May 27 Pages 1-26

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, Ay, A mAyAyA 27, 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOn: www.indO Oamerican-news.cOm

By By By ernice yeungNEW YORK (Bloomberg): But oh, how the

mighty have fallen! The philanthropist who has raised millions for Indian education and health-care charities, is now facing a civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commis-sion for passing confidential information to Raj Rajaratnam, the disgraced Galleon hedge fund billionaire convicted of insider trading earlier this month. (Gupta’s SEC hearing will take place in July, and he could face a monetary fine and could potentially be barred from serving on the boards of public companies.)

And what’s more, according to Bloomberg, Gupta’s questionable business behaviour didn’t stop there. In direct violation of the consulting firm’s policies, Gupta secretly ran consulting businesses on the side—which often involving Indian companies—while still at the helm of McKinsey.

• Gupta and Anil Kumar (another Rajaratnam co-conspirator who pleaded guilty in the Gal-leon insider trading case) set up a consulting company in 2001 called Mindspirit LLC under their wives’ names. One of Mindspirit’s clients, database company InfoGroup, paid the consult-ing firm with 200,000 stock options, which was exercised for an undisclosed amount, according to SEC filings.

•While on McKinsey’s payroll, Gupta also advised Genpact Ltd., a General Electric spin-off based in Gurgaon that manages business processes. Gupta served as an advisory direc-tor for Genpact from 2005 to 2007, and was granted more than 81,000 stock options, valued at 93 cents each in 2008. (SEC filings show that Gupta hasn’t yet exercised the options, which are currently trading at nearly $17 per share.)

McKinsey has since conducted an internal in-vestigation and has implemented stricter rules to

make it more difficult for these kinds of conflicts to occur in the future.

Overcome by greed?What’s baffling is why Gupta, the brilliant

businessman and regarded philanthropist, went so far astray. What happened to his moral com-pass? Bala Balachandran, dean of the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai and a long-time friend, told Bloomberg that urgent desire to live a flashy lifestyle may have driven him to make questionable choices:

“He wanted a billionaire’s life and the ques-tion for him was how could he become a billion-aire in a short time,” Balachandran says.

Meanwhile, Terry Connelly of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco told Bloomberg that Gupta may have been motivated by a desire to keep up with the super-wealthy.

“You can never underestimate the seductive power of

three or more zeroes added to net-worth

numbers,” Connelly told Bloomberg. “You

can be successful, but if you’re in hedge

fund managers’ circles and you’re not rich like them,

you can start asking, ‘Why can’t

I get that? I’m every

bit as smart.’”

From Kolkata’s lower-middle-class to Harvard Business School to the head of international consulting firm McKinsey, Rajat Gupta’s ascendancy in global business was a feat of smarts and determination.

The Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofThe Rise and Fall ofRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat GuptaRajat Gupta

Indo American News Takes Green Initiatives

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Friday, May 27 2011 | Vol. 30, No. 21

Indo American News

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Partnered & Syndicated with Times of India, Sulekha.com, Google, Yahoo & Bing

1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful 1.5M Wrongful

New York CityNew York CityNew York CityNew York CityNew York CityNew York CityNew York CityNew York City

Pg 29

InsideThis Week

Baylor Spreads Baylor Spreads Baylor Spreads Baylor Spreads Baylor Spreads its Horizons with Baylor Spreads its Horizons with Baylor Spreads its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with its Horizons with Max HospitalMax HospitalMax Hospital

Chicago Trial Headley Nails ISI

Chicago Trial Headley Nails ISI

Chicago Trial

Pg 5

Pg 10

Pg 6

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, mAy 27 , 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOamerican-news.cOm

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2 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, Ay, A mAyAyA 27, 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOn: www.indO Oamerican-news.c

3 33Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

By Manasi Gokhale Bavadekar

HOUSTON: On Friday, May 20, a packed audience at the Arena Theater was entertained to their heart’s content by one of the best singers ever in Bollywood, Sonu Nigam. The show was presented by the most famous and trusted name in event promo-tion/management, Rajender Singh of Star Promotion Inc.

The show kicked off with an appear-ance by the extremely talented US-based singer Gunjan. Gunjan started hthe show with a rendition of the hit Bol-lywood classic ‘Bahon mein chale aao’ from the movie aao’ from the movie aao’ Anamika. was followed by a string of hits which included golden oldies like ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’, ‘Duniya mein logon ko’and recent blockbusters like ‘Beedi’ and ‘Beedi’ and ‘Beedi’ Sheila ki Jawani’. She was rewarded by a huge round of applause from the knowl-edgeable audi-ence.

As she finished her performances, she introduced the star of the evening Sonu on stage and he was greeted by a standing ovation by the fans who were waiting anxiously for him. He made a dreamy entry while singing his famous hit, the title song of the movie ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’. He acknowledged the cheers of the crowd and proceeded to churn out a succession of renditions that included ‘Shukran Allah’, ‘Mera rang de basanti chola’, Don’t say alvida, and Saathiya. He then sang what he thought was one of his favorite songs, ‘Tere bin na dekhu main subah’ from the ‘Tere bin na dekhu main subah’ from the ‘Tere bin na dekhu main subah’movie Dil To Baccha Hai Ji.

One of the highlights of this show was the way Sonu interacted with the audience, talking with some of the fans and making funny comments in between. For instance, he gave an example of how a Bollywood song can be composed by various music composers using words which can be as mundane as even names of vegetables.

His mimicry of famous music directors like Nadeem Shra-van, Bappi Lahiri, Himesh Resham-miya and Anu ma-lik had the audience in splits and they re-sponded by giving him a big round of applause.

There is hardly a better enter-tainer in showbiz than Sonu and he decided to mix it up by perform-ing the Eric Clapton masterpiece ‘Wonderful Tonight’. He even showed his linguistic talents by singing a few verses from

a Kannada hit which he had sung in the past. He mixed his songs well by perform-ing romantic songs like ‘Mere haath mein’from Fanaah, interspersed with peppy hits like ‘Zoobi Doobi’ from 3 Idiots, which he sang as a duet with Gunjan.

Once his lineup of songs was completed, he started taking in requests from the au-dience for his songs. He was pleasantly overwhelmed by the number of requests from the fans, or ‘Farmaaesh’ as we call it. Some of the numbers which he sang were not only from his Bollywood hits, but also from his private album chartbusters, like his first big hit ‘Tu’.

The other requests included ‘In lamho ke daman main’ from ke daman main’ from ke daman main’ Jodha Akbar, ‘Biju-ria’, ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’, ‘Tees Maar Khan’, ‘Deewana Tera’, ‘Tanhaee’, ‘Main Hoon Na’, ‘Ye dil diwana’ from Hoon Na’, ‘Ye dil diwana’ from Hoon Na’, ‘Ye dil diwana’ Pardes

from 3 Idiots. He then signed off by thanking the organizers, the sponsors and of course, each and every individual member of his band of musicians.

One can’t help but admire the talent and ability of this

young star, an artist who was on stage for nearly three hours with-out taking any break for even a single minute.

Every moment of the concert was a moment to remember for the ap-preciative crowd.

On Friday, May 20, a packed audience at the Arena Theater was entertained to their heart’s content

Bollywood, Sonu Nigam. The show was presented by the most famous and trusted name in event promo-tion/management, Rajender Singh of

The show kicked off with an appear-ance by the extremely talented US-based singer Gunjan. Gunjan started hthe show with a rendition of the hit Bol-

‘Bahon mein chale Anamika. It

was followed by a string of hits which included golden oldies

‘Piya tu ab to aaja’, ‘Duniya mein logon ko’and recent blockbusters

Sheila . She was

rewarded by a huge round of applause

Sonu Simply Sensational

Body Found in sunken sunken s car is missing missing m owner of Pavani owner of Pavani o

CLUTE, TX (KHOU): Clute police have a mystery on their hands. On Mon-day, they received a call from a nursing home in the 600 block of Plantation. An employee noticed a car partially sub-merged in a pond on the nursing home grounds. When police pulled out the car, they found the body of a woman inside.

The woman has been identified as 42-year-old Padmaja Kudumula of Katy., who had owned Pavani restaurant in southwest Houston and Pavani Express in Katy.

Her husband had filed a missing per-son’s report with the Harris County Sher-iff’s Office on Friday. In it, he noted that the couple had had an argument over their business that morning and Kudumula had left. When she did not return that night,

her husband called po-lice.

On Saturday morning, he noted some activity on her credit card at a Citgo station in Houston. On Monday, her body was found inside her par-tially submerged car in the pond. What puzzles Clute police is that the woman had no apparent ties to Clute or the nurs-ing home.

The pond is set back on the property, so it appears that someone would have had to deliberately drive

onto the grounds.Clute Detective Lt. Diane Turner, said

the police department is investigating this as a homicide, but that it is routine when someone is found dead without a clear explanation. According to Turner, the medical examiner has not finished its investigation, but the initial signs do not show foul play or a catastrophic health issue, like a heart attack.

“The medical examiner didn’t find anything overtly suspicious or any type of injuries or signs of a struggle or any-thing like that,” Turner said.

She is survived by husband Narayana Reddy and two children Pavani and Vasu and mother Pullamma. Funeral and me-morial service are pending.

His mimicry of famous music directors like

in splits and they re-sponded by giving him a big round of applause.

There is hardly a better enter-tainer in showbiz than Sonu and he decided to mix it up by perform-ing the Eric Clapton masterpiece ‘Wonderful Tonight’. He even showed his linguistic talents by singing a few verses from

Hoon Na’, ‘Ye dil diwana’and All ij Well fromAll ij Well fromAll ij Well

He then signed off by thanking the organizers, the sponsors and of course, each and every individual member of his band of musicians.

One can’t help but admire the talent and ability of this

7457 Harwin Dr, Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036713.789.NEWS (6397) • fax: 713.789.6399 • [email protected]

LOS ANGELES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Fatakra, directed by Soham Mehta, is one of three films to win a Student Academy Award in the Narrative Category.

12 students from nine U.S. colleges and universities and three students from outside the U.S. have been selected as winners in the Academy of Mo-tion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th Annual Stu-dent Academy Awards competi-tion. The student filmmakers will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry-related activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 11, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

It addition to the Academy Awards, Fat-

akra has also been having a terrific festival run. This past April, it received the Audience Award for Best Short at the Sarasota Film Festival, it also won the Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. In the coming months, Fatakra will be screening at

the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma, at the New York Asian American Film Fes-tival, and at the Palm Springs Shorts Fest in Los Angeles.

soham soham s mehta’s ‘mehta’s ‘m Fatakra’ wins Awardwins Awardw

Photos: Touchofcolorstudio


5 55Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com b u S i n e S S

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Baylor spreads Its Horizons with spreads Its Horizons with s max Hospitals in IndiaBy Jy Jy awahar Mawahar Mawahar alhotraHOUSTON: In another

sign that globalization promises to make the world a much smaller place, Bay-lor College of Medicine unveiled its latest steps in that direction by signing a Memorandum of Under-standing with Max India Group, a private hospital chain based in India with eight private hospitals in the New Delhi metropoli-tan area and three more planned to open this year.

