India Herald

India HeraldWeb: www.india-herald.com • [email protected]; [email protected] • Tel: 281-980-6746

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Indo-American Association concludes its 2014 season with an outstanding cross-cultural rhythm concert featuring renowned Japanese percussionist Kenny Endo (Taiko drums and more), Cuban Percussionist John Santos, Indian percussionist Abhijit Banerjee (Tabla and more), Indian percussionist Somnath Roy (Claypot), as well as for melody Kala Ramnath on Violin and Snehashish Majumdar on Mandolin.

The concert is at the Cullen Theater of Wortham Center (501 Texas Ave., Houston 77002) on Saturday October 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets ($25-$60) are

available at www.iaahouston.com or 832. 487.7041. Group and student discounts are available.

The eight multi-disciplinary concerts in the IAA 2014 season included: Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion; Tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; Farid Ayaz Qawwals; Tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar by Ronu Majumdar and Partho Sarathy; Rekha Bhardwaj: Hema Malini’s ballet Durga; Volosshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble; and Tarang.

IAA’s 2015 season of eight events is ready for public announcement next week.

The opening concert on February 14, L. Subramaniam’s Chamber Orchestra is special in more ways than one.

For the fi rst time ever in Houston, India’s foremost violinist and orchestral composer Dr. L. Subramaniam will lead a 20-member string and woodwinds ensemble of Indian and Western musicians, offering compositions that weave Western classical harmonies with traditional Indian music.

Equally signifi cant, the concert will raise funds for a worthy public health cause- net proceeds will benefi t the Clean Ganga project.

On Saturday, October 11, a packed ballroom at J.W Marriot hotel welcomed an esteemed group guests for Magic Bus’s fi rst charity gala in the United States.

Despite being scheduled during an active Indian wedding season, multiple Diwali dances and the North Indian celebration of

Karvachauth, over 340 guests attended and made the event a resounding success.

The gala was underwritten by Amit and Arpita Bhandari.

Magic Bus is a nonprofi t organization (Magicbus.org) based in Mumbai that seeks to improve the lives

Kailash Satyarthi, left, an Indian child rights campaigner, and Pakistani child education activist Malala Yousafzai, right, have jointly won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee praised the pair’s “struggle against the suppression of children and young people.”

At 17, Malala is the youngest recipient of the prize. The teenager was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in October 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education.

Satyarthi, 60, founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Childhood Movement, which campaigns for child rights and an end to human traffi cking.

See Satyarthi, Page 9; Malala, Page 21.

Nobel Peace Prize winnersGenerous donors join Magic Bus gala

IAA launches 2015 SeasonMAGIC BUS BOARD. Swatantra Jain, left, Matthew Spacie, Sunita Moonat, Mona Parikh, Amit and Arpita Bhandari; Rear, Kevin Negandhi, left, Ram Shriram, Gopal Savjani, H.D. Patel and Brij Kathuria. Photo BIJAY DIXIT.

See MAGIC, 1

• INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

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Wells Fargo & Company is lighting up Diwali with com-munity celebrations and part-nerships throughout the coun-try.

In addition to supporting Di-wali Festivals and other events across the country, Wells Fargo is working to help bring smiles during the New Year by collab-orating with Operation Smile to provide free surgeries for chil-dren in India born with cleft lip

and cleft pal-ate.

Until Oct. 26, Wells Far-go will donate $3 to Opera-tion Smile, an international c h i l d r e n ’ s medical char-ity, for every Wells Fargo E x p r e s s -Send® mon-ey transfer to India from an eligible a c c o u n t . * Wells Fargo will make a $25,000 m i n i m u m donation to O p e r a t i o n Smile with a maximum donation of $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 .

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Additionally, for the second year, Wells Fargo was a major supporter of the Diwali celebra-tion in Times Square in New York City on Sept. 20.

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TOPIC OF THE WEEK

India HeraldIndia Herald (USPS 017-699) is published every Wednesday (for a sub-scription rate of $25 per year) by India Herald Inc, 13643 La Concha Lane, Houston TX 77083-3438. Tel: 281-980-6746. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send ad-dress changes to India Herald, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487. India Herald welcomes articles, letters for publication. Website: www.india-herald.com Email: [email protected]: Seshadri Kumar. Executive Editor: Rajeev V. Gadgil. c India Herald. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part of any material herein, without permission, is prohibited. India Herald assumes no liability resulting from action taken based on the information included herein.

By M.R. VenkateshMore than 100 years after Rabi-

ndranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel for Literature in 1913, India’s quest for the Nobel Prize has attained a certain philosophi-cal completeness under all cat-egories for which it is awarded, with Kailash Satyarthi of India being chosen along with Malala of Pakistan on Friday for the No-bel Peace Prize 2014.While C.V. Raman won the

Nobel for Physics in 1930, Har Gobind Khorana bagged it un-der the category of Medicine in 1968. Khorana shared his prize with Robert W. Holley and Mar-shall W. Nirenberg.The Albanian-born Mother Te-

resa who later worked out her spiritual destiny in Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, even as India was again crowned with the Nobel Phys-ics in 1983 in the hands of Sub-rahmanyam Chandrasekhar. He shared it with William Alfred Fowler.If in 1998 Prof. Amartya Sen

won extraordinary laurels for India by winning the prize for Economics “for his contribu-tions to Welfare Economics,” it was then followed by Venkatra-

man Ramakrishnan chosen for the Nobel Chemistry in 2009. Dr. Ramakrishnan shared it with Thomas A Steitz and Ada E. Yo-nath.Five years later, an Indian has

again bagged the Nobel Peace, this time sharing it with a coura-geous Pakistani girl, rounding off a rare sub-continental partnership to work together for suffering hu-manity at large.Across generations in the past

century, alongside the birth of Modern India, for the common man the Nobel Prize has been an extraordinarily distant goal, often invoking a mixed feeling of awe and the other-worldly recogni-tion even if most of the prizes are in the empirical sciences.However, a century later, into

the 21st century, one connecting thread in these accomplishments, is the synthesis of the search for knowledge and effective pur-poseful action that Nobel Prize accomplishments have come to mean, more so when the winners have had some connection or other with India.While some people would

want to even include pre-Inde-pendence British Indians in this list - notably Ronald Ross, who

according to the Nobel Foundation website was born on May 13, 1857, in Almora in India and was award-ed the prize for Medicine in 1902 “for his work on Malaria”, and the B o m b a y - b o r n writer Rudyard Kipling who was awarded the Liter-ature prize in 1907, two other Nobel winners associat-ed with India also need to be men-tioned here. The fi rst is the contro-versial writer and Literature prize winner in 2001 V. S. Naipaul, whose

dian to win the Nobel followed by C.V. Raman, have long dominatedpopular consciousness, in the post-1960s, the excitement about theprize itself looked more pronounced in the public sphere, at least froma journalist’s point of view, fi rst with Mother Teresa demonstratingthe importance of humane action, and when Chandrasekhar won thePhysics Prize “for his theoretical studies of the physical processes ofimportance to the structure and evolution of the stars”.It was a fairly rapidly changing India in terms of social mores that

was stepping into the 1980s’. All this was happening even when thedebate over why Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, wasnot considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, continued however mutedit may have been.This intellectual excitement reached a peak when Professor Sen was

honoured and more recently when Dr. Ramakrishnan won the prize in2009 for the study of the “ribosome- one of Life’s core processes” asthe Nobel Citation put it. Venky, as he was popularly known amonghis peers until the prize brought him to public limelight, started off hiscareer as a theoretical physicist, as he himself put it, and then movedon to Molecular Biology.When Dr. Ramakrishnan addressed the Madras University students

soon after his winning the prize that year, he was quite candid that hedid not care much for nationalities as his research effort was a testa-ment to how the search for knowledge is truly universal. And he also drove home the point that world class work in science

was taking place in India itself. It came as sweet music to hundreds of University students that day,

by then attuned to the former President Abdul Kalam’s “dream bigMantra”.Nonetheless, it was Professor Sen who more lucidly explicated the

sense of completeness in his Nobel Banquet Speech 1998. Referring to economists being frequently asked: “Are you against or

in favor of the market?” or “Against or in favour of State action?,” Prof. Sen said: “This is an invitation to replace analysis by slogans

— to be guided by grand dogma, either of one kind, or of another. Wedo need the clear stream of reason. “What Tagore, the poet, and Chandrasekhar, the physicist demanded,

we need in economics too...” Tagore’s own “universalist, tolerant andrationalist ideals were a strong infl uence on my thinking and I oftenrecollect them in these divisive times,” Prof. Sen said. — The Hindu

India’s Nobel quest completes a cycle of sorts

ancestors had their roots in In-dia, and second, more recently Dr. R. K. Pachauri, who as then Chairman of the U.N. body, ‘In-tergovernmental Panel on Cli-mate Change (IPCC)’, shared the Peace Prize laurels with Al Gore Jr. in 2007, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made cli-mate change.” Yet, the new assertive Indian

middle class in the new millen-nium was in no great hurry to seize ownership of them as In-dian icons.Historically, that original pride

of India’s intellectual soul being recognised by the West has large-ly been associated with Tagore, C. V. Raman and the mathemati-cal genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in terms of modern paradigms of knowledge. This is notwithstanding the fact

that philosopher-scholars like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Sri Aurobindo made waves in the West.While Tagore, being the fi rst In-

Nobel winner Kailash Satyarthi with some rescued children

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Indian Music Society of Houston PresentsHindustani Classical Vocalist

Pandit Kumar Mardur

Sat, November 1 @ 4 p.m.Cullen Hall, Univ of St. Thomas

Programs are subject to change for reasons beyond the control of Indian Music Society of Houston.IMS Programs are partially funded by a grant from Houston Arts Alliance.

For tickets: Govind 713-922-2501Suresh 281-935-4653 orwww.tickets2events.com

Disciple of Late Pandit Feroz Dastur of Kirana Gharana

Ticket: $25

Accompanied byPt. Ashish Sengupta on Tabla

Pt. Satishreddi Kolli on Harmonium

Vocalist Kumar Mardur is from

Dharwad in Northern Karnataka,

home to several leading Hindustani

classical vocalists. Trained by his

father, Pt. Somanath Mardur, and

then by the famous Pt. Feroz Dastur,

Pandit Kumar Mardur is a recipient

of Sangeet Natak Academy award.

He is a tutor (guru) at the prestigious

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environment which is just as rich as

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abroad.

See Page 6

By Rajesh Thatte

Their feet are ready to step,hands ready for Kathak mudras,faces full of expressions ready forthe stage light. This is a dedicatedgroup of Houston’s youngestMaharashtrian community mem-bers, as young as 5 years and upto high school.

More than 60 children are prac-ticing hard for the past severalmonths to present to you once ina life time mesmerizing presenta-tion of “Durga Zali Gauri”, a the-atrical presentation which depictstransformation of a young princessfrom being angry and ill-manneredto happy and humble.

Durga Zali Gauri is to theMarathi theatre what The Nut-cracker is to the English theater.Houston Maharashtra Mandal(HMM) will present this perfor-mance on November 8 2014 atCullen Performance Hall, Univer-sity of Houston.

The original musical was pro-duced about 25 years ago bySulabha and Arvind Deshpande,noted Marathi Artists. It has beenwidely adapted by various per-forming groups in India.

It is a story of Princess Durgaand her journey. Durga, the pam-pered princess cannot sleep andno one knows why. Her parents,the King and Queen are willing todo whatever it takes to please theirlovely daughter but her insomniais causing common citizens of the

kingdom to suffer.The common folks are often

forced to build something to find acure for Durga’s sleeplessness.Days pass by but nothing worksand the subjects of the kingdomsuffer. Finally in a fit of anger theprincess leaves the palace and aneventual accident causes amemory loss.

She travels through kingdom asa common person, develops em-pathy and compassion towards hercitizens and helps them. Pleasecome and watch the musical tolearn how Durga turns into Gauria loving, caring person.

Although the dance drama is inMarathi, it will be accompanied bynarration in English which shouldmake it easy to understand foreveryone.

Houston’s Maharashtrian com-munity is presenting this musicalas a fundraiser for building of thetemple and community center.HMM is delighted to have re-nowned Hindi and Marathi Movieactors, directors and producers,Sachin and Supriya Pilgaokar, asGuests of Honor for this perfor-mance. Sachin started as a childactor in Marathi film, Ha MajhaMarg Ekla (1962).

He went on to act in about 65films as a child artist. As an adultactor he gave hits such as GeetGata Chal (1975), Balika Badhu(1976), Ankhiyon Ke JharokhonSe (1978) and Nadiya ke Paar(1982). He has acted, produced

and directed successful comedyshows on Indian television, includ-ing Tu Tu Main Main (2000) andKadvi Khatti Meethi.

Sachin has also acted in sev-eral hit Marathi films including therecent movies Ekulti Ek (2013)and Sanggto Aika (2014).Supriya is a well-known Hindi andMarathi television and movie per-sonality.

Sachin and Supriya appearedtogether on the dance show NachBaliye and walked away as thewinners of season 1.

Children and volunteers areworking hard to bring this grandproduction to the best of their abili-ties. Artists, mainly children, areexcited that their talent will be pre-sented in front of the noted artistsSachin and Supriya.

The Greater Houston area isseeing unprecedented growth thatis attracting Indians in large num-ber to the area.

The Maharashtrian communityhas grown from a few dozen fami-lies to several hundreds. Many ofthe families are now in third gen-eration and working hard to keeptheir Maharashtrian heritage aspart of their American lives. Thisis easily seen from sold-out HMMevents during the year. The largenumber of members need a com-mon place to get together, inter-act and celebrate various festivals.

The members also need avenue we can call our own for

Houston Maharashtra Mandal’s musical playfor Vastu project benefit


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celebrating our events such as milestone birthdays, religious events,and anniversaries. Sensing this growth and need, HMM proposes tobuild a temple and a community center that will serve the communityin future years. Passes for the Durga Zali Gauri play can be ob-tained by donating to HMM. Donation levels are set at $100, $1,000,$5,000, $10,000 and $15,000+.

Each donor is provided four passes for the main event. Every dona-tion is tax deductible if you itemize. HMM is a 501(c) (3) non-profitorganization. To obtain passes for the show or to make a donation,please visit www.hmmhouston.org or contact Shirish Kulkarni [email protected]

HMM’s play Durga Zali GauriFrom Page 5

NORRISTOWN, PA: A Mont-gomery County Court jury Tues-day, Oct 14, sentenced a King ofPrussia man to death for murder-ing a baby and her grandmotherin a 2012 kidnapping plot that wenthorribly wrong.

Jurors convicted 28-year-oldRaghunandan Yandamuri of first-degree murder last week in thestabbing death of SatyavathiVenna, 61, and the suffocationdeath of her 10-month-old grand-daughter, Saanvi Venna.

The jury, which deliberated forabout 3-1/2 hours Tuesday, couldhave chosen to sentenceYandamuri to life in prison with-out the possibility of parole.

Yandamuri had no visible reac-tion to the announcement. Helooked down and continued scrib-bling notes, as he had for much ofthe monthlong trial in Norristown.

Montgomery County First As-sistant District Attorney Kevin

Steele and Deputy District Attor-ney Samantha Cauffman said thesentence was what the victims’family wanted.

“It’s not going to give them backwhat they lost, but it is a sense ofclosure for them,” Cauffman said.

Henry S. Hilles, Yandamuri’sattorney for the trial’s sentencingphase, said that he was disap-pointed but that he had preparedYandamuri for the possibility of thedeath penalty. Aside from a moun-tain of incriminating evidence inthe case, Yandamuri’s decision torepresent himself for the firstphase of the trial stacked the oddsagainst him, Hilles said.

Hilles said it was unclearwhether Yandamuri would repre-sent himself when he appeals theverdict. Formal sentencing will bescheduled within 45 days.

Prosecutors said Yandamuri, aformer information-technologyworker who emigrated from In-

Techie to die for murder of baby, grandmotherdia on a work visa, plotted to kid-nap the child for ransom moneyto feed his gambling habit andkilled the grandmother when shegot in his way.

Yandamuri maintained his inno-cence throughout, showing noemotion even during momentswhen jurors were moved to tears.

The five women and sevenmen on the jury considered aggra-vating factors such as the ele-ments of Yandamuri’s crimes andmitigating factors such as testi-mony of his gambling addictionand mental state.

At the end of Yandamuri’s sen-tencing hearing, Steele asked ju-rors to hand down the death pen-alty because Yandamuri commit-ted the murders as part of a planto carry out additional crimes, suchas holding the child for ransom.

He also reminded jurors of tes-timony from a pathologist who saidthe infant died painfully with agreat “hunger for air.”

Hilles implored jurors to sen-tence Yandamuri to life behindbars, saying Yandamuri had noprior criminal record and has a his-tory of mental illness. A forensicpsychologist had testified thatYandamuri suffers from bipolardisorder that impairs his judgmentand emotional control. Last week,Yandamuri told MontgomeryCounty Court Judge Steven T.O’Neill he would rather take thedeath penalty than sit through thesentencing hearing. He agreed toremain in court for the hearingafter speaking with his attorney.

Medi earns Luxury Home DesignationHarinath Medi, real estate agent with

Luxury Home Council, Inc. in Houston wasrecently awarded the Accredited LuxuryHome Specialist (ALHS) Designation fromthe Luxury Home Council, Inc.

The Accredited Luxury Home special-ist (ALHS) Logo is testimony to the agent’straining and expertise in the luxury homemarketplace. To display the ALHS logoand be accepted into the Luxury HomeCouncil, each member must successfullycomplete the Accredited Luxury home Spe-cialist Course, meet minimum sale require-ments .

Medi joins an elite membership of topreal estate agents throughout the UnitedStates and Canada. Members strive to pro-vide exceptional service to affluent clientsthrough rigorous education focusing on theluxury Home Market and their understand-ing of the special demands of affluent buy-ers and sellers.

