india herald dec 172014

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See MURTHY, Page 13

WASHINGTON: Indian-American physician

Vivek Hallegere Murthy has been confi rmed as the 19th surgeon general of America by US Senate. He is youngest person and fi rst person of Indian-origin to hold the post.

The upper house of US Congress confi rmed Murthy’s nomination by 51 votes to 43 more than year after President Barack Obama had nominated him to this top administration post on public health issues in November 2013 which saw a strong opposition from

the powerful pro-gun lobby National Rifl e Association (NRA).

The fi nal voting came yesterday soon after the Senate invoked cloture — a procedural hurdle — by same numbers (51 to 43 votes)

Pitching strongly for Murthy’s confi rmation, Senator Dick Durbin praised Murthy for his dedication to fi ghting obesity, tobacco related diseases and other chronic diseases that account for seven out of the top 10 causes for

Vivek Murthy appointed Surgeon-general of USA

Vivek H. Murthy

Padmini Ranganathan, president of Udavum Karangal of USA, presents a plaque to Alpa Shah, left, in appreciation of the support given by Madras Pavilion at the 12th annual fundraiser of the organization on Dec.7 at the Stafford Civic Center. At right is Rajan Radhakrishnan, also of Madras Pavilion. Udavum Karangal, (Center for humane services), a Chennai-based charitable organization, has been providing home for thousands of abandoned infants and children since 1983, under the personal supervision of Pappa Vidyaakar. Udavum Karangal of USA has been raising funds to provide food, clothing, and education to the children.

Representatives of various community organizations attended an awareness meet and fundraiser for the cause of Yezidis in northern Iraq at India House on Dec. 15. From left to right, Ravi Raghavan, Mehul Kamdar, Gita Bhatia, Haider Elias, Venkat Subramanian, Achalesh Amar, Naveen Kashaki, Murad Ismael, Rasheed Murad, Arun Kankani, and Vijay Pallod. See Page 12. PHOTO: BIJAY DIXIT.

Local community groups raise $25,000 for Yezidi relief

Udavum Karangal hosts annual fundraiser —

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014 • PAGE 3

COMMUNITY NEWS

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JVB Preksha Meditation Center in the presence of Samani Sanmati Pragyaji & Samani Jayant Pragyaji (Disciples of Acharya Shri Mahashraman), hosted Houston Mayor Annise Parker on Sunday, Dec. 14, for the inauguration of its fi rst Annual Gyanshala Children Magazine “Connect: Basics and Beyond” and “Tulsi Commemoration Volumes” on the occasion of H. H. Acharya Shri Tulsi Birth Centenary global celebrations. About 150 community members joined the celebration.

The mayor was greeted by enthusiastic Gyanshala kids along with board and EC members upon arrival. Parker congratulated everyone on the Centennial Birth of Acharya Tulsi, and expressed her desire to know more about JVB Community and acknowledge the work of our young Gyanshala students who are our future leaders and was quite amazed by their articles based on the principles of Anuvrat i.e. truth, non-violence, non-possession, and non-stealing, and wished them a bright future ahead. To honor this occasion, the mayor made a proclamation stating the Birth Date of Acharya Tulsi, October 20th as “Acharya Tulsi Day”, so worthy of the cause as he is known worldwide as one of the greatest Acharya’s of Jain Tradition. and a man of splendor personality, Humanitarian Saint and a great visionary. He opened hundreds of schools, started different vocational courses, numerous colleges, and a university as well. Jain Vishwa Bharati is one of them.

Reverend Samani Sanmati Pragyaji admired Mayor Parker’s distinguished career, explained how Acharya Tulsi’s teachings are showing the path of peace to the world and praised active committee members for their untiring efforts and support. The Emcee of the event, Pramod Jain acknowledged all the prominent guests from different Indian communities who attended. Swatantra Jain, the Chairman of JVB center welcomed the guests. All the Gyanshala kids paid their tribute by saying the Gyanshala pledge collectively. A special memento was presented to the mayor. The program ended with a thank you speech delivered by JVB’s President, Nikhil Jain. Members of JVB’s Gyanshala, value the intellectual capital, and nurture it through a perfect blend, of the traditional as well as contemporary ways and means, for the comprehensive development, of children. JVB Gyanshala Magazine truly captures the thoughts and creativity of its young students. The JVB Preksha Meditation Center envisions a blissful and peaceful society through Yoga, Preksha Meditation and Education of Non-violence. It conducts weekly Mediation, Yoga and Swadhyay sessions and runs special events and programs like iChoose & Meditation Camps. Its open to all and every session or event is free of charge to its attendees. For more information please visit www.jvbhouston.org or call them at 281-596-9642.

— By SEEMA JAIN; Photo: NAVIN MEDIWALA

JVB Gyanshala’s magazine launched


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TOPIC OF THE WEEK

THE LIGHTER SIDE

VOICES

By Vaishna Roy

Philologist William Jones fa-mously described it as “more per-fect than Greek, more copiousthan Latin, and more exquisitelyrefined than either.” Layered andcomplex, Sanskrit is one of ourrichest legacies.

With its perfect grammar, itscapacity for poetry, its synonymsand metaphors, Sanskrit is alinguist’s and philologist’s delight.Wanting to return to Sanskrit someof its status is not just commend-able but crucial, but as always weare not interested in the big pic-ture. We don’t want solutions thatneed hard work or academic rigor,just trite and superficial truisms.

The idea to make Sanskrit man-datory in schools or to declare theBhagavad Gita the “national scrip-ture” is along the same lines.

It’s important to at least get thepremise right before we declarethat Sanskrit is “the language ofour country.

Everything was written in San-skrit thousands of years ago ...”as Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaderAshok Singhal declared at lastmonth’s World Hindu Congress,when he said ominously thatmany things would soon be madecompulsory in India.

First of all, consider that San-skrit was never the language ofour masses. It’s always been themedium of instruction, the classi-cal and liturgical language in whichgrammar, science, religion andphilosophy were written. The wordSanskrit comes from sanskrita orrefined.

The everyday language ofpeople was Prakrit from prakritifor natural or common. In fact,several scholars consider that San-skrit originated not so much as adisparate language but as a supe-rior and polished version of speech(samskrita vak or polishedspeech).

It coexisted with local dialectsand these vocabularies inter-mingled extensively — Hindi,Bengali, Bhojpuri, Telugu,Malayalam all sharing etymologi-cal roots.

LANGUAGE OF LITURGYAlso, the knowledge of Sanskrit

was actually divisive and sowedsome of the first seeds of segre-gation in Indian society. Becauseit was complex and highly evolved,knowledge Sanskrit began to markspeakers as belonging to thewealthy and educated classes.

From there it was a short stepto Sanskrit being taught only to up-per castes and then only to Brah-mins and priests.

If Sanskrit got marginalized, itwas not so much because foreignlanguages wiped it out, but becauseit chose to confine itself to a nar-rower and narrower space until itwas soon exclusively the languageof liturgy alone, learnt only bypriests, who grew into an esotericcabal.

The Bhakti movement was bornas a reaction to the priestly class’sappropriation of language and re-ligion.

Poet-saints such as Kabir andTulsidas dumped not just the ritu-

alism and caste systemof extant Hinduism, butalso Sanskrit, its lan-guage. An extraordinarybody of prose and po-etry in the vernacularmushroomed in this era— Kabir wrote his dohein Braj Bhasha, Tulsidasin Braj and Awadhi, Tukaram and Namdev in Marathi, Nanak inGurmukhi. In fact, even the much earlier Mauryan era edicts of Ashokaare in Prakrit.

Studying in a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) school,we had Sanskrit till Class 8. A bit of an ear for linguistics and yourecognized half the words because Sanskrit shares cognates with al-most every Indo-European language.

Then you learnt by rote the declensions of various common shabdas.You spouted these, did some basic translation and verb matching, andwere pretty much guaranteed at least 90 per cent in exams.

If Sanskrit is made mandatory, that’s what students will largely ex-perience. Nothing traumatic or difficult but nothing very meaningfuleither. The point I am making is this: what we were taught did not giveus even a glimpse into the immensity of the language’s grammar or itssoaring poetry and philosophy.

We Indians love symbolic gestures, and that’s what “making San-skrit mandatory” is about. It’s another bronze statue, another slogan— the ‘Don’t Sound Horn’ on the back of a truck — that won’tachieve anything real.

Students will mug up shabdas for exams and still learn German inprivate. But, in that narrow sense, Sanskrit is already available frominstitutes such as Samskrita Bharati, which conduct classes and awarddiplomas for anyone who cares to look. We don’t need that sort ofshallow familiarity because without social currency, a language cannotsurvive anyway. It’s more important to preserve Sanskrit academi-cally rather than colloquially.

The same groups that are so quick to ban texts at universities woulddo well to do something proactive instead, such as demand the inclu-sion of translated Sanskrit poetry and drama into syllabi. I have friendswith fancy degrees in Comparative Literature or Philosophy who wouldbe hard-pressed to identify Bhavabhuti but can spout “Odysseus.”

We have Indian publishers who produce handcrafted, collector’seditions of Sophocles’ works — why not something similar for“Mricchakatika”?

In fact, if knowledge and learning were not as Eurocentric as it istoday, any self-respecting university would intuitively include Sanskrittexts, as they do Greek, in the canon of world literature.

Not only is Panini’s “Patanjali” the world’s earliest work in linguis-tics and phonetics (and the foundation for most modern linguistics),there is no grammar as detailed or logical. We need Indologists push-ing for these quiet, back-end but ultimately significant changes.

Real renewal happens not in shrill sloganeering but here — in fund-ing top-notch translations, textbooks and libraries; in sponsoring re-search chairs that produce more Sanskritists in India than abroad; inhigh-paid professorships that encourage the study of Indology ratherthan English Literature.

How about pushing for short courses at prestigious universitiesworldwide where students can earn extra credits?

Most important, it means divorcing the religious from the linguistic,so that Sanskrit is deconstructed and studied for its intrinsic value ratherthan as ritual.

We must stop pretending that a perfect Indian culture, preserved inamber, is waiting to be resuscitated intact, with dhoti-clad denizenschattering away in Sanskrit and milking cows.

That’s as much a chimera as Gandhiji’s vision of charkha-spinningvillagers breeding silkworms. If we want Sanskrit appreciated, let’sget practical for a change. — The Hindu

Reconversion: Will it do BJP in?Reconversion of those who converted to Islam or Christianity from

Hinduism, dubbed Ghar Wapsi (coming back home), is making bignews in India. If not stopped in its tracks, the movement has the poten-tial to derail Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agendaand perhaps even do BJP in forever.

To be sure, history will bear witness to the unsavory methods usedin India by both Islam and Christianity to convert Hindus. The methodsranged from bribery to coercion to outright barbaric acts of threat toslit the throat if the subject refused to convert. Those who convertedby sword apparently did not have much of a choice. But, to be fair,Hindus bear the responsibility for conversion of others. These con-verts were the most vulnerable and the most neglected by the Hindus.Ironically, the Hindu who refused to share a meal with or sit next toKhichu Mal was proud to invite him to his home when Khichu Malbecame Joseph.

Be as it may, to correct the history by Ghar Wapsi seems patentlyunwise, perhaps even downright stupid. What will it accomplish? Per-haps a few hundred will be ‘bought back’ into the Hindu fold. What isthe guarantee they will not be again bought into Islam or Christianity?In fact, like trading a stock, it seems like a good strategy for someoneto reconvert, re-re convert, re-re-re convert ad infinitum!

It is about time the hardliners like Bajrang Dal and VHP recognizethe folly of Ghar Wapsi and call it off before too much damage isdone. They may think they are serving Hinduism, but they are hurtingHinduism in worst possible way. It almost sounds like a death wish.

After a long time BJP has gotten a chance to build a Bharat wheredevelopment is the main agenda and where true Hinduism can thrivein the true spirit of secularism. Modi made me a proud Hindu when heproclaimed in his UN speech that he was proud of his Vedic heritage.I appeal to the hardliners to be true Hindus and not sabotage Hinduismby indulging in juvenile behavior like Ghar Wapsi.

Dr Hari H Dayal, Friendswood, TX

The bigot withinThe alleged conversion of 57 Muslim families in Agra on Decem-

ber 8, mostly slumdwellers lured by promises of BPL cards byorganisations affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, is the latest incident in agrim pattern. The Bajrang Dal is calling it “ghar wapsi” or homecom-ing, but that is thin cover for what appears to be an organized andaggressive “dharm jagran” or religious awakening project to shore upthe “Hindu count”.

By promoting a sense of siege in the majority community, and rous-ing it to aggressive proselytization, Sangh Parivar organizations arecrudely stoking minority anxieties. At this moment, it is not enough forthe BJP to offer the technical argument that the Agra controversy isfor UP’s SP government to address. Nor can it credibly distance itselffrom Bajrang Dal-RSS plans at a time when its own MP, YogiAdityanath, has unabashedly reiterated his intention to lead a similar“homecoming” in Aligarh later this month.

The dissonance only grows more glaring — between the daily pro-fessions of reform and claims of change at the top echelons of theModi government on one side and the palpable simmer and regulareruption of a regressive, minority-hating agenda at lower levels of theruling party and parivar.

There has also been a noticeable upward creep of the irresponsibil-ity and chauvinism — Union External Affairs Minister and BJP’s leadinglight Sushma Swaraj has urged that the Gita be accorded the status ofnational book and another Union minister sought to divide the peoplebetween “Ramzaadon” and “haramzaadon.” At the end of six months,the Modi government needs to acknowledge the contradiction that hasbuilt up on its watch. Given the great expectations that shored up itssurge to power, it can tolerate or encourage it at its own peril.