This is yet another step in leveraging the consider-able knowledge base and reputation of Baylor Col-lege of Medicine based in the Texas Medical Center. It comes as an initiative of the new Center for Glo-balization formed at the college this March with a donation from BCM Trustee Wallace S. Wilson, who was in the audience at the news conference held this past Monday, May 23 at the BCM.

“We know that the biggest problem world-wide is physician capacity, with an estimated shortage of 4 million,” said Dr. Paul E. Klot-man, the President and CEO of BCM in his opening remarks. “The biggest challenge is to train physicians so that they can be cata-lysts for change in their communities.”

The Center is headed by interim Director Dr. Navneet Kathuria, who was recruited from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Klotman was named to his new position in June of last year and worked with Kathuria on a similar initiative at MSMC. This Center is a continuation of their work (see IAN, May 20, 2011, page 19).

“I came to the US from New Delhi, have moved to Houston and now have connected back with Delhi again,” quipped Kathuria as he marveled at how the process of con-necting the dots can sometimes work. “This initiative reflects the outcome of a chance meeting and discussions several years ago in New York.” Since then, Kathuria joined the BCM administration last fall and began focusing on developing a broader base for the college’s main field of educating tomor-row’s medical professionals.

BCM is a nearly 70-year-old institution at its current location at the TCM, but has much older roots that stretch back to hum-ble beginnings as a medical school started in Dallas in 1900. To survive and grow, the school developed an alliance in 1903 with Baylor University in Waco and was the only private medical school in Texas in 1918. In 1943, the M. D. Anderson Foundation

invited the Baylor University College of Medicine to join the newly form TMC and moved into its present building in 1946.

In 1969, the College separated from Bay-lor University to become an independent teaching institution and formally changed its name to Baylor College of Medicine. BCM is still the only not-for-profit private medical school in the Southwest and has an endow-ment of $1.77 billion. It has been ranked as the best for the lowest tuition among private medical schools in the US.

Klotman signed the MOU with Analjit Singh, founder and Chairman of Max India Group to form an academic affiliation be-tween the two organizations and emulates the way that Baylor itself grew over the

past century. Singh outlined the plans that Max has for developing a private medical school in India, presumably attached to one of its existing hospitals and said “here was much scope for many such institutions in India. We need many more AIIMS (All In-dia Institute for Medical Sciences in New Delhi).”

Max’s new initiative will be headed by Dr. Pervez Ahmed, who has practiced as a car-diologist for 35 years in New York City. He is the son of India’s fifth president, Fakhrud-din Ali Ahmed (1974-1977) and was lured back to India by an offer from Singh about 5 years ago. “In conversations with Kathuria, we realized that collaboration with another institution would be essential to developing

Indo-American News (ISSN 887-5936) is published weekly every Friday (for a subscription of $30 per year) by Indo-American News Inc., 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036, tel: 713-789-6397, fax:713-789-6399, email: [email protected].

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our vision for a medi-cal school,” said Ahmed, “and none that we met had the reputation like Baylor.”

Max India started in 1985 as a manufactur-ing business and in 2000 transformed itself into a service sector enterprise dealing in insurance (through an affiliation with New York Life), healthcare and educa-tion and has a current turnover of $1.7 billion. “Max Healthcare is the new face of India,” said Chairman Singh. “Previ-ously, 80% of healthcare spending was by the Government, and 20% was private; now the case is reversed. Max will have 1900 beds by the end of 2011 and we have

reshaped the trend of care in India.”Globalization in education is the mantra

that many professionals in the field have latched onto as they scramble to add more outlets for their organizations across the globe, like the new facilities in Abu Dhabi for New York University and the Paris-Sor-bonne University and the Michigan State University in Dubai while others travel the world to identify and attract students to their home campuses. While satellite campuses in emerging countries cut the costs down for the students in the region, they deny the home campuses of income from foreign stu-dents.

Klotman believes that the arrangement will be revenue neutral and will provide training and opportunities for BCM students and physicians to learn treatment procedures with diverse populations that could be used in the Rio Grande Valley, for example, as well as to undertake clinical trials in India.

Singh said he was very pleased with the new alliance with BCM and was confident of its success. “We know how to make joint-ventures and partnerships work in the differ-ent business landscape in India. Together, we aim to bridge not just the shortage of health-care professionals in India, but also redefine health science education standards.” health science education standards.”

From left: Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Globalization Interim Director Dr. Navneet Kathuria; Analjit Singh, founder and Chairman of Max India Group; BCM President and CEO Dr. Paul E. Klotman and Dr. Pervez Ahmed, the Managing Director of Max Healthcare at the news conference to sign a MOU between the two organizations. Members of the Indo-American community, including the IACCGH, attended the event at the BCM auditorium at the Texas Medical Center last Monday, May 24.

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, Ay, A mAyAyA 27 , 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOn: www.indO Oamerican-news.cOm

6 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.come n v i r o n m e n t

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Indo American news takes Green Initiatives, Joins news takes Green Initiatives, Joins n new Print Housenew Print HousenBy JacoB david

HOUSTON: Indo American News, going on its 30th year, has entered a new phase of becoming more eco-friendly and conscien-tious toward leaving a smaller carbon footprint in the weekly world of publishing. It has teamed up with Value Press to help make this happen.

Value Press, a division of News Span Media has been in business for 12 years. It opened its new fa-cility in 2008 at South West Plaza, and prints Semana, Solo Auto andHola among other publications and is led by General Manager, Armando Molinares, who devel-oped the floor plan, and meets the daily complicated requirements of the print shop.

Account Executive Ken Hoff-mann believes there are too many variables that have to be balanced to get the end result just right. “Printing is an art, a craft of sorts that takes into account science and statistical analysis.” he says. Adept in the printing industry, this former COO at Bertelsmann AG (a German based conglomer-ate) is experienced in the sheet-fed and web-fed printing, plus full bindery. Molinares and Hoffman believe that there has to be a solid commitment on both sides to help produce the best news product!

With better technology and in-frastructure in place, Indo Amer-ican News has taken big and bold steps in going green. Six new and faster 24 inch monitor iMacs have

replaced older versions cutting down production time and elec-trical energy spent in layout and design of the newspaper. The old-er models have been safely recycled since. Better soft-ware help streamline and design ads faster.

Indo American News recycles every sheet of paper, our distributors op-erate their routes based on a selected distribution list which are zoned in a man-ner for faster delivery and enable less consumption of fuel. Indo American News cov-ers 120 distribution locations in Houston and its surrounding ar-eas.

At the office, the Indo Ameri-can staff use eco-friendly mea-sures even while appointing news coverage assignments to its staff

based on where they live. The common notion that print-

ers are killing valuable forests is being disproved daily at the of-

fice. From saving time in cover-ing news, production time in lay-out, sending files to the printers, Indo American News has excelled at speed with T1 lines to down-load large files from ad agencies in just a matter of seconds rather than even two years ago. “Inter-net speeds this fast are a game changer for businesses,” says Bill Stemper, President of Comcast Business Services.”

Indo American News performs large file transfers daily while downloading and uploading files daily.

Going green is a daily job, not a once in a blue moon affair. It has a related cost, makes things indirectly a bit more expensive, but it’s ultimately for the good of mother Earth.

Value Press, our current printer has the newest machines on the block which uses a chlorine free process. They use a cold set press that does not use heat plates or light to dry up the inks on the pa-per. The cold set allows the inks on the paper to dry up naturally. Heat set printers release harmful VOCs (Volatile Organic Com-pounds) into the air.

The newsprint used for print-ing vary from virgin print to 30% post consumer recycled content. For printing, Indo American News insists on using vegetable based soy inks with zero VOC solvents or compounds. The used photo plates for printing is recy-cled each week at the press. The

solvents and inks left over are recycled. While distributing each week, our distributors make sure to collect any left over, few and spare, unread copies at each loca-tion, and recycle them.

“Even before eco-friendly was ever a concept, we were careful to be earth friendly in all aspects. We are now more committed than ever to stay green. We know there are plenty of our readers out there who share and applaud our views of being a green company. My partners, Pramod Kulkarni, Jawahar Malhotra, and I would like to make sure that the rest of our readers also understand that we take these green initiatives very seriously,” says Krishna Giri, Marketing Manager of Indo American News.

We encourage our readers to re-cycle each copy of our newspaper once you read it.

A cleaner, more efficient press and other green initiatives helps Indo American News stay ahead of its competitors while serving its readers a quality news product each week

Large rolls of newsprint wait to be used; most have 30% post consumer recycled content

Soy based ink has no volatile organic compounds or solvents that could harm the environment

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, mAy 27, 2011 • Online editiOn: www.indOamerican-news.cOm

7 7Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comc u l t u r e

Rajat & Sonam Chopra

How do you Inculcate culture? Let Them dance!

By Jawahar MalhotraHOUSTON: The performances were over

just a month ago and the hard work that went into making them happen was done. A lot of the rehersals had taken place here, in just this same ballroom at Hotel Preet tucked away in the corner of West Little York and 290 on the northwest side where many of the city’s Sikh community lives and has its businesses and gurudwaras.

But tonight was an occasion to celebrate the success of the Vaisakhi celebration held last month at the University of Houston and organized by the Punjabi Culture Society (see IAN of May 1, 2011). Then, a packed Cullen Auditorium had seen how a commu-nity had reveled in the nearly twenty dance performances of the Sikh youth – mostly based on variations of the bhangra – with groups from the Bayou City and as far away as Dallas and San Antonio. Overall the show was a success and the community enjoyed the performances, but many felt that the con-tracted technical director Arif Memon, had let them down.

the groups – the Desi Divas and the Bhangre Diyan Raniyan - showed the moves that they had learnt, with as much vigor, even in their party clothes.

Later, the dance floor was opened to all and it was heartening to see it packed with kids young and older, dancing to Punjabi

beats, and cutting loose, arms in the air, hips swinging, feet moving as their moms joined in and most of the men and many of their el-ders looked on in amusement. If music is a key to the culture that it came from, then these kids had certainly got it, it seemed, so let them dance!