Medi has been very active in the com-munity rendering community service activi-ties.

He is the past President of ICC (IndiaCulture Center), and the President and theChairman of South Asian Chamber of Com-merce. He is one of the founding trustees

of Indo American Cham-ber of Commerce.

Presently, he is thePresident of OsmaniaUniversity Alumni Asso-ciation of America. In thiscapacity, Medi is engagedin fund raising activities forsome projects forOsmania University inHyderabad. For more in-formation, please contactHarinath Medi at 281-498-4300.

Harinath Medi

COMMUNITY NEWSINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 • PAGE 7

Hindus of Greater Houston wishes all a very happy Deep-avali, the festival of lights. The ‘Festival of Lights’ signifi es the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair.

As an appropriate gesture, and corresponding to their 25 year observance of Janmashtami to-gether, the several Hindu temples and organizations of Houston are celebrating Diwali by helping the Food Bank of Houston and serv-ing the needy.

Close on the heels of the role of air and water, to sustain life and to carry on the body functions, the most essential requirement is the availability of food.

And there is no better expres-sion of human compassion than offering food to the hungry. Ac-cording to WHO, hunger is the gravest threat to the world’s pub-lic health and the biggest con-tributor to child mortality, an es-timated three million dying every year without enough food.

Even in a land of plenty like the USA, the distressing reality is that a sizeable number of people are fraught to get adequate food for sustaining their lives.

It is estimated that almost one in seven of our people, a stag-gering 18 million household of the US population are not getting enough food to eat and about 40 million live under poverty level.

Towards meeting the needs of such hungry, the world’s fi rst food bank was established in the US in 1967, and since then several thou-sands of such have come up all over the world.

There are several food banks in Houston offering food to the hun-gry on a regular basis, and there are periodic ‘food drives’ initiated by various organizations.

‘Feeding the hungry’ has re-mained an essential tradition of Hindu faith as it is in most other religions.

Hindu temples have always provided free food to the devo-tees and the hungry; Hindu homes have made it a tradition to ensure that passers-by would be invited to eat.

Before we closed the doors at night it was a daily practice in our homes to call out for anyone around who has not eaten, and serving them food.

‘Athidhi Devo bhava’, the axi-om meant that we considered our guests, godly.

Hindus of Greater Houston have been involved in food bank drive, during Diwali, initiated by HMEC a few years ago and this year we are doing it collectively.

As per the celebrated practice of our faith, all our temples and other organizations will collect food and feed the hungry.

Individual temples are setting up the drive, collecting the food and passing it on to the common food bank.

HGH coordinator Anshuman Desai has been coordinating the project this year with Arya Samaj, Chinmaya Mission, Sri Meen-akshi Temple, VPSS, JVB Prek-sha Meditation, Ashtalakshmi Temple and Sewa International

initiating the drive, as more organi-zations would soon join the effort.

As a community we are joining hands and pitching in our efforts as a united group. As much as we have several temples and different ways in the practice of our devo-tional adherence, our philosophy is essentially based on our Eternal Vedic principles, Sanatan Dharma.

And the food bank drive is an opportunity for us to present our-selves as a unifi ed force. Being the third most practiced faith of hu-manity, it is important that Hindus stay organized and be recognized as one group, for our presence and the profound principles that we be-lieve in. It is our hope that each one of us stands up to that ideal and does our part, and does it with conviction and compassion. Let the Food Bank Drive promote our unity to provide for the deprived.

— Venugopal Menon

Hindus of Greater Houston holds Diwali Food Drive


COMMUNITY CALENDAR

or call for info.(713) 665-4665

Chandra & David Courtney Tabla and Vocal

Classes in Houston,Mission Bend,& Sugar Land

Visit www.chandrakantha.com

Classesnow ongoing

COMMUNITY CALENDARMTS Diwali BazaarSat., Oct 18 @8:30 a.m.Annual Diwali Bazaar at

Meenakshi Temple, 17130McLean Road in Pearland. From8:30 a.m. to midnight. Includeshealth fair, rangoli competition,food court, fireworks, and garbato live music.

Diwali fest at RadhaMadhav DhamSat., Oct 18 @5 p.m.

Diwali celebration at RadhaMadhav Dham, 400 BarsanaRoad, Austin 78737. From 5 p.m.to midnight. Ram Leela perfor-mance, fireworks, food andgames for children, raas-garba.Visit www.Radhamadhavdham.org for details.

Diwali at SRKTSat., Oct 23 @7:00 p.mKarva Chauth Vrat Katha at

the Shri Radha Krishna Temple,11625 Beechnut Street. MahaArti at 7 p.m. Goverdhan Poojaand Annakoot on Sunday Oct 26,starting at 5:30 p.m. For more in-formation call temple at 281-933-8100 or visit www.SRKT.org.

HTW Diwali MelaSun., Oct 19 @ 11 a.m.Hindu Temle of The Woodlands

celebrates Diwali Mela from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Featuring mehndi,rangoli, diya decorating, Idniandances and showcase of jewelry,fashion, handicrafts and chatpatsnacks. Admissioin is free.Temple is located at 7601 SForestgate Dr, Spring, TX 77382.Visit woodlandshindutemple.org.

Children’s TheatreFrom Oct 11 to Nov 15

every Sat at 2 p.m.To kick off its 24th season,

“Around the World and Acrossthe Street,” Express Children’sTheatre will present Mulan theWarrior Princess. This original

der visit to conduct retreats andtalks. For info, visit www.houstonvedanta.org or 281-584-0488.

Durga Bari TempleDurga Bari temple is open from

9 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Mon.thru Sat. Sandhya aarti at 6:30p.m. Temple closes at 7 p.m. Sun-day special from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.Puja services - Priest BishnupadaGoswami 281-597-8100 Temple islocated at 13944 Schiller Rd (offHwy 6 bet. Bellaire & Westpark).Call Ganesh Mandal at 713-797-9057 / 832-423-8541.

Telugu FellowshipTelugu Christian Fellowship

meets every third Saturday of themonth at Triumph Church, 10555W. Airport Blvd., Stafford TX77477 at 6:30 p.m. Join us for atime of praise, worship and fellow-ship. Worship is in English. CallChris Gantela 281-344-0707, orRev. V. Gurrala 281-997-0757.

Sahaj Marg MeditationSahaj Marg (Natural Path)

Meditation and Spirituality (www.sahajmarg.org) A natural, simplesystem of Raja Yoga meditationand spiritual practice. Weeklysatsangs in Houston area. EmailRadheshyam Miryala at meditate_houston@yahoo. com ormeditate.galveston @gmail.com.

Heritage ClassesAshirwad’s Heritage Classes in

Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land forkids 4 to 18 yrs - meditation, Yoga,slokas, stories from scriptures,Vishnu Sahasranam, bhajans, com-petitions and fun activities. Adultmeditation classes. Register atwww.ashirwadab lessing.org orSri Ravula 281-995-0930.

Hare Krishna DhamHouston’s original Vedic temple,

ISKCON of Houston. At 1320 W34th St. (77018). Daily Darshan& Arati Times: 4.30am, 7am,8.30am, 12noon, 4.30pm, 7pm,9pm. Sunday Festival: 5.30 pm to7.30 pm. Weekly Gita classes foradults; call 281-433-1635 orharekrishnadham @gmail.com

Gandhi LibraryMahatma Gandhi Library Book

Club: Meets 2nd Sunday of eachmonth; 12:30 PM at Arya SamajGreater Houston, 13475 SchillerRd. Join the discussion of the greatman’s autobiography – The Storyof My Experiments with Truth.Call Manish Wani 713-829-6979.

Saumyakasi SivalayaSri Saumyakasi Sivalaya is lo-

cated at Chinmaya Prabha, 10353Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77478. Temple timings: Monday toFriday: 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon and5:00 - 8:00 PM Saturday and Sun-day: 8:30-2:00 PM and 5:00 - 8:00PM. Contact Bharti Sutaria 281-568-1690 or Jay Deshmukh 832-541-0059 or visit www.saumyakasi.org.

Veerashaiva SamajaVSNA Houston is a group of

families who believe in Veera-shaiva dharma (Basava dharma).Monthly Mahamane program for

Open Forum Radio ProgramKGOL 1480 AM • Saturdays 4 to 6 p.m.Informative programs with doctors, lawyers,politicians and other newsmakers.Call 713-784-1480

Where Your Opinion Counts

SALES HELP WANTEDWell-known Houston jewelry store is looking forsaleswomen availabe to start immediately. Must be ableto speak English and Hindi well. Call 713-789-7575

prayer and discussion on Vachana Sahitya followed by Prasada. Con-tact: [email protected] or Jagadeesh Halyal 832-744-4166.

Shiv Shakti MandirSanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir, 6640 Harwin. Open daily 7 a.m. to 8

p.m. All major festivals, as well as birthdays, naam karan, engage-ment and other ceremonies. Call Pandit Virat Mehta 713-278-9099 orHardik Raval 361-243-6539 for puja or other ceremonies.

Houston NamadwaarA prayer house where the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Maha-man-

tra is continuously chanted. Weekends: 8-11 AM & 4-7 PM, Week-days: 7-8 AM & 6-7 PM. Weekly “Gopa Kuteeram” children’s heri-tage classes and Srimad Bhagavatam classes. Call 281-402-6585;visit www.godivinity.org (Global Organization for Divinity).

Mar Thoma ChurchTrinity Mar Thoma Church every Sunday at 5810 Almeda Genoa

Rd. Sunday School at 9:15 a.m. Malayalam service at 9:30 a.m. on1st & 3rd Sunday. Adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. English service at10:30 a.m. on 2nd & 4th Sunday. Call 713-991-1557 or 281-261-4603.

Sri Guruvayurappan TempleHours: Mon to Fri 6 a.m. -8 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Week-

ends & Holidays: 6 a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. BhajansSaturdays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Special poojas(weekends and holidays) Choroon (Annaprasam) for kids,Thulabharam, Vahana Pooja, Nirapara. Temple is located at 11620Ormandy St (77035) Tel: 713-729-8994 email: temple@ guruvayur.us

Arsha Vidya BharatiSanskrit classes and special worship sessions for all ages. At 2918

Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479.Call 281-606-5607 [email protected]. Web-site: https://sites.google.com/site/avbtexas/classes

Preksha MeditationNew facilities of JVB Preksha Meditation Center. Classes for Yoga

and Meditation under guidance by Samani jis and discourses. At 14102Schiller Road (off Hwy 6 bet Bellaire and Westpark - 77082). Tel281-596-9642.

Patanjali YogpeethFree Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun at Arya Samaj from 8 am to 9:30

a.m. Call Anil 281-579-9433. For other free classes, call Indra 281-537-0018. For Yoga/Herbal products, call Shekhar 281-242-5000. Web:www.pyptusa.org and www.DivyaProducts.com.

Gaudiya MathSri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd., Hous-

ton 77084. Satsang Sundays 5 to 7 pm. Mantra meditation, kirtan,Sanatan Dharma classes. Vedic Education and Hindi classes for kids5-14 yrs. Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wed. Hanuman Chalisa andRamcharit Manas on Tue. 7:30–8:30 p.m. info@sggm. org or 281-499-3347.

Hosted by Dinkar Chheda, JagatKamdar and Subodh Bhuchar

adaptation dramatizes value ofcourage, compassion, loyalty andthe power everyone has to makea difference in the world. On Sat-urdays at 2 p.m. from Oct 11 toNov 15 at Express Children’sTheatre, 446 Northwest Mall.Tickets are $10. Visit www.expresstheatre.com or call 713-682-5044.

Arya Samaj SatsangWeekly Havan Satsang every

Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.DAV Sanskriti School Sundays 10a.m. to 12 noon. - Havan, Hindiand Naitik Shiksha classes. DAVMontessori School for ages 2 to 7years. Call Arti Khanna 281-759-3286. Free Yoga classes on Sat.Sanskrit & Upanishad classesTue. 6-8 p.m. At 14375 SchillerRd. (bet Westpark & Bellaire offHwy 6). 281-752-0100.

Chinmaya MissionSunday satsangs for adults,

youth, and children. A unique BalaVihar program for each grade,from PreK to Grade 12. Satsangsin two sessions between 8:35 a.m.- 10:15 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. -1p.m. Bala Vihar students cantake shloka, bhajan and orchestraclasses or language classes forHindi, Telugu, Marathi, andGujarati. Located at ChinmayaPrabha, 10353 Synott Road,Sugar Land, TX 77498. Newmembers may visit the welcomedesk between 8 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.or 10:15 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Visitwww.chin mayahouston.org orcall Bharati Sutaria 281.933.0233.

Vedanta SocietyVedanta Society of Greater

Houston, 14809 Lindita Drive(77083) has classes every Sun-day from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.on Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 1st& 3rd Sunday; Bhagavad Gita,2nd Sunday; on works of SwamiVivekananda, 4th Sunday; HolyMother Sarada’s Gospel, 5th Sun-day. Swamis of Ramakrishna Or-

Send brief details of your program forfree publication in India Herald.

Email to editor@ india-herald.com

FreeListing

AUSTIN: On the afternoon of October 14, the U.S. 5th CircuitCourt of Appeals issued a stay on the injunction of the enforcement ofphoto ID legislation as it applies to the Nov. 4 election. Below is astatement from Texas Secretary of State Nandita Berry.

“Today the court issued a stay that means photo ID requirementswill continue to be in effect for the November 4 Election, just as theyhave been for the last three statewide elections. Voters should pre-pare, as many already have, to show one of seven approved forms ofphoto ID if they plan to vote in person. ”

To cast a ballot in person, registered voters need to present one ofthe following approved forms of photo ID:

Texas Driver License – issued by the Texas Department of PublicSafety (DPS)

Texas Personal Identification Card – issued by DPSTexas Concealed Handgun License – issued by DPSUnited States Military Identification card containing the person’s

photographUnited States Citizenship Certificate containing the person’s photo-

graphUnited States Passport – issued by the U.S. governmentElection Identification Certificate – issued free by DPSWith the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the photo ID

must be current or expired no more than 60 days.For more information about voting in Texas, visit VoteTexas.gov,

your official voting resource.

Voter ID issue and the Nov 4 election

Please, no flyers


INDIA

IMMIGRAIMMIGRAIMMIGRAIMMIGRAIMMIGRATIONTIONTIONTIONTIONLAW OFFICES OF

DAKSHINI R. SEN, P.C.Attorneys at Law7100 Regency Square Blvd., Ste. #190

Houston, TX 77036

Tel: 713-278-1677Fax: 713-278-1656

New York Office:1123 Broadway, Ste. # 509

New York, NY 10010

Tel/Fax: (212) 242-1677Dakshini R. Senanayake, B.S., LL.M.Licensed by the Supreme Court of New York

Not Licensed in Texas nor certified by any

Board of Legal Specialization

Web: www.dakshinisen.com • Email: [email protected]

H-1B, L1, P3, TN, O1, R1 and other non immigrant visasGreen Card thru Employment: PERM / I-140

Green Card thru Family: I-130/I-485Citizenship

Sharma Tilal Senanayake, CPACertified Public Accountant

Off: 713-984-4852 • Cell: 832-283-1677• Fax: 713-278-1656Email: [email protected]: sharma-cpa.com

Sharma Tilal SenanayakeCPA, MA, FCA

7100 Regency Square Blvd Ste 230-7• Houston, TX 77036

* Business & Personal Tax Preparation* Maintain Books of Accounts for Businesses* Project Evaluations and Feasibility Studies* Payroll, Payroll Taxes and Statutory Filing


NEW DELHI:Before he becamethe second Indian towin the NobelPeace Prize on Fri-day, Oct 10, notmany had heard ofKailash Satyarthi.

But within 90 min-utes of the an-nouncement, thechild’s rights activ-ist had gained morethan 4,500 followerson Twitter—and thelist was growing atblazing speed.

The 60-year-old activist has been a relentless crusader of childrights and his organisation, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), hasbeen at the forefront of the drive against child labour in India for years.

“It was a passion from my childhood to work for children, I carriedit forward,” said Satyarthi. “I have been very strongly advocating thatpoverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labour. Itperpetuates poverty. If children are deprived of education, they re-main poor.”

Satyarthi was trained as an electrical engineer, but he began hiswork by staging raids on Indian manufacturing, rug-making and otherplants where children and their parents often work as bonded labour.

The Bachpan Bachao Andolan, founded in 1980, has fought childlabour by creating domestic and international consumer resistance toproducts made by bonded children, as well as with direct legal andadvocacy work.

Building on his initial activism, Satyarthi organised the Global MarchAgainst Child Labor in the 1990s — dedicated to freeing the millions

of children abused worldwide in aform of modern slavery.

The activist is also founder ofRugMark, a widely known inter-national scheme that tags all car-pets made in factories that arechild-labour free.

In 1998, he organised the Glo-bal March Against Child Labouracross 103 countries, whichhelped pave the way for an Inter-national Labor Organization con-vention on the worst forms of childlabor.

He described the plight of chil-dren forced into the worst kindsof abusive work in a 2010 inter-view with the Robert F. KennedyCentre for Justice and HumanRights.

“If they cry for their parents,they are beaten severely, some-times hanged upside down fromtrees and even branded or burnedwith cigarettes,” he said.

Satyarthi has said his socialconscience was awoken when hewas six and noticed a boy his ageon the steps outside the schoolwith his father, cleaning shoes.

Seeing many such childrenworking instead of being educated,he felt an urge as he grew olderto solve the problem — launchinghim on his career of activism.

“I think of it all as a test. This isa moral examination that one hasto pass. ... to stand up against suchsocial evils,” he said in theKennedy Centre interview.

Through a number of trainingprogrammes, Satyarthi also helpschildren sold to pay off their par-ents’ debts find new lives andserve as agents of preventionwithin their communities.

“The outstanding work that MrSatyarthi has done over the past35 years on child labour and traf-ficking has helped changemindsets and influence commu-nities to protect children’s rights

and create a more just society,” Deval Sanghavi, founder of Mumbai-based philanthropic organisation Dasra, told HT.

