Perversion of the Two-Party System

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

 

This year’s presidential primary season has brought to light the inadequacy of the de-facto 2-party system, which has served the nation reasonably well through several election cycles that include WW I and II and other Wars of Choice and periodic economic convulsions for well over a century, maybe longer. After all, the two strong political forces, the GOP and the Democrats, are both committed to the Constitution, even though they have differentiable ideas on most social, cultural, political, economic, military, environmental, and global issues.

And we have a fairly protracted primary season in which anyone with enough charisma, courage, drive, and ambition can throw their hat in the ring to enter the fray. The protracted primaries with many grueling televised debates give ample opportunities for candidates to project their grasp of the issues facing the offices they seek and the solutions they offer; and also to puncture holes in their opponents’ ideas. The debates also help candidates sharpen their rhetorical skills and burnish their images.

Seeking elected office in the US is a strategic decision. Candidates start years before they decide to enter the race, mulling over the pros and cons, and then building and burnishing their images among the party opinion makers, big-time donors, and leaders.

One good feature of the primary system is that until the candidates get through three-fourths of the primaries, they are on their own. Party officials rarely get into the scene picking favorites even though prominent party members who do not hold official positions do endorse their favorites. But the official party machine scrupulously stays out.

The concept of primaries here is an egalitarian idea. Everybody, irrespective of one’s pedigree or the lack thereof, but fulfilling broad eligibility criteria, can and does enter the ring. This is like the US Open tourneys in tennis or golf. The idea of a primary is drilled down from the highest elected office, namely the Presidency of the United States, to seats in the US Congress, state legislatures, even city council seats.

We have seen candidates with great clout, name recognition, and pedigree falling by the wayside in primaries losing to upstart candidates.  This rarely happens in other democracies.

The most famous are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, all well-known US Senators, losing to an upstart Black first-time US senator named Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries.

On the GOP side this year was Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and the scion of the Bush Dynasty, getting eliminated early in the primary. Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, all US Senators with clout and name recognition, eventually lost to the upstart, maverick, flamboyant, and cocky Donald Trump, the New York real-estate mogul. Trump never sought any elected office in his life. Further, Trump, having given money to both Democratic and Republican elected officials in the past for smoothing out his real estate dealings, till recently had only condescension for elected officials.

In spite of the good points of the primaries, the de-facto two-party system has been continually perverted over the last several decades by vested interests and special interest groups. Consider these:

Both the GOP and the Democratic parties have become coalitions of special interest groups (SIGs) with only a few of them having overlapping interests. Often, many groups close their eyes to the goals of other groups in the coalition, so long as their interests are protected.

In this evolutionary change, both the GOP and the Democratic Party over the years have become disjointed alliances among SIGs differing among themselves on social and religious matters such as stem cell research, reproductive rights, and contraception; and on public policy issues like immigration, Second Amendment rights, energy, taxation, national debt, healthcare, environment, defense, global trade, etc.

With huge financial stakes on the different parts of the $17 trillion US economy (1 trillion is 1,000,000,000,000), the interests of many of these SIGs within both parties simply cannot converge. So, each group supports the party that serves its interests, often not caring how the interests of other groups in their camp affect the nation’s overall strength. This coalition arrangement has become conflict-ridden for both parties.

Take the healthcare industry as an example. It now accounts for 18% of our GDP. By comparison, this number in terms of GDP is 9% for the UK and Norway; 10% for Japan; 10.4% for Canada; 11% for Germany, Austria and France; and 12% for Sweden. The healthcare dollars in the US economy are over $3 Trillion ($3,000,000,000,000) per year. Honestly for all the extra dollars we spend per capita on health-care, are we any healthier or live any longer than people in these countries? The answer is NO. On many measures, we are even worse.

Obviously, every part of the healthcare industry in the US — hospitals, medical labs, pharma industries, healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, and therapists), insurance companies, lawyers and other businesses servicing the healthcare industry — resists reform because of this bounty compared to other industrialized societies. Similar is the story with the defense budget and expenditure, insurance and banking industries and so on…  So, proactive reforms are very difficult.

Complicating this further, in a 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court extended the First Amendment rights to corporations. Now corporations can use their funds for campaigning in federal elections. Hiding behind Super PACs, they open their bottomless money bags to campaigns to protect their interests. So, small  donors do not count unless candidates vow not to take money from PACs as Sen. Sanders did this primary season.

If you also factor in the totally skewed way in which electoral districts are gerrymandered, one gets the complete picture of why changing the status quo proactively is so very difficult in the US. To understand this look at our own state of Pennsylvania. In statewide elections (presidents, governors, US senators, attorney generals) the vote split between Democrats and Republicans is close — around 53/47 or tighter.  But of the 18 US congressmen from the state, 13 are Republicans and only 5 are Democrats. That is what gerrymandering does.

So, with legislators interested only in getting re-elected, we cannot expect them to proactively bring the much needed reforms. Consequently the system goes through periodic convulsions, with the taxpayers eventually footing the bill for bailouts again and again and again.

Mark Twain said this on civilizations: “Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king.” What he said decades ago makes even more sense today when applied to nation-states such as the US.  ♣

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A Heart-Warming Smile in Ramallah, Palestine

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

By Ramesh G Soni, Ph.D.  

e-mail:  rgsoni@yahoo.com

Prof. Ramesh G. Soni, Ph.D., the Chairperson, Department of Management at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has been living in Indiana, PA with his family for the last twenty-eight years. He recently visited the West Bank, Palestinian Territories on a university exchange program with American Arab University. This was his unique experience interacting with the Palestinian hotel staff.

Soni

Location: Ramallah, Palestine.  As I was working on my laptop in my hotel room, I heard a knock on the door. Raising my voice, I said, “Coming.”  I guess the person at the door must have heard my shout as “Come in.”  I heard the sound of unlocking of my door and there was this young man — a room service staff with his service cart.  He started talking to me in Arabic.

I am used to being mistaken for a local; many Indians can be easily mistaken for Palestinian.  Palestine has a broad range of skin tones and facial features — some as white as Caucasians, and as dark as Africans. In fact, in the city of Jericho I had a déjà vu.  The restaurant manager, where I had my lunch, reminded me of a service staff at the Rama Krishna Vegetarian Restaurant I used to frequent during my junior college days in Vile Parle, Bombay.

For the moment then, I was really transported down memory lane to my school/junior-college days. I thought, maybe the service staff had immigrated here and opened a restaurant in Jericho.  But, wait! There was no Dosa, Idli, Vada or Uttapam on the menu. And, how come the person had not aged a bit in nearly those 40 years!

Going back to the service staff who had just entered my room, he hardly spoke any English.  I had a difficult time explaining to him that there was no need to change the bathroom towels or bed sheets — the environmentalist in me cannot accept the wasteful extravagance.  I really wanted him to just clean up the coffee cup, get rid of the used tea bags, sugar packets, etc. We were both speaking words — I, English and he, Arabic. But, the real communication was occurring through gestures, facial expressions, and actions.  I could sense a disbelief in his eyes — how come this man cannot speak Arabic?  Not counting the several OKs he had uttered so far, I finally heard him say two English words:  “You where?”

Ahh…so,he wanted to know where this man was from — the Arab-looking man who cannot speak Arabic. I did not want to confuse him further and decided not to say that I am from the USA—the country that I claim to be mine and where I have been living for the last 32 years.  Instead, I told him that I was from India — the country of my birth.

His face brightened instantly. “INDIA!  Al Hindi!” he exclaimed!  His eyes lit up. He followed it up with the brightest, heart-warming smile and profusely said, “Welcome!  Welcome!!” and a few more Arabic words.  “Welcome, Welcome…Welcome!”  He was genuinely happy to know that I am from India.

What followed then was something I should have expected as I had a similar experience in my hotel room in Morocco last year.  I was trying to be out of the way of the hotel service staff — sitting on a chair in one corner of the room with my laptop, so that he could make my room up efficiently — he continued talking with excitement.  I could hear a mix of Arabic words and names of Hindi movies/actors. Jab We Met…Kareena Kapoor… a few more Arabic words… Salman Khan…Shah Rukh Khan…Jab Tak Hai Jaan… more Arabic words.  I smiled and nodded to acknowledge his mentioning of several popular Hindi movies and actors.

After making up my room, the hotel staff at my Ramallah hotel welcomed me to Palestine three more times while leaving the room. I was really moved by his love and excitement.

I decided to take a break. I went to the bed, turned the TV on and switched the channel from CNN International to Channel 645—Zee AFLAM.  It was showing Oye Luckey, Luckey Oye, starring Abhay Doel.

I couldn’t follow the movie dubbed in Arabic, but I continued watching it. That was the least I could do to thank Bollywood for getting me so much affection and love in many parts of the world.

“Thank you, thank you and thank you Bollywood! Shukran from the bottom of my heart!”

Note: The Shukran is the same as the Hindi shukriya or the English Thank you.   ♣

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The Silk Screen Festival’s 10th Annual Gala

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

By Nandini Mandal, Pittsburgh, PA

e-mail:  rinkoo1970@gmail.com

The Silk Screen Film Festival completes ten years this year. Nandini Mandal of the Nandanik Dance Academy talked to Harish Saluja, the dynamo behind the festival, on his exciting and sometime exhausting roller coaster journey in these ten years. The freewheeling interactions took place over dinner at the Bravo Cucina in the Galleria in South Hills in May.

Nandini mandal talking to Harish Saluja over dinner for the interview

Nandini Mandal talking to Harish Saluja over dinner for the interview. Graphics:  Alisa Jaconson of Silk Screen Asian Arts.

