1st Sikh in decades graduates Army officer school - Yahoo! News

1st Sikh in decades graduates Army officer school - Yahoo! News

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 23, 7:37 am ET
SAN ANTONIO – The soldiers in standard-issue fatigues and combat boots stood side-by-side repeating their creed: "I am an American soldier. I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army values ...."
Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan was no different except that he wore a full beard and black turban, the first Sikh in a generation allowed to complete U.S. Army basic officer training without sacrificing the articles of his faith. He completed the nine-week training Monday after Army officials made an exemption to a policy that has effectively prevented Sikhs from enlisting since 1984.
"I'm feeling very humbled. I'm a soldier," said the 31-year-old dentist, smiling after the ceremony at Fort Sam Houston. "This has been my dream."
Rattan had to get a waiver from the Army to serve without sacrificing the unshorn hair mandated by his faith. An immigrant from India who arrived in New York as a teenager, Rattan said he hopes his military commitment will allow him to give back to his adopted home country and will help diminish prejudice Sikhs sometimes face in the U.S.

Full story at--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_army_sikh_soldier

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The Tale of Mukesh Ambani

"In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India's most famous and
powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as
playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi,
Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a
vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold
ideas for what India ought to become. Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny
ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man
focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a
champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and,
some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the
richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of
billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the
richest person on earth before long," says a profile of Mukesh Ambani
one of the world's richest people in the New York Times today.

Wow to be compared to Gandhi, that is something, isn't for a man who
is building the worlds most expensive, extravagant, and elaborate home
in Mumbai. (See my earlier post
http://vtilak.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-richest-of-rich-will-live.html)

""Can we really banish abject poverty in this country?" he mused aloud
in a rare interview at his headquarters here. "Yes, in 10, 15 years we
can say we would have done that substantially. Can we make sure that
we create a social structure where we remove untouchability? We're
fast moving to a new India where you don't think about this caste and
that caste."

As millions of Indians graduate from burning cow dung for energy to
guzzling oil, Reliance is plowing billions of dollars into energy
exploration and is building the world's largest oil refinery. It has
also opened a chain of nearly 700 stores selling food and various
wares; Mr. Ambani promises that it will funnel money from the
flourishing cities into the struggling agricultural heartland. He
envisions Reliance, with $39 billion in revenue, as providing incomes
to 12 million to 30 million Indians within the next five years by
buying from farmers and employing new workers in its stores.

And as Mumbai, Mr. Ambani's hometown and the commercial and
entertainment capital of India, has grown ever more populous and ever
less livable, he has proposed that Reliance simply build a new,
improved city across the harbor," says this very interesting article
about an even more interesting man.

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/business/worldbusiness/15ambani.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Two Worlds, Just Across The Street

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer saga continues... What
better place to see this today, than in the booming techno towns of
India. "India has always had its upper classes, as well as legions of
the world's very poor. But today a landscape dotted with Hamilton
Courts, pressed up against the slums that serve them, has underscored
more than ever the stark gulf between those worlds, raising
uncomfortable questions for a democratically elected government about
whether India can enable all its citizens to scale the golden ladders
of the new economy, says an article in the New York Times.

According to this article, "In India, poverty has also dropped
appreciably in the last 17 years of economic change, even as the gulf
between the rich and poor has grown. More than a quarter of all
Indians still live below the official poverty line (subsisting on
roughly $1 a day); one in four city dwellers live on less than 50
cents a day; and nearly half of all Indian children are clinically
malnourished.
At the same time, the ranks of dollar millionaires have swelled to
100,000, and the Indian middle class, though notoriously hard to
define and still small, has by all indications expanded.
For those with the right skills, the good times have been very good.
Mr. Chand, 34, a business school graduate who runs the regional
operations for an American manufacturing firm, has seen his salary
grow eightfold in the last five years, which is not unusual for upper
class Indians like him."

