This Swastika (on the right) has been one of the most pious symbols of Hinduism before a black-and-red version of it became the most hated and feared symbol in the word. For thousands of years the Hindu Swastika signified peace and prosperity. Then came Hitler and the Nazis who turned this sacred symbol into an icon of hatred, war, death, and destruction. A controversy is brewing in India about a line of bread-spreads named the "Nazi Collection." The presence of the swastika next to the name is adding fuel to the controversy. The owner of the company claims that the name has nothing to do with Hitler or Nazi Germany. [See BBC.com for full story]. How else this idiot wants us to see it. Really? Isn't it denial in the face of the obvious? Is he taking advise from the Republican operatives in the US? How else one can see the "Nazi Collection" with a Nazi Swastika logo?
When I was a kid my parents gave me a gold chain with a molded Swastika in the locket. I gave it away as a gift to my niece when she was born. But, if I were to have it today, should I have to fear the outrage by some people who get offended by it (which, by the way, looks a lot different from the Hitler's version). There has been movement, albeit weak, among Hindus to reclaim this symbol back from the perception of being "evil." [See Hindus opposing EU swastika ban at BBC.com]
While I think that the Nazi Swastika should be condemned for its symbolism, I object to the total ban of Swastika - especially the Hindu Swastika. Sorry, Mr. Jon Stewart, as much as I love your show and respect you - I don't agree with you on this. Nobody has any right to ban the Hindu Swastika.
Many Hindu households in India decorate their homes with Swastika painted on their doors, especially during the festivals and other auspicious occasions such as weddings. Almost all Hindu temples in India are decorated with this symbol. The other day I saw the Hindu Swastika at the front door of a local temple here in the Washington DC area. I was wondering if anybody objected to it. Somehow, the west wants the 800 million Hindus to understand the 80 year tainted history of Hitler's Swastika and let go their thousands of years of love for one of the most worshiped symbols of Hinduism. Is this reasonable?
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( 3 / 39 )As per the US Census, Indian Americans have the highest household income, $69,076 which is 65% higher than the median household income in the US is $41,990 (all in 2000 dollars). Estimated median income of the US households in 2006 is $48,201. If Indian American incomes also grew at the same rate as the median US income, the median household income of an Indian born household is nearly $81,000. Not only that, 69% of the Indians born outside the US have a bachelor's degree or a professional degree.
I remember reading a long time ago that, according to the 1990 Census, the richest ethnic community in the USA was the Japanese. I was not able to obtain similar statistics for Jewish Americans. However, if the incomes of Jewish Americans were to be tracked separately, I would suspect that the median income of Jewish Americans will be far greater than the median incomes of US Households and Indian Americans. Currently the Israel Lobby is seen as the most powerful lobby on the Capital Hill. It is no coincidence that the incomes of the Jewish Americans are perhaps the highest in the US.
On the other hand, Indian Americans always took a backseat in American politics. However, recently things are beginning to change. In 2004 Bobby Jindhal became the first Indian American to be elected to the US House of Representatives. Bill Clinton's appearance at various fund raising events organized by people of Indian origin (like the TANA event in July 2007 in Washington DC) is indicative of rising prominence by Indians in American political landscape.
Washington Post reports that the Indian Lobby on the Capital Hill becoming almost as powerful as the Israel Lobby. Excerpts from that article:
The fall's most controversial book is almost certainly "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," in which political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt warn that Jewish Americans have built a behemoth that has bullied policymakers into putting Israel's interests in the Middle East ahead of America's. To Mearsheimer and Walt, AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobbying group, is insidious. But to more and more Indian Americans, it's downright inspiring.
With growing numbers, clout and self-confidence, the Indian American community is turning its admiration for the Israel lobby and its respect for high-achieving Jewish Americans into a powerful new force of its own. Following consciously in AIPAC's footsteps, the India lobby is getting results in Washington -- and having a profound impact on U.S. policy, with important consequences for the future of Asia and the world.
"This is huge," enthused Ron Somers, the president of the U.S.-India Business Council, from a posh hotel lobby in Philadelphia. "It's the Berlin Wall coming down. It's Nixon in China."
.....
On the U.S. side, the pact awaits nothing more than one final up-or-down vote in Congress. (In India, the situation is far more complicated; India's left-wing parties, sensitive to any whiff of imperialism, have accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of surrendering the country's sovereignty -- a broadside that may yet scuttle the deal.) On Capitol Hill, despite deep divisions over Iraq, immigration and the outsourcing of American jobs to India, Democrats and Republicans quickly fell into line on the nuclear deal, voting for it last December by overwhelming bipartisan majorities. Even lawmakers who had made nuclear nonproliferation a core issue over their long careers, such as Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), quickly came around to President Bush's point of view. Why?
