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January 2014 ` 50

volume 2 issue 4

IT's TIme.

NRI ACHIEVERSÁèÌð ãñ´ àææÙ âð

january 2014 http://www.nriachievers.in6

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INTERVIEW WOMEN ACHIEVERS TOOI have been regularly reading your magazine for the last five months and have always wanted to give you my comments. First of all I would like to congratulate you for your efforts. The part which I en-joy the most is the one that contains interviews of overseas Indians in your 'Dossier' section. My humble suggestion is that you please include more interviews of women because being a woman myself I like reading about women Achievers. All the best.

Neerja Singh, Fiji

L et t e r s M at t e r

VERy INfORMATIVESir, I am an avid reader of your magazine “NRI Achievers.” I like your magazine very much, spe-cially the sections like travelogue, astro and vastu. I am a strong believer in vastu shastra, and this section is really very informative for readers like me.

Ankita Taneja, New Delhi

MORE HARD CORE NEWS DESIRABLE

I read a soft copy of your magazine, and it looks interesting. But tell me, where do I buy a printed copy of the magazine? Where can I get the one ? Is it available on book stands here in Hydera-bad. If yes kindly let me know the list of sellers. As a whole it’s a good magazine but I think more hard core news like communalism, poverty, rapes, hindu mussalman troubles, traffic problems, corruption, education, etc. also needs to be covered in your magazine. The name of your maga-zine is NRI Achievers but there is always very little on achievers. If you like I would feel happy to contribute to this cause. Please let me know how I can be associated with your magazine. Thanks.

Inder Singh a.k.a. Johny, Toranto, Canada

A TREAT INDEEDI am writing you once again. Appreciation from me as well as my whole family. Your magazine is indeed like a treat for exhausted minds in terms of fresh and novel ideas. Expecting more in-teresting contents. What to say about your cover story. Pics are simply lovely & a treat to watch. As I advised earlier too there is not much on Indian politics & current affairs. I think no maga-zine is complete without these. Do you take your reader's comments seriously? Best wishes!

Rohit Patel, Ahmedabad, Gujrat

JANUARY 1 - CUBA - LIBERATION DAYJANUARY 1 - PALESTINE - REVOLUTION DAYJANUARY 1 - SUDAN - NATIONAL DAYJANUARY 4 - MYANMAR - INDEPENDENCE DAYJANUARY 26 - AUSTRALIA - AUSTRALIA DAYJANUARY 31 - NAURA - INDEPENDENCE DAY

NATIONAL DAyS


http://www.nriachievers.in 7january 2014

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TRAVEL SECTION IS AWESOME

I just love to see your magazine, it carries so many beautiful pictures on the cover-story and in the travelogue section as well. I love travel-ling and found your travel section awesome with photographs ... it looks as if I am practically travelling to those places without my going there physically. I can imagine the credentials of your travelogue writ-er. Keep it up with the Great Spirit. The biggest USP of your magazine is that after starting to read it I do not leave it until it’s read completely. But it’s too thin. A good magazine like this must have more pages.

Anand Sethi, Bangaluru

WHAT? NO NEWS & CURRENT AffAIRS

It was nice to read your magazines’ December issue. But I missed some important topics in it. Specially related to politics, there are a lot of happenings in Indian politics these days like elections in 5 cities, Delhi Govt. issue. I would suggest you to add some more matter related to Indian politics in your magazine for Indian youth. When the whole media is talking about emergence of Arvind Kejriwal as a charismatic leader, your magazine is carry-ing nothing on him & his spectacular success in Vidhan Sabha elections held in Delhi. At least you can make a regular two to three page section to carry small news/current affairs like your News Scan, Business Buzz, etc. Sections. Now General elections are due in India next year & everyone is talking about congress fate, chances of BJP making Govt. In the centre, how Modi factor will work in favour of BJP, whether Arvind factor will again spoil the mathematical calculations of BJP like they did in Delhi Elec-tions, etc. Hum ko yahan bahar rehkar Bharat ke bare may sab kuchh jan-ne ka har waqt khyal rehta hai. Thanks

Mukesh Wadhwani, Dubai, UAE

AMAzINg ISSUE

It is amazing issue. Mr. Gupta had sent you the report and I request you to please add Women's Conference report in detail (GOPIO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2013). Also in RPBD Sydney had worthy session on languages. I represented Hindi with special context of New Zealand. I will be sending you few photos and a brief shortly.

Suman Kapoor, New Zealand

CHIEF PATRONAJAY SINGH(Former High Commissioner, Fiji)EDITORRAJEEV GUPTACHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERB.K.AGGARWAL ADVISORSUSHIL TAYALCONSULTING EDITORCHAKRAVARTHI SUCHINDRANBUREAU HEADJYOTHI VENKATESH (MUMBAI)BUREAUSANJAY KUMAR (EUROPE)VINOD GOEL (NEW YORK, USA)AJAY AGGARWAL (U K)DHEERAJ DUBEY (FIJI & MAURITIUS)PHOTO EDITORAJAY SOODSENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERRAJEEV TYAGI CONTENT RESEARCHERPARUL RAJPUTLEGAL CONSULTANTDR. RAJA VOHRAmANAGER-mARKETING (DELHI/NCR)SHYAMALmANAGER-mARKETING (mUmBAI)BHARAT SINGALOVERSEAS CO-ORDINATORRAJKUMAR YADAVNORTH INDIA CO-ORDINATORMOHAN MEHRASOUTH INDIA CO-ORDINATORR SHAKTIVEL (CHALLENGE)ART DIRECTORAR. VIVEK KHURANACHIEF GRAPHIC DESIGNERMONIKAGENERAL mANAGER (CIRCULATION)S.P. PANDEYDIGITAL STRATEGISTSUCHIWEB DEVELOPERRAKESH RAHUL

MARKETING OFFICESLm mEDIA SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.21, 2ND FLOOR , NWA, CLUB ROAD PUNJABI BAGH (W) EXTN. NEW DELHI-110 026 +91 9868200650, 9650777721,[email protected]

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EDITOR: RAJEEV GUPTA

@ ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDVIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE ARTICLES ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS, & NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS THOSE OF NRI ACHIEVERS OR ITS EDITORS.ALL DISPUTES ARE SUBJECT TOEXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OFCOMPETENT COURT & FORUM IN DELHI.

Cover Photo: Rajeev Tyagi

RNI No. DELBIL/2012/45826ÁèÌð ãñ´ àææÙ âð INSIDE

COVER FEATURE

16DOssiER: MANJiT NiJJAR & YUgEsh ChAND 12glObAl EVENTs: big iDEAs FOR A bETTER iNDiA 26WEllNEss: CAshEW – NUTRiENTs gAlORE iN A TiNY PACKAgE 30VAsTU: AChiEViNg YOUR gOAls ViA VAsTU 34sPORTs: FOREsEEiNg ThE FUTURE 36 REAl EsTATE & PROPERTY: bJP- REAlTY's NEW sAViOUR ? 38

sPECiAl sUPPlEMENT IN THE BUSINESS OF AmUSING PEOPLE

TRAVElOgUE KOTLA SULTAN SINGH A VOYAGE OF EmOTIONS

24

28

hERiTAgE HEY RAm !

44

ThE YEAR iN REViEWgOVERNANCE iN

CAThARsis?

HARBINGER OF CHANGE

Editorial


january 2014 9

[email protected]

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December proved to be an eventful month, both on the political and other fronts, as many a political applecart got upset, with the people's verdict going soundly against the expectations of traditional political parties. Out of five states which went to the

polls, four handed a defeat to the congress party, sending the 100-year old party into 'deep introspection.' Elections in Delhi the capital resulted in a hung assembly, and what with BJP, the single largest party loath to have a go at government formation, it has ultimately come about that the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party form the government, with 'outside support' from the Congress party. The Lokpal Bill has been passed, with Anna Hazare accepting it, and Arvind Kejriwal still maintaining that it is a Jokepal. On the external affairs front, we have an ongoing spat with the United States, the matter has hogged the news for sometime now. All these high-pitched cacophonies have sort of swamped some of the other less sensational hap-penings and forthcoming events that can have a bearing on this land of a Billion and more, like the upcoming PBD that is just about to begin in a week from now in Delhi. But all said and done, the dawning of 2014 sure promises to be an eventful one, as the very ethos of Indian politics seems poised for a change.

The tumulous happenings in Delhi have grabbed eyeballs across the country and to some extent, abroad as well. Aam Aadmi Party takes over the mantle, swearing in happens at Ram Lila Maidan under the full glare of media and public scrutiny, and the new government gets down to work from the word go. Delhiites to get 20 kilolitres of water gratis, and power tarrifs slashed to 50% in 48 hours. What more to come, time will soon tell. We bring you a short special feature in the form of our cover story of the year in review.

Our regular segments are of course all there for your reading pleasure, ranging from new product launches to news drawn from the worlds of busi-ness, sports, cinema, heritage, culture and architecture, and yes, our ubiqui-tous travelogue that takes you down memory lane, to Rafi saab's village in Punjab. Heritage this time takes you to dwell a bit on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The two columns on Vaastu & Astrology continue and have been appreciated by many. Our other regular sections on real estate and property, health and wellness, and similar are also very much there for you to spend time with. Dossier and Special Supplement brings you brief glimpses into some success stories of some overseas Indians.

We hope you will like this evolving mix of content that attempts to present and portray the Diaspora world and the mother land in this issue, and yes, do send in your feedback on what you like, and continue sharing your wish-list on what more you would like us to feature in this magazine of yours. Many of you have asked us to cover more hard news and politics, we make a tentative beginning in this issue, let us see how it pans out.

'AnD here's wishing you A glorious yeAr AheAD'



News & Views

Looking to tap into India's burgeoning young populace, liquor companies are fo-cusing on selling alcohol in smaller, af-fordable and easy-to-carry packs. While nearly half of the branded liquor sold in Karnataka, the country's largest alcoholic beverage market, is in tetrapaks — com-panies like Bacardi, United Spirits, Diageo, Jim Beam and Amrut Distilleries have now started to pack their liquor brands in 50ml, 60ml and 90ml PET bottles. "The youth, who constitute 60% of the Indian population, are the key growth drivers of the liquor industry. They want to experi-ment with their drinks and prefer to sam-ple liquor that come in smaller packs than buying a full bottle," says Vimal Kedia, MD of Manjushree Technopack, which is India's largest PET bottle manufacturer, supplying miniature bottles to companies like Bacardi, United Spirits (USL), and Diageo. As per industry estimates, the current size of the miniatures bottles mar-ket in India is pegged at nearly 50 million bottles per annum with an average market size of INR 400 Crore. Over the last few months, this sector has been witnessing an average growth of around 15% across all spirit categories.

