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Indo AmerIcAn news • FrIdAy, JUne 18 , 2010 • Online editiOn: www.indOamerican-news.cOm

1 Indo American news • Friday, June 18 , 2010 Online editiOn: www.indoamerican-news.com

Friday, June 18 2010 | Vol. 29, No. 25 50¢

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HOUSTON: It was a Memorable Memorial Weekend for all Housto-nians!. Star Plus aired a 30-minute show on Masala Radio’s Houston Holi 2010. The show started with Sunil Thakkar opening the show under the Mahatma Gandhi sign on Hillcroft and later drivng in the rickshaw to the Holi event. The Rickshaw drives by Keemat Gro-cers & Karat 22, the viewers get a feel of the hustling bustling Gan-dhi Market on Hillcroft. Masala Radio’s Sunil and Sandhya Thak-kar invited all crew and sponsors to a “Viewing Party” catered by Satish Rao of Indian Ocean and Udipi Café. Everyone in the audi-ence at the Thakkar residence was in the episode, filling the house with roars of laughter and recogni-tion! Many more participants and the community at large town tex-ted Thakkar excitedly upon see-ing their own or a familiar face on TV.

Sponsor Brij Agrawal was vis-ibly excited on stage about Sugar Land being the host of the first Indian event to be covered in a 30 min Star Plus episode. It was a tre-mendous source of pride for all of Houston to be featured across the nation!

The 30-minute Episode began with a shot of the new signage for the Mahatma Gandhi District with a colorful explosion of dance clips. The camera then walked through the 11,000+ Holi crowd, asking guests “What does color mean to you?”. Nadir Dhanani related

Houston Holi Goes International

Jai HoMadness

on aHighAR Rahman Jai Ho was an instant hit in New York, Washington and Chicago. Houston is on a high with the AR Rahman fever building up as well. Only two weeks are left before the AR Rahman Madness begins, July 3rd 2010, 8:30pm at Toyota Center.

color to the “Hues he remembers from Holi in India – the colorful lifestyle and traditions of Guja-rat and Mumbai.” Erik Srnka of grand sponsor The Village School talked about their colorful and di-verse student body.

Malik Jamal of Presenting Spon-sor; Tara Energy accurately de-picted the mood of Holi as “pure excitement”. Swapan Dhriyavan, President of India Culture Center said jubilantly after the screen-ing on May 29 “Star Plus is not just one of the many South Asian channels on our satellite boxes. I feel it is become the Official South Asian Channel of all Houston In-dians. Star Plus came to Houston Holi and now is a part of Hous-ton”. Ajit Patel, of Gujarati Samaj of Houston said “I received mes-

sages from many Gujarati Samaj presidents across the country con-gratularting us as they were watch-ing the show on TV. This is what Indian TV should be… about us and our lives here. We need more shows depicting life and culture in the US so we can relate better.”

Houston Holi was a directorial debut for Houston’s Arif Memon, shot and edited by John Hale. This was shot by Masala Entertainment and produced entirely in Houston. “We have some great talent in Houston and I am very fortunate to work with these hugely creative individuals” said Sunil Thakkar. “We are excited about producing more of such shows and possibly a pilot for an ongoing TV show for Star Plus. Star Plus changed my life with the Laughter Challenge

and I will never forget that, adds Sunil. Star Plus made the promos for the Houston Holi 2010 and promoted the episode feverishly for the last two weeks, giving the episode a prime spot right before the World Premiere of Bollywood Blockbluster “Atithi Thum Kab Jaoge.”

Star Plus was impressed with Masala Radio and Masala En-tertainment’s Holi orgnaiziation, shooting, and editing, and is de-manding more episodes of local event coverage. “It is time to give the US viewers better coverage of US events, and even US-based sitcoms, serials, cooking shows…everything, this is direction for Star Plus” said Sagnik Roy, Star USA Director of Marketing and Sales.

Houston Holi Festival hosted by Sunil T is airing high on Star TV along with many other news channel planning to air it on their Network thus putting Houston Festivals on a global map.

Music Masala is moving to 1110 AM on weekends starting June 26

LONDON (Times of IndiaI): Notwithstanding many objections from ad-mirers of Rabindra Nath Tagore, including West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who wrote to PM Manmohan Singh

bring the canvases back to India at a later stage.

Activists had claimed the works were a part of India’s na-tional heritage. The Indian gov-ernment, though, did not directly or indirectly participate in the auction.

The paintings will, in fact, temporarily return to Dartington Hall Trust (the sellers) next year for a display there as part of its weeklong celebration of Tag-ore’s 150th birth anniversary in May 2011.

The sale also set a record for any individual Tagore painting anywhere in the world.

to try and stop the Sotheby’s auc-tion, 12 paintings of the poet lau-reate owned by the Dartington Hall Trust in Devon, South-West England, changed hands for about Rs 11 crore. The auction proceeds were over six times the minimum estimate of Rs 1.7 crore.

Individual buyers, including an Indian and a Bangladeshi, are said to be among the purchasers. They are not believed to belong to a consortium. An Indian diplomat familiar with the matter expressed fears of the set being “canni-balised”. Sources said one of the buyers was London-based cardi-ologist Abhijit Lahiri who could

tagore works sell for $2.37 million

Story on Pg 3

Samskriti and MFAH to pres-ent art & litera-ture of Thanja-vur Court

FBI stopping muslims Placed on no-Fly Listoutside United states

WASHINGTON: As a 26-year-old Muslim American man who spent 18 months in Yemen before heading home to Virginia in early May, Yahya Wehelie caught the at-tention of the F.B.I. Agents stopped him while he was changing planes in Cairo, told him he was on the no-fly list and questioned him about his contacts with another American in Yemen, one accused of joining Al Qaeda and fatally shooting a hospital guard. For six weeks, Mr. Wehelie has been in limbo in the Egyptian capital. He and his par-ents say he has no radical views, de-spises Al Qaeda and merely wants to get home to complete his educa-tion. But after many hours of ques-tioning by F.B.I. agents, he remains on the no-fly list. Mr. Wehelie’s predicament reflects the aggressive response of American counterter-rorism officials to recent close calls. On Tuesday, CAIR, wrote to At-torney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to protest what it call, called “ap-parently illegal pressure tactics” against Muslim American travel-ers. “If the F.B.I. wishes to ques-tion American citizens, they should be allowed to return to the United States,” Mr. Awad wrote.Evidently the F.B.I. is not convinced.

The American authorities in Cairo canceled his passport and issued a new one Sunday with the notation, “valid only for return to the United States before Sept. 12, 2010,” Mr. Wehelie said. That is his goal, he said, but he has no idea how to get home.

FEATURED INSIDE

Son-in-law of Voice of Asia’s Publisher Koshy Thomas, Dr. Suresh Philip, passes away.