This Parliament session, the government was supposed to seize theopportunity to push through some of the crucial reforms on its agenda.This is the moment when the Modi government should be strenuouslyand strategically persuading and dividing its opposition to get the im-portant bills through the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks the required num-bers. Instead, in the session so far, the government has had to defenditself against a belligerent opposition attack on Minister Niranjan Jyoti’shate speech on one day, and on the “reconversion” controversy onanother day. A government that wants to be seen as hardworking andpurposeful must ask itself if it is spending too much time and energy onfighting fires or covering up for the bigot within. — Indian Express

Sanskrit deserves more than slogans


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NEW DELHI: On December16, Congresswoman TulsiGabbard (HI-02) began a visit toIndia at the invitation of India’sPrime Minister Narendra Modi,who she recently met with duringhis visit to the U.S.

During their first meeting, thetwo spoke of the priorities sharedby India and the U.S., includingdefeating the threat posed by ISISand other Islamic extremists, col-laborating to address environmen-tal concerns, and maximizing eco-nomic opportunities.

The congresswoman’s visit toIndia as the Prime Minister’s guestwill work towards these efforts.

“The potential for the relation-ship between the United Statesand India is extremely bright, andI wish to enhance this importantpartnership through my visit to In-dia,” said Congresswoman TulsiGabbard.

“I was honored to accept theinvitation of Prime Minister Modiand look forward to meeting withhim again. Throughout this visit, Iwill have the opportunity to meetwith a variety of people from dif-ferent industries in five major cit-ies, with the objective of investingin and strengthening the relation-ship between the world’s largestand oldest democracies.”

While in India, Rep. Gabbardwill build relationships with highranking officials in governmentand the military, and meet with in-dividuals and leaders in differentindustries, agencies, and organiza-tions that promote business, tech-nology and innovation, renewable

Tulsi Gabbard begins meetings with Indianleaders in New Delhi

energy, tourism, education, oppor-tunities for women and children,and environmental protection.

She will address the India IdeasConclave in Goa, deliver welcom-ing remarks at the Federation ofIndian Chambers of Commerceand Industry Conference, speakto students at Goa University, andparticipate in the Bangalore Inno-vation and Start-Ups technologyconference.

The congresswoman will alsomeet with the leadership of the In-dian Film Industry to create moreopportunities for the industry inHawai?i, as well as promote eco-tourism and other investments inthe Aloha State.

As a member of the HouseCommittee on Foreign Affairs, andthe subcommittee on Asia-Pacific,Congresswoman Gabbard hasdemonstrated leadership in settingstrong U.S. foreign policy.

She serves on the Congres-sional Caucus on India and IndianAmericans, which was established

in 1994 and has been the driver ofthe India-U.S. bilateral relation-ship. Due to the increased effortsof this Caucus, among otherthings, the friendship and oppor-tunities between these two coun-tries has been strengthened andcontinues to grow.

Congress is currently in recess,and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will re-turn to Washington, DC beforeCongress reconvenes on January6, 2015.

No U.S. tax dollars will be usedto fund the travel and associatedcosts of her trip to India.

WASHINGTON: A US courthas sentenced a New York manto 33 months in prison for makinga series of threats against Con-gresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

Aniruddha Sherbow, 44, hadentered a plea of no contest onFeb 21 in the US District Court totwo counts of transmission ofthreats in interstate commerce,according to an FBI release.

Judge Reggie B. Walton ac-cepted the plea and sentencedSherbow on Dec 8. Following hisprison term, Sherbow will beplaced on three years of super-vised release. During that time,Sherbow is barred from any di-rect or indirect contact withGabbard. Sherbow was orderedto pay $538,282 in restitution to theUS government, as reimburse-ment for security expenses in-curred as a result of his threats.

Man sentenced forthreats to Gabbard


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Dr. Virendra Mathur, famous cardiologist and his wife, Nalini Mathur,were interviewed Sita Mutyala,MBA, a retired Manager from Chev-ron Oil Corp. for the Foundation of India Studies’ Indo-American OralHistory Project.

Dr. Mathur was born in Kanpur, UP, India, and graduated fromLucknow’s King George Medical University with several Gold Med-als. He came to USA initially on January 7th,1962 and joined Harvardaffiliated Memorial Hospital in Worcester, a suburb of Boston.

Later he worked at Brigham, the main teaching Hospital of Harvardand finally at Tufts University Hospital. After completion of training,he went back to India in 1967 to join the faculty of renowned All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi . Though profession-ally very happy at AIIMS, he decided to come back to USA in 1971after working there for 4 ½ years because he could not fulfill his pas-sion to combine teaching, research and carry out patient care there.

Also, AIIMS being a Govt. institute, paid low wages and did notallow private practice, while all his friends in practice were making 10to 20 times more money.

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

Dr. Mathur’s passion is teaching, and he was able to combine teachingat Baylor College of Medicine, research at Veteran’s and St. Luke’sHospitals and patient care at both after coming to Houston. He workedwith Dr. Denton Cooley, published more than 150 papers in medicaljournals and made presentations at many International Conferences.His most important work was validation of the benefit of CoronaryBypass Surgery, the commonest heart operation today, by a random-ized trial.

The publication was the 1st in the world literature. At that time in1970s, most of the leading Cardiologists of the world were skepticabout Bypass surgery.

Dr. Mathur had many VIP patients from India like 7th and 10thPresidents of India, Zail Singh and Dr. Narayanan, Prime Ministers,P.V.Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh and several Governors, ChiefMinisters, Supreme Court judges and also other dignitaries, as well asChairmen and CEOs of corporations.

Many VIPs from Middle Eastern & Asian countries were also fre-

quent patients. Dr. Mathur haspartly slowed down by letting hisassociates do the interventions,after working professionally non-stop for more than 54 years. Hestill can complete 12 to 14 hourdays, frequently busy at 2.30 AM.

When he came to Houston, theonly Indian grocery store in townwas Jay Store located inside the610 loop run by Rupa Vyas andMahesh Vyas. The presentHillcroft area was deserted andFondren road was considered tobe in boondogs even thoughVargo’s was a famous restaurantthere.

Both Dr. Mathur and NaliniMathur have been staunch sup-

porters of India Culture Centerand India House, since their incep-tion, as well as various other or-ganizations in Houston.

Because Dr. Mathur was busyin his practice, it was NaliniMathur who went to an auctionand bought the 9.5 acre land onwhich the present India Housebuilding stands.

Dr. Mathur gives his wife, Naliniall the credit to raise their only son,Gaurav who was born deaf, buthe went to Kinkaid School, gradu-ated at the top and completedB.A. with Honors at Princeton andearned a Ph.D. in Linguistics fromM.I.T. They are proud of their son,

who has risen now to the positionof Dean for Graduate studies atGallaudet University in Washing-ton, DC.

Mathurs, besides being philan-thropic are also influential in Re-publican political circles and influ-enced US public policy towardsIndia, particularly the Indo-USNuclear Agreement, at the requestof the former Ambassador of In-dia, Ronan Sen. They were ac-tive in election campaigns ofPresidents, Senators Congress-men and others.

He regrets that the AffordableHealth Care Act of PresidentObama imposes additional burden

Oral History Project: Interview with Dr Virendra Mathur and Nalini Mathur

Sita Mutyala (right) with Dr Virendra and Nalini Mathur

See Page 7

COMMUNITY NEWS INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014 • PAGE 7

Sewa International will hold its second Chai Pe Charcha on Saturday, Dec. 20.

After a successful event this past October, Sewa plans to continue its community out-reach efforts in the Los Ar-cos Apartments in Southwest Houston. This bimonthly social event brings families of diverse backgrounds together for an af-ternoon of food, drinks, music, and dance.

The Los Arcos apartment complex is a very international community with refugees and immigrants from across the world.

Refugees face several barri-ers when transitioning to life in the United States. To help with this transition, Sewa Interna-tional has a fi eld offi ce in the Los Arcos apartments where various services are offered as a part of the Community Em-powerment program.

These include computer lit-eracy and ESL classes, various health services, sewing classes, and tutoring.

If you are interested in be-coming involved with Chai Pe Charcha or the Community Empowerment program, please contact Kavita Tewary at [email protected].

Volunteer SpotlightThe Rao Family Supports

Sewa’s Efforts in the Refugee Empowerment Program

This month’s Chai Pe Char-cha, a Sewa International event that brings together refugee

ing in poorer patient care. His take on future of practicing medicine in this country is not rosy, particularly for new com-ers.

Asked about future identity of Indians and Indian culture in America, Mathurs are not wor-ried about it.

They observed that the sec-ond generation Indians have reached the highest levels in most professions and are now being pushed by their children who want to learn Indian cul-ture and Indian values.

Indo-American Oral History Project is an undertaking of the Foundation for India Studies being done in partnership with Houston Community College (HCC) and Houston Public Li-brary (HPL).

All narratives and recollec-tions of the fi rst generation Indian immigrants who came from India and settled in Hous-ton in the early 60’s, 70’s and 80’s will be permanently stored in the digital archives of HPL for posterity.

Those interested to par-ticipate in this Legacy project may contact Krishna Vavilala at 713-795-5169.

families in Southwest Houston, will be sponsored by the Rao family.

Rahul and Priyanka Rao are originally from India; Rahul is from Bhilai, Chattisgarh and Priyanka is from Bangalore, Karnataka. They currently live in Houston, Texas, with their young daughter Meera.

Rahul and Priyanka take part in and advocate for com-munity service, and would like to contribute to Sewa’s efforts in the Refugee Empowerment Program. Rahul has also vol-unteered as a photographer for Sewa in the past years. They look forward to the Chai Pe Charcha event on Dec.20.

The Rao family and Sewa In-ternational hope to bring even more families and community members together than ever be-fore!

Sewa International prepares for December Chai Pe Charcha Story of NadhiyaOn April 9 2014, Nadhiya

felt a sudden jarring pain in her back and started to feel the contractions of childbirth. She began to panic as she realized that she was about to go into early labor and that her baby may not survive.

Nadhiya was rushed to a local hospital in Tamilnadu, India, where she delivered a pre-term baby boy. Nadhiya’s husband raced from work to fi nd that not only had Nad-hiya given birth but that the baby was in severe distress and needed special neo-natal care.

Nadhiya’s husband, the sole breadwinner of the family, was just a machine operator at a factory. His modest monthly income was barely suffi cient to keep their family functioning.

How would he be able to pay for the extensive hospital

costs needed to keep their baby alive?

Within the next couple of hours, the mother and new-born were moved to a multi-specialty hospital for neo-natal critical care. Dr.Anuradha, the pediatric consultant, quickly realized that without fi nancial help, the baby would die from lack of proper medical care. She referred them to Sewa In-ternational’s partner organiza-tion, the Ekam foundation, for support, that was created so that not a single child would be denied medical attention because of lack of funds. With the timely fi nancial assistance, the family was able to pay for the substantial medical care needed for the baby’s recovery. After one agonizing month, the baby was discharged from the hospital.

Nadhiya and her family

are delighted to fi nally have their baby home and continue to receive follow up treatment. Thousands of families across the world are simply looking for a helping hand to improve their lives. Sewa International is that helping hand. Whether it is helping a pre-term baby re-ceive medical care or tutoring a Bhutanese student to pass high school English, Sewa Interna-tional is dedicated to improv-ing the lives of people across the world. With one donation to Sewa International today, you can make a difference in a person’s life forever.

Sewa InternationalP O Box 820867, HoustonTX 77282-0867Phone: 708-872-7392Email: [email protected]: www.sewausa.org

Nalini & Virendra MathurFrom Page 6


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 CALENDARExpress Children’s

Theatre - LittleScrooge

An adolescent boy strikes it richby inventing a popular phone appbut loses sight of what really mat-ters in life. Based on the Dickensclassic. Showing Saturdays at2 p.m. on December 6, 13, 20,2014 at Express Children's The-atre at Northwest Mall. To re-serve a private weekday perfor-mance at the theater for yourgroup (30 persons minimum) call713-682-5044.

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 or

tation sessions held throughout theHouston area. Web: www.sahajmarg.org Email: [email protected].

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.ashirwadablessing.org or SriRavula 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 inVeerashaiva dharma (Basavadharma). Monthly Mahamane pro-gram for prayer and discussion onVachana Sahitya followed byPrasada. Contact:[email protected] orJagadeesh 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 wellas birthdays, naam karan, engage-ment and other ceremonies. CallPandit Virat Mehta 713-278-9099or Hardik Raval 361-243-6539 forpuja or other ceremonies.

Houston NamadwaarA prayer house where the Hare

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

Mar Thoma ChurchTrinity Mar Thoma Church ev-

ery Sunday at 5810 Almeda GenoaRd. 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 at 10:30 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 (77479).Call 281-606-5607 or [email protected]. Web: 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.

Sadhu Vaswani CenterSadhu Vaswani Center of Houston holds regular Satsang on 3rd

Thursday of the month and daily Arti at 7.30 p.m. Call 281-463-0379or e.mail [email protected]

Sathya Sai centersSunday program held at two locations (North Houston: 12127

Louetta Rd, Houston; South Houston: 246 Fluor Daniel Dr, Sugarland,TX, 77479) from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Sai Spiritual Education classesfor children; study circle for adults. Service programs - food distribu-tion & food drives; nursing home visits, tutoring at schools etc. Con-tact Sanjay Gupta (North) 832-687-6766 or Sondip Mathur (South)832-215-8675 www.sairegion10.org.