NOW, BOOZE COMES IN AFFORDABLE PACKS

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India is celebrating the 12th addition of The Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD) with the theme –“Engaging Diaspora : Connecting Across Genera-tions” 7-9 January, 2014 :Vigyan Bha-wan, New Delhi, India. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports is the part-ner ministry for PBD 2014 and FICCI is managing and coor-dinating the event. PBD is a unique platform that connects over 2,000 overseas Indians across 60 countries. Besides opportunities to connect with different stake holders from Industry and Government, The PBD 2014 will offer new synergies to Indian Diaspora to network and collaborate across sectors in different states. The Di-was will be formally inaugurated on 8th January, 2014 by hon’ble Prime Minister of India Mr. Manmohan Singh. On 7th January, a special seminar entitled the “Youth PBD” , will be held to focus on youth Diaspora. Hon’ble President of In-dia Mr. Pranab Mukherjee will deliver the Valedictory Address and confer Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards on 9th January 2014.The registrations have already been received from Australia, Bahrain, Canada,

Fiji, France, Germany, Ireland,Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mo-zambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Ara-bia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania,

Thailand, United Kingdom and USA.PBD 2014 will also commemorate the remarkable contributions made by

Indian Diaspora in building the growth story of modern India and also accentuates India’s po-sition in the International are-

na.A few of the major highlights of this

PBD are as follows:l Plenary Sessions with Union Ministers l �Concurrent Session on Innovation

&Technology, Health care, Media & En-tertainment, etc.

l Special Session on NRIs in the Gulfl � Explore business opportunities in India

and within Diasporal � New initiatives to engage the Youth and

second generation of Diasporal � Focused seminars to explore investment

opportunities in statesl � Presentation of Pravasi Bharatiya Sam-

man Awards 2014l Exhibitionl Cultural Evening

Nearly seven lakh Indians die of cancer every year, while over 10 lakh are newly diag-nosed with some form of the disease. According to the latest World Cancer Report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), more women in India are being newly diagnosed with cancer annually. As against 4.77 lakh men, 5.37 lakh women were diagnosed with cancer in India in 2012. In terms of cancer deaths, the mortality rate among men and women in India is almost the same.

ONE IN EVERY 10 INDIANS AT RISK OF GETTING CANCER BEFORE 75: WHO

HERES A BRA THAT CAN READ MOOD, CURB OVEREATINGBritish scientists have developed the world's first smart bra that can detect changes in mood with the hope of pre-venting emotionally-triggered over-eat-ing in women. The bra has been jointly created by the University of Southamp-ton, Microsoft Research and the Univer-sity of Rochester. Designed by M C Schraefel who is a professor in computer science and human performance from the University of Southampton,the pro-

totype contains removable sensors that monitor heart and skin activity. The data from the prototype device is analyzed by

a smartphone app which can highlight when emotional eating is most likely to occur and offer advice to the wearer. The wearable technology monitored electro-dermal activity or EMA (a measure of sweat gland activity), electrocardiogram or EKG (heart rate and respiration) data and movement from an accelerometer and gyroscope integrated in removable conducive pads to provide an idea of the users mood.

PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIWAS 2014 –“ENGAGING DIASPORA : CONNECTING ACROSS GENERATIONS”



News & Views

The Indian population in Britain has more than doubled from 3,13,000 in 1971, to 7,00,000 in 2011, according to latest figures released by the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS). India was in the third place in 1951, with many of those coming to Britain as the children of service personnel who were based in the country before independence in 1947, an analysis of the 2011 census re-veals. It also found that immigration accounted for almost half the increase in the population in England and Wales over the past 60 years.

The latest data coincides with the UK government's tough new rules an-nounced in time for an expected influx

from within the European Union, once work-related curbs are lifted on January 1, 2014. Downing Street announced a ban on EU immigrants claiming state benefits until they have been in Britain for at least three months as a means to address concerns that many would come into the country simply to access state-sponsored allowances. "I want to send the clear message that whilst Britain is very much open for business, we will not welcome people who don't want to con-tribute," Prime Minister David Cameron said.

OVERSEAS INDIAN POPULATION ON THE RISE

BOBBY JINDAL MAY RUN FOR US PRESIDENCY IN 2016

15 PIOs IN UK qUEENS HONOURS LIST

NRI Achievers Desk

Indian American Republican Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, is said to be near-er than ever to announcing his run for US presidency in 2016. “I do think he’ll run. I think he’s in the running. And I think he’ll be a meaningful and significant can-didate,” says US senator from Louisiana, David Vitter, while on a TV show. Asked if Jindal wants to be president, the senator said, “Oh yeah. I think that’s very obvious to everybody who has been paying atten-tion.” Indeed. Though Jindal is yet to an-nounce his intentions, he has not ruled it out whenever asked if he was going to run, as widely speculated. He also did not deny, or confirm, Vitter’s statement. The Louisiana Governor — who has jocularly described himself as a “skinny, brown guy” — ramped up speculation about a possi-bility in October while launching a non-

profit based in DC. He was asked the obvious question right away, but side-stepped it: “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in 2016, but I do want to talk about what I’m focused on right now.” That he didn’t rule it out was taken to mean it was a coy yes.

Fifteen Indian-origin men and wom-en, including a prominent education-ist Asha Khemka, have been named in Queen Elizabeths New Years Honours List for the year 2014. A total of 1,195 candidates have been selected for hon-ours this year, with 610 successful women candidates representing 51% of the total. The honours system rec-ognizes people who have made achievements in public life and com-mitted themselves to serving and help-ing Britain.



Dossier

I am from Punjab and I had completed M.Sc Honours & M.Phil in Biology from GND, Amritsar, in 1982-84, when I was even elected the President of the University Student Council for the year 1982-83. At that time, I was quite an

active Youth Congress Member as well. In 1984 I went to the UK for higher education, where I took up and completed a M.Sc in Food Technology & Management Science from London Uni-versity in 1985. Since then, I have made UK as my base. I have managed to garner quality experience in the british corporate world, and have been exposed to entrepreneurship in various sectors. Have also had ample opportunity to gain experience in the social and political fields as well.

I have had the honour of my name getting proposed for the Global Advisory Council, and I have likewise been nominated for the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council. The nominations have gone to some 20~25 prominent NRIs who are from fields like education, science and academia, industry leaders and en-trepreneurs, and politicians. Basically they form a committee which comes to India twice for meetings, and discuss the Global situation. They discuss how India can do better socially and economically through the contribution and participation of NRIs in India's developmental process. So I have been nomi-nated for that. At the moment I am the General Secretary, and I ams also the coordinator for the party. I have some involve-ment in the fields of sports, culture and humanitarian advocacy, which is in the form of supporting clubs and organisations that are actually organizing free camps here in India. We are sup-

porting some organizations like the Mohali Welfare Society, who organise camps against drugs, do campaigns for awareness among women, value addition in education, technical training etc. We are also supporting various other individual initiative projects like sanitation where NRIs adopt villages and work for the betterment of the villagers.

“One of the two issues that I am working on is the attempt to connect the next generation of Indian Diaspora directly with India, and the second is an attempt to convert what those days in the 80s and 90s when we left India used to be known as “Brain Drain”, into an advantage today in the form of “Brain Gain.” Basically, we have lots and lots of excellent talent in medicine, in engineering, science and in the field of insustry and business acumen ... a lot of overseas Indians are entrepre-neurs. They can be of immense help to India, and I think India needs them just as much as they need India. It is a two way street. All we need to do is to make things easy for them, and set up a system where their issues and problems could be ad-dressed. So they will gladly contribute if we tap that resource and see to it that they stay connected to India, come to India more often. It is better for Indian tourism as well, as money will come into India. If the government itself promotes invest-ment schemes that will also bring wealth of overseas Indians parked in foreign shores here. India already getting to be an exciting destination for investments as compared to UK and Europe, but I wopuld say that urging NRIs to make their hous-es here will be a first step in ensuring that the next generation diaspora are connected to this land.

“India has made a lot of progress in the past few decades, we can see high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, we can see infra-structure coming up. But we do lack world class entertainment facilities especially with relation to sports like golf. There are golf-courses already there but what we need to create is more deluxe facilities to appeal to those living abroad in the western hemisphere. Today the only reason any person from UK , Eu-rope or Canada is coming to India is only because of their famil-iar connections, or because their parents came from here. We got to create more reasons. We need to basically set up world class facilities, like resorts, or it could be safari parks. While the Indian government is doing its bit, what is needed is to speed up that process and create the necessary attraction for overseas In-dians to get into this activity. Like right now, we are in the mid-dle span of a connection like a bridge, and reaching out to both sides so it will be beneficial for both the home country and the Diaspora. Then entire families will come, youth will come.

chakravarthi suchindran

The writer is a technocrat who dabbles in journalism print & broadcast, photography & creative visual arts.

connect next gen of indian diasp0ra... ManJit niJJar



Dossier

pHir BHi diL Hai HindUstaniYugesh Chand is a retired Bank Officer from the Gov-

ernment of Australia, who is now adorned the garb of a a financial planner helping his brethren with post retirement plans. His home in Blacktown, Sydney,

may be said to be steeped in Indian culture even in this faraway land down under. He harks from a family whose forefathers went to the Fiji Islands during the 1840s, and ultimately settled down there to start cultivation and farming in Fiji. In 1987, when Fiji was under Military Rule led by Colonel Rambuka, when unfavourable conditions existed for Fiji Indians, Yugesh Chand chose to leave the Fiji Islands and settle elsewhere in the region. His travels and travails took him to Australia, where after a lot of toil and hard work, he settled down to continue his life in the island continent. His father too came soon after from Fiji to Australia, where he lived until his demise with his son in Blacktown.

Yugesh speaks remarkably fluent Hindi and Bhojpuri, and even cooks many Indian dishes in his kitchen. He is fond of Indian culture, cuisine and cinema. He has and maintains an extensive collection of bollywood songs and movies harking from the 1940s to 1950s era in his personal library. Fond of music, he can sing numerous Indian songs with great passion, and keeps himself abreast about Indian cinema. He is well aware of the various heroes and heroines of Indian cinema, especially of the Bollywood kind.

After his retirement from the banking service under the Australian Government, he is now committed himself to be of help and assistance to the Indian Diaspora in Sydney, and is also active in his endeavour of promoting the spreading and patronage of Indian culture within the Disapora community there. Though he has left Fiji for good and settled down in Australia, he still maintains strong people-to-people

links with Fiji, and is one of the key movers promoting, motivating and pursueing Fijian Indian youth to participate in the “Know India Programme” of the Government of India's Ministry of Overseas In-dian Affairs.

His wife Parnita and daughter Nima are also staunch cham-pions of all things Indian. Their house permeates and resonates with an Indian style of living, their kitchen exhudes the aromas of myriad Indian dishes suffused and spiced with Indian ma-salas, and soft sensual tones of Indian music wafts through their living spaces as well. Another aspect of Yugesh is his green thumb, as evidenced by his cultivation of tomatos and a large variety of spinach in his kitchen garden. Speaking of his holing on to things Indian and Indianness over generations of separa-tion from his mother-land, he says: “Indianess never dies in Indians, irrespective of where they go to live. My father and grandfather taught me all that I know about Indian traditions and value systems, and I adhere to them. So we still celebrate our social events like birthdays, marriages et al., in typical In-dian style and sanskar ...”

Yugesh now plans to travel to India, and experience its great culture firsthand, as part of his personal research project on Indo-Australian relationships and affinity of Fiji Indians to In-dia. This Fijian of Indian who migrated to Australian and is now an Australian citizen insists that though he is an Aussie, "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani".

YUgesH speaks reMarkaBLY fLUent Hindi and BHoJpUri, and even

cooks ManY indian disHes in His kitcHen. He is fond of indian cULtUre, cUisine and cineMa

nri achievers Bureau

Office of The PresidentState House, Mauritius

Message from The President of The Republic of Mauritius

I feel deeply honoured to be associated with the publication of this issue of Non Resident Indian (NRI) Achievers Magazine on the occasion of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) which will be held in New Delhi, from 7 -9 January 2014.

I would like to congratulate international publication such as the NRI Achievers Magazine for popularising the activities of the PBD.

Since its inception in 2003, the PBD has, over the year, turned out to be the annual event par excellence for the Indian Diaspora scattered across the world. The PBD is not only an excellent platform for the Diaspora to share knowledge and experiences on matters of common opportunities.