President Barack Obama on Friday congratulated Kailash Satyarthiand Malala Yousafzai calling their Nobel “a victory for all who striveto uphold the dignity of every human being”.

Himself a Nobel peace laureate from 2009, Obama also said thatdespite their difference background, they share an “unshakeable be-lief in the basic dignity of every girl and boy”.

The Bachpan Bachao Andolan was initiated as a grassroot-leveland direct-action-oriented people’s movement in 1980 to eliminateexploitation of children, especially child labour and child trafficking.The campaign has over 80,000 individuals and 750 organisations asmembers, who advocate and act for the protection of child rights.

One of Satyarthi’s big achievements is the promotion of a con-sumer awareness campaign in Europe and the US aimed at dissuad-ing consumers from buying carpets made by child labourers and si-multaneously endorsing goods produced without exploiting children.

Satyarthi uses an array of techniques including lobbying with politi-cians and knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court, National Hu-man Rights Commission and other judicial institutions for enforcementof child rights laws.

Nobel Peace Prize for child rights advocate Satyarthi

Kailash Satyarthi

VISHAKHAPATNAM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visitedthe port city on Tuesday, Oct 14, to witness the devastation caused byCyclone Hudhud and announced a Rs. 1,000-crore interim assistancefor all areas affected by the very severe storm in Andhra Pradesh. Heannounced a Rs. 2 lakh each to the families of people killed in cy-clone-related incidents and Rs. 50,000 each to those injured.

Modi said the Centre and the State had coordinated perfectly tominimize damage during the cyclone. But no one could stop a naturalcalamity.

“We have selected Visakhapatnam to be developed as a smart city.I also heard that it is a beautiful city. It is unfortunate that it sufferedsuch a heavy damage. But we will render all help,” Modi said afterreviewing the situation with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu at the Collectorate here.

Union Ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and P. Ashok Gajapathi Rajuwere present at the review.

Modi and his team reached here by a special aircraft after 1 p.m.and were received by Naidu and others at the old terminal. The PrimeMinister visited the new terminal and saw the damage the cyclonehad caused. From there, he drove to the Collectorate in the city ac-companied by Naidu. The review meeting lasted about half an hour.Later, he left for New Delhi. Naidu said the Navy suffered a loss ofRs. 2,000 crore.

All major industrial units in Visakhapatnam have suffered extensivedamage. The international airport may resume commercial operationson a limited scale in a week. A public sector official said some moretime was needed for assessing the extent of damage.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., the corporate identity of theVisakhapatnam Steel Plant, hit hard by grid failure, has shut downoperations. Chief Minister Naidu told Modi that the damage to theplant was estimated at Rs. 700 crore.

The hull shop and other infrastructure of Hindustan Shipyard Ltd.,a Defence Ministry enterprise, were blown away. Heavy winds notonly uprooted communication installations but also blew away shedsand workshops. Telephones, both landline and mobile, are dead. Thinattendance was reported at various factories.

“It’s a colossal loss to the industries. We hope that with timely res-toration effort, normality is brought back soon,” CII Vizag Zone Chair-man and former Deputy Chairman of Visakhapatnam Port G.V.L.Satya Kumar said.

Two days after the cyclone residents struggled to procure water,milk, candles and petrol. Several makeshift stalls and roadside ven-dors made a killing by doubling the prices.

Half a litre of milk that normally costs Rs. 20 is being sold for Rs. 50to Rs. 100. Unable to put up with the huge price variation, some of thecustomers protested. “On Monday, we held a dharna at our place as apacket of milk was sold for Rs.50 and a 20-litre can of drinking waterwas priced at Rs. 250,” said S. Gowri Shankar, a resident ofMadhurawada.

The Visakhapatnam and the Gangavaram ports, which togetherhandle 85 million tonnes, have suspended operations.

Modi visits Vizag, pledges 1000 cr

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Andhra Pradesh Chief ministerChandrababu Naidu (2nd from right) in Vishakhapatnam.


INDIA

MIM makes inroads in MaharashtraHYDERABAD: After it surprised political observers in 2012 by

wresting 11 seats in the Nanded civic elections, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is set to test its strength in the MaharashtraAssembly elections. The Andhra Pradesh-based party hopes to makesin roads in the State as it has fielded candidates in 24 seats, including14 in Mumbai, mostly from Muslim and Dalit populated pockets.

The MIM could prove a thorn in the sight of the Congress and theNCP. Twelve out of the 14 seats chosen by the MIM in Mumbai arecurrently with either the Congress or NCP.

The seats have substantial percentage of Muslims, leading the Con-gress and the NCP of accusing the MIM of being an agent of the BJPthat is out to divide the “secular” vote. The pitch of MIM leadersHyderabad MP Assauddin Owaisi and MLA Akbarruddin Owaisi intheir campaign, in turn, has been to accuse the Congress and NCP ofplaying communal politics under the garb of secularism.

The MIM list of candidates features Shahid Rafi, son of legendarysinger Mohammmed Rafi. He is contesting from Mumbadevi andBandra (East). Former Maharashtra Transport Minister and a renownedDalit leader, Gangadhar Gade, is the party’s candidate in AurangabadEast while former NDTV special correspondent Imtiyaz Jaleel is fight-ing from Aurangabad Central. In Mumbai, some of the seats wherethe MIM could eat into the Congress’ Muslim vote share are Byculla,Versova, Shivaji Nagar, Bandra East and West, Kurla, Mumbra andBhiwandi.

The party’s claim is that it is fighting to win and not benefit anyparty. “If we would just want to make an impact, we would havecontested all 288 seats. We have chosen these seats as we feel wecan win with the support of Muslims and Dalits,” said Jaleel. If theCongress and NCP do not resort to using their machinery and moneypower, Jaleel is confident that his party can win 8-10 seats. Observ-ers, however, give the party much less.

India Culture Center, Houston (ICC) is requesting Nominations for ICC Board of Directors (7 positions for 2 year term) and

Trustees (2 positions for 3 year term)

The nomination must be proposed,seconded and signed by paid members of ICC. The candi-

date must be a paid member of ICC as of AUG 31, 2014. The mailing address, phone number

and e-mail addresses of all three (Nominee, Nominator and Seconder) must be provided in

the nomination, signed by the nominee as well which should be faxed to the Chairman of the

Election Committee and also mailed along with a non refundable processing fee of $25 to the

address below and should reach by November 29, 2014. Postmark will not be considered.

A nominator can nominate only one candidate though he or she can second multiple nominations.

The elections for Board of Directors will be conducted on December 7, 2014 (Sunday) at 2 pm

at India House, 8888 West Bellfort Houston, TX-77031. You can download the Forms from ICC web-

site (www.icchouston.org)

The nominations should be faxed and also should be mailed by any paid member of ICC for Trustee

position and should reach the election Offi cial no later than November 29, 2014. A simple form with

your name and nominee names, address, phone number and e-mail address. The Trustee candidate

should meet one of the following eligibility criteria. Person can nominate by member self, resume

should be attached.

a. Must be a Past President of ICC OR

b. Must have had a distinguished record of past services to ICC, Partnering Organizations or

Community at Large. Attach Resume to validate qualifi cations.

* Only 4 nominees will be presented to the board of directors for consideration.

Committee will consider one past president and one person with distinquished record as written in

the qualifi cations. Election Committee has right to accept or reject any or all nominees by majority

vote of Committee.

Charlie Patel , President 832-423-7979 Email: [email protected]

Jasmeeta Singh, Secretary 713-858-8229 Email: [email protected]

www.icchouston.org

Mail completed and signed nomination to:-

Jawahar Malhotra Member, Election Committee

12207 Westmere Drive, Houston, Texas 77077

Email: [email protected] Fax: 713-789-6399

Rejected nominees will be informed in advance. Please verify ICC Bylaws for strict adherence.

Checks to be payable to ICC. Incomplete forms will not be considered. ICC By laws are available

on www.icchouston.org

1. At-Large Board of Directors

Requirements and Qualifi cations for Directors

Requirements for Trustee:

2. Nominations for Trustees

For further information:

INDIA CULTURE CENTER, HOUSTON (ICC) NOTICE 2014

Errors & omissions

excepted

BJP considers CM names inHaryana, Maharashtra

MUMBAI: With campaigning for theMaharashtra and Haryana assembly elec-tions ending on Monday evening, Oct 13,the BJP leadership, confident that the riskit has taken in contesting the polls alone inboth states will pay off, has begun talks onpossible chief ministerial candidates.

In Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis,president of the party’s state unit, is be-lieved to be on top of the list of possiblechief ministerial candidates, while his coun-terpart in Haryana, Ram Bilas Sharma, isamong the frontrunners for the top post inhis state. The other names for Maharashtrainclude Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde.However, sources said Fadnavis, being the

Devendra Fadnavis

prominent “clean” face in Maharashtra politics, could be the first choiceif the BJP gets a clear majority on its own. For Haryana, the list alsoincludes Captain Abhimanyu and Anil Vij, the party’s leader in theoutgoing state assembly.

Pre-poll surveys conducted by private agencies as well as the BJP’sown polls have given the party a clear edge in the five-cornered con-test in Maharashtra. The BJP, which won 46 seats and a 14 per centvote share in the 2009 Maharashtra elections, decided to go it aloneafter seat-sharing discussions with its 25-year-old alliance partner theShiv Sena failed. “It was a gamble, but the party president and thePrime Minister have put in a lot of effort,” said a party leader.

While Modi addressed 27 rallies in Maharashtra and 10 in Haryana,BJP president Amit Shah addressed 20 rallies in each state. “Ourinternal surveys in Maharashtra have given us the impression that ourpositive campaign will pay dividends. Modi, as the brand ambassadorof good governance and development, still enjoys the trust of thepeople,” said the party leader.

In Haryana, the selection of a chief ministerial candidate will not bevery easy, admitted a party leader. “The hand of history can touchanyone,” said the senior leader. Although some surveys have forecasta hung assembly in Haryana, the BJP calculates that it will be thelargest party and the INLD will be its main opponent.

“The party has to take a decision on whether we should have anon-Jat chief minister or a Jat chief minister, because if we come topower, we do not want to antagonise any community,” said a source.But he added that the chances are stronger for a non-Jat leader as theBJP is relying more on a non-Jat community support base.

“The BJP has a range of leaders in both states for the chief minister’spost. The elected MLAs will choose their leader after October 19(the day of counting),” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Meanwhile, a day after the campaign ended, the Shiv Sena on Tues-day launched a fresh attack on the BJP, terming it as “hungry forpower” and likened the Congress and the NCP to “dead snakes”.

“The BJP asks us who the real enemy of Shiv Sena is and who arewe fighting against. But the Congress and the NCP are like deadsnakes, so there is no danger to us from these parties. But it is impera-tive now that we bring to forefront the hypocrisy of our one-timefriends,” the Sena said in its mouthpiece ‘Saamna’

In Haryana, BJP has momentumCHANDIGARH: This is perhaps the most fiercely fought elec-

tion in the state since its formation in 1966 and a question of survivalfor most of the regional satraps. The BJP, which had never in the pastsmelled victory on its own, is hoping to win this time, such is the mo-mentum after its spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha electionsin the state. The party won 7 of the 10 seats in Haryana in May.

For Hooda, it is a matter of survival. He is seeking votes in thename of development and 10 years of “good” rule. But the oppositiontrashes his claims. Large sections of the party, however, appeared tohave given up the fight much before the election campaign began.Even the party’s manifesto had nothing new to offer.

Om Prakash Chautala’s sudden emergence from jail on medicalgrounds gave a twist to the campaign. “There is no charge that I tookmoney. The only charge is that I gave 3,000 jobs. You give us powerand I will take oath from inside the Tihar jail. I will give 300,000 jobs ifit means remaining in jail ever after,” he roared at a meeting.HJCchief Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was a chief ministerial candidate until hewas with the BJP, became a fringe player alongwith Jan Chetna Partypresident Venod Sharma and Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal GoyalKanda. They are only in a position to play a spoilsport for mainstreamparties in some of the constituencies.

A major fallout of the election outcome for the BJP could be itsimpact on the alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab. TheSAD is the senior coalition partner with the BJP in Punjab but is in anadversarial role in Haryana due to its support for the INLD. The SADis contesting two seats in alliance with the INLD.The SAD, inciden-tally, enjoys a majority on its own in Punjab Assembly and there wouldbe no adverse impact immediately on the government in there if BJPdecides to withdraw from the coalition.

Right until the eve ofMaharashtra’s most hotly con-tested election, there was no let-up from the principal players. TheShiv Sena took its tirade againstformer ally, the BJP, to a new lowin an interview by party chiefUddhav Thackeray to the partynewspaper, Saamna, referring toPrime Minister Narendra Modi asa “chaiwalla” (tea-seller). “He hassaid that if a chaiwalla can be thePrime Minister, then why can’t Ibe the Chief Minister?” Saamnaeditor and party MP Sanjay Rauttold the media.

Uddhav Thackeray’s estrangedcousin Raj Thackeray, who leadsthe Maharashtra NavnirmanSena, sought space in the politicalspotlight by sharpening his anti-migrant stance. In an exclusiveinterview to The Hindu, he saidhe would not apologizse to theElection Commission which hassent him a notice charging himwith violating the Model Code ofConduct in his poll rallies inMumbai. Mr Thackeray had saidthat if he came to power, only lo-cal Marathis would get jobs inMaharashtra.

Former Chief MinisterPrithviraj Chavan sparked a ma-jor controversy after an interviewto an English daily in which hedeclared that he did not act againstformer Congress Chief MinistersAshok Chavan and VilasraoDeshmukh in the Adarsh scam tosave the party from being “deci-mated.” He later claimed his com-ments had been distorted.

All political parties inMaharashtra are waiting withbated breath to see the voter turn-out, as it is considered a key fac-tor in the five-cornered contest inthe State. In the Lok Sabha polls,

the State witnessed a turnout of60.3 per cent. However, Mumbai,which has traditionally witnessedlow turnout, recorded 51.5 percent voting.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elec-tions, the State registered a turn-out of 59.5 per cent; and in theAssembly elections held withinmonths after the general elections,it was a dismal 46.1 per cent.

Following a furore over miss-ing names on the rolls during theLok Sabha polls, the Election Com-mission conducted a special en-rolment drive which saw an addi-tion of 20 lakh new voters. Around8.35 crore voters are entitled to

elect 288 members to the Assem-bly. The state police have madetight security arrangements, withthe deployment of over two lakhState police personnel. They willbe assisted by about 390 compa-nies of Central Reserve PoliceForce, State Reserve Force andReserved Forces from Gujarat,Rajasthan and Sikkim.

Around 9,900 of the 90,403polling stations have been identi-fied as hyper-sensitive. InMumbai, 48,000 security person-nel have been deployed at 9,920polling stations. Of these, 1,003have been identified as sensitive.

Maharashtra’s most hotly contested election


COMMUNITY NEWS

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of impoverished children by promoting the importance of schooling through the universal love of sports.

With a dedicated network of 8,000 volunteers and operations that span across 14 states, Magic Bus teaches over 250,000 children the importance of gender-equality, education, health, teamwork and confi dence by engaging them in games that reinforce a positive outlook.

Meena Datt, host of Music of India and Ghungroo radio program, welcomed the diverse audience, passionately reiterated the importance of Magic Bus and then once again thanked everyone for their support.

Kevin Negandhi, the fi rst Indian-American anchor for ESPN, served as the master of ceremony, and enthralled the audience with his unique path into the sports journalism world. Drawing parallels with Magic Bus on the importance of sports had on his youth, Kevin stressed how proud he was to be an Indian-American and the magnanimity of the attendees.

Amit Bhandari, president of the Houston chapter, took the stage and expressed delighted-disbelief on the tremendous support from the community as well as the Houston board (Gala Chair Swatantra Jain, Co-chair Jugal Malani, Dr. H. D. Patel, Dr. Sunita Moonat, Brij Kathuria, Gopal Savjani and Mona Parikh) that helped propel Magic Bus onto the national stage.

Consul General Pavathaneni Harish commented on how the political landscape has shifted in India and that it was in a unique crossroads for remarkable growth.

Following the tremendous energy of the room, keynote speaker, Google Board Member and serial Venture Capitalist, Ram Shriram emotionally recalled his childhood in Chennai and how his uncle taught him a lifelong lesson on how one should always give back to others — he urged the captivated audience to donate and help change the lives of the children in the slums.

Matthew Spacie, the founder and CEO of Magic Bus and offi cially christened “Indian guy” by Kevin, spoke of his time growing up in Mumbai and how a simple game of rugby with neighborhood kids

sparked the idea for Magic Bus. He detailed the amazing

progress and effi cacy of the Magic Bus program and how its unique peer-driven methodology provided signifi cant results on retention and enrollment rate.

MagicFrom Page 1

Showcasing the individual human impact, Magic Bus alumni Parvati Pujari spoke in now fl uent English on how the program helped her escape living homelessly on constructions sites as well as a possibly tumultuous childhood marriage, and drove her to be the fi rst college graduate in her family.

Highlighting the grass-roots

community nature of the program, Suryakhant, a bubbly 20-year-old who was mentored by Parvati, expresses a new found respect for women and bright career aspirations.

During a lively pledge drive and auction, an astounding $353,690 was raised throughout the night and then generously matched by Ram Shriram, shattering the

fundraising goals. The night was completed with an elegant dinner catered by Madras Pavilion and Bollywood music that drew the crowd to their feet.

The resounding success and incredible turnout for Magic Bus’s fi rst gala galvanized the community to action and will surely lead to other future fundraising events.

Ram Shriram, left, with Gala chair Swatantra Jain.

Volunteers with Mathew Spacie, Ram Shriram and Amit Bhandari. Photos BIJAY DIXIT.


