Voice of Asia Dec 19 2014

VOICE OF ASIA 1 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014

Vol. 27 No. 51 Friday, December 19, 2014 • Published Weekly from Houston • 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: [email protected]

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US Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy As Surgeon General

by S Rajagopalan

WASHINGTON - (Decem-ber, 17, 2014) After a year-long wait in the face

of stout Republican opposition, Presi-dent Barack Obama’s nominee Vivek Hallegere Murthy has secured the Senate confirmation and is all set to take over as US Surgeon General.

At 37, the Harvard and Yale alum-nus will be the youngest for the key post that also goes by the much-touted tag of “America’s Doctor”. And he will be the first-ever Indian-American to occupy the post. Within minutes of the confirmation, Obama put out a statement, assuring his countrymen: “As ‘America’s Doctor,’ Vivek will hit the ground running to make sure every American has the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe.”

Murthy, unquestionably the darling of all liberals but a lightning rod for conservatives because of his strong views against America’s gun culture, won the Senate confirmation rather narrowly (51-43) on Monday.

Even so, it is being viewed as a big victory, given that the gun lobby with its extensive clout on Capitol Hill had launched an all-out campaign to keep Murthy out. The National Rifles As-sociation (NRA) had approached sev-eral Democrats as well, prompting the White House to wait it out until after conclusion of the Congressional elec-tions in November. The strategy paid off.

In a 2012 tweet on the guns issue that came to haunt Murthy during the long confirmation process, the young doctor had commented: “Tired of pol-iticians playing politics w/guns, put-ting lives at risk b/c they’re scared of NRA. Guns are a health care issue.”

Murthy has a stellar academic record that will be the envy of many, be it in

WASHINGTON - Pran Gangaraju (19) was declared the 33rd

Miss India USA and Riya Kaur (15) was declared Miss Teen India at a glittering ceremony in Albert Palace, New Jersey on Dec 14.

53 Indian American girls par-ticipated in Miss Teen India, Miss USA India and Mrs India Beauty Pageant.

Miss India USA is a beauty contest for Indian origin girls who are residents of the United States that started in 1980. Last year’s Miss India USA title was clinched by Monica Gill from Massachusetts.

The Miss India USA pageant consists of four segments - Eve-ning Gown, Indian Dress, Tal-ent and Question/Answer. The winner of Miss India USA is the only delegate from USA at the Miss India Worldwide Pageant. (IANS).

Ms. India, Ms. Teen India US declared

Miss India USA Pran Gangaraju (left) and Miss Teen India USA Riya Kaur (Photo: Mohammed Jaffer/IANS)

Vivek Hallegere Murthy. Photo Credit: AP.

First ever Indian-origin doctor to be named US Surgeon General

India or in America. A valedictorian at his high school, Murthy graduated from Harvard and then went to Yale to acquire an MD and MBA as well. He returned to Harvard, this time to teach medicine.

His academic brilliance notwith-standing, many Senators, mostly Re-publicans, questioned his experience for the Surgeon General’s job. They dubbed him a political activist and campaign enthusiast for Obama and his subsequent Affordable Care Act, popularly called “Obamacare”.

But Obama’s confidence in Murthy remained undiminished. “He’ll bring his lifetime of experience promot-

ing public health to bear on priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kids grow up healthy and strong,” Obama said on Monday, adding: “Vivek will also help us build on the progress we’ve made combat-ting Ebola, both in our country and at its source.”

In the Senate, Majority Whip Dick Durbin led the push for Murthy, high-lighting his dedication to fighting obe-sity, tobacco related diseases and other chronic diseases that account for sev-en out of the top 10 causes for death in America and account for 84 per cent of America’s health care costs.

But Republican Senator John Bar-

rasso dubbed Murthy’s appointment “just another example of President Obama giving someone an important job based solely upon their support

of the President’s political career”, adding Murthy has been “an activist

Continued on Page 2

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VOICE OF ASIA 2 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014OP-ED/COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS

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

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All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the consent of the publisher. Voice of Asia assumes no liability resulting from action taken based on the information included herein. Pub-lished weekly by Free Press LLC, 8303 SW Freeway, Suite # 325, Houston, TX 77074. Tel: 713-774-5140. Fax: 713-774-5143. Email for editorial submissions: [email protected]; Email for advertising inquiries and submissions: [email protected]

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

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REALTOR

By Chandra K. Mittal, M.S., Ph.D., FCP

Dear Honorable Prime Min-ister Modi,

Congratulations on your cou-rageous move to dismantle the outdated Soviet-styled “Plan-ning Commission of India” and replace it with the new body “Team India” to decen-tralize planning and develop-ment of India. As you embark on this task, please consider the progressive concept of district-level autonomy for both governance and economic development. After all people live and experience life in cities and districts, and that is where citizens can directly participate in governance and exert control on their economic activities. The concept of Centralized economic planning and devel-opment is alien to “democracy” in modern times. Historically, it has failed in every instance.

Given India’s political di-versity and population mass, State-level controls for all as-pects of development do not yield results as has been wit-nessed sine independence of India over the past six decades. This is evident from the current economic disparity among the States. Decentralization needs to percolate to the district level to have any meaningful impact on India’s stability and prosper-ity.

Mr. Prime Minister, to a common citizen greatness of a country consists in the conve-niences of civil life, personal safety, neighborhood cleanli-ness, reliable health care, qual-ity education, employment opportunities, etc. It does not matter if country has an overall higher Gross Domestic Product

(GDP) or strong military force, or impressive foreign policy, or beautiful historic monuments, but it lacks basic attributes of personal happiness and safety. Societies where such dichoto-mies exist need introspection and take corrective measures to improve life of its citizens – essence of a successful de-mocracy.

At present, India has an over-centralized administra-tive and budgetary controls at the National and State govern-ment levels. Despite economic reforms of 1991 by Finance Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh this centralized “top-down” democracy has allowed only a slow paced economic growth in India. The decisions for citizens’ lives are made in the State capitals without the direct control of the citizens. India is, in essence, still suffering from “colonial hangover” where a few at the top control the des-tiny of most citizens –a typical feudal mindset.

India has an average of about 2 Million (20 Lacs) people re-siding in each district, which either equals or exceeds total population of more than 100 independent countries in the world. These countries are autonomous and are able to successfully provide public safety, education, healthcare, civil infrastructure, etc for their citizens. But in India, city-level administrations with similar population size (or some with even 50-80 Lacs people) are mostly relegated to collecting garbage, cleaning roads, and regulating building permits. And that too they are not able to do satisfactorily because

State governments control dis-trict administrations.

It is a folly to believe that present “centralized” system of India’s governance both at national and state levels can bring India into the modern world since it is inherently non-conducive to economic de-velopment and political stabil-ity .The solution to modernize India resides in building city/district-level autonomy for in-tegrated development of the districts. There is desperate need to revise the current gov-erning structure at the district level to meet the needs of the expanding population in dis-tricts. The civil services under district autonomous control should be supported by public funds from local, state and na-tional sources.

Because Indian constitu-tion defines Republic of India as union of States, the statists would argue that too much de-centralization of authority and freedom will lead to political destabilization, social unfair-ness, and even national disinte-gration. But this is far from the truth. If anything, it is too much State-level autonomy and con-trol that is a risk for national integrity because of political diversity in India. Such tenden-cies have been witnessed in some parts of India. District-level autonomy would be in fact a blessing for integrity, sta-bility and prosperity of India.

In the post Planning Com-mission era, India has to be in-novative in creating conditions conducive to economic devel-opment at the district level. The citizens of both rural and urban areas within the districts should

be involved in the economic and industrial development planning, policy formation, budgetary planning, execution and control of development of their districts. Local Chamber of Commerce or their equiva-lent should be encouraged to solicit funds for development, support and help the entrepre-neurs unleash their talent and energies under appropriate na-tional and state oversight.

This change would not be easy because of the vested political interests in the pres-ent governing system. But, strong national leadership and the “will of the people” can overcome such hurdles. As US President John F. Kennedy once said (paraphrased), true leaders do things not because they are easy but because they are hard. And they do it for the larger good of the society.

Mr. Prime Minister, the US President Barak Obama recent-ly called you a “Man of Action” based on your dynamism and leadership that you have dem-onstrated in the short duration since taking office. It is only a leader of your caliber, vision, courage and fortitude who can create a strong, prosperous, and peaceful India in the 21st cen-tury and enable it to join the league of progressive nations.

Respectfully Chandra K. Mittal, M.S., Ph.D., FCPProfessor of Biotechnology, Houston Community College, Houston. Co-Founder, Indo-American Association, Houston E-Mail:[email protected]

Chandra K. Mittal, M.S., Ph.D., FCP

An Open Letter to India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi

India Needs District-Level Governing Autonomy for Prosperity and Stability

Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, presiden-tial nominee for the

Surgeon General of the US, today recalled his India ex-perience wherein he helped train young women to be health care educators and leaders, during his confirma-tion hearing before a senate committee.

“I built a rural community health partnership in India called Swasthya to train young women to be health care educators and leaders. Through these experiences, I

focused on gun control and po-litical campaigns”.

Through the year-long con-troversy, Murthy’s nomination was backed by over 100 public health and medical organisa-tions including the American

College of Physicians, the American Academy of Fam-ily Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health As-sociation, the American Hospi-tal Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Associa-

tion. Murthy, who has been the

co-founder and president of Doctors for America since 2009 alongside teaching medicine at Harvard, is also the co-founder of VISIONS Worldwide, a non-profit body that focuses on HIV/AIDS education in India and the US.

US Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy As Surgeon GeneralContinued from Page 1

learned how to conceive and execute community-wide health projects that respected cultural and geographic dif-ferences,” Dr Murthy told members of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pen-sions.

“As a public health edu-cator, I created HIV/AIDS education programmes for tens of thousands of youth through an organisation I co-founded call VISIONS,” said Dr Murthy, who if con-firmed by the senate would

be the first Indian-American to occupy the post of the top American doctor responsible for the country’s health care.

Introducing him before the committee, the Massa-chusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said that Murthy has demonstrated his extraordi-nary leadership and is fit to be the country’s 21st century Surgeon-General.

Describing himself as son of an immigrant parent, Murthy, 36, said his grandfather was a poor farmer, who fought for freedom in India. (PTI).

Murthy recalls India experience during US senate hearing


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Friday, December 19, 2014 • www.voiceofasiaonline.com • Page 3 • Email: [email protected] • Tel: 713-774-5140

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by Seema Jain

“Religion beyond dogmas, Spirituality without religion, and

including the call for a Uni-versal religion of Compas-sion” are a true testament to his Spiritual strength.” -Acharya Tulsi

JVB Preksha Meditation Center under the auspicious presence and inspiration of Samani Sanmati Pragyaji & Samani Jayant Pragyaji (Dis-ciples of Acharya Shri Ma-hashraman), proudly hosted honorable Houston Mayor, Annise Parker on Sunday, De-cember 14th, 2014 for the in-auguration of its first Annual Gyanshala Children Magazine “Connect: Basics and Beyond” and “Tulsi Commemoration Volumes” on the occasion of H. H. Acharya Shri Tulsi Birth Centenary global celebrations. About 150 community mem-bers came by and large to cel-ebrate this milestone with the Hon. Mayor.

The Mayor was greeted by

enthusiastic Gyanshala kids along with Board and EC

JVB Gyanshala’s 1st Annual Magazine Inaugurated by Mayor Annise Parker

Samani Sanmati Pragyaji and Samani Jayant Pragyaji present Annise Parker with the copy of Gyan-shala Children Magazine Photos by: Navin Mediwala

members upon arrival. In her speech, she congratulated everyone on the Centennial Birth of Acharya Tulsi, and expressed her desire to know more about JVB Community and acknowledge the work of our young Gyanshala Students who are our future leaders and was quite amazed by their ar-ticles based on the principles of Anuvrat i.e. truth, non-violence, non-possession, and non-stealing, and wished them a bright future ahead. The members of JVB youth council presented the presti-gious Volumes to the Mayor for inauguration. To honor this occasion, the Mayor made a proclamation stating the Birth Date of Acharya Tulsi, Oc-tober 20th as “Acharya Tulsi Day”, so worthy of the cause as he is known worldwide as one of the greatest Acharya’s of Jain Tradition. and a man of splendor personality, Human-itarian Saint and a great vi-sionary. He opened hundreds of schools, started different vocational courses, numerous colleges, and a University as well. Jain Vishwa Bharati is one of them.

Reverend Samani Sanmati

Pragyaji admired Mayor Parker’s distinguished ca-reer, explained how Acharya Tulsi’s teachings are showing the path of peace to the world and praised active committee members for their untiring ef-forts and support. The Emcee of the event, Mr. Pramod Jain acknowledged all the promi-nent guests from different In-dian communities and media who joined us in our occa-sion. Mr. Swatantra Jain, the Chairman of JVB center de-livered a Welcome S p e e c h . All the G y a n -shala kids paid their tribute by saying the Gyanshala p l e d g e collective-ly. A spe-cial me-mento was presented to Mayor to ear-mark her short stay.