Obituary on Pg 22





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HOUSTON: Indian Performing Arts- Samskriti, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, is presenting an International Con-ference on the Art and Literature at the Thanjavur Maratha Court: A Confluence of Cultures 1674 – 1855

Thanjavur, situated in the fertile delta region of the Kaveri river in Tamilnadu, is an ancient center of South Indian culture. The city and the region have mainly been asso-ciated with the Cholas (10th-13th centuries), who left a deep imprint not only in South India but also in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

Less attention has been paid to the role of Thanjavur as a cultural center in more recent times, under the successive rule of the Vijayana-gara Nayakas and the Marathas of Western India. In particular, the great flowering of literature, per-formance, and visual arts overseen by the Maratha rulers of Thanja-vur from the 17th to the 19th cen-turies deserves to be more widely known, especially because this era has been seen as a period of the de-cline of indigenous culture under British colonial rule.

This international conference brings together a group of ac-claimed scholars whose research shows that, contrary to such as-sumptions, the innovations of the Maratha era made Thanjavur the fountainhead of the artistic tradi-tions of modern South India.

The cultural florescence at the Thanjavur Maratha court arose from an unprecedented conflu-ence of languages (Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Sanskrit and English) and cultures (Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamilnadu, Europe) resulting in revolutionary developments which

samskriti & mFAH to Present Art & Literature of Thanjavur courtwere disseminated to other courts (Travancore, Mysore, Baroda) and cities (Madras) in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Conference date: July 10, 2010 Brown Auditorium, MFAH, 1001 Bissonet Street, Houston, Tx. 77005

Inauguration: 10.00 a.m by Hon’ble Babaji Rajah Bhonsle, Trustee, Thanjavur Devasthanams, Thanjavur, India

Registration: $25 pp includes lunch. Online registration avail-able at www.tickets2events.com.

For more information con-tact Rathna or Anil Kumar 281 265 2787, Thara Narasimhan 281-565-9483 or Vatsa Kumar (979)240-9496

Samskriti is also presenting a post conference showpiece: King’s Salon by Prof. Hari Krishnan and Srividya Natarajan from Canada-on Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 5.00 p.m at the Kaplan Theater, Jew-ish Community Center, 5100 S. Braeswood, Houston, Tx. 77096

Tickets: VIP, $100, $50, $25 and $15 are available at www.ticket-s2events.com

Hari Krishnan (artistic director: in dance, Canada and Professor of Dance at Wesleyan University, USA) and Srividya Natarajan (ar-tistic associate: in Dance and Pro-fessor of English: University of Western Ontario, Canada), Cana-da’s premiere Bharatanatyam cou-ple perform, a full-length Bhara-tanatyam duet.

Love poetry has sustained the dance traditions of South India for the last four hundred years. The King’s Salon is a celebration of the aesthetics of courtly love that are at the heart of the dance form called Bharatanatyam.

During the reign of the Mara-

tha kings of Tanjavur and local zamindars (landowning elites) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this dance was nurtured as a virtuosic art that was meant to stimulate aesthetic pleasure through the presentation of lyrical texts and movement.

Courtly dance performances were given by women known as devadasis who were professional artists and courtesans. This tradi-tion came to an end with the radi-cal shifts in morality ushered in by colonialism and the rise of Indian nationalism in the twentieth cen-tury.

The King’s Salon reflects the re-search efforts of inDANCE with several distinct devadasi commu-nities in South India, specifically in the coastal Andhra region and in the Kaveri delta region in Tamil-nadu.

This repertoire reveals a remark-able continuity, and hopefully forces us to re-think the aesthet-ics of dance prior to the charting of state boundaries between these regions in the 1940s.

For more information, please contact Rathna or Anil Kumar 281 265 2787 or Thara Narasimhan 281-565-9483.

Top: Mural of Thanjavur Maratha ruler Sarfoji. Below: Dance masters Hari Krishnan and Srividya Natarajan from Canada.




5 Indo American news • Friday, June 18 , 2010 Online editiOn: www.indoamerican-news.com s o c i e t y

continued on page 6

sri meenakshi Temple Holds youth camp 2010 at Barsana dhamBy Tejas & shivam Dave

AUSTIN: Excitement filled the air as more than 50 participants eagerly awaited departing the Sri Meenakshi Temple on Wednesday, June 9th. The day began with a prayer to the Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and it was clear from the begin-ning that our prayers had been heard. The bus was loaded as lunch was served and we promptly began our journey to Barsana Dham in Austin, TX.

The bus was filled with chatter as new friendships were made and elaborate plans for having fun were discussed, as we rolled across the varying Texas terrain, with tall skylines one minute and short grasses the next. The four hour drive seemed to pass by in flash, and we were soon engulfed in the peaceful and serene aura that pervaded the environment of Barsana Dham due to its re-markable balance of natural beauty and hu-man architecture. Every child, from age 6 to 18 helped in unloading the bus and allowing the camp to quickly get started.

Upon entering the building, snacks were served to kids that as they were assigned to their rooms. We started off the camp with Rudra Abhishekam for the Gopeshwara Mahadeva shrine. All the kids devotedly offered milk and water to the Lord while the Rudram (mantras in praise of Ishvara from the Rig Veda) was chanted. This was followed by a melodious recitation of the Lingashtakam. After just a short hour with our dedicated and interest grabbing instruc-

tor, Dr. Partha Krishnamurthy, everyone felt more confident in their vocal talent. After a short overview of our Camp Ishvara, dis-cussing the family of Lord Shiva, we broke for dinner and then sleep to begin our next day bright and early.

Thursday morning began with yoga at 6:30 in the morning. Our yogacharya Dr. Shriram Sarvotham, began with the basic rules of yoga and transformed our understanding of

it as a physical practice to a prayer to the lord. As he made even the toughest asanas (postures) seem like child’s play, he taught us the Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation) and other postures and filled us all with en-ergy that lasted throughout the day.

We soon proceeded to breakfast and then an ice-breaker as we broke into five teams named after the pancha bhootas (the tra-ditional five elements), Akash (air), Vayu

(water), Agni (fire), Prithvi (Earth) and Varuna (water) and got to better know each other. We then began our first session of the day quite appropriately with Lord Ganesha. While we discussed the various interesting stories regarding the god, we delved deeper into the symbolic meaning for Lord Gane-sha, and taught important morals, such as listening to parents. Each team then pre-

More than 50 vibrant youth participants attended the Youth Camp this year held at Barsana Dham, Austin


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sented what they had learned from the session by illustrating the body of Lord Ganesha and discussing the symbolism behind it. We con-cluded the session with the bhajan Shakti Sahita Ganapati.

Free time featuring various sports followed and soon a scrumptious lunch was served. The children quickly assembled back for Arts and Crafts where everyone made their own murthy (idol) of Lord Ganesha from blocks of clay. Ev-eryone was amazed by the suc-cess in this as nearly 50 Ganeshas adorned the Lotus Hall.

After a few quick snacks, we gathered once again to learn about Lord Kartikeya, through another highly interactive lecture. We be-gan by learning different names of Lord Kartikeya and then dis-cussing their significance and stories surrounding his birth. We then learned a Tamil bhajan, Nada Vindu Kaladhi on Lord Kartikeya. This was followed by a session on garba dance. We learned how to perform this dance in preparation for having a formal garba outside the next day, before enjoying an extremely satisfying dinner.

