volume 1 issue 18

1Indian Weekender | November 13, 2009 | www.iwk.co.nz

IndianIndian November 13, 2009Volume 1, No. 18

New Zealand’s first Indian weekend magazine

At a glance

Today’s Exchange Rates

Feast of Indian classical music

Ty Burhoe, on tabla, and Shubhendra Rao, sitar, begin the New Zealand leg of their world tour with a live concert in Auckland on Friday, November 27.Page 6

The art of caring for your heart

Indians are more prone to heart disease than many other ethnicities. The Heart Foundation is now actively developing communication directed at this high risk group, telling them how to keep their heart in good shape. 9

What’s desi about desi ghee?

The fear of fat seems to be driving the humble desi ghee from our Indian kitchen. But we have been using it for almost 5000 years. So what’s the deal with this desi ghee?Page 25

Rise of the Nifty

There are few markets among emerging economies with the breadth of choice available in India and few companies that show the kind of growth rates that Indian corporates have been notching up.Page 29

1 NZD = USD 0.74 INR 34.3 FJD 1.40EURO 0.49

Global FinancialServices Limited

We are recognized by ASB, National Bank, Westpac Bank, Sovereign Home Loans, AIG, Sovereign Insurance, Asteron, Fidelity, ING & Ansvar Insurance

Always working in the interest of our customers

Ajay Kumar: F.Finsia, CAIIB, M.Sc - DirectorPh: 09 255 5500, Fax: 09 255 5588Email: ajay@ globalfinance.co.nz

Free disclosure statement is available on request

Get in touch with Global Financial Services for all your Home Loans,Business Loans, Commercial Loans & Insurance Needs

Want to save thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest on your mortgage & insurance premium?

FoR FRee dIstRIbutIoN

Log on to www.iwk.co.nz

2 Indian Weekender | November 13, 2009 | www.iwk.co.nz

Indian New Zealand

Indian Rewa to be made in Christchurch?ANdReA deuchRAss

An Indian company is eyeing up Christchurch as a manufacturing base for 30,000 electric cars, spurred on by New Zealand’s new free trade agreement with China.

But the deal – understood to be under ne-gotiation – is partially contingent on secur-ing $US20 million private capital from New Zealand investors.

The company, Reva, is a joint venture with a New York based fund, but based in Banga-lore. It has the largest deployed fleet of electric cars in 24 countries worldwide, with 3000 EVs (electric vehicles) on the road.

A New Zealand manufacturing base could provide up to 400 jobs and earn the country $100 million in exports.

Investment New Zealand’s manager of clean technology Chris Mulcare said New Zealand’s brand positioning, renewable energy, research and development and FTA with China made the country an attractive option.

“New Zealand is a nexus between India and China,” he said at this week’s New Zealand Private Equity Venture Capital Association conference.

New Zealand had potential to become the nexus between the two countries in other areas of clean technology, Mr Mulcare said.

Christchurch was a good fit, as it already had a manufacturing hub, with many compa-nies already servicing the automotive industry, including hybrid city bus company, Design-line, he said.

“It’s a good opportunity to develop a bridge with India and capitalising on the high level of skill we have in engineering and technology services, along with our boutique manufactur-ing businesses.”

Reva’s NXR and NXG cars are designed to

use about 80% fewer parts than a conventional or hybrid car, and are manufactured in different markets using solar power, cleaned with rainwater and in Europe, their lithium ion bat-teries are recycled.

At the conference, Mr Mulcare was asked about a conflict between EV’s and biofuel. “Biofuels will be challenged by the avail-ability of biomass, until you get marine algae into the play, but you’re not going to have electric air-planes either.

“There are multiple options and they can both sit alongside each other.”Retaining ownership?

New Zealand does not have the capital needed to develop clean-tech plants and a licensing play is a better model, according to The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Tindall en-dorsed biofuel company LanzaTech, one of the most promising clean-tech investments for his K1W1 angel investor company.

LanzaTech is targeting China’s steel mill industry, using its proprietary microbe to produce ethanol and high value chemicals from industry off-gas, reformed methane and syngas.

Ethanol had potential to grow to a $113 billion industry by 2020, he said.

Asked how to retain ownership and a divi-

dend flow for New Zealand in-vestors, Mr Tindall said the goal was to have as much ownership as possible, while follow-ing a licensing model that took a percentage per litre.

“Let the steel companies put in plants and we take as much as we can.”

In the last week, Mr Tindall said two other technologies with even bigger potential had ap-proached the company.

After the meeting, he said he was bound by

non-disclosure agreements and K1W1 was un-dertaking due diligence.

This would include taking New Zealand based technology and IP and licensing it around the world, he said.

“There is nowhere near enough New Zealand capital to fund these [manufacturing and production plants] in different countries.”

- Andrea Deuchrass in the National Business Review Online


Indian New Zealand

In December 2009 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will visit New Zealand to give a couple of public talks imparting the message of love, compassion, kindness and universal responsibility as also Buddhist teachings. He is visiting the country at the invitation of the Tibetan Buddhist community of New Zealand.

One of these talks, on the topic of ‘A Peaceful Mind’, will be held at the Vector Arena on Satur-day, December 5 at 2pm. On Sunday he will give a public teaching on ‘Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Bodhicitta’ from 10.00am to 3.30pm.

Loved and respected worldwide as a man of peace, a scholar and spokesman for better un-derstanding among people and religions, he was awarded the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet.

He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of extreme aggres-sion. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognised for his concern for global environ-mental problems.

He has travelled to more than 62 countries spanning 6 continents. He has met with presi-dents, prime ministers and crowned rulers of major nations. He has held dialogues with the heads of different religions and many well-known scientists.

Since 1959, which is when he began his exile, he has received over 84 awards, honorary doctor-ates, and prizes in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understand-ing, universal responsibility and compassion. He has also authored more than 72 books.

The visit is an excellent opportunity for New Zealanders to see and hear him in person.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both

the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on July 6, 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokitesh-vara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compas-sion and patron saint of Tibet.

- Indian Weekender news desk

The family of a missing Auckland student is looking for closure as the search for their beloved brother and brother-in-law continues.

Srikanth Rayadurgam, 23, a student of AUT, has been missing since Thursday October 1, when he was last seen leaving his sister, Padma Kakanoor’s, Mt Albert home to attend classes at the university.

His family has long suspected foul play in the disappearance since his personal belong-ings were found near the Westhaven Marina after Srikanth was reported missing.

“Every few days I talk to my parents in India (Hyderabaad) and they want answers,” Mrs Kakanoor told the Indian Weekender.

“Every day I tell them the same thing, but it’s hard for them to understand.

“Every day we are looking for answers, but there’s nothing, every day we hope someone one will come around with some answers,” Mrs Kakanor said.

Mrs Kakanoor said she appreciated the efforts of the police and the support of the Indian community in finding her brother, who was 10 years younger than her.

“He has always been like a son, and we are at a loss as to why and how this has come about.”

Mrs Kakanoor said she was still hopeful Srikanth would be found, so that there would be some closure for the family.

Police have confirmed to the Kakanoor family that a body found earlier this week in the Waitemata Harbour was not that of Sri-kanth.

Srikanth had been in the country since February to study for his Diploma in Hospital-ity studies while working as a part-time chef.

“It is totally out of character for him to have disappeared like this,” brother-in-law

Nagesh Kakanoor told the Indian Weekender earlier last month.

“He was always friendly, bubbly and trust-worthy – no issues at all. He was studying, working and was very happy.”

Srikanth, originally from Hyderabaad, was last seen by Mr Kakanoor’s nine-year-old son Rohit as he left their Prospera Terrace home to attend classes at AUT. Earlier, he had spoken to his sister by phone. He has another elder sister who lives in the United States.

“His parents in Hyderbad are devastated,” Mr Kakanoor said.

Srikanth usually went to work at the Shahi Indian Restaurant at around 5pm, but the family later found out that he had been told to take a day off by the restaurant manager.

When Srikanth did not return home by 10pm, the family started getting worried and informed police at 1am as it was out of charac-ter for him to stay out without informing them.

The next day, a woman found Srikanth’s wallet near the Westhaven Marina, and con-tacted the family.

Mr Kakanoor said they later went down and found a shoe, business cards and his back-pack (unzipped) in the water. On Saturday, they found Srikanth’s chef jacket in the water.

The police dive team spent whole day searching the Westhaven Marina area near where Srikanth’s belongings were found but were not able to find anything.

Agastya Pesara, president of the AUT Indian Students Association, said his members were concerned about Srikanth’s welfare and appealed to members of the public to help with inquiries.

Anyone with any information on Srikanth please contact the nearest police station.

- Arvind Kumar

The number one place* Kiwis like Josh turn to get the job done is Yellow™.The Auckland book closes soon. Don’t miss out. Call 0800 766 775.

Job done.™*Source TNS Conversa Independent Research, September 2009

CO

LEN

SO

0119

E

Dalai Lama to visit New Zealand next month

Srikanth family looking for closure


Indian New Zealand

Maintenance of Manukau’s local roads will have to be cut or delayed following a reduction in Gov-ernment funding, says Manukau City Council.

Manukau City Council Transport Portfolio Leader David Collings says provincial areas aren’t the only ones who will suffer from changes to Government transport funding policies.

“Manukau is facing a $7 million cut in funding from NZTA. This means the council’s options are to increase rates or do less to main-tain and improve local roads.

“The community has told us loud and clear they can’t afford any increase in rates. This means we’ll have to do less road resurfacing, maintenance and improvements each year. Some local roads that really need work soon will have to wait.

“One of the big problems with delaying maintenance and resurfacing is that we will have poorer quality roads. This ends up costing more in the long term because there will come a point where we’ll have to spend more to get roads back up to standard.

“There is also uncertainty about whether we’ll get funding for a number of other roading projects, for example upgrades to roads around Flat Bush needed to cope with development.

“The national priority is now state highways,

which means less going into local roads, road safety programmes, public transport, walking and cycling facilities,” Cr Collings says.

Manukau City Council’s Accountability and Performance Committee will meet next Tuesday to decide how to reprioritise its transport pro-gramme following the changes to transport funding.

Meanwhile, construction is due to begin next month to provide access to new burial areas being developed at Manukau Memorial Gardens.

Works include a bridge across the Waokauri Creek to link the eastern and western sections of the cemetery, supporting roads, street lighting and a new entranceway to the western block.

The bridge features two 3-metre wide traffic lanes and pedestrian walkways. The walkways will sit outside the arch structure, which will provide a protective barrier for pedestrians.

Downer EDI Works Limited will begin the construction of the bridge and access roads in early November.

The $3 million project is expected to be com-pleted by June 2010.

The existing eastern block is reaching full capacity and internal access is needed by 2010 to ensure continuity of burial services.

Less money for Manukau roads A groundbreaking confer-ence on social policy and community development in a ‘Supercity’ environment will be held in Auckland this month.

The conference, “Passing Go” will look at social issues in Auckland and how the ‘Supercity’ changes in local government will affect the delivery of services to the community.

Key speakers include Minister of Social Devel-opment and Employment Paula Bennett, Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide. There will also be a debate featur-ing a number of Auckland’s mayors.

Keynote speaker Megan Courtney from In-spiring Communities, a leading figure in New Zealand’s community development movement, says, “This conference is essential. Auckland’s community development future hinges upon local government, community agencies, central gov-ernment, academics, funders and communities - all thinking, talking, and planning together.”

Dr Emma Davies of the Institute of Public Policy at AUT is presenting new research at the conference. She says that, “The current reforms are bringing together a huge range of communi-ties – with different cultures, different income levels, and different ways of doing things. We need to ensure that all the residents of this great city have access to the services and support that they need in order to live fulfilling and produc-tive lives.”

Yvonne Powley, CE of North Shore Com-

munity and Social Services (NSCSS) says that the con-ference will attract all the major players in the social policy field in Auckland. “It is important to plan region-ally, in collaboration with Central Government. Our intention is to bring together influencers and participants in the public policy sector throughout Auckland, to consider potential solutions to Auckland’s key social policy issues.”

Carol Ryan, Manager at Raeburn House says “Auckland is undergoing a period of massive change. We have a golden op-portunity to work together to plan for the needs of our entire population from Wellsford in the north to the south of Franklin – and everywhere in between.”

The conference is hosted by community groups North Shore Community and Social Ser-vices and Raeburn House, with support from the North Shore, Auckland, Waitakere and Manukau City Councils. Other councils throughout greater Auckland are also involved in promotion and in providing speakers and delegates.

The full-day conference will be held in the Harbour Function Centre, North Harbour Stadium, Albany on 20 November 2009.

There are limited seats, so early registration is recommended. The cost of registration is $90 early bird, $120 after that.

Register at the following website. www.passing-go.org

- Indian Weekender newsdesk

Groundbreaking social issues conference this month

Auckland’s community development future hinges upon local government, community agencies, central government, academics, funders and communities - all thinking, talking, and planning together


Indian New Zealand

Migrants urged to use licensed immigration advisers

Ravi Shankar to Play at New Zealand International Arts Festival

Migrants should only seek immigration advice from someone who is licensed to give it or who is exempt, Barry Smedts, Registrar of Immigration Advisers, said today.

Mr Smedts was commenting on suggestions that there are many people able to give immigra-tion advice.

“The Immigration Advisers Licensing Act exists to prevent migrants becoming the victim of poor advice and ensure New Zealand’s inter-national reputation as a migrant destination is not damaged as a consequence,” Mr Smedts said.

“This could be from someone who sets them-selves up as an immigration adviser, or from well-meaning would-be experts. Once a person is licensed, the Immigration Advisers Authority and Immigration New Zealand provide guidance and support on immigration matters, continu-ing professional development and best practice client management systems.

“Whenever someone gives immigration advice, the first question the migrant asks them should be ‘are you licensed or exempt?’ This way, the migrant can be certain that the person who is giving the advice has demonstrated that they meet New Zealand government quality standards.

“All licensed advisers have a valid photo ID which includes the Immigration Advisers Authority Trademark. They will also have a certificate with their name on it, which must be displayed prominently in their place of business.

Mandatory licensing of onshore advisers came into effect on 4 May this year. The Im-migration Advisers Authority takes an educative role in the first instance to point out to individu-als or companies where their activities may fall short of the law, before any further action is con-sidered.

Mr Smedts said that research recently com-missioned by the Authority shows clear evidence that migrants are more satisfied with the service they receive from licensed advisers than from unlicensed advisers.

“We are encouraged by this result, as it shows that there is a correlation between the high pro-fessional standards we ask of licensed advisers and the level of satisfaction that their clients receive. Migrants are often in a vulnerable po-sition; if they take the wrong course of action, they may be deported or have their application refused.

“Any migrant who needs immigration advice can look at our Register of licensed immigration advisers on our website, www.iaa.govt.nz, or find out more about the exemptions – people who can give immigration advice without needing a licence.

“Migrants are entitled to the same consum-er protection that New Zealanders expect as a matter of course, and the Immigration Advisers Authority is in place to ensure they are protected from poor immigration advice,” Mr Smedts said.

Legendary sitar virtuoso, Ravi Shankar, will perform as part of his 90th birth-day celebration tour, with his daughter Anoushka Shankar, who also plays the sitar and is a composer in her own right at the Festival 2010 on Friday March 12 at the Michael Fowler Centre.

“It is a real coup for us to have Ravi Shankar performing as part of the New Zealand International Arts Festival. This historic performance has just been an-nounced as part of an Australasian tour and the only performance in New Zealand is being presented in Wellington at the Festi-val.” says Lissa Twomey, Artistic Director.

Described as the “Godfather of World Music” by the late George Harrison of the Beatles, it is almost 30 years since Ravi Shankar last performed in New Zealand. In a career spanning 70 years, he has taken his country’s music to the world.

In the 1950’s, he was introduced to vir-tuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin who was visiting India at the time, and Menuhin invited Shankar to the United States. Within 10 years Mr Shankar was the most famous Indian musician in the world, in-spiring musicians from the Beatles to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and composer Phillip Glass.

Mr Shankar, Anoushka Shankar and group will perform one concert at Festival 2010 on March 12 at the Michael Fowler Centre.


Indian New Zealand

Ty Burhoe, on tabla, and Shubhendra Rao, sitar, begin the New Zealand leg of their world tour with a live concert in Auckland on Friday, No-vember 27.

The evening of classical music will be held at the Saint Columba Church, 92 Surrey Cres, Grey Lynn, from 7pm.

Ty has been a disciple of the great tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain, since1990. From that time, Ty has dedicated to music as a career and as a spiritual path. Through his teacher’s in-spiration, he has established new territory for the tabla, which continues to attract international acclaim.

He is known for his sensitive accompani-ment and melodious style. While his study of the classical tradition and his touring as a classical accompanist continue to grow, he is also inter-nationally recognised for being instrumental in creating unusual collaborations that weave tabla with other various world traditions.

He has become well known not only for his talents as a tabla player, but also for his extensive experience as a recording and live concert pro-ducer, Ty’s website says.

He has been featured on many soundtracks for film and video, including the recent academy award winning documentary, Born into Broth-els.

Organically, these experiences led him to open his own Indie label “Tala Records” in 2004. Ty works with a broad range of artists including Ustad Zakir Hussain, Art Lande, Krishna Das, Curandero (Miguel Espinoza), Ustad Sultan Khan, Bela Fleck, Walter Becker, Steve Gorn, Mamadou Diabate, Rick Alan, Howard Levy, Kitaro, Bill Dougals and many more.

On the side, he is the tour assistant for his teacher Ustad Zakir Hussain, touring and helping produce and manage concerts world-wide. Ty also teaches “sound” workshops and tabla intensives throughout the world.

Ace composer and performer, Shubhendra Rao is ranked amongst the key soloists of India.

Distinguished as a musical bridge to many cultures, he creates an experience for his audi-ence that ‘is not aimed at titillating the senses, but to seize the soul’.

A disciple of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Shubhendra has established himself not only as a master of his instrument but also as a thinking musician, constantly endeavoring to carry his instrument beyond conventional boundaries, says his website.

Hailed as a worthy successor to his Guru’s tradition, Shubhendra has performed at major music festivals and concert halls like Broadway and Carnegie Hall in New York, WOMAD fes-tival in Guernsey, UK, National Arts Festival in South Africa, Theatre de le Ville in Paris and Doverlane Music Conference in India. In 2007, he was awarded the “Youth Icon for Classical Music” by the popular Television Network, Zee Television Network.

The duo will feature in a second concert in Nelson on November 28, at the Suter, 208 Bridge St (8.30pm) (tickets $30 Everyman Records), and will hold a sound workshop the following day from12-2pm at Fairfield House, Trafalgar St. Registration $45, 03 548-3640.

For more information, visit www.talarecords.com


Labour MP Dr Ashraf Choudhary’s Out-of-Parliament office was relaunched on Saturday October 17 in Otara. The role of this office is to provide advice, advocacy and liaison with members of the ethnic community. They can express their views and concerns that they may have on various issues of relevance to them.

The launch was also an opportunity for various members of the ethnic community to get together and meet with Dr Ashraf Choud-hary’s new assistant, Alamgir Afridi.

The program started with Dr Choudhary thanking everyone present. He said that the re-launch of his out of parliament office was long overdue. He further added that the office would serve as a point of contact for members of the ethnic community.

Leader of the Labour Party Phil Goff was the chief guest. In his speech, he greeted the gath-ering of about 200 addressing each of segments of the ethnic community. He thanked everyone adding that the ethnic community had added much culture and diversity to New Zealand society. He added that the ethnic community has always been important to the Labour party and that Labour has always been supportive of

the ethnic community. Mr Goff took a moment to provide his con-

dolences to the victims of the recent bombings that have taken place in Pakistan adding that no matter what the motives are it is not right for innocent people to die. Mr Goff also thanked and commended Dr Ashraf Choudhary MP for his work in the ethnic community over the past seven years and more recently as an Associate Spokesperson for Ethnic Affairs.

Also present at the occasion were other Labour MPs Chris Carter, Sua William Sio, Ross Robertson, Raymond Huo, and many community leaders and members representing the Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani commu-nities.

All the guests present were extremely pleased to have been part of the ceremony. The ceremony concluded with Hon Phil Goff cutting the red ribbon and officially opening the office. Following the official opening guests had the opportunity to mix and mingle and talk with Mr Goff and other Labour MPs and have their photos taken.

- Indian Weekender newsdesk

Feast of Indian classical music this month

Raymond Pillai’s last Book launched in Auckland

MP Ashraf Choudhary’s office re-launched

Old St. Michael’s Church in the Corban Estate in West Auckland attracted a number of notables from Fiji for a quiet Sunday function to launch the last book by renowned Fiji writer and teacher Raymond Pillai who was known to acutely feel the “pulse” of sentiments and emotions that marked the transitions of the cane-farming Indian community in Fiji.

Born in 1942 in the burning town of Ba during the era of the all-powerful Colonial Sugar Refinery Company (CSR), when the Indo-Fijian voice for rights in the country of their adoption was at its most precarious, Raymond was truly the product of a defining era.

His writings clearly bore this out and “La-bourers’ Lament” is one that was singled out by former Leader of the Opposition and In-ternational Court judge, Jai Ram Reddy as he launched Raymond’s last book aptly titled “The End of the Line”.

A number of Raymond Pillai’s contempo-raries, friends, and students then shared their experiences and thoughts about the poet, writer, teacher, and husband who was called to rest in 2007. The list included close friend Sachida Reddy (late Fiji parliamentarian KS Reddy’s son), former unionist and Fiji Labour Party stal-wart Shiva Sankaran, and author of “Tears in Paradise” Rajendra Prasad.