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 kids.Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wed. Hanuman Chalisa and RamcharitManas on Tue. 7:30–8:30 p.m. [email protected] or 281-499-3347.

call 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-der visit to conduct retreats andlectures. 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 Templeis located 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 fel-lowship. Worship is in English.Call Chris Gantela 281-344-0707,or Rev. V. Gurrala 281-997-0757.

‘The Universe Within’Sahaj Marg is a natural and

simple system of heart-centeredmeditation and spiritual practicethat helps one realize the utimatepotential within oneself. The medi-tation is available to anyone whowishes to practice. Weekly medi-

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

Hosts: Dinkar Chheda, Jagat Kamdar & Subodh Bhuchar

HELP WANTEDMotel (Independent) requires reliable

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This is a long term position.Call Kamal 832-390-1713 or

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Indian gets jail for $3.8 million ponzi schemeNEW YORK: A 37-year-old Indian man here has been sentenced

to over five years in prison for running a $3.8 million ponzi schemewhose victims include several of his family friends.

Sachin Uppal was sentenced by US district judge Nancy Edmundsin Detroit following his August guilty plea to the wire fraud charges.

According to court documents, Uppal ran a trading company fromJuly 2007 through September 2013 but was not a licensed investmentadviser. He marketed his company to potential investors and solicitedinvestor funds, describing it as a "hedge fund."

Uppal told investors that he was a "day trader" who would use in-vestor funds to buy and sell financial instruments within the same trad-ing day, which he said would reduce risk to investors.

Several of Uppal's victims were family friends. The phenomenon,known as 'affinity fraud' often targets members of identifiable groups,such as a religious or ethnic communities or clubs.

Edmunds also ordered Uppal to pay restitution to his victims in theamount of over three million dollars.

Uppal "took advantage of trusting relationships with family, friends,and associates, breached their confidence, and stole their money," Spe-cial Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit office Paul Abbate said.


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NEW DELHI: Amid a raging controversy on issues of religiousconversions and inflammatory speeches by BJP MPs, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Tuesday, Dec 16, advised his party parliamentar-ians not to allow “negative things” to divert attention from the “positiveworks” done by the government.

Addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party in Parliament House, Moditold MPs that it was their responsibility to ensure that developmentand good governance by the NDA government were highlighted inthe political and public discourse.

Without any reference to the clamour in the Rajya Sabha for him tobe present during a discussion on conversions, Modi said the govern-ment would not get diverted from its development agenda, andemphasised that the work should be visible on the ground.

This is the second time that the Prime Minister referred to contro-versial statements by colleagues in a roundabout away, in closed-doormeetings. After Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti madeabusive references to BJP opponents, Modi told BJP leaders to desistfrom “addressing the nation.”

Modi advises restraint

Jaitley faces privilege motionNEW DELHI: The opposition

has moved a privilege motionagainst finance minister ArunJaitley for misleading Parliamenton the circular issued byNavodaya Vidyalaya Samiti andHRD ministry directing schools tohold several activities on Christ-mas Day, December 25.

As the Rajya Sabha began,CPM's Sitaram Yechury rose tosay that he was willing to authen-ticate the Navodaya VidyalayaSamiti circular. A united Opposi-tion demanded presence of thePrime Minister in the House anda statement from him on a rangeof issues including circular toschools.

A privilege motion was movedagainst Jaitley by Trinamool'sDerek O'Brien who said, "Jaitleyhas misled the House by suppress-ing facts and stating that no suchcirculars had been issued." Themotion was backed by CPM, CPI,Congress, BSP, SP, DMK,Trinamool and JD (U). After re-peated adjournments, RajyaSabha could not conduct any busi-ness on Tuesday.

CPM kept up the attack onHRD minister SmritiIrani and is-sued a statement saying that shehad made "untruthful statements"and demanded that PM shouldinform the nation through Parlia-ment what action he intends totake against the minister. "Con-trary to what she has stated that

'only a voluntary online essaycompetition which did not requirestudents to go to school' the cir-cular issued by her ministry notonly asked schools to 'ensure ac-tive participation of students' foractivities ranging from declama-tion contests, to child cabinets, todocumentary screenings, but alsoto provide the Ministry with com-pliance reports," CPM said, add-ing that response from the KVSthat it was not possible as schoolswould be closed has further ex-posed the actions of the minister.

"Thus the Minister has willfullytried to conceal the facts. This isan addition to the wholly uncon-stitutional effort to push a divisiveagenda on a day which is a holi-day celebrated by the Christiancommunity as a holy day," CPMsaid.

Yechury said Gandhi Jayantihas been turned into SwachchBharat day and Christmas willnow be known as Atal BihariVajpayee’s birthday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modispoke to his Pakistani counterpart,Nawaz Sharif, on Tuesday night,Dec 16, and offered his “deepestcondolences” on the killing of chil-dren in a terror attack on a schoolin Peshawar. He said India stoodfirmly with Pakistan in the fightagainst terrorism.

Giving details of his conversa-tion with Sharif in his Twitter ac-count, Modi appealed to all schoolsacross India to observe a two-minute silence on Wednesday “asa mark of solidarity.”

Parliament on Wednesdaystood as one in condemning thekilling of 141 persons, including 132children, by terrorists in a schoolin Peshawar in Pakistan.

Members in both the LokSabha and the Rajya Sabha stoodin silence as a mark of respect tothe memory of the victims andmourned the killings in the grue-some terrorist attack and con-veyed their heartfelt condolencesto the bereaved families.

Soon after both the Housesmet, Lok Sabha Speaker SumitraMahajan and Rajya Sabha Chair-man Hamid Ansari rose to con-demn the tragic incident and ex-pressed shock and outrage at thesenseless and brutal killing.

Lok Sabha also passed a reso-lution proposed by the Speakerexpressing “shock, sense of deepoutrage, profound sorrow” andcondemned the “despicable,senseless, horrendous and cow-ardly terrorist attack”.In the RajyaSabha, Ansari said, “This sense-less and brutal cowardly act isdeplorable. The loss of innocentlives in this incident is indeed tragicand unfortunate. This incident onlyreaffirms our resolve to fight ter-rorism with more determinationand firmness.”

Modi calls Sharif,India condemns

Peshawar carnage

School children pray for the victims of a Taliban attack on a school inPeshawar, at a school in Varanasi on Wednesday, Dec 17.

Modi ignoring farmers, says BKSBHOPAL: In its strongest attack yet on Prime Minister Narendra

Modi, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has accused him of keepingmum on farmers’ issues despite being in office for more than sixmonths. BKS, an affiliate of the Sangh Parivar, launched a scathingattack on the prime minister at a protest rally in Bhopal in the pres-ence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who shared the dais.

“He has been in office for six-seven months. Not only has he notincreased the minimum support price he has asked state governmentsto stop giving bonus on grains procured from farmers,” national gen-eral secretary of BKS Prabhakar Kelkar told The Indian Express.

At the rally, Kelkar had used a colourful expression: “Modi aisemaun hai jaise koi sanp sungh gaya ho. Lekin hame sanp ka jaharnikalna aata hai.” The BSK leader said his harsh language was areflection of what was going through farmers’ minds.

The BKS said the BJP ahead of the general elections had prom-ised to factor in the increased input costs while fixing the MSP. In-stead, the Centre has discouraged states from giving bonus. Whilethreatening to block roads in Delhi, the BKS said it will wait till Janu-ary 26 or latest till the union budget before chalking out its furthercourse of action.

Chouhan did not react to the criticism of Modi but said his govern-ment has stopped giving bonus as instructed by the Central govern-ment. “The state government will ensure that farmers don’t suffer,and will compensate for the loss of bonus,’’ said the chief minister,who accepted the BKS memorandum on the stage. From the venueof the rally, a delegation of the BKS leaders went to Congress head-quarters and submitted a copy of the memorandum telling the Oppo-sition party that it had failed to raise farmers’ issue in the assembly.

Prime Minister Modi with Venkaiah Naidu (left)


Suite 127

COMMUNITY NEWS

ALL LOCAL TALENT. The singers who participated in Melodies & Moves — Rajan Radhakrishnan, program director, Rashmi Nair, Rena Janarthanan, Mahalakshmi Krishnan, Alakananda, Sruthi Srivathson, Shreyas, Aakash Srikanth, Srisanvitha Sridhar, Krishnamurthy, Barani Krishnan and Alpa Shah. PHOTOS: THIRU ARUMUGAM

Students of Sunanda Nair did a classicla dance.

Lavanya Rajagopalan, left, & Surabi Veeraraghavan

Local talent rock in Moves & Melodies

HOUSTONNearly $70,000 were raised

for Udavum Karangal through the fundraiser “Movies & Mel-odies 2014” held at the Stafford Civic Center on Dec.7.

The notable feature of this fundraiser was that all local talent gathered their skills and provided a good entertaining program of dance and music. It was a wholesome entertain-ment of high calibre for well over three hours.

Mahalakshmi Krishnan, the lead singer, coordinated the program.

The live orchestra comprised Vasanth Vaseegaran on key-board, Selva Ganapathi Gauri-nathan on fl ute, Karthik Sub-ramaniam on percussion and Charan Rajan on mrudangam.

The dancers included Shruthi Natarajan, Anu Na-gasimha, Varsha Vasu, Pooja Kumar and Sandhya Raghura-man, Aurea Andrades, Sneha Pokhriyal, Keya Ganatra, Sachi Khenmkah, Tanvi Jhadav, and Resmi Nair, Raejithaa Rajesh, Vibha Sripadam, Athura Vijay-kumar and Delphi Jose.

All expenses have been com-pletely underwritten and 100

percent of the proceeds go to-wards sponsorship of children, for food, clothing, education and even for wedding, says Padminin Ranganathan, presi-dent of Udaum Karnagal of USA.

While food and beverage expenses were underwritten by Madras Pavilion, Padmini and Ranganathan took care of all other expenses for the fun-draiser.

Out of the funds raised in Houston, one of the girls, brought up under the care of Udavum Karangal since child-hood, will be married in early 2015 in a simple wedding cer-emony.

So far 63 girls have been married and are leading joyful family lives with their children, says Pappa Vidyaakar, the sole inspiration behind Udavum Ka-rangal.

All the children raised by Udaum Karangal have the same last name, Vidyaakar.

When the married members of Udavum karangal visit, it is like visiting their mother’s home, Vidyaakar says.

In a live message through Skype, Vidyaakar thanked the

Houston community for its continued support.

“Today with the continued support of well wishers like you, these children have grown to become young, educated, happy adults and proud citi-zens in the community. Many of our children have excelled academically and are pursu-ing successful careers...What a difference unconditional love, education and a stable envi-ronment can make in the lives of these abandoned children,” Vidyaakar said.

In 2013, with the funds raised form Houston, two wed-dings were performed, while eight students received college education and 190 children were provided food, education and clothing for one year.

Padmini Ranganathan urged the donors to take time to visit Udavum Karangal and its chil-dren while visiting India as the visit will give the true experi-ence of how the contributions are making a difference in the day to day life of these young-sters.

— SESHADRI KUMAR


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In an outpouring of support to nearly half-a-million homeless Yazidis facing severe winter in northern Iraq, Houston’s faith community contributed more than $25,000 during a fundrais-er at India House in Houston on Dec. 14

The funds were raised through Sewa International, USA, International Association for Human Values and Yazda, a non-governmental organization.

Murad Ismael shared the heartrending story of Yazidis, an ancient people on the verge of extinction, systematically being wiped out by the Islamic State in Iraq.

Ismael was in contact with people in northern Irq even as on Aug. 3, 2014 ISIL decided to wipe the Yazidis out, ask-ing them to convert to Islam or else die. Over 5,000 Yazidis

were killed and 7,000 women and girls were abducted as sex-slaves. Now 500,000 Yazidis are facing a harsh winter on Sinjar Hills of Iraq in makeshift tens in refugee camps.

Haider Elias, president of Yazda, recalled how his brother was killed even as he was trying to talk to him on the phone from the U.S. Earlier, when he called home to contact his father, a member of ISIS answered the phone, raising concern about his father. When he called his brother back, Elias learned from his sister that he was being shot to death as the phone rang.

“My family was one of the thousands of families trauma-tized by the ISIS brutality,” Elias said. “They risked their lives to bury the dead,” he add-ed.

Elias visited Iraq last month

Houstonians unite to help the cause of Yazidis

Gershenson DotiwallaYazidi community members with Houston community members at the India House fundraiser

to attend a peace conference or-ganized by Sri Sri Ravishankar and visited the families in refu-gee camps.

Elliot Gershenson, President and CEO, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, addressed the meeting attended by about 150 people of different faiths, including 40 Yazidis from all over Texas.

“I am joining you today with great sadness and alarm. It is our responsibility to stand together as people of faith and goodwill. We can raise our voices and write checks. You have begun that process,” Gershenson said. He congratulated the Hindu community and Sewa Interna-tional for helping in the cause of Yazidis.

Ravi Raghavan, Achalesh Amar and Venkat Subramanian of Sewa International, narrated the 6,000-year-old history of

Yazidis who witnessed 74 geno-cides in 1,400 years. The com-munity of 23 million has been reduced to 800,000 today.

