India Currents - October 2014

Finding Kalpana by Ranjani Iyer Mohanty

The Taste of Conflict by Kamala Thiagarajan

INDIA CURRENTSINDIA CURRENTSObrigada, Brasil! by Jana Seshadri

By Vamsee Juluri

september 2014 • vol. 28 , no .6 • www. indiacurrents.com Why do we not speak to the modern world as Hindus? Not as fundamentalists, not as apologists, but simply as intelligent observers?

Celebrating 28 Years of Excellence

Who Is a Hindu?Who Is a Hindu?

September 2014 | www.indiacurrents.com | 1

2 | INDIA CURRENTS | September 2014


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Wave of SadnessRobin Williams, engaged in the business

of happiness, died tragically of sadness. His death captured something distinctive about the nature of a man’s engagement with the world. While the world chortled at Williams’ rapid fire verbal ballet of parody, insight and inventiveness he crumbled inside, day by day, with a pain that few could quite sense or fathom.

It is said that he was once asked what he had anything to be depressed about? History has shown us with examples such as Vincent van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, Sylvia Plath that talent, fame or wealth are not immune to the disease.

Every forty seconds someone, some-where in the world, commits suicide, accord-ing to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, and it is among the three leading causes of death among the 15 to 44 age cat-egories in some countries.

I recall a conversation I had a few years ago at a dinner party, when someone men-tioned that depression was a rich man’s disease and quoted a WHO study indicating that rich countries like the United States and France had a higher incidence of depression than less affluent countries.

As I delved deeper into the same study, I found that the poorer respondents in these

rich nations tended to have double the risk of major depression as compared to the richest respondents. It just might be the case that depression is reported and taken more seri-ously in these well funded countries.

Many of us have been touched by a wave or two of utter and debilitating grief at some point in our lives and getting out of that free-fall state required some emotional fluency and support. And there are some of us who encounter this wave more frequently than others, in degrees more severe than the last.

The triggers might run the gamut from trivial to serious, leading to a sense of lone-liness: a facebook post, losing a friend or loved one, losing a job or striving for that elusive sense of perfection.

The perceived sense of hopelessness can very quickly become all pervasive and de-bilitating. And the cover up continues. We put our happy faces forward and charge on, dissembling and hiding the palpable signs of our inner dystopia.

Robin Williams’ death showed us, again, that we are all vulnerable. It doesn’t matter what country we come from or whether we’ve achieved a level of success that the world deems unsurpassable.

Loneliness is painful.

Jaya Padmanabhan

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INDIA CURRENTSLIFESTYLEPERSPECTIVES Northern California Edition

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September 2014 • vol 28 • no 6

3 | EDITORIALWave of SadnessBy Jaya Padmanabhan

8 | FORUMShould America Send Troops to Iraq?By Rameysh Ramdas, Mani Subramani

10 | A THOUSAND WORDSWoof, Yeah, Yeah, MoreBy Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

15 | COMMENTARYWaving Stars and Warning StripesBy Usha Akella

22 | MEDIAMaya, Marquez, MandelaBy Sandip Roy

25 | FICTIONRivers of TimeBy Ritu Marwah

30 | PARENT PRINCIPLEDriven to DistractionBy Dinakar Subramanian

81 | OPINIONFinding KalpanaBy Ranjani Mohanty

110 | PERSPECTIVEI’m a Gastronomic TraitorBy Alakananda Mookerjee

122 | ON INGLISHPuffed Up Over a RotiBy Kalpana Mohan

126 | THE LAST WORDA Brave New WorldBy Sarita Sarvate

82 | Cultural Calendar96 | Spiritual Calendar

34 | BOOKSReviews of The Sleeping Dictionary and Where Earth Meets WaterBy Jeanne Fredriksen, Girija Sankar

38 | FINANCETrading in BitcoinsBy Rahul Varshneya

60 | RECIPEFodder to FoodBy Praba Iyer

62 | RELATIONSHIP DIVAKeeping Jealousy in CheckBy Jasbina Ahluwalia

68 | MUSICSeptember SinglesBy Vidya Sridhar

94 | REFLECTIONSSalutations to the SunBy Jojy Michael

102 | HEALTHY LIFEThe Practical VegetarianBy Gopi Kallayil

108 | DEAR DOCTOR Spanking ChildrenBy Alzak Amlani

DEPARTMENTS

6 | Voices6 | Popular Articles

112 | Classifieds125 | Viewfinder

WHAT’S CURRENT

32 | Ask a Lawyer33 | Visa Dates

Why is the modern world so unsure of the history and tradition behind Hinduism?

