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Gateway of India, Mumbai
Tarun Tejpal, who exposed corruption, to talk at New York's Asia Society about gunmen hired to kill him
Tejpal's talk on Thursday October 4 is organized with the South Asian Journalists Association. The Asia Society states:A contemporary thriller from India based on real events.
Tarun J. Tejpal, author of 'The Story of My Assassins.' (Shailendra Pandey)
Inspired by actual events, The Story of My Assassins tells the story of a journalist who learns that the police have captured five hitmen on their way to kill him. Landing like a bombshell on his comfortable life, the news prompts him to launch an urgent investigation into the lives of his would-be murderers — a ragtag group of street thugs and village waifs — and their mastermind. Who wanted him dead, and why?
But the investigation forces him to reexamine his own life, too — to confront his own complex feelings about the country that crafted his would-be killers, as well as himself, his job, and his treatment of the women in his life.
Part thriller and part erotic romance, full of dark humor and taut suspense, The Story of My Assassins takes us from the lavish, hedonistic palaces of India’s elite to its seediest slums.
Tarun J. Tejpal is a journalist, publisher, novelist and founder of Tehelka, one of India’s leading news magazines that is renowned for its aggressive public interest journalism. He has been named one of India’s most influential people by The Guardian, Businessweek and Asiaweek.
Tejpal famously reported for Tehelka on the devastating corruption in India’s defense industry. The investigation led to the resignation of the defense minister — and to the death threats that inspired The Story of My Assassins.
http://asiasociety.org/new-york/events/tarun-j-tejpal-story-my-assassins
Shelley Jain of Staten Island wins Miss New York Teen contest
According to a blog silive, Shelley "bested about 65 other young ladies vying for the title.Shelley, a recent graduate of Staten Island Technical High School, attends Macaulay Honors at Brooklyn College. Her activities include dancing, skiing, singing, and acting.To win the title, Shelley competed in formal wear, speech, a rigorous interview and the community service portion of the pageant." For more go to:
http://blog.silive.com/inside_out_column/2012/09/miss_staten_island_outstanding_teen_to_attend_national_pageant_at_disneyland.html
http://www.namiss.com/eventresults/winners/?id=2012%20State%20New_York_%28South%29
Over half of American Hindus believe in astrology and reincarnation, says Pew study
According to a comprehensive, nationwide survey of Asian Americans conducted by the Pew Research Center: More than half of Asian-American Hindus say they believe in reincarnation and moksha, defined in the survey as “the ultimate state transcending pain and desire in which individual consciousness ends” (59% each). About half also believe in astrology (53%), defined in the survey as the belief “that the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives.”For more go to:
http://www.pewforum.org/Asian-Americans-A-Mosaic-of-Faiths-overview.aspx#hindus
A Pakistani and five Indians, including K. Ram Shriram and Vinod Khosla, on Forbes 400 list of American billionaires
Five Indians and a Pakistani are on Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans for 2012. According to Forbes, "Other foreign born immigrants include Indian-born Manoj Bhargava ($1.5 billion), the former monk responsible for 5-Hour Energy (and its unfortunate advertising), Pakistan-born Shahid Khan ($2.5 billion) who fixed the auto industry’s bumper problem and is hoping to turn around the NFL’s least valuable team, the Jacksonville Jaguars " For more go to:http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/
Maitreya Padukone, dentist, to play tabla with Cosmosomatics jazz group in New York
September 29th, 2012 8:00 PM
Live Musical Performance
Co-Sponsored byNeues Kabarett
The Cosmosamatics
Featuring
Sonny Simmons (alto sax, English horn), Michael Marcus (reeds), John
Austria (piano), Rashaan Carter (bass), Jay Rosen (drums).
Neues Kabarett is delighted to present The Cosmosamatics returning from
their European summer tour for a rare New York City performance.
The Cosmosamatics were formed in 2000, but are the fruit of a partnership between Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus established in 1981. As Marcus insists in the liner notes to their album Zetrons (Not Two, 2005), “We are a band – which is rare in jazz today. Sonny and I have been collaborating for years to keep the tradition alive of being a band.” They have released eight albums to date.
The Cosmosamatics were formed in 2000, but are the fruit of a partnership between Sonny Simmons and Michael Marcus established in 1981. As Marcus insists in the liner notes to their album Zetrons (Not Two, 2005), “We are a band – which is rare in jazz today. Sonny and I have been collaborating for years to keep the tradition alive of being a band.” They have released eight albums to date.
https://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=12305&reset=1
Vijay Mallya in talks to sell part of alcohol business to Diageo to pay Kingfisher debt
In a report The Telegraph notes, "Mr Mallya, who owns a 28pc stake in United Spirits, is said to need money to prop up his loss-making airline Kingfisher, which will require $600m (£369m) in the next few months to keep its planes in the air, according to some estimates.