Kaemerz Dotiwalla, a Zoro-astrian, said he was not speak-ing as a Zoroastrian but as a hu-man being. “It is not a religious fi ght. It is a fi ght for humanity,” he said

Nadia Tajalli, a Bahai com-munity member, extended her community’s support for the Ya-zidi cause as they were similarly persecuted in Iran.

Asinja Badeel, a student at the University of Houston, told the audience how her family survived the ordeal in Iraq after fl eeing their newly-build home in 2013 after the ISIS attack.

Geetha Bhatia, representing the International Association for Human Values, spoke on the relief efforts undertaken by the organization in Iraq and how the

spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravis-hankar intervened to help in the cause of Yazidis.

The relief efforts included air-dropping tons of essential food supplies to the besieged Yazidi population, providing warm blankets, food, water and cloth-ing, and facilitating the rescue of abducted women and girls.

Vijay Pallod, a HIndu com-munity activist, took interest early on and helped in arranging for the travel of Haider Isamel to Iraq. He worked from behind the scenes to motivate various faith organizations to come together and raise funds for Yazidis.

Vinay Sharda of Hindu Amer-ican Foundation said how HAF helped the Yazidi community in lobbying efforts in Washington D.C.

Visit www.Sewausa.org, www.iahv.org or www.yazda.org for more information.


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COMMUNITY NEWS

Srinivas Rao, MD

Texas Vein & Wellness Institute11221 Katy Frwy., Ste 115

Houston, TX 77079

Undergraduate: Rice University Medical School: Baylor College of Medicine Residency: Diagnostic Radiology at Baylor College of Medicine Fellowship: Vascular & Interventional Radiology at St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital & MD Anderson Cancer Center

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Hindus of Greater Houston sponsored a table at the an-nual fund-raising luncheon of the Institute of Spirituality and Health event, thus supporting an essential element of the role of the mind playing in health and illness.

The Institute for Spirituality and Health (ISH), the 60–year-old organization at the Medical Center has been doing a splen-did service, promoting the part of spirituality in Health and ill-ness.

Their mission is ‘to further knowledge of the role spiritu-ality plays in Health and heal-ing, and to educate and equip healthcare professionals to incorporate spirituality in pa-tient care, so their patients may receive the many health ben-efi ts’.

Their annual fund-raising luncheon, ‘A Gathering of Friends’ was an elegant func-tion conducted at the River Oaks Country Club on Thurs-day, November 20.

The 300 guests assembled over a delicious meal were de-lighted to learn about the func-tioning of the ISH and to listen to some remarkable speeches.

The presence of U. S. Rep-resentative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and her astronaut hus-band Mark E. Kelly as the chief guests marked the most appro-priate highlight of the event. If the profoundly poignant speech, delivered with hilarity by Captain Kelly was hearten-ing, the limited yet courageous words from Congresswoman Gabby moved the audience to

tears of delight. It was a story of courage, patience and hard work, challenged with an at-titude of ‘deny the acceptance of failure’, that turned a tragic and devastating situation into one of success and celebration.

When Gabby and Mark pro-fusely acknowledged the enor-mous help they received from the staff of TIRR, the audience sat spellbound being grateful to the advanced expertise of medical science.

And if there was one out-standing reality that exceeded even the science and technol-ogy, it was the power of the mind and the exalted spiritual dimension that is part and par-cel of healing.

As Ms. Gifford explained her rigorously disciplined rou-tine of Yoga and Meditation in helping her tremendous prog-ress, ‘the table of ten’ spon-sored by the Hindus of Greater Houston, felt immensely proud and honored of their time-honored ancient Indic wisdom being credited to such knowl-edge.

Dr. Venugopal MenonDirector of ISH Board

Hindus of Greater Houston attend Institute of Spirituality event

In the picture above, Venugo-pal Menon, left, Devi Menon, V. K. Dorai, Dev Mahajan, Alpa Shah, Sushma Mahajan, Kanchan Kabad, Kumari Sus-rala, Zishan Samiuddin, Vijay Pallod, Rajam Appan, and S. G. Appan at the Institute of Spirituality luncheon.

death in America and make up for 84 per cent of America’s health care costs.

“I believe Dr Murthy understands the importance of the national crises before him, and feel confi dent that his experiences, his training, and his tenacity have provided him the qualifi cations he needs to tackle these issues, and the many more he’s sure to face, head-on,” Durbin said.

“Not only is Dr Murthy an outstanding doctor and public health expert, but he also remains closely connected to his community and family,” he said.

“There is no question about the qualifi cation of Dr Murthy to do his job,” said another Senator Chris Murphy, adding that Murthy has a really impressive history of commitment to international public health, building two international organizations, one that empowers hundreds of youths in the US and India to educate over 45,000 students on HIV prevention.

Senator Richard Blumenthal said Murthy has addressed some of the nation’s most pressing health problems over the times. “Dr Murthy’s credentials are

without question. They are impeccable, unquestionable and indisputable”.

Coming out in support of Murthy, senator Daniel Markey said he has developed a skill set which is much needed for the 21st century and in an era where disease cross international boundaries.

“It is an opportunity to put a real leader in this position,” he said.

Senator Mazie Hirono said Murthy would make an effective surgeon general.

On the one hand, when several senators have lauded Murthy’s nomination there were others who continued to oppose his confi rmation.

“The American people deserve a surgeon general who has proven, throughout his or her career that their main focus is a commitment to patients, not a commitment to politics.

MurthyFrom Page 1


COMMUNITY NEWS

Sri Meenakshi Temple Society 17130 McLean Road, Pearland, TX 77584

Invites you to Celebrate

New Year's Day &

Vaikunta Ekadashi

On Thursday, Jan 1st, 2015

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8:00 AM: Ganesha Homam and Abhishekam for Prasanna Vinayagar

9:30 AM: VaikuntaDwara/SwargaDwara Darshanam (Vaikunda Ekadashi)

1:30 PM: Cultural Program at Kalyana Mantapam

5:00 PM: Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarer Pallakku Processsion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breakfast will be available at Temple Kitchen between 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Food will be available from Local Indian Restaurants at the Food Booth from 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Grand Sponsorship for all New Year Day Poojas $101

Vaikunda Ekadashi Sponsorship $51 Archana Sponsorship $21

To volunteer for the New Year's day, Please contact:

Murali Ravoori ([email protected]) P.Vaduganathan ([email protected])

S.Narayanan ([email protected]) For Cultural: Mala Gopal ([email protected]) Call the temple office at 281-489-0358 ext. 100, 110

HARDIK VYASYoungest Astrologer in North America

Vaastu & Gem Stone Consultant;Hindu Priest for all Pujas & Marriages

Astrology & Vaastu Shastra are Science of Nature, and are not related with any religion, caste, or community. It is an Occult Science and gift of nature for the welfare of the people.

Astrologer Hardik Vyas, a famous young face in Vedic Astrology from India is in Houston. Call for guidance on Health, Wealth, Education, Career, Business, Property, Love & Passion, Marriage & Compatibility, Horoscope-Making, Child Problem, Luck & Fortune, Peace & Prosperity, Karma & Economic success.

Vaastu Shastra is an ancient science. Fix an appointment for personal visit to your home, plot, business/offi ce, shop, factory, or hotel. Gain peace of mind and prosperity by doing little changes as per Vaastu Shastra. Simple, Easy, Scientifi c & Aff ordable solutions/remedies to overcome problems in your Horoscope and Vaastu.

E-mail: [email protected] Ph: 832-298-9950 www.toaskfuture.com

Languages spoken: English, Hindi, Gujarati & Marathi

Listen to Hardik Vyas live on 1320 AM Shoba Joshi’s Geetanajali Radio By Jaseem Pasha MD

The Houstonian Seniors’ Club 65 hosted the third annual Christmas Party on December 6 at Bayland Community Center, at 6400 Bissonnet Street in Houston. It was indeed a fun fi lled afternoon.

The members and the guests arrived on time. Many came in festive apparel, few even wore Santa’s red hat. The hall was packed. There

was an air of exuberance, smiles and hugs. The tables looked colorful with Christmas fi gurines.

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

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

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

Uma Mantravadi, Attorney at Law, and Hous-ton’s foremost sensational singer paired up with Nadeem Ashrafi , who is a singer and keyboard player. Nadeem has served desi music industry for more than three decades. He is well known for his Ghazals and versatile singing orchestra-tion in many languages and has performed all over North America.

Both Uma and Nadeem engaged the audi-ence with old and new songs. The selection of melodious songs was sensational, ranging from romantic ecstasy and rapture to fast dancing melodies.

They sang duets that were tender, touching, nostalgic and powerful, punctuated with fre-quent rounds of applause. Uma sang the famous Shah-e-Madina.

Nothing prompts people to remember the past like music. Many from audience came to the fl oor and danced – and danced, as if there was no end to it, reminding us of an old Irish quote: “Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening.”

Music does wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

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

Everyone had a good time, socializing, sing-ing and dancing, and relishing the delicious food. There was gift exchanges. Noor Jahan called out the names of the guests who chose from the col-orful packaged gifts, which created a lot of ex-citement. It was a very successful event.

Club 65 is a non-profi t organization under the umbrella of IMAGH (Indian Muslims of Great-er Houston). To fi nd out more about Club 65 or to become a member, please visit, www.imagh.org or call Paru Mcguire at 440-390-1763.

Club 65 celebrates Christmas early

The event ran between 11 AM to 3:30 PM. The grand fi nale was the spiritual qawwali song “O Lal Meri Pat Rakhiyo Bala Jhule lalan - - -Dama Dam Mast Qalandar.” Everyone had a good time, socializing, singing and dancing, and relishing the delicious food. There was gift exchanges. Noor Jahan called out the names of the guests who chose from the colorful packaged gifts, which created a lot of excitement.


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Cast: Barun Sobti, Shenaz Treasury, Kavi Shastri. We meet Aliya Raj (Shenaz Treasurywala), a hotshot Bollywood

casting director, doing yoga by the beach and introducing herself as “not your girl next door”. Brand conscious, fi nicky about everything, and a lover of all things picture-perfect - she tells you this in the fi rst ten minutes. And then we’re given a lowdown on her friends.

We learn that these people, including an artist, a fi lm editor and a “gu-jju businessman” don’t watch TV as they’d much rather read a book, and prefer brunches over nightclubs. But we see these supposedly mod-ern, classy people persecuting Aliya for being single.

And so to appease these “friends” she picks up a good-looking strug-gler Sukhwinder (Barun Sobti) and pays him to act like her boyfriend.

Sukhwinder, who has left his family in Punjab for a Bollywood ca-reer, promptly agrees. Aliya gets started on his makeover right from learning how to dress to table manners and so on.

For her gang, they’re the perfect couple, but in secret they’re just

Cast: Kishori Shahane, Nishan, Annu Kapoor, Saranya Mohan After a host of sports fi lms about cricket, athletics, hockey and box-

ing, comes Badlapur Boys, about the humble, traditional kabaddi. Good news, except the otherwise sweet fi lm has too many cliches and is overly sentimental.

A remake of Tamil hit fi lm Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, the fi lm begins in Badlapur, UP. A man immolates himself in full view of his family and other villagers. The villagers call him crazy, despite knowing he did this to highlight the need for a dam that would benefi t several villages.

Post his death, the family plunges further into poverty and the son has to start working. The trepidation the mother feels, to see her too-young son go to work is beautifully highlighted in the scene where the boy gets on his employer’s bike with trembling hands. The mother (Kishori Shahane) sobs uncontrollably, but then, that’s her brief for the role throughout the fi lm.

The boy is mesmerized by the game of kabaddi. One day, he leaves the grazing animals alone and joins the kids for a kabaddi game, which leads to him promising his employer that he’ll never play the game again. But he does manage to fi nd time to watch.

Years go by, and our grown-up hero Vijay (Nishan) is still observing the game with interest and awe. Circumstances lead him to an opportu-nity to play with the team, and fate leads these unsophisticated players to get organized, get a coach and compete in a tournament.

The fi lm is not a ‘grand’ sports fi lm — the players are not creating a record or winning an exceptionally prestigious match; neither are they exceptionally talented or motivated.

The fi lm chooses to focus on dreams and goals, both overt and covert. So one player wants to win his mother-in-law’s respect, while another wants the adoration of the villagers. Vijay too has an agenda, which is related to his father’s dream.

There are few fi lms that show village life authentically without dressing it up too much or representing a pitiful picture. Badlapur Boys gives us an authentic village milieu, characters and situations. Even the romance develops over stolen glances and interesting conversations where the hero confesses to being uneducated to the college-going girl from Meerut.

Where it falters is in the melodrama and a simplistic solution of situ-ations. The cliched friend-philosopher-guide comes in the form of the coach (Annu Kapoor) who takes Vijay under his wing. Other stereo-types include the widowed ever-sobbing mother in the worn-out saree. The fi lm also touches briefl y upon the politicization of the game, but again, that’s simplistically displayed.

Malayalam actor Nishan is very good as the emotionally confl icted Vijay. Nishan makes us root for the character to a fair degree. Saranya Mohan makes a confi dent debut and she’s a delight to watch. Annu Kapoor is dependably good, though clearly over-aged for this role.

This fi lm has unnecessary melodrama; still, director Shailesh Ver-ma’s work has a minimalism that’s endearing. — Sify.com

Main Aur Mr. Riight is too synthetic, clichedfriends who begin to enjoy each other’s company, going to the gurudwara, and eating at seedy restaurants. Director Aseem Rais even gets them to dance to the iconic Yaar bina chain kahan re... in ‘80s style disco costumes.

All’s swell till trouble brews in the form of an unexpected love triangle and Aliya wonders about the importance on Happy vs. Perfect. The fi lm tries to bring some gravitas by introducing heavy-duty conversations (some terrible dialogue, here) between the friends, who are always out for dinner. The conversations are trite, the acting awful. The lead pair (Shenaz-Barun) is lik-able and holds it all together. But then, even their characterization lacks depth. We are not convinced when Aliya ditches her heels for chappals, and neither are we con-vinced when relationships break and mend without warning.

Among the only characters that leave some impact are Aliya, Sukhwinder, and the wife’s char-acter who takes a stand against her insensitive husband.

Shenaz Treasurywala (Delhi Belly, Ishq Vishk) is always good in these urbane roles, and she does reasonably well. Barun Sobti as the uncultured guy who yawns at art exhibits is great fun.

The fi lm tries bringing in comedy, but the effort falls fl at most of the times. The recurring gag of showcasing bad auditions set against sitcom music is unoriginal and even condescending. So are the portions that show Aliya’s disaster dates.

Finally, this story of a poor little rich girl falling for a rank oppo-site could have been cute in a rom-com kind of way. But everything in Main Aur Mr. Riight, from the emotions to the characterization, is way too synthetic to leave an impact. — Sify.com

Badlapur Boys: Watchable, maybe


SPORTComing of Age ... Again!

By Andrew HardwickSocial Security Public Affairs Specialist

Think back to when you were younger.Life was simple at the kids’ table. The smell of a home-cooked

dinner filling the air on a lazy Sunday afternoon and, after dinner, ev-eryone crowding around the TV to watch the last football game of theseason.

Fast-forward a few years, when the adults first invited you to theirtable, and your life changed. Your coming-of-age moment had ar-rived! This rite of passage is a transition from asking permission togiving notice.

Coming-of-Age Day in Japan honors all the young people whoreached age 20 during the past year. This national holiday takes placeon the second Monday of January and celebrates their privileges andresponsibilities as new adults.

Coming-of-age moments don’t come just once in life. Another im-portant coming-of-age moment occurs when you decide to retire. SocialSecurity can help.

Determining when to retire is a personal decision, influenced byyour preferences and lifestyle. We encourage you to go online towww.socialsecurity.gov/pubs and read our fact sheet, When To StartReceiving Retirement Benefits. You may find that this informationhelps you make an informed decision about the best time to retire.Invest the time to learn what you should do now to enjoy your retire-ment later.

Once you’ve come of age to retire—or even before, while you’rein the planning phase—our quick and convenient online services areavailable at www.socialsecurity.gov/retireonline. In as little as 15 min-utes, you can soar through our online application.

It has never been easier to come of age at retirement!Take advantage of our services and resources to make the best

decision for you at www.socialsecurity.gov.

Ring in the new year with a COLABy Andrew HardwickSocial Security Public Affairs Specialist

Happy New Year from Social Security! Put down the champagneglass and ring in the New Year with a COLA! And we don’t mean thesoda. In 2015, nearly 64 million Americans who receive Social Secu-rity or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase to their monthly benefit paymentsof 1.7 percent.

The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker in2015 is $1,328 (up from $1,306 in 2014). The average monthly SocialSecurity benefit for a disabled worker in 2015 is $1,165 (up from $1,146in 2014).

For people who receive SSI, the maximum federal payment amountincreased to $733 (up from $721 in 2014).

Other Social Security changes in 2015 are also worth noting. Forexample, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Secu-rity payroll tax will increase to $118,500 (up from $117,000 in 2014). Aworker will earn one credit toward Social Security coverage afterpaying taxes on $1,220 in earnings in 2015 (up from $1,200 in 2014).As a reminder, eligibility for retirement benefits still requires 40 credits(usually about10 years of work).

Information about Medicare changes for 2015 is available atwww.medicare.gov.

The Social Security Act outlines how the COLA is calculated. Toread more about the COLA, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.

To learn more about other changes in 2015, read our fact sheet atwww.socialsecurity.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2015.html.

SOCIAL SECURITY

ADELAIDE: Off-spinnerNathan Lyon took 10 wickets in aTest match for the first time in hiscareer as Australia beat India by48 runs in the first Test atAdelaide.

India fell short of their targetof 364 from 98 overs despite cap-tain Virat Kohli's 141 and MuraliVijay's 99.

Lyon took 7-152 in the secondinnings to finish with match fig-ures of 12-286.

But Australia captain MichaelClarke injured his hamstring againwhile fielding and will miss the restof the four-match series.

Australia declared on theirovernight total of 290-5, and Indialooked comfortable in their pursuitof 364 as Kohli and opener Vijayput on 185 for the third wicket, totake India to 242-2.

Vijay fell in the 10th over aftertea, lbw to Lyon one short of hiscentury, and India's hopes furtherdimmed when, having completedhis second century of the match,Kohli was caught on the mid-wicket boundary by MitchellMarsh off the bowling of Lyon.

Ishant Sharma was last out,stumped by stand-in captain BradHaddin off Lyon, as Australiawrapped up the win to take a 1-0lead in the series.

Lyon, who was named as manof the match despite DavidWarner and Kohli both scoringhundreds in each innings, said

Australia win by 48 runs in first Test

Australia remained confident ofwinning, even when Kohli andVijay seemed well set. "It's Testmatch cricket, and there are al-ways little turns and stories in thegame. but we knew that if westayed patient long enough, thingswould turn around," he said.

Kohli said India were deter-mined to try and chase down thetarget rather than play for a drawat the Adelaide Oval.

"I told the guys last night thatwe had to come out tomorrow andchase it. I believed throughout inmy own ability and the ability ofthe guys," he said. "But the wholeAustralia team put up a great fight- credit to Nathan Lyon for a greatspell where he bowled the balls inthe right areas."

Australia 1st innings 517 for7 decl (Warner 145, Clarke 128,Smith 162; K. Sharma 2 for 143,Shami 2 for 120, aaron 2 for 136)

and 2nd innings 290 for 5(Rogers 21, Warner 102, Watson33, Smith 52, Marsh 40; K Sharma2 for 95, Ro Sharma, Shami andAaron 1 wkt each)

India 1st innings 444 all out(Vijay 53, Dhawan 25, Kohli 115,Pujara 75, Rahane 62, Ro Sharma43, Saha 25, Shami 34; Lyon 5 for134, Johnson and Siddle 2 wktseach) and 2nd innings 315 allout (Kohli 141, Vijay 99, Pujara21, Dhawan 9, Saha 13; Lyon 7for 152, Johnson 2 for 45)

Subscription/Renewal RequestPlease enter my subscription $25 for one year (52 issues) $250 Lifetime Subscription

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Nathan Lyon India’s Virat Kohli andAustralia’s David Warner (below)scored a century in each innings

LAUGH IT OFF

*** What did the gangster's son tell his dad when he failed hisexamination?

“Dad, they questioned me for 3 hours but I never told them any-thing."

*** What's the difference between people who pray in church andthose who pray in casinos?

The ones in the casinos are serious.*** When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that

God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgive-ness.

*** A little boy went up to his father and asked, "Dad, where did allof my intelligence come from?"

His father replied, "Well, son, you must have gotten it from yourmother, because I still have mine."

*** After landing at Calcutta airport, a woman discovered that herluggage was missing, and reported her loss to an airline staff. Heasked her, “What color is the suitcase?”

“Wine-colored,” she replied.“Okay,” said the official, continuing to write, “Red or White?”*** Mayawati came to Lalu's house with a goat.Lalu: Bhaiswa ko kyon layi ho?Maya: Dikhta nahin, buddhoo? Yeh goatwa hai?Lalu: Hum goatwa se hi to poochh rahe hain...

*** Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in theuniverse are pointed away from Earth?

*** Whether a man winds up with a nest egg or a goose egg,depends a lot on the kind of chick he marries.

2nd Test: India 311for 4

BRISBANE: Murali Vijaystruck an impressive century asIndia put themselves in a com-manding position on day one of thesecond Test against Australia.

Vijay scored 144 as Indiareached 311-4 at stumps after win-ning the toss at the Gabba.

Australia endured a difficultday in Steve Smith's first Test asstand-in captain for the injuredMichael Clarke.

In stifling heat Smith used eightbowlers as injury and fatigue tookits toll on the Australia attack.

Opener Vijay's hundred contin-ued his fine start to the four-matchseries, with scores of 53 and 99 inIndia's 48-run defeat in the firstTest.

Vijay was put down by ShaunMarsh on 36 and 102, both off left-arm pace bowler Johnson, beforehe was caught behind off spinnerNathan Lyon late in the day.

Mitchell Marsh struck first when he removed opener ShikharDhawan, his maiden Test wicket.

Hazlewood, the pick of the Australia attack, had Cheteshwar Pujaracontroversially caught off the grille of his helmet, then found ViratKohli's edge as he tried to cut, leaving India 137-3.

But Vijay dominated a weary attack as he and Ajinkya Rahaneshared a 124-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Rahane (75) and Rohit Sharma (26) will resume on day two.

RELIGION/ SPIRITUALITYINDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014 • PAGE 17

Sanatan Shiv Shakti Mandir NEW LOCATION6640 Harwin Dr• Houston, TX 77036

Call Pandit Virat Mehta713-278-9099• Open daily7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Rudrabhishek every Monday followed byAarti and mahaprasad. Everyone isinvited to join the puja.Our prayer hall is large enough to accommodate up to 125guests for your celebrations — birthdays, babyshowers,engagement or any other ceremony. Plenty of free parking

By Narayani Ganesh

To designate a day in the cal-endar to celebrate yoga globallyis one thing. But for a cabinet min-ister to declare in a public gather-ing that the Bhagwad Gita oughtto be India’s ‘national scripture’and for a chief minister to say thatthe Gita is ‘above the Constitu-tion’ is to open two cans of worms.

First, in a secular country, noscripture can be singled out as anational scripture nor held abovethe Constitution. Second, to de-clare the Gita as a national scrip-ture is an oxymoron; to imprisonit in a narrow slot like ‘nation’ isto go against its very tenet to tran-scend all identities.

Both the secular and philosophi-cal aspects need elaboration anddiscussion but this column willconfine itself to the second, meta-physical aspect.

Nowhere does the Gita specifythat Krishna’s advice to Arjuna isbound by time, space, territory,religion or nation. In fact, the Gitais viewed from a metaphysicalplane, with the battlefield atKurukshetra resonating the ‘dailyKurukshetras’ we battle in themind. Charioteer Krishna is thevoice of reason while Arjuna is thedespondent aspect in us that tendsto pull us down.

The dialogue between Krishnaand Arjuna has nothing to do withreligion, nation or even scriptures,though the Gita is indeed beingdescribed as scripture for conve-nience.

Then why reduce an all-em-bracing philosophical treatise to anarrow, parochial, even territorialslot? Surely we understand theGita’s message better than to dubit a national scripture?

Krishna does not even want usto be circumscribed by the hal-lowed vedas, believed to be thefulcrum of Hindu thought.

He says, where the vedas end,vedanta begins – that is, the en-tire body of work that is the con-tribution of sages and savants overages including the upanishads, thevarious gitas, puranas and the rest,both oral and written wisdom, thetreasure trove of philosophy thatthe Indic region fostered and re-leased to the rest of the world,creating ripples of knowledge andreflection.

Even a purana like theRamayana that is sought to beappropriated by fringe groups isnot restricted to one version.

There are umpteen versions ofthe Ramayana that have floweredin different regions, from China,Russia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and In-donesia, to Cambodia and the WestIndies, for example – including

Gita as national scripture is an oxymoronregional versions in India -- each with its distinct flavour and context,yet connecting all to a unified whole through plots and sub plots, in-fused with wisdom tales. And the Gita is by no means the only majorphilosophical work in the vast body of Hindu texts. Then why single itout for confinement when the Gita is really a straightforward do-it-yourself guide to freedom?

Some might ask, why do Hindus swear by it in a court of law?Well, it would be impractical to cart an entire library of work to

court, wouldn’t it? And in a secular country, where equal importanceis given to all faiths, major and minor, whether one follows one holybook or several or none, and where atheists and agnostics have asmuch legitimacy as a religious believer, why is it of such importance todesignate one among many works as a national scripture? What next?State scriptures?

Let’s not belittle either the secular nature of our Constitution or thesecular, universal appeal of the Gita by calling it a ‘national scripture’.The Gita in fact advises one to move beyond all such identities, totranscend all constrictions and free oneself from all labeling -- andreach for boundlessness. —

The first step of the dayBy Thich Nhat Hanh

Walking on the Earth is a miracle! Each mindful step reveals thewondrous Dharmakaya. This thought can be reinforced as we get outof bed and our feet touch the floor. It can also be used during walkingmeditation or any time we stand up and walk. Walking on the Earth isa miracle! We do not have to walk in space or on water to experiencea miracle. The real miracle is to be awake in the present moment.Walking on the green Earth, we can realise the wonder of being alive.If we make steps like this, the sun of the Dharmakaya will shine.

Opening the window, I look out onto the Dharmakaya. How won-drous is life! Attentive to each moment, my mind is clear like a calmriver.

After you wake up, you probably open the curtains and look out-side. You may even like the open the window and feel the cool morn-ing air with the dew still on the grass. But is what you see really“outside”? In fact, it is your own mind. As the sun sends its raysthrough the window, you are not just yourself. You are also the beau-tiful view from your window. You are the Dharmakaya.