This was followed by a couple of tremendously fun games of kabadi and everyone soon went to sleep in preparation for the next day.

The daily routine of Yoga and breakfast continued on Saturday morning until the first session be-gan. During that, we learned of the many stories of Lord Shiva in his many forms. Everyone had their own take and we ended up learn-ing many insightful events involv-ing about the lord. After lunch, we were given some background information on Mother Parvati and then Mr. Bala launched into an attention-grabbing story of Devi Ma-hatmyam.

The lecture was followed by the camp talent show. The participants had prepared indepen-dently for the dura-tion of the camp and were ready to show-case their abilities. It was a magnificent show filled with singing, acting, and

other original acts by all ages. And immediately after, due to an over-whelming request from the partici-pants, we played a final round of Garba. Our final dinner at camp was an appetizing one and the par-ticipants slept in anticipation of the grand finale.

The concluding Yoga session was definitely the best as the par-ticipants performed as if they were masters of Yoga. The children then gathered into their groups to present aspects of what they had learned over the past several days. All five teams had to make a pre-sentation on one of the five forms of god that had been discussed over the course of the camp. The children got a treat when they were given the chance to perform a bhajan on the Voice of Sanatan Hinduism Radio during the Sri Meenakshi Temple Segment. Our cook and volunteers were given a break on cooking as lunches were prepared by our hosts at Barsana Dham. We then boarded on the bus and traveled back to the Sri Meenakshi Temple. The return trip was filled with memories from the camp and our plans to return next year. As we said our goodbyes it was apparent to all that this had been a fun-filled, educational, and successful camp.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers that gave us their valuable time for every aspect of the camp. Since there are many uncles and aunties that helped us out greatly, it would be difficult to mention all of their names. There-fore, we would like to once again give our most sincere appreciation and gratitude to everyone who made Camp Ishvara a grand suc-cess.

youth camp 2010 at Barsana dhamcontinued from page 5



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dAVss Graduation ceremony Held at Arya samajHOUSTON: DAV Sanskriti

School, a Sunday school run at the Arya Samaj of Greater Hous-ton for students 5-19 yrs old, held

DAVSS Graduates with their families and Acharyas at the graduation ceremony held at Arya Samaj on May 30

DAVSS Graduates performing the skit which depict-ed their undisci-plined behavior when they joined the DAVSS, and the transforma-tion the school brought about in them by the time of graduation.

its graduation ceremony on Sun-day, May 30. The school imparts Vedic values and Indian culture along with Hindi speaking & writ-ing skills.

The nine graduating students were Atul Gupta, Priyanka Go-swami, Ishita Arora, Saundarya Dwivedi, Aarushi Khanna, Reva Verma, Ahshan Contractor, Sonal Agrawal and Nalin Verma. Eight of them were 2010 high school graduates, and Nalin Verma- a DAVSS alumni graduate, a 2010 Business Honors graduate from UT Austin. The ceremony started with the yajna performed by all the graduates along with their families. Acharya Dr. Shridhar ji blessed the new graduates and others for their bright future.

The DAVSS graduates- Atul, Priyanka, Ishita, Saundarya and Aarushi displayed great ingenuity in presenting a skit which depicted their undisciplined behavior when they joined the DAVSS, and the transformation the school brought about in them by the time of gradu-ation. They dramatically displayed their poor Hindi speaking skills when they started learning Hindi at the DAV Sanskriti School and their proficiency by speaking in Hindi at the ceremony. Each of the graduates thanked their Acha-rya, their teachers and parents

for their dedication and sincerity. They remembered the great times they had, during their years at Arya Samaj, the bonds it created

amongst students and the network they established with each other at DAVSS.

Atul Gupta, the AYM President, spoke about the guiding values of AYM - truth, non-violence, dis-cerning, service and prayer. AYM (Arya Youth Mandal) is the youth organization of Arya Samaj of Greater Houston. He further de-scribed the ‘Seva’ and the other activities they undertook last year, and how the AYM raised maxi-mum amount of donation money during the car wash, this year, without any appeals.

Neeraj Salhotra, one of the pio-neer members of DAVSS Fraterni-ty, an organization of the DAVSS alumni, described the establish-ment of the fraternity in 2009. He thanked Avichal Gulati for creating a web site for it, and commended the other pioneer members- Eesha Gulati and Swati Verma for their mentoring activities in DAVSS classrooms last year. Neeraj invit-ed the 2010 Graduates to join the fraternity, and further announced the next year’s goal of mentoring activities at regular intervals dur-ing the whole year.

Acharya Praveen ji, the acha-rya & the guide of DAV Sanskriti School, in his Diksha (message) to the departing graduates, reminded them of putting all acts of theirs to

a test assuring that each of their act uplifts all three of their body, mind and spirit. He further stated to re-frain from any action or thought

that brings them down any way- bodily, mentally or spiritually.

Shree Sanjay Jain gave a pre-sentation on various DAVSS ac-

tivities like, Shloka/Essay Competitions, Readathon, MGL de-bates and web compe-titions held for youth every year, besides regular ongoing Nai-tik Shiksha and Hindi curriculum every Sun-day. The music class of Smriti Shrivastav ji presented a melo-dious, prayerful song ‘Aey Maalik tere bande hum’. The stu-dents of dance class presented an exciting dance item ‘Chuck

De India’ under direction of their dance teacher Jhilmil ji. The em-cee- Neha Srivastava, a high school junior conducted the cer-emony in a great manner and with a fabulous fervor.

Dr. Bhushan Verma thanked all teachers and volunteers for their dedication in making the school year 2009-2010 a great success and encouraged parents to stay involved with the school. He sug-gested that the ethical education of DAVSS students should be contin-ued at home and the parents can ensure that by themselves joining the Satsang at the main hall Sat-sang every Sunday.

The program concluded with all DAVSS students on stage, singing Aarti.



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An extraordinary evening at sri Guruvayurappan TempleBy ChiTToor ramaChanDran

HOUSTON: An electrifying vig-or has sprung up among Sri Guru-vayurappan devotees of Greater Houston area since the inception of the temple last month. Regular pooja schedule has already been in place that has started attract-ing devotees everyday as early as sunrise to have a darshan of their Lord. One of the devotees said (referring to the pooja schedule) “I have missed this discipline in any of the temples in this country. It is hard to convey the meaning of suprabhatham or nirmalyam to those who never experienced it before.” She is happy that Sri Gu-ruvayurappan Temple instills the pooja system she grew up with.

As important as the sunrise rituals, this temple is also very particular about conducting the scheduled pooja and associated participation of the devotees at sunset as well.

