Art by: Julia Zipp

ftzt `tttAn E-magazine of Sangam e.V. Editorial BoardVigneshwaran Namasivayam Julia Zipp

April - June 2010

Volume 2, Issue 2

Editorial NoteDear Readers

Eva Eismann Raj M Verma Prof. D. Sankaran

With this issue, Sangam Maala celebrates its first anniversary. As I stated in the first issue of Sangam Maala, the focus of this magazine is to provide a platform to express the views and opinions of people from different cultures. Looking at the issues during the past year, one can see a variety of articles from various authors with different view points. Not only the range of topics was wide enough to interest our regular readers, but also the quality and depth of the articles are what making Sangam Maala to impress upon its readers. On this occasion, I thank all the authors, readers and special thanks to the editorial team who contributed their spare time for shaping Sangam Maala into a succesful contribution towards cultural integration.

Arunkumar Voruganti

Vigneshwaran Namasivayam - Editor, Sangam Maala

Thanks to Authors, Readers, Guests and Sponsors of our events for successfully moving into our 3rd Anniversary of Sangam e.V and 1st Anniversary of Sangam Maala

Volume 2, Issue 2

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Inside this IssueSangam Maala An e-Magazine of Sangam e.V. Volume 2. Issue 2. (AprilJune 2010)

> Cover Story (in German) Sangam Maala wird ein Jahr alt - Julia Zipp > Poetry (in English) Translation of Sirivennela Sitaramasastris Song - Raj M Verma > PC Treat (in English) Create your own Blogspot/Website - Arunkumar Vorunganti > Article (in English) Fiesta of Sports in Delhi, India (in English) - Siddharth Chandrasekharan > Cookery (in German) Amrakhand (Mango Creme) - Adele Henning-Tembe > View Point (in English) On Indias Soft Power (in English) - Jayabalaji Sathiyamoorthi > Photo Journey (in English) Journey of Sangam Photo Collection of Sangam e.V events in 2010

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Sangam Maala wird ein Jahr alt- Julia Zipp Unsere online-Vereinszeitschrift hat Geburtstag! Daher widmet sich dieser kurze Jubilums-Artikel der Vorstellung der Zeitschrift, der Beschreibung der Inhalte der bereits erschienenen Ausgaben und der Danksagung an alle, die zum Entstehen und Erhalt der Zeitschrift beitragen. Happy Birthday, Sangam Maala! Wie alles begann Vor genau einem Jahr feierte Sangam Leipzig sein zweijhriges Bestehen. Anlsslich jenes Ereignisses entstand unter den Vorstandsmitgliedern die Idee, die Aktivitten des Vereins auszuweiten. Knftig sollte Sangam nicht nur fr die Organisation und Durchfhrung deutscher und sdasiatischer Feste und anderer Events zustndig sein, sondern berdies auch vierteljhrlich eine online-Zeitschrift herausbringen. Nach einigen Treffen und Diskussionen stand fest, dass die zuknftige online - Zeitschrift den Namen Sangam Maala erhalten sollte. Das Wort Maala kommt aus dem Hindi bzw. Sanskrit und bedeutet Girlande. Eine Maala kann aus verschiedenartigen Gliedern bestehen, so zum Beispiel aus Blumen oder Perlen. Im Falle der Vereins-Zeitschrift von Sangam dachten wir dabei an eine Maala, auf der sich die unterschiedlichsten Artikel, geschrieben von Vereinsmitgliedern oder anderen Interessenten, aneinander reihen wrden. Was den Inhalt der Zeitschrift bzw. die Natur der Zeitschriftenartikel betraf, so waren wir uns schnell darber einig, dass wir interessierten Schreiberlingen mglichst groe Freiheit lassen sollten. Artikel fr Sangam Maala konnten demnach sowohl in Englisch (die hauptschliche lingua franca innerhalb unseres Vereins) als auch in Deutsch (die Sprache des Gastgeberlandes) verfasst und eingereicht werden. Die Auswahl der Themen fr die einzelnen Artikel sollte alleinig bei den Verfassern liegen. Im Grunde bedeutet das, dass jeder, der Interesse hatte, ber ein beliebiges Thema in der Sprache seiner Wahl schreiben konnte. Durch die Offenhaltung der Themenbereiche erhofften wir uns nicht nur eine rege Beteiligung an der Zeitschrift innerhalb des Vereins, sondern auch das Ansprechen eines greren Interessentenkreises auerhalb von Sangam. Sangam Maala von damals bis heute Wenn wir einen Blick auf die von damals bis heute erschienenen Ausgaben von Sangam Maala werfen, so finden wir eine Art Mischung der damals von uns vorgeschlagenen Leitlinien vor. Auf der einen Seite weist Sangam Maala in Bezug auf insbesondere die jeweiligen Leitartikel tatschlich eine groe Vielfalt auf. Die Auswahl erstreckt sich von einem Interview ber Buddhismus (Bd.1, Ausg.1) ber einen Kommentar bezglich der Parlamentswahlen in Indien (Bd.1, Ausg.2), ber das Indienbild in der deutschen Literatur innerhalb der letzten drei Jahrhunderte (Bd.1, Ausg.3)