A number of Raymond’s New Zealand friends also shared their experiences in a moving tribute to the prominent son of Fiji. These includ-ed Father Peter Murphy whose Massey Catho-lic Parish Raymond and his family were a part of. Westgate Kip Mcgrath director Alan Brown

saw Raymond as a dedicated teacher who gave the same seriousness to his task whether he was handling a children’s class or one that had adults. Gwen Deverel, an ex-USP colleague who later worked with Raymond in NZ shared some fond memories of the remarkable gentleman. And fellow writer Ines Hellberg read an unpublished poem titled “Pukeko” that piqued the audience.

The last speaker was former Deputy Speaker of Fiji’s House of Representatives, Auckland lawyer Gyanendra Prasad, who recalled how he always struggled with English as an academic subject until he encountered Raymond Pillai at the University of the South Pacific. Raymond had a way with the English language that brought it to life and made it so simple, he said.

As a sequel to the book launch, the Raymond Pillai Foundation Trust was also launched. Reg-istered as a Charitable Trust in Fiji, this foun-dation has “financial help to educate needy chil-dren in Fiji” as its main focus. Friends mentioned how Raymond valued education as a ticket out of poverty and a passport to success in life for the marginalized and needy. This Trust would perpetuate his dreams and aspirations in others.

A bank account in the name of the trust has been opened in Fiji with an initial endowment fund established by founding members. The trustees include Raymond’s wife, Yoga Pillai who hosted the Corban Estate function. Those interested in the Trust can contact Yoga ([email protected]), Vimal Raj Reddy ([email protected]) or Kavinesh Reddy ([email protected]). - Subhash Appana. Email [email protected]

The next International Students Expo will be held in Auckland in May next year, organisers said.The announcement follows the success of the inaugural International Students Expo, organised

and promoted by Working In, held over October 30-November 1 at the SkyCity Convention Centre, in Auckland.

Over the course of two days, international students had the chance to meet with education institu-tions and service providers that can help them choose the next step in their education path.

Immigration New Zealand was also on hand to discuss with students future immigration options and explain how their education can lead to their career as a skilled migrant in New Zealand.

Joint CEO of Working In, Hayley Roberts said, “The International Student Expo is a forum where international students can meet face to face with universities and educational institutes and discover their next study choices in NZ or Australia. International students are already here in NZ and being able to attend an event like this with lots of study options on show can help them determine their next academic step.”

The list of exhibitors that attended the first edition of the expo included institutions as renowned as the ANZ Bank, Deakin University, La Trobe University, Servilles Academy, Wellpark College, Avon-more Tertiary Institute, University of Canterbury and The Professional Bar & Restaurant School, among others.

“The inaugural expo was very well received by students and exhibitors and we thank all partici-pants for supporting the first event,” commented Ms Roberts.

For the exhibitors, it was an opportunity to talk to students and present them with new options for their future. “We have established many contacts and the people we spoke to were interested and wanting to deal with us,” said ANZ Bank’s Michelle Proudfoot.

The next International Student Expo will take place in Auckland on 1 and 2 May 2010. The event will then travel to Sydney (8 and 9 May), Brisbane (12 May) and Melbourne (15 and 16 May).


Students’ expo a success

PIctuRed: Ex-student Reshmi Prasad, Justice Jai Ram Reddy, Subhash Appana, and ex-House Deputy Speaker Gyanendra Prasad.


Indian India

New Delhi: Jamait-e-Ulema Hind or the JEU, has passed a resolution at their Deoband national convention meet, against the singing of the na-tional song ‘Vande Mataram’ as its reciting is against Islam.

The JEU says that some of the verses in the patriotic song are against the tenets of Islam. The Muslim Law Board justified the deci-sion saying that Muslims can’t offer prayers to anyone but Allah. Kamal Farooqui, a prominent leader of the Board said, “We love the nation but can’t worship it.”

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram was also an invitee and speaker at the convention. He has come under a lot flak for attending this meet especially after the declaration of the fatwa, al-though Chidambaram claims he had no knowl-edge about it when he went there.

Some of the other resolutions passed were that the government should not interfere with minor-

ity affairs, opposed amendments in Article 377 and 33 per cent reservation for women, calling it ‘unnecessary and unacceptable’.

On the concluding day of the convention yoga guru Baba Ramdev demonstrated his skills to the thousands of muslim clerics gathered there. The Darul Uloom had issued a fatwa in favour of yoga after some clerics last year banned Muslims from practising it.

Leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party have demanded an immediate arrest of the JEU members and reg-istration of police complaints for making anti-national statements.

Praveen Togadia the general secretary of the VHP said that “Disrespect to national song is an anti-national act and hence all the clerics of ‘Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’, who adopted the resolu-tion must be booked under laws relating to the anti national and subversive acts.”

Madurai: The Panthadi Elementary School in the heart of the city of Madurai is perhaps the only school to have no students but just one teacher. The lone teacher Ms. Alageswari duti-fully comes to school, signs the attendance reg-ister and sits through the day and leave in the evening when it is school closing time.

Back in 2007 the school had about 10 stu-dents distributed from classes I to V. In 2008 the number reduced to 4 and in the academic year ending 2009 there were none. The school has been running thus as even the poorer sections of the society prefer private schools to the ones run by the government.

Fatwa against ‘Vande mataram’

Braveheart Rukhsana now in the Police Force

This school has no students but just one teacher

Srinagar: Rukhsana Kausar who shot into limelight for killing a Lashkar-e-toiba ter-rorist and injuring another has been ap-pointed as Special Police Officer (SPO) in the Jammu and Kashmir police force, an official announced.

Her brother and uncle who also helped in fending off the terrorists have been absorbed into the force. There had been rumours that Rukhsana was being shifted to Delhi for security reasons, but senior superintendent of police denied these reports.

India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has launched a four wheel version of a category of vehicle that has so far been restricted to three wheel-ers in India.

The tiny Gio carves out a niche that’s a notch above India’s prevalent three-wheeled runabouts like the longstanding Bajaj au-torickshaw pick-up but uses a conventional four-wheel layout. The Gio is effectively the answer to hitherto three wheeled options like the Bajaj and Piaggio rickshaws.

It is powered by a two-cylinder, .44-litre diesel engine that is rated at only 9.1 horse-power. Yet, Mahindra says it is capable of hauling up to a 500kg load in its 5-foot cargo box and returning up to an astounding 67 mpg.

Mahindra expects the overall market size to be around 15,000 vehicles per month. And is planning about 2,000 to 3,000 units per month to begin with.

Mahindra’s engine supplier for the Gio is Kohler Engines, an American company that makes diesel and gas motors for lawn mowers, garden tractors, concrete construction equip-ment, pressure washers and other products. It’s four-speed transmission is built by Ma-hindra.

Perhaps even more astonishing than the Gio’s tiny footprint, high mpg and cargo car-rying capability is its price tag, which starts at 1.65 lakh, or only $3,525 US dollars.

The company has said it would soon be releasing a passenger version of Gio. It is ex-pected that just like the cargo version, the pas-senger carrier version would also be equipped with a 9.1 HP Kohler engine and will be man-ufactured in Mahindra’s Haridwar plant.

While the Gio has been developed keeping in mind intra-city transportation require-ments, the passenger variant could be posi-tioned for inter-city travel as well on lines of

the Tata Magic. There is a CNG-version also on the cards at a later date.

Meanwhile, Nissan has announced its answer to the Tata Nano, called the world car V on October 30. It will launch a new small car in Thailand, India and China in March 2010, in an effort to topple the Tata Nano as the developing world’s car of choice.

The first new car launched by Nissan spe-cifically aimed at these emerging markets will be called the V -- for versatility -- and Nissan expects a staggering one million sales by 2013.

The first details of the ambitious little auto reveals a gameplan lifted from the Tata Nano: fewer and cheaper auto parts. The V will feature 20 percent fewer parts than the average Nissan and they will be almost totally locally made in their intended markets.

The V will feature a 3-cylinder diesel or gasoline engine, just a 41-litre fuel tank and highly-engineered plastic in place of less cost- and fuel-efficient steel and aluminium.

The hatchback model will be released in 2010, with a sedan and CUV model in 2011. The car will be sold in Europe and the US in 2011, eventually reaching nearly 150 coun-tries.

Prices were not announced, but the car will probably compete not just with the super-bud-get-friendly Nano but also with the upcoming Ford Fiesta world car, which is expected to be unveiled with similarly ambitious designs at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December.

Nissan is the eighth best-selling automaker in the world this year and works in partner-ship with France’s Renault, the tenth bestsell-er, which would make them the fourth-largest automaker globally when combined.


Mahindra’s answer to the Rickshaw takes a bow – and so does Nissan’s reply to Tata’s Nano

Chandigarh: Life in Punjab was paralysed on Tuesday, November 3 as a state-wide bandh was observed to protest against the “denial of justice to the families of thousands of people killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.”

The bandh was called by radical Sikh groups such as Khalsa Action Committee, Dal Khalsa and the Damdami Taksal.

All commercial establishments, educational institutions and shops were closed making the bandh near total.

In an unusual move the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandak Committee (SGPC), did not support this bandh. Perhaps seeing the overwhelming response to the bandh the SGPC now has decided to hold ‘Akhand Path’ in its over 250 associated gurdwaras across the region to seek justice for the 1984 riot victims.

According to SGPC chief Avtar Singh, Sikhs would be seeking justice if they partici-pate in the ’Akhand Path’ and ‘ardas’

Meanwhile all other sects of Sikhs have strongly condemned the decision of the SGPC not to participate in the bandh and have called their action as a “matter of shame”

Sikhs seek justice for 1984 riot victims


Indian

Jaipur: In one of the worst accidents in the history of the Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC), a major fire swept through the storage fuel tanks of IOC at the distribution terminal on the outskirts of Jaipur on 29 October.

The fire claimed 13 lives, injuring more than 150 persons. Officials fear the death toll could go up as there is no exact knowledge of the number of people trapped inside. The fire contin-ues to rage and officials say it will have to burn itself out, which would take 5-6 days. Efforts are on to prevent the spread of fire in a horizon-tal way as the tanks are melting under the high temperature.

Reports say that the fire broke out after a pipeline valve failed when petrol was being transferred from the IoC terminal to Bharat Pe-troleum’s storage nearby. The Met department recorded a tremor measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale around the time the first explosion was heard at 7.36pm. Such was the impact of the ex-plosions that windows of houses even 3km away were damaged.

The explosions created panic among thou-sands of students, of over a dozen engineering and management institutes in the adjoining areas. People living in nearby areas are being evacuated to safer places.

The petroleum ministry had ordered a high

level inquiry into the disaster. Teams from the Army and Bombay high have reached the site are trying to assist in rescue and relief opera-tions. Initial estimates say the loss to IOC could be more than 150 crores.

India

Chennai: After 100 years, Dalits in a village in Tamil Nadu for the first time were allowed to enter into Ekambareshwarar Temple. This historic moment was made possible by the intervention of the government and local administration.

Nearly 70 Dalits, escorted by revenue and police officers entered the century old temple and offered prayers. Women and children dressed in their best brought flowers and other offerings.

Said one ecstatic Dalit “ It is a historic day for all of us. For generations all we could do was stand 100 feet away from the entrance and pray.”

A tripartite meeting involving non-Dalits, Dalits and government officials had reached an agree-ment on allowing entry to Dalits to the temple.

Gandhinagar: Swine flu has taken in its grip the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Modi tested positive for the virus two days after re-turning from a trip to Russia on 28, October.

The 59-year-old Modi showed symptoms of cold, cough and fever and had inisisted on the H1N1test. He will be kept in isolation at his res-idence for seven days where a team of doctors are attending on him.

Meanwhile eight swine flu deaths, including four in Maharashtra, were reported in India Sat-urday, taking the toll to 473, health authorities said here.

Also, 77 new cases of the infection were re-ported in the country, taking the total number of people infected with the contagious flu to 13,861.

According to the World Health Organisa-tion (WHO), more than 700 people have died of swine flu this week raising the number of fatali-ties from the viral disease to 5,712 worldwide.

Dalits enter temple for first time in Tamil Nadu

Major fire in Indian Oil depot in Jaipur

Modi down with swine flu

New Delhi: Hundreds of people flocked to Shakti Sthal, in New Delhi, to pay respects to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her 25th death anniversary, on Saturday 31, October.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Con-gress president Sonia Gandhi were amongst the first to pay their tributes at the memorial on the banks of the Yamuna river.

An exhibition on the life and times of Indira Gandhi, national integration rallies across the country and blood donation camps were some of the events organized by the Congress on the occasion.

On this occasion Sonia Gandhi gave away the prestigious 24th Indira Gandhi Award for Na-tional Integration for the year 2008 to noted jour-nalist, writer and human rights activist Balraj Puri at a function in New Delhi.

In 1984, Indira Gandhi launched Operation Blue Star to crush secessionist movement in Punjab and sent troops into the Golden Temple of Amritsar. Her assassination was the violent response to the action.

Her death had also triggered massive anti-Sikh riots which killed more than 3000 people over three days in the capital.

Nation pays homage to Indira Gandhi

environmental effects of the fireEnvironmental experts say that the fire has resulted in the city’s worst ecological disaster. With the arrival of winter thethick smoke emanating from the accident site would down over the city creating a haze and affecting visibility and could cause respiratory problems.

Residents are already complaining of irritation in their eyes and skin. Layers of grey matter could be seen enveloping the city ever since the billowing flames started. The health department has not yet set up any special cell for tackling the aftermath of the disaster.

New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil, the first woman president of the country will be flying in the most potent fighter jet of the Indian Air Force, the Sukhoi-30, sometime in the end of November, from the air force base in Pune.

Military style detailing has started for the journey as the president is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces in the country.

Her predecessor A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had also flown in the Sukhoi-30, but his keen eye was looking at the performance of the machine, the working of which he was familiar with. In contrast Patil will be flying for about 30 minutes and an air force official said that president would be given a “slow and steady ride but it won’t be boring”. She would be shown a few basic manoeuvres that would give her an idea of the capabilities of the fighter.

So far the planning is perfect, but the air force is faced with a unique problem, they do not have a G-suit, flying suit and boots to fit the petite president. The G-suit is made up of a special material and has inflatable bladders which press tightly against the stomach region of the flyers in fighter planes. It is to be worn over or under the flying suit. This helps them to withstand high acceleration or g-force.

Incidentally the Indian Air Force does not have any female fighter pilots, from whom the president could have borrowed the suits and boots.

G-suits for madam president


Indian Fiji

The Fiji government and tourism stakeholders said last week that they expect tourism numbers to boom with increased airlines servicing Fiji and a direct flight from China to Fiji.

It has already been confirmed that Australian airlines Jetstar, a low-cost Qantas subsidiary, and V Australia will start servicing Fiji within months with competition expected to heat up. The direct flight from Hong Kong to Nadi starts on December 3.

Fiji will get direct connectivity to the Europe market. Fiji’s Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said opportunities and tourism numbers were expected to increase dramatically.

The Chinese Embassy Counsellor in Fiji, Fei Mingxing, said the recent move by Air Pacific was a great one and would increase tourist numbers from Asian countries.

Suva: The Australia-Fiji Business Council has called on Australia’s Government to soften its hard-line stance against the coup-installed mili-tary government in Fiji.

The Council’s president, Brian Anderson, says the increasingly difficult relations between the two countries are making it harder to do busi-ness, and this is costing ordinary citizens jobs.

He said the latest round of diplomatic expul-sions help no one, but creates a great deal of un-certainty.

“Fiji is struggling for more investment as it is, and this sort of thing only creates more un-

certainty,” he said.“Business cannot operate in a climate of un-

certainty.”He said what’s needed from both sides is a

willingness to talk.“The countries are going to have to talk to

each other. I can understand the country expel-ling the high commissioner in response to theirs being kicked out of Fiji, but I don’t think at the end of the day it does much,” he said.

- Indian Weekender news deskPacificbusinessonline.com/ Pacnews

Fiji’s century old Penal Code replaced

Bank of South Pacific revolution in Fiji, Telcos in bank service bidSuva: Fiji’s 100 year old Penal Code is going to

be replaced by a new Crimes Act scheduled to come into effect on February 1 next year says At-torney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the Crimes Act would bring about some ground breaking provi-sions in Fiji’s criminal justice system. “Essen-tially it modernises (and) reforms the laws in Fiji, it makes us compliant with many outstanding matters pertaining to our international obliga-tions,” he told the media.

The Act also provides for previously unrec-ognised crimes against humanity.

“Things like sexual violence, sexual persecu-tion, sexual slavery and forced prostitution etc and we have also specific provisions pertaining to offences of slavery, sexual solitude and decep-tive recruiting,” said Sayed-Khaiyum.

“We have (covered) trafficking in persons and children. As you know some international observations have previously said that Fiji was not compliant with various provisions pertain-ing to international or human trafficking. This

will make us compliant with that. We have a new offence of people smuggling and related of-fences. So these are some of the international of-fences,” he said.

In addition, said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji’s courts would now have extended geographical jurisdictions. “So if I’m sitting in Australia and offering a bribe to somebody in Fiji previously there were anomalies regarding whether it fell within the jurisdiction of the courts or not. Those anomalies will now be removed,” he added.

People procuring the services of a prostitute can now be charged under the new Act.

Similarly, he said the penalty for desecrat-ing a place of worship had been increased while crimes relating to computer hacking had also been added to the Act. The provisions under which spouses and de-facto partners are allowed to give evidence against their partners in a court of law, have also been strengthened. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said a new sentencing penalties decree will ensure there is consistency in sentencing.

- Pacificbusinessonline.com/ Pacnews

Suva, Fiji: The Bank of South Pacific is poised to revolutionise banking in Fiji with the intro-duction of mobile banking, says the Fiji Times.

While this is in the pipeline for most of the banks, BSP general manager Greg Watson said they were ready to introduce it within six months.

BSP is expected to take over Colonial Na-tional Bank’s operations from next month with only the Reserve Bank of Fiji and Papua New Guinea’s central bank approvals pending.

Though the amount is undisclosed, BSP will take over the insurance business including other CNB interests such as the Suva Private Hospital.

Talking of the impending takeover, Mr Watson who has extensive banking experience in the South Pacific region said BSP would be bringing its “PNG experience” to the Fiji market.

“We have a very wide representation, by far the largest in PNG with about 60 per cent the market share in 35 centres,” Mr Watson said.

“We have about 500,000 to 600,000 custom-ers in PNG.

“Our strength is that we are focusing only on the South Pacific.

“We have introduced SMS banking in PNG, mobile banking to villages, changing the way of banking.”

BSP entered the local market in 2006, taking over the operations of the Pakistan-based Habib Bank, and since then it has been able to multi-ply its business six or seven times.

“We are full commercial bank, we have a wide range of electronic products and we are customer focus -- we understand the Pacific way of doing things,” Mr Watson said.

Meanwhile, Telecommunications operators

have approached the Reserve Bank of Fiji in their interest to offer basic banking services through mobile phones.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji Sada Reddy said these types of services would further enhance the promotion of financial in-clusion in Fiji, especially in terms of mobilising savings and easy access to remittances.

“In addition, this will provide increased choice of financial services available to people in geographically isolated and remote areas of Fiji,” Mr Reddy said.

He made the comments at the Novotel Lami microfinance workshop on “Medium-Term Strategy for Financial Inclusion in Fiji”.

Mr Reddy said the financial system was a locomotive for growth and banks were the main players in this system. Their importance came with responsibilities as well.

“No doubt banks have contributed to the de-velopment of the country over the years,” Mr Reddy said.

“However, I would like to see them play a more influential role and active role in address-ing the unbanked population through financial inclusion.

“Of course, we understand that banking is a very specialised area and risks need to be managed carefully so that depositors’ interests are safeguarded.

“I therefore strongly believe that the com-mercial banks operating in Fiji can play a more active role in the economic and social devel-opment of our country by providing banking services to suit the needs of our people in the medium and long term”.


Suva: Fiji’s leader Commodore Frank Bainima-rama has used the annual gathering of business executives at the Exporter of the Year Awards to tell recalcitrant neighbours Australia and New Zealand that all is well between them and Fiji at the business level.

“We need to view and indeed separate the political from trade, tourism and the economy,” Commodore Bainimarama said to applause from the audience, in reference to last week’s tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions first by Fiji and followed by Australia and New Zealand.

Commodore Bainimarama said while the governments of Fiji, Australia and New Zealand had taken respective positions regarding their interaction at the political and diplomatic level,

his government would not let “such issues affect or discourage trade, tourism, business co-opera-tion, collaboration and investment”.

“On the contrary, we encourage more trade, investment and tourism between our traditional partners of Australia and New Zealand.”

Commodore Bainimarama said he again offered engagement at all levels with the two governments “on a level playing field in which our sovereignty and dignity is respected and maintained. Such engagement must encourage trade, investment and friendship for the mutual benefit of our countries”.

Meanwhile, representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are expected in Fiji this week as the Government

looks for financing of its land reform to be imple-mented early 2010.

The land reform agenda is part of a set of reforms Commodore Bainimarama said were de-signed to help Fiji achieve its true potential.

The visit follows the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Istanbul early last month that was attended by Bainimarama, Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Sada Reddy and Finance Ministry permanent secretary John Prasad.

Commodore Bainimarama said the banks’ representatives will get a better sense of the situ-ation here before a decision on its loan to Fiji is made.