I was fortunate to attend the ses-sion of an extraordinary evening pooja and bhajans on Wednesday, June 9 at the temple. Despite be-ing an impromptu plan, there was a crowd of around 100, since the leading singers of the bhajans that evening were a few who made their fame through international TV channels. The guest artistes were introduced as upcoming movie playback singers: Mr. Ra-hul Laxmanan (Asianet - Idea Star Singer 2008 - III prize win-

ner), Mr. Anand Narayanan (Am-rutha TV - Super Star 2 Anchorer & Global Super Star Contestant), Ms Latha Krishna (Amrutha TV - Global Super Star Contestant) and Mr. Sharath (keyboard player). It did not take much time for them to convince the gathering that these super-achievers indeed carry the keys to enter the minds of their fans quickly to create a blissful feeling through their immense tal-ent and training. They made the evening absolutely fabulous.

The bhajan began with a Sanskrit shlokam from Sri Melpathur Bhat-tathiri’s Narayaneeyam. Ms. Latha Krishna’s perfect Sanskrit pronun-ciation set the expectation of the session at a high level. Rahul’s

rendition of Papanasam Sivan’s krithi (Sri Ganesha Charanam) that followed outlined the minute nuances of the raga Tilang impres-sively and melodiously. His train-ing and competency were evident just from this krithi alone. With his extraordinary expression of bhava, Rahul sang the Sanskrit bhajan written by Yusef Ali Kecheri, highlighting Sri Rama as a light during the fearful darkness. Espe-cially notable was Latha Krishna’s rousing line of Eerezhu bhuvangal padaithavane in the Tamil krithi in raga Kaapi in describing the mag-nanimity of Sri Krishna.

As the sun was setting, the bhajan had to be interrupted for the eve-

ning deepaaradhana. Anand Gu-ruvayur and Ajith Kumar played the melam before the closed door. The priest Sri Unnikrishnan Nam-buthiri conducted the brief pooja. The door opened behind the rows of oil lamps and karpoora jyothi with the background nadam of shankha. The sun was setting re-luctantly in the horizon as the dev-otees were all standing with ardent devotion as if to bid farewell to the visible divinity that sustains the world. The singers sang the beautiful lines from Poonthanam Nambuthiri’s jnanapana during the next few minutes while the crowd settled back into their seats. The bhajan was resumed.

Devotees were moved by the feeling of anandam as Anand Narayan led several one-line bhajans. In many occasions anan-dam assumed the form of ecstasy leading the devotees to the true ‘seventh heaven’. Anand intelli-gently selected rhythmic patterns for people to sing along with him and to elicit the bhava imbedded in those lines. Especially strik-ing was the most pleasant line Chilanga ketti odi odi vayo…ente thamarakanna, which drew a picture of cute little Bala Krish-na in everybody’s mind. On the other hand, the chorus Shambho touched the hearts of the devo-tees, the majestic image of the highly respected Parameshwara.

The concluding melodious Harivarasanam of Sri Kampaku-di Kulathoo Iyer in Madhyama-

vathi brought out a sense of bhak-thi in every person in the crowd. Sharath’s support on keyboard was commendable thoughout the session. Manoj Kumar’s support on tabla was vital to this event.

While the bhajan was an extraor-dinary treat, when it was comple-mented with bhagavat prasadam, it turned into a sumptuous meal.

The temple conducts weekly bhajan sessions under the leader-ship of the accomplished musi-cian Sri Sathyan Pillai. He can be reached at (713) 876-7316 for further information on the sched-ule. The readers are advised to visit www.guruvayurusa.org for updated information on the temple schedule.

The bhajan began with a Sanskrit shlokam from Sri Melpathur Bhat-tathiri’s Narayaneeyam.



-to be continued

Story of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi suffers racial Insults in south AfricaAs the ship streamed into Bom-

bay harbor, he saw his brother waiting to receive him. After ex-changing pleasantries with the brother Gandhi noticed that his brother was very reticent.

“Something wrong? Any badnews?” he asked. The brother

nodded and told him of the death of their mother. “It was during your exams a few weeks ago. We did not want to disturb you,” said the brother. The news was a terri-ble shock for Gandhi who wanted to let Putlibai know of how he had kept this vows to not drink al-cohol or eat meat.

Gandhi started practice as a lawyer in Rajkot, but he was deeply disgusted at the greed and honesty of many of his fellow professionals. After some time, he got an offer to work in South Africa from Dada Abdulla & Co who owned big business concerns there. He was to be a legal adviser to the firm which had filed a lawsuit against another company seeking dam-ages of 400,000 dollars.

Gandhi was hired be-cause he spoke English well and knew English law well. His services were required for one year and the company promised him a handsome salary and first class return fare.

The opportunity to see a new country and new people was in-deed very exciting and Gandhi accepted the offer. It was painful to part from Kasturbai and Ha-rilal, but he was keen to go. In April 1893 he left Bombay for South Africa. He reached the port of Natal at the end of May 1893. In South Africa, he noticed that Indians were treated with little re-spect. They were called ‘Coolies’. Within a week of his arrival, he visited the court with Abdulla Seth of Dada Abdulla & Co.

No sooner had he sat down that the magistrate pointed his plump finger at him. “You must remove your turban,” he said sternly.

Gandhi was surprised. He

looked around. There were several Muslim and Parsi men wearing turbans. He could not understand why he was being singled out.

“Sir,” he replied. “I see no reason why I should remove my turban. I refuse to do so.” When the mag-istrate insisted that he remove his turban, Gandhi walked out of the court. Abdulla Seth ran after him and caught him by the arm. “You don’t understand,” he said. “These white people consider Indians in-

ferior and address them as “coolie” or “sami.” Parsis and Muslims are allowed to wear turbans as the turban is thought to have religious significance.”

“The magistrate insulted me,” Gandhi said an-grily. “Any such rule is an insult to a free man. I shall write at once to the Durban Press to protest such insulting rules.” And Gandhi did write. The letter was published and it led to un-expected debate and discussion.At the same time, some other pa-

pers described Gandhi as a trou-blemaker and unwelcome visitor.

After a week in Durban, he left for Pretoria to attend to the case for which he was engaged. With a first class ticket, he boarded the train. At the next stop, an English-man got into the compartment.

He was travelling in a train to Pretoria, in a first class compart-ment. He looked at Gandhi with contempt and called the conductor. “Take this coolie out and put him in a lower class!” he said.

The conductor turned to gandhi and said, “Hey Sami, Come along with me to the next compart-ment.”

“No I will not,”said Gandhi. “I was sold a first class ticket and I have every right to be here.”

The conductor called a police-

man who pushed him out with his bag and baggage. The train left. Gandhi spent the night shivering in the cold, but he did not touch his luggage. This incident changed the whole course of his life. Hede-cided to fight all such injustices. He sent a note of protest to the general manager of the railways, but the official only supported the rail employees.

More trouble was still in store for him. Next morning, he went to Charlestown by train. He had now to travel by a stagecoach to Johan-nesburg, but he was not allowed to sit inside the coach with white pas-sengers. To avoid confrontation

Gandhi sat outside on the coach-box behind the coachman. After some time the conductor asked him to sit on a dirty sack on the step below. Gandhi refused.

The conductor began to pull him down and beat him up. At this time, some of the passengers came to Gandhi’s rescue and he was allowed to sit with them. Gandhi reached Johannesburg the next night, quite shaken by the ex-periences on the way. He had the address of a Muslim merchant’s house, where he spent the night.