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The answer is that the India lobby is now officially a powerful presence on the Hill. The nuclear pact brought together an Indian government that is savvier than ever about playing the Washington game, an Indian American community that is just coming into its own and powerful business interests that see India as perhaps the single biggest money-making opportunity of the 21st century.
The nuclear deal has been pushed aggressively by well-funded groups representing industry in both countries. At the center of the lobbying effort has been Robert D. Blackwill, a former U.S. ambassador to India and deputy national security adviser who's now with a well-connected Republican lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith & Rogers LLC. The firm's Web site touts Blackwill as a pillar of its "India Practice," along with a more recent hire, Philip D. Zelikow, a former top adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who was also one of the architects of the Bush administration's tilt toward India. The Confederation of Indian Industry paid Blackwill to lobby various U.S. government entities, according to the Boston Globe. And India is also paying a major Beltway law firm, Venable LLP.
The U.S.-India Business Council has lavished big money on lobbyists, too. With India slated to spend perhaps $60 billion over the next few years to boost its military capabilities, major U.S. corporations are hoping that the nuclear agreement will open the door to some extremely lucrative opportunities, including military contracts and deals to help build nuclear power plants. According to a recent MIT study, Lockheed Martin is pushing to land a $4 billion to $9 billion contract for more than 120 fighter planes that India plans to buy. "The bounty is enormous," gushed Somers, the business council's president.
So enormous, in fact, that Bonner & Associates created an India lobbying group last year to make sure that U.S. companies reap a major chunk of it. Dubbed the Indian American Security Leadership Council, the group was underwritten by Ramesh Kapur, a former trustee of the Democratic National Committee, and Krishna Srinivasa, who has been backing GOP causes since his 1984 stint as co-chair of Asian Americans for Reagan-Bush. The council has, oddly, "recruited groups representing thousands of American veterans" to urge Congress to pass the nuclear deal.
The India lobby is also eager to use Indian Americans to put a human face -- not to mention a voter's face and a campaign contributor's face -- on its agenda. "Industry would make its business case," Somers explained, "and Indian Americans would make the emotional case."
......
There are now some 2.2 million Americans of Indian origin -- a number that's growing rapidly. First-generation immigrants keenly recall the humiliating days when India was dismissed as an overpopulated, socialist haven of poverty and disease. They are thrilled by the new respect India is getting. Meanwhile, a second, American-born generation of Indian Americans who feel comfortable with activism and publicity is just beginning to hit its political stride. As a group, Indian Americans have higher levels of education and income than the national average, making them a natural for political mobilization.
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( 3 / 32 )The following is an appeal to save the life of Suresh Penchala, a road-accident victim, by his brother:
Suresh Penchala is a student on at Eastern Illinois University(F1 visa) pursuing his masters in Computers and supposed to graduate in December. During summer semester while enrolled in 2 on-line courses he visited India and does not have the worst feared Insurance. He returned back from India on 13 of August and headed for his college along with his friend NISHANT ETALA on 14th August at around 9:30PM from Atlanta to E.I.U, Charleston ,IL in 97 model Toyota RAV4. He was supposed to stop in Nashville for the night and again drive to Illinois the next day.
At around 11:30 ( before mid-night), On I-75 just after exit-353 border of Georgia and Tennessee , they met with a major accident. An 18 wheeler ran into them. Unfortunately Nishant Etala passed away at the scene of the accident and Suresh Penchala has been admitted in ERLANGER HOSPITAL with serious injuries. He was not in a position to survive when he was flown to hospital with injuries to :
Both Lungs Collapsed/ Punctured.
Lacerations on his head.
Broken right collar bone.
Broken right shoulder.
Fractured C4 spine.
Completely broken rib-cage ( fractured to an inch)
Laceration to his spleen.
Liver damaged.
Broken hip.
broken left arm.
broken right ankle.
Anoxic/Hypoxic injuries to his Brain. -- Major ( Lack of oxygen to brain due to initial blood loss and lack of breathing ability)
Thanks to God and to Doctors and Nurses at ERLANGER hospital who has worked really hard for 3hrs pumping 10 bottles of blood, opening his belly and sewing the flowing blood stream could save his life. He has remained in COMA since.