Now it was their turn to let loose and most of the local performers and mainly the 150 younger ones, came to receive awards for their individual efforts from the PCS committee that had put the whole event together. There they were, many with their parents and other relatives there to witness there achievement as their names were called out and they received their tro-phies this past Sunday, May 22.

As Jasmeeta Singh, the lead choreogra-pher and coordinator for the Vaisakhi event called out their names, each group came forward to the podium, with a bhangra dance riff played out by DJ Mani from his booth on the side. “We really appreciate the hard work and brilliant performances that these kids have put in,” said PCS President Manohar Singh Mann, as he took the mike, surrounded by his organizing committee. “They made the Vaisakhi program a huge success.”

And then, just before a buffet dinner ca-tered by Gourmet India restaurant, two of

Top: Akash Singh in front with Bhangre diyan Raniyan dancers at the awards.Center: (from right) Jawahar Malhotra, with the Board of Directors Amarpreet Kaur, Gurprit Bhusri, Jasmeeta Singh, Hardeep Kaur, Sukhpreet Kaur, Manohar Singh Mann, Pritpal Singh, Bhai Amar Singh,Sampuran Singh and Aman Singh SidhuBottom: Platinum Sponsors Mr. and Mrs Bawa and Mr and Mrs. H.S Mangat. Photos: Jasleen Kaur


8 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comS o c i e t y

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western Union western Union w celebrates celebrates c160 years of Innovationyears of Innovationy

Core strengths drive company’s move toward futureENGLEWOOD, CO: The Western Union

Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, today celebrates 160 years of innovation, renewing its focus on developing new ways of moving money for better. With 455,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories, in 2010 the company performed an average of nearly 1.7 million transactions a day, or about 19 per second.

Western Union’s vast network supports a

host of promising financial services, includ-ing prepaid cards, bill payment, in-country transfers, and account-based money trans-fer. And with a position at the center of the emerging cross border mobile money transfer infrastructure, Western Union is poised to stay ahead of the evolving needs of consumers.

“As I look back at Western Union’s histo-ry, I am amazed by the company’s incred-ible evolution, from our pioneering of the telegraph business to our position today as a global leader in money transfer solutions for individuals and businesses alike,” said Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek.

“Our longevity is an interesting fact, but it is our legacy that really makes us proud. The money we help people send home changes lives and builds economies. It is a virtuous cycle, when people pay for educa-tion or for starting a new business,” said Ersek.

A History Rich in InnovationWestern Union, founded in 1851 as a

telegraph business in Rochester, New York, added its money transfer service in 1871 and has since grown to become a global leader in the money transfer indus-try. The company’s founders, Hiram Sibley and Samuel Selden, set out to unite a hap-hazard web of telegraph lines into a unified network, resulting in an efficient, growing business.

The birth of the telegraph industry in the 1800s reflected society’s growing need for connections between friends, family and businesses. In the 1900s, the company con-

tinued to innovate with new technologies, from ticker tape to commercial satellites.

Western Union Today Western Union today is unique. While the

world’s financial services industry is built for those with credit, plastic, stable income and access to the Internet, Western Union focuses on making it possible for millions of people to go places, prosper and build better lives. Western Union is creating new possibilities for small business owners who

compete abroad and for everyday consum-ers with financial needs and few others to whom they can turn.

Thanks to its consumers and Agents, Western Union continues to prosper, re-porting $5.2 billion in revenues in 2010. Its business model generates strong cash flow which will aid growth strategies go-ing forward.

The company also leverages its expansive global network to identify opportunities in developed and emerging markets where giving back can make the most impact. Since 2001, the Western Union Founda-tion has awarded more than $73 million in grants to more than 2,000 nongovern-mental organizations (NGOs) in over 100 countries and territories.

About Western Union The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU)

is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides con-sumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to pur-chase money orders. The Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of approximately 455,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2010, The Western Union Com-pany completed 214 million consumer-to-con-sumer transactions worldwide, moving $76 bil-lion of principal between consumers, and 405 million business payments. For more informa-tion, visit www.westernunion.com.


9 99Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com S o c i e t y

RICHMOND, TX: After a long 5 months effort by Ravi Shakar and Savita Puri, a spec-tacular event; Mata ki Chowki was organized on May 14 at the Richmond residence of Sachin and Radha Sharma. The nine day long event was open to all and was attended by more than 150 people every day. The entire journey from Katra to Maa Vaishno Devi’s Bhawan was recreated to give feeling of India, yet being thousands of miles away from it. They faced many obstacles , however by Mataji’s blessings, those obstacles became a

learning curve and they are proud to have pre-sented this one of a kind experience in USA.

During the journey through “Guffa”, de-votess passed through Banganga, Charan paduka, Ardhkuwari, Vaishno-Dhaba, Sanjhi Chhat and Chhat and Chhat Charan Gan-ga before entering the Bhawan. Lots of props were placed along the way to bring the feel of the actual yatra. At the end of the yatra, at Cha-ran Ganga, devotees stepped in a small sec-tion of icy cold water.

Safety was their number one priority, while building the guffa. The entire yatra was made of wooden studs and PVC pipes and utmost care was taken to maintain structural integrity for safe passage through it. The Ardhkuwari (Garb June) was built to a level that was not too tight and carpet was placed underneath to accomodate people crawling through it. There was also a By-pass created for elderly and for those who decided not to crawl through the cave.

Many dedicated volunteers were present at different stages of the Guffa to help and guide devotees. “We were truely blessed

that our vision came to life and was well appreciated by all Mata ke bhakt”, Said Ravi Shakra Puri, the main organizer of the event.

For more informa-tion about this event, visit http://jai-maa.webs.com or call Ravi Shankar Puri at 713-480-7284

Vaishno devi Guffa Yatra in HoustonGuffa Yatra in HoustonGuffa Yatra

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Indian diplomat’s daughter Files $1.5mLaw suit Against new york york y city Govt

NEW YORK (TOI): An Indian diplomat’s daughter is suing New York City’s government for $1.5 million for what she claims was a wrongful arrest on the suspicion of sending obscene emails to her teacher in Queens’ John Browne High School.

Krittika Biswas, daughter of the vice counsel at the Indian Con-sulate in Manhattan, Debashish Biswas, also claims that she was ill-treated in prison.

Biswas alleged that she was not allowed to use the bathroom for a long-time when she was in custo-dy at the 107th precinct. “Even-tually, I had to go in front of ev-eryone,” Biswas said, referring to a small toilet that was in the cell occupied by other persons.

Her lawyer Rajiv Batra said that her more than 24-hour ar-rest on February 8 was a viola-tion of international law, federal

law as well as state and city law. Batra said that neither Debash-ish Biswas, father of the girl, nor the Consulate General of India, Prabhu Dayal, were informed of the arrest.

Batra also claimed that Biswas, 18, had diplomatic immunity

that prevented her from being arrested. But the Consulate Gen-eral said that US authorities in-formed him that the immunity did not extend to family mem-bers of the diplomat. “That did not cut any ice,” said.

It later emerged that Biswas did not send the emails and the school authorities eventually al-lowed her back to the school af-lowed her back to the school af-lowed her back to the school after the real culprit was found.

“They based it (the arrest) on basically nothing,” Krittika Biswas said, adding that the school did not suspend or arrest the Chinese student who actual-

Krittika Biswas, an Indian diplomat’s daughter who claims she was falsely arrested for sending obscene emails to her teacher, is suing New York City for $1.5 million.

ly sent the emails. “I don’t know why he wasn’t arrested... the principal pushed for my arrest.”

Biswas said that a cop told her that if she didn’t confess, she would have to spend time in pris-on with prostitutes and persons with HIV. “I was sitting there

(school) with handcuffs on,” she said.

The handcuffs, Batra added, were so tight that “they were like a torture device.”

The New York Police Department did not re-spond to calls and an email seeking a response.

Batra lashed out at prin-cipal Howard Kwait and the teacher Jamie Kim Ross, who was the recipi-ent of the emails. “They did not do the due dili-gence before getting her arrested,” he said. “They were dead wrong.”

Krittika said that she couldn’t drink water from a water fountain because it had another person’s vomit, and although it was really cold, she could not

use the blanket because it was re-ally dirty.

Dayal said that Krittika de-served compensation from the government. “She has undergone mental torture and physical tor-ture,” he said. “This has scarred her mind for the rest of he life.

Dayal stressed, however, that the incident has no bearing on Indo-US relations. “This is an aberration... a wrongful act of lo-cal officials,” he said.

Batra suggested that Mayor Michael Bloomberg give Biswas “a key to the city” to “unruffle some of the ruffled feathers.”

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11 1111Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com S o c i e t y

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Gayatri mahayagya by Houston Gayatri PariwarHOUSTON: On Sunday, May

22, 24 Kundi Gayatri Mahayag-ya was performed successfully by Houston Gayatri Pariwar un-der the guidance of All World Gayatri Pariwar’s (AWGP’s) headquarter, Shantikunj located in Haridwar, India.

A lot of people think that yag-ya is yet another meaningless, time consuming religious ritual. But is Yagya merely a ritual? But is Yagya merely a ritual? Recent scientific studies say it is Recent scientific studies say it is not. Sacrificing and sublimating not. Sacrificing and sublimating the havan samagri in the yagya the havan samagri in the yagya fire with chanting of vedic manfire with chanting of vedic man-tras is only the physical tras is only the physical process or ritual of Yagya. process or ritual of Yagya. Yagya has much wider and Yagya has much wider and deeper meaning. Yagya is deeper meaning. Yagya is a philosophy about how a philosophy about how to live life. The central to live life. The central theme of Yagya is - Vision, theme of Yagya is - Vision, courage and sentiment courage and sentiment of keeping the least for of keeping the least for self-joy and sharing the self-joy and sharing the maximum possible for the maximum possible for the welfare of the society as a welfare of the society as a whole is the core of perwhole is the core of per-forming Yagya and adopting its philos-ophy in human life.

Apart from Yagya’s Apart from Yagya’s message of selfless service, scimessage of selfless service, sci-ence has proved its beneficial ence has proved its beneficial effect on both personal health and surrounding environment. Yagya renews the brain cells, re-vitalizes the skin, purifies blood and prevents growth of patho-genic organisms. Air enriched by negative ions through Yagya is proved to be exceptionally good for mental and physical health.

The potency of the medicinal herbs and other healthy sub-stances amplifies million times after sublimation in Yagya, de-stroys the germs and eliminates the toxic particles and pollutants. The Yagya-vapors clustered on clouds are enshowered on soil and water bodies. This purifies and enriches the water-resources with vital elements and eradi-cates worms and germs.

