By Geeta Padmanabhan

1. Cashing in: Academy for political aspirants: Former Congressman Raj Ranjan believes “political thinking should be inculcated deep into human mind to curb corruption.” As a first step towards implementing this lofty but vague goal, he has launched The Netagiri Vidyalaya in Ranchi. The word “Netagiri” should have put off a lot of people, but it didn’t.  So far, he has imparted training to 200 aspiring politicians.
Admission comes with paying a fee of Rs. 50. Classes are held every Saturday for two hours. Lessons start with an explanation of what a manifesto is.
With no bar on age and ambition, you’ll find students like 69-year-old Sukhdev Lohra, among the 10 politicos on the roster now.  Raman Balhav, a lecturer says he is “proud of the school where ethics, moral values and government-sponsored welfare schemes comprise the syllabus”. He added, “I interviewed some of the candidates readying themselves to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. I asked them how they would serve people. To my utter surprise nobody could give a proper answer.”

2.  Woman power hasn’t gone far in Indian parliament history: The number of women MPs in India’s 545-member Lok Sabha has never touched 50. This in a country that had a woman PM (Indira Gandhi) for 17 years. The 13th Lok Sabha after the 1999 elections had 49 women members. It was just 9.02 percent of the total Lok Sabha Seats. The last (14th) Lok Sabha failed to pass the bill giving 33% reservation for women candidates.

3. Glamour Girls:Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the women who will lend glamour to the contest. Meera Sanyal, country-head of ABN-Amro may be the first woman banker joining politics. She stands from Mumbai South as an independent candidate. Her rivals here are Milind Deora of the Congress, and Mohan Rawle of the Shiv Sena. Meera Sanyal is taking a sabbatical from the bank for a taste of Indian politics. Why? The 26/11 attacks on Mumbai last November was the trigger, she said.
She has a draft masterplan for the campaign. She’ll stay away from media ads and posters to avoid any conflict of interest, but she has launched a website. She knows her constituency well. Sanyal, 47, was a student of the Convent of Jesus & Mary and Cathedral School and went to Sydenham College. Her office is at Nariman Point. She lives on Malabar Hill.
It will be a miracle if she wins. Her biggest drawback is she has no political lineage.
“Is the banking industry collapsing in India?” asked a friend. “Is Sanyal trying to get out?”

4. Private helicopter companies in India will strike it rich this election season. Political parties are hiring them for poll campaigning, bringing in their wake (or should I say contrail) remarks like “Great way to gloss over problems”, “What you don’t see doesn’t exist” and “That’s how far they stay from reality.”
The demand for helicopters three times of what it was in 2004 general elections. Obviously, commercial aspects of campaigning are no longer a taxing consideration. The “stars” must reach the masses with the least fuss possible. “It’s only a means of transportation for them,” said M K Chandrasekhar, Director, Jupiter Aviation, Bangalore.
Reportedly, fleets of helicopters operated by various companies were booked by the political parties two months ahead of the announcement of the poll dates.
Deccan Aviation, an air service provider from Bangalore, has 12 choppers and five executive aircraft. All of them have been rented out.
Non-scheduled continuous flying takes a heavy toll on the pilots and the aircraft. So campaigning on chartered flights is not cheap. A chopper ride can cost a party as much as Rs. 80,000 – 1 crore per hour.
Do your Math about campaign expenditure.

Picture courtesy PBS.org

By Asha Chandra

A Sikh Ambassador

The city of Fremont in the Bay Area was once a quiet enclave of white middle-class families. But as emerging technologies in nearby Silicon Valley and the area’s relative affordability drew immigrants from all over the globe, demographics began to shift rapidly.

Today, not only is the area’s original population aging, with over 12% of its residents over 60, but almost 47% of its residents are foreign born and over 57% speak a language other than English in their homes. While many of the younger immigrants have assimilated, their parents and more recently arrived refugees are challenged by a language and system they don’t understand. Today the senior population of 30,000 in the City of Fremont resembles a mini United Nations, with its own need for diplomacy and understanding between its many ethnic and faith groups.

As communities across the country seek new ways to improve the lives of their seniors, Fremont and its Tri-City Elder Coalition—an affiliation of over 60 community, health and governmental agencies—has faced the added challenge of extreme cultural diversity. To address this need, the City of Fremont Human Services Department and its partner organizations developed the Community Ambassador Program for Seniors (CAPS), a grant-funded program by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The best way to develop a program,” explained Suzanne Shenfil, Director of Human Services for the City of Fremont “was to create an interactive model that engaged the many diverse groups that make up this community.”

The CAPS program is a unique civic partnership between the City of Fremont’s Human Services Department and 7 local cultural and faith-based organizations: Centerville Presbyterian Church, Muslim Support Network, Sikhs Engaged in Volunteer Activities, India Community Center, Taiwanese Senior Help Association, Our Lady of Guadalupe (Latinos), and St. Anne Catholic Parish (Filipinos).

CAPS integrates immigrants through a strength-based model that engages the full community and supports seniors in their own language, within their own cultural norms, and does so where seniors live, worship, and socialize. Ambassadors serve as a bridge between the formal network of social services and their respective faith and cultural communities.

The City of Fremont, San Jose State University, and the Stanford Geriatric Education Center collaborated to develop the comprehensive CAPS curriculum. In February 2009, CAPS graduated an additional 39 new ambassadors. To date, 88 ambassadors have completed the 40-hour training to learn how to provide information and referral services to seniors and families focused on issues such as housing, transportation, health benefits, social security, and legal assistance.

Many local senior service providers have actively participated as presenters in the training, and are listening to the needs of the diverse community.  One of our hospitals is learning about the needs of Muslim patients (e.g. they now know that Jell-O is considered an animal product not suited for vegetarians and that Muslim women find it shameful to be examined by a male doctor.)

The Muslim Support Network

CAPS trains and develops natural networks and gives them the tools they need to serve their own seniors using methods that fit their unique cultural norms.  For example, Sikh seniors are seen at the Gurdwara, and Filipino seniors are seen at their church, where they regularly come for worship, companionship and food.  The India Community Center has its ambassadors housed at their community center where they are well known to the senior attendees.  They also do some home visiting in order to “take the center to the community” when seniors are home-bound.

Over 600 older adults have been served by the CAPS program to date. Says Prafullata Bir,  one of the volunteer Community Ambassadors, “I am like a bridge between people coming from India and people who are here as Indians for a long time.”

Adds CAPS site coordinator Pragna Dadbhawala, “What is wonderful about CAPS is that it not only helps our seniors, but it uses my talents and my culture in the right manner.”

The program has been met with enthusiastic response from the immigrant community. The effort is now to see if similar programs can be introduced in other communities.

To find out more about the CAPS program or if you are aware of a senior who can benefit from the program, check out http://www.capseniors.org/.

Asha Chandra is the Marketing Coordinator and Program Manager, Community Ambassador Program for Seniors,Pathways to Positive Aging Project,City of Fremont Human Services.

By Geeta Padmanabhan

It happened on 12 March at Dobbespet, Karnataka. The attendance was surprisingly big, considering a lot of these were regional parties. There was the usual speechifying and the now-expected raising of locked hands while standing.

The Third Front is a wedding menu of parties – different colours, shapes, tastes and temperaments. It is a collection mostly of parties defeated at the last Lok Sabha elections. All bound loosely by the “rice” of power. Some of these parties are familiar while others make it to the news only when horse-trading begins. A rainbow coalition.

Don’t expect ideology here, but there is an agenda – defeat the Congress-led UPA and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections to form the next government at the Centre. So you can expect them to be together for a while.

Here is the guest list: Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Janata Dal (Secular), the Telugu Desam Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Forward Bloc, and the Janhit Congress Party of the former Haryana Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal.

The former Prime Minister and JD (S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda is supposed to have “engineered” it. He said it was all CPM Prakash Karat’s doing. Karat returned the compliment. The “historic” alignment would address the “country’s need for a new alternative.” It is of course a “secular democratic alternative, to fulfil the aspirations of the masses.” Members believe the Front will “expand” during the run-up to the elections. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) may hop into this odd bandwagon.

Party heads conspicuous by their absence were the two women heavy-weights – BSP’s Mayawati and AIADMK’s Jayalalitha. But the Left, which has 60 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha is supposed to provide the glue to keep the members together.

The Congress reacted typically: “It is a mirage. Every time the Third Front is formed, it benefits only the communal forces.

BJP said: Won’t work. It has no agenda, no leader.

That is not true. Each one of the partners is a leader.  The problem is who will be PM if the Third Front together is able to chalk up the numbers to form the government. Mayawati has “expressed her willingness to serve the country as the next PM.” Jayalalitha said the decision would be made after the elections (if there’s need for that decision). “Every one has a right to aspire for the post,” she said.