He said the Reserve Bank of Fiji and Finance Ministry will work with the visiting party.

In July this year, Commodore Bainimara-ma announced his roadmap to returning Fiji to democratic elections in 2014, conditional to the implementation of certain reforms.

He said the land reform is intended to salvage Fiji’s struggling sugar industry and open up more opportunities for tourism and agriculture.

He said his government will ensure that taukei (indigenous) landowners get an attractive return when they give out their land for lease.

Indigenous Fijian landowners own about 90 per cent of all the land in Fiji.


More Chinese to tour Fiji

Fiji-Australia expulsions help no one: business council

Suva, Fiji: Representatives of four large Indian ICT firms will be in Fiji later this month to explore business opportunities here.

This follows on the heels of global contact centre, Mindpearl, setting up its operations at the Kalabu Tax Free Zone, and has the Fiji government’s investment promotion arm excited.

“Of the four that we have got confirmed, two of them are actually manufacturing compa-nies,” said Fiji Trade and Investment Board chief executive officer Annie Rodgers.

“They manufacture phones and other products in the ICT area. One of them is a producer of the LG mobile phone and Philips. So two are in manufacturing, one is in voice over internet services, and one is in the area of back office processing.

“One of the companies is actually sending their Vice President. For the three others it will be their CEOs. So we are pretty excited.”

The Indian businessmen will meet key stakeholders in Fiji, both in Government and the private sector.

The FTIB is hopeful that two other large ICT operators will come out of India before the year end.

“Given the fact that we can get Mindpearl here to do a bigger operation than they do in other countries, we hope that we can achieve something like that for these companies who are coming down,” said Rodgers.

“Again, it depends on our planning and how well we answer their questions, how well we showcase Fiji, and believe me we’re going to do a good job on that front.”

- Pacificbusinessonline.com/ FijiLive

Indian IT majors eye Fiji for investment

Fiji’s leader sends clear business signal to Australia, NZ


Indian community

Guru Nanak Devji’s Parkash Utsav celebrated with fervour The 540th Prakash Utsav of Sri Guru Nanak Devji, the founder of Sikhism, was celebrat-ed with great fervour on November 2. Hun-dreds of devotees thronged the Sri Dasmesh Darbar in Papatoetoe in the evening – they included not only Sikhs but also the Hindus and Indians from other states of India. Some Kiwis also attended the evening – sending out the message how Indians have been accepted and merged in the mainstream here.

The celebrations started with the chang-ing of ‘Chola Sahib’ of Sri ‘Nishan Sahib’ by Sikh volunteers and it was raised aloft amid the chanting of ‘Bole so Nihal – Sat Sri Akal’.

Dignitaries of the evening included list MPs Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Melissa Lee and Dr. Cam Calder who were extended a warm welcome by Mr Prithipal Singh Basra on behalf of the Sikh Sangat and the Sewak Committee.

Mr Singh brief ly highlighted Guru Nanak’s contribution for the welfare of the common man in society – how Nanak’s sermons were in a very simple language easily understandable by one and all and how he raised his voice against the exploitation of poor by rich, of lower caste by upper caste people, superstitious practices and proved himself to be a great social reformer.

Guru Nanak spread the message of oneness of all human beings irrespective of their caste, class or social status and oneness of God.

Mr Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi congratulated the Sangat on this auspicious day and urged upon them to follow Guru Nanak’s teachings in true spirit in deeds and actions in our day to day life.

Raj Bedi – the Secretary before giving his vote of thanks, shared with the Sangat three Tenets of Sikhism gifted by Guru Nanak Devji. ‘Naam Japo’ – Always remember his

name; ‘Kirt Karo’ – earn your livelihood honestly and ‘Vand Chako’ – share with those who don’t have.

Ms Melisaa Lee and Dr. Cam Calder also extended greetings to the Sangat.

On this auspicious occasion the website of the Gurudwara was officially launched by the MPs. The address is www.sridasmeshdar-bar.com. You can read Guru Granth Sahib on line, listen Japji Sahib, Rehraas Sahib, Anand Sahib and also view Kirtan from Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar and listen to live Kirtan from Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar. It also has several other useful and informative links for the benefit and convenience of the community. Suggestions and feed back for updating this

website are invited from the community.Mr Prithipal Singh Basra, Mr Ajit Singh

Randhawa and Mr Beant Singh Jador hon-oured the distinguished guests on behalf of the Sewak Committee.

Website creator Jasbir Dhillon was pre-sented with a Siropa for his ‘Nishkaam’ sewa and his invaluable contribution towards the community. Guru Ka Langar was served to the devotees.

The Gurupurab celebrations’ grand finale concluded with a wonderful display of fire-works equally enjoyed by kids and parents.

- Indian Weekender news deskPhotos: Harjinder Singh Basiala


Indian community

I recently led the New Zealand delegation at the fifth Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue – where our nation was praised for being leaders in the way multi-ethnic and multi-faith communi-ties exist in harmony.

We are a country with a successful model for social harmony, which is based on the celebra-tion of our diversity.

The New Zealand delegation was made up of men and women representing many religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Bud-dhism, and Sikhism.

And naturally, forum attendees were treated to a Waiata at the end of my keynote speech, which sparked huge interest from the other coun-tries’ delegates – many of whom took photos as we showed the world how all religions could cel-ebrate our country’s culture.

During the conference, I was asked to address the only international press conference to talk about our country’s success in achieving social harmony and peace.

The Interfaith Dialogue gave us a platform to provide an insight into our multicultural, inter-faith and inter-generational practices that ensure faith followers of all persuasions can not only stay true to their religion, but also participate in all aspects of Kiwi life.

New Zealand is largely a secular society but is also home to many religions. Recent statistics show that Christianity is our largest faith with 2.1 million people, while our second largest group is agnostic with 1.29 million.

Our model of success, however, is based on celebrating our multi-ethnic and multi-faith communities through events like Diwali, Eid, Christmas (Maori New Year) Chinese New Year, Korean New Year and the many others, where New Zealanders from all walks of life come to

celebrate.The theme of this year’s Interfaith Dialogue

was, ‘Future Faith Leaders’ and the New Zealand delegation represented this well, with a mix of long-standing community leaders and also those who are eager to carry the torch in the future.

The New Zealand delegation ran the work-shop on media and utilising the internet to enhance knowledge and understanding of our inter-faith communities and it was interesting to see the dynamic the young people brought to the discussion – with some suggesting social networking sites could be utilised, while others suggested video games as an option.

It provided us with an ideal opportunity to talk about the challenges and opportunities of interacting with the media.

Deadlines, resource issues and a lack of empathy means many news outlets struggle to know or identify interviewees with in-depth knowledge within many faiths and minority communities.

For many journalists writing or talking about

religion or ethnic minority cultures, the default tends to label individuals willing to comment as community leaders or to adhere to stereotypes, especially where these stereotypes are widely held and there is pressure to meet a deadline.

One of the biggest challenges that many from within our ethnic and faith communities face when dealing with the media is also collective identity; where often an entire community will be put under the spotlight instead of the individ-ual at the centre of the story.

While it is perhaps unrealistic to expect all media to have on their staff experts of all reli-gions, it is possible to improve general under-standing of the issues and personality so that major offence can be avoided.

Some community leaders are already taking proactive steps of communication with media such as releasing press statements, writing letters to the editor to correct misreporting, and making themselves available for interviews with journalists and making their status clear as being an individual or on behalf of an organisation – and not the entire community.

New Zealand is an active nation when it comes to promoting dialogue between different communities and media, one such example is the Asia-Pacific Regional Media Programme, where journalists went to a retreat in South East Asia to examine issues related to reporting on ethnic mi-nority communities while away from the pres-sures of deadline. Many indicated that this was a very helpful process.

I am pleased that New Zealand will be holding a second Regional Media Programme in early 2010.

Also, through the media exchange pro-gramme, we send three young New Zealand journalists to Southeast Asia each year for work

experience, to allow them to see life through a different lens.

Domestically, New Zealand’s Office of Ethnic Affairs holds media forums with com-munity groups, mainstream media and ethnic media outlets. These forums provide an oppor-tunity for networking and inform attendees on the nature of media in New Zealand.

A component of this project is the Building Bridges programme, which looks at the relation-ship between the New Zealand Muslim commu-nity and the media, and promotes more dialogue between the Muslim and non-Muslim communi-ties.

New Zealand does not assume social harmony comes naturally and we appreciate that it is something that we have to work at. It was a pleasure to demonstrate to the world that New Zealand is a country that is happy to have the voices of our diversity heard both domestically and on the world stage.

-Hon Pansy Wong, Minister for Ethnic Affairs

A successful model for social harmony

AsIA-PAcIFIc RegIoNAL INteRFAIth dIALogue: New Zealand delegates per-form a Waiata at the end of Hon Pansy Wong’s keynote speech at the f ifth Asia-Pacif ic Regional Interfaith Dialogue in Perth, Australia.


Indian community

Sathya Sai Service Organisation of New Zealand organised non-stop 24 hours devotional singing (Akhanda Bhajans) session at three venues: Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington from 6pm on Satur-day November 8 to 6pm on Sunday November 9.

This was the Global Annual Event organised by the Sai devotees all over the world in all lands. It was being done not for the sake of one individual, one nation, or one community. It was for the welfare of humanity as a whole.

The event commenced with the lighting of the ‘Akhanda Jyothi’ (sacred lamp) that was kept burning for 24 hours. Thus the sacred lamp was lit in each country during the 24 hour period based on local time.

Due to the time zone New Zealand was ahead of many countries to start the singing sessions. As the earth revolves, lamps were lit in all countries according to the local time, and by the time the westernmost country lighted the lamp, easternmost countries had completed the ‘Akhand Bhajans’.

Before the event was completed here, the world was in a girdle of sacred lamps lit round the globe by Sai devotees. This sacred lamp not only helps to concentrate the minds of devotees but promotes also a sense of spiritual unity and harmony among the devotees.

Sai Organisation that promotes the unity of faiths has set up an example in New Zealand, by singing devotional songs in Sanskrit, English and Maori languages. The songs were dedicated to all aspects of God and faiths.


Renowned Kiwi writer Jocelyn Armstrong’s book Discovering Diver-sity was launched recent-ly and senior members of the NZ Sikh Society had been specially invited for this occasion as there have been quite a few ref-erences to the prosperous Sikh community in New Zealand.

This book gives a brief overview of the Sikh religion which is one of world’s newest reli-gions. The Sikh Temples of Takanini, Otahuhu, Hamilton and Bombay Hills have also been pic-torially featured in this informative book.

Jocelyn Armstrong has many years experi-ence as a secondary school teacher, most recent-ly at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. She has international experience in interfaith work.

Discovering Diversity explains and explores the major world religions that now form part of the fabric of New Zealand’s multicultural society. It introduces the reader to some of the beliefs and practices of these faiths, with the aim of increasing empathy, understanding and knowledge.

Its curriculum focus is Social Studies Level 5, and it covers the Achievement Objectives: Un-derstand how cultural interaction impacts on cul-tures and societies; Understand that people move between places and how this has consequences for the people and the places; Understand how the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on people’s lives.

Part 1 looks at how the introduction of Chris-tianity helped shape New Zealand as a bicultural nation, and at how more recent immigration is

transforming the country into a multicultural society. Part 2 focuses on the six major world religions: Christian-ity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.

Part 3 prepares students to conduct a social inquiry based on what they have learned. The book includes personal histories of young people following these faiths, giving the reader an appre-ciation of some of the chal-

lenges they face. Interesting and thought-provoking activi-

ties are included throughout the book, focusing in particular on cultural interaction. The text is illustrated with specially commissioned photo-graphs for which the photographer was granted access to mosques, temples, churches, and the homes of some of the people featured in the book.

Jocelyn says the book “gives a light outline of immigration into New Zealand, the consequent development of our multi-cultural and multi-faith communities, and an introduction to the main world religions now present.”

The textbook engages students by incor-porating the history of the religions in New Zealand and specific examples of how young people observe their religions here and how their religions influence their lives and identity.

The text also encourages discussion, with each section including activities for students to evaluate and analyse the concepts and the strengths and challenges of diverse values and beliefs. The book is published by Pearson Educa-tion New Zealand.

- Photos by Harjinder Singh Basiala

Devotional singing for humanity’s welfare

Book on Diversity published

Aaron KashyapBA, LLBBarrister and solicitorLevel 1, 351 Manukau Road, PO Box 26-596, DXCP 32513, Epsom, AucklandMobile: 0274 857 302 Phone: (09) 6238277 Fax: (09)6235177Email: [email protected]

For all your legal needs

‘AkhANd bhAjANs’ heLd At AuckLANd

Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s 84th Birthday Celebration would be held the follow-ing venues:

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009l South Auckland: Skipton Hall, 53 Skipton Rd, Mangere; Time: 7:15 pm-9:30 pml Central Auckland: Mahatma Gandhi Hall, 145 New North Rd, Eden Tce; Time:7:00 pm -9:00 pml West Auckland: Kelston Commu-nity Centre, 126 Awaroa Rd, Kelston; Time:6:30 pm-9:45 pm

Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009l East Auckland: Edgewater Col-lege, 32 Edgewater Drive, Pakuranga; Time:4:30 pm-7:30 pm Blood DonationWhen: Saturday, 21 Nov 2009, 10 am – 3 pmVenue: Blood Bank, Dilworth Building, 71 Great South Road, Epsom Note: Over 80% of us will require Blood products in our lifetime

RAjINdeR sINgh ANd dALjIt sINgh jP WIth joceLyN ARmstRoNg

This book gives a brief overview of the Sikh religion which is one of world’s newest religions. The Sikh Temples of Takanini, Otahuhu, Hamilton and Bombay Hills have also been pictorially featured in this informative book.


Indian community

Study, work

and migrate

NEW

ZEALAND

to

Limited time offer:

Free insurance for first year of study

Free accommodation for first 2 weeks

Resource fee for NZ$1800 waived for 2009

No registration fees

Free airport pick up

Postgraduate Diploma in

Business Enterprise

Guidelines from Immigration New Zealand website:‘Expressions of Interest (for migration to New Zealand) are submitted into a Pool. Periodically, Expressions of Interest are selected from the Pool as follows:

‘Expressions of Interest that have total points of 140 or more will be selected automatically from the Pool; Expressions of Interest that have a points total of 100 or more but less than 140, (and include points for an offer of skilled employment or current skilled employment in New Zealand), are selected (according to their points ranking) in suffcient numbers to meet New Zealand’s immigration requirements.’

Southern Institute of TechnologyA New Zealand Government Polytechnic

Tel: +6493795700 Email: [email protected] www.sit.ac.nz

Benefits for students:

Example of points calculation for skills to New Zealand:migration Points

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Enterprise at SIT (50 + 5 + 5 points)

60

Offer of skilled employment (less than 12 months)

50

10Bonus points for employment outside Auckland

Age between 20 to 29 30

Relevant work experience (say 2 years) 10

TOTAL 160

Course duration of only 18 months.

Affordable. Full course fees of NZ$18,000.

Work up to 20 hours a week and full time during

year-end holidays.

Spouse can work full-time.

Children attend primary / secondary schools at

domestic rates (mostly free).

Part time & Full-time job placement assistance.

1-year graduate job-search visa.

2-year work permit with job offer.

60 New Zealand migration point for graduates.

There is a shortage of skilled workers.

(The region needs 15,000 skilled workers in

next 5 years)

Coursework

6 months

University of Wales, UK

MBA

Coursework/

Project

Dissertation

12 months - done

anywhere in NZ

PGDipBE

Queenstown Christchurch

Invercargill

South Island, NZ

Example of points calculation for skills migration to New Zealand:

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Enterprise at SIT (50 + 5 + 5 points)

Offer of skilled employment (less than 12 months)

Bonus points for employment outside Auckland

Age between 20 to 29

Relevant work experience (say 2 years)

TOTAL

Points

60

50

10

30

10

160

Diwali: the celebrations continue Diwali in Hamilton a big successThe Founders Theatre in Hamilton came alive recently with a magnificent Diwali 2009 function being organized by Indian Cultural Society Waikato Inc.

For Hamilton, the Diwali function by Indian Cultural Society has become an eagerly anticipated annual event.

People from all over the country f lock to the Founders Theatre on fun-filled day of music, dance, food and culture. The annual event offers a unique opportunity to celebrate and explore India’s diverse culture and tradi-tions, including authentic regional food, arts, and entertainment.

An extensive cultural programme was pre-pared by the organisers for the October 25 function.

For the first time in Hamilton, the secre-tary and chief organizer Roy Vellara proved that an Indian function could start and finish ion time. At sharp 6.50pm, as advertised, the curtain lifted for the first programme and the curtain was down at sharp 9.30pm.

The programme, consisting of 28 items that was arranged two months earlier, went on serially without changing or cancelling even one item – astonishing many community leaders who were present at the theatre. A Kiwi view of the Diwali narrated in the docu-mentary gave western audience an elaborated picture about the legend of Diwali and Indian hospitality as well.

The opening scene itself was different from the 19 years history of Indian Cultural Society and everyone liked the change and advance thinking.

The welcome speech was not just “welcome”, but a very humorous one that cleared all questions about the Indian Cultur-al Society’s activities. Among the events were a dance performance and a concert of tradi-tional Indian music. The audience enjoyed

an intensive cultural programme consisting of classical and modern Indian live perfor-mances, as well as East-West fusion dance and music.

Eminent V4U Entertainments group from Auckland performed at the function and had the audience spellbound with “Tribute to Bollywood”. Starting the programme with a combined Indian and Maori dance “Welcome to NZ” by Monisha Dance Group stunned the spectators, participants brought alive the cul-tural heritage of India through their dances and songs.

Energy levels were high when the Bangra and Giddha stunned the spectators. A few classical dance items based on Kathak Rap, Bengali folk, Kuchipudi and Tamil folk en-thralled the audience. “Moon Light” fusion performance by Monisha School of dance warmed up the stage, which was followed by Salam Bollywood and Rajasthani folk.

The Govan Dance by Tatiana and Bolly-wood dance by Generation Y- Priya & Group received the audience with a thunderous ap-plause. The quality maintained in every item was immaculate and the audiences were anx-iously waiting for the next item.

An audience of around 1200 people attend-ed the function. All western participants were impressed by the quality hosting of the Indian Cultural Society Waikato Inc, great hospital-ity, and the fascinating intricacies of Indian culture and society.

Society president Harkrishen Kung said, “next year is the 20th anniversary of Indian Cultural Society and planning for a bigger event”.


The Diwali mela in Hamilton held for the first time by GOPIO Waikato Inc. and Indi-anz Global Associatioon was a big success.

More than 15 ethnicities gave 22 performances while multi faith groups expressed overwhelming response at the event.

Humanity First and other associates collected donations for victims of the Samoa Tsunami relief fund. The festival is expected to grow bigger next year with more Indian and other organisations joining hands, Ms Suman Kapoor said.

Participants included a huge audience, community leaders, Members of Parliament Tim Mecendoe (National), Sue Moroney (Labour) David Banett (National), GOPIO officials Harish Bajaj, Ashok Bhatia, Satish Sharma and Rakesh Gupta


Indian LettersIndian

Viewpoint

Indian Weekender is published by Kiwi Media Group, 98 Great South Road, New Market and printed at APN Print, Ellerslie, Auckland Copyright 2009. Kiwi Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

Indian Weekender Volume 1 No 18Publisher: Kiwi Media Group Limitedgroup editor-in-chief: Dev Nadkarni [email protected] editor: Arvind Kumar [email protected] correspondent: Shobha Rao [email protected] technical officer: Rohan Desouza rohan@ indianweekender.co.nzdesign: Tanmay Desai [email protected] / www.desaign.co.nzAdvertising: Giri Gupta - Ph: 520 0922, Mob: 021 221 1131. Email - [email protected] email original editorial contributions, community notices and pictures to [email protected] expressed in the publication are not necessarily of the publisher and the publisher is not responsible for advertisers’ claims as appearingv in the publication

Please send us your name, street address and phone number along with a cheque for $30 payable to Kiwi Media Group and mail it to Unit O, 8 Bishop Lenihan Place, East Tamaki, Manukau 2013. The amount would cover the costs of mailing and handling 26 issues.

Would you like your copy of Indian Weekender delivered to your mail box?

Are you someone who can sell a refrigerator to an eskimo? Are you a marketing gem with a proven track record? If you think you have what it takes to promote New Zealand’s fastest growing Indian newspaper and website please email your cV to:

[email protected]

or call 09 520 0922 or 021 221 1131

Wanted:suPeR sALesPeRsoN

Four days that shook India

Making of a visionaryFirstly, thanks for India Weekender for sharing Dr. Kantis’ inspiring journey with us. Glen Innes Branch is our family doctors – doctors and staff are very friendly, helpful and they are faithful to their employer and to the customers. My family is happy with their services. Well Done-Best Wishes for his family and his employees

Subra M Subramaniam

What was the Methodists’ aim? Any examination of the Methodist church’s aims in Fiji needs to be approached from an understand-ing of what the Methodist church actually stood for - the conversion of sinners to a Godly life (in their terminology). Butadroka was a self-serving ignoramus who in no way represents the norm of Chris-tianity - he can’t even be considered a Christian in the Bible sense. To use him to lend credence to Ms Gounder’s opinions about the Methodist church in particular, or Christians in general, is unfair.

Max Wigglesworth

Building a legacy I am proud of those trustees, who are going out of their way to make things better for the future generation of our Zarathusti community. I offer my full support in whatever little way, I & my V4U Entertainments Team can support. Keep up the good work. Best wishes, Viraf Todywalla.