Throughout the globe, the people of Indian Origin are indeed proud of India, the land of their ancestors with which they have always maintained existential links that are founded on a civilization heritage and which many refer to as Indianness. The PBD thus seeks to celebrate and harness this Indianness.

I take this opportunity to also commend the relentless and unwavering support of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs for having put in place the necessary institutional and legal framework to connect the Indian Diaspora with India and Indians. Such a framework is crucial to keep the coming generations of the Diaspora connected with India.

My participation as a Chief Guest at last year’s Convention in Kochi was indeed a landmark in the history of the relations between Mauritius and India. It reminded me of the symbiotic ties that exist between Mother India and her over 25 million people of Indian descent settled in more than 110 countries in all the five continents. The umbilical cord between our two countries has remained unabated and has withstood almost 180 years of unfettered relations and kinship.

I wish all the participants of the 2014 PBD a very fruitful and enriching Convention and convey my heartfelt greetings for a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2014.

27 Decemebr 2013



THE YEAR IN REVIEWGOVERNANCE IN

CATHARSIS?

Special Feature

Photos: Ajay Sood



The pervasive ubiquity of cricket and the passions that run high on days of cricket-ing events might well have prompted many to christen it our de-facto nation-al sport, but come to think of it, it neither cricket, nor hockey, or football that at-tracts the leidenschaft of the Indian on the street, its POLITICS. Politics is In-dia’s real national sport, with not even a single day of the year passing by without uproars over this or that policy, power-play, scams and scandals, and the under-lying greed of our traditional Netas in power. And going by these trends and torrents, 2013 was indeed an exception-al year for India, with politics swinging hither and thither like a ponderous pen-dulum, as incumbent governments bum-bled, stumbled and mumbled through their 365 days ...

Cover Story

Special Feature



2013 got to start on the prover-bial wrong foot, even as national rage erupted over the Nirbhaya episode, where a young para-med-

ical student was viciously gang-raped and left to die by the roadside in the national capital Delhi as 2012 drew to a close. We faced the stark reality of how dangerous life was for wom-en in our cities, and the even more starker reality of our abys-mal record as a nation on the front of providing our women citizens with a safe environment to live in ... the outrage that spilled out onto the streets of our many metropolises pushed the government to come out with much stricter legislation to combat sexual exploitation and violence. This was by far the first reactive step taken by the UPA coalition led by Congress, and it also proved to be the last, as some fore followed in due course of time.

More skeletons reeking of corruption tumbled out of hith-erto closed cupboards, just as they had with remarkable fre-quency over the past few years ... the scent of kickbacks in a defence deal for supply of helicopters, the railway minister bow-ing out thanks to his nephew arrested for graft and acccepting undue gratification to ensure railway board top-jobs, the coal-gate imbroglio where the federal investigating agency that found irregularities in coal block allocations had to amend its report on the law minister's fiat ...

The economic front saw the government walking a trapeze as well, what with revising its own estimates of growth for 2013 downwards, from 6.7 % to 5.5 %, and inflation roared rampant at 7.5 % in November. The rupee ? It went deep-sea diving, plummeting to rock-bottom vis-a-vis the US Dollar ... from 54.68 rupees to a dollar in January 2013 to almost 70 rupees to the dollar in August, before stabilizing at around 60.

Not all was rosy on the external affairs front either. Added to the ever-prickly Indo-Pak ties, thorns sprouted on manifold fronts, with China over border incursions; with Italy over the Italian marines undergoing trial for killing Indian fishermen; with Sri Lanka over the PM's decision to stay away from the Commonwealth meet in Colombo; and currently with the Unit-ed States, over its (mis)-treatment of a diplomat in New York

Phot

os: A

jay

Sood

Cover Story



accused of visa fraud. This series of mis-step after mis-step by our government at

the centre did evoke a needling sense of exasperation even amoung the normally aloof and disinterested observers through-out the year, and the sentiment proved to be the bane for the congress, as manifested more clearly in the outcomes of the elec-tions to the Delhi legislature last month, where a congress that reigned undefeated for 3 full terms (15 long years) experienced a rout, winning just 8 out of 70 seats.

In contrast, the fledgeling Aam Aadmi Party, founded just last year by anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal, won 28 seats, after basing its campaign almost totally on the failings of the congress government. A shock result, this prompted congress president Sonia Gandhi to call for “deep introspection” on con-gress shortcomings. “Obviously people are unhappy,” Sonia Gandhi opined, “or they would not have given these results.” The situation congress finds itself in is likely to have a direct bearing on the general elections due in 2014. Is the congress going to get unseated from the centre, or at the very least, is it going to be an uphill task for them to form another coalition government?

What about the other phenomenon of 2013, Gujarat CM

Narendra Modi ? BJP's prime ministerial candidate has been on a blitzkrieg around the country, addressing innumerable ral-lies that have been drawing vast numbers like a magnet. The surging crowds that come to his rallies, many of which are 'pay-and-attend' rallies (though nominal) bespeak another trend that is turning into a torrent ... according to the BJP, NaMo enjoys widespread support, from people sick and tired of the congress and its dynastic rule, as well as those who are attracted to his agenda of economic inclusion and dynamism. Modi’s critics however argue that he is a polarising figure, who avoided taking responsibility for anti-Muslim riots under his helm in Gujarat during 2002 that claimed 1,044 lives – riots that his government failed to control.

Whether we like it or not, the Congress and the BJP are today the only national-level parties that have the werewithal to contest pan-India and build coalitions around themselves. Ergo, 2014 will once again present us Indians with the Hobson's choice of getting either the Congress or the BJP to govern us for the next five years. Or is it ? Will the AAP's Delhi advent expand to cover the pan-Indian electoral landscape? What and how we decide on this event-horizon ... will prove to be be India’s biggest political story over the coming year.

In contrast, the fledgelIng aam aadmI Party, founded just last year by antI-corruPtIon crusader arvInd KejrIwal, won 28 seats, after basIng Its

camPaIgn almost totally on the faIlIngs of the congress government

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Special Feature



BUSINESS AND ECONOMYhIghs lows

Rupee depreciation and US revival pitch-forks TCS to become India’s most valued firm. Current TCS market cap is nearly INR 4.13 Lakh Crore followed by Reliance Industries @ INR 2.89 Lakh Crore, and ITC @ INR 2.53 Lakh Crore.

Rupee touches all-time low of 68.85 against US dollar on August 28. Major reasons behind the sharp depreciation: burgeoning current account deficit and sluggish growth.

Reliance Industries becomes India’s first private sector company to touch revenues of INR 1,06,523 Crore in a quarter (Q2FY14).

The board of California based IT outsourcing company iGate Corp announce sacking of its President and CEO Phaneesh Murthy on May 21, over alleged sexual harassment claims. Not the first time he had been charged with sexual harassment.

Sensex touches life-time high of 21,483.74 in intra-day trading on December 9, 2013. Even Nifty hits record high of 6415 after a gap of 5 years and 11 months in response to state assembly poll results.

India has occupied the 134 position out of the 189 economies surveyed in the ‘Doing Business 2014’ report. India’s overall rank in Ease of Doing Business has dropped from 131st position to 134th position.

The Infosys Board approves Narayana Murthy as Executive Chairman of the Board and Additional Director with effect from June 1, 2013. Stock closes with gains of 38% as of December 24.

South Korean mining giant Posco cancels plans to construct Karnataka steel plant in July 2013. likewise, after a 7-yr wait, ArcelorMittal scraps plans for a steel mill in Orissa. Both companies cite similar reasons for pulling out: Weak market conditions and problems in securing land and mining licences.

2013 sees a woman heading SBI for the first time. The Govt., on October 8 clears Arundhati Bhattacharya as chairperson of the largest public sector bank. (Gross Advances increase from INR 8,93,613 Crores on March 12 to INR 10,78,557 Crores on March 13, and notch 20.70% YOY growth).

SAFETY AND SECURITYhIghs lows

After a nine-month-long trial, a fast track court hands down death penalty to all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case on September 13, 2013. Speedy justice with fast track courts coming into being becomes the norm in the aftermath of Nirbhaya rape and murder.

A Cloudburst centered on Uttarakhand causes devastating floods and landslides in June 2013, the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 Tsunami. According to figures provided by the Uttarakhand government, more than 5,700 people were “presumed dead.”

President Pranab Mukherjee gives his assent to the Anti-rape Bill on April 3, 2013, which provides for life term and even death sentence for rape convicts besides stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism.

India ranked low in terms of social security when compared to Asian neighbours. ADB’s 2013 report pegs India’s social protection index (SPI), a ratio of total expenditure on social protection to the total number of intended beneficiaries, at just 0.051, way below Asian benchmark score of 0.2 and lower than even that of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.

The Sexual Harassment at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and Rules, 2013, gets notified by the ministry of women and child development and comes into force from December 9, 2013.

Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh dies in Lahore hospital on May 1, 2013, following a brutal assault by fellow inmates in a high-security Pakistani jail. This drops curtains on hopes of his family that has been striving to secure his release.

PM Manmohan Singh inaugurates India’s first all-women bank, Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), on November 19, 2013. This was a budget promise.

Nation agog with two back-to-back cases of alleged sexual harassment. Justice Ganguly and Ex-Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal face sexual harassment charges from their juniors. Tejpal is in judicial custody while Ganguly continues to chair Human Rights Commission of West Bengal.

The National Food Security Bill, 2013 receives the assent of the President and comes into force from 10th September 2013. The scheme is meant to alleviate poverty by offering food to the poor and the needy gratis.

Five men sexually maul a 22-year photojournalist inside the deserted Shakti Mills compound in central Mumbai on August 22, 2013, while she was on assignment with a colleague. The girl survives and vows to live her life in dignity.

POLITICShIghs lows

Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP records a thumping victory in Delhi polls, winning 28 of the 70 assembly seats. Kejriwal defeats Sheila Dikshit, former Delhi CM by a record of over 22,000 votes from New Delhi constituency. He is amongst the youngest chief ministers in India.

The RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) founder was convicted in a 17-year-old multi-crore fodder scam for allegedly swindling more than INR 37 crore. He was sentenced to five years in jail by a special CBI court, which also slapped a fine of INR 26 lakh on the former Lok Sabha MP. He is currently out on bail.

BJP and Congress – In a rare show of bonhomie – make Lokpal a reality after 46 years of wait. But for taking a few digs at one another, both parties joined hands to push the Lokpal Bill through Parliament.

The Congress loses out in six out of nine states that went to the polls In 2013. Interestingly, barring Karnataka, Meghalaya and Mizoram, Congress could not increase its tally of MLAs in any state.

The Supreme Court, taking a much needed step in cleaning up politics, rules that MPs and MLAs would be immediately disqualified if they are convicted in a criminal case by a trial court, striking down Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which protects convicted MPs and MLAs from disqualification if they appeal before a higher court within three months.

Two senior cabinet ministers, Pawan Kumar Bansal (former rail minister) and Ashwani Kumar (former law minister) quit in a major setback to the UPA Govt. Bansal steps down after police arrest his nephew on suspicion of accepting a bribe. Kumar’s departure comes days after the Supreme Court said the government substantially changed a report by the CBI into alleged irregularities in the awarding of mining rights potentially worth billions of dollars to private companies.

High voter turnouts recorded in recently held state elections. Chhattisgarh records polling of 75 plus, Madhya Pradesh over 71 and Mizoram 82%. Rajasthan 75% and Delhi witnesses over 66%. CEC V.S. Sampath believes significant enrolment of youth in electoral rolls has resulted in unusually high voter turnout.