Will they find the 270-odd seats together? Can’t say. So Karat declared today: If the Congress wants to join us post-poll, they are welcome.

Now that’s interesting. A Third Front government, with Congress as alliance partner.

eprasaran team

Streaming Bollywood music on the web has been around for a while. Lovers of Hindi music will probably have explored the various options available on the web and zoomed in on their favorites. But my own experience has been mixed – many sites claiming to offer a good musical experience are choked up with ads or require player downloads (in.com is a refreshing departure but even it offers a bewildering array of choices for the casual listener who is just interested in listening to some good music). Few offer commentary on the song lists.

In the face of increasing complexity of content and services and multiple players in the field, eprasaran Internet Radio is an extraordinary simplistic attempt at creating a radio experience for listeners. But in its own uncomplicated way, or maybe because of its simplicity, it works.

Friends Atul and Vidya Vaidya and Milind and Madhura Gokhale started eprasaran three years ago as a way to create and broadcast Marathi language programs for the Marathi diaspora the world over. “We explored the traditional AM and FM options,” says Atul, “and came to the conclusion that it was not only too expensive but limiting in the number of people it would reach.”

Vidya and Madhura, both professional stage artists, brought their talents to scripting the shows while Milind provided the technical expertise in designing the website. On weekday evenings and weekends the friends work on compilations that are uploaded to the site. Initially the programs featured Marathi music, interviews with well known Marathi personalities, children’s programs and news. Very soon, public demand made it necessary to add Hindi music shows.

Today the site features two strands of Hindi and Marathi programming. Each week the eprasaran team puts up 10-11 shows. Some shows are compiled by loyal listeners who have an interest in a particular genre or era of film or classical music.

The technology is simple. Audio files are uploaded to the site by the team and can be listened to on the website without any downloads. The content changes every week. The shows are  not interactive but listeners can send in their requests by clicking “Aapli Aawad” ( “your choice” in Marathi) and many do. The site gets listeners from over 120 countries and 750,000 hits a month( and growing).

I spent yesterday afternoon sampling some of the Hindi content and found it charming. One regular compiler, Subhash Kelkar, creates a regular show called Geetanjali featuring golden oldies. His style, whether deliberate or accidental, is very reminiscent of Amin Sayani’s on Binaca Geetmala from my childhood and I got a real kick out of listening to old Johnny Walker songs and some beautiful Lata and Rafi songs I would have a hard time finding on my own. The host also provides  trivia about the songs that are played and I found it a delightful experience. It is also a boon to the listener that the songs have been chosen with a discerning ear – at many other streaming music sites the content is random.

With 3 years of programming behind them, the eprasaran team is sitting on a treasure trove of archives but is not quite sure what to do with them. (The archives are not available to the listener at this particular time.) “There is a mindset that everything on the internet should be free,” laments Atul. The site recoups its costs at present by providing live webcast services and some advertising on the site, though the latter is not intrusive at all, at least for now. Eprasaran even offers a broadcast of Bay Area theater company Naatak’s play Sultana Daaku for a modest price of $10 but there have not been many takers.

For now, the simple idea and the loyalty of thousands of listeners is keeping the team going. First generation Indian Americans will enjoy the weekly content and I definitely recommend trying out the programs at eprasaran .

By Anal Shah & Sunil Shenoy

Tennis ball cricket has taken a whole new dimension and grown to a different level in the Bay Area. CricBay started 3 years back with a simple ideology, a platform for the cricketers, by the cricketers and of the cricketers. It started with 28 teams competing for the coveted trophy and now just 3 years down the line, it has grown to 68 teams.
The organization is run by volunteers, who work tirelessly to make this form of weekend cricket not only enjoyable but highly competitive. The backbone is the website, cricbay.com which has everything from forums to blogs to statistical data of teams and individual players. This weekend saw the finals for this competitive bay area league.

Extreme XI

The two finals played on the weekend of March 14th were the gold and the platinum finals.

Based on the league games, the teams were divided into 3 groups-Silver, Gold and Platinum. Extreme XI bagged the Silver trophy last week by defeating Cheers CC by 45 runs.

