Issue 48 - Volume 2

Indian Weekender | March 4, 2011 | www.iwk.co.nz 1

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Indian March 4, 2011 Volume 2, No. 23

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Community | 19What makes India

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Indian


New Zealand

The Sikh community in the South Island must be commended for the speed and efficiency with which it rose to the occasion to deal with the situation affecting Indian students fol-lowing the February 22 earthquake in Christ-church.

Members of the community swiftly rallied around to co-ordinate the evacuation of Indian students studying and residing in the stricken city.

Though there has been extensive damage to business and property interests of people of Indian origin – the most pressing issue was the students who do not have friends or family to support them.

These students could not contact their parents back in India as their cell phone bat-teries went flat. Also, they did not have easy access to cash due to ATMs not working and hence some of them could not recharge their phones – causing a breakdown in communica-tion with their families in India.

Rajinder Singh, a good Samaritan in Christchurch, has been busy co-ordinating the rescue and relocation efforts of students. Vardeep Singh, Manoj, Tarun Juneja and Ar-vinder Singh the four students widely reported in the Indian media as missing have been ac-counted for and are safe.

Most of these students have been safely

moved to Blenheim where they have been pro-vided with accommodation, food and it has been ensured that they have made contact with their families and assured them of their safety.

The students pictured in Blenheim are Vikas Sharma, Rajwinder Singh, Surender Singh, Naresh Kumar, Neelima Dhiman, Naveen Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Sharandeep Kaur, Easha, Nancy, Yogesh Bhargav, Bhu-pinder Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Raj Kumar, Surender Singh, Mandeep Kaur, Neetu, Sandeep Dhamrait, Harpreet Dhillon, Ga-nagandeep Kaur, Navdeep Singh, Arvinder Singh, Mamta Saini, Saurav Kumar, Maninder Singh, Gurleen Dhanoa, Amrit Brar, Gaga-

ndeep Sethi, Parul Chopra, Surinder Gill, Sukhdeep Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Amanpre-et Singh, Birbhan Bhagat, Jaksir and Taranjot Singh.

Five houses have been temporarily rented in Blenheim and accommodation provided to these students. Narinder Singh of Blenheim co-ordinated this commendable effort. Con-tractors Didar Singh and Mani of Te Puke have also been co-ordinating the relocation of students and have even offered them tem-porary accommodation and jobs to maintain their cash flows in the interim.

According to Gurpreet Arora of the New Zealand Police, who has been camping in

Sikhs’ lifeline to Christchurch’s Indian students


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Christchurch since the day of the quake, there has been no lives lost of any person of Indian origin and all the students have also been accounted for.

The local Singh Sabha Gurdwara (pic-tured) has also been extensively damaged in this earthquake. The brick wall on one side totally collapsed and the other sides are also precariously hanging in there and would not survive any after shocks. Due to this the “Prakash” of the holy “Guru Granth Sahib” is not being done but efforts are being made to re-locate.

From the looks of it, the whole building will have to be rebuilt from scratch because of the extensive structural damage, according

to Surinder Tandon of Christchurch. Member of Parliament Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has

also been camping in Christchurch and co-ordinating relief efforts aimed at the Indian diaspora.

Meanwhile other stories of the gener-osity of the Indian community have also started to tickle in. Indian dairy owners across Christchurch are reported to have opened their stores to the needy, with many of them handing goods on credit and even free of cost, looking at the need of their regular customers from the community.

– Indian Week-ender news desk with inputs from Harjinder Singh Basiala, Punjabi Herald.

New Zealand

INZBC handles high growth with new rulesAuckland: The India New Zealand Business Council has had the first serious update of its con-stitution since inception in 1988. Rapid member growth over the past 12-18 months has lead to changes of approach in strategy, governance, and other aspects of its operation. A Special General Meeting was held recently in Auckland at the Headquarters of ANZ Bank.

Chair, Wenceslaus Anthony presided over the meeting with Wellington-based Treasurer and ex-Chair Paddy Marra and Honorary Solicitor, Warwick Wright of Rainey Collins Wright.

A quorum of members attended from Auck-land, Wellington and Christchurch.

The new constitution was unanimously passed and plans announced for an Annual General Meeting by June 2011 - the first to be held under the new rules.

A key change has been to enable electronic voting so that absent members may still partici-pate in the democratic activity of the organisation.

Mr Anthony also announced that long-stand-ing Executive Director, Fergus McLean was to retire by end of May this year and that subsequent-ly the Council was now exploring avenues to grow the organisation’s capital base in order to fund the employment of a CEO and Executive Assistant.

He praised Mr McLean for his long and dedi-cated stewardship of and service to the organisa-tion over many years and thanked him effusively for all his deeds on behalf of members.

The Chairman thanked ANZ Bank for their continued support to the council in hosting various events in the past year.

“ANZ has been supporting the business council since its inception and we see ANZ as a key connector between the two countries. ANZ has also been supporting the Indian community at large at various events including Diwali, Holi and hosting Indian Minister Vayalar Ravi,” he said.

He acknowledged Prashanta Mukherjee, Don

Rae and Paddy Marra for their work in produc-ing and securing the constitutional changes and particularly thanked INZBC Patron Sir Richard Hadlee for his generosity of spirit and time in associating his world-wide mana and reputation with the Council.

“The organisation has doubled in size over the past year or so and with an active chapter structure now in place, it is expected that membership will continue to grow as a result of the increased level of activity. Having better online communication tools such as our new website at www.inzbc.org and a newsletter distribution system are enabling us to support more members better. The organisa-tion has reached a new stage in its development. ”

He then said that people with relevant expe-rience, business standing and integrity such as Fergus McLean would be invited to be part of an Advisory Board, which might be convened in order to provide an independent source of advice.

He went on to say that the Council is not for power seekers or for politics to creep in and this is to a great extent reflected in the new constitution as were its values of inclusion, transparency and integrity.

He also said that the Council is unique in the sense that its members and office bearers have come in a genuine spirit of service to accelerate the growth and development of business and trade between India and New Zealand.

He thanked the Indian High Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NZTE for their support and strongly affirmed the relationship established with the Council and the 2 Govern-ments.

In a surprise move, it was added that it was hoped that a joint event held by ANZ Bank, the Council and its Indian ally FICCI might take place in Mumbai at the time of the Cricket World Cup in March in Mumbai. More news is expected soon on that front soon.

“Though there has been extensive damage to business and property interests of people of Indian origin – the most pressing issue was the students who do not have friends or family to support them.”


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CURRY MUNCHERS PREMIER RED CARPET PHOTOGRAPHS

New Zealand

VENUE: EVENT CINEMAS, MANUKAUDATE: 21 FEB, 2011 PHOTO CREDIT: JASON HAILER1 L-R: Vidya Venugopalan (actor), Robyn Patterson (actor), Anand Naidu (actor)2 -Padma Akula (script writer), Anand Naidu (actor) and Gaurav Gupta (line producer)3 -Jazeel Mistry (actor) with Rachel4 -Hon. Hekia Parata, Minster of Ethnic Affairs5 -Leela Patel (actor), with Jordan Mauger (First Asst. Director) and Padma Akula (script writer)6 -L-R : Milt Barlow , distributor (center) with wife Catherine (L) and Jenni Churton, friend (R)7 -Vidya Venugopalan (actor) with husband Shashank Ramkumar8 Hon. Hekia Parata, Minster of Ethnic Affairs addressing the gathering9 -Krittika Satija with Jenny Li (actor)10 -Gaurav Gupta (line producer) with Jordan Mauger (First Asst. Director)11 -Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi (National MP) with wife, Rajendaran Naid (Producer), Shanta Naidu (Exec. Producer)12 -L-R: Monica , Bhavnesh Soni (actor), Vidya Venugopalan (actor)13 -Milt Barlow (distributor), Shanta Naidu (Exec Producer), Hon. Hekia Parata, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi (National MP), Ross Robertson (Labour MP), Dr Rajen Prasad (labour MP), Ashraf Choudhary (labour MP)

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New Zealand

Stars shine for Curry Munchers

ArVINd KuMAr

Stars spiced up the night as the red car-pet was rolled out for the world premiere of home grown romantic comedy movie Curry Munchers in Auckland last week.

Created by Kiwi Indians, Curry Munchers delves into the touchy subject of race and discrimination in a lighthearted way.

Walking the red carpet at Manukau’s Event Cinemas were co-creator Anand Naidu (who plays the lead), Leela Patel, Ajay Vashist, Vidya Sashank, Bhavnesh Soni, line producer Gaurav Gupta, and producers Raj Naidu and Paul Marshall, and hundreds of invited guests, dignitar-ies and media.

Curry Munchers, the maiden venture of Auckland’s Mahayana Films, tells the story of an Indian family who migrate to New Zealand in search of a better life – as the case is with most migrants.

Lead character Sid (Anand) is a mid-20s student searching for meaning in his life. His parents want him to focus on studying to be an engineer. But Sid has motorbikes on his mind – his mode of leisure and travel back home in Delhi.

This leads to Sid taking up a part-time job at an Auckland Indian restaurant “Sangeet” without his parents’ knowl-edge. The struggle to keep all sides happy leads Sid to question who and what, is most important in his new life.

But introduction to work at Sangeet is not plain sailing at all – he has to contend with the established rank and command of incumbent chefs Pandeep and Sheikh.

The two chefs, played by Tarun Mohan-bhai and Raj Verma (of Those Indian Guys fame), provide solid moments of slapskick adventure sure to tickle your funnybone.

Restaurant waitress Mary (Alison Titu-laer) is more accommodating and estab-lishes a good relationship with Sid, who later ends up on the floor when Mary’s boyfriend Ian finds them smooching at a night spot. Sid discovers his passion and natural flair for cooking and wants to be a chef.

At one end the film points out the struggle of the migrant in finding a job

in a new country, and at the other end is the dream of proud Indian parents who want their child to be an engineer.

“Will they ever understand that we have dreams of our own,” is a defining line from Sid to Mary after his parents (played by Ajay Vashist and Leela Patel) find out he works at a restaurant and want him to go back to India.

Young Mary, with a good head on her shoulders, tells Sid straight: “You should learn to take some responsibility for your life.”

Sid does just that and more. The end re-sult is a good mix of drama, emotion and comedy served up Kiwi Indian style.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable produc-tion, made a group of passionate movie makers low on budget, but big on heart. Sure to be well received by audiences the world over where curry is eaten.

Naidu, an Auckland charted accountant in real life, says that just like Sid, he also dreamed of a life quite different to the one his parents’ had planned for him.

“I am a chartered account, but my life pattern was different. I became a char-tered accountant, then I followed my life dream of becoming an actor.”

“New Zealand is becoming increasingly multicultural and we’re embracing that,” Naidu said.

“We wanted to show that we can laugh about ourselves in a positive way. At the same time, I also hope the film can help debunk a few myths about Indians and some people’s perceptions of them. In the end, Curry Munchers a film all Kiwis can call their own.”

Created by migrants, and directed by a migrant too – Cristobal Araus Lobos (1Nite, The Comedy Pilots and The Wait-ing Place) earlier told the Indian Week-ender that being a migrant he could identify with the plot, and that made his job as director easier.

Lobos has a cameo role in Curry Munch-ers as Sid’s father Dinesh’s colleague, Pablo, at the service station.

** Curry Munchers – by Mahayana Films – is now screening in New Zealand, Fiji and Australia, and is set to hit India, United States, Canada and other countries soon.

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New Zealand

Pasifika Festival bigger and better this yearThe world’s largest Pacific event of its kind, Pa-sifika Festival, is expanding for 2011 with a raft of amazing events from 6 to 13 March.

Auckland’s vibrant Pasifika Festival is a free celebration of Aotearoa’s diverse Pacific communities, organised annually by Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development Ltd on behalf of Auckland Council.

“Pasifika is a chance for all to celebrate the Pacific communities who are a valuable part of our unique region,” says Mayor Len Brown.

“This year is set to be the best in the festi-val’s 19-year history with an even bigger line up of local and international talent.”

The festival kicks off on Sunday, 6 March at Aotea Square with a weeklong programme of music, performances, workshops and art exhi-bitions culminating in the popular festival day at Western Springs Park on Saturday, 12 March.

Aotea Centre and Aotea SquareFour art exhibitions will be open at Aotea Centre from Monday, 6 March to Sunday, 13 March, curated by the Okaioceanikart Gallery. The Alter-Native Surfaces exhibition showcas-es Samoan abstract artists including US based Sekio Fuapopo. Other exhibitions from the Okalana Niue Arts Group and Tivaevae, from the Cook Islands, will also be on display.

The Best of the Auditions and In Your Own Language showcase Auckland’s top emerging talent from Monday, 7 to Thursday, 10 March from 1.30pm to 3pm on Auckland Arts Festi-val’s TV3 Garden Stage in Aotea Square.

The Fakakaukau Pacific Debate Series returns with a fresh line up of Pacific academ-ics, educators, entertainers and personalities de-bating topics of culture, education, religion and more. This exciting series from Monday, 7 to Wednesday, 9 March from 5pm at Aotea Centre.

The Pasifika Festival Opening Night Concert takes place on Thursday, 10 March at Western

Springs Park from 7pm. The concert features performances from each of the 10 communities represented as villages on Saturday’s festival day and will depict this year’s Pasifika Festival icons, eke (octopus) and the taro.

Western Springs ParkThe programme closes with the highly an-ticipated festival day on Saturday, 12 March at Western Springs Park which will attract an es-timated 200,000 people. Expect more than 300 stalls, 10 Pacific Island villages and 12 stages, delicious traditional foods and flavours, non-stop entertainment, cultural workshops, tradi-tional and contemporary wares, art and give-aways.

The second festival compilation album, Pa-

sifika: The Collection 2, from Dawn Raid and Pasifika Festival, will be launched at the event. Artists on this year’s CD include J Boog, Ladi 6, Adeaze, Katchafire, Pieter T and more.

Pasifika Festival 2011 is proudly provided by Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic De-velopment Ltd on behalf of Auckland Council and supported by Air New Zealand, Flava and The Radio Network, AUT, Smokefree, Pacific Media Network, Creative New Zealand, Nauti-lus Foundation, Tip Top, Maori TV and Dawn Raid Entertainment.

There are a number of other events and ac-tivities during festival week this year. Visit www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/events for a full programme and further information about Pa-sifika Festival 2011.

2011 Census put offGovernment Statistician Geoff Bascand and Statistics Minister Maurice Williamson have an-nounced the 8 March 2011 Census will not be held.