Volume 2, Issue 2

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Cover Storybis hin zu einem Kommentar zur krzlich abgehaltenen Klimakonferenz in Kopenhagen (Bd.1, Ausg.4). Drei dieser Artikel wurden in Englisch, einer in Deutsch verfasst. Weitere, frei gewhlte Beitrge umfassen zum Beispiel Artikel ber den Gaza-Konflikt und das indische Kino der fnfziger Jahre (Bd.1, Ausg.1), ein Interview zum indischen Kathak-Tanz und ein Beitrag ber Globalisierung (Bd.1, Ausg.2), einen Bericht ber die im September 2009 abgehaltene Chemiker-Konferenz in Leipzig und einen wissenschaftlichen Kommentar ber indische Mythologie (Bd.1, Ausg.3). berdies lassen sich in den Bnden 1, Ausg.2 und 3 zwei Gedichte finden, whrend fr Band 1, Ausg.4 auch eine Malerei vorgelegt wurde. Als feste Schreiberlinge sind hier insbesondere Raj Mudunuri Verma und Julia Zipp aufzufhren. Auf der anderen Seite haben sich einige Nischen in Sangam Maala gebildet, die in jeder Ausgabe wiederkehren und fr die wir ebenfalls feste Schreiberlinge haben. Zum einen sind hier die PC treats zu nennen (von Arun Kumar Raj Voruganti), die Tipps zum Beheben von Problemen mit und Handhabung von Software fr den PC bereithalten; zum anderen die Rubrik Das Neueste aus Bollywood (Eva Eismann), das ber Klatsch und Tratsch aus Bollywood und die neuesten Erscheinungen in Kino und auf DVD berichtet. Zum anderen gibt es die Rubriken Cookery (Kochrezepte) und Reiseberichte, die in jeder Ausgabe von bisher jeweils unterschiedlichen Schreiberlingen verfasst wurden. Die Kochrezepte in den vier vorliegenden Ausgaben von Sangam Maala beinhalten Anweisungen zur Zubereitung von sowohl indischen (zum Beispiel Upma, Bd.1, Ausg.3) als auch deutschen Gerichten (zum Beispiel Ksekuchen und Mslipltzchen, Bd.1, Ausg.4). Die Reiseberichte sind seit der zweiten Ausgabe fest in der Zeitschrift vertreten und stellen auf persnliche Art folgende Orte oder Reiseziele vor: Das Tigerreservat Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh, Indien (Bd.1, Ausg.2), Lettland (Bd.1, Aug.3), Frankreich (Bd.1, Ausg.4) und Benares, Indien (Bd.1, Ausg.4). Danksagung zum einjhrigen Jubilum Sangam Maala erscheint mit der vorliegenden Ausgabe nun zum fnften Mal und geht dementsprechend in ihr zweites Jahr. Dank der Beteiligung einiger Vereinsmitglieder und auch von Interessenten von auerhalb konnte Sangam Maala in ihrem ersten Jahr wie geplant im vierteljhrlichen Turnus erscheinen. Die Herausgeber der Zeitschrift mchten sich auf diesem Weg sehr herzlich bei allen Beteiligten bedanken, die durch ihre Mitarbeit und die Einreichung von Artikeln das Erscheinen der Zeitschrift ermglicht haben und immer noch ermglichen. Besonderer Dank gilt auch Vigneshvaran Namasivayam, der fr das Vorwort und das Layout der Zeitschrift verantwortlich ist. Dank auch all denjenigen, die vor dem Erscheinen einer Ausgabe das mhselige Korrekturlesen der Artikel auf sich nehmen.