Of all the assembly polls held during the last five years, as many as 22 states registered less than 10% participation by women candidates in elections. Worse still, three states also observed less than 5% women participation during assembly elections. It includes all five states that went for elections recently.

Newly introduced NOTA (None of the above) makes a notable impact in recently concluded state assembly elections. More than 15 lakh people exercise the option in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The Delhi assembly poll has thrown more than one surprise verdict. Apart from denying anyone absolute majority, the poll threw up a whopping 75% (610 out of 808) candidates who lost their deposit with the Election Commission of India.

HIGHS AND LOWS

Cover Story



WILL IT BE A WATERSHED?In 2013, the Rupee plumbed new depths, while the current account and fiscal deficits saw a mete-oric rise. Inflation breached 8% and the 'aam aadmi' was burdened with massive price hikes of es-sential commodities, and household monthly budgets became untenable. There was a silver lining in the cloud though -- the rise of the aam aadmi party (or AAP), could well herald a change for the better, with the party becoming a harbinger of change, marking the dawning 2k14 as a new era in politics and bringing about a seachange in the way people participate proactively in governance ...

Keeping their eyes firmly on impending general elections, political pundits of various hues and shades went over-board in their gameplay to

worsen already tattered scenarios further, with their somnolescence and ill-thought-out populist counter-productive gambits merely to score brownie points. Our resident UPA dispensation at the centre with the INC as pied piper stumbled and mumbled, leading to a policy paralysis on many fronts. Government knew not or knew but did not deal with an ever dete-riorating economic crisis, while the op-position made it worse by further para-lysing a hamstrung Parliament, letting key bills get consigned to the wayside without being passed, resulting in a situ-ation akin to the shut down crisis faced by the US government not too long ago.

And then came this fairytale whiff of wind fresh out of somewhereland, dispel-ling the mists of FUD to reveal this part Robin Hood part Crusader part Vision-ary and his platoon of merry mango men, who have succeeded in pressing the right buttons with the amorphous common populace of this country, emerging as a viable and reasonably stiff opposition to traditional politics, and assumed the role of an alternative force in the socio-polit-ical arena. What began 3 odd years ago as an anti-corruption movement with gandhian Anna Hazare as its face, hit all the right chords, connecting with the common man on the street instantane-ously. The Aam Aadmi Party (aka AAP, Common Man’s Party), is the new David on the block, vanquishing the old Golia-ths in Delhi (capital of India and inde-

Photo: Ajay Sood

2014

Special Feature



pendent city-state), and contributing to a sweeping sentiment that saw the Con-gress facing ignominous defeat in 3 more states. AAP's ploy of testing the political waters with its Delhi gambit has helped it reap largish dividends, decimating an incumbent Congress that ruled the city-state for the past 15 years, and literally stealing the thunder from under BJP, the other big national player which ended the day short of a majority in a hung house. After many “pehale aaps”, the AAP has now finally formed a government in Del-hi with ‘outside support’ from Congress, and BJP adopting the role of a construc-tive opposition.

It would surely be very interesting to observe how these two 'Goliaths' work with the 'David' AAP, with AAP's stated goals including probes of scandals and scams that involve Congress and BJP members. One could say the tourney has already started with the AAP team get-ting down to work from day-one. First to be axed were conspicuous consump-tion of cars with red-beacons and secu-rity entourages as status symbols, fol-lowed by a decree providing 20 kilolitres of water at no charge for all Delhi fami-lies. Caveat: if you consume even one litre more, you pay for the entire con-sumption at an enhanced rate. So the arena is full and the games have begun, what with AAP proving that there sure is some methedrine, if not method in their madness in this trial by fire, as they con-vert the grandstanding in their manifes-tos into tangible deliverables. So we wait and watch.

The emergence of AAP on the political scene may be the one singular and sig-nificant development of 2013. It has re-awakened hopes in the hearts and minds of the common man, who have been wilt-ing under the burden of corruption, nepotism, price rise, next to zero essential services, and … and ... the list just goes on. The lack of prior political baggage on the part of AAP members too is of immense advantage, and their stated ob-jective of providing clean governance is assuring. Delhi's response to this was re-flected in the strong mandate they did get, and their performance during the first quarter of 2014 will most likely pave their way for more accolades in the com-ing general elections slated for the second quarter.

Photo: Rajeev Tyagi

Cover Story



So even if AAP delivers partially on their promises, their presence in parlia-ment in reasonable numbers could well be assured. With the power of the people reawakened, if only in small measure, the writing is clearly on the wall: that vote bank politics, caste divisions, blathering rhetoric and empty promises would no longer win elections for parties or politi-cians any more. People today seek trans-parency, accountability, responsive and good governance, not to mention sustain-able all-round development. Point worth noting here is the fact that in the many states that went to the polls in 2013, only those that have delivered upfront and ushered in prosperity have been voted back to power. So, are we on the thresh-old of a new era ? We at NRI Achievers are keeping our fingers crossed ...

the emergence of aaP on the PolItIcal scene may be the one sIngular and sIgnIfIcant develoPment

of 2013. It has reawaKened hoPes In the hearts and mInds of the common man, who have been wIltIng under the burden of corruPtIon, nePo-tIsm, PrIce rIse, next to zero essentIal servIces,

and … and ... the lIst just goes on.

NRI Achievers Desk

Phot

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jay

Sood



Heritage

HEY RAM !We were about to com-

plete 6 months of In-dia’s Independence from the British, when the entire world heard

the sound of three bullets being fired in a posh bungalow of Albuquerque Road in Lutyen’s Delhi. This house, built by a mil-lionaire from the Marwari Maheshwari family, Ghanshyam Das Birla, was those days being used as residence by the most famous Indian of modern times, Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi. Those three shots from a Beretta M 1934 series semi-automatic pistol pierced Mahatma Gandhi’s body from point-blank range and ended an era of non-violent struggle for freedom. The words “Hey Ram” followed the gunshots and the father of the new nation went into a deep sleep, never to awake again.

Padma Vibhushan, Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla was a member of the famous Birla Family. His father, Baldeo Das Birla was adopted from the Navalgarh Birla family and he later partnered with his nephew Fulchand Sodhani to venture into opium trade, which soon became a 10 mil-lion rupee business. This business was passed to GD Birla’s eldest brother Jugal Kishore Birla and GD Birla himself went to Calcutta (now Kolkata), to invest in jute business. He faced much challenges from the British & Scottish merchants who tried to shut his business, but he managed to sustain until the First World War broke. During the World War, when supply prob-

lems were at a peak throughout the British Empire, GD Birla’s business skyrocketed and he could make enough fortune to af-ford a royal mansion right in the heart of new Imperial City of Delhi, later known as the Lutyen’s Delhi. He was also a mem-ber of the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. In 1916, shortly before he established the Birla Brothers Limited Company, he met Mahatma Gandhi and soon became a close associate.

On the 9th of September, 1947, when Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Delhi from Kolkata, he was motored to Birla House, where he spent the remaining 144 days of his life. Next few days, he visited some refugee camps and met Lady and Lord Mountbatten. He had meetings with vari-ous leaders from different sects and dis-cussed the growing tension between new-ly formed Pakistan and India. Given the pain of partition riots, he said on his birth-day on 2nd October: “It is more proper to offer condolences than to offer congratula-tions; I do not wish to live long.”

Given the growing tension between India



Did You Know?

Bakhtiyar Kaki (ra) in Mehrauli. On 30th January, as he was walking through the lawn of Birla House for the evening prayers, Nathuram Vinayak Godse shot him.

Nathuram Godse was born on 19th May 1910 in Pune. Nathuram’s original name was Ramachandra Godse. Three boys born before him died in their infancy. However, a girl child survived and fearing the curse targeting male children, Ramachandra was brought up as a girl for first few years of his life. His parents pierced his nose and made him wear a ‘Nath’ (nose-ring). From this, he got his name “Ram with Nath” or NathuRam. It was only after his younger brother was born that his parents started treating him as a boy.

Nathuram was a staunch follower of Gandhi and respected him as a role model. In those days, he was a member of the Rash-triya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha. He later started a Mar-athi newspaper called Agrani. His fascina-tion for Gandhi’s ideology ended when he found that Mahatma is favouring Muslims and that this has made Hindus suffer. His last speech, which he delivered during his trial for Gandhi’s assassination, could come as a surprise to many. He said that Gandhi’s control over congress was harming the na-tion and that Gandhi was mainly respon-sible for the partition of India. Godse said “He was paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calam-ities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shiv-aji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.

“The accumulating provocation of thir-ty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the con-clusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately.” Godse felt that when Muslim League be-gan massacre of Hindus during the parti-tion, Gandhi did nothing to save them except appealing for peace, and later fast-ed to support the same Muslim League. He held Gandhi & Nehru as the people primarily responsible for India’s Partition and justified his act of killing Gandhi.

Much later, in 1966, the government of India started negotiations with K.K.Birla for acquiring the Birla House. It was a hard bargain for Shahi Bhushan, Krishna Kant, Mohan Dharia and Chandra Shekhar as KK Birla was not willing to give it to the government for a cheaper price.

The house was evaluated and while deciding the sale price of the mansion, Birla even calculated the value of fruit bearing trees and the saplings that have been planted to the price tag. Finally, the bargain was settled at INR 5.4 Million in addition to seven acres of prime land in Delhi. The building was later modified a little and the road on which it was built was renamed to 30 January Marg. Now, a memorial pillar stands at the spot where Gandhiji was shot dead, which bears words :

“Hey Ram!”

vikramjit singh rooprai

The writer is a self-made IT entrepreneur, who is also a passionate heritage & history buff

and Pakistan, Gandhi started another fast on 13th January 1948, which was broken with a glass of orange juice from the hands of Maulana Azad on January 18th. The next day, during prayers a bomb exploded, which was meant for Gandhi’s assassination. On 27th January, he wrote ‘Congress Position’, suggesting that Congress should cease to exist as a political body and instead devote itself to people’s service. He then left for Phoolwalon ki Sair festival, the Urs celebra-tions at the Dargah of Khwaja Qutubuddin



The ‘Big Ideas for a Better India’ event brings together key influ-encers from the NRI community from all across the United States

onto one platform. Last year on the 23rd of December 2013, more than 100 Indian community leaders from 25 major cities came together at the University of Mary-land. The main focus of the event was to curate and imple-ment the best ideas in an objective man-ner to address chal-lenges faced by India. The event was well received, with distin-guished representa-tives of religious and non-profit organiza-tions, prominent venture capitalists,

CONNECTICUT INDIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY PARTICIPATES IN THANKSGIVING DAY PARADEFor the first time, the Indian American com-

munity in Connecticut got a spot in the large UBS Thanksgiving Parade in Stam-ford, Connecticut, on Sunday the Novem-

ber 24th last year, thanks to an initiative by GO-PIO-CT. It was the second largest parade in the East coast of the United States, after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Over 50 dancers participated, thrilling the audiences with their Bhangra, Garba, Bharatanatyam, Ma-harashtrian and Bollywood portrayals, as the con-tingent marched under the banner of 'Namaste India.' Despite the sub-zero temperatures and heavy winds, the dancers marched the whole route and the Indian contingent was adjudged the most colorful. At the review stand, all dancers togeth-er performed the 'Jai Ho' dance to the delight of the audience who also joined in. The program coordinator was GOPIO-CT Board Member Nan-dita Kotian who was assisted by GOPIO’s US Na-tional Youth Coordinator Anita Bhat, along with GOPIO-CT President Shailesh Naik, Executive Vice President Shelly Nichani and GOPIO Foun-dation Executive Trustee Dr. Thomas Abraham.