Mr Williamson said Mr Bascand has advised him the census could not be successfully completed because of the recent Canterbury earthquake.

The decisions have been made after extensive consultation.

“This is not the time to go door to door asking New Zealanders for in-formation when they’re dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake,” Mr Williamson said.

“It’s unthinkable that we would ask this of people. It would be an unfair burden and distraction at a time when they are grieving.”

There has been extensive damage to Statistics New Zealand buildings with significant impacts on census staff.

Mr Bascand said he acknowledges the decision will have consequenc-es for people who use the census data for their work.

“We will now investigate the fea-sibility of alternative options.” Mr Bascand said.


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India

Trade lobbies happy with India 2011-12 budgetdIVYANsHu duttA roY

New Delhi: Industry circles in India were in general happy with Union Finance Min-ister Pranab Mukherjee’s populist budget as they hailed it as a commendable job under tricky conditions.

With the government battling stiff inflation figures and Opposition flak over corrup-tion among other factors, Mukherjee’s “tight-rope walk” pleased the majority of players even as certain sectors voiced criticism over the budget that they said “played it too safe”.

Some experts also peg the FM’s forecast both on growth and fiscal deficit as quite optimistic as he focused generous spend-ing on farm and social schemes even as global energy markets seem shaky at best.

But the poll-facing measures of an increasingly left-leaning Congress party whose reformist camp seems to have taken a bashing from the dozens of scan-dals have in majority gone down well with trade lobbies.

“Nobody was expecting a big-bang budget anyway. The finance minister had to do a tight-rope walk and has done a commendable and mature job,” said Alok Mukherjea, former president, Confedera-tion of Indian Industry (CII).

INFLAtIoNThe Associated Chambers for Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) Presi-dent Dilip Modi said that with the budget not mentioning surging global crude oil prices it may fuel inflation further, impact several sectors and upset fiscal manage-ment of the government.

CII Deputy Chairman Ranvir Sinha, however, said that Mukherjee had been able to come out with a growth-oriented budget even as he gave due attention to social welfare plans, calling it a “wonder-ful formula”.

He thumped the senior Congress leader for taking positive steps for reducing wastage and cutting costs to cool down food inflation.

“Granting infrastructure status to cold storages was good decision to this end,” he said.

tAXes & dutIesBut industry insiders were not as happy with Pranab’s income tax decisions as they expected a higher exemption limit than allowed by the finance minister this year.

With most expecting the lower limit to be pulled up to Rs 2 lakh, the FM’s decision to revoke income tax on annual incomes of Rs 1.8 lakh or less did not go very well with trade body members.

“While the Finance Minister has increased the general exemption limit from Rs. 160,000 to Rs. 180,000, there was a wide expectation that he could have increased this limit to at least Rs. 200,000,” account-ing firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells Partner Homi Mistry said.

The imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developers and units also was frowned upon by most, as it is expected to hit IT firms the most who were promised tax exemption for five years.

“Introduction of Minimum Alternate Tax at 18.50 percent on SEZ developers and units is a retro gate step and will have ad-verse impact on the same,” said KPMG’s Head of Tax Uday Ved.

However, other tax decisions like extend-ing service tax on new items in the run up to the introduction of a common tax, likely next year, and not pushing up customs and excise duties, were generally re-ceived well.

eCoNoMICsPresidency College, Economics Depart-ment Head, Prof. Amitava Banerjee, however, said that more could have been done to tackle inflation and the bulging prices.

“The infrastructure status to warehouses

and cold storages is not the best that he could have done. Even though it is true that inflation cannot be brought down in-stantly but I don’t think enough has been done,” he said.

But on populist measures like a food-se-curity bill for the poor, special incentives to the North East and Jammu & Kashmir, Banerjee chose to side with the finance minister as he said the money, if properly implemented, would go a long way in helping the masses.

MArKetsThe share market has responded posi-tively to the Union Budget which focused more on social sector spending and projected a 9 percent growth in the next fiscal.

The budget provisions boosted shares of engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro, auto maker Maruti Suzuki and cigarette maker ITC.

The Union Budget 2011-12 proposes to raise the FII limit for investment in corpo-rate bonds to enhance the flow of funds to the infrastructure sector, boosting shares of L & T.ITC shares rose 8.2 percent to Rs 169 while Maruti rose 3.1 at Rs 206.70, since their excise duties remained unchanged.The benchmark 30-share index, BSE Sensex, ended up 0.69 percent at 17,823.40 points.

-Critical institutional reforms set pace for double-digit growth

-Scaled up flow of resources infuses dyna-mism in rural economy

- GDP estimated to have grown at 8.6% in 2010-11

-Exports grown by 9.6%, imports by 17.6% in April-January 2010-11 over corresponding period last year

-Indian economy expected to grow at 9% in 2011-12.

-Five-fold strategy to deal with black mon-ey. Group of Ministers to suggest ways for tackling corruption

-Public Debt Management Agency of India Bill to come up next financial year

- Direct Tax Code (DTC) to be effective from April 01, 2012

-Phased move towards direct transfer cash subsidy to BPL people for better delivery of kerosene, LPG and fertilizer mooted

-Rs.40,000 crore to be raised through disin-vestment in 2011-12

-FDI policy to be liberalized further

-SEBI registered mutual funds permitted to ac-cept subscription from foreign investors who meet KYC requirement

-FII limit for investment in corporate bonds in infrastructure sector raised

- Additional banking license to private sector

players proposed

-Rs.6000 crore to be provided in 2011-12 for maintaining minimum Tier I Capital to Risk Weighted Asset Ratio (CRAR) of 8% in public sector banks

-Rs.500 crore to be provided to regional rural banks to maintain 9% CRAR

-India Microfinance Equity Fund of Rs.100 crore to be created by SIDBI

-Rs. 500 crore Women SHG Development Fund to be created

-Micro Small and Medium Enterprises MSME gets boost as Rs. 5000 crore provided to SIDBI and Rs.3000 crore to NABARD

-Existing housing loan limit enhanced to Rs.25 lakh for dwelling units

-Provision under Rural housing Fund en-hanced to Rs.3000 crore

-Allocation under Rashtirya Krishi Vikas yo-jna (RKVY) increased to Rs.7860 crore

-Allocation of Rs.300 crore to promote 60000 pulses villages in rainfed areas

-Rs. 300 crore vegetable initiative to achieve competitive prices

-Rs.300 crore to promote higher production of nutri-cereals

-Rs.300 crore to promote animal based protein

-Rs.300 crore Accelerated Fodder Develop-ment Programme to benefit farmers in 25000

villages

-Credit flow to farmers raised from Rs.3,75,000 crore to Rs.4,75,000 crore

-Rs.10,000 crore for NABARD’s Short Term Rural Credit Fund for 2011-12

-15 more mega food parks during 2011-12

-National food security bill to be introduced this year

- Capital investment in storage capacity to be eligible for viability gap funding

-23.3% increase in allocation for infrastructure

-Tax-free bonds of Rs.30,000 crore proposed by government undertakings

-Environmental concerns relating to infrastruc-ture projects to be considered by Group of Ministers

-National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles to be launched

-7 Mega clusters for leather products to be set up

-Allocation for social sector increased by 17% amounting to 36.4% of total plan allocation

-Bharat Nirman allocation increased by Rs.10,000 crore

-Rural broadband connectivity to all 2.5 lakh panchayats in three years.

-Bill to amend Indian Stamp Act to intro-duce. Rs.300 crore scheme for moderniza-tion stamp and registration administration

-Significant increase in remuneration of Anga-wadi workers and helpers

-Allocation for education increased by 24%. Rs.21,000 crore allocated for Sarv Shik-shya Abhiyan registering an increase of 40%

-1500 institute of higher learning to be con-nected by March 2012 with Knowledge Knowl-edge Network.

-National Innovation Council set up. Addi-tional Rs.500 crore for National Skill Develop-ment Fund

-Plan allocation for health stepped up by20%

-Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme liberalized further

-Rs.200 crore for Green India Mission

-Rs.200 crore for cleaning of rivers

-Rs.8000 crore provided for development needs of J&K

-10 lakhs Aadhaar(UID) numbers to be gener-ated everyday from 1st October

-Fiscal deficit kept at 4.6% of GDP for 2011-12

-Income Tax exemption limit for general cat-egory in individual tax payers enhanced from Rs.1,60,000 to Rs.1,80,000

-Qualifying age for senior citizens lowered to 60; senior citizen above 80 year to get Rs.5,00,000 IT exemption

-Surcharge on corporate lowered to 5%

Indian Union Budget 2011-12 Highlights


Indian


India

Air Force band regales Delhiites India steps up Operation ‘Safe Homecoming’ from Libya

New Delhi: The visitors to the Central Park at Con-naught Place in New Delhi last Saturday evening were pleasantly surprised as they walked in, because there was playing, the Indian Air Force Band, espe-cially for the general public.

The Saturday evening at Central Park, that kick-started with the band playing ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’ became an enormous crowd puller when the band, besides playing its usual repertoire also started playing the audience requests.

As the musical evening wore on, one melody started being belted out after another.

The rapt audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the ambience created by tunes that ranged from the soulful ‘Havana’ to the sensational ‘Waka Waka’; ‘Dancing Queen’ to ‘Zubi Doobi’ to ‘Kaisi Kaise Paheli Zindagani’ and many other musical scores by the popular choice.

From the earliest times, music has been a soul stir-ring accompaniment to the men of arms, acting as a catalyst of exciting passion and inspiring them to go

forth and conquer. Military bands enliven the spirit, strengthen the mood and help in promoting pride and camaraderie.

The first Air Force Band was raised in the year 1944 at the Royal Air Force Station, Kohat, in North Western Frontier Province. Today there are eight bands in the Indian Air Force.

Progressing from the delightful martial music, successive conductors of the bands enhanced the range of its repertoire to include arrangements of symphonies, overtures and concertos as well as other forms of contemporary music including the Indian Classical. These bands have been performing at various ceremonies and official functions.

A member of the worldwide Military Music Society, the Air Force Band has performed in India as well as abroad at Bangkok, Finland, France, Italy, Kaula Lumpur International Tattoo, ILA Berlin Air Show, French National Day Celebration and recently on India’s Independence Day Celebration at Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Mumbai: At least 600 more Indians stranded in Libya are expected to reach Mumbai by late Monday as India engaged in evacuation of its citi-zens from the restive African nation.

Two special Air India flights AI 800 (Airbus 330) and AI 171 (Boeing 744) are on their way to Libyan capital Tripoli and they are likely to ferry back around 600 passengers late Monday night, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sources in-formed.

A group of 67 evacuated Indians landed here on Monday as India backed a United Nations move to slap sanctions on the Moammar Gaddafi regime in the African country.

A latest sortie by Air India brought the third batch of Indians since evacuation began Sunday morning.

More than 530 Indian nationals have so far arrived home safely from capital city Tripoli in two Air India flights, the External Affairs minis-try said.

A help desk at the airport at Mumbai has been set up by Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in coordination with Government of Ma-harashtra and other State Governments, to render all assistance to the passengers including for further travel to their hometowns.

MEA sources further said another 82 Indians crossed over to Salloum late Sunday evening.

They are also being taken to Cairo and expect-ed to leave by Gulf Air flight (GF-056) via Bahrain on Tuesday, so as to reach Mumbai early on Wednesday. The land route to Ras Jedir (Tunisia) is also bring used and as per latest MEA updates, a total of 378 individuals have already crossed over from Libya.

The Embassy of India officials received them and assisted with their onward movement to and stay at Djerba (Tunisia). A special Air India flight is proposed to be pressed into service to fly them back to India.

Another 100 persons are likely to similarly cross over on Monday, MEA sources added. Indian officials are proceeding to Sicily (Italy) to speed up arrangements for passenger ship La Superba’s maiden journey to Benghazi (Libya). Up to 3000 Indian nationals, including 400 who have traveled across from Al Kufrah by road, will be evacuated by Scotia Prince and La Superba.

Scotia Prince is expected to reach Benghazi at 1500 hours (local time) Monday and will return to Alexandria on March two. Meanwhile Ambas-sador Rajiva Misra has reached Malta to set up yet another base camp for organizing sea shuttles between Libya and Malta.

An air bridge is also proposed to be set up between Malta and India to bring our nationals home. There were around 18,000 Indians in Libya and India is trying to bring back all citizens un-harmed through its Operation Safe Homecom-ing, evacuating citizens through land, sea and air routes.

India supported the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members decision to impose sanction on Libya as all 15-0 voted for an arms embargo and urged U.N. member countries to freeze the assets of Muammar Gaddafi, his four sons and his daughter.

The UNSC also backed a travel ban on the Gaddafi family and 10 close aides for indefinite period holding the responsible for hundreds of death in the north African nation.


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India

India seeks Japanese investment in infrastructureTokyo: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma called on Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo on Tuesday and discussed the significance of technological collaborations between the two nations and Japanese investments in infra-structure sector.

During his meeting, Prime Min-ister Kan expressed satisfaction on the conclusion of negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Japan, which is being signed on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Kan underscored the significance of Indo Japa-nese technology collaboration for research and innovation. He called for a partnership in development of India’s infrastructure, spe-cifically referring to Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project.

While responding, Sharma high-lighted the importance attached by India to the Delhi Mumbai Indus-trial Corridor Project which has now decisively moved from the stage of master planning to project implementation.

This project will see investments of over $100 billion and is being seen as a flagship initiative of Indo-Japan partnership.

Minister Sharma proposed the establish-

ment of a revolving fund of $ 9 billion with matching contribution from Indian and Japanese side to kickstart the implemen-tation process. Japanese Prime Minister agreed to enhance the financial contribu-tion of Japan and was positively receptive to the suggestion.

Sharma urged for greater Japanese investments in areas of core infrastructure and capital goods equipment includ-ing power generation where Japanese companies have a technological edge.

During the twenty minute long meeting, Sharma said India viewed a partnership with Japan as a ‘strategic engagement’ in the region and in the global context. This would be central to the vision of Asian integration articulated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sharma is in Tokyo on a two day visit, accompanied by a high level official delegation includ-ing the Commerce Secretary and a CII CEO’s delegation led by CII President Hari Bharatia.

Sharma will be signing the CEPA along with the Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara on Wednesday.

Later in the day, he will be hold-ing substantive bilateral meet-ings with the METI minister to

review the progress of DMICDC project.

He will be interacting with top Japanese CEOs to seek Japanese investments in India in areas of priority as identified at the Summit level interaction between the Prime Ministers.