AWGP was founded by Ved-murty Taponishth Pandit Shriram

Hum Badlenge, Yug Badlega..Hum Sudhrainge, Yug Sudhre-ga” If we change ourselves with good thought & actions, we can change the world to be a better place. To achieve this we need to follow 3 things: (1) Upasna – gaining virtuous qualities and in-spiration from one’s ideal, which could be God or any other great personality like Swami Viveka-nanda (2) Sadhna – controlling nanda (2) Sadhna – controlling our senses and our resources our senses and our resources both physical and mental (3) both physical and mental (3)

Aaradhna– serving our soAaradhna– serving our so-ciety and the underpriviciety and the underprivi-leged with the inspiraleged with the inspira-tion, idea and the energy tion, idea and the energy

gained from Upasna gained from Upasna and Sadhna.and Sadhna.AWGP has initiated AWGP has initiated seven movements seven movements to help bring to help bring about a complete about a complete

and lasting transforand lasting transfor-mation in the world. mation in the world. These movements These movements

are: 1. Self Refineare: 1. Self Refine-ment 2. Health ment 2. Health

3 . E d u c a t i o n 3 . E d u c a t i o n 4. Self Reli-ance 5. Envi-

r o n - ment Protection - ment Protection 6. Women Empowerment and 6. Women Empowerment and Awakening 7. Deliverance from Awakening 7. Deliverance from addictions and Eradication of evil customs.

2011-2012, AWGP is celebrat-ing 100 years of the birth of Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya world-wide. It is being celebrated as the birth centenary of thought revolution. Just like millions of people took part in India’s freedom struggle, we call upon people to take active part in this world changing event. Now is the time to think - am I a part in this revolution or not?

For more information about the science of yagya please refer to the book: Reviving the Ve-dic Culture of Yagya -http://lit-erature.awgp.org/englishbook/GayatriYagya/yagya_abhiyan/. For more information about AWGP and the Thought Trans-formation Movement please visit www.awgp.org

Sharma Acharya with the aim of the transformation of era by changing people’s thoughts. Un-der the guidance of his Hima-layan guru, pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya performed a very in-tense tap (penance) of yearly chanting of 2.4 million gayatri mantras until 24 years with daily diet of small cup of buttermilk & two chapattis. With such a big task big task o f o f c h a n gc h a n g --ing the

world back to the Golden E r a at his hand, at his hand, h e h e wrote 3200 books and started Akhand Jyoti, a monthly maga-zine containing articles on sci-entific spirituality. He fought for the freedom of India, travelled across the whole country, es-tablished 2400 centers includ-ing “Shantikunj” (the global headquarter for thought revolu-tion movement), went to Hima-layas three times for Tap and fought against evil social cus-toms. In spite of strong opposi-tion Pt. Shriram fought against the dogma preventing chanting of Gayatri mantra by females and non-brahmins. He said ev-erybody is born shudra but be-comes a brahmin by his karmas (actions). Today, because of him one can openly chant gayatri mantra regardless of their caste, sex, religion etc.

Gayatri Pariwar’s motto is “


13 1313Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.comS o c i e t y

dAV montessori school school s celebrates Graduation celebrates Graduation c dayHOUSTON: May 15 was a

memorable day for the little graduates of DAV Montessori School (DAVMS) as they walked across the stage in their sky blue graduation caps and gowns to re-ceive their graduation certificates from Chief Guests Jugal and Raj Malani.

The entire Arya Samaj Greater Houston complex was teeming with students and their parents and grandparents to celebrate the graduates and the eleventh anni-versary of Dayanand Anglo Vedic Montessori School in Houston. DAVMS, as it is fondly called, constantly strives to make its students aware of India’s Vedic heritage and culture. A conscious and concerted effort is made ev-ery single day to highlight and fo-cus on this glorious heritage and culture. The children are taught Hindi, yoga, naitik shiksha (mor-al education), and shlokas in ad-dition to celebrating both Indian and American holidays. As the name suggests, the Montessori curriculum of teaching is adopted at DAVM to introduce these kids as they make their way through early years of learning through to 1st grade.

Arti Khanna, in her annual school report, gave us an over-view of how DAVMS students have not only excelled in aca-demics but also in extracur-ricular activities and community outreach. During the 2010-11 School year, the students had two

community outreach fundrais-ers – first collecting donations for the Houston Food Bank be-tween Diwali and Christmas, and then in spring they raised $2,200 in a bike-a-thon to support St. Jude, a pediatric cancer and re-search hospital. She highlighted the fact that on academic front, and in the national standardized tests conducted by the school each year, DAVMS’ KG and first grade students have consistently scored 2-3 grade levels higher both in language and in Math-ematics.

Khanna also credited DAVMS’ success to the hard work and selfless dedication of its ex-tremely talented and qualified teachers and in equal part to its energetic parent volunteer team. The parent volunteers have led not only the fundraisers men-

tioned above, but also raised over $2,000 in a book fair to build out classroom libraries and resourc-es, have organized the Talent & Fashion show and a Halloween carnival, and have been the si-lent force behind producing the School’s Yearbook. This year a few of the parents shared the MC role and also gave testimonials as to the quality and care that is built into the DAVMS’ teaching philosophy that weaves the Vedic philosophy seamlessly into the Montessori approach to impart-ing learning to young children. However, the cultural program that followed and which was comprised of several dances by the different classes, really stole the limelight.

The poise and confidence ex-hibited by the students in their performances was a sight to be-

hold. DAVMS children have a multitude of opportunities to per-form on stage in front of audienc-es throughout the year, and this gives them an edge by building their self-confidence and a foun-dation for future success. The program started off with a dance by 2½ to 3½ year olds of Green Class, followed by a performance by Red class which left the audi-ence awe-struck. More was to follow as the Blue class upped the ante in their dances based on the song “Made in India” and interplay between Krishna & Go-pis. However, KG & 1st grade students of Yellow class were the icing on the cake as they danced to the tune of “Des Rangeela” and then delivered a befitting and imaginative cap to the program by celebrating in a song & dance the Indian Cricket Team’s lifting

ay

of the World Cup.The hall was brought to its

feet by these scintillating perfor-mances, and the children in their colorful costumes and handling pressures with self-confidence were a sight to behold. Every performance was enacted as a labor of love, the music, the col-orful costumes, and the makeup were simply breathtaking. The entire program was presented flawlessly.

Khanna thanked the manage-ment committee members, Acha-rya jis, parents, and reminded everyone that, though only a few were mentioned, she has had an army of soldiers, by way of teachers, volunteers and others who are always in our hearts. The day concluded traditionally with a beautiful Shanti Path by Acharya Praveen Gulati ji.

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Lavanya Ananth’s recital recital r replete with Impeccable replete with Impeccable r movement, Arresting PosesBy kalyanikalyanik Giri

HOUSTON: With a performance born of soulful spirituality and an intrinsic understanding of her craft, accomplished young award-winning dancer from Chennai, India, Lavanya Ananth enchanted a capacity audience at the Kaplan Theater, Jewish Community Cen-ter, with an outstanding Bhara-thanatyam recital. Jointly hosted by three local organizations Bhara-thi Kalai Manram, Samarpanam, and Silambam on May 22, the pre-sentation, Nrithya Samarchitha, which means An Offering Through Dance, bore testimony to Ananth’s prowess as a choreographer of note and was a study in the adherence to tradition, lyrical grace, and elo-quent facial expression. Ananth’s visit to this city was part of her na-tionwide concert/workshop tour; traveling with her was a formida-bly gifted live orchestra, also from Chennai, whose artistic cohesion with the dancer made for a cultur-ally enriching experience. A dis-ciple of luminaries in the exalted ilk of S. K. Rajarathnam Pillai, and Dr. K. J. Sarasa in the Vazhuvoor style of dance, Ananth also came under the expert tutelage of the doyen of abhinaya, Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan.

Swathed in an orange and pink costume, Ananth began with Nrityanjali followed by the Amba Sthuti that described the goddess Devi in all her majestic beauty and incar-nations. Replete with arresting poses, and meticulous hand and foot movements, the Amba Sthuti accorded the dancer a broad landscape to showcase her finesse at abhi-naya, or facial expression. Ananth’s next piece, Swami ye Azhaithodi Vaadi, an ex-acting varnam penned by the storied mae-

stro K. N. Dandayuthapani Pillai, told of a maiden’s yearn-ing to be united with her beloved Lord Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer. Through a com-plex vocabulary of expressions and hand gestures, the heroine cajoled, begged, and scold-ed her friend to hasten her on her way to bring Lord Nataraja to her. Interspersed with interludes of pure dance in impec-cable rhythm, and excerpts of elabo-rate storytelling, the dancer drew parallels between the heroine’s long-ing for her celes-tial lover and the soul’s yearning for salvation. The dancer’s poetic interpretation of the varnam drew attention to the hypnotic timbre of vocalist Murali Parthasarathy’s voice as he seg-ued through the garland of ragas effortlessly and

empathetically. The Devar Nama was an engaging com-

position by poet Purandara Dasa telling of the gopis’ many questions regarding the divine child god Krishna. Was he really a child, they pondered. How could that be when he flirted with them and asked im-pertinent questions that discomfited them? Perplexed, the gopis discuss Krishna, tell-ing of his mischievousness and oftentimes risqué behavior. Then one of the gopis re-veals that Krishna appeared to her as Lord Purandara Vittala, the deity of the village and a form of Lord Vishnu. The tower-

ing Ardhanarishvara Sthuti vividly displayed Ananth’s felicity for conveying moods and emotions through the whisper of a smile or the errant lift of a brow. In her portrayal of the composite androgynous form of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati, Ananth dramatically articulated the glowing, scented, melting grace of Parvati in contrast to the vigor, energy, and ash-smeared Shiva.

A critically acclaimed dancer Ananth ranks among India’s dance-elite today, a status very tough to achieve in the competitive field of the arts. She is a recipi-ent of the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award from the Sangeet Na-tak Akademi in 2007,

among many other honors. Her inordi-nately gifted accompanists along with vo-calist Parthasarathy included nattuvanaar S. Srilata, violinist R. Kalaiarasan, and mridangam vidvan M. S. Sukhi who cre-ated the music arrangements for the perfor-mance. Seated proudly in the audience was Ananth’s older sister, also a gifted dancer, Houston-based medical doctor Shobana Chandrasekhar; back home in Chennai, the sisters often performed together.

For more information about Lavanya Ananth, visit http://www.lavanya-ananth.com/home.html.