A  young engineering student from IIT Kharagpur biked all the way to the suburbs of Kharagpur to watch Satyajit Ray’s Bengali movie Teen Konya (Three Women).  Ray’s movies, unlike popular Hindi potboilers of that era, did not have the hero or the heroine break out into song or dance every half hour or melodramatic endings; nor did they have the gloss and glamour associated with the Bombay film industry, before it became Bollywood. Termed a pioneer in the parallel film industry, Ray’s movies were often considered “Art Films,” winning awards and accolades all over the world, but not always at the box office.

The young engineering student returned to his hostel that night — and to his surprise, found himself drawn towards the same theater the next day, and the next. There was something about that genre of storytelling that drew him back to the South Institute Theater at Kharagpur, and also drove him to learn Bengali so as to understand the nuances of the movies better. It also was the beginning of a new madness for him — Movies. He dreamt of making movies one day. And he did.

Harish with Sumedha Nagpal, a volunteer with Silk Screen.

Harish with Sumedha Nagpal, a volunteer with Silk Screen.

That was Harish Saluja, as most of us know him in the greater Pittsburgh region, who also has been running the Music of India radio program with his friend Vijay Bahl for over 30 years now.  Saluja loves films, and anything associated with the movie business. It was this ardent passion for films that has given Pittsburgh, and Western PA, The Silk Screen Film Festival, showcasing Asian and Asian-American films from around the world.

As the Silk Screen Festival celebrates its tenth year this year, The Pittsburgh Patrika, wanted to have a candid conversation with the man-behind-the lens — Saluja himself — about his journey in pursuing his passion from conceptualization to its realization, and the future of the festival in the years ahead.

In his usual casual, yet lively and vivacious style, which is natural to him, Saluja led us down his memory lane, starting with What was it that triggered the idea of hosting a film festival?

When he arrived in the USA in the early nineteen-seventies, like most of his generation, he was often surprised that there was so much ignorance about India and Asia among people in the American mainstream. In disbelief, he recalls, “It remained unchanged for a very long time. Among those in the US mainstream, hardly anyone knew about Tyagaraja, Tagore, Nehru, or Ray. There was a dearth of information about the rich cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent.”

Pittsburgh's Mayor Bill Peduto cracking a Joke with Harish Saluja.

Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto cracking a Joke with Harish Saluja.

Saluja remembers how his parents would define and differentiate artists from each other: “I remember my father telling me once, ‘Getting a salary, paying bills, building a house are all equivalent to brushing one’s teeth — nothing out of this world. Everyone has to do it. But giving something to society is different.’

“I remember how my mother would get excited when an artist – whether it was a poet, or a singer, or an instrumentalist visited our house. She kept no stones unturned to ensure that her special guests received the best treatment; and that her son —  that’s me — recited his best poem before the guests. And all because they were artists who contribute more than others to the world.”

Harish, an engineer by profession, and an artist and a musician by hobby, entered into filmmaking out of passion. In retrospect, Harish now thinks, one of his American friends unknowingly started the ball rolling. She told him, “Harish, you know art, you know music, you love films.  Why don’t you start something that will help promote your culture to the western world?”

He had also understood that although Pittsburgh was modern culturally, the city had failed to embrace new immigrants, mostly from Asia. He then quoted Richard Florida who authored Rise of the Creative Class: “People go to places where their lifestyle would be valued.”

Harish ruefully told me, “There is a Columbus Day parade in Pittsburgh, but there is no Chinese New Year celebration, and the city does not celebrate India Day.”

Sally Wiggins, the anchor at WTAE has been supporting Silk Screen as the emcee of the gala.

Sally Wiggins, the anchor at WTAE has been supporting Silk Screen as the emcee of the gala.

Then 9/11 happened. Soon there were incidents of mistaken identity —  murders of innocent Sikhs who were shot mistaken for Muslims because of their beards and turbans, when, ironically,  most Muslims in the US neither wear turbans nor have beards. This goaded him to do something that could make mainstreamers understand Asia and Asians a little better. Having a film background made it an easy decision for him.

He told himself, “It has to be a film festival.” Thus was born The Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival. The name is a play on the phrases silver screen and silk route — defining the genre of movies to be shown at the festival.

When Harish approached Ed Rendell, then governor of Pennsylvania, he got  $15,000 in seed money to help start the festival. He continues: “Various foundations, when approached, were very generous. The first festival targeted 500 people to come to the festival.  But we were overwhelmed when over 2000 filmgoers came. It was a smashing success, and a great start. There were recognitions and mention internationally.  From there, it was no looking back.”

Saluja and his board of directors, advisors and team of dedicated volunteers decided to expand the festival so that it reached more people in the greater Pittsburgh area itself. It occurred to them that it helped improve the cultural tourism of Pittsburgh and helped bring in the money from the Governor. (This money has since stopped.)

A team of 30 to 40 volunteers from all backgrounds work hard to make the festival a success right from the red carpet gala night to sellin

g tickets. “We were invited by schools, colleges, and museums as this was a great way of showcasing Asian culture and diversity,” he said, and continued: “It was a good medium to educate children about Asian American culture. Then, in association with a few jazz musical geniuses, we formed the Silk Band that had played at the festival in recent years.” As an aside, Harish gleefully mentioned that the Silk Band was invited to play at Peduto’s Mayoral inaugural.

Harish continues: “Collecting funds to bring and showcase films at theaters, host the directors and actors is a Himalayan task. So financially, the road has not been very smooth in the ten years.  To give you some idea, typically, 25% of the funds come from foundations, 50% from corporate sponsors. Only the remaining 25% is from individual donations and ticket sales.”

Live performances at the gala.

Live performances at the gala.

There have been all types of constraints all along.  Changing times and the ups and downs in the economy are making it more difficult for Harish and his team. But the financial constraint is a big one.  Says Harish, “The foundations have all cut back on their funding, and the governor’s fund has dried up altogether. The foundations who helped enthusiastically to start the festival, now expect the Festival to become financially self-sustaining.”

Understandably, with the professional and economic success of Asians in the region getting wide coverage in the media, the big-name donors also expect the festival to get more financial support from the Asian community in Pittsburgh.

Harish does not hide his disappointments: “However, Asian communities have provided very little support for the festival in general. Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Middle-Eastern communities and organizations have not come forward so far to help and financially support and promote the festival, despite the festival showcasing again and again films from Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, China, and Malaysia among many other Asian countries. Why is this so? That is something for all Asians to ponder.”

That Pittsburgh is not a glitzy city compared to Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Singapore, London, Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, or Miami, also does not help Harish. He contritely says, “We are not able to attract even tourists to Pittsburgh, nationally or internationally despite the picturesque cityscape surrounded by meandering rivers and hills and countless bridges.”

One of the many live performances at the gala.

One of the many live performances at the gala.

Understandably, film makers would rather take their creations to festivals that offer awards and award money than come to a city merely to present their movies. Many of his fellow film makers and friends based in London or India say, “Look, we like you, but what would you do if you had a chance to go to a famous festival?” Most film makers want to go to a big-name festival, win an award, get publicity, sell the film, and move on.

The other huge challenge plaguing the festival that outsiders never realize is the rampant piracy of movies in the Indian subcontinent. “Why would one pay to go to a movie that can be seen for free on YouTube or Einthusan on the day of the release?” Harish rhetorically asks.

Amidst these many challenges, the festival is completing its tenth year. Where does Saluja plan to go from here?  He is emphatic: “I would like to see more panel discussions or Q&A sessions with actors and directors. The Festival is moving to September this year from its May schedule so that more university students can participate and add verve and energy. This year, films will be showcased at multiple venues across the city — at Regent Square, the Carnegie Museum, the Water Works Mall, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.”

As our freewheeling exchanges winded down, Saluja sounded optimistic: “The festival has evolved into a Pittsburgh tradition and will continue for years to come. The silver screen that takes the audience on a journey through the Silk Route will continue to enthrall thousands.”

Join The Patrika in congratulating Harish Saluja and his fantastic team on their decade-long journey on this timeless Silk Route, and wishing him  many more of these annual gala.

So, come September, “Lights, Camera, Action,” for the festival.   ♣

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Taken for Granted

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

Juginder Luthra, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Editor’s note: Juginder Luthra wrote this free-style poem based on the vistas of Pittsburgh during day and night including activities on Grandview Avenue. It ends with an eclectic and sophisticated twist, drawing a parallel on how we look at life.

From the balcony, views of Pittsburgh
Awesome, breathtaking, out of this world

Luthra Panorama4

Tall varied textured buildings lit bright
Some days soaked in golden sunshine
Embraced at night by fog or moon light

Lip-locked lovers, walkers, bicyclists,
Zippy kids, the old and frail
People throng Viewpoints,
fill benches, line along walking trail

They come hooded, bundled in the thick of freezing winter
Rain gear covered in downpour; bare-chested in summer

Limos dot along Grandview Avenue for special occasion
People arrange festivities for birthdays, weddings or just fun

Great view of town in the Burgh, one of best in the country
Visitors throng from far and near, ranging poorest to highest gentry.

Luthra Panorama2

Two beautiful rivers, like two lovers, eager to meet
Where Spring kisses the ground;
Merge, mingle into the Mighty One,
Fountain witnesses new life just begun

With every passing day the thrill of view gets dim and jaded
Starry lights not as bright,
evenings same old dull-’n-faded

Visitors wish for a higher floor for better views and open sky;
Some with acrophobia complain,
wish it was not sickening high.

