that led to the signing of the MOU. In March 2003 the IACCGH facilitated a visit by a seven member MD Anderson delegation to Mumbai and Delhi. This delegation included MD Anderson Cancer Center President Dr. John Mendelsohn. In the 62 years of MD Anderson’s history this was the first ever visit by its President to India. This delegation met Indian President Kalam and the then Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha.

L-R: Dr. Sen Pathak(MDACC) , Jagdip Ahluwalia, Delhi State Cancer Institute Director Dr. Rakesh Kumar Grover and Dr. Sewa Singh Lega.

IACCGH Director Harish Katharani (left) whose business Southside Group sponsored the dinner with Anil Patel of Southside.

The team visited AIIMS Delhi and participated in a symposium on “Common Cancers in India: Evidence Based Management” at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH).

On Oct 6th 2003, Dr. John Mendelsohn and Dr. K.A. Dinshaw, Director of Tata Memorial Center, Mumbai signed a historic Sister Institution Agreement in Mumbai, India.

Witnessing this historic event were 2003 IACCGH President Deepa Thakur, founding President Durga Agrawal, Past Presidents Ashoke Nath and Ashok Shah, Board Advisor

IACCGH President Pankaj Dhume with Madam Zuma Vijay Goradia, founding member & Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia, then Directorat-large (Pune based) Pankaj Dhume and chamber member Ajit Thakur.

In the ten years since the signing of the MOU there

have been numerous exchanges between MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Tata Memorial Center. Since then, MD Anderson Cancer Center has expanded its relationships with several other centers of excellence in India including the Delhi State Cancer Institute.

In February, H&M which like many other European retailers is seeking to diversify from the crisis-hit euro zone, said it aimed to start “with a few stores” in India and would “expand heavily” if all went well.

Android reigns, Windows gains in smartphones: survey

W

ASHINGTON Google’s Android mobile operating system extended its dominance in smartphones in the US and other major markets in early 2013, according to a survey published on Monday.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said Android was used on 49.3 percent of smartphones sold in the US market in the first quarter, compared to 43.7 percent for Apple’s iOS, the operating system for the iPhone.

Android has thus boosted its lead from a year ago, when was ahead of Apple by a margin of 47.9 to 44.6 percent.

In other major markets, An-

droid was even more dominant -- with 93.5 percent of smartphones in Spain, 73.6 percent in Germany, 69.4 percent in China, and 63.3 percent in France.

Japan was the only country in the survey where Apple was in the lead, with a 49.2 percent market share to 45.8 percent for Android.

But the survey also showed gains in several countries for a relative outsider, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, following the upgraded platform introduced in late 2012.

In the United States, Windows boosted its share to 5.6 percent from 3.7 percent a year ago, Kantar said. Windows

grabbed 10.9 percent of smartphone sales in Italy, 7.2 percent in France and 7.0 percent in Britain.

“As iOS and Android continue to battle it out for top selling smartphone OS, we have seen Windows steadily grow over the past year and is now at its highest sales share figure so far,” said Kantar analyst MaryAnn Parlato.

“Windows’ strength appears to be the ability to attract first time smartphone buyers, upgrading from a featurephone,” she said, adding that this means prospects are positive for Windows, especially in the United States.

US pending home sales gain in March: NAR

W

ASHINGTON - Pending home sales rose in March after a February slump, showing strength persists in the US housing comeback, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

That was 7.0 percent above the March 2012 level, with activity strongest in the south and the west.

The NAR’s index for pending sales, which signal the direction of the housing market, rose 1.5 percent from February to 105.7.

“Contract activity has been in a narrow range in recent months, not from a pause in demand but because of limit-

NAR economist Lawrence Yun said tight supply on the market continued to hold back sales.

ed supply,” Yun said in a statement.

“Little movement is expected in near-term sales closings, but they should edge up modestly as the year progresses,” he said.

NAR projects that sales of existing homes will grow 6.57.0 percent this year to around five million units, with prices gaining 7.5 percent.

FEATURE

VOICE OF ASIA 17

Begging: a ‘lucrative’ business in Pakistan

FRIDAY, May 3, 2013

Your Horoscope (For week beginning Friday, May 3, 2013)

R

Hardik Vyas, Astrologer Cell : 832-298-9950

AWALPINDI: The sight of children, the disabled and disadvantaged begging at all hours of the day and night in Pakistan is a grim, constant reminder of the millions who live in abject poverty.

As per Indian Vedic Astrology the Moon sign is considered, in which every Rashi has control over certain letters, which are initials of your name. Whereas in Western system of Sun Sign, all the people born in one month belong to the same sign. For example, every year approximately around 21 of March to 20th April, the Sun is moving in the Aries Constellation. So all the people born in that month belong to the Sign of Aries. If you were born in between those two dates then you are a Aries born.