This widening gap became very obvious to me when I visited Bangalore,
a little over a year ago. Rising sky scrapers, huge wallets,
increasing poverty and lack of infrastructure to keep with the
phenomenal growth. Similarly according to the article, "Gurgaon, a
largely privately developed city and a metonym for Indian ambition,
has seen a building frenzy to satisfy people like the Chands. The
city's population has nearly doubled in the last six years, to 1.5
million. The skyline is dotted with scaffolds. Glass towers house
companies like American Express and Accenture. Not far from Hamilton
Court, Burberry and BMW have set up shop. State services, meanwhile,
have barely kept pace. The city has neither enough water nor
electricity for the population. There is no sewage treatment plant
yet; construction is scheduled to begin this year."

"India has long lived with such inequities, and though a Maoist
rebellion is building in the countryside, the nation has for the most
part skirted social upheaval through a critical safety valve: giving
the poor their chance to vent at the ballot box. Indeed, four years
ago, voters threw out the incumbent government, with its "India
Shining" slogan, because it was perceived to have neglected the poor.
It is little wonder then that the current administration has seized on
"inclusive growth" as its mantra, and as elections approach in less
than a year, it is spending heavily on education, widely acknowledged
as a key barrier to upward mobility for the poor," says this article.

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/world/asia/09gated.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Indian Biz Schools Not Upto Par

"Business education is booming in India, but the bulk of rank-and-file
programs in the country suffer from outdated textbooks, professors who
don't keep up with economic trends, and narrow curriculums, according
to a recently released report by an Indian business group," says and
article in Business Week.

According to the article, "The Business Barometer study was issued
last month by the the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of
India (Assocham), the country's leading chamber of commerce
organization. It found that beyond the top 30 institutions, most
business school professors and lecturers in India's business schools
are ignorant of the world's major economic trends and key
developments, such as the subprime crisis in the U.S. Few read
business publications.

The study's author, Jyoti Bhutani, called the findings "shocking,"
adding that Indian businesses are finding it difficult to get
top-quality graduates. She said there is "a huge gap" between the pay
packages offered to grads of top Indian business schools
(BusinessWeek.com, 4/13/08) and those provided to grads of the lesser
institutions."

Also it is very interesting to note that even the top cadre IIM's are
not accredited, "John Fernandes, president of the U.S.-based
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International
(AACSB), said his agency is working with four or five of the top
Indian business schools that are seeking AACSB accreditation. Most are
members of the "elite" business school cadre in India, known as India
Institute of Managements. None of the top Indian business schools has
accreditation from AACSB, one of the leading business school
accrediting agencies.

Setting a high standard for Indian business schools by satisfying a
quality accrediting agency is an important step for Indian business
schools, said Assocham's Bhutani. An improved accreditation process
would have a ripple effect on all Indian business schools, he
continued, forcing them to improve the quality of teachers, materials,
and professional development."

Read the full article at --
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2008/bs2008063_820520.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

Learning to Lead

Wow... Very Inspiring video titled, "Lead India"

Inspiring for all to take the initiative and lead, wherever, this may be.

How The Richest Of The Rich Will Live...

Have we forgotten that the world is going through a food crisis and
people are starving in the same country where this home is being
built?

Mukesh Ambani the fifth richest man in the world is building this $2
billlion home in Mumbai, when right across town exists the largest
slum in the world, Dharawi.

"The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the
market is the $70 million triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New
York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in
the air. When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing
a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet
of interior space. The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise
of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A
hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor,
and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door
handles, floors, lamps and window treatments)," says an article in
Forbes magazine.

"The Ambani home, called Antilla, differs in that no two floors are
alike in either plans or materials used. At the request of Nita
Ambani, say the designers, if a metal, wood or crystal is part of the
ninth-floor design, it shouldn't be used on the eleventh floor, for
example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so
spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition," reports
Forbes, "Antilla's shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much
like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the
building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects."

Apparently, "Ambani plans to occasionally use the residence for
corporate entertainment, and the family wants the look and feel of the
home's interior to be distinctly Indian; 85% of the materials and
labor will come from outside the U.S., most of it from India," so one
may argue that this is creating a mini industry in India adding to the
economy. However, to most, there are better ways to revitalize the
down trodden than spend $2 billion on an extravagant home for oneself.

