PERIODICAL INDEX Letters to the Editor....................................A2 People.............................................................A3 Immigration................................................A23 Business......................................................A15 Community..................................................A25 Magazine.....................................................M1 Sports...........................................................A24 www.rediff.com (Nasdaq: REDF) NEW YORK EDITION Pages: 32+16+4=52 Friday, July 13, 2012 Vol. XLII No.41 $1 International Weekly Newspaper Chicago/Dallas Los Angeles NY/NJ/CT New York Toronto STARBURST The India Abroad Person of the Year Awards 2011 PARESH GANDHI SPONSORED BY ADVERTISEMENT The International Weekly Newspaper founded in 1970. Member, Audit Bureau of Circulation India Abroad July 13, 2012 A241 LETTERS INDIA ABROAD (ISSN 0046 8932) is published every Friday by India Abroad Publications, Inc. 42 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10004. Annual subscription in United States: $32. Canada $26. India $32 INTERNATIONAL: Indian television stations have agreed to telecast the film. By Regular Mail: South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Australia & Middle Teach kids Indian languages East: $90. Instead, they should have taken the initiative to produce the By Airmail: South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Australia & Middle East: We Indians are so lucky that we have the in-built advantage of film in the first place. $210 Periodical postage paid, New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. passing on this multiple language-learning gift to our chil- Roni George Postmaster: Send address changes to: INDIA ABROAD, 42 Broadway 18th floor, New York, NY 10004 dren. Yet, sadly, I see quite a few Indian parents speaking in New York Copyright (c) 2006, India Abroad Publications, Inc. only English with their kids. Make no mistake, the future Ajit Balakrishnan world will be a brain-dominated world. Back in the 1950s and Chairman and Publisher 1960s, a factory worker in the United States could expect a Fear cannot drive faith Nikhil Lakshman decent living, but no more. Today, the same jobs are mini- Religion and politics make good bed-fellows because both Editor-in-Chief mum-wage jobs. promote selfishness under the guise of something nobler, like Rajeev Bhambri The world is getting closer, flatter. The future will belong to public welfare or spiritual well-being. The underlying selfish- Chief Operating Officer-US Media the kids whose parents push them towards academic achieve- ness largely gets unnoticed until it exceeds decent limits. Vasanth Sastry ments. In this regard, Indians do not take a back-seat to no Governors Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal are converted Financial Controller one, but that may not be enough. To be the best of the best, we Christians and many Hindus think they would not have been THE EDITORIAL TEAM IN NEW YORK need to exploit all of our advantages. Learning Spanish or elected had they not converted. Apparently it is not enough Aziz Haniffa, Editor Arthur J Pais, Editor, Features French for an hour at school is not enough, those classes are that they are of Indian descent. Why should religion matter if Ajit Jain, Managing Editor, Canada easily forgotten. To master a language one must speak it. we truly believe in secular democracy? Suman Guha Mozumder, Associate Managing Editor, US George Joseph, P Rajendran, Deputy Managing Editors One of the big advantages of knowing multiple languages is As long as we insist on religious freedom and freedom from Paresh Gandhi, Chief Photographer also that you can enjoy movies, music, books and television in religion in the land we live, in conversions are no threat to Parimal Mehta, System Manager Production: Dharmesh Chotalia, Production Supervisor. all those languages, making life more enjoyable. anybody. Harish Kathrani, David Richter Why do you think India has become the software power- An educated person should have the freedom to choose any CONTACT EDITORIAL house of the world? We easily flit from SQL, to Perl to Java, religion s/he likes. As long as the emphasis on free public sec- Call: 212-929-1727 Fax: 212-727-9730 just as we do from speaking in Telugu, Gujarati, to Hindi to ular education up to high school graduation is not threatened E-mail: [email protected] English. in the US, the holier-than-thou attitude of religions must be MUMBAI So, parents, please force your kids to speak in your native nipped in the bud by all fearless secularists. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, Editorial Director, Features language at home. That is what my boss’s mother did — she Fear of God cannot be the rallying point for any religion, for Dominic Xavier, Creative Head Uttam Ghosh, Joint Creative Head was told in no uncertain manner to speak only in Spanish at such a concept sounds unholy to begin with. Sumit Bhattacharya, Associate Managing Editor home, English outside. Udayshanker Kasinadhuni Monali Sarkar, News Editor Sanjay Sawant, Satish Bodas, Creative Directors And, children, while you relax at home and watch a Hindi by e-mail Rukmani Sah-Mehta, Assistant Editor Shailaja Nand Mishra, Senior Production Coordinator movie, turn off the subtitles and try to understand what the characters are saying. Learn the language. A bit difficult at THE BUSINESS TEAM DISPLAY ADVERTISING first, but you will get it soon enough India should help Afghanistan CONTACT THE DISPLAY ADVERTISING TEAM I understand that there is a phobia against hearing or speak- With due respect to Aziz Haniffa whose opinions are gener- Toll free: 1-866-702-2650 Fax: 212-627-9503 ing a foreign language in this country, but you have to decide ally very astute, I think his characterization of greater Indian E-mail:[email protected] between doing what is best for your kids. involvement in affairs of Afghanistan as an outsourcing of Geeta Singh Sales Executive Vanamali Thotapalli American problem is off-target (‘US ready to outsource Jitender Sharma Associate Sales Manager by e-mail Afghanistan problem to India,’ India Abroad, June 29). If India does not fill the vacuum that will occur with a US CLASSIFIEDS WANT TO INSERT A CLASSIFIED/MATRIMONIAL AD? withdrawal, China will surely grab the opportunity. This does Call: 1-800-822-3532 That Indian not bode well for the US, India or the balance of power in the Fax: 212-691-0873 E-mail: [email protected] subcontinent. Pakistan is squarely in China’s corner and more Shahnaz Sheikh Classified Manager subservience hostile than friendly towards the US. It runs with the hares Sujatha Jilla Classified Assistant Manager Jim Gallentine Classified Representative I was shocked after reading the and hunts with the hounds when it comes to playing its dou- CHICAGO BRANCH TEAM article article by Aseem Chhabra ble game with China and the US. Sunita Easwaran Advertising media consultant about the film Bitter Seeds, made If Afghanistan also comes under the sphere of influence of Toll Free: 800-514.8183 (Illinois) Call: 773-338-1118 by Israeli-American filmmaker China, as Sri Lanka has done, India will have nothing but all Micha X Paled (India Abroad hostile countries surrounding it. CIRCULATION CONTACT THE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Magazine, June 22). Afghans have a common heritage with Indians. In ancient Call: 212-645-2369 A filmmaker from the United times, Afghanistan was culturally indistinguishable from the Fax: 212-627-9503 E-mail: [email protected] States has to come to India to rest of India. It was from here that Dashrath (of Ramayan Subscription toll free number: 1-877-INDIA-ABROAD (1-877-463-4222) shoot a film to bring about aware- fame) got his third wife Kaikeyi. If it was not for Muslim Anjali S Maniam Associate Vice President, Marketing & Special Events ness about the rash of farmer sui- Micha X Paled League during pre-Independence days and the whipping up THE INDIA BUSINESS TEAM Nikita Pai, Deputy Chief Manager. Call: 91-22-24449144, extension 320 cides. That also by the request of of religious emotions by Pakistan’s military and mullahs since REDIFF.COM EDITORIAL TEAM an Indian environmental activist. Partition, the Pathans would have found much kinship with Saisuresh Sivaswamy, Senior Editorial Director. Sheela Bhatt, Senior Editorial Why did the filmmaker produce it? To help the country? I Indians. Director, News Ivan Crasto, Editorial Director, Sports do not think so. He is taking advantage of our country’s crisis Afghanistan has great reservoir of natural resources, which Shobha Warrier, Associate Editorial Director to become famous and also make money. India and not China should help develop. They have very lit- Prithviraj Hegde, Editor, News, Nandita Malik, Editor, Business Savera R Someshwar, Archana Masih, Syed Firdaus Ashraf, Managing Editors I am surprised that in a country that is the world’s biggest tle in common with China, while in appearance, language, Rajesh Karkera, Joint Creative Head producer of the films, a foreign filmmaker has to come to pro- customs and emotional constitution they are quite like A Ganesh Nadar, Indrani Roy Mitra, Seema Pant, Ronjita Kulkarni, Swarupa Dutt, Associate Managing Editors duce a film about its domestic problems to make the govern- Indians. Prasanna D Zore, Vikash Nanjappa, Deputy Managing Editors ment and the public aware of the problem. The only hitch to forging an alliance with it will be because Rupali S Nimkar, Senior Assistant Managing Editor Onkar Singh, Sanaya Dalal, Assistant Managing Editors The activist herself also could have taken the initiative to of possible mischief-mongering by Pakistan. This can be N V Reuben, Senior Art Director Uday Kuckian, Art Director produce the film or find a director/producer to do it, if she was countered if India and the US take concrete steps to foster Puja Banta, Chief Features Editor so concerned about our country’s problem. division of Pakistan along its ethnic faultlines in Sind, Punjab, Vipin Vijayan, Sanchari Bhattacharya, Chief News Editors Harish Kotian, Deputy Sports Editor I do not understand why India is becoming so vulnerable to Baluchistan, Pashtuns and Azaad Kashmir.