My nemesis is PPG building;
It blocks flowery dancing fireworks
Its shining glass pillars no longer a marvel to relish
Only draw frowns and smirks.

Monongahela no longer shimmering blue; its water dull, murky brown
Train’s whistle and noise causes conversations to drown.

The Point with its fountain just a sticking finger of land,
Jutted between two rivers where the new one just began.

Days go by haven’t opened the drapes to get a peek
Nothing special happening, the Mon just another creek

Similarly, life gets taken for granted
Our breath, beating heart, ears and eyes,
Every cell working smoothly, non-stop
On demand, without even being asked

Body beautiful gets taken for granted
Miracles of Nature no longer evoke wonder or praised.
Shortcomings, faults, blemishes  are noted
Plastic surgeons, psychiatrists, hospitals kept occupied

Even makers of our body – our parents — forgotten,
often cursed, many a time.
One wrong gene passed among thousands of perfect ones
become actors in crime

Nature or God — whatever or whoever we believe in,
Not thanked, remembered, or acknowledged and now forgotten

Everything gets taken for granted.
Only pitfalls highlighted to grumble and whine.
Complaints take the front stage, highlighted to shine

Views of the Burgh,
Miracles of nature and life
All, with passage of time,
Get taken for granted.

Note: Dr. Kamlesh Aggarwal, a friend of the Luthras, shot the two pictures from the balcony of their condo on Grandview Ave. at different times of the day.  The picture at the beginning of the poem was used on the cover  of the July issue of the magazine —.  ♣

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Funds Raised for 200 EKAL Vidyalaya Schools

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

 By Jayashree Phanse, Presto, PA

 

Jayshree PhanseJayashree, a resident of Pittsburgh for over three decades, is well-known within the Indian community because of her association with the temples and cultural activities. She was a high school teacher in Oakland teaching science, math and computers. She enjoys singing and listening to songs in Indian languages, golfing and social work.

Taking Swami Vivekananda’s exhortation, “If the poor child cannot come to education, then education must go to the child,” to their heart,  the EKAL Vidalia Foundation (Foundation of Schools with Single Teacher) has been striving to develop the villages by taking education to interior and tribal India. With the easily achievable goal of frugal literacy for $1/day, EKAL raises funds for training one teacher for a class of 20 to 30 children in the poorest regions of the country.

For raising funds, EKAL organizes concert tours with talented artists from the vibrant Indian TV’s reality shows in different cities of USA. This year’s artistes from Anand Dhun-Anand Swar — Anand Vinod, Vibhavari with Raj Parmar on the keyboard, Dhirendra  Dave on the tabla and J. Natu on octapad performed at the Chartier Valley Intermediate School  Auditorium on April 30, 2016 with over 500 in the audience.  They performed in over 60 cities in the US.

The program started on time with a Saraswati Puja and Moha Desai nicely rendering the Sarawati Dwadasha Naama Stotra.  This was followed by Shree Ganeshaya Dheemahi, and the Ekal theme song.

The artists had started their day at 5:30 am to take morning flight, but with the flight getting canceled, they ended up being driven by volunteers from New Jersey, arriving just half hour before the start of the program, with barely any time even to refresh themselves.

Anand Vinod is considered to be one of the Top-10 singers of Kishore Kumar songs. We had to just close our eyes and hear Kishore Kumar coming alive through Anand Vinod. It was indeed a great treat for the diehard fans of this great Bollywood legend. Anand also rendered Mohammad Rafi songs to entertain the Rafi fans as well.

Vibhavari Yadav, the winner of SaReGaMaPa Gujarat 2014 and the Nightingale award in Gujarat, with her pleasant, soothing voice, did not seem one bit tired after almost three hours of singing. Vibhavari presented film songs covering a range of moods sweeping the audience away with her melodies.

Raj Parmar was not only versatile on the key board but was also a good singer. He participated with the lead singers in presenting several songs including duets and group songs. His humorous quips kept the  audience attentive in the gaps between the songs.  J Natu on the Octapad also sang a smooth song by Mukesh and gave us a short drift in the main show. I must add that Dhirendra Dave’s tabla talent added zest to the program.

There was a short informative video presentation during the intermission filled giving an overview of the EKAL Abhiyaan movement. It was packed with information, taking us from the birth of EKAL through their 26-yeal long journey.  Extending itself beyond taking schools to the children and youth, EKAL tries to empower rural families using literacy holistically, on farming issues, health and hygiene, alcohol abuse.  India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi recognized EKAL for having trained more than 52000 teachers educating more than 1.5 million children throughout the remote areas of the country.

The younger generation of Pittsburgh is also donating to this cause, recognizing that the education they have received is a privilege and not a birthright. On this day EKAL received donations for more than 200 schools.

Amazon Shoppers can also participate by choosing EKAL as their choice charity at smile.amazon.com. The entertainment continued till about 11 pm and ended with the Jana Gana Mana displaying the Patriotic element in EKAL.

The first EKAL in Pittsburgh in 2004 conducted at the Hindu Jain Temple with 75 people in the audience and raised money for five schools.  This year, funds were raised for more than 200 schools, each receiving $365.  Ekal’s Pittsburgh supporters have come a long way.  ♣

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Hindu Temples are Getting Americanized… …

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

 By K S Venkataraman

 

We go to great lengths to “Indianize” Hindu places of worship in the US by changing their exterior facades with Gopurams and Shikharams and interiors with Hindu murals and architectural features.
However, even as these places maintain a façade of “authenticity,” in reality they have taken a leaf out of the way churches are organized here. Like American Protestant churches, our temples Malibu Temple 1have bylaws, annual membership dues, elections, general body meetings, budget allocations, appointment of employees and priests — and scandals too.

There is nothing new in this. Even animals, when they migrate, learn to adapt to their new ecosystem. That is their only way to survive. Otherwise, they become extinct. Even plants learn to adapt and evolve.

Many temples have also added Indian twists in this adaptation: providing de-facto quota system on the basis of linguistic groups for electing members and temple officers, appointing committees, hiring employees, priests, even cooks. Caste-based reservation is not there, at least not yet! Another feature the temples have most passionately embraced from American churches are fights and schisms spanning from the most trivial to mundane, to serious matters.
Coming from India, one feature that surprised me the most in my early days was the use of places of worship – churches – as polling stations. This is a taboo in India, given the religious strife among and between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. But then, when I learned more about the early political history of this great nation, I realized that places of worship have always been places where people gathered to discuss politics and social issues, often with church leaders taking a stand on political, social and cultural issues.

Malibu Temple 2Finally, the Hindu temples in the US seem to be slowly taking a baby step internalizing this one good feature of American democracy. In the recent primary season in California, the Malibu Hindu temple opened its doors as a voting center.  The pictures in this story are taken at the Malibu Temple in California, used as polling station in the recent primary.

The Malibu Hindu Temple, though, is not the first one in setting this good example. The Hindu Samaj Temple in Duchess County in Upstate NY has been doing this for years. Hopefully, other “premier” institutions will follow this good example and become Americanized.  ♣       

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Making Authentic Tayir, Dahi, Mosaru, or Perugu

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

 

My long craving for the authentic home-made dahi (tayir in Tamil and Malayalam, mosaru in Kannada, and perugu in Telugu), recently got satisfied in a totally unexpected way.   Let me preface that this uniquely Indian and perfected home-made product — unique in its texture and taste — goes by the generic name yoghurt in the US.  As Dahi aficionados know only too well, this is only an approximation.

Many of our everyday eats are products of biochemical reactions. Breads — both the freshly baked “artisan” type and the run-of-the-mill types in grocery stores — are “leavened” due to fermentation of bacteria in yeast. Bakeries take great care in preserving the culture of the original strains of bacteria in their starter dough for tens of years so that the breads come out the same way year after year. What makes the French sourdough bread and the Italian bread unique, are the differences in the yeast-enriched starter dough, the flours used, and in the baking techniques. Wines, beers and antibiotics too are products of biochemistry.

The perfect dosas and idlis require that the batter you make by wet-grinding blends of well-soaked urad dal and boiled rice — please do not mistake boiled rice for cooked rice — is allowed to ferment for several hours. The batter acquires a sour taste and is full of gas bubbles (products of fermentation) which make the idlis soft; while making dosas, the batter spreads better on the skillet and the dosas come out with countless small holes when the tiny gas bubbles burst as if by magic design. Indian achars and the Korean kimchi are products of unaerobic fermentation. The Japanese natto, a breakfast item in parts of Japan, is fermented soya beans.

Back to good old authentic tayir that goes by the generic name yoghurt in the US. The desi dahi is very distinct — it has its own texture and taste — and is very different from its distant cousins, zabadi (Arabic), the giaoúrti (Greek) and yoghurt (Turkish). The best dahi I had outside my home is the Brijvasi-type in Delhi. Obviously, the best dahi you know is what your mom made in India.

After arriving in the US, I reconciled myself to the standardized salt-laden buttermilk in cartons and the plain Dannon yoghurt from grocery stores. The fine print on the Dannon container said it contains live acidophilus bacteria. So, I tried to make tayir with 4% milk using Dannon yoghurt as the starter. For those who know nothing about making tayir at home, all that you need to do is:

  1. Bring ~½ gallon of milk to boil and cool it to room temperature;
  2. Add approx. two or three tbsp of starter yoghurt to the milk, while gently stirring the milk with a spoon; and
  3. Let the blend stand overnight at temperatures ~75 F.

When I did this, however, what I got was not the tayir I was used to, but a gooey yoghurt that scooped like a thickened milkshake; worse still, it tasted terrible compared to the tayir I know.  I wanted the tayir to handle well — I should be able to cut it into slices like pudding. I also wanted my tayir mellow, and naturally and very mildly sweet (without added sugar) and mildly tart and sour all at the same time, like the tayir my amma made. What I got was not anywhere close.

Having known enough about the effects of time, temperatures and concentration — a subject called chemical reaction kinetics — in my Chem. E. education, I tried all combinations of setting time, temperature and the quality of milk, (different blends of 2% and 4% milk). I ended up with the same gooey stuff, sometime even worse. I gave up, attributing my failure to the type of milk here. This was nearly 15 years ago.

Then recently I was talking to Janaki Raghupathi of Murrysville, shooting the breeze. I’ve known her for over 25 years. I casually told her about my reasoning on why we cannot make good tayir here.

She laughed. “Venkataraman, it has nothing to do with the milk, but everything to do with the starter tayir,” she was categorical. She continued, “Over 30 years ago, I brought with me a small bottle of tayir from my home in India. I used it as a starter material for making tayir at home. I got good tayir from the regular 2% or 4% milk. Every time I make a new batch, I set aside a small portion for the next batch. Why don’t you try with the starter tayir from me.”

I made the tayir at home using her starter stuff using a blend of 4% and 2% milk. I boiled ½ gallon of the milk and cooled it to room temperature; then added 3 tbsp of Janaki’s starter tayir, gently mixing it into the milk by stirring with a ladle. I kept the mixed blend overnight in the oven chamber of our cooking range with the heat turned OFF. However, the 40-w light in the oven chamber was turned ON to keep the temperature around 75F. This is important during winter.

Next morning, when I stuck a teaspoon into the fermented product, I sliced into it much like the tayir I grew up with in Kerala. I knew right then that this was different. I was excited. With great expectation, I put the spoonful of the tayir into my mouth.  Ahh! I was in heaven! I got the same taste of the desi dahi, very mildly sweet, at the same time mildly sour and tart as well — very close to the tayir my mom made decades ago.

So, if you want to make the dahi, tayir, or mosaru, or perugu that you grew up with in India, get some authentic starter material from friends.  Follow their instructions to get it right and enjoy it with your family.

When you do this and get the authentic product, I have only one request. Call it by its authentic name, Dahi, Tayir, Perugu, or Mosaru.  And never ever call it yoghurt or curd. Because it simply is not, and can never be — the same way French sourdough bread is not the same as the Italian bread.     ♣

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Points to Ponder: Muhammad Ali (January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016)

Posted by admin in July 2016 on July 2, 2016

Muhammad Ali On his opposition to the Vietnam War:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?

“No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.

“But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…

“If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. But I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.”

The Greatest’s Other Famous Quotes:

“What you are thinking is what you are becoming.”

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

“Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”    ♣

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Report Highlights the Need for a More Diverse Demographics in the Region

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

e-mail:  ThePatrika@aol.com

Do you know that the work force in southwestern Pennsylvania (Allegheny County, including the City of Pittsburgh and the six surrounding  counties) is the least demographically diverse compared to many other benchmark metropolitan areas in the US?  That is what Pittsburgh Today (www.pittsburghtoday.org), an initiative of the Regional Indicator Program (Mr. Douglas Heuck, Program Director) finds in its recent report. The initiative is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research. Its mission is “Comparing our region to other areas of the country… [on] how we measure up, and what our strengths and weaknesses are…” They attempt to provide a statistical picture of the region “to stimulate a discussion of where we are and where we hope to go.”

The second report, The Pittsburgh Regional Survey under the aegis of Vibrant Pittsburgh (www.vibrantpittsburgh.org) was released on January 13. Mr. Heuck presented the key findings. Vibrant Pittsburgh’s mission, with support from Pittsburgh-based business executives, elected officials, and charitable organizations, is to promote diversity in work places. Melanie Harrington, the CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh, led the event releasing the survey.Recently they published two reports, 2015 Pittsburgh Today and Tomorrow and Pittsburgh Regional Survey (2016). These reports are available on line. A key finding in the first report is troubling and worth reproducing: “The share of jobs held by African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic workers in southwestern Pennsylvania is so small that it ranks dead last among 15 regions benchmarked…”

The presence of Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto at the event gave additional gravitas. Their participation on a wintry day, with single-digit temperatures and snow all around, highlighted how seriously these two key elected leaders of our region look at the lack of work-place diversity here.

In his opening remarks Fitzgerald acknowledged that our region is the least diverse metro area in the nation, and explained why addressing it is important to the city, county and the region. As Mayor Peduto said in his comments towards the end, Nashville, TN, Louisville, KY, and Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio have more diverse demographics. The mayor poignantly pointed out that a few decades ago, the Duquesne Club, the exclusive meeting place for corporate executives in town, did not allow Jews to be members, and women were not allowed to be full members. We would not have grown to where we are today, he said, if we had not changed.

Fitzgerald identified two welcome trends in the 2015 Pittsburgh Today and Tomorrow report: young people growing up here prefer to stay here, and educated young people are moving into our region from outside with jobs. After all, Pittsburgh has been identified as one of the More Livable Cities with its excellent public and private schools for children, world-renowned universities, a top-notch healthcare system, nationally ranked sports teams, an excellent airport, museums, theaters, a world class symphony, ballet… … Still, many outsiders’ continue to associate coal and steel with our region, even though today steel and coal are only a very small part of our region’s economy.

If you wonder why workplace diversity is important, consider this: the demography of the US has been changing as shown in the chart below (Ref: The U.S. Foreign-Born Population: Trends and Selected Characteristics, by William A. Kandel, CRS Report for Congress, 2011 (http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41592.pdf)

The % of Foreign-Born in the US since 1960.

The % of Foreign-Born in the US since 1960.

We can project this trend into the future and see how the mix of US population will be in the decades ahead. The America our children and grandchildren will see will be very, very different demographically. This trend will irreversibly change every aspect of life in the US.

Besides, the population growth in our region between 2000 and 2010 is almost zero compared to, say Charlotte, NC (7% growth), Denver (8.8%), Columbus, OH (4.9%), Indianapolis, IN (4.4%), and Louisville, KY (2.8%). Generally, metro areas that are growing are also more diverse demographically.

In the globalized world today, a diverse population is necessary for our region’s vitality and growth. When US corporations and multinationals based in Europe and Asia want to open offices here, or want to move their headquarters here, one key factor for their evaluation is how demographically diverse the place is to make their current employees move here, or to hire new employees from outside.

Among the many questions the Pittsburgh Regional Survey (2016) asked its respondents were these:

How committed do you think your employer is

  1. i) to recruiting employees from racial and ethnic minority groups?
  2. ii) to promoting employees from racial and ethnic minority groups?

Do you agree that the Pittsburgh region welcomes racially/ethnically diverse people?

How racially and ethnically diverse is your workplace?

Do you agree there is value in having a diverse workforce?

The survey also asked this thoughtful question in their questionnaire: How often have you invited someone of another racial or ethnic background to your home? 

With so many subgroups within the Indian Diaspora here, we need to ask ourselves: How often have you had some serious conversation in your home or in a restaurant with Indians of other linguistic and regional background?  Sometimes one wonders whether we are living in our own echo chambers unwilling to learn from others outside our comfort zone.

Laws Changing the US Demographics

(Source: Abraham Mosisa, an economist in the Division of Labor Force Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the  Monthly Labor Review, May 2002 and http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/art1full.pdf).

In the 18th and 19th centuries (the early days of the Republic), immigrants reached the Eastern Seaboard mostly from Northern Europe (England, Germany, France) and Africa (slave trade). In the 19th century, Irish immigrants came in large numbers to escape the famous Potato Famine.

Simultaneously, starting in the mid-19th century, Chinese contract labors were brought to the West Coast to work in the gold mine and also to lay the Transcontinental Railroad. You can see in Hollywood Westerns Chinese immigrants barely speaking English operating the laundromats, and sweating it out laying the railroads. The influx of Chinese laborers was stopped by the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.

Starting from the 1900s new immigrants from Europe came increasingly from Southern and Eastern Europe (the Italians, the Greeks, the Poles, the Slavs …), mostly Catholic, poorly educated, and with little familiarity with English, both in terms of language and culture.

The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted European immigration and the 1921 Emergency Quota Act applied immigration quota on the basis of nationality and the country of origin.  This quota-based act was reaffirmed in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which remained in force with minor changes till 1965.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 is a great bench mark in US history. It did away with quota-based immigration that took into account race, national origin, and ancestry. Between 1960 and 2000, the proportion of the foreign-born population that had come from Europe dropped from 74.5 percent to 15.3 percent, while the proportion coming from Latin America increased from 9.3 percent to 51 percent.”  See the chart on Page 4. The Nationality Act of 1965 is the reason most Indian-Americans are here as immigrants, naturalized and natural citizens. By country-of-birth in the population among the foreign-born, Europe is way below. Basis: 2010 Census. See the plot below.

Population of Foreign-Born in the US (US Census 2010 data)

Population of Foreign-Born in the US (US Census 2010 data)

                       ♦♦♦♦

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An Unusual Opportunity to Help to Girls’ Education Among the Working Poor in India

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Nandini Mandal,  Nandanik Dance School

e-mail: nandini@nandanik.com  

Nandini PictureSantosh Gurlahosur, a young IT professional, approached me last summer with a request: “Ma’am, would you be able to choreograph for a music video emphasizing the importation of sanitation in village schools — especially for the girl child?”