Yet malnourished members of the underclass have to collect not just enough spare change to feed themselves, but to pay off police and gang bosses.

Aries (A,L,E) 21st. March to 20 April

Investigators say begging has turned into an organised business with mafia controlling key locations where they deploy their own lackeys or lease out ground to others on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Some can even make more than a labourer who toils in scorching temperatures, digging or carrying cement and bricks at building sites for $6 a day.

Mukhtiar, about 12 years old who gave only one name, is already a veteran beggar in the Saddar shopping area of Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s military and the sprawling twin city of the leafy capital Islamabad.

Most clam up when asked if they work in groups. At first Mukhtiar denied, then later admitted that he had to pay a cut to “thekedars” — or gang ring leaders — and sometime also to the cops.

“Whenever I beg at main crossings, traffic lights or markets, I have to pay a small cut, sometimes 20-50 rupees or even 100 to the thekedar, otherwise they will beat me and expel from the area,” Mukhtiar said.

Begging is punishable by up to three years in Pakistan, but police and lawyers say convictions are rare.

In 2011, the Lahore High Court ruled that the government should strictly enforce laws to discourage “professional beggary,” set up homes for the destitute and improve charity disbursements.

“Most beggars, if arrested, get bail. Judges also take into consideration the lack of welfare homes for destitute people and the result is that once released, offenders again start begging,” lawyer Mohammad Tayyab told AFP.

A spontaneous inspiration may prove to be very beneficial to your life. You may have an opportunity to directly pitch your ideas and beliefs to those who can make things happen. Your mood to socialize is high. Your intellectual curiosity and mental restlessness may flicker from one scene to another. You are more than ready to commit to a relationship. Several decisions and some hefty ‘back and forth’ change ups are likely to be ‘put in place’.

Emotions are sensitive, discussions long and topics varied, make sure you have all arrangements, negotiations, plans and promises ‘in place’ by/before the Weekend.

A young girl seen begging in Pakistan. Photo by White Star.

But Pakistan’s largest charity, the Edhi Foundation, said it offers no specific support network for beggars because there are too many.

keeps them in a shelter and traces their parents or guardians, who then have to promise in court that they will take care of them.

Faisal Edhi, a foundation staff member, told AFP that police sometimes round them up and bring them to their shelters.

Parents whose children are found begging can end up in jail for three to five years and be fined $50 to $500, Bureau official Waseem Abbas told AFP.

“Sometimes they bring up to 1,500 beggars a day, we cannot keep them in such a big number,” Edhi said. “Begging has become a profession now,” he added.

Sakina Bibi, 32, a mother of five begging in Rawalpindi, says she does so to support her family and an addict husband who does not work.

“Two years ago I was working as a housemaid, but I had a really bad experience and was wrongfully accused by my employers of stealing money, which I did not.

“Being a maid is very difficult here, you have to work for almost 12 hours and if anything goes missing from house you are suspected,” Bibi said.

She is the daughter of poor peasants. She never went to school, so begging is the only way she says she can earn money to feed her children.

“I can make 300-400 rupees ($3-4) a day, but sometimes it is just 60-70 rupees,” she said.

In Rawalpindi, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau says it rescues child beggars,

“There are also organised gangs who deploy child beggars in lucrative spots like bus stops, traffic signals and markets and many raids have been conducted against them in the past,” he added.

Economists say they have no data on numbers, age or average income.

“There are gangs which are operating in different cities and they use orphans and run away children to beg in crowded places,” economic analyst Kaiser Bengali told AFP. But he said most beggars were in genuine need — the products of unemployment and Pakistan’s lack of a social security system.

“You can see very old people, who can barely walk or see, begging on the roads of Karachi and other cities, because they have no family or old homes to take care of them,” he added.

According to the United Nations, around 49 per cent of the estimated 180 million population of Pakistan live in poverty.

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(B,V,U) 21 April to 21 May

Highlighted by games or contests that will provide you with an extra burst of energy.

Excitement will reign, as your romantic urges will also run high. You could actively pursue the one you desire. Your desire for harmony and beautiful surroundings is stronger than usual.

You’re more inclined to use your charm and persuasion than a more direct method to achieve your goals. You show high rates of consideration you ‘pour out’ but may not get in return, your stars say ‘zip your lip’ at this time and correct them later.

Gemini

(K,CHH,GH) 22 May to 21 June

You may become so engrossed in your investigation that you won’t be able to do anything else until you find the information that you seek. You’ll find you can be very effective right now. You may find yourself in the position to rally others to your point of view. You’ll also be able to communicate with great conviction. Your practical side has you addressing needs by ‘interviewing’ members to get their insights, takes and requests. What you will be able to deliver, afford and provide may be different, but many of you will strive for ‘something, somewhere in the middle’ and do just fine!