BIG IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDIAlawyers and doctors participating to effect positive change in India. The event fea-tured a presentation on the role of ‘Over-seas Volunteers for Better India’ in bring-ing together people from different back-grounds under one umbrella & addressing issues in India today. The event also un-veiled “Vote for a Better India,” an android app that will be used to power Voteathon

- an inter college voter registration com-petition that is expected to have over 10,000 participating colleges with the goal of registering over 30 million voters.

World renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who presided over the event as the keynote speaker, said that we should take pride in the heritage and language of our nation. He asked all Indians to come together to build a nation on the pillars of spirituality. Naveen Jain emphasized people's role as visionaries in creating & executing ideas for bringing forth abundance of opportu-nities through entrepreneurship. Rajiv Malhotra stressed on inner development to help individuals inspire to create a greater nation, one that in turn inspires individuals.

USA Bureau



Special Supplement

Gian Vijeshwar is a Sweden-based businessman of Indian origin, who is head-honcho of his firm, International Amusement Limited (IAL). He is well-known in the annals of the Indian amusement industry, and is credited with successfully setting-up one of the first amusement parks in India, the famous "Appu Ghar." Presently the Chairman & MD of IAL and a director on the board of 'Unitech Amusement Parks Ltd.' NRI Achievers met Gian Vijeshwar recently, and quizzed him on his personal and professional experiences.

IN THE BUSINESS OF AMUSING PEOPLE

MY LIFE: “When I initially started out on my own, I had bought a shop in Sweden, but after some time I realised that I had made a mistake by setting up in the outskirts. So I decided to correct my mistake, and pro-ceeded to set up shop in the centre. That time round, though I did not have much money to burn, I did not think too much about it. After that I have never looked back. I come from an affluent family of Punjab, to be precise, from Amritsar. When I was a little boy in school, my teachers often used to forget my name and just call me “Prince” instead. Figuratively, I also lived a 'princely' kind of life. At a time when most people had but one or two sweaters for winters, I used to have some 18 suits for my school uni-form. I have done my BA and MA from Chandigarh, where I was accommodated at a hostel. Afraid that I would fail in my ex-

ams, I decided to run away from home, so after sending all my luggage home from my hostel, I came to Delhi. At that time I had just 500 rupees in my pocket, so I booked passage on a cargo ship from Mumbai to Basra (Iraq) for 480 rupees, which left me with just 20 rupees in my pocket.

That remaining 20 rupees I converted into 1 US Dollar and 35 Cents and went to one of my friends in Mumbai. He was very con-cerned about my 'folly' and was angry with me. He pointed out that I came from a high-society family not used to this kind of life-style … “You won’t know even how to wash utensils. You won’t survive a week there ...” That conversation touched me so hard and I decided to take this up as a challenge, and so, I took off all the jewellery I had on me, my watch, my bracelet, etc., and handed them over to him, to send back to my fam-

ily in Punjab, and decided to proceed thor-oughly empty-handed to check my calibre, mettle and potential. So I began this second life of mine, with just a single set of clothes on my body, and no more money except the US $ 1.35 in my pockets ... my friend's anger and his words served as the spur and true reason behind my actions then. Our passage from Mumbai to Basra took 18 days instead of 3 due to weather problems, and I survived the ordeal only on water, and without much in the form of food. Out of the 268 people on the cargo ship who boarded at Mumbai, 264 had decided to return back to India by the time the ship docked at Basra, leaving just 4 of us who did not want to go back even after the torturous journey.

I took up my first job soon enough, in a Medical Company though I had no Degree or Diploma related to the Chemical or Med-



Special Supplement

ical Industry. But I somehow managed to make myself worthy enough in the Medical Lab I found a job in. After about a year and a half at this job, I switched to a new firm as a chemical engineer and controlling head of the company, and I was on this job for almost 5 years. I returned to India for the first time since running away from home in 1973. I was and am still quite attached to my home town. Subsequently, I got married in India, and then decided to quit my job and start my own busi-ness. That's my story. I have now spent 18 plus years of my life in Sweden.

One day, sitting in my office steeped in nostalgia and thinking about my childhood, my school life and old friends, I sort of hit upon the idea of connecting once again with all my old friends from school … so I set out tracing them, and succeeded in finding and establishing links with 38 of them ... all in different-different places of the world today … We decided to have a reunion, and so I organised one in India at one of the well-known 5-star properties. We got together and shared our trajectories of life, our mem-ories, experiences et al., and the next morn-

ing we all left from there to go to our home town (Khanna) … We visited our school, where we were welcomed very nicely in-deed. We found two people from our time still alive and living in the town, the 90-yr old Headmaster of our time in school, and a Peon of the school who was 88-89 years old … I decided to give some money to my

Headmaster and that Peon, but only 1 or 2 of my schoolmates found it fit to contribute. I found that attitude a bit strange and odd -- they were all well settled and doing ex-tremely well monetarily, but maybe their hearts remained small ?

FAMILY: I am very fond of my father and mother and love their memory. So now I have established a school in my town in my father’s memory, called the “Lala Sarkaru-mal Sarvhitkari Vidhyapeeth Mandir”. It Is today the biggest school in the region. I Have two sons, my elder one is called Mon-ny Vijender and younger is called Robbin Vijender. Monny looks after the day-to-day operations and administration of the 'Great India Place Mall' and the 'Worlds of Wonder' amusement park, and Robbin looks after the overall corporate affairs of the IAL group of companies & our upcom-ing future projects. I have always taught my sons to never look back at their lives, whether good or bad, and to always stay focused and be straight, thinking more about the present rather than the past. Whatever you do in your life, do it from your heart and never think too much about money. Everything is just a matter of time. I am also a religious person, and I have much faith in “Mata Naina Devi.” I am sure that I could not have achieved all this with-out her blessings.

APPU GHAR: Appu Ghar, located in New Delhi, was India's first and most popular amusement park. It was in 1984 that I was fortunate enough to get a proposal from the late PM Shrimati Indira Gandhi, to set up and open an amusement park in India. She was the one who suggested the name of “Appu Ghar” for the park. At that time, I did not even know what the meaning of 'Appu Ghar' was. And I accepted the pro-posal without thinking too much about it. Frankly, I wanted to be back in India with a bang, and I thought this was a great oppor-tunity. I am now very thankful to Shrimati Indira Gandhi for this path-breaking project. Appu Ghar was set-up within 7 days, and we decided to inaugurate it on her birthday (19 oct. 1984).

Rajeev Gupta

The author is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience. Had been

associated with many Electronic Channels before starting NRI Achievers magazine

Photo: Rajeev Tyagi



Wellness

The ever so delicately flavored cashewnut is a favorite between-the-meal snack that can readily be found in local markets across the world all year round. Cashewnuts are actually the kidney-shaped seeds that adhere to the bottom of the cashew apple, the exofruit of the cashew tree that grows abundantly in coastal areas of northeastern Brazil, tropical Asia and Africa. While cashew apples are not appreciated in the Western world, they are regarded as delicacies in Brazil and the Caribbean. Cashews are always sold shelled as the interior of the shells contains a caustic resin which must be carefully removed before the nuts are fit for consumption. This caustic resin is apropos used in industry to make varnishes and insecticides. The Cashewnut is a powerhouse of health benefits too! Read on:

CASHEW – NUTRIENTSGALORE IN A TINY PACKAGE

HEALTH BENEFITS: Crazy about Your Heart? Go Nuts! - Cashews not only have a lower fat content than most other nuts, ap-proximately 75% of their fat is unsaturated fatty acids, and 75% of this is oleic acid, the selfsame heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fat found in olive oil. Studies show that oleic acid promotes good cardiovascular health even in individuals with diabetes. Studies of diabetic patients show that mono-unsaturat-ed fat when added to a low-fat diet can help in reducing high triglyceride levels. Triglyc-erides are a form in which fats are carried in the blood, and high triglyceride levels are associated with an increased risk of heart disease, so ensuring you have some mono-unsaturated fats in your diet by enjoying cashews is a very very good idea, especially for people with diabetes.

Research on nuts out of Britain that iden-tified several nuts among plant foods with the highest total antioxidant content, sug-

gests their high antioxidant content may be a key to their cardio-protective benefits. This high antioxidant content helps explain results seen in an Iowa Women's Health Study as well, in which risk of death from cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases showed strong and consistent reductions with increasing nut/peanut butter consump-tion. Total death rates decreased 11% and 19% for nut/peanut butter intake once per week and 1-4 times per week, respectively. Even more impressive were the results of a review study of the evidence linking nuts and lower risk of coronary heart disease, also published in the British Journal of Nutrition. In this study, researchers looked at four large prospective epidemiological studies — the Adventist Health Study, the Iowa Women's Study, the Nurses' Health Study, and the Phy-sician's Health Study. When evidence from all the four studies was combined and cor-related, subjects consuming nuts at least 4

times a week showed a 37% reduced risk of coronary heart disease compared to those who never or seldom ate nuts. Each addi-tional serving of nuts per week was associ-ated with an average 8.3% reduced risk of coronary heart disease.

Practical Tip: To lower your risk of car-diovascular and coronary heart disease, eat a handful of cashews or a tablespoon of nut-butter, at least 4 times a week.Bone Up and Relax with Cashews: An es-sential component of many enzymes, copper plays an important role in a wide range of physiological processes including iron-uti-lization, elimination of free radicals, devel-opment of bone and connective tissue, and production of the skin and hair pigment called melanin. For example, copper is an essential component of the enzyme super-oxide dismutase, which is important in en-ergy production and antioxidant defenses. Copper is also necessary for the activity of



Wellness

lysyl oxidase, an enzyme involved in cross-linking collagen and elastin, both of which provide the ground substance and flexibility in blood vessels, bones and joints. Low di-etary intake of copper may also be associ-ated with increased fecal free radical produc-tion and fecal water alkaline phosphatase activity, which are risk factors for colon can-cer. Numerous health problems can surface in an individual if copper intake is inade-quate, including iron deficiency anemia, ruptured blood vessels, osteoporosis, joint problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, brain disturbances, elevated LDL (bad) choles-terol and reduced HDL (good) cholesterol levels, irregular heartbeat, and increased susceptibility to infections.

Topping your morning cereal with a quar-ter-cup of cashews can supply you with 38.0% of the daily value for copper.

Everyone knows that calcium is necessary for strong bones, but magnesium is also vital for healthy bones. About two-thirds of the magnesium in the human body is found in our bones. Some magnesium gives bones their physical structure, while the rest is found on the surface of the bone where it is cached as a reserve for the body to draw upon as needed. Magnesium, by balancing calcium, helps regulate nerve and muscle tone. In many nerve cells, magnesium serves as Nature's own calcium channel blocker, preventing calcium from rushing into the nerve cell and activating the nerve. By block-ing calcium's entry, magnesium keeps our nerves (and the blood vessels and muscles they ennervate) relaxed. But if our diet pro-vides us with too little magnesium, the cal-cium gains free entry, and the nerve cells get overactivated, sending too many messages and causing excessive contraction. Insuffi-cient magnesium can thus contribute to high blood pressure, muscular spasms (including spasms of the heart muscle or the spasms of the airways, symptomatic of asthma), and

migraine headaches, as well as muscle cramps, tension, soreness and fatigue.

