august 2015 - volume 0815 cleveland, ohio, usa...
TRANSCRIPT
A Monthly Publication of the Federation of India Community Associations (FICA) Since 1967INSIDE
Free Monthly Subscription - A Non-Profit & Tax Exempt Organization - Tax ID# 34-1215066
August 2015 - Volume 0815 Cleveland, Ohio, USAN
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FICA Matters 2Community NewsPresident’s Message 3 Parents & Children 4Mahatma Gandhi Campus 5 Anupy Singla Recipe 6Ardha Matsyendrasana 7Over-Easy or Scramble ? 8Runaway Thoughts 9Geeta Dutt’s Songs 10Run for Nepal 11Community News 12
LOTUS TEAM
Publishing & EditorialSujata Lakhe BarnardRamesh “Ray” GehaniPriyanka Gopal
Email Distribution & AdvertisingAtul [email protected]
Public Relations/CreativeParamjit Singh [email protected]
For Lotus related ques-tions / comments, please email : [email protected], or call 216/791-FICA(3422), and leave a message
Celebrate India’s Independence at Cleveland
Cultural Gardens!When and Where ?Saturday, August 15, 2015: 8:30 am to 10:30 pm: Mahatma statue at Cleveland Cultural Gardens.10:30 am to 11:30: March/ a walk of 1.1 miles.11:30 to 2:00 PM: Rockefeller Green house
Parking: Free parking at Rockefeller Green house. Free shut-tle service loops for attendees from the Greenhouse to the Mahatma and back.
Shuttle service: From 8:00 AM to 12:00 noon. Shuttle loops.
Tickets$2:00 per adult, all children 17 and under free.
Contact InfoFor more information regarding volunteering, applying to be a vendor , or the event in general, please email us atContact: [email protected]@Ficacleveland.org [email protected]@gmail.com216/791-FICA(3422)
DonationsFICA is a registered non-profit organization under the IRS 501(c)(3) guidelines and has a Tax ID of 34-1215066 Donations can be mailed to:India Community Center12412 Cedar RdCleveland, OH 44106Please include “Independence Day” on the memo line on the check. Email your name and check number and amount to [email protected], so we can appropriately ac-knowledge your contribution.
Highlights of the Festival offerings include:• Free Yoga sponsored by Sewa International.• Cultural community with its customs, costumes, music, food, and dance/music by artists never seen in Cleveland before..• Umadaop drum corp• Little “Gandhis” leading the march.• Kathak by new Case Western Reserve university students-two girls ensemble!• Tabla and Vocal Indian singing by Solon High schoolers• DJ/Bollywood open dancing.
Celebration for Indian’s 68th Independence day anniversary will return to the vast expanse of fields, monuments and gardens of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens on August 15, 2015 from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Cele-brating Cleveland’s diverse Indian community with its diverse cultural groups, the event hopes to offer visitors a unique opportunity to march with pride for our culture, unify in diversity and sample a smorgasbord of the customs, costumes, music, food, and sports reflecting the diverse cultures that make up Indian heritage. Sponsored by Federation of India Community Associations of NEO (FICA of NEO), this half-day event takes place amidst the gor-geous winding greens running along side the Doan brook of Rockefeller Park (on MLK Jr. Boulevard between St. Clair and Superior Avenues). The march along Doan brook on MLK to East blvd ending at Rockefell-er Greenhouse at the North end of Rockefeller City Garden will be a symbolic homage to Mahatama Gandhi famous ‘salt march’ along the river Sabarmati. A short walk away from the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, Suresh Bafna. a prominent member of Indian-American community is spear heading a creation of school to be named after Mahatma Gandhi, where Gandhi’s teachings will be in-corporated into the school’s curriculum. Through this mission, Bafna hopes to foster a greater investment in the area by the local Indian com-munity and hopes that by “staying engaged,” Indian- Americans can get involved more deeply into the fabric of the community of which they are now a part. Last year was first year for FICA to have this celebration at this location. Weather was gorgeous and attendees seemed to have enjoyed the venue and programing. FICA is seeking to celebrate this day at the same venue also in 2016 (the 100th anniversary of the Gardens) and beyond. Hope some day kids from the future Mahatma Gandhi school will march with us! The Cleveland Cultural Gardens lie in Rockefeller Park, a 276-acre tranquil, ravine-like setting that runs two miles between Univer-sity Circle, Cleveland’s cultural center to the south and Lake Erie to the north. John D. Rockefeller donated the site as parkland in 1896 to commemorate the city’s first centennial. Ernest Bowditch, a renowned Boston landscape architect, designed a meandering parkway flanked
by wide-open green space and framed by steeply sloped ter-rain running along meadows bordering Doan Brook. There are 29 formally dedicated gardens representing the various nationalities that comprise Greater Cleveland and the world community. The Gardens remain an untapped resource and unexplored realm by the great majority of Cuyahoga County residents. Festivals like Cleveland World Festival, Cleveland one world day, Opera at the Italian garden and hopefully In-dian Idenpendence day will some day reopen the region’s eyes to this hidden cultural gem. The India Cultural Garden on Martin Luther King Bou-levard was dedicated in 2005, joining the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, a collection of gardens representing various nation-alities that symbolize Cleveland’s rich diversity. The garden includes a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, in fact tallest such statue in US! His example of civil disobedience anchored in non-vi-olence and truth inspired civil rights movements around the world, and also inspired a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr. The symbolism of a Gandhi statue on Martin Luther King Boulevard is inescapable.