Sunderbans to feature in seven wonders of natureKolkata: The fragile Sunderbans may soon feature in the new seven wonders of nature, thanks to the efforts of green activists, who launched a campaign here recently to make people aware about this ecological heritage site of India.

The Sundarbans in West Bengal, well-known for tigers and crocodiles, is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world.

Civil society organisation Concern for Environment and Rural Livelihood (CERL), in collaboration with green ac-tivists, launched a ‘Save Sunderbans’ campaign at the Kolkata Book Fair re-cently.

Noted climate change researcher Ra-jarshi Banerji, West Bengal’s Chief Con-servator of Forests Atanu Raha, Priya Foods chairman S N Agarwal and many other eminent personalities from diverse fields who have left their footmarks in en-vironment and wildlife conservation, are part of the campaign.

“This is a great initiative taken by CERL and forest department would whole-heartedly support this cause,’’ Raha said.

Music director Shantanu Moitra also confirmed that he would compose a song for the campaign.

CERL officials said they will take this campaign to ‘every nook and corner’ of the country.

An e-mail basket - HYPER-LINK “mailto:[email protected]”[email protected] - has also been created for all kinds of help for the campaign.

Join the St John-Indian Weekender

ambulance project & help the community...

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma meeting the Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, in Tokyo on February 15, 2011


Indian


India

Students join bookmakers in World Cup betting: ASSOCHAM

US$ 36.7 bn capital flows into India

New Delhi: Sports betting and gambling is in full swing over the ongoing cricket World Cup as youngsters and sports enthusiasts in the country are not letting go off a single moment to make some easy money, accord-ing to a just concluded clandestine study carried out by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSO-CHAM).

In a survey carried out in seven major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandi-garh, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahemdabad under the aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) it was found that youngsters including school stu-dents, college going youth are wagering their monthly allowances on cricket match betting amongst friends.

Releasing the findings of the survey, D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM said, “School/college going kids are seeing the world cup as a wind-fall chance to make some quick money and are bonding with their friends as they are staking their monthly pocket expenses and are even selling off personal belongings to bet on their favorite teams, players and en-counters between arch rival nations.”

Money at stake ranges anywhere between Rs. 500-80,000 in case of students and sky is the limit in case of local bookmakers. In Tier I & Tier II cities they are literally cashing in on the world cup mania that has gripped the sub-continent, added Rawat.

Kids in Delhi were the foremost in staking huge money ranging from Rs. 15,000-80,000 followed by those in Mumbai where money at stake ranges between Rs. 10,000-60,000.

Lads in Chandigarh are also not lagging behind as they are staking money worth Rs.

10,000-40,000. Kids in Ahemdabad stood on the 4th spot as they are wagering Rs. 5,000-30,000 on cricket world cup whereas, those in Kolkata followed them as they are staking money worth Rs. 5,000-25,000 at the most.

Cricket fanactics in Bangalore are staking anywhere between Rs. 2,000-20,000 and in Hyderabad are wagering Rs. 500-10,000 on world cup matches.

According to the ASSOCHAM survey, an excitement of wager coupled with an op-portunity to make money are certain key elements as to why kids are getting hooked to sports gambling. It is expected that kids are going to make Rs. 2000-15000 per week over the next few weeks.

Team India is the hot favorite amongst young punters followed by Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, England, Pakistan, New Zealand and so on.

Sachin Tendulkar is the most favor-ite player as youth is betting upon him to emege as the player of the tournament.

Another intriguing aspect that has emerged in the chamber survey is that majority of students in were former high school athletes who relished a ‘business op-portunity’ to utilize their sports acumen in determining the odds and making predic-tions.

Besides, more and more youngsters are being introduced to sports gambling by their peers and male friends who are thriv-ing on its financial benefits and ability to use sports knowledge.

Youngsters also opined that cricket betting should be made legal as enforcing of the laws and institutional policies per-taining to the same will only increase the betting traffic with illegal bookmaker.

New Delhi: The Economic Survey tabled in the Lok Sabha here on Friday by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, notes that the net capital flows at US$ 36.7 billion in April-September 2010 were higher vis-a-vis US$ 23.0 billion in April-September 2009.

All components showed improvement with the exception of Foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) and banking capital in the first half of 2010-11.

Net FDI into India moderated to US$ 5.3 billion as against US$ 12.3 billion in April-September 2009. Portfolio investment, mainly FII inflows, however, witnessed large net inflows of US$ 23.8 billion (US$ 17.9 billion in April-September 2009).

Despite significant increase in capital inflows, accretion to reserves during April-September 2010 was lower, mainly due to more than doubling of current account deficit compared to last year.

The Survey further notes that during April-September 2010, the trade deficit on balance –of-payments basis stood higher at US$ 66.9 billion as compared with US$ 55.9 billion in the corresponding period last year. This was mainly due to significant increase in imports that was in line with robust do-mestic economic performance.

In fiscal 2010-11, India’s foreign exchange reserves have increased to US$ 299.2 billion at the end of January 2011.Beginning from a low level of US$ 5.8 billion at the end of March 1991, the Reserves were US$ 279.1 billion at the end of March, 2010.

India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits, reflecting the impact of the prudent external debt management policy of the Government that emphasizes raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating external com-mercial borrowings through end-use and all-in-cost restrictions, rationalizing interest

rates on NRI deposits, and monitoring long- as well as short-term debt.

At the end of September 2010, external debt stood at US$ 295.8 billion, recording an increase of 12.8 per cent over the level of end-March 2010.

The rise was largely due to higher com-mercial borrowings, short-term trade credits, and multilateral government borrowings. The share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 27.8 per cent in the total external debt followed by NRI deposits (16.9 per cent) and multilateral debt (15.8 per cent).

The maturity profile of India’s external debt indicates the dominance of long-term borrowings with long-term debt accounting for 77.7 per cent of the total external debt.

As regards the World Economy, the Survey observes that the buoyant economic activity in emerging economies is gradu-ally recovering from the crises. The risks, however, remain, as advanced economies face large fiscal deficit, high public debt and unemployment levels, and tepid aggregate demand, leading to subdued growth. Against this backdrop, the Indian economy continues to exhibit resilience, moving steadily back towards its pre-crisis growth path.

The developments in the external sector of the economy, however, indicate the wid-ening of current account deficit due to robust import demand resulting from strong domes-tic economic activity and lower invisibles surplus. The current account deficit, never-theless, is being largely financed by the rela-tively higher capital flows, leading to moder-ate accretion in reserves.

There are, however, challenges that include the volatile nature of FII that is char-acterized by surge and reversal of capital flows, deceleration in FDI and the risk of further slowdown in advanced economies that may affect exports and strain balance of payments.

Economic Survey calls for second Green RevolutionNew Delhi: Recalling the pioneer work by agriculture scientists and farmers to achieve a breakthrough in the agriculture sector in the 1960s, the Economic Survey observes that the country has not witnessed any big technological breakthrough in agriculture since then.

The food safety net for each and every of the over a billion citizens re-quires enhanced agriculture produc-

tion and productivity in the form of a Second Green Revolution.

The Survey points out that the coun-try is likely to achieve a more produc-tion of wheat (81.47 million tonnes), pulses (16.51 million tonnes) and cotton (33.93 million bales of 170 kg each) this year in spite of drought in some States, cyclones, unseasonal and heavy rains and cold wave and frost condition in several parts.

Still, special attention is required for achieving higher production and productivity levels in pulses, oil-seeds, fruits and vegetables, which had remained untouched in the First Green Revolution but are essential for nutritional security. It suggests efforts to achieve high production of poultry, meat and fisheries.

Stressing on the development of

infrastructure support in agriculture and allied sector, the Survey says that the relative weak supply re-sponses to price hike in agriculture commodities, specially food articles in recent brings into the focus the Central question of ef ficient supply management and more investment in agriculture and allied sectors with the right strategies, policies and intervention.


Indian



sAurAbH srIVAstAVA

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of any economy, even the most developed ones. Studies indicate that over 90% of the companies in the US have less than 50 employees and more than 50% of exports from the US are done by companies with less than 20 employees.

In India, Micro, Small and Medium En-terprises (MSMEs) constitute one of the most employment-intensive segments of the economy, contributing significantly to the manufacturing output and national exports.

It is estimated that this sector accounts for about 45% of the manufacturing output and 40% of the total exports of the country. There are several steps that the Government can take to encourage entrepreneurship and the growth of such ventures, especially by pro-viding access to capital.

Globally, SMEs raise funds from “busi-ness angels” and then by seed or early stage venture funds before the general VC or PE Funds come in. Angel funds and venture capi-talists are critical for the growth of MSMEs and the government needs to take some steps to enable the growth of both.

Business Angels in India are a new phe-nomenon and, therefore, need serious encour-agement through the creation of an enabling policy environment that would also result in attracting more successful business people into becoming ‘Angel Investors’.

Business Angels are successful CEOs or entrepreneurs who have “been there, done that” and the presence of such groups is criti-cal to the entrepreneurial ecosystem because in addition to the funds, they provide the SMEs with mentoring, advice, guidance and help in accessing markets and creating the right organizational structure.

Globally, Angels bring in risk capital, valu-able advice, mentoring and provide access to their own powerful business networks. This often makes the difference between the success and failure of a SME.

So, for a thriving MSME sector we need to create a policy environment that would en-courage the creation of more seed funds or early stage funds. This can be done by:

l Getting higher equity participation to facilitate better debt-equity mix;l Encouraging MSMEs to go global and increase their exports;l Entering into foreign technical collaborations for improving competitiveness.

In the past few years, there have been some attempts by the Government to promote flow of angel or venture capital funds to the MSME sector through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

Once the funds are set-up or for the funds already in existence, some broad policy issues need to be addressed, for channelizing risk capital to the MSME sector. Some of these issues are:

Change in bank lending norms for innovative start-up firms and introduction of new and in-novative debt instruments that focus on the company’s assets such as receivables and IP (as against other pure physical ones or per-sonal guarantees).

l Provide access debt funds even without a 3-year operating history of a company.

l Ensuring better cycle time for loan processing.l Allowing domestic angel or venture capital funds in a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) structure with a tax-pass through status.

Availability of above structure to busi-ness angel groups (say a business angel group with at least 75 investor members).

Providing a tax write off for individuals,

up to a limit (Rs. 5 crores per annum), in-vesting in MSMEs, either through an early stage fund (corpus up to Rs. 500 crore) or through a business angel group or individu-ally.

Providing the same tax write off for indi-viduals / business angel groups investing in SMEs spawned by the government’s incuba-tor system or coming out of the Incubators formed in the PPP model or IITs and other R&D Institutions.

The government could have a pro-gramme on the lines of the highly suc-cessful Yozma scheme which was respon-sible for triggering off early stage funding

in Israel, by using some public funds to create more early stage venture funds in the public private model. Similarly, some public funding could be used to help spawn more business angel groups in the country to complete the entrepreneurial ecosystem for nurturing SMEs.

Setting up of a separate SME Exchange or platform in an existing Stock Exchange to provide exit route to an angel or venture capital investor, along the lines of AIM, UK.

Allowing listing of angel/venture capital Funds on the existing Stock Exchanges. This is critical as such funds invest in a seed stage company which is unlikely to be able to go public or be large enough to be ac-quired in 3 to 5 years. However, the typical portfolio of 15 or 20 investee companies of such a fund would collectively have the re-quired valuation net worth and listing the fund would provide a return to the investors thus encourage more such funds to come up.

Besides this there are non-financial issues like liability of an individual Direc-tor on the Boards of angel or venture capital Fund, which need to be addressed.

Viewpoint

Entrepreneurship and Angel Investing need boost

“In India, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute one of the most employ-ment-intensive segments of the economy, contributing significantly to the manufacturing output and national exports.”

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Indian


Fiji

Be frank and honest, farmers urged

Suva: Potato farmers have been urged to be frank and honest while discussing the way forward for the fledgling potato industry.

Permanent secretary for agricul-ture Lt Colonel Mason Smith has challenged farmers to reduce the import bill which currently stands at $17.8m.

“The recent figures that was given to me by the Bureau of Statistics in-dicated to me that we have slightly reduced our import bill,” he said.

Lt Col Smith said there is no need to waste $17m on a crop that can be planted locally.

“That $17m can remain in Fiji because it can be used for the education of our children, it can be used for health and for building our homes,” he said.

“I see no reason why the $17m con-tinues to be drained out of Fiji and that is the challenge for us.”

The consultations is about learn-ing the lessons from the 2010 trial year and putting together a solid strategy for the future.

All the aspects of the industry is being dissected from the planting side, fertiliser use, marketing and even the responsiveness of agricul-tural technical officers in assisting farmers.

Research specialists are also at hand to provide advice on the best planting methods and the best seeds that can be used for a good yield.

“What I require of you this year is to be frank and to discuss the things that af fected you last year so that we do not repeat the same mis-takes next year,” he said.

“We have a three year program in front of us.

“19,000 metric tonnes of potato is imported annually so I urge you to keep those figures in front of us.

“The $17m is going to be a big climb to achieve but not impos-sible.”

The meeting will also help map the way forward for the industry that is linked to the overall objective of reducing the potato import bill by 6.3 percent.

Minimum wages rise for garment workers

Suva: The Minister for Labour, Industrial Re-lations and Employment, Mr. Filipe Bole has confirmed that the garment industry owners have agreed to pay a 10% increase in minimum wages for their garment workers.

He said that the garment owners have im-proved their ‘ability to pay’ position from the 7% announced early this month by Mr. Kalpesh Solanki, to 10% as resolved by the garment owners this week.

Mr. Bole revealed that this progressive po-sition by garment owners is an indication of their corporate social responsibility to both the workers and the nation as a whole towards our collective efforts to alleviate poverty.

Whilst Government will continue to provide an enabling policy environment and incentives to boost investment, productivity and profit-ability of companies, it also has the social re-

sponsibility to alleviate poverty amongst the marginalized sectors of our society.

In this regard, the Minister appeals to all employers to be fair and just in distributing their profits and productivity gains not only to their shareholders, but especially to the workers, who are the most important assets in their organizations.

Mr. Bole encourages employers to contin-ue to shift their business culture from one of ‘cheap labour’ dependency towards incentiviz-ing the development and participation of their workers to enhance their creativity and inno-vation to add more value to their goods and services with greater productivity and product differentiation.

The Minister also acknowledged the valu-able contributions of Sir James Ah Koy in the latest consultations with garment owners.


