Issue34 -Volume 2

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IndianIndian May 14, 2010Volume 2, No. 9

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Fiji | 12Dhoni signs Rs 210 crore

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India | 9 Bollywood | 21

2 Indian Weekender | July 23, 2010 | www.iwk.co.nz

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ArvINd KumAr

When Jaspreet Singh sits down to a breakfast of baked beans and toast, he is far from enjoying the flavour of the nutritious meal.

Being the scientist he is, Dr Singh is more con-cerned about the goodness the humble bean can deliver to the thousands of sufferers of obesity and diabetes throughout the country and world.

Dr Singh, 37, of the Riddet Institute at Massey University in Palmerston North, is on the verge of unlocking the secrets of “good starches” in prod-ucts such as beans (as in baked beans) and the humble spud.

So much so that he has now completed a 528-page book titled “Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, co-written with his wife Love-deep Kaur, who is also a scientist working at the Riddet, with numerous contributions from re-nowned academics from throughout the world, including one from NASA.

Dr Singh and his team at Riddet are now at the cusp of successfully screening starches with a low glycemic index, which he calls “starch of the future”.

Explains Dr Singh in layman’s terms: “New Zealand has a significant number of people who are obese and diabetic.

“They require food which tastes good but at the same time have fewer calories. When we eat starches, enzymes act on the starch and gluclose is produced, goes to the blood, thus giving energy.

“Trying to identify starches which, when di-gesting, produce less glucose, is our aim. This is what is beneficial to the body.”

Dr Singh said so far they had screened starches in baked beans (Navy Beans), which produced promising results in pilot stages. The team had found special starches in the beans, hence the col-laboration with Heinz Watties for further research

on the project.“My research currently

focuses on characterising future carbohydrates to develop novel and healthy food products,” said Dr Singh.

“The research on future carbohydrate is important to produce healthy foods with low glycemic index. Consumption of starch containing foods is critical for diabetics, since due to lack of insulin, the glucose produced in the blood after digestion cannot be utilized in a quantitatively sufficient manner.

“The management of Type 2 diabetes and its complications account for a significant proportion of health expenditure in New Zealand, with Maori, Pacific islanders and South Asians living in New Zealand more susceptible to the disease.

“Nutrition is of utmost importance in the in-tensive management of diabetes and obesity to the extent that it has often been described as the cornerstone of care for both these problems. I am working towards the development of new starch structures which have low glycemic index.

“These structures would enhance the nutri-tional quality of food when used for the develop-ment of low-calorie, slowly digestible processed foods which also tastes good and have no safety issues.

In a recent presentation at a science summit in Auckland, Dr Singh spoke about the need to produce future starches for the food industry.

“Future starches are the starches with more health benefits such as low glycemic index and slow digestibility and provide fewer calories to the body.

“At the same time these starches provide a good texture to the food products and tastes similar like high calorie starches.”

Originally from Punjab, India, Dr Singh has

also worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Insti-tute de la Recherche Agronomique in France and also at the Kansas State University in the United States.

Dr Singh, who joined Massey University in 2004, is also the president of Massey University Indian Association (MUIA) which is an associa-tion of Indian students and staff at Massey Univer-sity in Palmerston North.

For now, Dr Singh is forging ahead with high hopes of producing a starch of the future.

Scientist’s quest for the perfect food for diabetics


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New Zealand

Melbourne: Three young Australian men drove around searching for an Indian to rob until they found 23-year-old Lucky Singh, a court here heard.

On October 15, 2009 around 1:30am, Alek-sander Trifunovic, Shayne Comensoli and Lennon Metaxas drove around Melbourne’s west until they got hold of Singh in a phone booth in the Sunshine area. There, they got out of the car and bashed him unconscious.

Prosecutor Amelia Macknay said the attack-ers were looking for an Indian because they believed a person of Indian ethnicity was most likely to have cash on him.

Comensoli and Metaxas, who repeatedly hit Singh, took off with the $80 in the Indian’s wallet.

Singh, who had been living in Victoria for eight months, said in his victim statement that the attack had shattered his confidence and he suffered flashbacks.

“I’m too scared to walk at night,” he said. “My life has completely changed. I feel scared to go outside,” he added.

However, defence barrister Ron Tait denied there was a racial aspect to Trifunovic’s crimes.

Metaxas, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced in March to three years in a youth justice centre.

Australia: Robbers hunted down Indian

When filmmaker Vimal Reddy recently handed me a copy of his latest movie and asked me to review it, I was hesitant.

Having experienced disappointment with another movie made in Fiji a very long time ago, I wasn’t comfortable going down that path again.

“Just give it your honest review,” said Reddy. I thought that was pretty bold of him to ask for

a frank opinion on his latest release, shot in Mel-bourne and Fiji, and out on DVD recently.

“Ghar Pardes” (Home Abroad) is a surprisingly pleasant viewing, which drives home a bold message for the Fiji Indian community, sprinkled with typical Fiji humour and at-times intense family drama.

Shot briefly in the lush cane fields and the golden beaches of western Fiji, “Ghar Pardes” is the story of Priya (played by Pritash Dutt), a cane farmer’s daughter in Fiji, who is overjoyed when her family receives a proposal for their daughter to marry the son of a wealthy man from Melbourne.

The blissful first few weeks of her married life turns to custard when the couple find that they are not compatible. Her husband, Ravi (Praneel Rajoria), is a creature with chronic nocturnal habits which don’t sit well with the “bholi bhali” Priya.

Thus, Priya finds herself “alone” in a strange city as her married life falls apart, despite the efforts of her father-in-law, Ramesh (Vijay Kumaran), to bring his wayward son in line.

Not an uncommon story in post-coup Fiji, but

one brought to the big screen for the first time – poor cane farmers worried about the future of their daughter, keen to get her away overseas for “a better life”.

Looking at it from an overseas angle: anxious parents of their notorious son, keen for him to settle into a “homely” life – thinking that marriage to a village girl would change his behaviour. This does not materialize.

This movie neither contains Bollywood cast, nor is the direc-tor of Bollywood heritage – in fact none of the cast has ever been near an acting school, let alone in a movie, before. Reddy himself is a former Fiji bank executive.

It is a simple movie which manages to deliver on a valuable message, well combined with typical Fiji humour such as the scene where a photo thought to be that of a house owned by Ravi, is actually the Australian parliament

house.Raghu and Gopal Kaka are very real characters,

as is Jona, the Fijian family friend, who belts out “Jhil Mil Sitaro Ka Aaangan Hoga . . .” when he learns of Priya going to live in a big city.

“Ghar Pardes” is well backed by the music of Naresh and Sukhdev and Ali Sarshar, with enjoy-able photography by George Joseph.

While more polished acting would have given Ghar Pardes zest, it is nonetheless an enjoyable movie; if you are from Fiji, you’ll enjoy it more.

‘Ghar Pardes’ delivers on valuable messageArvINd KumAr

Jetstar has called for an end to immigration checks between Australia and New Zealand, claiming the move would benefit the tourism industries of both countries.

Australians and New Zealanders may share a bank, a war heritage and Russell Crowe, but the two are still separate Commonwealth nations, largely independent of each other and requiring citizens of both countries to travel with a passport.

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said flights between the two countries should be treated as though domestic, reported the Aus-tralian.

“For two countries which are so closely aligned in cultural and legal systems, there has got to be a way to get it worked out so that we have a common border and trans-Tasman flights are treated like a domestic trip,” Mr Buchanan said.

In what “would be the single biggest boost to the tourism industry on both sides of the Tasman”, Mr Buchanan claims doing away with passports and immigration checks would give each country an extra 326,000 passenger move-ments a year, reduce costs by AUD250 million and add at least AUD100 million per annum in gross domestic product.

His comments came as Jetstar announced its plans to expand its trans-Tasman operations with the launch of direct flights Australia and Queenstown in December.

In most cases, Australian and New Zealand citizens can enter each other’s country to visit, live and work without the need to pre-apply for authority to enter the other country - although New Zealanders are granted a Special Category Visa in keeping with Australia’s requirements for all non-citizens to hold visas.

Drop passports for trans-Tasman travel: Jetstar


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Prime Minister John Key was the guest of honour at the fund raising dinner organised by Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi MP at the Cosmopoli-tan Club Papatoetoe on July 15. Paula Bennett Minister was the MC for the evening attended by about 325 people, which culminated with a sumptuous dinner and a fund raising auction.

Roshan Nauhria and Prithipal Singh pre-sented a cheque of $15000 to Alan Towers, Chairman of the National Party Northern Region. Prime Minister John Key delivered a humorous yet powerful speech to the fully packed club room. He urged the mostly immi-grant community present in the room to work hard and achieve their goals.

He said achieving financial goals was not difficult in this country if one remained focused on attitude and aspirations. He also mentioned that in his recent trip to China he took up the extradition of Hiren Mohini’s alleged murderer.

As per Chinese law – he will not be extradit-

Successful National Party fundraiser in South Auckland

Kanwaljit bakshi, John Key, roshan Nauhria and Prithipal singh.

ed but instead the Chinese authorities have ar-rested him and are prosecuting him for murder. The offender will probably get a harsher sen-tence in China than in New Zealand, as he will most probably receive the death sentence.

Mr Key reiterated his government’s com-mitment to increasing trade relations with India. This presented an enormous opportunity as New Zealand’s trade with India is only $1 billion compared to $10 billion with China.

He highlighted the improved law and order situation in South Auckland comparing it to the past. With 300 new frontline police officers in the Counties Manukau region – the spate of robberies and homicides have dropped signifi-cantly.

Mr Bakshi, the evening’s host thanked his supporters as the packed room gave an indica-tion of National’s grass root level support in the Papatoetoe area.

Mr Key highlighted the im-proved law and order situation in South Auckland comparing it to the past. With 300 new frontline police officers in the Counties Manukau re-gion – the spate of robberies and homicides have dropped significantly.

Paula bennett minister was the mC for the evening attended by about 325 people, which culminated with a sumptuous dinner and a fund raising auction.


Indian New Zealand

More firms use social networking to build businessAuckland: Social networking has become a mainstream marketing business tool in the B2B world with fully 40% of businesses having successfully used social networks to win new business, reveals a new global survey commissioned by global workspace solutions provider Regus.

Testimony to the faith businesses are now putting in the social networking medium is seen in the revelation that well over a quarter of businesses world-wide (27%) have set aside a proportion of mar-keting budget – hard cash – specif ically devoted to social networking activities.

Up to now, relatively little analysis is available regarding the real use business-es are making of social networking and whether hard business can be generated through this channel. To glean whether businesses globally believe that social net-working is ready to take its place among an array of marketing tools, the Regus survey asked business leaders not only whether they had made any customer wins using social networking, but also whether they believed the channel effective enough to be awarded its own portion of marketing budget.

Social networks are still used for their original range of functions. The most popular use of social networks is staying in touch with business contacts, with 58% of respondents globally declaring they use networks in this way. Joining special in-terest groups is also popular (54%).

Although a number of sceptics (34%) believe social networking will never

become a signif i-cant method of con-necting to custom-ers and prospects, a full 51% of f irms organise, connect to or manage customer groups via social networks. 54% of f irms use social net-works to f ind out useful business in-formation.

S u r p r i s i n g l y , however, only 22% of respondents had found new employ-ment through social networking, this in spite of the specif ic job search func-tions of networks such as LinkedIn. William Willems, Vice President for New Zealand at Regus, comments: “Our groundbreak-ing global survey has revealed that social networking has f inally become a mainstream business tool.

Although there is a hardcore of sceptics globally, who do not believe that social networks will become a signif icant method of reaching customers and prospects, a signif icant proportion of f irms are devot-

ing real marketing budgets through the medium to acquire new customers and keep existing ones. “Whilst the most popular function of these networks remains that of keeping in touch with contacts, busi-nesses are also suc-cessfully acquir-ing new customers, supporting their re-tention efforts and interacting with customer groups. This survey indi-cates that organisa-tions who have not yet ventured into the world of social networking may be missing out on sizeable business opportunities. This is particularly the case in the Nether-lands (48%), India

(52%), Mexico (50%) and Spain (50%), where the highest level of new customer acquisition via social networking was re-ported.”

The survey also analysed company size differences and found that overall small companies were a little more likely than

average to use social networking. Perhaps due to this greater than average effort with the medium, 44% of small companies have successfully acquired new custom-ers through social networking compared to medium companies (36%) and large busi-nesses (28%).

The only exception to this trend is that a smaller than average number of employees at small f irms had found new employment through social networking. This result can best be interpreted in light of slower staff turn over in small companies than their larger counterparts.

Although employees in medium com-panies were the most likely to have found employment via social networking (25%), medium businesses were also the least likely to use social networks to organise, manage or connect to customer groups (45%).

On a sector basis, the ICT, Retail, Media & Marketing and Consultancy sectors made and above average use of social networking, while Manufacturing, Financial Services and the Health sector were lagging behind. Only 19% of compa-nies in the Financial Services sector had devoted budget to their social networking activities compared to 38% in the Retail and Media & Marketing sectors.

Also in the Financial Services sector only 26% of companies had successfully won new customers via social network-ing compared to 48% and 46% in the Media&Marketing and ICT sectors.

Two in five businesses globally report successful new customer acquisition through social networks

The most popular use of social networks is staying in touch with business contacts, with 58% of respondents globally declaring they use networks in this way. Joining special interest groups is also popular (54%).


Indian India

New Delhi: The Indian cabinet on Thursday approved the design of a new symbol of the Indian Rupee, as the country with the un-veiling of the symbol joins the exclusive group of nations like The United States and The UK with unique symbols of their currencies.

The new approved design includes both the Devnagiri ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’. IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar has designed the symbol.

Unveiling the design, Informa-tion and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said: “With this India will join an elite group of coun-tries which have a distinct currency symbol.”

She said the new symbol, a blend of modernity and Indian traditions, will emphasize on the strength of the Indian currency.

Uday Kumar, the designer from the Department of Design at IIT Gu-wahati, said: “I wanted the symbol to represent the Indian flag. It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters- a capital ‘R’, and Devna-gari ‘Ra’, which represent rupiya, to appeal to international and Indian audiences.”

Kumar designed several symbols and from the final ten he selected the one approved by the Union Cabinet.

This symbol will be used by all individuals/entities within and outside India after its incorporation in ‘Unicode Standard’, ‘ISO/IEC 10646’ and ‘IS 13194’.

A public competition was held amongst resident Indian citizens in-viting entries for the symbol, which reflects and captures the Indian ethos and culture. Over 3000 entries were received, which were evaluated by a Jury headed by the Deputy Governor, RBI, which also included experts from three reputed art and design Institutes.

The entries were presented to the Jury in such a manner that identity of the competi-tors was not revealed to the Jury members. The Jury selected five final entries and also gave its evaluation of these five entries to the Government to take a final decision.

The symbol will standardise the expres-sion for Indian Rupee in different languag-

es, both within and outside the country. It would better distinguish the Indian currency from those countries whose currencies are also designated as Rupee or Rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The symbol will be included in the “Unicode Standard” for representation and processing of text, written in major scripts

of the world to ensure that the Rupee symbol is easily displayed/printed in the electronic and print media as all the software compa-nies provide support for this Standard. En-coding in the Unicode Standard will also ensure encoding in the International stan-dard ISO/IEC 10646 as both the organiza-tions work closely with each other.

The symbol will also be included in the Indian Standards, viz. 13194:1991 – Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) through an amendment to the exist-ing list by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The ISCII specifies various codes for

Indian languages for processing on comput-ers along with the keyboard lay outs.

After encoding of the symbol in the Unicode Standard and National Standard, NASSCOM will approach software develop-ment companies for incorporating the Rupee symbol in their operative software, as a new programme or as an update, to enable the

computer users worldwide to use the symbol even if it is not embedded on the keyboards (in a similar manner, we use the Euro symbol, which is not embedded in the keyboards in use in India).

For incorporating the symbol in the keyboards to be manufactured in India, the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) will enjoin its membership to make requisite changes in the production processes once the symbol is notified as a keyboard standard by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The State Governments would be

impressed upon to encourage the use of the new Rupee symbol and proac-tively promote its use.

The encoding of the rupee symbol in the Indian Standards is estimated to take about six months while en-coding in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 will take about 18 months to two years. It will be incorporated in software packages and keyboards in use in India.

The symbol for the Rupee would

lend a distinctive character and iden-tity to the currency and further high-light the strength and robustness of

the Indian economy as also a favored desti-nation for global investments.

In view of the fact that the Indian economy

has been expanding at a sustained high rate of growth, is steadily integrating with the global economy and India has emerged as a prime investment destination worldwide, it was decided to undertake an exercise for se-lecting a distinct and identifiable symbol for India Rupee (INR) like other major curren-cies such as US Dollar (USD), British Pound Sterling (GBP), the Japanese Yen (JPY) and the European Union (EU) Euro.