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FICA matters
Swetha Ravi getting ready for one of her performances! Bharatnatyam at Lower Italian Garden at World Festival in 2014
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Around the communities
FICA StaffAdministration
Board of Trustees Chittaranjan Jain, [email protected] 440/942-4369
Executive Board Sujata Lakhe Barnard, [email protected]/791-FICA(3422)
Giri Guruswami, Vice President [email protected], [email protected]/317-3911
Jyoti Sadekar, [email protected]@hotmail.com216/791-FICA(3422)
Ashish [email protected]/202-6662
Sujata Lakhe BarnardEditor & Publisher, The [email protected]/791-FICA(3422)
Priyanka Gopal , Lotus Copy [email protected]/201-0443
Atul Verma, Lotus Business [email protected] [email protected]/307-5470
Jessica Kumar, [email protected]/349-0480
India Cultural GardenRaj Pillai - [email protected]/724-4398
Shiksha DaanSanjay Garg - [email protected]/590-1261
Project SevaMona Alag, [email protected]
Sister Organizations
Association of Indian physicians of Noth Ohio (AIPNO) www.aipno.orgDr. Umesh Yalavarthy, President216-513-4964 [email protected]
Bengali Cultural Society of Clevelandwww.bcscle.orgSujit Ghosh, [email protected]
Marathi Mandal www. neomm.orgDr. Sharad [email protected]
Odisha SocietyBirendra Jena, President 330 544-1725 [email protected]
President’s Message
Letter to the Editor
Even life will not con-tinue for very long without diversity of genes coming together to make a new individ-ual! One of FICA’s mis-sions is to build a bridge between the a piece of Indian culture which gets here with its people and the mainstream Ameri-
cans society. In Summer, when weather ‘could be’ nice in Cleveland, outdoor festivals like ‘world festival (Aug 2nd)’ , ‘Indian Independence day Celebration (Aug 15th)’, ‘One World Day (Aug 23rd) at a place like Cul-tural Gardens of Cleveland add in creating a space in our society where recent immigrants, expats and other americans who have been here for many generations can live in a harmonious, un-prejudiced and condition of mutual appreciation and enjoyment. Celebrating our differences helps us realize that we all, irrespective of our religion, language, country of origin, have common interests. Through understand-ing of each other’s diversity we become more aware of our own. Not only do we become more aware we gain a sense of pride of our own culture. It’s very energizing and thought provoking. FICA will participate in World Festival by pre-senting a cultural show at CoolCleveland Cabaret Stage from 12:45-1:15pm. and between 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Hungarian Garden. Our main objective is to introduce our heritage to mainstream American society. Swetha Ravi a recent arrival in Cleveland, a graduate student pursuing Masters in Engineering Management at Case Western Reserve University is the main performer. Swetha is unity in diversity personified! She is trained in two centuries old traditions, Kathak, a dance style originated in North of India and Bharatnayam origi-nated in South of India and also in modern Bollywood
dancing. In her pursuit of achieving expertise in Kathak she was fortunate to attend workshops under Shri Pan-dit Birju Maharaj, who himself was in Cleveland last year for Thyagraja festival, biggest such festival of south Indian dance/music outside of India, Getting back to why FICA’s objective of bridge building is so important, understanding people and their backgrounds is crucial to personal and community growth. FICA began as a small organization of Indian students in 1962 and has grown to serve a community of over 20,000 people of South-Asian Indian ethnicity. With that big a number and vast expanse of suburbs of Cleve-land, a lot of us tend to live in isolation and insulated from other cultures, whether they are cultures which still fall in the bracket of Indian ethnicity or outside of it. The Lotus, which was started in 1967 as a monthly newspaper to report on the Indian Community and its activities is a great vehicle for informing and communi-cating through columns about Cultural, political, social, legal, parenting,educational aspects pertaining to Indi-an diaspora. Therefore the other day I was surprised when a prominent member of FICA and then person associated with other Indian newspaper in Cleveland degraded Lotus by calling it a ‘mouthpiece’ for FICA. However, I am at loss to know what they really meant but as I understand and the plaque issued by the city outside ICC building indicates, The Lotus is the oldest Indian Community newspaper in U.S.A. and the only non-profit Indian Community newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. It is a great joy to read in it how different forms of music can bring happiness to groups outside of their own traditional roots, analyze legal contradictions one faces here compared to India, perspective of individuals who were witness to the drama of Independence and pride in achievements of high-schoolers and profession-als alike and philanthropic endeavors of prominent In-dian Clevelanders! Let us all spend some time together. and enjoy each other and celebrate how far our community has come! Lets also not forget diversity makes the world go round!
Hello Lotus,
My name is Sumukh Torgalkar. I am a stand-up come-dian living in Columbus, Ohio, however I grew up in Cleveland and have been familiar with The Lotus since I was a child.
For whatever it may be worth for news for Cleveland area Indians, I recorded my first stand-up comedy in April at the comedy club in Columbus. It releases on August 4. It is now available for pre-ordering on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mispronuncia-tion-sumukh-torgalkar/id1014735955
I have opened for Russell Peters on a number of occa-sions when he has performed in Cleveland, so perhaps some of the Asian Indian community is aware of me. I do live performances including private shows. It is possible that I will be back in Cleveland at Hilarities in mid-October.
Just wanted to forward this info on to spread the word to the community. Thank you for your support!
