India Currents - November 2014

By Radhika Dinesh

october 2014 • vol. 28 , no .7 • www. indiacurrents.com An Indian American comes to terms with her blended identity

Bollywood Music Controversyby Teed Rockwell

Bedtime Storiesby Anika Ayyar

On the Shanghai Bundby Kalpana Mohan

andMixed, Chopped StirredandMixed, Chopped Stirred

IndianWeddingSupplement

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Who Am I?I am an Indian American, a Democrat,

a woman, a Hindu. These categorizations seem much too broad. So I attach adjectives to the nouns. I am a first-generation Indian American, a moderate Democrat, a liberal Hindu, a married woman. And still I find myself short. So I further narrow my scope and add my persuasions: women’s rights, gay rights, climate change ... Do these details re-ally identify who I am?

Identity has become increasingly sub-contextual. It’s less and less about the clas-sifications of nation, religion, sex or ide-ology and more about our sub-national, sub-religious and sub-ideological similarities and differences.

This finds expression in the way we al-lege our loyalties across the globe from Scot-land to Spain and Iraq to America.

In the Middle East, Sunni and Shia sentiments weigh more deeply than mere Muslim ones; India’s national resurgence is paying heed to its liberal and conservative Hindu profile; the Scottish referendum, even though defeated, exposes differences with the parent kingdom; linguistic and other sub-cultural individuations are driving Cata-lans to seek secession from Spain and, here in America, recent events in Ferguson, Missouri

show that the color-coded race category is still an important reference point.

As we individualize our group member-ships, are we, in fact, disapproving of those excluded?

In an editorial on pluralism, Thomas Friedman asked the question, “can one be a good Spaniard, Catalan and European, all at once?” The question can be rephrased to ask, “can one be a good American, brown-skinned and Hindu all at once?”

I believe that the answer is yes if we understand that these classifications do not come close to defining who we are as moral human beings. Nor do they identify our po-tential for participating in society.

Our identities are mere social markers. It’s far too easy to allow these categories to limit our capabilities, so we must manage the expectations of our groups.

So who am I? I’m a woman with an Indian past and an

American future. I vote Democrat, but have Republican friends. I seek Hinduism in order to understand my place in life. And I write to make sense of who I am.

Jaya Padmanabhan

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INDIA CURRENTSNorthern California Edition

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Find us on

October 2014 • vol 28 • no 7

82 | Cultural Calendar96 | Spiritual Calendar

DEPARTMENTS6 | Voices19 | Popular Articles

112 | Classifieds125 | Viewfinder

WHAT’S CURRENT

32 | Ask a Lawyer33 | Visa Dates

PERSPECTIVES

3 | EDITORIALWho Am I?By Jaya Padmanabhan 8 | FORUMAre Startups Solving Real Problems?By Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy, Ash Murthy

10 | A THOUSAND WORDS57th and MarylandBy Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan

15 | MEDIAStatus InsanityBy Sandip Roy

20 | HISTORYDebating the Indian-British PastBy Shashi Tharoor

25 | FICTIONKindnessBy Sujatha Ramprasad

42 | YOUTHBedtime StoriesBy Anika Ayyar

65 | WEDDING SUPPLEMENTHow I Met My HusbandBy Vibha Akkaraju

70 | ANALYSISMy Experiment with TruthBy Swapnajit Mitra

81 | PARENT PRINCIPLESleeping with BabyBy Anitha Chakravarthi

122 | ON INGLISHOn the Shanghai BundBy Kalpana Mohan

126 | THE LAST WORDGive Governor Brown Another ChanceBy Sarita Sarvate

LIFESTYLE28 | PROFILEA Storyteller’s TaleBy Kamala Thiagarajan

34 | FINANCEMarket CorrectionsBy Rahul Varshneya

36 | BOOKSReviews of Ayya’s Accounts and Rogue ElephantBy Rajesh C. Oza, Vidya Pradhan

60 | RECIPESMajestic MangosBy Shanta Sacharoff

62 | RELATIONSHIP DIVAKeeping Divorce Away from MarriageBy Jasbina Ahluwalia

68 | MUSICBollywood Music ControversyBy Teed Rockwell

94 | REFLECTIONSButter Chicken, My Dad’s WayBy Monica Bhide

102 | HEALTHY LIFEYoga in India vs Yoga in AmericaBy Arundhati Baitmangalkar

108 | DEAR DOCTOR Video Game AddictionBy Alzak Amlani

An Indian American searches for her identity blendBy Radhika Dinesh

16 | Mixed, Chopped and Stirred

Includes resources to help plan for that special day!

The Lure of Croatia

By Prem Souri Kishore

75 | FilmsReviews of Mardaani and Mary Kom By Aniruddh Chawda

Wedding Supplement Inside

46 | Travel

October 2014 | www.indiacurrents.com | 5

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SPEAK YOUR MIND!

Have a thought or opinion to share? Send us an original letter of up to 300 words, and include your name, ad-dress, and phone number. Letters are edited for clarity and brevity.