The next day he bought a first class ticket and continued his train journey to Pretoria. The only other passenger in the compartment was a well-dressed Englishman. A lit-tle later, a conductor entered and Gandhi quickly showed him the ticket. “Your ticket does not mat-ter,” growled the conductor. “Go to the third class at once.” Before Gandhi could reply, the English-man flung down the newspaper and said, “Why are you harassing this gentleman? His ticket gives him a right to be here.” And then turning to Gandhi, he said, “Make yourself comfortable just where you are, young man.” Thanking him warmly, Gandhi settled down with a book. It was late in the eve-ning when the train pulled into Pretoria. He stayed at a hotel that night and moved into a lodge the next day. There he began to study the Abdulla lawsuit. Even while he was working on it, he found timeto call a meeting of the Indi-ans in Pretoria.




11 Indo American news • Friday, June 18 , 2010 Online editiOn: www.indoamerican-news.com e n t e r t a i n m e n t

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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, JUNE 18 , 2010• ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

15 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com S O C I E T Y

MIT Engg. Dean, Subra Suresh to Lead National Science FoundationSubra Suresh, dean of the engi-

neering school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanne-var Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT, was nominated on June 3 by President Barack Obama to be

the next director of the $6.9-billion National Science Foundation. The post requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate

A graduate of the Indian Insti-tute of Technology in Chennai, the 54-year-old Suresh has joint faculty appointments at MIT in materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, and health sciences and technology. He became dean of the engineering school in July 2007.

“Through his invigorating leader-ship, (Suresh) has led MIT’s (engi-

neering school) while pursuing his own remarkable research portfolio at the intersection of the life sciences and engineering,” said MIT provost L. Rafael Reif.

“In keeping with MIT’s long tradi-tion of national service, he will bring this same breadth of knowledge and vision to the Na-tional Science Founda-tion.”

Suresh has fostered interdisciplinary work at MIT and has boosted the number of researchers who hold joint appoint-ments.

His current research focuses on the biome-chanics of diseased single biological cells and implications of the responses for human health and diseases.

Suresh will have a ma-jor challenge ahead in persuading Congress to maintain NSF funding at present levels, Nature.com reported. If confirmed he will “take over just as a $3-billion infusion of economic stimulus money given to the agency early last year begins to run out.”

“I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to take on these important roles in my administration. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” Obama said in a statement.-IW

INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, JUNE 18 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

16 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comE d I T O r I a l

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By PrataP Bhanu MehtaThe verdict in the Bhopal gas trage-

dy has caused considerable outrage. It seems to provide little recompense to the victims, and little assurance to the public at large that the legal system is up to protecting us from the risks that make us all vulnerable. Perhaps there will be learning from this case, but I doubt any Indian has any more confidence that the legal system can protect us from catastrophic risk than we did twenty years ago.

The outrage is less over the specific verdict of the lower court, where the judge may have been constrained by the way charges were framed. The outrage is over how a whole system, every single part of it, from the in-vestigating agencies to politicians, from corporate power to the judiciary, managed to efface a monumental hu-man tragedy. And all of this was done using the instrument of law itself; as if law, rather than an instrument of justice, was a vast concoction of technicalities and evasions to evade it. In a macabre way, this episode enacted a version of Stalin’s dictum to the effect that a single death is a tragedy, but the larger the number the more it is a statistic. The “system” did as effective an effacement job as anyone could have.

The implications of this judgment are being pondered for sundry is-sues, including India’s geo-strategic position in relation to the US. Much of this discussion has focused on the political implications of this for the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. But for those who think that even such colossal suffering should be assessed through the geo-strategic prism, the important question should be what this says about the credibility of our own institutions to serve our citizens. There is no doubt that the judgment has come again as a reminder of how fragile the authority of the Indian judiciary is. The last few years have made a huge dent in the reputation of the Indian Supreme Court on sev-eral dimensions, so much so that a propitious political ground has been created for more political oversight and superintendence of the judiciary. In terms of public reputation and

Union Carbide: Caught in Courtarguments were, in a sense, travesties. The Supreme Court’s role in reducing the settlement, in reclassifying inju-ries deserving of compensation, has always remained unfathomable. And the court’s stand on vicarious liability has also cut little ice. It is important to remember that on the basis of available evidence, that the term “ac-cident” in this context is one of those Orwellian words that hides more than it reveals. There was ample evidence presented in Court that Union Car-bide knew that the safety standards in the plant were not up to mark; that it deliberately refused to act despite early warnings and a small prior gas leak. In short, the issue was not liabil-ity for an “accident”; it was liability for knowingly not acting upon risks that were known to exist.

The Supreme Court gets a lot of the blame for the legal travesty in this case, because it did not display a credible grasp over the principles at stake. It was all the more perplexing in light of the fact that the court has been importing all kinds of doctrines into Indian jurisprudence, as and when it needs to. In fact, a candid assessment of the range of the court’s interventions in terms of rights would have to conclude that the court has the imprimatur of ad-hocness about it. To take one example, the court’s much celebrated environmental jurispru-dence has often imported principles like the precautionary principle, in ways that even distort its original meaning; it essentially converts tort claims into cases of precautionary principle.

The Supreme Court is now in a battle for its legitimacy. Most of its wounds, including the handling of Bhopal, are self-inflicted. In fact in the entire debate over regulatory reform in India, very little attention is paid to the fact that institutions often fail, not because of their formal design or powers or lack of insula-tion from politics. They fail because of lack of internal institutional and intellectual leadership that is up to the task of the challenges the court faces. HT

The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

authority the Indian Supreme Court is probably at its weakest in a number of years, with greater clamour for its ac-countability. The decision has again drawn attention to the fact that for all its thunderous bluster, the Supreme Court has, at crucial moments, let the country down. In a sense it has to constantly reclaim its legitimacy.

The legal twists and turns of the Bhopal case are enormous. Upendra Baxi’s work should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in exca-vating how the law sent justice for a toss in this case. A lot of the criticism of the Supreme Court in recent times has focused on institutional matters: the reluctance of judges to disclose as-sets, the lack of self-regulation within the judiciary, its failure to deal with corruption cases, the lack of judicial consistency, the gerrymandering of benches, the undue deference it con-sistently shows to top lawyers, the politics and lack of transparency of appointments, and so forth. The more serious and consequential critique of the Supreme Court should focus on its substantive failures in matters of law and governance. Bhopal was an illustrative case of how the Supreme Court could go seriously wrong.

In principle, the Supreme Court jus-tified its original settlement orders in the case under the pretext of providing swift compensation for the victims, and on grounds that there was no law governing vicarious liability that was applicable in this case. But both these

In a macabre way, the Union Carbide episode enacted a version of Stalin’s dictum to the ef-fect that a single death is a tragedy, but the larger the number the more it is a statistic. The “system” did as effective aneffacement job as anyone could have.