Dharmakaya literally means the “body” (kaya) of the Buddha’steachings (Dharma), the way of understanding and love. Before pass-ing away, the Buddha told his disciples, “Only my physical body willpass away. My Dharma body will remain with your forever.” InMahayana Buddhism, the word has come to mean “the essence of allthat exists.” All phenomena – the song of a bird, the warm rays of thesun, a cup of hot tea – are manifestations of the Dharmakaya. We tooare of the same nature as these wonders of the universe.

When we open the window and look out onto the Dharmakaya, wesee that life is infinitely marvelous. At that very moment, we can vowto be awake all day long, realising joy, peace freedom and harmonythroughout our lives. When we do this, our mind becomes clear like acalm river.

Awareness is a mirror reflecting the four elements. Beauty is aheart that generates love and a mind that is open.

The moments during the day of looking in a mirror can be momentsof deep awareness. The mirror can serve as a tool for cultivatingmindfulness so that we develop a broad capacity to understand andlove others. Anyone who maintains awareness in the present momentbecomes beautiful and naturally emanates peace, joy and happiness.A calm half smile and a loving heart are refreshing, and they allowmiracles to unfold. The Buddha’s smile is beautiful because it ex-presses tolerance, compassion, and loving kindness.

In traditional cultures, the four great elements were earth, water,fire and sir. The Vietnamese poet True Vu wrote:

The flower, whose fragrance is ephemeral, is made of the fourelements. Your eyes, shining with love, are also made of the four ele-ments.

The poet is saying that the four elements are neither mind nor mat-ter. They are the universe itself revealed to us. When your mind is theclear mirror of meditative awareness, you will know that you are theoutward expression of the essence of reality. So please smile. Smilewith your eyes, not just with your lips. Smile with your whole being,reflecting the four elements in the mirror of mindful awareness.

When the mind becomes abattlefield

By Anup Taneja

Before embarking on the path of meditation, it is important for theseeker to ponder over the nature of the mind, says Swami Muktananda,the sage of Ganeshpuri.

It is essential to grapple with questions like: What exactly is themind? Of what substance is it made? How does it come into exist-ence? How can it be subdued? Awareness of the nature of mind helpsin making it calm and peaceful. Meditation comes easily to one whohas true knowledge of the mind.

The ‘Yoga Vasishta’ says that the world is ‘manomatram’ or imagi-nation. The throbbing of ‘prana,’ the life-giving force, makes the mindmove. The movement of mind in turn brings into being a wondrousuniverse with myriad names and forms.

The creation of universe is due to the force of ‘vikshepa’ or move-ment of the mind. The ‘vikshepa’ force operates both in the waking and dream states of Consciousness; therefore, the world appearsin these states.

According to Swami Sivananda, the legerdemain of the world isenacted by the mind alone.

Like a dream generating another dream in it, the mind, having noconcrete form, brings into being that which is non-existent. The per-ishable universe has no independent existence other than the mind.With annihilation of the mind, the subjective universe too comes to anend. The mind borrows its light and intelligence from its source, PureConsciousness, in the same way as an iron-rod borrows its heat andeffulgence from fire.

A typical feature of the mind is that it is ‘chanchala’ or ever-fluctu-ating and keeps moving from one object to another at rapid pace. Thisis why it is often compared to a monkey that keeps jumping from onebranch of tree to another. The mind is constantly drawn towards ob-jects and creates countless worlds according to its own ‘sankalpas’ orthoughts.

The main reason why the mind is ever-fluctuating and restless isthat it is under the constant sway of the three ‘gunas’ or qualities ofprakriti, namely, ‘sattva,’purity and light, ‘rajas,’passion and activityand ‘tamas,’inertia and darkness.

If ‘sattva’ dominates the mind, it becomes one-pointed and the seekerenters into a meditative mood spontaneously; if ‘tamas’ dominates, themind is enveloped by darkness and loses its power of discrimination;and if ‘rajas’ holds sway, the mind hankers after power, position andprestige and becomes over-ambitious.

It is important for the seeker to remember two things: First, ‘sattva’cannot exist in isolation; it is always mixed with ‘rajas’ and ‘tamas’. Inorder therefore to make progress on the path of meditation, the seekershould constantly endeavour to increase the ‘sattvic’ modifications oflove, magnanimity, mercy, and forgiveness in relation to the other two‘gunas’ by taking recourse to light, ‘sattvic’ food and by moving in thecompany of wise people (satsang).

Second, the purpose of meditation is not to battle with the mind andto eradicate thoughts by force; it is to witness the mind from a dis-tance. You should remain firmly anchored in the understanding thatyou are the witness, the Self, and not the fickle mind. If you meditatewith this awareness, your mind will become calm very soon and youwill be able to give it a new, inward direction.

Swami Muktananda says: “No matter what thoughts and imagesarise in the mind, be aware that there is no concrete material fromwhich they are being manifested. They are simply a phantasmagoriaof Consciousness”.

Points to ponderThe greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grand-

children is not money or other material things accumulated in one’slife, but rather a legacy of character and faith. — Billy Graham

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispersback. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of alover, everyone becomes a poet. — Plato

It’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing incommon with and still be fascinated by them. — David Byrne

There is no end to education. And it is not only about what you learnin school. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to themoment you die, is a process of learning. — J Krishnamurti.


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Jimmy Mtemi and CarolinaZakaria, each carrying a baby andwearing matching T-shirts, lookedthrilled as they stood with doctorsat Apollo Children’s Hospital onTuesday, Dec 17.

The couple from Tanzania hashad a stressful few months. Theirdaughters, now about nine monthsold, were born conjoined, withtheir chests and abdomens fused,a condition known as thoraco-omphalopagus. It took a team of25 doctors a total of 11 hours, intwo complex procedures, to sepa-rate Adriana and Abriana.

“At first, we were worried thebabies’ hearts would be fused. Butluckily, we found they had two

Conjoined twins separated in Chennai hospital

hearts with a common pericar-dium (heart wall). Adriana’s hearthad to be covered with bovinepericardium and then covered withskin and soft tissue,” said NevilleSolomon, one of the doctors whooperated on the twins.

The liver too, presented com-plications, as doctors had to findout which half belonged to whichchild and then separate the organswithout losing too much blood.Fortunately, the intestines wereseparate. After this came the dif-ficult task of covering all the ex-posed organs.

“We used tissue expanders —which are silicon balloons insertedunder the skin and injected with

saline — in order to stretch theskin. The skin was then raised tocover the heart, liver and intes-tines,” said K.S. Sivakumar, plas-tic and reconstructive surgeon.

All went well for a few days,until Adriana became critically ill— first, with a heart ailment, andthen her intestines sliding into herchest. After yet another proce-dure, she has now recovered, doc-tors said.

Managing director of ApolloHospitals, Preetha Reddy, thankedthe medical team for performingthe most challenging of life-sav-ing surgeries, while chairmanPrathap C. Reddy said the hospi-tal would continue to strive forexcellence in medical care.

Sensex tumbles, rupee takes a hitMUMBAI: Equity and currency markets in India were in turmoil

on Tuesday, Dec 16, as fears over the impact on the global economyof falling oil prices and a crisis in the Russian currency market boiledover. The benchmark 30-share S&P BSE Sensex plunged by 538.12points or 1.97 per cent to close at 26,781.44 while the rupee fell to itslowest level in 13 months versus the dollar. The currency ended theday down by 59 paise to the dollar at Rs.63.53.

Metal stocks were the worst hit by 4.17 per cent followed by realty3.80 per cent, FMCG 3.08 per cent and bank 2.91 per cent.

On the National Stock Exchange the 50-share nifty closed at 8,67.60with a loss of 152 points.

“The carnage on the bourses was due to two factors — the fall inthe rupee against the dollar which forced many foreign ExchangeTraded Funds (ETFs) to offload their portfolios to prevent currency-related damages and secondly, the fall in crude oil prices which is alsoaffecting some large FII ETFs and hedge funds.

These have led them to sell their investments in different assetclasses to compensate for the collateral losses arising out of droppingcrude oil prices” said Deven Choksey, Managing Director, K.R.Choksey Shares and Securities.

“This is an unnatural phenomenon and the speed at which the mar-kets have fallen would make equity valuations attractive. This wouldhelp attracting long term investors to the market,” Choksey added.

Even though the consumer price index and the whole sale priceindex numbers for November were positive, an array of factors areweighing on the Indian rupee.

NEW DELHI: Observing that“a concerted effort was beingmade to manipulate the entire gov-ernment machinery so as to pro-tect the interest of M/s. Hindalco,’’a Special Court here on Tuesday,Dec 16, ordered the Central Bu-reau of Investigation to examinethe then Coal Minister (formerPrime Minister Manmohan Singh)on various aspects of allocation ofa coal block to the private com-pany in Orissa.

Dr. Singh was holding additionalcharge of the Coal Ministry at thattime. The CBI has sought closureof the case in which, among oth-ers, Aditya Birla Group chairmanKumar Mangalam Birla andformer Coal Secretary P.C.Parakh figure as accused.

Hindalco is the metals flagshipcompany of the Aditya BirlaGroup.

“I am of the considered opin-ion that before the matter is ex-amined further as to what offence,if any, stands committed or bywhom the same has been com-mitted, it will be appropriate thatthe then Minister of Coal be firstexamined qua various aspects ofthe matter and also in the light ofthe observations made by thiscourt in the present order,’’ Spe-cial Judge Bharat Parashar saidin his order to further investigatethe case.

The court also ordered exami-nation of B.V.R. Subramanyam,then Private Secretary to the thenPrime Minister, and re-examina-tion of T.K.A. Nair, then Princi-pal Secretary in the PrimeMinister’s Office. “…it will beappropriate if the investigating of-ficer examines Sh. B.V.R.Subramanyam and re-examinesSh. T.K. Nair,’’ Parashar said.

Concurring with the SpecialPublic Prosecutor in the case,R.S. Cheema, who opposed theprobe agency’s decision to closethe case in his argument on theclosure report, Parashar said: “Infact, the submission of Ld. Spe-cial P.P. Sh. R.S. Cheema appearsto be a logical conclusion flowingout not only from the variousdocuments which were seizedduring the course of investigationbut also from the manner in whichthe entire process was undertakenby the Ministry of Coal and thePrime Minister’s Office.”

Court asks CBIto question Singh

The Judge also directed the investigating officer “to mention thepresent status of all the public servants involved in the entire allocationprocess, which led to the allocation of Talabira II Coal Block to M/sHindalco.” The court later directed the investigating officer to file aprogress report on January 27, 2015.

Owner of pro-Islamic StateTwitter account arrested

Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals, with nine-month-old Adriana and Abriana and their parents.

BENGALURU: Police inBengaluru have arrested a 24-year-old man believed to be be-hind an influential pro-IslamicState Twitter account followed bymany jihadist fighters.

Mehdi Masroor Biswas is al-leged to be behind the Twitter ac-count @ShamiWitness, which had17,700 followers before it was shutdown following a report by theUK’s Channel 4 News on Thurs-day, Dec 11.

Tweets from the account con-tained extremist propaganda – in-cluding footage of executions –as well as information for would-be recruits and messages prais-ing fallen fighters as martyrs.

Police in Bangalore seizedBiswas’s mobile phone, laptop andother documents for evidencewhen they raided the juniorexecutive’s one-room apartmentearly on Saturday morning.

LR Pachuau, police directorgeneral in the city, told a newsconference that the arrest ofBiswas, who works for an Indianfood conglomerate, had followed“credible intelligence inputs”.

“He has confessed to the factthat he was operating [the]ShamiWitness Twitter account forthe last many years … he used towork in the office in the day andbecame active on the internet lateat night,” he said.

Pachuau said Biswas used totweet “ferociously” after gather-ing information from TV and newswebsites on the situation in Iraq,Syria and the rest of the troubledregion.

Biswas was particularly closeto English-speaking terrorists andhad become a source of “incite-ment and information” for youngpeople trying to join Isis.

“Through his social media pro-paganda, he abetted [Isis] in itsagenda to wage war against theAsiatic powers,” Pachuau said.

The arrest will raise concernsabout radicalisation among India’spopulation of 150 million Muslims.Social media has repeatedly beenblamed for radicalising recruitsand mobilising support for Isis.

Senior police officers and intel-ligence analysts in India are con-cerned about signs of sympathyfor Isis among a small segment ofyoung Muslims, some of whomhave travelled to join the group.Estimates of how many vary fromaround 50 to more than 200.

A preliminary case of assistingwar against the state has been reg-istered against Biswas. The Chan-nel 4 report quoted Biswas as say-ing that he had personally notjoined Isis fighters in Iraq and Syriabecause his family was financiallydependent on him. “If I had achance to leave everything andjoin them I might have,” he wasquoted as saying. Biswas has de-nied any wrongdoing.

“I’ve not harmed anybody, Ihaven’t broken any laws of the

country, haven’t waged any waragainst the Republic of India …I’ve not waged any war againstany allies of India,” he told thechannel.

His father, a retired electricityengineer, said Biswas was inno-cent. “You know being Muslim,we are easily identified as terror-ists,” said Dr Mekail Biswas. “Thedays are so hard now. But I cantell you that my son … has donenothing wrong. If he has landedin trouble it is because some en-emy is after him.”

Isis has established a reputa-tion for extensive use of socialmedia, though experts point outthat it is often third parties whoare not formally part of the groupwho play the biggest role in spread-ing propaganda. The group hasproduced a series of slickly madefilm clips, including some hour-long productions, as well as bru-tally graphic videos of executionsof western hostages and capturedSyrian soldiers.

