voice of asia july 11 2014

VOICE OF ASIA 1 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014

Vol. 27 No. 28 Friday, July 11, 2014 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: [email protected]

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Term Care Needs. Read on 5 Or Call: 713-771-2900.

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Voice of Asia Interviewed on local TV, Fox 26 Houston

L-R: Moani Thomas, Koshy Thomas, Publisher of “Voice of Asia and Shobana Muratee, Editor-in-Chief with host Megan Bowie, Fox 26 Houston, Community Affairs- Asian Connec-tion at the studio on July 1, 2014. ” talk about the publication and the growing need for it here in Houston. Photo from Fox 26 Houston’s post in Timeline Photos.

Talk about the publication and the growing need for it here in Houston.

With much pomp and cer-emony, Rath Yatra was cel-ebrated at Durgabari on June

29th. Well attended by more than 1000

Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra at Durga Bari

Continued on page 8

people, this year marks the 3rd year in a row and it’s fast becoming a tradition at Durga Bari.

People flocked to the temple early morning that day and waited patiently as Mahamahopadhyay Dr. Bishnupada Goswami of Durga Bari, Sri Srikiran Narayanam from India Cul-tural Center and Temple, Memphis and Dr. Amrit Achari from Durga Bari conducted the Puja. Af-ter the Puja, Pahandi Bije started, in which the deities

were brought from the temple on to the Rath.

by Staff Reporter

HOUSTON - Local TV Channel Fox 26 Houston inter-

viewed Voice of Asia Pub-lisher Koshy Thomas, wife Moani Thomas and Shobana Muratee, Editor-in-Chief re-cently. Host Megan Bowie focused on the importance of the publication Voice of Asia to the community.

The interview was part of the Asian Connection seg-ment of Fox 26 Houston.

Mr. Thomas explained how when they came to Houston in 1978 he saw the Asian commu-nity growing and felt it was the right time to start a newspaper. Voice of Asia was started in 1987 and has grown to be the largest Asian (English) com-munity newsweekly in Texas.

Ms. Muratee talked about the VoiceofAsiaOnline, a web-site of the Voice of Asia Group which keeps the Asian commu-nity informed and connected to current happenings, and also

provides its viewers timely reports on global, national, South Asian and community news.

It was an opportune time for Voice of Asia to inform its readers and viewers of its expansion, which includes networking with media giants like Star TV and India.com (a subsidiary of Zee TV that have millions of viewers).

The video of the interview is posted on www.voiceofa-siaonline.com

Dieties that were taken out on the chariot.

Devotees tug at the rope to pull the chariot, an act that is considered very auspicious.

Houston Rath-Yatra – brings communities together!

by Chetana Samal

It was 10:30 pm on a Sunday night. The Lords, the devotees

and the ambience were all in unison – no one seemed to be in a hurry, a rare happen-ing in cosmopolitan Hous-ton. The seventh Houston Rath-yatra, the annual jour-ney by Lord Jagannath with his brother Lord Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra, was organized by Orissa Culture Center in associa-tion with Sita Ram Founda-tion and was celebrated on June 29th, 2014 with a huge participation by Houstonians in large number, irrespective of faith and belief.

Every year, this signature

Over 4,000 people attend at VPSS on 29th Juneevent of OCC is divided into two segments. One is celebration of a more than thousand year’s old symbol-ic yatra by Lords and two, celebrating our rich cultural legacy. Houstonians had a rare treat this year to listen to none other than Anurad-ha Paudwal, the queen of devotional music. Her closeness to her audience was beyond words and her affable, easy-to-reach aura made an indelible mark in our hearts.

Earlier in the evening, keeping with OCC’s open air tradition, thousands joined Lords on their an-nual yatra to their aunt’s

Anuradha Paudwal is an acclaimed singer of devotional songs.

Continued on page 8

Ladies cradle the Goddess and carry it to the chariot for the Rtah Yatra.

VOICE OF ASIA 2 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014OP-ED/COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS

Publisher: Koshy ThomasAssociate Publisher: Sherly PhilipEditor-in-Chief: Shobana MurateeAustin Correspondent: Sherine ThomasPrint & Media Marketing: Jacob DavidMarketing: Susan Pothanikat Production: AR VadlamaniOffice Manager: Priyan Mathew Columnists:Legal: Richard M. AldermanLegal: Sharlene Sharmila RichardsMedical: Kesavan Shan, MDResearch: Prof. Meenakshi BhattacharjeeHealth Insurance: Sudhir MathuriaAstrology: Hardik Vyas

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It is the policy of Voice of Asia to publish letters to the editor which evidence a variety of viewpoints. The opinions ex-pressed in any particular letter to the editor are not necessarily those of the management. Voice of Asia welcomes letters in reply to issues raised in letters to editor. In as much letters to the editor are not articles written or researched by members of Voice of Asia, it is not the policy of the Voice of Asia to perform any investigation or confirmation of any facts or al-legations contained in letters to the editor. Moreover, Voice of Asia reserves the right to edit letters to the editor as necessary to correct errors of fact, punctuation, spelling and to comply with space constraints.

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by Chandra K. Mittal, Ph.D.

To an American of Indi-an origin who recently visited India, recent

parliamentary election and in-stallation (i.e. coronation) of Mr. Narendra Modi as India’s new Prime Minister and his governing proclamations re-minded of an old 1980s movie Back to the Future, a Holly-wood production. It seems that India is about to relive the ex-perience of the 1980 US Presi-dential election that marked the induction of the 40th American president Mr. Ronald Reagan who led the most recent revival of political conservatism in the United States.

Although United States and India are several oceans apart and their political histories and cultures are widely differ-ent, the philosophical similari-ties between Modi and Reagan could not be more striking when it comes to their public persona and perceptions, do-mestic conservative agenda, their approach for economic re-vival, dealing with foreign ad-versaries, focus on national de-fense, global recognition, etc. Needless to say both have im-peccable conservative creden-tial relevant to their respective countries. Both are committed patriots in love with their coun-tries, nostalgic about the glo-rious past, and promise of the lands of their births. Both Modi and Reagan were elected to the higher office by an overwhelm-ing majority and mandate for a change by the disgruntled elec-torate following an extended period of public discontent-ment and outrage, though for different social and political reasons. The period preced-ing the election of both leaders was marked by high inflation, high unemployment and high budget deficits resulting in eco-nomic malaise with diminished economic growth in the private sector. In India, it also included political scandals, bribery, and policy paralysis by the coali-tion government.

During the 1980 US presi-dential election, Mr. Reagan had invented a new election slogan - “the misery index” (by adding the three negatives) to characterize and criticize the presidency of the incumbent President Jimmy Carter, and promised a robust economic growth through his new pro-gressive economic policies and vision if he was elected. American voters bought Rea-gan’s vision and put him in the chief executive’s chair despite earlier public perceptions to the contrary, that a person of Rea-gan’s conservative credentials could ever be elected president

of the United States. Similarly, Mr. Modi was not much heard of and was not a popular na-tional leader in the last national election cycle. But in this 2014 election cycle Mr. Modi be-came a popular leader and face of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). He conducted his campaign by directly attacking the policies, practices and actions of the Congress-led United Progres-sive Alliance (UPA) coalition government and promised the Indian electorate - a better fu-ture with his pro-growth eco-nomic policies. In both cases, it was vote against the incum-bent governments. Mr. Modi’s election slogan was “Achhe Din Aayenge” (Good days will come) for India with his elec-toral victory. He got elected to the Indian parliament with an overwhelming majority of his party.

As regards his conservative economic vision, Mr. Modi is broadly known to favor reduc-tion in income tax rates (though marginally), low inflation rates, and reduction in fiscal deficit as percentage of GDP. He also supports trimming of subsidies and public welfare programs as is now becoming apparent with the upcoming budget proposals for 2014-2015. This he would like to couple with enhanced private investment to boost em-ployment – the center pieces of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Mr. Modi is proposing both in-creased Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) in several econom-ic sectors as well as dilution of State’s equity in some public enterprises. But India is no United States and all this may not be easy for Mr. Modi. In-dia has a relatively large public sector compared to US. In India people living under the poverty line are far higher as percent of total population than in the US. Also, given India’s cul-tural history, socialistic demo-cratic value system and per capita Purchase Power Parity (PPP) of approximately Dollar 4000 compared to US’s Dollar 53,000, how much Mr. Modi is really able to deliver on the his economic vision is anybody’s guess. People have already begun to ask “Achhe Din Kab Aayenge (when will good days come) as food prices, railway fares, etc. have risen signifi-cantly since his taking over the higher office. But for now he certainly appears to have bor-rowed pro-growth ideas from

Reagan’s playbook and would like to transform India’s econ-omy through his conservative vision and approach.

Mr. Modi’s proclamations (perhaps rooted in his own philosophical convictions) “small government but smart government, new beginning, transparent government” etc. are all again quite reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Indeed, the theme of Mr. Rea-gan’s first presidential inaugu-ral in January 1981 was to re-duce the size of the government and boost private sector, which he termed “New Beginning”. Mr. Reagan implemented his economic vision of “New Be-ginning” by massive income tax cuts along with welfare cut which led to a long-term growth of the US economy. As a conservative, size of the Gov-ernment was always uppermost in Reagan’s mind, who firmly believed that Government has to live within its means. There is a popular quote from Mr. Reagan “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem”. Though Mr. Modi has not made such a statement as it would be too radical for India, but his conservative mindset certainly resonates with this philosophy since he too wants “small gov-ernment” as reflected by his ac-tions. The size of Mr. Modi’s ministerial cabinet is about half to that of his predecessor. He has also consolidated multiple related-departmental entities into fewer administrative units to save costs and boost effi-ciency.

There are also some simi-larities between Mr. Modi and Mr. Reagan when it comes to dealing with foreign adversar-ies. First, both leaders have an image of “no nonsense” tough guys who would go to any extent to defend their na-tional honor and interest. That includes exercising even the military option if need be. There were some in the United States at the time, who deroga-torily called such instincts as being “trigger-happy” or “war mongering” and erroneously associated Mr. Reagan with them. But that compelled the adversaries to be always on guard and cautious rather than reckless in dealing with the US. This is best exemplified by Iran releasing American hostages on January 20th, 1981, after 444 days of captivity. It was

the day Mr. Reagan took oath of office.

The situation with Mr. Modi and India is somewhat similar when it comes to dealing with Pakistan, a hostile neighbor who has waged three wars against India since its creation in 1947 and continues to harbor and support anti-India terrorists within its borders. Mr. Modi made history and set a record by inviting Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan to his inauguration in New Delhi. As per media reports, Mr. Modi dealt with the issue of 2008 Mumbai terrorist blast head on and discussed with Mr. Sharif speedy trials of the responsible individuals as the first order of business between the two coun-tries to be followed by trade relations and border disputes. Mr. Modi is likely to be more effective in this arena because of his personal image as a reso-lute leader with full support of his conservative political party with absolute majority.

Political leaders and their actions are always judged by the history rather than by con-temporary times. Mr. Reagan’s economic vision and policies, while unpopular in some quar-ters at the time, ultimately led to a long-term economic re-covery and expansion in the United States with significant-ly improved Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of his term. They also set the stage for future economic expansion.

Mr. Modi, who has won the recent national election almost exclusively on the economic platform, is applying Reagan tools to revive Indian economy. But Mr. Modi has more chal-lenges than did Mr. Reagan since the two countries have vastly different culture, econo-mies and politics. This ride is not likely to be smooth for Mr. Modi but he can achieve the objective of higher economic growth rate if he can create conditions conducive for more private investment (both for-eign and domestic), increased employment, easy access to capital for small-scale manu-facturing industries, improve labor laws, business-friendly regulatory environment, and curb bribery culture – a tall or-der indeed.

Chandra K. Mittal, M.S., Ph.D., FCP is a Professor of Biotechnology, Houston Com-munity College-Northeast

Is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ronald Reagan Of India?An Indo-American Perspective

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Training teachers for a fulfilling Chinmaya Bala Vihar

by Padmashree Rao

Chinmaya Bala Vihar teachers from sev-eral centers in North

America assembled enthusi-astically on the morning of June 28, 2014, at the Sarasvati Nilayam in Chinmaya Prabha, Houston. The occasion was the much- anticipated, com-prehensive curriculum train-ing program by Acarya Dar-shana Nanavaty of Chinmaya Mission Houston.

