Vol 7 Issue 28 - Nov 8-14, 2014

The South Asian Times
e x c e l l e n c e
Vol.7 No. 28 November 8-14, 2014 60 Cents
i n
New York Edition
j o u r n a l i s m
Follow us on
TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Obama-Congress tussle ahead

With Republicans wresting Senate Control from Democrats and improving their
majority in the House, stage is set for their confrontation with the President.
Despite electoral drubbing,

Obama refuses to cede ground
Washington: After a stunning electoral drubbing,
President Barack Obama
promised to cooperate with
an energized Republican
opposition, but without
ceding ground on key
issues like his signature
health law and immigration
reforms. To those of you
who voted, I hear you,
Obama said at a press conference in the White House
Wednesday after the
Republicans had a good
night as he put it. To
those who didnt vote, I
hear you too.
In his first remarks after
the verdict that saw the
Continued on page 4
President Obama addressed a press conference

Wednesday where he said he will work with the
Republicans, but on his terms.
More assertive Republicans

setting their own agenda
Washington DC: A day
after the Republicans gained
full control of both chambers of the US Congress, the
party leadership outlined
their agenda centered around
job creation and economy.
But while their leaders
Mitch McConnell and John
Boehner talked reconciliation, the bitterness of the
past six years vis--vis
President Obama is not
going to go away. Indeed,
they also warned him
against unilateral decision
on immigration reform.
Retaining his seat from Kentucky
House Speaker John and set to become the US Senate
Boehner warned that unilatMajority Leader, Mitch
eral action by President McConnell celebrated his victory
Continued on page 4 with his wife on Tuesday night.
House Republican
Leader John Boehner
has warned Obama
that a unilateral
action on immigration would poison
the well for any
cooperation with the
new GOP Congress.
Nikki Haley wins second term as SC Governor

Washington: South Carolina Gov.
Nikki Haley coasted to victory
Nov 4 as her party took over the
Senate and House.
Its a great day in South
Carolina, Haley said to a cheering
crowd, as her family stood beside
her. She thanked her husband,
Michael Haley, calling him the
coolest partner ever for serving
Continued on page 4
Nikki Haley is congratulated
by her mother Raj Randhawa
at the victory rally in Columbia.
US POLLS 2-6
SPORTS 16
Though Rep Ami Bera and Ro Khanna were trailing in their

Congressional races from California, they were waiting for
many thousands of ballots yet to be counted.
PHILANTHROPY 17
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30
excellence in journalism
November 8-14, 2014
US POLLS 2014
The South Asian Times frames some prominent

faces of the Nov 2 midterm elections.
Andrew Cuomo cruises to a second term win: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo celebrates with
his running mate Kathy Hochul after defeating Republican challenger Rob Astorino on Tuesday.
He is the first Democratic governor since his father to win re-election in the nation's third
largest state. But his margin of victory, 54%- 41%, was less than that four years ago
when he beat Paladino 63%-33%.
Joni Ernst, first woman to represent Iowa in US Senate:

Joni Ernst is the new US Senator from Iowa. The Republican
defeated Democrat Rep Bruce Braley in one of the nations
closest watched elections. There are now 20 women in US
Senate and about 80 women in the new House but no
improvement over their number in the last Congress.
Kamala Harris re-elected as California Attorney General:

Partly of Indian origin, she defeated Republican Ronald Gold
in Tuesday's election. Following U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder's resignation in September, her name was floated for
the post, but she said she is not interested at this time.
Saira Blair elected
youngest state lawmaker: The 18-yearold economics student,
Saira Blair defeated
Layne Diehl (Dem), a
44-year-old attorney,
in a 63 % to 30 %
landslide. She will be
representing her
district in the West
Virginia House of
Delegates.
Bobby Kumar on the ballot: Bobby Kumar

Kalotees name was on the ballot paper for
New York Lt Governor. Chairman of the
Sapient Party, the Long Islander community
leader had lawyer Steven Cohn run for
Governor. They did not win but the effort was
commendable. The Sapient Party will continue with more determination in the future to
achieves its goals so you, and our kids have a
better future in the state of New York, he
said thanking supporters.
Niraj Antani is one of the youngest US lawmakers: Niraj Antani, a 23year-old Indian-American student, has been elected to the Ohio House of
Representatives, becoming one of the youngest state lawmakers in the US.
A law student at the University of Dayton, he defeated Patrick Morris, 62 of
the Democratic Party. He is the second Indian American after Jay Goyal
who served 3 terms from 2006 from the 73rd District in the Ohio House.
Mia Love First black Republican woman in

US Congress: Mia Love made history in her
second bid for Congress but she is playing
down the milestone, saying: My victory has
nothing to do with race. She attributed her
win over Doug Owens (D) in a Utah district to
the fact that Utahans want to make sure that
they are electing people who are honest
who have integrity.
US POLLS 2014
November 8-14, 2014
Ami Bera, Ro Khanna down, but not yet out

Washington: As the dust settled
down on the US election giving Republicans full control of the US Congress, two trailing high prole Indian-American candidates, Ami Bera
and Ro Khanna, both Democrats,
were still unwilling to concede defeat. In the battle for the Silicon Valley, incumbent Democrat Ami Bera,
only the third Indian-American in the
US House after Dalip Singh Saund
and Bobby Jindal, was trailing 48.6
percent to 51.4 percent to Republican businessman Doug Ose.
But Bera expressed condence that
he would erase Oses 3,011-vote
lead, noting that he won two years
ago after being virtually tied with
Republican Representative Dan Lungren on election day. We still have
thousands of votes left to count, but
I feel very good about where we are
today, Bera was quoted as saying in
a statement Wednesday by San Francisco Gate. A statement from the Ose
campaign also stopped short of declaring victory, noting that there still
At an eleciton rally, former President Bill Clinton supported

Ami Beras re-election bid for US House from California.
are about 60,000 uncounted ballots

in the district. Final result is expected to be declared on Saturday.
In the Democrats-only tussle for a
South Bay congressional seat too,
Rohit Ro Khanna, a former Obama
administration ofcial, who has challenged seven-term Democratic Representative Mike Honda of San Jose,
Neel Kahskari reflects on losing

governor race in California
Sacramento, Calif: In a 12-page letter released a day
after his lopsided
defeat to Gov.
Jerry
Brown,
Republican Neel
Kashkari said he
did not anticipate
how hard it would
be to get his name
out in the nations
most populous
state and he
acknowledged
that most voters
on Election Day
probably didnt Indian American Neel Kashkari
know much about
lost to three-term
him.
Governor Jerry Brown
Kashkari, 41,
blamed much of his defeat on his inability to raise sufficient amount of money, which he called the hardest part
of this campaign.
Developing substantive policies, dealing with the
press, retail campaigning, and debating Jerry Brown
were all straight-forward, Kashkari wrote, but I did
not anticipate the fatigue major Republican donors felt
after very well-funded defeats in 2010 and 2012.
Kashkari, a former US Treasury Department official,
fell to Brown 59 percent to 41 percent and the latter will
Brown will serve an unprecedented fourth term as
California governor. Kashkari has not indicated whether
he will run again.
refused to concede.
The challenger, who nished election night 3,549 votes behind Honda
said a huge number of vote-by-mail
ballots dropped off at the polls Tuesday remain untallied. With an estimated 40,000 votes still outstanding
in the Silicon Valley district, the race
is far from over, Khanna was quoted
Ro Khanna, also seeking a seat in US House, greets supporters

at his campaign headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., on Nov. 4.
as saying. When we started this

campaign nearly two years ago, I
was polling at just 3 percent. Now,
theyre still counting the ballots. Its
that close. Khanna said in an e-mail
message to supporters Wednesday.
But Honda and his backers are condent his current 52 percent to 48 percent margin will hold up, the San
Francisco Gate said. In a statement,

Vivek Kembaiyun, a spokesman for
Honda, noted that the seven-term
congressman led both among votes
cast at the polls and in the vote-bymail ballots already counted. With
the information available, it appears
that the voters have made their decision, Kembaiyun said.
Many Indian-Americans score in state legislatures

Washington: As South Carolina's Indian
American Governor Nikki Haley and
California's Indian-American-African
Attorney General Kamala Harris handily
won their jobs back, many other lesser
known candidates of Indian origin
scored lesser victories in several states.
At 23, Indian-American law student
Niraj Antani, a Republican, became one
of America's youngest lawmakers after
defeating Democrat Patrick Morris in
Ohio's 42nd State House District.
In Colorado, Republican Janak Joshi
won from 16th House District, while
Republican Sabi Kumar became the first
Indian in Tennessee State House of
Representatives. A native of Punjab and
graduate of Amritsar Medical College,
Kumar has served as a surgeon in
Springfield for 37 years. He was practically assured of the House seat after the
withdrawal of his Democratic opponent
several weeks ago.
In Connecticut, Republican Prasad
Srinivasan, a physician, was re-elected
as State Representative unopposed.
A graduate of Baroda Medical College,
he came to the US in 1975 and did his
pediatric residency at Brookdale
Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and
fellowship in allergy and immunology at
Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
Democrat Latha Mangipudi, 43, was
also re-elected to the New Hampshire
State House from Ward 8 constituency,
Maryland House Aruna Miller (D) Latha Mangipudi

(D) was
Majority Leader is also elected to
Marylands
re-elected to the
Kumar Barve
House of
New Hampshire
(D) has won
Delegates.
State House.
again.
which has only 165 Indian-American

voters. Mangipudi who has a Masters in
speech and hearing from the All India
Institute of Speech and Hearing works as
a speech-language pathologist. She came
to the US in 1986, and has lived in New
Hampshire since 1989 with her husband
Krishna Mangipudi, a computer professional and two children.
Maryland House Majority Leader
Kumar Barve, the longest-serving and
first-ever Indian American state legislator, who was first elected in 1990, won
again. So did Aruna Miller, the first
Indian American woman elected to the
state's House of Delegates. Barve and
Miller, both Democrats representing
Montgomery County, were victorious in
Manan Trivedi
(D) lost the
Congressional
race from
Pennsylvania.
Maryland's District 17 and District 15

respectively.
In Michigan, Democrat Sam Singh
was re-elected to 69th House District.
And in Washington State, Democrat
Pramila Jayapal was elected to the State
Senate seat. There were IndianAmerican losers too. Democrat Satpal
Sindhu lost to Republican Luanne
VanWerven in Washington State's 42nd
House District. Democrat Iraq war veteran Manan Trivedi, trying his luck for the
third time was trounced by Republican
Ryan Costello, in Pennsylvania's open
seat in District 6. In 2010 and 2012,
Trivedi unsuccessfully ran against
Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach, who
has retired.
TURN PAGE
November 8-14, 2014
Republicans sweep to victory

in key gubernatorial races
Washington DC: Republican candidates swept key gubernatorial races across the country Tuesday, with Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker fending off a Democratic challenger
and a GOP businessman pulling off a stunning upset in
deeply blue Maryland. In keeping with the trend, GOP
also dominated state races.
The gubernatorial contest between Maryland Lt. Gov.
Anthony Brown and his Republican opponent, businessman Larry Hogan, shaped up to be a much tighter race
than many had anticipated, leading up to Tuesdays faceoff. Brown conceded shortly after midnight.
In Wisconsin, Walker won his re-election by beating
Democratic challenger Mary Burke in what was billed
from the start as a nail-biter of a race for the GOP. The victory boosts Walker's presidential prospects in 2016.
In Illinois, GOP businessman Bruce Rauner ousted Gov.
Pat Quinn, denying him a second full term. Besides
Walker, other GOP governors held on, including Sam
Brownback in Kansas, Rick Scott in Florida, and Rick
Snyder in Michigan.
In another talked-about race, Republican Greg Abbott
has been elected as the newest Texas governor in a decisive victory over Democrat Wendy Davis.
Davis, once the darling of pro-choice liberals, ended up
running what many in both parties regarded as a lackluster
campaign. Davis made national headlines following a 13hour filibuster over new Texas abortion restrictions in
2013.
Tulsi Gabbard
(D-Hawaii), a
practicing Hindu, was
re-elected to Congress
from Hawaii's 2nd
District, defeating
Republican Kawika
Crowley by a wide
margin. Days before
her assured win, the
33-year-old military
police captain was
activated by the
National Guard to help
respond to lava from
the active Kilauea
volcano threatening a
rural town.
Tulsi Gabbard, first Hindu in

Congress, wins second term
Despite electoral drubbing...

Continued from page 1
Republicans gaining their biggest majority in the House since World War II and
wresting back control of the Senate after
eight years, the president gave no sign of
reshaping his agenda in the new situation. Obama said he would seek compromises in the coming months on trade
deals, tax changes, infrastructure spending and an immigration overhaul.
But what Im not going to do is just
wait, he said vowing to use his executive authority for immigration reform.
What stands out to me is that the message Americans sent yesterday is one
youve sent for several elections in a row
now, he said in an open letter to people
later.
You expect the people you elect to
work as hard as you do. You expect us to
focus on your ambitions not ours
and you want us to get the job done.
Period. I plan on spending every
moment of the next two years rolling up
my sleeves and working as hard as I can
for the American people, Obama said.
Commenting on the Presidents offer
to Republicans, the influential New York
Times noted that Obama had refused to
submit to the Republican narrative that
his presidency effectively ended with the
midterm elections. Asking the President
not to give in to Republican demands on
issues like health care and immigration
reform as he had vowed, it said, Voters
said they wanted the two parties to stop
bickering and work harder, not erase the
progress made in the last six years.
The Washington Post, on the other
hand suggested, Obama should give
Republicans time to make good on their
promises, including on immigration.
The cost would not be very high; holding back a provocative executive action
does not preclude the president from
issuing one in six months or a years
time, should Republican leaders fail to
make good on their conciliatory tone, it
said.
More assertive Republicans...
Obama on immigration would poison
the well for any cooperation with the
new GOP Congress.
Reacting to Obamas remark to reach
out to him at a press conference
Wednesday, McConnell, who is in line to
become the next Senate majority leader,
urged Obama to follow Ronald Reagan
and Bill Clinton, who built domestic
legacies despite often having to deal
with a Congress controlled by opposing
parties. He said those two presidents are
good examples of accepting the government you have rather than fantasizing
about the government you wished you
had. He also warned Obama against
acting on immigration on his own, saying Its like waving a red flag in front
of a bull.
Meanwhile, in an op-ed, Boehner and
McConnell co-wrote in The Wall Street
Journal, they even said they would move
towards repealing Obamacare - the signature legislative achievement of
President Obama - arguing that this is
having an adverse impact on jobs.
In their joint op-ed, the two top GOP
leaders , said their priorities include
addressing many of the most pressing
challenges facing the country, including
the insanely complex tax code that is
driving American jobs overseas; health
costs and a savage global terrorist threat.
The Republican controlled Congress,
they said, would also take head-on an
education system that denies choice to
parents and denies a good education to
too many children.
"We'll also consider legislation to help
protect and expand America's emerging
energy boom and to support innovative
charter schools around the country," they
said.
"These bills include measures authorizing the construction of the Keystone
XL pipeline, which will mean lower
energy costs for families and more jobs
for American workers; the Hire More
Heroes Act, legislation encouraging
employers to hire more of our nation's
veterans; and a proposal to restore the
traditional 40-hour definition of fulltime employment, removing an arbitrary
and destructive government barrier to
more hours and better pay created by the
Affordable Care Act of 2010," they

wrote.
"Will these bills single-handedly turn
around the economy? No. But taking up
bipartisan bills aimed at helping the
economy that have already passed the
House is a sensible and obvious first
step. More good ideas aimed at helping
the American middle class will follow,"
they said.
Nikki Haley wins second...
in Afghanistan and then returning home
to help her with her re-election bid. I
am very proud of who I am because of
my family, said the nations first Indian
American woman governor. My mom,
dad, sister and brother have supported
me through everything Ive done, she
said humbly.
During the last days of her campaign,
the popular governor faced some backlash from her Democratic challenger
Vincent Sheheen, but she refused to be
drawn into the controversy.
In a rematch of their 2010 race, she
won handily 56-41. The much bigger
margin than last time will make her better known nationally.
Besides Haley, Indian American candidates met with mixed results. Many won
in state level races, but that was all. In
California, Neel Kashkari, a former
Treasury Department official, was
defeated by four-term incumbent
Governor Jerry Brown.
Two other California races were too
close to call. In Congressional District 7,
incumbent Ami Bera the lone Indian
American in Congress was trailing
Republican challenger Doug Ose but
hoped to erase Ose 3,000-vote lead
when thousands of votes more are counted by Saturday. Even the first time Bera
won two years ago, the result was
declared many days after the polling had
finished.
In one of this years most-watched
races, in Silicon Valley, seven-term
incumbent Mike Honda was leading
challenger Ro Khanna with over 3,500
votes but an estimated 40,000 votes were
still to be tallied.
New Delhi Bureau

Meenakshi Iyer
Delhi@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Art and Design: Vladimir Tomovski

Bhagwati Creations,
Dhiraj Kumar
Printed Every Saturday by

Forsythe Media Group, LLC
ISSN 1941-9333
76 N Broadway, Suite 2004,
Hicksville, NY 11801 P: 516.390.7847
Website: TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Updated Daily
Managing Editor: Parveen Chopra

C : 516.710.0508
Editor@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Strategy and Marketing

Jinal Shah
P: 315-436-1142
jinal.shah85@gmail.com
Web Editor: B.B.Chopra
Associate Editors
Jinal Shah, Hiral Dholakia-Dave,
Meenakshi Iyer
Marketing & PR (Washington DC)

Chander Gambhir, P: 703.717.1667
IANS Washington Bureau

Arun Kumar
arun.kumar@ians,in
Chairman and Co-Founder

Kamlesh C. Mehta
Contributing Editors: Melvin Durai,

Dr Prem Kumar Sharma,
Harry Aurora, Ashok Vyas,
Dr Akshat Jain, Nupur Joshi
Co-Founder: Saroosh Gull

(Editor@DesiClub.com)
President: Arjit Mehta
Board Advisors (Honorary)
Ajay Lodha, MD,
Lakhpat B. Mehta, Esq.
Rajasthan High Court & Supreme Court
Contributing Editors (Youth):

Rhea Gupta, Shweta Lodha, Sidharth Goyal
West Coast Correspondent
Pooja Jain,
Pooja@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Jaipur (India) Bureau

Prakash Bhandari
Prakash@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Photographs: Gunjesh Desai/
masalajunction.com.
Xitij Joshi/xitijphoto.com
Photo Journalist: Sandeep Ganatra
Cartoonist: Mahendra Shah
News Service: HT Media Ltd.

IANS Newswire Services
Printing: Five Star Printing, NY

Contacts
Editor@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Subscribe@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Advertisements
Advertise@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
P : 516.390.7847, F : 516.465.1343
Website:
www.TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Notice: The South Asian Times is published weekly by The Forsythe Media Group, LLC. POSTMASTER: Send all address notices, subscription orders/payments and other inquiries to The South Asian
Times, 76 N Broadway, Suite 2004, Hicksville, NY 11801, USA. Copyright and all other rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be reprinted without the consent of the publisher. The
views expressed on the opinion pages and in the letters to the editor pages are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of The South Asian Times. The editor/publisher does not warrant accuracy
and cannot be held responsible for the content of the advertisements placed in the publication and/or inaccurate claims, if any, made by the advertisers. Advertisements of business or facilities included in this
publication do not imply connection or endorsement of these businesses. All rights reserved.
US POLLS 2014
Very low voter turnout went against Dems

P
By SATimes Team
ollsters are still laboring to

understand what propelled
Republican Partys sweeping
victories in US Senate and gubernatorial races nationwide.
Sifting through exit polls, some
clear indicators can be seen. There
was low turnout overall perhaps because of widespread dissatisfaction
with President Obamas leadership
fewer colored voters and women
hurt Democrats. Older, white men,
who tilt Republican, voted in record
numbers.
Only about 83 million people voted, which is a bare 36.6 % of eligible voters. This is the lowestturnout election (nationally) since
1942 and that was in the midst of
World War II.
But in the competitive races, there
was fairly robust turnout. The rival
campaigns spent money there, encouraging their supporters to vote.
Besides, Republicans have stepped
up their ground game, the LA Times
commented. The turnout was up
over 2010 in some parts of the
fiercely fought battlegrounds of
Colorado, Alaska, Iowa and North
Carolina.
In midterms usually the electorate
is older compared to presidential
years. Millennials, mainly Democratic supporters, made up just 21.3
percent of voters, according to data.
Support for Democrats was down
slightly among black voters. In
2012, 87% backed the President; in
2010, 80% voted Democratic

House candidates. This time, they
backed Democrats by 79 points.
Asian American vote

According to the preliminary results of exit polls released by Asian
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Asian
Americans support for Democrats
has declined since the 2012 presidential election.
On Election Day, AALDEF surveyed 4,200 Asian-American voters
in 11 states with large or fast-growing Asian American populations
(NY-NJ, MA, PA, etc) in 12 languages (including Chinese, Korean,
Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi,
Urdu, and Gujarati). The results
show that the largest Asian ethnic
groups to vote in Nov 4 were Chinese (36%), South Asian (25%),
Korean (12%), Vietnamese (12%)
and Filipino (5%).
Dems blame GOPs cynical

strategy for debacle
By SATimes Team
Washington D.C.: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) have a ready explanation for the poll debacle. It
was the result of Republicans cynical political strategy that put hurting President Obama before helping the American people, they said
to their email list. The President
put it best just a few months ago,
DCCC said quoting him: There
has been a certain cynical genius to
what some of these folks have done
in Washington. What theyve real-
ized is, if we dont get anything

done, then people are going to get
cynical about government and its
possibilities of doing good for
everybody. And since they dont
believe in government, thats a pretty good thing. And the more cynical people get, the less they vote.
And if turnout is low and people
dont vote, that pretty much benefits those who benefit from the status quo. In other words, the Republicans broke Washington. Then,
they spent millions of dollars of secret money running against a broken Washington, concluded DCCC.
Of the total Asian American voting bloc, 10% were first time voters. 59% of Asian Americans were
registered Democrats, 26% were
registered Republicans, and 15%
were not enrolled in any political
party, stated the report.
In addition, AALDEF monitored
147 poll sites and received over 340
complaints by Asian-American voters who faced barriers at polling
places. Some of the barriers included lack of interpreters, lack of translated voting materials, names missing from voter lists or other errors
in voter names, requirements to
prove U.S. citizenship, not being
given a provisional ballot, poll
workers making hostile remarks to
voters or providing incorrect information; being misdirected to wrong
poll sites, voting machine breakdowns, and poor ballot design.
Some of the issues were reportedly
resolved by the volunteers on site.
November 8-14, 2014
New York was a slaughterhouse

for Congressional Democrats
Michael Grimm ( R ) easily

retained his Congressional
seat from Staten Island
despite facing a 20-count
indictment.
Kathleen Rice (D), Nassau