Opportunity for IndiaThe sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform and

the subsequent crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has turned into a bad environmental disaster. President Barak Obama has made the bad situation worse by imposing a total moratorium deepwater drilling in the Gulf and a virtual moratorium on shallow-water drilling by imposing new safety regulations that haven’t yet been announced. The economic consequence of this politically correct decision will be that the oil and gas operating companies and service companies will abandon the Gulf of Mexico for international arenas.

One of the international arenas that had suffered recently was offshore India due to a lack of drilling rigs. It is possible that India will now be able to lease drillships and platforms at a lower day rate. Of course, India should also insist on tough safety and envi-ronmental standards. East coast of India offers tremendous riches of clean burning natural gas. Shifting India to a natural gas based economy would result in an economic boom and opportunities to reduce poverty levels for our masses.

Pramod Kulkarni

Southern ComfortNothing excites a country’s possessive ire more than culture.

Greece made quite a nostalgia industry out of the Elgin Marbles, whimpering and moaning about them till the world took note. Indians are no different. Whether it is the plume worn by Guru Gobind Singh, or the memorabilia of Mahatma Gandhi, or the 12 paintings by Rabindranath Tagore put up for auction by Sotheby’s in London, Indians feel fiercely possessive and patriotically anx-ious in case some other country gets its hands on them.

The poorer the country the greater its desire to hold on to its own culture. So it is a little surprising to find some Indians so put out by the sale of Tagore’s paintings. After reforms, there has been a sea change in India’s growth rate and, therefore, its confidence. That Tagore’s paintings are out there being auctioned in the world art market is a remarkable indicator of that change. Before India had graduated from its Hindu rate of growth to its present growth rate of close to double digits, Indian art went a-begging, with art-ists requesting the government to make it mandatory for interior designers to commission their work. The global art market is being powered by India’s growing prosperity, as the world, busy discovering the depth of its markets, gets increasingly interested in its art. Indians are now going ahead to get what they want, whether it is a place on the list of richest businessmen or the Jag-uar car company. They can buy Tagore’s paintings too. Acquiring cultural objects that belong to their history has always been a token of pride for them. Perhaps they need to discover, too, that they are not at all short of cultural treasures, which can be bought and sold in the world market as precious collectibles. And that Indian art is not just for Indians. The Telegraph


17 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comSOCIETY

Know Your Value SystemEvery choice we make has consequences, whether obvious or not. What seems a great choice at the moment may perhaps have negative conse-quences later on. A holistic way to approach choices and consequences is to examine our personal value system.

There once was a mountaineering team that had prepared for three years for a competitive climb. When they finally began, somewhere after the second camp they came across a seriously injured climber in need of medical assistance. Those were the days of no cell-phones. One of the members of the team, seeing the

dire situation, and obviously out of a strong value system, decided to drop out of the climb and help to bring down the injured person. No amount of pleading from his team convinced him to do otherwise. And their argument was that “we have our own agenda and this case is of no concern to us.”

If you have been brought up to be caring, as soon as a situation presents itself, you are prompted to action. Take the example of someone with a one hundred-rupee note on a busy street corner looking desperately for change to pay for an auto-rick-shaw and getting refused by people around. As soon as you see this you know you have the required change as well as the willingness to relieve another from difficulty and anxiety. You also know that you might one day be in the same situation. “Do unto others what you would like them do to you” -- it is no surprise that this is termed the Golden Rule, because it is an eternal value.

So you approach the person, re-spond to the need and walk away. You feel good about yourself be-cause there was congruence between your value system and the choice you made.

What is this ‘congruence?’ It is a match between value and action. Sometime we are faced with choices

that are not congruent with our value system; extreme ones are like having to perhaps pay a bribe for something that is our legitimate right.

How we respond to a situation depends on how strongly we wish to uphold our personal value system. It helps if you take the time to write down a set of values that you believe in. Then comes the real test, of living the value. The strange thing is that whenever we make a commitment

to ourselves, all sorts of situations pop up to test us. Making a good living, being peaceful, helpful, shar-ing resources – these are all values. Out of these values we make choices and take action. Interestingly, every choice we make has a price. In the case of the mountaineer, he paid the price of not reaching the sum-

mit, with all the suc-cesses that could have followed; perhaps also of having let down his team. He let all that go for saving a life.

Values determine our action preferences and priorities. When asked why he had done this, the young mountain-eer’s response was, “If I had let that young man die, no matter what suc-cess I achieved, I could not have lived with the thought for the rest of my life.” A rabbinic text encourages us: “In places where there are no human beings, be one.”

The yogic scheme of yamas talks about values that are connected with interactions with others. Another is the four-fold maitri-karuna-mudita-upeksha or universal friendship, compassion; joy in others’ happi-ness and consideration for others. If you add these two sets you get a comprehensive value system that can stand the test of time and you will notice that all spiritual traditions are in conformity with these.


18 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com


19 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comhEalTh

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Dull Hair, Brittle Nails Mean Bad HealthBrittle nails, dull hair or a crease in

one of the earlobes - these are some of the many signs thrown up by your body to indicate something is amiss with your health, according to an American expert.

Appearing on The Early Show on Saturday Morning , on CBS News , Dr. Holly Phillips said these signs could signify underlying medical problems that need attention.

She said it’s ‘incredibly important’ to carefully check your body for such indicators and recognize subtle changes.

Phillips advises people to check their body head-to-to for any tell-tale signs.

Eyebrows: If you notice you’re losing the hairs on the outer corners or they appear to be shortening, that could be a sign of low thyroid hor-mone.

Eyelids: Tiny yellow bumps in the inner-corner of the eye could actually be fatty deposits -- an important sign of high cholesterol.

Eyes: If you notice they seem to be bulging, that could be a sign of an overactive thyroid. If the white part of the eye starts to yellow, you may have liver disease or problems with your gall bladder. Some medications could also cause this.

Hair: Dryness and brittleness could be a thyroid problem or a sign of iron deficiency. Premature graying is a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency. And sudden hair loss is often a sign of too much stress.

Earlobes: A diagonal crease in the earlobe is easy to miss, but may be significant. A large National Institutes of Health study suggested that a diagonal crease in the earlobes could be linked to heart attack risk; it may have to do with blocked circulation throughout the body. So if you have it, or even if you don’t, we should all be screened.

Which body signals are most alarming to patients but for the most part harmless?

I’m often asked about bruising -- many patients worry that they bruise too easily, and usually, they’re just fine. Bruising happens more as we age -- the capillaries are naturally weaker and the bruises take longer to heal. Women bruise more than men. But you shouldn’t ignore it, if you notice you’re bruising a lot more than usual, it could be an early sign of leu-kemia, or a reaction to medications.

Varicose veins and spider veins: They’re usually just heredity -- you have them or you don’t. Sudden weight gain or loss can also trig-

ger them. If they develop seemingly overnight and you have calf swelling or tenderness, it could be a blood clot (deep-vein thrombosis) -- a medi-cal emergency. And spider veins on your abdomen could be a sign of liver disease.