Navarathiri or Dushera or Durga Puja – the nine days of auspiciousness and celebra-tions just concluded

In Tamil Nadu/South India, where a very unique age old tradition is followed along with the worship of the three God-desses - Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi during the festival.

The tradition is called “Golu” - where dolls made of clay (typically) are arranged on rows/steps in the living room of the household. Steps are usu-ally in odd numbers beginning anywhere from three and go up to nine.

As a young family, one may start with three steps with hand me down “bommais” or dolls and the steps grow with years as the family grows.

The dolls range from ani-mals, which are typically dis-played in the last row, to hu-mans (wedding ceremonies or market place) to Gods. Among many ideologies one belief is that Golu teaches us to cel-ebrate life from any/very order and that we all evolve through our various births from lower to higher levels. The dolls made of clay/earth signify that life begins and ends with earth.

Many of us who have made Houston our second home have fond memories of celebrating golu/navarathiri back home during our childhood.

We continue our tradition here in the land of America by displaying golus (nowadays dolls can be ordered online from shops that distribute in the US), inviting people over to celebrate with music, devotion, and exchange of auspicious gifts to nurture relationships.

Wearing colorful silk saris, and bedecked with dazzling jewelry women fi nd it the most exciting season to be visiting many of the homes (a.k.a Golu Hopping) to meet and wish friends. A light meal is typi-cally served consisting of sun-dal (cooked legumes that are garnished) and these days it has almost become a family event where men and children join in.

Children back home espe-cially girls were very much part of the celebration, and the most interesting and memorable as-pect was dressing the kids up as various mythological or di-vine characters during the sea-son. Little girls had their hair adorned with beautiful fl owers called Jadai.

Mrs. Vidhya Kumar of Sug-ar Land had the brilliant idea of bringing this concept into vogue here in Houston during her Navarathiri celebration this year. She had invited kids ag-ing from 4 to 12 years of age to dress up as various characters on the Vijayadasami day which she had chosen for this mega fi -

COMMUNITY NEWS

nale event. On Oct 3rd, kids (of course

with great effort from parents) came dressed as Muruga, Shi-va, Lakshmi Saraswathi, Meen-akshi, peacock and many oth-ers in very authentic costumes. They were seated on the stairs like live dolls in rows.

It was a great sight to watch each of them adorably dressed and enthusiastically share the signifi cance of the deity/char-acter they represented.

There was much excitement in adults and children during this gala as many of us relived our childhood days and were

proud to pass on our tradition to our children - the future torch bearers of our culture.

Congratulations to Vidhya & Kumar for their enthusiastic and successful effort and to all the participants of the costume show & their parents.

—NALINI SADAGOPAN

Kids adorned as “real life” dolls during Navaratri

Vidyakumar is all smiles with the “live” dolls

• INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 • PAGE 13


After Sangamam, Dashava-tar, Go to your room, Mother, Bollywood Blast, and The Life of Gautama Buddha Samskriti brings to Houston an unusual production from Malaysia - Krishna, Love Re-invented - by Ramli Ibrahim and the Sutra Dance Theatre. This presen-tation is a perfect example of ‘dance without borde

rs’, where art transcends re-ligion and dance becomes the language of the soul rather than the body.

Ramli Ibrahim is an interna-tional icon in the fi eld of Odissi today, but his path was not so smooth in the beginning.

A trained Ballet, Jazz and Modern Dance exponent who had performed professionally with the Sydney Ballet, Ramli fell in love with the symmetry and beauty of Indian classical dance, travelled to India, stud-ied fi rst Bharatanatyam and then Odissi, and soon became an expert at these dance forms too.

Back in Malaysia he met with opposition because of his pursuit of “Hindu” dancing, but with unwavering dedication he continued his training, and upon his return, established his dance company, Sutra Dance Theatre in 1983, to promote the cultural diversity and vibrancy of Malaysian dance to national and international audiences.

His message to his detractors was clear – that the timeless stories of Indian mythology, as told through India’s ancient classical dance forms, are the highest form of art, and there-fore meant to be shared and en-joyed by the world

. This broad-minded and vi-sionary Muslim choreographer has Hindu, Christian and Bud-dhist dancers in his ensemble, and they are Malay, Chinese and Indian.

At a time when the world is being torn apart by religious strife, Ramli has proved that art can bring people together. Ramli Ibrahim exemplifi es the perfect artist – one who pur-sues art for art’s sake, and is fearless and relentless in his pursuit of it.

Ramli and his Sutra Dance Theatre have transcended all barriers of religion, geography and language.

Kabir sang the praises of Ram, Ramli (indeed his name has ‘Ram’ in it) sings a paean to the Pastoral God Krishna in his Krishna, Love Re-Invented, which embodies the human spirit that has always celebrat-ed love in its many forms.

In Hinduism, Bhakti or de-votion remains a central tenet of its teachings. Hindu saints and poets have explored love’s profound effects on the soul through the stories of the gods.

The Krishna-Gopis idyll has become the all time symbol of romantic love at its sublimated best. The moods, feelings and emotions of this love affair, an embodiment of Rasa (highest emotional state) become a sub-lime allegory expressing and affi rming the highest love the individual soul has for God, in this case, Krishna.

Love is able to transcend man-made restrictive morality and fi nds itself ‘re-conceived’ and ‘re-invented’ to accom-modate our real, imagined and fantasized desires with com-plete abandon.

As Sutra’s Artistic Director, Ramli has choreographed stun-ning works and nurtured some of the brightest dance talents from Malaysia.

Ramli has been instrumen-tal in transforming the dance scenario in Malaysia by bold-ly charting new paths and has gained fame for single-hand-edly establishing Odissi as a widely appreciated dance form in Malaysia. He is acknowl-edged as a ‘Living Heritage’ by the Government of Malaysia and is the recipient of the high-est and most prestigious title of Datuk from the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He is presently Chairman of Sutra Foundation.

Ramli Ibrahim besides an acknowledged dancer in Bharatanatyam and Odissi in

India itself, Ramli was for-merly with the Sydney Dance Company and plays important role in the interface of Asian & Western dance in redefi ning modernity from an Asian per-spective.

Samskriti is very proud and happy to present artist extraor-dinaire Ramli Ibrahim and his Sutra Dance Theatre in their fi rst major performance in Houston.

Krishna, Love Re-invented will be presented at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Center (in the Downtown Theater Dis-trict) at 5 PM on Sunday, Octo-ber 26, 2014. Tickets are avail-

able at www.explorehouston.org/ticketing, www.sulekha.com and 832 275 9658. This program is funded in part by grants from the Texas Commis-sion on the Arts and the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and generous donations from Schlumberger and Hindus of Greater Hous-ton.

Samskriti is very grateful to the Classical Arts Society of Houston, Asia Society Texas Center, Dance Source Hous-ton, and Kalaangan School of Odissi Dance for their unstint-ed support for this event.

COMMUNITY NEWSKrishna, Love Reinvented, dance without borders

Ramil Ibrahim

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National Night Out in Sugar LandThe Telfair neighborhood joined other Sugar Land neighbor-

hoods for the annual National Night Out (NNO) crime and drug prevention event on Oct. 7 from 6-9 p.m. Telfair resident Meera Kapur led the effort to bring community members together. Sugar Land Councilman Himesh Gandhi, a Telfair resident, City Man-ager Allen Bogard and Sugar Land Police Captain Stuart Den-ton joined the community members. “Our City’s most important crime prevention tool is citizen involvement,” says Offi cer Har-ris Johnston, of the Crime Prevention Unit. “The Crime Preven-tion Program partners with residents to increase safety within the community through programs like NNO. In this spirit of coopera-tion, these partnerships positively infl uence the quality of life in Sugar Land.”

Cyclone Hudhud has caused incalculable damage to the port city of Vishakapat-nam in Andhra Pradesh.

Initial estimates indicate that it can go up to Rs 70,000 crore.

The situation in north coastal districts is still grim and all efforts are being made to bring back normal-cy. At least 700,000 people are homeless.

Sewa International’s part-ner Jana Sankshema Samiti, is working hard in rescue and relief operations.

Sewa has released $10,000 to provide immediate releif to the affected people.

Sewa International has is-sued an appeal for donations to provide aid to the cyclone affected people.

Send your tax-deductible donations to the address below or donate online at wvvw.sewausa.org.

For more information, call Swadesh Katoch (404) 935-8893; Kavita Tewary (713) 303-4253.

Sewa USA is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofi t. charitable organi-zation.

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COMMUNITY NEWSPAGE 16 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

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Sri Lanka’s Minister for National Languages and Social In-tegration, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, was the guest of honor at a reception hosted by noted immigration attorney George Willy and his wife Shanti Willy. A select group of 50 invitees attended the event held at the Willy residence in Sugar Land on Thursday, October 9.

Nanayakkara, who was here to address a public meeting at Asia Society on Oct. 8.

Nanayakkara, 75, is a veteran politician and former presiden-tial candidate in Sri Lanka. He graduated as an Attorney-at-law and was a practicing lawyer. He also has a degree in law from the University of Peradeniya.

Nanayakkara started his political career in the 1950s as an ac-tive member of the Samasamaja Youth Movement and soon be-came its leader. In 1970 he entered the Parliament for the fi rst time representing the people of Kiriella.

Nanayakkara is the General Secretary of the Democratic Left Front. As Minister of National Languages and Social Integration in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition government, he is charged with the task of unifying Sri Lanka by winning the hearts and minds of diverse ethnic groups that are part of the population of the island on the basis of equality.

In a brief conversation with India Herald, Nanayakkara said now that the war with the Tamil separatists has ended, Sri Lanka is determined to move forward towards peace and prosperity of all its people.

There were not enough Tamils at high levels in the govern-ment and more needs to be done to include them, he said.

The Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission appointed by President Rajapaksa had concluded that the Sri Lanka military did not deliberately target Tamil civilians but the rebel Tamil Ti-gers of the LTTE repeatedly violated international human rights conventions.

Still, he said, reconciliation with the Tamils was a large moun-tain to climb. The government needs to go the extra mile to meet the aspirations of all minorities — Tamil, Muslim and Christian.

The US and Europe are largely unconvinced because Sri Lan-ka does not subscribe to their neo-liberal ideas and is fi rmly con-vinced that as a sovereign nation it has the right to mind its house in a democratic and inclusive manner.

He said this is exactly the case he made at the Asia Society lecture before a large audience Americans and South Asians.

— R.G.

Sri Lanka minister speaks at Asia Society

Shiri Nanayakkara, left, Vasudeva Nanyakkara, Shanti Willy and George R. Willy.


CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF SERVICE TO HOUSTON ARTS! Rathna Kumar – Artistic Director

Proudly presents, for the first time in Houston!

SUTRA DANCE THEATRE, MALAYSIA Ramli Ibrahim – Artistic Director

IN

KRISHNA, LOVE RE-INVENTED (Odissi)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2014, 5 PM – CULLEN THEATER, WORTHAM CENTER

TICKETS: $100, $50, $25 (Early Bird Special - $5 off until Oct. 20) – All seats reserved

For tickets, parking & directions: www.explorehouston.org/ticketing Box Office: 832 487 7041& at www.sulekha.com / 832 275 9658

This program is part funded by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts & the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and generous donations from SCHLUMBERGER & Hindus of Greater Houston

COMMUNITY NEWS

Mahatma Gandhi Library, along with more than 100 orga-nizations, concluded Mahatma Gandhi Week 2014 with big fan-fare on Saturday, October 4, at The Jones Plaza, Houston. The evening celebrated the 145th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Jayanti, celebrated as 1000 Lights For Peace.

The 9th annual 1000 Lights for Peace, was another huge success. Each year Mahatma Gandhi Li-brary or ganizes month-long ac-tivities culminating in celebration of Gandhi Jayanti on weekend fol lowing October 2, Gandhiji’s birthday.

The spirits of the Houstonians attending the program at The Jones Plaza were inspired during this auspicious celebration. The weather was picture perfect. The brilliant day started with the Walk for Peace, beginning at the Jones Plaza in downtown Houston with garlanding of a picture of Mahat-ma Gandhi and the lighting of the authentic 1966 Olympic Torch by the Grand Marshall, Sonal Buchar. Suresh Shah, dressed as Gandhi, led the walk.The partici-pants walked almost 5 km along the Buffalo Bayou on the Sabine Promenade, voting for peace with their feet and demonstrating that a life of peace is a daily steadfast commitment that requires the pa-tience of a man trying to empty the sea with a cup. During the walk, many proudly displayed signs of Peace, Truth, Non-violence and

Love spreading the message that resonated throughout the city of Houston.

Upon their arrival back at The Jones Plaza, they were welcomed onto the main stage by the musi-cal tribute from the talented Katy McMeans Junior High band, conducted by George Liverman. The 1000 lights For Peace pro-gram, started promptly at 7pm with an invocation by Acharya Suryanarayan Nanda of Arya Sa-maj Greater Houston, Rev Daniel Domiguez from Centro Familiar Cristiano in Sugarland, and Dr. Basheer Khumawala from Uni-versity of Houston.

Dr. Manish Wani was a very informative Master of Ceremo-nies and kept the evening fl owing with historical perspectives on not only Mahatma Gandhi, but also prominent international social re-formers including Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Malala Yousafzai.

The Ballet Folkorico “Raices del Peru” of Houston performed the fi rst International act of the evening. This was followed by a beautiful poem recited by Saqib Mushtaq and interpreted by Imam Mubasheer Ahmad, both from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

The Chief Guest for the eve-ning, Dr. Josef Helfenstein, di-rector of the Menil Collection, addressed the audience informing them about the new exhibition “Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Non-violence.”

The crowd then welcomed the more than 100 adorable and tal-ented children from Houston’s St. Catherine Montessori Catholic Choir directed by Tim and Mindy Snow. They brilliantly sang “Ag-nus Dei”, “Light a Candle for Peace,” and “Dona Nobis.”

Six-year-old Rigved Sawale (from Cornerstone Elementary in FBISD) dazzled the crowd by reciting his winning speech from the 10 and under category titled “Values in life are more important than successes.”

Reverend Gregory Han, Direc-tor of Interfaith Relations at Inter-faith Ministries for greater Hous-ton, was the Chief Guest for the evening and inspired the crowd with his speech about peace and its relevance in today’s society.

Atul Kothari, founder of Ma-hatma Gandhi Library, presented a plaque of appreciation to volun-teer Mahesh Gandhi for his un-conditional and everlasting dedi-cation to the organization.

The next cultural item came from the Consulate General of the Re-public of Indonesia performing Cendrawasih, a beautiful dance per-formed in duo about a famous bird in paradise, directed by BambangSetyobudhi. Shreetika Singh (from Seven Lakes High School in Katy),winner of the 11 and over speech contest, inspired the crowd by recit-ing her winning speech titled “Trusteeship vs. Ownership: which isbetter for the world?”

Special guest Honorable Consul General of Bharat, India, Parva-theneni Harish, spoke about the ever-lasting legacy left by our belovedBapu, Fa ther of Modern Bharat, India. A legacy, of which not onlyBharat, India, is proud of, but the whole world is proud.

Consul General Paravathaneni Harish, his wife Nandita and AtulKothari, presented the well-earned awards to more than the 30 winnersof the city-wide contests held by Mahatma Gandhi Library.

The last international performance of the evening was a dynamicperformance by the KoumonKe’le’ African Dance & Drum Ensemble,directed by Ms. Christina Gerard.

The spectacular evening concluded with the lighting of a candle byall in attendance and a pledge to observe peace in their own lives. Thecandle lighting quickly spread throughout The Jones Plaza blazingdowntown Houston. The crowd refl ected on the magical evening andhow to emulate Mahatma Gandhi’s life listening to the soothing back-ground music “We are the World” and “Jyot se Jyot Jagate Chalo.”

To view and learn more about 1000 Lights for Peace, please visitwww.gandhilibrary.org. For more information please contact Dr. Man-ish K Wani at 713-829-6979.

Winners of the Mahatma Gandhi Week 2014 speech, essay,multi-media and poster contests.

1000 Lights for Peace event

MUSICPAGE 18 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

It was indeed a blissful tryst with the purest form of carnat-ic music.

Renowned vocalist Vidwan Sri T.M. Krishna along with the eminent artists Vidwan Sri RK Shriramkumar on the violin and Vidwan Sri Arun Prakash on the mridangam. rendered a divine musical ex-perience on Sunday, Oct. 12, at the Stafford Civic Center.

No wonder, music lovers and connoisseurs from the Houston area thronged the venue to immerse themselves in this pristine musical event organized by HYMA, the “Houston Youth Music As-sociation,” under the expert guidance of Vidushi Smt. Raja Rajeshwary Bhat and ably supported by Vidwan Sri Vit-tal Ramamoorthy.

The evening began with a succinct introduction by the HYMA member Smt. Uma Ranganathan.

Well known for his creativ-ity and uniqueness, Thodur Madabusi Krishna started the concert with the swarajathi in ragam thodi on Goddess Ka-makshi.

This was followed by the soulful rendition of Manic-kavasagar’s Thiruvasagam “Pullagi Poondagi” as virut-tam, which embellished Dik-shithar’s fi rst krithi in Maya-malagowlai, “Shri Nathadhi Guruguho” that burst forth in TMK’s resonating and rever-berating voice.

The kriti in Saalaga Bhai-ravi and the Kamas that fol-lowed were rendered with such intensity and sincerity in every note sung, that they swayed the audience across the entire breadth and depth of these ragas.

The mellifl uous alapana of raga Sankarabaranam initiated by TMK and further melodi-ously enhanced and elabo-rated by Sri RK Sriramkumar left the audience yearning for more. This thirst was immedi-ately quenched by the shower-ing of reeti gowlai in the song “Dhvaithamu sugama adh-vaithamu sugama.”

This song and every other presentation during the con-cert were fully laden with bhava brought forth by skilled voice modulation.

As a result, everyone in the audience could experience the emotions of all the songs in entirety, which unquestion-ably established the artists’ tri-umph in this regard.