County District Attorney, has
won a House seat from Long
Island.
New York: House Democrats lost

big time on Tuesday night in New
York State, where Republicans
scored stunning margins or performed better than expected in race
after race. "Roughly a quarter of
the House losses nationally occurred in New York," a Democratic insider told Business Insider.
Notably, Rep. Michael Grimm
(R-N.Y.) more than doubled his
margin of victory over 2012
even though he faced a more experienced opponent, former Councilman Domenic Recchia (D), and
was indicted last April on 20
counts of alleged fraud and other
criminal acts.
In Syracuse Rep. Dan Maffei (D)

was blown off by Republican John
Katko, 60% to 40%. Long Island
Rep. Tim Bishop (D) was easily
ousted by a Republican state senator, Lee Zeldin. And in a once-touted race, Sean Eldridge, the husband of Facebook founder Chris
Hughes, was trounced by Rep.
Chris Gibson (R). Obama won all
three of these districts in 2012.
DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin pointed to bright spots: Sean
Patrick Maloney and Nassau
County District Attorney Kathleen
Rice winning in seats that House
Republicans had claimed were
their top targets.
GOP hawks talk war after big win

Washington D.C.: The Republican hawks have heard the clarion
call of a midterm election that put
the GOP in charge of both Houses
and they're ready for battle.
GOP Senate leaders have already met to discuss strategy in reshaping US foreign policy, and are
considering arming Ukraine's military, stepping up U.S. aid in the
fight against Islamic State militants, and challenging China's
continued encroachment in the
south China Sea, said Arizona
Sen. John McCain.
The senator has huddled with
Republicans Bob Corker and
Richard Burr, the likely incoming
chairmen of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and Select
Sen. John McCain is said to be

already pushing for a hawkish
foreign policy.
Committee on Intelligence.
While the new crop of GOP sen-
ators are reliably hawkish, not all

Republicans are pleased about the
rightward bent.
Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in
Syria and Iraq. Boots on the
ground are coming! tweeted Ron
Paul, the isolationist dad of similar-thinking Sen. Rand Paul.
McCain said his first order of
business as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
will be to end the budget rule sequestration, which requires the
U.S. military to cut its budget
across the board. I want to start an
examination of our policies in the
world and then find out whether
we have the capability to meet
these expectations, McCain said.
US POLLS 2014
November 8-14, 2014
Analysis
Republican takeover of Congress bodes good for US-India ties

With the right-wing BJP in power in India, both countries will have right of center
legislative bodies, placing them more in sync with each other.
By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
n the Nov 4 elections, GOP won control
of both chambers of the US Congress.
Heres what the results mean for India
and Indians.
Here in the United States, IndianAmericans tend to overwhelmingly support
Democrats, even though their profile as a
high-earning, family-oriented group would
make them seem like a natural Republican
constituency. According to Sadanand
Dhume, a fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI), this may be
because most Indian-Americans settle in
blue states such as New York and
California, which colors their perspective. Others have bought into a toxic culture of victimhood, despite the obvious fact
that the overwhelming majority of Indian
immigration came after the US experienced
the great civil rights victories of the 1960s.
However, the real explanation seems to be
that most Indian-American grievances with
the Republican party revolve around their
perception of the party as overtly Christian
and white, a fact that makes them feel
unwelcome in the party. Indian-Americans
would prefer a model of religious pluralism. Many Indian-Americans also believe
that the party is opposed to immigration
and immigrants, including those from
India.
While some of the Indian-American communitys perceptions of the Republican
Party are true, not all of them are. An individual candidates positions may be good
or bad for Indian-Americans, regardless of
his or her party affiliation. Republicans

have a better track record of electing highranking Indian-Americans, as in Nikki
Haley, who won reelection as South
Carolina Governor, and Bobby Jindal, second term Louisiana Governor. Both of them
have been criticized by some for dissociating themselves from their Indian roots in
order to succeed politically (both converted
to Christianity). Nonetheless, they have
maintained links with the Indian community and supported Prime Minister Narendra
Modi during his recent trip to the US.
Indian-American Democrats fared poorly
in the 2014 elections like the rest of their
party: Ami Bera and Ro Khanna were trailing in their races for US House, Manan
Trivedi from Pennsylvania lost. From
Republicans, gubernatorial candidate Neel
Kashkari lost in California.
On the foreign policy level, the impact of
a Republican Congress on Indo-American
relations will probably be somewhat positive. With the right-wing BJP in power in
India, both countries will have right of center legislative bodies, placing them more in
sync with each other. Also, the
Republicans foreign and economy policies

align more with Indias interests than those
of the Democratic Party.
Despite the nexus between the Clinton
family and many Indian donors, especially
those from Punjab, the overall policies of
the Democratic Party toward India have not
been very positive. In fact, it has been
alleged that Hillary Clinton has been out to
get Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
under the guise of human rights issues but
in reality for taking stands that differed
from those of the United States. President
Obama has frequently criticized the movement of American jobs, especially professional ones, to places in India such as
Bangalore. He has been seen in India as
overemphasizing the special bilateral relationship between the United States and
China, much to Indias chagrin. India has
also been critical of Obamas policy to
draw back American forces from
Afghanistan too quickly. India has also not
been happy with the US Congress continued aid and support to Pakistans military.
There is a consensus in the Democratic
Party for better relations with India; however, this consensus rarely goes beyond
words. On the other hand, a Republican
Congress would be much more favorably
inclined toward India in terms of offering
weapons deals, trade agreements, investment, and security assistance. Republicans
have also become increasingly critical of
foreign aid without results, as a part of their
larger criticism of government spending.
This includes aid to Pakistan. Republicans
have also been more critical of China and
Mathew Martoma wins delay of prison term

New York: Mathew Martoma,
the Indian-origin portfolio manager, sentenced to nine years on insider trading charges, has won his
bid to delay his surrender to prison
next week until an appellate panel
decides on his motion to remain
free on bail pending appeal of his
conviction.
Martoma, 40, was sentenced in
federal court last month by US
District Judge Paul Gardephe for
his role as the "central figure" in
the most lucrative insider trading
scheme ever charged involving
$275 million in illegal profits and
avoided losses.
Martoma was also ordered to
forfeit a $9.3 million bonus he
earned through the insider trading
as well as his interests in his Florida home and several bank accounts.
Martoma was ordered to surrender to prison on November 10 and
had last month moved court for
bail pending appeal saying his appeal will raise "several other close
questions including that evidence
was improperly excluded and his
Mathew Martoma, the Indianorigin portfolio manager, has

been sentenced to 9 years in
prison for insider trading.
sentence was both procedurally

and substantively unreasonable."
The US Court of Appeals in an
order on Tuesday said Martoma's
motion for bail pending appeal is
referred to a three-judge motions
panel and would be heard as soon
as possible.
The appeals court granted Martoma's request to extend his November 10 surrender date until an
appellate panel hears and decides
on his motion for bail pending ap-
peal.
Martoma had filed an emergency
motion for bail pending appeal and
had sought to extend his surrender
date until his bail motion can be
heard and decided by the appeals
court.
Last month, Gardephe had denied Martoma's appeal to stay free
on bail while he appeals his conviction and to delay his surrender
date to prison, ruling that evidence
of his guilt is "overwhelming" and
his argument of error at trial is not
persuasive.
Martoma, a portfolio manager of
CR Intrinsic Investors, a division
of hedge fund behemoth SAC
Capital, was convicted in February
this year for collecting confidential
information about a high-profile
Alzheimer's drug trial from two
doctors and making profits and
avoiding losses of $275 million for
SAC Capital.
Martoma, who had changed his
name from Ajai Mathew Thomas,
was also sentenced to three years
of supervised release following the
completion of his sentence.
many would like to cultivate better ties

with India instead of China. This was the
attitude of the previous Republican administration of George W. Bush, who pushed
the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement.
Several prominent Republicans, including Speaker of the House John Boehner and
Senator John McCain, have expressed an
interest in getting things done with India.
McCain, who is a big proponent of stronger
ties with India, looks set to have a prominent say on defense and arms and will likely be a key ally in helping expand the
geostrategic partnership between the two
countries. Indias new government seems to
be much more open to investment from the
U.S. than previous governments. It also
tends to support free trade and is less protectionist than the Democratic Party. Mitt
Romney, the former presidential candidate,
said with regard to India that well see
new opportunities created selling products
there. Well have a net increase in economic activity, just as we did with free trade.
This view is widely shared among
Republicans. Since President Obama does
not necessarily oppose greater trade or
defense cooperation with India, it is likely
that U.S. government initiatives towards
India will not meet much opposition from
either the legislature or the executive.
Expect to see India-U.S. ties improve, or
at least for there to be more deliverables in
the near future because of the favorable
political climate in both countries.
Courtesy The Diplomat, a current-affairs
magazine for the Asia-Pacific region.
Bear kills Indian-origin

hiker in NJ: Report
Washington, DC: An Indian-origin hiker found dead in September
near a circling bear in a wildlife
preserve in West Milford, a township in New Jersey, was actually
mauled to death by the bear, an
autopsy report has revealed.
Darsh Patel, 22, is confirmed as
the first person in New Jersey history to be killed by a bear, nj.com
quoted the authorities as saying.
He was killed by the 300-pound
bear's claws and teeth Sep 22,
Chief Timothy Storbeck of the
West Milford police said.
Patel's cause of death is listed as
"mauling" - and the cause of the
fatal injury is "mauled by bear",
authorities added. They had earlier said that Patel sustained numerous bites and claw marks.
The bear was predatory and
stalking hikers before the attack
and the animal that was euthanized where Patel's body was
found has been confirmed to be
the same bear who killed the Rutgers student, officials have concluded.
However, the full autopsy results, which include toxicology
tests, are likely to take several
months, authorities added.
Patel and four friends were hiking in the Apshawa Preserve when
they encountered two hikers who
warned them about a bear following them, police said. However,
the five friends moved forward,
and started taking pictures of the
bear, from what they thought was
a safe distance, police chief Storbeck said.
When the bear came closer, the
five turned around. But the bear
closed the distance and eventually
the group took off running, splitting up in panic as they did so, authorities said. Neither of the hiking groups in the woods that
evening intimidated or provoked
the bear, the investigation found.
TRISTATE COMMUNITY
November 8-14, 2014
Burglars target Indian

New York MET Museum hosts Ramayana on Diwali
American homes in New Jersey
By Jinal Shah
New York: Robbers are targeting homes of Indian Americans

in New Jersey post-Diwali, a
media report said Saturday. In
the latest such incident, the
house of Rajesh Singh at
Netherwood
Circle
in
Middlesex County was targeted by three masked men
Thursday.
"They just came into the
house, tied us up and took
away whatever we had,"
Pix11.com quoted Singh as
saying. Police are in search of
the three masked men who
robbed Singh and his family at
gunpoint. The Netherwood
Circle incident followed those
in South Plainfield and Old
Bridge and is the fourth one
after Diwali. All the cases
involved Indian American victims. The modus operandi of
the criminals is learned to be
similar in all the four cases and
the robbers seem to have the
knowledge that Indian families
tend to bring out their valuables and jewelry from inside
the closet during Diwali celebrations and clearly have been
trying to take advantage of

that.
"It's very discouraging for us
because we are here to celebrate but now everybody's
scared and nobody knows what
will happen next," Singh's
neighbor Kalpit Khamar said.
The Middlesex County
Prosecutor's Office, which is
handling the investigation has
announced a reward for information that leads to any arrest
in this connection.
Public safety meetings have
been organized in Edison
which will focus on home
security and crime-prevention
measures, after complaints
from residents that the town
lacked enough police officers,
mycentraljersey.com reported.
"The victims are my neighbors, so this crime is very personal to me," Edison councilwoman Sapana Shah was quoted as saying. "I realize that
Edison must stay within budget
and be cost-effective for our
taxpayers. But Edison also
needs more cops on our
streets," she added.
New York: On Sunday dancers and

actors from East West Dance of
school brought the stories of Diwali
to life in a scintillating and energetic
Ramayana dance drama held by The
Metropolitan Museum of Art at the
Gracey Rainy Rogers Auditorium.
The production was hosted by the
Multicultural Advisory Committee
along with Lal Motwani, President
of the National Federation of
Indian-American Association
(NFIA). Under the Museums
Multicultural
Audience
Development Initiative and
Education Department, the drama
was held as the annual Diwali celebration.
Although in its sixth year, the East
West School of Dance continued to
captivate a packed audience with
over thirty ethnically-diverse members of the cast and over 20 group
dancers from the dance school and
Ananda Asharam dressed in traditional Kathak costumes, dazzling
jewelry and clinking ghungroos.
The drama relied heavily on characters facial expressions, rich costumes, melodies, dance and some
dialogues in English language for
the benefit of the audience.
The long and straining story is
Publisher on mission to raise breast

cancer awareness among South Asians
New York: When Ayesha Hakki, publisher
of Bibi Magazine was diagnosed with breast
cancer earlier this summer, the first thing she
did was jump on the internet to find information about the disease and how it pertained
to her South Asian genes. Strangely enough,
the majority of the research she found was
coming out of England with little to negligible resources here in the US. While other
ethnic groups have visible support systems
for cancer patients, South Asian-Americans
do not, which is especially surprising as
South Asians are one of the fastest growing
ethnic groups with a particularly high
amount of members serving in the medical
fields. I realized there is not a lot of information or resources out there. Instead we
have a lot of mystery and secrecy surrounding cancer in our community. I decided to be
public with my story by blogging about it
because I figured if I had to have this disease, then I want to make it count. As soon
as I did, so many people began reaching out
to me saying that either they or a family
member had been affected by cancer. It was
amazing how prevalent this health condition
is in our community yet you only hear it
about it in hushed tones.
As a first step to opening the dialogue and
raising awareness, Hakki decided to host a
fundraiser for breast cancer. Joined but a
number of her close friends, Hakki hosted
Mischief Night, a Halloween-themed party
that raised money for the Avon Breast
Cancer Crusade. The purpose of the event,
according to Hakki, was to encourage people
Early detection is key says Ayesha

Hakki, diagnosed with breast cancer in
summer this year.
to make wiser choices in their food supply

and with the personal and household products that they use. Additionally, she suggested for people to get regularly tested for highrisk cancers. Early detection is key, she
added during her speech at the event. Its
the reason that I am here at the party rather
than in some hospital bed. The fundraiser
was well attended by over 100 costumed
guests some of whom were survivors themselves or had a family member who had
been affected by cancer. Hakkis next project
is to create a Public Service Advertisement
about early detection and healthy lifestyle
choices to help educate the South AsianAmerican community.
Scintillating
dance
drama
sends epic
message on
Diwali
summarized in 11 scenes, including

the wedding of Sita, Ramas exile to
the forest, kidnapping of Sita,
Hanumans mission to Sri Lanka,
the epic battle between Rama and
Ravana, meeting of Rama-Sita and
Ramas coronation.
Some scenes of the production
proved to be memorable, especially
for eight year old Yadna Prasad who
was visibly excited to meet Rama
after the show. My parents and
grandparents narrated me the story
but it is fascinating to see it as a performance. What I most like about
the story is how he survived in the
forest. When asked about her takeaway from the epic mythology,
Yadna quickly said that good
always triumphs over evil.

22 year old Urvashie Kissoon,
who played Sita for the first time,
echoed Yadna when asked about
why she participated in the dance
drama, Ramayana teaches you a lot
about life about happiness and
more.
The show was choreographed and
directed by Satya Narayana Charka.
Every year we try to do something
new. This year we included raas performance by Columbia Raas group
and solo performance by Prachi
Modi, Miss India New York 2013.
For the second time in a row, Trilok
Malik, New York Emmy award
nominee played Bharat (Lord
Ramas brother) in the play.
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
November 8-14, 2014
Kerala Center to honor nine

Indian American Malayalees
Washington, DC: The Indian
American Kerala Cultural and Civic
Center will honor nine Indian
American Malayalees for their outstanding achievements in their field
of specialization or for their service
to the society.
The awardee were selected unanimously by a four-member committee headed by Kerala Center Board
Member and Trustee Dr. Thomas
Abraham. The awardee will be honored at the Kerala Center's 22nd
Annual Awards Banquet on Nov 15
at World's Fair Marina in Flushing,
Queens, New York City.
This year's celebration also
includes a Technology Summit for
Kerala where invitations are extended to Malayalee academics, scientists, technologists, engineers, entrepreneurs and businessmen in New
York City.
The awardee: Recognition for
Outstanding Contribution in
Education - Dr. Geeta Menon, 11th
Dean of the Undergraduate College
at NYU's Leonard N. Stern School
of Business and the Abraham
Krasnoff Professor of Global
Business and Professor of
Marketing.
Recognition for Outstanding

Contribution in Entrepreneurship Siby Vadakekkara, founder,
Chairman and CEO of Marlabs, a
software services firm headquartered in New Jersey which he started with three employees in 1997
and has now become over 1800
employees globally with over $100
million in revenues. Recognition for
Outstanding Contribution in
Corporate Leadership - Suresh Nair,
head of Global Wealth and
Investment
Management
Technology
at
Bank
of
America/Merrill Lynch.
Contribution in Engineering Abraham Pannikottu, principal of an
Ohio based engineering firm which
developed a unique carbon fibre
hoop design zero pressure tyre for
the US military that could keep military vehicles running faster and
longer after an attack.
Contribution in Services to
Government - Dr. Gabriel D. Roy,
who served as a faculty member in
Mechanical Engineering in India
and the US and also managed sponsored research and IR&D in indus-
try.
Contribution in Applied Sciences Dr. Thomas J. Colacot, the Global R
& D Manager in Homogeneous
Catalysis at Johnson Matthey
Catalysis & Chiral Technologies in
West Deptford.
Recognition for Community
Service - Baby Uralil. Initiator,
founder and president of many cultural associations, Uralil started a
medical lab in New York, which has
now extended to different states of
America. He is also CEO for
Malayalam IPTV.
Recognition in Literature and
Writing - Thelma Kizhakedan.
Known as a writer, gaayika and
abhinethri, she started writing in the
Kerala periodicals like 'Malayala
Nadu, 'Janayugam', 'Kaumudi' in
1970s.
Recognition with Special Award Dr. Teresa Antony. An experienced
yoga instructor, she is a member of
Strathmore's Who is Who
Worldwide 2014 and has published
numerous scientific articles and has
written and spoken about Indian
culture and community at various
forums.
Ranjana & Naeem

Khan host fundraiser
for Wishwas
Ranjana, Naeem Khan, host Jessica Minhas and Wishwas exe

director Nivedita Chandrappa
New York: Wishwas, a nonprofit

organization held their annual
cocktail soiree in New York City
on October 28 to raise funds for
their charity. Celebrity fashion
designer Naeem Khan and his
wife, jewelry designer Ranjana
Khan helped support the cause by
hosting a spectacular fundraiser at
In Memorium
Sri Rudram Groups

soulful treat
Banad N Vishwanath, MD
(Dec 26, 1937 Oct 30, 2014)
ith deep sorrow, the

extended members
of the Viswanath &
Banad families announce the
passing of their family patriarch, Banad N Viswanath,
W
New York: The New York Sri Rudram
Group has grown over the years and this year
(October 24- 25) the first day event featured
Kalasha Sthapana, Mahanyasam, Ekadasa
Rudra Japam with Abhishekam, Arati and
Prasadam.
The second day program included
Ganapathy Homam, Ekadasa Rudra Japam,
Rudram Homam and Abhishekam. The
Ritviks were fortunate enough to be able to
join in the Abhishekam for Lord Shiva by
offering the holy water from the kalasam.
The second day evening program featured
Vishnu
Sahasranamam,
Lalitha
Sahasranamam with Kumkuma archana,

vilakku pooja and Shiva Parvati Kalyanam.
This soulful treat complete with spiritual
ecstasy and divinity and meditative spirit
was enjoyed by 175 devotees, 4 priests, 60
Ritviks and 10 volunteers. They were fortunate and blessed with the opportunity to participate and partake the divine prasadam
offered to everyone who thronged the event
from the tristate area, and places as far as
San Francisco, and Winnipeg (Canada). The
devotees prayed for the welfare of their families and friends, all humanity and for global
peace and prosperity.
their fashion studio in Manhattan.