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Sangam Maala wird ein Jahr altAusblick Sangam Maala lebt, wie bereits aus diesem Artikel ersichtlich geworden ist, von rein freiwilliger Mitarbeit. Wir mchten noch einmal besonders hervorheben, dass die Einreichung von Beitrgen fr die Zeitschrift nicht auf die Mitglieder unseres Vereins beschrnkt ist. Jeder, der gerne schreibt und (einen) Artikel zum Thema seiner Wahl einreichen mchte, ist herzlich willkommen, uns seinen Beitrag zuzusenden. Darber hinaus hlt Sangam Maala auch Platz fr kostenlose Kleinanzeigen bereit. Der Inhalt dieser Kleinanzeigen sollte sich jedoch am Profil unseres Vereins orientieren, um in die in Zeitschrift aufgenommen zu werden. Wir freuen uns auf zahlreiche zuknftige Beitrge und wnschen Sangam Maala ein erfolgreiches und langes Fortbestehen! Die Redaktion Kontakt und Datenbank Kontaktadresse der Herausgeber fr Informationsservice und zum Einsenden von Artikeln: sangam-maala@sangamleipzig.de Die bereits erschienenen Nummern von Sangam Maala zum Download: http://indians-leipzig.com/sangammaala.aspx

Birthday Wishes

Wishing you Happy Birthday Mustabshira April 19, 2010

Smiles and laughter, joy and cheer New happiness that stays throughout the year Hope your birthday brings all these and more Filling life with surprise and joys galore!

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Poetry- Raj M Verma

In today's world of frantic music, very few lyricists play significant role in moulding the songs into master pieces. Even fewer are the lyricists who stamp their mark on their lyrics, so much so that the music takes a back seat. Sirivennela Sitaramasastri is one such gifted lyricist, who infuses a rich mixture of literary and poetic expressions in his songs that range from spiritual anecdotes based on sacred texts to inspirational verses based on human endeavours. It is my pleasure to translate one of his master pieces, written in Telugu language, to English. Few lines of original lyrics Eppudu oppukovaddura otamie... Eppudu odulukovaddura orimie... Visraminchavaddu ae kshanam... Vismarinchavaddu nirnayam... Appude nee jayam nischayam raa, Eppudu oppukovaddura otamie... Never surrender to defeat, never lose patience Dont rest for a minute, dont forget commitments Only then is the victory attainable with your cognizance Sirivennela Sitaramasastri

Greater the sky may be, but not for the wings of a soaring kite Mighty the ocean can be, but not for the fins of a swimming fish The dusk, hiding in the west, devours the sun but can never win a run The razing ball of fire swims through the seas and dawns on the east

How long can the apathy last, it is like the calm just before a fiery storm Who can stop the bustling dawn, a burning heart is like the blazing sun

Is there a minute without pain, be it birth or death, and in every step of life Not even a minute we can gain, be it mirth or wrath, in this perpetual strife There is body and soul, it has blood and courage, what else do you need Desire shalt be thy weapon, breath shalt be thy guide, to these shalt thou heed Picture Courtesy: http://wikipedia.org

With never ending endeavour, even the feeling of despair will get despaired So long there is life, even death, unable to prevail, claims its victory only on the dead

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PC Treat- Arunkumar Voruganti Create your own Blog / Website for free Having created a personal blog of mine recently, I thought of writing a definitive guide to build a website for free in this special issue. To create a personal website one requires two basic things i.e. Domain name: Name of the website you would like to create. ex: google Web Hosting: Web space to store and manage website content. All good things do not come for free was an age old saying. In todays freeware and open source world, many good things are actually offered for free. In the following sections we will create our blog (PC-Treat) for free in 4 simple steps; 1. Register website name for free 2. Register web hosting for free 3. Install Wordpress as publishing software 4. Writing our first Hello World! Post Step 1. Registering a free domain name

Figure 1: www.nic.cz.cc domain registration for life time When I searched for free domain (not subdomain) registrars during my blog creation, I came across a number of options, but only two registrars provide free registration for the life time. They are www.nic.cz.cc and www.co.cc. I choose to register the domain name at former registrar as they do not require credit card details during name registration. As an example for this tutorial, I have registered www.pctreat.cz.cc at the cz.cc website. Although the name suffix is not easy to remember like .com, advantages of registering are free for life time and availability of many names.

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PC TreatStep 2. Registering web hosting for free Although one can find many free web hosting providers, choosing one might be a difficult job. Most of the time it depends on factors such as the technology behind the website, disk space provided, site utilities, addon domains option etc. Of the entire features Addon Domain is important because we have already registered our domain name and want to direct it to the free hosting. I have made a comparison of three best free web hosting providers in the table below. Table 1: Comparison between web hosting providers Hosting feature Addon domains Disk space Data Transfer PHP MySQL Fantastico Server speed Byethost.com YES 5500 MB 200 GB YES YES YES SLOW Provider 000webhost.com YES 1500 MB 100 GB YES YES YES (partially) FAST Awardspace.com YES 200MB 5 GB YES YES NO FAST

Since I decided to create a blog website based on Wordpress, support of PHP, MySQL and Fantastico were important during hosting selection. Wordpress is the most popular blog publishing and management system available for free on the web. Dont worry if you are not a techie and if technologies like PHP and MySQL are not familiar to you. If the hosting supports Fantastico, you will most probably do not need to work with these technologies. Fantastico is a script that automates installation of web applications such as Wordpress. Ok lets signup at Byethost.com for hosting PC-Treat blog. Advantage of Byethost is that they supports Fantastico also in free version.

Figure 2: Byethost.com free web hosting provider

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PC TreatOnce registered at Byethost, you will be provided with login information for your website control panel (vistapanel), from where you can create your website and manage. Fig. 3 shows the control options after logging in to the vistapanel.

Figure 3: Byethost.com vistapanel / control panel for website management Before we install Wordpress, we have to let Byethost know our registered website name. This is done by adding a domain using the Addon Domains (Fig. 3, option 1) in the vistapanel. When Addon Domains is clicked it looks like in the Fig. 4. Add the registered domain (in our example www.pctreat.cz.cc).

Figure 4: Addon Domain page of vistapanel Apart from adding domain at Byethost, we will need to update the DNS at your registrar that is at www.nic.cz.cc. For this note the DNS name servers of byte host by going to Account Settings of vistapanel as shown in Fig. 5.

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PC Treat

Figure 5: DNS name servers of Byethost listed in Account Settings menu of vistapanel Login to nic.cz.cc and click My Account. Then go to registered domains and select your domain name (in our case pctreat) and click Manage. You will see three options as shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 6: Domain management options at nic.cz.cc registrar Select Nameserver to proceed. Enter the noted nameservers from the Byethost account settings as shown in the Fig. 7 and update.

Figure 7: Updating domain name settings with hosting name servers

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PC TreatStep 3. Installing Wordpress using Fantastico script installer Once the DNS settings are updated, it might take some time for the domain to go active with our web hosting. Meanwhile lets install the blog publishing system. Go again to the vistapanel and click iVista Easy Script Installation shown in Fig. 3, option 2. In the destination field, select the domain name and click proceed. Various scripts that can be installed are shown in the following page, select Wordpress and continue. Leave the installation folder as it is and click Complete Install. Once installed, you will be notified with the installation link and the admin link location as shown in Fig. 7. This completes the installation of Wordpress system. Now finally the moment has arrived to write our first blog post and publish it online.

Figure 8: Wordpress script installation conformation dialog Step 4. Writing our first Hello World! Post

Figure 9: Left: Wordpress Dashboard login dialog, Right: Dashboard menu after login

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PC TreatAfter Wordpress installation, login to the Wordpress Dashboard by entering the admin CP link (shown in Fig. 7, left) in your favorite web browser (Firefox, IExplorer, etc) and login in with your login details. After logging in, go to Settings > General (shown in Fig. 7, right) menu on the left and enter information such as Blog Title, Tagline, etc... Now we are almost ready to write our first post. Click Posts menu on the left in the Dashboard, enter your first post and update post. Now we can finally view our blog site just by entering our blog name (www.pctreat.cz.cc) in the web browser. Fig. 10 shows the screenshot of PC-treat blog we created in this tutorial.

Figure 10: Screenshot of the PC-Treat blog created in this tutorial

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Fiesta of Sports in Delhi, India- Siddharth Chandrasekharan In a land like India where Cricket is a religion - Sachin Tendulkars world record breaking double century in One-day internationals (ODIs) and Indian Premier Leagues Twenty20 competition are probably the most talked about sporting news! But for sports enthusiasts like me, having interests spanning from Kabbadi to Hockey to Basketball - 2010 is a big year for all the 'alternate' (noncricket) sports in India. We have not one, but two international events to look forward to - The Hockey World Cup & The Commonwealth Games. Hockey WC) World Cup (Hockey European Champions (England), with the finals having a familiar look - the top two teams (according to World Rankings), Australia and Germany, fighting out for the honors for the third consecutive time. This time however the Aussies finally managed to beat the Germans, to be crowned world champions for only the second time in their sporting history. The most sensational outcome of the world cup was the complete resignation of Pakistan's (the most successful WC Hockey team with five world championships to their name) squad after finishing last among the 12 participants. The Hockey World Cup threw up some small surprises but the final outcome of Australia winning was as expected. Though the tournament was disappointing on a personal note because of the drab performances of the two subcontinental teams (India & Pakistan), it was definitely a fortnight of festivities for any ardent Hockey fan. For those interested in Field Hockey, be sure to watch out for the Champions Trophy (an annual event for the top six national teams), which is going to be held at Mnchengladbach (Germany) between the 31st of July and the 8th of August. Commonwealth Games 2010 The Commonwealth Games (CWG) is a multinational, multi-sport event (consisting of mainly Olympic events) held every four years and involves the elite athletes of the Commonwealth of Nations (former British colonies). The CWG are among the top five most watched sports events in the world. This year, the 19th CWG will be held between the 3rd of October and 14th of October.

Hockey, India's national game has taken a back seat in recent times, long forgotten are the hey-days of Dhyan Chand and Uddham Singh. I hoped this world cup on home soil would be a rebirth for a rather ordinary Indian team, plagued not only by bureaucratic wrangles with the governing body (Indian Hockey Federation) but also a system of play that is outdated. The Hockey WC was held between the 28th of February and the 13th of March, 2010 at Delhi. The Indian team started off with a bang, beating their subcontinental rivals Pakistan (4-1) in the games opener, raising 'false' hopes. But as the tournament wore on, India went on to finish a lowly 8th after failing to win in the their last five games. The semifinals were contested between the usual suspects - Netherlands, Australia, Germany and the

Courtsey: www.commonwealthgamesflags.com In preparation for the 2010 CWG, Delhi has been undergoing massive reconstruction work in the form of newer roads and better infrastructure for international athletes. The budget estimated for hosting the Games is US$ 1.6 billion, excluding developmental projects in the city like airports, roads and other non-sportsrelated infrastructure. This will likely make the 2010 Commonwealth Games the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever, being larger than the previous games in Melbourne 2006 (approx. US$ 1.1 billion). With such vast sums of money being spent, the expectations for the event are definitely high. The tagline for this event is "an invitation to every person across all divides Indian and Commonwealth - to let go of themselves and participate in the

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ArticleGames to the best of their abilities, in the true sprit of the Games". I do hope that all the teams turn up to their fullest strengths and do make the event a grand success. The two events Hockey WC & CWG are not only of sporting significance but also of political importance. Much has been talked about the security about athletes & support staff in India, but this is a good opportunity for the sports persons to show solidarity, and prove to the world, that sports can play a major role in uniting nations. At the end of the day, the hope is for the sporting spirit to triumph over the odds.

CookerySspeise aus Westindien fr etwa 4 Personen einfache Zubereitung

Amrakhand (Mango Creme)

- Adele Henning-Tembe

Zutaten: 900 ml gestockter Joghurt etwa 6 Esslffel Puderzucker 300 ml Mango-Fruchtfleisch von Alphonso (!!!) Mangos (evtl. Mango Pulp aus der Dose)

Event InfoIndian Dance INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY Thursday 29 April 2010 14:00 hrs & 17:00 hrs

Zubereitung: 1. Joghurt in ein sauberes Baumwolltuch einbinden und aufhngen (oder ein groes Kchensieb mit dem Tuch auslegen und in einen Topf/ Schssel o.. hngen) und die Molke mindestens 5 Stunden lang ablaufen lassen (je lnger, um so cremiger wird die Mangospeise). 2. Die Molke wegschtten. Joghurt in eine Schssel geben, mit einem Holzlffel oder Schneebesen schlagen und langsam Puderzucker zugeben.

Auditorium & Foyer Embassy of India Tiergartenstr. 17, 10785 Berlin Bus 200 Tiergartenstrae Free AdmissionMore details : www.indianembassy.de/ttc/culture.htm

3. Wenn der Joghurt locker geschlagen ist, das Mango-Fruchtfleisch einrhren. Die Creme sollte cremig sein und sehr s schmecken. Gut gekhlt servieren. (Lt man die Mango weg und gibt nur Puderzucker zum gestockten Joghurt, erhlt man Shrikhand, ebenfalls eine beliebte Sspeise.)

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On Indias Soft Power- Jayabalaji Sathiyamoorthi India, once considered being the land of kings, forts and snake charmers, now poses an incredible image and identity to the world. The identity of India is not having a monotone culture and life style [1]. The drastic developments which the sub-continent has undergone in the last decade are astonishing. From a socialist shell to a very promising open market, coupled with the billion population has became a total asset to liability. How do these developments of India affect other countries? Why should it be brought to the understanding of the world citizens? The ideas discussed in this article will address these questions and put forward the thoughts on how does Indias image has changed from a snake charmers den to a land of opportunity. The instrumental factor is nothing but the unique soft power in India. What is a soft power? Wikipedia defines Soft power as the ability to obtain what one wants through cooperation and attraction. Soft powers bring an identity which is unique and special for a particular nation. Soft power is a type of indicator to a nation, which bespeak the countrys acquaintance to the world citizens. Soft powers are mostly not imposed, they are very candid, and they in fact have the potential to bring a new dimension to national identity. Demonstrating a countries soft power is an amicable way of getting people together and to have a healthy relationship with other nations forgetting boundaries, a simple way of bridging people [2]. To name a few instances, the concept of Olympics - the host country flaunts its soft powers by its hospitality and sportsmanship to rest of the world, McDonalds the chain of restaurants play a role in the soft power of US and so is the case with Hollywood, MTV etc. These soft powers are some examples where the states participation is very meagre; hence it is obtained as a beneficial sub product. Adding to the list, the Germanys Bavarian beer festival which attracts people all around the world, the Brazilian Rio carnivals, Swiss watches etc., and for India it is her people from the mathematical geniuses, computer wizards, IT gurus who established universally. In most cases it brings a positive attitude towards a country, as long as the soft power doesnt hurt the sentiments & rituals of the locals [3]. As in case of Afghanistan citizens, they dont need a particular soft power to know US better. Using Soft powers a country could attract other countries in terms of its culture, foreign policies and political values. In case of India the people are the valued ambassadors, from mathematics saints to computer gurus, leaving a strong identity. Another interesting area to discuss about India is its diversity. It is more diverse than EU [1]. Nothing is being imposed on, so being and living oneself is appreciated. Ofcourse this leads to a situation where many ideologies get put forth, nevertheless people are free to choose what they want to be. The festivals of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and other are given equal importance, with the state declaring holidays on these important festivals[4]

.

From history it is known that Jews were welcomed long before colonised India. With 23 different official languages in India [5] coupled with its diverse culture, it is of no wonder if you travel 400+ KMS in one direction and you and up in a state with its own distinct language, food habits, culture, dressing style etc., most importantly they try accepting you as you are, they dont want to impose their culture and belief on others and prefer to live in peace with the diversity and just go on with their lives. Indias role in liberalisation and opening the doors for foreign direct investments paved the way for a huge success. It facilitated enriched educa-

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View Pointtion, seamless employment, infrastructure improvements, women education and empowerment. At this point talking about the telecommunication revolution in India is appropriate for the discussion. Two decades ago possessing a telephone was considered sumptuosity, though the quality of service was negligible. One had to be gifted to hear the dial tone in the telephone and it took hours to contact a person through trunk calls which needed advance bookings. Most popular one was telegraph, a lighting text service which normally took a few hours to strike the customer and it was a very costly service. What is the situation now? Of the one billion+ populations [6], now 505+ million people posses a cellular phone [9] [10]. It is estimated that a huge 8 million subscribers [9] [10] are added to this list every month. Who are all these subscribers? Is it the rich people who enjoy this luxury? Not at all, from white collars to blue collars and even to NO collars are the valued customers. It had made a lot of difference in their lives. Another significant area to explore Indias soft power is the Information Technology arena. India's growing stature in the information age enabled it to form close ties with both the United States of America and the European Union. The major sub-sets of the industry include, IT services, IT Enabled Services, R&D, Engineering service, software products and hardware products [11]. Bangalore is the hub of Indias IT industry, once garden city now turned to a silicon city. IT industry paved a way for an improved earning capacity, consistent employment, enriched education, infrastructure developments and most important the women development. Teacher jobs, government jobs and banking jobs are considered to be most secure and lucrative, which has already been surpassed by IT techies. Emergence of IT had a very positive impact on the development of women and their economic independence from men. It is very worth to mention that the actual financial empowerment for women was visible with advent of IT and ITES as they were typically women-friendly industry and with equal pay. Certainly IT industry which is certainly a significant soft skill for India exposed the existence of Indians to the world and so the Indian youth got a chance to look at the world culture. The greatest asset which the British Empire left in India is the English language. English has got a prominent place in Indian education, from the language of the colonizers to the language of jobs. Though there have been agendas to phase out English and to establish Hindi throughout India, the attempt acutely failed due to the extreme agitations in the southern part of the nation [13]. So there is no wonder to see why two Indians in an alien nation talking with each other in English, and to know a team in India, with five members from different states who speak different Indian languages work effectively and communicate in English. This ability of Indians has demonstrated great success; it is evident from the amount of Indians being employed globally [8]. Not to mention the large number of Indians being employed by NASA, Airbus, Microsoft, Intel etc., [14] India is the young country in the aging world [12]. The youth population accounts to 40% of the total population of India [7]. Being introduced to the world culture and possessing the Indias soft power, these youths generate aspirations and ensure the abilities to do things differently. Eminent scientists like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam were instrumental in germinating the idea of the developed India by 2020 in the hearts and minds of the Indian youth [15]. The art and dance of India is very different and celluloid stardom showed its existence and popularity

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On Indias Soft Powerto the world by Bollywood. Investment for a high budget movie has reached as huge as 20 million [16] and has become a promising industry for Hollywood corporate to coproduce Indian movies. Indian starlet names are known to most of the world population and movies are translated now into most of the European languages. Certainly, Bollywood is a soft power which India demonstrates. Since 1991, continuing economic liberalisation has moved the economy towards a market-based system. A revival of economic reforms and better economic policy in 2000s accelerated India's economic growth rate. India is the 5th largest economy [17] in terms of purchasing power parity terms 6.7 percent growth. It has over billion populations which represents one sixth of the world population. It is the place where growth and democracy married together. It has maintained consensus for years, emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history and above all sustained by pluralist democracy. The people (Indian citizens) no more a burden but are the engines of growth, they are the human capital of Indias Economy. This study and understanding makes it interesting for all the world citizens to know about the soft powers of India. Everything comes out at a cost, which is the other side of the coin. The continuous increase of population by about 20 million every year [6], poses a big challenge. The current scenario facilitates rich to become richer and condemns the poor to become poorer. There are people in some rural India who strive for 1 a day. There is a lack of good infrastructure. But with the emergence of the soft powers of India, the political power centres need to address important problems of the nation and work on engaging the youth population for the concept of developed India, ensuring food for all, improving health care, deploying quality education, bettering sanitations and providing consistent employment. But the chances of India being put into such situation are very unlikely with the current progress. References: 1. Article on Indias diversity, http://wikitravel.org/en/India accessed on March 16th 2009. 2. Indias soft power, http://2ndlook.wordpress.com/200 7/12/20/softpower-india/ accessed on March 15th 2009. 3. The benefits of soft power, Harvard Business School, http:// hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4290.html 6. National commission on Population, http:// populationcommission.nic.in/ accessed on March 15th 2009. 7. Youth portal, http:// youthportal.gov.in/ accessed on March 17th 2009. 8. NRI, Indian Diaspora, http:// india.gov.in/overseas/diaspora/ nri.php accessed on March 18th 2009. 9. Telecom industry, Indian telecom journey http:// www.telecomindiaonline.com accessed on March 18th 2009. 10. Indian Telecom market annual report 2008 -2009, http:// www.telecomindiaonline.com/indiantelecom-market-report-2008-09.html accessed on March 17th 2009. 11. Indian Science & Technology, accessed on March 14th 2009. 4. Festivals and celebration of India, Unity in Diversity, http:// www.festivalsinindia.net/ independence-day/unity-indiversity.html, accessed on March 18th 2009. 5. Languages of India, http:// india.gov.in/knowindia/ official_language.php accessed on March 18th 2009.

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View Pointhttp://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/ mar252007/709a.pdf accessed on March 16th 2009 12. Young nation, article from rediff specials, http://specials.rediff.com/ money/2009/feb/10slide3-indiayoung-nation-in-an-aging-world.htm accessed on March 16th 2009. 13. The madras Anti-Hindi agitation, 1965, political protest and its effects on language policy in India, Duncan. B. Forrester, http://www.jstor.org/ pss/2755179 accessed on March 16th 2009. 14. 36% of scientists at NASA are Indians: Govt survey, The Times of India, http:// timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ articleshow/2853178.cms accessed on March 16th 2009. 15. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam billion beats, lead India 2020, http:// www.abdulkalam.com/kalam/ index.jsp, http:// www.abdulkalam.nic.in/ accessed on March 14th 2009. 16. High budget Indian movies, http://www.fulldhamaal.com/ bollywood-critics/10-most-highbudget-films-of-bollywood-21146.htm accessed on March 17th 2009. https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/ rankorder/2001rank.html accessed on March 20th 2009. When we are united in action and addicted to deeds Sky cant be limit for my nation in action !! - A.P.J. Abdul KalamBorn in April 1924 in the East Bengal part of North India, the musician, composer and teacher, Pandit Kamalesh Maitra lived in Berlin from 1977 until his death on 22nd April 2005. He was the last and greatest master of the Tabla Tarang (10 to 16 single tabla-drums, tuned to the traditional raga scales and placed in a half circle in order of rising pitch). He has played with musicians like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Trilok Gurtu, Charlie Mariano and Giora Feldmann. Known as a tabla player, Kamalesh Maitra joined the famous Uday Shankar Ensemble in 1950 and remained a member of Uday Shankars ballet and dance group for more than 20 years, travelling with it to the USA, China, Africa and Europe, firstly as its masterdrummer and then as its artistic director. While working for Uday Shankar, Kamalesh Maitra also studied the sarod with Ali Akbar Khan. He has since played with many eminent musicians like Uday Shankars younger brother Ravi and Ali Akbar Khan as well as with many well known jazz, rock and pop groups. In 1974 Ravi Shankar and George Harrison took him on the highly acclaimed world tour of the Musical Festival from India, and two years later he was invited by Walter Bachauer to the legendary Meta-Music Festival in Berlin. He moved to the city in 1977 and since then taught classical Indian vocal and instrumental music here. In 1980, inspired by working with international musicians, Kamalesh Maitra founded the Ragatala Ensemble, which keeps his compositions and his spirit alive till today. The pieces follow the rules of classical Indian music but are deliberately fused with elements of European classical music, jazz and new music. The Ragatala Ensemble has now been building musical bridges between the Indian subcontinent and the occident for 30 years. Presently, the Ensemble consists of three permanent members: Laura Patchen (tabla), Mila Morgenstern (flutes) and Norbert Klippstein (Sarod), but keeps playing with guest musicians.

