Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - March 2009 - Index

• RIGHT: Pigeons outside the Taj
Mahal Hotel in Mumbai
managed by six trustees. Surrounded
by a Jain temple, a
Hanuman temple, a mosque and
a chapel, it is considered a holy
spot. The kabutar khana attracts
people of all religions who come
to feed the birds, nearly ten
thousand in number, using nearly
800 kilos of food grain per day.
A paedritician visits twice a week
to check on the health of the
birds.
THE FAR EAST
A prayer answered
Rajendran, an Indian-Malaysian travel agent pulled a minichariot
with the idol of Hindu deity Madhurai Veeran through
the streets of George Town recently. It was his way of thanking
god, he said. He had prayed for divine intervention when doctors
told him last year to choose between saving the life of his wife or
his unborn baby when complications arose during the delivery.
He prayed to Lord Muruga for help at that difficult moment,
vowing to pull a mini chariot for the Thaipusam festival if both
of them lived. Miraculously, both survived and the 38-year-old
Rajendran pulled the chariot helped by two of his friends who
had also made similar vows for the well-being of close relatives.
NORTH AMERAICA
They have
the Midas touch
Seven Indians have made it
to the Forbes magazine’s coveted
list of top 100 start-up
investors for making fledgeling
companies into profit-making
ventures in the midst of a
global financial meltdown. The
magazine’s ‘Midas List’ for 2009
features seven India-born
investors led by Ram Shriram
in the third position. Shriram,
who made a fortune as one of
Google’s original backers and
board members, currently
invests heavily in India in the
mobile ad marketplace mKhoj
and job-hunting site Naukri.
com. Navin Chaddha ranked
11th, followed by Arjun Gupta
(32), Deepak Kamra (70),
Raman Khanna (72), Ravi
Adusumalli (75) and Promod
Haque (96).
A movie will soon
be made on this
A well-known Bollywood
promoter and film producer
from northern Virginia was
sentenced to seven years in
prison for one of the largest
bank fraud scams in the state’s
history. According to media
reports, Vijay K Taneja, 48,
who pleaded guilty in November
to conspiracy to commit
money laundering, was also
ordered to pay $33 million in
restitution to the four banks he
swindled in a complicated
mortgage fraud scheme. He
was well-known in the large
Indian community as a concert
promoter and producer of
Bollywood films such as Humko
Tumse Pyaar Hai and Aap Kaa
Surroor. He also donated large
amounts to Hindu temples in
the region.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Thousands of Indians employed
in the recession-hit
Persian Gulf are returning
home, giving rise to fears of a
major crisis in the making.
Though there is no cause for
alarm just yet, reports of wage
cuts, lost jobs, dropping oil
prices and faltering construction
are ringing alarm bells.
According to the Indian embassy
in the UAE , 100,000 Indians
have returned home in the
past few months. With over
1,300 migrant workers continuing
to leave every day, airlines
are reporting a sharp increase
in bookings to India. Of the
five million Indians who work
overseas, 90 per cent are employed
in the Persian Gulf and
South-East Asia. During the
construction boom, the number
of workers from India went
up from from 466,000 in 2003
to over 800,000 in 2007. Now
End of a pipe-dream?
When in Dubai...
there are reports of projects
coming to a halt across the
Middle East. Work on the
prestigious Nakheel Harbour
and Towers in Dubai, earlier
known as Al Burj and expected
to be the world’s tallest tower,
was suspended early this year.
Indian technicians, sales professionals
and low-skilled
workers are all feeling the heat.
A 45-year-old Indian man who was seen applying mascara at a
shopping mall in Dubai has been fined 10,000 dirhams ($2,700) for
cross-dressing. The court dismissed the property development firm
manager’s claim that he was rehearsing for a role in a Bollywood movie.
The court suspended an initial six-month sentence during which the
man must not re-offend. The prosecution is seeking stiffer punishment.
THE COMMONWEALTH
Chicken tikkas
march ahead
The Ministry of Defence in
Britain recently announced that
chicken tikka will soon become a
staple of military rations. Troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan can look
forward to more than just corned
beef hash and treacle pudding in
their ration packs as the Anglo-
Indian dish that overtook fish and
chips long ago as the country’s
favourite food will join more exotic
fare like chilli con carne and
vegetable korma in army lunch
boxes. Twenty new menus include
pasta lunchtime pouches, vegetarian
and halal dishes to satisfy
different multi-cultural dietary
requirements and tastes. More than
300,000 boxes of the so-called
multi-climate rations, palatable in
temperatures of up to 50°C, are
to be distributed to troops for a
taste trial.
March 2009 Desi News 23