After dedicating the day to Gurudev with a prayer, Ac-arya Darshanaben conducted an intensely thought-provok-ing training to a rapt audi-ence for several hours. Over a hundred and fifty people – teachers with many years of experience, new entrants, and other volunteers inter-ested in serving through Bala Vihar, became eager students delighting in the expansive vision that unfolded in the presentation. The audience included teachers from other Hindu organizations, who came to learn about effective teaching methods.

As she began, Acarya Dar-

shanaben invited everyone to join her in thinking about the main focus of Bala Vihar. Just as every aspect of Nature finds fulfillment in a picturesque whole, so too will Bala Vihar be a path to fulfillment of both the teachers and the children, she explained. Drawing atten-tion to the physical, emotion-al, intellectual, and spiritual personalities embedded in each person, the Acarya em-phasized, “Integrate your per-sonality.” Through ‘mindful’ integration, the whole would certainly exceed the mere sum of its parts.

Acarya Darshanaben point-ed out Bala Vihar as that

special place where children learned through ‘integration.’ She called Bala Vihar as a “gym for the young minds.” It would be the happy responsi-bility of every teacher to help tone the muscles of the mind and intellect while connecting with each child through love and understanding.

Decades of experience in designing the worldwide Bala Vihar curriculum and bring-ing out the teachers’ hand-books for all grades made Ac-arya Darshanaben’s training valuable to every listener. Re-minding all about Gurudev’s vision to “Tell, Never Teach,” she outlined how to inspire

children to reflect as they grow and make knowledge their own.

Even as Acarya Darshana-ben provided an insightful overview of the scriptures-based curriculum from kin-dergarten to 12th grade, she demonstrated some key in-struction techniques to the audience using teachers from the Houston team. Entertain-ing and engaging with ideas for games and activities, she clarified how learning should be interactive and appealing to children of all grade lev-els.

Throughout the training,

Acarya Darshanaben de-scribed how the Bala Vihar books were structured around Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy, the theory of educational psy-chology used in schools coun-trywide. Every aspect of each book aimed to make the chil-dren remember, understand, apply, and analyze all scrip-tural concepts as they grow. Finally, the children would evaluate how far they have imbibed the knowledge and create their own integrated, wholesome lives.

Everyone who attended the training then toured the classrooms in Chinmaya Am-rta Balamandira where the child-friendly board displays brought alive what Acarya Darshanaben talked about. The Acarya also addressed the challenges that Bala Vihar teachers had to overcome. She said that teachers should first be good students of the scrip-tures and worthy role models who lived what they taught. Only then would the Bala Vi-har classes everywhere con-tinue to grow in strength and spirit.

The visiting teachers at-tended Bala Vihar in Houston on Sunday, June 29th, after Acarya Darshanaben com-pleted the final session of training on Sunday morning. Her main message was that every Bala Vihar teacher must aspire to “be His instrument,” with the conviction that each of them can pass the scriptur-al wisdom to eternity. When the teachers bowed in grati-

tude before Gurudev, they received a sweetly significant yajna prasada – a key ring holding together the sixteen steps of a puja (puja vidhi). It was a gentle reminder to in-voke and worship Knowledge through every step of Bala Vi-har seva.

Then, Acarya Gaurangb-hai Nanavaty reinforced the greatness of teacher in a sat-sanga where he spoke about Sage Vyasa. He led a medi-tation session to demonstrate the importance of memory and reflection for spiritual progress.

The weekend of training in Houston was the culmina-tion of deeply caring efforts that began many months be-fore. Acarya Darshanaben acknowledged the help of many teachers who had been instrumental in assisting her with the acclaimed Bala Vi-har books and the training preparations. She thanked everyone, from the room par-ents and the kitchen team who fed the attendees of the train-ing to every volunteer who served Gurudev’s mission in Houston.

Everyone who attended the weekend training was filled with gratitude for Acarya Darshana Nanavaty’s untir-ing and loving guidance. The lessons from this training will go far and beyond, to hold high Pujya Gurudeva Swami Chinmayananda’s vision for Chinmaya Bala Vihar. Hari Om!

For more information on Chinmaya Mission Houston and its activities visit www.chinmayahouston.org or Jay Deshmukh 832 541 0059 or Bharati Sutaria 281-933-0233.

Acarya Darshanaben conducting the teacher training program. Photos by Jayesh Mistry

Acarya Darshanaben

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Dean Latha Ramchand of the C. T. Bauer College of Business

at the University of Houston conducted a follow up session for her talk “Mapping Your Future” originally delivered on November 13, 2013 at the Hess Club. The Chamber also opened it up to women who had missed the previous ses-sion and wanted to be part of this “ mentoring circle” event sponsored by Shell.

The Dean’s talk centered on the topic of taking a strategic approach to planning your ca-reer.

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“Mapping Your Future” Talk by Latha Ramchand

Dean Latha Ramchand (right) with IACCGH Board Member and Event Chair Joya Shukla. IACCGH President, Exe Director and Directors with the guest Speaker.

things change and plans must be flexible, we must start by al-lowing our strengths to inform our career choices. A personal SWOT analysis provides a good starting point. Our pas-sions must ultimately speak to our ‘jobs’.

The power of strategic net-works: Networks are critical and rather than letting the event in our life dictate our networks, we must cultivate networks based on our passions and goals.

List your challenges: Finally we must be clear about our challenges and tackle them head on, whether they are per-sonal habits we need to get rid of, or education and creden-tials we need to acquire so we

achieve our goals. Track your progress: Like the

way we depend on GPS systems anymore to track our destina-tions and road maps, we must think about career goals in an analytical manner and map out steps to get there, recognizing that there might be traffic jams not to mention ‘detour’ signs we may have to allow for.

IACCGH President Sanjay Ramabhadran welcomed the guests and the men left the room before the session began. Board member Joya Shukla chaired the event and can be contacted at [email protected] for more information on future events.

The perspective of one of the

attendees On June 18th, 2014 I got

the opportunity to attend a “IACCGH Women’s Leader-ship Series” event on the topic “Mapping your future” led by Dr. Latha Ramchand, Dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Busi-ness, University of Houston. The event started with dinner followed by the session where Dr. Ramachand introduced us to the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis. She asked us to take few minutes and write a few points on our strength, weaknesses, opportu-nities and threats based on our individual understanding. She emphasized that writing these down would help us to use

our strengths and work on our weaknesses so that we can uti-lize the available opportunities without being threatened by our perceived threats. This led to small discussion where par-ticipants discussed and shared their personal stories.

She also emphasized the fact that it is very important to know both our short and long term goals and write them in such a way that they are vis-ible to us every day and hence, help us to be on track. We may break them down into small goals on a daily basis which lead us towards reaching our long term goals. When we see those goals being achieved, our brain releases the hormone Do-pamine which keeps up happy

and more motivated about achieving our goals. She also suggested that one should pon-der upon the tactics they need to use to develop expertise and attain their career goals. It may be through education, training, conferences and books. She stressed that one should strate-gize networking and must work towards creating/ expanding network that will help them towards reaching their profes-sional/personal goals. Overall, it was a great workshop which pushed me to think about my goals and strategize them prop-erly in order to achieve them. It familiarized me with various tactics that I can use to improve myself on a regular basis. I will look forward to attend more similar events in future.

HOUSTON (July 8, 2014) - Memorial Her-mann Prevention and

Recovery Center (PaRC), in partnership with University of Houston-Clear Lake Counseling Services, will hold a free special event featuring a well-known expert in the field of substance abuse in teens and adults.

PaRC Program Director Sta-

cie Allphin will speak about the warning signs and symptoms of drug use, practical ways to ad-dress the use, determining when to seek help, and an overview of the various levels of treatment of-fered for individuals in Houston. The presentation will also high-light trends in teen drug abuse and practical ways to help teen-agers grow up substance-free.

The event takes place on Tues-

day, July 15, 6 – 7:30 p.m. in the Student Services Building Lec-ture Hall at University of Hous-ton-Clear Lake located on 2700 Bay Area Blvd. Parents, health care providers, and community members are invited.

According to National Insti-

tute on Drug Abuse, by the time they are seniors, almost 70 per-

cent of high school students will have tried alcohol, half will have taken an illegal drug, and more than 20 percent will have used a prescription drug for a nonmedi-cal purpose.

In today’s world, parents must

also understand the dangers of designer drugs, which are most popular among high school age kids and young adults. Recently, five young people in Montgom-ery County overdosed on a syn-thetic hallucinogen sometimes called N-bomb that can cause violent behavior, increased heart rate, nausea, seizures, and even death.

The Harris County Police De-

partment will be on hand with samples of what popular illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia look like and to answer ques-tions.

“Substance use is a wide-

spread issue and it’s affecting people from various age groups and backgrounds,” said Allphin. “We’ve found many people don’t know when to seek help or the options available to them. Houston is recognized for its wide variety of substance abuse

programs; we want families to have a better grasp on what to do and where to turn when a loved one is facing addiction.”

Incorporating the newest

medical approaches along with proven treatment models and methodologies, PaRC is Hous-ton’s premier drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for adults and teens. PaRC offers award-winning experience and deep ex-pertise towards alcohol and drug treatment. Services include de-tox, residential treatment, inten-sive outpatient programs, family services, aftercare, 12-step meet-ings, and an alumni association.

PaRC is one of the few hos-

pitals in the United States to partner with key community agencies to offer a transitional, substance abuse rehabilitation program tailored specifically for teens and young adults.

Parents and community mem-

bers are encouraged to attend this free event to learn more about detecting and responding to substance abuse issues. For more information, email [email protected].

Parents/Community Invited to Free Substance Abuse Awareness EventThe event takes place July 15, 6 - 7:30 p.m. in the Student Services Building Lecture Hall at University of Houston-Clear Lake.

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COMMUNITY

The word “Thirumanjanam” means Holy bath. Aani (Tam-il month spanning mid June

-mid July) Thirumanjanam is a spe-cial day (Uthiram Nakshtram) when an Abhishekam is performed for Lord Nataraja. At Sri Meenakshi Temple, Pearland Aani Thirumanjanam was cel-ebrated on July 4th with the traditional Abhishekam which was witnessed by devotees on a slightly drizzling eve-ning as the dusk set-in at the Sannadhi of Lord Nataraja (Lord Shiva as the cosmic dancer).

The Lord’s form demonstrates his five-fold functions: creation (with a rattle – Udukkai in his right hand), preservation (raised right hand with open palm), destruction left hand hold-ing fire), concealment (firmly placed foot) and salvation (his slightly lifted other leg).

Following the Abhishekam conduct-

Aani Thirumanjanam Puja For Lord Nataraja At Sri Meenakshi Temple

by Prakash Waghmare, - “Ekal” PR-Media Affairs Nat’l Committee Member

When the Hon. Prime Minister of In-dia, Shri Narendra

Modi in his first maiden speech to the Indian Parliament talked about ‘issue-centric focused ac-tivities like Education to eradi-cate poverty’, it was as if he was referring “Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation” (‘EVF’) mission. For past 25 years, “Ekal-USA” has been dispensing Literacy, Health care, and Integral de-velopment in rural & tribal areas of India uplifting count-less neglected isolated masses. “Ekal” recently concluded its annual fund-raising campaign through a series of concerts, all across USA. ‘Ekal’ hosted 69 concerts through its satel-lite Chapters, where its pool of over one thousand dedicated volunteers insured their grand success. Last year, Ekal had raised over $4.50 Million, most of it through concerts. This year according to ‘EVF’ President, Vinod Jhunjhunwala, it is on its way to raise at least $5 Million. “Ekal” as you know, is the larg-est grass-root NGO movement of its kind undertaken by Indi-ans and NRIs, globally

This year ‘Ekal’ had in-vited two groups of artistes to headline its events. One group of artistes was headed by renowned Kathak dancer Aditi Bhagwat and another was headed by Gujarat’s Nightingale “Vibhavari Ya-dav”. Both the artistes pulled record crowds this year wherever they performed. Aditi Bhagwat’s concert theme “Avartan” proved to be a mesmerizing composi-tion of ‘Taal, Saaz Aur Awaaz through Kathak fusion Danc-es & Bollywood melodies’. It was a uniquely produced audio-video music spectacle of five different disciplines such as Dance, Tabla, Vocal, Drums & Sarangi. Vibhavari

ed by Sri Mannicka Sundaram Bhattar, the tradition is to of-fer the Prayers to Lord Na-taraja, in the form of dance. At Meenakshi temple, one of VHS students, Toshani Viswa-nathan performed the beautiful classical Bharatanatyam dance

in front of the deity, as the dev-otees offered their prayers.