He needs continuous medical attention but Erlanger hospital has said that there is not much they can do at this time. Mentioning that he has substantial damage to his brain and time would only tell us what would happen to him. At the same time as there is no treatment being done to him, they say that they cannot keep him in the hospital and as he is not responding, he cannot go to a Rehabilitation center and would have to go to a Skilled Nursing Facility. Unfortunately as he does not have insurance no nursing facility is willing to take him.
Hospital has asked me to take him home and my family lacks the expertise which the nurses at skilled nursing facility would provide in keeping my brother stable and keep him alive. Nursing homes would cost somewhere between $500 to $1000 per day which I cannot afford. ( To get him into a nursing home i need to pay a month's advance) and no Nursing Home or Hospital is coming forward to take Suresh.
While thinking of taking him to India we inquired about transportation costs , As he had chest tubes it is not medically safe for him to travel in a commercial flight until next 3 months and if he were to be transported then a air ambulance would have fly him which i am not sure they can with his medical condition but would cost around $100,000 to $180,000. Which is out of my reach.
Suresh Penchala is from Andhra Pradesh , India, Me (Ramesh Penchala), My DAD, and Mom are here in Chattanooga. My Parents are very depressed, emotional and yet determined to save Suresh. We are asking for help from each one of you to come forward and donate towards this noble cause, keeping in mind that your contribution (however small it is) would be going a long way in his treatment.
No amount is little and no amount is huge at this situation so i humbly beg/request all to please try to help my brother and my family get through these tough situation Praying for my brother and donating how much ever possible by you to save a life.
Donate online @ www.help-suresh.org
Thanks In Advance for the Generosity,
Ramesh Penchala & Family.
404-422-4583(Mobile)
rameshpenchala@gmail.com
and
Srinivas Reddy Maheshwaram
614 735 8472
maheshwaram@gmail.com
Make Checks payable to Ramesh Penchala
Mailing address:
Srinivas Maheshwaram
5045 Dierker Rd
Apt#B8
Columbus, OH 43220I am
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( 3.1 / 32 )
On Tuesday, Sept 25, a group of Britons seeking to pay tribute to those who died in an Indian revolt 150 years ago have spent the day holed up in their hotel.The retired soldiers and civilians were advised not to visit the historic Residency in the city of Lucknow because of anger over their visit.
Protesters in India say the trip is an insult to Indian freedom fighters.
However, on Wednesday Sir Mark Havelock managed to sneak past police in the northern city of Lucknow to see his great-great-grandfather Sir Henry Havelock's grave.
Sir Mark visited the cemetery accompanied by an Indian friend. [Full Story from BBC.com]
Sepoy Mutiny happened over 150 years ago. None of the people who was responsible for it are alive today. Yet, some lunatics think that we can't let the English come and visit the site. Get over it!
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( 2.9 / 19 )
At any major sporting event it costs a lot of money to advertise on:- players' sleeves or shirts,
- billboards within the view of the cameras,
- television coverage of the game
Not to mention the high cost of associating the game-itself with your company name! How do you circumvent this costly advertising and get as much publicity? Reliance figured out a way to do just that. They know the age old adage that "sex sells." Reliance hired these cute models to wear a sports bra with Reliance Mobile name on them and wave an Indian flag during the World Twenty20 games. What a brilliant idea!
However, the idea is hardly original. Do you remember the (in)famous incident involving US soccer player Brandi Chastain tearing off her uniform shirt at the 1999 Women's World Cup to celebrate US victory in the finals? It looked spontaneous at that time. Later it was revealed that [no pun intended] she was advertising for the new sports bra line-up by Nike.
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( 3 / 17 )
On September 5th, 2007 an article in the Times of India mentioned about rumors of Chiranjeevi joining politics, or even starting his own party. The article goes like this:------- Begin quote from the article ---------
Mega star Chiranjeevi’s absence at some public functions has raised eyebrows. He even missed his son, Ramcharan Tej's, movie Chirutha’s audio function, and here’s the icing. He skipped his birthday party as well.
And the grapevine is abuzz with rumours of Chiranjeevi joining politics.
Chiranjeevi, we also hear, is having discussions with his well wishers on the same.
Others still, have brushed aside these reports and are defending Chiranjeevi saying that the actor has no intentions of joining politics as of now.
----------------End quote from the article ---------------
Well the question remains, "Will he or won't he?"
A little bird told me that he will in fact enter politics soon.
Very soon.
I wish him well.