Read the full article and see pictures at--
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/home-india-billion-forbeslife-cx_mw_0430realestate.html?feed=rss_popstories

Mango Eating Competition In Bombay

"With the arrival of summer and mango season, India's western city Mumbai plays host to the 6th annual mango eating competition. Around 30 people took part, having to eat as many mangoes as possible in 3 minutes. And if they could stomach any more, the winners were rewarded with a fresh box of the fruit. The competition was a part of the six-day Konkan Festival that started on May 06 and ended on May 12," reports Reuters.

Has Baseball Arrived in India?

Baseball has never been a popular sport in India. College kids,
especially girls play some softball, but for some reason baseball
never caught on, not until now...

"Rinku Singh, 18, and fellow javelin thrower Dinesh Patel began a
year-long training stint in Los Angeles last week after winning an
India-wide pitching contest, "The Million-Dollar Arm."
The boys, from poor families, used their natural shoulder strength to
take the top two spots from among 8,000 participants.
Another teenager, Manoj Shukla, will receive a month's training after
he came third of the 27 finalists.
The winners, who were handed their visas in a ceremony at the U.S.
embassy in New Delhi, will get an opportunity to be assessed by
professional baseball scouts at the end of their one-year stint.
Their U.S-based promoters are hoping the youngsters can make it as
professionals, saying such success would boost baseball in India in
the same way that Yao Ming's move to the NBA created a fan base for
basketball in China," reports Reuters.

Over the last few years, I have seen sports like bowling, football,
triathlons, formula one racing and others picking up steam in India,
sports that many of us never even knew about until we came to America.
It'll be interesting to watch and see how baseball catches on, if it
catches on at all, what with stiff competition from Cricket!

Reuters also reports that, "India, world cricket's commercial hub, has
become a big draw for other sports hoping to tap into its booming
economy. Golf is taking giant strides and India staged its first
European Tour events this year while soccer authorities are pushing to
revive the game in the country. The Australian Football League (AFL)
announced plans this month to push the game in India in their search
for new markets."

Read the full Reuters article at--
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_WORLDFOOTBALL/idUKDEL24903820080513?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0

Food Crisis -- Argument versus Action!

I was wondering why it took so long for the he said and she said to
begin after Bush made his statement, saying that the food crisis was
started by India's middle class.

Yesterday, yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, voiced his frustration at Bush's
statements and today the New York Times reports that, "Instead of
blaming India and other developing nations for the rise in food
prices, Americans should rethink their energy policy — and go on a
diet. That has been the response, basically, of a growing number of
politicians, economists and academics in this country, who are angry
at statements by top United States officials that India's rising
prosperity is to blame for food inflation. The debate has sometimes
devolved into what sounded like petty playground taunts over who are
the real gluttons devouring the world's resources."

As someone who lived and grew up in India it amazes me to see wastage
of food and other natural resources, not just by non-Indians but by
visiting Indians as well. The same folks who struggle without water in
Chennai, waste water in the US as though it was an eternal resource.
The same folks who watch people starve in Delhi, throw away food like
there was plenty of it to go around, the same folks who go without
power in Kolkatta, leave fans and lights on all over the place without
conserving any energy.

Instead of arguing, it is high time each individual stepped back and
assessed what they are each doing to make the problem better or worse.
Time to stop the bickering and get to some real action, don't you
think?

See the Times Of India video, with Baba Ramdev's statements here--
http://broadband.indiatimes.com/showvideo/3034648.cms

See the New York Times article here --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/14/business/worldbusiness/14food.html&tntemail0=y

Another recent New York Times article on this subject-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

A Time Magazine article on this-

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1806579,00.html

Read about Bush's statements here--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703405.html

See what President Bush said about India being responsible for the
food crisis here--
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/03food.htm

Gender Discrimination?!

More news on Indian Americans practicing gender discrimination!

Vijay Mallya and Force India

The arrival of the newest and tallest motor homes in the Formula One
paddock is an overt statement of intent by the sport's youngest team,
Force India," says the New York Times. Owned by Vijay Mallya, he says
to NYT that his Force India team and auto racing can appeal to a
growing segment of young and affluent Indians.