Wishwas is a New York City
based nonprofit organization
focusing on two initiatives;
empowering low-income immigrant women assimilate within
society and training them in vocational skills to make them financially self-sufficient.
M.D.
Dr. Banad N Viswanath
lived a full and varied life and
was a trail blazer in the fields
of Medicine, Broadcasting,
Business and Philanthropy.
Emigrating to the US in 1962,
he trained at Baylor
University Hospital under the
legendary Dr. Denton Cooley
in Houston, Texas and went
on to a distinguished career as
an eminent cardiologist in a
medical career spanning more
than five decades. He practiced until the very end, working six days a week and
always putting his patients
needs above his own.
Dr. Viswanath is known as
the Pioneer of Indian TV in
the USA, when he launched
Vision of Asia the first
Indian American TV show in

1976 , making it a must see
show for the South Asian
Diaspora, every Sunday
morning. With this success,
in 1986, Dr. Viswanath,
launched ITV Gold, the first,
full time 24 hours a day, 7
days a week cable TV channel
in the United States, bringing
the latest news and culture of
the Indian Sub Continent to
TV screen in the US. Among
his many philanthropic interests, Dr. Viswanath supported
various non-profit, religious
and humanitarian institutions
in the US and in South Asia,
which his family will continue to be active in.For our family and friends, Dr. Viswanath
will never be forgotten. In our
hearts, he will forever remain.
Now a .desi domain name for your business

New York: Desis around
the world can now register
their own websites ending in
.desi. A team of South Asian
professionals
recently
launched .desi, a website domain catered specifically to
South Asians.
Ravin Ohri, the founder
and CEO of .desi, said he has
always been proud of his
South Asian heritage, and he
wanted to honor it in an innovative way.

Its an alternative vehicle
for desis to express themselves and be recognized
worldwide, Ohri said.
There is nothing else like it
anywhere. We want .desi to
serve as a platform desis all
around the world can use to
collaborate.
There is a fee to register a
domain name, but Ohri said

the team aims to make the
site as accessible as possible
for South Asians around the
world. To this point, there
hasnt been a clear way to
identify desi services and
brands on a global level,
Ohri said. With .desi, billions of desis are able to find
whats important to them, and
be found.
Audible releases Aasif Mandvi

Memoir, No Lands Man
New York, NY: Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with John Stewart" correspondent and Obie Award-winning actor Aasif Mandvi hilariously and poignantly explores his place in American culture in his
memoir, No Lands Man.
Described as an Indo-Muslim-British-American outsider, Mandvi
narrated his memoir as an audiobook so listeners can enjoy the primetime funnyman, actor and now, first-time author, as he brings his journey to life. It is available for download from Audible.
Viacom18 rings in festive season

with Rishtey in US & Canada
Mumbai: After its successful launch in the UK and India, Viacom18
and IndiaCast announce the launch of the Hindi general entertainment
channel Rishtey in the US and Canada.
Adding the festive fervor for viewers in the region, Rishtey is now
available to the US audiences on Dish and Dishworld on channel 699
and to Canada viewers on Rogers Cable on channel 924. With the
launch of the Rishtey on Dish and Dishworld, the channel will now be
available to around 160K households in the US.
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
Obituary
New York: Alagappa Alagappan,
a retired UN official who lived in
Queens passed away on October
24 at age 88. He had become "the
father of the temple-building
movement in North America" as a
Hindu leader in Texas wrote in an
email to Alagappan's family.
Born on December 3, 1925, in
Kanadukathan, a town in southern
India, he earned bachelor's and
master's degrees from Presidency
College in Chennai. He went on to
earn a master's degree in international relations from the London
School of Economics and Political
Science. He also studied law and
became a member of the British
bar. While studying in London, he
worked for the British Broadcasting Corp. In 1968, on a trip to his
India, Alagappa Alagappan
Stockton
Gurdwara,
built in
1912. The
float will
highlight
contribution of
Sikh
Americans
over 125
years to
American
society.
Viewers will see an image of

the Stockton Gurdwara, built in
America in 1912, as well as a variety of Sikh American men and
women who have committed
themselves to a life of service,
she added.
This historic effort is thanks to
Founder of Hindu temple movement in

North America passes away
Sikhs in California to roll out

float to raise awareness
s part of their continued
efforts to raise awareness
about their community in
the United Stated of America, California Sikhs are set to roll out
Sikh float at the New Year Rose
Parade. With an audience of 50
million Americans, Sikhs will be
able to ensure greater visibility and
increased awareness.
The parade, often referred to as
Americas New Year celebration, is held on the first day of
January in Pasadena, California
and accompanies the Rose Bowl
college football game viewed by
an estimated 50 Million Americans on television. The float will
highlight Sikh American values,
their history in the United States
and over 125 years of contributions to American society.
This float," according to Sona
Simran Kaur, communications director at Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
(SALDEF), "will be a dynamic
way to demonstrate this American
community's history in America.
November 8-14, 2014
more than a decade of persistent

requests from California Sikhs.
Rashpal Dhindsa, founder of the
United Sikh Mission, eight years
ago proposed the idea of participating in the parade who was then
supported by other Sikh organizations joined the effort.
Alagappa Alagappan
dreamed that an ancient Hindu

god told him to visit a medium,
the New York Times reported. So
he did, and on his first visit, the
medium read palm leaves to tell
him that Lord Ganesha wanted to
settle in a city beginning with the

letter N. On the medium's instruction, by his account, Alagappan
returned the next day, and he
learned that Ganesha had asked
for more: He wanted temples to be
established throughout North
America. On the third day, the
medium told Alagappan that it
was his job to arrange that. So he
did.His work began in the wake of
a landmark change in US immigration law in Congress in 1965:
the replacement of a national-origins quota system, which had
been in place since the 1920s,
with a preference system, which
favored immigrants with skills or
with relatives in the United States.
Today, there are 700 Hindu
temples in the United States, serving a Hindu population that since
1965 has increased to about 1.5
million.
World Trade Center reopens

for business after 13 years
New York: Thirteen years after the
9/11 terrorist attack, the resurrected
World Trade Center is again opening
for business, marking an emotional
milestone for both New Yorkers and
the United States as a whole.
Publishing giant Conde Nast will
start moving on Monday into One
World Trade Center, a 104-story,
$3.9 billion skyscraper that dominates the Manhattan skyline. It is
America's tallest building.
It's the centerpiece of the 16-acre
site where the decimated twin towers
once stood and where more than
2,700 people died on Sept. 11, 2001,

buried under smoking mounds of
fiery debris.
The building is 60-percent leased,
with another 80,000 square feet going to the advertising firm Kids Creative, the stadium operator Legends
Hospitality, the BMB Group investment adviser, and Servcorp, a
provider of executive offices.
The government's General Services Administration signed up for
275,000 square feet, and the China
Center, a trade and cultural facility,
will cover 191,000 square feet.
Indian Americans join Yezidis in

protest at White House
Washington, D.C: In a show of
solidarity, the Indian American
community joined Yezidis from
across the U.S. and Canada here
Oct. 24 for a demonstration outside
the White House to raise awareness
about the thousands of Yezidis who
are being targeted by terror groups
ISIS and ISIL in Iraq. Indian Americans issued an appeal for dona-
tions and humanitarian aid. The

demonstrators urged the U.S. government to take action in defense of
the Yezidis fighting on Mt. Shingal
and to help rescue thousands of enslaved Yezidi women and girls.
Baba Sheik, a leading member of
a high-level Yezidi delegation visiting from Iraq, also joined the
protest.
10
INDIA
November 8-14, 2014
Goa CM Parrikar tipped to get defense portfolio

New Delhi: Narendra Modi will
likely reshuffle and expand his
council of ministers on Sunday,
with Goa chief minister Manohar
Parrikar tipped to get the key
defense portfolio and Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi set to return as a cabinet minister.
The long-awaited revamp of the
team that has ruled India since late
May will lighten the burden on
some ministers who hold more
than one portfolio and give the
Prime Minister a chance to promote high achievers while getting
rid of a few who have failed to
keep pace, government and BJP
sources said.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley,
who holds additional charge of the
defence portfolio, had said early in
his tenure that this was only a temporary arrangement. The 58-yearold Parrikar flew to Delhi this
Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar can become

union defense minister.
week after canceling a meeting of

his state cabinet, and met BJP chief
Amit Shah and, later in the day,
Modi.
The Prime Minister did not talk

about my joining the cabinet; we
discussed Goa issues, he said after
meeting Modi. The likely move of
the well-regarded chief minister to

Delhi will leave the BJP with a big
hole to plug in Goa, and party leaders were in discussions about his
replacement.
Naqvi, minister of state in the
Vajpayee government, is likely to
become minister in charge of statistics and planning, the sources said.
His entry will provide the cabinet
another prominent Muslim face
after minority affairs minister
Najma Heptulla.
Jayant Sinha, who holds a
Harvard MBA and is the son of former finance minister Yashwant
Sinha, is likely to be inducted as
minister of state (MoS), either in
the defence or finance ministry.
Nirmala Sitharaman may be promoted from MoS to cabinet minister, likely in charge of the commerce and industry ministry, and
give up her current additional role
as MoS in the finance ministry.

Haryana leader Birender Singh,
who had crossed over from the
Congress to the BJP ahead of the
Haryana assembly election, is
understood to be in contention for a
berth in the council of ministers
and is likely to get independent
charge of a ministry.
BJP youth wing chief Anu-rag
Thakur, a Lok Sabha MP from
Himachal
Pradesh,
and
Maharashtra
MP
Hansraj
Gangaram Ahir, who was instrumental in uncovering the coal
block scam, are other probable candidates.
Bihar MPs Ashwini Kumar
Choubey, a Brahmin, and Giriraj
Singh, a Bhumihar, are also said to
be serious contenders for a place in
the council of ministers. MPs from
Uttarakhand and West Bengal may
miss the bus again, said sources.
India, Russia agree to boost PM's climate change council reconstituted

economic and trade ties
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's
Council on Climate Change was
reconstituted, days ahead of a
crucial UN meet on global warming in Peru.
While TERI chairperson R.K.
Pachauri, Nitin Desai and retired
diplomat
Chandrasekhar
Dasgupta were retained as the
non-government members, environmentalist and director general
of the Centre for Science and
Environment Sunita Narain and
industrialist Ratan Tata were
dropped from the council.
An official statement said the
changes were made in an effort to
better coordinate action on related issues.
The 18-member council, which
has Prime Minister Narendra
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with Russian

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
New Delhi: Ahead of the bilateral summit between Prime

Minister Narendra Modi and
Russian President Vladimir
Putin in December, both countries held the 20th India-Russia
Inter-Governmental
Commission Meeting here during which the entire gamut of
bilateral ties, especially cooperation in areas including hydrocarbons, civil aviation and infrastructure, was discussed.
The meeting of the InterGovernmental Commission on
Trade, Economic, Scientific,
Technological and Cultural
Cooperation was co-chaired by
External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj and Russian
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin. Rogozin also met
Prime Minister Modi who said

India attached very high importance to its "time-tested" and
special strategic partnership
with Russia. Modi also said he
was looking forward to the visit
of Putin to India for the Annual
Summit.
"The visit would provide an
opportunity to take forward the
bilateral relations to a new
level," he said.
The Inter-Governmental
Commission took note of important outstanding issues requiring
immediate attention and recommended early resolution of such
issues amicably in tune with the
spirit of traditional friendship
and mutual trust between the
two countries, said an official
statement.
Director general of the Centre

for Science and Environment
Sunita Narain.
Modi as its chairperson and eight

ministers as members, will help
in formulation of action plans in
assessment, adaptation and miti-
India welcomes Pentagon

report on Pakistan
New Delhi: India welcomed a
Pentagon report that points fingers
at Pakistan for allowing Afghanand Indian-focused militants to
continue to operate from its soil "to
the detriment of Afghan and
regional stability". External affairs
ministry spokesperson Syed
Akbaruddin said the Pentagon
report "manifests a growing
acknowledgement in the international community of the extent of
Pakistan's involvement in international terrorism".
The Pentagon told the US
Congress in its latest six-monthly
report on the current situation in
Afghanistan: "Afghan- and Indianfocused militants continue to oper-
ate from Pakistan territory to the

detriment of Afghan and regional
stability." "Pakistan uses these
proxy forces to hedge against the
loss of influence in Afghanistan
and to counter India's superior military. These relationships run
counter to Pakistan's public commitment to support Afghan-led reconciliation." Referring to the attack
on the Indian consulate in Herat,
the Pentagon said it occurred just
ahead of the swearing-in ceremony
of Narendra Modi as the prime
minister. "In May of this reporting
period, the Indian consulate in
Herat province was attacked by a
group of four heavily armed militants.
gation of climate change as well

as periodically monitoring key
policy decisions.
The members include External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
Environment, Forests and
Climate Change Minister Prakash
Javadekar, Agriculture Minister
Radha Mohan Singh, Urban
Development Minister M.
Venkaiah Naidu along with the
cabinet and foreign secretaries
among other officials.
The environment, forests and
climate change ministry will
assist the Prime Minister's Office
in facilitating the work of this
committee. The advisory body
had not met for the past three
years.
India condemns Wagah

terror attack
New Delhi: The suicide bombing near Wagah check point in
Pakistan that claimed 60 lives
has drawn wide condemnation in
India, with the government calling for "the firmest and most
comprehensive action" against
all terror groups. Politicians
have sought united efforts to
deal with terrorism. In a statement, the government said it
"strongly condemns the dastardly terrorist attack" and added
that there was "no grievance or
political goal so great as to justify such a cowardly act". "We
believe that only the firmest and
most comprehensive action
against all terror groups without
any distinction is the only way to
defeat this evil scourge," it said.
INDIA
November 8-14, 2014
11
No cabinet expansion before trust Delhi assembly dissolved, parties

prepare for elections
vote: Maharashtra CM
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis said his cabinet would be
expanded only after the ensuing vote of confidence in the assembly scheduled Nov 12.
"First the trust vote, then expansion,"
Fadnavis told media persons after a cabinet
meeting.
This effectively throws cold water on the
Shiv Sena's ambitions as it has been demanding its pound of flesh before the minority government goes for a floor test next week
Among other things, the Sena has sought the
coveted post of deputy chief minister and 10
ministries or 12 portfolios without the Deputy
CM post.
Both the BJP and the Sena leaders claim that
high-level talks are underway on the issue of
power-sharing between the two erstwhile partners, having 121 (BJP) and 63 (Sena) legislators respectively.
The Shiv Sena also indicated that unless the
BJP clarifies its stand on power-sharing by
Sunday, the party would consider sitting in the
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra

Fadnavis visits Ganesh Tekdi temple
in Nagpur.
opposition and vote against the government.

According to Sena sources, if it (Sena) does
not get its due before the special session
begins, it may sit in the opposition with the
possibility of the government failing to pass
the confidence vote.
None in my party has taken money

from chit funds: Mamata
Kolkata: Virtually giving a clean chit to the
Trinamool Congress and its leaders on the
chit fund scam, West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee claimed nobody from her
party has taken money from chit fund-aided
companies, and hit out at a section of the
media for showing Trinamool leaders as
"thieves".
Against the backdrop of the CBI arresting
Trinmaool leader Rajat Majumdar and
grilling some party parliamentarians and
leaders and media speculation that a nationallevel Trinamool leader and a state minister
could be under the scanner of the investigative agency over the Saradha Group chit fund
scandal, Banerjee alleged that some media
houses were running a "campaign of lies"
against her party.
New Delhi: With the dissolution of the

Delhi assembly, all three major parties in
the national capital - the BJP, Aam Aadmi
Party and the Congress - have started
gearing up for fresh polls scheduled to
take place soon.
While the election management committee as well as the media cell of the
state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) held a meeting to discuss poll
preparations, the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) began printing posters for camThe Aam Aadmi Party has started printing
paigning.
posters boasting of the work it did
"We discussed all issues related to the
in the 49 days.
successful management of the upcoming
Delhi (assembly) election and also took note are ready to take on the BJP. The people will
of the shortcomings in the last election choose the AAP and we are confident of getting a majority," an AAP leader said. The
(December 2013)," a BJP leader said.
BJP's Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay, six Congress too attacked the BJP and said it
of the seven Lok Sabha members from Delhi would teach a "bitter lesson" to the party.
The Election Commission also canceled byalong with some legislators and office bearers
elections
in three assembly constituencies -attended the meeting. BJP's Delhi in-charge
Mehrauli,
Tughlakabad and Krishna Nagar -Prabhat Jha was also present. After the meeting, Upadhyay told the media: "We have which were scheduled to vote Nov 25. BJP
sought feedback and inputs on how to legislators from these three constituencies
improve our performance in the upcoming were elected to the Lok Sabha in May. Delhi
polls from all those present in the meeting. has been under President's rule since Feb 17
following the resignation of then chief minisWe will leave no stone unturned to win."
The AAP has started printing posters boast- ter Arvind Kejriwal, who headed a minority
ing of the work it did in the 49 days when it AAP government for 49 days.
The December 2013 assembly elections in
was in power in Delhi and vowed to take on
the BJP and defeat it comprehensively. "We Delhi threw up a fractured mandate.
"None in the Trinamool has taken any

money from chit funds. Only a section of the
media has taken such advantage. I can prove
this by showing documents. I hold no grudge
against you, but please don't lie," she said at a
party programme here.
"Some newspapers are trying to depict my
party leaders as thieves. But just because
somebody calls somebody thief, does he
become so? This has to be proved first," the
Trinamool supremo said.
In an oblique attack on the BJP on the black
money issue, Banerjee wondered how a party
which runs an election campaign running into
crores of rupees can free the country of black
money. She alleged that the Communist Party
of India-Marxist and the BJP were in league
during the 34 years of the Left Front rule.
Review report on Hooda regime's

decisions: Haryana CM
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar said state departments
have been directed to review the decisions
taken by the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda
government after May 16, and submit a report
within 15 days.
"There were 115 such decisions concerning
23 departments. Some decisions were taken
by departments themselves on which the concerned ministers would take further action
after proper review," Khattar, who heads the
first BJP government in the state, told the
media after a cabinet meeting here.
He said further action would be taken on
such decisions after the reports are received.
The Hooda-led Congress government had
announced several decisions and incentives
for various categories after the results of the
Haryana Chief Minister

Manohar Lal Khattar
Lok Sabha elections May 16. These were done

in the run-up to the Haryana assembly polls
held Oct 15.
Corporate Office: 385 Seneca Avenue, Ridgewood NY 11385

718.821.3182, www.AtlanticDialysis.Com
12
INDIA
November 8-14, 2014
Festivities, prayers mark Gurpurab in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh: Thousands of devotees
thronged the holiest of Sikh shrines,
'Harmandar Sahib', popularly known as
Golden Temple, in Amritsar and other gurdwaras across Punjab and Haryana on
Gurpurab - the birth anniversary of
Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev.
Gurdwaras were illuminated with an
atmosphere of festivities to mark the 545th
birth anniversary of the Guru.
'Langars' (community kitchenes) were
arranged at several places in and around
gurdwaras.
At the Golden Temple complex in
Amritsar, thousands of devotees lined up
since early Thursday to offer prayers at the
shrine. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee (SGPC) volunteers could be
seen managing the rush of devotees.
"We came here at 3 a.m. There were
scores of devotees already. The whole
atmosphere was very spiritual," Adhiraj
Singh, a student, said.
Hymns were rendered at the holy shrine
and hundreds of other gurdwaras across the
region to mark the occasion.
Follow Guru Nanak's path

of compassion: Modi
A spectacular view of the Golden Temple on Guru Nanak Jayanti in Amritsar.
A contingent of over 1,500 Sikh devotees

had arrived in Nankana Sahib, 100 km
from Lahore, in Pakistan Wednesday for
'Gurpurab' celebrations at the birthplace of
the Guru Nanak Dev, who was born in
1469 at Nankana Sahib (now in Pakistan's
Punjab province) and who founded
Sikhism later.
There was tight security at all leading
Sikh shrines in Punjab and Haryana.
Religious processions were taken out by
the Sikh community in most cities and
towns in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh
in the last two days.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra

Modi called on the people to follow the
path of compassion, truth and peace as
shown by Guru Nanak, the first Sikh
religious leader.
"I bow to the venerable Guru Nanak
(Devji) on the occasion of Guru Nanak
Jayanti. The life and teachings of Guru
Nanak (Devji) inspire us eternally. Let
us follow the path of compassion, truth
and peace as shown by him," Modi said
in a tweet.
Guru Nanak Jayanti is celebrated to
mark the birth anniversary of the first
Sikh guru.
He added: "Today is also a day to
pledge to embrace the path of service
and work towards a just and equal society, free from any kind of social evils."
Sikh pilgrims reach Nankana Sahib in Pakistan

Amritsar: A contingent of over
1,500 Sikh pilgrims from India
reached the Sikh holy city of
Nankana Sahib in Pakistan to
mark the birth anniversary of
Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak
Dev. The pilgrims left for Pakistan
just two days after a massive suicide bomb attack left over 60 people dead at Wagah in Pakistan,
only 500 metres from the international border gates with India.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee (SGPC) officials here
said the 'jatha' (contingent) of Sikh
pilgrims reached the birthplace of
the first Sikh Guru. They said the
Sikh pilgrims leave Amritsar

railway station for Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities have assured

that adequate security would be
provided to the pilgrims in the
wake of the Wagah blast. "The
'jatha' has reached Nankana Sahib
and will mark the birth anniversary of the Guru (Thursday). We
have been assured about the safety

of the pilgrims," a SGPC
spokesman said here. The group
boarded three special trains from
Amritsar and Attari, 30 km from
here, for Lahore.
Though the Wagah blast did
cause some concern among the
pilgrims before they left, most of
them said they were not worried.
"We have faith in the Guru. We are
happy that we got the visas for
Pakistan. Though we know about
the Wagah blast, that has not
deterred us from the trip," said
Palwinder Kaur, one of the pilgrims, before leaving for Pakistan.
Women gatka players demonstrate their skills during

Nagar Kirtan on the eve of Guru Nanak Jayanti
near Pulbangash in New Delhi.
Fasting, mourning, processions mark Muharram

New Delhi/Hyderabad: Fasting,
mourning and processions by the
Muslim community in various parts
of India marked the Yaum-eAshura, the martyrdom of Imam
Hussain, a grandson of Prophet
Mohammed, and others in the battle of Karbala, nearly 1,400 years
ago.
Muharram processions were held
in various parts of Delhi. "At least
60 processions were held in each of
the 11 police districts in Delhi and
there was no untoward incident,"
Special Commissioner of Police
(law and order) Deepak Mishra
said.
In Trilokpuri, which last month
witnessed communal violence,
Aman (peace) Committee members
headed the Muharram procession
amid heavy presence of police and
paramilitary forces.
The Aman Committee - a group
Muslims during a procession in N Delhi to observe Muharram.
of 40 Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and

Christian members - has played a
crucial role in maintaining peace in
Trilokpuri where communal violence erupted Oct 23 over Diwali
celebration, that injured 60 people,
including policemen.
Earlier, the group ensured a

peaceful "Jagran", a Hindu religious gathering, the police officer
said.
Over 30 Hindu volunteers along
with the members of the Aman
Committee headed a peaceful
Muharram procession in the presence of over 1,200 policemen,

including paramilitary forces.
Hindu volunteers also organised
'Chhabil', a water stall, along with
Muslims.
Sharp-edged objects like blades
as well as chains and whips, which
are traditionally used by the devout
to inflict physical pain on themselves as part of Muharram mourning, were not allowed during the
procession.
Prince and King, two Delhi
Police stallions, were at work since
6 a.m. Tuesday ensuring a smooth
Muharram in Trilokpuri.
Prince, 12, and King, 15, are part
of Delhi Police's horse unit, officially called the Mounted Police. In
Mumbai, thousands of mourners
wept and beat their chests in processions in south Mumbai and other
Muslim-dominated areas of Thane
and Navi Mumbai.