New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal moved one spot to No.2 in latest world badmin-ton rankings released on Thursday.

Saina is the second India female athlete after former world junior chess champion Koneru Humpy to be ranked World No. 2 in any dis-cipline.

20-year-old Saina became World No. 3 after her hat-trick of three international titles, includ-ing two Super Series, last month.

“It is a great moment for me. Years of hard-work and training have finally given me the desired results. But I want to hold on to my rankings and for that I have to be consistent at the international level. With World Nno.2 rank-ings also comes lot of responsibilities and I have to fulfill them as well,” said Saina.

Saina is happy that the latest rankings comes just few days ahead of the World Championship in Paris.

“This couldn’t have come at a better time. We are playing the World Championship in Paris next month and this will surely boost my confidence. It feels great to be among the top-three in the world,” she said.

However, Saina said rankings are just a number game.

“It is just a number game. At this level the competition will be tougher; the person, who is strong on the very day, will win,” she said.

On being captain for the national team for the World Championship, Saina said: “This is not a team game. But obviously as a captain I will have my share of responsibilities.”

Saina now No.2 in world badminton Only Bhajji can match me: MuraliColombo: Sri Lankan spinning wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has said that amidst the current in-ternational spin bowlers, only Indian spinning hero Harbhajan Singh can match his record of taking nearly 800 wickets in Test cricket.

According to sources, Muralitharan said, “I think only Harbhajan can do this...only he can match my record. I don’t know how old is he and how long he will continue. But he is the only one who can achieve this feat in Test Cricket.”

Meanwhile, Murali had earlier announced that he will retire from test cricket after playing the first test against India at Galle starting

on July 18.Murali said that he will continue playing in the

Indian premiere League (IPL) where he plays for the Chennai Super Kings.

Murali further added that after retirement he has no plans to join either politics or coaching, instead he plans to travel around the world and enjoy his life.

The 38-year-old off-spinner is the leading wicket taker in both Test as well as One Day cricket.

He has taken 792 wickets in 132 Tests and 515 wickets in 337 ODIs and 13 wickets in T20 format.

On the other hand, Harbhajan Singh has taken 355 wickets from the 83 Test matches he has played so far.

5 continents meet in Italy for Cric World Cup Dubai: Teams from five continents prepare to meet in Italy next month as the truly global nature of international cricket is illustrated once again with the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Divi-sion 4 (WCL Div. 4).

Teams from Nepal, USA, Italy, Cayman Islands, Argentina and Tanzania will converge on Bologna to compete in the fourth step of the World Cricket League as they push ultimately towards inclusion in the next ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier (CWCQ) which is scheduled for 2013.

The top four finishers of the ICC CWCQ 2013 win themselves a place at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be staged in Australia and New Zealand.

The top two sides at WCL Div. 4, which will be played from 14 to 21 August in Bologna, will win promotion to the WCL Div. 3 to be staged in Hong Kong in January 2011.

The sides are to be hosted on three grounds for the tournament – Pianora, Medicina and Bologna.

the full schedule for WCL div. 4 is as follows:

Fixtures:

12 August – Team arrivals

13 August – Practice

14 August – USA v Nepal (Pianora);

Italy v Cayman Islands (Medicina);

Tanzania v Argentina (Bologna)

15 August – Italy v Nepal (Pianora);

Argentina v Cayman Islands (Me-

dicina); USA v Tanzania (Bologna)

16 August – Rest/Reserve Day

17 August – Italy v Argentina (Pi-

anora); Nepal v Tanzania (Medicina);

USA v Cayman Islands (Bologna)

18 August – Cayman Islands v Tan-

zania (Pianora); Italy v USA (Medici-

na); Nepal v Argentina (Bologna)

19 August – Rest/Reserve Day

20 August – USA v Argentina (Piano-

ra); Cayman Islands v Nepal (Me-

dicina); Tanzania v Italy (Bologna)

21 August – Final (Pianora); third/

fourth play-off (Medicina); fifth/sixth

play-off (Bologna)

India joins elite club with new Rupee symbol


Indian

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Bhopal: Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims have written to Minister of State Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh, for remediation of en-vironmental damage caused due to ‘reckless’ dumping of hazardous waste by Union Carbide Corporation, USA, in and around its abandoned factory in Bhopal.

Five Bhopal based organizations- Children Against Dow-Carbide, Bhopal Gas Peedit Ni-rashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, and Bhopal Group for Information and Action-drafted a joint letter to Ramesh, who is also the and chairman of Bhopal Environmental Remediation Oversight Committee.

“We believe that the solution to the problem of toxic contamination of ground water and soil in and around Union Carbide’s abandoned factory, lies in making The Dow Chemical Company, USA current owner of UCC, USA pay for the remediation of the degraded environment,” the Bhopal victims said in their letter.

“There is substantial evidence and national and international expert opinion to conclude that the necessary technical expertise and financial resources needed to deal with the environmental damage in Bhopal does not exist in India.

“There is substantial data to show that reports by NEERI and IICT on the toxic contamination in Bhopal are shoddy and motivated and these and other government agencies have downplayed the damage caused by Union Carbide in Bhopal.”

The victims said the most recent report by NEERI that flagrantly contradicts the December 2009 report by the Centre for Science and Envi-ronment, New Delhi appears to be designed to downplay the damage.

“It is far from a proper assessment of depth & spread of contamination, read the letter, “The sampling points are not based on a grid as it must

be for complete coverage of upstream and down-stream areas.”

In the current NEERI report even in the scanty sample numbers loca-tions for ground water sampling in the east and the north east direction (where contamination is to be most expected) have been studiedly avoided.

“In locating dump-sites through the HERT technique, instead of looking at the 21 spots that Union Carbide had earmarked for routine dumping of hazardous waste, only a few areas that were clear of vegeta-tion, construction, roads were covered. The report blames the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Reha-bilitation Department for not clearing the area,” read the letter.

Further, the Bhopal based organizations said the 14 hectares of Solar Evaporation Ponds have not been assessed for depth & spread of con-tamination by NGRI at all and assumptions regarding clay layer has been made hypothetically.

“We need to recall that as per similar hypo-thetical thickness of clay layer, NEERI’s 1997

report had ‘predicted’ that ground water next to the Union Carbide factory will begin to be contaminated in 2020, while the report of the State Research Labora-tory, Public Health En-gineering Department had shown groundwater to be contaminated in 1991!”

“With regard to the immediate steps on re-mediation we would like to point out that the 350 MT of Union Carbide waste is the most secured among the different kinds of wastes in and around the Union Carbide factory. The urgency with regard to its transportation & in-cineration is thoroughly unwarranted.”

The letter further read, “We are opposed to the plans transport or incineration 350MT of Union Carbide waste to Pithampur facil-ity because the village Tarpura is located within 500 meters of the Waste

Management Project facility and the proposed Incinerator. (mentioned

in Inspection Report of March 2007 and Status Report of January 2008)

“The facility has collected and stored incin-

erable waste in an unauthorized manner( men-tioned in Inspection Report of February 2009, Inspection Report of July 2009, Status Report of January 2008, Status Report of February 2009 and Compliance Report of July 2008

“The facility has built landfills that are not as per approved design of CPCB.4. The facility has built landfills that are not as per approved design of CPCB. .( mentioned in Inspection Report of July

2009, Status Report of January 2008, and Compliance Report of July 2008).”

“In the end we would like you to appreciate that given the opposition by local people to the idea of transportation and incineration of 350 MT of Union Carbide Waste in Bhopal and in Pitham-pur , it will be not be possible for the government to move this waste without attracting widespread outrage,” read the letter.

On the intervening night of 2/3 Dec 1984, the residents of central Indian city Bhopal became victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster when 40 tonnes of methyl iscocyanate (MIC - a highly volatile toxic chemical) stored at the pesticide plant - owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA - was contaminated with water and other impurities.

As a result, a mixture of deadly gases escaped from the factory killing several thousands of people and inflicting grievous injuries on at least 500,000 others.

At least 3,000 bodies were strewn all over Bhopal the next morning while 20,000 died even-tually over the years from the harmful effects of the toxic fumes.

Warren Anderson, former Chairman, Union Carbide Corporation, USA, who has been charged awith manslaughter has been declared an absconder in the case.

Bhopal victims write to Ramesh over Union Carbide waste

“We believe that the solution to the problem of toxic contamination of ground water and soil in and around Union Carbide’s abandoned factory, lies in making The Dow Chemical Company, USA current owner of UCC, USA pay for the remediation of the degraded environment,”


Indian

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New Delhi: Adding to the fervor of the FIFA World Cup 2010, Coca-Cola India in partnership with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has an-nounced the launch of 33rd Sub - Junior National Football Championship being played under the aegis of Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (MIHT).

The grassroots level championship is being organized to discover the most promising young footballers for the Under-16 Indian football team for 2011.

According to Alberto Colaco, General Secre-tary, AlI India Football Federation (AIFF), “We re-ceived an overwhelming response for the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy tournament in 2009 and are proud to take the initiative to the next level by organizing it in 1500 schools across 75 cities this year.”

The Under-16 tournament is being organised across 75 cities tapping over 40,000 young foot-ballers from 1500 schools. To kick-off the tourna-ment, the first match was played between Coast Guard and Shrinathji School at DMC Football Ground, Moti Daman, Daman & Diu.

“In India, this year we are scaling up the Coca-Cola Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy tournament to 75 cities, tapping over 40,000 young footballers from 1500 schools. We believe that Indian football has all the potential to make a mark on the global football map. However, the need is to tap budding talent and nurture them well to bring them up to the inter-national standards,” said Atul Singh, President & CEO, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia.

Coca Cola partners AIFF for young playersDhoni signs Rs 210 crore

deal with talent firmNew Delhi: First came the wedding with his childhood friend. And now the moolah. In-dian cricket captain has just signed a Rs 210 crore deal with a talent management firm, Rhiti Sports Management.“He signed a Rs 210 crore deal with us for two years,” Sanjay Pandey, General Manager, Operations, Rhiti Sports Management, told IBNS. “We are excited,” he said. Rhiti Sports is a comprehensive management resource for semi-professional and professional cricketers nationwide. Rhiti Sports Management with its joint venture partner Mindscapes One will now manage all endorsements of Dhoni. The deal is higher than the one signed by Sachin Tendulkar in 2006 with another company for Rs 180 crore for three years. Rhiti Sports also manages cricketers like R.P. Singh and Harbhajan Singh.Dhoni is the new poster boy of Indian cricket and he is associated with top brands like PepsiCo, Reebok, Aircel and Godrej among others.The stylish Indian cricket captain recently began a new innings in his life as he tied the knot with childhood friend and hotel management graduate Sakshi Singh Rawat at a private ceremony near Dehradun.

World’s largest passenger aircraft lands in Delhi New Delhi: The first commercial flight of the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the A380, landed at the new Terminal 3 in Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Thursday. The Emirates A380 Super Jumbo EK516 from Dubai to Delhi arrived at Terminal 3 at about 4 pm, after an hour’s delay due to bad weather. The aircraft will be at the IGI Airport for a few hours before it returns to Dubai. The new Terminal 3 had started opera-tions Wednesday and is the only terminal in the country capable of receiving A380 flights. The A380 is a two-deck aircraft, with the first floor covering the entire length of the aircraft. The 517-seat Emirates aircraft offers 14 flat-bed First Class Private Suites with electrically operated doors, 76 fully-flat seats in Business Class. The new Terminal 3 was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 3 and is the fifth largest airport terminal in the world. The spanking new world-class terminal has been built at a cost of Rs 9,000-crore.

India - briefsIAF officer wins Marathon medal in France

New Delhi/Kolkata: An Indian Air Force officer of IAF’s team at Exercise Garuda in France par-ticipated and won a medal and accolade at the ALSACE Marathon recently.

Wg Cdr BS Reddy, an IL-76 pilot who was in France for the Indo-France Air Exercise travelled to Molshiem, Strasbourgh on the Franco-German border to take part in this famous 42.2 km mara-thon race.

He was awarded a special recognition medal namely the finishers medal for his success at Alsace Marathon, an official marathon as per the World Marathon Association.

This marathon run takes place on a circuitous route through the vineyards of North Western France.

“Wg Cdr Reddy is a 40-years-young pilot who has flown Mig-21s, Mig- 23s, Mig-27s and various trainers, and is presently posted in Chandigarh flying IL-76 aircraft,” said a defence release.

‘Ballu’ as he is popularly called took to long distance running of late, after the Aviation medi-cine doctors advised him against other competi-tive sports like football and basketball at which he was proficient. Wg Cdr Reddy has participated in Delhi half Marathon in 2008 and subsequently at two full Marathons at Gurgaon.

Despite of hectic flying schedule of his squad-ron, he trains regularly for about 10-15 kms daily and does other cross-training calisthenics.

Wg Cdr Reddy says, “I ain’t no Forest Gump but running is meditation to me. With my heart beats and limbs settled to a musical rhythm while running, the mind is focused on beating my own best timing. It is sheer bliss sweating it out like this.”

On professional front, Wg Cdr Reddy is on ‘A’ category flying instructor and has earlier served in Botswana, Tambaram and Airforce Academy on instructional duties. He has been a versatile flyer with rich experience on both fighters as well as on transport aircraft of the IAF.

India sends Humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan New Delhi: India has started sending aid to violence-hit Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, said an Indian Air Force (IAF) statement.

“India has been following closely recent internal developments in Kyrgyzstan, a friendly Central Asian country in our extended neighborhood. While calm has returned to Southern Kyrgyzstan after the unfortunate incidents of violence in mid June, the events, however, left thousands in need of urgent humanitarian assistance,” said the statement. In response to the appeal by the Kyrgyz Government, the Government of India decided to provide urgent humanitarian aid to the friendly people of the Kyrgyz Republic, in this hour of need. The assistance comprises mainly food items, medicines and tents. “The first of the two IL-76 aircraft left for Osh in Kyrgyzstan from New Delhi today. The aid will be delivered to the Ministry of Emergency Situation of Kyrgyzstan Republic of Osh, through Indian Embassy in Kyrgyzstan. The second IL-76 is scheduled to depart on July 8,” read the statement.

‘Ketchup colonel’s review plea dismissed

New Delhi: A review petition by ‘ketchup’ Col. (retd) HS Kohli, who was sacked from the Army for faking encounter in Northeast in 2003, was dismissed by the Armed Forces Tribunal on Thursday.

His review plea regarding dismissal from service has now been rejected for the second time and Kohli has the option of going to the higher courts left with him.

In his review petition, Kohli had contended that the Army and Defence ministry had initially agreed that Kolhi could not take all the blame and should be reinstated with five years loss of service but later changed their mind.

He urged the Tribunal to have a look at the de-cision-making process of the ministry in the case.

“We have fresh evidence in official notings which suggest that defence ministry’s decision-making process in the case was contrary to the de-cision taken by the authorities concerned,” Kohli’s counsel Dil Jit Singh said.

Col. Kohli was found guilty of taking photo-graphs of civilians splashed with tomato ketchup posing as corpses and giving them to his seniors to stake claim for gallantry award when he was the commanding officer of an artillery regiment in Assam.

The incident took place at Bada Nagadun near Silchar in Assam in 2003 and Col Kohli was dis-missed from the Army in November 2004 after a court martial.

His modus operandi prompted media to dub him as ‘ketchup colonel’.

Later on it was found that Kohli had worked on directions from his superior Brig SS Rao, who, in turn, said he was taking directions from his su-periors.

Rao was also dismissed but, later, it was com-muted to lesser punishment and was reinstated in the Army.


Indian India

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) helicop-ters have carried out Casualty Evacuation at DR Congo, said an official statement on Tuesday.

On the night of July 2, a fuel tanker loaded with gasoline overturned in the village of Sange (36 Kms from the town of Uvira) in South Kivu Province of Democratic Republic of the Congo. The accident took place in the close proximity of various houses and commercial shops; there was an explosion and the ensuing fire caused numer-ous casualties.

The total number of dead has been put at ap-proximately 230 by various news agencies with more than 190 people injured including women and children, with many of them having severe burn injuries.

On the morning of July 3, Indian Air Force helicopters on UN Mission in DR Congo and based at Bukavu (the Provincial Capital) were tasked to carry out Casualty Evacuation of the seriously injured patients from Sange village to Bukavu, as no medical facilities exist near the site of the tragedy.

“Two helicopters were tasked for Casualty Evacuation role while a third was tasked with car-

rying various senior UN officials to the site. All three helicopters were promptly airborne for the task; the first helicopter dropped the officials at the site and cleared the helipad and positioned itself at the UN Heliport in Uvira for the other two heli-copters to carry out the evacuation mission,” read the statement.

A total of three shuttles were flown by these two helicopters and all the seriously injured pa-tients were airlifted directly to Camp Siao helipad in Bukavu Town for further treatment.

A total of 32 serious burn casualties were air-lifted by the three helicopters in 13 sorties towards this mission. While two aircraft landed back at Bukavu late in the evening on the same day having accomplished the task, the third recovered back at Bukavu in the morning on 04 July after having stayed overnight at the UN Heliport in Uvira town.

“The prompt response by the Indian Air Force helicopters has been appreciated by all agencies concerned and while the magnitude of the tragedy cannot be played down, the prompt and humane response has gone a long way in alleviating the sufferings of the victims of this accident,” the statement added.

IAF evacuates Congo fire casualties

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has directed Minister of State for Coal, Statis-tics and Programme Implementation Sriprakash Jaiswal to make inquiries into the death of eight-year-old Kanpur boy Aman Khan due to delay in reaching hospital in view of VVIP travel re-strictions.

Gandhi has sought action on the negligence, if any, at the earliest, reports said.

The parents of Aman had claimed that their son had died as they could not take him to the hospital in time due to travel restrictions imposed for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Kanpur in July 3.

They alleged that they were not allowed to take the shortest route to the hospital by security personnel.

Aman’s mother, Usha, had also written a letter to Gandhi on the ‘inhuman behaviour’ of the police and sought her intervention so that such tragedies are not repeated.

The Congress had earlier described the incident as a ‘sad’ and spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed had said, “It is a sad incident. The se-curity agencies of the Central and the state gov-ernments should be more sensitive and work to

ensure that such incidents are not repeated.” Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, condoling the death of the boy, had said, “We appreciate the security but it must have a human face to it. We hope it would be addressed.”

The Prime Minister had visited Kanpur on July 3 to attend the convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and address the Merchants Chamber of Uttar Pradesh.

Sonia directs enquiry into Kanpur boy’s death


Indian India

Audi launches showroom in KolkataGerman luxury auto manufacturer Audi inaugurated its first showroom in Kolkata on Friday. The 6,500 square feet showroom can house eight cars. This venture aims to expand Audi India’s national footprint.

PwC increases investment in India Kolkata: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Friday announced the creation of more than 2000 jobs over the next three years by setting up a service delivery centre in Kolkata. The centre – PricewaterhouseCoopersService Delivery Center [Kolkata] Private Limited, will perform selected activities associated with PwC’s client service and back-office operations. The Kolkata operation is a joint venture between PwC in India, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It will start op-erations immediately with an initial headcount of over 600 professionals. It is envis-aged that this team will grow rapidly with an intention to have over 2000 profession-als working at the centre by the end of 2012. The service delivery centre will focus on providing selected client service and back office support to multiple firms across the PwC global network. PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. provides industry - focused tax and advisory services.

oberoi hotels bag top 4 Asia ranks Mumbai: The Oberoi Vanyavilas, Ranthambhore has been ranked the best hotel in the world in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards 2010 readers’ poll. Four Oberoi hotels have been ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Asia. Four Oberoi hotels have been ranked amongst the first fifteen in the world said a company release on Friday. The ranking is the result of a readers’ poll conducted by the magazine. P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman, The Oberoi Group said, “The exceptional ranking is a recognition that we have excellent hotels and the best employees in the hospitality industry.” Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards are amongst the most prestigious in the international travel industry as it is the readers who define excellence in travel. The readers rate their experiences and evaluate hotels across the world on the following characteris-tics – rooms and facilities, location, service, restaurants and food, and value.

solar rickshaw launchedThe Minister of State for Communica-tions and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot launching a “Soleckshaw” i.e. “Solar Rickshaw” as a Green and Convenient Postal Delivery Vehicle, in New Delhi on July 9.

Kids contract HIv, Hepatitis C after blood transfusionJodhpur: Eight children suffering from thalassemia were found HIV positive and 43 children were infected with Hepatitis C after blood transfusion in Jodhpur’s Umaid Hospital, media reports said. This gross negligence was revealed after an organisa-tion carried out tests on the patients. “The blood that is being transfused into the children may contain HIV strains. This is why when the blood tests were conducted on December 28, 2008, only five cases of HIV positive and 29 cases of Hepatitis C were identified among the kids. When the tests were conducted again in May by the SN Medical College, numbers increased from five to eight HIV positive cases and from 28 to 46 Hepatitis C cases, “ said an official. Hospital authorities have blamed lack of medical facilities to detect impure strains in blood for the fatal error, reports said. The Marwar Thalassaemia Society has issued memos to the principal of the S N Medical College demanding the setting up of an updated thalassaemia ward.

International sport climbing wall inaugurated New Delhi: Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sport, M S Gill, has inaugurated the first ever international standard sport climbing wall of Indian Mountaineering Founda-tion (IMF) here on Monday to give a boost to the technical and sport climbing in the country. This is the first sport climbing wall of its kind in features which will attract not only Indian climbers but also international acclaimed climbers to take part in com-petition in future in India. This will enable the IMF to organise World Cups or World

Championships in India, in future, which will add another field of adventure competi-tions in the country. The IMF has now upgraded the wall matching international stan-dards. The wall is 15 mtrs in height. It has two faces i.e. Difficulty Wall and Speed Wall. Three climbers can simultaneously climb on Difficulty Wall and 02 Climbers can compete on Speed Wall. Now, climbers can practice for World Cup Competi-tions and also try, work towards breaking the world record for speed climbing. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is the national apex body to regulate moun-taineering, trekking, sport climbing and allied adventure activities in India.

India, oman sign mou on cultural cooperationNew Delhi: India and Oman signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Monday on bilateral Cultural Cooperation. The MoU was signed by Jawhar Sircar, Secretary, Ministry of Culture on behalf of the Government of India, and by Humaid Al-Maani, Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman in India on behalf of the Oman Government. The MoU comes into force with immediate effect and will remain in force for a period of five years and shall stand renewed automatically thereafter for successive periods of five years. The MoU seeks to encourage exchange of visits by the cultural, art and literature delegations, promote cultural relations on heritage, including archaeology, museums and conservation of the ancient monuments, and encourage exchange of expertise, visits and publications between cultural institu-tions, establishments and authorities of the two countries.

sC allows 69% quota in tN for a year New Delhi: A Tamil Nadu law providing 69 per cent reservation in jobs and admis-sions was allowed to be continued for a year by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar, ordered the continuation of providing for 69 per cent reservation for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in jobs and educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. The apex court bench was hearing a petition on the constitutional validity of the state law. The court also directed the Tamil Nadu Backward Class Commission to study the quota introduced and see if it is justified. The Commission has to consider the exceptions provided under the Mandal judgement - that in certain circumstances, the 50 per cent cap on quota can be exceeded.

Will defeat dmK this time: Jayalalithaa Coimbatore: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief Jayala-lithaa Jayaram on Tuesday said her party will defeat Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the forthcoming by-elections. In a show of power, Jaya organized a massive rally to launch her election campaign here. Addressing her party activists, Jaya said: “Tamil Nadu will vote a new party to power this time. So get ready for the elections. I will work on building coalition, while you work on the ground…Time has come for AIADMK to come to power…we will defeat DMK this time.” “You should not give DMK another chance to rule,” she added. Meanwhile, reacting to her statement, a DMK spokesperson told reporters: “She (Jaya) is not psychic Octopus Paul that she will be able to predict which party will win the elections.” Since 2008, the AIADMK has lost the by-elections in over 10 constituencies. As for Karuna, if DMK wins this time, it will be a record sixth victory. This year’s by-elections will also conclude the power war between Karuna’s two sons MK Stalin and MK Alaghiri.

Queens baton welcomed all over india

Parashuram Awardee Athlete Smt. Kamalesh runs with the Queen’s Baton Delhi 2010, at Bilaspur, in Himachal Pradesh on July 05, 2010 and the Director of Queen’s Baton Relay Col Kuldeep Singh Bansthu hands over the Queen’s Baton Delhi 2010 to the Member of Parliament and General Secretary Himachal Pradesh Olympic As-sociation, Shri Anurag Thakur, at Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh on July 05, 2010


Indian

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Fiji

The Ba Town Council donated six bicycles to the Fiji Police Force last week to help fight crime in its mu-nicipality.

This was revealed by Special Administrator for Ba and Tavua Arun Prasad.

“The bicycles will help Police in the prevention of crime in Ba, especially around Ba Town.

“The donation was also part of the council’s effort in keeping Ba safe and clean,” Mr Prasad said.

He said the council is conducting cleaning pro-grammes around town.

“The council has made big development within the town like road repairs and tar-sealing of some roads leading into town.

“We are also installing streets lights around town,” Mr Prasad said.

Meanwhile, council workers were busy cleaning Elevuka Creek on Saturday.

“The creek had all sorts of rubbish and they are clogged up at the foot of the Ba Bridge. It is a bad sight especially when people are entering town,” Mr Prasad said.

The council has hired casual workers to remove

the debris.“They will remove the rubbish and also help in

other clean-ups. We have planted trees beside the creek to beautify the area and stop soil erosion,” Mr Prasad said.

Ba and Tavua towns are conducting clean-ups according to litter promulgation.

“Ba Town is the cleanest town in Fiji right now. I challenge other townships and cities to follow suit because we have made cleanliness our main aim,” Mr Prasad said.

“We have charged a lot of people with jaywalk-ing and littering. It is not about money making when we fine people, it is about controlling problems which lead to unhealthy living,” Mr Prasad said.

Mr Prasad said people visiting Ba or just passing through, should avoid littering because most of the rubbish found in Elevuka Creek were claimed to be from rubbish thrown on road sides.

“Our council officers are on fulltime patrol around town to catch people littering and loitering or jaywalking in town,” he said.

Council cleans up Ba town Fifteen put faith to the testWatching men display the poise of a lead balle-rina while they traverse a pit of blazing embers without being burned is truly baffling.

Fifteen Hindu devotees will have their faith tested when they walk on hot charcoal in a pit during a firewalking ceremony at the Sangam Mahamariamma Temple in Vunivau, Labasa.

The firewalking ceremony is held for 10 days.

It started on July 16 with prayers and it will end on Sunday, July 25, when the devotees will take turns to walk in the pit at 4pm.

Of all of Fiji’s cultural rituals, the extraor-dinary art of firewalking is perhaps the most impressive.

Hindu firewalking is a religious sacrament performed mostly by South Indians.

They believe life is like walking on fire where discipline helps them to achieve a bal-anced life, self-acceptance and to see good in everything.

Mahamariamma Temple trustee Ram Raju, 51, said it’s been over 60 years since the last fire-walking ceremony was conducted at the temple yard.

“It is one of the Hindu religious events ob-served annually,” Mr Raju said.

“People travel long distances to offer their

prayers and watch the ritual.Pundit Log Nadan, 54, of Vunivau, Labasa,

is in charge of taking care of the devotees.He helps them to prepare for the ceremony.“During this period, participants isolate

themselves, abstain from sex, alcohol, tobacco, eating meat and meditate to worship the goddess Maha Devi,” he said.

The participants wake up early in the morning, pray until late at night, survive on little food or sleep and dress in red and yellow, which symbolises the cleansing of physical and spiritual impurity.

“The firewalkers’ tongues, cheeks and bodies are pierced with three pronged skewers,” Pundit Nadan said.

“They then dance in an ecstatic trance bare-footed for about two kilometres back to the temple for the ceremony, their altered state en-abling them to perform the feat.”

The devotees’ bodies are whipped before and during the ceremony and if they are focused on the divine goddess, they should not feel the pain.

“It takes about 10 seconds to walk across the pit filled with charred wood raked over glowing coals and the walk is repeated about five times to chanting and drumming,” he said.

Thousands of people have benefited from the Sugar Festival and this trend will continue, says Sugar Festival Association president Bijesh Chand.

Mr Chand said individual request for dona-tions will be screened and in some cases, field surveys will be conducted.

He called for support from organisations and corporate bodies to assist the association in helping needy people.

“We have assisted a lot of needy people and our office is open daily from Monday to Friday,” Mr Chand said.

He said the permit to hold the festival was given in June.

“We do not have a major sponsor and only a few business houses have come in,” he said.

“The festival has been organised for everyone to enjoy.

“With the support from the public and co-sponsors, we are aiming to raise about $150,000.”

Mr Chand said for the last 10 years, the festi-val has donated half-a-million dollars to charity.

He said they donated $10,000 to the Prime Minister’s Cyclone Thomas Appeal Fund.

“We have assisted the Lautoka District Crime-Free Committee and we are going to help them in future depending upon the availability of funds,” he said.

Police Commissioner, Commodore Esala Teleni was the chief guest at the Sugar Festival opening on Saturday. Eleven contestants are vying for the Miss Sugar crown this year.

The contestants made a special appearance at the Sugar City mall on Saturday, where they addressed the public and later sang, ‘We are the world’.

The festival continues this week.

‘A festival for all’

Suva: Fiji’s oldest and main newspaper, The Fiji Times, is being put on the market by its owner, Australia’s News Limited.

According to a report by Richard Naidu on Fijilive, News Limited is “moving ahead with putting up the Fiji Times newspaper on the market, appointing consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to advise on ‘a possible sale’”. In a statement the company said: “PricewaterhouseCoopers will advise on issues such as the value of the business, potential purchasers and marketing for a pos-sible sale. The project team at PricewaterhouseCoopers will be led by Ms Jenny Seeto based in Fiji. Her team will include personnel based in Fiji and in Australia.” The move comes as the newspaper faces a September deadline to adhere to requirements under the Fiji Media Industry Development Decree for all media organisations to be 90 percent locally owned.

“Selling the Fiji Times is not a certainty and it’s not what we want. The environment is difficult but given the decree is clearly designed to force us to sell and pull out of Fiji within three months. We need to actively investigate all our options. Our prior-ity is the welfare of our staff in Fiji and their ongoing employment,” News Limited chairman John Hartigan said.

The Fiji Times was first established on September 4, 1869.

Fiji Times to be put on the market


Indian Fiji

New Zealand’s Fiji and Pacific Island community now have a new remittance option for sending value or a gift to friends and family back in the Islands with the launch of Digicel’s new ”Top Up Your Friends & Family” service. Digicel, the Pacific Island’s leading mobile provider operating in six Pacific Island countries, is now offering Digicel mobile Top Up credit in thousands of dairies and convenience stores throughout New Zealand. Customers can now simply buy Digicel mobile Top Up vouchers from their local prepaid outlet, available in $15, $20, $30 and $50 denominations, and can then send the Top Up credit to any Digicel prepaid phone in the Pacific via www.digicelrecharge.com <http://www.digicelrecharge.com> or via 0800 DIGICEL (0800 34 44 235 or 09 9652715). Digicel Top Up can be applied to any of Digicel’s 1.6 million customers in Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu in the value of the local currently – and with no fees attached. Speaking at the launch of “Digicel Top Up Friends & Family”, His Excellency, Mr Faolotoi Reupena Pogi, Consul General Samoa said, “Being in contact and send-

ing money or gifts back to the islands to family, friends and the community is integral to the culture of New Zealand’s Pacific Islanders. The amount of money sent from New Zealand annually is phenomenal and has a hugely positive impact on the lives of the Islanders and the development of these nations. I therefore commend Digicel on this ser-vice, which allows people to send credit home, with no fees attached, meaning more of the value gets to those who need it. The gift of Top Up or essentially the ability to communicate, will mean families can stay connected even if they are divided by the Pacific Ocean.”

To celebrate the new service Digicel will add an additional 10% bonus credit on all Top Up sent from New Zealand in July. After nine years of operation, Digicel Group Limited has 10.8 million custom-ers across its 32 markets in the Caribbe-an, Central America and the Pacific. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.

Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams. In the Pacific, Digicel is the proud sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu cricket team.

New remittance option to stay connected with Fiji

toP uP Your FrIeNds & FAmILY: Pepe Christian Fruean, CEO, Digicel Samoa and former All Black legend Va’aiga Lealuga Tuigamala at the launch of Digicel Top Up Your Friends and Family at the Pacif ic Business Trust, in Auckland


IndianIndian

From the Editor

Indian Weekender is published by Kiwi Media Group, 98 Great South Road, New Market and printed at APN Print, Ellerslie, Auckland Copyright 2010. Kiwi Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

Indian Weekender volume 2 No 9Publisher: Kiwi Media Group LimitedGroup editor-in-chief: Dev Nadkarni [email protected] editor: Arvind Kumar [email protected] Correspondent: Shobha Rao [email protected] technical officer: Rohan Desouza rohan@ indianweekender.co.nzdesign: Tanmay Desai [email protected] / www.desaign.co.nzAdvertising: Giri Gupta - Ph: 520 0922, Mob: 021 221 1131. Email - [email protected] email original editorial contributions, community notices and pictures to [email protected] expressed in the publication are not necessarily of the publisher and the publisheris not responsible for advertisers’ claims as appearingv in the publication

Tourist numbers give lie to ‘rip off’ tag

Letters

Top 10 stories on www.iwk.co.nz

IWK Online Opinion Poll

1. shreya Ghoshal live in Auckland2. Youth focus for deepawali festivities3. Just like a manmohan desai flick4. vidya adds spice to ‘Curry munchers’ 5. Zee to air mera Naam Karegi roshan6. A myth we have inherited7. trust me, trust my heart: Len brown8. resumption of Auckland-Nausori service hailed 9. devotees to celebrate Guru Poornima10.Harbhajan launches ‘dare Club’

A British writer’s contention that New Zealand is one of the most unreasonably ex-pensive places to visit has sharply polarised opinion throughout this small nation.