Sumukh Torgalkarwww.sumukhcomedy.com
Lotus team is very saddened by Pass-ing away of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam a great Scientist and Former President of India, who will always be loved
4 Events Future & PastParents and Children
- By Om Julka
Historically Speaking- By Om Julka
In a paper pub-lished on June 28, 2012 in Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, there was an assertion, “The socialization goals shape par-ents’ everyday in-
teractions and parenting styles with their children….Western cultures endorse autonomous socialization goals that focus on helping their children become independent, com-petitive, and self-expressive, while parents in Asian cultures emphasize obedience, respect, and social in-terdependence….Indian immigrant mothers in the United States were most likely to report using authori-tarian parenting.” This is consistent with the Indian cultural values of
respect for elders and duty towards parents and grandparents. Other teachings include bravery, love, re-spect, wisdom, honesty and truth-fulness.In practical terms we have observed that Indian American kids have dominated the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 1999, winning 11 of 15 competitions and the last six in a row. Nearly a third of the semi-finalists at this year’s national spell-ing bee weByre Indian-Ameircans. Obviously it is the result of parent-ing styles implanted in India’s edu-cational system and oriented extra-curricular pursuits also. In 2012, President Obama invited 55 science fair winners to the White House; nine of them were South Asians. At the 2012 Science Talent Search, three of ten Junior
Nobel Prize winners were Indian-Americans’ children. In just the last two months, Indian American Iesha Khare was a top winner at the Intel International Science and Engineer-ing Fair. Aseem Jha earned perfeect scores on the SAT and ACT. Is it any wonder that the last six national spelling bee Champions have also been children of Indiana-Ameri-cans? They and their parents have a belief that if they work hard they will get better and better. Every educated parent defi-nitely appreciates education more than many others, but why do Indi-ans dominate the spelling bees more than Math or Science competitions? I think it might be beccause Math and Science are Universal languages; so even those who don’t have good knowledge of English skills can be
good at Math and/or Science. Of course for most Indians English is one of their national languages due to British influence from colonial times. So, they are more likely good at English, though they are also good at Math and Science. Some-times we also wonder why native English speaking kids don’t achieve better results in Spelling Bees. Many of them don’t even have very good writing skills in their own language. There may possibly be some other reasons as to why children of Indian Americans have been doing much better than others in their spelling bee and other contests. Let the par-ents of all nationalities keep taking good care of upbringing and edu-cational achievements of their chil-dren.
I was a student when Churchill famously called Gandhi “a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace.” That was in 1931 at the time when Mahatma Gandhi signed a Pact with Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India. What an ironic twist now when the 9 foot tall statue of Mahat-ma Gandhi was unveiled by Indian Finance Minister in March 2015, in London, opposite British Parliament and close to that of Churchill. It must have irritated Win-ston Churchill’s soul in heaven to see that this statue of Gandhi (whom he despised) stands right close to his own.
It is said that Churchill was also much irritated when, in 1932, during the Indian Round Table Con-ference, Mahatma Gandhi said to him, “I have an alternative that is unpleasant to you…and to imperial-ists: India demands complete liberty and freedom. The same liberty that Englishmen enjoy…and I want In-dia to become a partner in the Em-pire…not merely for mutual benefit, but so that the great weight that is crushing the world to atoms, may be lifted from its shoulders”. Subsequently the whole world must have realized that it was largely due to Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful struggle and civil disobe-dience campaigns that no bitterness remained between Britain and In-dia and no bloodshed of rulers was
spilled, even when the British were leaving India. In fact, even now, 68 years after independence, the rela-tions between both countries, with good economic ties remain good and strong. In a spirit of “forgive and for-get” the Indians have also ignored how India was looted during the long period of about three hundred years of British rule. Disgruntled In-dian poets in those days used to sing sorrowful songs in the 1920’s. I still recall part of one given below:- “Khudaya kaisi museebaton mein yeh Hind waale padey hue hain; Ghazab toh yeh hai, makaan waale makaan se baahar pade hue hain” (“O, God, what calamities have befallen on the Indians. What a
pity that the house-owners are them-selves living out of their home!”) Now all the past is dead and gone. On this Independence Day August 15, 2015 let all Indians recall the sacrifices of those Indians who under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi helped to achieve it with non-violence. Let them “forgive and forget” the tragic happenings of the past in the spirit of mutual benefit, and well-being. A Saint rightly said, “Man is one name belonging to ev-ery nation upon earth. The subjects of which untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.” Let us live and let live in peace and prosperity of all human beings.
5 Community News“Mahatma Gandhi Campus in Cleveland”
- By Raghav Sharma
A short walk away from the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens lies Citi-zens Academy. Birthed from the abandoned husk of a former Cleveland public school, CA is part of the Breakthrough charter schools network. As of this upcoming fall, the network manages the ad-ministrative affairs of 11 Cleveland schools, and provides unparalleled educational opportunities to some three thousand local children. Citizens Academy’s stated mission is “to produce learners who exemplify academic excellence and responsible citizenship.” Their commitment to this mission is evident as one walks through the school. Its walls are adorned with posters of prominent American figures; from writer and social critic James Baldwin to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the children who attend CA are constantly presented with models who represent the value of academic success. A board hanging outside the gymnasium has pictures of all the students accompanied by their own handwritten words describing their as-pirations and dream colleges. Susan Ertle, executive director of devel-opment at Friends of Breakthrough (a group ded-icated to building a powerful volunteer network to assist with administrative duties at Break-through schools), describes the Breakthrough business model as “efficient and cost effective.” Breakthrough reduces the cost of opening a new school by finding unused buildings and leasing – or sometimes purchasing – them from the city. A potential site for a new Breakthrough school must meet a very basic list of criterion – it must be “clean, warm, safe, and dry.” Citizens Acad-emy found a home in a former Cleveland public