Knowing that one of the main reasons for high dropout rates of post-puberty girls in schools in rural India is the lack of sanitation, I instantly said, “Of course, I would love to.” Santosh smiled a hesitantly, “Really Ma’am? Thank you, no one was convinced when I approached others.”

He was planning to shoot a video presentation with other footage with  a song along with a public message for use in India or elsewhere. After the initial planning, we—our dance school working with Teen Taal, Inc. —opted for an outdoor shoot. What else could be a better place than the Point, Pittsburgh’s very own Triveni Sangam?

It was a warm sunny July morning when dancers of our Nandanik Dance Troupe arrived at Point State Park. As we danced at different

L to R -- Front row : Mythri Sundar, Antara Cleetus, Ashwini Walavalkar, and Janhavi Gan-gisetti. Second row: Kumudini Venkata, Jahnavee Mittal, Sana Mitra, and Sai Bhatte. Third row: Keerthana Lanka, Manasi Jadhav, Roosha Mandal, and Madhumita Mahes.

L to R — Front row : Mythri Sundar, Antara Cleetus, Ashwini Walavalkar, and Janhavi Gan-gisetti. Second row: Kumudini Venkata, Jahnavee Mittal, Sana Mitra, and Sai Bhatte. Third row: Keerthana Lanka, Manasi Jadhav, Roosha Mandal, and Madhumita Mahes.

spots at the Point, the sun soared higher, the mercury climbing to the 90s by 11:00 a.m. It became increasingly challenging for the dancers to look at the camera, or keep dancing without taking frequent breaks for drinking water. But they never complained. Our audience — they were bystanders, bikers, tourists, joggers, and people from all walks of life – were enthralled.  They all had come to the fountain to enjoy a summer morning when they saw the girls taking their positions. They stopped and cheered after the dance was over. Many came up to ask what it was all about.

The lyrics by Santosh portray the regret of a girl child in India who is not able to go to school because of the lack of basic facilities such as toilets. The girl loves to study and wants to play with her friends in the school, but she is not able to do so. This song is sung by Indian Idol winner Anjana Padmanabhan and composed by an upcoming music director in India Nobin Paul of Bengaluru. The video was filmed by David Bernabo, a very talented film maker and artist from Pittsburgh.

The song also brings up a more serious question: When so much construction is going on all around India, why are toilets for girls in schools for the working poor not a priority?

The girls in my dance school felt very strongly about this and were happy to contribute to this noble endeavor through their dance. Many of them have seen the difficulties traveling in India because of the lack of sanitation facilities for women.

I was very touched by Santosh Gurlahosur, the motivated young man, and his young group of volunteers who are trying quietly and selflessly to help in the cause of girls’ education in rural India.   ♦

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Exhibition on Poems and Paintings

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Premlata Venkataraman 

e-mail:  ThePatrika@aol.com 

We have seen paintings inspired by mythology and history: Da Vinci’s Last Supper, John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence  and Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings on events from Ramayana and Mahabharata, and Gandhi’s Salt March to Dandi. And add to that the famous Geetopadesham scene by countless artists.

In this tradition, the Post-Gazette inaugurated Verse Envisioned, an art exhibition at the Panza Gallery in Millvale featuring over twenty paintings inspired by the works of contemporary Pittsburgh-based poets. The cornucopia of poems spanned a wide range of themes.

On Saturday, January 16, the inaugural day of the exhibition, artists of Pittsburgh and their patrons were in full attendance, notwithstanding the cold, wintry day. The exhibition ran from January 16 to February 27. Seeing the two art forms side by side complementing and enhancing each other, was a unique experience.

The Man Who Didn't Like Anything

StacyInerst-TheManWhoDidntLikeAnythingThe exhibition was made a reality under the leadership of Greg Victor, the Op-Ed editor of the Post-Gazette, and Rachel Klipa, an independent curator and the Manager of Community Engagement at the Office of Public Art in Pittsburgh.

Welcoming the large crowd at the exhibition, Greg Victor credited Sam Hazo, Poet Laureate of Pennsylvania, who, in 1993 suggested to the Post-Gazette editors to include poetry as a feature in the newspaper. It is now featured on Saturdays. If we did not know the background, it would have been difficult to say whether the poem inspired the painting or the other way around.

Maya Weiss, one of the featured poets, read her poem titled The Man Who Didn’t Like Anything. She is a 10th grader at Shadyside Academy. It was a humorous and somewhat cynical poem juxtaposed with a painting by Stacy Innerst.  See above.

David Joseph Kutcher’s Civics was an emotional and poignant poem in which the poet recollects the supreme sacrifice of his father in WW II as the reason he goes to vote in every election. Alan Byrne’s painting showed a man in front of the voting machine with a group of soldiers (his forebears) behind him looking on. See below:

Civics Poem

AlanByrne-Civics

Lori Jakiela’s poem on aging and dying, replayed between a woman with her aged father and her young daughter, echoed a sentiment that many of the sandwich generation are feeling.

Bringing together two very different art forms and harmonizing the themes require lots of creativity from everyone involved. So making the exhibition a reality was a treat to lovers of poetry and painting during a chilly day in January in Pittsburgh.

We thank the efforts of the editorial staff at the Post-Gazette, and the poets, painters, curators and gallery  owners for making this happen.

The book containing the paintings and the poems featured in the Post- Gazette is available online at www.store.post-gazette.com.

Note: We thank Mr. Mark Panza of the Panza Gallery in Millvale where the exhibition was held for all the pictures in this story.  ♦

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Obituary:  Dr. Indravadhan Pandit (1937- January 20, 2016)

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

Dr. Indravadhan Pandit, a long-time resident of our area and a cardiologist, passed away on Wednesday, January 20, 2016. The cause of his death was complications from pancreatic cancer for which there is no cure.

I.PanditDr. Pandit grew up in Visnagar, Mehsana district, in the northeast part of Gujarat. Earning his medical degree (MBBS) from the Baroda Medical College in 1966, he came to the United States with his wife Devyani, also a physician. After short stays in Detroit, Boston and Cleveland, he made Pittsburgh his permanent home, starting his medical practice.

He was an interventional cardiologist for over three decades at UPMC Shadyside Hospital and its director of the catheterization laboratory for several years. He was a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Medical Association.  He was also with the Pennsylvania Medical Society, where he was active in establishing need-based scholarships for medical students.

As a philanthropist, Dr. Pandit lived and breathed working for charities. As chairman of the AAPI (American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) Foundation, he put his heart and soul into visiting clinics from Punjab to Tamil Nadu serving thousands of poor patients at no or minimal cost. He passionately raised funds in Pittsburgh for almost twenty years for this cause. In 2002, the AAPI honored Dr. Pandit with its Most Outstanding and Dedicated Service Award.

Dr. Pandit’s interest went beyond his professional activities. He was a pillar of the Indian community in our area. He was a founding member of the Hindu Jain Temple, where he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and also its Endowment Fund. Dr. Pandit, working closely with other volunteers at the temple, raised large sums of money for the maintenance and restoration of the temple. The temple honored him and his wife Dr. Devyani with a Lifetime Service Award.

Dr. Pandit was a member of TAPI (Tri State Association of Physicians of Indian Origin), the treasurer of the US-India Forum, and the secretary-treasurer of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism. If there was an India cause in town, he was engaged in it. He was actively involved with the Indian Nationality Room project in the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. He was also a benefactor of the Carnegie Museums and many other charities. Even in his retirement, he volunteered at a food packing facility near Kennywood that delivered food to the homeless.

He was a voracious reader of Indian literature and eastern and western philosophies. His other pastimes were golf, tennis, music and dance.

A principled man, Dr. Pandit would not compromise with anyone for the right cause.  I was once sharing a room with Indravadhan at the AAPI Governing Body gathering. Seeing that I was active in a political action committee, he told me, “Krishan, if you want to work in a charitable foundation, it is pure like Ganga in Rishikesh, serving the poor and needy; otherwise politics is dirty water.” I could not agree with him more.

His friend Jitu Desai recalls, “Indravadhan was a giving and forgiving man. Anyone asked him for charity, he always responded generously.”

He endured the treatment (including chemotherapy) for pancreatic cancer with great stoicism and grit. When we went to see him, he was positive, witty and ready to fight till the very end.

He leaves behind Devyani, his life partner of 40-plus years; his two daughters,Amy and Neha; five grandkids, Anand, Asher, Ariya, Maneklal and Maria; his sons-in-law, Ashis Tayal and Daniel Gerhardy; and a  number of friends in the medical fraternity and the Indian community.

Dr. Pandit’s funeral services were held at the Beinhauer Funeral Home with his son-in-law Ashis Tayal performing the Hindu cremation rites led by Pandits Shri Suresh Chandra Joshi and Shri Vinod Pandey of the Hindu Jain Temple.   —  By Krishan Aggarwal, Coraopolis, PA   ♦

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Bhartrhari’s Nine Fears of Mankind

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By K S Venkataraman (e-mail: ThePatrika@aol.com) and

Arun Jatkar (e-mail: AJMarathi@yahoo.com)

Bhartrhari is a celebrated Sanskrit poet of India belonging to the 5th century during the Gupta’s period. He is the author of the famous Tri-Satakam (literally, The Three-Hundreds), on three topics ─ Vairaagyam (Dispassion), Neeti (Good Conduct), and Shrngaaram (Sensuality) ─ with one hundred verses on each. Decades ago, when we read his sensuous verses on Shrngaaram, we wondered how Bhartrhari could also write profoundly on Vairaagyam (Dispassion).  We found that Bhartrhari is not unique here. TiruvaLLuvar (वळ्ळुवर् not वल्लुवर्), the author of the famous 2000-year old Tamil literary work called TirukkuraL with 1330 couplets, wrote along similar lines. For most mortals, the transition from Sensuality to Dispassion is a natural and healthy one, coming from one’s mental maturity and also because of age-related drop in testosterone in men and estrogen in women.