Every country has its share of expensive and cheap places to buy goods and services and places where tourists tend to visit for the mandatory “been there done that” photo op – that is an absolute must as a Facebook post – tend to be more ex-pensive.

So you can’t really expect to have parity on price for a cup of Mocha on the Viaduct and, say, Onehunga Mall, though both would be equally eminently enjoy-able. That sort of variance would be true of every city in the world, whether it is an important tourist destination or not.

While a great many people have supported the writer’s opinion that New Zealand is a rip off, an equal number has taken the opposite view. Among those who believe New Zealand is a rip off seem to be a sizable number of Kiwis living abroad. They contend it is expensive to live, has low wages, far fewer choices and opportunities to advance their careers and so on.

Adding these opinions to the writer’s opinion that New Zealand is a rip off is incorrect. Expensive to visit and expensive to live are two different things though interrelated and should not been seen in the same perspective. But loading on facts that make New Zealand what it is because of its geographical location and its low population on to the equation is completely fallacious.

Yes, New Zealand is expensive to live, is a low-wage earning country, has fewer choices in everything – from consumer products and shopping selections to careers and employment opportunities, has higher pricing levels for most commodities in-cluding the ones that are produced here – like cheese and meat. And this is in com-parison with other nations of the OECD grouping measured on standardised scales.

Yet, this cannot be applied to conclude that New Zealand is a rip off. Prices around touristy places are always higher anywhere in the world. Hotel rooms in Mumbai or New Delhi, for instance, can be more expensive than any hotel room in New Zealand.

But just as in New Zealand, there are comfortable, cheaper choices. And if one shops around a little and negotiates, there are unbelievable deals to be had – every well travelled tourist will tell you that. It is unfair, therefore, to look at the top end of a tourist market and dub a whole country a rip off.

It is quite obvious that the world does not quite agree with this view. In that same week, Tourism New Zealand released figures saying that for the first time, visitor numbers had crossed 2.5 million. That is great news for New Zealand’s tourism sector, considering that it has happened in what has been deemed one of the worst years for the world economy.

While tourist arrivals fell everywhere, they actually rose to a record level here in New Zealand. Which means people saw value for money, travelling all the way to the bottom of the world to get away from the depressing happenings following the financial carnage in the West. That would certainly have not been the case had the world believed that the country was a rip off.

But the writer’s piece could not have been better timed in being a wake-up call and a warning for the opportunistic tendency among a few operators that has the potential to ruin the party for the rest of the country. The run up to Rugby World Cup next year has seen some people put up their prices unreasonably, even absurdly high enough for the prime minister to have commented on it.

That sort of opportunism could be ruinous not only to the country’s tourism sector but also to its reputation. If the article in question has sounded that wake-up call, it would have done the job for New Zealand – however inadvertently.

– Dev Nadkarni

Who is talking through their hat?The slant used by writer Rakesh Krishnan Simha in his arguments (Who is talking through their hat? Indian Weekender July 9) smacks of igno-rance of internationally accepted definitions. Mr. Simha has used his own personal example and experience in clubs where he had choices, which were not governed by religious require-ments (rather minor individual failures). The Sikh Turban, a religious article of faith has been equated to silly collarless T shirts. This is immature and regrettable for a features writer who is supposed to have written for many magazines. The definition of racism seems to be redefined by the writer to suit his point of view and argument. The right to seek redress through the courts or the Human Rights Commission is provided in the Constitution. The writer in a de-liberate attempt to suggest that such action is itself wrong calls it “the pashas of political cor-rectness want to drag the matter.”The writer attempts to turn the positive public opinion regarding the turban issue, by saying that the matter is being dragged and “courts will be asked to intervene” and “last thing New Zealand needs is polarisation.” Being from India the writer is ignorant (or wants to be deliberately) to call the place of worship by Sikhs a temple instead of Gurdwara. He should show more sensitivity and discretion in his use of words while discussing matters of religion and faith. His comparison of a place of worship with a club is regrettable.The statement “Sikhs face no discrimination in India” is but a figment of the writer’s imagina-tion. It will do him good to read what happened to Sikhs from 1948 and the killing of Sikhs in 1984.

Paguman Singh, Papatoetoe

Aryan invasion theory not annulledThe Aryan invasion theory/fact has not been completely annulled or rejected. Those who want us to believe that there was no invasion will quote any amount of ‘studies’ to show it. The fact remains there are two distinct races of people in India (the Aryans and the Dravidians) and one of them invaded. If we go further back in history we can raise a theory that the Dravidians are the foreigners. They came from Kumari Kandam, their ancient homeland. Theories can be made from any piece of information.

Nalinesh Arun

Ram Lingam in response to Nalinesh Arun:Its better to rely on scholars who do honest research rather than rely on opinions. I have just quoted prominent authentic scholars and that speaks for itself...Moreover the whole aryan invasion theory has its basis on Max Mueller’s 1500 BCE date to Rig Vedas. But the irony is that Max Mueller himself, in his last years, sus-pected the date he assigned to Rig Veda (refer few of his letters). I would pose one question : Where are the evidences which conclusively prove that Aryans invaded India. I do agree that theories can be cooked up by anybody. That’s why the source is very important. As you have read in this article the sources are head pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Math, David Frawley, Subhash Kak, Dr.N.S. Rajaram and George Feuerstein, and of course Swami Vivekananda.

I believe that these world renowned scholars and spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda are not the people who would cook up the theo-ries. They stand for truth and not opinions.

Junior FellowshipsThanks for passing this information to public, thank you for doing this, please keep supporting Indian community. Thank you.

S Subbiah

DeepavaliBest of luck for the celebration of Deepavali fes-tival with the participation of Maori brothers and sisters.

R Sridharan

Deepavali is one of the unique festival of its kind. I wish good luck and happy deepavali for the patricipants.

Dr Bhavaan, BRV Tatavarthy, Hyderabad, India

Curry MunchersThe name of the film in its own way will be very empowering for our community in the context its used. The name has a huge significance to the film.

Anand Naidu

ETSWhat was the point of all those tax cuts earlier on? Ity’s all back to square one, actually, worse off than pre Budget. didn’t take long for National to put a nail deep into its coffin . . .

Harish C

BollywoodisationBetter to make a fool of myself than to fool myself in believing the bull that Bollywood churns out for idiots. Hinduism as depicted in Hindi cinemas is an insult. Too many people give up on Hindu-ism because of the weirdness of our ‘gods’ as shown on our screens. It makes people cringe. To see Shiva riding a bull surrounded by clowns doesn’t boost anyone’s confidences in these so-called gods. These film roles are down by people with pseudo-faith who want to make money. Why condone it?

Nalinesh Arun

NZ education fair a hit in IndiaI refer your readers to two articles from the New Zealand Herald: More than a million Kiwi adults are being held back because they lack essential literacy and numeracy skills; and University funding linked to jobs: why would Indians want to come to a country where they can’t educate their own people and whose Universities are going to be chasing every rupee they can just to exist?

Devidas Patel

Think twiceIt is not easy to qualify for Residence Visas after study is completed. Please ask your readers to think twice… Harish Patel wellington

Harish Patel

What do you think of the new Indian rupee symbol?

I LIKe It

66% 16% 16%doN’t LIKe It CouLd be

better


Indian Comment

Education is integral to growth and development An integral approach to education automatically supports ongoing growth of learners and teachers over the entire span of development. Every parent is firstly a teacher, so character education essen-tially begins at home. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “Knowledge without character is a pow-erful evil.” Character is based on human values. It’s a powerful tool that influences society. Inte-gral parenting addresses the body, mind, soul and spirit of every child and moulds the child’s charac-ter for long-term growth and development. Char-acter building is further enhanced from knowl-edge gained from Schools, Colleges, Universities and other centres of learning like Polytechnics, Teachers Training Institutes and other Private Educational Providers.

Let us view Education in a larger perspective as integral for growth and development.

Education is the best development tool for socio-economic growth. That is why the old Chinese proverb “Teach someone how to fish”. In economics they call it “merit good”. It means not only to educate people; its benefit goes beyond that – crime reduction, unemployment reduction, more revenue, higher GDP and many other ben-efits.

Today, we are living in the world which en-compasses knowledge. Education is crucial – it is not machines, land, capital but human brain which is the most important asset to any family, community and nation. We have to safeguard it and develop it for socioeconomic development. The quality of education meant growth and devel-opment of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and social. Research and creativity and innovation are very important for the future development. Are we achieving these through our Education?

The government, Education providers and the parents are responsible for this

socio-economic development and growth.

We are called to equip our children not for jobs but for life. The family and educational institu-tions should be the Resource Centre as continued school for life for our children.

Some of the points of Father General of Jesuits who are known globally for Higher Education are: “We need to understand who are our students, what they will become, how will they live, what will they contribute, how will they construct a humane and sustainable world, how will they respond to the world of the poor, the broken world of suffering. University should become a social project.”

Schools/Colleges run like businesses?

Do the heads of the edu-cational Institutions consider themselves to be CEOs to run their schools/ colleges/ universi-ties business with great efficien-cy with the flair of a sound busi-ness run profitably satisfying all the statutory compliances, rules and regulations? Or do they realise that they are put there for a more serious business – that is to inculcate serious values which effect human ex-istence along with the required standard.

We all know that achieving high standard sets a benchmark – however, there is more to life than achieving benchmarks.

These are places where students are taught to respond to their calling in life: be it

mother, wife, husband, father or even to single life. They learn how to always stand tall, uphold strong value systems and strengthen their charac-

ter.Educational institutions should be places

where students are taught to care for one another in normal and challenging environments. They should learn what it takes to succeed in life and lose with grace if they must. Core values and at-titudes must be the focus and centre of our Educa-tional Planning Board.

The duty of any re-sponsible government is to provide the resources and support for achieving this objective. The government should not be a stumbling block in interfering in the guise of exercising their power. Educational poli-cies of the governments may be laudable but the implementation, review and accountability are the key and critical factors. The greatest disservice any gov-ernment can do to its people is unnecessary interference and control when yeoman service is being done by the education providers to prepare the children to meet the challenges of life.

A World to Challenge and Change

Finally what is being done at Loreto Day School Sealdah in Kolkata, India, is thought pro-voking which I want to share for those who are familiar with the Educational system in India.

The Principal and her team have transformed this once exclusively upper class private school for girls into a model for equality-based educational

change in India. From information available, 721 of the 1500 girls in attendance at the school come from poor families (from slums and villages in or near Kolkata) unable to pay school fees. The re-maining 779 girls pay their full fees to attend.

These 721 are so poor that every need has to be taken care of - food, medicines, rations, shoes, books, uniforms, even money to meet the home rent when eviction looms.

In many instances the School has also helped families set up a small scale business, by provid-ing interest-free loans to help them become self supporting. Sometimes they have reached out to the family as a whole, be it a drug addict father, or an errant sibling or an ailing member. The school doors are always open across caste, social class, neighborhood and otherwise. These 1500 girls make up a cohesive, cooperative, revolutionary student body.

To me this is one of the examples of education as integral part of growth and development.

We have a world to challenge and change and a world to win and build. This can only be achieved through the aim of education as aptly described by Albert Einstein: “The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.”

This is going to be a permanent ongoing strug-gle, in which a final victory can never be won. But to tire in that struggle would mean the ruins of society.

- Wencelaus Anthony is a successful business-man and a philanthropist who is heavily involved

with Church activities. He is also currently the Chairman of India

New Zealand Business Council. He can be reached on [email protected]

WeNCesLAus ANtHoNY

subHAsH APPANAThe last Greed article focused on the Fiji Mili-tary and how it evolved from the Royal Army of Ratu Seru Cakobau that was used to subjugate renegade tribes in the highlands of Viti Levu, to the Armed Native Constabulary that confronted Indo-Fijian worker strikes, to the Royal Fiji Mil-itary Forces that saw Fiji through independence in 1970. Just what was the role of the RFMF in the independent, democratic sovereign state of Fiji was either deliberately or conveniently left unclear at that juncture.

Going back to Fiji military participation in the two world wars on behalf of Bolatagane (or Land of Men) and empire, WW1 (1914-18) was waged for “democracy”. The same happened in WW2 (1939-45) with its focus on thwarting fascism. And during the Malayan Emergency (1948-60), the enemy were communist insur-gents who presented a threat to democracy. Ironically, while these manly campaigns were being waged for “freedom” and “democracy”, leaders in Fiji were totally unconcerned about the pleas of Fiji’s very own semi-slaves, the gir-mitiya.

Another, more insidious, military reality of the time involved the establishment of a white officer-class and a 2-tier system of pay and discriminatory recruitment into the military. Ironically Fiji’s most distinguished son, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, joined the French Foreign Legion because of this very same discriminatory re-cruitment in the British Army – Ratu Sukuna was refused entry into the British Army.

At independence in 1970 Fijian troops had thus participated in 3 major British military campaigns on behalf of democracy, but were never really apprised of its mechanics and impli-cations. The British system of running the mili-

tary with a class structure and inbuilt systems of discrimination became accepted practice. That’s partly why Indian demands for equal pay to join the military after 1939 was seen as treachery.

Moreover, selective recruitment had already been established as part of the Native Constabu-lary where loyal eastern Fijians (as opposed to westerners) had privileged access and Indians did not feature at all. Later Indians were barred through elaborate physical requirements of height and weight. This, after Indian troops from the sub-continent had already shed 85,000 lives for the Crown and Churchill had described them as “splendid fighting men”.

Thus at independence the RFMF was loaded with eastern Fijians or those loyal to their chief-tainship, had a predominance of chiefs at its apex, was not sure about its role within the dem-ocratic framework, and had ominous confusions about its loyalties vis a vis central government and the carefully nurtured chiefly system, which was always in effect, a shadow government.

It was contended in the last Greed article that the RFMF and the Fiji government were expected to be linked forever through chiefly control of both institutions. This was supposed to ensure military support for government at all times. Thus in the initial post-1970 scheme of governance (and politics), the RFMF was sup-posed to be a silent partner that could be called on at any time should the need arise. There were a number of problems with the assumptions un-derlying that model of governance.

Firstly, Fijian unity under the chiefly system was never guaranteed. Fiji was not alone in this regard as many other traditional societies con-tinued to be challenged through the expansion of the paid economy and its links with modern

education. The post-independence Fijian gov-ernment attempted to slow the ravages of this process through an elaborate system of patron-age within the civil service, but this lacked ca-pacity and burst at the seams down the line.

In quick-time the very non-democratic doc-trine of Fijian specialness that ensured Fijian unity found itself at loggerheads with the demo-cratic doctrine of multi-racialism. This was the biggest problem Ratu Mara faced in the run-up to the 1977 elections. His main split with Koya came after he declared special access to scholar-ships for Fijians in 1975. Hard at his heels was also the hound of Fijian nationalism expounded stridently by firebrand Rewan, Sakeasi Butadro-ka. The April 1977 elections was thus shocking-ly lost by Mara and the Alliance Party because of a significant (30%) split in Fijian votes.

And while the NFP dithered on presenting SM Koya as PM to Governor General Ratu Sir George Cakobau, rumblings were clearly heard in little gatherings of forcing a takeover. In fact, part of the prolonged disagreement within the NFP also featured concern about how the RFMF would react to an Indian PM. The mili-tary option however, paled into insignificance as AG Sir John Falvey and others found a consti-tutional escape to form a minority government.

Ratu Mara was back as PM, the status quo prevailed and all was well again in God’s Fiji as the NFP hemorrhaged and the Alliance swept into power in the September 1977 elec-tions. A serious concern however, had been verbalized: could the Fiji Army be relied on to remain neutral in the event of a win by a non Fijian Establishment-backed political party. On the other side of the political spectrum, glimpses had been seen of the role that the military could

play in correcting the perceived injustices of a foreign system of governance – democracy.

The RFMF was thus seen as the last line of defence for the Fijian traditional system of gov-ernance and all that it entailed at that point in time. In fact expectations in this regard began to mount as the next elections loomed. In 1982, as election fever heated up, the nuclear component of the cold war swept the Pacific, and Fiji for the first time saw a foreign dimension in its elec-tions as amid much acrimony and accusations the Alliance returned with a drastically slimmed margin.

After 1982, it was clear that the Alliance Party was walking a tightrope. There were in-creasingly visible criticisms of the Mara gov-ernment among Fijians, the patronage system of the 1970s had outgrown its capacity, and very importantly, the economy was in contraction mode. As government began to take forced un-popular decisions, the masses began to experi-ence shared hardships.