An interesting aspect of the concert was when another swarajathi in Bhairavi took center stage and was explored and elaborated in detail, akin to a pallavi rendition.

With the earnest rendition of Saint Kanaka Dasa’s “Bha-ro Krishnayya”, TMK brought Lord Krishna “pongoLalan-Uduta” and “Dhimi dhimi en-nuta” in every listener’s heart. Ragam Behag was the winner for the last segment as Gopal-akrishna Bharathiyar’s krithi

“Irakkam varamal ponadhenna karanam” and the thillana that followed brought out the es-sence of this ragam in every imaginable form.

It was novel yet enchanting to listen to the niraval in thilla-na and the concluding man-galam in the same ragam.

The accompanying artists’ performances shone with talent and expertise, when the instru-ments blended seamlessly with the vocal music and yet stood out and shimmered with indi-viduality during their separate renditions.

Words cannot fully express the listener’s exhilarating ex-perience in Sri TMK’s musical presentation, which brimmed with innovation and creativ-ity, and the nectar of carnatic music which was successfully touched the hearts of the audio-

Extraordinary rendezevous with a Carnatic musician

ence. The Consul General of In-

dia Harish Parvathaneni and Nandita Parvathaneni felicitat-ed the artists. Sri Vittal Rama-moorthy, spoke in praise of the artists and appreciated HYMA

members for their efforts to sustain and fl ourish carnatic music in Houston.

Darshak Thacker (Krishna Sounds) provided an excellent acoustic for the concert. The concert lasted for over three

hours on a Sunday evening and the audience stayed until the end and lingered long after, unwilling to depart from the delightful music.

—By Dr. LAKSHMI SRIVATS

Shriramkumar, left, TM. Krishna and Arun Praksh in concert at Stafford Civic Center. B.N. Chinmayee and Thanmyee Krishnamurthy are on the tampura.

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Cyclone Hudhud caused ex-tensive devastation as it madelandfall at Visakhapatnam on Sun-day afternoon, Oct 12. Three per-sons each were killed in cyclone-related incidents in the State andOdisha. Authorities evacuatedmore than 500,000 people to re-lief camps in Andhra Pradesh.

While Visakhapatnam city andthe wider district bore the bruntof the havoc, the cyclonic stormcaused widespread damage in thenorth coastal districts ofSrikakulam and Vizianagaram,besides affecting normal life inEast Godavari.

Odisha, which escaped the furyof Cyclone Hudhud, announced onSunday that it would extend helpto districts of north AndhraPradesh. “As Visakhapatnamwas terribly devastated, AndhraPradesh government wantedOdisha to contribute in restorationefforts by deploying skilled man-power and equipment. The Stategovernment immediately agreed,”said State Special Relief Commis-sioner P. K. Mohapatra inBhubaneswar.

Gale force winds accompaniedby rain battered Visakhapatnam,disrupting communication, anduprooted electric poles, trees, flexiboards and hoardings at severalplaces. The authorities had sus-pended power supply and stoppedtraffic on the national highwayssince Saturday evening as a pre-cautionary measure.

As many as 24 National Disas-ter Response Force (NDRF)teams, two Army columns, 56boats/launches and six helicopterswere deployed for relief mea-sures. The state government alsorushed 155 medical teams to pre-vent outbreak of diseases. Thenavy will lead a joint armed forcesrelief operation, code namedLehar.

The Met Department saidHudhud had weakened into se-vere cyclonic storm and the windspeeds reduced to 100 kmph by5.30 on Sunday evening. It wouldweaken further into a cyclonicstorm and into depression by 11.30on Monday morning.

Prime Minister Narendra Modicalled the Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister, N. Chandrababu Naiduand enquired about the situationin the State after the cycloneHudhud crossed the coast nearVisakhapatnam.

Naidu told reporters that thePrime Minister gave assurance toextend all possible help to the

Hudhud spares Odisha, slams coastal Andhra

State. The Chief Minister in-formed Modi that it was a verysevere cyclone. It has crossed thecoast and the State was assess-ing the damages. The state ma-chinery was fully geared to meetany eventuality.

He told Modi that he wouldvisit the cyclone affected areasof three districts of Visakhapat-

nam, Srikakulam andViziana-garam on Sun-day and camp there tosupervise rescue and re-lief measures. Naidu andthe Chief Secretary, I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, arrivedat Secretariat in themorning to monitor thesituation.

Rao said three personswere killed, one in wallcollapse in Anakapalliand two others whentrees fell on them inSrikakulam. Six personswho were caught in theswollen Nagavalli riverwere being rescued by a

NDRF team. Naidu has urged theCentre to treat the devastationcaused by Hudhud as a “nationalcalamity” and requested assis-tance of Rs.2,000 crore pendingevaluation of the damage.

Naidu wrote a letter to this ef-fect to Prime Minister NarendraModi after the latter spoke to himover telephone.

A billboard in Vishakhapatnam that collapsed under Hudhud fury

Tatas’ Land Rover amongworld’s top 100 brands

Tata group’s Land Rover hasforayed into an elite club ofworld’s 100 most valuable brandsas the only Indian-owned entity,while iconic Apple has retained itstop slot with nearly $119 billionvaluation.

Land Rover, an iconic Britishcar brand owned by Indian con-glomerate Tatas, has been ranked91st with a brand value of $4.47billion and is one of the five newentrants on this annual list com-piled by leading brand consultancyInterbrand.

Apple is followed by Google inthe second position ($107 billion).These are the only two with brandvalues in excess of $100 billion.

While Land Rover is the onlyIndian-owned entity on the list,there are at least six other brandsranked among top 100 that arepart of the entities run by Indian-origin CEOs.

These include Satya Nadella-led Microsoft (5th with brand valueof $61 billion), Indra Nooyi-ledPepsi (24th; $19 billion), ShantanuNarayen-led Adobe (77th; $5.3billion) and Ajay Banga-ledMasterCard (88th; $4.7 billion).

Ivan Menezes-led Britishdrinks giant Diageo, which alsoowns majority stake in India’slargest alcoholic beverage makerUnited Spirits, also has two port-folio brands — Smirnoff (34th;$13 billion) and Johnnie Walker(86th; $4.8 billion) — in the list.

Land Rover has been ranked

higher thanmany big glo-bal brandslike FedEx,H u a w e i ,Heineken,Pizza Hut,B O S S ,Nokia, Gapa n dNintendo.

“Exempli-fying British

engineering and expertise in theSUV category, the iconic Britishbrand (owned by TATA of India)has invested heavily in product cre-ation, facility, and infrastructure,”Interbrand said.

The leading brand consultancyfurther noted that “with 115awards across its car range (ledby Range Rover with 55 awards),Land Rover is finally getting therecognition it deserves and has im-proved its J D Power scores sig-nificantly.”

“With the customer at the heartof the company, a clear focus andsignificant investment in improv-ing design and quality, and dem-onstrating world-class technologyand innovation, Land Rover is fullyequipped to experience acceler-ating success in the forthcomingAge of You,” Interbrand added.

Among top-ten, Apple andGoogle are followed by Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, GE,Samsung, Toyota, McDonald’sand Mercedes Benz.

To be included in Best GlobalBrands, a brand must be truly glo-bal, having successfully tran-scended geographic and culturalboundaries, Interbrand said.

It must have a significant pres-ence in Asia, Europe, and NorthAmerica, as well as broad geo-graphic coverage in emergingmarkets.

The brand must have a publicprofile and awareness across theworld’s major economies.

Pakistanis deface Indian websitesMYSORE: At least 100 Indian websites have been defaced by

Pakistani hackers over the last two days, said Mirza Faizan, memberof the Global Cyber Security Response Team (GCSRT), Bangalore.Several index files of government websites too were targeted, he said.

The hacked websites carried anti-India messages and pictures un-der Pakistan Zindabad headline, and derogatory statements againstPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

The anti-India statements referred to the Kashmir issue and theexchange of fire on the India-Pakistan border.“So Indian Kids WhatYou Think You’ve Become Hero by Redfacing a Simple Site of PPPWhich Already Have [sic] Been Hacked Several Times”, read themessage posted on some of the hacked websites.

The present round of cyber war between India and Pakistan beganafter Indian hackers defaced the website of the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) following its leader Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks on Kash-mir. Pakistani hackers, who retaliated by targeting the website of thePress Club of India, have continued attacks on other Indian websites.

U.P cops dressed like Singham, DabanggAGRA: If you too liked reel avatars of an Indian cop in Salman

Khan-starrer Dabangg and Ajay Devgn's Singham, here is a realitycheck. Two constables in Agra were suspended on Oct 11, precisely"for dressing like Bollywood heroes, and not the real cops".

During a surprise inspection of various police stations in the city,inspector general (Agra zone) Sunil Kumar Gupta found two con-stables, Manish Solanki and Bhupendra Singh, who are posted withtourism police here, rather too nattily dressed. One wore dark goggleswhile the other was in pants "too tight for comfort". The police capswere also missing. Gupta took objection to their dress sense and toldthem not to “dress like Singham and Dabangg.”

Later, when senior superintendent of police Shalabh Mathur cameto know about the incident, he suspended the constables for "indisci-pline, disobedience and not wearing police uniform properly".


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The "Queen of Jaffna," a once-popular train linking the ethnicTamil's northern heartland to therest of Sri Lanka before a bloodycivil war cut the link 24 years ago,chugs back into service this com-ing week, reinforcing thegovernment's authority in a regiononce controlled by Tamil rebels.

For the old, it is a nostalgic pieceof the Indian Ocean island nation'spast. For the young, the train rep-resents something novel andopens opportunities to explore thenorth. For the central government,the resumption of the "Yarl Devi,"as it is known in Tamil, marks astep toward restoring nationalunity five years after the Tamilseparatists were defeated to endthe long war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksawill inaugurate service along the250-mile route between Jaffnaand Colombo in a ceremonyMonday. Rebuilding the railroad,stretches of which disappeared asrebels and residents used the railsand sleepers to build bunkers andhouses, is one of the government's

bureaucratic and state serviceposts, and many civil servantsbased in Colombo used it to visitfriends and family in the north.

"We took the train to Jaffna forweekends and came back by thesame on Sunday evenings," saidKaruna Navaratnam, a 69-year-old retired teacher, who traveledon the route frequently in the1970s.

Now settled in Colombo,Navaratnam wistfully recalled thetrain traveling through the ricepaddies and farms on its way toJaffna, which was once the seatof a Tamil kingdom before it wascolonized in turn by the Portu-guese, Dutch and British.

"As day broke, we saw villag-ers in their morning activity," shesaid. "As we approached Jaffna,we sensed the smell of itspalmyra" palm trees, which arecommon in the north.

Navaratnam rememberedpeople from her village standingon the station platform each week-end to welcome home relativesand loved ones.

When the war erupted in 1983,the train was a main artery in SriLanka's commerce, transportingfish from the north to the capital,and connecting the islanders re-gardless of ethnic identity.

Since the service stopped,Jaffna has had no trains, meaningmany of the city's children havenever seen one in real life.

"Some younger people here donot know what a train is. I knowits value," said R. Thiyagarajah, 50,who hopes the train will help boostJaffna's economy through tourismand cargo shipments.

big infrastructure projects to con-tribute to the economy in the northand win over ethnic Tamils, manyof whom are still estranged afterthe war.

Like the old version, the new"Queen of Jaffna" is not a luxurytrain, although some of its coacheswill have air conditioning, Internetaccess and televisions. The newtrack will make for a faster,smoother ride, allowing the trip totake about six hours.

The line was shut down in 1990as Tamil Tigers militants steppedup attacks in the north to push fortheir own independent state. Thegovernment stationed many sol-diers, mostly Sinhalese, in Jaffna,and they used the train to returnhome for visits. That made the"Queen of Jaffna" a rebel target.

The train holds significant sym-bolic importance. Before the war,it was not only the most conve-nient way to travel between thetwo important cities, it was also asymbol of unity between the Sin-halese majority and Tamil minor-ity. At the time, Tamils dominated

Queen of Jaffna resumes service after 24 years Militant escapes into BangladeshNEW DELHI: Officials of India's National Investigations Agency

(NIA) have said the prime suspect in the Burdwan blast, Sheikh Kausar,has escaped into Bangladesh.

"We have found the trail. Kausar was very much in Burdwan for awhole day after the explosion on Oct 2. He got a call from Amina Bibiabout the explosions and then moved to Bhatar the next day. Later hereached Hakimpur in Nadia district bordering Bangladesh and fledinto that country," said a top NIA official investigating the case.

NIA has recovered a crucial diary containing about 150 telephonenumbers from Kausar's brother-in-law Khodor Gazi, now in policecustody. They say a doctor in Assam was the key link between thebomb-makers at Burdwan and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) inBangladesh.

"He used to receive funds from the JMB and Kausar's pick-upboys would collect the money from the doctor in small tranches andbring them to Burdwan," the NIA official said.

The doctor, whose identity is not disclosed in the interest of investi-gations by the NIA, used to get his funds from JMB operators inSylhet. The NIA is also checking unconfirmed reports that three JMBradicals who escaped from a prison van in Bangladesh earlier thisyear have fled into India and set up a bomb-manufacturing modulesomewhere in Assam.

"This is a back and forth game, the way these radicals function.When the going is tough for them in Bangladesh, they flee into Indiaand take shelter here. But now that the scene is tough here with thecrackdown post-Burdwan, Kausar has possibly fled to Bangladesh.They coordinate their activities across the border better than nationalagencies," said the NIA official.

11 kidnapped at gunpoint in MizoramEleven men were kidnapped at gun-point from western Mizoram

and whisked away into the eastern jungles of Bangladesh byBangladesh-based militants late on Friday night, Oct 10, senior MizoramPolice officials have said. A group of 19 people including women andchildren were travelling on the back of a truck when the kidnappersstopped the vehicle around 10 pm Friday.

They let the women and children go immediately, and took the 15men into the jungles. They later released four men, all from the Chakmatribe, but have since held captive 11 men, all of them Muslims.

Meanwhile, People-smugglers kidnapped dozens of Rohingya refu-gees living in Bangladesh after duping them with fake job offers, andtrafficked them to a rubber plantation in southern Thailand, officialssaid Sunday. The 53 men - mostly Rohingya refugees from Myanmarbut also including Bangladeshi citizens - were found on Saturday onthe plantation in Takua Pa district in the southern Thai coastal prov-ince of Phang Nga.

President Rajapaksa at the flagging off of the Queen of Jaffna

PAKISTANINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 • PAGE 21

BIRMINGHAM: Educationrights campaigner MalalaYousafzai dedicated her Nobelpeace prize on Friday to “voice-less” children around the world,and called on the Indian and Pa-kistani prime ministers to attendthe award ceremony for the sakeof peace.

The 17-year-old, who heard thenews while she was in a chemis-try lesson at school in Birmingham,central England, said she was hon-ored to be the youngest person andthe first Pakistani to receive theNobel peace prize.

“The award is for all the chil-dren who are voiceless, whosevoices need to be heard,” Malalatold a press conference, held atthe end of the school day so shewouldn't miss class.

Malala arrived in Britain fromPakistan for medical treatmentafter being shot in the head by aTaliban fighter in October 2012,an attempt to silence her advocacyof the right of girls to go to school.

Standing on a box so she couldreach the podium at Birmingham'smain library, the teenager jokedthat winning the Nobel would nothelp her upcoming school exams.But she told an audience that in-cluded her parents and twoyounger brothers: “I felt morepowerful and more courageousbecause this award is not just apiece of metal or a medal youwear or an award you keep in yourroom. This is encouragement forme to go forward.”

The Norwegian Nobel Com-mittee gave the award to Malalaand Indian activist KailashSatyarthi for their struggle againstthe repression of children andyoung people and “for the right ofall children to education”.

Malala said she had alreadyspoken to Satyarthi – she joked

Malala invites Sharif, Modi to Nobel ceremony

that she could not pronounce hisname – to discuss how they couldwork together, and also try to re-duce tensions between their twocountries.

To that end, she urged IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Pakistani Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif to attend the Nobelaward ceremony in December.

Former British prime ministerGordon Brown, the United Na-tions special envoy for global edu-cation, voiced delight at the Nobelvictory for Malala and Satyarthi.

“They are two of my bestfriends and two of the greatestglobal campaigners who deservethe Nobel Peace Prize for theircourage, determination and fortheir vision that no child shouldever be left behind,” Brown saidin a statement.

After visiting her in hospital,Brown took up Malala's causewith a petition for universal pri-mary education handed to thePakistani government on a day henamed Malala Day, and later ar-ranging for her to speak at theUnited Nations.

Britain's International Develop-ment Secretary Justine Greeningalso congratulated the joint win-ners saying the prize was “richlydeserved”.

The reaction in the streets ofBirmingham, which has a largeminority population of Pakistaniorigin, was also overwhelminglypositive. “I like her. She's confi-dent, speaking up for herself, forwomen,” said 30-year-old ZaraHussain as she waited at a busstop in Birmingham holding a baby.“She could be president (of Paki-stan) if she carries on.”

Imam Usman Mahmood ofBirmingham central mosque,which with 6,000 followers is oneof the biggest in the city and was

visited by Malala and her family,also expressed his delight.

“It means that any person whoputs their mind to something, theycan achieve their goals. We wishher the best when she carries onwith her life and that she keepson going the way she is,” he said.

But local estate agent BasharatHussain, 30, said: “I personallythink she shouldn't have got it.”

“She's inspiring but I thinkthey're using her for political mo-tives, she's been used by differ-ent organisations and govern-ments.”

The global spotlight has pro-voked a backlash in parts of Pa-kistani society, with some accus-ing Malala of acting as a puppetof the West, while the Talibanhave renewed the threat to herlife. “I used to say that I think Ido not deserve the Nobel peaceprize. I still believe that,” Malalasaid. “But I believe it is not onlyan award for what I've done butan encouragement for giving mehope, for giving me the courageto go and continue this.”

Six TTP chieftains endorse ISISPESHAWAR: Six top commanders of the outlawed Tehreek-i-

Taliban Pakistan, including spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, have an-nounced their allegiance to Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi of the IslamicState of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Shahidullah Shahid said in the statement that he and five TTP dis-trict chiefs have announced their allegiance to ISIS, also known asDaish, and would be their lead fighters in Pakistan.

The statement was silent on the stance of the six on Mullah Omar,chief of the Afghan Taliban widely regarded by militants in Afghani-stan and Pakistan as the Amirul Momineen (leader of the faithful).

“I am confirming my allegiance to Amirul Momineen Abu BakarAl-Baghdadi and would abide by all his decisions, whatever is theorder, and whatsoever the circumstances, I shall be loyal to him andobey his orders,” Shaidullah Shahid said in the statement issued inArabic and Urdu.

Mullah Fazlullah had extended his support to Al-Baghdadi but hadnot announced allegiance to Daish. How will the decision of the sixTTP commanders be viewed by Fazlullah who is currently allied withMullah Omar is still not known but the announcement comes at a timewhen the TTP is already experiencing fissures and is the main targetof a military operation in North Waziristan.

Search operation inBalochistan prisonsQUETTA: Frontier Corps

(FC) and police launched a searchoperation in all sensitive prisons ofBalochistan on Tuesday, Oct 14,a day after security forces foileda jailbreak bid by over 100 mili-tants from a prison in Karachi.

Bashir Bangulzai, the Inspec-tor General (IG) PrisonsBalochistan said four prisons havebeen declared sensitive in theprovince. The prisons include dis-trict Jail Quetta, Mach andKhuzdar and Gaddani.

“Security has been tightened inand around all 11 prisons inBalochistan,” Bangulzai said.

FC and police have beensearching cells and inmates in allsensitive prisons located inBalochistan province.

The Balochistan prisons chiefsaid the prisons currently accom-modate more than 3,000 inmatesin different locations across theprovince. Pakistan's ageing, over-crowded prisons have witnessedseveral breakouts in recent years.

A raid by heavily armed mili-tants on a jail in Bannu last Au-gust freed nearly 250 prisoners,while almost 400 fled in a similarincident at a prison in Dera IsmailKhan in 2012.

Three Pak-American doctorsdie in plane crash

A Kansashospital sys-tem has iden-tified threephysicians asvictims of asmall planecrash ins o u t h w e s ts u b u r b a nPalos Hills.Stormont-VailHealthCarein Topeka said Monday that the victims of Sunday night's plane crashincluded two of its doctors, neurosurgeon Tausif Rehman andpulmonologist Ali A. Kanchwala.

Stormont-Vail also identified the third victim as Kanchwala's wife,Maria Javaid, a cardiologist at the Providence Medical Center in Kan-sas City, Kansas. "They had taken off from Midway Airport, andwithin a few minutes they crashed here," Palos Hills Police Chief PaulMadigan said. The plane was headed to Lawrence, Kansas.

"There was no distress call, the airplane simply dropped off radar,"a NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator John Brannen said.

The plane went down in the 10100-block of South 86th Court around10:40 p.m. Sunday without hitting any homes in the busy, residentialarea. The family that lives across the street was asked to leave theirhome while the investigation continues.

Pakistan's Consul General in Chicago Faisal Tirmizi told Dawn that"They had gone to Chicago for a shopping trip and were returning inthe evening when the aircraft crashed," Tirmizi said. "They had goneto Chicago for a shopping trip and were returning in the evening whenthe aircraft crashed.

The Pakistani consulate has established contact with the familiesand friends of the three deceased to provide necessary assistance.

According to initial reports, it appeared that Dr Rehman, who wasflying the aircraft, deliberately crashed it in an open area in order toprotect houses in a heavily populated area.

"It came through the trees and missed all the houses," said PalosHills Deputy Police Chief James Boie, adding that the plane's occu-pants were dead when first responders arrived at the scene.

Tirmizi said the funeral of Dr Ali Kanchwala and Dr Maria Javedwas likely to be held in the US, whereas Dr Tauseef Rehman’s re-mains are to be sent to Pakistan for burial.

Dr Kanchwala (left) Dr. Rehman and Dr. Javed

Threats to Bilawal’s life from JundullahKARACHI: The government of Sindh has ordered law enforce-

ment agencies "to ensure extreme vigilance" and take "special mea-sures" as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson BilawalBhutto Zardari faces threats to his life from outlawed group Jundallah.

The provincial government in what was intended as a confidentialletter shared intelligence of a plan being made by the banned group totarget the PPP chairperson. The leaked letter stated that details of thedate, time, place and method of the attack were still unknown.

News of the latest threat comes as Bilawal is scheduled to addresssupporters at the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnahon Oct 18 — the day when the homecoming caravan of his motherBenazir Bhutto was attacked in twin blasts on Shahrah-i-Faisal.

TARGET KILLER NABBED: Karachi police claim to havearrested a man who has confessed to the murder of 14 people inKarachi. The suspect admitted to the killings of leaders from differentreligious and political parties during interogation. He was arrested onTuesday, Oct 14, in an encounter in the city's Gulshan-i-Iqbal area,whereas one of the suspect's accomplice managed to escape arrest.Police said the suspect was affiliated with a political party but did notname any group.


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This is a filmabout a ruthlessdrug dealer, RanaTau, his girlfriendwho turns out to beinconsequential inhis schemes, and anew kid on theblock who joins hisgang. In the interim,many guns areshown off to justifythe film's title, bul-lets fly, people die

Cast: Anupam Kher, NehaDhupia, Divyendu Sharma

The film's title refers to the 21-gun salute reserved for impor-tant occasions and for militaryand state funerals.

A humble Bombay MunicipalCorp worker, Purushotam Joshi(Anupam Kher), who is proud ofhis honesty, has been yearning for"samman" (respect) all his life.

Through a beautiful montagewe see how the school trophywas not given to him because ofa distraction, in the army his dedi-cation was overshadowed bybullies, and now having workeddecades (without a single leave)in the BMC's Pest Control De-partment, he is finally looking for-ward to his retirement day.

Simple things like being gifteda clock, and everyone praising hissteadfast honesty is enough, asit all translates to respect. He

even brings a photographer alongto mark his last working day. Butthings go awry - he is humiliatedby a senior and the shock is toomuch to bear.

Despite him being critically ill, histwo sons can only think of ways toget his thumbprint on the housetransfer papers.

But the old man is one-up onthem. He spells out an impossiblelast wish - the Ekkees Toppon KiSalaami. And now... the two sonsare now flummoxed...

Meanwhile, a sizzling affair be-tween a Chief Minister (RajeshSharma) and an actress JayaPrabha (Neha Dhupia) is makingheadlines about his transferringgovernment land to her. The filmsatirizes everything from newschannels, reporters, actresses andpoliticians. Note the scene wherea channel, to establish an affairbetween a politician and an actress,

superimposes their faces on an oldBollywood number. The scenewhere the politician abuses some-one, but his staff translates it intoa sugar-coated press release ispriceless. Other hilarious mo-ments include Jaya Prabha's an-tics, her face-off with the equallyvolatile CM's mom, and the curi-ous case of a snoring corpse.

In the middle of all this, almostas if someone else popped in todirect those portions, comes inabrupt crudity. Like Neha's ac-tress character saying sugges-tively, “Aap nahin lenge...? Inter-view?” to a news reporter. Orwhen she is called "baazaaruaurat" by another character (whois equally, if not more, morally am-biguous). Then there is anothercringe-worthy sexist dialogueabout dowry, which is completelyunacceptable.

The film takes adequate cin-ematic license and presents aworld where a politician's passingaway is 24x7 news. And the di-rector is clearly judgmental in fa-vor of the 'I am poor-but-honest'thought process. Whoever said aperson be honest and rich? Thissimplistic tone is omnipresent in thefilm.

The performances are superb.This is Anupam Kher's most in-teresting role in recent times andhe performs masterfully. Ofcourse one can argue his recur-ring "need" for validation from theworld, but that's a debate for an-other time.

Neha Dhupia adds in truck-loads of fun with her campy ren-dering of the publicity-hungry diva,including the song spoofing cultBollywood numbers.

Divyendu Sharma and ManuRishi as the sons are superb. AditiSharma is impressive as the part-ner-in-crime. The romance be-tween Divyendu and Aditi is beau-tifully shown, even as the coupledoes routine things like eating bhelpuri by the street, or asking astranger to click a photo.

The songs (Ram Sampath'smusic set to Sandeep Nath'swords) are lovely. The cinematog-raphy captures Mumbai's sightsand sounds expertly, and the pro-duction design brings alive the at-mospherics of a chawl.

Director Ravindra Gautambreathes life into these charactersand their world. Which is why, asthe finale unfolds, you cannot helpbut be moved.

Despite its flaws, the film ishighly recommended for its uniquestory and some heartfelt humorand actors who bring the charac-ters alive with such sincerity thatthey stay with you long after thefilm has ended. — Sify.com

Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami: Pleasing & heartfelt

and it's just another routine day in their lives.Munna Mishra (Nikhil Dwivedi) and Babu (Richa Chadda), both

criminals, meet in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Sparks fly. SoonMunna decides he’s in love, but Babu is hesitant. Being a psycho-pathic criminal's moll is not easy, and she's petrified of Rana.

Munna joins Rana's gang and wins his trust. As he leads the gang toyet another bank heist, he and Babu make-out in the locker room. Thecrime is glamorised constantly, as the two lovebirds start their sexytime to an incredibly incongruous background score.

Meanwhile the annoying couple goes on and on about their futurelife, where she will do "choolha chauki" and feed him rotis with herhand. And they start this chit-chat in the most trying circumstances(guns blazing, cops chasing, you get the drift...)

There is little concept of characterization. Babu who was terrifiedof Rana and behaved like a glorified slave, is suddenly brave (foolish?)enough to instigate him when she's a captive. As for Munna, it's hardto side with a drug dealer. Most morally ambiguous heroes need toestablish a spark of golden-heartedness in some way, or the actor hasto be incredibly charming and clever to make the viewer invest in thecharacter. Here, the character remains a drug-dealing petty criminalwith a questionable taste in clothes. The bad guy is just that, withinstructions to make bulgy eyes, grunt and call his girlfriend "totta"when he's trying to seduce her.

The finale is an extended fight between two characters - a gruntingvillain and a dour hero - both whom you don't really care about. OnlyRicha Chadda stands out. She suits the character, does well, but is letdown by the story, co-actors and script.

Nikhil Dwivedi gives a dull performance as the Bihari criminal whofalls for his boss' girl. Damandeep Singh, as Rana, does manage torelay the character's ruthless streak, but doesn't bring any nuance tothe table. — Sify.com

Tamanchey: Nothing new here

Cast: Sarath Kumar,Arjun Lal, Ishitha, MSBaskar

On the face of it, NeeNaan Nizhal is far-re-moved from the typicalTamil movie. The younghero Rohit (played by ArjunLal) and his Coimbatore-based friends are part of apop-rock group, and in oneof their practice sessions wehear them performing ‘TumHi Ho’, the ballad fromAashiqui 2. Clearly, direc-tor John Robinson doesn’tcare about “B and C cen-tres getting it”

And he proves this deci-

Nee Naan Nizhal: Shadow play

sively by filling his frames with techspeak. Facebook. Gmail. Chat.Wikipedia. Orkut. There were only two sops to that nebulous massthat we like to call the “Tamil film audience” — MS Baskar shows upin a comedy track with very little comedy. (He thinks ‘amnesia’ is acountry.) And Sarath Kumar, the biggest name in the cast, gets an‘entry scene’ — on a Harley Davidson that's less bike, more boat.

Despite this hero-entry, Sarath Kumar isn’t this film’s hero. Heplays a Malaysian cop named Anwar Ali, and he’s investigating aseries of murders in Kuala Lumpur — all the victims are Indian males.And yet, the most interesting scene involving him occurs at home,when he barges into the bedroom of his teenage daughter Mumtaz.She’s sitting in front of her laptop doing a project, and he just wants tosay something like “don't work too hard”, but he doesn't get the chance— at least not at once. She’s annoyed with him because he didn’tknock. So he steps out, knocks, and re-enters the room. As the filmunfolds and we see what its concerns are — neglected youngsterswho seek affection on the Internet, and the predators swirling aroundthem — we look back at this scene differently. Was Mumtaz reallyworking on a project or...?

Nee Naan Nizhal, thus, is about the consequences of being inthrall to the Internet. And it isn’t just young girls; Rohit, too, gets afriend request from a stranger named Asha (Ishitha). She’s in KualaLumpur and he accepts, unthinkingly. He’s 22. She’s 17, maybe younger.

No wonder he is infatuated. He keeps checking his phone for mes-sages from her — even while driving. He almost runs over a child. Atsome point, he insists they meet. He says he’ll fly over. Now, shehesitates. At least she can tell these worlds apart, unlike Rohit.

Nee Naan Nizhal, too, exists in two worlds. It’s is a weird lovestory and a crime thriller — and its big problem is that it can’t balanceboth. Too much time is spent on the Rohit-Asha romance, and it’s notvery exciting because it’s made up entirely of chat sessions, presentedas voiceovers with scrolling text.

The villains needed to be a bigger presence, the character transi-tions aren’t convincing, and worse, midway into the second half thefilm morphs from a whodunit to a how-will-he-get-caught, which isnever as exciting. — The Hindu


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Pietersen hails ‘genuine guru’ Dravid

NEW DELHI: Chasing 264,West Indies were coasting.Dwayne Smith had gone past hishighest ODI score, and his sec-ond-wicket partnership withKieron Pollard looked ominous forIndia. With nine wickets in hand,a long list of batsmen to come, and128 required at exactly a run aball, this was West Indies' matchto lose.

It started with the wicket ofPollard, who chased a wide balland dragged Amit Mishra onto hisstumps. From that point, WestIndies imploded. On a two-pacedFeroz Shah Kotla pitch, India'sbowlers put the brakes on thescoring, and panic took hold of thebatsmen. West Indies lost their lastnine wickets for 79 runs, and theirlast eight for 45 here on Oct 11.

Having opted to bat first, theyhad struggled to break the shack-les against accurate new-ballbowling from Ravi Rampaul and,in particular, Jerome Taylor, whoattacked a good-length area closeto off stump and allowed the pitchto do the rest. The second-wicket

India level series with win in Delhipair of Ajinkya Rahane andAmbati Rayudu had looked quiteill at ease while adding 46 in 67balls, and even Virat Kohli hadtaken his time to find his feet.

Suresh Raina looked fluentright from the time he walked inand with Kohli slowly got on topof the bowling, and began thebatting Powerplay on the cusp ofa century stand.

It looked like a launchpad to a280-plus score, but the dismissalsof Raina and Kohli, in the 37thand 41st overs, sucked the mo-mentum out of India's innings.Without MS Dhoni's unbeaten 40-ball 51, it's unlikely India wouldhave gotten near their total of 263,with pretty much everyone elseat the other end struggling tocome to terms with the surfaceand West Indies' adroit use of theslower ball at the death.

The wicket of Pollard causeda similar, and even more dramatic,turnaround in the tempo of WestIndies' innings. After his third six,he went after one tossed up wideoutside off and inside-edged itonto leg stump. The required ratecrept up to seven, when the spin-ners then discovered the turnavailable on the pitch, Mishra andRavindra Jadeja sending theWindies batsmen packing with 21balls left to play.

In the first ODI in Kochi onOct 8, West Indies (321 for 6) beatIndia (197 all out). India havescrapped third one-day interna-tional in Vishakhapatnam on Oct14 because of Cyclone Hudhud.

India 263 for 7 in 50 overs(Rahane 12, Dhawan 1, Kohli 62,Raina 62, Rayudu 32, Dhoni 51 n/o; Taylor 3 for 54)

West Indies 215 all out in46.3 overs (Smith 97, Bravo 26,Pollard 40, Samuels 16; Shami 4for 36, Jadeja 3 for 44, Mishra 2for 40)

Virat Kohli returns to form

Maverick England batsman KevinPietersen struggled to get along withcoaches of his own team most of his play-ing career and his quest for a “genuine guru”ended in faraway India where, he says,former captain Rahul Dravid made a last-ing impact on his technique.

In his autobiography ‘KP’ released thisweek, Pietersen refers repeatedly to an e-mail the Indian batting legend wrote to himabout playing spinners which made a mas-sive difference to him.

“Rahul was a great and heroic Indianbatsman in his day. He is also a genius at dealing with spin bowlers.Our conversations and emails were a private master class from agenuine guru,” Pietersen writes in the book.

“Rahul improved my cricket and helped me develop the way I thinkabout the game. His generosity will stay with me always.”

“My playing of spin has gone up a number of levels since I’ve spenttime in the IPL, and in particular, since I’ve spoken to Rahul Dravid...InEngland, batsmen get taught to play with the spin against spin bowlers.In India, the best players of spin get taught to play against it,” he adds.

The South African-born cricketer has created a stir among theEngland cricket establishment with claims of bullying within the En-glish dressing room, led by the then coach Andy Flower.

It has led to England captain Alastair Cook accusing him of tarnish-ing a successful era for the squad.

Pietersen is outspoken about the unfriendliness of his teammatesand is all praise for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the “adrenalinrush” and bonding atmosphere.

“The IPL is the future... I could talk about money and the IPL allday to you, but for the friendships alone I would play for free,” saysthe Delhi Daredevils player. “I’ve built all my relationships with for-eign cricketers while in the IPL. That doesn’t help in the Englanddressing room... there are not many of those friendships,” he adds.

Pietersen’s England team career effectively ended in February thisyear when his central contract with the England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) was terminated.

In the book, he expresses a desire to return to Test cricket, but IPLis where he seems to have found his true home: “The IPL is profes-sionalism taken to its logical extreme. All the bullshit and hypocrisyhave been turned off.”