Given these effects, it is not surprising that studies have shown magnesium to help re-duce the frequency of migraine attacks, low-er blood pressure, help prevent heart attacks, promote normal sleep patterns in women suf-fering from menopausal sleep disturbances, and reduce the severity of asthma. Just a quarter-cup of cashews provides 25% of the daily value for magnesium. Help Prevent Gallstones: Twenty years of dietary data collected on 80,000 women from the Nurses' Health Study show that women who eat least 1 ounce of nuts, pea-nuts or peanut-butter every week have a 25% lower risk of developing gallstones. Since 1 ounce is only 28.6 nuts or about 2 table-spoons of nut butter, preventing gall bladder disease may be as easy as packing one cash-ew butter and jelly sandwich (be sure to use whole wheat bread for its fiber, vitamins and minerals) for lunch each week, having a handful of cashews as an afternoon pick-me-up, or tossing some cashews on your oatmeal or salad.Eating Nuts Lowers Risk of Weight Gain: Although nuts are known to provide a vari-ety of cardio-protective benefits, many avoid them for fear of weight gain. A prospective study published in the journal 'Obesity'

shows such fears are groundless. In fact, peo-ple who eat cashewnuts at least twice a week are much less likely to gain weight than those who almost never eat them. The 28-month study involving 8,865 adult men and women in Spain found that participants who ate nuts at least two times per week were 31% less likely to gain weight than were participants who never or almost never ate nuts. And, among the study participants who gained weight, those who never or almost never ate nuts gained more (an average of 424 g more) than those who ate nuts at least twice week-ly. The study authors concluded, "Frequent nut consumption was associated with a re-duced risk of weight gain (5 kg or more). These results support the recommendation of nut consumption as an important com-ponent of a cardioprotective diet and also allay fears of possible weight gain."

PRACTICAL TIP Ø Don't let concerns about gaining weight prevent you from enjoying the delicious taste and many health benefits of nuts! Ø Spread some nut-butter on your morning toast or bagel. Ø Remember how many great childhood lunches involved a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich? Upgrade that lunchbox favorite by spreading organic peanut butter and con-cord grape jelly on that whole wheat bread. Ø Fill a celery stick with nut butter for an afternoon pick-me-up. Ø Sprinkle a handful of nuts over your morning cereal, lunchtime salad, dinner's steamed vegetables. Ø Or just enjoy a handful of lightly roasted nuts as a healthy snack.

Stella GeorGe

The author is an educationist and a pedagog, who also is a keen advocate of

natural remedies, organic food and a holistic approach to medicine, wellness and health,

divides her time between teaching children in school and writing on matters related to

health and wellness once in a while



Metaphysical Musings

What the stars foretell

Sachin Tendulkar is a name most of India knows and loves. Master blaster, cricket god, little master, he has been called by many names and platitudes as he coursed through the Indian cricket scene for an unbeaten career spread over decades. Now with him having decided to retire from the game, we felt it worthwhile to take a look at his life, from the perspective of what the stars foretell. Have a read:

lName: Sachin Tendulkar

lDate of Birth: Tuesday, April 24, 1973

lTime of Birth: 16:20:00

l Place of Birth: Mumbai

l Information Source: Astrology

l Moon sign – Rashi –Sagittarius

l Sun sign – Taurus

lAscendant – 6

everybody knows Sachin Tendulkar. Universally loved for his game, he has also broken several records, and has been the recipient of numerous

sporting awards in his long career as a crick-eteer and sportsperson.

There are several planets in his horoscope that have helped him earn a name, and some that have helped him shine in the field of cricket. Eg:Ø Placement of the ascendant and 10th house-lord Mercury in the 7th house, expecting Lagoma, making him fortunate and wealthy.Ø Mars, the most important planet for sports activity, positing in a comfortable position in the 5th house with Jupiter.

This combination has made Ten-dulkar a person of active mind, and maintain connections with other places. This combination also gives him a long life, and makes him a famous, honoured and influential person.Ø Sun, the planet for leadership, which is pointed in the 8th house in his exaltation, made him a captain as well, but its position in 8th home did create some hurdles for him many a time as well. Ø

him a good start at Karachi in November 1989.Dasha period of Mars: In the year 1994, he got the Arjuna Award for his excellence in the sport. He also got many Awards in the Dasha of Rahu, like the “Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratan” in 1997, and the Padma Shri in 1999. After a long gap, he also got the Padma-Vibhushan award in the year 2008, between the Rahu – Venus period.

It was during his Rahu – Surya period that India won the World Cup. Again it was during his Rahu - Surya Dasha that he got political benefits – when he was made a Member of the Rajya Sabha in year 2012.

The most precious, his “Bharat Ratna” Award, he got in the year 2013, during his period of the Rahu – Moon Dasha.

There is a possibility that due to some of the planets in his horoscope, he will continue to relate to cricket even after his retirement. According to an astrological reading of his janampatri, Sachin Ten-dulkar is star-material, and will continue to remain a star during his lifetime.

SaRIta GuptaYou can send your queries/questions at her mail ID: [email protected] and you can also visit her website:

www.bestastrologysolutions.com

sachin tendulkar

aSC

Mon

MaR

Jup MER

SunVEn

Rahu

KEtu

6

39

12

Saturn, one of his Yogkarma, posited in the 9th house in his own sign, and the 3rd house strengthened him for his sport activities.

He started his career at Maha Dasha of the Moon, and Antar Dasha of Venus, from the year 1988. 11th lord Moon and the 2nd and 9th lord Venus gave him good fortune in his cricket career.Moon – Surya Dasha (Lord of 12th home) which denotes a career in lands foreign, gave

Photo: Rajeev Tyagi

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VastuPh

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It is a time when we are ushering out the old year and ushering in the New Year, the dawn of which is just about to break. Every dawn brings with it the message that the spell of darkness is over, and the time has come for a new initiation. The New Year's dawn unfolds with this euphoric feeling of newness, inspiration and enthusiasm, urging us to discover and do something which has not yet been done before. And that mood is more than enough to start a celebration, isn't it?

ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS VIA VASTU

Most people begin their celebra-tions by setting new goals for themselves on New Year's day.

Now, this might be a goal for adding a few more zeros to their annual turnovers or salaries, finding their love/life partners, buying a new house or car, getting a pro-motion, a new job and so on and so forth. It is fine to set goals and deadlines to get them, but the right execution is most im-portant, without which you may not achieve the desired result. Proper plan-ning, a good and appropriate beginning, and hard work are essential ingredients for

this, but why not get the favor of lady luck as well? It would really do wonders! You could charm lady luck into smiling at you by following the Vaastu and Feng Shui tips given here: Ø Make a priority-wise list of your goals and set-out a deadline for each of them. Your goals should be solid and measurable so that you may evaluate them after a cer-tain time period, and chart course-correc-tions if needed after some time.Ø A written format is desirable as it at-tracts universal energy and takes you into an “achieving mode” from “desiring mode”.

But do not use a phone, tab or a computer, instead write them by hand in your per-sonal diary. You can even list them out on a piece of paper and pin it to the wall of your room, office or study table, or any other place where you can see it daily.Ø Start with one specific goal. Write down the goal on a triangular paper and fold it 9 times and keep in your purse or bag. Every day take that paper in your hand and recall the wish 9 times, repeat the process for 49 days. We all know we can certainly multitask, but amazingly accu-rate results can be achieved if you focus in



Vastu

one direction or on one aspect at a time.Ø Your main entrance ought to be able to welcome opportunities and channelize them to you. For this, the entrance should be made according to Vaastu and Feng-shui principles, so that chi energy wel-comes all the opportunities into your life.Ø Feng shui says that the energy levels in-side and outside the house play a vital role in determining your success. To enhance the chi (energy) of your house you may place some fengshui gadgets to achieve your goals. If your focus is on money, then your wealth zone should be equipped with feng shui gadgets like fengshui coins which attracts money in life, bamboo tree which brings growth in adverse situations or if you are willing to strengthen your love bonding you must place a pair of love birds, mandarian duck and mystic knot symbol in your bedroom and placing a laughing buddha in the drawing room, which can bring smiles and happiness in your family environs.Ø Colors play vital role in balancing en-ergy. You must paint your home/office as per your need and to know the colours most favourable to you, you may seek help from a professional vaastu-fengshui con-sultant.Ø You must have heard the expression ‘walk the walk’ or ‘walk the talk’. You are advised to act as if you already are what you want to be. And by this the positive energy will surround you and attract pos-itive outcomes in your life. Especially if you are a job seeker or struggling in your career, this feng shui formula can do some real wonders for you. Even the clothing you ought to wear for an interview can be worked upon. It is wise to know your per-sonal favorable color and wear that. Red is good for many social and business situ-ations, but it represents a fiery personality

and that’s not something employers look for in a candidate. Wearing darker colors for a management position like blues in-dicate a person of power and authority. Lighter colors — grays, tans and creams — are good for a supporting role, because they can indicate a person who is willing to work hard. “If the job involves commu-nication, consider wearing blues; if it in-volves making quick decisions, then wear red; if it’s financial, consider wearing char-coal.” Ø To improve chi energy in your sur-rounding you may place feng shui Ba-gua outside your door. To improve the chi en-ergy inside your home or office you can choose the colors for walls and furnishing as per the feng shui element. Every color represents one or other feng shui basic element i.e., water, air, fire, metal and wood. To attract the opportunities a bal-ance is a must in all the five basic ele-ments. Ø If you are going to appear for an inter-view, take deep breaths prior to the inter-view where you can visualize breathing in

white natural sunlight that burns up all of your negative thoughts, feelings and emo-tions then converts into black smoke that you release upon exhale.Ø Office plants: golden photos, areca palm and Dracaena Jenny Craig can be installed in office and home areas. These three plants are air purifying and tolerate low levels of light, it works wonders for the of-fice. Put crystal under the sand (flower pot) so that nobody can look at it, but make sure that it is installed in your wealth zone.Ø Display photos of your idol/role model whose career and professions are the same or similar to what you want to adopt. For eg. If you want to be a writer then maybe place a photo of Premchand, or one of your favourite author on the north wall of your room. it will enthuse you to follow his path.Ø Find out your Kua No. and activate your personal direction for success. If you are planning to settle abroad and are looking out for a job in lands abroad then try in a suitable vaastu direction as per your sun-shine as it can be more fruitful.Ø Fenghsui dragon and horse can be kept in the office for stability and confidence. If a person starts a proprietorship business alone then he should place a single horse image in his office and an image with 7, 9 and 12 horses is favourable for a company that is involved in foreign business, mar-keting or team work. It helps them in de-veloping their name and brand. White horse should be placed in west and golden in east and red should be placed in south direction.

Apart from vastu, he is also a well-known exponent of Feng Shui and Pyramidology. You

can contact him at: [email protected]



Sports

Sports and nation are two different words but in reality sports in a country is like oxygen for humans. Sport is something that unites an entire nation, it is something that at one instance gives the high of happiness and at another the lows of disappointment, beyond anything it gives HOPE. Sport teaches the nation to hope that if you lose one day you can get up to win the next day, it teaches us to hope to live for a better tomorrow. Let’s look at how India had a mixed bag of highs and lows in different sporting arenas and what is in-stored in the future for us a sporting nation.

FORESEEING THE FUTURE

RELIGION OF THE NATION – CRICKETLet us start with the fact that for the first time after 1996, an Indian team is playing a test match where none of the Fabulous Four (Sachin, Dravid, Sourav and VVS Laxman) of Indian cricket are playing. Yes the Indian team is without the big four after the retirement of the nation’s favourite cricketing son, Sachin Ten-dulkar, in 2013. That this time would come everybody knew, but that the first such test would be a hostile territory was something that was not expected. India is playing in South Africa, and South Af-rica has never been happy hunting ground for Indians.