By Vamsee Juluri

16 | Who Is a Hindu?

The Taste of Conflict

By Kamala Thiagarajan

Obrigada, Brasil!

By Jana Seshadri

75 | FilmsReviews of Kick and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania By Aniruddh Chawda

42 | In Focus

46 | Travel


A Wake-Up Call I applaud letter writer, Jessica of New

York (Contributing to America?, Letters Coumn, India Currents, August 2014) for her honest opinion, where she points out the burden American taxpayers have to bear for all the non-productive family members sponsored for immigration from India by their citizen relatives of the United States. While family integration is a good goal, it should not be implemented at the expense of American taxpayers (including children of the sponsors), but instead it should be borne by the sponsoring relatives.

Those who sponsor their older parents who cannot work in the United States and therefore would not pay social security taxes and medical insurance premiums, benefit from living with or close to them, getting free babysitting for their children, free house-keeping, and pocketing the Supplementary Social Security payments of roughly $800 per person per month, that are handed out to the older immigrant parents on their honor system statement that they do not have any assets in their home country.

This is not fair to poorer American citizens who have worked all their life in the United States, paid taxes and medical premiums (like many school teachers for ex-ample), but get a pittance in Social Security payments when they retire.

Already our welfare system is burdened by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, and United States is no longer as prosperous as it was after World War II, to maintain such generous handouts for family integration.

Maneck Bhujwala, Huntington Beach, CA

Three Cheers!In the letter (Want Miracles? Letters

Coumn, India Currents, August 2014), Usha Kris gives three cheers for Modi.

Amit Shah, the newly promoted BJP president, is a defendant in a long running murder case. He has been absent in the court trials since the Elections. When the trial judge criticized Shah’s absence, the judge was promptly transferred. Should we be now singing “Three Cheers for Narendra Modi’s Judicial Interference?” Congress vi-ciously corrupted individuals. BJP is corrupt-ing the System. Cheers for both!

Mohammed Shoaib, email

A Patronizing Attitude?Your editorial (The Heart of India, India

Currents, August 2014) captures the inde-

fatigable spirit of the people of India against all odds!

Rameysh Ramdas, CA

Your editorial (The Heart of India, India Currents, August 2014) betrays the callous and patronizing attitude toward the poor in India that most English-speaking Indians have. You are not shocked by the fact that “a young boy, barely 10 years old,” is not in school but is forced to earn a living by hustling shoeshine in a local market in Delhi. You casually mention the fact that “his face is grimy and his clothes are threadbare” with-out a hint of anger at the regime of linguistic apartheid that renders him inarticulate in his own country and keeps him in lifelong penury. You “laugh at his gall” and “meet his ink black eyes” and see a trite and vapid paradox about the people of India.

Kanchhedia Chamaar, email

The Modi-Obama Meet It shall be the test for the most power-

ful, oldest and the largest democracies of the world. Both the leaders aspire to great things for their respective nations as well as for the whole world. Now they have to find ways to give shape to their ideas.

The Honorable Dr. A.P.J. Kalam once said that the real and the fastest progress is possible when technology meets spirituality. Here is the great opportunity for this to hap-pen. United State’s technology and India’s spirituality can create waves in the world and can definitely make this earth, a much better place for all human beings to live.

Hope the ball shall be set to roll in this direction by the two big leaders during this meet. I wish them all the success.

A. Bhatia, email

A Vivd PictureThe fiction article (A Bag of Ashes, India

Currents, August 2014) is a beautiful story by Ravibala Shenoy. It paints a vivid picture of living oceans away from aging parents in India.

Ambika Kasbekar, Facebook

Insightful ReviewsJeanne Fredriksen (Love is in the Aril,

When Worlds Collide, India Currents, August 2014) asks the most insightful questions of an author. I can’t tell you how many books I have read because of her great reviews. The Last Taxi Ride was the latest. Fabulous! City of Devi is on my summer read list.

Bonnie J Becker, Facebook

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Most Popular Articles OnlineAugust 2014

1) Independence Day Celebrations Shyamal Randeria-Leonard

2) A Bag of AshesRavibala Shenoy

3) The Heart of IndiaJaya Padmanabhan

4) Rehearsing ReturnRagini Tharoor Srinivasan

5) Bollywood Ties, Literary KnotsEdited by Jeanne Fredriksen

6) Festival of India and Movie FestEmma G. Blanco

7) Matchmakers and Meat EatersMak Akhtar

8) Street Food EntertainmentJagruti Vedamati

9) Poetic AlchemyP. Mahadevan

10) Heavenly Kailash MansarovarAnita Kainthla

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