Indian



Fiji

Marist legacy lives onSuva: Students entering Marist Brothers High School

witnessed a tradition, which

may not be seen anywhere

during a prefects induction

ceremony.

The school is renowned for

producing athletes, who be-

come household names in the

region, but apart from all the

glitter on the playing ground

it is the strong brotherly bond

and discipline which sets the

Marist spirit apart.

Every year during prefects

induction day, school prefects

of the previous year hand over a torch of responsibility

to the newly invested leaders

for the year.

The torch is led by the former

head boy and is passed on

to his successor to guide and

remind him of responsibilities

during his term.

It also is a sign to carry on the

good work done by student

leaders of the previous year.

The school, which was found-

ed by the Marist Brothers equip students on the playing

field as well as build good character within students, which they take with them within and outside the school

corridors.

“I am a living testimony,” Po-

lice Commissioner Brigadier

General Ioane Naivalurua. said

“What we learn here (in school) remains with us the

rest of our lives. People see

our school in us.”

He said all prefects of the MBHS must work together and lead by example to be a

beacon to others.

“A leader sees the way, goes

the way and shows the way,”

Mr Naivalurua added.


Indian


Indian

From the Editor

Indian Weekender is published by Kiwi Media Group, 98 Great South Road, New Market and printed at APN Print, Ellerslie, Auckland Copyright 2010. Kiwi Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

Indian Weekender Volume 2 No. 23Publisher: 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 publisheris not responsible for advertisers’ claims as appearing in the publication

Letters

Ten top stories on iwk.co.nzthe Players in Auckland

After ‘honour killing’ it is ‘forced teen marriage’

Why shivaji Maharaj matters

65 dead in Christchurch quake

technology for today’s traveller

Master, Miss teen NZ sparkle

And now it’s forced, under age marriages!

Coping with killer stress

Hindus join quake relief efforts

delivery of 2011 Census forms begins

Chitra Katha made “Amar”Uncle Pai has single handedly made the “Kathas” (stories) of India ‘amar” (immortal) using “chitra”. Amar Chitra Katha has been a national icon in every Indian child’s world. Thanks for the knowledge bestowed on us though your publication.

– Ram Lingam

This really saddens me. I have grown up on Amar Chitra Katha and at one time I boasted a col-lection of more than 250 of the series. I still have them back in India. I would like to take this op-portunity to pay my tribute to this legend. May his soul rest in peace. Nobody can better connect with kids than Uncle Pai. Who could forget Tinkle, and the series of Dashavatar, Mahabharata, Shivaji. He deserves a Bharat Ratna for the service to the nation as his coming shaped the young minds.

– Prashant Belwalkar

Uncle Pai: Great lossThe name Uncle Pai reminds me of the unforgettable Suppandi Tinkle character! I am not book lover, but I used love reading Tinkle during my childhood days, literally wait for Saturdays to read that magazine after school. The first thing I used to do was open Tinkle and read Suppandi story. True! Miss you Uncle Pai. What a great loss ....”

– Pranathi P

“Wow! I have grown up with Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle! I met Uncle Pai when he organised a quiz at Panaji, Goa, and my brother and I cornered all the prizes (autographed copies of ACK)! I had the full original collection of ACK, but when I was appointed as a Ranger and went to Dar-jeeling for my two-year training, my mother gave away all my comics!!!”

– Amar Heblekar

“What an eloquent tribute-straight from the heart; really loved reading this. I too belong to a gen brought up on Amar Chitra Katha and it still remains my ‘comfort food’ even today.

-Padmini Rao

Forced underaged teen marriages Wonder why they have such ‘absurd’ views of us? Could it be that it is true, however few and far between they be? Could it be that we have people amongst us who actually do this? Maybe we should ask ourselves why they do this before we start attacking those who point a finger at us? The overweaning ambition of many parents to marry off their girl child ultra-quickly is a blot on our society, wherever we be. Accept that it happens and try to stop it wherever you can. Crying foul is not the answer.

– Nalinesh Arun

Indians tend to be too self-righteous to the point of not accepting criticism for just about anything. Child marriages are practised in this day and age among some Indian cultures and religions so it is important to expose them.

-Mahesh S

Not a single specific case is mentioned; just generalisation denegrating the Muslims and Sikhs in particular. Arranged marriage is different from “ forced underage marriages”. Please dont confuse the issue. Both Nair and Field should either front-up or apologise especially to the Muslim and the Sikh communities. As a marriage celebrant and a senior community member I say with conviction that the whole article is based on fallacy and ignorance of the truth. I wonder what is Nair’s gripe?

– Gul Zaman

Understanding casteI suppose the article has some merit; however, it does not explain the current excessive discrimi-nation, particularly in India, against the so-called “untouchables” by the ruling classes.I’m told that the Pundits can only be from the selected “upper” caste. How true?

– Atish

To AtishThanks for your comments. That’s right this article does not explain the current deplorable prac-tice. The article is about the ancient concept of ‘Varna’ system not the current practice. By the way, the word Pundit is a title of respect for a ‘learned man’. It also means ‘prowess’, ‘erudition’, ‘expertise’ or ‘scholarliness’ referred to as ‘Paanditya.’

-Ram

Can Key and National rise to the occasion?Every dark cloud has a silver lining, goes the old adage. But will New Zealand’s political leadership rise to the occasion and be bold enough to put to use Kiwis’ legendary can do attitude to dispel the dark clouds and bring back the sunshine in Cantabrians’ and New Zealanders’ lives?Last month’s earthquake was this country’s worst ever disaster. At the time of writing, the death toll is still mounting and the cost of the disaster is looking ever more astronomical. The blow is much too hard for a country of this small size at the corner of the world in the midst of one of the worst financial downturns it has seen.This is not the time for politics, but as it happens, it is always the elected politicians who are in charge of affairs at times like these – and therefore much as one would like to keep politics out of it, it’s simply not possible. But there is good politics and bad politics – the former in the interests of the people and the latter in the narrow interests of self-seeking politicians themselves.Will New Zealand’s politicians show the equanimity, nerve, intelligence, practicality and put the absolute weal of the people at the centre of the country’s interests? It is important that they do.The country put much faith in the John Key led National coalition government when it assumed power at the last election. After three successive Labour governments’ leftist largesse ridden economic policies, people’s expectations ran high on Mr Key’s much touted financial nous and expected hard decisions on making long overdue course corrections on the direction the nation’s economy was heading in.Though the National Party did take some bold decisions, it left many of the more urgent problems in the too hard basket, perhaps with the plan to tackle them with more vigour in its second innings following this year’s election, which it is widely expected to win.That left the impression in many minds that the National Party’s policies were little more than Labour Lite and its seeming lack of courage to deal with some of the important eco-nomic issues headlong betrayed the fact of its helplessness in the face of keeping its coali-tion partners happy. It did an about face on the mining issue, no thanks to the greenies’ strong opposition. It also soft-pedaled on the completely impractical ETS, leaving New Zealand to draw a lonely furrow with the rest of the world preferring to play a wait and watch game. That also left New Zealanders holding the can for increased costs in almost every sector of the economy including farming, though not immediately.The National government would do well to revisit those decisions – especially exploit-ing our abundant natural resources. We need to remember that it is important to strike a balance between practicality and idealism. If Pike River were an open cast mine as it should actually have been – which extreme green-minded New Zealanders would balk at – we would not have lost the miners. The government must also revisit the ETS decision while considering ways and means to raise funds for the Christchurch recovery. While there is talk of a levy, cuts to benefits and student loans and the sale of government assets, controversial and unproven schemes like ETS are not on the table – at least not yet. But what is rather alarming is the government-generated aftershock that is beginning to be felt in Auckland. Though the government says it realizes Auckland is the country’s engine room and is key to the recovery of not only Christchurch but the nation’s economy as a whole, its announcements this week seem to undermine that.Wellington has indicated possible cuts to or the complete shelving of long planned infra-structure projects in Auckland. Already, constant dithering has delayed Auckland’s critical infrastructure enhancement by decades. That indeed was the raison d’etre for the supercity. And now we have the prospect of Wellington about to play political games with Auckland on the back of the Christchurch tragedy.While everything must be done to help Cantabrians move on from this heart rending tragedy toward a life as normal as possible, the government must tread a practical and rational path and keep the greatest good of the greatest number at heart. It simply cannot afford to let its boffins play petty games of one up-manship while on the road to recovery.

– Dev Nadkarni


Indian



Last month, a large group of committed and passion-ate community members assembled in Auckland’s Mahatma Gandhi Centre to brainstorm social and cultural challenges facing the Hindu community in New Zealand.

At an interactive workshop organised by the Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associations (HOTA) Forum on February 20, 2011, the diverse group of personalities from leading Hindu organisa-tions, temples and associations that work to serve the community sought ways to streamline co-operation.

The workshop was hosted by the New Zealand Hindu Temple Society, and facilitated by Member of Parliament Dr Rajen Prasad.

Dr Prasad said the purpose of such workshops must be to seek common ground with mainstream New Zealand society rather than to create commu-nity islands. “We have chosen to live in this country and we Hindus should continue to offer our values to the great New Zealand melting pot, as we have done in the past,” he said.

The workshop consisted of two main sessions. In the first session, the participants broke into four groups, and each was tasked with the following issues.

Challenges before Hindu Dharma in New Zealand.

Social issues concerning Hindu society in New Zealand.

Promoting Yoga, Ayurveda and Meditation in New Zealand.

Engaging Hindu youth in New Zealand.One subject on which virtually all participants

agreed on was that Hindu organisations and temples should become more closely involved with the com-munity in social and family issues. Would institu-tionalised community support have prevented the Ranjeeta Sharma case, for instance? Who knows?

But if Hindu organisations are able to provide cul-turally appropriate advice to families, there’s a very good chance to amicably resolve problems in Hindu families, as compared to the intrusive and discor-dant approach that culturally insensitive organisa-tions may take.

There was broad consensus on the Hindu prin-ciple of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) and in particular that temples should promote Hindu values, as there is no disconnect between modernity and Hindu Dharma. This would especially benefit the youth. In fact, a bunch of youth initiatives were discussed, such as involving Hindu youth in Yoga and meditation. Such activities have already been happening in AROGYA (a division of the Hindu Council of New Zealand) led Yoga

classes.Introducing Yoga in school curriculum and

hospitals was another proposal. Similar provisions exist for sports and tai chi, which primarily aim for physical fitness. Yoga, as practiced in the Hindu tra-dition, aims towards a healthy body, mind and spirit/soul. Also, with an increasing number of American

church groups trying to hijack yoga by conjuring up weird names like Christian yoga, it is imperative that such cultural theft not be allowed on New Zealand soil. On the other hand we have the example of Ma-laysia, where Yoga practice is considered officially un-Islamic.

Hindu organisations could also make a key impact in handling immigrant settlement issues. They could soften the cultural impact of immigra-tion and ease integration into New Zealand.

Finally, there’s the question of image. A slew of articles and programmes in the New Zealand media seem to have conspired to paint a very unflatter-ing picture of Hindus in collaboration with certain “Indian” leaders, ignoring the tremendous progress India has made in the past couple of decades. It

was suggested that organisations such as the Hindu Media Watch should take steps to counter misrep-resentation by certain elements of the New Zealand media.

The list of participants and the organisations they represent is worth mentioning here because it shows community leaders are indeed passion-ate about jointly working to improve cooperation between diverse groups.

The list includes, but is not limited to, the Inter-national Society for Krishna Consciousness, New Zealand Thirumurugan Temple, Sri Krishna Chait-anya Temple, Soni Samaj, Gaudiya Math, Manukau Indian Association, Auckland Indian Association, Waitakere Indian Association, Hindi Elders Foun-dation, Hindu Youth New Zealand, Swami Narayan Temple (ISSO) Papatoetoe, Sri Chinmaya Mission, Auckland Ramayan Sanstha Trust, Yogi Devine Society and Muth Tamil Sangam.

As India grows into its role as a global super-power it will face immense challenges, especially in the social and cultural spheres. Coming from a more liberal society, New Zealand Hindus are well placed to offer solutions that will help guide their ancient republic to its rightful destiny.

(About the author: Rakesh Krishnan Simha is

a features writer at New Zealand’s leading media house. He has previously worked with Business-world, India Today and Hindustan Times, and was news editor with the Financial Express.)

Comment

rAKesH KrIsHNAN sIMHA

deV NAdKArNI

Uncle Pai: Amar Chitra Katha’s final chapter

Can New Zealand Hindus kick start a social revival?

For millions of Indians like me, our acquaintance with India’s incredibly rich history, mythology, folklore and culture would have been so much the poorer without Amar Chitra Katha, the legend-ary comic book series, whose visionary founding editor Ananth ‘Uncle’ Pai passed away this week.

I had the good fortune of not just having been raised with a growing library of Amar Chitra Katha since I was five but also realising a child-hood dream of actually working with Uncle Pai on the celebrated comic book series and its sister publication Tinkle for a few years – that, too, as my very first job in my writing career!

Uncle Pai was a legend in his lifetime. He was the google before Google. His knowl-

edge was colossal and his memory prodigious. Be they chapters from the Bhagwad Gita or long verses from the Guru Granth Sahib and be they Kabir’s Dohas, lengthy shlokas from the Upa-nishads or Tagore’s Bengali poems, he could reel them off effortlessly to drive home a point – whether at work or in the course of his wonder-fully engaging extempore speeches.

We would walk into his office anytime and ask him any question: a date in history, a place name, the sequence of a dynasty – anything. And we would have the answer in seconds.

He knew eight languages – he could read, write and speak in each of them and had even authored books and magazine articles in some of them. He would often converse with me in our native Konkani even in the office.

He was a scholar cast in the classic old mould of pre-independence philosopher-statesmen like Dr S Radhakrishnan. But unlike them, he was able to explain the most abstruse of concepts to young children in an amazingly interesting way. That was his gift.

Though he didn’t have any of his own, children were Uncle Pai’s be all and end all. His dedica-tion to regaling them with books, stories, anec-dotes, quiz contests, running nation wide clubs and playing mentor, career guide and friend was consummate.

Children from Srinagar to Thiruananthapuram and from Dwaraka to Gauhati adored him and on a typical day in the Amar Chitra Katha offices, as many as three hundred letters would be opened and read by a dedicated staff tasked only with reading and replying to children’s letters and filing away contributions for future publication.