The evening concluded with Aarthi and Prasadam was dis-tributed. The devotees were thankful to Religious Activi-ties Committee, represented

by its chair S. Narayanan for bringing this traditional Puja and celebration which is followed to this day in such exalted holy places (sthala) such as Chidambaram for the benefit of devotees right here in Houston.

Yadav’s concerts were devot-ed to old nostalgic Bollywood melodies which have eternal-ly captivated our hearts. Each concert was coupled with a power-point & DVD presen-tations on Ekal’s activities, its ecliptic progress, and various innovative projects that em-power the village masses.

In the ‘Ekal’ movement, its youth-wing has always played a key role. Students and young adults around the country are gravitat-ing towards the Ekal cause and coming up with creative fundraising and awareness events. Adeet Phanse, Ash-win Sethi and their friends in NJ raised funds for Ekal by entertaining the Senior Citi-zens in Nursing Homes and at Indian festivities. Sai Kh-isty at Rutgers University in NJ and Somil Sanghvi a high-schooler in MA organized bas-ketball tournaments to benefit ‘Ekal’. Sahana Srinivasan, a 11th grader at Lexington High School, Lexington, MA organized a fun-night called ‘Rangeela’, not only, to cre-ate awareness about ‘Ekal’,

but also, to raise thousands of Dollars for it. On March 8, Nishka Ayyar in Campbell, CA made Ekal the center-piece of her ‘Arangetaram’ gifts.

Three young men, Kunal, Vimal, and Amit who found-ed ‘Weekend Casual’ in CA, an outlet for Men’s fashion, have resolved to donate a part of their earnings to ‘Ekal’ and are also promoting Ekal-cause through their company’s web-site. In such individual efforts, Stephen Hinlick has proved to be the trail-blazer. A young entrepreneur from Tampa Bay area, Stephen has embarked on a solo walkathon from Tampa, FL to Seattle, WA to meet 100,000 people along the way to raise $100,000 for ‘Ekal’. This ‘Walk- Across-USA’ episode by a person who knew nothing about the country and the culture he desperately wanted to help reflects how Ekal has caught people’s imagination to eradi-cate illiteracy from the face of our developing nation. For details about ‘Ekal’, one can visit its web www.ekal.org.

Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation Raising

Record $5 Million for 2014

Nishka Ayyar’s Arangetaram performance in Campbell, CA for Ekal Vidyalaya

Toshani Viswanathan, VHS student performed the Bharatanatyam dance in front of the deities.

Abhishekam being conducted to Lord Nataraja.


The year 2014 marks the 25th anniversary celebrations of Jan-

mashtami (birthday of Lord Krishna) in Houston by the Hindus of Greater Houston (HGH). This community-wide event will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Saturday, August 23, 2014 in a bigger hall with 135000 square feet of space, which can accommodate over 10 thousand people. The event free and open to all; and presents a perfect opportunity to invite your neighbors and colleagues to showcase our rich Hindu culture. HGH, who strives to bring all the Hindus together, has planned special programs for all ages to make this event a grand success.

HGH has invited a very spe-

cial guest, Sri Saurabh Raj Jain, an extremely popular television actor of India and who plays the role of Lord Krishna in the TV serial “Ma-habharat”, one of the great-

Hindus of Greater Houston To Celebrate Exciting Silver Jubilee ‘Janmashtami’

Environmental activists pressing battery maker Rayovac on their recy-

cling policies have announced plans to travel to Wisconsin—the company’s home—for demon-strations later this month, and they will be raising money to support the RayovACTION Road Trip for Better Battery Recycling through an online crowdsourced fundraising effort. The fundrais-er, launched this week by Texas Campaign for the Environment, had already raised more than 25% of their $6500 goal, and the group is busy recruiting local and regional allies to ensure a suc-cessful protest against Rayovac, who they describe as a “laggard” on battery recycling.

“Batteries do not belong in landfills or incinerators, but Ray-ovac is still telling consumers to throw their batteries in the trash,” Robin Schneider, Executive Di-rector for Texas Campaign for the Environment said. “While their competitors have been front and center in efforts to pass state level battery recycling legisla-tion around the country, Ray-ovac can’t be bothered to show any leadership on this vital issue. Consumers from Texas to Wis-consin and in every other corner of this country need solutions for battery recycling; we are press-ing Rayovac to make a public commitment to help them.”

Rayovac is owned by Middle-ton, Wisconsin based Spectrum Brands, and activists have been building coalitions with environ-mentalists in the Madison area in order to make their upcoming demonstrations a success.

“Rayovac has a history of en-vironmental problems here in Wisconsin, but they have made pledges to change. We want to hold them accountable to those pledges and make sure these words are backed up with ac-tion,” Maria Powell, President of the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO), a supporter of the upcoming dem-onstrations said. “Yes, we want Spectrum to own up to its toxic legacy in Madison, and its long-term effects on Yahara lakes and fish, but we also want the compa-ny to help consumers across the country prevent future environ-mental problems. Moving off the fence when it comes to battery recycling and telling consumers to keep their batteries out of the trash is an important first step.”

Rayovac is one of the four larg-est battery makers. They were the only major battery company to decline participation in the nonprofit Corporation for Bat-tery Recycling as it pushed for manufacturer-led battery recy-cling legislation. Environmental advocates want Rayovac to ac-tively support recycling legisla-tion and join their competitors in leading the way towards market-based solutions for household batteries.

“We want Rayovac to stop tell-ing consumers in this country to throw batteries in the trash. They tell consumers overseas to recy-cle their batteries because throw-ing them away is bad for the environment,” Schneider said. “We want them to support leg-islation which sets strong goals for collections and which makes sure that batteries are actually being recycled. These resources don’t belong buried in a landfill where they can threaten our land and water, and Rayovac can help us keep them from ending up there.”

Texas Campaign for the En-vironment is a grassroots group

Saurabh Raj Jain, TV actor from the popular series ‘Mahabharat’ will be the special guest at the Janmashtami celebrations. in Houston.

Recycling Advocates Plan Demonstrations Against Rayovac in Wisconsin Later This Month

est epics on earth. It will be a lifetime opportunity to meet such a great personality

The live garba / dandia singing group is specially be-ing flown in from India which includes the famous Sajda sisters lead singer Anita Pan-dit, who shot to fame in the X Factor talent program on In-dian Television. To add to the diversity, the well known Kir-tan (congregational chanting of sacred mantras accompa-nied by music) singing group, “the Mayapuris”, will also per-form at the event.

A traditional welcome will include breathtaking Rangoli (decoration) with ice depicting Lord Krishna, his beloved cow and a lotus flower. This will be a perfect picture spot for all friends and families to make the event memorable for years to come.

HGH is also working on a few other specials for this event

and will announce them as they are finalized. Other items such as children’s costume contest, booths by various organiza-tions, beautiful decorations, de-licious and ample Indian snack foods, and more will make for a special evening.

HGH will also release a spe-cial 25th anniversary souvenir with interesting articles about Houston Hindus. For advertise-ments and article submissions, please contact Ravi Sharma 303-589-0053.

Please visit www.hindusof-houston.org for more informa-tion. OR contact Chairperson Partha Krishnaswamy (713-962-8523) for event details, Sharad Amin (713-854-0633) for sponsorship / donation opportunities, Richa Dixit (832-451-7206) for volunteer opportunities, Sheetal Rathi (281-597-8794) for costume contest, or Charlie Patel (832-423-7979) for booth informa-tion.

founded in 1991 with offices in Dallas, Houston and Austin and over 40,000 members statewide. They are one of the only groups in Texas with members in all 181

state legislative districts, and they were successful in pressing the Texas legislature into passing electronics recycling legislation in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Past

direct action demonstrations in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Tennessee and elsewhere have garnered national and even in-ternational press attention.

“We aren’t afraid to confront businesses who are doing the wrong thing on recycling, and we are always happy to cel-ebrate those who are doing

right,” Schneider said. “We have turned old targets into longtime allies, and we look forward to doing the same with Rayovac. They control their own destiny here, and we are ready to travel across the coun-try to be a voice for thousands of Americans who have already told Rayovac to take batteries back for recycling.”


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DIASPORA

DUBAI: The number of Indians working in Oman has witnessed

the biggest drop over the last two months as the Gulf nation started implementing its na-tionalisation programme, new visa regulations and job bans.

There has also been a drop in Pakistani and Ethiopian num-bers, the Times of Oman report said quoting latest data issued by the country’s National Cen-tre for Statistics and Informa-tion (NCSI).

The NCSI data shows that there was a dip of 0.1 per cent in the number of Indian work-ers in January this year when compared to December 2013.

While 599,473 Indians were working in Oman in December

Singapore to double riot police after Little India riotSINGAPORE, (PTI) -

Singapore will double the size of its frontline

anti-riot forces and step up sur-veillance after the country wit-nessed its worst street violence in 40 years during the Little In-dia riot last year.

Talking about the December 8 riot and a report from an official probe into the incident, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in Parliament yesterday that 300 more officers will be added to the Special Operations Command (SOC), doubling its current strength of deployable frontline troopers trained in riot control.

“We will commence the build-up immediately, and pro-gressively build up its capabili-ties over the next two to three years,” Teo was quoted as say-ing by the Straits Times.

“Given the riot, police must re-assess the likelihood of hav-ing to deal with large scale pub-lic order incidents and strength-en the ability of its forces to do so,” Teo said.

The riot force beefing is a change in policy from the past when police shifted its focus to crime prevention and commu-nity policing following a sharp drop in public disorders from the mid-1970s, he said.

Teo, who is also Home Affairs Minister, set out these measures in a ministerial statement while responding to the report by the state-appointed Committee of Inquiry into the December 8 riot in Singapore’s Little India.

The riot left 54 police and defence officers injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged on the night of December 8, when an Indian national died in an accident linked to a private bus in the Little India precinct. The COI conducted a month-long probe and presented the report on June 30, with eight recom-mendations, including the need to beef up police force.

Teo said the government has accepted the COI recommenda-tions.

The Police Tactical Troops from the SOC, which are on

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round-the-clock stand-by duty will increase from eight to 12, he said.

The additional troops will be “configured for rapid deploy-ment on lighter and more mo-bile platforms”.

The number of officers in each troop will also be raised from 35 to 44, and the officers will be provided with “addi-tional equipment to improve their sense-making and opera-tional capabilities,” enabling each to deal more effectively with a wider range of situations and crowd size, he said.

Besides increasing manpow-er, police has also been using improved deployment strategies and invested in technology as a “force multiplier”, the minister said. The technology included installation of police cameras.

“This combination of better operational deployments and technology have contributed significantly to keeping crime low and solving cases,” said Teo.

last year, the figure for January this year was only 598,674.

A dip of 0.1 per cent was also witnessed for Indian workers in December when compared with the data of November 2013.

According to the report, in November 2013, the number of Indian workers was 600,349, but it fell down to 599,473 in December.

“Since the first month of this year, the Ministry of Manpow-er imposed a temporary ban on different job categories for expatriates. In addition to this, new regulations have been im-posed for visa status. These might have been reasons for the dip in the number of expa-triates, mainly Indians,” Deepa

Sudhir, one of the embassy panel lawyers, was quoted as saying.

It was reported last month that the ministry was commit-ted to reducing the number of expatriates working in the private sector from the cur-rent level of 39 per cent to 33 per cent, which would see the number of expatriate work-ers ultimately dropping from 692,867 to 586,272.

“The government’s decision to reserve certain jobs only for Omanis as part of the Oman-ization process might have led to this situation. Changes in the visa status might also be an ad-ditional reason,” ShajiSebastin, a Muscat-based social worker, told the newspaper. (PTI).

UAE-based Indian businessman offers jobs to 46 Indian nurses DUBAI: A leading UAE-

based Indian business-man has offered jobs to

46 Indian nurses who returned to their homeland after being stranded for about a month in the militants-held region in Iraq.

NMC Healthcare Group CEO Dr B R Shetty has made the of-fer to nurses, assuring them he would find place for them in the UAE, an NMC official said.

The nurses lost their jobs and livelihood in the violence-hit Iraq.

Shetty, who owns and runs hospitals in the UAE, Egypt and India, has conveyed his offer to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the official said.

After about a month’s long ordeal in the strife-torn Iraq, the nurses returned to their home-land yesterday with most of them vowing not to go back risk-ing their lives.

Of the 46 nurses, 45 hail from

4 Indian-Americans honoured in US on Independence day

WA S H I N G T O N : Four Indian-Amer-icans were among

40 people who were honoured for their contributions to the US in the annual Great Immigrants tribute in New York on the country’s independence day.

Microsoft Corp chief execu-tive Satya Nadella, Comedian and actor Aasif Mandvi, Carn-egie Mellon University presi-dent Subra Suresh and former president of the University of West Georgia, Beheruz Sethna

were honoured along with 36 others, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hyderabad-born Nadella created quite a stir recently by becoming one of the most powerful leaders in technol-ogy after taking over as head of the Microsoft Corp. He studied electronics and communication engineering before heading to the US in the 1980s.

Mumbai-born Mandvi first moved to England before mi-grating to the US when he was

16. He became famous as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” where he was known for his satire on issues such as Islam, the Middle East and South Asia.

Suresh, who is an engineer and scientist, was born in Chen-nai and moved to the US to work on a postgraduate science degree, graduating in 1979. He is the ninth president of the Car-negie Mellon University.

He served as director of the National Science Foundation from 2010 to 2013. Appointed by US President Barack Obama, he led the federal science agen-cy in its mission to advance the fields of science and engineer-ing research.

Sethna was born in India in 1948 and served as the sixth president of the University of West Georgia - the first Indian-American to lead a university in the US.

The July 4 event was spon-sored by the Carnegie Corpo-ration, a foundation started by a Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie who spearheaded the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and was himself one of the most well-known philanthropists of his time.

Nadella created quite a stir recently by becoming one of the most powerful leaders in technology after taking over as head of the Microsoft Corp.

various districts of Kerala and one belongs to Tuticorin in Tam-il Nadu.

Al-Qaeda splinter group Is-lamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian

border and declared an Islamic caliphate across the stretch of territory it controls, posing a threat to Baghdad.

The nurses were stranded in Tikrit, a city captured by the militants early last month.

Drop in number of Indians working in Oman

NMC Healthcare Group CEO Dr B R Shetty has made the offer to nurses, assuring them he would find place for them in the UAE, an NMC official said.


On May 28th Minnu Augustine has been awarded the cer-

tificate of achievement by Prof. Simon Bott, Head of the Chemistry Department, University of Houston at a dinner hosted by American Chemical Society and UOH at Hotel Hilton UOH. Minnu received this certificate for her prize winning project for the 9th grade category in the 55th Annual Science and Engineering Fair of Houston 2014 organized by American Chemical Society – Greater Houston Section and Univer-sity of Houston conducted at George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston during Feb-ruary 2014. She has competed in the Chemistry section with her project on a homemade Polari-meter. There were twenty seven students com-peting in her category from all Houston Region. The judging panel commended and the viewers appreciated her about the project. She has been se-lected by the Hightower High School to represent in the Sci-ence and Engineering Fair of Houston 2014.

Minnu is a freshman of the Medical Academy of Fort Bend ISD at Hightower High School, Missouri city, Texas. She is also a talented singer and a member of the varsity choir of her school. She also participates in the St. Jo-seph’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church choir. She is an ac-tive member of Red Cross, Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), and

Generation Youth Volunteer. She also dedicates time for her community ORUMA (Our River stone United Malayalee Association). She is the sec-ond daughter of Rosamma and

Minnu Augustine with her Certificate.

Minnu Augustine Awarded Certificate for Science Project

Minnu Augustine seen receiving the Certificate

This was completed with the help of several eager devotees who were delighted having the chance to hold the deities. After all the deities including Nrushingha and Lord Ganesh were situated properly on the Rath, a ceremonial King In-dradyumna, Dr. Raghu Dass performed the Chhera Pan-hara (brooming) ceremony to cleanse the path of prog-ress for the Rath. Kirtan, led by Sripad BV Tirtha Maharaj from Sri Govindji Gaudiya Matha, Chants of Maha Man-tra and Jai Jagannatha filled the air as devotees started pulling the Rath. With great enthusiasm, the devotees pulled the Rath three times

Rath Yatra and Bahuda Yatra at Durga BariContinued from Page 1

house on a 24-feet high, newly built chariot, decorated with applique works on haldi and kumkum colored fabric. It’s amazing, how natives of Hous-ton, could work for months to replicate the same experience as of historic town of Puri, thousands miles away.

In the early morning, many devotees attended the havan, which was led by Dr. De-bananda Pati himself. Soon morning rituals followed which included a traditional offer-ing of ‘Chhapan Bhog’, the 56-varieties of food which is said to constitute Lords’ pal-ate on any given day! It is said and believed that Lord Vishnu takes His bath at Rameswaram, meditates at Badrinath, dines at Puri and retires at Dwarika! The volunteers have undertak-en a massive task of preserv-ing these age old recipes of Chhapan Bhog by researching and learning as well as prepar-ing them for deities as well as for the devotees.

It’s amazing how this event has grown and brought com-munities together in last seven years. For the last two years, OCC members have taken this initiative to guide people on importance of healthy living. Through organized Free Health Fair, the patients were checked for Blood pressure, BMI for obesity screening, blood sugar and cholesterol. Each patient received a limited physical examination and advice for healthy living by a physician.

The spectacular royal pro-cession is called Pahandi Bije when devotees carry their lords from interiors of temple to the chariot in a wavered motion. A very emotional indeed and it was very hard on devotees to control the tears rolling down, such was the beautiful expe-

within the temple premises to symbolize the journey of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balab-hadra and Devi Subhadra to their aunt’s house (Gundicha Temple). Once the Rath pull-ing was complete, devotees made a bee line to climb onto the Rath to see their beloved Lord and have a chance to touch them and do pradak-shina around the singhasana of the deities. After that it was time for the devotees to get to Kala Bhavan to get lunch Prasadam, which was pre-pared so lovingly by Durga Bari volunteers.

Then on July 5th, Bahuda Yatra or Return Rath Yatra was celebrated. Bahuda Yatra is the return journey of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabhadra

and Devi Subhadra from their Aunt’s house to the main temple. It is significant in the sense that it completes Rath Yatra. This is the only day in the year when Rasgulla is of-fered to the Lord. As per the rituals in Puri, Rasgulla is of-fered by Lord

Jagannatha to Goddess Lax-mi to enter into the temple.

Char Dham Hindu temple and Houston Durga Bari So-ciety are truly grateful to all the devotees and volunteers for participating in the fes-tivities and making it a grand success.

For more information please visit, http://greater-houstonrathyatra.org or http://skaifoundation.org

rience of finding the Lord at such proximity. Though this year, even in Puri, the deci-sion by Temple administration as well as Sri Sankaracharya was taken to prohibit people in climbing and holding the Lords on Chariot, here in Houston, people look forward to serve the Lords in whatever way they can and that is how this event is being possible to be in large scale with the help of many or-ganization coming forward to spread the message of universal love and brotherhood.

Another important ritual is ‘Chhera Pahanra’ when the symbolic King would sweep chariot and the path with san-dal wood paste and holy wa-ter. This year Dr.Shanti Bansal graced the occasion with the poise of King and related his experience in his words, “As the king of the Rath-yatra Fes-tival, I had the honor of serving and praying tribute to Lord Jag-

annath by sweeping his chariot. Stand-ing on the chariot, I was inspired to see the hundreds of at-tendees displaying their passion and de-votion. I (am) look-ing forward to next year to be able to be part of the proces-sion once again.”

This year the in-credible Emcee was none other than Kalasudha Devi Dasi. The dignified and simple ways of Kalasudhaji brings complex scriptures to common parlance – a very rare gift! This was her sec-ond time for the role and she was equally magnanimous in her explanation of Jag-annatha katha.

After morning rituals and with the chanting of Geeta path and Vishnu Sahasra Nama, the Lords had taken rest only to wake up to the beautiful Odissi Dances as well as the bhajans of Anuradha ji. Malina Maharana, a Memorial high school Senior and a student of Guru Smt. Supradipta Datta, performed ‘Durga Stuti’ to the thunderous clapping of audience.

Anuradha Paudwal took the whole stage on her stride by melodious bhajans in many Indian languages. She obliged many requests from audience and the impromptu Garba was a lovely gesture to get the au-dience connects to the bhajans. She participated in Pahandi Bije as well as led the devotees for Arati with Jai Jagadisha Hare…with nice breeze flow-ing, and with deities blessing from chariot, she continued her repertoire supported by her team of talented musicians

including her son Aditya Paud-wal on a decked up stage next to chariot.

Many prominent leaders as well as priests from various religious organizations joined

together in the Maha- Arati for three lords – Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Sub-hadra. Samuhik prayer with all love and dedication, was sure a step forward in world peace.

With all diyas lighted, the di-vine smell of incense, the sound of cymbal, kirtans , bhajans and spontaneity of dancing and humming by audience was sure a moment captured in history.

Houston Rath-Yatra – brings communities together! Continued from Page 1

Kalasudha Devi Dasi was the Emcee.

Augustine Kanjiramattom, resident of River stone, Sugar Land in Texas. Her elder sister Annette is also attending the Medical Academy and she is a senior now.

Priest and elders of the community who led the festivities.

VOICE OF ASIA 9 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014SOUTH ASIA

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gan-dhi on Wednesday

confirmed that her party has been served notices by the In-come Tax department in a case that alleges she and other party leaders misappropriated funds of a company that used to pub-lish the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.

Talking to a news channel, Gandhi cited political vindic-tiveness as the reason behind the notices.

“This kind of political witch-hunt will only help us and help us to come back faster,” Gan-dhi told the channel.

Bharatiya Janata Party lead-er Subramanian Swamy, on whose complaint the summon was issued, said, “The BJP is not in the picture and there is no vindictiveness”.

“This is a private complaint. Maybe, I should educate So-nia Gandhi about law,” added Swamy.

The BJP, however, denied Sonia Gandhi’s charge.

Information and Broadcast-ing Minister Prakash Javadekar said the BJP is not into vindic-tive politics or else Congress would have no place to hide.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi confirmed that the AICC has received notice yesterday. “This notice and earlier pro-cedures are going to be given vigorous, robust and compre-hensive reply. A befitting re-ply”, he said.

The spokesman said the Congress was not in the habit of sharing with the media in advance the reply but alleged that it was an absolutely ven-detta politics shows the fear and insecurity of the new elected government.

Singhvi remarked that his-tory of politics showed how vendetta and pettiness boo-meranged. “This is cheap poli-

tics and history shows what happens when one resorts to vendetta.”

Replying to questions, he said what has happened was politically motivated and has been initiated by the leader in the BJP despite the fact that it has “none of the ingredients of an offence”.

Despite this, Singhvi re-marked, it was being “flaunt-ed” before the media and made sensational. “We have much to say to the appropriate forum,” he added.

Last month, a court here had issued summons to Sonia Gan-dhi and her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi in the case.

In response to a private com-plaint filed by Swamy, Met-ropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha had said: “I have found prima facie evidence against all the accused.”

The court had directed them to appear before it on August 07.

The summons were also served on Young India.

The Congress called it “a motivated complaint”. “The allegations are baseless,” said

Pakistan condemns Israeli aggression in Palestine: FOISLAMABAD: Foreign

Office spokeswoman Tas-neem Aslam on Wednes-

day said that Pakistan condemns Israeli aggression and supports the international community’s efforts in bringing about a cessation of unilateral Israeli strikes killing Palestinians, in-cluding women and children.

“Pakistan is deeply concerned over the recent escalation of vi-olence and loss of lives in Gaza and has consistently supported the Palestinian cause, especial-ly the two-state solution which paves the way for a viable, geo-graphically contiguous Pales-tinian state, created on the basis

I-T notice in National Herald case a political witch-hunt: Sonia Gandhi

party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

A party statement added: “All the people named in the Nation-al Herald matter will seek legal advice and do the needful.”

Apart from the Gandhis, the court had also summoned Con-gress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda, who was an advisor to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, and former journalist Suman Dubey, who is close to the Gandhi family.

The complaint alleged that the Gandhis formed a compa-ny, Young India, in 2010 with 38 percent share each to take control of Rs 2,000 crore worth of assets of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), which published the National Herald.

The National Herald was started in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the decades, it lost circulation and ran into major financial losses, leading to its closure in 2008.

Young India thus acquired the complete ownership of AJL real estate assets of at least Rs 2,000 crore, including a multi-storeyed building in a prime location in Delhi.(Zee Media Bureau).

of pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” she added.

The FO spokeswoman also said that Pakistan supports a peaceful democratic transition of power in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, Aslam said Pakistan extended all possible support for holding peaceful presidential elections in the neighbouring country.

Aslam said Pakistan took several measures to enhance vigilance and security along the border during the first and sec-

ond rounds of elections on April 5 and June 14 respectively.

The spokeswoman said Paki-stan has also constantly empha-sised that it would respect the democratic choice of the Af-ghan people.

Aslam expressed the hope that all issues relating to pre-liminary results would be re-solved through dialogue within the framework of Afghanistan’s Constitution and laws.

She said a peaceful, stable, unified and prosperous Afghan-istan is vital for regional peace and stability.

Ravi Venkatesan Joins The Rocke-feller Foundation’s Board of TrusteesNEW YORK—The

Rockefeller Founda-tion, now in its sec-

ond century of advancing the well-being of humanity, today announced the appointment of Ravi Venkatesan to its Board of Trustees. Mr. Venkatesan is the former Chairman of Microsoft India and currently Founder and Chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a network of phi-lanthropists addressing social problems. He is also a Venture Partner at impact investor Uni-tus Seed Fund.

“With our commitment to cat-alyze new ideas and innovations at The Rockefeller Foundation, I am delighted to welcome Ravi Venkatesan, a proven leader with strong business and tech-nology backgrounds,” said Board Chair David Rockefeller, Jr. “His experience will be in-valuable in advancing the Foun-dation’s commitment to scaling innovations that expand oppor-tunity, realize shared prosperity, and create jobs for more people globally.”

“Our century of investment in Asia has focused on address-ing our dual goals of promot-ing more inclusive economies and building greater resilience against shocks and stresses,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, President

of The Rockefeller Foundation. “Ravi, with his commitment to philanthropy along with his eye for solutions and relentless drive for innovation, will provide es-sential guidance to our work in the years ahead.”

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining The Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trust-ees,” Mr. Venkatesan said. “The Rockefeller Foundation’s his-tory of supporting the ingenuity of innovators who have trans-formed and improved billions of lives of poor or vulnerable people is unparalleled, and I very much look forward to con-tributing to its legacy.”

As Chairman of Microsoft In-dia between 2004 and 2011, Mr. Venkatesan helped build India into Microsoft’s second-largest presence in the world and one of its fastest growing markets. He was instrumental in creating Microsoft India’s Project Shik-sha, a computer literacy pro-gram which has so far trained over 40 million school children in India.

Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Ven-takesan was the Chairman of Cummins India, a leader of power solutions and engines. He is also the author of an ac-claimed book “Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Ev-

erywhere,” published by Har-vard Business Review.

About The Rockefeller Foun-dation

For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation’s mis-sion has been to promote the well-being of humanity through-out the world. Today, The Rock-efeller Foundation pursues this mission through dual goals: advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, and building resilience by help-ing people, communities and in-stitutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses.

Ravi Venkatesan

“This witch-hunt will help Congress come back to power,” Sonia said.


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ONLINE.COMvoiceofasiaonline.com

Pune’s Parsi Heritage Is Irreplacable

by Sameer Khan

Pune is undoubtedly the cultur-al capital of Maharashtra that can boast of many historical

monuments, revolutionaries and re-formers but there is also another side of the city that is Pune camp which has stood the test of time and has its own tale and that too a glorious one.

Pune Camp is a world in its itself and for me growing up in Camp— MG Road was a unmatched ex-perience. It’s such a melting pot of many cultures and ethnicities. Situated near the army cantonment, Camp was created as a main busi-ness and shopping centre during the British rule. It hosted eateries, schools, shops, markets and cinema halls even a century ago.

Its inhabitants included Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Parsis, Jews, Anglo Indians and all ethnic identi-ties but even within MG Road the most notable landmark remained Sharbatwala Chowk which is an en-clave of Zoroastrians and Iranians.

It was just another place for ev-ery citizen of Pune and nothing exceptional about it for the locals

but when some years ago when I was reading the Short Stories col-lection of Pune born and now Eng-land based author Farukh Dhondi called “Poona Company” based on his memories of growing up as a Parsi child in 1950’s I realized the beauty and uniqueness Sharbatwala Chowk.

Lovely wooden quaint houses be-longing to 19th century of wonder-ful colours and potpourri of various cultures Dastur Meher Road stands out proud with its quaint old build-ings that are trade mark of Parsi, Ira-nian Architecture.

Sharbatwala Chowk and M.G.Road over the years have sus-tained its landmarks like Kayani Bakery that’s well known for its Shrewsbury biscuits, Café Yezdan for its Tea and bun maska (butter bread) and Dorabjee restaurant for its Biryani, Dhansak and other au-thentic Parsi cuisine and behind it stands Jimmy lodge a host to hun-dreds of race goers that would visit Pune for its racing season in yester-years.

Sharbatwala Chowk and Dastur

Mehar Road still proudly boasts of many Parsi homes and restaurants and Zoroastrian Fire Temples that have prospered over the centuries and have stood the test of times but with a fast dwindling Parsi Zoro-astrian community with low birth rate and many young Zoroastrians moving to west for better life and greener pastures.

One of the other main contentions is the rent act where many of the older homes are occupied by tenants and the owners get meagre rents. It will be a challenge for Sharbatwala Chowk to preserve and sustain the architecture and way of life.

Already older heritage structures are fasting vanishing from the land-scape cottages made of wood are be-ing replaced by modern construction and concrete edifices and with urban construction there is also scarcity of land and such prime locations are under constant attention of land sharks and construction mafia. The neighbouring alleys which have pe-culiar names like Booty Street and Taboot Street have by now already lost much of their heritage. Land-

marks like Kayani and Naaz Hotel have made way for new buildings and have already faded into history.

Ideal solution would be that the city authorities declare entire M.G. Road and Sharbatwala Chowk as a heritage zone that would surely go a long way to preserve the charm of quaint architecture and a way of life that has enriched Pune for many generations but with the current trend of expansion, population ex-plosion, hunger for more space and migration of Parsis, one wonders how long will this unique lifestyle manage to sustain itself.

Yet for all those who love the Ar-chitecture and heritage of Camp and Sharbatwala Chowk there is still time to have a bun maska jam break-fast in Café Yezdan, fresh shrews-bury biscuits at Kayani bakery and a sumptuous Parsi meal at Dorabjee or merely amble through and get the feel of picturesque Dastur Mehar Road that remains the last bastion of a wonderful way of life. (DNA).

Sameer Khan is Playwright, Au-thor and an Independent Writer.Quaint old buildings that are trade mark of Parsi, Iranian Architecture.

Café Yezdan


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by Peter Greene, Teacher, writer, blogger at curmudguca-tion. (HiffPost Education)

They never tell you in teacher school, and it’s rarely discussed

elsewhere. It is never, ever por-trayed in movies and tv shows about teaching. Teachers rarely bring it up around non-teach-ers for fear it will make us look weak or inadequate.

Valerie Strauss in the Wash-ington Post once put together a series of quotes to answer the question “How hard is teach-ing?” and asked for more in the comments section. My rant didn’t entirely fit there, so I’m putting it here, because it is on the list of Top Ten Things They Never Tell You in Teach-er School.

The hard part of teaching is coming to grips with this:

There is never enough.There is never enough time.

There are never enough re-sources. There is never enough you.

As a teacher, you can see what a perfect job in your classroom would look like. You know all the assignments you should be giving. You know all the feedback you should be providing your students. You

The Hard Part

know all the individual craft-ing that should provide for each individual’s instruction. You know all the material you should be covering. You know all the ways in which, when the teachable moment emerges (unannounced as always), you can greet it with a smile and drop everything to make it grow and blossom.

You know all this, but you can also do the math. 110 pa-pers about the view of death in American Romantic writing times 15 minutes to respond with thoughtful written com-ments equals -- wait! what?! That CAN’T be right! Plus quizzes to assess where we are in the grammar unit in or-der to design a new remedial unit before we craft the final test on that unit (five minutes each to grade). And that was before Chris made that com-ment about Poe that offered us a perfect chance to talk about the gothic influences, and then Alex and Pat started a great discussion of gothic influences today. And I know that if my students are really going to get good at writing, they should be composing something at least once a week. And if I am go-ing to prepare my students for life in the real world, I need to have one of my own to be credible.

If you are going to take any control of your professional life, you have to make some hard, conscious decisions. What is it that I know I should be doing that I am not going to do?

Every year you get bet-ter. You get faster, you learn tricks, you learn which corners can more safely be cut, you get better at predicting where the student-based bumps in the road will appear. A good ad-ministrative team can provide a great deal of help.

But every day is still educa-tional triage. You will pick and choose your battles, and you will always be at best both-ered, at worst haunted, by the things you know you should have done but didn’t. Show me a teacher who thinks she’s got everything all under control and doesn’t need to fix a thing for next year, and I will show you a lousy teacher. The best teachers I’ve ever known can give you a list of exactly what they don’t do well enough yet.

Not everybody can deal with this. I had a colleague years ago who was a great classroom teacher. But she gave every as-signment that she knew she should, and so once a grading period, she took a personal day

to sit at home and grade papers for 18 hours straight. She was awesome, but she left teaching, because doing triage broke her heart.

So if you show up at my door saying, “Here’s a box from Pearson. Open it up, hand out the materials, read the script, and stick to the daily sched-ule. Do that, and your class-room will work perfectly,” I will look you in your beady eyes and ask, “Are you high? Are you stupid?” Because you have to be one of those. Maybe both.

Here’s your metaphor for the day.

Teaching is like painting a huge Victorian mansion. And you don’t actually have enough paint. And when you get to some sections of the house it turns out the wood is a little rotten or not ready for the paint. And about every hour some supervisor comes around and asks you to get down off the ladder and explain why you

aren’t making faster progress. And some days the weather is terrible. So it takes all your art and skill and experience to do a job where the house still ends up looking good.

Where are school reformy folks in this metaphor? They’re the ones who show up and tell you that having a ladder is mak-ing you lazy, and you should work without. They’re the ones who take a cup of your paint every day to paint test strips on scrap wood, just to make sure the paint is okay (but now you have less of it). They’re the ones who show up after the work is done and tell passers-by, “See that one good-looking part? That turned out good be-cause the painters followed my instructions.” And they’re most especially the ones who turn up after the job is complete to say, “Hey, you missed a spot right there on that one board under the eaves.”

There isn’t much discussion of the not-enough problem. Movie and tv teachers never

have it (high school teachers on television only ever teach one class a day). And teachers hate to bring it up because we know it just sounds like whiny complaining.

But all the other hard parts of teaching -- the technical is-sues of instruction and plan-ning and individualization and being our own “administrative assistants” and acquiring mate-rials and designing unit plans and assessment -- all of those issues rest solidly on the foun-dation of Not Enough.

Trust us. We will suck it up. We will make do. We will Find A Way. We will even do that when the state and federal people tasked with helping us do all that instead try to make it harder. Even though we can’t get to perfect, we can steer toward it. But if you ask me what the hard part of teaching is, hands down, this wins.

There’s not enough.Originally posted at Cur-

mudgucation.

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Freida Pinto does not want to work with Dev Patel again

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ star Freida Pinto has no intention of starring opposite her boyfriend

Dev Patel in future and wants to save the ‘magic’ for their personal lives.

The 29-year-old Indian beauty and the 24-year-old British actor fell in love on the set of their 2008 movie, ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ but aren’t interested in appearing on screen together ever again because they’re worried that it might affect their re-lationship, reported Contactmusic.

“I think we created all the magic

Freida Pinto . Photo credit:RNA Research & Archives

Alia Bhatt says ‘pressure, com-petition exists but I want to stand out with my roles’

After proving herself as an actor in ‘Highway’, Alia Bhatt wants her fu-ture film choices to be equally brave and varied.

Alia, who is the daughter of Ma-hesh Bhatt, had a tailor-made entry into Bollywood with Karan Johar’s hit ‘Student of the Year’.

The 21-year-old actor, however, im-pressed critics in her subsequent out-ings in ‘Highway’ and ‘Two States’.

In her fourth film, Alia plays a gusty heroine, who is a woman of today.

“Kavya (her character) is very fiery and lively girl. She wears her heart on her sleeves. Coming from a small place, she holds her values dear but she is a woman of today. She has a strong opinion. This is why she is the one who is carrying the hero in the film’s posters,” Alia told PTI in an in-terview.

The actress admits that the pressure has increased now that she has three

films behind her but that would not in-fluence her film choices.

“The pressure is always there. But I know that I want to do good films. I want to stand out with all my charac-ters and I want to give the audience as much variety as possible,” she says.

She has reteamed with her ‘Student of the Year’ co-star Varun Dhawan for a second time for ‘Humpty Sharma’. Alia says their chemistry will look good because they were more com-fortable with camera this time.

“The chemistry is good because of the characters we are playing. Also, I think we were not as nervous and as confused about what we were sup-posed to do in front of the camera. It became very organic,” she says.

After crooning for ‘Sooha Saha’ in Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Highway’, Alia took to mic again to sing Rahet Fateh Ali-ren-dered ‘Samjhawan’ in an unplugged version.

The self-confessed bathroom singer

Pic Courtesy: -. Zee Media Bureau/Ritika Handoo New Delhi:

that was needed for one film. We’re leaving the rest of the magic for our personal lives,” she said.

However, the duo love teaming up together in the kitchen.

“I don’t want to say we like cook-ing because we’re both not good. We argue through the food prep, but it’s fun. I wish I could cook Indian food because I could start a restau-rant and have an alternative career. There aren’t any good Indian places in LA,” she said. (PTI).

‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ goes to America

Anurag Kahsyap’s two-part mafia drama ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ is now set

for a release in North America and Los Angeles.

An art house distributor, Cineli-cious Pics, will release the film that tracks 70 violent years in the lives of two mafia families battling to control over the coal mining town of Wasseypur, reported The Dead-

was not scared to take on the popular number.

“I was not scared because I am not a professional singer. I knew that if I mess up I would not get as much flak. I love to sing. It gives me a certain sense of peace. I am not singing to impress anybody and I am very proud and happy that I got an opportunity to sing this song,” she says.

Ask her whether she would like to take it beyond, Alia says she wants to explore her singing side further.

“Definitely, I want to explore it. I was advised by A R Rahman to take my singing seriously and I am think-ing about it.”

The film has been directed by debu-tant Shashank Khaitan and produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Produc-tions.

‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’, slat-ed to release this Friday, also marks the debut of TV actor Siddharth Shukla of ‘Balika Vadhu’ fame.

Gangs of Wasseypur poster

line.“Thrilled to announce that

we’ve picked up Kashyap’s epic crime saga Gangs of Was-seypur!” the distributor said on Twitter.

The movie, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in

2012, will be presented stateside by ‘The Grey’ producer Adi Shankar.

‘Gangs…’ was released in two parts in India, owing to its five-and-a half hour duration.

Similarly, the film will be launched in a platform release in New York and Los Angeles with Part I and Part II hitting theatres a week apart.

The theatres will also have the op-tion to screen both parts as a single film.

very special films. Freedom of human spirit has been a subject close to ‘The Jagran Philoso-phy’ always and when we were

deciding on the festival content, we chose this subject and the films made around this theme.”

The Jagran Film Festival will

travel to 14 cities across the country including Lucknow, Ranchi, Kanpur, Bhopal, Agra and will conclude in Mumbai.

Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Ugly’, which is scheduled to hit the

theaters in September, opened the fifth edition of the Jagran Film Festival here at Siri Fort Auditorium on Saturday.

‘Udaan’ helmer Vikramaditya Motwane and Rahul Bhat, who stars in ‘Ugly’, were present at the venue, along with film di-rectors Subhash Ghai, Sudhir Mishra, Anubhav Sinha and National award winning direc-tor Hansal Mehta.

Model turned actor Bhat, who stars in the movie, explained to the viewers, “The beautiful thing about this movie is that it is made how it was supposed to be made as it is based on a true incident.”

The movie, also starring Ronit Roy in the lead, is a psychologi-cal thriller, written and directed by Anurag Kashyap which will hit the screens later this year on September 19.

The film was also screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Fes-tival. It also opened the 2014 New York Indian Film Festival.

Basant Rathore, Vice Presi-dent, Jagran Group said, “This year, the fifth edition of the Jagran Film Festival presents a special section ‘Cinema and Uprising’ with a clutch of seven

Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Ugly’ opens fifth Jagran Film Festival

Ulgy Poster

VOICE OF ASIA 14 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014ENTERTAINMENTBatman celebrates 75th birthday in Hollywood style

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Ker-pow! Batman is celebrating his 75th birthday this month with a series of comic-book, video-game and other events putting Gotham’s famed Caped Cru-sader firmly back in the spot-light.

July 23 is officially Batman Day, and to mark the occasion in Hollywood, Warner Bros has organized a VIP studio tour including Batmobiles, masks, capes and other souvenirs of the Dark Knight.

“The world has no heroes... Batman gives you some hope and some faith,” actor Danny DeVito, who played the caped one’s nemesis the Penguin in the 1992 movie “Batman Re-turns,” told AFP in an inter-view.

Batman was born in May 1939, the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, who were tasked by DC Com-ics with creating a new super-hero in the wake of the success of Superman.

Unlike Superman, the new hero was given a dark side, and rapidly became a global pop culture icon, decades before the latest generation of super-

heroes like Captain America, Spiderman or Iron Man took to the big screen.

While Superman represents the archetypal hero with su-per-human powers, a brightly colored costume and appears in daylight, Bruce Wayne is a wealthy tycoon who changes into a mask and dark cape to bring justice to Gotham City.

DeVito said Batman’s success stems from the lack of faith in the political and business class. “We look around at us, our leaders and the young people we are supposed to look to.

“There’s really nobody you can have faith in,” he said.

Bruce Wayne has remained popular through the decades thanks to the varied formats, from the 1960s TV series “Bat-man” with Adam West and Burt Ward, the success of which re-kindled sales of the original comic books.

“The passion of fans is very, very high, it’s a way of life,” said Jim Lee, artist and co-ed-itor of DC Entertainment, the parent company of DC Com-ics, at the presentation of the Warner Bros exhibition.

A Batman costume is put on display at Batman Exhibit during the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour on June 26, 2014 in Burbank, California. – Photo by AFP

After creating much hype with the post-ers of Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Haider’, the makers have now given us a glimpse

of good-boy-gone-bad Shahid Kapoor.Set against the unrest and snowy landscape of

tumultuous Kashmir, the trailer is both dark and chilling with Shahid Kapoor playing the titular character of ‘Haider’.

Having revealed that this is the most chal-lenging role of his career, Shahid Kapoor has not only changed his physical appearance for the film but also said that he had to undergo im-mense emotional surrender to get into the skin of the character.

“People tattoo images of Batman all over the body. It’s amazing to see how Batman has become a huge part of pop culture, he has really captivated the imagination of the entire world,” he said.

Batman very much aliveFilm versions have kept the

Batman brand alive, includ-ing the “Dark Knight” trilogy by Christopher Nolan in 2005, 2008 and 2012, with Briton Christian Bale in the brooding title role.

Overall the seven Batman films (including the first four in 1989, 1992, 1995 and 1997) have made $3.7 billion around the world, according to the boxofficemojo.com website.

In terms of merchandise, apart from the usual T-shirts, baseball caps and posters, Bat-man video games are appar-ently all the rage.

At the recent E3 video games conference in Los Angeles, stu-dio Rocksteady tempted fans with their new game “Batman: Arkham Knight,” in which the hero has an ultra-light Bat-mo-bile which can transform into an armored tank.

Shahid Kapoor is dark and deadly in Haider’s first trailer

Shahid Kapoor goes bald and deadly for ‘Haider’.

VOICE OF ASIA 15 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014HEALTHHEALTHY LIVING Friday, July 11, 2014 Section 2 Email: [email protected] Tel: 713-774-5140

Sudhir MathuriaContact: Sudhir MathuriaLicensed ProfessionalHealth Life 3606650 Southwest Freeway Houston TX 77074 713-771-2900www.MyMedicarePlan-ning.com

Ways To Fund Long Term Care Needs: Reverse MortgageSAN ANTONIO, TX

(July 8th, 2014) Con-tinuing with the tradi-

tion of offering free medical services to the local popula-tion, where the annual Con-vention is being held every year, American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) organized its annual Community Health Fair in San Antonio, TX on Sunday, June 29th, 2014, even as the 32nd annual convention, at-tended by nearly 2,000 del-egates from across the nation concluded here.

Hundreds of homeless peo-

ple lined up bright and early on Sunday morning to avail themselves of a unique op-portunity for free medical checkup offered by Medical Missions and Community Service Committee of AAPI at their door steps. During the third annual Health Fair orga-nized at “Haven for Hope,” a Homeless Shelter in San An-tonio Downtown. Participants filled out the history question-naire and signed the Liabil-ity Waiver before going for medical services provided by several dedicated AAPI mem-bers.

“We offered vital signs

measurement, Blood tests for total cholesterol, HDL, Sugar and Noninvasive Hemoglobin and consultation with primary care and various available specialists including internist, pediatrician, pulmonologist and critical care, urologist, obstetrician and gynecolo-gist, anesthesiologist and pa-thologist,” Dr. Nitin Shah, an organizer of the Clinic here and a pioneering AAPI leader said. “Having more specialists could have benefited several patients as there was a need for many more medical and surgical specialists like gen-eral surgeon, gastroenterolo-gist, ophthalomologists,” he added.

“Once again, these AAPI

members have showed their dedication by conducting the free Community Health Fair, so well organized by the host city of San Antonio,” Dr. Ravi Jahagirdar, President of AAPI, while praising the efforts of AAPI members in reaching out to the local community during the Convention, said. Describing them to “role mod-els in selfless service for the younger AAPI generation,” Dr. Jahagirdar wished “them continued success.”.

Lauding the initiative of the AAPI delegates, inspired by AAPI’s mission, Dr. Jayesh Shah, immediate past-Presi-dent of AAPI, stated, “AAPI is built on Core Value of Ser-vice.” And he commended “Medical Student, Resident and Fellow Section and Com-munity Service Committee for continuing this tradition of service by bringing health care to needy and poor and the homeless patients of San Antonio.”

Dr. Nitin Shah praised the

volunteers of Haven for Hope, led by Luke and Annette, who did a stellar job, coordinating all the arrangements. They also secured donation of Blan-kets, undergarments, socks,

AAPI Organizes 3rd Annual Free Community Health Fair in San Antonio

A reverse mortgage is a special type of home equity loan

that allows you to receive cash against the value of your home without selling it.

For most reverse mort-gages: You can choose to re-ceive a lump-sum payment, a monthly payment, or a line of credit.

There are no restrictions on how you use the remainder of the money

You continue to live in the home and you retain title and ownership of it

You are also still respon-sible for taxes, hazard insur-ance, and home repairs

However, you do not have to repay the loan as long as you continue to live in the home.