Viraf Todywalla--

Congratulations to Bharvi It was extremely heartening to read this candid, honest story. It was probably one of the most honest stories I have read in a while. Congratulations and keep up the great work Bharvi. We are very proud of you.

Raga--

Wow - what an amazing woman Bharvi is - a real role model. She doesn’t let anything get in her way. Well done for following your dream. I hope your life here goes really well.

Grace Bassett

You make us Indians feel proud of you! Working as a high school teacher @ Papatoetoe I know how you feel like being there out in the community! Great to see an Indian woman overcoming so many odds and making her dreams come true. Would be great to have more role models like you!

Su Mukund

Its really a great achievement.Inspite of all odds you have done very well.Its really great to take care of your family and at the same time go to work.You are an inspiration for all of us.

Firdosh Patel

May your story inspire others. You are a great example for the entire Indian community. Keep it up and make sure you get more Indians to get fit.

Munish Bhatt

Congratulations on your achievement!I am proud of you for following your dreams especially considering your struggles. You are a great role model for other Indian women and for your children. Congratulations once again.

Sukhdeep Johal

Congratulations Bharvi !! Good on you for holding on to your dream. It’s really very encouraging to see how despite so many obstacles you have not compromised and are now living your dream. Hope all goes well for you and stay safe. You definitely are an inspiration!

Fleur Cartwright

Congratulations Bharvi! Good on you. We are proud of you. Good luck with the future.Arunesh Singh

We Indians are diehard optimists – after all, we were able to survive a thousand years of foreign rule. Which is why a year after the savage and coordinated terror attack on Mumbai, it’s not inappropriate to say that something good may have come out of it.

Indeed, most Indians feel that somebody has to pay for all this. Hanging the lone terrorist

caught alive isn’t enough. This is not a time for forgiveness or lighting candles because 164 in-nocent people were murdered, many of them tortured to death. Ask the mothers, children, wives and husbands of those killed and chances are they won’t be in the mood to forgive.

There is no doubt the attack was Pakistan’s handiwork. Ironically, it came the same day that

India and Pakistan negotiated a joint anti-terrorism mechanism, agreeing to exchange infor-mation on terrorists. No surprises there because the line between private jehadi networks and state-sponsored terror mongers in Pakistan has become blurred. President Zardari may want to curb the ISI but even if he succeeds, the numerous jehadi outfits, their ranks swollen with Pakistanis, Afghans, Arabs, Chechens, even the odd converted European, are raring to go and commit mayhem in India.

While this runaway terrorism has hit India hard, the average Pakistani is now paying for it

too. Today, there are almost daily bombings in Pakistan. The country is indeed imploding – the situation is so bad that last month the Pakistani government closed schools and colleges nation-wide. The average citizen there is now totally petrified to step out of their home.

So are we condemned to live with elements within Pakistan tormenting us at will? Not if our

policymakers change course. According to R. Vaidyanathan, analyst and professor of finance, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, if Pakistan is dismantled and the idea of Pakistan is gone, many of our domestic issues will also be sorted out.

Says Vaidyanathan: “Will the Indian elite go for the jugular or just light more candles and

scream at the formless/nameless political class before TV cameras? It is going to be a long haul and maybe in a decade or so, we can find a solution to our existential crisis of being attacked by barbarians from the West. We need to combine strategy and patience and completely throw to the dustbin the Gujral Doctrine by that mumbling prime minister (I.K. Gujral) about treating younger brothers with equanimity.”

“The doctrine essentially suggests that if we are slapped on both the cheeks we should feel

bad that we do not have a third cheek to show. Gujral, according to security experts, seems to have dismantled our human intelligence assets inside Pakistan, which has resulted in the gory deaths of thousands of Indian citizens in the last few years. Such is our strategic thinking in this complex world since our political class is not adequately briefed and the elite don’t think through issues. Better to be simple in our talks and vicious in our actions rather than the other way.”

India’s policymakers are finally coming to terms with the idea that two can play the game.

Checkmating Pakistan’s ISI, which recently tried to blow up the Indian embassy in Kabul, and is one of the leading terror exporters, is therefore, a key strategy. It is interesting that India, which has few if any citizens in Afghanistan, has four consulates there. There’s a reason for that. All four consulates are primarily directed at weakening Pakistan’s position in Afghanistan and denying it the “strategic depth” it seeks.

“Afghan intelligence, the Afghan President, the Afghan Government – don’t talk of them. I

know what they do. They mislead the world. They talk against Pakistan, because they are under the influence of Indian intelligence, all of them,” former Pakistan dictator Pervez Musharraf told CNN in an interview last week.

India has slowly started encircling Pakistan. New Delhi is constructing the new Afghan Par-

liament building, new highways linking Kabul to Iran, new power projects and conducting other aid measures.

Indeed, New Delhi is no more apologetic about better security and a much stronger military.

Finally, after centuries of neglect our ancient federation is creating a military that will make the mighty Wehrmacht look like the boy scouts in comparison. India today has the world’s third largest army, fourth largest air force and fourth largest navy. India also has the largest constel-lation of spy satellites that are helping curb terrorist infiltration.

All this is not about avenging Mumbai, it is sending a clear message to the world that an

Indian backlash, when and if it comes, will be devastating.

– Rakesh Krishnan


Indian

guRchARAN dAs

Why the future belongs to Indiacomment

PAdmINI gAuNdeR

When Indian leaders ignored the Pacific WayRace relations in Fiji would have been differ-ent if Indian leaders had understood and re-spected the Pacific Way

The Pacific Way was an ideology that the first Prime Minister of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, introduced in the 1970s to promote re-gional solidarity. This was also used to bring together the different ethnic groups in Fiji, which had led their separate lives so far, as one nation.

Vague as the term was it did reflect a tra-dition of dialogue and discussion in politics, one scholar has noted. ‘Reciprocity’ and ‘con-sensus’ are also mentioned as features of the Pacific Way. Both these features were very much in evidence in the late 1960s and culmi-nated in the 1970 Fiji constitution. In the late 1960s/early 1970s the leaders of the two major ethnic groups in Fiji, the indigenous Fijians and the immigrant Indians, continued to hold discussions on all important matters and come to an agreement for the benefit of the nation.

A Fijian scholar, Simione Durutalo who was with the Fiji Labour Party dismissed the ‘Pacific Way’ as a pseudo ideology “manufac-tured by white liberal intellectuals with the loyal help of their indigenous disciples”. Aca-demics at the University of the South Pacific might have been influential in the development of the concept but to dismiss it as something manufactured by white intellectuals is not true.

Durutalo was wrong in his conclusion that it was “a pseudo ideology” because it also served a useful purpose in politics as it acknowledged dialogue and co-operation to accommodate the needs of the various ethnic groups. It was part of nation building and in-tegration and Ratu Mara was successful until Butadroka started his Fijian nationalist move-ment.

Unfortunately, in later years, the term ‘the Pacific Way’ became debased and came to mean lack of punctuality, lack of organisation and putting things off to the last minute. In recent years it has come to mean much worse things as Satendra Nandan notes: “Destabilis-ing a democratically elected government with a few guns is increasingly the Pacific Way”.

It has been pointed out that the “consen-sus” system as a mode of indigenous Fijian

decision-making is perhaps the least under-stood institution in Fiji. “It stands in almost complete contrast to party politics as a social strategy, requiring prolonged discussions in a formal, face-to-face setting, punctuated with ceremony and protocol”. One of the most im-portant features of this system is that, unlike in politics, personal accusations are avoided altogether as a vulgar breach of decorum.

It has been further noted that in Fiji, height-ened inter-ethnic tensions during elections used to be caused by the intense criticism of many of the paramount chiefs. This was done by the opposition National Federation Party (NFP) whose leaders after the death of its founder leader, A. D. Patel, did not under-stand Fijian sensitivities and traditions. If the leaders had stuck to the issues and criticised the government on that basis rather than at-tacking the persons, a lot of ethnic tensions could have been avoided.

Even before independence, in April 1969, the Alliance Party magazine, the Fiji Nation, had pointed out that the crux of the indepen-dence question was a “representative balance” between Fijians and Indians. It continued: “It is inconceivable that the Fijian community will agree to an arrangement which would not assure them of being masters of their own destiny in their own country”.

To maintain the balance, Fijian political predominance was necessary since Indians dominated in education and business. It has been noted that except during heated dis-putes, such as those that followed the 1968 by-elections, Fijian hegemony was not asserted

crudely.In 1977 the balance was temporarily lost

when the NFP had a narrow victory over the Alliance with the Fijian Nationalist Party splitting the Fijian votes, but this victory was accidental, not planned. The Indo-Fijian scholar, Professor Subramani, describes in a short story the rising anger in the Fijian mind when the chiefly-led Allaince Party lost the election, but before it could explode and lead to any violence, the Governor General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, acted and appointed a minority government under Ratu Mara. In the next general elections, a few months later, the balance was restored with Fijians flocking back to the Alliance.

After the 1977 experience it became clear that all that was needed to topple the Alliance government was a small split in the Fijian votes. With a change in NFP’s leadership, the Indian leaders seemed to overlook the im-portance of maintaining the balance as they made concerted efforts to dislodge the Fijian dominated Alliance Party from power. This, according to the Indo-Fijian scholar Brij Lal (who was ousted last week from Fiji), suggest-ed that they had not yet recognised the dire consequences that awaited the Indian commu-nity if the Indian dominated (in fact, almost exclusively Indian) NFP captured the govern-ment.

The NFP leaders did not heed the timely warning of Brij Lal that there would be trouble if the Alliance government was defeated and the balance was lost. Instead they went into another coalition in 1987 with the newly

formed multiracial Fiji Labour Party to topple Ratu Mara’s Alliance government. It was a moment when “the centre could not hold” as the politics of balance governing the two com-munities fell apart. This destroyed the poten-tial raised in the 1970s that “a just and fair multiracial democracy could be made to work in Fiji”, Brij Lal concluded.

A just and fair multiracial democracy could have been made to work in Fiji only if the Indian leaders had accepted Fijian hegemony (as A. D. Patel had who used to say that Fijians are “first among equals”) until the country became integrated with a common identity.

When Sitiveni Rabuka, the third ranking officer in the Fiji army, staged a coup in 1987 and overthrew the democratically elected gov-ernment, ethnic Fijians rallied behind him in support almost to the last man. This was because although Fijians were prepared to share power with other groups they were not going “to relinquish it or to subordinate them-selves to the will of others”.

At the time of independence the Fijians’ main desire was that “Fiji should be preserved as a Fijian country”, Ratu Mara noted in his Memoirs. In other words, they did not want Fiji to become “a little India of the Pacific” and they did not want to be marginalized in the country where they were the original settlers.

Whatever Rabuka’s real reasons might have been for carrying out the coups, it was the perception that there was a threat to their rights as the indigenous people that made the majority of the ethnic Fijians rally to his support. Today it is quite clear that the 1987 problem was caused by the loss of balance. If the Indian leaders had continued to follow the Fijian system of dialogue and accommoda-tion, in other words the Pacific Way, then there would not have been a loss of balance.

Peter Thompson correctly noted: “In 1987 the Fijians were at a wild and critical cross-roads. As an indigenous community they had both the power and the will to assert their posi-tion in Fiji”. And assert it they did.

(Padmini Gaunder’s book, ‘Education and Race Relations in Fiji’ is available for $15.00.

Those interested may contact her at [email protected]).

In preparing for a much publicised debate in London on the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’, I was reminded of a conversa-tion with my mother. She had asked, what is the difference between China growing at a rate of 10% and India at 8%? I replied that the differ-ence was, indeed, very significant. If we were to grow at 10% we could save twenty years. This is almost a generation. We could lift a whole gener-ation into the middle class twenty years sooner. She thought for a while and then said gently, “We have waited 3,000 years for this moment. Why don’t we wait another twenty and do it the Indian way?”

She had understood that the cost of democ-racy is the price the poor pay in the delay of their entry into the middle class. She did not elabo-rate the ‘Indian way’ but it must include taking a holiday on half a dozen New Year’s Days! It is easy to get mesmerized by China’s amazing progress and feel frustrated by India’s chaotic democracy, but I think she had expressed the sentiments of most Indians who will not trade off democracy for two per cent higher growth.

In referring to the ‘Indian way’, my mother meant that a nation must be true to itself. Democ-racy comes easily to us because India has his-torically ‘accumulated’ its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has ‘assimilated’ its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian

society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity. Hence, China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state - a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a busi-ness corporation today. Each mayor and party sec-retary has objectives relat-ing to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied in-terest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system ‘democracy’. It slows us down - we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on

Google on ‘human rights abuses in China’ yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve - it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

Both India and China have accepted the capital-ist road to prosperity. But capitalism is more com-fortable in a democracy, which fosters entrepre-neurs naturally. A state enterprise can never be as innovative or nimble and this is why the Chinese envy some of our private

companies. Democracy respects property rights. As both nations urbanize, peasants in India are able to sell or borrow against their land, but the Chinese peasants are at the mercy of local party bosses. Because India has the rule of law, en-trepreneurs can enforce contracts. If someone takes away your property in China, you have no recourse. Hence, it is the party bosses who are accumulating wealth in China. The rule of law slows us down but it also protects us (and our environment, as the NGOs have discovered).

We take freedom for granted in India but it

was not always so. When General Reginald Dyer opened fire in 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh, killing 379 people, Indians realised they could only have dignity when they were free from British rule. The massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 300 students were killed, was China’s Jal-lianwala Bagh. China today may have become richer than India but the poorest Chinese yearns for the same freedom.

Because the Indian state is inefficient, mil-lions of entrepreneurs have stepped into the vacuum. When government schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of ‘slumdog millionaires’. You cannot do this in China. Our free society forces us to solve our own problems, making us self-reliant. Hence, the Indian way is likely to be more en-during because the people have scripted India’s success while China’s state has crafted its success. This worries China’s leaders who ask, if India can become the world’s second fastest economy despite the state, what will happen when the Indian state begins to perform? India’s path may be slower but it is surer, and the Indian way of life is also more likely to survive. This is why when I am reborn I would prefer it to be in India.

The writer spoke in a debate in London in May 2009, in support of the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’

Because the Indian state is inefficient, millions of entre-preneurs have stepped into the vacuum. When govern-ment schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of ‘slumdog millionaires’. You cannot do this in China.

Even before independence, in April 1969, the Alliance Party magazine, the Fiji Nation, had pointed out that the crux of the independence question was a “representative balance” between Fijians and Indians.


Indian

Stories of men and women who have made good in their professional lives are many but it is quite rare, especially in this day and age, to come across people who while building personal success also gave gen-erously of their time, energy and selfless hard work for building successful institutions that have stood to benefit the larger community – and are poised to grow and move with the times.

For an immigrant who came to a far more mono-cultural New Zealand as a young man all the way from Kenya in 1969, Kanu Patel has not only done well for himself but over the past nearly quarter of a century served as a deft helmsman of the country’s leading Indian community institution – the Auck-land Indian Association.

“About 23 years ago a friend told me that the old guard at the Auckland Indian Association was not making progress and asked me to get involved in the organisation. Before that I had no involvement other than occasionally attending Gita class run by the as-sociation on Sunday evenings. Shortly alter joining I was appointed Treasurer,” the chairman of the Auckland Indian Association told Indian Weekend-er when asked how his long unbroken stint with the association and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre began.

An accountant by profession, Kanu has built a hugely successful accountancy firm, Patel Pike and Associates, from scratch, coming a long way from his humble beginnings as a store clerk at New World 40 years ago. His talent for managing finances as also working closely with community leaders and common people came in handy for the Auckland Indian Association through its days of struggle.

The success of the association is a fine and rare combination of dedication, drive and spunk. “The association bought the present site from Findlays Bakery in August 1990 for $1.8 million. It was a bold decision by the then president Ramanbhai Ganda to purchase the property as we only had $72,315 in our bank account and the Victoria Street property was valued at around $500,000,” says Mr Patel.

“From the day we bought the land, Mahatma

Gandhi Centre has been a hive of activities with vol-unteers working on the complex, fund raising team working hard to seek firstly the donation pledges and than collecting the donations,” he says. “The work never finishes – just last month we completed the dinning area renovation at a cost of $60,000 and are considering buying the sound system for $80,000.”

Like for most institutions, the early days were tough going for the association and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre. But Mr Patel credits the complete selfless dedication of the association members, its leaders and some very practical and intelligent fi-nancial management for the success of the institu-tion, which today, despite its large financial outlay over the years is completely debt free with cash to spare.

“It was never easy making quarterly payments of $1.2milion over twelve months or securing an ANZ loan of $600,000. There was a lot of blood sweat and tears,” says Mr Patel reminiscing. “Setting annual financial and development goals and achieving them was always a priority for us.”

All through its various development phases, Mr Patel, as the main money manager at the association, never lost sight of his dream of making the institu-tion debt free as quickly as possible. “That dream

has been achieved and we are very happy and proud about it,” he says.

Mr Patel especially acknowledges the contribu-tions of key people like Ramanbhai Ganda QSM, Ramanbhai Patel JP and Chhotubhai Sima QSM. But no mention of the centre should go without ac-knowledging the work, generosity and sacrifice of common members, he insists.

The community has enjoyed the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for the past twenty years. It has held the immensely popular Navratri festival and Dandiya nights, Yagnas, Diwali Concerts, musicals, all religious functions, community meetings, run the Gujarati school classes and opened the Tagore Library this year. “The Mahatma Gandhi Centre has brought joy, fun and happiness in the lives of every-one from the youngest child to the senior citizen,” says Mr Patel.

But with the rapid growth of the Indian com-munity especially in Auckland, the demands on the Centre are ever increasing. “Amongst the executive committee it is well known that the centre has a maximum life span of 10 years. After that it will be uneconomic to maintain the property and parking will become a major issue,” says Mr Patel. “It is an undisputed fact that the Mahatma Gandhi Centre

has been the best investment we have made for the community.”

We Indians are completely community oriented and our lives revolve around our families, communi-ties and institutions – whether religious or cultural, observes Mr Patel. “We tend to use the centre more frequently than say the Aotea Centre, the Auckland Town Hall or even the beaches. With that in mind and the size of fast growing Indian community it is imperative that we build a modem cultural centre and remain a centre of activities for the community.”

Acknowledging the dream of the founding fathers, Mr Patel says, “Some who shared the dream of building the Mahatma Gandhi Centre are no longer with us, but we share their vision of the future which is to collectively create a centre that we can all be proud of and give us a sense of belonging here in Auckland.”

Asked about the recent media controversy relat-ing to the building of the new centre that would be a replica of the Taj Mahal, Mr Patel says that it was an unfortunate case of miscommunication. “Any thinking person can tell it is impossible to build a replica of the fabulous Taj Mahal on a one hectare site with a budget of $20 million. What we meant to communicate was that we were planning a build a cultural icon in Auckland in a manner that the Taj Mahal is in India. That story was picked up by other media and there was some needless reaction to it.”

Mr Patel sees the biggest obstacles coming from negative thinking, personality clashes, ego, lack of unity of purpose, questions like where the money will come from. It is not that these attitudes have not been seen in the past – but that’s a part and parcel of life, he shrugs.

Just as nothing has deterred him and his team from achieving the dreams of the centre’s founders down the years, he is confident that the present set of leaders and members who share the dedication and fervour of the founders will achieve the goal of a proud new functional centre catering to every modern need of the Indian community.

Personality

When making dreams come true is a way of lifedeV NAdkARNI

mAN oF ActIoN: Auckland Indian Association Chairman Kanu patel


Indian comment

The last issue of “Government by Greed” tried to establish the framework within which government policy regarding assistance schemes for Fijian business was formulated and implemented. Three significant characteristics emerged from it: one, most schemes had a quick-fix political patronage focus; two, there was a glaring absence of moni-toring and accountability mechanisms; and three, a number of players had insidiously entrenched themselves in key positions that were directly involved in implementing government programs that involved public funds.

Indeed by the time Rabuka lost the 1999 elec-tions, a sophisticated system involving a group of connected personnel had already hijacked Fiji’s bureaucracy. Chaudhry’s unexpected electoral success was going to be a major stumbling block for this cabal. And the intelligent, perceptive and openly abrasive PM was not accepting any sub-quality decisions on government monies.

He immediately went on the offensive by rolling back the public sector reform program. This was the little-understood proverbial goose that promised so many golden eggs (more on this later). Then he blocked the billion dollar mahoga-ny deal with Trans Resource Management (TRM), a George Speight connected US company that was hoping to raise funds via bonds without following the conventional path of fronting up with a bag of investment to help the country harvest the world’s largest reserves of mahogany.

Perhaps the most significant and dangerous decision that Chaudhry made was to insist on fi-nancial acquittals and statements on public funds. This was something every government before Chaudhry had been forced to compromise on. The Native Land Trust Board (NLTB), which collect-ed some $30m in yearly land rents, had not filed annual reports for a decade. Chaudhry tried to pry

into this and the GM, Marika Qarikau, dug in.

In fact part of the reason for the short-sighted and reactive Qarikau campaign to block lease renew-als in the cane belt had to do with this. Chaudhry sensed rot and moved further onto the use of pro-vincial allocations. Fiji is made of 14 provinces and each is allocated $1m for administrative purposes on an annual basis. Chaudhry insisted on audited reports from each province before releasing the next million. This was considered anathema!