school, located on Hampden Avenue, which had been shut down by the city. According to Ertle, the residents of the surrounding neighborhood were overjoyed to see the school building revital-ized “because it elevates the sense of community in the area.” Breakthrough’s biggest hurdle is raising the funds required to purchase new facilities. A new method of alleviating the financial burden associated with buying buildings presented itself when Lubrizol, a chemical company with exten-sive philanthropic operations in the Cleveland area, donated $1 million to Breakthrough in ex-change for having their name on a Breakthrough school. This led Breakthrough to develop a pro-gram through which individuals or organiza-tions would be granted naming rights to one of Breakthrough’s buildings in exchange for their donation. Enter Suresh Bafna. A local businessman and a member of Breakthrough’s board, Bafna’s mission is to raise the $1 million needed to re-name Citizens Academy after Mahatma Gandhi. The name would not be purely for show. Gan-dhi’s time spent fighting for equal rights in South Africa and India and the influence of his philoso-phy of satyagraha on civil rights crusaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela is directly in line with the values of active citizen-ship which CA seeks to impart on its students. Following the naming, Gandhi’s teachings will be incorporated into the school’s curriculum. Through this mission, Bafna hopes to fos-ter a greater investment in the area by the local Indian community. By “staying engaged,” Indi-an-Americans can ingratiate themselves into the
fabric of the community of which they are now a part. Although many in the Indian community have taken an active role in improving the condi-tions of their fellow citizens, Bafna believes that “considering the size of the [Indian] community in this town and the resources we have, we can do a lot more.” Donations for the Mahatma Gandhi project are currently being accepted by Citizens Academy. Anyone can write a check, addressed to Friends of Breakthrough Schools and with “Mahatma Gandhi” in the memo, to help reach the $1 million goal. Already more than eighty percent of the required funds have been raised with the Bafna Family committing $500,000, but a final push is necessary. Anyone gifting $25,000 will have a classroom named in their honor. All gifts are welcome. For further information please send your inquiries to [email protected]. Please send your gift to: Friends of Breakthrough 30405 Solon Road, #9 Solon, Ohio 44139
Please make sure to put “Mahatma Gandhi” in the memo. The gift of education, says Bafna, “is the best gift you can give someone.” Education empowers people like nothing else can, and grants a level of independence for which there is no substitute. By contributing to this cause, members of the Greater Cleveland Indian community have the power to shape countless lives and forever alter the future of the city to which their own futures are inextricably linked.
According to their website Breakthrough schools of Cleveland are tuition-free, non-profit public charter schools are recognized nationally as the best charter schools in Cleveland. These schools have high expectations for everyone – children and adults – and believe in every student. Like all the best public charter schools, they do what’s best for their students, and make sure every child receives a high-quality education to prepare them for success in college and in life.
Citizens Academy was founded in 1999 by Perry White in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, it has become one of the top-performing elemen-tary schools in Cleveland. According to their website due to high demand and community interest, they opened a second campus in 2012, Citizens Academy East. They will also open their third campus in 2015, Citizens Academy Southeast. According to their website, their schools have developed a national reputation for their commitment to academic excellence and responsible citizenship.
6 Community News
Mushrooms. Yum. Add spices, cream, and some heat to them, and you’ll have a curry on your hands that will be a weekly staple. It’s at once decadent and healthy, especial-ly if you substitute cashew cream for the typical dairy version. If you want to use cashew cream, you want to ideally soak your cashews overnight. You can still make it suc-cessfully without soaking, but if you take that extra step you’ll have a creamier product, so plan ahead.While you can use any mushroom, I love using the cremini (or crimini), sometimes referred to as a ‘baby portobello’ or ‘baby bella’. What are these exactly? I was really surprised to find out that they are the same va-riety of mushroom as the more-com-monly eaten white button mush-room and the larger portobello. The only difference is maturation. First come white button, they mature to cremini, and then onto portobella. Read more here. That’s really all it is. Cremini, because they are grown a little longer, taste a bit more robust and hold up better in an Indian cur-ry. But, use what you have on hand. While we make various mushroom curries in Indian cuisine, this one is made a bit more decadent because of the combination of spices and nuts. The Muslim royals of India (Nawabs) introduced nuts to Indi-
an cuisine. I’m not professing to do anything extraordinarily new here, except use those nuts as a base for the curry rather than a dairy cream and sub cremini for button mush-rooms. It all makes a difference, though! Here’s your mise en place. You’ll need (from the left): green carda-mom pods, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cassia or bay leaves, black carda-mom pods, cremini mushrooms, red chile powder, spiced cashew cream, onion, cilantro, and garlic.
Cremini Mushroom Curry in-Spiced Cashew Cream6 green cardamom pods 4 black cardamom pods8 whole cloves2 - 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use grapeseed)2 cinnamon sticks3 cassia leaves (or bay leaves)1 medium yellow or red onion, minced4 cloves garlic, minced3 1/2 pounds cremini mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed (about 70) *1/2 cup spiced cashew cream (see recipe below) or dairy cream1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon red chile powder or cay-enne1/4 cup chopped cilantro or parsley1. Lightly crush both green and black cardamom and cloves lightly
in a mortar and pestle. Don’t worry if you can’t find black cardamom. Leave it out until you can. 2. Heat oil in a 6-quart saute pan over medium-high heat. Add crushed spices, cinnamon sticks, and cassia or bay leaves. Cook over a minute until just toasted and fragrant. 3. Add onion and garlic. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until lightly brown. Mix well. 4. Add mushrooms carefully. Do it in batches if it’s easier. Turn the heat to low and cook a total of about 12 minutes. About 3 minutes into cook-ing I will add a 1/2 cup of water to prevent the mushrooms from stick-ing. You want that curry or gravy later so adding moisture does not hurt the dish. 5. Make a well in the middle and add cashew cream. Mix well. Cook another few minutes. Add salt, red
chile, and cilantro or parsley.
* I really love using the mushrooms whole, so I lean towards smaller mushrooms. I just couldn’t find small ones, so used medium-sized ones and they worked just perfectly. Slice them in half if you prefer.
Spiced Cashew Cream1 cup raw, unsalted cashews, soaked overnight1 1/4 cup water2 teaspoons Indian spice blend like pav bhaji masala or garam masala1 teaspoon saltDrain cashews and blend them with other ingredients in a high-powered blender (I use a Vitamix). Blend until smooth and creamy. Refriger-ate up to one week or freeze to use later. This makes about 1 1/2 cups. Us it like its dairy equivalent in In-dian curries, over Italian pasta, or drizzled over steamed veggies like broccoli and cauliflower. For dedi-cated plant-based eaters like me, ca-shew cream is da bomb! Here’s what you’ll have once you blend it down.