Instead, the amount you owe, based on loan payouts and interest on the loan, be-comes due when you or the last borrower, usually the last remaining spouse, dies, sells, or permanently moves out of the home

To qualify for a reverse mortgage:

You must be age 62 and older

Unlike a traditional mort-gage, you do not have to pro-vide an income or credit his-tory to get the loan

The home must be your pri-mary residence.

How to apply: You must meet with an

approved reverse mortgage counselor before you can start the loan process. These counselors can help you de-cide whether a reverse mort-gage is right for you.

Important considerations: You must use the funds you

receive to pay off any exist-ing mortgages or other debt against your home and to make required home repairs.

As long as you spend the payments you receive in the month that you receive them, the money is not taxable and does not count towards in-come or affect Social Secu-rity or Medicare benefits.

Does not count as income for Medicaid eligibility.

Once you have a reverse mortgage, it is very difficult to borrow any more against your home. But you can re-finance a reverse mortgage if the house increases signifi-

cantly in value.If your heirs want to keep

your home, they can repay the reverse mortgage. They can also keep the difference if the home’s sale price is greater than the reverse mortgage loan balance when they repay the loan.

Most people get reverse mortgages through a mort-gage lender. Some credit unions and banks, with state and local housing agencies, may offer these loans as well.

Generally, there are three types of reverse mortgages:

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)

The Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development (HUD) offers HECMs and the Federal Housing Admin-istration (FHA) insures them. HECMs are the most popular reverse mortgages, represent-ing about 90 percent of the market. The federal govern-ment regulates most upfront costs for HECM loans. There are limits on the total fees and interest rates that you must pay

Fannie Mae Home Keeper Loan

The loan limits for Fan-nie Mae Home Keeper Loan is higher than for HECMs. Therefore, you may receive more cash from these loans than with a HECM

Financial Freedom Cash Account Loans

Financial Freedom Cash Account Loans are designed for seniors who own expen-sive homes.

To Be Continued. For valu-able Health and Wealth Plan-ning contact 713-771-2900.

Drs. Rakesh Gupta, Madhu Agarwal and Vijay Patel seeing patients

Dr. Jaishree Jagirdar with her volunteer team doing blood tests at the HealthFair

It is now widely accept-ed that excessive so-dium consumption will

increase your risk of cardio-vascular death. High sodium consumption is associated with high blood pressure—which greatly increases the risks of strokes, heart attacks and kidney failure. Over 60% of all strokes are linked to high blood pressure.

Conversely, reducing so-dium consumption appears to decrease blood pressure in many adults. Although the ideal range for healthy so-dium consumption remains debatable, the federal govern-ment’s current Dietary Guide-lines set a limit of 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Furthermore, a limit of 1,500 mg of sodium per day is recommended for higher risk individuals, such as people over 51 years old; those with diabetes, hyperten-sion or chronic kidney dis-ease; and African Americans.

The principal source of salt in the U.S. is processed food. A simple way to lower

Should You Limit Your Salt and Sodium Intake?

Kesavan Shan, MD.Cardiologist.

sodium consumption is to choose low sodium foods. Read food labels. Low so-dium is defined as 140 mg of sodium per serving, while 400 mg or more per serv-ing is considered high. Eat more home-cooked meals, which usually contain less than most canned or instant food. Reduce the amount of salt in cooking by seasoning food with spices and herbs instead of extra salt.

Dr. Kesavan Shan is a cardiologist with Meth-odist Diagnostic Cardiol-ogy of Houston. To sched-ule an appointment, call 281.275.0330.

Dr. Kinjal Shah measuring Hemoglobin noninvasively

muffins, and fruits etc. for the participants. “There was no charge for AAPI to use the facility. Their help was invalu-able!” Dr. Shah said.

Dr. Sudhir Gogu, Dr. Nick

Shroff, Dr. Nitin Shah, his wife Mrs. Kinna Gandhi and the Jagirdar family, includ-ing Dr. Jaishree Jagirdar, her husband Sudhir and daughter Sima were present for during the entire half day, helping at various stages of the Clinic.

The AAPI delegates pro-

vided these services free of cost helping out at every level of the clinic. Dr. Nitin Shah and Dr. Nick Shroff even helped local volunteers with registration of participants as they needed help due to overwhelming response from the patients. Dr. Kinjal Shah, Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Dr. Madhu Agarwal, Dr. Vijay Patel and Dr. Choudhary offered much required medical help to the patients, while Jaishreeben’s volunteer team, Hansa Venka-

tram, Hansa Bhulla and Rama Julukuntula did a phemomenal job with the blood tests em-ploying finger prick method.

Dr. Sudhir Gogu commented next day “I feel so satisfied we could bring basic healthcare to the homeless and poor people at the healthfair”. “It was an

amazing priceless experi-ence to serve these many real needy people in a short period of time with limited resources and manpower,” Dr. Nick

Shroff, chairman of AAPI’s Charitable Foundation said. “We heartily congratulate all those who could help, I am sure they all, like me and my wife, left the place very sat-isfied of doing a very noble humanitarian work,” Dr. Nitin Shah added.

“We thank AAPI, MSRF

of AAPI, AAPI Charitable Foundation and our other sponsors Dr. Jasvant and Dr. Mira Modi of Southern Cali-fornia, Dr. Kishan and Dr. Madhu Agarwal, and Mr. and Dr. Jagirdar for their financial

support. The credit for the job extremely well done should go to Dr. Jaishree Jagirdar, she with her family served AAPI’s 3rd Annual Free Community Health Fair with “Tan, Man, and Dhan” DR. Shah added. “We hope AAPI will choose to continue this tradition of helping underserved commu-nity in at least this small way in years to come!” Dr. Nitin Shah hopes.

Report by Ajay GhoshAdjunct Faculty, Fordham

University & University of Bridgeport.

VOICE OF ASIA 16 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014HEALTH, TECH & SCIENCEby Rob Lever

WA S H I N G TO N , (AFP) - The digi-tal age has created

a host of new etiquette dilem-mas.

What should you do when your boss sends a Facebook friend request? Is it OK to take and share smartphone pictures at a friend’s wed-ding? When should you take off Google Glass, rather than just turn it off?

Etiquette mavens say the book on manners must be re-written, literally, to take into account new technologies and social media.

“Technology is such an area of anxiety for people,” says Steven Petrow, an author of etiquette books who last month began a digital man-ners column for USA Today.

In recent columns, Petrow addressed the question of mass emails that reveal the names of all recipients (not OK, he says), and how to deal with wedding guests who want to share smartphone pic-tures before the official pho-tos are available (he urges the couple to make their wishes clear in the invitation).

“Fundamentally, I come back to my core values, which are about respect, kindness and civility,” Petrow told AFP.

Social media such as Face-book pose particular etiquette problems: if users post news about a death, birth or en-gagement before relatives are notified, that creates tensions among family members.

“On Facebook, even if you have privacy protection, someone else can grab your message and send it along,” said Emily Yoffe, who pens the “Dear Prudence” column on Slate.

“Once you post it, you don’t control that information any-more,” said Yoffe, advising people to treat all social me-dia posts as public.

Petrow sees other quanda-ries -- for example, whether it is appropriate to “like” a Fa-cebook post about sad news.

“I believe that liking means you acknowledge it,” he said. “So you can like something sad but you should add a note to say what you mean.”

Social media is also used to break off, or to announce a new relationship, which can be a surprise to the other per-son.

“It’s always best to take your time, to discuss this with the other person,” Petrow said.

As for the boss’s friend re-quest, Petrow advised man-agers to steer clear of this to avoid potential conflicts.

Employees should not ig-nore the request, but offer instead to connect on the pro-fessional network LinkedIn, he said.

- Emily Post for digital era -

Digital technology has forced a reboot at the Emily Post Institute, which grew out of the work of the noted eti-quette author.

Her great-great-grandson Daniel Post Senning released a book last year on digital etiquette after realizing the topic merited more than just a chapter in the updated Emily Post book.

“New technology is chang-ing every major aspect of people’s lives for which they would come to Emily Post looking for advice,” Senning said.

A longstanding digital eti-quette issue is when people should turn off or silence their smartphones.

“The biggest challenge is that these devices take our at-tention from the people we’re with,” Senning told AFP.

While smartphones are enormously useful tools, “If you’re with other people, your attention should be there,” Senning said. “Most people know that intuitively.”

Social networks are great places for sharing, but some-times people go overboard. A 2012 survey by Intel found that in several countries, a majority said they were put off by “oversharing” of pic-tures and personal informa-tion.

Senning sad the Post Insti-tute often follows what is ac-cepted by the public but that sometimes it takes the oppo-site view “if it’s a question of our fundamental principles of consideration, respect and honesty.”

- Think before you tweet -On Twitter, the ability to

post messages quickly has led to some embarrassing moments or worse, experts say.

“Some people lose their jobs because of an ill-advised tweet,” Yoffe said.

“In the heat of the moment, people think they are having a one-on-one conversation, but this is totally public.”

Twitter gaffes can turn into public relations nightmares for companies using social media to boost their image.

Dutch airline KLM, of the Air France-KLM Group, found this out when it tweet-ed “Adios Amigos” after the Netherlands’ dramatic win

Etiquette gets reboot for digital ageMore expectant moms turning to ‘Dr Google’ for advice

WA S H I N G T O N , (PTI), July, 8, 2014) - First time moms

are turning to ‘Dr Google’ and social media to seek answers to their medical questions more often than they would like, sci-entists say.

“We found that first-time moms were upset that their first prenatal visit did not occur un-til eight weeks into pregnancy,” said Jennifer L Kraschnewski, assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine.

“These women reported us-ing Google and other search engines because they had a lot of questions at the beginning of pregnancy, before their first doctor’s appointment,” said Kraschnewski.

Following the women’s first visit to the obstetrician, many of them still turned to the Internet - in the form of both search en-gines and social media - to find answers to their questions, be-cause they felt the literature the doctor’s office gave them was insufficient.

Kraschnewski and colleagues set out to gather information to develop a smartphone app for women to use during pregnan-cy, and incidentally discovered that many women were unsatis-fied with the structure of their prenatal care.

The researchers conducted four focus groups, totalling 17 pregnant women - all of whom were over 18 and owned a

Dr Google. Photo: Twitter

smartphone.

Most of the mothers-to-be agreed that the structure of pre-natal visits are not responsive to their individual needs, so they turned to technology to fill their knowledge gaps, Krasch-newski and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

However, the women were unsatisfied by the questionable accuracy of the information they found online.

Many of the participants found the pamphlets and flyers that their doctors gave them, as well as the once popular book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” outdated and pre-ferred receiving information in different formats.

They would rather watch vid-eos and use social media and pregnancy-tracking apps and websites.

“This research is important because we don’t have a very good handle on what tools preg-nant women are using and how they engage with technology,” said Kraschnewski.

“We have found that there is a real disconnect between what we’re providing in the office and what the patient wants,” said Kraschnewski.

She pointed out that regula-tion of medical information on the Internet is rare, which could be problematic and lead to alarming patients unnecessarily.

over Mexico in football’s World Cup.

The airline apologized and deleted the tweet, but not before thousands of enraged Mexicans tweeted their dis-pleasure.

“We encourage companies to be conversational and en-gaging. But they have to un-derstand they are speaking on behalf of a brand,” said Jeanette Gibson of Hootsuite, which provides a social me-dia dashboard, and offers training on using different platforms.

Gibson said social me-dia marketing can be useful in building brand identity, “but you don’t want to come across as spamming your au-dience.”

- Trouble with ‘Glassholes’ -

Etiquette may see more changes with devices such as the Internet-connected eye-wear Google Glass.

Google has preemptively offered tips to avoid becom-ing a “Glasshole,” such as turning off the eyewear in many situations.

Wearable electronics like Google Glass create fears about being spied on.

“I don’t think turning it off will be sufficient to quell those concerns,” Petrow said.

“Every new device seems to spawn its own chapter of etiquette dilemmas.”

From a historical perspec-tive, “every generation per-ceives the state of manners in decline,” said Senning of the Post Institute.