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 July Your patience and understanding will enable you to grow greatly as a person. You may find a new interest to lead, in your field. You should branch yourself out to reach a larger audience. You’ll feel empowered to reach many goals. The nature of your studies will depend on your personal interests. Whatever you decide to pursue, you’ll do so with great intensity.

You love a good juggling act and you don’t even mind having to be responsible for a lot of ‘chicks under your wings’ but ungrateful attitudes and interference from in-laws, siblings or those ‘outside’ the inner circle tend to ‘wear you down’ to the point where you ‘lose your cheer’.

Leo (M) 23 July to 23 August You are feeling as if your head is about to burst. Focus on the tasks at hand and you will soon have a deeper understanding of what to do. Don’t be surprised by others reaction to your success. Good relationships can bring out your true self. Your energy level will soar high. All victims may not always be innocent. Be wary of those who try to hide their true nature.

You may have to ‘dash someone’s hopes’ this week in career too! IF you hold a position where you approve, interview or process, it’s possible you may be reviewing someone’s dreams/plans and have to discern if it goes any further. Joint ventures go well but cool it other days and buy time.

Virgo (P) 24 August to - 23 September You are being at the right place at the right time. Your ideas will fit in well with your peers.

Enjoy the hum of community activities. Your aura will lead you to those who will help you find answers. All your hard work will be noted by those in authority. Your interest in improving your lifestyle will help you to make some dreams come true. Free yourself from any negative energy. Expect to do ‘a lot of work’ make several trips/errands and accomplish ‘more than you set out to’ and your week will ‘start right’. Enjoyable gatherings and heft in spending are indicated, with many of the needs being ‘practical necessities’ in nature.

Libra

(R,T) 24 Sept. to 23 Oct.

You being yourself, as unique as you are, is what makes you a real treasure. You will feel empowered once you understand that. You will be able to trust others ability to help you find answers. Try hard to streamline your tasks to create more leisure time in the immediate future. Your perceptive touch will help find the best result by keeping your interest strong in others activities. Big changes, long talks, hefty spending and serious upgrades are any/all likely this week. Vulnerabilities to common illness may not start for a couple weeks yet but a small cross section of you could have digestive issues surface, especially if you have a history of them.

UMA MANTRAVADI

HOUSTON LOCATION: 6200 Savoy Dr., Ste. 414 Houston, TX 77036

Taurus

Scorpio (N,Y) 24 Oct. to 23 Nov. The realization you will be able to find new way to share your daily duties and activities with loved ones. You always love a happy ending and this story should prove to be a real winner. You may need to push your positive influence forward to those in authority. Your original proposal may start to fade but you can retain the essence of it by promoting your true values.

You may be or ‘feel’ somewhat ‘out of sorts’, but that would be typical for a hefty cross section; just rest, eat well and blow past it as fast as you can. Good news of some kind appears very likely and may come through family members.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH) 23. Nov. to 21 Dec. A need to work a little harder to find a compromise that pleases everyone. Take the time necessary to research some fascinating adventures far away from home. You may need to slow down your hectic pace to enjoy the company of friends & family. You really won’t have to push your ideas too hard to find mutual agreements. Your mood swings somewhat dramatically before you stabilize and adjust, especially. i

Capricorn

(KH,J) 22 Dec. to 20 Jan.

You are feeling very sensitive, even vulnerable. It may be time to think about a little rest and relaxation. You can be imaginative but you need to rejuvenate yourself first. Also, you may want to take an opportunity to learn new ways to increase your income. Be sure to check everything thoroughly. Someone may be trying to confuse you. Emotions take over and tend to color decisions; stall if/ when in doubt, especially if discipline or spending is involved. And cooperation grinds to a halt, especially with authority figures, parents, elders.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21st Jan. to 18th Feb.

The possibility you might have some difficulty in situations which require you to rely on others resources. Your sensitive side will help you to recognize how judgmental people can be. Your urge to decorate and beautify your immediate surroundings is a great way to express your creativity. Look past the immediate to find some old treasures to exhibit your style. Family unity and more fun is likely as plans for events, gatherings, celebrations and minivacations are likely.

Pisces

(D,CH,Z) 19th Feb. to 20th March

A change of scenery, which can be positive for you. You will soon realize is that if you are not happy in some aspect of your life, you will need to make some significant changes.

Friends may seek some guidance in your area of expertise. Your counsel will prove to be very lucrative.

Giving of yourself in this generous manner will prove that your motives are genuine. Your fuse is a bit short early this week but it appears mostly you have some ‘adjusting’ to do, compromising or ‘accepting’ possibly with/from spouse/siblings.