Pakistan lose 3rdODI by one run

ABU DHABI: At the toss,George Bailey had said his teamhad still not played the ultimategame despite being 2-0 up in theseries. Given the way they bat-ted, it was certainly not the ulti-mate game Australia were after;they lost their way from 102 for 1in the 22nd over to end up withonly 231 on the board, on a bats-men-friendly pitch.

Pakistn’s eighth-wicket pair ofSohail Tanvir and Zulfiqar Babarhad shown exemplary calmnessunder duress to chip away at thetarget. The batsmen survived arun-out chance and added 22 runswith ease to bring the team towithin two runs of a morale-boost-ing win on Sunday, Oct 12.

But Tanvir swung at a full,straight delivery only to be bowled,then Mohammad Irfan struggledto make contact with the nextthree deliveries.

When he finally made contact,off the last ball of the innings, heonly managed a top edge that gaveAustralia their third ODI-serieswhitewash (minimum threematches) against Pakistan.

RELIGION/ SPIRITUALITYPAGE 24 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

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If religions have existed since man’s first thoughts about where hehas come from, they are sure to remain and be created as long as manhas questions about his origins and some answers about how he shouldlead his life. Here are some of the least known religions.

Falun Gong is a religious movement started recently, but it hasnotched up about three million practitioners. Founded in China in 1992by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong combines elements of Buddhism, Taoismand Confucianism, with traditional Chinese folklore.

The Unification Church, established in South Korea in 1954, as-cribes to a unique interpretation of Christianity. Its 3 million believerspraise the faith’s founder Sun Myung Moon, the religion’s founder, asthe Messiah, and ascribe to a doctrine known as the "Divine Prin-ciple". This doctrine emphasises duality in nature and the harmoniousunion of masculine and feminine.

Cao Dai, a Vietnamese religion, combines elements of Confucian-ism, Taoism, Buddhism and Catholicism. It was founded in 1926 andclaims up to 6 million believers. Worshippers comprise a vast array ofsaints, which includes such notable figures as Julius Caesar and Pericles.Adherents see all humans as sharing a divine heritage.

Aladura, founded in the early 20th century, this religion is based onthe "prophet healing" churches of Africa. It has around one millionfollowers, based mostly in Nigeria. Aladura is directly related to theAnglican movement of Christianity and founded as a response to mis-sionary movements of Africa. The religion emphasizes divine healingand a strict moral code.

Eckankar was established by American John Paul Twitchell in1965. It is a monotheistic faith, which worships the divine spirit "Eck".Eckankar is similar to some Eastern religions in its belief that the soulis constantly reincarnated until it achieves spiritual liberation. The reli-gion also teaches that spiritual growth is only possible through specialmeditative exercises similar to yoga.

Asatru is a revival of ancient Nordic religion based upon polythesitcfaith and mythic tales. According to the religion, there are four keydeities and several minor gods. Adherents usually live in communitiescalled Kindreds. They ascribe to the “Nine Noble Virtues” as a modelfor their lives. Major holidays revolve around the changing seasonswith Yule being the most important.

Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) is a religion created in Califor-nia by Dr Paul Foster Case. The religion teaches its adherants bycorrespondence but also has bases around the world where peoplemeet and perform religious ceremonies. Most of the beliefs and teach-ings are based on esoteric psychology, occult tarot, Hermetic Qabalah,Astrology, and meditation techniques. B.O.T.A believes that theQabalah is the mystical root of both ancient Judaism and the originalChristianity, but people of all faiths are accepted if mystically inclined.

Mazdakism is a religion founded by Mazdak, a socialist Persianreformer in 6th century BC. He claimed to be a prophet and institutedcommunal possessions and social welfare programs. The two distin-guishing factors of Mazdak’s teaching were the reduction of the im-portance of religious formalities — the true religious person being theone who understood and related correctly to the principles of the uni-verse — and a criticism of the strong position of Zoroastrian clergywho, he believed, had oppressed the Persian population and causedmuch poverty.

Cheondoism is a 20th-century Korean religious movement thathas its origins in a peasant rebellion of 1812. Cheondoist theology isbasically monotheistic, pantheistic and panentheistic. Cheondoism isrooted in Korean Shamanism and Korean Buddhism, with elementsdrawn from Christianity. It has become so popular in Communist NorthKorea that it is now the leading religion there. The religion believesthat God exists in each of us and that we should all strive to makeearth a paradise.

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World’s lesser known religions

Wisdom from the Dalai LamaThe Dalai Lama starts his convocation address at the Tata Institute

of Social Sciences by calling himself ‘just a simple monk’.“So what am I doing here; I need to clarify,” he tells the newly-

minted scholars, parents and teachers.“I am a torchbearer of the 1,000-year-old Nalanda tradition, which

Tibetans follow. This ‘old wisdom’ must be harmonized with ‘youngwisdom’ of science if we are to bring happiness and harmony to the21st century.”

Age or authority alone is not enough, he cautions. The Buddhahimself counselled his followers to be sceptical; to critically examineand not to accept whatever he said in good faith, he says.

The Dalai Lama reels off a long list of names of great acharyaslike Nagarjuna, Shantideva and Vasubandhu who took the Buddha’sadvice to heart and made prodigious attempts to investigate and un-derstand reality.

“These were a part of their fundamental quest for overcomingsuffering and perfecting the human condition. Scientists are makingsimilar attempts at understanding fundamental verities today,” he says.

“This is why I began to collaborate with scientists more than 30years ago. As human beings, we have to look after one another. Onlyright inner values can nurture healthy minds. In trying to create abetter world, we also need to have less emphasis on ‘them’ and ‘us’and more sense that everyone is part of ‘us’.” — Vithal C Nadkarni

On Sunday, October 12, SriMeenakshi Temple Society (MTS)celebrated another key milestoneof the Main Temple RenovationProject (MTRP) that waslaunched during April 2014, withthe Main Temple Prakara PunarNirmana Puja.

The beautifully decorated po-dium at the newly renovatedGanesh Temple provided the plat-form with the Pradhana Murthis,Sri Meenakshi in the middle, LordSiva and Manonmani on the oneside, with Lord Venkateswara,Bhoodevi and Sridevi on the otherside.

The Priests (Sri MannickaBhattar, Sri Sridharan Raghavan,Sri Parameswaran and Sri PavanKumar Bhasyam) had done awonderful job as the alankaram(adornment of the Murthis) addedto the ambience of the occasion.

Over 250 devotees sat in frontof the murthis and the hall wascharged with devotion as thepriests conducted the puja with the108 Gold vilva archana for LordShiva, Lalitha Trishathi archanafor Meenakshi and 108 Gold lotusarchana for Lakshmi andVenkateswara.

The devotees were wrapped inattention and they followed theverses as they were projected onthe screen.

The Vedic Heritage School chil-dren (over 200 kids) joined the re-cital during the Mantra Pushpawhich was sublime experienceand bodes well for the temple’sfuture.

The Fund raising efforts con-tinued to exceed the expectationswith the generosity of the donors.

The floor model of the MainTemple made by silpisRamanathan and Manikandanwith the help of RoopaBalakrishnan was very useful forpeople to visualize the plan; thanksare also to the RAC teamNarayanan and Sasidaran Pillai.

As part of the Prakara Puja,devotees carried the Navarathnam(nine gems, intended to be placedin the sanctum as part of theMTRP project) in packets withgreat devotion around the templein a pradhakshinam, along with theprocession of the Utsava Murthiand placed them inside the maintemple.

Lunch was provided at the endof the function. Dr. Vaduganathanthanked the devotees support forthe MTRP project and the eventcoordinator and MTS secretarySrikanth Venugopalan thanked allthe volunteers, devotees and boardmembers for the team effort inmaking the event successful.

All the devotees felt gratefulthat Goddess Meenakshi , Lord

Sundareswara , Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Padmavathy forblessing this Main Temple Prakara Punar Nirmana Puja and for theblissful experience. The next milestone on the historic MTRP expan-sion will be the auspicious Bhoomi Puja on Sunday, November 2nd atthe Meenakshi temple.

Prakara Punar Nirmana Puja at Meenakshi Temple

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India HeraldWeb: www.india-herald.com • Email: [email protected] • Tel: 281-980-6746

Diwali 2014

Diwali, the “festival of lights” is the most impor-tant festival for Hindus around the globe. The leg-ends behind the festival are as varied as the man-ner of its celebration, but common to all of them is the theme of the triumph of good over evil. Ev-erywhere Diwali symbolizes the lifting of spiritual darkness and ushers light. In due course of time, numerous historical incidents got connected with this festival. Various legends are attributed to this festival and the reasons for celebration diff er in dif-ferent regions of the country.

In the north, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and the surrounding areas, Diwali is the day when King Rama`s coronation was celebrat-ed in Ayodhya after his epic war with Ravana, the demon king of Lanka.

Lord Rama was a great warrior King who was ex-iled by his father Dashratha, the King of Ayodhya, along with his wife Sita and his younger brother Lakshman, on his wife’s insistence. Lord Rama re-turned to his Kingdom Ayodhya after 14 years of ex-ile, in which he put an end to the demon Ravana of Lanka, who was a great Pundit, highly learned but still evil dominated his mind. After this victory of Good over Evil, Rama returned to Ayodhya. In Ayod-hya, the people welcomed them by lighting rows of clay lamps. So, it is an occasion in honor of Rama’s

victory over Ravana; of Truth’s victory over Evil. King Bali and Vamana Avatar (the Dwarf):

The other story concerns King Bali, who was a generous ruler. But he was also very ambitious. Some of the Gods pleaded Vishnu to check King Bali’s power. Vishnu came to earth in the form of a Vamana (dwarf ) dressed as priest. The dwarf ap-proached King Bali and said “You are the ruler of the three worlds: the Earth, the world above the skies and the underworld. Would you give me the space that I could cover with three strides?” King Bali laughed. Surely a dwarf could not cover much ground, thought the King, who agreed to dwarf’s request. At this point, the dwarf changed into Vish-nu and his three strides covered the Earth, the Skies and the whole Universe! King Bali was send to the underworld. As part of Diwali celebrations, some Hindus remember King Bali.

NarakasuraAnother legend talks about the Demon named

Narakasur who had managed to acquire such awe-some powers that he began to terrorize the three worlds. He was killed and defeated by Lord Krishna. As a symbol of that victory Lord Krishna smeared his forehead with the demon king’s blood. Krishna returned home early morning on the day of Nara-kachaturdashi. The womenfolk massaged scented

oil on his body and gave him a bath to wash away the demon’s blood. Since then the custom of taking an oil bath before sunrise on this day has become a traditional practice especially in Maharashtra and in the South.

Goddess Lakshmi On this day Mother Lakshmi emerged from the

ocean of milk called the Ksheer Sagar. She brought with Her wealth and prosperity for mankind. On that day, Lakshmi Pooja was performed to honour Her and as such, every year on Diwali day, Hindus perform Her prayer and worship. The making and distribution of various sweets and total vegetarian foods are the order of the day. This practice is alive and well to this very day. Many people believe that Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and good fortune, visit the homes of devotees on this day. Worship of Lakshmi is performed in the evening.

In rural areas, Diwali signifi es Harvest Festival. Di-wali which occurs at the end of a cropping season has along with the above custom, a few others that reinforce the hypothesis of its having originated as a harvest. Every harvest normally spelt prosperity. The celebration was fi rst started in India by farm-ers after they reaped their harvests. They celebrat-ed with joy and off ered praises to God for granting them a good crop.

• INDIA HERALD • DIWALI 2014

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 1 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 8 9 10 11 12 1314 15 16 17 18 19 20 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 14 15 16 17 18 19 2021 22 23 24 25 26 27 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 21 22 23 24 25 26 2728 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 28 29 30 31

30January 1st: New Year's Day, January 20th: Martin Luther King Day, February 17th: Presidents' Day, Data provided 'as is' without warrantyMay 26th: Memorial Day, July 4th: Independence Day, September 1st: Labor Day, October 13th: Columbus DayNovember 11th: Veterans Day, November 27th: Thanksgiving Day, December 25th: Christmas Day © www.calendarpedia.com

2015

September October November December

Sep 07 Onam; Sep 09 Pitr-Paksha begins; Sep 24 Pitr-Paksha ends; Sep 25 Navaratri begins; Sep 30 Durga Puja begins ; Oct 03 Navaratri ends;

Oct 04 Dusshera Oct 11 Karva Chauth Oct 21 Dhan Teras Oct 22 Naraka Chaturdasi; Oct 23 Diwali/Laxmi Pooja; Oct 24 Govardhan Puja; Gujarati New Year; Oct 25 Bhai Duj;

Oct 29 Chhat Puja; Nov 6 Guru Nanak Jayanti; Nov 24 Guru Tegh Bahadur’s Martyrdom Day; Dec 24 Christmas Eve; Dec 25Christmas; Dec 31 New Year’s Eve.

Jan 15 Sankranthi, Pongal; Jan 14 Tamil New Year; Feb 24 Vasant Panchami; Feb 17 Maha Shivaratri; March 4 Holi; Mar 20 Gudi Padwa/Ugadi; March 28 Ramanavami;

April 2 Mahavir Jayanthi; April 3 Hanuman Jayanthi; Apr 14 Solar New Year/Baisakhi / Vishu; Apri 20 Akshaya Tritiy; May 03 Buddha Purnima; July 30 Guru Purnima;

Aug 19 Nag Panchami; Aug. 28 Onam ; Aug 29 Raksha-Bandhan; Sept 5 Krishna Janmashtami; Sept 17 Ganesh Chaturthi; Oct 21 Durgashtami, Maha Navami ;

Oct 22 Dusshera; Oct 30 Karva Chauth; Nov 8 Dhan Teras; Nov 10 Naraka Chaturdasi; Nov 11 Diwali, Lakshmi Puja; Nov 25 Kartik Poornima.

(Hindu Festivals depend on location and might diff er for two cities and diff erence is quite noticeable for cities in diff erent time zone. This list is for Houston)

India Herald Calendar

2014 -15

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 1111 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 13 14 15 16 17 1818 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 20 21 22 23 24 2525 26 27 28 29 30 31 29 30 31 26 27 28 29 30

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 1

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 810 11 12 13 14 15 16 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 1517 18 19 20 21 22 23 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 2224 25 26 27 28 29 30 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 2931 30 31

January February March April

May June July August

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INDIA HERALD • DIWALI 2014 • PAGE 3

Amir Dodhiya, Agent

Amiralli Dodhiya (AMIR)AgentNew York Life Insurance Company13135 Dairy Ashford Rd, Ste 550,Sugar Land, TX 77478Ph: [email protected]

(SMRU: 491820 11/1/2014)

Houston, TX, Oct 10, 2014 – Outstanding client service, ethics and professionalism have elevated Amiralli Dodhiya (Amir) of the Houston G.O, Sugar Land Sales Offi ce of New York Life to qualify for the exclusive “Court of the Table” of the Million Dol-lar Round Table — The Premier Association of Financial Professionals ®. In addition to being a New York Life agent Amiralli Dodhiya is a 6-year MDRT member and a Court of the Table qualifi er.

“Leading the MDRT’s membership ranks for 60 years speaks to the unwavering dedication of New York Life’s family of agents as well as to our industry leading training program. Our agents are unsurpassed in providing families and businesses with extraordinary professionalism and outstanding service year after year, and in upholding the professional standards set by generations of agents before them,” said Mark Pfaff, co-president of the Insurance and Agency Group, New York Life. “I am proud that we have attained this level of achievement for sixty consecutive years and I want to thank all of our agents and managers past and present for helping us reach this level of success.”

Achieving Court of the Table status places Mr. Dodhiya among the top profession-als in the global life insurance and fi nancial services industry. He is recognized for demonstrating exceptional professional knowledge, client service and ethical con-duct.

Founded in 1927, the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), The Premier Associa-tion of Financial Professionals®, is an international, independent association of nearly 42,729 of the world’s leading life insurance and fi nancial services professionals from more than 473 companies in 71 countries. MDRT members demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and outstanding client service. MDRT membership is recognized internationally as the standard of sales excellence in the life insurance and fi nancial services business. Please visit MDRT’s website at www.mdrt.org for more information.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible fi nancial strength ratings currently awarded to any life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).** Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments*** provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affi liates provide an array of secu-rities products and services, as well as retail mutual funds.

New York Life Agent AMIRALLI DODHIYA Qualifies For Million Dollar Round Table’s “COURT OF THE TABLE”New York Life Leads Million Dollar Round Table for the 60th Consecutive Year

Please visit New York Life’s Web site at www.newyorklife.com for more information.

* Based on revenue as reported by “Fortune 500, ranked within Indus-tries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mu-tual),” Fortune magazine, June 16, 2014. See http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/faq/?iid=F500_sp_method%20 for methodology.

** Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 8/13/14.

*** New York Life Investments is a service mark used by New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management LLC.

PAGE 4 • INDIA HERALD • DIWALI 2014

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Aries (A,L,E) 21 March to 20 AprilGeneral Forecast: The year ahead indicates great suc-

cess in all aspects of life. You need to defend your position assertively at times. In general the year would be one of calm and harmony. Keep your balance in all aspects.Health: Your health would be better than the previous

few years, thanks to your new emotional make-up. You are bound more by family ties than ever and this helps you to tick on a positive note. Love Life: Radical changes can be expected in this area

at the end of the year. For singles, time is ripe to locate your ideal other half. Job/Business/Career: Success is yours for the asking

this year. Your greatest asset is your socializing nature. You would be able to achieve your goal this year in the professional fi eld without much effort. Trust your instincts and this would be the best time to excel in your fi eld. Taurus (B,V,U)21 April to 20 MayGeneral Forecast: Weight down your past misfortunes,

confront the present and create a secure future for you and your loved ones. A peaceful year is in for you. Your ap-proach to anything in the personal or professional fi eld would be much softer and lighter. Others around you will be surprised to see a great change in you. Health: Health would fare better for you when compared

to the previous year. Your energy levels increase this year on a positive note. Enjoy life and take a positive stance in whatever you do. Love Life: Your attitude towards your partner is likely to

change altogether, You will learn the intricacies involved in expressing your love concerns. Singles have a positive period ahead for locating an ideal partner for life. Pleasant moments in the love fi eld are forecast for you this year. Job/Business/Career: Your relationships with authori-

ties and peers would be strengthened and your knowledge base in the area of interest would be widened. Any instabil-ity in the professional fi eld that had been haunting you for quite some time now will vanish into thin air. Hard work will pay rich dividends during the course of the year.