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( 3 / 21 )
Are real estate prices in India too high? Or the Indian RE market simply a bubble? Can you spot a bubble when you see one? Questions, questions! I don't know the answers. I was able to spot the RE bubble in US back in 2004. I positioned myself to short a few home builders in July 2005 and made some quick money. The real downturn occurred only after I closed my positions. A study by FICCI and Ernst and Young said that as many as 11 tier II cities in the country are emerging as growth centers that could transform the landscape of India. Included among these 11 cities is Vishakhapatnam (Surat, Chandigarh, Nagpur, and Vadodara are among the rest).
An article in the Economic Times (of India) says that the realty sector in India is growing by more than 30 per cent per annum and this order of growth is shifting the focus of investors and developers to relatively smaller cities and hence there is a likelihood of such emerging cities leading the transformation of the real estate sector, the study says.
I, like most people, may not be able to recognize an economic bubble. However, I can certainly recognize a hot-air balloon when I see one.
What is the one thing you will always hear from a RE agent if you are in the market for buying a property?
"This is the best time to buy."
That's what they said here in US back in 2004 and 2005. I rest my case.
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( 2.9 / 36 )
Rahul Gandhi, 37, was on Monday appointed Congress general secretary and inducted into the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in an indication that the party is preparing for early elections and that the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is being groomed for higher and heavier responsibilities.Get ready for another Gandhi in the dynasty.
A personal note: I read somewhere that he dropped out of Harvard in 1993 because of security concerns. Back in 1994 when I was working in Cambridge, MA, I once rode standing next to a young man who was about my height, very fair and handsome and looked almost like Rajiv Gandhi. I just wondered if it was Rahul himself. And it was he - riding alone! No security and no escort!
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( 3 / 31 )
24 years after India won a World title Down Under, finally, Indian cricket team won World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa. This is for the record books: India 157-5 (20 overs) beat Pakistan 152 (19.3 overs) by five runs on Monday, September 24th, 2007. Congratulations to Indian Team and the fans.
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( 2.9 / 31 )
All set for India-Pak finals in the World20. Thanks to Yuvraj Singh again! 70 runs in 30 balls! Impressive is an understatement. Congratulations, Team India!
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( 2.9 / 27 )
As a student of the financial markets in the last 18 years, I've learned to respect the opinions of many great investors and strategists. At the top of the list is Mr. Warren Buffet. Also in my list of people to listen to is Mr. Barton Biggs, a veteran stock market strategist and now a hedge fund manager at Traxis Partners. He wrote an article in Newsweek about the recent shakiness in the financial markets. Whether you are in India, Europe, Australia or in USA, you will find this article very useful and educational. He specifically taks about the power of "FEAR" in driving the markets, up or down.Excerpts:
First, volatility breeds fear and therefore more volatility. The giant hedge funds and proprietary trading desks are run by people who, like us, are susceptible to fear and greed. Most are not particularly intellectual, analytical or studious. They rely on their intuitions, and their basic instinct is to buy when prices are rising and sell when they are falling. This is called "trend following" or momentum investing. Most computer-driven trading models are similarly programmed. In other words, selling begets more selling and vice versa.
Furthermore, the executives these hyperactive souls work for are very intolerant of losses—drawdowns, in the lingo of the business. The clients of the hedge funds, particularly the funds of hedge funds, will yank their money if a fund has a couple of months of 3 to 4 percent declines in net asset value. The risk managers who run the trading desks at the big investment banks and brokers are even more trigger-happy. If a proprietary trader gets down 10 percent, he is likely to be closed down.
Conversely, when a decline abruptly changes into a rally, traders who sold into the decline are scared to death that they will miss the chance to make back their losses. A buying panic develops. This frenetic activity is rationalized by the participants' murmuring "the market acts well" when it's going up and that "it acts badly" when the beast is falling. Mutual-fund and pension managers are less frenetic but they also are under pressure to outperform their benchmarks. While holding cash is a sure benchmark beater in a down market, it is a millstone heavy burden in a rally.
His take on housing:
History suggests house prices in the United States will gradually fall another 5 to 10 percent and then remain soggy for years. Consumer spending will be seriously affected by the decline in house prices, and the U.S. economy will slow in the quarters to come but not slip into a recession. Any homeowner rescue package will be enormously expensive, quite inflationary and therefore unfriendly to bonds and the dollar.
However, the big capitalization, U.S. multinational companies that earn half of their profits abroad are still as cheap, relative to everything else, as they have been in 80 years. The world economy is healthy. Developing economies are booming, and account for almost 30 percent of world GDP. The economies of China and India are expanding at around 10 percent per year. On the other hand, slower U.S. growth is probably good because it suggests inflation will not be a problem.