A commonality of concerns and problems across the carefully established ethnic divide was thus developing in Fiji in a belated manner because it was blocked through selective poli-cies earlier. If the 1970s presented a decade of euphoria and complacence, the 1980s demanded a hard look at reality, democracy and the ballot box. It is this that would finally force the mili-tary card in Fiji’s politics.

- Subhash Appana is an academic and political commentator. The opinions contained

in this article are entirely his and not neces-sarily shared by any organizations he may be

associated with both in Fiji and abroad. Email [email protected]

Role of the Fiji MilitaryContinuing the series Government by Greed

Today, we are living in the world which encompasses knowledge. Education is crucial – it is not machines, land, capital but human brain which is the most important asset to any family, community and nation.


Indian Community

After the success of BollyworX -New Lynn weekly classes the team SPROUT is gearing-up to launch the Bollywood music based fitness phenomenon in Mount Roskill.

BollyworX will burn calories, build, tone and sculpt long, lean muscle, perk up stamina and endurance levels, give you an awesome cardio workout, develop balance, posture and core strength and challenge co-ordination and mental agility. Most of all it will make you feel so good that you won’t even realise you’re exercising!

This fast paced, fun class is fusion of Bollywood and aerobics ensuring your feet never stop moving. The steps are simple and fun, so anyone can do it. No dance experience required. Bolly-worX is not dance but a workout that everyone can enjoy without feeling self-conscious it’s suitable for all ages and fitness levels and you can start anytime.

BollyworX instructors Amanda says “The good thing about BollyworX is that it is addictive and on the average calorie burn is from 300-600 calories per one hour class depending on the intensity of the class and of course, how hard you work out.”

Though this programme is for all age groups, families with kids and working mums, dads in-cluding senior citizens can benefit immensely. BollyworX provides great variety and definitely keeps you from getting bored.

BollyworX is a registered trademark of Sports Recreation and Outdoors Trust (SPROUT) a grassroots based action oriented, charitable, voluntary and non-profitable trust meant to educate, encourage, promote and provide opportunities in sports, recreation and outdoor pursuits to achieve greater wellbeing for people of Indian origin in New Zealand.

Moreover a recent health assessment of Indians in Auckland shows that our key health risks are cardiovascular disease (CVD), Type-2 Diabetes, Obesity etc and one of the key reasons is a sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity. BollyworX is a culturally appropriate program to overcome these health risks.

SPROUT also provides training and mentoring to people who are interested to become Bol-lyworX instructors. We will organise training for you to become a BollyworX instructor free of charge.

You will learn everything you need to know to teach BollyworX classes on your own. This in-cludes training on the basics of the human body, fitness and exercise; safe exercise techniques; how to plan your fitness choreography to Bollywood music etc. You just need to log on www.sprout.net.nz and fill your details.

The New Lynn BollyworX will continue every Saturday from 11.15 to 12.15 pm at New Lynn Community Centre and the New Lynn initiative is project is supported by Waitamata District Health Board (WDHB).

The May Rd community Halls has a capacity of 200-250 people so everyone will be able to enjoy BollyworX and get fit Bollywood Style says Bhavana Desai the volunteers’ co-ordinator of this initiative.

What: bollyworX mount roskillWhen: 28th July 2010 followed by every Wednesdaytime: 6.30 to 7.30 pmWhere: mt roskill War memorial Hall, 13 may road, mt roskillCost: Free

Bollyworx coming to Mount Roskill

Fighting back against crime Manukau City Council is encouraging residents and business people to make greater use of the 0800 555 111 Crimestoppers line.

Crimestoppers has the potential to make a significant impact on crime reporting and resolution in Manukau. Through funding from the Ministry of Justice, over the next two months the council will be helping to increase awareness of the service across the city.

Crimestoppers is an independent organisation dedicated to providing an anony-mous way for people to report information about crime, drugs or anti-social behaviour. The information received is passed to the police for resolution but the identity of the complainant remains anonymous. Through Crimestoppers everyone has an opportunity to play their part while not compromising their own privacy or safety. This is an opportunity which gives the police many more eyes and ears to help them with their job.Manukau hosted the national launch last October and Crimestoppers Chief Ex-ecutive Lou Gardiner is pleased that the council is continuing its strong support of its work.

“Manukau’s call rates are twice those of the national average, however we feel that there is still much under-reporting of crime in a number of areas across the city. So we are encouraged that with the council’s support those numbers will significantly increase.”

In the first eight months of operation Crimestoppers has received 4800 calls. Of these, 1900 provided enough information for police to take some action.To provide any information on crime, Crimestoppers can be contacted anony-mously by calling 0800 555 111 or submitting an encrypted online form at www.crimestoppers-nz.org.

Crimestoppers is not a replacement for 111 because it’s not an emergency ser-vice. Also, if people have information about a crime and are happy to give their name and address they should contact the police directly.

India’s top music master DJ Aqeel is coming to NZ next month for a one-off live performance in Auckland.

The top DJ, who has worked with many ce-lebrities including the Bachchans, Shah Rukh Khan, Ricky Martin, Kylie Minogue, Lliz Hurley, Jay Sean and more, will be perform-ing at the Logan Campbell Centre on August 7, from 8pm.

DJ Aqeel has done sold out shows in almost every city around the world, including London, Madrid, Miami, Dubai, Honk Kong, New York and many other places.

He is doing one concert and has a lot of great Bollywood music and remixes he made, from Om Shanti Om, Fanaa, Veer Zara, Bluff Master, Bunty aur Babli and so many more.

He will be accompanied by DJ CXL from Auckland who is a leading NZ Hip hop & RnB DJ (also worked with international artists in-cluding Black Eyed Peas); plusdDance groups performing and competing for $2000 cash prize. It’s an all-ages event.

Date: Saturday August 7Venue: Logan Campbell centre, Greenlane, Auckland (seated and floor area).Time: 8pm onwardsTickets: presold $25, ph Dave 027 200 7368; Ash 027 274 1000.

Migrant Heritage Charitable Trust is presenting “SWAR

NINAAD” (Echoes) featuring the renowned vocalist of the Kirana Gharana, Pandit Ganapati Bhat, a disciple of Pandit Basavaraj Rajguru. Coming from the hometown of Hassangi, Pandit Ganapati Bhat has a melodious voice and his training in the Kirana, Gwalior and Patiala

Gharana is a treat to the listeners. New Zealand audiences will be blessed to

listen to this Vocalist for the first time. An op-portunity not to be missed.

He will be accompanied by Shri Kiran-kumar Hanagal on Harmonium, an equally talented exponent of the craft who has played alongside many luminaries in India. Shri Shrid-har Mandre will be on Tabla, who is a disciple of Pandit Raghunath Nakod.

For the first time in NZ you will be see a complete Hindustani Classical concert featur-ing an all Indian Artist ensemble. So celebrate the eve of Indian Independence with melodius Hindustani music at:

SWARNINAAD

Date: 14th August 2010Time: 06.30 pmVenue: Centennial Theatre, Auckland Grammar School, 23 Mountain Road, Epsom, AucklandTickets: Adults $20, Couple $35, Family (x4) $50Tickets available at: Yogiji’s Food mart 09 624 5757, Relianz Forex 09 630 4848 or Varsha 09 534 8000 or Bhat 09 624 2400Email: [email protected]

Aqeel live in Auckland

Ganapati Bhat to sing in Auckland

Become a Volunteer Area Neigh-

bourhood Support Co-ordinator

Neighbourhood Support New Zea-

land works closely with the police

and other organisations in the com-

munity to reduce crime, improve

safety and prepare for emergen-

cies and natural disasters. They are

looking for area co-ordinators for

Manurewa and Pakuranga/Buck-

lands Beach.

Along with a few hours of adminis-

tration work a week, the co-ordinator

will be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the

community, identifying streets that

would benefit from having a neigh-

bourhood support group. They will

be responsible for establishing

support groups including assisting

street co-ordinators who will man-

age each group.

The role is voluntary but very

rewarding. The co-ordinator will en-

courage local solutions to crime and

safety while improving the reporting

of crime and disorder to the police.

They will also help distribute crime

information and possibly newsletters

in the community.

This is a great opportunity to build

community spirit. If you are passion-

ate about your community and want

to make it a safer place, this role

could be for you.

For more information contact Lyn

Blaker, council’s Manager Commu-

nity Safety and Health, phone 262

8931 or email lyn.blaker@manukau.

govt.nz by 20 August 2010.

Help make your community safer


Indian Community

A unique opportunity to learn about Vedic Mathematics online is being brought to the New Zealand public by the volunteers of Hindu Council of New Zealand.

The techniques of Vedic mathematics de-veloped in ancient India were used in different fields such as construction of temples, astro-nomical calculations, medicine and science. It provides many quick and ready methods for multiplication, division, complex numbers, squaring, cubing, square and cube roots, recur-ring decimals and auxiliary fractions.

The ancient Hindu mathematical system is known for being the first decimal number system that introduced shoonya (zero), hence forming the foundation of modern arithmetic and many other mathematical branches.

Vedic mathematics is easy to use and under-stand as compared to conventional teaching of mathematics in schools, and creates interest in children to solve mathematical problems in a fun and intuitive way.

In New Zealand, the Hindu Council of New Zealand has promoted Vedic mathematics for over ten years. Mr Satya Duggal, a retired math-ematics teacher from Te Awamutu, promoted this science during youth development camps.

Mr Ravi Kumar, an engineer and an expert in Vedic Mathematics from India presented seminars at various places in New Zealand. A seminar “Vedic Mathematics – a forgotten science” was popular at the Rotorua branch of Royal Society of New Zealand in 2002.

Now volunteers of Hindu Council of New Zealand, Usha and Venkat Koppaka are orga-nising a web-based live audio-visual session on Vedic Mathematics on July 31 and August 1 (12.30 pm to 2.00 pm) with Mr Sai Kiran, a well known author and speaker, who has trained over 50,000 students so far.

Learn about Vedic Mathematics by register-ing at http://www.e-gurukul.net

“In modern times, Internet has made entire world a global village. Anyone from any part of the world can learn and gain insights from the comfort of their homes,” Mrs Koppaka said.

“Only pre-requisite is an internet connec-tion with speaker and zeal to learn this practi-cal scientific knowledge of ancient India,” Mr Koppaka said.

E-Gurukul.net, an online platform, is an en-deavour to disseminate the practical knowledge and wisdom gifted by the great scientists, math-ematicians, philosophers and sages of ancient India. It brings online courses in art, science, and holistic living. Of special note are courses for children conducted by experts. The sessions are free; all are welcome to participate.

Next topic: Vedic MathematicsSpeaker: Mr Sai Kiran (India)Date: July 31 and August 1, 2010 – 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm Objective: To teach the easy way of doing cal-culations using Vedic mathematics concepts Mode: Audio visual web session - 100% Online

Vedic mathematics goes online for Kiwis“In modern times, Internet has made entire world a global village. Anyone from any part of the world can learn and gain insights from the comfort of their homes,”

Date: Saturday 7th August 2010.Time: 7pm to MidnightVenue: Te Atatu South Hall, 247 Edmon 00 ton Road, Te Atatu South.Tickets: $20.00 (Includes Dinner) - Adults$10.00 Children 5- 12yrs and senior Citi-

zens. FREE for Children under 5yrs.

Admission by tickets only: (Limited tickets available at the door)Come and enjoy a fun night out with your family, socialise and make new friends

Enjoy a delicious Indian Cuisine - Vegetar-ian and non-vegetarian.

For tICKets CoNtACt :SURYA SHARMA - Ph: 626-2803 OR 027-6940033

The recent event – Chak De Dandiya organised by the Sai Sansthan proved to be an enjoyable night for the nearly 1000 strong crowd compris-ing both young and old. This event was a novel concept planned and executed to perfection by the ladies of the Sansthan lead by Shivani Arora and Suvidha Gangisetty.

Held at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre, the programme started off with the ribbon cutting and inauguration by Mr. Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi MP followed by the traditional light-ing of lamps in front of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba’s picture by Mr. Rajen Prasad MP and well known businessman and philanthropist Ajay Kumar of Global Finance. The members of parliament addressed the gathering and extolled upon the noble teachings of Baba and congratulated the organisers on this fund raising event.

As the evening unfolded, the massive hall of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre was transformed into a gigantic dance floor, with dandiya and bhangra fever engulfing the participants who danced tirelessly to pulsating bollywood music. With spot prizes being given by the organisers, kept the momentum going right through to the late hours of the night. Sonam Arora, the MC for the evening termed the event as a complete and fulfilling evening, giving everyone a sense of togetherness as it brought people from all walks of life close to our vibrant Indian Culture.

Hari Gangisetty the President and Bhaskar Reddy Duvvuru President and Secretary of the Sansthan termed the event as a stupendous success in the fund raising history of the Sans-than as it took them a step closer to their larger plan of building a temple.

In February 2002, a group of like minded devotees of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba met, discussed and decided to form a Sansthan. The immediate goal of the Sansthan was to establish a temple for Baba in Auckland which would assist in spreading the wonderful life and teachings of Baba. The vision of the Sansthan is to make people become aware of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, his life and his teachings so that devotees and their family can mould their activities in such a way to attain satisfaction and total fulfilment

and make their life meaningful.Indian Weekender is reliably told that the

untiring efforts of the volunteers and manage-

ment of the Sansthan has enabled them to start their dream project of the temple very soon. Indian Weekender wishes the management of

the Sansthan all the best in their future endea-vours.

Donations and more info about the Sans-than can be had by contacting Hari Gangi-setty, President, on 021 629 993 or Bhaskar Reddy Duvvuru on 0212923807. You can also visit the Sansthan website www.shirdisaiba-ba.org.nz

Sai Sansthan Fund raiser - a great success

Clockwise from top left: Mr Kan-waljit Singh Bakshi, Dr. Rajen Prasad, Sonam Arora MC for the evening, Hari Gangisetty President Sai Sansthan.

WIA to hold dine and dance night


Indian Community

Sargam School of Music has been presenting a variety of programmes for the past several years. On July 10 they presented one of the popular names in Hindustani Classical Music, Pandit Rajendra Kandalgaonkar, at Fickling Centre.

The event was a culmination of the idea mooted by the student of Pt Kandalgaonkar, Shri Balamohan Shingade. He has been learn-ing the craft for over 2 years from Panditiji. The evening started with the disciple giving glimpses of his understanding of the classical raagas and accompanying Balamohan was Basant Madhur on Tabla and Roshan, a student of Shukdev and Sargam School, on the Harmo-nium. This set the mood for the evening which saw a mixed section of crowd both Indian and Kiwi, who were given a taste of Hindustani music.

A Jugalbandi between the percussion duo of Basant and Deepak Madhur changed the mood of the evening and had everybody tapping to the beats of the Tabla. A medley of tempo and beats was the highlight of their Jugalbandi.

Pandit Kandalgaonkar opened the second half with a rendition of raag ‘Sudha Kalyan’. Sung in the evening hours, this raag is penta-tonic in the ascent and heptatonic in the descent.The ascent is identical to Bhoop/Bhupali, while

the descent is identical to Yaman/Kalyan. His rendition was flawless. He followed this up with raag Jog, with Panditiji had Basant Madhur on Tabla and Shukdev on Harmonium.

Panditji then moved on to a Thumri based on ‘Pilu’. Pilu is a light raag commonly used to express joy, devotion, happiness and love. The evening was now really turning up to the audi-ences as Panditji then moved to some light clas-sical. He first sang the famous abhang by Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, ‘Abir Gulal Udhalit Rang’. The audiences couldn’t stop appreciating the wonderful rendition of the abhang. A note-worthy fact was; despite the language of this abhang being ‘Marathi’ Shukdev and Basant had no problems playing to the correct notes, re-enforcing the fact that music had no bound-aries. On popular demand Panditji then sang his Guru’s popular abhang ‘Pandhari Niwasa’.

He then concluded the evening with a Bhai-ravi of an unusual kind. On a personal request, he sang ‘Babul Mora’ which has been rendered by several noteworthy artists in the past. Wajid Ali Shah, the originator of this Bhairavi, had sung this Bhairavi for the first time in his court when he received the news of abdication of his throne by the British.

Overall the concert was a treat to the lovers of Hindustani classical music.

Pandit Kandalgaonkar a vocalist par excellence

Grand Krishna Janamastami celebrations are being planned at the Sri Sri Radha Giridhari Mandir in Auckland next month.

And the temple invites all devotees to attend in order to be able to allow all to celebrate and make the occasion one to remember.

“We have organised a Bhagavad Saptah from August 25 to August 31, in the temple from 6pm to 9pm everyday followed by Pras-adam,” Achal Krishna Das, temple head, told Indian Weekender.

‘”For the first time, we have organised a special Bhagavatam Agnihotra Yajna on Sep-tember 1, giving immense benefits to anyone who participates in it.”

This will be followed by the grand Jan-mashatami celebrations on September 2, and Srila Prabhupadas appearance day on Septem-ber 3.

“To enable everyone to have this wonderful opportunity of serving the Lord, we would like all of you to come and hear Srimad Bhagavatam and relish the glories of the Lord. In the Bhaga-vad Gita, Lord Krishna mentions the ultimate benefit of hearing about him and his activities,” Krishna Das said.

“This year we are endeavoring to do some-thing special for Sri Sri Radha Giridhari. With your help and encouragement, we can make this a grand event.

“We would like to thank all our patrons and well wishers who have always supported us in the Janmashatami celebrations in the past and look forward to their continued support this year too.

For any enquiries or service opportuni-ties please contact, HG Achal Krishna Das 4128079 or 021 1197726 or HG Kalasamvara Das 4126362.

the New varshana Farm

The new Varshana rural community is located 20 minutes’ drive from the Auckland CBD. The 30-hectare property is nestled among or-chards and produce stores on the scenic River-head-Coatesville highway (Highway 28, 1229 Coatesville-Riverhead Highway, Riverhead, Auckland 0892).

Krishna Das said the temple complex was fast becoming a drawcard for spiritual seekers and curious day-trippers. “The Radha Giridhari temple is the showpiece for the Hare Krishna movement in New Zealand, and visitors are guaranteed a transcendental feast for the senses.”

The property is a spiri-tual shelter for those in-clined to learn more about the philosophy and life-style. For this purpose, New Varshana offers residents ashram facil-ity according to individual needs.

Brahmachari and brah-macharini ashrams for single men and women trainees co-exist alongside grihasta ashram for couples and families. “We are an international community dedicated to exemplifying the ideals of simple living and high thinking, and a positive alternative to modern materialistic life-styles.

“The devotee com-munity goals are Krishna centred and progressive, whilst simultaneously en-abling residents to interact within the greater Auck-land community. Devotees are diversely engaged in a broad spectrum of local service and outside em-ployment.

“We are fortunate to be surrounded by like-minded persons with expertise in the arts, music, cultural and interfaith dialogue, management, media, and more.

“Over and above this, the devotees share a great love of transcendental teachings as im-parted to us by Srila Prabhupada, and a desire to inform others about the joy attained in a Krishna conscious lifestyle, where happiness is our inherent nature.

“So do yourself a favour, come visit us at New Varshana rural community, open your mind to a whole new world of enlightenment, and enter into the realm of Krishna conscious-ness.

temple History

Sri Sri Radha Giridhari temple was opened on January 18, 2004. The Deities (Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Sri Radha Giridhari, and Their Lord-ships Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra) had pre-

viously been installed by the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Conscious-ness (ISKCON), His Divine Grace A.C. Bhak-tivedanta Swami Prabhu-pada.

Srila Prabhupada installed Sri Sri Radha Giridhari on the 18th April 1972 in ISKCON’s first New Zealand temple, a house at 155 Landscape Rd, Mt. Eden. On 28th April 1976 during his third and final visit Srila Prabhupada installed Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and also Sri Sri Jagannatha-Baladeva-Subhadra at a new temple at 67 Grib-blehirst Rd, Mt. Albert.

The Auckland Deities moved to this farm prop-erty, New Varshana, in 1978. While the new temple was being planned and built the Deities took up Their residence in the farmhouse near the en-trance to the property. They were worshipped there for 25 years .

On February 14, 1987, the ground-breaking cer-

emony was held and the foundation plaque was unveiled by the then Prime Minister, David Lange. A golden Deity of Sri Ananta Sesa was installed beneath the future altar site.

Local Mayor, John Law, together with many ISKCON leaders and personalities from around the world officiated at the opening of this temple in 2004

temple daily schedule

The temple programme follows a regular schedule. You are welcome to join us in any part of the programme. 04:30 - Mangala Arati Early morning prayer05:00 - Tulasi PujaWorship of the tulasi plant05:15 - Japa meditationIndividual meditation and prayer through the

chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra on beads07:00 - Shringar Arati. Deity greetingWelcoming the Lord on the altar, after He got newly dressed and decorated07:15 - Guru-puja and kirtan Worship of Srila Prabhupada and congregation-al chanting and dancing19:00 - Gaura Arati 12:30 - Raja Bhoga Arati 13.00 to 16.00 - Altar Closed 16:00 - Dhupa Arati 19:00 - Sandhya Arati. Gaura Arati Evening prayer19.30 to 21.00 - Altar Closed 21:00 - Sayana Arati Evening prayer21.15 to 4.30 - Temple Closed The temple is open daily from 04:30-21:15

Every Sunday please come to New Varshana’s famous “Hare Krishna Sunday Feast”. Music, philosophy and a free vegetarian banquet from 12.30-15.30.

Large scale Krishna Janamastmi celebrations planned


Indian bollywood

Mumbai: The kids on Zee TV’s dance reality show DID Li’l Masters get to see a rather differ-ent looking judge every week!

Yes, master Sandip Soparrkar experiments with his facial hair and dons a new look in every episode of DID Li’l Masters.

Be it an army moustache, a spiked French beard, a designer stubble or a fashionable goatee, creativity sits on the razor’s edge in Sandip Soparrkar’s make-up room.

So much experimentation in the looks de-partment, Sandip?

Is former DID judge Terence Lewis your source of inspiration?

Sandip says, “It’s showbiz, guys. You’ve got to keep re-inventing yourself. A little extra time in the make up room is a small price to pay for all the compliments that flow in when people notice the new styles.”

While the idea of a new look every week on a man has raised some eyebrows, Sandip stays unfazed as he adds, “I’ll be back… with a new look next week.”

On the other hand, till now we have been witnessing the competition between the kids but there is an underlying rivalry between the skip-pers which went out in the open recently.

Mayuresh went on to say, “Jay is over con-fident” and the others agreed though not in so many words. Jay was unperturbed and noncha-lantly brushed away the allegations by saying that, “Confidence is a byproduct when you know you are the best. I was touted to be an over-con-fident brat in DID also but in the end I silenced my critics through my dance and passion.”

The skippers are leaving no stones unturned to impress the judges be it marrying different dance forms, using elaborate props and cos-tumes or experimenting with various styles and

themes. The kids are practicing very hard to meet

their skipper’s expectations and secure their place till the end.

Grandmaster Farah Khan said, “It’s wonder-ful to see the skippers put in so much effort. I marvel at their choreography. The way they are training the kids to win the competition is simply amazing. I am hoping to see much more enthralling acts as we are near the finale. Hats off to the kids for living up to the expectations of their mentors! ”

‘To shave or not to shave’Mumbai: Hot on the heels of actor Aamir Khan, Bollywood beauty Bipasha Basu on Sunday entered the glittering world of celebrity tweet-ers making her presence felt on the popular micro-blogging site.

Bipasha has reportedly said that though she is joining the website really late, she is looking forward to interact and connect with her fans.

She has said that she liked Twitter as a plat-form to speak her mind and that she will discuss about her passion, work and “causes she feels strongly for”.

When asked about the first people who she would like to follow, she reportedly said that Mircrosoft founder Bill Gates, American Presi-

dent Barack Obama and author Paulo Coelho would definitely feature on her list.

Even through her Twitter handle, @bipslu-vurself, was blocked six months ago, she said she decided to join on July 4 as her revamped personal website would also be up by then.

She began her tweets by posting, “Hello guys! late entry in twitterverse but nevertheless am here now. A big thank you to all my fans for helping me become who I am 2day ♥” and has already caught close to 6,000 followers.

Most of Bipasha’s tinsel-town colleagues including Gul Panag, Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Genelia D’Souza are regulars on Twitter.

And now, it’s Bipasha turn to tweet

Mumbai: Telly actress Kratika Sengar, who plays the title role in Zee TV’s Jhansi Ki Rani, is up for a mortal combat with a rather ferocious looking giant on the sets of the show!

In a bid to uphold the pride and dignity of her king, the Rani is said to have dressed up as a man and taken on a 7-foot tall giant called Pas-calin a dare-devil sword fight.

When asked if she’s a tad jittery about en-gaging such a big man in a duel, Kratika said, “Scared of the big guy?? Hardly! Little does Pascal know, but he is up for a fight with a big rascal. I maybe smaller in size but I’m pretty feisty. I don’t give up easy once I get started. And having shot for Jhansi Ki Rani over the last 2 months, manoeuvering the sword is some-thing I know like the back of my hand!”

Reports have it that Kratika may even be

blind-folded for a part of this fight putting her at a disadvantage. But with that attitude, lady, we’re pretty confident that you will beat the big guy hollow.

Pascal, beware!

Kratika to cross swords with a 7-ft giant


Indian

Releasing August 6

MIND BLOWING FILMS presents

SCREENING AT• SKYCITY QUEEN ST• SKYCITY MANUKAU• HOYTS SYLVIA PARK

For session times & more info, visit www.mindblowingfilms.com

www.hoyts.co.nz | www.skycitycinemas.co.nz

Aisha is a girl with simple diktat- everyone’s business is her business. Aryan is a boy with even simpler set of beliefs – Aisha should mind her own business. Caught in the Delhi upper class world with its own set of social rules, Aisha navigates her world with a great sense of style and even greater optimism. Caught in her web are her best friends Pinky, small town girl Shefali, the west Delhi boy

Randhir and the hunk Dhruv. Aish will make sure everyone dances to her tune. And all Arjun wants to do is disentangle that web and get Aisha out of and impending sticky mess. Who will succeed and who will succumb?

Welcome to Aisha’s fabulous world where playing cupid is as easy as 1 2 3… if only that Arjun stay out of her way!

don’t be

cupid!

Starring Sonam KapoorAbhay DeolCyrus Sahukar

Directed ByRajshree Ojha

Follow us on: Orkut / MySpaceFacebook - search Mind Blowing Films @ Facebook / Twitter - twitter.com/mindblowingfilm

aisha


Indian bollywood

Even as the FIFA World Cup Football 2010 fever reaches its frenzied crescendo , retro Indi-pop music lovers will be amazed to know that legendary Bollywood composer-singer Rahul Dev Burman’s whose 71st birth anniversary was observed recently, was a hardcore “soccer freak” Not many are aware that the versatile musical genius

Panchamda ( RDB’s nickname) had a fetish for football Says senior Bollywood producer Barkha Roy ( of musical jubilee hit ‘Sanam Teri Kasam’ (1982) which fetched RDB his first-ever Filmfare Award ) “ Besides being a fabulous composer, Burmansaab had this flair for using various kinds of foreign musical in-struments for the first time. Often he would blend bizarre sound-effects into his musical in-terludes of western songs like he did in most of the chartbuster songs of my movie ‘Sanam Teri Kasam’. With the ‘FIFA’ World Cup football fever in full swing, had Panchamda been alive he would have surely used the South African trumpet-horn ‘vuvuzela’ sounds in some of his Hindi songs Or maybe he would have com-posed a special Football fusion Indo-African tune,”enthuses Barkha who some ambitious “artistic” plans up her sleeve as a grand tribute to her mentor RDB. Even legendary singer Asha Bhosle has revealed that her hubby Rahulda was a passionate football freak and an ardent fan of the legendary Brazilian player Pele . “Somehow he even seemed fascinated with Latin American music and Brazilian rhythms which he incorpo-rated in several songs.That’s how he ventured to bring out his international Latin American album ‘Pantera’ which was way ahead of its times,” explains madame Bhosle. Ace percus-sionist and keyboards player Kersi Lord who used to be part of RDB’s core team recalls how Rahulda used to regularly “drop in at my house during the initial phase of his career to listen and get exposure to a variety of global music L.P.s, ( Discs) particularly Rock-Jazz and Afro-Latin American scores, as I had a vast collec-tion of them.” Eminent cine-biz guitarist and arranger Ramesh Iyer who was closely associ-ated with Pancham for nearly 15 years having

played in dozens of his song-recordings fondly remembers how RDB used to sometimes take a “soccer break”. “Dada (RDB) used to sneak out with his music-buddies to watch live football matches at

downtown grounds whenever he had free time in the evenings. After watching his favou-rite teams playing , he would rush back ‘fully charged and excited ’ for a music-sitting or re-cording session and make impulsive creative changes in the music notations. Even at home he would love to watch football matches on two TV screens and would video-tape them. Maybe Dada used to get some sort of an inspiration-al ‘kick’ out of watching the soccer frenzy,” insists Iyer .

RD Burman: Getting a kick out of football

r d burman’s toP teN

Chartbuster milestone movies:

Hare Rama Hare Krishna

Padosan Sholay

Caravan Amar Prem

Sanam Teri Kasam

Parichay

Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin

Kati Patang

Teesri Manzil

Mumbai: Bollywood diva Rekha has yet again shut up critics who said she has become a bore, donning the same old golden kanjeevarams and heavy jewellery wherever she goes now-a-days.

In a ‘dare-to-bare’ act, Rekha has revealed her ship-shaped figure in the latest issue of Filmfare magazine, where she made it clear once again that no newbie actress can compete with this 55-year-old when it comes to looking sexy and classy at the same time.

Rekha dazzled in her flawless avatar where she showed her sculpted jawbone, cleavage, shoulders, arms, waistline and legs, along with seducing eyes and pout.

It is no secret how Madam Re feels when it comes to taking care of her ‘Mind and Body Temple’. The plump South Indian teenager, who made her debut into Bollywood with ‘Sawaan Bhadon’ underwent an unbelievable makeover with a strict routine of yoga and aerobics under the tutelage of Rama Bans in the ‘80s.

However, this makeover too was not free of criticism. There was news that Re underwent surgery to get into a perfect shape.

But Rekha claims she uses yoga, a health diet and good sleep to keep fit. The actress, who used to visit a gym in Hotel Sea Rock, now has set up her own gymnasium in her Bandra bunglow. She is also visits a suburban spa in Mumbai regularly for meditation.

Even ace photographer Jagdish Mali, who clicked the hot bod for Filmfare, said he had to do only minor changes in the photos as Re looked too ravishing for any patch ups.

“When we shoot digitally, a little bit of touch-up here and there is necessary. I’ve just made minor changes to the images ... haven’t tampered with her figure at all!” Mali told TOI.

“We know she’s been maintaining herself well. When you’re young at heart, it reflects on your face,” he added.

Meanwhile, Filmfare editor Jitesh Pillaai said the photo sessions are creating waves

across the country.Her sarees, her flair, her performances,

makeup techniques, truly iconic!” tweeted Pillaai.

However, he regretted: “Rekhaji an actor who’s not got her due yet.”

“Would love to see her work in movies with Aparna Sen, Zoya Akhtar, Mani Ratnam, Sanjay Bhansali,” said Pillaai.

Rekha shows her ship figure

Mumbai: Sky Motion Pictures has announced the launch of a film on surrogate mother- ‘Life Ex-press’-by budding filmmaker Anup Das.

‘Life Express’ is the story about an urbanized couple Tanvi (Rituparna Sengupta)and Nikhil (Kiran Janjani), whose life’s pace revolves around their respective careers so much that they have no time to spend time with each other or start a family.

The film is also the story of Mohan (Yashpal Sharma) and Gauri (Divya Dutta) who live far away from the daily hustle and bustle of big city and are leading a poverty-ridden life in a village.

The film deals with surrogate motherhood, love and aspirations.

Sky Motion makes film on surrogate motherhoodMumbai: Zee TV’s popular soap ‘Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo’ is all set to air a highly dramatic episode where the main protagonist Laali will be seen fighting her last ‘war’.

It’s the night where Shekhar puts sindoor on Laali and she accepts his love, it’s the night of Madhur and Rekha’s marriage and this is the night where Loha will realize how wrong he has been about Laali, and this comes at a heavy cost!

It is the night of final judge-ment!

Gangiya creates her own Lakshagrah (palace of lac) - her evil plan of burning ev-eryone alive inside the haveli creates mayhem! Nandini, the badi bahu of the haveli dies !

Gangiya runs away with waaris, Loha follows her but is blinded, Ranvijay to save his life marries Rekha and Shekhar in the confusion ends up shooting his beloved, Laali!

But is it really an “aakhri yudh” for Laali? Or is it just the ending of a great and dramat-

ic chapter in Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo?

Agle janam has been an engaging story since its com-mencement. Today as this chapter of Lali’s life is coming to an end, Ratan Rajput remi-nisces about her character which was full of grit and grace.

Lali’s character has had several ebbs and flows. And now, at the threshold of an apocalypse which will have life changing consequences, how does the lady in concern feel?

“Lali will not remain Lali anymore”, says Ratan Rajput with mixed feelings. “The tumultuous situations create tremendous upheaval and wreck havoc in the lives of all the characters. And Lali stands affected the most …you never know … You might just not see Lali again…” rues the actor.

Zee’s Laali to fight last war


Indian

Mumbai: Busy finishing the shooting of a lot of movies and signing more good ones, actress Divya Dutta had a nostalgic and a astounding experience while shooting for ‘Stanley Ka

Dabba’. The movie is the brainchild and baby

of award winning director-actor-producer Amole Gupte of ‘Taare Zameen Par’ fame.

Amole offered Divya this movie because of her potential to play varied characters. However, the most interesting bit was when Divya asked for the script of the movie and

Amole gave her a school text book instead. Yes, you read it right! Instead of some hundred pages of a profes-

sional script, a simple, part of the syllabus text book was given to her while shooting in one of the schools of Mumbai.

Divya was startled at first but considering the innovative and creative outputs of Amole, Divya knew why actually he wanted her to read the text book on the sets instead of the script

or dialogues. Divya has been shooting for ‘Stanley

Ka Dabba’ with lots of small school kids in the classroom and that’s why it also

led to some nostalgic moments for Divya.

Well, talk about working dif-ferently!

Divya is an intelligent actress and she ultimately

did understand why she was given the text

book. But if you are curious why,

then you have to wait for a little

while to know the

secret!

bollywood

Aisha- August 6Synopsis: Welcome to Aisha’s (Sonam Kapoor) world where playing cupid is as easy as 1 2 3... if only Arjun (Abhay Deol) would stay out of her way. Aisha is an adaption of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Emma.

Starring: Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor

Peepli Live- August 13

Synopsis: Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) and Budhia (Raghubir Yadav) are two impoverished farm-ers in the small Indian village of Peepli, who are about to lose their farmland due to outstanding debt. An incompetent politician suggests they commit suicide to get govern-ment help and the media becomes involved. They turn Natha into a celebrity as speculation over whether or not he will commit suicide captivates the country.

Starring: Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Malaika Shenoy, Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

It’s a Aamir Khan Productions masterpiece. The film is already screening at re-nowned festivals- Sundance Film Festival 2010, Berlin International Film Festival 2010

We Are Family- September 10Synopsis: We Are Family is the story of Kajol and Kareena who play the mother and stepmother of a divorced family. Kajol doesn’t believe that Kareena can be a good mother to her children until circumstances force them to become friends and bond for the sake of their family.

It stars Kajol and Kareena who team up together after the superhit ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum’ , only this time as rivals and not sisters.WE ARE FAMILY is a remake of the super hit Hollywood film ‘Stepmom’ that stars Susan Sarondon and Julia Roberts.

Produced By: Karan JoharDirected by Siddharth P. Malhotra Starring: Kajol, Kareena Ka-poor and Arjun Rampal

Bips becomes face of Bengali channel

Kolkata: Bollywood bombshell Bipasha Basu has become the face of a new Bengali General Entertainment Channel (GEC), Mahuaa Bangla. “I am extremely proud to be associated with a happening and diverse channel like Mahuaa Bangla. This is like homecoming for me because Kolkata is where I originally belong to. My roots lie in this city,” said Bips. “ I wish Mahuaa Bangla all the very best for their future endeavours and I’m sure they will change the face of entertainment with their diaspora of unique programmes,” she added. After successfully launching Mahuaa Bhojpuri, Mahuaa Media Pvt. Ltd. is ready to air its Bengali GEC on July 19.

Divya goes back to school


Indian bollywood

NCSP1360

Contact your nurse, doctor orlocal health worker for an appointment.

Call 0800 729 729 for more information.Or visit www.cervicalscreening.govt.nz

A smear test can detect changes to cells on the cervix. It’s important to find

those changes before they can develop into cancer.

Cervical cancer is caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Most women

who have been sexually active will have HPV at some stage in their lives.

Generally the virus just goes away by itself but in a few cases it can lead to

cervical cancer.

Usually, there are no symptoms so it’s important to have a smear test every

three years – even if you are no longer sexually active.

A smear test could save your life.

I don’t have any symptoms sowhy should I have a smear test?

Don’t put it off.

Mumbai: Actor Emraan Hashmi’s character in ‘Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai’ required him to shed a lot of body fat and weight in an unreasonable time frame. Once the script was narrated and Emraan was on for the film, Milan wanted Emraan to lose a considerable amount of body fat and put on lean muscle mass in just four months. “Anyone who is into fitness, knows that it is an unreasonable time frame...Emraan started something called angular training... and once he started he wanted to see results faster and Emraan went ahead and took fat burners for a month without consulting his trainer .. He was already training twice a day, which put him into the over-training zone... “Fat burners put an even more unwanted stress on his body, his cortisol levels shot up and he fell seriously ill, with chronic fatigue. Because of which Milan had to postpone some key shooting sequences and portions of the pee loon song for a later date,” revealed a source very close to Emraan. Emraan is playing the role of Shoaib, an evil underworld prince who is Sultan’s (Ajay Devgan) protégé. Shoaib becomes the reason for the downfall of Sultan. It is said that the movie is loosely based on the life of Haji Mastan and Dawood. However, like Emraan, even the makers of the movie have denied any such news.

Emraan’s no pain, no gain formula

Mumbai: When Terence Lewis returns to Zee TV’s Dance India Dance, it’sparty time!

With his sunny, affectionate manner, his “chummeshwari” comments, his impromptu dance acts and the hilarious anecdotes he nar-rates, Terence spreads joy and cheer wherever he goes.

Amidst hysterical laughter and endless guffaws, Terence is said to have shaken a leg with anchor Manish Paul dressed up in drag (!)

With an expression of horror on her face, judge Farah Khan couldn’t help but saucily remark, “You can be a great replacement for Katrina, Manish!”

Featuring exotic dance forms from around the world, the latest episode saw the kids pre-senting everything from the Russian folk dance & Afro Jazz to the Dragon dance and Lyndihop.

Just the right way to make Terence Sir smile ear to ear! Pleased as punch with the performances,Terence decided it was time to distribute Swiss chocolates from his recent Paris trip to the kids, mentors and the judges alike.

Sending ripples of excitement through the audience, Terence took to the stage several times and captivated them with an outstanding solo act to ‘Dil Toh Bachcha hai Ji’ and a group act with the talented pack to the 90’s chartbuster ‘Ice Ice baby’.

Meanwhile, Roly-poly li’l Ruturaj is fast be-coming everybody’s favorite contestant on DID Li’l Masters.

Delivering one power-packed performance after another, this cutie has woven his way into everyone’s heart. But with judge Sandip

Soparrkar, he perhaps needs to try a little harder!

At a recent shoot, Sandip, on seeing Ru-turaj’s performance, said, “I have honestly seen Ruturaj doing better. Besides, at this point in the show, the audience needs to see more ‘dance’ to decide.”

Begging to differ, judge Farah Khan jumped to Ruturaj’s rescue, saying, “Really? I got goose bumps during his performance. It’s a new ex-periment by Rutu … nice choreography, effec-tive use of the prop, great execution.”

The cross-fire between the judges continued as they were asked to predict whether Ruturaj would make it to the top 4. Sandip said, “No... he needs to do more than just lyrical hip-hop to win”.

Not about to let one of her favorite contes-tants be undermined, Farah said, “Why just the top 4? I see Ruturaj in the top 2.”

In a bid to put any doubts about his talent to rest, Ruturaj agreed to engage in a racy dance “jugal bandi” with Atul, his closest contender.

Together the duo enthralled the audience with a spunky, competitive dance act to the song “Ibn-e-Batuta”.

Maintaining his stance even post the perfor-mance, Sandip said that Atul was crisper with his moves!

Farah disagreed yet again, saying, “Rutu’s forte is his expressions and Atul’s stunts take the cake. It was a tie for me….”

Whether Ruturaj will stay in the competi-tion or will Atul rule the roost is something only time will tell!

Tango with Terence


Indian bollywood

Who is Laden’s lady love?Mumbai: Actress Sugandha ,who shot to fame after playing Shaleen in Imran

Khan starrer ‘Jaane tu ya jaane na’ is Laden’s new love.

You heard it right! In upcoming film ‘Tere bin Laden’, Sugandha is play-ing the role of Laden’s lady love and will be seen romancing with him.

‘’I am playing the role of a girl named Zoya who is a make-up

artist. She helps Laden to fulfill his dream of going to USA. I am really excited about this film,’’ the actress said.

Laden-Love-Romance…only Bollywood can make

it possible!


Indian Feature

Bengal’s favourite Hilsa fish served with olives and tomato with Italian style Risotto rice. Hyper-bole? Not exactly. Not if you go by the experience of Debapriya Biswas, folk singer and a foodie. She went recently to ‘K K’ Fusion’, a restaurant in Kolkata specializing in this genre to celebrate her daughter’s birthday.

“I jumped at the very sight of it. I was ex-pecting something new, but as weird as this?” recalls Biswas. But after trying it, she found it “lip smacking.”

Manisha Joshi of Bangalore has almost a similar story to tell. It was one of her busy days and she was looking for a quick lunch. She settled for Mugen, a fusion food restaurant newly opened near her office. Being new to fusion food coupled with sheer paucity of time made her decide to depend on the waiter to choose her food. “What was produced at my table as Escalop of Chicken

left me apprehensive.” recounts Manisha. She too was in for a happy surprise once she tasted the dish - an Indo-Mexican fusion dish which com-posed of stuffed breast of a chicken with cheese, marinated with chilly and coriander powder and served grilled. “I now have my lunch at Mugen often. It’s a welcome deviation from the regular Indian, Chinese or Continental”, says Joshi.

That’s the secret of fusion foods, unconven-tional but surprisingly tasty for those who do not mind experimenting. It is well known that Indians in general like to stick to their traditional cuisine and hate to deviate. Not any more. Obviously, the changing times are getting reflected in the food choice too. Today, the customers who turn out at well-known restaurants are well travelled, de-manding and know their food; they certainly do not want a meal they could whip up at home. A reason why fusion cuisine has become a hit. Be it hilsa with olives or dal makhani on top of pizza, the master chefs of India are harnessing their imagination and experience to dish out delica-cies of a different taste, flavour and colour. Food chains like ‘Oh! Calcutta’ with outlets all over the country are experimenting infusing continental flavour for traditional Bengali dishes, especially by reducing the pungency of the mustard paste in dishes like Illish Bhape (steamed hilsa cooked in mustard) and other fish preparations.

The star hotels in India are also coming up by

using sweet basil, imported from Thailand. From Danish pies with Indianised version of stuffing at ‘Hott’ in Pune, Ajantha fried chicken at ‘Ajantha Fusion Food’ in Chennai, to ‘Indigo’ in Mumbai, India is now basking in the new interest in fusion food. Sometimes, there may not even be a set menu; if you take the chef into confidence and prefer to go by what the he/she recommends, you may experience something made exclusively for your taste buds.

Pradip Rosario of K K’ Fusion who won the Best Young Chef of India Award presented by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurants As-sociation of India recently, has created ripples with his unusual fusion food. When asked about the acceptability of fusion food he says, “The fact is that in this day and age all international combinations are acceptable. I’ve successfully tried out Japanese Yakitori with pasta and Szech-

uan sauce. I’ve even tried favourites like Paneer Makhani combining with steamed noodles. “In fact, my creation Paneer-a-la-Kiev is quite a hit,” he claims.

Availability of ingredients from abroad is also boosting experimentations. Add to it India’s overwhelming varieties of spices, the scope and temptation to try out new combinations is under-standable. This temptation to do something new, according to celebrated chef Shaun Kenworthy and the brain behind the stand-alone ‘The Blue Potato’ restaurant in Kolkata, has resulted in the emergence of fusion food. Moreover, the sheer charm of tasting the unknown has further pushed its new popularity. While it is a fusion between Italian and Thai, Japanese and Mediterranean and European and Asian food that are in vogue in the America, in India the fusion between Medi-terranean and Indian food is doing the rounds of the specialty restaurants in the country, reveals Kenworthy.

Fusion involves innovation and the chefs all over the world are creating new dishes synthesiz-ing the ingredients and spices from various parts of the world that are now easily available in most places. American chefs are confirmed mavericks; they are reputed not to conform to any kind of rules and go wild in their creations. “They can jolly well afford to, given the open and liberal mindset of the people there” muses Kenworthy.

In Australia, there is a specific kind of cooking assimilating the spices from East and West . However, in India chefs have to be careful with their experimentation in order to make the food palatable to the Indian taste buds. Over here, the concept of fusion cooking started primarily with the Indianisation of Chinese food. Even the fine dining restaurants offer Chinese cuisine that is in some way converted to suit the Indian taste buds. The formula is to use more of ginger and garlic and the sauces while reducing the amount of pow-dered spices. The most common place example of Chinese and India fusion is the Chilli Chicken.

An interesting phenomenon that is still in an inchoate state in India is the something called ‘Vegetarian Sushi’. The Japanese Sushi is essen-tially non-vegetarian and anyone outside India will find the concept of vegetarian sushi improb-able. But the master chefs of our country have tried their hands at it and have emerged success-ful. Not to forget the ‘Gobi Manchurian’ a peren-nial favourite down South.

Acclaimed Jazz musician and equally com-

mended food columnist Nandan Bagchi is all praise for the new trend that is “gradually gaining a place in the culinary map of India”. He be-lieves that you need to have a passion for food and a proper experience in the kitchen to know the chemistry of fusion between spices, colours and ingredients. The ultimate deciding factor of a successful food preparation is, after all, taste. If that can be taken care of, any kind of experi-mentation will be successful, feels Bagchi. Chefs are like painters and need to have a proper under-standing of his palette, he insists.

Food, like music and fashion, has always been open to experimentations, whether in India or abroad. Fusion and innovation have given a global direction to the history of food. The jux-taposition of the oriental and the occidental has given birth to numerous creations around the world. They have not only figured in menu cards but also have gained huge popularity. Fusion food is here to stay and thrive as the world becomes increasingly globalised.

Fusion food may create some confusion at first for those used to the traditional fare, but the innovations can spring a surprise to the weary taste buds, and to good effect, discovers BAIshAlI Mukherjee

Painting the food palette


Indian


Indian technology

New York: We’ve all seen them—pop-up messages telling you your computer is infected with a virus. To get rid of it, all you have to do is order the antivirus software being advertised.

We’ve all seen them—pop-up messages telling you your computer is infected with a virus. To get rid of it, all you have to do is order the antivirus software being advertised.

Before you click, though, know this: few Internet security companies use ads to tell you about a virus on your computer. Most of these pop-ups are scams, and it’s one of the fastest-growing types of Internet fraud today.

These scams have a name. They’re called “scare-ware” because they try to frighten you into purchas-ing fake antivirus software with a seemingly genuine security warning. But if you do try to buy this pro-gram, it will either do nothing…or it could compro-mise your computer by installing malicious software onto your system. And in some instances, you don’t

even have to click on the pop-up box…the software downloads automatically.

Cyber criminals often use notorious botnets—net-works of compromised computers under their control—to push out their software. They’ll also masquerade as legitimate Internet security com-panies and buy ads on other websites—called “malvertising”—but when consumers click on the ads to purchase the products, they are redirected to websites controlled by the bad guys.

Many of these criminals operate outside the U.S., making investigations difficult and complex for the FBI and its partners. But we’ve had successes—just this past May, for example, three people were charged in Illinois in connection with a scheme that caused Internet users in more than 60 countries, including the U.S., to buy more than $100 million worth of bogus scareware software.

Two of the defendants, including an American, are accused of running an overseas company that

claimed to sell antivirus and computer performance/repair software over the Internet. A third man operat-ed the company’s Cincinnati call center, which was responsible for technical and billing support to its customers (but in reality deflected complaints from consumers who realized the software didn’t work).

According to the indictment, proceeds from the sales of the software (which was typically purchased by credit card) were deposited into bank accounts controlled by the defendants and others throughout the world and then quickly transferred to accounts in Europe.

In addition to the consumers victimized by the scam, a number of legitimate companies tricked into sell-ing ad space on their websites for the bogus soft-ware were allegedly defrauded of about $85,000 in unpaid fees.

Don’t let it happen to you. Here are a few words of advice on scareware.

Don’t be Scared by ‘Scareware’

How to spot a scareware scam:Does the pop-up use “non-clickable” icons? To build authenticity into their software, scareware will show a list of reputable icons—like those of software companies or security publications. However, the user can’t click through to the sites to see the actual reviews or recommendations.Is the pop-up ad hard to close? Scareware pop-ups employ aggressive techniques and will not close easily after clicking the “close” or “X” but-ton.Have you heard of the software before? Cyber criminals use easy-to-remember names like Virus Shield, Antivirus, or VirusRemover.

How to protect yourself from scareware: Make sure your computer is fully protected by legitimate, up-to-date antivirus software.

SCAREWARE


Indian Column

General SecretaryRajeev (Raj) Singh Thandi J.P.