In any case, here is one verse by Bhartrhari from the Vairaagya Satakam on the nine fears of mankind, first in the Devanagari script, and then in a non-literary, but factual translation:

Bhartrhari versse in Devanagari

In gratification of sensual pleasures, the fear of ailments;

In noble pedigree, the fear of disgrace;  In wealth, the fear of kings;

In status, the fear of hardship;  In strength, the fear of enemies;

In beauty, the fear of decay;  In scholarship, the fear of challengers;

In virtues, the fear of slander;   In the body, the fear of death.

In this world, everything for mankind is filled with fear. 

Dispassion alone gives freedom from fear.

On first reading, the verse is straightforward and rather mundane.  However, on many levels, the messages conveyed are profound for their timelessness, given that the verse is 1500 years old.

On Indulgence: The Sanskrit word bhoga means sensual gratification that needs to be understood in many contexts. There is no need to expand on the most common sensual pleasure. There are other types of sensual gratification. The common one is gluttony — overindulgence in the calorie-packed and unhealthy food and drinks. Even modern medicine emphasizes moderation in these, something Asian cultures have insisted through the millennia. Observing Bhartrhari start his verse with sensual gratifications, we can infer that people overindulged even in his time.

Fear of Kings: It is interesting that in the case of wealth, Bhartrhari talks about the fear of kings, and not thieves and robbers. Today, with elected governments replacing kings of yesteryear, landowners are afraid of land ceilings and ownership through legislation; business people are afraid of governments nationalizing industries and bringing in foreign and domestic competition. Even when these laws are enacted for public good, land and business owners always cry foul for getting a better deal out of the government.

And people with wealth are perpetually anxious of changes in tax and inheritance/estate laws to protect their wealth. This fear is what is forcing them to stash their money — hard-earned or not, well-gotten or ill-gotten — in secret off-shore banks.

Fear of Falling from Grace: This fear is universal. Today we see people from blue-blooded or rich families, religious leaders, celebrities, politicians and others, get arrested for sexual misconduct and financial irregularities. In the US, even prestigious Catholic dioceses carry liability insurance out of fear of lawsuits against errant priests’ misconduct. Several dioceces in the US also filed for financial bankruptcy after losing their moral edge, in the wake of  lawsuits involving wide spread pedophilia indulged by Catholic priests that was covered up by church leadership not only in local churches, but also by the bishops of dioceses, prelates, going all the way up to to the Pope in the Vatican.

Fear of Enemies: No kingdom remains strong forever. Towards the end of Mahabharata, Arjuna, the most celebrated warrior, finds himself helpless against the tribesmen who attack and rob the ornaments of the women he was escorting to safety from Dwaraka to Hastinapuram. The mighty Roman Empire collapsed under the brute force of the Barbarians from Northern Europe. Between the 8th and 12th centuries, the mighty Hindu kingdoms of Northern India succumbed to the invading Arab, Turkish and Afghani armies. The Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of the First World War. The tiny island nation of England spread its reign over five continents and finally shrank back to its original confines. After the Second World War, it seemed like the U.S. would forever remain an unrivalled military power in the world because of the nuclear weapons. But that dream shattered several years afterwards.

So the strong nations of today, the US, France, Germany, Russia, China, and England, spend billions year after year to upgrade their armies and weapon systems out of their fear of enemies, both real and perceived. Even in poorer countries defense budgets gobble up a large portion of the national budget, while their citizens don’t have access to half-decent education and healthcare. The fear of enemies is not confined to military might alone. Economic and technological threat among nations is also real.

Fear of Decay Due to Aging: No one remains handsome or beautiful forever. Time takes its toll wreaking havoc on one’s health and beauty. In earlier days people accepted this as natural. However, advances in science have given hope that beauty can be preserved for a longer span of time. Among women, the fear of fading beauty with aging has spawned a whole new industry — Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery — originally developed to treat burn victims and people with severe deformities. In 2014 in the US, 92% of all elective cosmetic procedures were performed on women: One million cosmetic procedures on women under 30 years of age and a whopping 13.8 million on women over 30. (Source: www.plastic surgery.org). Today, the original intent of plastic surgery may account for less than 5% of plastic surgeons’ lucrative business.

Fear of Competition: We all understand the insecurity that professionals, college professors (including tenured ones), lawyers, doctors, artistes, and engineers feel from colleagues perceived to be better than themselves; or when newer technologies make their skills useless. While they profess that competition is good for society at large, as individual professionals they are not philosophical when they see competition threatening their own survival, or demolishing their theories or defunding their pet projects.

In today’s consumer world progress is seen as synonymous with higher per-capita consumption of every commodity. So, people caught in the whirlpool of trying to get ahead of others in the comparative lifestyle today may not agree with Bhartrhari’s advice that Vairaagyam (dispassion) is the antidote for fear. But people standing out of the vortex of consumerism are beginning to say, “Enough.”

In any case, even those who disagree with Bhartrhari’s antidote to fear will agree that his Nine Fears of Man are as valid today as they were 1500 years ago when he wrote the verse. These fears are still the driving forces controlling not only our individual behavior, but also our collective behavior as societies, corporations and nations.  ♦

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On the Association of “British” Scholars

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

E-mail:  ThePatrika@aol.com

I was watching a YouTube video. The New Age Guru Deepak Chopra was talking in his deep, resonant voice about mind-body nexus, a topic  now mainstream in modern medicine. The banner behind in loud colors read Association of British Scholars, New Delhi. I was intrigued by the name of the organization. Then I e-mailed several of my cerebral friends  — researchers, physicians, university professors, linguists, and eclectic people with good tastes in music, art, literature — with this request:

“If you find an organization that goes by the name Association of British Scholars, India, what would be your understanding of the organizers and members of that group? Will you please give me your answers in two or three sentences? I assure you that I will keep your response private.” 

I only said my friends are cerebral. That does not imply that I am. Here are their responses in the following paragraphs. I am reproducing them verbatim, except in one case, where I have truncated it to save space. Since I assured them I would keep their responses private, I only give the initials of the respondents as my own memory aid so that I know who they are. Here I go:

JK:  My initial take on this would be that it represents a group of British scholars who live in India.  Or, on second thought, that they are Indians in India who have made Britain the focus of their scholarly endeavors.

SS: To me, it would suggest an India-based chapter of a worldwide group of scholars of British origin.

JL:  This is a group of historians who have specialized in the field of British Empire and British Raj in India. They are based in India and may include Indians and remnants of the rulers who stayed on in India. Modesty is not their virtue; otherwise the name of the Association would have been Study Group of British Empire and British Raj, India.

BD:  Looks like a scam.

SS:  My first reaction will be that this organization is a group of British “Scholars” who are interested in defending the Raj Period of Indian History. Personally, I would like to hear them and what they stand for.

AJ:  On the face of it, a name like “Association of British Scholars, India” would mean to me that it is an organization of scholarly people of British origin, who are residing in India. But, when you look closer, it is odd: 1) A group of true scholars will not call itself “Scholars.”  They may call themselves “Indologists,” “Historians,” “Mathematicians,” “Engineers,” “Physicians,” “Writers,” etc., but wlll shun the epithet “Scholars.”  2) We are led to believe that the British are unlikely to be  self-promoters” — don’t know how true it really is. I wonder if this could be a group of Indians who have no humility at all and have never heard or read that humility is the true ornament of knowledge and wisdom, calling themselves “British Scholars.” One is tempted to ask, “British scholars of what branch of intellectual inquiry?”

PV:  My understanding of this is that it is a bunch of scholars from Britain who are based in India.  Since the Association is of British Scholars, the comma denotes the further clarification on their location.

HS:  I can only take a guess. I assume you have talked to Jxxx Myyy, Assistant Professor, History Department at XXX YYY Univ.

SC:  I would assume that it comprises of Indian people who have had higher education in Britain and are currently residing in India.

RS: It sounds like a group of Brits in India who call themselves scholars.

Now, ABS (Association of British Scholars) is in India with over 24 branches, including Vishakhapatnam, AP, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, and Tiruvanantapuram, Kerala. The Association was founded/established/organized by the British Council in India, an important wing of the British embassy in India. According to their website, “The Association of British Scholars (ABS) is a national forum to facilitate the networking of Indians who have studied or trained in the UK. ABS India aims to strengthen the Indo-UK relationship by harnessing the resources, expertise and potential of every ABS chapter through networking, sharing information and hosting social, cultural and intellectual activities.”

If you go by their website application form, a certificate course, or a short-term course in any field such as law, engineering, or fashion design in a UK institute makes you eligible for seeking membership.

So, guys and gals, the members of The Association of British Scholars in India are your everyday brown desis, wanting to believe that they are “British” scholars. Their claim to their “Britishness” is a 4 or 2 year stay somewhere in the UK pursuing their graduate or undergraduate degrees in law engineering; or a 3-month certificate course 18th century Mughal history; or how Lord Macaulay consolidated India for the British King by creating millions of English-knowing clerks and his contribution to India reaching its greatness in the 21st century; or a certificate course on how the British invented Curry during their colonial days and brought it onto the world culinary scene, thus giving the pedestrian curry its due.

In a way, I cannot fault these brown “British” scholars. I pity them. For, these brown “British” scholars will be the butt of biting jokes if they call themselves “British” scholars anywhere in the UK or outside India.

India obtained its nominal political freedom in 1947. It is supposed to have become a republic 65 years ago, making a complete break from Britain. But Indians’ spiritual slavery to the High-Tea Gora Land is alive and well: The Indian embassy in London is still called the Indian High Commission, and the Indian ambassador is called the High Commissioner. In the British Empire High Commissioners were envoys of the Imperial Government to manage its “protectorates” not fully under the empire. In London, the Indian embassy building itself is called the India House.

Consider this also: Sixty-five years after becoming a Republic, the IDs for planes registered in India — the numbers towards the end of their fuselage — starts with VT, VT standing for Vice-regal Territories, another holdover from colonial days. Just look at the way the Brown sahebs in upscale India try to imitate the Ox-Bridge accent — con-TRAU-versy is just an example — trying to put others in their place.

There is a saying in Tamil: If you think that you are humble, you are not. So, if you call yourself a “scholar,” you certainly are not one. As AJ said in his feedback quoted above, “A group of true scholars will not call itself ‘Scholars.’ They may call themselves ‘Indologists,’ ‘Historians,’  ‘Mathematicians,’  ‘Engineers,’  ‘Physicians,’ ‘Writers,’ etc. etc., but wlll shun the epithet ‘Scholars.’”  Now, that is a scholarly comment by a rooted desi.  ♦

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On Tea

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Premlata Venkataraman

e-mail:  ThePittsburghPatrika@aol.com

Premlata works in the technical services library of a well-known university in Oakland, and has cataloged many books dealing with Fluid Mechanics.

Tea, geopolitics, revolutions and upheavals seem to go hand-in-hand.  Consider this: when the East India Company started trading tea and spices, the English got addicted to tea and ended up colonizing India! There is another theory making the rounds among British-Indians in the UK on how the British colonized India: they were running away from their terrible food, willing to go anywhere.
Wherever they went, the food they ate was better, far, far better. Their guns and cannons also helped.

North Americans, seeking independence from the British, dumped all their tea into the Atlantic Ocean, only to get addicted to coffee growing abundantly closer home. After declaring independence from the British, Americans almost dumped the English language as well, opting for German to be the lingua franca of the new nation. The resolution was defeated by one vote. Otherwise, we would be another Deutschland! Or at least, a Deutsch-speaking fremdes Land (“foreign land” in German)! Details here: http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html.That’s the origin of the very American expression “every vote counts.”

The origins of Tea is the Chinese T’e, the word for the plant Camellia sinensis for the tea leaves. In Mandarin, the word was ch’a, and later became the Indian chai. Green and black teas are made from the same plant. Green tea has higher levels of anti-oxidants, because the tea leaves are simply steam-dried and not fermented like the black teas.

Initially tea became popular in Buddhist monasteries, because small amounts of caffeine in teas kept the monks awake during long hours of meditation. For this reason, many monasteries cultivated vast tea fields. The Book of Tea written over 1000 years ago gives a detailed account of the cultivation and preparation of tea, the best types of water for brewing, and different classifications of tea.

Of course, there are as many ways to drink tea as there are different strains of tea. The Japanese developed it into a highly artistic ceremony, almost a spiritual experience that embodies harmony, respect, purity and tranquility, and also a lot of mystique. People take classes to learn the perfect way to conduct the Japanese tea ceremony, like people trying to become wine snobs!  But ordinary Japanese sneer at this snobbery!

In India too tea is immensely popular especially when infused with spices and milk as a special drink for every occasion. Ginger-infused tea called masala chai was taken at the end of the meal as a digestive. Sweetened cardamom tea is popular as a restorative. But the Chinese look at the Indian sweet teas with disgust.

Tea shops all over Asia promote socializing, vigorous conversation, and debate; they were often the stage for discussing political intrigues, even cultural upheaval. Just imagine the samovar, tea and its imagery to the Russian revolution. In China, tea shops were hotbeds for discussing intrigues, new political ideas and communist ideology during the Cultural Revolution. Not surprisingly, in Kolkata, where Marxists held sway decades after their ideology died even in the Maoist China, tea shops were, and continue to be, the centers of literary and social movements. If you listen to them often, you’d believe that  India is on the brink of an upheaval.

To this day the ubiquitous street corner tea shops in India dole out tea, cigarettes and paan (betel leaves with accoutrements), and sometimes also mind-altering herbs. Here changing political scenes, corruption, cultural and social attitudes are hotly debated. This is where the heart of India pulsates. These popular venues for taking the pulse of the nation, particularly during elections, are more reliable than exit polls.

It is not surprising that the current Indian prime minister was once a tea-vendor (a chai-wallah). His critics, discrediting him for his background, were stumped when he sailed into parliament with an absolute majority two years ago. One reason why the Indian brown-saheb anglicized elite does not like him is because he doesn’t belong to their social class!

So the next time you sip your tea with your buddies discussing politics and cussing politicians, remember, you carry the potential to change the world.  ♦

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The Joy of Giving: The More You Give of Yourself, the More You Find Yourself

Posted by admin in April 2016 on April 10, 2016

By Darshan Goswami

e-mail: dlgoswami@hotmail.com

Darshan Goswami, a long-time resident here has more than 40 years of experience in the energy field.  He worked as a Project Manager for Renewable Energy, Micro-grid and Smart Grid projects at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in Pittsburgh.  He supports the India Foundation for Children Education and Care, Inc. (www.ifcare.org).

We all know how great it feels to receive gifts. However, the joy of getting is short-lived. Our lives are richer when we share, and that great  inner joy comes from helping others to better their lives. Truly giving from the heart fills your life with joy and nourishes your soul. Giving provides an intrinsic reward that’s far more valuable than the gift. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “To find yourself, lose yourself in the service of others.” True joy lies in the act of giving without any expectation.

Why Give?  When people are asked why they give, the readiest answers include: God wants me to; I feel better about myself; others need, and I have; I want to share; it’s only right.

A group picture of all the girls in the school receivng support from IFCARE taken on the annual day function of the NGO. The adults standing in the back are the board members of IFCARE and some of the parents of the girls in the school.

A group picture of all the girls in the school receivng support from IFCARE taken on the annual day function of the NGO. The adults standing in the back are the board members of IFCARE and some of the parents of the girls in the school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The question I would ask is how did you feel? I imagine you felt very pleased with yourself and happy inside.  Giving provides an opportunity to look beyond our own world and see the bigger picture. Your worries and challenges may not seem as significant when compared to other people’s situations.

The act of giving kindles self-esteem and brings happiness. After several years of soul searching, I discovered that my unhappiness was due to my want for things to fill the void of loneliness. During this inward journey, I also discovered “The Purpose of Living.”  Yes, I believe that giving makes you happier. But don’t take my word for it—try it out for yourself.

Dr. Gurmeet Singh, MD, President of Astha Vikas Samiti in Rajasthan, an NGO supported by IFCARE is handing over a chcke to Kum. Anjali Sain, a student in the local school.

Dr. Gurmeet Singh, MD, President of Astha Vikas Samiti in Rajasthan, an NGO supported by IFCARE is handing over a chcke to Kum. Anjali Sain, a student in the local school.

The Power of Giving:  Giving is one of the best investments you can make towards achieving genuine happiness. True giving comes from the heart, with no expectation of reciprocation. You’ll find that the more you give, the more you’ll receive. The power of giving is manifested in the kindness and generosity that you bestow on someone else. When you give unselfishly, the vibrational energy emitting from your subconscious is at its strongest. A famous American author, Ken Blanchard, declared “The more I give away, the more comes back.”

It’s the joy and love that we extend to others that brings true happiness or union with God. We know that if people give just a little more—of their time, skills, knowledge, wisdom, compassion, wealth and love—the world would be a more peaceful and healthier place.

The rewards of giving are priceless. If you want to have happiness, you need to give happiness. If you want love, you need to give love. It is only in giving that you receive. No matter what your circumstances in life, you have the ability to give. The gift of joy will come to you when you give of yourself to others. Try it!  It works!

Please join me in supporting the India Foundation (IF) for Children Education and Care (www.ifcare.org) to eliminate poverty in India through the education of underprivileged poor children and to empower poor women. Our Foundation awarded scholarships to 66 underprivileged poor children in Rajasthan, India on November 7, 2015 under its “SPONSOR A CHILD PROGRAM.” The sponsorship provides a needy child life’s essentials: school tuition, uniforms, books, school supplies, etc. for one year (100% of the donations go to the cause and are tax deductible in USA).

We are truly blessed and honored to serve humanity and poor children through our Foundation.  We are truly grateful for compassion, kindness, and generosity of our sponsors to make a difference in the life of underprivileged poor children in India.

For further information, contact Darshan Goswami, 412-276-0544; dlgoswami@hotmail.com or Harbans Singh, 301-340-0836; or go to our website: (www.ifcare.org).  ♦

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Posted by admin in Travel on January 3, 2016

Patrika Logo for Website

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Rajyasree Ghosh’s Mesmerizing Vocal Recital

Posted by admin in January 2016 on December 28, 2015

By Seema Chaubey, North Huntingdon, PA

e-mail: seemachaubey@hotmail.com

The last of the Chhandayan house concerts of 2015 held on Saturday, October 31, at the Sahas’ home in Irwin, PA, presented Smt. Rajyasree Ghosh from Kolkata, accompanied on the tabla by Pt. Samir Chatterjee, the founder of Chhandayan. Pt. Chatterjee has been teaching tabla in universities for over thirty-five years and is well known in his field. Ayon Rivu Sinha of Pittsburgh was on the harmonium. The recital provided a wonderful blend of pure Hindustani classical music and Thumri, Dadra, Kajree, bhajans and Tappa.