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( 3 / 35 )
Parliament Square is a square outside the north-western end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. You will see on the premises the statues of some of the greatest legends of English history. Now, the City of London is considering putting Mahatma Gandhi's statue on this square. London Mayor Ken Livingstone has said he would like to see a statue of Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square. ".. [Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi] perhaps had a bigger significance on the British Empire than anyone else, because two thirds of it got independent overnight."
If Gandhi statue is approved to be on the Square, Mahatma will have an interesting company: Sir Winston Churchill, who couldn't hide the disdain for Gandhi with his (in)famous quote: "half-naked fakir."
Well, Mr. Churchill, I certainly hope that they will put Mahatma's statue right opposite to yours so that you get to see the "half-naked fakir" every day, 24/7! :)
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( 3.1 / 18 )
If your net worth is only $1 billion, you are not rich enough to be in the Forbes 400. If your net worth is a teeny bit less than 2.4 billion, you wouldn't have made the Forbes 400 list and, of course, you wouldn't be reading this blog if your range is that high! India's rich are also marching toward the top of our rankings. Brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who split up their family’s conglomerate in 2005, join Lakshmi Mittal, who heads the world's biggest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, among the world’s 20 wealthiest. India now has three in the upper echelons, second only to the U.S.
This year's Forbes top 20 has three Indians, Lakshmi Mittal and the Ambani brothers!
The Top 20:
----------
1. William Gates III
2. Warren Buffett
3. Carlos Slim Helú
4. Ingvar Kamprad
5. Lakshmi Mittal
6. Sheldon Adelson
7. Bernard Arnault
8. Amancio Ortega
9. Li Ka-shing
10. David Thomson
11. Larry Ellison
12. Liliane Bettencourt
13. Prince Alwaleed
14. Mukesh Ambani
15. Karl Albrecht
16. Roman Abramovich
17. Stefan Persson
18. Anil Ambani
19. Paul Allen
20. Theo Albrecht
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( 3.1 / 18 )
In 2004 news anchor Dan Rather was forced to resign because of a CBS News story related to President Bush going AWOL (Absence WithOut Leave) in Texas Air National Guard. The story involved 'forged-documents' which CBS news aired without checking the accuracy of the documents, thereby allegedly damaging the credibility of a sitting President. Prior to resigning from CBS News, Mr. Rather has aired several stories that were critical of Bush administration's policies. That made him an adversary of Bush administration - especially to Karl Rove. Many a times Rove's enemies bit dust with adversity coming from unexpected angles. Nobody could really pin any evidence on Rove himself. However, as the thinking goes, the fake-documents about Bush's National Guard record were peddled to a person described as Bush's critique. That person then approached CBS news with this story and CBS news aired the story. Several corroborative witnesses confirmed the story to be true. However, the fact that 'fake-documents' were involved not-only muddied the waters enough to cast doubt on the allegation itself, but also took one of the great journalists, down with it
Now Mr. Rather is alleging that he was made a scapegoat in this matter and he is suing his former employer CBS News for $70 million for breach of contract. Reuters news agency quoted Rather's lawsuit, filed at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, as saying: "Central to defendants' plan to pacify the White House was to offer Rather as the public face of the story, and as a scapegoat for CBS management's bungling of the entire episode."
Mr. Rather, I believe you. Stand-up for yourself and clear your name once and for all. This may be the only opportunity to bring the whole truth and nothing but the truth out.
[The story via MSNBC.com]
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( 3.1 / 34 )
"Getting a good start was never a worry - we got a good start in the last game. But you don't expect six sixes in an over - what Yuvraj did was great for the team."Here is how it happened (via BBC.com)
19th over - Ind 207-3 SMASH! BANG! BOSH! SPANK! BIFF! Erm, DOINK! Oh dear, Freddie appears to have made Yuvraj a rather angry young man and it's Broad that is paying the price as the left-hander brutalises six sixes!! The left-hander spanks one for what has to be the biggest six of the competition and repeats the stroke over cow corner next ball. He makes it three in a row with one over long-on and then smashes a fourth over backward point. Broad hasn't a clue what to do and the next two both sail out of the ground, one over midwicket, the next mid-on. Un. Bell. Eevable work from Yuvraj, who brings up his 50 off just 12 balls - the fastest ever half century in international cricket.
"How many times do people need to be told?! Colly is not a Geordie, he's a Mackem as he's a Sunderland lad. I'm from Middlesbrough and therefore I'm a Smoggy. It's that simple, Simon."
Max in the TMS inbox
Yuvraj joins the elite club in which Gary Sobers and Ravi Sastry are members. Congratulations.
[More from BBC]
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( 3 / 33 )
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