“Nothing encourages a child as much as rec-ognition and nothing discourages as much as the lack of it,” Uncle Pai would say insisting that every letter was acknowledged – and he replied to many of them personally, with great fondness. Remember, that was before the age of computers and email – so it involved dic-tating to stenos, typing, mailing, filing, keeping written records …

I know of several people who have still saved the replies they received from Uncle Pai to show their own kids.

His day would begin at 4am and he would be in the office at the crack of dawn. As well as attending to the voluminous corre-spondence, he had to pore through script ideas for future Amar Chitra Katha titles, edit scripts, guide illustrators, supervise production and oversee dis-tribution besides looking after the publishing com-pany’s other children’s publications like Tinkle.

Publishing for children was the brilliant chem-ical engineer’s passion from the very start. Having failed to run a children’s magazine in the 1950s, he joined the publishers of the Times of Indian in the 1960s and was asked to come up with ideas to

fill the idle capacity of the newly imported colour printing plant that was used to churn out the pres-tigious Illustrated weekly, Femina and Filmfare.

Uncle Pai saw this as a great opportunity to indulge in his passion: of starting with Indian il-lustrated classics for children but the publishers didn’t share his excitement. He struck a deal with New York based King Features and converted Phantom and Mandrake comic strips into 32 page books published monthly and then fortnightly.

In comics with shorter stories that finished in 28 pages, he insert-ed what could well be India’s first-ever regular comic book feature – Around the world with Kunju Pillay, which cata-logued the epony-mous character’s bicycle journeys around the world.

Having success-fully launched the comic series, which was published under the banner “Indrajal Comics,” Uncle Pai began to scout for publishers to back his Indian illustrated clas-sics project. That’s when he met with G.L. Mirchandani, the

founder of India Book House who said he would back the project as long as Uncle Pai would not charge for his own labours until it went into print and recovered the expenses.

Uncle Pai took up the challenge and scoured hard to find a good illustrator. He found Ram Waeerkar to illustrate the first script, “Krishna.” Waeerkar remained with the project for several decades his death a few years ago – and “Krishna” remains the most reprinted title in the series having

sold several million copies in nearly 50 languages around the world.

The first half a dozen titles took long and made it to the newsstands quite irregularly. It took a few years and a team – comprising Kamala Chan-drakant and Subba Rao besides about a dozen il-lustrators and a production set up – before Amar Chitra Katha began to roll as a successful enter-prise.

Uncle Pai won many accolades in his long career with Amar Chitra Katha. While leading that great enterprise, he also rang a syndicated feature service, Rang Rekha Features, which he later sold and a personality development system based on Indian values called Partha.

I know of several Partha graduates around the world who have greatly succeeded in their profes-sional and personal lives and who look back at Uncle Pai and the “Partha Institute” with fondness and gratitude.

After the Mirchandanis sold Amar Chitra Katha to a private equity enterprise, the new set up stopped publishing new titles instead leveraging the creative and intellectual capital that had been created over the decades by launching a series of products based on the series. Both Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle though are still published and are highly successful as a series of repackaged products from their earlier avataars.

Though the new set up continued to employ Uncle Pai and looked after him well, he had little to do in the last years of his life. For a man who put in 18 tireless hours a day to create products like Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle for much of his life, such a void was hard to handle, according to those close to him.

The 81-year-old had a fall about ten days ago, which necessitated surgery to his hip. He passed away after a massive heart attack while recovering quite well from the fall. He is survived by his dear wife Lalitha, several nephews and nieces – and of course by millions upon millions of Indians who will remember Uncle Pai’s immense contribution to their early lives.

Hindus in New Zealand are taking head-on the social and cultural challenges facing their community in the country. Can they spark a renaissance from their adopted faraway land?

“We have chosen to live in this country and we Hindus should continue to offer our values to the great New Zealand melting pot, as we have done in the past,”


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rAY WHIte FuLL PAGe

Open Home


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Community

Hindu Council joins quake relief effortsThe members and volunteers of the Hindu commu-nity have join the nation in offering prayers to give strength to the families and friends of earthquake victims.

Hindu Council of New Zealand Media and Public Relations Officer Dr Rajiv Chaturvedi said special-ised search and rescue teams were doing an admi-rable job under difficult circumstances.

“On the other hand, the trauma of the survivors with aftershocks continuing to rock Christchurch, es-pecially those who have to desert their homes, needs an urgent healing touch.

“These natural calamities affect everyone equally. It may be critical for ethnic and linguistic communi-ties who may be disadvantaged in communicating their specific needs to the relief agencies and may need culturally appropriate support.

“In this hour of national emergency, a number of Hindu organisations, temples and associations have come forward to provide relief to earthquake victims,” Dr Magesan said.

The Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associa-tions (HOTA) Forum, in coordination with Sewa In-ternational, have launched an appeal to contribute to the ongoing aid and relief work in Christchurch, and

to residents who have been displaced to various New Zealand cities. To assist with Sewa International relief work, contact [email protected] or Kishor Mistry on 09 537 2766. You can make monetary donations to Sewa International through the ASB account number: 12-3055-0216216-00.* Hindu Niwas, a respite service based in Mangere, Auckland, has opened its 63-bed facility for affected families moving out of Christchurch. Hindu Niwas provides vegetarian meals to residents and will be able to arrange culturally / linguistically appropri-ate support for victims of the earthquake during their stay. For accommodation details contact: Jairaj Chavan, Manager, Hindu Niwas (Respite Care Ser-vices): 09 275 1003. * Sri Krishna Chaitanya temple of Auckland, with support of Indian Association in Christchurch will serve free, freshly cooked vegetarian meals to the earthquake victims in Christchurch. The team aims to provide around 250 – 500 meals every day for 5 days starting Monday 28th February. Those who wish to donate goods including non-perishable food items and are able to provide transport and manpower for collection, please URGENTLY contact Yogesh Punja on 021 786 520.

* ISKCON Wellington, in co-ordination with devo-tees in Christchurch, is also distributing food in Christchurch. Jagjeevan Das Prabhu (027 256 7111) can be contacted for more details on this project. * Hindu Council of New Zealand, Wellington Mu-tamizh Sangam, and Hindu Youth New Zealand volunteers in Wellington, in co-ordination with New Zealand Police and Pipitea Marae are working to provide support to victims of earthquake seeking refuge in Wellington. Support for linguistic and ethnic groups, including Hindus, Asians, and others is needed. Contacts: Ram Bharadwaj (021 241 7825), Selva Ramasami (021 178 8318), or Rajiv Chaturvedi (021 079 5036).

New Zealand Hindu Temple Society has or-ganised a universal, joint online prayer. This can be joined online from any location on Friday 5th and Sat-urday 6th March, at exactly 7am. Link to the prayer is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsGJlyFcdQM

“We thank all volunteers who are already in-volved and look forward to hear from those willing to contribute in whatever way they can,” Dr Magesan said.

“Residents of Christchurch are in our thoughts and prayers.”

Asia Downunder gets new time slotAsia Downunder is all about Asians in New Zealand, young and old, featuring topics as diverse as art, busi-ness, sport, music, fashion, culture, lifestyle, food and many more. The show also tackles topical and contro-versial stories such as refugees, racism, immigration, and health.

The programme can be viewed from Sunday, February 27 at a new time of 11 am on TvOne.

“This year we continue our coverage of issues relating to Kiwi-Asians, with some half-hour docu-mentaries and single-themed programs that provide an even deeper look into Kiwi-Asian concerns.

“Watch out too for stories we bring home when we travel to Asian destinations– places to see, things to do, and, to turn the tables – Kiwis in Asia, says re-porter Bharat Jamnadas.

The first episode of the year features reporter Kad-ambari Gladding’s journey through Nepal, a country of mountains and myths. She learns about Trade Aid, gets to stay in a monastery, joins Nepal’s first all girl kayaking school, and meets NZ aid workers as they build a hilltop village.

Producer Chris Wright says ‘The Asian popula-tion has been New Zealand’s fastest growing ethnic

group for many years. It’s important that their inter-ests are reflected in a TV show that is able to reflect everything concerned with life in New Zealand, culture, lifestyle, sport and art. The team are looking forward to 40 episodes where they’re going to do just that”

Mr Jamnadas says, “Our definition of Asia extends from Iran in the west to Japan in the east and Indonesia in the south. With such a multitude of cultures there’s probably no other New Zealand pro-gramme that can draw on such variety of subjects and people for the stories that are made.”


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Community

Community News in Pics

Sri Guru Ravidass birth-day celebrationsThe 634th birthday celebrations of Shri Guru Ravidass were held recently at the Bombay Hills Shri Guru Ravidass temple. Hundreds of devotees joined in the celebra-tions, with several government ministers and Members of Parliament attending. A new DVD was also launched during the celebrations. Pictures show Police Minis-ter Judith Collins viewing the DVD and a section of the audience.

Mt Roskill Business group launchedMembers of the Mt Roskill area’s multi-ethnic community have come together to launch the Mt Roskill Business & Community Groups Association Inc. as an Incorporated Society on December 9 last year. The group had its first meeting in early February and was attended by a wide cross section of community members ranging from social workers, politicians to businesspeople of several ethnic groups. The group’s president is Richard Prakash (phone 09-620 7940) and secretary is Dr Lingappa Kalburgi (09-815 3448).

Shivratri celebrations in Auckland, WellingtonThe Shivaratri Festival in 2011 is being celebrated by the Brahma Kumaris organisation in Auckland and Wellington by a free programme open to the public called “Trimurti Shiv Darshan”. The events will be held on Sunday 6 March, 9am – 8pm at the Auckland Indian Association, Dining Hall, 145 New North Road, Eden Terrace, Auckland. In Wellington, it will be held on Sunday 13 March 9am – 8pm at the Indian Community Hall, Cnr of Udy and Nelson Streets, Petone. For further informa-tion please contact Ph. 04 567 0699 or email HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” [email protected]

Bollywood Celebrities at Chaska, EpsomAbhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachan, Sonam Kapoor and Omi Vaidya dined at favourite curry haunt Chaska Punjab Da at Epsom on February 17. The A-list actors and the popular Chatur from 3 Idiots, Omi Vaidya, were here in New Zealand for a visit to shoot for the movie Players. While Aishwarya chose to ac-company her hubby on her first visit to New Zealand. After completing their shooting in Wellington, they made their way to Auckland for the movie that is a remake of the Italian Job. After wrapping up the shooting at Auckland director Abbas Mastan threw a party for his crew at Chaska Punjab Da. The restaurant, recently taken over by Kuldeep and Shivani Arora, reverberated with Bollywood numbers as the actors and crew danced away the night.


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On Saturday 26th March, Mt Albert War Memorial Hall was filled with a Marathi audience of all ages. They were eagerly looking forward to the perfor-mance of Marathi stage’s popular actress Vandana Gupte. Accompanying her was her younger sister Rani Varma. The sisters were presenting an innova-tive, multimedia performance called “TEE” literally meaning – ‘She’.

The show depicted the journey of a girl child “Durga” from her birth through the various phases of a typical Indian woman’s life to her graceful ageing as a grandmother in a two hour format. The format was unique as it was not only interactive, but also had audio visual mixing, some wonderful narrative by Vandana Gupte and live singing by Rani Varma.

It started of from the day “Durga” was born and slowly moved towards her adulthood. The intermedi-ate period Durga’s coming of age was wonderfully depicted through songs sung by Rani Varma.

The song selections were apt and almost all the people in the audience hummed along and foot tapped with the hit numbers, having grown up listening to them.

Vandana Gupte’s hilarious take on the young school girl learning to come to terms with narrating an essay in an elocution speech had the audience in splits.

The audiences were again treated to some won-derful lavani by Nupur Raut depicting the approach of teen years and then Hemant Shirsat was crooning as a first time lover.

Vandana Gupte’s narrative through the phases of

marriage and subsequent family years brought a tear to the seniors’ eyes. There was not a person in the au-dience who was not moved by Rani’s singing when she sang the”bidaai” song of the newly wed bride.

The powerful message of the ageing Durga was wonderful. The role of a woman is very important in Indian heritage as she is the link between the two generations, two different families and is a pillar of strength in tough times. Whilst the world may not see it as such, it is “She” who carries forward the tradi-tions and values of generations together.

The success of the shows lies in it being a com-plete package, strong narration and the ability of it to connect to each and every member of the audience. The script is very tight, the narrative moving and the songs, evergreen. No wonder, that the play has been well received in all overseas locations where it has travelled be it Japan, US or Europe.

Migrant Heritage Charitable Trust Inc (MigHT-i) was proud to bring the show to New Zealand for the

first time. It was also the first visit of Vandana Gupte and Rani Varma to these shores. They instantly con-nected with the audiences, not only in Auckland but in Wellington as well.

The production is performed under their banner “Sister Concern” and has received rave reviews ev-erywhere. The concept was originally thought out by Vandana Gupte literally on the back of a paper and later developed by the sisters. It is no wonder that it has been so successful, as it carries a powerful message which is relevant today. Especially the women love the play as each of them sees a part of themselves being presented in front of them.

Indian Weekender along with SLA Limited and D & R Digital was instrumental in supporting MigHT-I with this venture. The show now moves on to Aus-tralia where it will be hosted in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. A real treat for Marathi audiences downunder.

-Indian Weekender Arts Correspondent

CommunityGandhi Centre launches unique fitness centre‘Tee’

proves a class act

More and more South Asians (Including Indians, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Nepalis and Indians who originate from outside that region) are diagnosed with diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, cardiovascular (heart) and obesity.

To reduce the risk they need to regularly exercise. There is nothing like exercising with the rhythms of one’s favourite music. It is a fun way to take responsibility of your own health and make the time to exercise.

A new innovative exercise regimen called Bollyrobix (exercise to Bollywood music) is being held every Saturday, 7.30am to 8.30am, with a qualified instructor at Mahatma Gandhi Centre, 145 New North Road, Eden Terrace.

“You don’t have to be fit or young. It suits people of all ages (men and women). You can exercise according to your own ability and fitness,” says a spokesperson from the centre.

Qualified and registered exercise instructor Ella Kumar conducts the sessions. She is also able to give nutritional information as well.

The Bollyrobix regimen is free for members of the Auckland Indian Association and only $2.00 for non-members.

register now and join Mahatma Gandhi Centre fitness group.For more information please contact Ella Kumar or Dhiru Patel ella Kumar Health and Fitness ProfessionalPh: (H) 09 629 0660Mobile: 021 0477642Email: [email protected] M PatelAIAI Public Relations OfficerPh: (H) 09 6266 134 Mobile: 0274 99 1947Email: [email protected]


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bollywood

‘I was put into sex symbol slot’Zeenat Aman broke the typical coy image of Hindi film heroine and sported a westernized look. Known as the first sex symbol of Bollywood, her sheer screen presence used to churn money at the Box Office for her producers. The actor in conversation with correspondent Sreya Basu

After staying away from films for years, you made a comeback with dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun in 2010. How was the experi-ence facing the camera again?I had gone away for about 20 years and I came back to films when people retire. I had to get a great makeup man, a great lighting director, a great cinematographer…and had to go on a diet to look beautiful and gorgeous. (Laughs) That was tough. As of now, I have a couple of scripts and am going through them.

tell us about your childhood days.I am essentially a Bombay girl…I was born at a nursing home that was stone’s throw away from the Taj Mahal Hotel. My father was a script writer from Bhopal. He wrote for films like Mughal-e-Azaam and Pakeezah. He died when I was a child (13 years). He was very loving. He used to write beautiful letters to my mother and me. I didn’t have great proximity with him because I was away at my boarding school. But I remember him expressing a lot of affection for me.

How was your mother like?My mother was pretty incredible. I would like to think she was one of her kind. She was very emancipated and did a lot of things ahead of her times.

You got a scholarship to go to America for higher education…Yes. I went to Southern California where I learnt to become a hippie, so that I could participate in Hare Rama Hare Krishna. (Laughs) Kidding! I was a boring student in America.

What made you participate in Miss India pageant on your return to India?I was doing a lot of modeling and commercials, in-cluding Taj Tea ad, at that time. We were walking the ramp, when my friends said you are in the wrong part, you should be in Miss India contest. Subsequently, I joined and went to represent India in the Asia Pacific contest (in 1970).

there a story that the first time you entered a film studio full of grime and saw dust, you said the glam quotient is missing. true?Absolutely. I went in and said ‘Where’s the glamour?’ And they (producer, director) said

‘Well honey, you are supposed to be it.’ (Laughs)

What made you sign Hare rama Hare Krishna when many actresses turned it down since it was a slightly negative role with the character smoking?I knew it was a pivotal role and was happy to do it.

After Hare rama Hare Krishna, everyone referred to you as the next big thing. How did that feel?Wonderful I guess. But honestly speaking, I have never been the person who believed in one’s own publicity-good or bad. In fact, when I started, I had no idea what stardom meant. I just wanted

to do this film and leave India. But then, the film became successful and Devsaab (Anand) said ‘Don’t go. You might have a career here’. I waited and did Heera Panna, Yaadon Ki Baraat –which was a big hit, and Dhund with Mr BR Chopra…and so on and so forth; my films did well and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was a big star.

did you consciously break the rules of a Hindi film heroine?Not at all.

You were tagged as the sex symbol of bol-lywood…Once I was put into a sex symbol slot, all film-makers were shooting songs or offering me char-acters around that image. I am really sorry to say that I don’t think I really got an opportunity to completely break away from that, not even in Insaaf Ka Tarazu. I never got the chance to show myself as a cerebral actress.

What do you think of today’s actresses?We have fabulous actresses today. They are doing an amazing job. They are all gorgeous as well as talented. You know, in our films you have to be multi-faceted…you have to be able to dance, act, do stunts…and our girls are doing all of that.

being a style icon, what’s your mantra to look gorgeous?Be comfortable in what you wear. If you are comfortable with what you are wearing, you will always feel confident and when you are confident, you project the real person that exists within you.


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bollywood

Anup Jalota to enthrall global devotees

Rahat, manager fined Rs 15 lakh each

Ranbir Kapoor shoots in Kashmir

Salman Khan has no time for Dus Ka Dum

Mumbai: Bhajan Samrat Anup Jalota will enthrall spiritual devotees from Austra-lia, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States of America, at the grand Mata Bhagwati’s ‘Jaagran’ ceremony at BEC ground, Gore-gaon, Mumbai, on March 3.

Organized by the disciples of Shri Radhe Maa, a saint who graces the occasion ev-ery year, the ceremony attracts thousands of Indian as well as International devotees, who celebrate it with tremendous excite-ment and fervor. Followers take the oppor-tunity to have Shri Radhe Maa’s darshan and also praise Shri Sherawali Mata.

This year, Anup Jalota will be joined by Master Saleem and party from Punjab and other devotional singers from across the country for this lavish event.The ceremony will feature some magnifi-cent scriptures and statues of Lord Shiva, Lord Ram, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman and Maa Sherawali along with recitation of stories of another goddess Tara Rani.

New Delhi: Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and his manager Maroof have been fine Rs 15 lakh each for carrying over $ 1 lakh without declaration while boarding a flight from Delhi to Dubai on Feb 13.

They were booked under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Customs Act.

Unless they pay the penalty immediately they will not be allowed to leave India, reports said.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Saturday grilled Rahat Fateh Ali Khan over recov-ery of unaccounted foreign currency from him at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here and slapped Customs Act violation charges on him.

This was the third time the singer faced DRI inter-rogation since his detention on Feb 13.

Completing the probe on Khan’s case, the DRI had reportedly sent the issue for adjudication by Commis-sioner Customs (Airports).

On Thursday and Friday, Khan was grilled by in-

telligence officials for over 10 hours respectively.Khan was released on Monday (Feb 14), 28 hours

after being detained and questioned by revenue intel-ligence officials.

He was released after the Pakistani government stepped in and asked that the singer be let out of the “protective custody” immediately, media reports said.

Rahat and his entire troupe of 16 members were detained at the IGI airport after nearly USD 1.24 lakh was recovered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelli-gence (DRI) from the singer and two of his associates.

“The DRI officers found altogether 1,24,000 USD which is equivalent to about Rs 60 lakhs. 24,000 USD were found from the baggage carried by Rahat while the remaining 50,000 USD each were found from the baggage of two troupe members,” officials at the airport said.

The recovered foreign currency included USD 10,000 and USD 8,600 in demand drafts.

Srinagar: The scenic beauty of Kashmir Valley has once again attracted the atten-tion of Bollywood stars.

Actor Ranbir Kapoor is busy in shooting for his fim at Pahalgam.

Apart from Ranbir Kapoor, the film’s actress Nargis and director Imtiyaz Ali were also spotted at the tourist destination Pahalgam.

While talking to IBNS, Production Control-ler Mahesh said that Valley is known for its beauty and it is very cheap to shoot

here as the film unit doesn’t require any artificial set.

He said due to unconducive atmosphere, Bollywood stars are reluctant to come over here, but the situation has changed a lot.

Large number of people arrived at Pahal-gam to have a glimpse of the stars present there.

Pertinently, Ranbir’s father Rishi Kapoor had shot his first film as a hero- ‘Bobby’- in Kashmir as well.

Mumbai: Celebrity reality show Bigg Boss 4 has been wrapped up long back and speculation about whether actor Salman Khan, who has agreed to host another season of the reality show, will be back on 10 Ka Dum Season 3 (DKD) are rife.

Last year, Sony Entertainment had approached Sanjay Dutt to host the game show when Khan was busy with the other show.

Earlier, after Khan had taken up Bigg Boss 4, the channel had a closed door meeting with him and he had said that if approached, he’d like to return to DKD, after Bigg Boss 4 wrapped up.

But Khan is now juggling with his many films and the channel has reportedly initiated talks with

other actors, including Govinda.The humorous actor has appeared on their

dance show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4, twice already. In the ’90s, he had also anchored the show ‘Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke’.

Apparently, it was Khan who suggested his Partner as his replacement, should he be unable to return.

The episode featuring Govinda has high recall value.

“10 Ka Dum 3 will be back in 2011 and we are in talks with a couple of big Bollywood names,” said Ajit Thakur, executive vice president and business head, Sony Entertainment.


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bollywood

Lara-Mahesh get married in Goa

Pallavi Joshi hosts Antakshari again!

Mithun gets ear for ghazals

Panaji: The much talked about wedding of the tennis ace Mahesh Bhupati and Bollywood actress Lara Dutta solemnized on Saturday evening at the sunset venue of a heritage five-star resort near Cando-lim beach.

Former Miss Universe Lara, 32, wore a white Ellie Saab gown with jewelry in white gold and diamonds while Mahesh, 36 was dressed in black suit for the Chris-tian style wedding.

Among the invited guests were B-town celebrities Ritesh Deshmukh, Sajid Khan, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Cel-lina Jaitley, designers including Wendell Rodricks, Sheetal Malhar and from the sporting field Rohan Bopanna and Le-ander Paes along with his wife Ria Pillai blessed the newly wedded couple.

“The couple made sure that the wedding place located within the premise of Taj Aguada resort on the 16th century fort is beautifully decorated,” sources close to

the couple said.

After the wedding ceremony, the couple in their message said, “We had a memo-rable time at the wedding. Looking for-ward to the rest of out lives together… We thank our families and all our friends for making this weekend so special for us.”

The couple had legally registered their marriage in a Mumbai Court on Feb 17 after which they flew down to Goa. There was no confirmation whether Bol-lywood king Shah Rukh Khan could make it for the star-studded wedding. His wife Gauri Khan was reportedly present for the wedding.

Just like the sangeet ceremony on Friday night, the wedding was also strictly invite-based. Goa’s best cuisine was served to the guests for the two-day ceremony here.

The couple flew off for honeymoon to an undisclosed destination.

Mumbai: But wait!! Before you jump out of your seats in glee, let us inform you that it is not what you think…

Zee TV is back with Antakshri but this time in the wedding of the lead character in popular soap Sanskaar Laxmi.

Our very own Pallavi Joshi will grace the screens this time with the popular Marathi singer Avdoot Guptay on Zee TV’s Sanskaar Laxmi as wedding festivities go into full swing.

The actress was clearly enjoying herself during the shoot and was all bright eyed and chirpy till the wee hours of the morning!

Also shaking a leg at the Antakshari will be TV’s heartthrobs - Ankita Lokhande, Sushant Rajput, Nandish Sandhu & Rashmi Desai.

The four stars will sing, dance and join in the family frolic with popular tracks like Range De, Aiwaien aiwaien, Laung da Lishkara and others!

Said Sukesh Motwani, Fiction Head, Zee TV, “Laxmi’s wedding will be like no other on Indian television as it will showcase the ethnic-ity and vibrancy of Gujarati weddings. It’s an opportunity for us to acquaint our audiences with these small rituals and traditions which form such an integral part of any wedding.

“The rich Gujarati culture and heritage

rooted to their traditional ethics adorn the mat-rimonial celebrations with typical Gujarati fancies, elaborating the vivacity and exhilara-tion prevalent in their community.”

The producer of Sanskaar Laxmi, Rajesh Joshi said, “It’s a huge challenge for us to put together such an extravagant wedding on televi-sion. Gujarati wedding celebrations and rituals are replete with gaiety and frolic and I’m sure pan Indian viewers will surely enjoy it to the hilt.

“The unique blend of traditions and detail-ing is something which make Laxmi’s wedding a sheer delight. Coming from a humble back-ground, will Laxmi fight all odds to win the hearts of the Purohits?

“Will Laxmi be able to mould herself with the new way of life and adjust to a large family where each member has a different personality? Laxmi’s journey from Dharigam to Purohit’s family in the cosmopolitan city, Mumbai, will be the highpoint of the show.”

The wedding celebrations, which are expect-ed to go on for four days, will be a grand celebra-tion of everything that is Guajarati.

Right from the smaller rituals like the Tippani dance, to the Athango dance, producer Rajesh Joshi is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that this is the most talked about shaadi of the year!

‘Mysterious’ character enters Zee soapMumbai: If the ongoing promos are any-thing to go by, Padma Chachi’s charac-ter in Zee TV’s popular soap ‘Sanjog Se Bani Sangini’ is not only one of sus-pense but also full of intrigue.And strangely no one is willing to reveal the identity of the new character on the show. The character is old, has her face half covered, sports a huge red bindi , does face reading and is always seen scheming and plotting against Rudra and Gauri.

Not much is known about her char-acter except the fact that she will play a crucial role in the story and usher in the much talked about twist in the tale! The speculation is rife that the character could be either Pihu ( Additi Gupta), Naani (Kunica Lal) or Ratnesh (Sandeep Baswan).Says producer Deeya Singh (of DJ’s Creative Unit), “These are the 3 char-

acters who are sworn enemies of Rudra and Gauri. They definitely want some-thing evil to happen that will wreck havoc in their blissful life. “Pihu wants Rudra back in her life while Naani does not want to see Gauri happy and settled. Ratnesh wants to settle old scores with his brother Rudra. The plot will only thicken by the day and viewers will see Rudra and Gauri’s rela-tionship get strained further with Gauri getting close to Ram (Vikas Bhalla).”“We are hopeful that our loyal viewers will be totally captivated by the new plot that we have devel-oped! Padma Chachi as a character has already gained a lot of popularity and has created a lot of buzz amongst the audiences. We’ll unravel the mystery by 14th of March and I’m sure it will surely take Sangini to newer heights!” adds Deeya.

Mumbai: With intricate props that are often used on Zee TV’s dance reality show DID Doubles, it takes quite a bit of time to set them up before an act can begin.

This often results in actor and Grand Master of the show Mithun Chakraborty and the masters waiting on listlessly, getting bored.

To ensure that Dada doesn’t get too grumpy and blow a fuse, the production team behind the show has devised a novel way of keeping him in good spirits.

Apparently, they’ve discovered that Mithun Da is a big fan of Ghulam Ali and is transported to another world altogether when he listens to his Ghazals.

So each time there’s any kind of delay as a result of production, the team begins to belt out famous Ghazals of this legendary singer on the loudspeaker.

It is a sight to behold when Dada smiles ear to ear listening to classics like Chhupke Chhupke Raat Din, Hungama and Aawargi.

Mithun Da is reported to have even sparked off a fantastic jugal bandi with choreographer Geeta Kapoor on the sets while waiting for props to be set up and tele-prompters for the anchors to be set right!

Now that’s a really musical way to kill time, what say Dada?


Indian


deV NAdKArNILeela Patel’s bubbliness is infectious. And it’s not hard to see why. It’s not often that one comes across such a positive person as Leela. She has an incredible gift of seeing the positive side of things, as though her lovely, eloquent eyes are forever looking for the silver lining in the darkest of clouds.

“Life is what you make of it. It’s about choices. It is up to you to see things positively and create happiness and contentment for yourself. You are what you think. You think positive, visualize positive – and that’s all you need to get ahead and be happy,” she says with a gleam in her eyes.

Life for Leela, who is instantly recognised in New Zealand and Fiji by Shortland Street buffs as Shobha-na Kumari (Shanti’s mom), has never been easy. Born in a conservative Gujarati family, she had to struggle hard to embark on the path of her true calling – per-forming art. Even if she could convince her immedi-ate family, the larger community’s conservatism was never easy to deal with.

She honed her singing talent by performing in musical groups during her student days. It was rather late in life when she discovered her talent for acting and successfully auditioned for both the big and small screens.

Before her Shortland Street assignment (the latest of which aired only last month), her performance in Apron Strings, a film based in Auckland, received critical acclaim and she was invited to its screening at a film festival in Dubai. Though she has done small roles in several screen efforts down the years, she has been lately in the news for her role in Curry Munch-ers.

Indian Weekender editor in chief Dev Nadkarni caught up with her in the week of the film’s premiere in Auckland last week. Excerpts from the interview:

What is your reaction to your performance in Curry Munchers? What was it like watching yourself on screen as Apu?My performance in Curry Munchers was like carry-ing on from my role in Shortland Street as in both, my backgrounds came from an upper class society and the roles were slightly similar – being a mother.Watching myself on screen was hard in the sense that Apu’s emotions were brought on from memories of the past, which repeated the heartaches of that time. I was very fortunate that director Cristobal Lobos gave me the freedom to play with my character and let me improvise from the actual script, as actors are not usually given this opportunity. I was able to work with my character to make it more believable not just for me but also for the audience especially the “silent tear” scene.

What was your most challenging moment in Curry Munchers?The most challenging moments were always with Anand (who plays my son Sid). He always reminded me of my own son who I am very close to and I always became emotional before the shooting of the scene.

Holding back tears is always very challenging for me.

How does Apu’s role compare with your role in Apron strings in terms of range and inten-sity?My role as Apu compared to Tara in Apron Strings is that in Apron Strings, I was dwelling in the past and held on to very strong negative beliefs which I felt I could not change and accepted life as I saw it. However, in Curry Munchers, I was dealing with current and future issues where I was able to com-promise and come to terms with a new way of life, looking forward to a brighter future which I had control of. What is the sort of role you would want to do next? What’s your dream role?The kind of role I would love to do next would be something very outrageous compared to the motherly roles I have always had. A role where I can let loose and be a daring social outcast, wanting my freedom and going against the normal expectations of the Indian woman. That would be fun [smiles with glee].

My dream role would be to make another appear-ance on Shortland Street but to be the outrageous twin of Shobhna or an outrageous Shobhna who has had enough of being good all the time [laughs] but I also dream of the day when a horror, thriller or romantic role is written for me or even a musical, as I love to sing.

Would you consider a bollywood movie if the opportunity arose?I would definitely consider a Bollywood movie. It would be a chance of a lifetime and very exciting to meet the famous actors I have seen on screen. It would be very interesting working with directors, producers and actors from India as I have not done this before.

Is screen acting a viable option as a career in New Zealand particularly as a Kiwi Indian? How could there be more opportunities created?It would be lovely if screen acting was a viable option as a career in New Zealand for Indians but it seems there are very limited roles for us as we always tend to get migrant roles. However, I feel blessed with the op-portunities I have been given and have enjoyed every moment of my time with Film and TV. One way of creating more opportunities is maybe to have ideas from the public or actors themselves with story lines, which have not been used.

Is there anything you would like to share with your growing fan club here?

To my fans and Indian Weekender readers, I would like to say that the power of the mind is amazing. Believe in yourself that you can have the life you dream of, and that with determination and a posi-tive attitude, you will succeed. My favourite quote is “Fake it till you make it” – it has worked for me and there’s no reason why it won’t work for you too, or anyone else.

Personality

‘Fake it till you make it – but do it genuinely’Indian Weekender with Curry Munchers and Shortland Street star Leela Patel


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Heritage

What makes India ‘Maximum’?

Heard of ‘India shining’, ‘India Everywhere’, ‘Incredible India’, ‘India Emerging’, the India-this-India-that slogans, well…here’s the latest. It’s “Maximum India” ~ a festival of India to be held in Washington in March. Does this sound like an extended Auckland Diwali mela without the festivity?

The Kennedy centre where the programme is hosted, captures the show this way:”India is vast: 1.2 billion people; 24 languages; 1,600 dialects; 28 states; myriad cuisines; 330,000 gods and goddesses; 300 ways to cook a potato; the Ganges attracting millions to its banks; home also of Mahatma Gandhi—a moral force; and one of the richest and most ancient cultures on the planet...India amazes with the majesty and mystery of its culture. Its brilliance is that it is a country of extremes—intellect, innovation, survival, and experi-mentation. We have traveled, researched, and scoured the country for the best it can offer, and India offers the maximum. This festival will truly be maximum India.”

About this show, the US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer adds “Maximum India will take Indian textiles, dance, music, jewellery, literature and cuisine to US to allow Ameri-cans to experience what Barack Obama and his wife experienced in India.”

Typically there will be the unique perfor-mances by exotic classical musicians like Shri Bundu Khan Langa & Manganiyars troupe,

folk puppets among other exotic stuff. Add to that the customary presence of celebrities from the art industry and of course Bollywood icons. There is even an interactive space planned for children called ‘Hi, I am India’ by pop artist duo Thukral and Tagra. To top this, 12 award winning Indian chefs from The Taj Group of Hotels, will cook and showcase Indian food for participants and visitors. How about that for showcasing India’s soft power? The term ‘soft power’ was first coined by Harvard University professor, Joseph Nye to describe a country’s ability to alter the behaviour of others through attraction rather than sticks or carrots.

So, what does this soft power really mean for India? Explains the Indian Member of Par-liament, thinker and author Shashi Tharoor: ‘India is fast becoming a superpower -- not just through trade and politics, but through “soft” power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technol-ogy, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it’s not the size of the army that matters as much as a country’s ability to influence the world’s hearts and minds.’

There have been so many India festivals that this soft power becomes just another display of old art forms which hardly anybody understands. We very well know that ‘India heritage’ shows comes in standard packages with classical dance performances, vocal and instrumental jugalbandis, folk arts and above

all the famous Jhatka-Matka Bollywood se-quence. But does that help discover the real India. In the case of classical performances the audience invariably appreciates but draws a blank face when asked about the intricacies of the mudras and abhinaya etc. Same is the story with fine classical vocal renditions where the root rāgas are not talked about. The Bollywood tamashas which is one aspect of Indian life is probably blown out of proportion and some-times misrepresents Indian culture. Ultimately the audience wants an authentic experience of real India not a superficial one.

In this age of reason, it’s increasingly im-perative, atleast for the sake of the next gen-eration, to know the real core of India, which sustains her soft power. It’s not just some exotic stuff. The Indian soft power is rooted in ancient Indian culture. This foundation is what has made Indian culture a time tested one and a benediction. This centre lies in the ancient text scriptures and there are sages, scientists, musicians, mystics, mathematicians, logicians behind the entire core.

Take authentic Indian cuisine for example…it has got direct roots in Ayurve-da. Indian music has its source in the Gand-harva Veda; Indian dance has Nātya Shāstras as its base. Even the humble masālā mix and the tadka are in the ancient recipes. The list goes on. The many melodies of Bollywood are ‘cool’ because they are supported by the rāgas.

Apparently ‘Ahir Bhairav’ is one of the most widely used Indian Rāgas in Bollywood Hindi Films.

Take cuisine, music, fashion, philoso-phy, art, drama, yoga, literature, Ayurveda, science, technology, space, mathematics etc. Its origins are in the antiquated past, when India was a knowledge society. The secret of India’s soft power is in the core body of knowl-edge and her knowledge traditions. That’s the real India behind her ‘soft power’.

But today, the image of real India seems to be distorted by stereotypical media blow-outs from time to time. The media religiously por-trays the same Indian story of social depriva-tion without understanding the complexities of a diverse country and sometimes uses fringe elements to generalize about India. Take the TV show ‘Idiot abroad’, where this guy from the UK goes to some cornershop and takes blessings from a bunch of dimwit naked yoga-freak-babas, who are in no way representative of the spirit of the real India. Sadly main-stream psyche has been influenced.

Given this state of ignorance, the true foundation behind Maximum India needs to be communicated smartly by showcasing its significance which has been embedded in our sanskriti. It’s better late than never to discover the real core of India, rather than just unwisely trumpeting about how great our Indian culture is.

rAM LINGAM

‘Brand India’ has two powers – first is the obvious money power and the other one is the good old ‘soft power’. Ask anybody who recently visited India and they will tell you all about the money power. But the second is the soft power – the power of an attractive Indian culture. Incidentally this second ‘soft power’ is being showcased in Washington this month. It’s called the ‘Maximum India’ festival celebrating India’s attractive culture and diversity. But there is a funda-mental center to this diversity, which is the core of it all? What’s that foundation that makes India ‘Maximum’?


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Indian


ANMoL trIKANNAdThe Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It has been a UNESCO World Heri-tage site since 1981, covers an area the size of the United Kingdom and is the only living thing visible from space. No wonder then that more than 30,000 Kiwis choose to visit the tropical climes of North-ern Queensland every year, with a large proportion vis-iting Cairns as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

Standing on the edge of the wharf in Cairns, I just see a vast opulence of water, with no end in sight. Scepti-cism creeps in when you see the effects of commerciali-sation – mechanical boats, high rise buildings and shops galore – wondering what part of this is revered as a natural wonder? I console myself that a 5am start and lack of coffee might be clouding my judgement.

My name is called out and I eagerly raise my hand like a 5 year old on his first day at school. The enthusiasm quickly gives way to mild fear as a strange feeling creeps in. I was warned that there will be no sight of land for the next 3 days. The in-demnity form providing a grim reminder of what I signed up for– a 3-day liveaboard on the Outer Great Barrier Reef.

Great Barrier ReefFor those who enjoy or are interested in snorkel-

ling or diving, like me, will find the Great Barrier Reef the highlight of their trip. Several charters

run day long trips if you are short on time. To truly appreciate the reef, sign up for a liveaboard. Live-aboards range from overnight to week long stays on the outer reef, so shop around for what suits you best from the numerous shops dotting the Cairns city centre. If you want to learn how to dive, the operators can incorporate this into the trips too.

I chose Pro Dive Cairns, a leading dive opera-tor that has national and international accolades. ProDive offers a 3 day, 2 night liveaboard which runs every day of the week, except Tuesday. The trip includes a total of 11 dives, including 2 night dives on a purpose built dive boat. Stay in twin share accommodation with a maximum of 32 allowed on the dive boat. The ride to the outer reef takes about 2 hours and is also a good time to test your sea-worthiness. The liveaboard menu is simple. Eat-dive/snorkel-sleep. In between dives, you get a chance to lounge out on the upper deck and take in the sunshine and admire water, water and more water.

Aquatic life tends to follow a similar pattern to us humans; wake up in the morning, work for

food, play, return home and sleep. Repeat. On the early morning dive, go behind the scenes as the sea-life gets ready to venture out of their coral homes. Duck! As an Eagle Ray glides effortlessly past you. On the morning/afternoon dive, watch the sea-life forage on coral and other sea creatures; the food chain at work. Look out for a hawksbill pecking at sponges. The pre-sunset dive allows you to observe the sea-life return home to roost. Say hi to ‘Nemo’, sitting snugly between the sea anemone, guarded by mum and dad. The icing on the cake is the night dive, where you witness sea-life getting ready or already in bed. If you are lucky you might see a parrotfish hiding in a crevice with a ‘force field’ blown all around it, a mucous layer which keeps predators at bay. I must admit the second night dive turned out to be more of an adventure given there were three gray reef sharks swimming around the boat. The ‘Jaws’ tune which kept playing in my head did not help my cause.

As we were returning to shore I couldn’t help but smile. I was congratulating myself, having completed 11 dives over the course of 3 days (I had only dived 5 times before this). I met some incred-ible people on-board, a united nations of divers, if you wish. I had conquered the Great Barrier Reef. Well, a small portion of the vast expanse really, and in the process witnessed first-hand, the deli-cate eco-system which lies beneath. As I get off the dive boat, the ground beneath my feet begins to tremble. ‘Sea legs’ is quite common I am told. Hopefully amnesia is not.

Cairns CBDBack on dry land, you know you are in Cairns

when you see a massive swimming pool in the city centre. It’s a great place be if you are a kid or to

feel like one as you splash around in a 4,800 square metre saltwater lagoon located in the foreshore promenade area. Keep fit by roller blading, cycling, running or walking the 3km Esplanade trail which takes you close to the sur-rounding restaurants and shops. Indulge your wild side by trying the ‘Outback Sampler’ comprising emu medallions, roast kangaroo and crocodile sausages. Ochre,

which is a few blocks away, also offers exotic meat and a fresh seafood selection to delight the senses. If you prefer to see them alive instead of on your plate, head to the Cairns Wildlife Dome, a wildlife exhibit enclosed by a 20 metre high glass dome situated inside the Reef Hotel Casino. The daily night markets beckon with true blue Aussie sou-venirs on offer such as kangaroo jerky, crocodile Dundee hats and the famed Didgeridoo.

Crocodile done, indeedHartley’s Crocodile Adventures, located 40km

north of Cairns provides an unforgettable, up close and personal encounter with these fearsome crea-tures. Crocs have been around for more than 200 million years and this one day trip will help you appreciate these magnificent yet formidable rep-tiles. A simulated natural habitat, this wildlife park

covers 10 hectares and is as much a sanctuary as a tool to educate the masses on all things croc.

On the river boat cruise, adult crocs showcase their circus tricks as they leap out of the water to grab a chunk of meat hanging off a pole. Young crocs in a sustainable commercial farm, await their fate, en route to adorning the arms of the rich and the famous as leather handbags. The park’s keepers get up-close and personal in an enclosure showcasing how crocs hunt and kill their prey. If all of this has got you hungry, you can sample croc meat at the cafeteria, which tastes surprisingly like chicken. If you are not particularly into crocs, you can pet cuddly koalas, chuckle at the laugh-ing kookaburras, gaze at the shy Cassowaries or volunteer to have a snake wrapped around you. Transfers to and from the city are provided when you book with a tour operator.

travel

No wonder then that more than 30,000 Kiwis choose to visit the tropical climes of Northern Queensland every year, with a large proportion visiting Cairns as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

Tropical Cairns – Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef

Fast factsGettING tHere: Air New Zea-land and Pacific Blue fly direct be-tween Auckland and Cairns. There are more options if you choose to fly via other major Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.CURRENCY: 1 AUD currently equals 1.29 NZD

WeAtHer: Tropical climate - winters mild with low rainfall, summers warm and humid with increased rainfall. Average maxi-mum and minimum temperatures 31.4C and 17C respectively.Spring/Summer: Sep – February. Autumn/Winter: March-August

WHeN to Go: Kiwis get their wings and flock to the city during the winter(June-August) only to be joined by drones of domestic tourists with the same idea. Peak season is June to October.Whale watching season runs from May-August. Commonly sighted whale species are Dwarf Minke and the Humpback. The summer or ‘wet-season’ (Dec-february) is not a popular time to visit because of ‘Stingers’ (box jellyfish), which get washed into the sea, and tropi-cal cyclones.