Just keep in mind that cashews, while plant-based, are high in fat (the good kind) and calories. One ounce of cashews is 5 grams of pro-tein, 12 grams of fat, and 157 calo-ries. You don’t want to overdo it.
Cremini Mushroom Curry in Spiced Cashew Cream- Permission granted by Anupy Singla, the famous chef, to print one of her recipes here
Over-Easy or Scramble ?- By Sanju Vinekar
The summer break is rapidly coming to a close. How did it go? What lies ahead?
Summer breaks have changed since I was a child. They used to be long hot days spent reading novels and riding bikes, catching cray fish in the creek or playing board games with the neighbors, going to air-conditioned theaters for the summer blockbuster and then to the Baskin-Robbins in the late evening to choose one from the 31 flavors, sometimes even a double-dip, or walking alone to a neighborhood playground and daydreaming about things while feeling the air catch one’s hair while swinging, writing long, long letters to faraway penpals and receiving the same or postcards from exotic locales, too. Those summers were more like the song from Porgy and Bess. “Summertime and the livin’ is easy ...”
These days, summers seem a little different. Children are given school
work to prevent something called, “summer slide.” And, electronics have filled all the spare moments, and they are in contact minute-by-minute with friends through tex-ting. On Tuesday, we rushed to the library to get some of the limited tickets to the magician’s show before they ran out. Most school mates are at one of various skill camps. Skills camps aren’t day camps consisting of swimming, canoeing, and wind-ing yarn around popsicle sticks to make “God’s eyes,” and then singing “Kum Ba Yah.” Skills camps hone skills: Sports skills, music skills, act-ing, voice, robotics, art technique, for example. And, parents of sporty kids get worried that, if their kid does not attend the skill camp, then he or she will be replaced on the A-team by another who did attend. That would be a failure on the part of the parents, and apparently the B-team is for the lesser talents.
A friend of mine recently moved to a new town. At the beginning of the
school year, she missed several op-portunities to enroll her kids in the school activities they had wanted to join. Turns out that the registration announcements came out by email first thing in the morning. But, my friend wasn’t in the habit of moni-toring her email from the moment she woke up. By the time my friend checked her email, in the mid-morn-ing after she had gotten the children off to school, washed up the break-fast dishes, put in a load of laundry, and sat down at her computer with a cup of coffee, when she clicked on the link to get to the registration form, the activities were already full and registration was closed. She felt a sense of panic and guilt. She had failed at the number one motherly duty. She had not scrambled fast enough to grab the limited opportu-nities for her children. They would be disappointed. Worse, they might be at a disadvantage relative to their peers. Her solution for the next se-mester: keep her email app on her smart phone in her field of vision
from the moment she woke up.It bamboozles me. It isn’t only sum-mer break or extra-curricular activi-ties anymore that we scramble for. Anymore, is there any area for which we don’t feel we need to scramble? Certainly, there are times to scram-ble. But, why did no one ever tell me that after we scramble the eggs in the morning, we are supposed to continue to keep scrambling all day long until the moment our heads hit the pillows? For almost everything? And, that we are meant to feel as if we failed our children if we don’t participate in this continual scram-bling?
There are these funny pictures that are in all the optical illusion books. One of these is a picture of two dark-colored silhouettes facing each other against a light-colored background. The first image we see is of the two silhouettes in the bright color. It pops out at us. Two people facing each other, interacting, planning something or working together.
(Continued om page 8)
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This asana is named after the great yogi Matsyendra. The name comes from the Sanskrit words ardha meaning “half”, matsya meaning “fish”,endra meaning “king” and asana meaning “posture”. The sage Matsyendra lived sometime be-tween the fifth and tenth century AD. There is a great story where Shiva was explaining yoga to this consort Parvati on an island. A fish, remaining motionless heard all the mysteries of Yoga. Shiva, noticing that the fish had overheard him, sprinkled water on the fish, which instantly turned into the divine form of Matsyendra, who then went to spread the knowledge of yoga. He is credited as the first teacher of Hatha yoga. He and his well-known disciple Goraksha are considered the great masters and the origina-tors of Hatha Yoga. This is a deep spinal twist and one the best and most effective asanas in Hatha Yoga. It provides elasticity to the spine with the deep twist and removes toxins from the internal or-gans.
GETTING INTO THE ASANA1. Sit in Dandasana with legs stretched out in front. Anchor down through sitz bones. Flex the heels and elongate the spine. 2. With an exhale, bend right knee and place the right foot to the outside of left knee. Press the foot very actively into the floor. Right knee will point directly to the ceil-ing. 3. Bend left knee and place the left foot under the right buttock.
4. Inhale to lengthen the spine and exhale to twist the trunk to the right. Turn the neck so that the chin is in line with the sternum. 5. Place right hand behind the right hand behind the tail bone and reach up to the sky with left finger-tips. 6. Place left elbow to the out-side of right knee.7. Roll shoulders back and down.8. Place both buttocks firmly and evenly on the floor so that the spine is centered. 9. Head can be turned in two directions: in the direction of the twist to the back of the room or counter twist of the torso by turn-ing it left and looking over the left shoulder at the right foot. 10. With every inhalation lift a little more through the sternum, pressing the back hand into the floor without leaning into it. Twist a little more with every exhalation. Distrib-ute the weight of the spine evenly without concentrating it in the low-er back. 11. Lift up through the crown of your head and stay in the asana for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then re-lease with an exhalation.
As you surrender your weight into gravity, the Earth’s rebound energy will move in a wave through your pelvis and upward through your spine, bringing your upper body into vertical alignment and a sense of almost weightlessness. Allow yourself to experience this.
BENEFITS OF THIS ASANA
1. Dissolves tension in the spi-nal muscles.2. Provides re-hydration to the intervertebral discs by a squeeze and soak process. 3. Removes rigidity from spi-nal vertebrae. 4. Helps slipped disc.5. Massages the abdominal or-gans and stokes agni, the digestive fire.6. Opens the chest and rib cage providing more oxygen to lungs. 7. Stimulates the liver and kid-neys. 8. Tones and strengthens ab-dominal organs and oblique mus-cles.
9. Traditional texts say that this asana increases appetite, destroys most deadly diseases, and awakens Kundalini.
SPECIFIC FOCUS FOR THIS ASA-NA1. Begin by grounding yourself into the earth. Use a folded blanket if needed to provide a lift to the low-er back and keeping pelvis leveled. 2. Maintain breath awareness. 3. Remain centered in your spine, maintaining the integrity of the central axis. 4. Initiate twists from the in-side of the body- the internal organs and soft front of the spine-rather than muscular force. 5. Feel the body’s willingness to move into an ascending spiral-from the bottom of the spine up, like a spiral staircase. 6. Remember, spine must elon-gate before it twists.7. Keep limbs, head, and neck free from rigidity. 8. Degree of rotation: lum-bar=60 , thoracic=120 ,cervical=180
CONTRADICTIONS AND CAUTION1. Back or spine injury espe-cially disc herniation. Perform this asana with the supervision of an ex-perienced teacher. 2. Pregnancy in later stages. 3. Sacroiliac joint injuries.
See things from a new perspective with this twist. This asana will re-move tension and agitation from the mind and any sluggishness from the belly. The next time you feel wound up by life, spiral yourself into this twist. As the body uncoils, the mind unwinds and finds liberation or moksha.
ARDHA MATSYENDRASANA- By Vishali Gupta
7Issues that matter8 News of Interest Over-Easy or Scramble ?
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Perhaps these two people are enjoying an interesting and satisfying conver-sation or planning an outing. On the other hand, perhaps they are compar-ing themselves to one another.
“I’m going to coding camp.”“Well, I’m going to tennis camp.”“Well, I am going on a Disney cruise.”“Well, I got tickets for Taylor Swift.” And, so on.
At first, these two silhouettes are all we notice and we pay no attention to the background. But, if we look closely, the background emerges. We notice that the background shape, in its quiet way, actually makes an image of its own. In the case of the picture of the two silhouettes, the background shape is of a wine goblet. A wine goblet that may be filled with a chilled rosé, sit-ting on a table, on a deck overlooking a calm lake, in which the sunset is reflected. The silhouettes are social, interactive. The wine goblet is solitary and still. The silhouettes evoke action and engagement. The wine goblet evokes reflection and repose. Each image is compelling but in a different way.
Isn’t it similar with our approach to life? There is the obvious approach, the one that jumps out at us. And, another reason it is all the more obvious is usually because it is what everyone else is doing. But, then there is the op-posite approach, which is not obvious because hardly anyone else is doing it. In fact, the thought might not have crossed anyone’s mind.
What kind of lives do the people who don’t scramble, or don’t scramble fast enough lead? Are those lives simply the background, the debris, what is
left over after the successful scramblers jump on limited opportunities? Or do those lives actually have an entirely different shape of their own worth exploring? Like the wine goblet? A secret non-scrambling world of won-ders and pleasures and even growth and learning experiences that is totally invisible to the vast majority of us, like so many leprechauns?“The problem with taking the most difficult path?”
EMPTY
News of Interest 9
By the time this monthly edition of esteem Lotus (a prestigious release of your own Federation of India Com-munity Associations/FICA (since 1967) reaches you, it will be time to Celebrate India’s 68th Independence Day. Thanks to the foresightedness, commitment, nonviolent approach, and leadership of Mahatma Gandhi (10/2/1869-1/30/1948) that India became a free nation on August 15, 1947. Gandhi Ji proved to the entire World that we all can be greater than we are. He did not need any weap-ons to prove his point. The wounds Gandhi Ji and other Freedom Fight-ers (Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Lala Lajpat Rai, to mention a few) received during demonstra-tions and when locked up in jails became their ammunition. Gandhi Ji exhibited such a profound belief in the dignity of human race and unshakable sense of sacrifice that he has become immortal. He has truly become the epitome of sacrifice, the giving up of all worldly addictions - material as well as personal. For 1948 Nobel Prize, Gandhi Ji was be-ing duly nominated by the selection committee (5th time) but he could not receive one on account of his as-sassination by a fanatic individual, Mr. Godse. To honor Gandhi Ji in 1948 after he passed away, Noble Prize selection committee decided to not award Nobel Prize to anyone. That is what Saint of Sabarmati was all about. India has become today one of the largest democracy and one of the most economically progressive
nation in the World. Indian econo-my has jumped from $300 million around 1995 to $2 trillion today. Based on the current reforms by the Indian Government, it is likely to touch about $6 trillion in next five years or so, Just the other day (some 20 years ago), India did not have enough funds to pay its bills and had to pawn quiet a few tonnes of Gold from its official holding with couple of leading Banks in England and Switzerland. And today India is sitting on about $320 billion in surplus. India had offered Greece fi-nancial help during recent financial crisis on account of both countries’ centuries old good relations but Greece decided to not avail of the help for it might have affected that country’s future and progress in Eu-rozone. Speaking of India’s growth and progress over last a couple of decades, Indian engineers and re-searchers deserve a lot of credit. Ger-many has started showing tremen-dous interest in joint collaborations in manufacturing with India lately, as many as 1,500 German firms have established Offices in India.