They raised cries of "Ya
Hussain", and distributed food,
water and juices to the poor in
many localities.
In Hyderabad, mourning procession, public meetings, fasting and
feeding of the poor were organised
on Muharram.
A mood of mourning pervaded
and cries of "Ya Hussain" rent the
air as the traditional procession
passed through parts of the old city.
Blood oozed out from the heads
and chests of hundreds of barechested Shia mourners who flagellated themselves with sharp
weapons during the historic "Bibi
ka Alam" procession.
The procession is taken out on a
caparisoned elephant, preceded by
a mounted police party and camels
that carried small "Alams" (flags)
and relics.
OP-ED
November 8-14, 2014
13
Modi government on foreign policy overdrive

By Ranjana Narayan
New Delhi: Barring most of the
African Union countries, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi will have
met leaders of most countries of
the world by the end of December
2014, pointing to the heightened
stress on foreign policy by the new
Indian government that took
power on May 26.
Modi, who set off a foreign policy buzz with invites to eight South
Asian neighbours, including
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif, for his swearing-in, has
met leaders of many countries,
including the big powers the US,
China and Russia.
During the BRICS meeting in
Fortaleza, Brazil, July 15-17, he
met Dilma Rousseff of Brazil,
Vladimir Putin of Russia, China's
Xi Jinping and South Africa's
Jacob Zuma. He also met the leaders of 11 countries of Latin
America at the sidelines of the
meet -Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana,
Paraguay, Peru, Suriname,
Uruguay and Venezuela.
He has visited neighbors Bhutan
Prime Minister Modi hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping

in Ahmedabad.
and Nepal and hit it off with

Japan's Shinzo Abe during his visit
in September. Modi also paid a
successful visit to America where
besides bonding with President
Barack Obama he also met with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
He has already met Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who
was the first foreign leader to meet
the new government when he

arrived here in September.
Chinese President XI Jinping also
paid a successful visit to India last
month.
In November, which is set to see
heightened foreign policy activity,
Modi will meet the Southeast
Asian leaders at the ASEAN summit in Myanmar. He will also meet
the East Asia Summit (EAS) lead-
ers at capital Nay Pyi Taw, which

is held at the same time.
The annual summit meeting with
the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations takes
place Nov 12-13. The 10 countries
are
Brunei
Darussalam,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,
Thailand, the Philippines and
Vietnam.
Vietnamese Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung has just visited
India. Modi wiil get to meet
Myanmar President Thein Sein
and also the new Indonesian
President Joko Widodo.
Modi will be meeting the EAS
members, which include beside
the 10 ASEAN nations, Australia,
China, Japan, New Zealand, South
Korea, Russia and the USA.
During the Nov 15-16 G-20
meet in Brisbane, Australia, that
follows soon after, he would meet
with the members that include
Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, France, Germany,
Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the
United Kingdom, the United
States and the European Union.

The meeting with the leaders of
the 28 EU member states would
complete his meeting with the
European Union.He is slated to
hold a bilateral with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and
also British Prime Minister David
Cameron.
He flies to Fiji from Australia,
where he will meet Prime Minister
Frank Bainimarama.
He returns on Nov 20 and after a
two-day break travels to
Kathmandu for the South Asian
Association
for
Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) summit,
where he would meet new Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani.
He will meet with Russian
President Vladimir in December in
New Delhi for the annual summit.
Modi's ever-busy foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has been reaching out and visiting a number of
countries. Among neighbors, she
has visited Bangladesh, Nepal,
Bhutan and Afghanistan and is
slated to visit Sri Lanka soon. She
is currently visiting Mauritius and
would touch base with the
Maldives on her way back.
India largely lacks innovation skills

By Amit Kapoor
ntrepreneurship and innovation are intrinsically linked
with growth and development of any economy. Newer ways
of competing define not just innovation but are also intrinsic to the very
idea of capitalism.
India of late is realizing this paradigm of innovation. How real is it?
There are several organizations (the
likes of ISRO, DRDO, various
CSIR labs, L&T) that are engaged
in and are doing path-breaking
work. These are in several areas like
space science (the Mangalyaan mission which has been described by
China as the Pride of Asia) amd
technological innovations (weapon
systems co-developed by L&T and
Indian Navy). A grassroots innovation movement has also taken strong
shape in India. Newer frameworks
like jugaad innovation have
become buzzwords. There is also a
paradigm of Reverse Innovation in
which companies are innovating in

India or a developing world context
and once the innovation has taken
proper shape, introducing it to the
developed market. However, if one
looks at the broader picture at the
level of the country, we find that
Indias performance is still poor if
not outright dismal with respect to
innovation. India still lags behind
many smaller nations when it comes
to entrepreneurship and innovation.
We say this because of two fundamental reasons.
First, if one looks carefully at the
numbers and global indices on innovation, one sees a totally different
reality. India ranks 76th on the global innovation Index 2014 among the
143 economies considered. The
index is co-published by Johnson
Graduate School of Management at
Cornell University, INSEAD and
World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO).
Similarly, with respect to IPR,
India is placed last (at 25th position)
by an index developed by the

Global Intellectual Property Center
of the US Chamber of Commerce. It
points to the need for stronger IPR
policy and more importantly
enforcement and implementation. It
will also bring in investments from
countries that India desperately
needs for building infrastructure and
also for leveraging its demographic
dividend.
Second, because of a weaker IPR
regime and a host of other factors
like access to venture capital, the
general belief-set of the population,
the downside risks of failure and the
like, entrepreneurship is mostly at a
nascent stage in India. While there
is a constant din about entrepreneurship in business schools and the
media, the rates of formal firm creation are dismally low. The numbers
simply dont add up to the hype.
If one looks at the entrepreneurship data from the World Bank
group, one finds that in India, on an
average, we create roughly 200
India still lags behind many smaller nations when it comes to

entrepreneurship and innovation.
times less number of firms per 1,000

working-age individuals as compared to Hong Kong. It may be due
to India's colossal workforce.
But that argument also seems
weak. Equally dismal are the total
number of formal firm creations
(limited liability firms) in India. In
fact, from 2004 to 2012 the total formal firm creation in the whole of
India (512,425) was lesser that
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
Hong Kong (9,67,745).

If India wants to move ahead and
boost its competitiveness, it will
have to create incentives for entrepreneurship to flourish and a culture
of innovation rooted in thinking
rather than superficial branding.
This will start with creating awareness and removing the entry barriers
to both doing and more importantly
creating new business.
14
OP-ED
November 8-14, 2014
US-India strategic partnership:

Shared vision, different prescription
By Prem Trivedi
he U.S.-India strategic partnership is often discussed in
lofty terms. Both countries,
in their own words, are natural
allies bound by shared values and
a broad-brush convergence of
strategic visions. Bilateral relations
have been on a steady upswing over
the last 15 years. But the greatest
champions of a deepened embrace
remain frustrated by an enduring
challenge: India and the United
States agree in large part on desirable foreign policy ends, but fail to
see eye-to-eye on the appropriate
means to achieve those outcomes.
To maximize the partnerships
potential, both countries must continue to adjust to each others fundamentally different operational
philosophies and identify new areas
of convergence. With the Modi
government just past the six-month
mark in power, there are both
encouraging signs and indications
that philosophical differences will
not be quick to disappear.
The view from 10,000 feet looks
similar in both capitals. The worlds
oldest and largest democracies
share a deeply rooted love for
republican government and a conviction that societies thrive on
openness and cultural commingling. Both are preoccupied with
Islamic terrorists and wish to see
such groups weakened militarily
and discredited ideologically. Both
governments value a global economy built on open markets and interdependence. Both claim to seek
multilateral solutions to global
problems. And both see in the other
an important security partner that
can help to manage Chinas rise.
Indian foreign policy, as is true in
most countries, reflects a mix of
philosophical
traditions.
International relations scholar Kanti
Bajpai identifies three broad ideological camps the Nehruvians, the
neoliberals, and the hyper-realists.
After Prime Minister Narendra
Modis election, the realists
(emphasizing hard power) and the
neoliberals (emphasizing economic
growth and interdependence) have
grown stronger, while the
Nehruvian influence (promoting
dialogue and communication) has
somewhat waned.
The BJP has consistently styled
itself as more pro-growth and
tougher on national security than
the Congress Party. Modis government favors more visible projections of Indias military power,
including during border disputes
with China and Pakistan. Modi has
also demonstrated his intent to
India and the

United States
agree in large
part on desirable
foreign policy
ends, but fail to
see eye-to-eye on
the appropriate
means to achieve
those outcomes.
build closer economic and security
relationships with a long list of
countries including Japan, Nepal,
Bhutan, and Vietnam that can
help India balance Chinas rise and
limit its sphere of influence around
India. The United States should be
encouraged by Indias desire to
challenge Chinese primacy in Asia.
But it is no secret that New Delhi
and Washington differ on many
other issues. New Delhis foreign
policy has long embraced three
operational principles that place
India in tension with the United
States. First, India is staunchly antiinterventionist outside the subcontinent. Second, India is skeptical of
multilateral institutions that reflect
grand bargains privileging Western
powers. Third, India is cautious
about veering too close to strategic
dependence on any one country.
These precepts have created important disagreements on issues the
United States considers urgent.
Little Convergence in the Middle
East
No region better illustrates the
operational differences between
New Delhi and Washington than
the Middle East. India shied away
from U.S. initiatives to promote
democracy long before such efforts
reached a crescendo during the
George W. Bush administration. In
Indias view, the non-intervention
principle should be relaxed only in
rare cases of overwhelming U.N.
approval. Modern India inherited a
strongly anti-imperial tradition and
remains deeply skeptical of the
notion that nations can transform
political realities beyond their own
borders.
In the Middle East, where Indias
energy interests are at least as compelling as its ideology, New Delhi
has shown little inclination to echo
Washingtons public pronouncements against dictators or meaningfully support counterterrorism
Modis recent visit to the United States focused more

on commercial ties than geopolitics.
efforts. Democratic India has

emerged as a seemingly incongruous supporter of the Assad regime,
a fact that has been appreciated by
Syrias ambassador to India.
ISIS has also failed to inspire
close convergence. While India
worries about the advance of ISIS
into South Asia and has been vocal
about counterterrorism cooperation,
India is notably absent from a list of
sixty-odd countries working with
the United States in Iraq and Syria.
New Delhi is unwilling to project
military power in the Middle East
because it believes that intervention
produces uncertain results apart
from an increased likelihood of terrorist backlash.
On Iran, India faces an interesting
opportunity. The Obama administration has persistently engaged
Tehran in negotiations, hoping that
gradually improved ties will provide greater leverage over Irans
nuclear program. In recent years,
India has voted with the United
States at the IAEA. But India has
historically enjoyed good relations
with Iran, wants access to Iranian
oil, and has thus been cautious
about aggressively siding with the
West. The United States and Iran
have increasingly identified areas
of convergence, inspiring optimism
among some U.S. officials. This
greater alignment in U.S.-Iranian
interests provides India with an
opportunity to position itself as a
natural convener (not a formal
mediator) of deeper dialogue
among all three countries. Such an
initiative could improve Indias
influence with both countries and
demonstrate a distinctly Indian
brand of global leadership.
Global
Economic
and
Environmental Challenges
When it comes to developing
multilateral solutions to global
challenges, the United States and
India often have different short-
term priorities and operational

philosophies. India has long rejected multilateral efforts that it
believes are built on assumptions
that favor developed Western powers. For this reason, India and the
United States clash at the WTO and
on issues like climate change.
Indias messages on climate
change, in particular, have seemed
unnecessarily obstructionist. Under
President Obama, the United States
has emerged as a vocal advocate of
tackling common environmental
challenges. Washington is well
aware that India wants minimal
constraints as it industrializes many
years after the West. But last
month, India seemed to brush aside
the issue entirely, with Modi opting
out of a global climate change summit and Indias Environment
Minister Prakash Javadekar almost
proudly declaring that Indias emissions would continue to rise.
India has continued in this vein,
emphasizing that developed countries should bear greater costs and
explaining that India prefers to discuss adapting to climate change
rather than mitigating emissions.
India would lose nothing by adopting a different tone, if not substantially different positions. Climate
change will hit the subcontinent
particularly hard, and Indias defiance seems at odds with its core
interests.
An Asymmetric Commitment?
Persistent operational disagreements and Indias wariness of
entering the U.S. strategic orbit
have sometimes contributed to an
American perception that India is
less invested than the United States
in the bilateral relationship. This
sense of imbalance is rooted in
structural realities.
Weary after 13 years of war, the
US seeks strategic partners that can
share its global security and economic burdens. India, meanwhile,
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
enjoys strong relationships with the

US, the EU, Russia, Japan, and, in
many ways, China. Under Modi,
India is basking in the renewed
courtship of a long line of economic suitors. All of this leaves New
Delhi as confident as ever that its
foreign policy need not skew
toward serving any one country.
American leaders appreciate
Indias aversion to playing the role
of a junior partner. But America
has been frustrated by Indias
unwillingness to engage in geopolitical quid pro quo. Some in
Washington might feel that US.
advocacy for India on big issues
support for a permanent U.N.
Security Council seat and the conclusion of a landmark civilian
nuclear deal has not been reciprocated in kind.
But India is prepared to drive a
hard bargain. It will not shoulder
global burdens for the United States
unless the gains are clear. American
observers have often found Indias
reluctance unbecoming a global
leader. India might respond that its
restraint is rooted in self-interest
and a pragmatism of which George
Washington himself would
approve.
It is thus unsurprising that Modis
recent visit to the United States
focused more on commercial ties
than geopolitics. This emphasis
reflects both the continued ascendance of neoliberalism in New
Delhi and a sense that the scope of
non-economic partnership is limited to modest increases in areas like
security cooperation and intelligence sharing. Washington, it
seems, has also resigned itself to
incremental strategic progress with
India. To some extent, setting a
gradual pace makes sense. As India
grows economically and militarily
stronger, and as the United States
continues to adjust to a multipolar
world, zones of convergence are
likely to increase.
But there are opportunities to
deepen engagement now on Iran
and climate change, for example
where relatively low-risk Indian
efforts could yield substantial
returns. India could do more to
demonstrate a conviction that the
partnership can sometimes tackle
urgent global challenges. Modis
bolder brand of leadership might
yet create opportunities to align
grand shared values with correspondingly grand actions.
Prem M. Trivedi is an adjunct
faculty member at Georgetown
University and a former Fulbright
Scholar to India.
Courtesy: Foreign Policy magazine.
FEATURE
November 8-14, 2014
15
Varanasi desperately needs a makeover

By Karishma
Kalita
Saurabh uals, including cremations. Hindus

believe that dying in Varanasi is
the way to salvation.
"Benares is older than history,
ou would be forgiven if
you thought that Varanasi, older than tradition, older even
one of the oldest cities than legend and looks twice as old
known to man, which is now as all of them put together," Mark
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Twain had said.
"Twice as old", would be an
Modi's parliamentary constituency,
would be a sight for sore eyes. understatement because the crumSadly for me, what lies in "the city bling city desperately needs a modof Shiva" only managed to make ern makeover. It's crying out for
Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
the soreness worse.
It was one of the dirtiest and launched on Oct 2. It's all very
under-developed places I have ever well to talk about a clean India by
visited. Landing in this Hindu holy 2019, but charity begins at home.
There are no traffic signals.
city will surely come as a culture
shock to those who come with the Garbage is strewn everywhere and
aim of washing away their sins. I no maintenance of old buildings. A
don't know what they will wash tourist hub for both nationals and
away but they surely will carry foreigners, it is also quite scary
some dirt back to where they came once the sun sets.
One of the main attractions of the
from.
Varanasi or Benaras in Uttar city, the Ghats, are actually quite
Pradesh is regarded as the most filthy. There isn't even one dustbin
sacred of Hinduism's seven holiest and so instead of gazing at somecities. It is equally important for thing soothing, all you can see are
the Jains and the Buddhists; a candy and chips wrappers, plastic
storehouse of ancient history, cul- bottles and filth of all kind.
But, amidst this upsetting gloom
ture and traditions.
It is said that Varanasi was Lord and dirt lies nearby Sarnath, where
Shiva's favorite place. The Ganga Lord Buddha delivered his first
river that flows through the city is sermon after attaining enlightenan essential part of all religious rit- ment. The ruins are maintained
Charity begins at home. So Modi should start his Clean India campaign from his parliamentary
constituency, Varanasi, India's oldest and holiest city.
quite well and no littering anywhere. Once in Sarnath, I felt like I

was in a completely different city
altogether.
Many in Varanasi harken to a
bygone era. When I had asked a
shopkeeper in a handloom store
about preserving the old buildings

in the city, his reply was: "Do you
paint the Qutab Minar to make it
look new and fresh? Then why
should we touch something which
is rich with ancient history?"
The government is now readying
a Rs. 11,800 crore ($2 billion)

redevelopment plan for Varanasi
whose tentative launch is set for
Dec 25.
For the record, Varanasi hosted
285,252 foreign tourists in 2013,
up from 278,573 the year before.
16
November 8-14, 2014
SPORTS
As title sponsor for 8 years of the NYC Marathon, Tata Consultancy Services
flooded the metropolis with its logos.
By Parveen Chopra
New York: In a matter of pride for the
Indian community here, Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) has become the title sponsor
of the New York City Marathon, the largest
annual marathon in the world that saw
50,000 runners on Nov 2 from across the
globe run the 42-mile race.
In a massive image-building exercise,
India's TCS flooded the metropolis with
tens of thousands of its logo Sunday as the
title sponsor of long distance race that
courses through all five boroughs of the
city.
After ING ended its title sponsorship of
the marathon last year, TCS stepped in. It
has entered into an 8-year premier partnership with the New York Road Runners
(NYRR), where TCS is also the principal
sponsor of up to 50 NYRR events throughout the year, such as the Brooklyn and
Queens Half Marathons, the Empire State
Building Run Up, Midnight Run on New
Years Eve, and Mighty Milers and Young
Runners. Benjamin Trounson, Head, North

America Corporate Communications, TCS,
told The South Asian Times that this partnership with NYRR goes far beyond a traditional sporting sponsorship. A key focus of
this unique year-round partnership is to take
the message of wellness into communities
of the five-boroughs (particularly the various youth initiatives) and beyond to the TriState area. The long-term initiative is symbolic of TCS' continued investment and
commitment to North America and running
communities across the world.
Earlier, CEO of TCS N. Chandrasekharan
told the media that driven by TCS's digital,
financial, strategic, and marketing support,
the goal is to make the NYC marathon the
most technologically advanced and socially
engaged marathon in the world."
TCS was the creator of the 2014 TCS
NYC Marathon mobile app, available in
both Apple and Google Play stores. It provided a range of exciting, race-specific features for runners and enthusiasts who want
to keep track of the event, including: race
From TCS, over 400 runners participated in

the marathon (both clients and employees)
and more than 300 TCSers volunteered,
supporting runners on the race day.
From women, Kenya's Mary Keitany won with
a timing of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds.
Kenya's Wilson Kipsang won the men's title finishing with a time of 2 hours,
10 minutes, 55 seconds.
Rashmin Master runs his 16th marathon