“There are a growing numberof youngsters who want to joinjihad. It was there before but theywent only to Pakistan. Now thereis a global element,” one seniorpolice officer dealing with terror-ism in the Indian commercial capi-tal of Mumbai told the Observerlast month.

Four men from the northernMumbai suburb of Kalyan trav-elled to Iraq to join Isis earlier thisyear. One was recently chargedwith terror-related offences afterhe returned from Iraq.

The total number of Indianswho have tried to travel to theMiddle East to fight with Isis isunclear as many local policeforces prefer not to “criminalise”individuals by officially registeringcases against them. Instead theyrely on family pressure to “dis-suade and deradicalise” them, theofficer told the Observer.

Security analysts say India isfacing a period of heightened ter-rorist threat due to internal, re-gional and global factors.

One fear is that Pakistan-basedgroups currently engaged in Af-ghanistan may look for new re-gional targets after the US ceasesall combat operations next month.Al-Qaida announced the forma-tion of a new affiliate in south Asiaearlier this year. The veteran mili-tant group has previously failed tomake any inroads into India.

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

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IIT-Indore student gets Rs 1.7 crorejob offer from Google

INDORE: Breaking the myth that established IITs fare better injob placements, a final-year computer science graduate of Indian In-stitute of Technology (IIT)-Indore bagged a job with Google at anannual package of Rs 1.7 crore ($271,370).

IIT-Indore's Gaurav Agrawal, a native of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, isnow rubbing shoulders with IIT-BHU student who fetched an annualpackage of Rs 2.03 crore from Oracle and IIT-Bombay girl AasthaAgarwal who got a job offer of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) from socialnetworking site, Facebook.

This offer is highest package received by any IIT-Indore student inpast three years of placement seasons.

"We were told Google was conducting a test online. I appeared forthe test. After being shortlisted we were called for on-site interviewsession at Gurgaon.

“Further interviews were held at Bangalore. Questions were askedrelated to programming structure and algorithms. I have received of-fer letter to join as software engineer in US," said Agrawal.

His joining date is yet to come.Agrawal joined computer science branch at IIT-Indore in 2011 af-

ter passing out class X and XII with 90% marks. Earlier this year, heparticipated in finals of world Informatics Olympiad - ACM Interna-tional Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) held in Russia whereteam 'Paradigm Shift' of IIT-Indore beat 15 top IITs and even brushedaside challenge from Stanford University, California.

The IIT-Indore team bagged the top ranking among all Indian uni-versities at 38th Programming Olympiad. The team was ranked 42ndin the world.

"Preparations and debate with the programming experts from dif-ferent institutes of the world helped me in interview sessions held forthe job. I did not put extra effort for interview. Above all, my interest incomputers gave me leverage in taking questions," said Agarwal.

MUMBAI: A film by a Pune-based director on the dailystruggles of four sisters againstthe backdrop of farmer suicidesin Vidarbha in Maharashtra hasmade it to the long-list in the “bestpicture” category of the 87thAcademy Awards, popularlycalled the Oscars. The AmericanAcademy of Motion Picture, Artsand Sciences recently disclosedthe final list of 323 films.

Kapus Kondyachi Goshta(The Unending Story), directedby Mrunalini Bhosale, has beenadapted from the real-life storyof four sisters in a small villagenear Nagpur. A Marathi agricul-tural magazine, Baliraja, ownedby the Bhosales, has publishedtheir story.

“It is a most topical film, de-tailing the social ostracism andpoverty rife among Vidarbha’scotton growers,” says Bhosale,who initially never thought of en-tering her film for the Oscars de-spite it receiving regional and in-ternational acclaim.

Film on plight of Vidarbha farmers in Oscar long list

The film charts the travails andtriumphs of the sisters orphanedby the suicide of their parents, cot-ton farmers overwhelmed by debt.Focussing on the story of the el-dest sister, Jyoti, the film delineatesthe problems and complexities offeminism in the rural hinterland ofdeveloping countries.

“The thought of recognition inthe form of awards was nowherein my mind when I began workingon this film. I just hoped to tell asensitive story in a sensitive man-ner so that better-off people wouldprick their ears and take note ofjust how difficult life is in rural In-dia,” she says.

A specialist of the “agriculturaldocumentary,” Bhosale has cre-ated and directed close to 50 filmsin a variety of regional languagesas well as English — all focussingon the pitfalls and triumphs of menand women who work the soil.

It has been an unusually richyear for Marathi cinema anddebutant directors in terms of in-ternational recognition.

Fandry, a painful and sensitiveexploration of a love affair be-tween a Dalit boy and a girl froman upper caste, won instant acco-lades across the country and theworld. While it was long-listed forthe Golden Globe Awards alongwith Liar’s Dice (India’s officialentry in the ‘Best Foreign Lan-guage Film’ category to the Os-cars), both failed to make it to theshortlist.

Child beaten to death over unpaid feesBAREILLY: Angry at a child's parents delaying the school fees, a

school principal in Bareilly beat the 7-year-old upper KG student todeath. Not stopping at that, he then flung the body on the highway.

The principal of DSR Public School in Rath (Deorania), AvinashSaraswat, in a fit of rage thrashed seven-year-old Mohammad Aarajas his parents had not been able to pay Rs 4,500 that was due to theschool. The severely wounded boy was rushed to hospital by the prin-cipal and school manager, where doctors said he was dead. Schoolauthorities then reportedly dumped his body on the highway.

The boy's father, Nasim Ahmad, a resident of Jahanabad, saidSaraswat banged the boy's head against the wall. The boy's eldersister Zeenam and brother Azam are in the same school.

Angry family members and local people went on a rampage soonafter news of the boy's death spread. Police have lodged an FIR againstthe principal and the school manager, Harish Rathor.

Family and local residents were enraged that the principal and schoolmanager could leave the child's body on the highway. People blockedthe Bareilly-Nainital highway in protest, beat up school staff and dam-aged property in the school premises.

Union minister for women and child welfare and Pilibhit MP ManekaGandhi told The Times of India by phone from Delhi, "The schoolprincipal should be immediately arrested. The administration shouldcrack the whip against such schools which are so insensitive to chil-dren. I will personally instruct local authorities to take stringent mea-sures to ensure that such things do not take place in future."

No special treatmentfor Italian marinesNEW DELHI: The Supreme

Court on Tuesday slammed homethe 'no special treatment' rule toItalian marines - MassimilanoLatorre and Salvatore Girone -accused of killing of two Indianfishermen off Kerala coast in Feb-ruary 2012 and refused to enter-tain their pleas for spending timeat home.

In September this year, thecourt had permitted Latorre to gohome for four months to recuper-ate from a brain stroke he sufferedwhile in Delhi. He has now soughttwo more months to undergo heartsurgery. Girone, on the other hand,sought permission to go home tospend Christmas with family.

Former attorney general Soli JSorabjee pleaded it was for healthreasons and that granting permis-sion to the two marines to attendto their health concerns and spendtime with family would not causeprejudice to anyone.

But a bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Madan BLokur and A K Sikri wonderedwhether it happened anywhere inthe world that a murder case in-vestigation doesn't get over evenafter three years, no charge-sheetgets filed and the accused stay outof custody.

The court was also firm thatthere could not be special treat-ment to the marines. It said: "You(Latorre) went to Italy in Septem-ber. Why didn't you undergo sur-gery then? We are not advisingyou where to undergo the heartsurgery. But there is a legal sys-tem here in India. You must re-spect the Indian legal system."

When Sorabjee repeated his"no prejudice to any one" argu-ment, the bench said: "It is not aquestion of prejudice. It is a mur-der case. The investigation has notbeen completed. No charge-sheetis filed and the trial has not com-menced. Does it happen any-where in the world?"

"Let us have the same yard-stick for everyone. If the offenceis under Section 302 of IndianPenal Code, we term it heinouscrime. Yet the investigation is notcomplete even after three years.It can never be allowed to hap-pen. The system must work. Weare sorry. We cannot entertainthese applications."

"If we entertain the applications,people will say how the court coulddo it even when the offenceagainst them is under Section 302of IPC. We had given you twomonths and then extended it byanother two months," the benchsaid and hinted that it was timefor Latorre to come back to Indiaand face trial.

States alerted on lone-wolf attacksNEW DELHI: The terror attacks in Sydney and Peshawar have

spawned a series of central advisories alerting the states and Unionterritories to the possibility of lone-wolf attacks as well as a strike by agroup of five SIMI activists on the run. After the Intelligence Bureaualerted Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on Mon-day, Dec 15, about a likely lone-wolf attack based on a warning trackedon a pro-ISIS Twitter handle, the Union home ministry issued a freshadvisory on Tuesday to all states and Union territories seeking tightersurveillance and policing in the light of a heightened terror threat tocrowded places and emphasize on a standard drill laid down in 2010 toinsulate schools against terror attacks.


BANGLADESH / SRI LANKA

China, India both our friends,says Colombo

COLOMBO: Lanka reiterated Sunday, Dec 14, that it has closerelations with both India and China, as both countries played a crucialrole in the island nation's development.

"We have a foreign policy which is not based on exclusivity. We donot make choices between countries," said Sri Lankan Foreign Minis-ter Gamini Peiris, in an interview to The Sunday Leader, which wascited by Xinhua in a report.

"Both countries (India and China) have helped us. They have in-vested and participated in the development of infrastructure," Peirissaid adding that "We have excellent relations with both countries".

Sri Lanka has seen a boost in its ties with India and China in recentyears, particularly as some Western countries, led by the US, look tohold the Mahinda Rajapaksa government responsible for human rightsabuses during the final stages of the 30-year civil war against the Lib-eration Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, the report noted.

The Sri Lankan foreign minister blamed some Western diplomats inSri Lanka for "crossing the line," saying it was wrong for foreign mis-sions to associate with elements involved in criminal activities againstthe interests of Sri Lanka.

Malaysia extradites terrorsuspect to Sri Lanka

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has reportedly deported a Sri Lankannational arrested in Kuala Lumpur for an alleged conspiracy to carryout terror attacks on the American and Israeli consulates in SouthIndia to Sri Lanka, ignoring New Delhi's extradition request.

India, according to the Colombo Page web site, had sought the ex-tradition of Mohammad Hussain Mohammad Sulaiman, a 47-year-oldSri Lankan national, arrested by Special Unit of Malaysian Police fromthe outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in May.

Sulaiman was recently sent back to Sri Lanka by Malaysian au-thorities without even executing a production warrant issued by a spe-cial court in India seeking his extradition.

India, according to the web site, has argued that Sri Lanka did notimmediately require Sulaiman's custody and he could be a key tounravelling mysteries behind the botched terror plot allegedly plannedby the ISI-backed groups to attack the US consulate in Chennai andthe Israeli consulate in Bangalore.

However, the Attorney General's office in Malaysia did not proceedwith the Indian production warrant and instead suggested to its gov-ernment that it deport Sulaiman to Sri Lanka where he is allegedlyfacing charges in a murder case.

Rajapaksa regains poll momentumCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has re-

gained momentum in his bid for a third term with another leading poli-tician abandoning the opposition to join his campaign.

Udaya Gammanpila, a top official from the Buddhist nationalistNational Heritage Party, defected from the opposition Thursday. He isthe third leading politician to leave the opposition to support Rajapaksain the Jan. 8 election.

Rajapaksa faces his former health minister and ruling party No. 2Maithripala Sirisena. Sirisena led a revolt in Rajapaksa's ruling coali-tion, taking with him 11 ministers and lawmakers.

Now it seems Rajapaksa has now managed to reverse some of thedamage.

He called the elections two years early to seek a fresh mandateamid accusations of nepotism. His administration also faces a U.N.inquiry into alleged war crimes.

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Dilshan batters England with bat and ballCOLOMBO: Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed a century and grabbed

three wickets in his 300th one-day international as Sri Lanka whippedEngland by 87 runs in the seventh and final match in Colombo onTuesday, Dec 16.

Dilshan passed the 9,000-run mark in one-day cricket on his way toa stroke-filled 101 to lead the hosts to a commanding 302-6 after theyelected to bat in the day-night match in Colombo.

England were bowled out for 215 in 45.5 overs in reply after Dilshan'soff-spin broke the tourists' back with the key wickets of Moeen Ali (0),Alex Hales (seven) and Eoin Morgan (four).

Joe Root top-scored with 80 but skipper Alastair Cook (32) andChris Woakes (34) were the only other batsmen to cross 30 in a disap-pointing batting display by the tourists on the slow pitch.

The emphatic victory gave Sri Lanka the series 5-2 and left Englandsearching for a winning formula ahead of the World Cup which opensin Australia and New Zealand on February 14.

The veteran pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardenecould not have asked for a better parting gift in their last one-dayinternational on home soil.

The duo whetted the appetite of some 20,000 Sri Lankan fans at thePremadasa stadium with some glorious strokeplay, but fell just whenthey looked set for a big score.

After oil spill in Bangladesh’s uniquemangrove forest, fears about rare animals

Oil from a wrecked tanker iscreating a disaster in the watersof Bangladesh's Sundarbans, thelargest contiguous tidal mangroveforest in the world and a havenfor a spectacular array of species,including the rare Irrawaddy andGangetic dolphins and the highlyendangered Bengal tiger.