Diageo is understood to be pushing for a deal that would give it strategic
control of United Spirits, India’s second largest drinks group." For more go to:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/leisure/9564293/Diageo-in-talks-with-Vijay-Mallyas-United-Spirits.html
Prabal Gurung elated that Kate Middleton wears his printed skirt soon after New York fashion week
Gurung, who declines to give his age, got a bigger boost after his show at New York Fashion Week, when Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, wore a printed dress from his spring 2012 collection during her visit to Singapore. As he told The New York Times “I can’t even tell you how amazing it is professionally and how surreal,” he said. “It’s a dream and very emotional for me, and it solidifies my belief in what I am trying to do as a designer.” He added that he had no idea that Ms. Middleton was going to don the bold dress or where she might have bought it, the Times report added. For more on Gurung's show, as well as other Indian designers like Naeem Khan, Sheena Trivedi and Bhibu Mohapatra, see:http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/south-asian-designers-make-their-mark-at-fashion-week/
Divya Narendra's Sum Zero gets $1 million from Facebook co-founders & Harvard class mates
In a report the Wall Street Journal notes that, "Flush with at least $65 million from the settlement of a legal battle with Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook Inc., FB +1.20% Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are backing fellow Harvard alumnus Divya Narendra, their ally in the Facebook fight, in the investment website. The Winklevosses have put $1 million into SumZero, which was founded by Mr. Narendra and another Harvard alum Aalap Mahadevia, in 2008."For more on the story:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444433504577651750662070974.html
Janaki Bhakle of Columbia University to discuss is Hindu fundamentalism an oxymoron?
What is Hindu fundamentalism? How can fundamentalism be self-consciously modern and progressively science-driven? Listen to Bakhle discuss Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, famous as the author of Hindu fundamentalism and as a revolutionary nationalist deeply devoted to the idea of India as a Hindu state and infamous for his alleged involvement in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. How can a study of this fundamentalist serve as the political biography of a distinctly non-monotheistic fundamentalism?
https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/COUC/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=133222
Siddhartha Deb gets PEN author of color $5000 award
It appears that Siddhartha Deb and/or his publisher Faber & Faber must have identified Deb as an Asian minority in the US when submitting his memoir "The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India" for the PEN award. The submission form for the PEN award states, "To be eligible, candidates must be writers of color who have not received wide media coverage."Further, "The PEN Open Book Award, formerly the Beyond Margins Awards, celebrate outstanding books by writers of color published in the United States during the previous year.
Sponsored by the Open Book Program, this award is one of the many ways in which the Open Book Program encourages racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities. The Open Book Committee works to increase the literature by, for, and about African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, Latin, and Native Americans, and to establish access for these groups to the publishing industry. "
Last year Deb's book was discussed in The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/08/siddhartha-debs-publishing-odyssey.html
Maybe Deb and his publisher will submit his next book for the main PEN award.
The news from PEN about Deb's award:
"Fiction and nonfiction writer Siddhartha Deb won the PEN Open Book Award for his memoir, The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India (Faber & Faber, 2011). The $5,000 prize is given for a book by an author of color published in 2011. Alexander Chee, Mat Johnson, and Natasha Trethewey judged."
http://www.pw.org/content/pen_american_center_announces_winners_of_2012_literary_awards?cmnt_all=1
Hyde Park Corner: An Open Forum
Indians should press Harvard and other top US universities to abolish 20% Asian quota
Good education is very important to Indian parents since a degree from a good college, preferably a professional one, largely determines income and perhaps even eligibility for a good "catch", as in marriage. But Indians and other Asians are finding their avenues for success limited by the Asian ceiling - unstated quota limiting total Asian admissions to a maximum 20% as apparently is the case at Harvard and other elite Universities in the US. According to article below, while Asian students at the University of California Berkeley has risen to 40% that at Harvard has stayed stagnant around 18% for the past decade.So Indians in the US, especially those donating money and holding influential posts, should voice opposition and team up with other Asians to press elite universities to abolish the Asian ceiling.
"Admissions officers deny capping the number of Asian-American students at schools, but a 2009 book called No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal posited that Asian Americans needed nearly perfect SAT scores to gain entrance to a top private university ........".
Ivy League Discrimination? Harvard's Asian student admissions static around 17% while Asians at UC Berkeley have risen to 40%
Khan Academy: effective and free online education help
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