New York: Rashmin
Masters, CPA, completed his 16th NYC
marathon Sunday.
He concedes that he
ran slower than in his
previous marathon,
but then completing
the 26-mile marathon
itself is an admirable
feat, that too at his
age of 60+.
Master told The
South Asian Times,
There were so many
factors among which
were weather and my Rashmin Master, age 60+ (middle) with his wife Dr. Kalpana
age! However, I
Master and his son Devs fiance Dr. Sutapa Maiti.
completed in 6
hours. I had full support from my entire great.NYC marathon was very important
family. My wife Dr. Kalpana Master this year for our Indian community: Tata
guides me about the nutrition and my son Consultancy Services (TCS) is the sponDev and his fiance Dr. Sutapa Maiti are sor now. Indians came from all over the
my personal trainers. My other son Deep world to participate. I personally met a
keeps track of all the runners on marathon few runners from the Striders club from
Mumbai. Striders grooms marathoners,
day.
Master further reports about the including TCS employees.
For Master, running is important as it
marathon, Weather was very cold. Wind
was a torture on Verrazano Bridge. keeps him fit, healthy and weight under
However, the spirit of all runners was control.
results, an interactive course map, a race
calendar with details on local attractions,
elite athlete information, event communications and alerts, and the most favorite feature being the ability to track any runner via
5K splits throughout the race.
The app was downloaded by more than
260,000 people by the end of the TCS NYC
Marathon, representing a major increase
over 2013.
Trounson said that from TCS, over 400
runners participated in the race (both clients
and employees) and more than 300 TCSers
volunteered, supporting runners on the race

day.
Kenya's Wilson Kipsang won the men's
marathon with a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 55 seconds. Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa
was behind him by 11 seconds. Among the
women runners, the first and second places
went to Kenyans: Mary Keitany with a timing of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds,
and Jemima Sumong followed 3 seconds
later. The first place winners get a prize of
$100,000 and the second place winners,
$60,000.
PHILANTHROPY
November 8-14, 2014
17
Gift of Life India, founded by Ravishankar Bhooplapur,

celebrates crossing 5,000 life saving surgeries on
children at a gala dinner in Long Island this Sunday.
Past Rotary District Governor
Ravishankar Bhooplapur is
Founder& Chairman of
Gift of Life Project (India).
very big idea has a small beginning.
In 1974, Rotary District 7250 brought
a little 5-year old named Grace
Agwaru on an intercontinental voyage from
Uganda to New York. Grace suffered from a
hole in her young but strong heart. On
November 15 that year surgeons at St
Francis Hospital in Roslyn, NY, successfully
operated on little Grace. A big idea was born
that day. Today, the Gift of Life is a worldwide Rotary International Service Program
responsible for thousands of heart surgeries
for children from over 30 countries.
The Gift of Life now includes Rotarians
from all over the world, with independent
chapters in countries as far away as Korea
and India.
Gift of Life, India was born when in 2001,
PDG of District 7255 Eileen Gentlecore had
a casual conversation about the altruistic
vision of the Gift of Life with Ravishankar
Bhooplapur (who wnent on to become 7250
District Governor 2009-2010). A dedicated
humanitarian, Bhooplapur with the assistance of Past RI Director Sushil Gupta
(Trustee of Rotary Foundation), Dr. Rajan
Deshpande and oher devoted Rotarians took
up the challenge to provide critical heart surgeries for the children of India. He still
serves as Honorary Chairman of Gift of Life,
India today. Amazing what can come of a

conversation? The sole purpose of the Gift of
Life, India is to secure life saving heart surgery for children in desperate need regardless of race, creed, color or country of origin.
It is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation
with no administrative costs. All of their
team members work voluntarily; all of the
monies are generously donated by caring
donors and through the numerous matching
grants disbursed by the Rotary Foundation.
Says Bhooplapur, Gift of Life program in
New York has the unique distinction of
bringing children from all over the world to
the New York Metro Area and providing free
heart Surgeries to them. These children are
housed in Ronald McDonald house.
Rotarians have significantly contributed to
build the Ronald McDonald house and continue to give financial support on the local
level in exchange our children are accommodated pre & post-operative their surgeries.
This project is run and managed by Gift of
Life 7250 Inc for accommodating all international children in NY metro area.
This year, the Gift of Life India gala dinner
marks crossing 5,000 surgeries in India. With
one small idea Bhooplapur took and made
this possible to save thousands of lives.
In his busy schedule and working as
President of Xavier University Medical
School (Aruba), he finds time and has built
good supporters , volunteers and donors to
keep the program running. He does this with
passion and mission to save these less fortunate children who can not afford to pay the
The Nov 9 fundraiser at Crest Hollow Country Club, Woodbury, NY,

will see a performance by accomplished flautist Pravin GhodKhindi.
surgeries. His leadership has inspired many

in India and some Rotary districts have
adopted this program and every dollar donated is matched by Indian Rotary clubs and
remaining half is matched by Rotary
Foundation. Prominent personalities such as
Justice NM Venkatachaliah former Chief
Justice of India, as its grand patron and MV
Kamat, former Chairman of ICICI, and many
more personalities are guiding force for the
success of Gift of Life India.

The Sunday fundraiser at Crest Hollow
Country Club, Woodbury, NY, will see a performance by accomplished flautist Pravin
GhodKhindi. Hosts are Rotary Clubs of Gold
Coast Lake Success, Jericho Sunrise and
Hicksville South. Co-chairs are: Clarisse
Panellino, Prakash Pisipati, Kamlesh Mehta,
Manny Sethi, Salil Zaveri and Sangeeta
Sethi.
Ravishankar Bhooplapur celebrating 10 years of Gift of Life, India with

Sakuji Tanaka who in 2012 was President-Elect,
Rotary International, in New York.
Bhooplapur and his children Manali and Amogh visiting a beneficiary child
in the early stage of the Gift of Life, India project.
18
ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD
November 8-14, 2014
e has been part of many blockbusters produced by Yash Raj

Films and Shah Rukh Khan won't
mind joining their popular 'Dhoom' franchise if the project is offered to him.
So far John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and
Aamir Khan have played the main 'villain'
in "Dhoom" franchise.
When asked would he like to do a negative role in 'Dhoom 4', SRK said: "I am
doing a film with Yash Raj and that's 'Fan'.
If I get an opportunity, I would love to do it.
I find it very cool."
Shah
Rukh
Khan
The first "Dhoom" came in 2004 and the

superstar said he was attached to the first
instalment.
"I knew Sanjay Ghadvi and I liked the
film. Aditya has never asked me for
'Dhoom'," he said.
What is your biggest fear?
"The audience have a lot of expectations
from me and I don't want to disappoint
them and that's my biggest fear. I hope I
work hard and live up to everyone's expectations," said the superstar who turned 49
Sunday.
'Happy New Year' crosses

Rs.300 crore worldwide
T
here's a reason why Shah Rukh

Khan is Bollywood's 'badshah'! His
latest acting and production venture
"Happy New Year" has crossed over
Rs.300 crore mark at the worldwide box
office.
"The movie has crossed more than
Rs.310 worldwide gross," a source from
Shah Rukh's Red Chillies Entertainments
Pvt Ltd, said.
Congratulating the team, megastar
Amitabh Bachchan tweeted: "WOW!!!
@HNY crosses 300 cr world wide...congratulations SRK and Farah...well-
deserved...So Farah when do we work

together! Haha."
"Happy New Year", directed by Farah
Khan, has an ensemble comprising SRK,
Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan,
Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and
Jackie Shroff. A heist drama, with dollops
of dance and music, it opened to a bumper
weekend, making it the quickest film to
mint Rs.100 crore when it released Oct 24,
said a statement.
The post Diwali release, the movie is
being lapped up by audiences of all age
groups despite mixed reviews.
A scene
from the
film
'Happy
New Year'
Obituary Sadashiv: Bollywood mourns it's 'fine' villain

is Maharani act in
"Sadak" and his genuine
personality are trademarks that the late actor
Sadashiv Amrapurkar will
always be remembered for, said
celebrities from the Hindi film
industry.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan,
filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar
and veteran actor Anupam Kher
were among the popular names
to condole the death of the versatile talent, who breathed his at a
Mumbai hospital. He was 64.
Here's what the celebrities
had to say on Twitter:
Amitabh Bachchan: Waking
up in Kolkata to the sad news of
the passing away of Sadasiv
Amrapurkar...a colleague and a
gifted talent...prayers! When a
colleague suddenly passes away
there is a sudden vacuum, of
times spent together, of acknowledgement of their work.
Anupam Kher: I am so saddened to know about the demise
of a fine human being & a wonderful

actor
Sadashiv
Amrapurkar. He was a kind & a
learned man. RIP
Madhur Bhandarkar: An
effortless actor, Sadashivji had
his own style & always brought
something unique to the table.
We have lost a genuine human
being. RIP. Saddened to hear
about
the
demise
of
#SadashivAmrapurkar. I had the
privilege of working with him in
my debut film Trishakti.
Pooja Bhatt: Sadashiv
Amrapurkar, the most relevant
villain after Gabbar Singh is
gone...reminds me yet again that
life is too short. Love hard. Love
more.
Milap Zaveri: RIP Sadashiv
Amrapurkar. A great and talented
actor be it comedy or villainy.
His "Maharani"in #Sadak will
always be legendary.
Esha Gupta: RIP sir Sadashiv
Amrapurkar,you've been a legend. Remember watching Sadak
Bigg Boss 8: Puneet

Issar expelled
eason 8 of the controversial show Bigg Boss was a
comparatively low-profile, with
little buzz
around the
housemates.
That is all
set
to
change as
actor Puneet
Issar
of
Duryodhana fame has been
expelled from the house. After a
tiff with co-contestant Aarya
Babbar, Puneet was asked to
leave the house, being punished
for his violent acts. For a luxury
task, the contestants are divided
into two teams to make individual buildings. Upen gets to
decide whose building is taller
and, basis that, the winner. The
team making building needs to
have person moving a 'chakki' in
the garden area while the opposite team members are expected
to stop them from making the
building.
Grief-struck friends and relatives pay their last respect to

veteran actor Sadashiv Amarpurkar in Mumbai.
and only seeing you. Sure you in
a better place now
Kunal Kohli: Sadashiv
Amrapurkar s portrayal of
#Maharani in #Sadak rates as
one of the best by a villain ever
in Hindi cinema RIP.

Riteish Deshmukh: Rip
Sadashiv Amrapurkarji- a great
actor & a super human being. I
was looking fwd to working with
him in @Bankchor. Miss you sir.
ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD
November 8-14, 2014
19
Tirlok Maliks film about senior love premiered in NYC

By Parveen Chopra
irlok Maliks new film On Golden
Years had a New York premiere last
Saturday at the SVA Theater in
Manhattan in the presence of cast, crew and
500 invited guests.
On Golden Years portrays the complex
emotions, which come at the time of retirement for immigrants. Through the various
characters who are residents of an Indian
retirement community (Shantiniketan in
Florida), the feature film deals with love
and marriage and conflicts such as India vs.
America, contentment vs. regrets.
Written and directed by Tirlok Malik, the
English language, 85-minute film is co-produced by Iggy Ignatius. Its ensemble cast
includes Ranjit Chowdhry, who was also
the lead of Maliks Lonely In America,
Jyoti Singh, Reeves Lehmann, Shetal Shah,
Noor Naghmi, Tirlok Malik, Shruti Tewari,
Farokh Daruwala, Indu Gajwani, Prof.
Indrajit S. Saluja, Lovllien Kaurr, and
Sandeep Suri. Singer Falu makes her film
debut doing the item number song Raba
Raba in the film .
The New York premiere was attended by
filmmaker Mira Nair, and Dr. Palitha T.B.
Filmmaker Tirlok Malik felicitated by Manhattan Boro President Gale A.

Brewer as H.R. Shah, Chander Malik, Dev Mehra and Indu Jaiswal cheer
at the New York premiere of The Golden Years.
Kohona, Sri Lankan envoy to the UN. The
Chair of the Film Division of the School of
Visual Arts (SVA), Reeves Lehmann spoke
about the school and the film. Manhattan
Borough President Gale A. Brewer presented a proclamation to the New York Emmy
SC reserves order
on Salman's
blackbuck case
Award nominated filmmaker. Maliks Apple

Productions has produced many films since
1990 starting with the pioneering film
about Indian Americans, "Lonely in
America."
Malik acknowledged some of his friends
On Golden Years poster

who have played a key role in his journey
as a filmmaker, including his brother
Chander Malik. H.R. Shah, chief of TV
Asia, spoke highly of Tirlok Maliks continued efforts to make movies about NRIs.
The hosts of the premiere included the
Indian American Forum, SVA Theater and
the films team.
I don't believe in Love Jihad:

Kareena kapoor
areena Kapoor believes in
"feeling of love" which,
she feels, can happen
between two people regardless of
caste, creed, or religion.
Therefore, the actress doesn't
relate to the concept of "Love
Jihad" and says that she never
believed in such theories.
"I believe only in the feeling of
love," Kareena, who is married to
actor-filmmaker Saif Ali Khan,
replied when asked about Love
Jihad, which is allegedly a
Muslim project of luring Hindu
girls into marriage and religious
conversion.
"Saif has a very broad perspective and he also shared his perspective on 'Love Jihad' (via an
open letter). He married a Hindu,
which is me, and we had a civil
marriage," said the actress.
"I feel that love is something
that you can't term. There is passion, there is lust... there are so
many things. It can happen
between two human beings," said
Kareena.
"Now if somebody is Hindu and
he or she starts loving a Muslim
person, you can't stop them. You
cannot ask somebody, 'Are you a
Muslim or are you a Hindu?' and
then fall in love.
"Love is a feeling, it's an emotion. That's why I don't believe in
Love Jihad. I believe in the feeling of love, added the 34-yearold. Co-incidentally her next film
Salman along with Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Neelam and

others were accused of hunting the protected
blackbuck in Rajasthan
he Supreme Court
reserved its order on the
Rajasthan government's
appeal challenging a state high
court order staying the conviction of Bollywood star Salman
Khan so that he could travel to
Britain for a film engagement.
A bench of Justice Sudhansu
Jyoti Mukhopadhaya and
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel
said Salman suffered no hardship as the stay of his sentencing by the high court Aug 31,
2007 permitted him to continue
pursuing his film career, including travel abroad.
The court gave Salman and
the Rajasthan government three
days to file written submissions. It said the suspension of
sentence removed all hurdles in
the way of Salman in pursuing

his film career, and added that
there was no need for any "further order addressing your
hardship" (to get visa to travel
to Britain).
The Rajasthan High Court
had suspended Salman's conviction Nov 12, 2013.
Salman along with Sonali
Bendre, Tabu, Neelam and others were accused of hunting the
protected
blackbuck
in
Rajasthan while shooting for
the film "Hum Saath Saath
Hain".
Salman was convicted by a
trial court April 10, 2006 under
the Wild Life (Protection) Act
and was sentenced to five years
in jail along with a fine of
Rs.25,000.
Her next film with Salman Khan Bajrangi Bhaijan

is about a Brahmin girl and Muslim boy.
with Salman Khan "Bajrangi

Bhaijan is also about a Brahmin
girl and Muslim boy.
The actress is in the capital on
dual purpose - first she launched
the latest bathing range of Vivel
titled "Love & Nourish" and now

she is busy shooting for Kabir
Khan's "Bajrangi Bhaijan in
the city. The "Bajrangi Bhaijan'
team started shooting Wednesday
in the bylanes of Chandni Chowk.
20
DIASPORA
November 8-14, 2014
Indian-origin entrepreneur
launches unique remittance service
London: An Indian-origin entrepreneur has launched a unique "pay-whatyou-want" money remittance service
that abolishes compulsory fees.
India-born Rajesh Agrawal believes
his Xendpay online platform will save
customers in the developing world 60
pounds million over the next five
years.
India is the largest recipient of remittances in the world, with $71 billion
sent last year. World Bank figures
show global migrants last year sent
home 250 billion pounds in remittances to developing countries - with
an eight per cent increase predicted for
2014. "It is a social imperative that the
cost of sending money abroad is significantly reduced," said Agrawal, who
announced the launch here this week.
"The remittance industry takes far
more than it needs to in profit and in
doing so drains away a lot of money
that would otherwise reach those in
developing nations. By launching a no
fees, best rate transfer service I hope to
challenge and change this," he added.
Under the Xendpay model, cus-
tomers can send anything from 1 to

100,000 pounds and will be asked to
"tip" what they want for the service even if it's nothing - and will also be
given the best exchange rates usually
reserved for multinational corporations. "I set up Xendpay not to be the
biggest or to make money but to make
money transfer better and cheaper. I
believe people will recognize the value
in what we are doing both financially
and socially and that as a result the discretionary 'tips' model will work,"
explains Agrawal. The Xendpay model
has been accepted as a Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI) Commitment to
Action, with an objective to save people sending money through the platform. Established by Bill Clinton in
2005, the CGI convenes global leaders
to create and implement innovative
solutions to the world's most pressing
challenges.
Xendpay is part of the Rational
Group of companies, which offers lowcost money transfer services which has
made transfers worth over $5 billion
since inception in 2005.
India pays tribute to indentured

laborers on 180th Aapravasi Diwas
Port Louis (Mauritius): India's
External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj Sunday paid tribute to the
'girmitiyas', the nearly half a million Indians who arrived in
Mauritius to work as indentured
laborers in the 19th century, saying their sacrifice did not go in
vain as they went on to become
the architects of a resurgent and
confident new Mauritius.
In a speech at the commemoration of the 180th anniversary of
Aapravasi Diwas here, the day
the first batch of 36 Indians
arrived in 1834, Sushma Swaraj
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the
said the Indians by dint of their
Commemoration of the 180th Anniversary of
hard work and sacrifice "paved
Aapravasi Diwas in Mauritius on November 2.
the road for the freedom and
prosperity that are enjoyed in Mauritius today." shores of this rainbow island from India and
Nearly half a million Indians, mostly from Uttar other parts of the world. Through their toil and
Pradesh and Bihar, were sent to Mauritius in the tears, sweat and sacrifice, they enabled later
19th century to work as indentured laborers in generations to live in comfort and security."
An international Conference was held in Port
the sugarcane plantations or to sail on to further
destinations, such as Guyana, Suriname and Louis from Nov 2-4 to mark the Anniversary. It
Reunion Island. She said by remembering the was chaired by Mauritius Prime Minister
historic date of Nov 2, 1834, "we pay tribute to Navinchandra Ramgoolam and attended by
all those resilient ancestors who landed on the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Time we did joint ventures through NGOs, says B.K. Modi

Singapore: Industrialist B.K. Modi,
who launched the Global Citizen
Forum initiative last year, is keen to
hold a separate event for NGOs in
New Delhi in 2015 on the lines of
the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas. Modi,
who heads Spice Global, said he has
done many joint ventures in his life
with "the aim of bringing investment from across the globe into
India." "It is now time that we do
join ventures now, through NGOs
which will help this money to flow
wherever it is needed most.
Not only in India, but also in parts
of African and Latin America and
other countries," the industrialist
said. According to Modi, an Indianborn Singapore citizen, the number
of billionaires has grown substantially "and most of them want to
give back to the society. This also
includes Global Indians."
He said he is keen to join with
other philanthropists to join in the
Narendra Modi government's social
initiatives like Swachch Bharat,
educating the girl child, building toilets in village schools.
"I am a Singaporean Citizen hold-
"I think, we Indians

have finally found a
dynamic leader in
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi who
can bridge the gap
between the East and
the West, that often
plagues many global
Indians."
--- B K Modi
ing an Overseas Citizenship of India
card. I would like to use my position
to connect with other philanthropists
from Singapore and across the globe
and bring those technologies into
India which can assist with these
campaigns," he said. "I will
absolutely use and utilize my own
personal wealth, but the goal is also
to join with others and unite others
into this plan and vision. Such a
move with encourage individual
involvement and more effective
results," he said.
He said the GCF as an organization is "based on the power of

'Global Citizens', it seeks to harness
the power of the diaspora of India
and other nations to bring positive
and rapid change in the world to
achieve peace and faster development.
He said that "I think, we Indians
have finally found a dynamic leader
in Prime Minister Narendra Modi
who can bridge the gap between the
East and the West, that often plagues
many global Indians."
NRK global meet to be

held in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: The
Kerala government will organize
a Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)
Global Meet at Kochi January
16-17, 2015, an official said
Monday.
The event will be held at LeMeridian Hotel. The last such
event was held after the Oommen
Chandy government assumed
office in 2011.
A state government official said
that around 1,000 delegates are
expected this time both from
home and abroad.
"The online registration will
begin soon and the focus is to get
maximum participants from the
European countries. There will be
separate registration fees for participants from India and abroad,"
the official said.
In a study conducted by Centre
For Development Studies last
month, the number of Kerala

emigrants was 23.63 lakh in
2014, while the figure was 22.81
lakh in 2011, 21.93 lakh in 2008,
18.38 lakh in 2003 and 13.62
lakh in 1998.
The study also said that 90 percent of the Keralites are staying
in various Middle East countries.
"Chandy will take part in the
event and there will be sessions
which include investment opportunities for the diaspora," the
official said.
"There would be a session
where people can express their
problems and suggest what they
expect the state government to
do. A separate session for the
emigrants would also be held," he
said. The state government is
keen to invite Minister of
External Affairs Sushma Swaraj
to inaugurate the event.
SUBCONTINENT
November 8-14, 2014
21
Pak uses militants for proxy war with India: Pentagon

Washington: A new Pentagon
report says Pakistan uses Afghanand Indian-focused militants
operating from its territory to
hedge against the loss of influence in Afghanistan and to counter India's superior military.
"Pakistan's military made gains
against the Tehrik-e Taliban
Pakistan and foreign fighters in
the
FATA
and
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa during a major military operation," the Pentagon
said in its October 2014 report on
Afghanistan to the US Congress.
But "Afghan- and Indianfocused militants continue to
operate from Pakistan territory to
the detriment of Afghan and
Pakistan uses these proxy forces to hedge against the loss of

influence in Afghanistan.
India assures death row

fishermen of early release
Chennai/Colombo: India's High
Commissioner to Sri Lanka Yash
Sinha met the ve Indian shermen
sentenced to death at Colombo's
Welikada prison and assured them
of every effort to secure their early
release, even as in Chennai the
MDMK accused the government of
"playing with the lives of Indian
shermen". Sinha met the ve
Indians - Emerson, P. Augustus, R.
Wilson, K. Prasath and J. Langlet who were awarded the death sentence by the Colombo High Court
Oct 30 on charges of drug trafcking. The high commissioner met
them at the superintendent's ofce
where he handed over some clothes
and toiletries and enquired about
their welfare. He assured them of
unstinted support and cooperation of
the Indian government in ensuring
that their case receives the utmost
attention and that the government of
India will make all efforts to secure
their early release and repatriation to
India, said ofcial sources. The shermen appeared in good health and
requested permission to write to
their relatives in Tamil Nadu and
also to make telephone calls. The
People in Chennai protest against the death sentence awarded

to five Indians by the Colombo High Court.
prison authorities readily agreed and

said they would arrange for telephone calls to be made by the prisoners in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, they were free to
write letters to their relatives, the
sources added. The shermen
expressed happiness at the high
commissioner personally coming to
meet them and thanked him for this
gesture.
Meanwhile, MDMK founder
Vaiko in Chennai asked why the
Narendra Modi government was
keen on having defence ties with Sri
Lanka despite the death sentence
handed down to the ve shermen.