Silver Finals’ scores:
Extreme XI 77/7 in 20.0 overs [20.0] (Aditya 18, Ashu 14, Abhishek 4/0/13/3) defeated
Cheers CC 32/10 in 12.4 overs [20.0] (Kiran 10)

Megastars

Gold Finals: The Gold Finals was played between Megastars and the RisingXI. Megastars played well on the windy day on an unpredictable pitch and reached a competitive score of 74 off the allotted 20 overs. Rising XI were equal to the task and at the end of the 19th over they were at 69 runs needing just 6 runs off the last over; easier said than done. The first ball of the over was a wide. Each run was cheered at the ground. The bowler was booed at and the tension was widespread. What followed over the next 4 balls were 3 cheeky singles, a dropped catch and a bye run. They were running for just about everything.
Scores were leveled and Rising XI needed just one run off the next 2 balls. The team almost started celebrating, but the bowler had different ideas. 5th ball – outside off stump, a swing and a miss, oops. The last ball was a game changer, instead of RisingXI getting the much needed single, they ended up with one more run out.
With the scores level, both teams were given one over to bat (the team that scores most runs would win). Rising XI batted first and after a really good spell from Megastars managed just 4 runs from the over. The game had turned around. Megastars got the 5 runs in just 4 balls and won the Gold cup. This just shows how unpredictable the game of cricket is!
Gold Finals’ Scores:
Megastars 74/6 (20.0 overs) tied with Rising XI 74/6 (20.0 overs)
Tie Breaker: Rising XI 4/2 in 1 over Megastars 5/1 in 5 balls

Spartans

Platinum Finals – These are played for the number 1 rank in the league. Spartans and Indians faced off for this game – A game that all bay area tennis ball cricketers dream to play. Spartans won the toss and elected to field first. Spartans were looking to contain the Indians who had some of the best batsmen in the league. But this was the Spartans’ day. They started bowling really well and their fielding was equally strong. With 3 wickets a piece for CricBay’s Best Bowler Jaymin and the MVP for the tournament Dilip and 3 runouts the Indians were bundled out for just 43 runs.
Needing 44 runs to win the Spartans started out cautiously making sure they don’t lose wickets and give Indians the edge they were looking for to run through the Spartans line-up. At the end of the 10th over mark Spartans were comfortable placed at 24/1 needing 20 runs with 9 wickets in hand in 10 overs. Again as it looked to be fairly simple Indians came out with a purpose after the break and sent a scare through the Spartans with some quick wickets. At the end Spartans finished strong, as ever, and completed a famous win with their captain hitting the winning shot. The team went berserk and ran on to the field with stumps and the scenes were dramatic. They were the new bay area champs and the feeling was slowly getting to them.
Platinum Finals’ Scores:
Indians 43/10 in 19.1 overs (Ramana 12; Jaymin 3/3 Dilip 3/6) lost to
Spartans CC 44/6 in 18.1 overs (Anal 15, Jaymin 9; Vishal 1/4)

The games were followed with the presentation ceremony. This little cricket community is expanding exponentially and apart from the enthusiastic players it also owes it success to its sponsors Tech CU, Swati Tiffins and ERP Factory.

The closing article of the 2008 season would not be complete without the mention to the sensation of CricBox; a weekly section initiated by Rohan Pai(Nemesis) and sponsored by Evolution Stone, Inc. which highlights the games scheduled for the forthcoming weekend along with highlights about the statistics, players in the spotlight and a lot of spice.

Volunteers

We are thankful to the CricBox writers guild, Manish Nadkarni(WCW), Rohan Pai(Nemesis), Rajeev Tharoor(Mavericks), Samkit Shah(The Immortals) and Krishnan Iyer(Thunderdawgs).
Also, any event could not be a success without the support of fellow community volunteers. We thank Girish Bangalore(Nemesis), Sulo Wijetunga(Mavericks), Roshan Shanbhag(Aryans), Rajendra Badadare(Cheers CC), Sheshu Shenoy(Aryans), Mehul Patel(Aryans), Ashish Tarhalkar, Manish Nadkarni(WCW), Naresh Nayak(Burlingame United), Prashant Ulavapalli(Raiders), Kirit Dawda(Hattrickers), Govind Jayant(Weekend Champs), Ciby Thomas(Daakus), Raghu(Seamers), Nagendra A(Megastars), Shiv Memamajal(Mavericks), Avi Gupta(Friends XI), Vasant Kumar(Syndicate CC), Vinod Vijayan(Aptech CC) and Sunil Shenoy(Aryans) and the members of the playing teams for their support and dedication to complete the third successful CricBay season.