Phone: +64 21 333 604Email: [email protected]

PresidentPaul Singh Bains J.P.Phone: +64 21 167 3974Email: [email protected]

Vice President Harshadbhai Patel [027 447 5706] | Assistant Secretary Raj Bedi [021 241 1424] | Treasurer Manjit Singh [021 781 902]

Affiliated Branches Auckland | Bay of Plenty | Central Districts | Christchurch | Country Section | Manukau | Pukekohe | Taranaki | Waikato | WellingtonAssociate Members NZ Punjabi Cultural Association Inc | New Zealand Kannada Koota Inc | Probasee Bengali Association of NZ Inc | Auckland Marathi Association Inc | New Zealand Telugu Association Inc

| Muth Tamil Sangam IncProbationary Associate Members Auckland Malayali Samajam www.nzindians.org.nz

Ten Reasons for Joining the Indian Association in your area

1. Link with your proud roots

2. Project Real Rich Indian Culture for your own selfesteem

3. Give opportunity to your children to network withintheir community

4. Avenue for participation in association organizedevents to nurture your own talent

5. Be self respectful and voice your concerns aboutany discrimination

6. Get support for immigration, superannuation,trade, safety or any other related matter

7. Be responsible and participate in feedback processfor any legislation

8. Every increase in membership helps to bargainbenefits for the community

9. Opportunity to contribute towards India - NewZealand friendship

10. Be part of the change that you want to see.

Please visit

www.nzindians.org.nzto find the details of the Indian Association in your area

I know how tough the recession has been for many families.

Welfare will always be there to catch those who have fallen on hard times or unable to work due to illness or disability. But for some, the welfare safety net has become a trap, locking them into a life of limited income and limited choices.

That’s why National is rebalancing our welfare system, focusing on work, and pro-viding more opportunities for young people.

Our Future Focus reforms ensure that welfare is fair, improve outcomes for ben-eficiaries, and support economic growth.

There will be new part-time work obliga-tions for people on the Domestic Purposes Benefit with a youngest child over six, and for people on a Sickness Benefit who have been medically assessed as being able to work part-time. We are making changes to the Unemployment Benefit, and introducing more rigorous reassessments for Sickness Beneficiaries to get people back to work sooner.

Future Focus provides more support for those who need it. We are boosting childcare options for sole parents by expanding out-of-school support for children, and provid-ing more training support for sole parents on the DPB. We also legislated for benefit increases in line with inf lation, providing certainty to beneficiaries.

Recently we extended our Community Max scheme. This provides six-month place-

ments for 16- to 24-year-olds on community or environmental projects. Participants are paid at least the minimum wage and are eli-gible for training.

Four out of five young people who’ve completed Community Max have remained off a benefit, with 43 per cent of those cur-rently in work or training, and gaining real life skills. More importantly, disconnected young people are engaging with their com-munities. In turn, communities are encour-aging young people to develop their poten-tial.

We’ve invested an extra $17.4 million in Community Max this year, giving a further 1500 young people experience and skills working in the community.

Our Job Ops scheme provides valuable work experience for young unemployed people by subsidising positions with an em-ployer. Many employers have been so im-pressed, they’ve taken young people on per-manently. So far, 93 per cent of those who finished their placement have stayed off the benefit.

National is determined to rebalance our welfare system. Future Focus, Community Max and Job Ops are helping provide the essential safety net families need, assisting people back to work, and creating real op-portunities for young people. They’re just some of the steps we’re taking to secure a brighter future for all New Zealanders.

Rebalancing Our Welfare System and Focusing on Work

KANWALJIt sINGH bAKsHI JoHN KeY

School holidays are over and families across the country are back at school and work.

I hope you’ve had a chance to digest your child’s first National Standards report. Many parents received their first report at the start of the holidays.

Many families in the Indian community told us they wanted clear information about their child’s progress in reading, writing, and maths. National Standards delivers on our promise to provide that.

National Standards are simply signposts, which show what a year 1 to 8 child should be able to achieve in reading, writing, and maths, and when.

We know that one in five students leave school without the basic skills they need to succeed. National is committed to tackling this problem, which is why we’re investing $36 million into National Standards.

Your child’s report shows the standards that their teacher is using to measure their progress and achievement. This means that struggling children will be given the extra support they need to achieve, and prepare them for future learning.

These reports offer a great opportunity for parents and schools to work together, and for parents to get involved and improve their child’s learning.

It’s important that you ask your child’s teacher, or principal, any questions you have about the reports or Standards. As they only began this year most schools are still develop-

ing their reporting systems. Your feedback will ensure that parents get the clear information they deserve.

It’s great to see that most schools around the country are implementing National Standards, and the feedback from principals, teachers, and parents has been very positive.

In the past, many schools were already pro-viding clear information to parents about their child’s progress, but some weren’t. National Standards mean that all parents across the country can expect to receive easy-to-under-stand reports at least twice a year.

If you haven’t had a report yet, ask your school when you can expect to receive one.

Like you, the National-led Government is ambitious for all children. National Standards have been set higher than national averages to encourage them to work hard and achieve. It’s important you remember this when reading your child’s report and working on steps to help them make progress.

National is committed to helping lift student achievement and giving children the best pos-sible start in life. Young people will make a dif-ference to our future. Their efforts will lift our prosperity and drive tomorrow’s economy.

It’s important that all parents get involved with their child’s learning. National Standards provide an easy way to do this, and it ensures that schools and families have the same expectations.

National is strengthening the ladder of oppor-tunity for our Indian. Together we can help our children reach their potential.

Working together to help our children achieve


Indian Column

recipe by ruby dhillon

WeeKeNdCUISINE

400g- green pasta

2cups- white pasta sauce

(Available ready made at your

local supermarket)

100g- cream

25g- spinach leaves

2 tea spoons oil

Salt and pepper according to

taste

Ingredients: method:

Healthy Spinach Pasta

Mix spinach, cream, white sauce

and salt .

Blend them in a blender into a puree

and keep it aside.

Boil water add pasta to it with oil

and salt in it. Cook until the pasta is

soft and cooked.

In another pan give one boil to the

Spinach puree.

Put pasta in a platter with Spinach

puree on top.

Serve hot seasoned with freshly

cracked pepper.

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PANsY WoNG

Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women’s Affairs

No one likes to think that violence is out there in our communities and homes, but the fact is vio-lence does occur in homes, in all our communi-ties. Domestic violence can affect anyone, regard-less of ethnicity, socio-economic or employment status.

A critical first step in reducing violence, and helping those who have suffered, is to raise aware-ness that it does happen and that it will not be tolerated. While initiatives such as the It’s Not OK campaign have helped raise awareness of this issue in the wider community, it is important to ensure that this information reaches our ethnic communities too.

I recently launched a new brochure, Speak Up, Seek Help, Safe Home, which is the first initiative of the Office of Ethnic Affairs and Ministry of Women’s Affairs’ joint Intimate Partner Violence project. This brochure was developed in col-laboration with ethnic communities, community organisations and other government agencies to meet the need for specific information targeted to ethnic communities.

The brochure provides information about what is NOT OK under New Zealand law, women’s rights within relationships in New Zealand, phone numbers for services, and an insert with a local di-rectory of services. Most importantly, the English brochure has been translated into nine different languages.

The two main objectives of the brochure are to encourage ethnic women who are experiencing or fear violence to seek help and to get people in our ethnic communities talking about and addressing this issue.

I am well aware that this is still a delicate topic. Domestic violence is never a comfortable issue to confront. And the collective identity for ethnic communities can pose barriers to confronting this problem. Some in the ethnic communities have said that they are already feeling alienated by the rest of the public. There is a worry that by focus-ing on problems in these communities, it will only serve to further ostracise individuals and commu-nities.

The people who my agencies talked to said that framing intimate partner violence in the

context of safety and wellbeing for ethnic fami-lies is a more effective way to communicate this serious issue to those most affected. But regard-less of how it is framed, we need to confront this now. We need to speak up, and give others the courage to find their voices and speak up too. We need to look after our family, friends, colleagues, and anyone affected by this. And we need to no longer just talk, but do something about it.

When you consider the data for the lifetime prevalence of violence by intimate partners, the numbers are chilling: 24.2 per cent of New Zealand European women, 49.3 per cent of Māori women, 23.3 per cent of Pacific women and 24.9 per cent of women of other ethnicities will be victims of domestic violence.

According to the Police apprehensions data-base information, the number of Asiatic family violence apprehensions was 405 in 1996 and the number for 2009 was 1,954. The total Asian pop-ulation only doubled during the same period.

Fortunately, research has shown that com-munities do want to address this serious issue. A 2008 survey of attitudes, values and beliefs about family violence found that most people in New Zealand want to help tackle this problem but need to know what to do.

The Office of Ethnic Affairs and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs will continue to seek feed-back and comments from ethnic communities, and all those affected by domestic violence. We want to increase everyone’s knowledge of these issues, and help to build trust within the commu-nity so that we can openly discuss domestic vio-lence without fear.

The Government is committed to addressing violence affecting all women, regardless of their background. Various agencies across government are working hard to ensure women are empow-ered to speak up, seek help, and that their homes are a safe place to live.

The Speak Up, Seek Help, Safe Home bro-chure can be downloaded from the Office of Ethnic Affairs website www.ethnicaffairs.govt.nz. It is available now in seven different lan-guages – English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Somali, Portuguese and Japa-nese. Hindi, Punjabi and Arabic translations will be available shortly.

Speaking up for safer homes

Over the past few years, the rising cost of health insurance has caused many people to reconsider their priorities and to gamble on their good health. However, the cost of going without health cover, and the potential impact on you and your family, should never be ignored.

None of us is immune from illness and, if you want guaranteed access to expert treatment, when and where you need it, then health insurance is es-sential. Without it, your family could face financial hardship should you be forced to pay for expensive medical procedures yourself.

If you are considering health insurance or re-evaluating your current policy, it is helpful to un-derstand the major factors that influence the cost of premiums:

• Medical care comes at a price and in many in-stances the costs are high. For example, a cardiac bypass (heart surgery) currently costs between $45,000 and $60,000.• In New Zealand we have an ageing population. There are now more people in the over-65 age bracket than ever before, and this figure is set to increase dramatically in the next 50 years.* This is already placing a huge demand on the health system, both public and private, with more and more people requiring medical attention.• Normally, there are waiting lists for surgery in the public system. Increasingly, people are opting to go private to avoid lengthy waits and major dis-ruptions to their lives. This means that private in-surers are funding treatment that would normally take place in the public system.• New technology to treat and diagnose disease is constantly being developed and it comes at a high price to the public. A recent example of this is the Positron Emission Tomography, or PET scan, which was introduced in New Zealand in 2005.This is a nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a three dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body.• In the 12 months to September 2009, the health insurance industry paid more than $743 million in claims. This was an increase of more than $67 million, or 9.9%, over the previous year. #

While this doesn’t paint a particularly rosy

picture of the health sector, it does show why health insurance is important, giving you peace of mind and real choice, should you or someone in your family become ill.

If you want guaranteed access to expert treat-ment, when and where you need it, then Health In-surance should be a serious consideration

There are many different health cover options available so talk to your Insurance Adviser about which will suit your circumstances

How do I easily compare between different health policies?

Making the right choice on which health insur-ance policy is not always easy. The aim is to find a good balance between cover and cost. Some key factors to look for in a policy are:

• High coverage limits on both surgical and medical ( non –surgical) treatment

• Specialists and tests covered ( before and after hospital treatment)

• Clarity of what is covered and what is not• A trusted insurer with a proven history

as a health insurance provider

Sources: *Statistics New Zealand website #HFAN Z Sta-tistics, September 2009The above information has been provided to serve only as a guideline to assist in evaluating your insurance needs. You are encouraged to do your own research before arriv-ing at any decisions.

- For further information, please contact: Oliver Pereira – OPM Insurance Services Ltd.

Ph. 0800 66 77 92, Faxmail. 021 551 669, Mobile. 021 66 77 92

Email. [email protected]

Don’t gamble on your good health

oLIver PereIrA


Indian


Indian

India has millions of temples, thronged by millions of people. If there is anything great and concrete that has survived the rigours of time in India, then it is surely our ancient Hindu temples. Of the millions there are many ancient temples with a deep history, fascinating legends and where famous saints have gotten their ultimate experi-ence of the ‘Supreme Truth through the installed deity’.

India has many magnificent temples that have found a place in World Heritage list. These include Sun Temple at Konark in Orissa, Khajuraho Temples in Madhya Pradesh, Ajanta Cave temples & Kailas-hnath temple in Ellora, Maharashtra, Bri-hadeswara Temple in Tajavuur and Sanchi Stupas in Bhopal. It is said that Temple construction in India started nearly 2000 years ago.

Like all things symbolic in Hinduism, tem-ples also have a great purpose. Explaining the purpose of temples, Vedanta Masters like Swami Chinmayananda say that “A temple is a sacred place of reverence, where the love of the mind and respect of the intellect come together. Temples are places where you practice what you have studied in the scriptural textbooks. They are gymnasiums for the mind. You have to go there and apply your mind to the ideal; remember, it is a mental gymnasium. Not a physical one. Surrender the mind in devotion unto the Lord. He will purify it and return it back to you in better shape. “

Ancient temples were not only places of worship but also great examples of art and architecture. Art is an integral part of any civilisation and ancient India flourished in this. Temples are a direct proof of that an-cient civilisation. There is something about these ancient places of worship which is divinely awe-inspiring, though today the upkeep of some of these temples and the surroundings are not adequate. Hav-ing seen and sanctified the generations of people over centuries, these temples exhibit and display the fine artistic sensibili-ties of the pious people through its rock cut and bronze sculptures. The paintings and inscriptions basically reveal the mental patterns and the evolution of people of that era, just like today’s structures reflect our tastes and priorities.

So, where do we get to know about the history of temples Every temple, like any place of worship elsewhere in the world, has a history. And yes it is recorded and documented. Technically this history and related legend is recorded in ‘St-hala Puraana’ – ‘Sthala’ means place and ‘Puraana’ in simple terms means ancient (record). The ‘Sthala Puraanas’ mainly narrates the stories of the temple’s creation and spiritual history. These scriptures usually extol the virtues of specific Hindu temples or shrines.

There are numerous Sthala Puraanas, most written in regional language and

Sanskrit. Some of the Sanskrit versions also appear in a Mahapuraana or an Upap-uraana. Additionally, there are also several Tamil Sthala Puraanas. Almost all temples had royal patronage. Sthala Puraana is the literature of each pilgrimage center. Sthala Puraana is numerous in number, mostly written in vernaculars. Some texts of Sthala Purana can be found with Sanskrit version as well and some of which also appears in a Mahapuraana or even in Upapuraana.

The previous head pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Math Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati Swamigal remarks that “In my opinion, the Sthala Puraanas not only en-

able us to have an insight into history but also enrich our knowledge of local culture and local customs. For instance, take the Perumal (Vishnu deity) of the Srirangam temple (Tamil Nadu). The idol is unique in the sense that it faces south. There is an explanation for this in the Sthala Puraana pertaining to the temple. When Vibhishana was returning to Lanka after attending the coronation of Sri Ramachandra, Rama gave him the idol of Ranganatha that he himself had been worshipping. On his way the idol somehow got installed on the is-land skirted by the two arms of the Kaveri. Vibhisana was sad that he could not take it with him to his capital Lankapuri. So, out of compassion for him, Sri Ranganatha lay facing south. This incident is described in detail in the Sthala Purana of Srirangam.”

None of these temples have ‘warrants of fitness’ like we have for buildings today but their towering structures have stood the ravages of time and the onslaught of loot-ers and invaders.

The major temples in ancient India were more known for their encouragement of arts and learning than as just places of worship. Hence you will find in old Indian temples, all amenities were available like hall, performance areas, pond within the complex, art work, dorms and I’m sure the architects & sculptors made sure the public ultimately noticed the hidden messages in rocks. The sanctum sancto-rum was however the main attraction and purpose. As a direct result of this almost all the people from the local and adjacent areas used to visit the temples for one reason or another – atleast on important religious days according to the Hindu lunar calendar.

Yatras (pilgrimages), like in ancient times, are undertaken to age-old temples even today. Glaring examples like Amarnath yatra, Pandharpur yatra, Sabari Mala yatra, Kaashi yatra, the Kailas Mansarovar and the Chaar Dhaam yatras are just a few. Try searching in youtube for ‘Yatra Deepti Bahtnagar’ and you will see some fantas-tic temple yatras online. Also ‘7 wonders of India’ on youtube features some great Indian temples.

Heritage

rAm LINGAm

Gymnasiums for the MINDheritage of ancient hindu temples

The major temples in ancient India were more known for their encouragement of arts and learn-ing than as just places of wor-ship. Hence you will find in old Indian temples, all amenities were available like hall, performance areas, pond within the complex, art work, dorms and I’m sure the architects & sculptors made sure the public ultimately noticed the hidden messages in rocks.


Indian

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Issue34 -Volume 2