Indian



Most of the property owners tend to focus on renovat-ing and adding value to their property in the current scenario. Statistics New Zealand figures this week show the value of building consents for houses and apartments slumped by 36 per cent from $6.1 billion to $3.9 billion in the year to May. But the value of con-sents for additions and alterations has virtually held steady at just over $1 billion as home owners switch to new kitchens, bathrooms and extensions instead. Cer-tified Builders Association president Derek Baxter said the renovation boom was partly compensating for the collapse in new building work over the past two years. “There’s been a dramatic shift from new house construction to additions and alterations and a lot of change to smaller work that a couple of years ago you just couldn’t get a builder to do.” The number of consents had fallen but the average value of the work was higher.

However it is seen that there are 2 major concerns when it comes to renovationsWho to approach first – the builder or a de-signer? It is often a dilemma to decide the point of first contact. Builders usually are happy to come over and have a look to give you some advice and a quote. However they are conscious of the time they have to spend on site and to prepare a quote if they are not sure that they will get the job. Often it is found that they are not able to give a detailed quote in the time frame they had promised due to other priorities. Moreover they are not able to advice on any planning or Consent related matters. They may or may not be able to foresee whether the proposed activity would need a building consent. This is where the Designer is able to guide you. The ideal way is therefore to consult a designer and builder simultaneously.Will my renovation need a building Consent? There seems to be a lot of ambiguity amongst prop-erty owners on the nature of work that can be under-taken without a Building consent. All building work, irrespective of whether it requires a consent or not, must be done to meet the standards of performance set by the Building Code. It sets out certain building work that does not require a building consent which is

referred to as ‘exempt work’. The lists below provide a summary, but it good to check with the Local council or your designer to be sure. these activities do require a building consent:l Structural building - additions, alterations, re-pil-ing, demolition l Plumbing and drainage (except repair and mainte-nance of existing & comparable components) l Relocating a building l Installing a wood burner or air-conditioning system l Retaining walls higher than 1.5 metres l Fences or walls higher than 2 metres, and all swim-ming pools and their associated fences l Decks, platforms or bridges more than 1 metre above ground level l Sheds greater than 10 square metres in floor area these activities doN’t require a building consent:l A patio or deck at ground level l Garden trellis less than 2 metres high l Maintenance of your house, for example, replacing spouting or a piece of weatherboard replacing or altering linings or finishes of any internal wall, ceiling, or floor of a dwelling l Building a small garden shed (provided it is no closer than its own height to the boundary, is under 10 m², and less than one storey high) l making a penetration no greater than 30cm in di-ameter to enable the passage of pipes, cables, ducts, wires and hoses and the like through any existing building, and any associated work such as weather-proofing, fireproofing or sealing l installing thermal insulation in an existing build-ing other than in an external wall or a firewall of the building

For any renovation related queries call Bobby on 836 0576 or visit www.tarzandesign.co.nzBobby is the director of Tarzan Design Ltd. provid-ing architectural design solutions for you in Auckland since the past 15 years. They specialise in renovations, new homes and commercial interior refurbishments from preparation of conceptual design to getting you a building consent

Christchurch earthquake has done significant damage to the already fragile economic recovery in New Zealand.

The September 2010 earthquake had a major impact on NZ economy, but its effect was less severe. It was estimated to be around 5 billion dollars at that time. Though no accurate figures are available about loss from this quake, experts feel it will be at least 15 billion. The impact on economy will be severe in short term.

The economic growth was fragile even other-wise, but now one important economic area, Canter-bury will not contribute to country’s growth for many months to come. The consumer confidence will weaken resulting in lower spending.

There is also fear that many of Canterbury resi-dents may leave the region forever, with few migrat-ing to other parts of country and few to other coun-tries. If these fears become true, Canterbury economy may be in bad shape for years to come.

Economists are calling for immediate cut in OCR by Reserve Bank. They feel, it to be of some use, it should be a cut of 50 basis points. In anticipation of the same, most of New Zealand banks have already lowered their short term fixed mortgage rates.

Though, decrease in mortgage rates will help house owners to some extent, but they should brace up themselves for significant increase in insurance premiums. Not only Earthquake commission levies will go up, but also the cost of reinsurance for our local insurance companies will increase. The interna-tional re -insurers will re assesses New Zealand risk and may significantly increase cost of re insurance.

Coming to international markets, crude oil prices are on the rise. Crude briefly crossed $100 per barrel before retreating (at the time of writing this column). Major cause of it had been unrest in Middle East. But even otherwise, trend looks to be upward; it will not be a surprise if crude oil prices touch $150 per barrel in near future. Inflation is picking up in Europe,

which may result in increase in interest rates in those countries. Rising interest rates in other countries, but lower in New Zealand may put downward pressure on Kiwi dollar. Though it will help our exports, it will make imports including fuel even more costly. Rising costs of fuel will burden common man. Discretionary spending may be cut by them to cover increased fuel costs, keeping the growth slow.

If we look beyond 12 months, it seems economy will improve. Lot of reinsurer money will flow into New Zealand economy. Re construction of Christ-church will begin. The world commodity prices are already high. Lower Kiwi dollar will help exporters and their purchasing power will increase. With in-creased economic activity, inflation will start picking up, so interest rates may start jumping sharply in 2012.

The immediate need is to boost consumer confi-dence and to stop migration of people from Christ-church. Already, big businesses have pledged their support to Christchurch. The Government can give these tax breaks to help those who stand up again. Also Government should think about having an im-migration policy specifically for Canterbury region. The new immigrants under that category may be required to live at least first 7 years in that region. Reducing requirements of degrees and English profi-ciency tests, people needed in Christchurch should be encouraged to migrate there.Interest rate expectations

Reserve bank is expected to keep the OCR low for at least 12 months. Interest rates in international markets may increase during that period of time. So over coming months, the gap between short term and long term rates will increase.Ravi Mehta is an Auckland based Financial Advisor and can be contacted on [email protected]. A disclosure statement under Securities Markets Act relating to his services is available on request and is free of charge.

Columns

The consent process – is it daunting?

Quake impact on economy and mortgage rates

bobbY bANerJee

rAVI MeHtA


Indian


Columns

Getting back in shape – after baby

Coping with killer stressFinally the wait is over!Having passed through the joy and the pain of labor …. and while the baby is now a reality, you might be thinking about all the possible activities that need your attention and your plan of action to achieve them.

From breast feeding to weaning, from crying to playing and development, nappy changing, the constant free family advice to self anxiety and post – natal depression it’s a roller – coaster ride.

While life is a frantic rush post delivery it also raises a few routine questions and some common expressions - How do I get back to routine - what’s the best and the quickest way, when will I get to work and above all the famous in front of the mirror expression “Look at me” caused by the loads of weight gained throughout pregnancy which has now stayed on, which is often followed by the question….how will I get back into shape?

While weight gain differs between indi-viduals, a general weight gain of about 10 to 12 kgs during pregnancy is expected. It is known that breast feeding can help you lose post pregnancy weight, the fact remains that you will not lose all.

A common issue that my clients face is that they indulge in grazing on food espe-cially when the child is sleeping or when they are out with family or friends celebrat-ing the occasion. While it is natural to feel hungrier while you are breast feeding, it is important to make the right choice to keep your energy up without encouraging weight gain.

Some healthy options could be a fresh

fruit, grainy or whole wheat crackers with a low fat dip, yoghurt, bran muffins, smooth-ies or low-fat lassi ,sandwich with whole grain bread or even a roti made with whole wheat f lour and gram f lour. The choices are endless and they all suffice the need for es-sential nutrients.

During breast feeding, your appetite changes depending on your physical needs and this can change with time, make sure you sit down and relax while you eat, spend time to eat, while your partner/husband or a family member looks after your baby, as rushing through your meals can cause rebound hunger which doesn’t help with keeping that weight in control.

Another important bit is to add exercise to your routine, take time out for a walk while someone looks after your baby or take your baby out with you in a pram; make sure you move around as much as possible.

Post pregnancy weight loss can be quite challenging and can cause anxiety in most women, but doing the little bit every day can lead the change and ensure positive results.

Just don’t give up, be consistent and per-sistent with the practice and you will be what you want to be.

This article is a general guideline ONLY. Please see, a health professional for individ-ual conditions and needs.

Varsha Asrani is a New Zealand Reg-istered Dietitian. For personal consulta-tions or any questions, suggestions or views please email her on [email protected].

AdeeLA AFIZIn today’s busy world where we manage jobs, families, finances and life, we have gotten to a point where stress is a subcon-scious part of every minute of our day.

We do not even realise that our jaws may be tightly clenched, our quality of sleep is poor and stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin, are constantly in our blood stream. This is not only detrimental to day to day life but increasingly stress in becoming the number one cause for many life threatening illnesses.

Stress affects us physically, mentally and emotionally. Physically, stress is most often stored in the neck and shoulder areas, re-sulting in chronically tight, painful muscles. This is a complaint that is very common with many office workers.

Mentally and emotionally, stress causes us to be frustrated, overwhelmed and often to be short tempered with our loved ones. Prolonged stress is also associated with health problems such as high blood pres-sure, depression and bowel diseases, not to mention that it is detrimental in the heal-ing of any other health disease or disorder.

What happens when you are stressed?

When you perceive a threat, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

Your heart pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens, and your senses become sharper. These physical changes increase your strength and stamina, preparing you to either fight or flee from the danger at hand. However, if your body is continually stressed it will lead to a reduction in your physical and emotional health.

What to do?

Small changes can be made to reduce the stress in our everyday lives,

Have a routine: A lot of stress is caused due to the shortage of time. Constantly being in a rush causes your body to be in a state of stress. Getting up early, having time to eat breakfast before leaving the house and leaving enough time to get to your job or appointments will not only make you more efficient but reduce the stress caused by peak hour traffic jams.

Exercise: A great way to get rid of the build up of stress hormones is to sweat them out. Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s natural feel good drugs, which will leave you feeling happy and combat heart disease.

Complimentary healthcare: Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Chiropractic or massage as well as other forms of complimentary and natural health care are wonderful ways to reduce stress and increase your health and well being.

VArsHA AsrANI


Indian



reCIPeby ruby dhillon

Paneer Mushrooms Snacks

200g- mid sized button mushrooms100g- paneer, mashed1 or 2- green chillis, chopped1tbs- coriander finely choppedSalt according to tasteOil for frying Sauce that you like (Tabasco or tomato ketchup)

1. Wash the mushrooms with warm water and take out the thick stems – leaving a hole.2. Leave the mushrooms in hot water for a while till you make the stuffing mixture with paneer, green chilli, salt and coriander.3. Stuff the mushrooms with the paneer mixture.4. Heat oil in a non stick pan and cook stuffed mushrooms for 2 minutes.5. You can cook them on a barbecue plate as well.6. Serve with a dot of sauce on it.

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5 Easy steps to stop

Hair Fall & Graying Of

Hair.By Swami Ramdevji

l Do pranayam everyday.l Everyday use Swami Ram-devji’s Herbal Shampoo to wash your hair, which has Ritha, Amla, henna, Shikakai, Aloe vera, Bhrn-ga-raj. It acts as a conditioner as well.l Nails of the fingers of both hands should be rubbed together for five minutes continuously thrice a day regularly to stop hair fall and graying of hair.l Drink 100% pure Aloe Vera juice & 100% pure Amla Juice (two spoon each) in the morning and evening. It will give nourish-ment to your hair from inside the body. This has been experiment-ed on lots of people in India.l Use Ramdevji’s herbal hair oil at night, which has Brahmi, Amla, Bhrnga-raja, sesame oil to cure Hair fall, Dandruff, Alopecia & Premature graying of hair.Next Issue – Arthritis and Joint pain.

Ingredients:

Methods:

As a chiropractor, I see many people suffer-ing the physical and mental effects of stress and notice that by keeping regular appoint-ments not only are they in better physical shape but are more emotionally balanced during stressful periods.

A good health care practitioner will support you both physically and mentally through stressful times as well as provide you with or refer you to other services that you may need such as nutritional supplementation or counselling.

Talk about it: A problem shared is a problem halved. Often talking about your situation with a trusted friend, family member or col-league will give you a chance to share the load as well as get a new perspective on the problem.

If you feel you are unable to talk to anyone that you know, professional counselling or a life coach can provide you with a safe environment to share your feeling or help you if you feel stuck in a rut and need some external motivation.

Remember the important things, spending time with family and loved ones, watching a funny movie or giving yourself a break are essential components to a happy and healthy life. For more information or for a consultation please contact me.

Dr. Adeela Afiz, Chiropractor021 029 07486, [email protected]

BHAGWAT MAHAPURANBe Enlightened13 March – 17th March Spiritual Talks in Hindi by Sushri Gopeshwari Devi (Preacher of Jagad-guru Shiru Kripalu Ji Maharaj)

Date: & Time : 7.00 -8.30pm 13 March (Sunday) 7.30 – 9.00pm 14th (Mon) – 17th March (Thu)

Venue: Mahatma Ghandi Centre from Auck-land Indian Association 145 New North Road, Eden Terrace, Mt Eden

About Sushri Gopeshwari DeviSushri Gopeshwari Devi is an eminent preacher of India’s most revered saint, Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj – only the 5th Guru to be honoured with the title of Jagadguru (Spiritual Master of the World) in the last 5,000 years. She holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and a Masters Degree in Western Philosophy.

A powerfully vibrant and passionate speaker, Didi Ji combines deep knowl-edge of the Holy texts with simple analogies and humorous anecdote, bringing clarity and understanding to the most extraordinary of subjects.

FREE ADMISSION ALL ARE WELCOMECONTACT: JAGDISH NATALI – 626 5931 RAMESH PATEL – 631 5694WWW.USBM.ORG


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Issue 48 - Volume 2