It is very much in the blood of al-most all Asian Indians that they do care for others in genuine need, ir-respective of their origin/race and faith. Melody Queen of India, Lata Mangeshkar, born on Sept. 28, 1929 at Indore in Madhya Pradesh State in a Marathi-speaking family, has helped thousands of families all over Inida. Among many others, well known entrepreneur Ratan Tata
came to Harvard School of Business for a year or so for an advanced management course and before he went back to India to look after his business, he donated $50 million to Harvard, the wealthiest University in the World with about $32 billion endowment. By the way, Yale is the 2nd wealthiest University with $21 bil-lion, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is at #3 with $19 billion endowment today. I believe humans think, by and large, alike when it comes to helping those in need (whether they are Asian In-dians or non-Asian Indians). Char-ity work done by Bob Geldof (born at Dublin in Ireland on 10/5/1954), Creator of Boomtown Rats Band In 1975 with well-known artists, like Elton John, Madonna, U2, Sting is unforgettable. My Respected Mom used to say, ‘ Even an animal can live for oneself, Always try to think beyond yourself. Minting money does not make anyone admirable or honorable....and so on’. Thanks to new tech that anyone can not only further one’s business/work but can also move it faster and easier. In this booming economy, if you have an idea (and believe me, there are many under-penetrated areas in various indus-tries when you view it thru the lens of new tech and latest researches), give it some shape now or at least work towards it little by little on daily basis. ‘I’ll try some day or I’ll try one day’ is not going to work, for some day and one day do not
constitute days of the week (as wise people often remind us). Now is the time, Past was past and won’t come back. And what is the future of our otherwise beautiful civilization? Who knows? Who had known that drip-irrigation will save 60% water and tissue culture (using single cell or a group of cells under hygienic and controlled conditions will be-come the backbone of propagation of certain crops in a tiny 1/676th portion of India when idea got ex-perimented there not long ago? I am glad scientists over there did not keep waiting for someone else to prove first and took the shot them-selves, which proved to be right on the money. Therefore, please think of coming forward with your idea(s) now. Plenty of funds are available for the right type of idea/startup these days. Worst scenario could be it won’t work. So what? Thomas Ed-ison (1847-1931), who is well-known for his 1,000 patents, always kept ex-perimenting with products, appara-tus, etc. and never gave up even if he failed for about 10,000 times. As per him, ‘I did not fail 10,000 times. I proved that those 10,000 ways did not work’. Just move on by keeping your feet on the ground and eyes on the stars, and let life throw a curve ball on your path from time to time. That happens to almost everyone, at one point or the others.....After all, Calm Seas don’t Create Skilled Sail-ors anyway!
Runaway Thoughts- By Inder Suneja
When Geeta Dutt née Roy sang “Yaad karoge, yaad karoge, ik din humko yaad karoge” in Do Bhai in 1947, she had not imagined how prophetic the lyrics by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan would turn out to be. To-day, 68 years after that song had captured the imagination of the mu-sic lovers all across the country and 43 years since her death in 1972, the three generations of her die-hard fans still fondly remember her, and her melodious and soulful voice continue to haunt and mesmerize them. The music of the Do Bhai with another of Geeta’s song “Mera sun-dar sapna beet gaya” topping the charts was a hit, and the movie be-came the second highest grosser at the box office in 1947.
It was virtually Geeta’s first movie, and the countrywide popularity of her songs in Do Bhai had overnight leapfrogged to another dimension the nascent playback singing career of the sensational teenager. Her pop-ularity had scaled to newer heights in the years 1948 and 1949, eclipsing Shamshad Begum and Raj Kumari who then ruled the roost. Virtually, overnight she had become the first choice of every music director worth his salt and crowned Hindi movie-dom’s reigning diva.
And then suddenly she found her supremacy being challenged by an-other teenager, Lata Mangeshkar who had scored a unique hat-trick in 1949 with three mega-hit films in Mahal, Andaz and Barsaat. Nau-shad’s lilting music in Mehboob Khan’s Andaaz and Khemchand Prakash’s soulful songs in Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal with the haunting theme song “Aayega Aanewala” had enthralled the music lovers all over the country. However, it was in Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat with amazing music by the new duo of Shankar-Jaikishan that Lata demonstrated her varied inbred talents that caught the imagination of cinegoers. In-terestingly, she had had the rare distinction of singing both for Nar-gis and Nimmi as also for a starlet named Bimla Kumari on whom the popular “Hawa mein udta jaye mera lal dupatta” song was pictur-ized. With rich musical lineage and training as her assets, it was thus not surprising for Lata to have won the love of music buffs.
Lata then emerged as the new sing-
ing sensation, and Geeta found her-self relegated to the second position. Yet, despite this relegation, Geeta nevertheless managed to hold her own and was too in great demand. In fact, 1950 turned out to be the most productive year for Geeta dur-ing which she recorded more songs than in any of the previous year. In Jogan with Nargis in the lead, she sang six of Meerabai’s devotional bhajans like “Mat jaa mat jaa jogi”, “Main to Giridhar ke ghar jaaoon”, “Eri main to prem diwani” and the most popular one “Ghunghat ke pat khol” that captured the imagination of the devout. In fact, during that year, she sang for several reputed music composers such like SD Bur-man, Avinash Vyas, Bulo C. Rani, Chitragupta, Ghulam Mohammed, Khayyam, Hansraj Behl, Khem-chand Prakash, Husnlal Bhagatram, SN Tripathi, Vasant Desai et al.