"The lives of Tamil shermen
should not be taken lightly. If the
NDA follows the UPA policy on Sri
Lanka, the Tamil youth will not tolerate that," he said in a statement.
Vaiko, who spearheaded a protest
here against the Colombo court verdict, said that irrespective of the
Narendra Modi government's invite
to Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa for the swearing-in,
Chinese naval ships have been
allowed to berth in Sri Lankan
waters, which he said was a direct
threat to Tamil Nadu.
regional stability," said the sixmonthly report titled "Progress

Toward Security and Stability in
Afghanistan".
"Pakistan uses these proxy
forces to hedge against the loss of
influence in Afghanistan and to
counter India's superior military,"
it said, confirming only what is
widely known.
"These relationships run counter to Pakistan's public commitment to support Afghan-led reconciliation," it noted.
"Such groups continue to act as
the primary irritant in AfghanPakistan bilateral relations," the
defense department report said.
"Although
stability
in
Afghanistan is in the interest of

Pakistan, Pakistan also seeks sufficient Pashtun representation in
the Afghan government to prevent Pashtun discontent along the
Afghan-Pakistan border and limit
India's influence," it said.
The report noted that the Indian
consulate in Afghanistan's Herat
province was attacked by a group
of four heavily armed militants
last May, three days prior to the
swearing in of the new Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As Modi is "perceived as being
close to Hindu nationalist
groups", it may have played into
the timing of the attack, the
report suggested.
India dismisses Pak claims

on Kashmir at UN
United Nations: India dismissed Pakistan's "unsolicited"
comments on Kashmir at the
UN, maintaining it was a part of
India and asserting that free and
fair elections were held in that
state.
In his address to the UN
General Assembly committee
that deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs,
India's Mayank Joshi said free,
fair and open elections were
regularly held in Jammu and
Kashmir at all levels.
Diyar Khan, a counsellor at
Pakistan's UN Mission, said his

country regretted that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had
been deprived of their right to
self-determination. Self-determination did not lapse with the
passage of time, he said. Nor
could it be "set aside" by
charges of terrorism.
Joshi dismissed as unsolicited
Pakistan's comments about
Kashmir and said they were
factually incorrect. Free, fair
and open elections were regularly held in that state at all levels, he said.
Act against Wagah attackers: Ban Ki-moon

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked
Pakistan to act against the terrorists who carried out the attack
last week at the Wagah border. Ban's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric told reporters that, "The Secretary-General condemns
in the strongest terms the terrorist attack" that took place
Saturday on the Pakistani side of the Wagah border crossing
with India.
"The Secretary-General," he added, "urges the Pakistani
authorities to bring those responsible to justice." Dujarric said
Ban conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and
to the people and government of Pakistan and wished the
wounded a quick recovery.
'US pullout will lead Afghan militants to target India'

Kolkata: While the US withdrawal from
Afghanistan is opening up strategic space
for India, Af-Pak expert Michael Kugelman
asserts it will lead to militant groups operating in the region turning their attention back
on India.
Speaking at a Global India Foundation
organised event on India-US and IndiaPakistan relations, Kugelman said as long
as the Pakistani defence establishment has
ties with militant groups, India-Pakistan
relations can never be functional.
Kugelman is South Asia associate at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars.
"India-Pakistan might become the biggest
ashpoint in South Asia after the US troops
leave Afghanistan. Many of the militants
now ghting in Afghanistan could redirect
their attention to India," he said.
"Militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba,
who were originally targeting India but
were ghting foreign troops, might now
revert their focus on India," Kugelman said.
He also said the recent re-emergence of
anti-India militant groups as well as
Pakistan's military establishment controlling polices towards India, would further

contribute towards deterioration of the
bilateral ties.
"There has been re-emergence of several
anti-India militants groups including those
seen as proxies for the Pakistani security
establishment in the last few months."
"The political realities of the two countries make it highly unlikely the two will
reconcile. In Pakistan, you have a situation
where the military is in control of the policies on India and it is not interested in rec-
onciliation," he noted.
"In India you have a government that is
not opposed to engaging with Pakistan but
it is more assertive and not willing to sit
quietly when there are provocations from
Pakistan. There have been provocations
from Pakistan and there will be more,"
Kugelman asserted.
Kugelman, however, said the Afghan
pullout will afford US ofcials more space
for strengthening its strategic ties with India
and the trajectory of the mutual relationship
was moving upwards.
22
INTERNATIONAL
November 8-14, 2014
Modi ranked 15th on Forbes power list; Putin tops

Washington: Indian Prime Narendra
Modi has joined the world's most powerful
people ranking 15th on the Forbes list with
Russian President Vladimir Putin once
again beating US President Barack Obama
to the top spot.
"India's newest rock star doesn't hail from
Bollywood. He is the newly elected prime
minister who sailed into office in May with
a landslide victory, ushering the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) into power after decades
of control by the Gandhi dynasty," said the
US business magazine of Modi.
Describing Modi as a "Hindu nationalist",
Forbes referred to the 2002 Gujarat riots
when he was the state's chief minister noting he "is credited with massive reconstruction projects in his home state of Gujarat".
"His administration promises to bring
economic rejuvenation to other beleaguered
parts of India. The world is as impressed as
the citizens of India: So far he's toured the
US and China and met with his Southeast
Asian neighbours," the magazine said.
Other Indians on the list of 72 most powerful people in the world included Reliance
Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at

36th, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO
Lakshmi Mittal at 57th and Microsoft's

Indian-born CEO Satya Nadella at 64th
spot. Besides Modi, the 12 newcomers to

this year's list include Nadella, Wal-Mart
CEO Doug McMillon (No. 29), Alibaba
CEO Jack Ma (No. 30) and Egyptian
President Abdel el-Sisi.
Six of the Most Powerful are from China,
three from India, two from Hong Kong, and
one is from Taiwan.
Nine of the 72 are women, which is the
same number as last year German
Chancellor Angela Merkel ranked fifth.
The top five positions are unchanged
from last year, with Obama (No. 2) remaining in second place ahead of Communist
Party of China's General Secretary and
country's President Xi Jinping (No. 3),
Pope Francis (No.4) and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel (No.5).
Rounding out the Top 10 are Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (No. 6), Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair Bill
Gates (No. 7), European Central Bank
President Mario Draghi (No. 8), Google
cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
(No. 9), and British Prime Minister David
Cameron (No. 10).
US offers Iran framework for n-deal

The US-led airstrikes on the IS targets inside Iraq & Syria are on.
Obama seeks new authorization

to fight Islamic State
Washington: US President Barack
Obama said he will ask Congress
for a new authorization to use military force against the Islamic State
(IS) extremist group.
The president was outlining his
near-term agenda for joint work
with Congress, one day after the
Republicans gained control of both
chambers in Tuesday's mid-term
elections in a heavy blow to Obama
and his fellow Democrats, Xinhua
reported.
"I'm going to begin engaging
Congress over a new authorization
to use military force against ISIL,"
Obama said at a White House press
conference, using another acronym
for the IS.
"The world needs to know we are
united behind this effort, and the
men and women of our military
deserve our clear and unified support," he added.
The White House is justifying
ongoing US-led airstrikes on the IS
targets inside Iraq and Syria with an
Iraqi request for assistance and a
2001 congressional authorisation to
fight terrorists. Obama said the idea

of new authorization is "to rightsize
and update whatever authorization
Congress provides to suit the current fight, rather than previous
fights."
"It makes sense for us to make
sure that the authorization from
Congress reflects what we perceive
to be not just our strategy over the
next two or three months, but our
strategy going forward, " he added.
The president has vowed to
"degrade and ultimately destroy"
the Islamic State, a process he said
would go well beyond his presidency that ends in January 2017.
The airstrikes joined by a number
of countries have failed to stop the
group's advances in Iraq and Syria
and come under increasing attacks
both at home and abroad.
Obama cautioned that "it's too
early to say whether we are winning," calling the campaign "a longterm plan" aiming to solidify the
Iraqi government and security
forces and isolate the areas in Syria
where the Islamic State can operate.
Washington: The US has offered

Iran a framework for the potential
nuclear deal that would allow
Tehran to meet its peaceful energy needs, US President Barack
Obama said.
But whether world powers and
Iran are able to reach a comprehensive deal on Tehran's controversial nuclear program before
the Nov 24 deadline is "an open
question", he added.
"Whether we can actually get a
deal done, we're going to have to
find out over the next three to
four weeks," Obama told a press
conference Wednesday, a day
after Republicans won a sweeping victory in midterm elections.
"I've said consistently that I'd

rather have no deal than a bad
deal", Xinhua reported.
Obama described the negotiations on the long-sought deal as "
constructive" and praised international negotiators for being " unified and cohesive".
"Even in countries where we
have some differences like
Russia, have agreed with us and
have worked with us cooperatively," Obama said.
At the press conference, Obama
also noted a "long tradition of
mistrust" between the US and
Iran.
There is a sizable portion of the
political elite in Iran that cut its
teeth on anti-Americanism and

still finds it convenient to blame
America for every ill that there is,
he said.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry will meet with top diplomats of Iran and the European
Union in Oman Nov 9-10 to push
for a comprehensive deal on
Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iran and the P5+1 group, namely the US, Britain, France, China,
Russia and Germany, agreed in
July to extend the nuclear talks
for another four months till Nov
24 after failing to narrow down
gaps on core issues during negotiations over the previous six
months.
White House wants extra anti-Ebola funding

Washington: The US federal
government will ask Congress for
6.18 billion dollars in additional
funding to fight Ebola, dwarfing
previous requests, the White
House said in a statement.
The administration will ask
lawmakers to approve more than
4.64 billion dollars for the immediate response to the disease and
ask for extra 1.54 billion dollars
in contingency fund to make
resources available if necessary,
Xinhua quoted the statement as
saying.
This is an opportunity for
Congress and this Administration
to continue the work together to
provide the additional resources
needed through appropriations
efforts in order to be responsive
to the resource needs on the
ground and here at home, it said.
The request, a giant jump from
The
government
will ask
Congress
for $6.18
billion in
additional
funding to
fight Ebola
the money Congress has already

approved, will send to the House
for approval later Wednesday
afternoon.
In September, lawmakers
approved 88 million dollars in a
stopgap funding bill that expires
Dec 11 for anti-Ebola efforts.
Lawmakers also signed off on
shifting 750 million dollars in

Pentagon funds toward the Ebola
response.
The focus on the Ebola epidemic in the US has died down in the
run-up to the midterm elections
as some of the patients diagnosed
with the killer disease recovered
fully.
US to be partner country at
Gujarat investment summit
It will be the first time that the United States will enter the
event - to be be held from Jan 11-13 - as a partner country.
Mumbai: The US will join as a

'partner country' for the 7th
Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor
Summit scheduled to be held in
Gandhinagar, Gujarat early next
year, it was announced here.
The US accepted an invitation
from Gujarat Chief Minister
Anandiben Patel, and it will be
the first time that the country
will enter the event - to be be
held Jan 11-13 - as a partner
country.
"Developing greater trade and
investment ties is a top priority
for our two countries. US commercial links with Gujarat run
deep as reflected by the number
of American firms with operations in the state and the presence of a US commercial office
in Ahmedabad since 1997," said

US Consul General in Mumbai
Tom Vajda. During Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's recent
meeting with US President
Barack Obama in the US, the
two leaders had committed to
facilitate increased trade
between the countries.
They also recognised that US
and Indian businesses have a
critical role to play in sustainable, inclusive and job-led
growth and development.
The US hopes that being a
partner country at Vibrant
Gujarat will help create new
opportunities to bolster business
and investment ties and open a
new chapter in the relationship
between the two countries.
Google launches alliance to

promote Indian languages
New Delhi: Ensuring greater
reach of internet in the country,
Google Monday announced
alliance with industry partners to
form the Indian Language
Internet Alliance (ILIA), a group
committed to promote the growth
of Indic-language content online.
This will facilitate India to
reach the coveted 500 million
internet users mark by 2017,
Google India vice president and
managing director Rajan
Anandan said here.
Google also launched a website
called www.hindiweb.com, a
platform for Hindi speaking internet users to discover the best
Hindi content across websites,

apps, videos and blogs.
India now has over 200 million
internet users and to reach the
desired 500-million mark, Hindi
language tools will help a lot.
Anandan said the success will
be based on four pillars - access,
discovering ability, content and
innovations.Google has tied up
with 15 partners to take the
Indian language mission forward,
but later on the number of partners will increase.The search
engine giant will also look into
other languages like Tamil,
Marathi, and Bengali, said Amit
Singhal, senior vice president.
BUSINESS
November 8-14, 2014
23
Sensex hits record high,

breaches 28,000-mark
Mumbai: A benchmark index of
Indian equities markets has
touched a record high of 28,006
points in the early morning trade
session Wednesday, surpassing
the previous high of 27,969.82
points hit in the intra-trade on
Monday. The index was trading
up 34 points or 0.12 percent
around 1.00 p.m. at 27,894.30
points after coming down from
the psychological barrier of
28,000-mark.
Healthy buying was observed in
bank, healthcare and capital
goods stocks. While selling pressure was seen in the metal, oil and
gas and power sectors.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index
(Sensex) of the S&P Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE), which
opened at 27,907.19 points, was
trading at 27,894.30 points (at
1.00 p.m.), up 33.92 points or
0.12 percent from the previous
day's close at 27,860.38 points.
The Sensex touched a high of
28,006.60 points and a low of
27,881.74 points in the trade so
far. According to Angel Broking,

the Indian markets were expected
to open on flat note tracking SGX
Nifty and most of Asian markets.
On Tuesday, the U.S. stocks fell
led by energy companies as oil
reached a three year low.
European stocks too fell led by
drop in the oil and gas stocks.
Other market analysts said that
they expect further reforms being
announced by the government

which in turn might lead the bursar into a bullish spell over the
medium term.
"We expect further reforms and
remain positive on the domestic
infrastructure and cyclical sectors
over the medium-to-long term,"
said Dipen Shah, head - private
client group research, Kotak
Securities.
Nokia will not make handsets in India anymore

Chennai: Nokia, once an iconic
mobile handset maker, is shutting
down its India plant at
Sriperumbudur near here, a company spokesperson said.
"As announced earlier (Oct 7),
we are stopping handset production at our Chennai plant from
tomorrow (Nov 1) in the absence
of orders from our new parent
firm (Microsoft), which terminated the mobile purchase agreement," a Nokia India official said.
Global
software
major
Microsoft, which acquired the
Finland-based Nokia's global
devices and services business,
including assets in India for $7.2
billion April 25, decided to suspend manufacturing handsets
from its Chennai plant though it
could not take possession of it due
to legal battles over a tax notice
from the Tamil Nadu government
and the Supreme Court in March.
At the time of closing down the
operations, about 1,100 employ-
ees were working in the plant,

including 900 on the assembly
lines.
Of the 6,600 employees the
company had on rolls till March,
5,500 opted for VRS (voluntary
retirement scheme) it offered and
left.
Nokia made a cumulative
investment of $300 million
(Rs.1,800 crore) in the Chennai
factory over the last eight years.
Touted as Nokia's largest production facility outside Europe,
the Chennai plant started rollout
out initially low-end mobile handsets from January 2006 after it
was unveiled by then prime minister Manmohan Singh in the

presence of his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen.
"The asset freeze by the state
tax department has prevented us
from transferring the factory to
any other mobile handset maker
despite having a fully functional
electronics manufacturing system," the official said.
The state government slapped a
Rs.2,400 crore notice to Nokia's
India subsidiary in March, accusing it of selling the handsets from
the Chennai plant in the domestic
market than exporting them.
24
SPORTS
November 8-14, 2014
Wanted to call off Oz tour Sachin releases autobiography

'Playing It My Way'
over 'Monkeygate': Sachin
Mumbai: Cricketing legend Sachin
Tendulkar said he defended teammate Harbhajan Singh staunchly
during the infamous 'Monkeygate'
dispute in Australia and his stance
"almost caused the tour to be called
off".
Tendulkar, speaking at the launch
of his autobiography 'Playing It My
Way' here, said that Indian team was
willing to abandon their 2007-08
Australia tour over the incident and
was ready to accept the consequences of such a dramatic move.
Harbhajan was banned for three
matches by match referee Mike
Procter following an altercation
with Andrew Symonds during the
second Test in Sydney. Australia
won the match by 122 runs to take a
2-0 lead in the four-match Test
series.
Tendulkar maintains all through
his book that "Harbhajan had not
racially abused" Symonds.
"I must reiterate we were very
serious about the boycott and we
were fully prepared to accept the
consequences of walking out on the
tour, knowing that such an action
might have resulted in the ICC banning the Indian team," Tendulkar
writes in the book.
The Indian team were scheduled
to play a tour game in Canberra
after the second Test but decided "to
lodge an appeal against the decision
Sachin Tendulkar releasing his autobiography in Mumbai.
Sachin with his brother Ajit and wife Anjali

at the launch of his autobiography.
and in a gesture of protest also

decided not to travel to Canberra".
The Indian batting legend said that
they didn't agree with Procter's verdict. "... the hearing in Sydney had
been something of a farce. That he
banned Bhajji for three months
seemed to show up which group in
his opinion was lying. It is never a
pleasant thing to be called a liar and
I was extremely angry," writes
Tendulkar.
Tendulkar was batting with the
off-spinner when the incident happened and he has given a full
account of the incident in his book.
"Bhajji was actually trying to be
civil with some of the Australian
IPL probe: Panel submits

final report to court
New Delhi: The Supreme Courtappointed Justice Mukul Mudgal
Committee submitted to the court
its final report on the investigation into allegations of betting
and spot-fixing in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League
(IPL).
The committee, which investigated the allegations against sidelined Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) chief N.
Srinivasan, who is now the
International Cricket Council
(ICC) chairman, and 12 others,
submitted the report in a sealed
cover.
Delhi Police were the first to
bust the scandal after they arrested three Rajasthan Royals cricketers - S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila
and Ankeet Chavan - in a midnight raid in Mumbai during the
tournament. Later, Mumbai
police also unearthed betting
links after they arrested
Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath
Meiyappan and Bollywood actor
Vindu Dara Singh. In October
last year, the Supreme Court

appointed a three-member committee, headed by former High
Court Judge Mukul Mudgal and
comprising additional solicitor
general L. Nageswara Rao and
senior advocate Nilay Dutta.
The court told the panel to conduct an independent inquiry into
the allegations of corruption
against Meiyappan, India
Cements, and Rajasthan Royals
team co-owner Raj Kundra and
also asked it to look into the
involvement of players.
In March, the Supreme Court
suspended Srinivasan as BCCI
president following two reports
submitted a month earlier by the
Mudgal Committee in a sealed
envelope containing 13 names.
The court in its interim order
said that Srinivasan be replaced
by former cricketers Sunil
Gavaskar and Shivlal Yadav.
Gavaskar was given charge of
IPL affairs while former Test
spinner Shivlal Yadav was
entrusted with non-IPL issues.
players, including Brett Lee, when

all hell broke loose. Bhajji had playfully tapped Lee on the back after
completing a run and Symonds at
mid off took exception to this."
"He apparently did not want an
opposition player meddling with
Lee and once again hurled abuse at
Bhajji. Bhajji is an impulsive and
passionate individual and it was
only a matter of time before he
would retaliate, which he soon did."
Tendulkar blamed Symonds for
the things to turn ugly and said that
it was Symonds who provoked
Harbhajan and not the other way
round as the Australians had
claimed.
Mumbai: In a glittering event at

a posh hotel here, cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar released
his much awaited autobiography
"Playing It My Way" among
other star cricketers.
Emcee Harsha Bhogle took the
packed hall through Tendulkar's
life and the evolution of Indian
cricket with on-stage conversations with Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip
Vengsarkar, Vasu Paranjpe, and
the 'fabulous four' -- Sourav
Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S.
Laxman and Tendulkar himself.
The formal book release, which
has been published by Hachette
India, saw Tendulkar present a
copy to his first coach and guru
Ramakant Achrekar. The batting
maestro earlier Wednesday presented the first copy to his moth-
er Rajni before the launch.

'Playing It My Way' is a different sort of innings for me and
was in the making for the last
three years. As with the game, I
have been honest and sincere in
putting together various aspects
of my life and the book is something I hope readers will enjoy,"
said Tendulkar.
The book has already set the
Indian record for the largest adult
hardback orders on the day of
release with 100,000 copies
being released by the publishers.
The book releases as hardback
and simultaneous eBook
Thursday. An audiobook version
will follow early next year as will
Indian language versions in
Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati,
Malayalam and Bengali.
Chappell denies Tendulkar's

captaincy claims
Former Indian cricket coach Greg

Chappell with Sachin Tendulkar
Melbourne: Former Indian

cricket coach Greg Chappell
denied Sachin Tendulkar's
claim that the Australian had
asked the Indian legend to
replace then skipper Rahul
Dravid prior to the 2007 World
Cup.
Chappell had initially refused
to respond to Tendulkar's claims
but then released a statement
through Cricket Australia (CA),
where he is working as a
national talent manager. "Whilst
I don't propose to get into a war
of words, I can state quite clearly that during my time as Indian
coach I never contemplated
Sachin replacing Dravid as captain. I was therefore very surprised to read the claims made
in (Tendulkar's) book," said
Chappell, who coached India in
2005-07.
"During those years, I only
ever visited Sachin's home once
and that was with our physio
and assistant coach during his

rehabilitation from injury, at
least 12 months earlier than
what was reported in the book.
We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon together but the subject of
captaincy was never raised."
Tendulkar has written in his
autobiography "Playing It My
Way", due for release Nov 6,
that Chappell told him that
together they "could control
Indian cricket for years". "Just
months before the World Cup,
Chappell had come to see me at
home and, to my dismay, suggested that I should take over
the captaincy from Dravid,"
published reports have quoted
Tendulkar as saying in his book.
"I was surprised to hear the
coach not showing the slightest
amount of respect for the captain, with cricket's biggest tournament just months away,"
said Tendulkar, who retired last
year.
FEATURES
November 8-14, 2014
25
Modi is akin to Indira Gandhi, Rahul is no leader: Rajdeep book

rime Minister Narendra
Modi is like Indira Gandhi
in leadership style, and he
has also instilled a sense of fear in
his cabinet colleagues, a book by
veteran journalist and well known
television anchor Rajdeep
Sardesai says.
The book, "2014 The Election
That
Changed
India"
(Penguin/Viking), also says that
Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi has failed to show any
quality as a leader and is hardly
respected by his own party colleagues.
"Modi is perhaps closest to
Indira Gandhi in his personality
driven leadership style, an imperious attitude that ensures that institutions remain subservient to the
individual," the riveting 372-page
book says.
"Much like Indira, Modi in
power is in no mood to reach out
to the opposition," says Sardesai,
referring to the Bharatiya Janata
Party's refusal to recognize the
Congress as the leader of the
opposition in parliament.
Modi, the book says, is determined to exercise tight control
over the cabinet system.
"There is a certain fear factor
that Modi has instilled in his cabinet colleagues," the author says,
adding how a minister in the Modi
government told him (Sardesai) to
enter his house from the back
entrance.
The unnamed minister also
insisted that they do not speak in
his main hall but in the garden
behind the residence.
"You never know which room is
bugged nowadays!" the minister is
quoted as saying.
According to the book, the original list of cabinet and other ministers in Modi's government was
prepared by Modi confidants Arun
Jaitley and Amit Shah and then
vetted by the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
"The final touches, including
portfolio distribution, were done
by the prime minister himself."
According to Sardesai, Modi
implicitly trusted Jaitley, now the

finance and defence minister, but
did not trust Sushma Swaraj, who
heads the external affairs ministry.
"There was even a suggestion
that Modi had elevated Smriti
(Irani as the HRD minister)
because he wanted to send out a
message to Sushma (Swaraj) that
she wasn't the only woman face of
the BJP."
The book adds: "Apart from
Jaitley and a few others, Modi
wasn't convinced about the abilities of many of his cabinet colleagues."
In contrast to Modi, Rahul
Gandhi has "singularly failed to
show any quality that marks him
out as a leader who can lift a
struggling party", the book says.
"He is probably the first member
of the Nehru-Gandhi family who
doesn't even command the respect
of his own party men."
According to Sardesai, dynasty
alone will not sustain the Congress
although the Gandhi family
remains both an asset and a liabili-
TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai and cover of his new book.
ty. The Congress, badly mauled in

the Lok Sabha battle, "needs to
throw up a merit-driven, massbased leadership that can usher in
new ideas and energies".
Describing Modi as "a tough,
dynamic politician", the book
says: "Challenging him will
require the Congress to move
beyond its time-worn slogans and
identify more directly with the

aspirations of a younger, more
impatient India."
The book concludes: "If a
Congress under (Jawaharlal)
Nehru ushered in India's republican constitution, a BJP led by
Modi could well redefine the idea
of India, or at least the way it is
governed."
Using sports as a tool for social and individual development

ack in 2003, Afak Khan saw
some children roller-skating
in a park near his house.
Coming from a not so well-off family, the then six-year-old dreamt of
learning the sport despite knowing
he will not have the money for it.
Today, Khan participates at the
national level, thanks to social support.
"When I saw those kids skating in
the park, I was driven by a strong
urge to learn the sport. I somehow
saved my pocket money and purchased a pair of secondhand skates
from a scrap dealer. Thus began my
journey to the skating rink," Khan,
now 16, told IANS. Khan is one
among many children who are being
taught social values and life skills
through the medium of sports.
"Sport is a well-researched, universal tool for social development
and has the potential to cut across
boundaries and break barriers of
religion, caste and colour and unify
people regardless of how rich or
poor they may be," Chetan Misra,
founder of Delhi-based The Football
Link NGO, said.
"Playing sports gives children
valuable qualities such as confidence, being socially forward and
helps develop their personality to
make them well-rounded individuals. Sport is also a powerful tool to
teach social issues and moral values
through a fun and entertaining activity," he added.
The Football Link, a coaching
institution, teaches children social
issues such as women's empowerment, how to protect themselves
against sexually transmitted diseases and gender equality.
Yuwa uses football as a mechanism to empower girls in the

poorest of communities in Jharkhand
a unique model that has worked.
"Through partnerships with various international organizations, we

conduct "Coach the Coaches" workshops where local coaches are
taught international techniques of
football for social development,
increasing child interaction and
social inclusion," Misra added.
Agreed Franz Gastler, founder of
Yuwa India, which uses football to
empower girls in India.
"We use football as a platform for
development because girls requested it when Yuwa first started in

2008. We quickly discovered that
football is an excellent way to bring
girls together and keep them coming
back," Ranchi-based Gastler, a 31year-old American who came to
Jharkhand five years ago to teach in
village schools, said.
He explained that Yuwa works in
villages in rural Jharkhand, which
has some of the highest rates of
child marriage, human trafficking

and female illiteracy in India. He
said some of the Yuwa girls have
been chosen as brand ambassadors
for the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan,
which aims to achieve 100 percent
access to sanitation for all rural
households by 2022 by constructing
toilets.
"In a place where girls are expected to drop out of school at an early
age and get married in their midteens, Yuwa's mission is to put each
girl powerfully in charge of her own
future - enabling her to break free of
the cycle of poverty," Gastler added.
According to Misra, the worst
affected are the children growing up
in slums and low-income families of
the mega Indian cities, who face
constant abuse, neglect and severe
lack of basic resources.
He added that football, being a
global sport, has the potential to
break the boundaries of rich and
poor.
"On the field everybody is same.
They are taught values of sportsmanship and teamwork and anybody who wants to play is given a
chance irrespective of their economic background. No money is
charged for participation at these
centres," Misra said.

Akshai Abraham, founder of
Lucknow-based Project Khel, "a
customized program that uses sports
and games as a platform to engage
with adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds", feels that there
is a need to tap the power sports has
in bringing about a change in the
lives of people.
"I think there are enough of
schemes, like the Panchayat Yuva
Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA),
but implementation is an issue. The
aim of Project Khel is not to create
competitive sportspersons but to
recognize the value play has in the
development of a child and to utilize
the power of sport to bring about
societal change," Abraham said.
Once engaged, the project's program leads the children through a
series of modules designed to
impart crucial Life Skills Education
(LSE) though experiential learning
and activity-based learning models.
Additionally, it also conducts specialized thematic workshops and
modules, which aim to create
awareness on issues such as civic
responsibility, child sexual abuse,
personal hygiene and self presentation.
26
LIFESTYLE
November 8-14, 2014
How smartphones are Long term shift work hampers memory

changing the way you vote
Washington, DC: Smartphones

and social media platforms like
Facebook and Twitter are playing an increasingly prominent
role in helping you decide who
to vote for, according to a new
survey by the Pew Research
Center.
The proportion of US citizens
who use their smartphones to
track political news or campaign
coverage has more than doubled
(28 percent) in 2014 compared
with the most recent mid-term
election in 2010 (13 percent).
The number of Americans who
follow candidates or other political figures on social media has
also risen sharply: 16 percent of
registered voters now do this, up
from 6 percent just four years
ago.
The report based on a national
survey conducted Oct 15-20
among 2,003 adults (including
1,494 registered voters) showed
that this growth in the use of
smartphones and social media
platforms is particularly pro-
nounced among middle-aged

voters in the age bracket of 30 to
49 years.
Some 40 percent of voters
aged 30-49 have used their
smartphones to follow this year's
election campaign (up from 15
percent in 2010) and 21 percent
followed political figures on
social media (up from just 6 percent in 2010).
For their part, social media
outlets are also rolling out measures to rope in more people in
the political process.
On Tuesday, Facebook will
place a banner at the top of US
users' feeds reminding them that
it is Election Day and urging
them to share with friends if
they have already voted, CNN
reported.
Micro-blogging site Twitter is
also not lagging behind. It has
developed the #Election2014
dashboard, which lets users follow political tweets, connect
with candidates and see what
others are saying.
London: Long term shift work

can help you earn more but it
could adversely affect your brain
functions, such as memory and
processing speed, says a research.
Disruption of the body clock as
a result of shift work could generate physiological stressors, which
may in turn affect the functioning
of the brain, the researchers suggested.
"The cognitive impairment
observed in the present study may
have important safety consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for society
as a whole, given the increasing
number of jobs in high hazard situations that are performed at
night," the researchers warned.
However, the study led by JeanClaude Marquie of the University
of Toulouse in France found that
once people stop working in
Disruption of the body

clock as a result of
shift work could
generate physiological
stressors, which may
in turn affect the functioning of the brain
shifts, it is possible for them to

recover the memory loss. But it
could take five long years.
The researchers tracked the cognitive abilities of more than 3,000
people who were either working,
in a wide range of sectors, or who
had retired, at three time points:
1996; 2001; and 2006.
The data showed that those who
currently, or who had previously,
worked shifts had lower scores on
memory, processing speed, and
overall brain power than those

who had only worked normal
office hours. The second set of
analyses looked at the impact of
working a rotating shift pattern
and found that compared with
those who had never worked this
type of shift, those who had, and
had done so for 10 or more years,
had lower cognitive and memory
scores.
The study appeared in the
British Medical Journal.
Salvatore Ferragamo forays into kids wear

New Delhi: After serving the uber
cool population globally through its
design, Italian luxury brand
Salvatore Ferragamo has now forayed into kidswear market with
Ferragamo Mini, a special shoe collection for young girls.
True to the Maison's heritage,
Ferragamo Mini reworks two iconic
designs from the women's collections, this time for girls: the famous
round-toed ballerina shoe, which
Salvatore created for British actress
Audrey Hepburn and Varina, the
enduring bestseller finished off with
the brand's signature Vara bow, said
a statement.
Available in sizes 27 to 33, the
designs come in a wide range of tex-
tures featuring
super-chic
patent,
soft
suede, sophisticated laminated
or laser-cut
nappa and even
shimmering
glitter fabric.
"The color
palette for the
collection
brims with classic shades of Ferragamo red, new
bisque, oxford blue and black. The
brand has also explored seasonal
tones of macaron, lila and fleur bleu
and dives into a world of metallics gold, silver and Venere - in designs
for special occasions," the statement

further reads.
Ferragamo Mini will be available
in a select number of Ferragamo
boutiques around the world, starting
this month.
Exercise reduces risk of breast cancer: Researchers

London: Everybody is aware of the fact that
exercise is good for your health but very few
know that it can help in preventing breast
cancer too, says an expert.
Middle aged women, who regularly partake in some form of exercise each day, are
significantly reducing their chances of getting cancer.
And it is said that just 30 minutes of exercise a day, such as a game of squash or a
spinning class reduces the risk of cancer by a
fifth, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Scientists have found that obese women
are 50 percent more likely to get cancer than
those who have a healthy Body Mass Index
(BMI). Also those women who did three
hours of exercise per week were 21 percent
less likely to get breast cancer.
Currently 1 in 8 women get breast cancer,
which equates to 50,500 a year, however this
new evidence is positive in showing that a
healthy lifestyle can reduce the probability
of a woman being affected.
Researchers at Oxford University have
spent three years monitoring 126,000
Women who do
three hours of
exercise per week
are 21 percent less
likely to get breast
cancer.
women going through menopause and noted

if they got the disease or not. They filled in
questionnaires about their exercise levels,
weight, diet, drinking and smoking.
Scientists believe that being obese increases the risk of cancer, most likely due to the
fat cells containing oestrogen which encourage the growth of tumors.

"What's really interesting about this study
is that (reduction in breast cancer risk) does
not appear to be solely due to the most active
women being slimmer, suggesting that there
may be some more direct benefits of exercise for women of all sizes," said Tim Key, a
Cancer Research UK scientist from the cancer epidemiology unit at Oxford University.
"We don't yet know exactly how physical
activity reduces risk ... but some small studies suggest that it could be linked to the
impact on hormone levels in the body," he
added.
Tim Key also says that more research is
still required to find the link between
women's hormone levels and the prevention
of cancer.
SELF HELP
November 8-14, 2014
27
Proper breathing is key to body, mind control

By Amar Chandel
reathing is the most essential
and frequent activity that we
engage in from birth till
death. Yet it is one of the most neglected aspects of our existence
because we erroneously presume
that it is entirely an involuntary
function. The end result is that this
giver of life has been ignored, leading to numerous unwanted consequences.
Our lungs have the capacity to
take in about four liters of air in
each breath. In olden times, we used
to take this full quota when we were
active throughout the day, first as
hunter-gatherers and then as crop
growers. The modern lifestyle has
turned us into veritable couch potatoes that barely take half a liter of
air per breath. That is only oneeighth of the requirement. Our
diaphragm barely moves if we are
sedentary, with the result that the
lower part of our lungs hardly gets
any oxygen.
The shocking shortfall not only
causes numerous aches and pains
and diseases but also leads to negative emotions like anger, anxiety
and stress.
Air is available free of cost, but
we have to make a deliberate effort
to ensure that we take in our full
quota. The most important item on
the to-do list is to set aside at least
one hour every day for exercises
which make us moderately breathless. Regular brisk walking is an
ideal starting point. In the process
we will be taking a lot of air willynilly.
You can also train yourself to take
in more oxygen even when at rest.
The technique is called yogic or
diaphragmatic breathing.
Lie down or sit comfortably.
When you start inhaling, fill your
belly from the lowest part up so that
by the time you have taken the full
breath, your tummy is protruding as
well as the chest. Hold for a few
seconds and then start exhaling
while at the same time contracting
your belly.
This should be done preferably on
an empty stomach. So reserve five
minutes for this practice before
breakfast, lunch and dinner every
day. After you have practised for
some weeks, start spending all your
spare time in mindful breathing.
Suppose you are having to wait at

traffic lights. Instead of ruing the
delay, utilise the time for diaphragmatic breathing. As your practice
increases, you will notice that you
have started pumping your belly
without even noticing.
Interestingly, many of those who
lead a sedentary life tend to do
exactly the opposite. They contract
the belly when they breathe in and
expand it when they breathe out. If
you too are making that mistake,
make a persistent effort to correct it
because this kind of breathing is
worse than not moving the belly at
all.
Please note that you are not pumping air into the belly. It is going into
the lungs only. It's just that when
you expand the belly, the diaphragm
is forced to move down and the
lungs can take in more air.
You will soon find that your stress
level has started going down. The
air that you breathe, besides nourishing your body, has a vital force
called 'Prana'. The more air you
pump in, the more vitality you have.
There is an additional advantage.
This pumping action strengthens
your abdominal muscles and helps
Tips to stay safe in

winter weather
Never run a
generator inside
enclosed spaces.
Carbon monoxide
can build up quickly
and linger, even
after a generator
is shut off.
inter weather can bring with it

the potential for slippery steps,
power outages and other seasonal hazards. By being prepared in advance,
you can weather the storm more comfortably and safely.
quickly and linger, even after a generator is

shut off. Locate the unit outside in a place
where water cant reach it, and direct the
exhaust away from the home.
Here are some crucial things to consider this season:

Staying Powered
While reading by candlelight is charming
when it is by choice, a power outage is a
different story. Losing power is not just an
inconvenience; it could mean being unable
to communicate with loved ones, spoiled
food, and dangerous dips in indoor temperature.
Having a working generator is crucial. If
you have one already, make sure it is serviced and in working order so that in the
event of a storm it is ready to go.
Remember to operate your generator safely. Never run a generator inside enclosed
spaces. Carbon monoxide can build up
Ice Safety
Your driveway and front stoop can pose a
hazard to your family and visitors when
these areas become slick. Keep rock salt on
hand to melt ice. And if it snows, dont
wait too long to shovel, as taking on too
much heft at once can be strenuous on
ones heart.
Additionally, make sure your home is
well-equipped with a winter weather safety
kit. Bandages, antiseptic, and antibiotic
ointment are all must-haves for a first aid
kit. Also, be sure you have a well-stocked
cabinet complete with non-perishable food,
baby food, medications and a supply of
water that can last your family several
days.This winter season, make preparations so you can stay safe and stay comfortable.
We do not breathe enough air. One way to make for the shortfall is to spare at least one hour daily for exercises which make
us moderately breathless. The other is diaphragmatic breathing
- while inhaling, fill your belly from the lowest part up so that by
the time you have taken the full breath, your tummy is protruding as well as the chest. Hold for a few seconds and then start
exhaling while at the same time contracting your belly.
in reducing the waist size.

The yogic way of breathing which
involves 'Kumbhaka' (making a big
belly after a deep inhalation and
holding the breath for a few seconds) and 'Rechaka' (expelling all
air and holding for a few seconds
while the belly has been pulled in)

helps one increase the lung capacity
to as much as six liters.
Amar Chandel is the author of two
self-help books, including "Perfect
Health in Twenty Weeks".
Develop good cyber security

habits
ith so many new methods for
cyber theft, its important to
remember to take extra steps to
protect your bank accounts and money this
holiday season, as criminals look to take
advantage of the increased spending activity.

Create unique pin numbers for your
debit cards, as well as complex usernames
and passwords for bank accounts and online
retailers. Never share this information with
anyone, and be sure to log out of your
accounts when your transactions are completed. Conduct personal business on your
home computer or personal device as
opposed to public WiFi, and always use a
secure Internet connection.

Manage privacy settings on your
mobile devices and apps. Review the privacy
disclosures for retailers and websites to
ensure you feel comfortable with the way
they use your personal information. Set your
mobile devices and PCs to lock when not in
use to prevent someone from getting access
to your personal data.
Before responding to any request for
personal or financial data, make sure you
know who is asking and why they need it. Be
extra careful of requests made with an urgent
or threatening tone, or an offer that sounds
too good to be true. Criminals use this trick
to get personal information to access your
accounts or commit identity theft.
Monitor accounts and spending activity frequently. Take advantage of banking features, such as alerts that trigger when you
have a low balance or unusual spending
activity.
Many banks provide mobile banking
apps that allow you to keep tabs on your
a c c o u n t
activity onthe-go, says
D i a n e
Morais, Ally
B a n k
deposits and
line of business integration executive. In addition to their
convenience, mobile apps are an excellent
resource to spot unusual transactions in a
timely manner.
Online shopping is an easy way to beat
the crowds at the mall. But before providing
your credit or debit card information, ensure
your computer protection software and operating system are up to date.
Some banks offer customers free or discounted anti-virus protection. For example,
Ally Bank, Member FDIC, provides its customers Webroot SecureAnywhere anti-virus
software to protect their devices, including
PCs, tablets and smartphones, for free. Most
people understand the importance of protecting their computers, but its important to protect your smartphones too.
Look for https in the web address field of
your browser to ensure a website is secure.
The site should be verified by TRUSTe or a
similar data security service.
Check your credit reports periodically.
Getting a free credit report is easy. During
the holiday season, it might be worth the
extra precaution to put a fraud alert on your
credit report before any new accounts can be
opened.
(StatePoint)
28
November 8-14, 2014
HUMOR
Funny Side by Nury Vittachi
10 dangerous myths about the Hong Kong protests

Myth 1: Business has ground to a halt. I
don't think organizing something that shuts
down business is positive for Hong Kong,
lamented John Slosar, multi-millionaire
chairman of Swire.
Not true. More than 1,255,896 registered
companies operate in Hong Kong. Only a
handful have closed down. More new ones
have opened than have closed.
******
Myth 2: The Occupy Central protests
are illegal, thunders China official Li
Yuanchao.
Not true. In free, economically growing
societies, non-violent protests, even if they
are disruptive, are a protected form of criticism. Only in controlled, repressed, communist or authoritarian states are peaceful
demonstrators prosecuted.
*****
Myth 3: Beijing never gives way in
response to public demonstrations in Hong
Kong, say Exco members.
Not true. Beijing has regularly responded positively to pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, where the pro-Beijing
elite said it was not possible. For example,
Beijing shelved the security laws in 2005,
Myth 7: The Hong Kong democracy

movement has been left in a worse situation
than beforeChugani, SCMP.
Not true. Supporters of the 68-year-old
call for democracy in Hong Kong had fallen dramatically in numbers and in spirit
before the protests started. The umbrella
movement has given it an injection of energy big enough to change Hong Kongs
DNA.
*****
widened the democratic element in the

Legco reforms of 2010, and withdrew the
pro-China education laws in 2012.
*****
98 per cent of protesters have taken their

peaceful call for democracy to their homes
and workplaces.
*****
Myth 8: A huge number of people have

signed a petition against the protests
Oriental Daily
Not true. The recent signature campaign
has been organized under banners with the
message support the police. But all social
groups in Hong Kong support the police
and the rule of law, especially the protesters, who are calling for official, written
promises to be observed.
*****
Myth 4: The protesters are still out there

blocking roads.
Not true. After the first tear gas incident,
there were more than 200,000 people on the
streets, but typical figures today run from a
few hundred to a few thousand. More than
Myth 5: The protesters are almost all

young students. news reports.
Not true. At various times, in different
gatherings, from 20 to 60 per cent of the
demonstrators have been counted as adults,
grandparents, school children and family
groups.
*****
Myth 9: Foreign forces are to blame for

Hong Kongs protests. CY Leung
Not true. Of the past 100 major demonstrations that have taken place under the
auspices of authoritarian governments in
the past 10 years, 100% have been blamed
by leaders on foreign forces.
*****
Myth 6: Beijing has not reacted to the

Hong Kong demonstrations.
Not true. China has been given a chance
to re-live the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of June 1989, and has deliberately
made the choice to not send in the troops,
well-placed sources say.
Myth 10: The disaster of the protests is

that society in Hong Kong has been tragically polarized -- SCMP.
Not true. The richest, freest, healthiest,
happiest societies in the world have a system featuring a regular swing between two
major parties or opinion groups. Economic
historians say the recognition that the opposition is no less loyal than the ruling party
is the key to a societys future success.
This is not a small thing.