The program ended with a thank you speech delivered by JVB’s President, Nikhil Jain who extended his warmest regards to everyone present at the event. Special thanks to Hasuji Patel & Ila Patel for their exceptional effort to invite the Mayor and making this a gala event.

Here at JVB’s Gyanshala,

We value our intellectual

capital, and nurture it through a perfect blend, of the tradi-tional as well as contempo-rary ways and means, for the comprehensive development, of the kids personality. JVB Gyanshala Magazine truly captures the thoughts & cre-ativity of its young students.

The JVB Preksha Medi-tation Center envisions a blissful and peaceful soci-

ety through Yoga, Preksha Meditation and Education of Non-violence. It conducts weekly Mediation, Yoga and Swadhyay sessions and runs special events and programs like iChoose & Meditation Camps. Its open to all and every session or event is free of charge to its attendees. For more information please visit www.jvbhouston.org or call them at 281.596.9642.

Swatantra Jain, the Chairman of JVB Center with Mayor Parker and other members of the Center

Gyanshala kids with Mayor Parker, Board and EC members


Q. I recently gave my Bank of America card to a “friend” of mine because she stated that she needed to deposit her income checks into a bank account to avoid check-cashing fees. I gave her my card. The next day, I received a text from Bank of America alerts saying “we recently received three deposits from an ATM please reply yes to approve them.” I replied yes. My friend then told me she was going to withdraw the money. I received another text saying, “to continue using your card, please verify these transactions ATM WITHDRAWAL $500, $300 & $300, reply yes.” I replied yes.

Long story short, the checks she deposited were counterfeit and now the bank wants me to repay the money she withdrew from my account. I explained that I did not deposit the checks, it was my friend. They told me that there is nothing they can do because I authorized my friend to use my card when I gave it to her. Is there anything I can do to get this off of me and get my money back? Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

A. Unfortunately, my opinion is that you are responsible to the bank for any money with-drawn based on the counterfeit checks, but you have the right to go after you friend to be reimbursed. As far as the law is concerned, you have substantial rights if your credit or bankcard is lost or stolen and an unauthorized person makes charges to your account. The key here, however, is the word “unauthorized.” The law protects you against unauthorized charges or withdrawals by a thief, but not to any action you authorized. When you gave the card to your friend you authorized her to use it. The fact that she used it to deposit counterfeit checks and withdraw cash, or in any way you did not approve, is between you and her, not the bank. You owe the bank for any amounts she wrongfully withdrew, but you have the right to seek reimbursement from her for the misuse of your card. I suggest you let you know you expect to be reimbursed, and if she doesn’t pay you consider a claim in Justice Court. You also may want to speak with the police to see if any crime has been committed.

Q. I am getting divorced. My husband has agreed to keep the house and make all the pay-ments. What do I do to get my name taken off of the mortgage?

A. This is a very common question. When you get divorced, you and your spouse agree how property and debts will be divided. But the divorce is between you and your husband. The mortgage company is not a part of your divorce and is not bound by whatever you and your husband agree to. The only way to have your name removed is for your husband to refinance the property in his name alone. Unless the mortgage company agrees, you cannot just have your name taken off of the mortgage.

Q. I am getting married. I currently pay child support from a prior marriage. Will my new wife’s income be taken into consideration when determining the amount of child support I pay?

A. After you marry, your spouse’s income will not affect the amount of child support you must pay. Your obligation is based on your net resources. Texas law provides that for purposes of determining the amount of support, a court may not add any portion of the net resources of a spouse to the net resources of the person paying child support.

Q. Did I hear you have a consumer news alert you distribute?A. I do publish a free Consumer News Alert three times a week. It includes consumer news

and updates, budgeting and shopping tips and other information useful to consumers. It is delivered by email three times a week. You may subscribe at my website, listed below.

To subscribe to my Consumer News Alert or learn more about your legal rights, visit my website, www.peopleslawyer.net.

The People’s Lawyer

Be careful who you let use your credit or bankcard

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YOUR IMMIGRATION LAWYER Answers to your Immigration Questions by Sharlene Sharmila Richards, Immigration Lawyer:email at [email protected]

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT OTHER PROPOS-ALS UNDER THE EXECUTIVE ACTION ANNOUNCED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA

Q: Apart from the deferred action policies for children and parents of US Citizen and Permanent Resident Children, what other new proposals have been included as part under the new executive action?

A: In addition to granting deferred action to individuals such as children who came here to the United States under the age of 16 and parents of US Citizen and Permanent Resident Children, several interesting proposals for changes to our immigration system are in the works. Some of these proposals include the following:

Proposed changes to Employment Based Immigration:1) Reducing wait times for employment based immigrant visas as well as visa processing

times.2) Improving the system as to when visas become available to applicants during the particular

fiscal year. 3) Reforming optional practical training (OPT) by expanding the category of degree pro-

grams eligible for OPT. 4) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates eligible for STEM

OPT with extension of 17 months will have longer periods to remain in the US.5) Increasing the opportunities for foreign investors, researchers and founders of startup com-

panies to conduct development and research in the US before they actually receive their visas.6) Making more flexible rules to allow applicants for employment based permanent resident

status to port or change jobs.7) Review of the Department of Labor’s PERM process which is the initial process involved

in a majority of employment based permanent resident applications.8) Providing employment authorization to spouses of H-1B holders who have approved im-

migrant visa petitions. Proposed changes to Provisional Waivers (Stateside Processing):1) Presently, undocumented immigrant spouses, children under 21 years of age and parents

of US Citizen may become permanent residents if they applied and obtained what is known as a provisional waiver of their unlawful presence here in the United States before they departed the United States to apply and obtain their immigrant visas at the US Consulate abroad. The recent executive action has called for USCIS to expand the category of family members eligible for the provisional waiver to include adult children of US Citizens and spouses and children of Permanent Residents.

2) Additional guidance will be issued for the standard which needs to be met before a provi-sional waiver application can be approved. Presently, the undocumented foreign national has to show that his or her absence from the United States would cause ‘extreme hardship’ to the qualifying relative. Presently, this term ‘extreme hardship’ has yet to be clearly defined.

Proposed changes to Parole Policies:1) To issue guidelines and fully implement the decision in the Matter of Arrabally (April

2012). In this case, two foreign nationals who had been in unlawful status for several years had applied for adjustment of status and travelled outside the US on advance parole. The Board of Immigration Appeals held that this travel was not a departure which triggered the unlawful presence ground of inadmissibility (after being unlawfully present for more than 180 days in the US) to bar their re-entry into the US. Formal legal guidance is needed on the meaning of the decision in Arrabally which will clarify that in all cases when an individual physically leaves the US under a grant of advance parole, that the individual has not made a departure to trigger the unlawful presence ground of inadmissibility.

2) Presently, family members of US Military service members and veterans are eligible for parole in place. Parole in place is parole in which an individual who is already in the United States, but who is here without permission, is granted parole without having to depart the US. The new proposal suggest expanding the scope of parole in place to include family members of US Citizens and lawful permanent residents who seeks to enlist in the US Armed Forces as well as to provide deferred action to the spouse, parent, and child of a US Citizen or permanent resident who seeks to enlist in the US Armed Forces.

3) To issue guidelines to enable parole of certain investors, researchers and founders of start-up companies to enter the US before they become eligible for a visa.

Proposed changes to Naturalization:1). To expand access to naturalization, to address barriers to those who are unable to pay the

application fees including expanding the use of fee waivers and to implement credit card pro-cessing for fee payments.

Disclaimer: Any advice provided in this article is general in nature and not intended to con-stitute legal advice for any specific case. Please consult with an immigration lawyer about the specific circumstances of your case.

Sharlene Sharmila Richards is a licensed Immigration lawyer practicing in Houston, Texas. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2000 and is a member of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and a member of the US Supreme Court. You may contact her at telephone number 713-623-8088 or by email at [email protected] to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case.

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VOICE OF ASIA 5 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014COMMUNITY

The American Heart As-sociation is the largest voluntary health orga-

nization working to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascu-lar diseases.

Heart disease and stroke is nation’s No. 1 and No. 4 kill-ers — and all other cardio-vascular diseases claim more than 787,000 American lives a year. Which means every three deaths in America is from the above illness. Research funded by the American Heart As-sociation has yielded or con-tributed to many important improvements such as CPR, life-extending drugs (includ-ing clot-busters), pacemakers, bypass surgery, the heart-lung machine and surgical tech-niques to repair heart defects.

All are at risk for heart dis-ease and the severity of the problem is not known by many. Thousands of children are born with heart disease each year. The Heart & Stroke Walk high-lighted family fun and physical fitness to encourage walking as a part of a healthy lifestyle. It also raises funds to support

IANA’s participated 2014 Heart Walk in NRG stadium

cardiovascular research and educational programs for the American Heart Association.

Heart walk is conducted on many cities across Unites States including Houston. This is achieved with strong support from individuals and groups. Nurses play an important role to prevent and eradicate illness by education and providing their valuable time and tal-ent to the community. Along with many other organizations Indian Nurses Association played a vital role in this year’s Heart Walk. Indians have a higher risk for heart disease than many other ethnic groups. Even compared with some of the south Asians, Indians were three times more likely to suf-fer a heart attack. The Indian descendants live in developed countries are more likely to be the victim of cardiovascu-lar disease. When Indians get heart attack the severity is also worse. Researchers are still trying to understand the details of this occurrence.

Everyone can contribute to uplift the community in vari-ous ways. To support the event

in NRG stadium on Nov. 8th 2014 with the leadership of Ac-camma Kallel, N.P as a Team Captain and the strong sup-port of President Sally Samuel about 10 nurses participated in the5K Heart walk at the NRG stadium. The event started with awards ceremonies at 8:15AM, opening ceremonies at 9:00 AM and Heart Walk at 9:30AM. Along with the thou-sands of walkers, IANA mem-bers took the challenge of 5K walk with vigor, some of the IANA walkers were survivors of Heart disease and stroke. Few family members also par-ticipated in this event and sup-ported us to increase aware-ness and support for the great cause. The Indian American Nurse’s Association of Hous-ton (IANA) also played a vital role in fund raising for AHA this year as they do with many other events.

IANA thanked to all walk-ers, donors and volunteers who have accepted the challenge to help fight heart disease and stroke. This mission cannot be achieved without the support of everyone.

IANA members took the challenge of 5K walk

by Jaseem Pasha MD

The Houstonian Seniors’ Club 65 hosted the third annual Christ-

mas Party on December 6 at Bayland Community Center, at 6400 Bissonnet Street in Hous-ton. It was indeed a fun filled afternoon.

The members and the guests arrived on time. Many came in festive apparel, few even wore Santa’s red hat. The hall was packed. There was an air of exuberance, smiles and hugs. The tables looked colorful with Christmas figurines.

The entire hall sprang into life as soon as Paru McGuire, the President of Club 65, took the microphone in her hand. They welcomed her with a big round of applause. Paru shared the highlights of the awaited program with the audience.

Majid Soudagar sang a very old ghazal, full of impassioned poetry. Taiyeb Shipchandler, an esteemed member of the Club, “Kaka”, as he is called out of love and respect, sang a very beautiful old song.

Mulik Sayeedi sang an old classic Indian heart-rending song, and as usual, shared few jokes that made everyone laugh.

Uma Mantravadi, Attorney at Law, and Houston’s foremost sensational singer paired up with Nadeem Ashrafi, who is a singer and keyboard player. Nadeem has served desi music industry for more than three decades. He is well known for his Ghazals and versatile sing-ing orchestration in many lan-guages and has performed all over North America.

Both Uma and Nadeem en-gaged the audience with old and new songs. The selection of melodious songs was sensa-tional, ranging from romantic ecstasy and rapture to fast danc-ing melodies. They sang duets that were tender, touching, nostalgic and powerful, punc-tuated with frequent rounds of applause. Uma sang the famous Shah-e-Madina.

Nothing prompts people to remember the past like mu-sic. Many from audience came to the floor and danced – and danced, as if there was no end to it, reminding us of an old Irish quote: “Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening.” Music does wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

The event ran between 11 AM to 3:30 PM. The grand finale was the spiritual qawwali song “O Lal Meri Pat Rakhiyo Bala Jhule lalan - - -Dama Dam Mast Qalandar”

Everyone had a good time, so-cializing, singing and dancing, and relishing the delicious food. There was gift exchanges. Noor Jahan called out the names of the guests who chose from the colorful packaged gifts, which created a lot of excitement. It was a very successful event.