And then Guru Dutt happened in 1951. Dev Anand’s Baazi was his di-rectorial debut. It was on its sets that Geeta and Guru met. Geeta was be-witchingly beautiful and her voice enchanting. The Cupid duly played its role; soon enough the two fell in love and were married in May 1953. They blissfully spent the first three years of their marriage; their first son Tarun came in 1954 and the next Arun in 1956. But unfortunately they were not destined to ‘live hap-pily thereafter’. It was ironical that Dutt’s entry into her life became both a blessing and a curse. It was a bless-ing as Geeta’s singing career further blossomed and she sang some of the most titillating songs of her career in movies like Aar Paar (1954) and Mr. and Mrs.55 (1955). Both the mov-ies were big hits. Coquettish songs like “Ye lo main haari piya”, “Jaa jaa jaa bewafa” and “Babu ji dheere chalna” became chartbusters. There were other singers like Lata who were as good, if not better, than Geeta but her singing possessed an ethereal charm of its own; she sang from heart that lent an extra magic to her singing. At one moment, she would sing a devotional “Main to Giridhar ke ghar jaaoon” and the next she would without taking a breath switch over to a completely different genre, “Mera naam chin chin chu” and then to a seductive number “Tadbir se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de”. There was no end to her versatility. “A soft spoken woman in real life, she would metamorpho-
se into an exotic cabaret performer with clever modulation of voice in the recording studio. Her voice was rich, vibrant and well-toned and could switch from exotica to melan-choly in a matter of minutes,” says Shikha Biswas Vohra, daughter of the veteran composer, Anil Biswas.
Both Geeta and Guru were tempera-mental, sensitive and emotionally fragile. Geeta as a top playback sing-er in 1953 made much more money than Guru Dutt who then struggled to make his mark as a director. A few busybodies insinuated that Dutt had married Geeta only for financial rea-sons. That hurt Guru no end and he asked her to sing only for his mov-ies and not for any other producer. However, others pooh-pooh this insinuation. “Guru Dutt belong to the kind of people for whom money meant nothing; it was only a com-modity to trade dreams with,” com-ments Amit Biswas who, as a kid, used to play with Tarun and Arun in their beautiful bungalow on the top of Pali Hill. If he stopped Geeta from singing for other producers, it was probably because he “consid-ered her as his treasure, not to be shared,” adds Amit. Being a compul-sive singer, Guru Dutt’s ban muffled her natural singing instincts. She felt suffocated and secretly sang for a few outside producers but that was not the solution.
It needs to be remembered that Guru Dutt was the most creative of directors of his time and his mov-ies like Pyasaa were sheer ‘work of art’ on celluloid. He was a strict dis-ciplinarian when it came to movie making, but he was just the oppo-site in his personal life; he was vir-tually a chain smoker and drank a lot. Though ostensibly they contin-ued to live together, their lives had started drifting apart. In the midst
of this marital turmoil, Guru Dutt introduced a newcomer, Waheeda Rehman in his movie C.I.D. in 1956. Rumours started doing the rounds of Guru Dutt’s affair with her that further upset and distressed Geeta. She ignored rehearsals and record-ings, neglected her riyaz and gener-ally became careless. If all this was not enough, Geeta took to drinking. Thus they both began neglecting their respective careers and to make matter worse, Guru Dutt made heavy financial losses in Kaagaz ke phool.
Amid all this marital turmoil was born their third child, Nina in 1962. Two years later on 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt allegedly committed suicide. Even though disharmony and discord had torn asunder their personal lives, the sudden death of Guru Dutt nevertheless shattered Geeta so much that she could not for six months recognize even her own children.
After her husband’s death Geeta lived for eight years. Those were the years of financial hardships since Guru Dutt had not saved much, and Geeta too had stopped singing. It was then out of sheer compul-sion that she took up again singing in Basu Bhattacharya’s Anubhav with music by Kanu Roy and lyrics by Gulzar. She sang three memo-rable songs, “Meri jaan mujhe jaan na kaho”,“Koi chupke se aake” and “Mera dil jo mera hota” that hypno-tized the Hindi music lover. It was remarkable indeed that Geeta even after a gap of few years had not lost the verve and vivacity of the old.
She loved her children. “She was an extrovert, and a fun-loving, happy person and extremely generous.
Community News10FORTY THREE YEARS AFTER HER DEATH, GEETA DUTT’S
SONGS ARE STILL EVERGREEN“Contributed exclusively to The Lotus by Raj Kanwar, father of Minnie Gautam and father-in-law of Samir Gautum. Cleveland residents since 1986.
Raj Kanwar, at age 84 continues to write for local newspapers in Dehradun and has his work published in Indian national newspapers.”
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Community News 11GEETA DUTT’S SONGS
I remember the good times we had; at a moment’s notice Mummy would say, “Come on, let’s go for a picnic, and we would pack up and leave. She loved having people around, our friends used to stay over and she would cook and look after everyone. She loved doing that,” said Arun of his mother.
She had, however, not given up drink-ing and that eventually took its toll when she died on 20 July 1972 of cir-rhosis of the liver. She was then only 42. I cannot do better than quote a passage from http://www.geetadutt.com/life.html “Yet, Geeta’s scourge is somehow very poignant. It still hits home. Her spirit was not tailored for tragedy. It was joyous, resplendent and luminous. When such a spirit breaks down and withers away, it is difficult to remain untouched.
But the brighter side of things is that what will never wither away is the immortal art that came out of this suffering. And at the end of the day whichever angle we look at it – fa-mous or rare, club song or cabaret, Roy or Dutt, Geeta’s voice remains as enticing and magical.”
In a rare tribute to Geeta Dutt’s mem-ory, the government of India selected her 41 years after her death for a spe-cial honour and issued a Rs. five post-age stamp in 2013 to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema. How, prophet-ic her 1947 song “Yaad karoge, yaad karoge, ik din humko yaad karoge” turned out to be.
The writer is a Dehra Dun-based au-thor, freelance journalist and a music lover. <[email protected]>
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