Lack of accounting and accountability in disbursing public funds for Fijian “assistance” schemes had already become a part of accepted practice in public sector governance in Fiji. My last article highlighted EIMCOL, an FDB funded project aimed to get Fijians into the promising retail sector in Fiji. That failed largely because of lack of monitoring, accountability and control.

Another failed scheme, another set of plunder, another opportunity to siphon off public monies for private purposes, let’s move to the next one. And there was no shortage of such schemes es-pecially during Rabuka’s precarious reign. There was the Commodity Development Framework, the Poverty Alleviation Fund, etc. In 1992 a Fijian Commercial Development Unit was also set up in the Central Planning Office of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. No audit was ever carried out on its use value.

In a landmark move, Rabuka loaned $20m

to Fijian Hold-ings Ltd. in 1989 after the company showed typical signs of lack of staying power. This was later con-verted to a grant when Qarase as-cended to power in 2000. Just what was Qarase’s link with FHL? This makes for some in-

teresting insights on the main theme being raised so far of plunder.

Fijian Holdings Ltd.As mentioned earlier, the focus of the pre-2000

pillage appeared to be on entrenching a loosely formed grouping of bureaucrats, consultants and politicians. This group gravitated around Fiji’s largest business entity, Fijian Holdings Ltd. (FHL), and key Fijian institutions of governance. At this stage, the game was played at tempo because no one knew when the gravy train would falter and run dry.

Much of National Bank of Fiji (NBF) and Fiji Development Bank (FDB) funds were poured into buying “A” class shares in Fijian Holdings Ltd., a company established in 1984 to conduct business on behalf of the Fijian people. FHL operates as a virtual monopoly in Fiji and is a huge blue-chip company with unlimited potential.

As the flagship for Fijian business enterprise, FHL was supposed to be owned by provincial councils, the Native Land Trust Board, the Fijian Affairs Board, and Tikina and village groupings. At some stage this group was expanded to include individual Fijians and family companies.

This provided a key opening for Fiji’s power-players to hijack a pivotal Fijian initiative for per-sonal gain. And as their methods had now become sophisticated, they formed companies for a fee of $2 and had these entities buy shares on their behalf with easily accessed funds from NBF and FDB.

In an article titled “How Fijian Provinces were betrayed and looted by the Fijian Initiative”, Thakur Ranjit Singh, a graduate student in jour-nalism, highlights that on 18 May, 1993 Senator Manu Korovulavula moved a motion for an inves-tigation into methods adopted by the FHL Board allowing limited liability companies to buy FHL shares without the knowledge of Fiji’s 14 Prov-inces.

As an example, FHL’s 1992 annual report showed that the 14 Provincial Councils, Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) and Fijian Affairs Board (FAB) collectively held only 30% of total shares while power-plunderers and their family-owned limited liability companies held 70%. “This is a fraud on the common indigenous people who are supposed to be shareholders of FHL through their respective provinces” declared the Thakur.

Many of the names involved in the hijacking of FHL are mentioned in the Peter Foster Dossier. Some of the more prominent ones include Laise-nia Qarase, Navitalai Naisoro and former Minister Konisi Yabaki. Political power was clearly being linked with personal wealth creation and many were learning. Others had just woken up to pos-sibilities as focus moved to other opportunities. Till then!

- Subhash Appana is an academic and politi-cal commentator. The opinions contained in this

article are entirely his and not necessarily shared by any organizations he may be associated with

both in Fiji and abroad. Email [email protected]

Government by Greed: Sophisticated PlundersubhAsh APPANA

Lack of accounting and account-ability in disbursing public funds for Fijian “assistance” schemes had already become a part of ac-cepted practice in public sector governance in Fiji.


Indian community

The NZ Amchi Association (Konkani speak-ing people in NZ) tried to do something a bit different at their annual Diwali function this year – they put together a programme of music and dance lasting an hour and a half.

What made the occasion different was that there were virtually no rehearsals (of the whole show) and even the sequence of events at the actual function were made f lexible to accommodate the various participants, some of whom were in the middle of their school exams and came in specially to perform.

There was therefore an element of sponta-neity about the programme.

There was a children’s programme to begin with, put together by Nilima D’Silva that was

hugely enjoyed by the kids who took part. This set the mood for the rest of the evening.

The song and dance programme started with a Bharat Natyam dance by Pooja Bhagat, a young schoolgirl who gave an extremely professional performance.

The dance troupe “Ignite” – Ritika and Ajay – gave 3 dances – 2 as a pair and one solo by Ritika. The dance troupe performs to larger audiences throughout Auckland and could be called professional. The perfor-mances certainly were so – but some of the members were unable to make it because of the ongoing exams.

Between the dances, there were songs – the first by Sandhya Rao, who is a singer and singing teacher in her own right. Then there was Rhea Maheshwari (who has also taken

part in other singing performances, including “Kaun Banega Superstar” recently).

Pooja Bhagat came in once more for a Bol-lywood dance.

The evening of songs and dance ended with some western music – Vivek Kalambi (singing), Vivek Divekar (guitar) and Sujata Divekar (accompanying song) gave us some James Taylor numbers, followed by Ashok Bhat (singing and guitar), in some cases ac-companied by Vivek Divekar and Gautam Naik on the bongo drums as accompaniment. The western music went on as people ate and mingled during and after their meal, which was, as usual, a contributory meal, enjoyed by all.

Ashok Bhat (one of the organisers) said this show would not have been possible without such enthusiastic participation by the participants and the other organisers. He also said that for every person who sang or danced, there was an equal number who had talent but could not (or did not) participate this time for various reasons (including stage fright) – but hoped that if the NZ Amchis were to do this in future again, they would have more partici-pants and ideas.

A lot of ideas (and contribution by way of props, equipment and help with decorations) came from the participants, notably Ritika Badakere, who, along with Ajay Rao, filled in the gaps left by the other 4 members of Ignite.


Konkanis celebrate Diwali a little differently

hoN PANsy WoNg, MinisTEr for EThnic AffAirs

National Standards:a necessary move

Greater freedom for our Golden Kiwis

mR kANWALjIt sINgh bAkshI, nATionAl lisT MP

I believe reading, writing and maths are the fun-damental building blocks every child needs to be taught to get the best start in life.

Presently one in five students leaves school lacking the necessary skills they need to achieve.

National is committed to providing all chil-dren with the opportunities and tools they need to realize their potential. Thus we have launched National Standards which will help more students achieve and give parents and caregivers a clear picture on how their child is performing.

The standards will be introduced to primary and intermediate schools from next year and set clear and consistent expectations of what stu-dents should be achieving between Years 1 to 8 in reading, writing and maths.

The standards explain what children should have learnt and by when, and helping teachers and parents spot which children need additional support. We are making $36 million available over four years to help those who aren’t meeting the standards and to lift achievement for all stu-dents.

I believe that National Standards will help

deliver a clear and simple way for parents to track the progress of children through their schooling life. Parents will get simple language reports about their child twice a year which will also inform them about things they can do to assist and encourage their child to learn at home.

Teachers will use the same tools to measure children’s progress, and all children will be as-sessed against the same standard no matter what school they are at.

The launch of National Standards follows months of consultation and feedback from teach-ers, parents and sector groups. I appreciate the positive feedback we have received about Nation-al Standards and our other education initiatives from parents.

National Standards deliver on our pre-election promise to help all New Zealand children learn the basic skills they need to do well at school, prepare for the workforce, and climb the ladder of opportunity.

Every child deserves the opportunity to achieve. I’m pleased that we have delivered on our promise and launched the National Standards.

A new law making it easier for retired New Zealanders to travel overseas has been passed through Parliament.

The Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill has passed, which will allow pensioners to receive their entitle-ments while living and travel overseas.

It is no secret that our population is aging and the National-led Government is committed to ensuring that older New Zealanders have the freedom they deserve in their Golden Years.

Older Kiwis – including those from within our ethnic communities - are more active than ever before and after a lifetime of paying taxes it makes sense that they should be able to travel during their retirement and take their entitlement with them.

The Bill, which has passed through all stages of Parliament and will soon become Law, is the first changes to the way our senior citizens can access their pensions since the 1990s.

Penalising older Kiwis for wanting to move to another country - or travel through many - served no particular purpose. It’s not what retir-ees want and it’s not in line with this National Government’s philosophy.

We want all New Zealanders to be able to

enjoy the fruits of their labour and that is why this law has been passed.

The new payment rate means a superannui-tant will be able to receive up to the full rate of their entitlement depending on how long they’ve lived in New Zealand between the ages of 20 and 65 years.

Under the new rules someone who has lived here for 22.5 years during this period will receive 50 percent of their pension and if they have lived here 30 years they will receive 66 percent – whereas in contrast to the old rules they would only get 50 percent.

Also, under the “grandparent provision” of the new law, All people who are receiving 50 percent under the current rules will continue to receive 50 percent , or have their payment rate increased if they are entitled to more under the new formula.

This makes sense, because many members of our ethnic communities have chosen New Zealand as their permanent home, they have paid their taxes and they should receive what they are entitled to.

These changes will ensure that elderly New Zealanders are getting the entitlements they deserve and that they have greater freedom in how they spend their retirement years

VARIous Acts: The Konkani group welcoming guests at the start of their Diwali festivities


Indian community

health

You can’t live or love without it. Sex and laughter is good for it and bad news can break it. Let’s get to the heart of the matter shall we?

The heart has baffled humans since the dawn of time as the blood pump is ever so complex. It is a muscle that pumps blood to all the parts of your body. It provides your body with the oxygen and nourishment it needs to function effectively. When your blood flows through your body and returns to the heart, it follows a complicated pathway. To keep it simple, look after your heart. A healthy heart is the most prized possession one can have today.

I met with Parul Dubé who works as a nutri-tion adviser at the Heart foundation. She filled me in on the heart foundation’s initiative to develop an ethnic-specific shopping guide for the various cultural groups who are at higher risk for lifestyle diseases. Almost every other food and shopping guide available today is targeted at the European population. A shopping guide was therefore devel-oped by the heart foundation for our Indian com-munity containing culturally familiar foods that meet the nutrient requirements within an afford-able budget.

The Heart Foundation is a charity organisa-tion established 41 years ago with an aim to stop New Zealanders dying prematurely from heart disease. Since then heart disease death rates in New Zealand have halved. Yet tragically, cardio-vascular disease (which includes heart disease and stroke) remains the number one cause of death in the country – accounting for 40% of all deaths an-nually. Statistics show that the rate of cardiovascu-lar disease amongst Indian people is high and on the rise (Dr Geeta Gala, Public Health Medicine Registrar, Mar 08).

Indians, New Zealand’s second-largest Asian group, have more fat for their size than Europeans and Polynesians – and generally have a higher dia-betes and heart attack rate than both Pacific Island-ers and Maori.

A major dietary factor responsible for this is a

high saturated fat intake amongst the Indian com-munity. Saturated fat is a type of fat commonly found in animal products which is the main cause for raised blood cholesterol levels increasing risk of heart and blood vessel disease. High saturated fat ingredients include Ghee, cream, butter and coconut milk which are often used to enhance traditional Indian foods. Additionally there is a higher intake of westernised takeaway foods which can be high in total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. “These dietary factors are modifiable” says Parul.

“Small changes in the types of foods chosen at the supermarket to the preparation techniques em-ployed at home can make some big improvements. Combined with diet other key changes to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease include being physically active and not smoking”.

In order to shop wisely the heart foundation is designing a basic healthy shopping list that would guide the choice of foods which are culturally familiar to both meet the nutrient requirements and provide best value for money for an Indian family of 4 members (2 adults and 2 children aged between 8-14 yrs).

The shopping list is in its developmental stage and should be available by early next year. “We are hoping to have the shopping lists (downloadable versions) accessible to different ethnic groups on the Heart Foundation website”.

The Heart Foundation has previously pub-

lished an Indian specific resource (Good Health in your hands! Written in Gujarati with English translation) that outlines culturally appropriate exercises (dancing/ gardening/ social sports). The Heart Foundation recently produced the Active Hearts exercise DVD – to promote physical activ-ity as part of a healthy lifestyle. It is specifically designed for people who have had a heart event or procedure – or who are at risk of heart disease.

Parul’s message to Indian Weekender readers is to firstly maintain a heart healthy eating pattern, have a heart health check regularly, know your numbers e.g. Cholesterol/ Blood Pressure/ Waist circumference, be active everyday and lastly if you smoke, seek help from your GP to quit.

Amazing facts about your heartl Heart disease has been viewed as a man’s illness. The truth is the heart disease kills women as it does men. Women don’t tend to experience the Bollywood standard heart attack in which gripping chest pain sends you keeling over. Instead women report tightness, aching or pressure in the heart, other symptoms like nausea, back, left hand or jaw pain. l Some people really do have bigger hearts than others. It’s not a sign of affection but a signal of un-derlying heart disease. If left untreated, a big heart can lead to heart failure. l A hearty laugh, the kind that sends a stream of tears from your eyes does more than warm the

soul. Research has shown the guffaw can cause the lining of blood vessel walls called endothelium to relax, increasing blood flow for up to 45 minutes after the laugh attackl A study found that having an orgasm atleast 3 times a week cut in half the likelihood of death from coronary heart disease. By some estimates, a vigorous sex session can double a person’s heart rate and burn up about 200 calories, or the equiva-lent of a brisk 15-minute run. l A glass of Merlot can go straight to the heart, and recent research shows that so too can the white variety. Scientists have attributed the heart bene-fits of reds to grape skins, which are chock full of certain antioxidants. Since the purple-hued skins get removed to make Chardonnays, many scien-tists had assumed white wine probably wouldn’t do the heart any good. A lab experiment on rats showed that a grape’s pulp conceals cardio-protec-tive compounds that rival those found in reds. Red or white? Just follow your heart. Only don’t overdo it. l In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body. And over the course of a day, about 100,000 heart beats shuttle 2,000 gallons of oxygen-rich blood many times through about 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels that link together the cells of our organs and body parts. That’s a hefty job for a fist-sized muscle.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/health/top_10_amazing_heart_facts-1.html These facts are not verified by the National Heart Foundation.

You can also visit http://www.goredforwomen.org.nz for more information.

Please continue to support the Heart Founda-tion; together we will beat heart disease. For more information on the Heart Foundation visit http://www.heart foundation.org.nz/

- Rashmi Shenoy works with Hewlett Packard as a services account manager and writes for Indian Weekender in her spare time.

The Rotorua Deepawali Festival 2009 was celebrat-ed on Saturday, November 7 at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre. The uniqueness of this festival was that it was a smoke-free, alcohol-free and meat-free festival with free entry to the public.

The festival also turned to be an important mile-stone for Hindu-Maori relations (whakawhanaun-gatanga). A number of Maori cultural traditions such as karakia, powhiri, kapa haka were per-formed during the festival. The respect and rela-tions that the Hindu Council of New Zealand had built over the years have brought Hindu community closer to the Maori community.

More than 3000 Rotorua public and out of town visitors, along with the Mayor and the councillors, Maori Elders, Members of Parliament, sponsors, community and youth leaders, came to participate, celebrate, enjoy and bless this cultural tradition.

“Our vision was to transform this Hindu festival into Rotorua community festival and it is already happening,” said Dr Guna Magesan, Festival coor-dinator.

Rotorua Deepawali Festival 2009 is proudly sponsored by Rotorua Trust, First Sovereign, The Lion Foundation, Asia NZ Foundation, Creative Communities NZ Rotorua Scheme, The Southern Trust, and COGS; and supported by Hindu Council of New Zealand, Rotorua District Council, Settle-ment Support NZ, Rotorua Ethnic Council, Friends of India Society, BOP (Rotorua) Indian Association, Rotorua Fiji Indian Association and other commu-nity organisations; Waiariki Institute of Technol-ogy, Rotorua Public Library, and many businesses.

Many dignitaries participated in the opening ceremony. Kaumatua John Marsh (MBE JP) and Swami Vigyananand ji recited Maori and Hindu

prayers, respectively, and blessed the occasion. Natanahira Te pona, Rotorua’s Tohunga Whakairo (master carver), made a Maori carving and cap-tured a “Rehua” to celebrate the journey of friend-ship between Hindu and Maori communities. John Marsh, along with Natanahira Te Pona and Shaloh Mitchell, presented the carving to Swami Vigyananand representing Hindu community. In return, Swami ji presented a Nataraja statue to John Marsh’s group.

Carving a symbol of Om and Sun in the Rehua means so much to Hindu community. The Sun is described as the soul of the universe, representing the life-force on earth which sustains everything. His is the energy of confidence and power, consis-

tency and inspiration. Carving of Rehua was a big leap in Hindu-Maori relations.

“We are really humbled and honoured by the Maori community’s gesture of carving a special Rehua for our community” said Dr Guna Magesan, the coordinator of Rotorua Deepawali Festival and General Secretary of Hindu Council of New Zealand.

His worship the Mayor, Kevin Winters JP, of-ficially opened the festival by lighting the lamp. Grahame Hall ex-Mayor and the current chairman of Rotorua Trust and Dr Rajen Prasad (Members of Parliament), and Shashi Patel (Festival Commit-tee) and a number of councillors were also present. Best wishes messages were given by President of

Rotorua Ethnic Council, Settlement Support coor-dinator, and Patron of Hindu Elders Foundation. The Master of Ceremonies was Ms Pritika Sharma, and vote of thanks was given by Mr Samir Shah.

Following the opening ceremony there were various workshops on ancient Indian art (Rangoli) and yoga. There were also special workshops on Belly dancing, how to wear a sari, and Indian cooking (roti making).

A number of young women, including a Maori, raised some funds with their henna skills and donated the collection to Ekal Vidyalaya Founda-tion – one teacher school.

Kaumatua John Marsh also lead a special powhiri (traditional Maori welcome) in the after-noon at Apumoana Marae for some of our guests from Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Taupo, Palm-erston North and Wellington. More than 50 Hindu Elders had come from Auckland to support this fes-tival. Many of them, along with some guests and artists, stayed at the Apumoana Marae, Rotorua.

A spectacular Indian cultural show was held at the Energy Events Centre from 6.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. A huge response for tickets has resulted in a waiting list of more than 250 people. After the cultural show, everyone made their way down to Government gardens for the concluding fireworks display at 9.30 pm. Drum beats by Samblasta group entertained the whole crowd and many people found it only natural to start dancing to the rhythm of the music.

This is the sixth time that Hindu Council of New Zealand had organised a Marae stay for the Indian community to learn, understand and experience Maori culture and customs.

Rotorua Diwali festival attracts thousands

The art of caring for your heartRAshmI sheNoy

Indians are more prone to heart disease than many other ethnicities. The Heart Foundation is now actively developing communication directed at this high risk group, telling them how to keep their hear in good shape.

INdIAN LeAdeRs At the RotoRuA dIWALI FestIVAL

Over the course of a day, about 100,000 heart beats shuttle 2,000 gallons of oxygen-rich blood many times through about 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels that link together the cells of our organs and body parts. That’s a hefty job for a fist-sized muscle.


Indian Variety

Mid last month, Google’s Gmail Labs team in-troduced a new feature dubbed “Got the wrong Bob?” to help users catch their embarrassing e-mail faux pas before they are sent to the wrong recipient in a group message.

The free Web-based e-mail service launched the feature as a preemptive warning for people who appear to be ready to accidentally send a Gmail message to an unintended recipient, ac-cording to Google engineers Ari Leichtberg and Yossi Matias.

The feature can be activated by modifying Gmail Settings. The software has the ability to recognise groups of people most often communi-cated with via email by Gmail users, and then let them know when they are including someone out of the ordinary.

“Gmail will try to identify when you’ve ac-cidentally included the wrong person, before it’s too late,” the engineers said.

Google invites users to put the feature to the test by faking a blunder by composing a message to two of three people they want to e-mail. Start typing the third member of the group, but then auto-complete on the wrong name. The Gmail Labs team also switched the name of its “Suggest

more recipients” feature to “Don’t forget Bob,” to join “Got the wrong Bob?”.

“Got the wrong Bob” comes more than a year after Gmail Labs introduced Mail Goggles, which prompts users who send an e-mail between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a weekend night to answer math problems in order to check their coherence. The idea is that an e-mailer too tired or too drunk to solve simple math problems probably would appreciate being rescued from sending a poten-tially regrettable message.

However, the feature is not perfect. It will not protect users from sending an e-mail to just two recipients. If a user sends unpleasant mail to their boss instead of their confidant with the same first name, the Gmail team cannot be accept responsi-bility. That is what the Gmail Labs’ “Undo Send” feature is designed to do by retrieving freshly sent email messages.

Port Vila, Vanuatu: Vanuatu’s civil status office is confident a new scheme using text messages for registering births and deaths will increase the number of registrations, reports Radio New Zealand International.

Only about 40 percent of the population is be-lieved to be registered at present, as many forms aren’t filled out or get lost on their way to the capital. The country is trialing a new scheme on Epi and Santo distributing mobile phones to health workers, who will text the data to the civil status office.

The office’s director Joe Iati is looking forward to good results. “At the moment, there’re duplications, where the office registers and the provincial office also registers. We’re trying to upgrade our system, where there can be only one

ID or number given to children who are born. And any time we’ll try to enter two records for the same person, it’ll be detected.”

If the pilot works well, it will be extended to the whole country by the end of next year.

A heated exchange over the taste of a curry led to a woman committing suicide by setting herself ablaze and her husband, who tried to save her, also succumbed to burns, police told the Press Trust of India in Madurai.

Both the 37-year-old husband and his wife suc-cumbed to their burns within hours of each other.