The question was always asked, will the flamboyant young-sters be able to re-place these stalwarts, and it was always go-ing to be a big task to replace the legends. It was time that these youngsters had to raise their hands and get counted. Hon-estly the perform-ance of this team has not been wee bit dis-appointing and that too in the longer for-mat of the game. Players like Virat Kohli and Cheteswar Pujara have shown they have it in them to replace the big guns, their attitude and performance has shown that they have the skill and desire to continue the legacy of the big names. Will they be able to sustain the same level for humungous lengths of time is another question but right now we can say Indian batting is in safe hands.

India is traveling to New Zealand this month for a bilateral series after the tour of South Africa, where the Kiwis are gen-

erally good on their home turf and they will have a point to prove themselves before the 2015 Cricket World Cup, as they are the co-hosts of the mega event. The wickets in New Zealand will be more or less similar to those in South Africa, so the present tour will be a good help. Playing in New Zealand will also help the team to know the conditions better, which will be a must for the next year’s World Cup which

is taking place in Aus-New Zealand. We should expect a tough series but be-

lieve Indians have a better and more tal-ented side than the Kiwis, so they should come on top in all formats of the game. This will be a good chance to continue with the resurgence of the Indian team from the shadow of those legends and to improve the overseas record which is nothing to be proud of by any stretch of imagination.

GEM FOR THE LAND OF FIVE RIVERS – KABADDI2013 saw the 4th edition of the Kabaddi world cup being held in Punjab, India. This edition of the mega event saw India being crowned as champions for the 4th consecutive time. Kabaddi may seem to be a very rural sport but then an interesting fact is that this rural sport, played pre-dominantly in Punjab, has an annual budget of INR 200 Crore.

The sport traditionally played in vil-lages of Punjab, has now crossed borders not only to Canada or UK where there is a huge Punjabi community but also to far away countries in Africa like Kenya and Sierra Leone. The great enthusiasm has not only brought greater competition but also greater investment and thus the rea-son for such huge amounts of money in-volved in the game. Kabaddi is a part of Punjab’s culture and the people of Punjab have a great connect with the game. This affinity was used by the Punjab state gov-ernment to conduct Kabaddi world cup in Punjab every year since 2010. Now as the



Sports

dynamics and economics of the game are showing progressive signs it is high time the Government of India, government of Punjab and all the various investors from the country and abroad take Kabaddi to a more global level.

SPORT OF THE WIZARD – HOCKEYThe Indian Men’s Hockey team has been showing a lot of promise in the last few years but has consistently failed on the big stage. With the World Cup coming up in June 2014 in Hague, as also the Asian games and the Commonwealth games, it’s time that historical giants of world hockey deliver what the fans have been waiting for from a long time now. The question that keeps coming to mind is what is lacking: is it the talent, is it the motivation, is it the

passion of playing for the nation, what is it that is hindering the team to give better performances in games that matter, in championships that count ? The problem lies not just at the senior level, the same is happening at the junior level as well, and this was reflected in a poor 10th place fin-ish in recently concluded Junior Hockey World Cup held in Delhi.

One of the reasons could be slim devel-opment of the game at the grass root level, the game played at junior or sub junior level is not technically sound enough to match the European standards. One more reason could be the lack of motivation for the players due to lack of funds or an in-secure future or lack of interest of the fans. It is time to take all these reasons into ac-count and eradicate them and bring back the glory days on Indian hockey. Special

attention needs to be given to the game at the junior level, where international exposure should be given so that the preparation and learning is complete. Hockey India league has done 3 things in one for the game. Future of the players is secured because of the money that is involved, the interna-tional exposure which is so necessary is there, and the third and the most important is that it brought back fans to

the stadiums cheering the national game. All in all it is helping the game regain its shine, it’s fan base and also planting a sense of optimism in every fan that the team will achieve big this year.

MOST FOLLOWED SPORT OF THE WORLD – FOOTBALLOne of the biggest high for sports followers came with the news of India getting the right to host the U-17 Football World Cup in 2017. Just imagine the Football World Cup, understandable it is the U-17 world cup but that’s the stepping stone for India to produce its own Messi’s and Ronaldo’s. This is the platform where the best scouts form the best clubs of Europe and around the world come looking for young talent. These are the tournaments which nurture careers of tomorrow’s superstars. It is the occasion to show the world that we mean business and we want to do well in Football too.

First lets congratulate the sports minis-try and sports administrators for putting up an effort to bid and then successfully get the rights to host a tournament of that stature. This is a big step in the direction of improving the standard of football in

India. 6 world class stadiums which are a must to host the mega event, plus world class training facilities. That’s indeed the right mix for talented kids of India to come and show their mettle. It would be unfair to over-expect just because our na-tion is hosting the tournament but Hope would be that the chance to shine is used in the best way possible. Any kind of achievement in the tournament would be a like beaming ray of sunshine after a long dark night.

Anshul GuptA

The author is a software engineer by profession. A passionate and avid sports en-thusiast, who follows a wide swath of sports,

ranging from Cricket, Football, Hockey, NBA, Tennis and more.

Photo: Rajeev Tyagi



Real Estate & Property

BJP- REAlTY'S NEW SAVIOUR ?

If the delebrations at the recent two-day conference of CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Develop-ers' Associations of India), an apex body of developers, is any indication, the real estate sector that was shunned by the UPA government, is warming up to a resurgent BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, and looking to the saffron party as its saviour. Vinod Behl writes...

In the backdrop of the industry and cor-porate sector throwing their weight be-hind BJP and its Prime Ministerial candi-date Narendra Modi, CREDAI also saw a saviour in the main opposition party as a number of BJP leaders including party president Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Shahnwaz Hussain and Anurag Thakur showed up at the meet in support of CREDAI's cause.

In fact Naidu took no time to announce that he had come to extend moral support to CREDAI. Lending support to CREDAI's cause, Naidu said that housing should be given industry status, stamp duty needs to be rationalized and home loan rates need-ed to be lowered. He was also in support

of taking corrective measures with regard to the financing to the real estate sector which he said was highly skewed.

CREDAI President, C. Shekhar Reddy, strongly raised the issue of commercial real estate funding. He expressed serious concern that the banks' exposure to the real estate sector was merely 3 percent (INR 1,26,000 Crore - equal to the expo-sure to one large corporate house) com-pared to 22 percent in China and over 30 percent in the US. He advocated liberal funding of the sector to create excess stock supply which will in turn bring down prices. Besides fund crunch, high taxation - to the tune of 30-40 percent being the bane of real estate, Reddy made a strong

The two-day CREDAI Conclave held in New Delhi on December 13-14, not just forcefully high-lighted the problems faced by the

real estate sector but also decried the UPA government for neglecting the sector. This time, the mood at the CREDAI conference on the theme of 'Housing, the game changer leading to double-digit growth', was in total contrast to such meets in the past. Instead of pleading before the in-vited Chief Guest - Housing Minister Dr. Girija Vyas (above on left pic.), the key functionaries of CREDAI struck a strident note in denouncing the government's housing policies and demanding rightful due for the real estate sector.



Real Estate & Property

which talked about focusing on cities (ur-banization) through deregulation and de-velopment of land to achieve 9-10 percent GDP growth. He was also critical of the fact that there was no movement on im-portant task committees reports relating to affordable housing, simplification of ap-proval processes and rental housing.

The spotlight also turned on Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). Jain averred that instead of being a facilitator, RERA will bring back inspector raj espe-cially as banking, planning, approval and environmental authorities were not under the purview of the bill on RERA. Reddy said that RERA can be used as a tool to achieve double - digit growth, provided FSI, online sanctioning, taxation, funding etc., is brought under its purview. Housing Minister Dr. Girija Vyas assured real estate developers that RERA bill will be suitably modified if necessary, besides promising to consider CREDAI's demand for easing CRE funding, relaxing FSI norms and do-ing away with multiple taxation.

But there was so much anger and frus-tration among CREDAI top brass that the Housing Minister's assurance hardly cut any ice with them as on the second day of the conference in the presence of BJP President Rajnath Singh, Jain again lam-basted the housing policies of the UPA government. He lamented that the UPA government was treating them as beggars despite the fact that the real estate sector was filling the coffers of the government by way of adding INR 12,00,000 Crore to the economy. The new President-Elect of CREDAI, Geetambar Anand, passion-ately sought Rajnath Singh's support as he

criticized UPA government for not paying any heed to their appeals for drafting suit-able policies which can contribute effec-tively to employment and GDP growth.

Rajnath Singh told the audience how during the tenure of the Vajpayee govern-ment (1998-2004), great emphasis was put on real estate and infrastructure sector, and policy measures like low home loan rates, income tax relief on home loan and National Highway Development Project contributed significantly to the economy with record employment generation of 6.70 crore against the mere 27 lakh under the UPA regime (2004-10), as per NSSO data, and how India became a Current Ac-count Surplus country.

Rajnath Singh was given a standing ova-tion when he declared that CREDAI's de-mands could well make it to the BJP's Vi-sion Document being prepared under the chairmanship of former BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, for inclusion in the party's manifesto for 2014 elections.

Notwithstanding the saffronization of the conclave and CREDAI pinning its hopes on BJP and its PM candidate Naren-dra Modi, a section within CREDAI is in favour of consistently engaging UPA gov-ernment and putting pressure on it in a run up to the Loksabha elections to meet its demands. It remains to be seen if the real estate will be MODIfied in the coming months.

The author is a senior media professional, with long-standing experience in the real estate

sector. He is Editor, Realty Plus - a leading real estate monthly. He may be reached at

[email protected]

case for rationalizing taxes like capping registration charges at 3 percent.

Endorsing Reddy, CREDAI Chairman Lalit Kumar Jain lamented that real estate sector which makes contribution of INR 4,00,000 Crore to the economy (6 percent of GDP) is not just being neglected but also burdened with heavy taxes - with stamp duty outgo alone amounting to INR 32,000 Crore. While stressing the need to promote affordable housing, Jain called for administrative and land reforms besides rental housing reforms which he said could bring down prices by 25 percent.

Sharing Jain's concern, Venkaiah Naidu charged that the government has given a go-by to the 11th Five Year Plan document Ph

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Photo: Ajay Sood



Cineppets

KANGANA TURNS DIALOGUE WRITER

Kangana Ranaut is indeed turning into a seasoned film-professional what with her acting in two diametrically opposite films, KRRISH 3 and RAJJO, wowing audiences and critics alike. Now to showcase her other talents, Kangana has stepped into the dialogue writer’s shoes and penned dialogues for Viacom Motion Pictures & Phantom Films’ forthcoming film QUEEN, to be directed by Vikas Bahl. Kangana also plays the female lead in the movie. The actress agreed to write the dialogues for the film since she is to play a small town girl in it and there was a reel and real life connect. “I have to talk like a real person and I have to be candid because I play the part of a shy, sheltered and submissive girl, who is very protected by her family” ob-served the actress.

‘I CAN’T MATCH DAD’S STARDOM’ - ABHISHEK BACHCHANBeing the son of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan isn’t easy for ac-tor Abhishek, who says it is unim-aginable for him to achieve the kind of stardom his father has achieved, so he prefers to chart his own course. “I think one must aim for Mars ... forget about reaching the Sun. It is not going to happen. One must stay within their limits ... He (Amitabh) is the biggest that was, is, and is ever going to be. So don’t as-pire to be that because it's not going to happen. Aspire to be your own man and achieve your own goals,” says Abhishek, whose performance in films such as Yuva (2004), Bunty Aur Babli (2005) and Guru (2007) were highly appreciated. Abhishek says he believes in doing good work and insists that megastars even like his father cannot guarantee a hit if the story is not good enough. “If the film is not good and even if you have Mr Amitabh Bachchan in it, it will not work. I would love to say that (all films that dad does will be hits), it makes for a great copy. But the fact is, if the film is not good, the story is not good, then nobody can save your film.

IMTIAz ALI ON "HIGHWAY" "HIGHWAY" is an upcoming bollywood romantic movie directed by Imtiaz Ali and co-produced by Ali and Sajid Nadiadwala under a new banner, White Window. The

shooting of the movie started in February 2013. Imtiaz Ali has casted Alia bhatt and Randeep Hooda for his latest romantic flick. Music for the film is being scored by A.R rehman, which raises expectations no doubt. In the past, Imtiaz Ali has directed romances like 'SOCHA NA THA', 'JAB WE MET' and 'ROCKSTAR'. He says he is now happy to revisit his dream story in this upcoming film "HIGHWAY".

MuMbai bureau



Silver Screen

We at NRI Achievers have been bringing you interesting interviews with leading exponents of the cine industry in 'Silver Screen' every issue. This time round, as the new year dawns, we thought we should compile a list of the films to look forward to during the coming year 2014. Here it is!

FILMS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2014

ONE BY TWOAbhay Deol turns producer with this film, which stars Abhay Deol and Preeti Desai. Director: Devika Bhagat, Release: 31st January ’14.

BANG BANG Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, whose chemistry was loved in ZNMD, pair up for this film. Director is Sid-harth Anand, Producer Fox Star Stu-dios, Release date: 2nd October '14.

SHOLAY 3D Iconic film now to be released in 3D format so that you could watch the cult film on the big screen. Presented by Jayantilal Gada & Sippy Brothers, directed by Ramesh Sippy, release date 3rd January ’14.

JAI HO The first biggie of 2014 to be released, it is Salman release after a gap of one and a half years, and stars Salman Khan, Daisy Shah, Sana Khan, Tabu, Sushil Meena. Directed by Sohail Khan and produced by Eros and So-hail Khan Productionz. Release: 24th January ’14.

TOTAL SIYAPAA This Neeraj Pandey’s upcoming comedy drama after SPECIAL CHABBIS directed by Eeshwar Niwas is the director’s comeback after a gap of 5 years and stars Ali Zafar & Yami Gautam. Film is being produced by Reliance Entertainment & Neeraj Pandey, scheduled for release on 31st January’ 14.

FAN Shahrukh Khan will be back with this film Fan from Aditya Chopra's production house. Pro-duced by YRF, the film is directed by Maneesh Sharma, the writer is Ha-bib Faisal, and the film will release on 19th De-cember ’14.

P.K. Rajkumar Hirani and Aamir Khan come together after the major box office success of 3 IDIOTS in this film, which stars Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and Sush-ant Singh Rajput. Director is Rajkumar Hirani. Re-lease: 6th June '14.

KICKThis Eid release of Salman Khan after EK THA TIGER, is the remake of the Tamil hit THILLALANGADI and stars Salman Khan in the romantic lead opposite Sonakshi Sin-ha. The film is directed and produced by Sajid Nadiad-wala, and set to release on 27th July’ 14.



Silver Screen

KILL DILDirector of BUNTY AUR BABLI, Shaad Ali is returning to direction after 4 yrs, with this film starring Govinda, Ranveer Singh, Parineeti Chopra and Ali Zafar. Producer: YRF, Release: 5th September '14.

UGLYAnurag Kashyap’s first ever thriller emotional drama stars Rahul Bhatt, Ronit Roy, Girish Kulkarni, Siddharth Kapoor, Vinit Kumar Singh, Vipin Sharma and Surveen Chawla. Direc-tor: Anurag Kashyap, Producer: Phan-tom films & DAR Motion Pictures, Release: 31st January ’14.

DAWAT-E-ISHQAfter Parineeti and Arjun Kapoor star-rer ISHAQZAADE, the director Habib Faisal will working again with the ac-tress in this next. The director who is known for his most famous comedy drama DO DOONI CHAAR will be teaming up with the production house yet again. Starring: Aditya Roy Kapur, Parinneti Chopra, Anupam Kher and Karan Wahi, Director: Habib Faisal, Producer: YRF, Release: 9th May ’14.

Jyothi VenkateshThe writer is a well-known & established film critic.

GUNDAY An ode to Yash Chopra’s 1979 action drama KAALA PATHAR, the film also has Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, who are coming together for the first time. The film stars Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. Produced by Yash Raj Films and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the film releases on 14th February ’14.

DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHI Dibakar Banerjee and YRF come togeth-er for the first to make a film on a detec-tive series. The film stars Sushant Singh Rajput. Produced by Dibakar Banerjee & YRF and directed by Dibakar Banerjee, the film's release date is 12th December '14.

MARDAANIRani Mukherji will be teaming up with YRF in this film, which will see the actress doing action scenes for the very first time. She will be play-ing the role of a cop in the film. Di-rector: Pradeep Sarkar, Producer: YRF, Release: 18th July ’14.

O TERIThis Salman Khan’s home production, which stars Pulkit Samrat and Sarah Jane Diaz. Director is Umesh Bhisht, producers are Salman Khan & Atul Agnihotri. Release is on 7th March ’14.

PHANTOMThis is Kabir Khan’s next film after EK THA TIGER, with the fresh pairing of Saif Ali Khan and Katrina. Produced by Sajid Nadiad-wala, the film is slated for a 2014 release.



Travelogue

KOTLA SULTAN SINGHA VOYAGE OF EMOTIONSAfter many days of uncertainties, planning

and re-planning, I finally left for Amritsar on 30th November 2013. I was to meet my friend after a gap of 30 years. Little did I know then, that this journey was going to

be more memorable than any I had ever undertaken.After the first-day customary visit to the iconic

Golden Temple, devouring some finger-licking deli-cious 'Beere Da Chicken' and witnessing an electrifying flag-lowering ceremony at Attari-Wagah border, my friend suggested that we visit a village next morning. Being from Punjab, such an invitation is always a wel-come excitement for me. Upon enquiring, he men-tioned we’d be visiting Kotla Sultan Singh. This name sounded vaguely familiar.

Next morning, we drove off on Majitha Road - a road that forms a diagonal between the roads leading to Ajnala and to Batala. Once on that road, the penny dropped for me. I asked him if Kotla Sultan Singh is the village from where the famous singer, Late Moham-mad Rafi, hailed. He responded in affirmative.

As an avid music lover, from then on, the next few hours were part-dream, part-nostalgia for me.

I have visited Shakespeare's world-famous 'Globe Theatre' in London. While that visit was memorable, the feeling was nowhere close to what I was experienc-ing during my drive to Kotla Sultan Singh.

From my childhood to now, I do not remember a

Photos & Text: Ajay Sood



Travelogue

single day when Rafi Sahib's soulful singing didn't stir a feeling or two in me. Whilst the foot-tapping Sham-mi Kapoor numbers invariably surfaced during the happy-go-lucky moods, his romantic numbers floated by in the sub-conscious during the softer moments; when feeling low, an apt sad song by Rafi Ji would invariably come to mind, and similarly, during a fes-tival or a special occasion, some other classic by him would fill the senses.

We drove past Majitha town, and my excitement started to mount. I instinctively knew we were very close to his village. My eyes were taking in every sight, sound and smell along the way. The poplar-lined nar-row, well-tarred road (for most part) was cutting

through the green vistas of a prosperous region that thrived in growing peas, potatoes, mustard and wheat, besides many other vegetables, food grains and cash crops. The traffic was sparse and mixed, with tractors rubbing shoulders with cars, buses and bicycles. The farm hands and farmers were busy in their farms. While the air was crisp and fresh, the entire scene was calm and tranquil.

A short dirt track through some houses finally led us out to a T-junction. To our right, we could see an entrance arch to a primary school which announced in Punjabi - Government Elementary School, Kotla Sultan Singh. We stopped there to make enquiries. We had heard that a schoolmate of Rafi Sahib still lived in



people. Their pastime was to go to the fields and help make jaggery, shepherd, or play eye-spies. And, while these games were on, Rafi Sahib would always be humming or singing.

He talked about how they were together till 1937 (the year Rafi Sahib's family left for Lahore, as per his memory) and shared all that children of that age shared. Upon asking if he ever met Rafi Sahib again after he left for Lahore in 1937, he shared about his next and only meeting. It was 1956, and Rafi Sahib had a stage show in Am-ritsar. From the stage, he asked for Kundan Singh Ji by name on the mike. That's when these childhood friends again met and hugged each other. Whilst sharing this, I could detect mixed feelings in Kundan Singh Ji's faraway look - a hint of nostalgia, a touch of pride and a surge of emotion that moistened his eyes. And I realised that even my eyes had moistened.

Kundan Singh's Ji's grandson then took us around - to a new house next door, where Rafi Sahib's house used to be; to the Elementary School where Rafi Sahib had carved his name on the trunk of a mango tree, which had now been felled; and, to the new Higher Secondary School where Rafi Sahib's statue has been erected. Si-lently, I went around, clicked some pictures, bade my goodbyes - my

heart overcome with emotion.During our drive back, all I could think of was the music lover's

pilgrimage I had just undertaken. It was 1st of December, and I realized if Rafi Sahib were alive today, he would have been 89 in another 3 weeks or so. The one song by Rafi Sahib that refused to get out of my head at that moment was - "Tum mujhe yoon, bhula na paaoge…"

Music Director Naushad had given a fitting tribute to this music great after his passing away. In complete agreement, I am privileged to share the same with you here -

Kehta hai koi, dil gaya, dilbar chala gaya;Saahil pukarta hai, samandar chala gaya;Lekin jo baat sach hai, wo kehta nahi koi;

Duniya se mosiaki ka, payambar chala gaya…

The writer is an accomplished and avid travel photographer, relishing equally the challenges in capturing

cityscapes and landscapes, heritage and architecture, wildlife and citylife, street and people.

the village. A gentleman, who was going about his business, very hospitably offered to help us find him and finally took us to Rafi Sahib's schoolmate's house.

Sardar Kundan Singh, 87, was sitting in the open courtyard of his village home when we entered. His family warmly welcomed us. Given his age, and slight disability (partial paralysis), his grandson offered to act as the interpreter.

Kundan Singh Ji referred to Rafi Sahib as Pheeko (I learnt later that was Rafi Sahib's nickname). He shared that Rafi Sahib's family be-longed to Naai (barber) community, but in the same breath mentioned that during any weddings in the village, Rafi Sahib's family would be responsible for making the sweets. Seeing my confusion, he was quick to clarify that 'Naai' community traditionally was responsible for all these odd jobs like cutting hair, making sweets, etc.

He reminisced how Rafi sahib and a few other kids used to cele-brate various festivals together. The normal mode of transportation those days was either horses or bicycles. They would often use these as kids for visiting fairs in nearby villages. They were together till 4th standard, in the same Elementary School I mentioned earlier. Their main medium of education was Urdu, and their teacher was Mr. Nazeer Ahmed. The village had a population of just about 900

Travelogue

Postal regd No. dN/297/2013-2015date of Publication: 5th of every Monthdate of Posting: 8th & 9th of every Month

rNI No. delBIl/2012/45826

it's time. - nri achievers, nri achievers...

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