Gemini (K,CHH,GH) 21 May to 20 JuneGeneral Forecast: The year ahead will help you to di-

versify your interests on a large scale. More opportunities will come in for rest and relaxation and thus you would be able to revitalize your inner spirits. Health: Your health needs utmost care for the year

ahead. Your approach towards hygiene, diet and exercise will take on a new meaning. But it does not mean that you would escape minor ailments. They will continue to bother you throughout the year.Love Life: A better harmonious period awaits you with

your partner towards the middle of the year. Do not forget the road you had already travelled, past partners might be lurking around, hence maintain a note of caution.Job/Business/Career: Teamwork rather than an indi-

vidual approach would be rewarding in the career front for you this year. Success is on the cards when you work with a group with common interests. Do take time to listen to other’s opinion and ideas. Try not to earn the wrath of authorities and colleagues in the work fi eld.

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 JulyGeneral Forecast: No more Stop signs, Only Green

signals in all directions of life. You would be able to over-come all obstacles that seemed to be unconquerable till now. It would be an optimistic period for you with much fanfare and occasions to celebrate at home and work. Health: Your energy levels need to be increased for bet-

ter prospects in life. Patience is much needed for this pe-riod as also a tab of your diet and exercise. Quit all the bad habits you have related to health. The end of the year will see a new you thanks to your radical changes in the health front.Love Life: Show patience in relationships and you will

strengthen the bond with your partner. Reconciliations and rapprochements will pass off peacefully. Some sacrifi ce is needed in your area of relationships.Job/Business/Career: Immense opportunities, to per-

fect yourself and your creativity to a new order in the work fi eld. Hard work done diligently will pay you with good rewards. Certain relationship problems will creep in with your authorities and peers during the middle of the year.

Leo (M) 23 July to 22 AugustGeneral Forecast: You ought to take the much-needed

break. Your creativity will be at it best this period. Put it into good use for fi nancial or monetary benefi ts. Take a

resolution not to hurt anyone around you. This is not a time to lie still. Health: The year would not be that great as far as your

general health trends are concerned. Your past die-hard habits will bring some unwanted health issues. Take some time off now and then to retreat into your own shell that will rejuvenate you for the long run. Love Life: Make sure you do not make matters worse

by complicating them. The middle of the year might see you in diffi cult and troublesome situations, but do not lose your control of matters. The end of the year will see things smoothen out and the long term future with your partner seems secure.Job/Business/Career: Career will remain satisfactory

and pleasant throughout the year for you. Not much of a toil would be needed but stay in track for the year ahead. Some amount of socializing will also help in the profes-sional fi eld. Delays and hindrances probable for career related promotions and changes.

Virgo (P) 23 August to 22 SeptemberGeneral Forecast: This year will see you settle down

in life, you will be starting a long-awaited venture. Do not run from contracts that are hard to achieve. The hard toil put in will be rewarded eventually. The end of the year might see you in a painful situation that might cause a per-manent mark in your relationship. Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing.Health: The planetary positions are favorable for you so

that there are no concerns in the fi eld of health. Mental health will be in harmony once you wean off your bad feelings and direct your energies for positive changes.Love Life: You need emotional support, a shoulder to

hang on when in need. Now that you have much experi-ence, you can make up your mind on what’s good for you and what’s not.Job/Business/Career: New Venture & partnership of-

fers will follow you but Overseeing deadlines might tar-nish your image for the worst. Concentrate on the work at hand and get goodwill of authorities and peers.

Libra (R,T)23 Sept to 22 OctGeneral Forecast: Accelerated growth is likely in all

spheres. Your internal security might be at risk and hence maintain caution in this sphere. Better safety is assured when you consolidate matters at hand. You will get into a more spiritual phase in life. Move your projects in a posi-tive direction for better results. Health: Your energy levels would be high this year and

so would be your spirits. But do not strain too much as you might end up losing steam towards the end of the year. You might think you can move mountains but even turn-ing a molehill would become tiring.Love Life: Do not make important decisions related to

relationships; instead make efforts to strengthen the bonds that have been already made. Doubts and misunderstand-ings are to be avoided at all costs.Job/Business/Career: Your projects are likely to move

in a positive direction. Team efforts will give good rewards hence go with the a fl ow. A change of authority might hamper your performance. Do not heed to this and instead move at your own pace. Do some research in your area of interest which might be benefi cial for the long run.

Scorpio (N,Y)23 Oct to 21 NovGeneral Forecast: A new positive & successful life

will start, Your ambitions and ideals materialize. But oc-casional hiccups cannot be ruled out now and then. A lot of positive developments are likely to take place in your life this year. Reinforce your ideals and remain fi rm on your thoughts and actions. Your creativity and imagina-tion would be at their best and hence put it into proper use. Channel them into a profi table deal.Health: Lots of improvement in health is indicated.

Avoid fatty foods to a greater extent. Love Life: New romance will start fl owing in your life

& you will forget all the pains of past year. Your relation-ship area will defi nitely have a conducive atmosphere for positive developments.Job/Business/Career: You have the guts to bring suc-

cess in your professional life. But of late, particularly the previous year, you were lying low with a dead spirit. Reju-venate your thoughts and come out of your shell. Develop your deeds in a positive direction, new initiatives can be taken without any second thoughts.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH)22 Nov to 21 DecGeneral Forecast: Cautious Tone ahead, think twice with

patience, don’t rush for any important decisions. Your stars are entering in new cycle, so follow the fl ow with open

eyes. This will be a good learning period of your life.Health: You need to take the health matter much respon-

sibly for the year ahead else you might land in the hands ofa doc. But generally your health seems satisfactory. Love Life: You need to view your relations with partner

from a new angle. Your partner would be able to under-stand you deeply on a more romantic note. Communica-tions need to controlled and censored. Make all efforts topatch up the torn parts of your relationship.Job/Business/Career: The year would be a year of tri-

als and troubles in the career front. Change is formidablefor you during the year. You ought to take quick decisionsas challenges come in now and then. New ventures couldbear fruit.

Capricorn (KH,J)22 Dec to 20 JanGeneral Forecast: Most of your objectives in the per-

sonal and professional fi eld would be met in time. Thoughperiodic troubles are possible, most of the year would besmooth. A partnership will have a major infl uence on youin the year ahead.Health: Your general health remains satisfactory. Focus

your energy in the positive direction. Recharge your bat-teries.Love Life: Eligible candidates will meet their soulmate

& it will lead to engagement & marriage. Married coupleswill be gifted with some kind of good news very soon.Job/Business/Career: Some change in your job/business

is due & your ambitions will soar to a new high thanks tothe planetary infl uences is expected, so be prepared.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21 Jan to 19 FebGeneral Forecast: Conditions will become favorable

for you to enjoy and experience pleasure in all its forms.Long awaited good news will start coming in. Things willstart moving smoothly, though a little late.Health: Ward off unwanted tensions and focus your en-

ergy on the positive side of life. Recharge your life withinand take healthy food and do not miss on your regular ex-ercise routines.Love Life: An intensely emotional period awaits you.

But beware of the mood changes of your partner. A clearstudy of the partner’s personality is advised.Job/Business/Career: Focus all your energy in one

direction so that your interests see the light. A change ofattitude would be much needed for professional growth.Some help will come from those near you for career de-velopment.

Pisces (D,CH,Z)20 Feb to 20 MarchGeneral Forecast: Your course of life would be changed

dramatically for the best and your role in the family andprofession would be reinforced to a greater extent. Yourrelationships will take centre-stage and you will seem tobe more useful to the society than ever before in life. Health: Tiredness and boredom might dampen your

spirits for which you ought to take occasional retreats. Agood balance between food, exercise and work will seeyou in the pink of health for the whole year ahead. Love Life: Listening rather than talking to one’s partner

is a must which would help you to balance the relationshipso that the bonds are kept intact without any damage. Tryto understand the feelings of your partner and maintainyour cool. If single a better phase awaits you this year.Job/Business/Career: You would climb up the ladder of

profession now. It is time for you to assert your capabilitiesin the work fi eld. Determination is the key- word to suc-ceed in your profession. A diplomatic approach is muchneeded now. Your new ideas and ambitions will succeed.But be cautious in partnership.

DIWALI 2014 TO DIWALI 2015 FORECAST By Hardik Vyas

Hardik Vyas: Astrologer, Vaastu & Gem Stone Consultant

Cell: 832-298-9950



By John W VargheseReal Estate is one of the invest-

ments options for anyone to grow wealth.

This is a good time to invest be-cause of the combination of low in-terest rates and low purchase price where investors can get approxi-mately 8% or higher rate of return on investment.

Due to the number of people relo-cating to Houston, house prices are likely to go up in the future so it's a great time to buy now.

The interest rate on bank deposits are very low, as you know, compared to the rate of return with real estate.

Being busy with their career people often worry about the time and pain that comes along with maintaining the property, Keep in mind, though, that every job /career has its own chal-lenges; however, it all boils down to the attitude what we have. The good news is that you can get a property manager to take care of all the prop-erty maintenance responsibility.

Start with a primary home - if you are renting right now, there is no rea-son to pay someone else's mortgage.

Americans today are more likely to think real estate is the best option for long-term investments than in the past, ranking it ahead of gold and stocks,

according to a recent Gallup poll. Gallup's April 3-6 Economy and Personal Finances poll that asked Americans to choose the best option for long-term investments: real estate, stocks and mutual funds, gold, sav-ings accounts and CDs, or bonds. Prior to 2011, Gallup asked the same question, but did not include gold as an option.

the question, half of Americans said real estate was the best in-vestment choice.

Stock values have also been improving in recent years, aid-ed particularly by the bull mar-ket in 2013. The 24% of Amer-icans who regard stocks as the best long-term investment is also higher now, up from 19% in 2012. Still, Americans are modestly more likely to say real estate is the better invest-ment today, perhaps because of the recent volatility in the stock market.

Lower-income Americans, those living in households with less than $30,000 in annual income, are the most likely to say gold is the best long-term investment choice, at 31%. Upper-income Americans are the least likely to name gold, at 18%.

Upper-income Americans are much more likely to say real estate and stocks are the best investment, possibly be-cause of their experience with these types of investments. Upper-income Americans are most likely to say they own their home, at 87%, followed by middle (66%) and lower-in-come Americans (36%). Gallup found that homeowners (33%) are slightly more likely than renters (24%) to say real estate is the best choice for long-term investments.

Americans between 18 and

29 years old are almost evenly split, with about one-quarter each saying real estate, stocks, gold, and savings accounts are the best choices for long-term investments. However, the 23% who said savings accounts is much higher than the percentage who gave this same answer in older age groups.

With housing prices improving across the country, Ameri-cans are regaining faith that real estate is the best choice for long-term investments. But home ownership is also associ-ated with views of real estate as an attractive investment op-portunity. This leaves groups with lower home ownership rates, like lower-income and younger Americans, still looking elsewhere for investment options.

Likewise, stock values have been improving and Ameri-cans are more likely now than in recent years to say stocks are the best investment, though more still choose real estate. That could be partly attributable to more Americans owning a home than owning stocks, but could also be related to recent volatility in stocks this year, especially during the time the sur-vey was conducted.

Different investment options historically offer different lev-els of risk and different rewards. Savings accounts and bonds are historically safe, but do not offer as high of returns, and Americans typically don't regard those as the best invest-ments. While stocks can be more volatile, they also can of-fer huge returns. What Americans view as the best choice for investing refl ects myriad factors and is infl uenced by how the investment is currently performing and respondents' biases to-ward where they are invested.

Americans Sold on Real Estate as Best Long-Term Investment

Gold was the most popular long-term investment among Americans in 2011 -- a time when gold was at its highest market price and real es-tate and stock values were lower than they are today. Gold prices dropped signifi cantly after that and it lost favor with Americans. The 24% of Americans who currently name gold as the best long-term investment ties with the 24% who choose stocks.

Bonds have been Americans' least favored investment option for as long as Gallup has been asking the ques-tion. Savings accounts and CDs, on the other hand, have been more pop-ular in the past. In September 2008, before gold was an option and at a time when the real estate and stock markets were tanking, savings ac-counts were the most popular long-term investment among Americans.

This year, the housing market has been improving across the U.S. and home prices have recently been ris-ing after a steep drop in 2007 dur-ing the subprime mortgage crisis. This current improvement in prices may be why more Americans now consider real estate the best option for long-term investments. In 2002, during the real estate boom that pre-ceded the mortgage crisis, and be-fore gold was offered as an option in

John W Varghese NMLS # 349182Real Estate Broker / Partner

Stanley John Realtors920 FM 1092 (Murphy Rd) # 205

• Stafford, TX 77477. 832-877-5545 (direct) or 281-969-8701 (offi ce).

KaranjiDIWALI SWEETS

Dilkushar or Mohanthal

Kalakand

Ingredients for outer covering: 1 heaped cup Maida, 1/4 cup fi ne Rawa, a pinch of Salt. Oilo for deep fry-ing.For fi lling: 1/2 cup Fried gram (chutney dal) pow-

der, 1/3 cup grated dry Coconut powder, 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp powdered Sugar, 1 tbsp khus-khus, 3 tbsp Cashews,fi nely chopped; 1/4 tsp cardamom powder, a few strands of saffron.Method: Mix maida,rawa,salt with enough water to

form a stiff dough (the consistency of puri dough). Cov-er with a wet cloth and keep aside for half an hour.Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for fi lling fried

gram powder, grated dry coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, poppy seeds and chopped cashews nicely in a bowl and keep it aside.Now, knead the dough well again to make it soft and

pliable. Meanwhile, heat oil in a kadai. Make small lime-sized balls with the dough and roll it out into very thin chapathis of 4” dia. Roll as thin as possible. You can sprinkle maida on the rolling board for easy rolling. Take the karanji mould and slightly grease the edges with little oil and place the rolled chapati on top of it.Place 1 tbsp of fi lling on one side of the partition and

wet the edges slightly with water and close it and seal well.Remove the extra portion hanging out from the mould

and keep them aside.Repeat the same process for the re-maining dough.If you do not have karjikayi mould you can even take a

sharp edged 3” steel lid and cut the chapati using it and then keep the fi lling inside and close it to the other side forming a half moon and take a fork and make the impres-sions around the corners or pinch the edges with your fi n-gers or you can even pinch the edges and roll them inwards to form a beautiful pattern.See the image below for better understanding about how to shape them.Drop 2-3 at one time slowly in to the oil and fry them

on reduced fl ame(low-medium) till crisp and golden in color.Try to pour the hot oil from the sides using the slot-ted spoon on top of the karanji which helps in puffi ng up nicely.Drain them using a slotted spoon to a kitchen napkin and

let them cool completely. Store in an air tight container.They store good up to 2 weeks. This sweet is called Karanji in Marathi, Karchikai in Kan-

nada and Kajjikayalu in Telugu.

If made in the tradi-tional way, kalakand is a very time consuming and intricate mithai to make. Here is an easier way to make kalakand in a few minutes. Ingredients: 3/4 cup

fresh paneer (cottage cheese), 8 tbsp milk powder, 1/4 cup sugar,

pie dish. Cool and cut into 16 pieces. Garnish with sliv-ered almonds and serve chilled. Note: Use fresh paneer for best results. — Tarla Dalal Recipe

1/2 cup fresh cream, 1/2 cup cardamom (elaichi) powder, a few strands of saffron (in 1 tbsp of milk and set aside). For the garnish: 10 almonds, sliveredMethod: Combine all the ingredients in a non-stick pan.

Cook over a medium fl ame, stirring continuously for ap-proximately 10 to 15 minutes till the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. Spread onto a 7-inch-diameter

Ingredients: 2 cups coarse be-san, 1 cup ghee, 150gm grated mava (khoya), 1 tsp carda-mom (elaichi) powder, 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder (optional).For the sugar

syrup: 1-1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar, 1 cup water, 2 tbsp milk. For the garnish: 4 tbsp chopped almonds (badam) and pistachios.Method: Place the gram fl our in a bowl. Heat ghee and

pour half of it over the gram fl our. Rub the ghee into the gram fl our till the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Put the remaining hot ghee in a kadhai, add the gram fl our mixture and cook till the mixture is golden brown, stir-ring continuously.Add the grated khoya and cardamom powder (and op-

tional nutmeg powder) and stir for about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool till it is warm.For the sugar syrup: Mix the sugar with water in a pan

and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the milk to the boiling sugar syrup. The impurities will from a grey layer. Re-move this layer gently using a slotted spoon. Simmer till the syrup is of 1 string consistency. Keep the syrup hot.How to proceed: Pour the hot sugar syrup over the

cooked gram fl our mixture and stir well. Pour into a greased 225 mm. (9”) diameter thali with 25 mm. (1”) high sides. Sprinkle chopped almonds and pistachios on top and allow to set for 4 to 5 hours. Cut into 2-inch squares. Serve at room temperature.Tips: To test if the sugar syrup has reached a 1-string

consistency, lift some with a spoon and let it trickle down. If the syrup is dense and leaves a threadlike trail, it is ready to be used. — Tarla Dalal Recipe


KARAT 22 will be open on Dhanteras, Tuesday, October 21 from 10 a.m to 8p.m.

Spirit of India

5623 Hillcroft St., Houston, Texas 77036

713-783-0808, www.karat22.com

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