Club 65 is a non-profit orga-nization under the umbrella of IMAGH (Indian Muslims of Greater Houston). To find out more about Club 65 or to be-come a member, please visit, www.imagh.org or call Paru Mcguire at 440-390-1763.

Club 65 Celebrates Early Christmas

Club 65 members celebrate Christmas early with with Music, Dance and Games.

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4th Annual Kavita Ki Shaam event in Houston

Global Organization for Divinity and Nama-dwaar will conduct

its annual grand celebration of bhakti and Bhagavata Dharma, from December 21 to 27 this year through a 7-day “Madhura Utsav” (sweet celebration). The Utsav will be filled with cel-ebration of Bhagavan through song, dance and listening to His stories through a 7-day “Sri Krishna Leela” discourse series by Sri Ramanujamji, disciple of His Holiness Sri Sri Muralid-hara Swamiji.

Daily daytime events will be held at Namadwaar Prayer House located at 3642 Bai-ley Ave, Manvel TX 77578, while the evening Bhagavatam discourse will be held at Sri Meenakshi Temple Kalyana Mandapam in Pearland and is co-sponsored by Meenakshi Temple Society.

Daily events through the day (at Namadwaar) include chant-ing Thiruppavai (6 am), com-plete Srimad Bhagavata Moola Parayana of 18000 slokas in 7 days (7am-2pm), Procession of Sri Krishna-Sri Radha in differ-ent vahanas (9:30 am), Ashtapa-di kirtan-Sampradaya bhajans with Sri Jayadeva’s Gita Govin-dam (1-4pm) and Divya Nama sankirtanam (9:30 pm).

There will also be special events on certain days at Na-madwaar, such as Radha Kaly-anam (Dec 27, 9 am), Govinda Pattabhishekham and Anna Koototsav (Dec 25, 9 am) and Nandotsavam (Dec 24, 1:30pm).

The evening program (Dec 21-27) will begin from 5:30 pm at Meenakshi Temple with the “Madhura Natyam” seg-ment where various Houston dance schools will offer their talent to Lord Krishna through performances. On Dec 25, chil-dren of Gopa Kuteeram from around the USA will present “Srimad Bhagavatam - A Mu-sical Play”.

This cultural segment will be followed daily at 6 pm by the highlight event – Sri Krishna Leela (discourse in English on the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam) by Sri Ramanu-jamji.

Sri Ramanujam ji, who has visited the Houston area sever-al times before, is an excellent speaker who has absorbed the intricate essence of our scrip-tures directly from his Master. His insightful discourses throw beautiful, meaningful, practi-cal light on the subtle aspects of bhakti and our Sanatana Dharma. His discourses on

Namadwaar’s 5th Annual Srimad Bhagavata Mahotsava to

be held Dec 21-27

Srimad Bhagavatam are bril-liant and instill in us love for Bhagavan, love for the path of bhakti and love for this great Purana itself. Add to this the fact that this year’s discours-es will focus in detail on Sri Krishna’s ever-new, refreshing and deeply significant leelas, and the whole event becomes doubly sweet.

Everyone is welcome to par-ticipate in this unique celebra-tion. All events are free and open to the public. Mahaprasad will be served.

Prasadam and flower spon-sors are welcomed for this aus-picious event. If you find this divine cause worthy of your generosity, please call 281-402-6585.

Global Organization for Di-vinity (G.O.D.) and Nama-dwaar Prayer House aim to promote peace, harmony and universal love amid cultural diversity. They are involved in several spiritual, cultural and social activities in the Houston area.

For more information about the event or about G.O.D. or Namadwaar, please call 281-402-6585, email [email protected] or visit www.go-divinity.org.

Devotees listen to “Sri Krishna Leela” discourse during the celebrations.

SUGAR LAND -The In-ternational Hindi Asso-ciation, (IHA) Houston is

making its indelible mark in the Indian American Diaspora with their earnest efforts to promote Hindi as a language and culture. For three consecutive years, the IHA has been hosting Kavita ki Shaam (An Evening of Poetry) on the 1st Fridays of the month of December with scholarly poets and enthusiasts and this year it was held in collaboration with In-dia Culture Center on Friday, Dec. 5th 2014 at the Madras Pavilion.

A host of local artists namely Fatehali Chatur, Jasmeeta Singh, Dr. K D Upadhyaya, Om Gupta, Meera Kapur, Neera Vipin, San-geeta Pasrija, Sunny Anand, Sarita Mehta, Dilip Kanabar, Rajiv Bhavsar, Nausha Asrar, Devika Dhruv, Krishen Sharma, Farha Iqbal, Sanjay Sohoni and the youngest among them Ee-sha Dhairyawan, 8, presented an range of poems in Hindi.

The program was emceed by Fatehali Chatur smoothly with a well-coordinated sound support by Darshak Thakkar. The sold out event had close to 140 guests that enjoyed a night of signing and reciting and a spread of good food catered by Madras Pavilion. The gathering that was mainly of friends and families also gave a birthday surprise to Swapan Dhairyawan, Director IHA whose birthday fell on the same day.

Swapan Dhairyawan and Dr. K D Upadhyaya addressing the guests.

Eesha Dhairyawan, 8, sings a patriotic song.

A section of the audience

VOICE OF ASIA 7 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014DIASPORA

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Student from India scoops international science award

by Ellie Buchdahl, (22 July 2014. Education UK)

Imagine if your PhD research uncovered a way to make ordi-nary medicines 1,000 times more effective...

‘I want to become a world-class scientist,’ says Shashi Rudrangi.

And the 26-year-old from Hyderabad in India has taken a step towards his goal, by winning an international science prize for research he carried out as part of his PhD in the UK.

Shashi beat more than a hun-dred other students to bag the Best Poster award at the Interna-tional Cyclodextrin Symposium for work he did to discover drugs that dissolve more easily in wa-ter.

‘I always used to say I wanted to do something for the world and find new devices and techniques,’ Shashi says.

‘My PhD supervisor in the UK advised me instead to go for seemingly simple problems, as they’re where the biggest differ-ence can be made – and that was an inspiration to me.’

For science, for industry… and for patients

Shashi’s PhD at the University of Greenwich focused on the fact that many pharmaceutical drugs – up to 90 per cent of those on the market – are poorly soluble in water.

Poorly soluble drugs are harder for the body to absorb, so they are less effective.

Shashi combined Cyclodextrin molecules with existing medica-tions to improve their efficiency – and the results have been stag-gering, with some of his com-pounds making the drugs over 1,000 times more effective.

‘This is fantastic for the phar-maceutical industry and has sci-entific importance – but it’s also of importance to patients,’ Shashi says.

‘It means you don’t need such high doses of drugs and there are fewer side effects.’

Diversity, pride, respect‘I’m from India and I feel proud

to work on such a great project and to have received such sup-port,’ Shashi continues.

‘The UK is a fantastic country – all my supervisors have taken great care of me and I’m happy to have been able to use the research facilities.

‘I’ve found a vast range of di-versity and a national culture of respect, and that’s something I’d like to develop for myself too.’

Standing ovationAn audience of more than 200

leading scientists from around the world gave Shashi a stand-ing ovation when he received his award in Saarbrücken, Germany.

It was a taster of what is to come, as Shashi has now been awarded grants to present his work at conferences in England, Scotland, Germany and Turkey in the near future.

‘I’m in my final year of my PhD and this is good for me to get proper exposure in this field of science, to speak about my work and to improve my presentation,’ he says.

‘Special thanks must go to my PhD supervisors, Professor Steve Wicks and Dr Bruce Alexander, for encouraging me to attend such an excellent conference.’

Enlightenment, experience, exposure

And there’s more to come – though Shashi isn’t giving away

too much yet.‘My professor and I have done

some experiments that have been successful, and we’re going to announce the results soon,’ he promises.

‘Research is never-ending and it’s all about discussing and get-ting enlightened, gaining expe-rience and exposure so you can think in new directions.

‘Those things are all around in the UK, and I’m so happy to be able to learn here.’

Shashi also received a Certifi-cate of Merit and a multimedia tablet PC from the International Cyclodextrin Symposium for his poster.

Shashi Rudrangi.


Dr. Virendra Mathur and wife, Nalini Mathur participate in Indo-American Oral History Project

Dr. Virendra Mathur, famous cardiologist and his wife, Nalini Mathur were interviewed on 12th.July,2014 by Ms. Sita Mutyala,MBA, a retired Manager from Chevron Oil Corpn.

HOUSTON - Dr. Mathur was born in Kanpur, UP, India,

and graduated from Lucknow’s King George Medical Univer-sity with several Gold Medals. He came to USA initially on January 7th,1962 and joined Harvard affiliated Memorial Hospital in Worcester, a suburb of Boston. Later he worked at Brigham, the main teaching Hospital of Harvard and finally at Tufts University Hospital. After completion of training, he went back to India in 1967 to join the faculty of renowned All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi.

Though professionally very happy at AIIMS, he decided to come back to USA in 1971 af-ter working there for 4 ½ years because he could not fulfill his passion to combine teaching, research and carry out patient care there. Also, AIIMS be-ing a Govt. institute, paid low wages and did not allow private practice, while all his friends in practice were making 10 to 20 times more money.

Like many immigrants from India in 1962, he came to Amer-ica with $8.00 in his pocket. On the very first day, when he reported to duty, the Director of the Hospital, handed him a check for $250,1st month sal-ary as advance. Dr. Mathur was overwhelmed with gratitude by the Director’s gesture that made him understand how America treats junior associates, trainees and employees with compas-

sion and respect.Dr. Mathur’s passion is teach-

ing, and he was able to combine teaching at Baylor College of Medicine, research at Veteran’s and St. Luke’s Hospitals and patient care at both after com-ing to Houston. He worked with Dr. Denton Cooley, pub-lished more than 150 papers in medical journals and made presentations at many Inter-national Conferences. His most important work was validation of the benefit of Coronary By-pass Surgery, the commonest heart operation today, by a randomized trial. The publica-tion was the 1st in the world lit-erature. At that time in 1970s, most of the leading Cardiolo-gists of the world were skeptic about Bypass surgery.

Dr. Mathur had many VIP patients from India like 7th and 10th Presidents of India, Zail Singh and Dr. Narayanan, Prime Ministers, P.V.Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh and sev-eral Governors, Chief Minis-ters, Supreme Court judges and also other dignitaries, as well as Chairmen and CEOs of corpo-rations. Many VIPs from Mid-dle Eastern & Asian countries were also frequent patients. Dr. Mathur has partly slowed down by letting his associates do the interventions, after working professionally non-stop for more than 54 years. He still can complete 12 to 14 hour days, frequently busy at 2.30 AM.

When he came to Houston, the only Indian grocery store in town was Jay Store located inside the 610 loop run by Rupa Vyas and Mahesh Vyas. The present Hillcroft area was deserted and Fondren road was considered to be in boondogs even though Vargo’s was a fa-mous restaurant there.

Both Dr. Mathur and Nalini Mathur have been staunch sup-porters of India Culture Center and India House, since their inception, as well as various other organizations in Houston. Because Dr. Mathur was busy in his practice, it was Nalini Mathur who went to an auction and bought the 9.5 acre land on which the present India House

building stands. Dr. Mathur gives his wife,

Nalini all the credit to raise their only son, Gaurav who was born deaf, but he went to Kinkaid School, graduated at the top and completed B.A. with Honors at Princeton and earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from M.I.T. They are proud of their son, who has risen now to the position of Dean for Grad-uate studies at Gallaudet Uni-versity in Washington, DC.

Mathurs, besides being phil-anthropic are also influential in Republican political circles and influenced US public policy towards India, particularly the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement, at the request of the former Ambassador of India, Ronan Sen. They were active in elec-tion campaigns of Presidents, Senators Congressmen and others. He regrets that the Af-fordable Health Care Act of President Obama imposes ad-ditional burden on Doctors and Hospitals resulting in poorer patient care. His take on future of practicing medicine in this country is not rosy, particularly for new comers.

Asked about future identity of Indians and Indian culture in America, Mathurs are not wor-ried about it. They observed that the 2nd generation Indians have reached the highest lev-els in most professions and are now being pushed by their chil-dren who want to learn Indian culture and Indian values.

About FIS Oral History ProjectIndo-American Oral History

Project is an undertaking of the Foundation for India Studies being done in partnership with Houston Community College (HCC) and Houston Public Li-brary (HPL). All narratives and recollections of the first gen-eration Indian immigrants who came from India and settled in Houston in the early 60’s, 70’s and 80’s will be permanently stored in the digital archives of HPL for posterity. Those interested to participate in this Legacy project may contact Krishna Vavilala at 713-795-5169.

HOUSTON, (Dec. 14, 2014) - The Schiller Institute of Texas held

an event on December 11, at the Houston Chinese Commu-nity Center: “The USA Must Join the BRICS.” The BRICS countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and have formed a coalition for global development.

Schiller Institute introduces Houston to the “BRICS”

the event via video statement. “If Americans knew how close we were to World War III [over the Ukraine crisis] people would be out in the streets….What the mass media in the United States have blocked out, is that since... the sum-mit of the BRICS countries in Fortaleza, Brazil, a completely new economic system is devel-oping.” Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche

plosion of optimism in India.” He will build 100 new cities, and create one million new jobs per month. “We have to get the United States to... join with the new paradigm, because that is the only war avoidance strat-egy which will work.”

Harley Schlanger, vice chair of the Schiller Institute, spoke next, on the “two arcs of his-tory” which shape the present period: one being the downfall of the Trans-Atlantic region, following the JFK assassina-tion and Nixon’s ending Bret-ton Woods; and the second being the new potential of the BRICS movement.

He was followed by Khaled Rady, the Consul General of Egypt, who gave a clear and impassioned report on the Suez Canal project. After outlining the project, he ended with a moving appeal: that before the Landbridge can be realized, we need a “heart-bridge,” to con-nect people from around the

Egypt’s Consul General Khaled Rady

Opening the meeting, former U.S. Senate candidate Kesha Rogers, stated that this event was one of many around the nation organizing Americans to reject the current war policy, and join with the BRICS na-tions to achieve the Common Aims of Mankind, creating what India’s Prime Minister Modi has called “a mass move-ment for development.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schil-ler Institute founder, addressed

listed some of the remark-able projects now underway in BRICS and associated na-tions: China helping to build a second Panama Canal through Nicaragua, and a transconti-nental railroad from Brazil to Peru, agreements in the areas of space and nuclear energy, and the establishment of new financial institutions devoted to funding them. “Since the new Indian Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi came into office, there has been a complete ex-

world to be one humanity.

Natalie Lovegren, from the LaRouche PAC scientific re-search team, concluded the meeting with a report on Chi-na’s lunar program, demon-strating how China’s intention to mine helium-3 on the Moon for nuclear fusion energy would transform the world economy.

To learn more visit http://newparadigm.schillerinstitute.com/

Harley Schlanger addressing the audience.

ONLINE.COMvoiceofasiaonline.comVOICEOFASIAONLINE.COM

COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 9 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014WORLD/US/ASIAIndia’s parliament in chaos over forced conver-sion protests

NEW DELHI, India | AFP - India’s parlia-ment was thrown into

disarray Tuesday as opposition lawmakers protested at mass conversions to Hinduism, with the uproar threatening to dis-rupt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s legislative agenda.

Angry lawmakers stormed the well of parliament’s upper house forcing its shutdown for the day. They demanded Modi make a statement on reports of poor Muslims being coerced into converting to India’s ma-jority religion.

“The house will not run until the prime minister comes for discussion over the communal incidents and forced conver-sions issue,” Derek O’Brien, from the regional opposition All India Trinamool Congress, told reporters.

The warning threatens to dis-rupt the Modi government’s plans to pass a series of major economic reforms through par-liament, with just four days of the current session remaining.

The right-wing government, which swept to power at na-tional elections in May on a pledge to reform and revive the economy, wants to pass a bill to open the insurance sector to foreign investment.

The government was also inching closer to finalising agreement with India’s states on taxation reform by introduc-ing a national sales tax, accord-ing to local media reports on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was hopeful of tabling a consti-

tutional amendment in the cur-rent parliament for introduction of the long-awaited goods and services tax (GST), to replace a myriad of overlapping state du-ties that deter investment.

A hardline group linked to Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of converting some 50 slum-dwelling Muslim families last week in the Taj Mahal city of Agra.

One of the converts told AFP they were promised ration cards and other financial incentives if they went ahead with the con-versions.

A BJP lawmaker has since announced plans for an even biggger conversion event of Christians and Muslims on Christmas Day in the northern town of Aligarh.

Critics say Hindu hardline groups have become more em-boldened since the BJP was elected, with rising communal tensions in the Hindu-majority but multi-faith country.

Parliament under the previous Congress-led government was routinely paralysed, with shout-ing, jeering and protests fre-quently forcing adjournments.

Modi’s BJP won the biggest mandate in 30 years in May, raising hopes it would have the numbers to control parliament and ensure the smooth passage of legislation.

But the BJP lacks a majority in the upper house, where Con-gress and regional lawmakers have combined to protest at a range of issues

LOS ANGELES, AFP - US cinemas canceled screenings, including a

red-carpet New York premiere, of a madcap comedy that of-fended North Korea, after mysterious computer hackers issued a chilling threat.

Hollywood studio Sony Pic-tures said it is not pulling the film, but is leaving it to theater chains to decide whether to show the movie, which depicts a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

“We plan to release the film,” said a source at Sony, which is dealing with fallout from an enormous cyber-attack last month.

The source added that a deci-sion whether to show the film “is with theater owners, part-ners whom we support.”

Two movie chains, Carmike theaters and Bow Tie theaters, said they will not show the movie, while the New York City premiere scheduled for this week at the Landmark chain’s Sunshine Cinema also has been canceled, Variety reported.

Two other major chains, AMC and Regal Theaters, did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

“Will theater owners balk at booking the film? It’s actually highly possible,” said analyst Jeff Bock of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations, adding that the film had been set for a relatively modest debut any-way when it opens on Christ-mas Day.

“Truth be told, ‘The Inter-view’ wasn’t likely to be in more than 2,500 theaters any-ways, but that number could actually drop significantly now,” he told AFP.

Meanwhile, the film’s stars, James Franco and Seth Rogen, have canceled all promotional appearances linked to the film.

- 9/11 attack threat - Skittishness about attend-

ing the movie follows threats by the so-called GOP (Guard-ians of Peace) hacking group,

US cinemas cancel film parody of N.Korea leader after threats

Hackers invoked the 9/11 attacks in their most chilling threat yet against Sony Pictures, warning the Hollywood studio not to release a film which has angered North Korea (AFP Photo/)

Security is seen outside the Theatre at Ace Hotel before the premiere of the film “The Interview” in Los Angeles, California on December 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/)

which invoked the September 11, 2001 attacks in an ominous warning to any movie-goers planning to see the film.

The group warned in a mes-sage written in broken English that a “bitter fate” awaits any who attend the film.

“Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pic-tures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear,” the statement warned.

It added: “Remember the 11th of September 2001. We rec-ommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)”

US officials, meanwhile, have played down the threat.

“There is no credible intel-ligence backing this up at this point in time,” State Depart-ment spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN.

In addition to the threats, Sony has been seen the release

of a trove of highly unflatter-ing internal emails, unpub-lished scripts and other internal communications, including information about salaries, em-ployee health records and other personal information.

On Monday, Sony Pictures boss Michael Lynton sought

to reassure employees that the studio would not be destroyed by the leaks.

“This will not take us down,” Lynton told employees, adding: “You should not be worried about the future of this studio.”

North Korea has denied in-volvement in the brazen No-

vember 24 cyber-attack, which some expert said could pos-sibly have been carried out by disgruntled workers or by sup-porters of North Korea furious over the movie.

Meanwhile, lawyers have filed two class action lawsuits against Sony Pictures in Los Angeles.

One of the suits alleges that “Sony failed to secure and pro-

tect its computer systems, serv-ers, and databases, resulting in the release of the named plain-tiffs and other class members’” personal data.

“An epic nightmare, much better suited to a cinematic thriller than to real life, is un-folding in slow motion for Sony’s current and former em-ployees,” the 45-page lawsuit said.



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Homelessness strikes hard in US capitalPhilana Hall vividly remem-

bers the day, one year ago this month, when she was home-

less in Washington and overwhelmed with despair.

“That was the morning when we just didn’t know where we were go-ing to be that night,” the 23-year-old recalled.

“We were both out until about 12 o’clock that night -- making calls, ask-ing people -- and no one would take us in as a family.”

Hall and her three-year-old Gabriel eventually found refuge at a home-less shelter. Her husband, 27, and their seven-year-old boy bunked down with relatives.

The African-American family has since been reunited -- in March, they

moved into a four-room apartment run by Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington charity.

But before that, life was a precarious series of low-paying jobs, nights on friends’ sofas and frustration.

- Bathtub for a bed -

Such families represent “the hidden homeless,” said Heather O’Malley, development director at Doorways for Women and Families, a charity in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Vir-ginia.

“Families are doubled up, tripled up, quadrupled up in apartments that are meant for only one person of one fam-ily,” O’Malley told AFP.

“They’ll sleep on the floors, the couches, in bathtubs. They are sleep-ing in cars. And every day they don’t know where they are going to end up.”

In the greater Washington area, on a single day in June, some 1,900 families were homeless, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to a report from the Metropolitan Washington Council

of Governments.And Hall’s two boys are among 2.5

million children -- one in 30 young-sters in America -- who experienced homeless at some point in 2013.

For the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), that figure is “his-

A homeless man sits under a sign giving directions to the White House at the entrance of the McPherson Metro Station in Washington, DC on November 25, 2014

A homeless woman cleans her toenails on a bench in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House in Washington on October 25, 2014. Photo By Nicholas Kamm

toric.” Of all industrial-ized nations, it says, the United States has the most homeless people.

Dawud -- a 52-year-old military veteran turned cook who has been job-less for eight months, and who provided only his first name -- said he was evicted from his home three years ago.

A single parent, he and his 12-year-old daughter lived temporarily in the living room of friends before ultimately find-ing housing in Arlington, across the Potomac River from the US capital.

“It hurts because you feel like you’re a failure in life,” he said, summing up his experience with home-lessness.

“Living with other peo-ple, you feel you’re not part of society. I felt like I

was failing my daughter as a parent.”- Downturn takes toll -“The economic downturn in recent

years has made it very difficult for families to survive,” said Yvonne Viss-ing, a Salem State University sociolo-gist who sits on the NCH board.

“People can work 40 hours a week at a full-time job, at minimum wage, and still be below the poverty line,” she said.

“Most homeless people do work but they cannot keep up with the costs of living. Housing affordability and ac-cessibility is a major problem.”

To afford a $2,000-a-month three-room apartment in Arlington, one would have to work 70 hours a week at the minimum wage of $7.25, O’Malley said. Transit and day care costs come on top of that.

“As soon as this cycle begins, it’s almost impossible to get out when you’re just trying to catch up,” she said.

“Before you know it, you’re facing eviction and you don’t know where to go.”

Children pay the highest price.Malnourished on cheap processed

food, with no place to play or do home-work from classes they often miss, they are also four times at greater risk to suffer illness and delayed develop-ment, the NCH says.

- Hiding anxiety -“A lot of adults in this situation think

they can cover up what’s going on. They think they can hide the stress, the fear, the anxiety,” O’Malley said.

“But the children are smart. They absorb things and they take up what their parents are trying to hide,” she said.

“They also feel the stress sometimes -- they think it’s their fault that they don’t have a safe place to go. They in-ternalize their worries, and it leads to a lot of learning disabilities.”

Hall’s son Richard -- a thin, shy but good-looking lad -- is a case in point.

“Richard has had a problem with ex-pressing himself,” Hall said.

“He would have times where he just cried. Little things would make him cry. He did it at school, in public. You knew what it was, but he didn’t want to say it.”

Youngsters can and do adapt, but help must come swiftly -- not just in the form of permanent housing but also with therapy, budget-managing advice for parents and help with draw-ing up a resume to find steady employ-ment.

Hall -- who has resumed her studies and gave birth last month to another son, Kobe -- can stay where she is now for two years.

Going forward, she envisions hav-ing her own home.

“When I leave here, I want a house with a front yard and a back yard, be-cause I love to cook out,” she said.


VOICE OF ASIA 13 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014LEISURE

Khan’s 24-carat - the most expensive shorts

London, AFP | 12/11/2014 - Britain’s Amir Khan will wear

boxing’s “most expensive shorts” when he steps into the ring to face Devon Alexander in a welterweight bout in Las Vegas this weekend.

Former Olympic silver med-allist Khan will wear shorts, made of white nappa leather, silk and featuring a waistband made of 24-carat gold thread, with a reported value of at least £20,000 ($31,430).

The Sheffield company Fight Label, who made the shorts, said Khan “wanted extrava-gant and we’ve delivered”.

The designer of the shorts, Sophie Whittam, told BBC Radio 5 live: “I think it’s pos-sibly the most expensive shorts ever made.

Odd couples emerge in bird family tree

by Kerry SHERIDAN Miami, United States | AFP |

Thursday 12/11/2014.Birds use essentially the same

genes to sing as humans do to speak. And flamingos are more closely related to pigeons than they are to pelicans.

These are some of the un-usual discoveries that have emerged from the largest, most sophisticated mapping of the bird family tree, published in more than two dozen separate papers, eight of which are in the December 12 issue of the US journal Science.

Researchers in 20 nations spent four years on the project to sequence the entire genomes of 48 species of birds, includ-ing owls, hummingbirds, pen-guins and woodpeckers.

They also compared birds to three different species of croc-odiles -- which are the reptiles most closely related to birds -- and found vastly different rates of evolution.

The birds were much faster at evolving new traits, while crocodiles -- which shared a common ancestor with birds and dinosaurs about 240 mil-lion years ago -- have barely changed at all.

Birds are “the one lineage of dinosaurs that made it through the mass extinction at the end of the so-called age of dino-saurs,” some 65 million years ago, said co-author Ed Braun, associate professor from the University of Florida.

“Their closest living relative is actually crocodilian so you have again these very differ-ent organisms going back fairly deep in time.”

A few kinds of birds are be-lieved to have survived the cat-astrophic event that wiped out the dinosaurs, and from then on they evolved rapidly into the diverse array of some 10,000 species we see today.

- Traits emerge - Birds lost their teeth some

116 million years ago, accord-ing to the research.

Pink flamingos are pictured, on November 13, 2014, at a zoo in Mulhouse, eastern France. © AFP// by Kerry Sheridan

The urge to mate and be no-ticed by the opposite sex led to the rapid evolution of 15 pigmentation genes associated with plumage and feathers, said the findings.

Birds’ ability to sing and mimic sounds is based on the same brain circuits seen in humans, though we arrived at these abilities by different evo-lutionary paths.

Meanwhile, chickens and ostriches are among the birds whose makeup most closely re-sembles that of their ancestors.

Co-author Erich Jarvis, an as-sociate professor of neurobiol-ogy at Duke University School of Medicine, described discov-ering “a big surprise that it’s actually the chicken that seems to have retained the most ances-tral chromosomal organization compared to the other species.

“But it doesn’t mean that other parts of the aspects of this genome are not as old. The ostrich could still be older,” as it seems the ostrich genome is evolving more slowly than the chicken’s, he told reporters.

Scientists were also surprised to find that flamingos, known for their long legs, elegant beaks and distinctive pink hues, are closely related to doves, pigeons and small freshwater diving birds known as grebes.

“And what we find is a real odd couple of birds... where we have doves and their allies and they’re paired surprisingly enough with flamingos and

grebes,” said Braun.

“Flamingos and grebes are different enough looking -- al-though they’re both water birds -- that you might be surprised to have them together but linking them with doves is especially unexpected.”

To arrive at their conclusions, scientists used a variety of techniques including sampling bird DNA from frozen tissue in museums and using a process called “statistical binning” that helped them group and analyze more than 14,000 genes and build a family tree linking dif-ferent bird species.

Overall, they found that size of birds’ genomes are much smaller than most other verte-brates.

While researchers said they have come up with the most reliable avian tree of life to date based on all major types of birds, it is far from complete. More genomes need to be se-quenced in the coming years to provide a fuller picture.

LAS VEGAS - British boxer Amir Khan defeated Devon Al-exander by a unanimous deci-sion in a welterweight fight Sat-urday, using his superior hand speed and strength to dominate the American southpaw for 12 rounds.

The 28-year-old Khan con-sistently beat Alexander to the punch, jabbing his way to vic-tory in the non-title fight on all three judges’ scorecards, 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110.

“I think it was one of my best performances,” said Khan, who looked unscathed except for a welt under his left eye. “I am the best boxer with the quickest hands in the world. I am getting better.”

Khan used his jab effective-ly to set up combinations that earned him the bulk of points as both fighters made it to the final bell in front of a crowd of 7,768 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

Khan also showed off his much-improved defensive skills, the result of hooking up with trainer Virgil Hunter in September 2012.

Alexander, who looked im-pressive in his last fight against Jesus Soto Karass, went into the 12th round needing a knockout to win.

Khan was originally sched-uled to fight the American for Alexander’s International Box-ing Federation welterweight title last December in New York.

But the Briton scrapped the bout because he thought he had a chance at landing a bank-breaking dream fight with Floyd Mayweather that never came off.

Alexander then lost the title to Shawn Porter, and Khan’s fel-low Brit Kell Brook snatched it from Porter in August.

Khan won every round on one judge’s scorecard, all but one on a second and all but two on the third card.

He connected on 43 percent of his shots, compared to just 20 percent for Alexander.

“I just fought a three-time world champion and proved myself to be a force at 147

Amir Khan (L) hits Devon Alexander during their welterweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 13, 2014 in Las Vegas (AFP Photo/Donald Miralle)

India’s secret gardener reveals 18-year labour of love

by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA

CHANDIGARH, In-dia - Deep inside his massive garden

of handmade waterfalls and sculptures, Nek Chand recalls toiling away secretly in the dead of night for a staggering 18 years to create his wonder-land in north India.

Riding his bicycle after dark to a state-owned forest, Chand spent night after night clearing patches of ground and trans-forming the landscape into a majestic garden that would eventually cover 20 acres (eight hectares).

“I started building this gar-den as a hobby” in the 1950s, Chand told AFP in a rare in-terview on the eve of his 90th birthday on Monday.

“For 18 years nobody came to know. There was a forest here, who would come here and what for? There were no roads to come and go,” Chand said nostalgically, seated in the garden that has become a ma-jor tourist attraction, drawing thousands of visitors a day.

After the deadly violence and upheaval of partition in 1947, India set about building a capital for Punjab state, carved out of a region that stretched across the border into newly formed Pakistan.

From the tonnes of build-ing materials and rubbish that followed, Chand carefully collected what he considered gems while working as a lowly roads inspector in the upcom-ing Chandigarh city.

Pottery pieces, glass, tiles and even broken bathroom sinks were used to make sculptures of men and women, fairies and demons, elephants, monkeys and gods.

“I had many ideas, I was thinking all the time. I began carrying all the material on my bicycle and collecting it here,” Chand said of his garden of mosaic pathways, hidden chambers and courtyards.

“I did three to four rounds on my cycle each day. I saw beauty and art in what people said was junk.”

‘Like reliving Willy Won-ka’

The 12-acre Rock Garden which began as secret project of Nek Chand in 1957, was declared as public space in 1976 and houses artworks created using a variety of urban and industrial waste. Photo: Getty Images

When his secret was finally discovered in 1976, authorities threatened demolition, claim-ing Chand had violated strict land laws.

But an amazed public rallied behind him, leading to his ap-pointment as head of the newly opened Rock Garden of Chan-digarh.

Chand stepped up his cre-ation of hundreds of sculptures -- mostly made from broken household material and dis-carded personal items includ-ing electric sockets, switches, bangles and bicycle frames.

Some made of broken glass bangles show girls dancing, others of ceramic pieces depict men at a party pouring glasses of whiskey.

Ticket sales grew as word of the secret garden spread, with some 3,000 people from across the country and overseas now wandering through daily.

“It’s so amazing. It’s some-thing like reliving Willy Wonka

during partition because they were Hindus, finally settling in Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana states.

“That is why there is a child-like quality to the sculptures,” said Alan Cesarno, a British volunteer with the Nek Chand Foundation that was set up in 1997 to raise funds for the gar-den’s upkeep.

“When you look around you realise that it is actually a child’s version of a fantasy kingdom,” he told AFP standing next to one of the several waterfalls.

Conservation challenges Chand’s statues have found

their way into museums across the world, including at the Na-tional Children’s Museum in Washington, the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the RIBA gallery in Liverpool in 2007.

Back home, the garden is fac-ing conservation challenges, in-cluding a lack of funds from the state government which takes the ticket sales, according to volunteers.

Vandalism has been reported more than once and enthusiastic visitors often climb or lean on the structures, damaging their fragile pieces.

“In a country known more for slums and garbage dumps, the rock garden stands as an ex-ceptional example,” said Mani Dhillon, a volunteer involved in the garden’s upkeep.

“It is perhaps the only place of its kind in the entire world. The administration and the peo-ple must realise its importance, they must come forward and save it before it’s too late,” she told AFP.

While Chand still oversees the garden as its founding head with near daily visits, his age and failing eyesight mean he can no longer spend the long hours needed to create new sculptures.

He is however undaunted by the challenges facing his more than half a century’s work, say-ing he has faith in God from which he draws his strength.

“I am not scared of anything. Had I been scared, how would I have worked in the dead of the night in the jungle?”

Hundreds of sculptures - mostly made from broken household material and discarded personal items including electric sockets, switches, bangles and bicycle frames - show girls dancing. Photo: Getty Images

and the Chocolate Factory,” Jasmine Paul, a resident of Van-couver who was holidaying in India, told AFP.

“It is just like the fairy tales

that you grow up reading.”With no formal education in

art or sculpture, Chand drew inspiration from his childhood when he played near a river

flowing through his village in what is now Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Chand and his family were forced to flee across the border

pounds,” Khan said.“I think I’m getting better

with age. I’m better than I was at 26 and now just starting to hit my peak at 28. I worked very hard and put on one of my best performances.”

Boxing fans the world over are hoping unbeaten May-weather’s next fight is against Filipino superstar Manny Pac-quiao, but Khan showed Satur-day that he would be a solid op-ponent if the highly-anticipated “richest fight in boxing history” can’t be realized.

“I believe I have earned my shot against Floyd Mayweath-er,” said Khan, who was fight-ing for just the second time as a welterweight. “It would be huge and I would walk out with the belt.”

In another welterweight fight at a different Las Vegas venue Saturday, former two division champion Timothy Bradley and Diego Chaves fought to a 12-round controversial draw.

The decision resulted in plen-ty of boos from boxing fans who thought Bradley deserved the win

Boxing: Khan outclasses Alexander to win Vegas fight

“We worked closely with Amir’s team. For around four to six weeks we’ve been work-ing on designs and colours and obviously Amir and his family had a little bit of input, but at the end of the day it’s what we think is going to look best. It is a very involved process.”

Khan, 28, has already caught the eye with a separate pair of dazzling shorts in the build-up to the bout with Alexander, who has won 26 of his 28 ca-reer fights.

He wore a pair of black shorts made of “Versace mate-rial” and featuring more than “1000 Swarovski stones” for a media workout on Wednesday.

Khan’s clash with Alexander will be his first fight since de-feating veteran American Luis Collazo in May.

Read more on

Leisure. Visit www.voiceofa-

siaonline.com


Friday, December 19, 2014 Section 2 Page 14 Email: [email protected] Tel: 713-774-5140

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This holiday season, keep in mind the notion that what your children play with can have a large impact on their interests and brain development. So when it comes to a walk down the toy aisle, parents are be-coming more discerning, lead-ing smart toymakers to design toys with a learning component that’s equally as important as the fun.

VTech, a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children, works with a team of child develop-ment experts to assess toys and provide feedback before reach-ing store shelves.

The members of VTech’s Ex-pert Panel are offering some helpful holiday shopping hints to parents looking to foster their child’s love of learning:

• Add it up: “Mathematical foundations provide the build-ing blocks for future math-ematical success, both in school and beyond,” says Dr. Francis (Skip) Fennell, mathematics educator.

“Toys that emphasize num-bers, counting and beginning concepts with whole number operations will develop, sup-port and encourage these cru-cial concepts and skills.”

The Count & Chomp Dino, for example, introduces chil-dren to numbers, colors, shapes and foods.

• Age-appropriate: “Chil-dren’s brains are developing at a remarkable speed,” says Dr. Lise Eliot, an early childhood development expert. “Their toys should keep up with that growth.”

Keep kids challenged with educational toys that are age-appropriate, so they are never bored or frustrated. Consider child-sized, kid-friendly tablets, such as the InnoTab

Choosing the Right Toys this Holiday Can Help Kids Meet Developmental Milestones

MAX, that are packed with educational, stage-based learn-ing content.

• Full STEAM ahead: Sci-ence, technology, engineering and mathematics (collectively known as STEM) have gained more visibility in schools, along with the addition of arts to form STEAM.

However, says Dr. Carla C. Johnson, science and STEM ex-pert, “It is still crucial to culti-vate skills in these subjects and implement them in everyday learning. Educational toys can help kids develop self-confi-dence in the use and application of these important disciplines.”

• Build vocabulary: “Children absorb new information like sponges. Take advantage of their blossoming interests with inter-active toys that highlight letters of the alphabet, the sounds let-ters make and vocabulary,” says Dr. Deborah Sharp Libby, early childhood language and reading

expert. “Above all, don’t forget the importance of reading to and with your children often!”

• Choose wisely: “Don’t get carried away with the bells and whistles. You and your kids will quickly look past those. In-stead, look for toys that actively engage your kids through tech-nology, by deeply integrating games and learning,” says Dr. Eric Klopfer, platform learning expert.

Remember, each child grows at his or her own pace, and there are few hard and fast deadlines when it comes to a child’s mile-stones. For a detailed guideline, sorted by age group and area of development, along with other free parenting resources, visit www.vtechkids.com/mile-stones.

With toys as tools for learn-ing, you can help children as they reach their educational and developmental milestones. SOURCE: StatePoint.

by Sanchali Basu

This year Alok Utsav, the annual festival of Odissi dance present-

ed by Kalaangan at the Sugar Land auditorium on Nov. 22 was even better organized and conducted than years prior. Parents, students and well wishers alike carried out all their responsibilities to a tee to make the evening run like a well oiled machine. What had started out five years ago in a small way by Guru Supradipta Dutta for Alok Utsav to show-case the talent of her students, from Kalaangan and HDBS Kala Bhavan has taken wings since, and had 50 plus dancers this year.

Of special note this year was the fact that a student from Ka-laangan, Simantini Behura had participated in the prestigious International Odissi Dance Fes-tival in Bhubaneshwar. Even though she was the youngest dancer at the Festival, she was acclaimed to be one of the best by critics. The other feather in their cap was the joint collabo-ration with Kanniks Kanni-keswaran, “The Magical Mu-sic Man from Madras,” in their production Chitram, this year.

Kalaangan students display dedication at Alok Utsav

Performances by Kalaangan students were specially recog-nized for their grace, elegance and masterful technique. It has also taken a step to give back to the dance community by intro-ducing the Kalaangan Nritya Pratibha Award (institute with a conscience) which provides a scholarship for a deserving up-coming dancer in India.

Although a tad drizzly, things started to warm up with par-ticipants signing in and guests partaking in savory snacks in the main foyer. Chief guest, Sugar Land councilman Harish Jajoo was ushered in and the program started with a brief welcoming speech by artis-tic director, Supradipta Datta. Shyama Mishra, the emcee for the evening was introduced and the program started with the invocatory piece Jaya Jag-annath in praise of the presid-ing deity of Orissa. The dances then exponentially increased in the level of difficulty and expertise and students ranging from the ages of five to over fifty gradually took the stage to dance to Namo Ganesha, Mangalacharan, Aradhana and Nritya Bilas.

Some students were invited

to speak about their experi-ences while learning the dance form and one senior college going student also mentioned how dancing Odissi provides her a stress-relieving outlet from her didactic studies. The dancers in Dasavatar, personi-fied the grace and valor of the ten incarnations of Lord Vish-nu. Saraswati Bandana was an ode to the goddess of learning. Two Abhinaya pieces followed, the first describing the cosmic dance of Lord Krishna, and the second, Ardhanariswara depicting the contrasting yet complimentary attributes of the masculine (Shiva) and the feminine (Shakti) energies.

The evening ended with Mokshya Mangalam as is customary in a Odissi recital, where the dancers attempt to reunite the soul with the abso-lute. Mrs. Datta in her vote of thanks thanked everyone in-volved in making the evening possible. ..

Kalaangan has definitely made strides in the Houston community in its pursuit of promoting and bearing the torch of Odissi under the able guidance and leadership of Su-pradipta Datta.

Keep kids challenged with educational toys that are age-appropri-ate, so they are never bored or frustrated. StatePoint.

Students of Supradipta Dutta from Kalaangan perform for the Utsav of Photo Credit: Jit Biswas.

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\by Aditya PHATAKMUMBAI - It was October

1995 when the Maratha Mandir cinema first showed one of In-dia’s best-loved movies, a Bol-lywood romcom starring Shah Rukh Khan.

One thousand weeks later, the film “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jay-enge” (The Brave-Hearted Will Take The Bride) still plays on same the Mumbai silver screen every afternoon.

“I keep coming back,” said Ghulfam Ali, a plumber, who has watched the film here 20 times because it helps him to unwind.

“The way the scenes are shot, the music and songs are very pleasing to the eyes and ears,” he told AFP, after buying his latest ticket.

“DDLJ”, as the film is fondly known, celebrates its 1000th week at the 1,100-seat Maratha Mandir on Friday, by far the longest theatrical run for an In-dian movie.

The tickets -- at just 20 ru-pees (32 US cents) each -- still regularly sell out at weekends,

while during the week a steady stream of fans arrive to enjoy three hours of escapism.

- Falling in love -The film tells the tale of two

expatriate Indians living in Britain who meet and fall in love on a trip to mainland Eu-rope.

But the young woman Sim-ran, played by actress Kajol, is to be married to a family friend in India, an arrangement set up by her strict father.

After various twists and turns in cities including London and Paris and a few picturesque musical numbers, the lovers get together and convince their families of the union -- an im-portant factor in conservative Indian society.

“I have fallen in love with the movie all over again after watching it here,” said architect Mitali Vij as she sipped a soft drink during the interval.

The film was a breakthrough for Khan, the leading man, who became one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars and known for playing cheeky romantic

heroes.It was also an archetypal

movie from late producer Yash Chopra, known for his emo-tional films, whose use of the Swiss mountains as a backdrop in hits such as DDLJ made them a popular destination for wealthy Indian tourists.

Pravin Rane, the Maratha Mandir manager, said their Mumbai show had the “per-fect package” -- and not just in terms of the film’s content.

Its location opposite a bus-tling express train station, a bus depot and a public hospital en-sures the cinema gets a regular supply of patrons, who appreci-ate the cheap tickets.

- Air-con and snacks -“Where else in Mumbai will

delayed passengers find three hours of air-conditioned relax-ation, with clean washrooms and cheap snacks?” Rane asked.

With its dark-wood interiors, worn-out seat cushions and flaking plaster, the nearly six-decade-old Maratha Mandir is

a throwback to a bygone era in India’s entertainment capital.

Its record DDLJ run is a rare success story for a single-screen cinema, a type of establishment that has been struggling to compete with the increasingly popular multiplexes in the city.

A celebration is planned this weekend at the big screen to mark the milestone, although Rane said the details were be-ing kept under wraps by the production house.

The movie’s director Aditya Chopra has meanwhile released a book on the making of DDLJ as well as a new trailer, asking people to “Come fall in love all over again”.

Rane said there were no plans to end the 19-year run, despite recent rumours that it may come to a halt, and other theatre workers hoped it would continue to provide them with income.

“In my heart there is a voice which says the shows will continue,” said popcorn seller Umar Bhai.

Bollywood hit makes Indian history with 1000-week run

Kajol and Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. — Photo Courtesy: fanpop.com

KSIAZ CASTLE, Poland: From Hollywood to Bollywood, A-listers are shooting block-busters in “exotic” Poland, a rising star in foreign film pro-duction thanks to world-class locations and crews available at a fraction of the price else-where in Europe.

Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg recently wrapped up a top-secret week of shooting in the southern city of Wroclaw for what is billed as a 1960s Cold War-era spy thriller fea-turing fellow Oscar winner Tom Hanks. Set and shot in the capital Warsaw this spring, Bollywood’s hit action-ro-mance comedy “Kick” starring A-list bad boy Salman Khan is on track to be India’s all-time top-grossing film, spurring talk of a sequel.

Two other Bollywood pro-ductions, “Bangistan” and “Shaandaar”, also chose Po-land this year, as did Japan’s upcoming historical drama “Persona Non Grata”, while French director Anne Fontaine has scheduled a 40-day shoot in early 2015 for “Les Inno-centes”. Native son Roman Polanski, who won an Oscar in 2003 for the Holocaust drama “The Pianist” filmed on loca-tion in Warsaw, is also consid-ering a new project here.

“Poland is beautiful, it’s exot-ic, it’s unique and it’s got a cer-tain sense of style which we’ve not seen before ,” said hit Indi-an film-maker and “Shaandaar” director Vikas Bahl. Along with the novelty, there’s the money factor. Most European countries offer tax rebates for international film producers starting at around 20 per cent of production cost, with Ireland touting a 32 per cent tax credit as of next year.

While Poland as yet of-

From Hollywood to Bollywood, Poland lands the starsHollywood and Bollywood are flocking to shoot films in Poland as costs and backdrops entice filmakers in equal measure.

Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer, who took part in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) with Sania Mirza, Sunil Gavaskar, Novak Djokovic, Bollywood celebs Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Ritesh Deshmukh and Aamir Khan among others, seems to have enjoyed his India trip.

Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt on the set of their upcoming movie ‘Shaandaar’ which was partially shot in Poland. – Photo courtesy: filmdhamaka.com

fers none, 100 local produc-ers provide services at up to half the cost in western Euro-pean states. Add to this nearly 1,000 locations from modern cities to rugged mountains, beaches, forests, castles and pastoral countryside brimming with old-world charm. Foreign film-makers are increasingly seduced.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Bollywood starlet Alia Bhatt pretends she is toasty warm as she skips down a staircase out-side Poland’s majestic Ksiaz castle in a spaghetti-strapped summer dress as white flowers cascade down around her. But it is late autumn and temperatures have plunged to near zero Cel-sius on the set of “Shaandaar”, billed as a destination wedding comedy also starring heart-throb Shahid Kapoor.

“Shahid and Alia have been fabulous, they’ve been wearing summer clothes in this tempera-ture, they’ve even been jumping into waterfalls,” a shivering Mr Bahl told AFP during a break in filming. Originally pegged for still-summery September, the shoot was delayed. Ms Bhatt and Mr Kapoor bundle up in fur-trimmed khaki green arctic parkas and munch on Indian “Aloo Bhujia” snacks between outdoor scenes at the 14th-century castle, once owned by Czech and Hungarian kings and, during World War II, vis-ited by Nazi Germany’s dicta-tor Adolf Hitler.

Perched on a hilltop blan-keted by forests, the castle is a “visually delightful” backdrop for the comedy focused on an Indian family’s journey abroad for a lavish castle wedding, said director Bahl. As for Poland, “I love it so I hope many other In-dians will too,” he told AFP.

Producer Vivek Agrawal is tight-lipped about costs for the film, also shot partly in Britain, but an anonymous source close to the project estimated its to-tal budget at around six million dollars. “It is more feasible to come to Poland than to go to western Europe or to the UK ... east Europe is definitely cheap-er,” the head producer at India’s

Phantom Films studio told AFP. According to Maciej Zemojcin, president of the Krakow-based Film Polska studio - local pro-ducers for “Shaandaar” and the stunt-studded “Kick” - “a day of shooting in Poland ranges from $35,000 to $150,000 (28,000-81,000 euros). Costs are 30 to 50 percent higher in western Europe, mainly over crewing.”

LEGENDS MEET DIGITAL SAVVY

While business is good, Mr Zemojcin worries that “foreign film production won’t really take off in Poland without tax breaks.” “With tax breaks, in 2012 we would have quadru-pled our business. We lost the last stage of a tender to Hun-garian producers because they could offer tax breaks. It cost us 20 million zloty ($6 million, 4.8 million euros) in lost busi-ness,” he told AFP.

Poland’s knack for film-mak-ing has not come overnight, ac-cording to Tomasz Dabrowski, head of Film Commission Poland, a state body billed as a “one-stop resource for film-ing in Poland”. “Our tradition stretches back to the 60s and 70s when directors like Wajda, Zanussi, Kieslowski and Po-lanski emerged from the Lodz Film School, recently ranked by Hollywood Reporter as the world’s number two film school,” Mr Dabrowski told AFP, noting it also launched Hollywood A-list cinematogra-pher Pawel Edelman.

Now, this venerable legacy is getting a hi-tech edge with the rise of world-class digital post-production and animation stu-dios. “Five studios, including one employing Oscar-nominat-ed animator Tomasz Baginski, have created a cluster able to service a wide range of proj-ects,” says Mr Dabrowski. He said that confidential talks are underway for at least one other major Bollywood shoot in the new year, but clinching deals would be easier if Polish pro-ducers could sweeten the pot. “We need tax breaks for foreign film-makers now, or we’ll lose our competitive edge and we might never catch up.”

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VOICE OF ASIA 16 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014HEALTHHEALTHY LIVINGHave You Enrolled In Obama Care Yet?

By Galen Institute count, more than 42 significant chang-es already have been made to Obama Care: at least 24 that President Obama has made uni-laterally, 16 that Congress has passed and the president has signed and 2 by the Supreme Court. Last article I had first 10 changes stipulated. This article covers upto 19th change.

11. Congressional opt-out: The administration decided to offer employer contributions to members of Congress and their staffs when they purchase in-surance on the exchanges cre-ated by the ACA, a subsidy the law doesn’t provide. (Septem-ber 30, 2013)

12. Delaying the individual mandate: The administration changed the deadline for the in-dividual mandate, by declaring that customers who have pur-chased insurance by March 31, 2014 will avoid the tax penalty. Previously, they would have had to purchase a plan by mid-February. (October 23, 2013)

13. Insurance companies may offer canceled plans: The administration announced that insurance companies may re-offer plans that previous regu-lations forced them to cancel. (November 14, 2013)

14. Exempting unions from reinsurance fee: The adminis-tration gave unions an exemp-tion from the reinsurance fee (one of Obama Care’s many new taxes). To make up for this exemption, non-exempt plans will have to pay a higher fee, which will likely be passed onto consumers in the form of higher premiums and deduct-ibles.

15. Extending Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan: The administration extended the federal high risk pool until January 31, 2014 and again un-til March 15, 2014 to prevent a coverage gap for the most vul-nerable. The plans were sched-uled to expire on December 31, but were extended because it has been impossible for some to sign up for new coverage on healthcare.gov. (December 12, 2013) (January 14, 2014)

16. Expanding hardship waiver to those with canceled plans: The administration ex-panded the hardship waiver, which excludes people from the individual mandate and allows some to purchase cata-

strophic health insurance, to people who have had their plans canceled because of Obama Care regulations. The administration later extended this waiver until October 1, 2016. (December 19, 2013) (March 5, 2014)

17. Equal employer cover-age delayed: Tax officials will not be enforcing in 2014 the mandate requiring employers to offer equal coverage to all their employees. This provi-sion of the law was supposed to go into effect in 2010, but IRS officials have “yet to issue regulations for employers to follow.” (January 18, 2013)

18. Employer-mandate de-layed again: The administra-tion delayed for an additional year provisions of the employ-er mandate, postponing en-forcement of the requirement for medium-size employers until 2016 and relaxing some requirements for larger em-ployers. Businesses with 100 or more employees must of-fer coverage to 70% of their full-time employees in 2015 and 95% in 2016 and beyond. (February 10, 2014)

19. Extending subsidies to non-exchange plans: The ad-ministration released a bulletin through CMS extending sub-sidies to individuals who pur-chased health insurance plans outside of the federal or state exchanges. The bulletin also requires retroactive coverage and subsidies for individuals from the date they applied on the marketplace rather than the date they actually enrolled in a plan. (February 27, 2014)

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


Antibiotics resistance could kill 10m a year by 2050

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Monday 12/15/2014

A British government-com-missioned review has found that resistance to antibiotics could account for 10 million deaths a year and hit global gross domestic product by 2.0 to 3.5 percent by 2050.

The Review on Antimicro-bial Resistance said surgeries that have become widespread and low-risk thanks to antibiot-ics, such as caesarean sections, could become more dangerous without urgent action.

The review announced by British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron was led by Jim O’Neill, former chief econo-mist at US investment bank

Goldman Sachs, and included British senior public health ex-perts.

It found the region with the highest number of deaths at-tributable to antimicrobial re-sistance would be Asia with 4.7 million followed by Africa with 4.1 million, while there would be 390,000 in Europe and 317,000 in the United States.

For comparison, the review estimated that the second-big-gest killer, cancer, would ac-count for 8.2 million deaths a year by 2050.

“The damaging effects of antimicrobial resistance are al-ready manifesting themselves across the world,” the report said.

“Antimicrobial-resistant in-fections currently claim at least 50,000 lives each year across Europe and the US alone,” it added.

The calculations were based on existing studies by the think tank Rand Europe and the con-sultancy KPMG.

It warned drug resistance was not “a distant and abstract risk” and called for “a major inter-vention to avert what threat-ens to be a devastating burden on the world’s healthcare sys-tems”.

The review emphasised the economic advantage of invest-ment in tackling the problem early.

It said that three types of bac-teria -- the Klebsiella pneumo-nia, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus -- were already showing signs of resistance to medicine.

Treatment of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis were broader public health issues in which resistance “is a concern”, the report said.

In the United States, antibiot-ic-resistant infections are asso-ciated with 23,000 deaths and two million illnesses each year.

The economic costs annually are as high as $20 billion (16 billion euros) in excess direct health care costs and $35 bil-lion (28 billion euros) in lost productivity.

Many US women get wrong radiation for breast cancer: study

Miami, United States | AFP | Wednesday 12/10/2014

Two thirds of women di-agnosed with early stage breast cancer in the United States get radiation for twice as long as recommended, re-searchers said Wednesday.

The findings in the Journal of the American Medical As-sociation (JAMA) showed that most women get six to seven weeks of radiation therapy, despite new guide-lines issued after multiple randomized trials showing that three weeks of a stron-ger type of radiation -- called hypofractionated whole breast radiation -- costs less and works just as well after breast-conserving surgery.

Hypofractionated radia-tion involves higher doses of radiation delivered over the course of three to four weeks, instead of the tra-ditional treatment of lower dose radiation for five to seven weeks.

“Hypofractionated radia-tion is high-value care and high-quality breast cancer treatment that saves the health care system money,” said senior author Eze-kiel Emanuel, chairman of Penn’s Department of Medi-cal Ethics and Health Policy and a breast oncologist.

“It’s a win-win. And yet, only a third or fewer wom-en are getting it in the US, while in other countries over 70 percent of women re-ceive hypofractionated treat-ment.”

Four randomized trials and 2011 practice guidelines from the American Soci-ety for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) support the short-er duration treatment.

The use of hypofraction-ated therapy is on the rise in the United States. The JAMA study found that 34.5 percent of women over 50 years old received it in 2013, up from

‘Significant’ link between pre-eclampsia, autism: study

MIAMI, AFP , 12/8/2014

Children born to women who suffered a high-blood pressure condition

called pre-eclampsia during preg-nancy are twice as likely to have autism or other developmental delays, US researchers said Mon-day.

The study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the Ameri-can Medical Association, also found that the more severe the pre-eclampsia, the higher the like-lihood of autism.

The research involved more than 1,000 children aged two to three in northern California. All of their mothers had confirmed di-agnoses of pre-eclampsia, and sci-entists compared data about those developing normally to those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental delays.

“We found significant associa-tions between pre-eclampsia and ASD that increased with sever-ity,” said senior author Cheryl Walker, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Davis.

“We also observed a signifi-cant association between severe pre-eclampsia and developmental delay.”

Autism spectrum disorder af-fects as many as one in 88 chil-dren in the United States.

10.6 percent in 2008.

In younger women and those with more advanced cancers, 21.1 percent of women received hypofrac-tionated therapy last year, up from 8.1 percent in 2008.

However, the United States still lags far behind Canada and Britain, where more than seven in 10 early breast cancer patients get shorter radiation treatments.

The problem in the United States comes down to a lack of financial incentive for shorter, more effective care, said Emanuel.

“The current payment structure is the biggest hur-dle -- there is no financial incentive to recommend shorter duration treatment,” he said.

“We need to properly align payment with health care quality in order to reduce low-value cancer care.”

SUGAR LAND—(December 15, 2014) — Houston Method-

ist Sugar Land Hospital is the first in Fort Bend County to treat peripheral arterial disease (PAD) using a new drug-coated balloon catheter during an-gioplasty, a surgery to restore blood flow through an artery in the heart.

Vascular surgeon Imran Mo-hiuddin, M.D., performed the procedure in early November on a patient in Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital’s state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab.

PAD is a life-threatening con-dition that affects millions of Americans. Narrowed arteries can reduce blood flow to the extremities and create a number of serious medical conditions, including the need for limb am-putation.

Traditionally, PAD has been

treated by inserting a catheter into the artery and inflating a small balloon-like device to compress the build-up of plaque on the arterial wall and widen the artery.

The new Lutonix® system takes that process one step fur-ther, with a balloon that is pre-treated with the drug paclitaxel, typically used in chemotherapy to prevent cell growth. When the balloon is inflated within the ar-tery at the site of the narrowing, paclitaxel is transferred to arte-rial walls, where it reduces the amount of scar tissue at the site.

“The combination of plaque compression and paclitaxel enables physicians to treat the initial blockage as well as help prevent the recurrence of steno-sis, or the narrowing of arter-ies,” says Dr. Mohiuddin. “Re-stenosis is a common problem with traditional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. But the Lutonix system makes it

Imran Mohiuddin, M.D. and patient, Lorraine Morton

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital is first in Fort Bend to use new angioplasty system

possible to keep the treated ar-tery open and allow sufficient blood flow for a longer period of time, reducing the risk of PAD in many patients.”

Studies show that the Lutonix drug-coated balloon improves patient blood flow by about 30 percent when compared with traditional balloon angioplasty. Approximately 90 percent of patients treated with the Lu-tonix system did not require further re-intervention within one year.

To schedule an appointment with Dr. Mohiuddin, or anoth-er vascular surgeon on staff at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, call 281-274-7500. To learn more about Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospi-tal, please visit houstonmeth-odist.org/sugarland, and visit our Facebook page at FB.com/methodistsugarland for the lat-est news, events and informa-tion.

To be continued



BUSINESSONLINE.COMvoiceofasiaonline.com

US Congress passes 2015 spending bill after bruising fightby Michael Mathes

WASHINGTON - The US Congress passed a $1.1-

trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2015 Saturday, capping a week of acrimonious wran-gling while averting a govern-ment shutdown and sending the measure to President Barack Obama.

The bill, which narrowly cleared the House of Repre-sentatives on Thursday and survived a series of procedural hurdles to pass the Senate 56 votes to 40 during a rare week-end session, funds nearly all federal government agencies through next September.

But by funding the Depart-ment of Homeland Security until only February, it sets up a showdown over Obama’s controversial immigration plan early next year, when a Con-gress under full Republican control will take another shot at rolling back the executive order shielding millions from deportation.

Despite the sometimes dra-matic bickering between -- and within -- the two parties in the special session, the bill needed bipartisan cooperation to pass the Democratic-led chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill was an imperfect but necessary com-promise.

“Since 2011, Congress has lurched from crisis to crisis, with the country constantly under threat of a shutdown or financial catastrophe. It is a bad habit, and the American people are sick of it,” he said.

Referring to America’s tax and environment agencies, number two Senate Republican John Cornyn noted how the leg-islation “slashes spending for some of the president’s most overreaching agencies like the IRS and EPA (and) blocks the administration’s plan to trans-fer dangerous terrorists onto

American soil” from the Guan-tanamo military prison.

Of the 40 no votes, 22 were Democrats, many of them fu-rious that negotiators inserted deeply controversial policy rid-ers into the package, including one that rolls back key finan-cial regulations on Wall Street banks.

Another eviscerates parts of existing campaign finance law by allowing wealthy donors to contribute dramatically more money to political campaigns than currently allowed.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal voted no, saying the package was “poisoned by special favors flagrantly con-trary to the public interest.”

The White House has indicat-ed Obama will sign the bill.

The battle over funding has been a bruiser. It included a re-volt by House Democrats that nearly sank the measure earlier this week, and procedural delay tactics in the Senate.

Congress needed to pass funding extensions twice in as many days to keep government from tumbling into a shutdown, as leaders struggled to get the funding across the finish line and bid farewell to the 113th Congress, one of the least pro-ductive sessions in modern his-tory.

Obama’s immigration order In the Senate, the measure

survived a largely symbolic Re-publican challenge to Obama’s immigration order.

Conservative firebrand Sena-tor Ted Cruz brought a consti-tutional point of order against the plan, but it was rejected by a 22-74 vote.

Cruz, widely accused by Democrats of causing last year’s 16-day government shutdown, appeared in no hurry to ease passage of the spending bill a day earlier, giving a fiery floor speech attacking congres-sional leaders for their failure to stand up to Obama’s immi-

gration order.But the political tempest

triggered by Cruz and fellow conservative Senator Mike Lee may have backfired, bringing criticism from several in their party.

It enabled Reid to launch a series of votes on Obama’s nominees for judgeships and executive branch positions, some of them controversial.

“I haven’t seen Harry Reid smile like this in years. I don’t like it one bit,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, who rued his party’s “missteps” that allowed a vote on surgeon general nominee Vivek Murthy, whose nomination had been stalled by Republicans.

“It will have the end result of causing nominees whom I think are not well-qualified to be con-firmed, so I don’t understand the approach that he is taking, and I think it’s very unfortunate and counterproductive,” Senate Republican Susan Collins said

of Cruz, according to The New York Times.

“This reminds me very much of the shutdown last year, where the strategy made absolutely no sense and was counterproduc-tive.”

The funding contains $1.014 trillion in discretionary domes-tic spending, plus $64 billion in

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (C), and Speaker of the House John Boehner, attend a ceremony at the US Capitol, Washington, DC, December 10, 2014 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

military overseas contingency operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The measure provides $5 billion for operations to coun-ter the Islamic State extremist group, and $5.4 billion in emer-gency funding was secured to respond to the Ebola crisis -- slightly less than the $6 billion Obama requested

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama announced

Wednesday he was ending the decades-old US policy of isola-tion toward Cuba, saying it has “failed.”

Among the changes, he will authorize the State Department to re-establish full diplomatic re-lations with the Communist-run island and ease economic sanc-tions imposed in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

Here are some of the key points in Obama’s new plans for Cuban relations:

--Re-establish diplomatic ties Havana and Washington have

not had full diplomatic relations since 1961, with each country instead represented through an “Interests Section” in the other’s capital.

Obama said he will open a US embassy in Cuba and have high level diplomats carry out exchanges and visits, starting in January at the next round of US-Cuba Migration talks in Havana.

-- Increase remittances Many Cubans rely on income

from their relatives living in the United States, but in the past, these remittances has been lim-ited to just $500 per quarter.

The new policy will increase the allowed amount fourfold, to $2,000 per quarter.

-- Expansion of US exports

and imports US companies will now be

able to sell to Cuba items includ-ing materials for building private homes, farm equipment, and goods Cuban entrepreneurs can use.

American citizens traveling to Cuba will also be allowed to bring back up to $400 worth of goods, including up to $100 worth of al-cohol and tobacco products.

The US will also authorize its telecom companies to set up shop and build infrastructure in Cuba, and for the export of telecommu-nications hardware, software and services, in a bid to increase In-ternet access on the island, which has one of the world’s lowest rates of Internet use in the world.

-- Increase travel Only certain categories of

travelers, including journalists, academics, government officials, and people with immediate fami-ly in Cuba, were allowed to travel to Cuba.

And in some cases, such as for freelance journalists, people par-ticipating in public performanc-es, and for some export-related travel, a special application was required ahead of time.

Under the new policy, the ad-vance application will no longer be required in many cases.

However, restrictions imposed by Congress will remain in place, including a ban on independent tourist travel to Cuba.

Key points in Obama’s shift in Cuba policy

VOICE OF ASIA 18 FRIDAY, December 19, 2014HOROSCOPEYour Horoscope for the Week of December 19, 2014

Aries (A,L,E) 21 March to 20 AprilThe warmth you feel inside will spark your professional life. Get out there and enjoy all

that life has to give. Look past others misgivings in order to take advantage of their exper-tise. You may not understand all the workings of a new technology, but you can figure out how to use it for your own purpose. Check your list and make sure you cover all the bases.

Others will be ready to open up to you and to share all of what they have, both spiritually and physically. Duty may demand both attention/time and finance/costly choices!

Taurus (B,V,U) 21 April to 20 MayAlthough you usually work hard, lately you’ve been very lax in matters of impor-

tance. Everyone is a specialist or is in need of one. Prove that you know more than your history suggests. Save time and money by drawing on the resources that you already possess. If this strategy has worked for you in the past, then it will probably work again.

Strike a happy medium with authorities who are being too rigid about your boundaries. Demands on your pocket book may seem to skyrocket, possibly due to you making promises, ...

Gemini (K,CHH,GH) 21 May to 20 JuneBide your time, Others want answers right away, but you should take some time to

analyze the whole picture. If you try to push the process faster, something will hit the fan. Unfounded suspicions and accusations will only make others more uncomfortable. It’s better to keep quiet than to be negative. A surprise will shake things up and provide

you with some answers. Try to be as discreet as possible. You’re ready to accept the news but not ev-erybody is.

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 JulyYour motivation and positive reinforcement, will feel moved into proclaiming an al-

liance between yourself and your peers. Your message will come across in a way that encourages others want to join in. You know just which emotions to draw out of others and when to do it. You could combine valid points of view to provide a dynamic effort.

Supporters will rally for your cause. Look upward and forward. Doubts should not be considered an option. Teamwork is easy for you and it could prove to be very profitable.

Leo (M) 23 July to 22 AugustGet back to your basic needs and wants. Your dilemma is that everybody wants a

piece of you. There’s usually a reason for everything that you do, but your creativity may be driven more out of necessity than talent. If you want to try to turn this situation around, you’d better start now. Use the raw materials you have on hand to demonstrate

your idea of art and beauty. You’ll have no choice but to be yourself when you journey on this new adventure. The mysteries will start to wear thin and expose the harsh reality that really exists.

Virgo (P) 23 August to 22 SeptemberRecent events have put your emotional and physical well being out of whack. Static

energy will only cause you to short out your battery. Simple pleasures will be needed in order to help you to relax. Strong words will only bring strong re-actions. Realize that tempers may be short in those sensitive areas. You need a break from away from ex-

treme solutions to dealing with simple problems. Stay confident in who you are and you’ll be ensured a smoother ride. A compromise on your part will restart stalled talks. A slow start may make you feel like jumping ship but stay with it as once emotions clear, the pace picks up fast ...

Libra (R,T) 23 Sept to 22 OctPartnerships, which will bring you more resources than if you try to go it alone. Lis-

ten to reason rather than emotion. If you start to promote your own ideas others will find it hard to deny your requests. By week’s end, you should try to slow down your pace a little so you don’t forget certain details that are important to you. You’ll need a cool and level head while others are losing theirs. A secret will be revealed in time, so

you’d better learn to wait. Know your limits and try to work within them.

Scorpio (N,Y)23 Oct to 21 NovPut your ideas into motion. In order to accomplish your immediate goals, you must

reach out and try new ways to get the job done. If you want to see results, you should know who can help. Maybe there really is a way to benefit from this power surge you

feel. You have a great network of allies that can provide you with some solid support. Several unrea-sonable requests may be brought to you. Try to hide any displeasure or disapproval. The week appears dotted with demands and duties, especially expense and emotional needs.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH) 22 Nov to 21 DecSomeone who you’ve recently pushed away will try to return into your life. Everybody

will want to be your friend, but your words may hurt your cause. You’ll have to work on being more understanding without losing your winning edge. The week end’s activities will provide you with food, friends and good conversations. The rest you get will help you to

replenish your energy and improve your perspective. Get as much done early in the week as you can since cooperation is poor.

Capricorn (KH,J) 22 Dec to 20 JanYour positive flow has actually put you in a better position than you were before. You

may have to act before you think you are ready to do so. Trust your intuition and don’t allow others to intimidate you. Friendships and love relationships will flourish once you decide to speak strongly from your heart. Your wishes and dreams will thrive on

the new secure place you’ve found within yourself. We may SEE the Archer shell out ‘like it or not’ and then “normal expense” would be the ‘mean line’.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21 Jan to 19 FebSometimes, you may be too quick to re-act, but this week, you’re right to take a stance.

Others are the same as always, but your perception of them will change radically. Be aware that your words and your actions will affect them greatly. You can probably talk your way out it, but everybody is watching to see the outcome. Stay calm and your confidence level will rise. Everybody wants security, but their concepts may be different

than yours.

Pisces (D,CH,Z) 20 Feb to 20 MarchAll eyes will be on your recent accomplishments. Take advantage of this opportunity

toBefore moving ahead on your own, think about ways to unite others. Human emo-tions cannot rule you, this time. You must try to look at things on an a more intellectual plane. Try your best to stay clear of those who try to bring you down to their level. You need to look beyond the immediate to understand how the bigger picture works. Ev-

eryone needs to feel secure, some may rely on luck but you have your own strategy in place. Making your family comfortable, secure and ‘harmonious’ is very important to you for several reasons and they may have to do with a deeply personal reason/s, possibly ‘new members’.

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

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Part Time AccountantProperty Management Company in Houston is looking for a part-time accountant with the following qualifications:

To apply please email your resume to: [email protected]

(Please indicate in the subject line: “Accounting Position”)

• Degree in Accounting or Business preferred.

• Must have good working knowledge of Quick-books and Excel.

• Experience in generating financial reports & bookkeeping.

• Other duties as assigned.

Good compensation for an experienced person

You may have heard the rule of thumb that you shouldn’t buy a home

unless you can put down 20 percent of the purchase price. However, today’s home buy-ers have many choices when it comes to the size of the down payment.

While this magic number of 20 percent will save you from paying Private Mortgage Insur-ance (PMI), an added insurance policy that protects the lender if you are unable to pay your mortgage, you can pay con-siderably less than this if you want.

“Today’s consumers persis-tently overestimate the size of a down payment they need to finance a home,” says Chris-tina Boyle, SVP and Head of Single-Family Sales & Rela-tionship Management at Fred-die Mac.

According to the results of a recent survey conducted by Zel-man & Associates, 39 percent of those surveyed estimated

PHOTO SOURCE: (c) Monkey Business - Fotolia.com

Get the Low Down on Low Down Payments

that the minimum down pay-ment requirement for a home is at least 15 percent of the pur-chase price. The reality is quite different however, as qualified buyers can get a conventional mortgage with a down payment of as little as three percent.

In fact, recent statistics show more than one in five borrow-ers who took out conventional mortgages in 2014 put down 10 percent or less.

Educating potential hom-eowners on the rules of down payments – and available assis-tance programs – plays a large role in getting qualified bor-rowers off the sidelines and into homeownership, according to Boyle, who also notes that to-day’s historically low mortgage rates, coupled with affordable home prices in many parts of the country, make it an attrac-tive time to consider buying.

“If putting 20 percent down will deplete all of your savings and leave you with no financial cushion, it’s probably not in

your best interest,” she says.

If you don’t put down 20 percent, the cost of PMI var-ies based on your loan-to-value ratio – the amount you owe on your mortgage compared to its value – and credit score, but you can expect to pay between $30 and $70 per month for ev-ery $100,000 borrowed. While it’s no doubt an added cost, it enables buyers to purchase now and begin building equity versus waiting five to 10 years to build enough savings for a larger down payment.

Additionally, once you’ve built equity of 20 percent in your home, you can cancel your PMI and remove that add-ed expense from your monthly payment.

New homeownership op-portunities are poised to grow. Carefully evaluate your financ-es to determine how much you can afford and talk with your lender or housing professional about what makes best sense for you and your particular situation. SOURCE: StatePoint

DALLAS, Texas (Dec. 11 2014) – Money-Gram (NASDAQ:

MGI), a leading global money transfer company announces that customers can now send money to all Rupee-denomi-nated bank accounts in India in as little as three hours, when sent during India bank pro-cessing hours.

“Our agents around the globe can now provide this superior service offering to customers seeking a fast and efficient way to send funds directly into any Indian bank account with excellent exchange rates,” says Grant Lines, MoneyGram’s executive vice president, Asia Pacific, South Asia and Middle East. “With the addition of In-dia, we now offer bank account deposits through the Money-Gram network into four of the world’s largest remittance re-ceive markets — China, India, Mexico and the Philippines.

MoneyGram Launches Money Transfer Service to All Bank Accounts in IndiaMoneyGram customers can now send bank deposits to India in as little as three hours

This is a significant milestone for us, and it follows closely on the heels of our launch last month of a new send-to-wallet solution into Kenya’s M-Pesa ecosystem.”

This service, developed in collaboration with one of In-dia’s largest banks, Axis Bank, taps into the national Indian banking payments network, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) network. With a real-time connection through Axis Bank, Money-Gram provides its customers around the globe with access to the efficiency and speed of the India NEFT network to send international money transfers directly into rupee-denominat-ed bank accounts.

Customers can send funds through MoneyGram to all major banks in India including Axis Bank, Punjab National Bank, ICICI, HDFC, SBI and

many more. Indian bank pro-cessing hours are generally Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Indian Stan-dard Time), and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to Noon (Indian Standard Time). Individual bank branch processing hours may vary.

About MoneyGram Interna-tional, Inc.

MoneyGram, a leading mon-ey transfer company, provides essential services to consumers who are not fully served by tra-ditional financial institutions. MoneyGram offers worldwide money transfer services in more than 200 countries and territories through a global network of 347,000 agent lo-cations, including retailers, international post offices and banks. MoneyGram also offers bill payment services, issues money orders and processes official checks in select mar-kets.

[email protected]

Part time Piano and Voice Teachers need-ed for growing Music School in Sugar Land. Candidates must have formal education at the college level, however a degree is not required. 2 days per week, hours 3:00-7:00. Pay rate ranging $25-$32/hour, depending on qualifications. Resume should outline teach-ing experience, performance experience and formal music education completed.

Jobs Available @ Music School

Send resume to: [email protected].

Part time Music Therapist needed for a Music Studio in Sugar Land seeking to expand its services to the community. Degree and Certification required.

Be Strategic in How You Handle Success

Dec 16, 2014

People often prepare for failure, but they rarely prepare for

what they will do when they succeed. Even when we con-sciously want to be success-ful, enjoying that success can be a challenge. Being successful can leave others envious, and even hoping to see you fail. To avoid caus-ing resentment, it’s impor-tant to learn when, where, and how to share the good news. When you discuss your wins, talk about other things you are still develop-ing so as not to appear boast-ful. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your victories — just don’t flaunt them. Celebrate the value you bring, not winning per se. It’s also important to keep looking for new challenges. No one wants to be bored, even at the top. When you have mastered something, ask yourself: How can you innovate around this?

Adapted from “The Un-expected Consequences of Success” by Srini Pillay.

MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY FROM HBR.ORG

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Voice of Asia Dec 19 2014