Write India Currents Letters, 1885 Lundy Ave. Suite 220, San Jose 95131 or email [email protected].

voices

Hindus on HinduismVamsee Juluri’s article on Hinduism

(Who Is a Hindu?, India Currents, September 2014) is an honest view of the status of the religion today, as seen in print and broadcast media, and in the American education sys-tem. As a Hindu parent of a 6th grader in a California public school, I recently became aware of the misleading information about India and Hinduism depicted in 6th grade history textbooks, which leaves our children and their peers with a low opinion of Hindu-ism. The word “belief,” for example, appears 37 times in the Hinduism chapter of a his-tory textbook followed in many SF Bay Area schools, as opposed to sections on Judaism or Christianity where God speaks and it is depicted as the truth, not a belief. Many de-tails such as the Aryan invasion (which has been disproved by historians), explanations of rituals and artifacts found in archeological excavations have been clearly written with-out actual facts and with an intent to show Hinduism in a poor light.

I think that the article did not touch upon two key points:

i) Hinduism is deeply rooted in study of the self (adhyatma) and liberation (mok-sha) as a way to unite with God, which has led many sincere seekers of God from the west to look towards India. Spiritual leaders such as Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Sri Sri Ravishankar, just to name a few, are influencing western thought today though it may not be apparent in the main-stream media.

ii) Why have a majority of Indian Hin-dus not converted to Islam or Christianity after 1,000 years of Muslim and British rule and in spite of all the power and money poured into that effort? I feel that the answer lies in the deep rooted spirituality (I am not calling it a religion because Hinduism is not an institutionalized religion in the traditional sense of the word) based on the freedom to choose your deity or no deity, easy going rules, a sense of love and devotion created via stories, and through Indian art, music, dance, architecture, food and virtually every aspect of life. Like the author mentioned, what he learned at home could not be erased by history books.

So, I feel that Hinduism is here to stay. The need of the hour though is for Hindus to take interest in their own religion and learn the truth about it.

Manisha Verma, website

Several thousand years of assimilating faiths from different parts of the world is

what appears as Hinduism today—therefore occasionally it is hard to find a single answer to some basic questions. However, at the root of Hinduism are the Vedas which were intended to guide the faith (and life). Forms of Hinduism, such as Buddhism which exist outside India give a vivid snapshot of the process of evolution of Hinduism.

Historically extremism has never existed in Hinduism until very recently. What ap-pears to be extremism is probably a mix of re-action, provocation and political selfishness!

Santosh, website

The author, Vamsee Juluri, never an-swered the question, Who IS a Hindu? I call myself one, but my beliefs are not the same as what Juluri espouses. I practice advaitha and Rama and Krishna are irrelevant to my spiri-tual journey, or they are equal in my worship of Devi, Jesus, Buddha and Allah. I also reject that Hindus have not written about Hinduism. There are plenty in all languages available in any bookstore in India and also in the United States. One may have to put some effort into finding them, but it is not hard to find. Many books talk about the spiritual aspect and not the politicizing of Hinduism which is perhaps what the author seems to be interested in.

Anonymous, website

I disagree with Vamsee Juluri in the September cover story. He asks why “movies depict Hindus as turbanned snake-charmers, beggars, or snake-eaters?” I challenge him to come up with three movies in the last 25 years with such a depiction.

Hinduism doesn't need a revival. It is too vibrant to require a revival. But I agree that it does need better representation in the west; its current representation indeed continues to suffer from the vestiges of colonization. But not with counter myths.

I believe Hindus dislike the Doniger book The Hindus because it has an a-religious (vs. anti-religious) treatment and they feel a book on Hinduism should be religious. The book is a socio-anthropological history of Hinduism. Is such a perspective of a religion anti-that religion? It is not. Doniger actually likes Hinduism—just not the way a Hindu likes Hinduism.

Anonymous, website

Passionate Vegetarians I was intrigued by Gopi Kallayil’s article

(The Practical Vegetarian, India Currents, September 2014,. He appears to be a well-traveled person considering the number of places in the world he has visited.

Why are vegetarians so passionate about vegetarianism? It may be the upbringing

by vegetarian parents, Or it may be disgust with the killing of animals and the sight of raw flesh.

Bottom line: One is either a vegetarian or one is not. There is no mid-way.

Vengrai Parthasarathy, San Diego, CA

A Historic MeetingThe United States President, the White

House announcement stated, “looks forward to working with the Prime Minister to fulfill the promise of the US-India strategic part-nership for the benefit of both our citizens and the world.” Dr. A.P.J. Kalam has said in his book that the real and fastest progress takes place when technology joins spiritual-ity. By the time you read this letter the great joining would have happened. United State’s technology and India’s spirituality can make wonders in the world, and can make this world a much better, safer and peaceful place. The challenges are tough but the commit-ment of both the leaders can overcome all problems. I wish both the leaders all success.

A. Bhatia, India

Taking Pot Shots I am disappointed to read the article by

Shashi Tharoor (Not Enough to Like Facebook, India Currents, August 2014). Where is the evidence for Tharoor’s claim that Prime Min-ister Modi asked Sheryl Sandberg of Face-book for advice on public sanitation? Shashi Tharoor is an old Congress party supporter and is not pleased that Narendra Modi has won the election fair and square and hence resorts to taking pot shots at him.

Most justifiably, Prime Minister Modi has placed public sanitation and hygiene at a priority level and his activity regarding that subject on his Facebook page has been welcome to most of us who care about a clean and tourist friendly India. His concerns and the power of his Facebook appeals has already produced results worth a two crore contribution of funds by the likes of Tatas and Bharti Industries for school toilets.

Doesn’t Shashi Tharoor know of this or does he see only what he wants to see?

Byravan Viswanathan, Gettysburg, PA