*****
Laughter is the Best Medicine
by Mahendra Shah
Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and
humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the
immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons. Hailing from Gujarat,
he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ASTROLOGY
By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma

November 8-14, 2014
ARIES: At work you are likely to win
appreciation and awards for past efforts.
Enjoying the company of close relatives
will brighten your evening. A new source of
income will generate through influential contacts. Love partner touches soul that would
take imagination to unlimited heights. Good
time to divert attention to spirituality to
enhance mental toughness. Traveling abroad
can be exciting adventure that will be remembered forever. Your investment plans are at full
boom and you might succeed in them. You are
likely to devote time to help others.
TAURUS: Your plans to organise a
musical evening for team members
might not materialise in this week.
Shopping with family members will be highly
pleasurable and exciting. Investment made in
this week would enhance prosperity and financial security. Someones timely help would
enable visualizing succeeding in love. A pleasure trip gives the much-needed tonic to health.
Finally you have found the time for your
deserving break, travel will be favourable. Your
girlfriends desire for an apartment might lead
to its destination. Sense of humour will help in
developing healthy relations with others.
GEMINI: Ineffective communication
could force to suffer professional problems. You will be at the limelight in a
social gathering provided you attend. An
improvement in financial position would
enable to make important purchases. Romantic
imagination would keep you in a jovial &
cheerful mood. Cutting down the number of
parties and pleasure jaunts would help in keeping in good mood. Adventurous holidays, the
best way to experience with your friends, time
to enjoy. Time to plan a gift for your parents
may be their dream home. Tough situations
will be handled easily with friends help.
CANCER: Timely and swift action
would give an edge over others at professional front. You will be the star of
attraction of familys get-together in this week.
You are likely to earn monetary profits through
most unexpected sources. The company of
love partner makes you forget about the work.
A beneficial week to work on things that will
improve your health. Take a trip, as there is
some place waiting for you. Its high time to
think of purchasing a new office. You are likely to spellbind others by wit & repartee.
LEO: Colleagues and subordinates will
lend a helping hand enabling to complete the work on time. Help from family members would take care of your needs.
Investment in speculation should be made with
extreme care in this week. Sudden romantic
encounter will lift your spirits. Your confidence and energy will be high. Great time for
perfect family vacation to an exciting destination. It might be the right time to sale your
empty plot as property rates are at peak. You
get a great respect in friends circle.
VIRGO: Success in completing difficult assignments brings a lot of laurels
at work. You will enjoy the time spent
with family members and friends. A sudden
inflow of funds will take care of your bills and
immediate expenses. Attending a social
event/family function brings a romantic
encounter. A week when smile will perpetually
be on your face and strangers will seem familiar. Travel opportunities full of challenges are
often the beginning of great enterprises. Your
plan for a new house will be in process very
soon. Maintaining a distance from new
acquaintances would be in your interest in this
week.
LIBRA:Self-confident would enable

to convey your point of view with
ease a workplace. Your generous
behaviour would enable to enjoy some lovely
moments with family. Monetary position is
likely to improve on recovering of delayed
payments. Your physical charm would catch
the attraction of opposite sex. Your energy
level will be high. Better to channelise it in a
positive direction. You will discover travel
destinations that are unique and magical. Your
loan procedures for pursuing a plot will be in
process. Perfect planning would enable to get
rhythm back.
SCORPIO: Mental clarity gives a decisive edge over all competitors at professional front. Friends and family members would lend a helping hand. Investment in
antiques & jewelry brings monetary gains and
improvement in financial position. Love life
blossoms paving the way for lovely times
ahead. Positive outlook impresses those
around you besides keeping you fit & fine. A
trip that is unconventional and adventurous
will be favourable enjoy every minute of it.
Investment in hotel industry can be the right
choice to be made. You strive to make accolades a regular feature of life.
SAGITTARIUS: Calculated risks
would enables to complete the project
on time. An auspicious week for family functions and important ceremonies. Long
pending arrears and dues will finally be recovered. A romantic encounter is likely to add
spice to life. Charity work undertaken will
bring mental peace & comfort. An ideal holiday is that which is planned. Investment on
construction business might give fruitful
results. Devoting quality time to correct
behavioural flaws would benefit.
CAPRICORN: A firm commitment
will not only enable to achieve professional targets but also to realise your
dreams. An unexpected message from a distant
relative brings happy news for the entire family. Investment concerning residence will be
profitable. Romantic partner would try innovative methods to catch your attention.
Meditation and self-realization prove beneficial. If your family loves to travel, then put
together some ideas to help you. Investing on a
ship or a cruise is an exciting venture to be
made. Success in creating well-defined and
mature set of values.
AQUARIUS: Cooperative nature
brings desired results at professional
front. Relatives are likely to give
some valuable advice regarding personal life.
Financial hassles seem to get over as someone
lends a timely helping hand. Initiatives in love
bring positive results as you catch the desired
attention. You will have ample time to do
things to improve your health. Dreaming of
travelling is good, but if possible than plan a
trip. The best ideas for investment are to on
invest on real estate business. Developing new
contacts with influential persons would help in
the long run.
PISCES: For some change of job
would bring mental satisfaction. You
receive care and affection from family
members. Promising week to invest surplus
money in real estate. Your generous attitude
would contribute much in your love life in this
week. Sound physical health will enable to
participate in outdoor activities. Take some
time to travel with your spouse for romance
and seduction. Are you longing to buy a farmhouse, try for it? You are likely to help someone in distress in this week.
November 8-14, 2014
29
Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874

Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 9899
psharma@premastrologer.com; www.premastrologer.com
Annual Predictions: For those born in this week

8th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Saturn
Ruled by no: 8
Traits in you: As Saturn guides you, you have all the
characteristics to be a lively, reliable, efficient, and temperate person. You are the owner of an attractive and
charismatic personality.
Health this year: you may undergo few minor health
issues. However, your overall health should remain
fine.
Finance this year: You will be able to accumulate
enough money this year as you will be moving towards
a successful future. You will be benefitted from any
new venture or association.
Career this year: You are appreciated by your colleagues and ordinates for your hard work and efficiency. You will prove to be an excellent resource in your
professional life as you are productive. However, you
need to work on your nervousness and laziness at times.
You may require a technology up-gradation or renovation to improve your efficiency at work in the middle
months of the year.
Romance this year: You will gain lots of love and care
from your spouse or partner. Some of you may find this
year romantic enough to be in a good spirit. Some may
tie their knots.
Lucky month: February, June and October
9th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Mars
Ruled by no: 9
Traits in you: Being ruled by Mars, you are endowed
with energy. You are energetic, dependable, and
organized.
Health this year: This year you will remain healthy.
You may lose things both personally and personally being emotional. You may visit a distant pilgrimage to attend an auspicious occasion towards the end of the year
to attain mental health which is contaminated due to
pressure and overload of work.
Finance this year: Your financial condition may improve this year thanks to your previous investments.
You need to invest your life time investment intelligently so that you need not repent later.
Career this year: You have the ability to make quick
decisions. You are capable enough to get rewards and
appreciation for your efficiency in your professional
field. However, you should control your jealousy to improve your personality. You should not try to do things
beyond your capabilities. It may land you in
difficulties.
Romance this year: Your romantic life would be an
excellent one this year as you will be able to clarify past
misunderstanding with your partner.
Lucky month: April, July and October
10th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Sun
Ruled by no: 1
Traits in you: Being under the guidance of Sun, you
are active, dynamic, authoritative, brilliant and talented. You have the ability to initiate new ideas and work
on them. However, you need to work on your stubbornness to become a better individual.
Health this year: You may suffer from joint pain or
high blood pressure this year. Gowever, proper medication would help you maintain a good health.
Finance this year: You will find new ways to enhance
your confidence to earn and improve your financial
condition. Your professional journeys will pay off and
you will be successful in your deals this year. You
should invest in a house or selected socks to get better
benefits. If you schedule business trips abroad, you may
find a chance to meet old friends and get new opportunities to improve your business. You may end up spending a lot of money in your legal issues as they will be
stretched more than expected.
Career this year: The following year will bring you lot
of promises and surprises to cherish in your career. You
may get rewards for your work. Your long cherished
dreams may get fulfilled this year.
Romance this year: You will find your spouse or partner supportive and understanding enough to help you in
critical situations this year.
Lucky month: January, May, July and November
11th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Moon
Ruled by no:2
Traits in you: As you are ruled by Moon, you are simple, honest, and cooperative. You are fond of peace and
harmony.
Health this year: You may get worried for your parents health and increasing household expenditure.
Finance this year: You may establish new contacts and
partnerships this year. You will get benefitted from your
previous investments. You may gain unexpectedly,
which will improve your financial position much better
than expected.
Career this year: You have ample new and innovative
ideas. You are a perfectionist in whatever you do. However, you have to control your whim and jealousy to
succeed in your life. This year will fulfill all of your
dreams by providing you with lot of opportunities.
Romance this year: You will find your spouse supportive enough to your concerns and provide you with
love and affection.
Lucky month: May, July and December
12th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Jupiter
Ruled by no: 3
Traits in you: Jupiter signifies ambition, dignity, and
independence. You are blessed with all these characteristics and you are kind hearted as well.
Health this year: You may plan for a pilgrimage or a
distant journey to find mental peace and take rest from
your busy schedule, which makes you weak physically.
Finance this year: This year will be very fruitful for
you in terms of investments. If you want to invest in the
stock market, you will be benefited hugely. This year is
the best time to go for property.
Career this year: You will be enjoying a good position
and respect in your professional life. However, you
should not behave dominant this year. It may affect
your life negatively. If you are in creativity field, you
may gain lot of recognition and of course money will
follow. You will find help from your near ones when required. This will be a major boost to your professional
life.
Romance this year: You may plan for a romantic trip
with your partner to a distant place.
Lucky month: March, June and November
13th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Uranus
Ruled by no: 4
Traits in you: Being an active, sensible, enthusiastic,
authoritative, and energetic person, you have enough
capability to perform very well in your professional
career.
Health this year: You will find improvements in your
health though working long at office.
Finance this year: Some of you may visit abroad for
business trips as you areplanning to enhance your business territory. You will get success in you new ventures
and this will make you financially stable.
Career this year: Your intelligence will enable you
create wonders in your profession. However, you
should work on your impatience, whim and stubbornness. You should plan something to execute your plans
in this year. You will find luck and success easily this
year if you grab the opportunities at right times. You
will find good opportunities by developing new relationships and attachments.
Romance this year: Some of you may get married to
your desired partners this year.
Lucky month: February, May, August and October
14th November, 2014
Ruled planet: Mercury
Ruled by no: 5
Traits in you: Your guiding star, Mercury makes you
practical, intelligent, distinguished, responsive, unique
and dashing individual. You possess friendly and cooperative. However, you should control your being impatient and short-temperedness.
Health this year: You may remain tensed for the health
of your spouse.
Finance this year: You will be in financial gain this
year as your business will grow. This will enhance your
confidence. You will be able to settle down your legal
matters this year and find peace from the results.
Career this year: You will find new proposals and
work assignments this year. Some of you may get good
increments and promotions as well in your professional life. If you are a sportsman or an artist, you can expect fame towards the end of the year.
Romance this year: Your relationship with your partner might get ruined due to minor issues. If you have
never been in a relationship, this year may be lucky for
you as you will have an emotional and romantic
attachment.
Lucky month: February, June, October and November
30
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
November 8-14, 2014
This article has been selected and reprinted from Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharajs book, Spiritual Pearls for
Enlightened Living, an inspirational collection of stories from the worlds great wisdom traditions.
Learn to let go and be free

By Sant Rajinder Singh
Ji Maharaj
nce upon a time, there was
a man who lived alone. He
kept his money in a special
jar so that no one could steal it. One
day, while the man was out farming
his land, a thief broke into his
house. Looking for something to
steal, he came across a heavy stone
jar. He could barely jiggle it to hear
the coins inside. He could not lift
the jar. So the man stuck his hand
in the jar to take out the money. His
hand fit perfectly into the jar.
The man grabbed as much money
as he could, holding it in his fist.
But when he tried to pull out his
hand, it would not come out. He
tried his hardest to pull out his
hand, but the fist made his hand
wider. While holding the money, he
could not get it through the neck of
the jar. He let go of the money and
his hand was freed to come out of
the jar. But he was intent upon having the money, so he tried again and
again. Each time he enclosed the
coins in his fist, his hand was too
wide to be removed from the jar.
Suddenly, he heard the owner
coming home. He knew that if he
did not get his hand out of the jar,

he would be caught. But he was so
intent upon trying to get the money
out that he would not give up. The
result was that the man came in,
caught him, and had him arrested.
We too are like the thief in the
story. Desires cause us to be caught
with our hand in the jar. Desires
What kind of joy did the thief

have in his pursuit of the money?
Instead he ended up a prisoner in
the jail. We too are like prisoners in
the jail of this physical world. We
spend all our time going after
things that will not give us happiness. Whatever material gains we
have in the world can lead us to
Before we know it, the house that

was supposed to bring us pleasure
has made us a slave to it. We no
longer have time for our family, our
children, or pursuits that will give
us more fulfillment. We spend all
our time going after things that may
not give us true and lasting happiness.
more bondage if we are attached to

them. For example, if we want a
big house, we have to work longer
hours to pay for its mortgage. Then
we need to fill it up with more and
more furniture.
That will take more time to work
to pay for it, shop to buy it, and
then to clean and repair everything.
Similarly, we may want to buy a

computer to keep up with the latest
technology. We then find ourselves
working harder to buy all the right
software and equipment to make it
work. Soon we realize that we are
not happy with a simple computer.
We want to upgrade to a faster and
more elaborate computer. Next, we
How can we
end our
bondage? We
need to let go
and be free.
When we can
let go of our
desires for
impermanent
gains, we can
be free.
keep us bound to this world. It is

only by letting go of the things of
this world that we can be free. We
need to stop clutching for whatever
binds us as prisoners of our desires
so we can enjoy true freedom. We
need to stop clutching and let go.
Then we will find the joy of freedom.
find the computer that was supposed to save us time is taking up

all our time. We end up spending
hours learning to use the computer.
We spend hours exploring the
Internet. The e-mail system that
was supposed to make communications faster is taking more and more
of our time. Suddenly, we find fifty
people e-mailing us daily and they
expect an instantaneous response. If
we do not respond right away they
accuse us of being nonresponsive
and indifferent. Soon, we are
spending hours on the computer.
We have become slaves to our possessions.
How can we end our bondage?
We need to let go and be free.
When we can let go of our desires
for impermanent gains, we can be
free. Then, our soul can experience
the love and beauty that God has to
offer. True happiness comes when
we connect with the source of joy
within usour soul and God. To do
so, we must turn our attention from
the worldly enticements and listen
to our soul. Beautiful melodies of
God are playing within us all the
time. Light and love are shining
within us. By turning our attention
from the world, we are releasing
our hold on the coins that keep our
hand stuck in the jar. By letting go,
we are gaining eternal freedom.
By sitting in meditation, free
from all worldly desires and attachments, we can let go and find ourselves free to soar back to God.
Finding a true friend

By Sant Rajinder Singh
Ji Maharaj
rue friends are those who
stand by you always. They
will sacrifice themselves for
you, and are people on whom you
can always rely. True friends listen
to your problems and share your burdens. Truly, if we have even one real
friend in life, we are lucky.
If we think about our childhood
friends, how many are still with us
now? Have we parted ways already?
Perhaps they have moved away, or
we have lost contact with them. Let
us consider our close friends today.
Can we imagine that they, too, will
one day be parted from us just as
those friends from our childhood are
gone? Even if we have one close
friend, or even a few, they can only
be with us up to our last breath, or
their last breath. They can only
remain with us in this life and cannot
help us in the moment of our greatest needthe time of death.
In this connection, there is an
interesting story from the Hindu
scriptures. There was a learned pundit who was the personal minister of
King Prikshat. Each day the minister

would read out the scriptures to the
king. The particular scripture said
that whoever hears the scriptures
will receive spiritual liberation and
enlightenment. Month after month,
the king listened to the scriptures
read by the minister. However, he
did not attain liberation.
One day, the king sat down and
thought, Here I amlistening to
these scriptures every day, and I am
not yet spiritually liberated. The
scriptures say that whoever listens to
these holy writings will receive salvation once and for all, but I have
not.
Therefore, the king called the minister and said, Look here. I have
heard these scriptures so many times
and have not attained liberation. I
will give you one more chance to
read these scriptures to me from end
to end. If I am not liberated after
that, you will be put to death.
Trembling in his shoes, the minister
began the task of re-reading the
scriptures to the king. By the sixth
day he was nearing the end of the
scriptures, and the king was not satisfied. Fearing that on the seventh
day he would be put to death, the

minister sat down in his home and
started to cry.
Why are you so sad? asked his
daughter when she saw him.
The ministered explained the situation to her, The scriptures say that
whoever reads them will be liberated. However, I know that the king is
not liberated, nor am I liberated.
Therefore, tomorrow, I will be put to
death.
The daughter was wise and had an
idea. Do not worry, she said.
Tomorrow I will speak to the king.
On the following day, the ministers
daughter asked for an audience with
the king.
Why have you come? he questioned her.
She told him, I have come to
reply to the question that you have
asked of my father. But to do this,
you and I must go together to the
wilderness. The king was perplexed, but agreed to go along with
her plan. The girl then sent for her
father. She brought along two ropes
and when they reached the wilderness she tied the king to one tree and
her father to another tree. Both were
then bound, hand and foot. The king

was wondering what all this meant
when the girl asked, Father, can
you kindly unbind the king over
there?
The minister replied, I am already
bound! How can I free him?
The girl asked, Your Majesty, will
you kindly unbind my father?
The king replied, Foolish girl,
dont you see that I am bound? How
can a bound man unbind another?
That is all she wanted to hear and
said, Then how can you expect my
father, who is not free himself, to
liberate you spiritually? The king
himself had answered the dilemma
in which he had placed the minister.
With that understanding, the king
spared the life of the minister.
At the time of death, we all depart
by ourselves. No friends of this
world can help us. They can sit by
our bedside and hold our hand, but
they can neither protect us from
death nor accompany us. Knowing
this, we still put our reliance on people of this world.
Looking back at the friendships we
have had in our lives, how many of
them led us closer to God, and how
many of them have taken us away

from God? What kind of friend
should we look for then? To be truly
awakened spiritually, we should seek
the friendship of the Lord.
We have only a set number of
breaths to reunite our soul with God.
Let us do everything possible to
attain that goal. The best way to
reach the Lord is through meditation, sweet remembrance, and selfless service. These activities safeguard us from being pulled away by
distractions of the world. If we do
these things, then we will be ready at
the time of our death. Having mastered the art of rising above bodyconsciousness (by meditating daily
on the inner Light and Sound of
God) , we will know what awaits us
in the Beyond. Befriending God
makes our spirit soar. Waves of
divine love make our soul rise to the
eye-focus where we see tremendous
Light. Is there any love or friendship
of the world that can bring us to the
eye-focus and make us rise above
physical body-consciousness? Only
the love of the Lord can make us
wide awakenot only in this world,
but wide awake into the Beyond.
November 8-14, 2014
JAN. 2015
November 8-14, 2014

Vol 7 Issue 28 - Nov 8-14, 2014

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Vol 7 Issue 28 - Nov 8-14, 2014

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The South Asian Times

Vol.7 No. 28 November 8-14, 2014 60 Cents

New York Edition

Obama-Congress tussle ahead

Despite electoral drubbing,

President Obama addressed a press conference

More assertive Republicans

Nikki Haley wins second term as SC Governor

Though Rep Ami Bera and Ro Khanna were trailing in their

November 8-14, 2014

The South Asian Times frames some prominent

Joni Ernst, first woman to represent Iowa in US Senate:

Kamala Harris re-elected as California Attorney General:

Bobby Kumar on the ballot: Bobby Kumar

Mia Love First black Republican woman in

November 8-14, 2014

Ami Bera, Ro Khanna down, but not yet out

At an eleciton rally, former President Bill Clinton supported

are about 60,000 uncounted ballots

Neel Kahskari reflects on losing

Ro Khanna, also seeking a seat in US House, greets supporters

as saying. When we started this

Francisco Gate said. In a statement,

Many Indian-Americans score in state legislatures

Maryland House Aruna Miller (D) Latha Mangipudi

which has only 165 Indian-American

Maryland's District 17 and District 15

November 8-14, 2014

Republicans sweep to victory

Tulsi Gabbard, first Hindu in

Despite electoral drubbing...

Affordable Care Act of 2010," they

New Delhi Bureau

Art and Design: Vladimir Tomovski

Printed Every Saturday by

Managing Editor: Parveen Chopra

Strategy and Marketing

Web Editor: B.B.Chopra

Marketing & PR (Washington DC)

IANS Washington Bureau

Chairman and Co-Founder

Contributing Editors: Melvin Durai,

Co-Founder: Saroosh Gull

Contributing Editors (Youth):

Jaipur (India) Bureau

News Service: HT Media Ltd.

Printing: Five Star Printing, NY

Very low voter turnout went against Dems

ollsters are still laboring to

2010, 80% voted Democratic

Asian American vote

Dems blame GOPs cynical

ized is, if we dont get anything

November 8-14, 2014

New York was a slaughterhouse

Michael Grimm ( R ) easily

Kathleen Rice (D), Nassau

New York: House Democrats lost

In Syracuse Rep. Dan Maffei (D)

GOP hawks talk war after big win

Sen. John McCain is said to be

ators are reliably hawkish, not all

November 8-14, 2014

Republican takeover of Congress bodes good for US-India ties