The Times reports that Force India's hospitality suite is airy, easy
to move around in and full of smiling team members and visitors, and
Mallya says to the Times, "I am very proud of my new motor home, but
this motor home with a slow car means nothing," said Vijay Mallya, the
Indian billionaire who owns the racing team, as well as Kingfisher
Airlines, Kingfisher beer and other companies. "The car is performing,
the motor home is adding to it all, and I think that the message is
that on the track and off the track, we are serious in this business."

Anotehr excerpt from the article --
"Cricket, which is a religion in India, is for everyone," Mallya said.
"It's for your staff, for your chauffeur, for your boss, for your
maid, for everyone. But there is this breed of youngsters in India who
are proud of their success — we call them upwardly mobile and
aspirational Indians — they are earning well, they want to show their
wealth, they want to show that they are different."
The way they do that, he said, is by dressing differently, eating
differently and having different sporting interests.
"And that is where we felt, and research showed, that F1 could be
absolutely the ideal platform," he added.
But for the plan to succeed, Mallya said, the team must succeed.

Mallaya's who attends all of the teams races says to the Times, "The
leader of the team has to be leading the team," Mallya said. "The fact
that I'm here in the same uniform as the guys, walking around in the
garage and being wherever else I need to be, it inspires confidence.
It shows I'm committed. If I am demanding commitment from others, I
need to show I'm committed myself."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/11/sports/othersports/11prix.html&tntemail0=y

How Far Can Artists Go?

Dissolving the controversy surrounding M.F. Hussains art, a court has
basically dissolved the controversy surrounding his art and says he
needs to be back home painting.

The New York Times reports that -- "A court in India has quashed three
obscenity cases against M. F. Husain, one of the country's most famous
contemporary painters, the BBC reported. The charges contended that
Mr. Husain, 92, offended Hindus with a work, above, that represented
India as a nude goddess. The court in Delhi ruled that the painting
was not obscene. Mr. Husain, who has been accused of obscenity in at
least seven cases, apologized for the painting, which he declared an
"expression of purity." He has been living in the Middle East because
of the lawsuits, but his lawyer, Akhil Sibal, quoted the court as
saying Mr. Husain "deserves to be at home, painting his canvases."

Whereas a website by Hindu Jagruti says that Hussain is painting
derogatory art of Hindu gods, why is he not doing so of his own
religion? You can see some of the paintings at their site listed
below. An article in Frontline magazine, has some paintings by Hussain
of Hindu Gods which are not derogatory, so what does that mean?

New York Times article is at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/09/arts/09arts-INDIANCOURTD_BRF.html&tntemail0=y

Hindu Jagruti website is at this URL--
http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/national/mfhussain-campaign/

Frontline magazine article on Hussain is here--
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1416/14160820.htm

The Tongue Painter...

"An artist in India's southern Kerala state displays his talent for painting pictures using his tongue. Ani K, a drawing teacher, drew inspiration from a fellow artist who painted with his foot. However, learning his craft was not without its dangers as he suffered headaches and nausea from the paint fumes. Eventually he mastered the art and is now able to finish one canvas in 3-4 days," reports Reuters. A determined person... wonder if this will power could have been put to more productive use?



Here's what will follow, controversies about dishonoring Hindu gods, because he paints with his tongue (which is of course considered very disrespectful) and the harms of toxic paints... Goodness gracious is all I can say!

Aditya Mittal - Like Father, Like Son...

"Aditya Mittal has spent a decade helping his father build the world's
biggest steel company. Will he take the top slot? Or could worries
over nepotism make him prove himself elsewhere?" asks an article in
the Times Online. The UK based paper has done a nice interview with
the son of Lakshmi Mittal, the UK based steel magnate.

An intriguing look into the life of a boy who grew up with a silver
spoon, yet one who seems so capable, level headed and down to earth

Another excerpt, "Aditya Mittal nods. "You hope one generation learns
from another's mistakes. I am my own man. So long as I am doing what I
want, and it works for him and me, it's perfect."
That trust was fostered by an upbringing where Aditya stayed close to
his father's side, visiting steel plants with him, living near the
business in Indonesia where Lakshmi started his operations.
Unlike many entrepreneurs' children, he never lost his father to
business – he was taken along for the ride. And Lakshmi, say those
around him, is good at making business fun.
But father-son bonds make family-owned firms difficult for everyone
else, not least colleagues and other shareholders. Can it be a
meritocracy? Is that why he calls his father Mr Mittal?
Aditya grins. "Well, I could hardly call him Papa in the office, could I?""