A critically acclaimed dancer, Lavanya Ananth ranks among India’s dance-elite today, a status very tough to achieve in the com-petitive field of the arts. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award from the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2007, among many other honors.

Local dance teachers with Lavanya Ananth Photos: Navin Mediwala


15 1515Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

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Life Lessons from a Glass of water!Not worrying too much about the problem is the first step to solve it.

By Prakash iyer(CTS) A chemistry professor

decided to teach his students a different lesson one day. Holding a glass of water in his hand, he asked the students,

“How much do you think this glass of water weighs?” “500 grams!” came a voice from the back. “600,” said another stu-dent. “I don’t really know!” said the professor, holding the glass up to make sure everyone could see it. “And unless we weigh it, we won’t know.” With the glass still in his outstretched hand, the professor continued, “What will happen if I hold it like this for a few minutes?”

“Nothing!” came the reply. “Right, and if I hold it for an hour like this, what might hap-pen?” “Your hand will begin to hurt,” said a student. “Indeed. And what would happen if I held the glass in my hand like this for 24 hours?”

“You would be in tremendous pain,” said one student.

“Your hand will probably go numb,” said another.

“Your arm will be paralysed and we’ll need to rush you to the hospital!” said a student on the last bench.

“True,” said the professor. “But notice that through all this, the weight of the glass did not

change. What then causes the pain?”

The class went quiet. The stu-dents seemed puzzled.

“What should I do to avoid the

pain?” asked the professor.“Put the glass down!” said a

student.“Well said!” exclaimed the

professor. “And that’s a lesson I want you to remember. The prob-lems and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about

them for a while and nothing happens. But think about it a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralysed

– incapable of doing anything. It’s important to remember to let go of your problems. Remember to put the glass down!”

We may not have been in that classroom that day, but it’s a lesson we would all do well to remember. Put the glass down!

Always.It’s not just problems and wor-

ries. Sometimes, we feel hurt and betrayed by a friend. And we carry that grudge through our

lives. It grows and causes us anguish and pain. Learning to forgive – and for-get – is not just good for the other people, it’s great for you. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail and when he was fi-nally freed, you can understand how an-gry and vengeful he must have felt. But guess what? When he became President, he invited his jailers to be present at the inauguration – in the VIP seats! If he could forgive after 27 years of suffering, surely we can too.

It is the same with our fears too.

A failure or an incident in early childhood becomes a deeply en-trenched fear over time. Fear of public speaking, fear of Maths, fear of rejection. You name it, and chances are, we have it. Someone gave us that glass to hold when we were little kids – ‘you are

clumsy, you are no good, you can’t do it’ - and we have faith-fully held on to it all our lives. ‘I can’t’ - becomes a thought that stays in our mind and grows – leading us to complete paralysis. Time to put the glass down!

The story goes that there was a hardworking man who lived a contented life with his wife and children. Every evening when he returned from work, he’d follow a ritual. Outside the door to his house were three nails. On the first one, he’d put his hat. On the second he’d hang his coat. And on the third nail, he’d unwrap an imaginary turban from his head and ‘put’ it there. A friend hap-pened to see this and enquired what he was putting on the third nail every day.

“Those are my problems, my worries and my anger,” said the man. “I have lots of that at work, but when I come home, I remem-ber to take it off – and leave them outside. I don’t take them home with me.” Maybe you should learn to do that too. Starting to-day. Put the glass down. And see the difference!

Prakash Iyer is MD, Kimber-ly-Clark Lever and Executive Coach. For more inspiring life lessons, read Mr Iyer’s new book The Habit of Winning.

Advice

17 online edition: www.indoamerican-news.comOnline Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, mAy 27 , 2011 • online edition: www.indoamerican-news.com

17 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011s o c i e t y

IAmA Fund raiser for charitable Health clinic

By NaNd KapoorELMHURST, IL: Indian Ameri-

can Medical Association (IAMA) held fundraising dinner on Saturday May 15 at Waterford banquet, in Elmhurst, Illinois. It was attended by approximately 500 people includ-ing imminent doctors, philanthropist, politicians (including former sena-tor and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun).

The program started with the na-tional anthem of America followed by the Indian national anthem. The gathering was welcomed by Dr. An-nita John, President, Indian American Medical association of Illinois who thanked the audience for generously supporting the charitable cause for humanity. She mentioned that their target for fundraising of that event was 200,000 dollars.

Dr. Sanjay Amin, chairman IAMACF explained the activities of the charitable foundation including outpatient care which included 3,000 patient visits last year, who were provided with medical care, basic labs, diagnostic services like x-ray, medicine etc. He also acknowledged the support of the community and the important role of volunteers includ-ing Doctors and others in running the clinic.

Dr. Rajinder Gupta, Adjunct Pro-fessor, Kellogg School of Manage-ment introduced Ricardo Estrada was the guest speaker of the night. Estra-da’s accomplishment among others

include appointment as member of board of trustee of university of Il-linois and member of transition team of Hon. Rahm Emanuel, Mayor, City of Chicago. Estrada in his address to the audience appreciated the work done by the foundation and the free clinic. He said that he himself when young had used services of clinic’s like this one. Honorable Senator and ambassador to New Zealand, Carol Moseley Braun expressed her happiness and thanked the Indian doctor and community at large for their efforts towards humanity and service of less fortunate.

The function started with a cock-tail reception and sumptuous dinner was catered by Waterford banquet hall owned by Dinesh Gandhi. The program concluded with a musical program “Suhana Safar” by orches-tra Saregama.

Dr. Annita John, President, Indian American Medical association of Illinois

Prafulla Pillai (Thankam), Se-nior Technical Advisor in the Elec-trical Engineering Dept. of KBR, Houston passed away on Sunday, May 15 in Austin. Pillai (65) is survived by her husband, Nalina Pillai, son Dr. Deepak, daughter-in-law Dr. Padmam Sriram and daughter Maya Pillai.

During her lifetime of distin-guished achievements, Pillai was associated with several profes-sional, social and cultural activities especially, IEEE, the global pro-fessional organization of electrical

and electronics engineers and the Malayalee Engineers Association of Houston.

A “Celebration of Life” ceremony was held at VPSS Haveli on Sat, May 21 at 2pm.

OBITUARY

Rabindranath Tagore Samman for Utpala dubeyNEW DELHI: On the oc-

casion of the 150th birth an-niversary of poet and Noble laureate Rabindranath Tag-ore, Utpala Dubey, a native Houstonian, was awarded the prestigious Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Sam-man. The ceremony took place in New Delhi on May 7 on 150th birthday of Gu-rudev Rabindranath Tagore.

The award was presented by Justice Ganendra Narayan Ray, Chairman Press Coun-cil of India and Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, Former Gov-

ernor and Union minister. This award was presented to

Dubey in recognition of her out-standing services, achievements and contributions. Earlier this year on the eve of India’s Republic Day at the 30th International Congress of NRIs in New Delhi. Dubey was also awarded the “Hind Rattan Award” by the NRI welfare society of India for her contributions, services and achievements and keeping the flag of India high.

Dubey is a bright, upcoming project management professional and currently works for BHP Billiton in Houston.

The award was presented by Jus-tice Ganendra Narayan Ray, Chair-man Press Council of India and Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, Former Governor and Union minister.

online edition: www.indoamerican-news.com18 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011 Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com


e d i t o r i a l

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Transparent LaborBy pradeep aNaNd

Recently I had an interesting experience with AT&T’s customer service department. I needed help in getting a voice mailbox for my daughter’s smartphone. She had done something quite unique for someone of her generation—moved from an iPhone to a Black-Berry Torch, but that’s another story.

I called up AT&T’s service department. I was provided good service in creating the voice mailbox. The process took some time but I was quite satisfied with the outcome.

It was only when the call ended that I discovered that when I was put on hold, in-stead of listening to mu-zak or AT&T commer-cials, I heard cackle of a call center. I distinctly remember being curi-ous about the language being spoken in the background, to get clues to the country where the service was outsourced. I heard only indistinguishable gibberish in the background.

This simple task of adding a voice mailbox took an inordi-nately long time, yet at the end of the task, if AT&T had surveyed me, I would have given a kind and cheerful rating, contrary to how I rationally felt about this simple task taking so long.

Two days later, I read about a connected research by Ryan Buell and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School. It revealed that waiting during a service-call be-comes more tolerable when there is an appearance of work being

helped me manage my own expec-tations. Consequently, I was more than satisfied with the service.

I now realized why I did not mind waiting at my favorite piz-zeria, where I could see Antonio performing, tossing up a pizza behind a transparent glass wall. Similarly, the wait at the plush Khyber Restaurant in Mumbai

was mitigated by similar aero-histrionics in the making of “Roomali Roti”.

I began noticing this “wait experience”

first at food establishments, such as Starbucks—each order

is processed individually with the added drama of steaming each cup. Personalization by writing the customer’s name on the cup was an added contribution to the overall “customer experience”. I also noticed the trend while

I was shopping in my neigh-borhood, especially at

automotive service establishments—car washes, oil change, tire

stores. At these places, customers could see the action. I was quite astonished to see how many men watched and followed their cars as they went through the car washing process behind a glass window.

Now that the benefits of “labor transparency” are visible to the commercial world at large, I expect it to grow in popularity. However, care should be taken to assure that customer’s don’t think that it is a “labor illusion”. Most customers, like me, do not take kindly to being taken for a ride, especially in the drive to improve customer satisfaction scores rather than real productivity.

done on a customer’s behalf. Additionally, customers will

value the service more than they would without this transparency. Moreover, the labor illusion can also be effective in increasing cus-tomer support scores for the same time spent on that service.

H o w - ever, this

transpar-ency of customer-oriented labor is valuable when results are ac-ceptable; it does not overcome poor results.

“Aha!” I went as I quickly made the contextual connections. On one hand, I was impressed with AT&T’s subtle method of wanting to increase customer satisfaction without actually improving their operations but my inner consumer was repelled by the concept of “labor illusion”.

Customer satisfaction is about managing the buyer’s expecta-tions and exceeding them. The call center cackle while waiting

The numbers Game

Tell any Indian politician that only non-performers resort to superstitions, and they will probably bring before you an array of believers who are performers too. So there’s probably no inverse link between being superstitious and being good at work also or vice versa. Yet no one can deny that Indian

politicians — cutting across party, region and language lines — are uniformly great believers in numbers, dates and every-thing that falls in between. Many have been known to be close to godmen, which India’s never short of. Take the case of newly-crowned chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha. The Queen of Poes Garden, who has been the chief minister twice before, chose May 16, the root number being 7, for the swearing-in date. She also inducted 33, which when you add her, adds up to 7. So it is highly probable that many underperformers may have slipped into the cabinet only on the virtue of being a ‘number’.

Bengal’s giant-killer Mamata Banerjee also seems to have been bitten by this bug. Ms Banerjee seems to have taken a liking to Friday since she defeated the CPI(M) on May 13 and took over on May 20. Of course, Didi won’t be found wanting in connecting this to realpolitik too. She also loves Friday because it’s auspicious for Muslims, who form 27% of the state’s popula-tion. But there’s no point blaming politicians alone. We all are a bit superstitious one way or the other. Some of us wouldn’t cross a road if a cat crosses our path or walk under a ladder or have certain kinds of food on certain days. All this when probably there’s nothing earth-shattering for us to look forward to. Neither is any money riding on us to hit a last-ball six and make a neat packet for that. But taking a cue from cricketers and politicians, we must also figure out lucky colours and numbers since the appraisal season is still not over. Maybe a couple of letters to the name could help add some zeros to the figure in the letter. Now let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Hindustan Times

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It is sad mukesh Ambani Lives in such such s opulence: Fellow Tycoon Tataopulence: Fellow Tycoon Tatao

By ashis rayrayrLONDON (TOI) : Tata group chief

Ratan Tata has said he is surprised why fellow tycoon Mukesh Am-bani wants to live in the opulence of a billion-dollar home in south Mumbai.

“It makes me wonder why some-one would do that,” Tata said in an in-terview published on Saturday in The Times newspaper of London. “The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and (ask) can he make a differ-can he make a differ-can he make a difference,” Tata said when asked about Antilla, the 27-storey Ambani home on Altamount Road. “If he is not, then it is sad because India needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways to miti-gate the hardship that people have.” Ex-pressing concern about the rich-poor gap, Tata said, “We are doing so little about the dispar-little about the dispar-little about the disparity. We are allowing it to be there and wishing it away.”

The tycoon, who bought steel maker Corus and car manu-facturer Jaguar Land Rover in 2006 and 2008 to become the biggest manufacturing employer in Britain, also questioned the work ethic of British managers, saying they did not “go the extra mile” unlike their In-dian counterparts. “It’s a work ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody. I feel if you have come from Mumbai to have a meeting and the meeting goes on till 6pm, I would expect that you won’t, at 5 o’clock, say, ‘Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go

home’.”pulence: Fellow Tycoon Tata

home’.”pulence: Fellow Tycoon Tata

Stating that things were different back home, Tata added, “If you are in a crisis (in India), it means working till midnight, you would do it. The worker in JLR seems to be willing to do that; the management is not.” He said earlier, JLR’s entire engineering group would be empty on Friday evenings. But that had changed. “The new management team has put an end to that. They call meetings at 5 o’clock.”

Tata also spoke about having had to shift Nano’s 85% installed plant from Bengal to Gujarat following Mamata Banerjee’s opposition. “In the dead of night, you had to start taking tools out of that factory, build another factory, deliver a car from an interim factory; and do all this in

The 27-story house of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, in Mumbai

a year. The first thing you (the JLR management) will say is, ‘It can’t be done, that you will need a court order or police cover.’. Yet we did it.”

His comments come as Tata Steel proposes to close part of its plant in the UK, putting at risk 1,200 jobs.

Tata said the UK had a high level of despon-dency about itself. “I have a greater degree of bull-ishness about the UK and what it stands for. But nobody seems to want to make the effort to make the UK truly competitive or bring it back to the glory that it was. I think there is a feeling that there is no innovation—there is great innovation in the UK. There is great tech-nology,” he said.

Tata, who is a member of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s busi-ness advisory group and co-chairman of the UK-India CEO Forum, said India was lucky to have Barack Obama in the US and Cameron in the UK.

“Both of them are open to ideas; they are very pragmatic in their views. Each of them feels that India is a land of some opportunity for themselves. I think he (Cameron) is doing some-thing quite far-sighted because we really have long traditional ties with England.”

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roommate is Arraigned in roommate is Arraigned in r rutgers rutgers r suicide suicide s caseBy richardrichardr perez- peNaNaN & a & a

NateNateN schweBerNEW BRUNSWICK, N.J (NYT):

Eight months after he was accused of using a webcam to spy on his room-mate’s intimate encounter with anoth-er man, a former Rutgers University student on Monday stood in court for the first time to answer criminal charges. By itself, what prosecutors call an invasion of his roommate’s privacy, motivated by antigay bias, would have drawn no attention be-yond the Piscataway campus where the defendant, Dharun Ravi, shared a room with Tyler Clementi. But three days later, Mr. Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman, stepped to his death from the George Washington Bridge, prompting a national outcry over cyberbullying, prejudice and suicide among gay young people.

According to the Middlesex Coun-ty prosecutor’s office, Ravi raised the stakes in the case by trying to per-stakes in the case by trying to per-stakes in the case by trying to persuade a witness not to cooperate with investigators, erasing text messages and changing a Twitter post related to his webcast of Mr. Clementi. He was indicted last month on 15 counts, including tampering with evidence, witness tampering and bias crimes.

Looking somber in a dark gray suit, Ravi, 19, made a quick and wordless appearance in Superior Court here on Monday, not even speaking to plead not guilty to the 15 counts. His lawyer, Steven D. Altman, did the talking, and the two left without speaking to reporters. Ravi remains free on a $25,000 bond he had posted.

In a sign of how much attention the

case still commands, the lawyers’ statements in the packed courtroom could barely be heard over the click-ing of several press cameras.

The arraignment signaled that the case was unlikely to reach a con-clusion any time soon, since Mr. Altman asked for time to review the case files, and Judge Glenn Berman set the next appearance for July 25. No trial date has been set. “I’m in a difficult position,” Altman told the court, explaining that he still must go through 88 computer discs, 1,600 pages of records and the accounts of 125 witnesses, and that he had not yet received the grand jury transcript. Ra-vi’s co-defendant, Molly Wei, made a deal with prosecutors this month in which the charges against her could be dismissed if she performs 300 hours of community service, undergoes counseling and testifies truthfully in Mr. Ravi’s case. On Monday, Clementi’s parents, Joseph and Jane, sat expressionless in the back row of the courtroom, and later Joseph Clementi read a brief state-ment to reporters, without making any direct reference to Ravi. “We are

eager for the criminal justice process to unfold,” he said.

His comments were more pointed when.Wei appeared in court earlier this month. At that time, Clementi said, “Wei’s actions, although unlaw-ful, are substantially different in their nature and their extent than the ac-tions of Tyler’s former roommate.”

Ravi has not been charged with playing a direct role in the suicide of Clementi, a shy aspiring violinist from Ridgewood, and the authorities have not said why Clementi killed himself. Ravi has been accused of setting up a webcam on Sept. 19, 2010, to view Mr. Clementi without his knowledge, then going to the room of Ms. Wei to turn the camera on remotely and watch. Ms. Wei and Mr. Ravi were high school friends from Plainsboro, N.J., and lived in the same dorm at Rutgers.

“Roommate asked for the room till midnight,” said a message posted that night on Twitter that the authorities attribute to Ravi. “I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” He is accused of setting up the camera again two days later, and urg-ing others to watch.

Posts on a gay chat site, believed to be by Clementi, show that he learned of the spying and decided to report it to a resident adviser. “I feel like it was ‘look at what a fag my roommate is,’ ” he wrote on Sept. 21, adding that Ravi’s friends seemed more upset about his having a gay roommate than about his spying. The next day, Clementi killed himself.

Dharun Ravi, center, a former Rutgers University student, at his arraignment on Monday.

society



2121 Indo American News • Friday, May 27, 2011business india

Binny Bansal: The Flip side of an side of an s e-VentureBy rahulrahulr Jayaram Jayaram J

(Mint) We are at The Oberoi in Bangalore and the previous night’s rain has brought to life the garden overlooking the lobby. It also seems to have energized the 28-year-old man I am sitting with.

Binny Bansal, COO and co-found-er of Flipkart, initially comes across as shy and reserved. Clad in a T-shirt and a pair of denims, Bansal is far removed from the suit-and-tie image I had of the chief operating officer of a company whose 2010-11 turnover was Rs75 crore. But Bansal’s online retailing company is somewhat like him and its co-founder Sachin Bansal (not related to Binny)—there is more to the duo than their unassuming and to the duo than their unassuming and low-profile public personae.low-profile public personae.

Three and a half years Three and a half years into becoming one of Ininto becoming one of In-dia’s fastest growing dia’s fastest growing e-commerce outfits, e-commerce outfits, known particularly known particularly for books, Bansal for books, Bansal cannot forget his cannot forget his company’s first company’s first customer. Or the customer. Or the way he delivered way he delivered the goods for his the goods for his first sale. “After two first sale. “After two weeks of the launch, weeks of the launch, we left messages on we left messages on a lot of blogs about a lot of blogs about Flipkart. One Flipkart. One of those was of those was on the blog of on the blog of a Hyderabad-a Hyderabad-based person based person named V.V.K. named V.V.K. Chandra. He came Chandra. He came to our site searching to our site searching for a book which he for a book which he had been looking for had been looking for for the last two years. It for the last two years. It was Leaving Microsoft was Leaving Microsoft to Change the World to Change the World by John Wood, and he by John Wood, and he placed the order. Next day, placed the order. Next day, we went to several distributors we went to several distributors in Bangalore, but most of them in Bangalore, but most of them didn’t have it. Finally, we didn’t have it. Finally, we traced the book to a store traced the book to a store in the Indiranagar area of in the Indiranagar area of Bangalore. I went there Bangalore. I went there to pick up the book, then found out I didn’t have my wal-let and called a friend who worked nearby to give me money. Then it started raining heavily. Somehow, we packed it and shipped it to the customer. We informed Chandra about the delay. He said he had waited for it for two-three years and could wait for three more days,” Bansal recalls.

“We were clear from the beginning that the focus of our firm would be totally customer-oriented while hav-ing a strong technological base.” Since that first customer (who went to order at least 50 more books in the coming months), there has been no looking back.

Both the Bansals did their soft-ware programming from the Indian

Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Before getting into the “technology of selling books”, Binny Bansal joined the US-based Sarnoff Corp., a firm that is into high-end automation projects for the defence and automo-bile industries, in Bangalore in 2005. In the year and a half he spent there, Bansal developed a lane sensor for cars—a mechanism enabling a cam-era in the car to detect road lanes. If the driver moved from one lane to the other without giving a signal, it would beep automatically. “There are lots of accidents in the West when people doze off on long drives and unconsciously move lanes. I was always into cool technology and working on this was fun.”working on this was fun.”