“People thought that when the telephone moved to the home it would destroy home life, and it didn’t.”

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Study exposes dangers of Chobani yogurt mold outbreak

by Kerry SHERIDAN

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2014 (AFP) - A mold outbreak last year in

some US containers of Chobani yogurt may have been more dan-gerous than the company initially acknowledged, according to a sci-entific study out Tuesday.

The yogurt company issued a voluntary recall of certain products with “best by” dates between Sep-tember and October 2013 from its Idaho plant.

More than 300 consumers re-ported bloating, diarrhea and vom-iting.

The company said at the time “this type of mold is unlikely to have ill health effects,” but agreed to the voluntary recall after cus-tomer complaints.

Researchers at Duke University reported in the journal mBio that the mold was actually a type that has been shown to be potentially fatal in people, and when injected into mice it killed some of them and sickened others.

“When we heard about the Cho-bani recall after reports of people becoming sick from yogurt con-taminated with Mucor circinel-loides, we thought the M. circinel-loides strain could cause more serious problems than one might think,” said study author Soo Chan Lee.

Lee obtained a partially eaten container of Chobani from a Texas couple that had been sickened after eating it.

“One of them experienced re-peated vomiting and diarrhea for two entire days with two days of

missed work; the other was se-verely nauseated with diarrhea for a few days without vomiting,” said the study.

The product expired September 30, 2013, which was in the date range of the recall, and carried the ID number designated for the re-call, 16-012.

Lab analysis showed that the strain was Mucor circinelloides f. circinelloides (Mcc).

“Unlike other strains of the fun-gus, that particular subspecies is commonly associated with human infections,” said the study.

“Whole-genome sequence anal-ysis of the yogurt isolate confirmed it as being closely related to Mcc and also revealed the possibil-ity that this fungus could produce harmful metabolites that were pre-viously unknown in this species.”

Etiquette mavens say the book on manners must be rewritten, literally, to take into account new technologies and social media (AFP Photo/Ed Jones) digital age


Friday, July 11, 2014 Section 2 Email: [email protected] Tel: 713-774-5140

BUSINESSONLINE.COMvoiceofasiaonline.com

BEIJING, July 9, 2014 (AFP) - China’s Wan-da Group, controlled

by the country’s richest man Wang Jianlin, says it will invest $900 million in a five-star hotel and apartment complex in Chi-cago, as it acquires more assets in the US.

The project, to be located near the intersection of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, will be the city’s third tallest build-ing with a height of 350 metres (1,148 feet), the company said in a statement.

It will be a mixed-use devel-opment consisting of a 240-room “super five-star” hotel, residential units and commer-cial space, and heralds greater expansion into the US, accord-ing to the statement posted Tuesday.

“The Chicago project is just the first step of Wanda’s prop-erty investment in the United States,” Wang said in the state-ment, adding the company would invest in five-star hotels in major US cities including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco “within a year”.

Wanda has made a series of big-ticket purchases of Western assets in recent years as it seeks to spread itself internationally.

Last month Spain’s biggest bank Santander announced that it had sold a historic skyscraper

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China’s Wanda to build $900 million complex in Chicago

Wang Jianlin, head of conglomerate Wanda Group, attends a press conference in Beijing on December 12, 2012. AFP Photo by Str.

in Madrid to a Wanda subsid-iary for 265 million euros ($360 million).

The deal followed the Chi-nese conglomerate’s acquisi-tion last year of British yacht maker Sunseeker for 320 mil-lion pounds (now $548 million) and its $2.6 billion takeover in 2012 of US cinema chain AMC Entertainment.

It is also spending 700 mil-lion pounds on London’s tallest residential towers.

Construction on the Chicago property project is expected to start this year and it is sched-uled to open in 2018, Wanda said.

A Wanda arm listed in Hong Kong said in a stock exchange statement Tuesday that it and another Wanda subsidiary will have combined “capital com-mitments” of no more than HK$1.75 billion ($226 million) in the Chicago project.

Executives at Wanda were not immediately available to ex-plain the discrepancy between the figures when contacted by AFP on Wednesday.

Wang, formerly a senior member of the ruling Com-munist Party, was ranked the richest man in China and 26th wealthiest in the world, busi-ness magazine Forbes reported in February, with his personal worth estimated at $14 billion.

by Paul Davidson, USA To-day

The Federal Reserve is leaning toward end-ing its extraordinary

economic stimulus in October, minutes of the Fed’s June 17-18 meeting show.

Citing an improving labor market and economy, Fed pol-icymakers have tapered their government bond purchases in $10 billion increments at each meeting since December, cutting them to $35 billion a month from $85 billion. At that pace, the Fed would be buying $15 billion in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securi-ties by its October meeting.

Economists have debated whether the Fed would con-tinue to trim the purchases by $10 billion at the October meeting — leaving it buying $5 billion in bonds until the December meeting — or cut the purchases by $15 billion to zero in October.

At last month’s meeting, Fed policymakers said they regard the choice as a “technical issue with no substantive macroeco-nomic consequences” and no impact on when the Fed will raise its benchmark short-term interest rate. That rate is now near zero, and the first increase is expected sometime next year.

Yet while Fed officials have clearly said the bond buy-ing would be halted this year, closing out the program would carry symbolic significance. The purchases have held down long-term interest rates for sev-eral years, spurring purchases of homes and factory equip-ment. The most recent phase of the bond-buying program began in September 2012, but the Fed has bought well over $3 trillion in bonds since the 2008 financial crisis.

Fed policymakers “gener-ally agreed” that “it would be appropriate to complete asset purchases with a $15 billion

reduction … in order to avoid having a small remaining level of purchases receive undue fo-cus among investors,” accord-ing to the minutes.

Fed officials last month also indicated they’re in no hurry to raise the central bank’s benchmark short-term interest rate even though inflation has picked up recently. “Some” policymakers continued to voice concern about annual in-flation that remains below the Fed’s 2% target. “A couple” suggested the Fed “may need to allow the unemployment rate to move below its longer-run normal level for a time in order to keep inflation expec-tations anchored and return inflation to its 2% target,” the minutes show.

Fed policymakers’ individu-al forecasts from June indicate many see the first rate hike coming around mid-2015, but after a recent spate of encour-aging economic news, some

economists speculate it could happen in March. They have cited an unemployment rate that has fallen faster than the Fed expected, dipping to 6.1% from 6.3% last month.

The minutes, however, re-flect that some Fed officials are still inclined to keep inter-est rates low for an extended period.

“Some others,” however, expected a faster pickup in inflation or saw upside risks to inflation and inflation expecta-tions,” the minutes say.

Fed policymakers last month also agreed to communicate to the public later this year about how it plans to return to normal interest rates. With the banking system flush with so much Fed cash, raising its benchmark rate may not be enough to boost market interest rates. The Fed has discussed other ways to increase market rates, such as paying banks a higher interest rate to park money at the Fed.

Fed leans to ending bond purchases in October

VOICE OF ASIA 18 FRIDAY, July 11, 2014HOROSCOPEYour Horoscope for the Week of July 11, 2014

Aries (A,L,E) 21 March to 20 AprilWorking situations could seem very stressful. Others may try to give you more than

your share of the load. Learn to say no, especially if you’re tired and need rest. You may need to get extra rest to keep nervous reactions under control. Try not to get upset

over misunderstandings. Others may tend to think out loud & cause you to lose your temper. You may need to blow off some steam. Utilize your natural sense of humor to help yourself to see things from a different perspective. Look for humor everywhere, especially in those who are closest to you.

Taurus (B,V,U) 21 April to 20 MayGet ready for changes even though you want your life could stay exactly the same. After

all, that makes you feel safe and secure. Change doesn’t have to be frightening, in fact, ma-jor changes taking place in your creative life, could awaken you to new talents and abilities. Remember that there is always another step to take and that things may not actually be as

they seem. Don’t resist these changes. You are developing new levels of consciousness, and these changes are part of that development. You’ll enjoy work projects that relate to the communications field.

Gemini (K,CHH,GH) 21 May to 20 JuneFriends and associates that could prove to be very unreliable. New responsibilities

could seem burdensome now. You need to make an effort to adjust to the demands of you. If you’re under too much pressure, your health could suffer. You need to be needed and you may have to carefully structure your time to accommodate everything you

want to do. With some patience and understanding on your part, however, you’ll realize what could occur in the lives of others to cause them to have to completely re-adjust their routines.

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 JulyYou need to get yourself organized. You need to prepare for changes in your personal

life as well as in public or professional situations. Your social consciousness could lead you to situations that might help resolve some global problems. You may feel as if you are plugged into a source of very high energy. Considering the opportunities that await

you, you have good reason to be excited. Pay attention to gut instincts that tell you where the treasures of the world are buried.

Leo (M) 23 July to 22 AugustYour ability to collect additional income that is owed to you. Financial matters

demand your careful attention. To avoid going down the garden path of unfulfilled dreams, take care of all practical matters. Keep your eye on your goals, but take pre-cautions. Secure the situation with practical measures. Partnership projects could seem

uncertain. If someone you depend on lets you down or acts in an unpredictable manner, you may need to discuss the situation more thoroughly.

Virgo (P) 23 August to 22 SeptemberRude awakening to situations around you. Your partners may paint a rosy picture but

if matters don’t work out the way you expect, you could be very upset. Take a look at the truth of any situation, no matter what anyone else might say. Try not to go over-board with promotional efforts or the additional expenses. Be sure you don’t let flattery

lead you down the wrong road. You may be counting on unreliable sources of income now. If you trust that checks will arrive on time, hedge your bets and make sure they were mailed as promised.

Libra (R,T) 23 Sept to 22 OctIt’s better, need to get a better perspective on things. Make the effort to understand what

is going on by having sensitive discussions. You need to get ready to accept all the good things that are coming your way, because this is a perfect time for new starts and there are indications of fabulous financial conditions. Your mate could seem unpredictable to you. You might be tempted to let go of the relationship for all the wrong reasons. Look deeper

in order to understand motivations. Start projects that bring more beauty into your home and lifestyle.

Scorpio (N,Y)23 Oct to 21 NovSomething or someone that tends to get under your skin. If you are resentful toward

friends or associates, you may have to struggle with those feelings. You may find it dif-ficult to keep a smile on your face when you see funds slipping through your fingers. A

partner or your mate may appear to take the easy way out and ignore your struggle to balance every-thing that’s going on around you. Don’t let stress tempt you to play games or plan ways to get even. Do yourself and others a big favor by investing in some background checks & research.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH) 22 Nov to 21 DecStrong emotional & physical ties. You may be so high on life that you forget to look

at the reality of some things. Be especially careful with financial matters, because you could be overconfident of your success. You may be very vulnerable and sensitive, es-pecially when it comes to your own creativity and your need for self-expression. Don’t

let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do. Show your leadership and avoid overly aggressive behavior.

Capricorn (KH,J) 22 Dec to 20 JanUncertainty in your career. You may want to bury your head in the sand. Your awareness of

something that is not fair or just at your job could make you want to walk away from some career situations. Be sure you don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. If some associates behave like traumatized children, treat them that way. Give people the attention they require.

Then you’re free to go on your way, unfettered and clear of resentments. You should have good luck selling or purchasing property.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21 Jan to 19 FebLet your natural enthusiasm take you into uncharted territory. Explore the waters of

new partnership activity as well. Life may be more abundant than you could have ever imagined. Don’t put on the blinders just yet. Sensitivity can be a positive and valuable commodity but when those feelings are close to the surface, they can turn into feelings of insecurity. Your sensitivity may come in handy when it comes to an appeal to others for

aid. You may be called to distant shores.

Pisces (D,CH,Z) 20 Feb to 20 MarchQuestions about areas of your life that come under fire. You may be unwilling to

confront the cost of an entertainment project until it’s too late. If you are disappointed as a result, you may blame yourself and may even become ill over it. Anything that is related to partnership activities or your home life could be a source of uncertainty. You may be uncertain whether you should take the next step toward a more exciting life or

maintain the status quo. Some situations could be very beneficial to you, but you may be tempted to zig when you should zag.

by Hardik Vyas, Astrologer Cell : 832-298-9950

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