Rajyasree is on the faculty of music at the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, in India. She trained under four legendary gurus — Pt. Amiya Ranjan Bandopadhyaya of the Vishnupur Ghrana, Padma Bhushan Girija Devi of Varanasi, Pt. Arun Bhaduri of Sangeet Research, and Pt. K.G. Ginde of Belgaum. The unique signatures of the different gharanas were reflected in Rajyashri’s recital.

Rajyasree started most aptly with an early evening raga Shyam Kalyan. Her melodious and sonorous voice instantaneously captured the mood of the raga with its haunting interplay of both the suddha and tivra Madhyam and its emphasis on Re in the vilambit segment of the raga. The words of the song balama rasiya bhara lingered, resonating in our ears even when she transitioned into drut teen taal. Perfection is the way to describe the rendition of this raga in her strong and melodious voice with her control of bols, taal and sur. Next Rajyasree presented a drut segment of the raga Narayani, a bandesh in teen taal composed by S. N. Ratanjankar of Agra Gharana.

After a brief intermission, she transitioned into semi-classical music and presented three Thumris, which were illustrative of varied gharanas, taals, tempo and ragas. Kajri, a genre of semi-classical music popular in northeast India, often expressing romantic love, is sung during monsoon; Barse karire baderia mor chunariya bhije jai was lively and simple in its style and yet exquisitely spiced with subtle sargams in between.

There were more Thumris of the popular Benaras gharana such as nanadiya kahe mare mon based in Desh and Na jayo piya pardesh in Shivaranjani.

Tappa, a form of semi-classical vocal music coming from the rural Punjab, became popular in Bengal and in the royal courts. It consists of a rolling pace based on fast and subtle constructions, and the mood is laden with the emotions of a lover. Rajyasree presented both slow and fast paced Tappa compositions in Hindi and Bengali. Emotions of devotion and romance were subtly expressed in Radha and Krishna’s divine play in the song Rai anga sajabo diye ki bhushan. Her knowledge and skill in the genre was reflected in the various forms of the genre presented, such as Nidhu Babu’s Bengali tappa, Rabindranath Tagore’s Tappa, and a Hindi version of Miya me janewale.

Rajyasree ended her debut with a Dadra style devotional song and a shyama sangeet in praise of Mother Kali. Tabla support by the maestro Pt. Samir Chatterjee, as always, was outstanding. The duo created an atmosphere of lingering harmony as the notes and rhythm blended into unison.

As is usual, there was a delectable potluck dinner at the end of the recital in an informal setting during which those present interacted with the artistes of the evening.

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Subramania Bharati on the Illusions and Transience of Life

Posted by admin in January 2016 on December 28, 2015

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

Subramania Bharati, (1882 –1921), simply called Bharatiyaar out of love and reverence by the Tamils, is the bench mark in Tamil literature, particularly in poetry. His impact is so profound that Tamil poetry today is seen as Pre-Bharati and Post-Bharati.

Subramania Bharati with his wife Chellammal

Subramania Bharati with his wife Chellammal

His full name is Chinnaswamy Subramania Aiyar. Bharati, meaning “one endowed with the blessings of Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge” is the title he received for his poetical skills when he was barely eleven.

His was a multifaceted personality. He was a freedom fighter, poet, essayist, journalist, social reformer, linguist… He spoke passionately on the emancipation of women, untouchability, social equality…

Despite his great gift, he died in 1921 in penury, with his cremation attended by only a handful of people. He was 39. He was deeply religious and spiritual. He made Tamil poetry — till that time, a topic only among the Tamil vidwans (scholars) -– enjoyable for all the Tamil-knowing people, whether urban or rural, educated or uneducated, rich or poor. He was also a Brahmin. Despite Bharatiyaar’s great contributions to Tamil literature, there was, and still is, ambiguity among many of the powerful leaders of the anti-Brahmin and obsessively Tamil-loving Dravidian Movement to recognize Bharatiyaar for his gift to the Tamils as a people, and to Tamil as an old classic language in every sense of the terms “Classic” and “Old.”

Bharatiyaar wrote a famous and popular song, Aaduvomay pallu paaduvomay… (“Let’s dance to folk tunes declaring, ‘We got the blissful freedom…’”) on the joy of Indians celebrating freedom. He wrote this poem prophetically more than 25 years before India’s independence. His life was recently filmed in the biopic Bharati portraying his life realistically.

Bharatiyaar also wrote on philosophy in verses conforming to the rules of poetry, and also in free style. Here is one of his poems on the illusory and transient nature of life, first in the Tamil script, and then as a free-style translation.

Bharati Song

This song was nicely portrayed in the biopic on his life, with Ilayaraja scoring the music. The song is available on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx91opkZ09I.

Here is a free-style, non-literary, but truthful translation:

O, You, standing still*, or moving on your feet*, or flying on wings*! 

Are you all only dreams? Are yours only phantom appearances?

O, all that we study, learn, listen, and contemplate,

Are you only trivial illusions? Don’t you have any deeper meaning?

O, the open skies, the gentle sunshine, and trees in the woods!

Are you all a mirage? Just errors of my hallucination?

All that have gone-by just vanished, buried as in dreams,

So, am I also a dream? Is this world also unreal?

The idea of time, and the scenes reminisced from memory,

Are these only mental tricks? And their features are lies too?

If everything seen will disappear, and all that vanished were once seen,

Am I also only a dream? Is the world around me is a fantasy too?

* Reference to plants, animals, and birds.

———- 

Bharatiyaar raises these questions without trying to answer them. He probably wants readers to seek answers for these eternal questions from their own life journey. One does not have to be old to pursue this. After all, Bharatiyaar was only in his 30s when he wrote this poem. Even high school students entering college can ponder over these queries with their own adolescent experiences. Others can look at them against the background of their successes and disappointments in their careers, love and married life, social climbing, material acquisitions, and get better insights into life’s quirks and complexities.  ♦

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Pure Fiction: Gobi Manchurian

Posted by admin in January 2016 on December 28, 2015

By Kollengode S Venkataraman

One of the craziest items in Indian restaurants these days is Gobi Manchurian. The name sounded familiar for geographical reasons. I remember in my high-school geography taught in Tamil that there was a desert called Gobi. In the Tamil script, there is only one letter for both “Pa” and “Ba.” So, I read it as Gopi desert and thought this was the desert in northwest India around Gujarat and Rajasthan. I later learned that it was not Gopi, but Gobi desert; what was shocking was that it was not anywhere in India. It was between Mongolia and China, over 1000 miles from India’s northern borders. See map above.

Location of Gobi Desert

Location of Gobi Desert

In India, the craze du jour is Chinese food, with Chinese restaurants first appearing in upscale areas. And seeing a good market for Chinese food among the wannabe gora, but very brown desi “foodies,” Indo-Chinese restaurants sprang up everywhere, literally spicing up the traditional Chinese fare of noodles/rice with fish, chicken, lamb, and goat, but avoiding other Chinese delicacies, such as snake, turtle, and jelly fish that don’t sit well with Indians. Seeing a good demand for these modified Chinese fare, even 100% shudh vegetarian joints all over India started adding Chinese noodle items flavored with Indian spices and soy sauce, making hybridized Indo-Chinese items. One item — called Gobi Manchurian — became really popular in all Indian restaurants all over the world.

Again, I vaguely remember from my school geography, Manchuria was somewhere in China. Since Gobi Manchurian is popular in Indian restaurants, I thought Manchuria should be somewhere in the Indo-China border region. When I searched Google, I was in for another shock. Manchuria was in northeastern China bordering Russia, separated from India’s northern border by over 1000 miles. See the map on the side.

Then I went to northeastern China on work. In all the Cantonese, Hunan, and Shandong food I ate there, nowhere did I see anything called Gobi Manchurian. Not only was nothing called anything closer, but none looked anything like the desi Gobi Manchurian in presentation or taste.

Location of Manchuraia

Location of Manchuraia

Then I imagined that a Malayali cook, Gopinathan (Gopi for short), might have gone to northeastern China as a migrant worker. There he concocted a dish hybridizing his native Kerala-style cooking with vegetables he found in China — cauliflower (called Gobi in northern India), bell peppers, mushrooms — with the spices he brought from Kerala. When he returned to India, he started his own restaurant adding this item, calling it Gopi’s Manchurian, which later morphed into Gobi Manchurian.

Even this explanation — however self-serving it was because I am from Kerala — did not satisfy me. Even my Google search didn’t help. And then I came across this comment in a blog from a guy from Bangaluru:

“Reminds me of a Chinese guy called Eugene Chiu I met off and on over a period of 2 years whenever he visited Bangalore. The one thing he loved about India was… hold your breath… ‘Chinese Food.’

“ ‘Indians make Chinese food better than the Chinese themselves,’ said Chiu. His favorite dish was, believe it or not ‘Gobi Manchurian.’ It was quite a novelty, because you can’t find Gobi in Manchuria. So that is one Indian hardware making its way into Mainland China.”

There it is, guys and gals. Gobi Manchurian is a 100% Indian concoction, having nothing to do with Mongolia, Manchuria, or China. If you have evidence to the contrary, I am all ears.   ♦

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