Finger Nails: Dry, brittle nails could be a sign of thyroid disease or an iron or vitaminB12 deficiency. Horizontal lines are a sign of heart disease -- or heart failure. Yellow or brown nails could be from a fungal infection or even lung disease such as emphysema.

But again, we’re looking for a change: If you’ve always had (a possible sign such as) dry nails, it’s probably just how you are. But if you notice your nails are changing it could be an issue.

Male breasts: Men often ignore small, painless lumps on the chest or underarm area, but actually, two per-cent of breast cancers occur in men, so they should stay on the lookout.

How do I know whether I am a hypochondriac?

If you spend a large part of each day worrying about many differ-ent potential health problems, and if discussion with friends, family and doctors doesn’t calm you down, you may have an issue.

Health Benefits of Spices

Bark of a small evergreen tree.Health Powers: Tames nausea and stom-ach ulcers; functions as a mild anti-inflam-matory; increases insulin sensitivity to help focus fat burn.Daily Dose: Stir into coffee/tea, yogurt, oatmeal or any boxed cereal.

Cinnamon

Flower bud found at the base of an evergreen tree.Health Powers: Soothes di-gestive tract muscles and is a potent antihistamine.Daily Dose: Mix into your nightly ice cream treat or sneak into mustard spread.

Cloves

NutmegFruit of Myristica fragrans,an evergreen tree.Health Powers: Improves di-gestion; eases the symptoms of menstruation; induces calm and sleep.Daily Dose: Grate a small amount into applesauce or plain yogurt. (Note: It’s safe to grate the entire nut, which

you can usually buy whole at the supermarket, but you never want to consume more than one nutmeg per day because too much of this potent spice can cause stomach pain, double vision and other uncom-fortable reactions.)Celery Seed: Seed of the Apium graveolens

plant in the parsley family.Health Powers: Flushes the liver of tox-ins; lowers blood pressure; combats water retention.Daily Dose: Think salads—tuna, potato and egg all work—which can be tossed onto a bed of lettuce, eaten alone or spread onto bread.

Oregano: Leaf of the Origanum plant in the mint family.

Health Powers: Loosens mucus; helps treat respiratory illnesses; and calms in-digestion.Daily Dose: Use in any tomato-based foods, like marinara sauces, pizza and soups




21 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com


22 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010 ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.comS O C I E T Y

Printing in a Smartphone AgeBy ashlee Vance

SAN DIEGO (NYT): Vyomesh I. Joshi, the head of Hewlett-Packard’s $24 billion printing empire, relaxes by taking long walks on the beaches near his home here. And, for a while, it seemed as if he might end up spend-ing more time strolling the sand than moving ink and toner.

H.P.’s printing business deflated during the darkest days of the reces-sion, producing plenty of gossip that . Joshi would either leave the company or be fired. But sales have started to come back, and . Joshi, who goes by V.J., is still around in fighting form. On Monday, he will preside over an event announcing H.P.’s latest attack on the printing market — which will center on printers built for the iPhone age.

“We heard some of that specula-tion about V.J.,” said Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays Capital. “But it does seem like he’s reinvigorated and there are new products, and things are getting better for the business.”

Joshi has spent years disputing the notion that people will print less as they do more on their hand-held devices. This week, he will see his ideas put into action as H.P. introduces a fleet of printers with Web access, their own e-mail addresses and touch screens. These products should open up new ways for people to print from Web services like Google Docs, and from smartphones and devices like the iPad from Apple.

Joshi is going back to his roots as an engineer — as a young H.P. re-searcher, he figured out a way to make ink cartridges fire 45 million drops — and relying on new technologies, not slick marketing. But still, he will have to prove that customers will change their behavior and print more if given the right tools. That, . Reitzes said, is crucial to how investors will evaluate the long-term prospects of H.P.

“Investors are worried about print-ing,” he said. “It’s really important that they get this right.”

As the world’s largest technology company, H.P. sells a wide variety of products but got much of its profit from printers and their pricey ink. More recently, H.P. has built up a large technology services arm as well, which has helped round out its business. But the printing division ac-counts for about a fifth of its revenue and a third of its profits.

The new printers which build on a limited experiment last year — will range in price from $99 to about $400. Every one will come with what H.P. executives billed as a breakthrough feature its very own e-mail address.

H.P.’s engineers hit on the e-mail address as an easy, familiar way for people to send print jobs to the Web-ready printers. You can, for example, take a photo with a phone, e-mail it to your printer’s address and have the printout waiting for you at home. Or, you can share the printer’s e-mail address with family and friends. This means that someone can buy Grandma a Web-ready printer and have it pump out photos of the grand-children without Grandma having to do much of anything. (Except buy that pricey ink.)

H.P. is also lining up part-ners for a Web site, the ePrint-C e n t e r , which the company envisions as the kind of app store that A p p l e , G o o g l e and oth-ers have for their s m a r t -phones . The idea is that the partners — so far, H.P. has lined up 40 — can build soft-ware and services for its Web printers.

For ex-a m p l e , children, and their parents, c o u l d print out coloring books from Cray-ola, and Dora the Explorer birthday activity packs from Nickelodeon.

“Now that H.P. is going mass-market with this technology, we will more actively program to it,” said Steve Youngwood, an executive vice president at Nickelodeon.

H.P. plans to offer a few of these new printers to consumers this month, and then a few more of the products to small businesses in September. It expects to sell more than 15 million of the Web printers by next year.

The hardest part may be convincing consumers to change their behavior and adopt the new tools. People who once printed out directions now have their own navigational devices, and things like boarding passes and tick-ets are starting to give way to their

digital equivalents on smartphones. Analysts add that recessions tend to condition people to print less.

Still, . Joshi is optimistic. “We think by next year more printing will be done from the Web than from word-processing applications,” he said.

The e-mail address approach re-moves a major barrier to use in the mobile era: a cable, as well as the installation of the often-irksome soft-ware that makes the printer and PC work together.

This type of technology could make finding and using a printer at an air-port, hotel or office easier as well.

H.P.’s approach has caught the at-tention of Google, and the companies have formed a partnership so that people can send jobs from things like Google Docs and Calendar to

H.P.’s Web printers. Beyond the home and office printers, H.P. has found some flashy expansions for its industrial digital printing ma-chines — some big-ger than conference rooms — that crank out thing as varied as billboards, textbooks and custom labels on Heineken beer bottles.

Companies like Nickelodeon and Dr. Seuss Enterprises will soon offer cus-tomized wallpaper through H.P. and re-tail partners. From a Web site, people can enter the dimensions of a room and then

arrange their favorite characters in a scene built to fit that room. They can then pick up numbered wallpaper sheets at a local store and put them up with water and a sponge.

Tiny Prints produces custom greet-ing cards and stationery with H.P.’s industrial digital machines, and raised sales by 100 percent in 2008 and 50 percent in 2009 despite the grim economy, said Ed Han, the com-pany’s chief executive.

H.P. also expects to have about 7,000 printing kiosks in retail stores

by the end of this year, pumping out photos, books and brochures. And, over the last few years, H.P. has built out its business for managing the printing operations of companies and now has $6 billion worth of contracts.“That is literally from zero dollars,” said Mark V. Hurd, the chief executive of H.P.