Today, Bansal has no qualms about being described as India’s

Amazon.com. “Our vision was always

to be the Amazon of India,” he says. F l i p -kart has around 1 0

mil-

lions books

on its catalogue across

different genres and is now moving into

selling other products s u c h as muas mu-

sic and movie CDs, electronic

goods, computers and peripherals. Every month it gets about six million visitors online.

Both the Bansals have worked for Amazon in the past. Sachin joined Amazon in January 2006, followed by Bansal in January 2007. Both quit in September 2007. “While at Amazon, we realized we should do something on our own since the scope for e-commerce was huge,” Bansal says, emphasizing: “I never wanted to go abroad unlike most IITians. I wanted to be in India but create something on the Internet us-ing technology that we can create at home, hoard up and make millions of dollars.”

However, in late 2007, soon after

the company’s launch, it still seemed a risk. “We were lucky since neither of us was married and didn’t have much family responsibility. Sachin and I put in Rs2.5 lakh each and started with seed money of Rs5 lakh.”

They began working from a two-bedroom apartment in Koramanga-la. One of the rooms was converted into an office. They tied up with all the distributors of major Indian pub-lishers in Bangalore. Every day, one of them would go on a bike and buy books to make their own catalogue. “We would sit down on the floor and make the packages to give to the courier agencies for shipment. This went on for three months, with This went on for three months, with just two people running the whole just two people running the whole show,” he says.

Flipkart, headquartered in BanFlipkart, headquartered in Ban-galore, now has around 120 emgalore, now has around 120 em-ployees. Initially, few distributors or ployees. Initially, few distributors or publishers took them seriously. So publishers took them seriously. So

what has been the key to the comwhat has been the key to the com-pany’s sudden rise? From a pany’s sudden rise? From a turnover of a few lakhs in turnover of a few lakhs in

the first year (2007-08) the first year (2007-08) to Rs2.5 crore the next to Rs2.5 crore the next

(2008-09), Rs25 crore in 2009-10 and Rs75 crore now (2010-11)—what was

the real catalyst? “We needed to build

a slick website that was a slick website that was fast, and where the discovery fast, and where the discovery

of the product was easy. Also, of the product was easy. Also, the payment delivery systems the payment delivery systems

had to be easy and smooth,” says had to be easy and smooth,” says Bansal.

An important change took place An important change took place around 2010: the payment mechaaround 2010: the payment mecha-nism. It’s a feature of Flipkart’s modnism. It’s a feature of Flipkart’s mod-el that is distinct from Amazon’s.el that is distinct from Amazon’s.

“We looked at how Chinese “We looked at how Chinese companies—where e-commerce is companies—where e-commerce is huge—did retail online. The US has huge—did retail online. The US has an established credit card culture, an established credit card culture, while China (like India) is a cash-while China (like India) is a cash-based economy with lesser credit based economy with lesser credit card penetration. So looking at e-card penetration. So looking at e-commerce models in China, we put commerce models in China, we put in place a cash-on-delivery system.” in place a cash-on-delivery system.” Today, more than 50% of their orders operate on a cash-on-delivery basis, Bansal says. Most importantly, on nearly each book a consumer buys through Flipkart, the price is “15-35%” cheaper than the cover price.

Though Bansal says Flipkart has transported books to “nearly every pin code in India, and definitely every pin code in Kerala”, 50% of their orders come from the metros: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chen-nai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The re-maining buyers are from other parts of the country. Each day, Flipkart ships 1,000-odd items “through the government book post as so many villages don’t have courier facili-ties”. According to Bansal, the most saleable categories are fiction, trade paperbacks and Indian writers. More

than 60% of Flipkart’s customers are working males between the ages of 25 and 35.

With the iPad and the Kindle, what is the future of books and booksell-ers such as Flipkart? Bansal thinks e-books are advantageous for outfits such as theirs. “It depends on which economies we speak of. In growth terms, India will be behind the West by four-five years when it comes to e-books. The projection for the US

is that 50% of books will be e-books by 2015. In India, it will be by 2018 or 2020, not before that.” He says the demand for the normal paperback or hardcover is still high in India. “The e-format will dominate in India too, but not before the entire structure for it to take off has been set up,” he says.

The distribution model for e-books is online, so that’s a transition Bansal is waiting for.

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Poet, TransfiguredA new Tagore meets the world: painter of images that are non-verbal, and full of querulous lines

By arpita BasuKOLKOTA (Outlook): “I like

his drawings better than his poetry even,” Amrita Sher-Gil is said to have exclaimed, intently studying the paintings around her at a debut exhibition in Paris in 1930. As the poetry she talks about was canon-ical—it earned India (and Asia) its first Nobel—it offers a benchmark to judge the art works that were, at the time, little more than tentative experiments.

The object of her appreciation was Rabindranath Tagore: a man of letters first, whose art existed, for the layman, only as a footnote to an overwhelming oeuvre of prose, drama, music and poetry. That ‘foot-note’ is, in reality, a surprising cor-pus: over 2,000 doodles, sketches and paintings. Though it has taken 70 years to mount this massive can-vas—to mark Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary—it’s been worth the wait. The paintings are now being photographed with special cameras and published in four volumes put together by R. Siva Kumar, art his-tory professor, Vishwa Bharati, as the Rabindra-Chitravali. The first volume was released in Delhi last week; the other three will be out in June. Categorised by themes that range from fantastical animal forms to human faces conceived as masks and portraits, landscapes and more, they hint at a ‘modernist’ turn: a movement away from the classical traits of balance and harmony to-wards an unpredictable aesthetic.

Tagore’s art started from scratch, literally, as he crossed out words and lines, then joined them in his manu-script of Purabi (1924), developing the erasures into decorative, often grotesque doodles that gradually be-came more than a mere indulgence of his love of line and form. The journey from here to his first dated painting in 1928, as a 67-year-old, was one of experimentation and self-exploration; through all of it, Tagore was gripped by a nagging self-doubt about his artistic merit.

Part of that could have stemmed from his lack of formal training in art, though, ironically, that very ab-sence of acquired skill enabled him to express himself freely. “So far, only a few hundred of his art works

have been seen and discussed. In this treasure trove, which includes 1,450 previously unseen works, we discovered that while he started without baggage—and that helped him take the modernist plunge—he taught himself, deliberately honing the craft,” observes scholar-critic and editor of Chitravali, Samik Ban-dyopadhyay. There is a clear line of evolution in his works right up to 1940 (the year before his death)

and somewhere on that graph ap-pear male and female nudes—a sure sign of someone studying the anatomy and trying to master the art. “Also, faces become more complex (many reminiscent of his sister-in-

law Kadambari Debi) and colours get darker. But he uses sudden il-luminated spaces, as if offering a window,” he says.

Though Tagore preferred to keep quill and paintbrush separate, rhythm and structure permeate his art just as they do his writings. This, for artist Jogen Chowdhury, is the outstanding quality of his art. “He was interested in German expressionism, but while its thrust is outwards, he made it his

own, giving it an inward turn, in keeping with Indian spirituality,” says Chowdhury.

Artist Shuvaprasanna points to a clear demarcation between Tagore’s art and writings. “The essence of his writing is ananda (joy), while that of his art is sorrow,” he contends, citing its dark, brooding quality. “Tagore established a language for himself, and opened up avenues in art that inspired us.” Nor was it a self-propagating gene. Ganesh Pyne, who confesses to being in-fluenced by Tagore’s art early on, describes him as an artist “who can never be imitated, but only adopted and internalised”.

If Tagore saw himself as a painter by accident, he honed his talent obsessively (his nephew, the art-ist Abanindranath Tagore, referred to it as a volcanic eruption) un-til, towards the end, it became his chosen medium of expression. “With World War I, Tagore’s faith in civilisation got a battering. Peo-ple thought mankind had learnt its lesson; instead, it rushed into WW-II. It was during this time that he felt the inadequacy of words and turned to images,” analyses Bandyopadhyay. His notebooks thinned out in the ’30s, while he prodigiously produced as many as five paintings a day. And by the time he writes about the radi-ant Chitrabhanu—or the sun of images—in 1937, Tagore knew he had found his passion: painting. So deep was his disenchantment with words that he insisted on keeping all his art untitled.If he was a reluctant artist, con-

temporary reception to his art in In-dia reinforced his misgivings. “His works met with indifference, except from Nandalal Bose, whom Tag-ore brought in to run Kala Bhavan (the art wing at Shantiniketan), and Abanindranath,” says Bandyopad-hyay. But after his shows earned him praise in Europe, Tagore’s self-

confidence grew, though he was still hesitant about offering his art to the public. “He felt his contem-poraries in India were not used to his kind of art, but believed his art would outlive his literary works, because it rose above the limitations of language,” reveals Siva Kumar. Having thrown open his world of images, Chitravali could well of-fer grounds for a genuine revision in our appreciation—and popular acceptance—of Tagore’s art.

In scholarly circles, his position has long been determined. As art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia says, “He brings in moder-nity in the same way that Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy did. Like Amrita, he was trying to combine the east and west to push modern Indian art forward.”

Why, then, was so significant a body of work hidden away, with only a handful of exhibitions in sev-en decades? Security, says Bandyo-padhyay, is a reason for his art being locked up in the safety of vaults, besides concerns of preservation. “Exposing them to the elements, especially light, could damage the works,” he says. Siva Kumar adds another reason: funds. “It was when the ministry of culture decided to come out with the volumes that this project got its momentum. Besides, art publications are a recent phe-nomenon in India.”

Perhaps this is what Tagore would have wanted: that his art be ratified and vindicated before the curtains went up. Even in Chitralipi (1940), the only publication of his art dur-ing his lifetime, Tagore tellingly propped up each drawing with a poem. It was as if he could not assert himself as a painter without having the written word for a crutch. That Rabindra-Chitravali stands on his art alone is a testament to Tagore as a major artist in his own right: something he himself was never entirely convinced about.

Two women Hitherto unseen, colored ink and pastel on paper, Volume 3, 1934

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Unity in militarismThe security establishment would like India to project its power more forcefully abroad. But to position this as an exercise in protecting the nation’s internal unity stretches the imagination, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

By Firdaus ahmed

NEW DELHI (IT): Remem-ber the old primary school les-son about India’s unity in diver-sity? Well, Nitin Pai is offering a new twist on this. His candour is revealing. In an article with the honest title Projecting Power to Protect Unity, he argues that “In-dia must project power abroad to stay united at home.” For those not familiar with him or his work, Pai is editor of Pra-gati and a geopolitics Fellow at the Takshashila Institution. His blog, The Acorn, reflects and furthers the conservative-realist perspective on security.