"This catastrophe is unprec-edented in the Sundarbans, and wedon't know how to tackle this,"Amir Hossain, chief forest officialof the Sundarbans in Bangladesh,told reporters.

Named for the native sundaritree, the Sundarbans is a vast deltaof densely forested, mangrove-fringed islands threaded by an in-tricate network of creeks andchannels, or canals. The delta is aUNESCO World Heritage sitethat encompasses some 3,850square miles (1,000 square kilo-meters), with roughly one-thirdlying in India and two-thirds inBangladesh.

On both sides of the border,densely populated villages abutprotected areas set aside for theregion's extraordinary biodiversity.

In the early hours of Decem-ber 9, in dense fog, the tankerSouthern Star 7, carrying some92,000 gallons of bunker oil, wasrammed by a cargo vessel in theSela River, at the entrance to theBangladesh Sundarbans, south-east of the river port of Mongla.The collision occurred inside theChandpai dolphin sanctuary.

Seven crew members survivedby jumping ship and swimming toshore. The body of CaptainMokhlesur Rahman was retrievedfive days later.

Reportedly, some 52,000 gallonsof fuel has already leaked into thebrackish tidal water. According to

Hossain, the spill has spread overa 40-mile-long (64 kilometers) areaalong the Sela and Pusur Rivers.

Official announcements havenot yet clarified the extent of thedamage. News footage shown onlocal television has revealed linesof oil-blackened shoreline andmangrove trees bearing a high-tidemark of black oil.

In television interviews, villag-ers and fishers have complainedof the smell of oil. Sightings ofdead fish and crabs have beenreported in the Chandpai region'schannels.

This aerial photograph of theSundarbans, made in 2010, showsa densely forested landscape in-terlaced with creeks and channels.

Remote and hard to get to ex-cept by water, the Sundarbans isa place of wild, menacing beauty.Here, jewel-like kingfishers mayperch above a sleeping estuarinecrocodile or fly over the fin of apassing shark.

At low tide, otters, monkeys,wild boars, and spotted deeremerge from the forest, and themud banks regularly bear the deeppugmarks of a striding tiger.

Bird life is famously prolific,with more than 300 different spe-cies known to live in the area.

In 2011, the New York-basedWildlife Conservation Society dis-covered a remarkable populationof 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins in theBangladesh Sundarbans.

The find led to the creation ofthree sanctuaries for Irrawaddyand long-nosed Gangetic dolphins.The fact that the oil tanker waswrecked in one of the sanctuarieshas heightened the grave concernsabout the environmental impact.

In the Sundarbans, endangeredtigers are at home in the mangrove

forests. Tigers are good swim-mers, which helps them getaround in this watery region.

Fringing the land with long,twisted roots, mangrove treeshave evolved to withstand the re-lentless tugging of a powerful tidethat alternately swamps the low-lying forest and recedes to leaveglimmering sand.

The tide constantly reshapeschannels and shifts sand, creatingnew banks for the many creeksand rivers that the mangrove isadept at colonizing. At the edgeof the water, the mangrove'ssprawling root system is the land'sfront-line defense against erosion.

The many species of mangrovethat make up the Sundarbans' for-ests are central to the region's in-tricate chain of life.

For humans, the mangrovesprovide wood and tannin, which isused in medicine. Birds shelter intheir foliage, while their fallenleaves feed shrimp and other ma-rine life attached to the mangroves'scaffold-like roots. On land, insectsburrow and feed in the water-soft-ened wood.

Famously, the mangrove forestholds one of the last major tigerpopulations on Earth. More thana hundred tigers live in the IndianSundarbans, and an unknownnumber in the less-studied, largerSundarbans of Bangladesh.

With only an estimated 3,000wild tigers left throughout Asia, apopulation of even a hundred ishugely significant.

The Sundarbans tigers are pow-erful swimmers and supplementtheir diet of land prey with marinelife, including crabs.

According to Alan Rabinowitz,CEO of Panthera, an organizationdedicated to saving big cats, thetiger's adaptation to the difficultSundarbans terrain is a testamentto the remarkable resilience of thespecies. "To be surviving on brack-ish water, to navigate these man-grove swamps and mud—theseare not easy adaptations for anymammal," he said.

Criticism of the Bangladeshgovernment's slow response to theunfolding disaster has been fierce.

Two days passed before theleaking tanker was towed to land,and the spill is reported to havealready drifted into numerouschannels leading out of the SelaRiver.

Padma Oil Company, whichowns the tanker, is using buoys tobar the oil slick from spreadingand has initiated a "buy back" pro-gram, paying villagers 30 taka(less than 40 cents) for every literof sludge retrieved. Local fishershave been asked to scoop up theoil with their nets.

How a shipping route of anykind was allowed to pass throughall three of the dolphin sanctuar-ies is one of the many uncomfort-able questions officials will likelybe asked in the days ahead.

Across the border in India, of-ficials are closely watching the on-going disaster.

— Caroline Alexander forNational Geographic

PAKISTANPAGE 20 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014

PESHAWAR: Taliban gunmenstormed a military-run school innorthwestern Pakistan, killing atleast 141 people, 132 of themschoolchildren, in one of the mili-tant group’s deadliest attacks.

Pakistani officials said the siegeof the school ended on Tuesdaynight, Dec 16, after all six militantswere killed, although bombs plantedby the attackers were slowing downthe clearance operation.

Taliban gunmen attacked theschool in the morning about 11 a.m.Army and police personnel sur-rounded the Peshawar school build-ing shortly after the assault began.By nightfall, security personnel, in-cluding the army’s special-forcesunit, had killed six of the attackersand cleared much of the sprawlingschool campus, military officialssaid.

Amir Ameen, speaking from hishospital bed at Peshawar’s LadyReading hospital, said that he and11 other students were taking anexam when two gunmen enteredtheir classroom. They shot studentsone by one, mostly in the head, hesaid.

The attackers were talking inPashto, the language spoken innorthwest Pakistan and Afghani-stan, and they kept shouting “AllahoAkbar” or “God is great,” he added.

They also shot the teacher, awoman, and her 2-year-old daugh-ter whom she had brought to school.“I am the only survivor from myclass. I was hit in the stomach. Ijust played dead when they checkedon me,” Ameen said.

Shahrukh, 17, who was shot inboth legs, said that many studentswere assembled for a function inthe school hall when the gunmenburst in and started spraying bul-lets. He fell on the ground when hewas hit. “I saw them set one of our

141 dead in Taliban assault on school

teachers on fire on front of me,”he said.

Even by the bloody standardsof Pakistan, Tuesday’s assaulton schoolchildren and the scaleof the killings created a new grimmilestone in the country’sseven-year-old battle againstIslamist insurgents.

Muhammad Khurasani, aspokesman for the PakistaniTaliban, claimed responsibility forthe attack in a phone call, say-ing the group had sent suicideattackers as “revenge for themilitary operation in Waziristan.”He added that they were target-ing “senior officers” at theschool.

Security officials said a squadof gunmen entered the ArmyPublic School on Warsak Roadin Peshawar, capital of theKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa province,around 11 a.m. local time, andtook control of the main build-ing. “These children were inno-cent,” said Pervaiz Khattak, KPchief minister, adding that theattackers wore the uniform ofthe Frontier Corps, a paramili-tary force designed to guard thecountry’s tribal areas.

The Army Public School ispart of a military-run system ofschools across Pakistan, offer-ing education from primary tohigh-school levels, and is opento children of military personnelas well as civilians.

“They have attacked funer-als and mosques, for them thereis no limit. They are operatingoutside human values,” saidMehmood Shah, a retired secu-rity official in Peshawar. “Theywant to terrorize the populationinto submission.”

Provincial government offi-cials said at least 1,500 students,

from preschool to high school,were present on campus whenthe attack began. Among the deadwas the school principal, SaeedKhan.

Most of the students managedto flee the compound, accordingto the Pakistani military. But ofthose who were injured, many hadlife-threatening wounds, and thedeath toll was expected to rise.More injured people were beingbrought to hospital hours after theattack began.

A spokesman for a faction ofthe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistanclaimed responsibility and said thegunmen had been ordered to shootolder students at the school in thecity of Peshawar. “It's a revengeattack for the army offensive inNorth Waziristan,” he said.

Army chief General RaheelSharif has reached Peshawar andvowed to continue the fightagainst the militants until they arecompletely eliminated from thecountry.

DG Inter-Services Public Re-lations (ISPR) Maj-Gen AsimBajwa posted on twitter that thetragic incident has saddened thatCOAS, but at the same time hehas said that, “our resolve hastaken new height. Will continue goafter inhuman beasts, their facili-tators till their final elimination”.

Gen Sharif said, “This ghastlyact cowardice of killing innocentsclearly indicates they (militants)are not only enemies of Pakistanbut enemies of humanity”.

PROTEST POSTPONEDPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)

Chairman Imran Khan has post-poned his party's countrywide pro-tests scheduled for Dec 18.

PTI Punjab President EjazChaudhry had sent a recommen-dation to Imran requesting to post-pone the party's protests.

PTI's protest call was aimed atparalysing the entire country to putpressure on the ruling PakistanMuslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government to carry out inves-tigations for alleged rigging in lastyear's general elections.

PTI's Faisalabad shutdown callhad seen violent clashes takingplace with PML-N supporters, re-sulting in the death of one PTIactivist, Haq Nawaz. The violencecomplicated an already tense po-litical situation with each sideblaming the other for the impasse.

PTI protesters bring Lahore to a standstillLAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) virtually brought

Lahore to a standstill on Monday as they followed through with theirplan to shut down the city in a bid to pressure the government intoaccepting their demands.

PTI chief Imran Khan appeared visibly happy with his party’s per-formance in implementing `Plan C’ in Lahore following strikes inFaisalabad and Karachi.

Calling out Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his hometown, Mr Khandemanded that the government constitute a judicial commission to in-vestigate electoral rigging within 48 hours or face a countrywide shut-down. He also warned that PTI’s ‘Plan D’ was ready and would beeven harder for the government to swallow. “PTI is a democraticparty and its workers will stay on the roads until justice is done overthe massively rigged general elections,” Mr Khan told a large gather-ing of his supporters in front of the Punjab Assembly.

The day began with PTI workers blocking all the city’s entry andexit points and blocking traffic by burning tyres and installing barbedwire on main thoroughfares.The protesters, among them a large num-ber of women and children, danced to the tune of party anthems amidchoruses of “Go Nawaz Go”.

A Pakistani soldier escorts two children to safety

Amir Muqam survives roadside blastPESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader

Amir Muqam, who visited victims of Tuesday's Taliban attack on thearmy school , survived a roadside bomb blast on his way home, policesaid.

Muqam, an advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and formergovernor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was returning homeafter visiting hospitalised victims of the school raid in Peshawar whena bomb blast went off near his vehicle.

“A roadside bomb blast exploded as Muqam's vehicle was passingby at Pish Takhar area of ring road at the outskirts of Peshawar,”senior police official Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP.

He said Muqam's driver and two guards were injured.

Major market remains closedKARACHI: Jodia Bazaar — the major wholesale market of the

country dealing in essential commodities, like flour, wheat, rice, sugarand pulses — remained closed on Tuesday on a call for strike given bythe Karachi Wholesalers and Grocers Association (KWGA) over“harassment by city government officials.”

It affected movement of goods from the up-country to Jodia Ba-zaar and from port to the market. The total worth of one day tradingactivity at the wholesale market is estimated between Rs. 3 and 5billion.

In the evening, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry(KCCI) President Iftikhar Vohra intervened and assured traders thatthe KCCI would talk to the commissioner to resolve the issue onWednesday.

Traders were protesting over issuance of unrealistic price lists bythe commissioner and causing harassment of the trading community.

The leaders claimed that the price lists show rates other than theones agreed in meetings of stakeholders, including Controller-Generalof Prices, Consumers’ Asso-ciation, Bureau of Supplies and Pricesetc.

They said the mutually agreed rates do not appear in the fortnightlyprice list issued by the commissioner of Karachi, which was forcingtraders to sell products at officially fixed rates.

KWGA Chairman Anis Majeed held a press conference on Tues-day and termed the price checking campaign a black-mailing.

The traders, he said, have been threatened by price regulators thatheavy fines may be imposed on traders and they could also be jailed.

They said that if FIRs against traders are not withdrawn, protest oftraders may spread to other city markets.

After KCCI intervention, a meeting of traders, the commissionerwould be held on Wednesday.

NGO-run school blown up in CharsaddaCHARSADDA: A two-storey building of a private school run by a

non-government organisation was blown up in Kangra area here inthe wee hours on Monday, Dec 15.

SHO Batgram told Dawn that unknown miscreants had planted animprovised explosive device near the building of Miss Sonia PublicSchool in Kangra area run by an NGO, Human Development, whichwent off with a bang early on Monday. As a result, two rooms of theschool were destroyed while rest of the building was partially dam-aged. A water purification plant installed at the school for provision ofclean drinking water to children was also destroyed in the blast. Theblast was so powerful that it was heard far and wide in the area.

Shahid, owner of the school, said that he had no enmity with any-body. The police registered case against unknown miscreants andstarted investigation.

Meanwhile, the bomb disposal unit personnel defused an IED plantednear the residence of former MNA Hameed Khan in Shabqadar area.

Police said that unknown miscreants had planted the device but itcould not explode. They said that it was a time device and that 300gram explosives were used in the home-made bomb. After failing totake extortion money from the former lawmaker, miscreants plantedan IED near his house to terrorise him, sources say.

• INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014 • PAGE 23


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