Historically, H.P. has spent vast sums of research and development dollars on its printing and imaging business to make sure its products could outdo those of competitors. This division, however, has come under the same cost constraints as other parts of H.P. under . Hurd.

“Have our budgets and resources been impacted? Yes, absolutely they have,” said Glen Hopkins, a vice president in H.P.’s printing research and development group.

Joshi has also pushed to lower the printing division’s manufactur-ing costs.

“I think this group has made mate-rial progress,” . Hurd said. “At the same time, it also has the opportunity to be more efficient.”

Joshi, who many people thought would one day inherit the chief ex-ecutive job, said he chose to ignore the public speculation about his future at H.P.

“In October, I will have completed 30 years here,” . Joshi said. “I love this company, and my view is that printing is still a very significant part of H.P.”

Vyomesh Joshi, who runs H.P.’s printing empire, will introduce new printers with web access and e-mail addresses.

Spencer Hanson checks the print quality of Hewlett-Pack-ard’s new printer at a company facility in San Diego

Dr. Suresh Philip was born on March 22, 1962 in Thottackadu, Kottayam, India. His father and mother (K.U. and Annie Philipose) were career educators.

In 1979, at the young age of 17, Suresh con-tinued his life long pursuit of knowledge when he immigrated to the United States to live with his uncle, John Philip.

Suresh graduated from George Washington University in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science, Honors. He received his M.D. from the Univer-

sity of Maryland School of Medicine in 1988 and became Board Certified in Cardiology in 1995. Suresh became a partner in the South Texas Medical Clinics and served on its Board of Directors.

In 1992, he married the love of his life, Sherly and had two wonderful sons, Satish and Sanjay. His family was a source of great joy and pride for him. He took his role as the husband and father seriously and led by example. He was also an active member of the St. Thomas CSI church.

Dr. Suresh’s life was one of service. As a cardiologist, he spent his ca-reer mending broken hearts and as a family man, he spent his spare time fixing the lives of those around him with his generosity, love, and humor.

Dr. Suresh is survived by his wife, two sons and his parents Annie and K.U. Philipose. He is also survived by his brothers and their families: Sugu, Mini, Akhil, Kevin, and Ann; Suji and Ancy, Aju and Arun; his uncle John Philip and wife Mary; his in-laws: Koshy and Moani, Shessy and Ray, Sherine, Tom and Deven.

Dr. Suresh’s brilliance was only surpassed by his generosity and love of his family. He opened his heart and his home without question or an expectation of return. To say he will be missed is an understatement of great magnitude.

We love you very much and our lives are better because of you.

OBITUARYDr. Suresh Philip, M.D.

March 22, 1962 - June 14, 2010

Visitation and funeral services will be held on Thursday, June 17 from 5pm to 9pm at: Immanuel Mar Thoma Church located at 12803 Sugar Ridge Blvd., Stafford, TX 77477.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. - Revelation 21:4


23 Indo American News • Friday, June 18 , 2010ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com S O C I E T Y

H-1B Visa Loses Its SheenNEW DELHI: H-1 B visa, Indian techies’

passport to the American dream, has lost a great part of its sheen in the past year or so after a barrage of sobering news against a darkening political backdrop.

The United States Citizenship and Immigra-tion Services (USCIS), the nodal agency that ap-portions H-1B visas, has received only 18,000 applications until May for the US financial year beginning October, indicating a repeat of last year when the flow of pe-titions to-wards the quota of 65,000 was laboured.

Contrast this to three years ago when the quota was exhausted within a day. The USCIS was then flooded with 1.5 lakh applications and had to resort to a lottery system for allotments.

Factors as diverse as the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA), a key legislation that stresses on jobs for US citizens, to dropping wage rates, to limping recovery and high un-employment rates in America are to blame for the free fall in H-1B petitions, say experts, IT professionals and companies.

For the first time, H-1B visa holders are being driven back to India, their plans for a longer sojourn in the world’s largest economy coming

to an abrupt end. “Many Indian IT companies are not applying for H-1 B visas,” said Avinash Vashishtha, CEO of Tholons, an offshore ad-visory firm.

Indian companies, IT firms in particular, cor-ner a lion’s share of this classification reserved for foreign workers with skills needed in the US economy, allotted on a first-come-first-served basis. Though it is the same story every year, there has been a drastic fall in numbers.

Last year, Indian IT companies like Infosys Technolo-gies, Wipro Technolo-gies and Tata Con-s u l t a n c y Serv ices (TCS), or offshoots of US firms like Cogni-zant and IBM, col-

lected only 4,762 approved visas between them against 20,530 in 2006. And, there were only four In-dian companies among the top H-1B applicants last year compared to eight in 2006.

The country’s largest software exporter TCS, which received 3,046 H-1B visas in 2006, was conspicuous by its absence from the table in 2009. Early indications are that the Indian inter-est is tepid this year too because the enthusiasm of IT companies to extend the stay of employees has waned significantly. That has left Indian software workers worried.- TOI

1.6 Million Indians Make US Their HomeWASHINGTON: With about 1.6 million foreign-born from India residing in the United

States in 2008, they have emerged as the third-largest immigrant group in America after Mexican and Filipino immigrants. There were, however, 2.3 million members of the Indian diaspora residing in the United States in 2008, including 455,000 native-born US citizens of Indian ancestry.

Between 2007 and 2008, the number of Indian immigrants surpassed the number of Chinese and Hong Kong-born immigrants for the first time since at least 1960, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington is think tank.

Indian immigration to the United States, a fairly recent phenomenon, grew rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s, the report noted.

In addition, people with Indian ancestry have also immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean, East Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Compared to other immigrant groups, the Indian foreign born are much better educated - nearly three-quarters of Indian-born adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher. About one-quarter of Indian-born men in the labour force work in the information technology industry, the survey noted.

Highlights * Nearly half of all Indian immigrants resided in California, New Jersey, New York, and

Texas. * The Indian born accounted for about one in 10 immigrants in six states. * Between 2000 and 2008, the size of the Indian immigrant population more than doubled

in 10 states. * Over one in six Indian immigrants resided in the New York metropolitan area. * Indian immigrants made up at least 10 percent of the immigrant population in 10 met-

ropolitan areas. * There were 2.3 million members of the Indian diaspora residing in the United States in

2008, including 455,000 native-born US citizens of Indian ancestry. * Over 40 percent of the Indian foreign born arrived in the United States in 2000 or later. * Three of every 10 Indian immigrants in 2008 were limited English proficient. * About two-thirds of limited English proficient Indian immigrants spoke Hindi, Gujarati,

or Panjabi. * Nearly three-quarters of Indian foreign-born adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher. * Indian immigrants were less likely to live in poverty than natives. * Indian immigrants were as likely as other immigrants to own their own home. * About one in eight Indian immigrants did not have health insurance in 2008. * More than 550,000 children under age 18 resided in a household with an Indian im-

migrant parent.- IANS



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