Police said the man had commented about the taste of ‘Sambar’ while taking dinner at their home near here, leading to a heated exchange with his wife.

Enraged over her husband’s comments, the woman doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze. Her husband, who tried to save her, suffered serious burn injuries, they said, adding that their two children were also injured in the melee.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, curry saved a life. A man who was captured by the Taliban spent 24 days being starved and beaten in Afghanistan persuaded his tormen-tors to release him by cooking them curry, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Somen Debnath spent three weeks blind-folded strapped to a chair in a pitch-black 10ft by 10ft dungeon. Debnath was travel-ling through the war-torn country as part of a five-year bicycle ride through 33 countries to promote Aids awareness.

But he was taken by armed militants – who assumed he was a spy – as he travelled through the remote region of Herat. Unable to understand his captors’ commands, Indian-born Mr Debnath, 28, was regularly beaten for disobeying orders, starved and repeatedly

told he was going to die.But after realising that one of his captors

had a very basic grasp of English, he con-vinced him to allow him to cook them all a meal. The Taliban kidnappers were so im-pressed with his banquet they decided he was ‘’safe’’ and let him go.

Mr Debnath, who has a degree from India in zoology and fine arts, set off on his bike from his village of Sunderbans, east India, in 2004.

His plan was to visit 191 countries by 2020 to highlight the plight of Aids across the globe and entered Afghanistan across the Pakistan border earlier this year.

But last month, as he cycled through the remote foothills of the Taliban territory of Herat, 138km from Kabul, Mr Debnath was snatched by militants, blindfolded and held hostage.

After 24 gruelling and terrifying days Mr Debnath was released and will travel home to tell his family of his ordeal – but has vowed to visit 191 countries before 2020.

Got the wrong Bob? Texting birth, death registrations

Curry kills and rescues!

Web inventor says sorry for slashes

Jai ho Indian magazines

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has confessed that the // in a web address were actually “unnecessary”.

The forward slashes at the beginning of in-ternet addresses have long annoyed net users and now the man behind them has apologised for using them.

He told the Times newspaper last month that he could easily have designed URLs not to have the forward slashes.

“There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said.

He admitted that when he devised the web, almost 30 years ago, he had no idea that the forward slashes in every web address would cause “so much hassle”.

His light-hearted apology even had a green angle as he accepted that having to add // to every address had wasted time, printing and paper.

Sir Tim is currently director of the World Wide Web Consortium and he is also working with the UK government to help open up access to government data.

Mumbai: Is there a future for magazines? Sooth-sayers in the media may say that there isn’t, but given the number of new titles that have been launched in India in the last year, there is reason to believe that business is booming.

As various stakeholders of the trade get togeth-er in New Delhi later this week for the fifth edition of the Indian Magazine Congress, and while the deliberations at the event haven’t put up this ques-tion in the agenda, the fact remains that almost everyone seems to be asking whether there is a future for magazines.

A disclosure: Since ‘impact’ is part of the work I do and the exchange4media Group publishes a slew of magazines, there is a vested interest in evangelising the trade and seeing that magazines aren’t rubbished the way they often are. Pardon my indulgence with these five pointers…

Quality wins: One of the best ways to win a war is to outsmart the enemy. Figure what its strengths are and attempt to neutralise them. Magazines are at a disadvantage that newspapers can carry all the stuff they can, at a lesser cost and with better fre-quency. That’s true, but it’s not impossible to beat the papers if your product is right. Take the case of Time Out in Mumbai. The city’s newspapers had sufficient guides to the arts and leisure, but thanks to its time-tested international format and good content, we saw a top quality mag that we haven’t tired of.

Cash in on the mediocrity of the papers: If Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd had woken up some years back to the pleasures of long copy, it could have checked the growth of an India Today, Outlook and The Week. Although there are many who like Crest (the new Saturday paper), I think

it’s come a little too late to create an impact. A good Sunday newspaper would’ve made life dif-ficult, but mag-owners need to thank the paper-wallahs for the mediocrity that exists there. And I don’t think it’s going to end in a hurry. Rejoice!

Web disappoints: Print magazines could’ve been in trouble if there were robust web avatars in the business. But that’s not to be. Although the number of Internet users have grown, save blogs, standalone online media hasn’t blossomed the way it ought to have. The content you see today on some quality sites like Rediff.com is an apology of what it used to be. I am sure this state of bliss won’t last forever, but until then: make hay!

Television rules, but print is king: The Network18 Group needn’t have stuck its neck out in these recessionary times and bring in the Indian edition of ‘Forbes’, but I guess the rub-off it offers means most positive ‘awaaz’ than half a dozen news channels. The response to ‘Forbes India’ is super, Editor Indrajit Gupta told me last week. He needn’t have: the magazine’s good, has had some ‘hat ke’ features and grows on you.

It’s all about the Packaging: Of the various recaps done post 26/11, the one that I found most striking was by ‘People’, a celebrity news mag with heart. Not all our magazines can boast of the writing we see in international titles, but with better talent coming into magazines, it will get there.

It’s India, and it’s ‘saare jahaan se achcha’ for our mag merchants. Yes, there are several malaises that afflict the business, but clearly that’s not going to dampen the spirits of the trade.

Jai ho!- Pradyuman Maheshwari

Ever consider yourself a filmmaker?Here’s your chance to be one. The organizers of

the Indian Film Festival 2010 are calling for entries for a Short Film Contest which has great prizes at stake.

Enter your short film for exhibition alongside some of the most promising new filmmaking talent from Australia, New Zealand and India. IFF2010 has life-changing prizes to offer the winner of its short film and video competition.

Entries close December 24, 2009.Prizes include:l A trip to India.l An internship on a major Bollywood film pro duction.l See your film played to viewership of 300 million+ on World Movies India television channel.l Television exposure. Watch your film play on your own TV on World Movies Australia.l Walk the red carpet alongside high profile members of the Australian, New Zealand and Indian film industries.l Have your film screened in cinemas in Mel- bourne, Sydney, Perth & Auckland.Closing Date: Check website (www.iff2010.com)

Entry Requirements: Your film or video needs to have SOMETHING to do with India, whether it is the location, a key Indian crew member, or a refer-ence to India or Indian culture in the content. Films should not be more than 10 mins, and can be shot on any format, although shortlisted films will need to meet certain quality standards for cinema exhi-bition. Visit www.iff2010.com for further details.

How to Enter:Simply download entry form and upload your

film or video on YouTube.Submitted films must be less than 10min

and have some link to India. Full details of how to submit, deadlines and criteria can be found at www.iff2010.com

All queries regarding the competition can be directed to [email protected].

The IFF Short Film Competition is an excep-tional chance to have your film work widely seen alongside the best productions from the sub-con-tinent.

Winning entries will also feature at the Indian Film Festival to be held in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Auckland in February and March.

Short film contest under way


Indian bollywood

bollywood movie Preview

aarti chabbria

Marriages they say are made in heaven, only to be celebrated lavishly on earth. And Bolly-wood weddings are no exception. The latest to swing on to the ‘marry-go-round’ is vivacious Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty who will tie the sacred nuptial knot with her business baron fiancée Raj Kundra on Sunday, November 22nd amidst fanfare and fervour. According to family sources, Shilpa will have her hush-hush nuptial ceremony at her buddy and business associate Kiran Bawa’s sprawling farmhouse in Khanda-la. Since the Bollywood biradari will not form part of the baaraat, a separate grand reception in Mumbai is planned a few days later. “After having dated Raj for over two years I realized that we were ‘made for each other’ both as life partners and even business partners for our various commercial ventures including the IPL cricket team. My parents and my little sister Shamita were equally delighted about the alli-ance so I finally decided to plunge into matri-mony following the quick turn of events to match the rare auspicious dates,” gushes the affable

actress who merited little recognition for her histrionic talents, although she had convincingly played an ‘AIDS positive victim’ in a maverick movie ‘Phir Milenge’ co-starring Salman and Abhishek Bachchan.

Few are aware that Shilpa who is better known more for her ‘jhatak-matak’ gyrations in the sensuous item number ‘Main Aayi Hoon UP-Bihar Lootne’ (in ‘Shool’), has been nominated for over half-a-dozen awards for her awesome ‘Phir Milenge’ performance and was honoured for the same with a ‘Young Achiever’ award by the US Consulate in Mumbai. Ironically, Shilpa’s claim to global fame happened after dramatically ‘winning’ the UK Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show. The exuberant yet resilient Shetty babe won the sympathy-wave of most home-viewers when she was allegedly made the brutal butt of racist remarks and barbed taunts by her house-mate, the late Jade Goody. Later she was singled out by the Colors TV Channel in India to host the previous season of ‘Bigg Boss’ where she had a ball connecting with the housemates.

Nevertheless, she continued to shine in her few performances in films, one of them being the role of a neglected Indian housewife in the bohemian Hindi movie ‘Life in a Metro’. “Unfor-tunately my oomph-quotient has largely eclipsed my spontaneous acting talent which tends to be taken for granted,” shrugs Shilpa, who feels that her acting talent has been underrated.

Right now though, the bride-to-be is terri-bly busy with the elaborate preparations for her D-Day (where “D” stands for Dulhan!). She is confident that her ‘laadli’ sister Shamita who is under ‘house arrest’ in the ‘Bigg Boss’ house TV reality show will be given special permission by Colors to attend her ‘didi’s dhoom-dhaam shaadi. Curiously enough, Shilpa and Shamita have ‘acted together’ in this Hindi movie crime-thriller ‘Fareb’ where they were pitted against each other as the charming wife and the seduc-tive ‘other woman’ “It was a crazy mix of sibling rivalry and revelry”, quips Shamita.

Wedding bells for Bollywood babe Shilpa Shetty!

Email: [email protected]

Flatbush

Everglade (Waiuku)

Clendon

NOW AVAILABLE AT:

Orchard & fields

NEW WORLD

BRINGING IN RICE & MORE FOR YOU

APNA NRE SUPER SURYA

Also available at various leading Grocery stores, Dairies and Vege shops around New Zealand

Director: Rensil D’SilvaStory: Karan JoharCast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek OberoiMusic: Salim – SuleimaanDirector of Photography: Hemant ChaturvediStyling: Aki NarulaLocation: Philadelphia and New Delhi It all began with Avantika hailing a cab. Or maybe not.

Avantika is a professor in psychology, back in India from New York, come back to care for her father. She teaches at a Delhi University. Ehsaan too is a professor who comes in as a substitute, to teach in the same University. From their first meeting, there are sparks flying. Ehsaan may have rubbed her the wrong way trying to steal a cab from under her nose, but his charm is irresistible. Avantika can’t hold out against it for long. Despite his reservations about Ehsaan being a Muslim, her father agrees to bless their wedding. Avantika and Ehsaan are married and leave to start their new life in New York.

As soon as they land, Avantika manages to get a job for Ehsaan in her university. They set out to look for a home for themselves, but Ehsaan doesn’t seem to like any of the houses they see. Finally through an advertisement of an Indian neighbourhood, Avantika manages to find a house Ehsaan likes.

Their neighbours are conservative Muslims and their lifestyles are a revelation to Avantika. At a dinner, she is taken away from Ehsaan into another quarter where all the women dine sepa-rately. They all seem to blindly accept and obey the code of conduct set by Nasreen, who along with her husband Bhaijaan are almost the de facto head of the neighborhood. All of them look up to her. All accept another young woman, Salma.

Salma visits Avantika surreptitiously the next day and asks her not to trust anyone. She tells her that her own life is in danger and she needs help.

What follows are a series of bizarre events that turn Avantika’s life upside down and drive her into a morass of emotions that spin madly out of control taking her to a point of no return.

- Kurbaan, releasing simultaneously in Aus-tralia and New Zealand, is distributed by Mind Blowing Films.

KURBAAN(Releasing in New Zealand on Friday, November 20)

WIN FRee cdsIndian Weekender, in conjunction with distributors Mind Blowing Films, is giving away five FREE music CDs of the new Bollywood blockbuster movie releasing in New Zealand on November 20.Starring hot couple Saif Ali Khan and Ka-reena Kapoor, Kurbaan will be showing in SkyCity Westcity, SkyCity Queen St, and SkyCity Manukau.Visit www.indianweekender.co.nz on de-tails on how to be in to win the CDs and for show times. Watch this space for more free giveaways coming your way.


Indian bollywood

Under the slick supervision of Madame Tina Ambani (former Bollywood actress and wife of industrial tycoon Anil Ambani), Amit Khanna (Chairman Big Pictures), and Festival Chairman Shyam Benegal, film-maker Yash Chopra, actor-director Amol Palekar, actress Jaya Bachchan, the MAMI International Film-Fest ’09 this time proved to be a celluloid cocktail of glamour, glitz and global glory! Over 200 select movies from more than 55 countries were showcased at the week-long Mumbai-centric festival which was at-tended by dozens of international film-makers and actors and first-time directors besides thousands of ardent cinema-buffs. There was an amazing celeb star turn-out both at MAMI’s opening and closing ceremonies. Amidst thundering applause, the suave Shashi Kapoor and superstar Amitabh Bachchan who have co-starred together in several memorable movies especially the all-time land-mark ‘Deewaar’, were honored with the prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ respectively at the opening and closing ceremonies. Greek maestro director Theo Angelopoulos was also conferred with the ‘International’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Amidst fierce creative competition it was the UK movie “White Lightning’ and the Austri-an—Italian flick “La Pivellina” (The Little One) which bagged the Best Feature Film awards. The performance awards were presented to vivacious Danish ‘diva’ Paprika Steen for her awesome per-formance in the movie “Applause’ which had the backdrop of showbiz.

Having merited the ‘Best Actor’ honour, for his sterling histrionics in the U K movie “White Lightning” it was Edward Hogg who would have

literally ‘hogged’ the lime-light. But he was unable to attend the MAMI closing event and a proxy director picked up his trophy. The proverbial cherry on the fes-tival cake for the awardees was that a grand total cash prize money amounting to nearly INR 90 lakhs formed part of the accolades booty-bonanza of which Rs 50 lakhs was presented to the Best Feature Film-makers.

Among the special sur-prise events was the soft launching by noted film-maker Rituparno Ghosh of petite actress Riya Sen’s personalized web-site www.myriyasen.com. “For my ardent and new fans it’s a direct short-cut to my heart and my personal emotions. And I will make it a point to respond to them,” assured the sensuous Sen who has put in a striking cameo role in Ghosh’s maverick Bengali movie ‘Abo-homan’ which was screened at the festival.

The second star-tler was the ‘live’ combo of Sharmila Tagore and daughter Soha Ali Khan at the fest. Even as her legendary actress mother Sharmila watched with pride, her dainty daughter Soha seemed humbled as she modestly acknowl-edged accolades for her classy performance in

Sangeeta Dutta’s flick ‘Life Goes On’. The off-beat U K produc-tion with its London backdrop had its world premiere as part of the Film India Worldwide category at the ongoing MAMI ’09 Internation-al Fest. As is common knowledge by now, ‘Life Goes On’ boasts of the casting coup of the real life mother-daughter Sharmila and Soha playing their ex-tended their real-life roles on screen. Admits Soha, “Initially, I was apprehensive about co-starring with my mom, who is such an iconic actress. But then direc-tor Sangeeta is a close family friend who has worked with us earlier

in Bengali cinema. The movie ‘Life …’ hardly had a couple of scenes where we came together in the same frame. At the same time, on hindsight I wish I had more footage with my mom, because I got to learn so much from her whilst shooting. Credit goes to director Sangeeta who did not make it a contrived gimmick by having both my mom and me doing multiple scenes even though the script had no scope for it. But one scene which was quite

challenging as an actress for me was the emotion-ally shattering death-scene of my screen-mother,” shrugs Soha who recently was mired in mild controversy thanks to her bold, intimate kissing scenes with co-star Emran Hashmi in her upcom-ing movie ‘Tum Mile”.

Considering that she happens to be the daugh-ter of the current Censor Board chairperson (Sharmila, that is) it was not unexpected when cynics took pot-shots at her. “My lead roman-tic character in ‘Tum Mile’ is shown as having a live-in relationship with Emran’s character. The sweet, tame smooch scenes have been shot very aesthetically minus any obscenity by director Kunal Deshmukh. When you watch the movie, the scenes have a smooth flow and will be justified by the mood of the song on screen. Otherwise the movie ‘Tum Mile’ is yet another milestone movie against the backdrop historical Mumbai 26/7 monsoon deluge which had paralysed the city,” insists the young actress who refutes rumors that she is refusing offers to act with her star-brother Saif Ali Khan. “No way, I would love to act as a co-star with my brother Saif Ali Khan. But surely not as the hero’s sister. In fact we have done an ad-commercial together which fetched us amazing fan-responses,” she counters. Meanwhile Soha who was romantically linked with her ‘Rang De Basanti’ co-star Siddharth is tight-lipped when asked to declare whether she has found the ulti-mate “Mr Right” in her off-screen life. “When something does happen and the time is right I shall reveal the good news,” she signs off with a naughty twinkle in her eyes.

MAMI International Film-Fest ’09 a celluloid cocktail of glamour, glitz and global glory! chAItANyA PAdukoNe


Indian bollywood

Mumbai: TV is changing and so is MTV. From October 17, India’s number one youth desti-nation, MTV, has transformed itself beyond music and beyond television. Dropping the ‘Music Television’ from under its logo that has been around since 1981 since it launched in the US.

The star cast of ‘All The Best’, Bipasha Basu, Ajay Devgan along with Mugdha Godse got together to, well, wish the channel, “All the Best” for their new look and direction! MTV also introduced the latest & the young-

est addition to their row of super hot VJ’s, the sizzling VJ Rhea–from Scooty MTV Teen Diva 2!

Says Ashish Patil, General Manager – MTV India & Senior Vice President – Cre-ative & Content, “Dropping ‘Music Televi-sion’ from under the logo is a big symbolic statement and finally closes the loop on the repositioning exercise MTV kicked off 2 years back. We were born of music, inspired by music, driven by music – but not limited by music. MTV is about new ideas, new formats, new ways of reaching people in the new places they choose to live in. MTV’s about constant change and the balls to throw it all away and make it new and important again. MTV is beyond music, beyond television.”

Backing up this massive statement is an in-credible new graphics environment. Made of the youth, for the youth, almost by the youth – with elements and expressions unique to their world. Going back to basics with simple post-it’s, scrolls, buffering of videos, commer-cial breaks [pretty much how they consume media], scraps, comments, RSS feeds, pop ups and more. Transiting MTV from having viewers to users.

Also launching are 4 new shows. Of which only 1 premieres on television! The rest are on interactive media:

The MTV RANT premieres only on mobile phones: Rant also known as Rambling About Nothing Today or the only opinion that matters. Every week MTV will cherry pick the raging issue of the week and break it down, tear it apart or just simply help you look at it for what it is. From Gary Kirsten’s ‘Sex improves performance’ dossier to ‘Serena is

posing nude’ we will go beyond the music, beyond TV and beyond the issues to ramble on about nothing and everything that matters to you.

MTV What The Hack premieres only on the web. Wondering how to keep your Hotmail account protected? Or want to block someone on Facebook? MTV’s got Ankit Fadia – the coolest Ethical Hacker in the world to give you everything from tips, tricks to cheat codes that will help make your life on the world wide web a whole lot simpler. Bookmark this

show on your TV viewing schedule now! Now showing across www.mtvindia.com.

MTV Acting Classes premieres only on its voice portal on 5056882

Finally, classes you wouldn’t dream of bunking! And the best part is you don’t need to be in front of the TV. Damn, you don’t even need to go anywhere to attend them. For the first time ever, you can attend MTV’s Acting Classes from your mobile phone! Everyday MTV VJs will teach, guide and test you on various acting classes. Rate and get rated on a different dialogue everyday or a range of emotions. Enroll today!

Nuon MTV Making the Cut premieres on TV: 8 designers. 16 models. 1 hot new reality series to hunt for the best in fashion. Judged by an expert panel of style gurus & celebrities including the likes of Lara Dutta, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Neha Dhupia, Celina Jaitley, Madhur Bhandarkar, Narendra Kumar Ahmed, Dipan-nita Sharma and more. Airs every Saturday @ 6pm starting Oct 17th again only on MTV.

Additionally, MTV is doing a series of specials with the cast of ‘All the Best’ where MTV’s literally giving away music & televi-sion if you spot the change on-air! Enter this fun contest to win CD’s, live performances by your favorite artistes, LCD TV’s and more.

It’s difficult to define an icon that has defined entire generations. But the past is no reference for the future. The ‘viewer’ is dying, long live the ‘user’ – the MTV expe-rience now lives on multiple platforms. The bottom line is that MTV is about youth tar-geted entertainment – in all shapes and forms.


New Delhi / Mumbai – November 4: Konkani movie “Paltadacho Munis” (Man beyond the bridge) produced by NFDC will open the Indian Panorama section of the 40th India International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to be held in Goa from November 23 – December 4, 2009. Indian Panorama will screen 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films.

Recent Bollywood releases “Dev. D” (Anurag Kashyap), “Firaaq” (Nandita Das), “Kaminey” (Vishal Bhardwaj), “Oye Lucky-Lucky Oye” (Dibakar Banerjee) and “The White Elephant” (Ajiz Khan) will figure in the feature film section which will also see Marathi movie and India’s official Oscar entry “Harishchandrachi Factory”. Highest number of six films in Bengali will be screened.

Anirban Datta’s documentary, ‘In For Motion’ that tracks India’s recent development through motor highways and IT highways, will be the opening film in the non-feature film section.

Konkani film – ‘Paltadacho Munis’ to open Indian Panorama of IFFI 2009

MTV goes beyond music and TV: drops both from its name

“Dropping ‘Music Television’ from under the logo is a big sym-bolic statement and finally closes the loop on the repositioning exer-cise MTV kicked off 2 years back. We were born of music, inspired by music, driven by music – but not limited by music

best of Indianentertainment

$125*


Indian sport

The Nadi Masters side which went down to NZ Masters in the veterans semifinal of the IDC soccer at Bill McInley Park on October 25.

Defending champion Nadi powered its way to a hat-trick of soccer titles when it re-tained the IDC crown at Bill McKinley Park last weekend.

Nadi, which had won the previous two tournaments, hammered Navua 3-0 in the final of the Fiji-NZ Football Inc organized tournament held over three days. Earlier, they beat Rewa 2-0 in the semi-final while Navua edged out Labasa 1-0 in the other semi.

And for their efforts, the Nadi senior side collected a trophy and $4000 cash.

In the veterans’ tournament, NZ Masters beat Ba 1-0 in a thrilling final to collect a trophy and $1500.

NZ Masters also featured former Fiji and Ba star Esala Masi, who scored a total nine goal in four games and was awarded the Most Valuable Player prize.

But it wasn’t Masi who clinched the winner for NZ Masters – the goal scorer was Rohinet Sharma.

NZ Masters had earlier downed Nadi 3-0 in the semi-final and Ba beat Suva 1-0 in the other semi.

The tournament was played in fine weather conditions, and attracted a good turnout of spectators.

- Arvind Kumar

Expect the Aussies to defy the odds and a spate of injuries to come up trumps. Australia bounced back from a 2-1 deficit to beat India on their home turf in Guwhati to take an undefeatable lead of 4-2, making the final match in Mumbai of academic in-terest. Fresh from their victory over New Zealand in the ODI championships in South Africa, where they had plenty of luck and the help from umpires, luck is what seems to have deserted them in this best of seven tournament, played in India. Australia is a world beating team and despite several retirements and the infusion of new blood, they haven’t lost their grip on their world beating winning ways.

Australia started the long series in Baroda with a thrilling victory in a tense match where batting first, the Aussies rattled up a quickfire 292 thanks largely to captain Ricky Pontings 74 and Husseys 73 aided by White (51), Paine (50). Indian top order failed to click despite some good starts. Gambhir was the lone fighter with a knock of 68 assisted admirably with a rear guard action from Harbhajan 49 and Praveen Kumar 40*. But the heroics fell short of the target by 4 runs giving the Aussies first blood and a 1-0 lead in the series.

Nagpur, the orange city was the venue of the second match and for once the much acclaimed top order of Indian batting line up lived upto its reputation as MS Dhoni hit a cracking 124 and with Gambhir (76) and Raina (62) contributing hand-somely, India posted a mammoth 354 for 7 in their allocated 50 overs. Once the top order of the Aussie line up was in the pavilion for just 45 runs, Hussey’s defiant 57 was not enough to save Australia from a 99 run drubbing. 1-1 and game was on!

Ferozshah Kotla, the venue of the third ODI, saw the fortunes fluctuating till India staged a recovery in the later overs thanks to captain Dhoni’s sedate 71*. Earlier the Aussies posted a modest score of 229 courtesy Mr Reliable Hussey (81*), Ponting (59) and

Watson (41). Australia had lost the services of their key frontline bowler Lee, by the time they reached Delhi. They were also in danger of losing wicket-keeper Paine. But the Aussies were confident that they could defend this total in the dew laden Kotla ground as the night progressed. Pointing was on the ball, when Indian were reduced to 53 for 3. But Yuvraj (78) and Dhoni had other ideas. They batted sensibly to overhaul the Aussie score and take a 2-1 lead the tournament. Australia lost the services of Hilfenhaus by this time.

Mohali hosted the crucial 4th match of the tour-nament and Aussies came back here with a ven-geance. Despite being depleted of 4 key players of the original squad, they played with purpose and method. The match saw 4 run outs in the Aussies innings which had gone off to a flier with steady contributions from the top order; Watson (49), Pointing (52), White (62) and Hussey (40). They were restricted to a gettable 250 on this picturesque ground. India started off well with Sehwag (30) and Tendulkar (40). But once Tendulkar fell to a dubious lbw to Hauritz none of the others contributed signifi-cantly and India too saw 2 runouts at crucial stages, which saw them scoring only 226 runs and handing the Aussies a lifeline and levelling the series 2-2.

From north to south, as the juggernaut headed to Hyderabad for the fifth match. The stadium was packed to capacity, as the crowd were eagerly waiting for the little master to complete 17,000 runs in ODIs. They would have to wait as the Aussies batted first and hammered the Indian bowling with Watson (93) and Marsh (112) leading the charge. Cameroon White (57) added some fireworks to set up a total of 350 for the Aussies. Ponting must have gone into the break thinking this was enough, but the little master had some other ideas. Sachin Ten-dulkar, who was 7 runs short of the landmark duly completed it with a flick of Johnson and then set

himself up for “one man assault” that he has done so many times against the Aussies. He rattled up a quickfire 175 even as the wickets were falling at the other end. It looked as if, he would single handedly take on the Aussies and win the match for India. But as often in the past, Indians have not been able to finish the job at the death and Shane Watson’s last over was too much for India as they lost the crucial match by 3 runs, giving Australia the upper hand in the series and 3-2 lead.

Guwhati was the venue of the crucial 6th match as India had to win it to level the series and head to Mumbai for final showdown. Dhoni won the crucial toss, but surprised everybody, by electing to bat on a damp wicket. Aussies, who were missing their top 8 players, had performed admirably so far. Ponting was leading from the front and the first 30 minutes of this match were crucial. But it took only 15 minutes for the Aussies to reduce India to 27 for 5, handing them the advantage and the match. Ravindra Jadeja (57) and Praveen Kumar (54*) gave some respect to the Indian scoresheet as they were bundled out for 170. Bollinger took his first 5 wicket haul as he wrecked the Indian batting line up. Watson (49) was on fire and along with the sedate Hussey (35*) the Aussies crushed India by 6 wickets and took the series 4-2 making the the Mumbai match inconse-quential. India will only be playing for pride when they take on Aussies in the capital of cricket in India.

At the start of the series, India had chance to beat the Aussies and claim the top spot. Aussies had arrived in India with 4 of their key players missing and lost 4 more as the tournament progressed, but their never say die attitude proved too much for the paper tigers to handle and India are left to rue the mistakes they made in the crucial first match which they lost by 4 runs and the 5th match which they lost by 3 runs. Had they won those...but that is the story of Indian cricket. If only!

Invincible Aussies tame Indian tigers Nadi score IDC soccer hat-trick

PRAshANt beLWALkAR

While the Aussies were playing India in India, the neighbours down under, Black caps, were playing Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, which has been converted into their home ground as teams refuse to tour Pakistan. It is short series of 3 ODIs before they f ly to Dubai for the T20 tournament. Both the teams have undergone some turmoil before the tournament. Paki-stan, who lost to NZ, in the Champions trophy, saw the allegations of Match fixing being lev-elled at the captain and Younis Khan tendered his resignation. But wiser sense prevailed and his resignation was rejected. They assembled a side sans some key bowlers. On the other hand New Zealand was arriving without their coach, who quit the job after senior players revolted against him and questioned his con-tribution. Vettori was now the coach, captain and selector of the team. Both had a point to prove in the desert!

Pakistan eager to avenge their loss in the ODI championship, started the tournament with a bang as they rattled up 287 batting first thanks largely to some sparkling batting by

Afridi (70), Kamran (67*) and Latif (64). Afridi then turned his magic with the ball has he helped bundle out the black caps for paltry 149 despite Redmonds (52) and Vettoris (38) contribution. A mammoth victory (138 runs) and 1-0 lead in the 3 match series for Paki-stan.

The second match saw Vettori winning the toss the NZ and promptly electing to bat. Brendon McCallum, hit a whirlwind 131 and Guptil chipped in with 62 to give New Zealand a match winning 303 runs. Pakistan started the chase strongly and had lost only 1 wicket in their first 124 runs, but they had taken too long to score those and the pres-sure to chase the mounting run rate finally got to the Pakistani batsmen as they lost their wickets and match to give the Black caps a de-served victory by 64 runs. 1-1 and the tourna-ment was heading towards a thrilling finale.

Vettori was lucky with the toss second time in a row and promptly elected to bat. McCallum (76) continued from where he

had left off in the second match. Redmond, Taylor chipped in with useful contributions, but the fragile black caps once again saw their inconsistency cropping up as Ajmal ripped through the middle order to bag 4 wickets and bundle the NZ team for a paltry 211 in this crucial match. The chase was on with earnest; Salman Butt and Khalid Latif marched on to a 47 run opening partnership in 8 overs before Dan, the Man, came on and immediately got the wicket of Latif. And the rout started. Pakistan lost the next 8 wickets for 50 runs and were reduced to 101 for 9. It all looked too easy for the Blacks but no 10, Moham-med Aamer had other ideas. He blasted his way to a power packed 73* in just 81 balls, the highest by a no 10 and was supported by Ajmal (33) to get the score to 199 in quick time after taking the batting powerplay. The improbable was in sight as they had to score run a ball 12 to win the match. The last pair for Pakistan has already added 103 runs. The last over was bowled by Oram, 8 runs were re-quired and tension was palpable everywhere! However, the fairy tale ended on the first ball of the 50th over when Ajmal skied a catch at fine leg which was well judged by Mills who held on to it admirably. Pakistan falling short by 7 runs. Black caps once again proved that they are team to beat when it comes to ODI, but hats off to Pakistan’s last pair for making a match of it. The desert storm was won by New Zealand. Next stop Dubai.

- Prashant Belwalkar

Black Caps outfox Pakistan!


Indian heritage

What’s so ‘desi’ about ‘desi ghee’?

heritage

RAm LINgAm

Hope those divine Diwali sweets have been gobbled up by now. Ever wondered how many of them were made in ‘Desi Ghee’. Gone are the good old days when a family elder insisted that we eat home-made-sweets because “Beta yeh shudh Desi Ghee mein bana hai”. What’s the deal with the ‘desipann’ in the ghee? And what’s so ‘desi’ about ‘desi ghee’? Why is Ghee still ad-vertised as ‘Asli’ Ghee – does that mean there is something called ‘nakli’ ghee?

‘Desi’ ghee, as we know, is ghee made in our home, without any adulteration, totally organic and pure (hope the milk from which it’s made is that way too). ‘Desi’ means country-style-orig-inal-traditional and doesn’t indicate anything savagely Indian. So why do persevere to use the word ‘Desi’ for ghee? Is it a marketing gimmick or ghee-mick? Is it due to the rich flavor that ghee gives to food?

It’s become a fashion these days to look at any oil with suspicion of clogging our arteries. Everytime I see the ghee-soaked-ghee-dripping-‘Maalpua’ in a sweet shop I feel sorry for the person who consumes this high fat indulgence. I wonder if there could be a ‘fat-free maalpua’. We feel guilty when we eat anything fried in oil, what to say about when we make them in or with ghee. No doubt food made in ghee has a distinct flavour. But given the modern literacy on fat, is ghee healthy is a topic for debate.

Ghee to us is still auspicious because it’s not something you add just to food. Like we all do Ghee has uses in temples, in the altar of our homes for the diya lamp, used for skin ailments

or as a skin tonic. My friend from Punjab tells me that, even today in Punjab this ‘Shudh Desi Ghee’ is massaged into the scalp of children and applied as a facial. The traditionalists justify this practice by saying it’s all for the ‘chamak’ (glow) in the face and for making the hair ‘resham’ (smooth and bouncy).

We associated ghee with indulgence and abundance but it has become the first item to be eliminated while moving towards a healthier diet. In contrast, the ancient system of natural medicine of India – Ayurveda ascribes a number of health benefits to ghee consumption, such as improved mental functioning, glowing skin and longevity. Ayurveda journals insist that ghee contains a high percentage of ‘good fats’ that are essential for our body.

The purpose of this column isn’t about nu-tritional advice on ghee but to present an edify-ing perspective on something that has been con-sumed since Vedic times going back over 5,000 years. Obviously the best person to consult about

ghee is a qualified Ayurveda consultant.The word ghee comes from Sanskrit ‘ghrita’.

A Sanskrit verse says “aayurghritam” meaning – ‘Ghee is life’. It has a sacred role in Vedic Hindu libations and anointment rituals as evinced in the Yajurveda. The old Rigveda mentions in many places about butter and ghee. In ancient India, healing wells full of ghee were made and saved for times of war, especially for those who suf-fered wounds. In the Vedic culture of ancient India ghee is supposed to be made only on the full or waxing moons, just like even today in many of the villages of rural Italy, Mozzarella is only made on the waxing or full moons.

All Indian and western practitioners of Ay-urveda praise the medicinal properties of organic desi ghee. The Ayurvedic textbook ‘Charaka Samhita’ says “Cow ghee promotes memory, intellect, power of digestion, semen, ojas, kapha and fat”.

An ancient Indian proverb states that “One hundred-year-old ghee can cure anything.” Ghee

has its place in many Hindu religious rituals and sacraments.

However a common question that is asked is “How is Ghee with cholesterol?” Kathryn Feldenkreis, in her book, ‘Ghee – A Guide to the Royal Oil’, explains, ‘‘Cholesterol itself is not harmful but becomes harmful when it is partly broken down or oxidised by unstable chemi-cals called free radicals. Ghee, and particu-larly organic ghee, has no oxidised cholesterol or trans-fatty acid and is very stable at higher cooking temperatures.’’

What about fat and the use of ghee in Ayurve-da? The Mind-Body guru Deepak Chopra says “The fear that people have for high cholesterol is quite far off-the-mark. Because, results have shown that it is totally unfounded. Why? Dietary intake of cholesterol doesn’t control cholesterol levels; it’s your body’s metabolism that controls cholesterol levels. A lot of it has to do with your constitutional body type and genetics. We are not sure if cholesterol is damaging. It may be the [peroxide] toxic by-product of fat.”

Jo bhi ho, ‘ghee’ is still a ‘desi’ indulgence. Even the Bollywood he-man Dharmendra paaji, who is a brand ambassador for Pure Ghee, has ap-parently attributed the secret behind his success to pure ghee and milk. Don’t know if this would help stem Ghee’s obliteration from our kitchens.

But guess what! Here’s some Desi informa-tion - India still produces some 900,000 tons of ghee annually.

The fear of fat seems to be driving the humble desi ghee from our Indian kitchen. But we have been using it for almost 5000 years. So what’s the deal with this desi ghee?

Guru Nanak Sahib (the First Nanak, the founder of Sikhism) was born on 15th April, 1469 at Rai-Bhoi-di Talwandi in the present distrect of Shekhupura (Pakistan), now Nanakana Sahib. The Birthday of Guru Nanak Sahib is celebrated on 15th Kartik Puranmashi i.e. full moon day of the month Kartik. On this day the Birthday of Guru Nanak Sahib is celebrated every year. (But some other chronicals state that Guru Nanak Sahib was born on 20th October,1469) Guru Nanak’s father, Mehta Kalyan Das, more pop-ularly known as Mehta Kalu was the agent and Chief Accountant of Rai Bular. Guru Nanak ‘s mother was Mata Tripta, a simple, pious and extremely religious woman. Nanak had an elder sister, Nanki, who always cher-ished her younger brother.

Nanak was an extra-ordinary and differ-ent child in many ways. God provided him with contemplative mind and rational think-ing. At the age of seven, he learnt Hindi and Sanskrit. He surprised his teachers with the sublimity of his extra-ordinary knowledge about divine things. At the age of thirteen, he learned Persian and Sanskrit and at the age of 16, he was the most learned young man in the region. He was married to Mata Sulakhni ji, who gave birth to two sons: Sri Chand and Lakhmi Das. In November 1504, Guru Nanak’s elder sister Nanaki ji took him to Sultanpurlodhi where her husband Jai Ram ji got him the Job of storekeeper in the Mo-dikhana of the local Nawab, Daulat Khan Lodhi.

At the age of 38, in August 1507, Guru Nanak Sahib heard God ‘s call to dedicate himself to the service of humanity after bathing in “Vain Nadi” (a small river) Near Sultanpur Lodhi. The very first sentence which he ‘ uttered then was, “ There is no Hindu, no Musalman”. He now undertook long travels to preach his unique and divine

doctrine (Sikhism). After visiting dif-ferent places in Punjab, he decided to proceed on four long tours covering different religious places in India and abroad. These tours are called Char Udasis of Guru Nanak Sahib.

During the four journeys, Guru Nanak Sahib visited different religious places preaching Sikhism. He went to Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Joshi Math, Ratha Sahib, Gorakh Matta (Nanak Matta), Audhya, Prayag, Va-ranasi, Gaya, Patna, Dhubri and Gauhati in Assam, Dacca, Puri, Cuttock, Rameshwaram, Ceylon, Bidar, Baroach, Somnath, Dwarka, Janagarh, Ujjain, Ajmer, Mathura, Pakpattan, Talwandi, Lahore, Sultanpur, Bilaspur, Rawalsar, Jawa-laji, Spiti Vally, Tibet, Ladakh, Kargil, Ama-rnath, Srinagar and Baramula. Guru Nanak Sahib also paid visit to Muslim holy places. In this regard he went to Mecca, Medina, Beghdad via Multan, Peshawar Sakhar, Son Miani, Hinglaj etc. Some accounts say that Guru Sahib reached Mecca by sea-route. Guru Sahib also visited Syria, Turkey and Tehran (the present capital of Iran). From Tehran Guru Sahib set out on the caravan route and covered Kabul, Kandhar and Jalala-bad. The real aim of the tour was awakening

the people to realise the truth about God and to introduce Sikhism. He estab-lished a network of preaching centres of Sikhism which were called “Manjis”. He appointed able and committed followers as its head (preacher of Sikhism). The basic tenents of Sikhism were wilful-ly conceived by the people from all walks of life. The seeds of Sikhism were sown all over India and abroad in well-planned manner.

In the year 1520, Babar attacked India. His troops slaugh-tered thousands of innocent civilians of all walks of life.

Women and children were made captives and all their property looted at Amiabad. Guru Nanak Sahib challenged this act of barbar-ity in strong words. He was arrested and re-leased, shortly after making Babar realising his blunder. All the prisoners were also re-leased.

Guru Nanak Sahib settled down at Kartar-pur city (now in Pakistan) which was founded by him in 1522 and spent the rest of his life there (1522-1539). There was daily Kirtan and the institution of Langar (free kitchen) was in-troduced. Knowing that the end was drawing near, Guru Nanak Sahib, after testing his two sons and some followers, installed Bhai Lehna ji (Guru Angad Sahib) as the Second

Nanak in 1539, and after a few days passed into Sachkhand on 22nd September, 1539.

Thus ended the wordly journey of this god-gifted Master (Guru) of mankind. He rejected the path of renunciation Tyaga or Yoga, the authority of the Vedas and the Hindu caste system. Guru Nanak Sahib emphasised the leading of householder’s life (Grista), unat-tached to gross materialism. The services of mankind Sewa, Kirtan, Satsang and faith in ‘One’ Omnipotent God are the basic concepts of Sikhism established by Guru Nanak Sahib. Thus he laid the foundations of Sikhism. He preached new idea of God as Supreme, Uni-versal, All-powerful and truthful. God is Formless (Nirankar), the Sole, the Creator, the self-existent, the Incomprehensible and the Ever-lasting and the creator of all things (Karta Purakh). God is infinite, All knowing, True, All-giver, Nirvair, and Omnipotent. He is Satnam, the Eternal and Absolute Truth.

As a social reformer Guru Nanak Sahib upheld the cause of women, downtrodden and the poors. He attacked the citadel of caste system of Hindus and theocracy of Muslim rulers. He was a born poet. He wrote 947 hyms comprising Japji Sahib, Asa-Di-Var, Bara-Mah, Sidh-Gosht, Onkar (Dakhani) and these were included in Guru Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan Sahib. He was also a perfect mu-sician. He with the company of Bhai Mardana compsed such tunes in various Indian classi-cal Ragas that charmed and tawed wild crea-tures like Babar, subdued saging kings, raved bigots and tyrants, made thugs and robbers saints. He was a reformer as well as a revo-lutionary. God had endowed him with a con-templative mind and pious disposition. Guru Arjan Sahib called him “the image of God, nay, God Himself”.

Courtesy SGPC Punjab Indian

Guru Nanak – the first Sikh GuruGuru Nanak was the first religious leader of the Indian Sub Continent who openly preached caste and gender equality.

The purpose of this column isn’t about nutritional advice on ghee but to present an edifying perspective on something that has been consumed since Vedic times going back over 5,000 years.


Indian


Indian

Are you taking your good health for granted?

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan .Sometimes we become ill, or we have an accident and, if it’s serious, we might be left unable to work.

While for most people the early death of an income earner would cause serious financial strain for the spouse left behind, the financial impact would be just as serious if that income earner became totally disabled and unable to work for the rest of their lives. In some cases the hardship experienced would be even more profound as ongoing daily living and medical costs for the disabled person could be signifi-cant.

Total and permanent disablement (TPD) cover provides a lump sum and financial peace of mind, in the event of total and per-manent disablement through accident or illness.Definition of “total disability’

Total and Permanent Disablement is defined where as a result of Accident or illness you are so incapicated that you:

1) Cannot do your own job or another job which your skills may be suited to; or

2) Suffer loss of limbs or sight; or3) Cannot perform at least two of the

following activities without the physical as-sistance of someone else:

• Bathing and Showering• Dressing and undressing• Eating and Drinking• Using a toilet• Moving from place to place by

walking, in a wheelchair, or with a walking aid.

Or alternatively, you are unable to perform one of the activities noted above and your intellectual capacity has reduced or deterio-

rated to such an extent that you require per-manent and constant supervision.Good Reasons to have Total & Permanent Disablement Cover

If the unexpected was to happen - Acci-dents do happen. 4 out of 10 New Zealanders suffer some type of disability or long term illness before the age of 65.*

It helps pay off your debts including Mortgage - Whatever happens, you’ll have resources to contribute to your home loan or other debts, helping to safeguard your fam-ily’s future

This covers would help pay Medical Ex-penses - The cost of ongoing medical treat-ment and possible modifications to your home or work environment, can put a signifi-cant strain on your finances.

Maintaining your lifestyle - Without the ability to earn, you’ll still need to pay the bills and everyday living expenses.

You can access the best available care - Employing a full time caregiver is often necessary, but can be expensive. A lump sum payout through your cover can assist with the cost.Food for thought

One in eight people will have a stroke. It is

the leading cause of major disability in New Zealand and the third most common cause of death. Every year 7000 people in New Zealand have a stroke, (20 per day). 1

The University of Auckland has revealed a 40% decline in the number of deaths after stroke in the total population of Auckland, New Zealand over the past 25 years. However, as the death rate declines, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with an impaired level of consciousness and mobility following a stroke.2

Twenty-nine percent of New Zealanders have a diagnosed long-term illness or dis-ability.3

Males have a two in five chance of suffer-ing a critical illness between the ages of 30 and 64. 4

The standard norm is to take out a Life

Cover or a Medical Cover. But just pause & think for a moment that

if you had an accident or illness that serious-ly affected your ability to work, what would happen to your wife, children, business, home or lifestyle?Sources

1 The stroke Foundation of New Zealand 2007

2 The George Institute for International Health, in collaboration with Auckland City Hospital and the University of Auckland 2007.

3 Statistics New Zealand,20044 General Cologne Life Re Australia, 2002* Davies Financial and Actuarial Limited

The above information has been provided to serve only as a guideline to assist in evalu-ating your insurance needs. You are encour-aged to do your own research before arriving at any decisions.

For further information, please contact:

Oliver Pereira – OPM Insurance Services Ltd.

Ph. 0800 66 77 92, Faxmail. 021 551 669, Mobile. 021 66 77 92

Email. [email protected]

Finance

oLIVeR PeReIRA

How would you (and family) cope if you were permanently disabled?

can i win a $150 shopping voucher when i send money?

To celebrate the opening of your new local Fexco Pacific branch at 1250 Dominion Rd, Mt Roskill, we’re giving away a $150 shopping voucher every week between 31 August and 30 November 2009. Send a Western Union® Money Transfer and complete this entry form to enter the draw. Terms and conditions apply. See instore for details, or visit www.fexcopacific.co.nz.

name:

email:

mobile:

Pacific0800 270 000www.fexcopacific.co.nz

Money exchange available

here!

...as the death rate declines, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with an impaired level of consciousness and mobility following a stroke.


Indian

suNIL khemLANI

Finance

Rise of the Nifty Today, India is one of the most exciting emerg-ing markets in the world. Its economy has per-formed impressively in the last few years and is forecast (by IMF) to grow over 5% in 2009. There are few markets among emerging econ-omies with the breadth of choice available in India and few companies that show the kind of growth rates that Indian corporates have been notching up.

On the back of the stellar performance of these companies (and their related share prices), we have seen marked appreciation in India’s two main bourses (exchanges), namely the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Their re-spective headline indices - SENSEX and S&P CNX NIFTY - have risen around 60% year-to-date (through early November 2009).

The S&P CNX Nifty index covers 50 stocks in 25 sectors of the economy and over 60 per cent of the total market capitalisation of the underlying bourse, the NSE. The BSE Sensex index on the other hand tracks 30 stocks in 12 major sectors.

Nifty’s increasing edgeAccording to data from the two exchanges

in August 2009, NSE’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 47,01,923, not far behind from the Bombay Stock Exchange’s valuation of Rs 50,12,966 crore.

[Market capitalisation is simply the worth of a company in terms of its shares. To put it simply, if you were to buy all the outstand-ing shares of all the companies listed in the exchange, that is the amount you would have to pay.]

Riding on superior technology and foreign institutional investors’ preference, the NSE’s market capitalisation is expected to surpass its older counterpart, the BSE, for the first time in history this year. This is creditable considering that NSE has been functioning only since 1994 compared to more than 130 years of BSE’s existence!

According to global consultancy, Celent, the market turnover (trading volume) of NSE for 2009 is expected to be more than two times the turnover of the BSE. On August 7, NSE turnover in value terms was reported at around Rs 17,650 crore versus BSE’s of about Rs 5,443 crore.

While BSE has consolidated its position as the world’s biggest bourse in terms of number of listed companies, the NSE has become the world’s second fastest-growing bourse in the same regard. By 2008, NSE had seen a whop-ping surge of about 13-times in the number

of listed companies since inception (about 100 firms were listed in 1994-95).

Nifty FuturesNot only has the index (and underlying

shares) seen stellar appreciation in recent times, the derivative market associated with the Indian exchange has also seen marked im-provements in volumes as well.

According to the Singapore Exchange (SGX), where the bulk of the S&P CNX Nifty India futures contracts trade, the volume of Nifty contracts traded continued to outper-form all other listed futures there, growing 33.6% to 9.6 million contracts in FY 2009, ending in June. (FY2008: 7.2 million con-tracts). This represents around 16% of overall SGX Futures and options trading volume.

What is a futures contract?An agreement to buy or sell a standard

quantity of an underlying instrument - such as an index or a commodity - on a specific future date at an agreed price determined at the time the contract is traded on the futures exchange.

Nifty futures volume picked up steam on the SGX in late 2007 when investment in India through participatory notes (PNs) was banned. PNs, offshore derivative instruments, were mainly used by hedge funds and high net worth individuals to park their funds dis-creetly in stock markets. The ban, however,

was lifted in October 2008 after markets touched historic lows and foreign funds dried up. Short-selling of Nifty futures on SGX was high in 2008 and traders decided the market trend there.

Also, the continued appeal of dealing in Singapore stems from the easier disclosure norms there and the ability of some of the top Indian punters to generate returns outside of India (without needing to move their funds back to India).

Capitalising on the NiftyInvestors can invest in the NIFTY index

in a few different ways, such as index funds operated by different companies (Exchange-traded funds were covered in a previous article), index futures, for example SGX S&P CNX Nifty futures as discussed above or through directly purchasing each individual share (totalling 50) in their exact weightage in the Nifty index. Needless to say, the later will prove an extremely challenging task, not to mention incur huge trading costs (brokerage).

Understanding Future TradingHere’s an example of how it works:In anticipating rising stock prices, an in-

vestor buys one contract of Nifty index futures (through a licensed futures broker in New Zealand like StoneBridge Securities) that is currently trading around 4,500 and valued at

US$9,000 (each SGX Nifty futures contract is valued at US$2 x index futures value). Since futures are leveraged instruments traded on margin, the initial margin requirement in this case is roughly 10% or around US$900. This is the amount require to initiate a trade in the futures contract.

Now since the value of the futures contract is 2 times the index, each one point change in the index represents a US$2 gain or loss in the futures contract. If for example the index rises to 4,700 and the investor wishes to take profit, he/she will sell that one futures contract for a US$400 gain. [US$2 x (index value at selling – index value at buying)]. Conversely, a de-crease of the same 200 points in the index value will result in a $400 loss to the inves-tor. For simplicity, brokerage costs (though minimal) are not included in this example.

Another attractive feature of futures trading is the ability to short-sell (Sell first/high – Buy later/low), so in essence, an ability to profit from a declining market as well.

While futures trading has its many pro-ponents, providing a means to invest in the prime index of India, investors need to be aware of the underlying risks they potentially face. For a more complete understanding of its risk and rewards, please consult with an experienced futures advisor.

- Sunil KhemlaniStoneBridge Securities (NZ) Limited

Tel: 0508 874 015 Email: [email protected]

StoneBridge Group is an Australian-owned trading house (accredited with the

ASX and NZX exchanges) providing advisory and execution services on Foreign Exchange,

Commodities, Futures & Options, Shares & CFDs.

“This publication has been prepared on behalf of and issued by StoneBridge Securi-

ties (NZ) Limited (“StoneBridge”). This is not an offer to deal in any financial product

and is not specific advice for any particu-lar investor. StoneBridge believes that any

information or advice (including any recom-mendation) contained in this publication is accurate when issued but does not warrant its accuracy or reliability, and is not liable for the future performance of transactions

or for any loss or damage arising in connec-tion with this publication. A full Disclosure Statement in accordance with the Securities Markets Act 1988 is available free of charge

on request.”

It is impossible for anyone to predict future in-terest rates with certainty. The big corporate and financial institutions spend considerable time and money in forecasting interest rates. Still their record of forecasting is notoriously poor. I have been advocating splitting of loan and fixing for different maturities in my previous columns. I am still a strong advocate of the same. But there are certain points worth considering here. Notable ones are

• RBNZ Governor has reiterated that the OCR will stay low for next few months.

• US Federal reserve chairman has also indicated the same.

• On the other hand Australia has already increased OCR by 50 basis points in last couple of months. It is expected that Australian economy will beat other world economies in terms of growth and the interest rates will rise further.

We should remember that in New Zealand as well as in rest of the World, the interest rates were dropped sharply in response to economic conditions during last 1 year or so. There is

always risk that if the situation demands, these can be increased sharply.

If we look at the fixed interest rates for different maturities at present (at the time of writing this column on 8.11.09), we see that 12 months fixed rate is close to 6%, 24 months close to 7% and 36 months close to 8%.

Now the question is for how long one should fix the loan for?

If you fix the loan today for 12 months at 6% and after 12 months, you get a rate of 8% for re fixing for next 12 months, your average for 2 years will be 7% and that equals the fixed rate for 24 months at present.

Similarly if you fix the rate today for 12 months and after 12 months, you get a rate of 9%

for re fixing for next 24 months, your average for 3 years will be 8% and that equals the rate for 36 months at present. Similarly it can be calculated for rates for other maturi-ties. (There is no cer-tainty as to how much the rates can move up in one year’s time)

But considering what the RBNZ Gover-nor is saying, you can

decide to fix for up to 12 months today and ex-posing yourself to risk of higher rates in future, thinking that interest rates may not rise by 2% in next 12 months. That is if you are a risk taker and can afford to pay higher rates in future. If you are too conservative, want certainty and do not want to take any risk, fixing for longer term may be better. The middle policy is of course splitting and fixing for different maturities.

Another aspect to look at is your present family income and expected future family income. If your family income is low at present and it is expected to go up in future, you may choose to fix for a shorter term now, so that your repayment is lower and fix at potentially higher rate in future, when your income may be higher. Your income may be low at present due to re-dundancy, being a student, being on maternity leave, etc.

Everyone has different financial circum-stances, different risk profile and also different risk taking capacity. This article is for general guidance only; you should seek independent fi-nancial advice before acting on the same.

- Ravi Mehta is an Auckland based Finan-cial Advisor and can be contacted on ravi.

[email protected] disclosure statement under Securities

Markets Act relating to his services is available on request and is free of charge.

For further information, please visit website www.professionalfinancial.co.nz

Mortgage Interest rates: for how long to fix?RAVI mehtA

chARt oF NIFty’s PeRFoRmANce thIs PAst yeAR

We should remember that in New Zealand as well as in rest of the World, the interest rates were dropped sharply in response to economic conditions during last 1 year or so.


Indian

Recipe by Ruby dhillon

WeekeNdCUISINE

• 400g- chicken (boneless chicken)

• 2tbs- soya sauce

• 1tsp- sugar

• 1/2tsp- white pepper powder

• ½- capsicum, cut into 1-inch pieces

• 1- onion ( small, quartered, layers separated)

• 8 nos- green chillies chopped

• 2tbs- cornflour

• 6-8 cloves- garlic chopped

• ½ cup- spring onion chopped

• 2 cups of water

• Salt according to taste

• 1tbs- oil and oil for frying.

1. Practice Pranayam package of 8 breathing exercises every day. (Contact us for free Yoga classes 09 6223308)

2. Doing Gomukh asana and Manduk asana will give quick recovery. 3.Take Swami Ramdev Ji’s Aloe Vera Juice twice a day along with Amla Juice and hot water.

4. Put 2 spoons of Divya churna in two glass of water overnight. In the morning boil it until it becomes one glass and then drink it this

will help in piles, fisher& fistula. 5. Avoid eating oily or greasy food.

Next Issue: Nails

FREE YOGA CLASSMount Roskill: Monday 6.30pm Santoor Res-taurant,461 Hillsborough Road. Onehunga: Wednesday 9.00am Migration Support Services, 101 Church Street, Behind Westpac Bank. Mount Roskill: Saturday 9.00am Balmoral Temple. Botany - Sunday 9.30am India trade group, Unit E, 8 Bishop Lenihan place (Behind Punjabi Dhaba).

Ingredients: method:

CHILLI CHICKEN

5 easy tips for Piles, Fisher & FistulaBy Swami Ramdevji

Marinate chicken pieces in 1tbs soya

sauce, salt and 1tbs cornflour. Keep it for ten

minutes.

Deep fry chicken in hot oil till light brown.

Heat oil in a wok, Add garlic and chopped

chilies and cook for a minute.

Add onion and capsicum, cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add water and bring it to a boil then add sugar,

white pepper powder, salt and rest of the soya

sauce.

Add chicken, cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Mix rest of cornflour in water and add to it. Stir

constantly.

Garnish with spring onions.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Many of my clients like to travel on Singapore Airlines and have a stopover in Singapore. Almost all of them have used this airline for years and have had one or more than one stop-over in Singapore, so I do not have to sell either the airline or the place, and I take it for granted that these guys know everything about the city that is Singapore.

Recently, my take-it-easy attitude was chal-lenged when a repeat client asked me about bars in Singapore. Boy, I thought, I had no clue. Well, I did a bit of research and suggested him a few. He is back and happily gave me his feedback about some of them. I think it is a good idea to write about it for the benefit of Indian Weekend-er readers.

In Singapore, a new generation of bars and clubs has emerged. Of late, Dempsey Hill neigh-bourhood has emerged as happening place in Singapore with a thriving night life.

Where army barracks once stood surrounded by tropical jungle, bars and restaurants have been sprouting at a breakneck pace. The atmosphere is laidback with alfresco settings, and it is just a few miles from downtown. Richard Goh opened Oosh Bar and Lounge in 2006 (22 Dempsey Rd (65-6475-0002; www.oosh.com.sg) on almost 100,000 sq ft of lush green property.

Indeed, Oosh may evoke memories of your last tropical getaway. Live musicians often en-

tertain at the main bar; out in the garden, Ba-linese-style pavilions are set among moodily lit waterfalls and reflecting pools. Service can be slow, but strong cocktails and the stirring décor are distraction enough.

A more recent addition to Dempsey is the White Rabbit (39C Harding Road; 65-6473-9965; www.thewhiterabbit.com.sg), where a young and well-heeled crowd competes for atten-tion with the space itself: a charmingly restored chapel, complete with stained-glass windows, which houses a bustling restaurant and lounge leading out to a garden bar.

This is co-owned by Mr Wee, who opened another bar: the beach bar. Opened in May on the resort island of Sentosa, just off the city’s coast, the Shack (120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Sentosa; 65-6278-9934; www.theshack.com.sg) the bar resides within an old shipping container and beer barrels have been recycled as tables.

In the residential area of Mount Emily, look for an elegant, sprawling colonial mansion with a terrace out front. This is Wild Oats (11 Upper Wilkie Rd; 65-6336-5413; www.wildrocket.com.sg). While the drinks selection is rather stan-dard, there is an ambitious menu of bar food (the owner, Willin Low, is also the chef at the nearby Wild Rocket restaurant).

The most unlikely setting of all may be at KPO (1 Killiney Rd; 65-6733-3648; www.imag-

inings.com.sg) in downtown Singapore, where a bar and lounge share space with an operating post office.

During the day, KPO is a sleek cafe, but after dark, it fills with down-tempo beats and a mix of locals and tourists. A second floor also opens up at night, with a lovely open-air balcony where bar stools are arrayed to overlook the whizzing traffic below.

My client says: “while in Singapore on a business trip or leisure, visit one of these bars and have a good time.

Singapore offers a good night life now a days”.- Madhup Srivastav

travel

There’s a lot more to tippling in Singapore than the SlingMany of us would be taking the long annual trip to India in the next few weeks – and quite a few would be passing through Singapore. Here are tips on some great watering holes for those taking a break in the city state and looking beyond the legendary Singapore Sling.


Indian Feature

After the introduction of Buddhism to China around the 1st century BC, various schools of thought had cropped up. In the 13th century AD, Nichiren Daishonin, a Buddhist sage and philosopher of Japan, having studied all the existing Buddhist texts and sutras for over 14 years, upheld the Lotus Sutra as the highest teaching of Buddhism propagated by Gautama Buddha.

Even to this day, Nichiren’s teachings, con-cepts and guidance hold good in their applica-bility for resolving problems of daily life from the mundane to the most complex.

Nichiren’s philosophy of Buddhism is based on interpretation of the teachings of Gautama Buddha that lead to empowerment of the self rather than reliance on supernatural or external forces to alleviate life’s problems through ap-peasement and rituals.

With the Law of Causality (Cause and Effect) and emphasis on humanism with genuine com-passion from ones heart as the basis, Buddhism is a vibrant philosophy of what life is all about. It is a philosophy of how every moment of our life ‘ticks’ and what is expected of our behav-ior as human beings. It teaches equality, respect for life and upholding its dignity for others and self.

Nichiren Daishonin evolved simple means to make people understand the various con-cepts of Buddhism:

• The Lotus Sutra constitutes the heart of all Buddhism.• Buddha-hood is an enlightened state of mind, which all persons are capable of achieving. He spoke about the vast potential of the human mind, realisation of which empowers one to challenge and alleviate ones problems without reliance on any supernatural or external source.• The workings of the universe are all subject to a single principle or Law. By understanding that Law, one can unlock the hidden potential in ones life and achieve perfect harmony with the self and the environment around oneself.• The universal Law is defined as “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.”• All phenomena are subject to a strict principle of cause and effect and the present state of one’s life is a summation of all the causes one has himself made.• By chanting “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” with a strong conviction and faith in the universal Law, one creates the most fundamental cause to offset negative effects from the past and lead to absolute happiness.

On negative aspects Nichiren taught, that a life ruled by greed, anger, ignorance, envy, arrogance and ingratitude can never lead to a

happy fulfilling life, no matter how much mate-rial and social status one may acquire. Surpris-ingly, Nichiren did not espouse renouncing ma-terial gains and worldly possessions provided their acquisition was not a source of unhappi-ness for others.

THE WORKING OF THE LAW

When, one chants ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” in rhythm with the cosmic Law; fusion of the Law latent deep within one’s self with the ulti-mate Law of all phenomena results. Such fusion enables one to draw forth ones innate enlight-enment or wisdom and empowers one to face the challenges of life head on, rather than be subdued by adversities. Deep faith is the key.

It is pertinent to point out that chanting the mantra is no magical panacea for one’s problems. Nichiren’s philosophy is based on reason and rationale rather than on blind faith. In Nichiren’s philosophy, happiness does not mean absence of problems; as per him “Never let life’s hardship disturb you. After all no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages.”

Compassion for Nicheren’s followers con-notes rising beyond the self, to reach out to offer support and encouragement to those suf-fering till the end of their travails and earnestly praying for them.

The beauty of this practice lies in the fact that, one is neither required to undergo any change of name or religion, nor restricted from performing any other religious social obliga-tions. One is not put through any ritualistic ini-tiation ceremony either.

Over 12 million people across 190 countries practise Nichiren’s Buddhist philosophy today. This has been brought about mainly through unrelenting efforts of Dr. Daisaku Ikeda the third president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a non profit organisation of lay believ-ers with its headquarters in Japan committed to promoting peace, culture, and education in the world, through the practice of the Buddhist philosophy of Nichiren Daishonin.

It will be of interest to know that many leading world celebrities are practicing members of the SGI.

Dr. Daisaku Ikeda has been honoured with over 250 doctorates and fellowships awarded by leading universities across the world. He is recipient of the UN Peace Prize awarded in rec-ognition of his efforts towards abolishment of nuclear weapons.

It is a philosophy for all as human beings to practice and lead a life of true humanism, true compassion, lasting joy and empower-ment through value creation in one’s life and of others thereby enhancing society.

Nichiren’s philosophy brings peace to the self and the worldkARAN VIR shARmA

The beauty of this practice lies in the fact that, one is neither required to undergo any change of name or religion, nor restricted from performing any other religious social obligations.


Indian

The petite and charming Riya Sen is looking more ravishing than ever these days. The reason- Riya has lost oodles of weight and is sporting an all-new look. Recently, Riya was the cynosure of all eyes at Subhash Ghai’s party where she entered late and ended up receiving a galore of compliments from those present.

Riya’s new stunning persona

Indian

volume 1 issue 18

Documents

new zealand capital

new zealand investors

new zealand leg

indian new zealand indian

new york

new zealand manufacturing

indian indian log

new zealands brand positioning