Event InfoTHE 5TH PANDIT KAMALESH MAITRA MEMORIAL CONCERT Thursday, 22 April 2010, 18:00 hrs Smt. Madhuri Chattopadhyay (classical Indian violin) Sudarshan Kumar (classical Indian dance) Pandit Kamalesh Maitras Ragatala Ensemble Auditorium, Embassy of India Tiergartenstr. 17, 10785 Berlin Bus 200 Tiergartenstrae Programme sequence 18:00 hrs: Violin-tabla recital by Madhuri Chattopadhyay and Laura Patchen 18:45 hrs: Indian Dance by Sudarshan Kumar 19:15 hrs: Ragatala Ensemble with Mila Morgenstern (flute and bass flute), Norbert Klippstein (Sarod) and Laura Patchen (Tabla) Free Admission

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Journey of SangamA collection of photos from the events in 2009-2010 of Sangam e.V. Photos : Setara Janassary, Edwin Prabhukumar, Julia Zipp, Raj M Verma

Participants at Yoga and India Tea, ISW 2009, June 21, 2009, Clara-Zetkin Park, Leipzig

Poonam Panchwagh and Anne Dietrich at Raga Tradition II

Kushal Das and Sandip Banerjee at Raga Tradition II

Raga Tradition II, A Classical Indian Concert, July 3, 2009, at Musikschule Johann Sebastian Bach, Leipzig.

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Photo Journey

Participants at Bollywood Worshop, September 26 and 27, 2009, Ballettstudio, Leipzig

Organizers at Diwali Dhamaka 2009, October 16, StuK, Leipzig

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Journey of Sangam

Participants enjoying their food and conversation at Christmas Rendezvous 09, December 5, 2009, Evangelisch-Freikirchlichen Gemeinde (Party Hall), Leipzig

Few moments of the special trips organized by Sangam in Summer 2009 include Boat trip on Karl Heine Canal , Cycle trip to Cospudnersee .

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AdvertisementSrijanThe fascinating world of the Indian Classical Dance is comprehended with the most exhilarating, inspirational, energetic and challenging compositions which are entertaining as well as enlightening. "SRIJAN" meaning "the Creation", is a unique blend of the Orient and Occident, walking along the path of a common ambition, daring different theme based productions through the medium of Indian Classical Dance. It is an ensemble of two Classical Dancers - Anne Dietrich from Germany and Poonam Panchwagh from India, showing the dimensions and multiple facets of the Indian Classical Srijan aims at maintaining the balance of technique and aesthetics of various dance styles illustrating the creditable degree of versatility. www.srijan.de

Srijan Performance05.06.2010, 18 Uhr Indian Festival Diamonds Dance Factory Dresdener Str. 54, Hartha 19.06.2010, 20 Uhr Lange Nacht der Kunst, Kultur und Architektur Theater Meissen Theaterplatz 15, Meissen 27. 29.08.2010 India India Festival Zurich HB Railcity Museumstr. 1 Zurich Switzerland

Srijan WorkshopsBollywood Dance 11.06.2010, 16 19 Uhr bollywood-culture-society, Halle Bollywood and Classical Indian Dance 25. - 26.09.10, 10 17 Uhr Theaterdock e.V. Lehrter Str. 35, Berlin You can find further performances and workshops on: www.srijan.de, www.mohiniyattam.de

Cultural Events at India Embassy, BerlinTiergartenstr. 17, 10785 BerlinBus 200 Tiergartenstrae

The cultural department of Indian Embassy Berlin organizes variety of cultural events all over the month. To know more information about the events please log on to http://www.indianembassy.de/ttc/culture.htm

To receive regular information on India related events in Germany, please subscribe for our cultural newsletter by email to pam@indianembassy.de

Sangam e.V.A Cultural Confluence Hainstrasse 2a, 04109 Leipzig.

Impressum Namentlich gekennzeichnete Beitrge geben nicht unbedingt die Meinung der Redaktion wieder. Vervielfltigung, Speicherung und Nachdruck nur mit ausdrcklicher Genehmigung. Fr unverlangt eingesendetes Material wird keine Haftung bernommen. Sangam Maala - An e-magazine of Sangam e.V. If you are interested to contribute your work for this magazine, then please write to us: sangam-maala@sangam-leipzig.de

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