The article is an excerpt of his speech at a conference at the Army War College, Mhow, which suggests that this perspective has a keen following where it matters. What does this mean for regional security?

India’s rising power is sold as a ‘benign’ development, particu-larly when it is contrasted ad-versely with China’s ‘hegemonic’ rise. Its democratic credentials, record as a non-expansionist state, and strategy of restraint are taken as indicators that new-found In-dian power on the world stage is a non-threatening development. Besides, India is increasingly in-clined towards the West, and since the West holds the levers of the strategic discourse, the country is easily projected as a useful coun-ter-weight to China in Asia.

But is India’s rise really an un-qualified benefit for security, as is made out in such reasoning?

India is a nuclear power in search of a ‘triad’. It has been the larg-est importer of military hardware globally over the past half a de-cade. It is set to retain this position well into this decade as it is gearing up to spend US $100 billion over the period. It has the third largest military in the world, and is look-ing to dominate the Indian Ocean. It is seeking a place among the permanent members of the UNSC. It has political stability and a fast

growing economy. These aspects in themselves do not suggest that India’s growing power needs any worrying about.

India has been status quoist so far, but that does not mean it will always remain so. Nitin Pai argues for ‘reform’ using the logic that India’s internal unity demands an external orientation of its growing power. His thesis is that India’s strategic culture needs changing in light of its growing power cre-dentials. This would enable Indian unity.

What he does not say, but is im-plicit, is that creating an external ‘Other’ would be a useful national enterprise since it would lend India cohesion and national identity. This means an adversarial equa-tion with China and with Pakistan, seen as China’s proxy, would help India stay united internally, help it create and sustain power neces-sary to wrestle with these external challenges. This argument is as subtle as it is self-serving.

Conservative realists such as Pai who form the dominant strain in India’s strategic community use innovative logic for the growing militarisation of India. To them this would create power and the culture to use power appropriately. Power so created would be useful

in warding of the ‘threats’ posed by the ‘Other’, even if the threat arose due to this very creation of power.

There are several problems with this. The more obvious ones are disposed off here first.

There are other more revealing indices of national arrival, such as education, gender balance, poverty figures etc. There is nothing to sug-gest that a growing felicity in the creation and use of power would lead to a corresponding change in the socio-economic indices. Sec-ondly, there is no guarantee that the power gained would be able to offset the combined power of the ‘Other’ so created, China and Paki-stan. It may be hurtful if the nuclear backdrop to the conflict-oriented relations was to come to the fore-ground for some reason later.

Thirdly, the connection between external power projection and in-ternal unity is not readily estab-lished. In the Indira-Rajiv period for instance, there was consider-able Indian muscle flexing such as against Sri Lanka, with no ob-vious effect on internal unity as the outbreak of trouble in Punjab, Kashmir and in social harmony indicate.

Fourth, the recent exchange of words between India and Pakistan

over India’s ca-pability to do a ‘Geronimo’ (the operation to kill Osama bin Laden in foreign terri-tory) has, in the words of the Pakistani for-eign secretary, ‘catastrophic’ portents. If this is the case now; once power grows it would make India insufferable. Noting that the US exercise of

power has little to commend it, we should recognise that power is not necessarily a useful acquisition.

Lastly, India’s power projection capability and intent needs to be seen in relation to its association with the US. The European allies of the US stand exhausted. The US is therefore seeking military partners for continuing its global stewardship, in particular with relation to controlling terrorism and access to oil.

India is being prepared for this role, as indicated in the statement of Condoleeza Rice when she was Secretary of State, that the US intends to make India into a great power. Clearly, this was to serve a purpose of the US. Refutations of alliance notwithstanding, India would therefore lend itself to the US agenda, believing this to be an exercise in its own interest. The distinction between strategic au-tonomy and external manipulation will be hard to discern. The impli-cation for the region, such as in the short run in AfPak and in the long term for the neocolonial embrace of West Asia, is amply clear.

But more importantly, what real-ists fail to perceive, even if their logic is driven by a look at internal politics, is that Indian power can be harmful to itself and its region if in the wrong hands. They are

India has been status quoist so far, but that does not mean it will always remain so. Indeed, being able to project power abroad would necessarily tend to make us more inclined to abandon status quoism.

unmindful of the possibility that by creating the ‘Other’, India would be reshaping its own identity in contradistinction to it, rather than celebrating what it already has. The emphasis on ‘unity’ would steamroll the diversity that defines India. The harmony imposed by such unity, which is itself selective in its basis, will lead to internal dis-ruptions that will neither help the creation of power nor its external projection.

Of greater consequence is the possibility of dominance of ma-joritarian extremists over the power structure. The conditions of external and internal strife created by the process of imposing ‘unity’ would be fertile for their ascent to power. Given that the power levers that they inherit would be stronger, India would cease to be the ‘benign’ power as is currently imagined. It would certainly not be ‘benign’ to those not of the persua-sion of these forces within India. It would be equally problematic for the immediate neighbourhood.

Realists in their external focus can be forgiven two mistaken be-liefs. One is that they take India’s democratic credentials as a given. Instead these need to be constant-ly recreated, worked on and pre-served. Conditions that degrade these need being guarded against. The second is their belief that even if majoritarian nationalists were to come to power, this would only be democratic. The cultural trove of the religion would ensure that India stays benign. This is to miss the ugly face of cultural national-ism and neglect the fact that it would get uglier the closer it gets to unbridled power.

It is for these reasons India’s growing power is not necessarily a blessing for India or its region. India is embarked on power ac-quisition with the intent of making Pakistan irrelevant. This has risks, largely unimagined for the internal political domain. The extant thesis of India as a benign power may also prove very short lived.



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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20: Amid a flurry of activities, you are confused about how to

prioritize fun and frolic with friends and finances. As far as work is concerned, you do not lose focus, but take it easy and slow down the pace. You are more attentive towards spiri-

tual activities. This would see you making trips to temples and holy places, and performing rites and rituals with enthusiasm. Believing in a spiritual guru may give a direction to your life. ‘Take light and enjoy life’, seems to be your mantra

TAURUS Apr 21 - Endless work and ceaseless efforts are likely to make you the

star employee of your orga-nization. There may be a few technological changes in the office during the last week of May. This would make you more efficient and your work

much easier. Going by the adage ‘work while you work and play while you play’, entertain-ment too seems to be on your cards. Call up your friends and cherish all the good times spent together. In search of peace, you may develop an inclination towards spirituality. Questions of death and salvation may get you thinking. You will have a harmonious home front and loving family members.

GEMINI May 22 - Jun 21: Distracted and disturbed with relationship issues, you are

likely to lose focus on work. A rough patch in a relationship and lack of commitment at work, both will have unfavor-work, both will have unfavor-work, both will have unfavorable consequences. This may have adverse effects on your

health as well, and have stress and tension. Other varied interests and hobbies too keep you occupied. You will be left with very little ‘me’ time. But, with the help of your family members, you will be able to cope with the pressure of work. You are filled with gratitude for them.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 23: Familial mat-ters are going to take up most of your time and

energy. You, being wise and mature, your family members fall back on you for your sup-port and advice. You are likely caught in an emotional turmoil, eventually getting philosophi-

cal. During this time, it’s important for you to put yourself in others’ shoes. Treat others the way you want to be treated by them. People will only remember, how you made them feel. It’s time for family bonding and a get-together.LEO July 24 - Aug 23: Think out of the box, is necessary this week. Besides being innovative

and creative at work, you gain knowledge about the new tech-nologies and software at your work place. This will see a lot of improvement in your work. Your family members may

be miffed about something. What could that be? Perhaps, the fact that you are missing out on spending quality time with them. But all’s well when they see you reaping rich dividends for the amount of hard-work that you put in. Finally, they are in a ‘no complaints’ mode.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23: Outshining your colleagues has become your forte. Just like in

the past, this time too you are likely to garner compliments as you achieve your targets. You are inspired to do great things and success is likely to follow you. In your personal life, you

Virgins are going to spend some cherish-able moments with your beloved. Bouquets of flowers, perfumed candle-lit dinners and long drives with romantic music in the background will work wonders for you. Being successful and celebrating it with your loved ones makes you feel on top of the world.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23: Affairs of last week will continue to be an important part this

week too. You will develop a deeper interest in spiritual and metaphysical matters, and will try to gain a deeper insight into life. You are now calmer and meditative. You will find the solutions to work-related

matters. Stay open-minded. Don’t burn the mid-night oil, or you may feel fatigued. You will find yourself propelled towards water bodies - rivers, seas, lakes. Take care, it’s safe!

SCORPIO Oct 24 - Nov 22: You will spend more time with family as they are demanding. It

could be anyone from parents to distant relatives. You may have to make a lot of compro-mises at work. Remember, there is more to life than just work. It will also serve to di-vert your attention from the

single-track rat race at the workplace. There are domestic duties and responsibilities to be carried out, carry them out cheerfully. You will realise that work and money are just a means to an end, not the end itself.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22: After an intense and hectic week you slow down your

pace of work now. You make better decisions, and also reach out to family. At work, there will be new partnerships, and the focus on team-work. You will show an inclination for advanced studies. Spirituality

also attract you. You are in a mood to take charge of your life, and want to spend some quality time with your family and friends.

CAPRICORN Dec 23 - Jan 20: As your mood matures, you tend to do some retrospec-

tion, and look at past events dispassionately. There is a hint of love, but you are in full control of yourself, and will not get carried away. You could have health issues. Emotional outbursts can ad-

versely affect your health. You can become over-sensitive to other peoples’ opinions, and trivial, nagging troubles can upset your peace of mind. You will meet like-minded people with whom you can share your vision of a better future.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19: You are well known for your wild mood swings. But control

them, as this is a particularly explosive phase, and you could get emotionally upset about some aspect of your life. These are testing times and could even spin out of control.

Maintaining harmony in family life should be your top priority, but you will have to make serious efforts towards it. There will be needless misapprehensions, and you could be forcefully drawn into ugly situations regarding inheritance matters and other issues. Stay calm, and delay responding at such times.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20: This is a period of completion, and you completing all your

work at home and office. Your labours bear fruit and you ex-perience pure bliss. You will feel full and contented with your life. You will be appreci-ated for your talents and will

enjoy all the glory. All good things of life are yours for the asking. Though you will not make any tangible progress at work, there is happiness in simply accepting life as it is. You are as calm and composed as still water, and even though there is no cause for jubilation, you are in a kind of ecstasy. Just enjoy yourself!

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