Definitely worth a read at--
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3778499.ece

The Million Dollar Dagger

Reuters reports that, "A gold encrusted dagger once owned by the Indian Emperor Shah Jahan who is famous for building the Taj Mahal could fetch $1 million at an auction in London. Shah Jahan's gold encrusted dagger was bought by a collector for less than a thousand dollars and is now expected to fetch up to a million dollars."

A Bharatnatyam Knight

Aniruddha Knight is the grandson of the renowned exponent of
Bharatnatyam, Balasarawathi. He is currently touring the US.
Exceptionally talented, he carries the beautiful art of Bharatnatyam
to a new level with ease and finesse.

Watch his dancing at--
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1497977517/bctid1494387761

An excerpt from the Newsweek article--
"He is tall, slim, and strikingly long limbed. Dressed in
jewel-colored silk tunics and antique ornaments that are family
heirlooms, he looks more like a handsome young maharaja than a
traditional South Indian dancer. But at 27, Aniruddha Knight is the
ninth generation heir of a 200-year-old family of professional dancers
and musicians from Chennai, India. He is also half American. His
father, Douglas Knight, married into this artistically rich family
when he studied classical drumming on a South Indian mridangam at
Wesleyan University, where Aniruddha's late grandmother--T.
Balasaraswati, India's prima danseuse--and her two musician brothers
had taught since 1962. This spring, Knight is touring the Northeast
with his six-member musical ensemble (including his father) and new
works in a program entitled "From the Heart of a Tradition."

That tradition is bharat natyam, one of India's six major--and
distinct--classical dance styles. It is taught to every middle-class
girl in India and now, with immigrant teachers and establishment of
dance schools across suburban America, it is vigorously practiced by
Indians and Americans alike. However, the version that Knight dances
is stylistically unique. It originated as a temple offering performed
by young women who were dedicated to serving God by retelling ancient
Hindu myths through music and dance in the temple courtyard. It was
art in the service of religion, an act of worship, not popular
entertainment. Eventually, some of the dancers were inducted by local
princely families into becoming court performers. A stigma attached to
the professional dancer that only disappeared when dance was
recognized as a national art form at the time of India's independence
in 1947, when the patronage of all dancers and musicians was taken
over and sanctified by the secular government.

It was in this climate that Balasaraswati was recognized as the
greatest Indian dancer of all time. Dance for Knight, as for his
grandmother, is spontaneous, not rehearsed as the music is: as the
ensemble sings a composition, he improvises movements; he follows the
music, even joins in. He takes the lead, giving his accompanists a cue
to move to the next line of text. In short, there is constant
communication between dancer and the accompanists. The star of the
show is first the music, then the dancer, who still uses the old
compositions handed down as prayer, a love song to God. As Bala
describes it, the aim is to create joy through beauty--a transporting
ecstatic experience that is shared by dancer and audience through
melody, rhythm and mime. Done right, the dancer could transport the
audience through a near out-of-body experience into a rapturous
state."

Read the full newsweek article at--
http://www.newsweek.com/id/131556

Hair Color Kills

We all know that coloring your hair is not good for health, because
our skin absorbs some of the harsh chemicals in hair color. But this
news item below, takes it to a new level. Hair color can kill you!!!

The New York Times reports that, "The authorities in Uttar Pradesh
State have banned the sale of a locally made hair dye after
debt-ridden farmers were found to be drinking it to end their lives, a
state official said. At least 11 farmers have died from swallowing the
cheap dye in a drought-hit part of the state in the last three months,
he said. In parts of western and southern India, the dire economic
state of farmers has been blamed for thousands of suicides in recent
years."

Link --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/04/12/world/asia/12briefs-HAIRDYEBANNE_BRF.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin