The Rotary Club of Hicksville South, whose members include a large number of Indian-Americans, used donations from individuals and businesses, to fill 600 new backpacks with supplies, and distribute them to various community service oriented organizations, associations and schools. The donations were made at an event Aug. 24, at Indus American Bank in Hicksville, where among others, former Senator and a candidate for Nassau County Executive Jack Martin, Superintendent of Freeport Schools Dr. Kishore Kuncham and Superintendent of Hicksville Schools Dr. Carl Bonuso, were present, according to a press release from RCHS.
Dr. Urmilesh Arya, president of the club, said at the event that RCHS is passionate about projects which will serve the local community. This remarkable endeavor was to ensure that children who do not have the necessary tools or supplies are given the same opportunity for learning as all students should be, she added.
Roopam Maini of Indus American Bank, welcomed guests. Kamlesh Mehta, former ‘District Governor’ and ‘Charter President’ of RCHS congratulated the organization for another successful project completed. Quddus Mohammed, project chair and Mukesh Modi, co-chair, thanked donors and participating organizations. Forty children who were present at the event also received back-to-school backpacks.
Participating organizations included Espoir Youth Program, St. Ignatius Human Services Food Pantry, Hempstead Coordinating Council of Civic Associations, Peace Valley Haven Shelter, Hicksville Boys and Girls Club, Roosevelt Civic Association, Hicksville School, Logan Foundation, Union Methodist Church of Hempstead and Safe Center of Nassau County.
Kushan Nandy’s “Babumoshai Bandookbaaz” (Babumoshai is Bengali slang for ‘gentleman’ and Bandookbaaz means someone who wields a gun) is an absorbing thriller about a contract killer who finds himself trapped in a web of deceit that he helped create.
Stylistically shot, borrowing many tropes from Hollywood Westerns and the Anurag Kashyap school of film-making, “Babumoshai Bandookbaaz” powers through on the strength of its leading man. Nawazuddin Siddiqui turns in another top-notch performance as self-deprecating contract killer Babu Bihari, who gives murder the cold-hearted treatment. “I’ve got a contract. What can I do? I will have to kill him,” he says, several times in the film.
But Bihari, who apparently roams the badlands of Uttar Pradesh killing people without so much as batting an eyelid, meets his match in Baanke (Jatin Goswami), a young, smart-talking contract killer who wants to usurp the former’s undisputed position as the No. 1 hired gun. When Bihari and Baanke find themselves contracted to kill the same people by the same politician, they end up playing a dangerous game of “me first” that leads to more complications than they had bargained for.
Nandy and writer Ghalib Asad Bhopali keep things straight and don’t clutter the story with too many sub-plots. Everyone in the film has a direct link to Bihari, but each character has his own little backstory, which Bhopali managed to etch out nicely. Whether it is the female politician (Divya Dutta) who holds her own in a man’s world, or the police officer who doesn’t mind having ten sons in the hope that he will have a daughter one day, the film has some nice touches to detail that enhance the screenplay.
This is one of those films that manage to surprise you – it is taut, engaging and filled with good performances. May we have more of these.
Filmmaker B.R. Vijayalakshmi says her upcoming Tamil-Malayalam bilingual romantic drama “Abhiyum Anuvum”, which stars Tovino Thomas and Pia Bajpai, will be a bold and different film.
“‘Abhiyum Anuvum’ is such a fresh and never seen before love story. This statement of mine may sound cliched but I am very confident that the audience will endorse my view after they watch the film. It will be a bold and different film,” Vijayalakshmi told IANS.
The film marks the debut of Malayalam star Tovino in Tamil filmdom.
“The film deals with the concept of love from a different perspective,” she said, adding that the team was busy with the post-production work.
“Abhiyum Anuvum” also stars Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Prabhu, Rohini, Manobala and Dheepa Ramanujam.
Co-produced by ace lensman Santosh Shivan, the film is produced by Yoodle Films.
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Residents use boats to evacuate flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey along Tidwell Road east Houston, Texas, U.S. August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
NEW YORK – There’s a sense of dire foreboding, dread, as one checks updates on the havoc, misery caused by Hurricane Harvey – coming close to biblical proportions as predictions pour in of more heavy rainfall in the days ahead. There’s fear of dams collapsing, reservoirs running amok, inundating remaining areas of the metropolitan areas of Houston, Texas, swathed in water.
The word ‘inches’ have a new evil connotation after Hurricane Harvey, especially for those areas in the US incapable of handling even an inch or two of flash floods. It’s now 50 inches that Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, has been rained upon, with God knows, how many more inches pouring down from the skies in the days ahead, with no mercy, no respite for those who thought the worst was over.
The only salvation is that confirmed deaths till now have been kept to a low number of 10, although that’s of no comfort to those who have lost a loved one. Compare that number, however, to Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, which saw more than 1,800 people dead. However, Hurricane Harvey is far from done; fatalities are bound to go up, as rescue and search efforts continue.
If one could take succor in statistics, then for the record, flash flooding kill more than 140 people per year, according to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office. They also cause about $6 billion in damages per year in the US and $3 trillion worldwide, according to National Geographic.
The South Asian community in the Houston metropolitan area, which according to some estimates is around 200,000 strong, has stayed strong, resilient in the face of the crisis. Temples and community organizations have acted quickly, spread word for relief; community has reacted fast and efficiently to call for help from those stranded amidst rising waters.
There have been reports of two Indian students at Texas A&M University in critical condition at a local hospital after they were rescued from swirling waters, trying to wade their way through.
Some 250 other Indian students at the University of Houston, who were marooned in an apartment complex, are now safe, with prompt action by the Consulate General of India in Houston Dr. Anupam Ray, local organizations, and community leaders like Renu Khator.
Residents wade through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Beaumont Place, Texas, U.S., on August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
Houston area activist and local businessman Vijay Pallod told News India Times in a phone interview that at least 50,000 people of Indian-origin have been impacted and displaced by Hurricane Harvey, in in the Greater Houston area.
“The Indian community has done a good job of helping each other,” said Pallod.
SEWA International Houston Chapter’s President Gitesh Desai has been directing the relief efforts despite the fact that his own house has been flooded and he had to wade through five feet of water to move into a hotel. This did hot, deter him, or others, from “doing our service,” as he put it.
Preeti Kankikarla, a young professional, and her 65-year-old mother, were those helped by Sewa volunteers. She described her ordeal as the “toughest times of our life.”
Local radio jockey Sunil Thakkar used his radio station to provide directions about where people can go for help until his own house was flooded. Achalesh Amar, an active member of the community, described Houston as a “ghost town.” He said Indian volunteers are working till 3 a.m. daily monitoring requests, assessing the situation and coordinating assistance.
The Hare Krishna Temple and Govinda’s Restaurant reached out to area residents to offer anyone who needs food to come to their restaurant for take-out lunches, for free.
Govinda’s manager & ISKCON Temple President, Syamasundar Dasa said, “ISKCON has a long history of service in disaster relief efforts globally so even though we are not fully prepared, still we feel urgently compelled to start now, even though the temple lost electricity this afternoon. We have gas stoves and we requested people to bring their own containers for a fresh hot meal. We will expand our services as the need arises.”
Major Indian organizations such as Hindus of Greater Houston, India House, India Culture Center, the Indo American Charity Foundation, Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston and the Indo American Political Action Committee have also pitched in to help.
Volunteers of BAPS Charities have prepared warm meals working with local state officials in Houston, Sugar Land, Missouri City and League City. On August 28th, volunteers served hot meals to120 students at the University of Houston and delivered meals to local community members.
Help is also coming in from other states across the US for Texas, as Louisiana is now bracing for their turn of disaster as Harvey turns its eye towards that beleaguered state.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has ordered members of the state Air National Guard to Texas and Louisiana, while New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has sent 120 emergency workers to Texas.
A father, who wished not to be named, carries his daughter through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Beaumont Place, Texas, U.S., on August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
It remains to be seen if Harvey will go down in the annals of history as the most notorious hurricane in the US, but for the record, there have several till now that have caused extensive damage to property and taken many lives.
Bustle cited a few of the top ones: the Mississippi River Flood of 1993 – caused $15 billion in damage, and 50 people died; Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976 – the Colorado flash flood only lasted one day, left 144 dead, and cost $35.5 million in damages; Rapid City Flood of 1972 – South Dakota saw 238 dead and cost $165 million; Hurricane Camille Flooding of 1969; killed about 256 people; damages amounted to $1.421 billion; Mississippi River Flood of 1927 – considered the most destructive flood of American history. It killed 500 people and left 600,000 homeless, and it stretched across 15 million acres of land, spanning to Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana; Hurricane Katrina Flooding of 2005 – Cost $81 billion, the most ever in the US and killed more than 1,800 people, impacted 15 million; Johnstown Flood of 1889 – the South Fork Dam failed in Pennsylvania, and killed more than 2,200; Galveston Flood of 1900 – 8,000 people died.
(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)
Mumbai: Actress Taapsee Pannu during the “Savvy Excellence Awards” in Mumbai on Aug 21, 2017. (Photo: IANS)
CHENNAI
Actress Taapsee Pannu worked on her latest Telugu outing “Anando Brahma” free of cost and instead struck a profit-sharing deal with its makers — something very unlikely in the southern film industry.
When Taapsee heard the script and found that there was no scope for a leading hero in the film which is the major force for the film’s budget and feasibility, she decided that she did not want to burden the film with her remuneration.
She genuinely believed in the script.
“I am today in a position where I have been saying that I don’t want to repeat things and want to do something different. And if this is a chance for me to do something different, I can’t step back just because I won’t get paid that much,” Taapsee told IANS.
“I genuinely believed in the script and so thought to take this risk which is a biggest gamble of my career,” she said.
Taapsee’s gamble paid off quite handsomely. Made on a shoestring budget, the film ended up as a sleeper hit in India and US.
Directed by Mahi Raghav, “Anando Brahma” is a horror-comedy where the ghosts are afraid of humans.
New Delhi: Actress Sayesha Saigal during a press conference to promote her upcoming film “Shivaay” in New Delhi on Oct 25, 2016. (Photo: Amlan Paliwal/IANS)
LOS ANGELES
Actress Sayyeshaa, last seen in Tamil film “Vanamagan”, has signed Vijay Sethupathi-starrer “Junga”, to be predominantly shot in Paris.
“Sayyeshaa is thrilled about the film. She will be seen as a girl born and raised in Paris. We start shooting from September end,” Sayyeshaa’s mother told IANS.
Most of Sayyeshaa’s portions will be shot in Paris.
Vijay Sethupathi plays a don in the film, to be directed by Gokul. The film marks his second collaboration with Vijay after “Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara”.
“The makers really loved her performance in ‘Vanamagan’, and were on the lookout for an unusual pair for Vijay. She plays a very strong character,” the mother said.
Republican U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Thayer
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the idea of negotiating with North Korea in response to Kim Jong Un’s latest provocation in test-firing a missile over Japan.
“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!” Trump said in a Twitter post.
Kim on Tuesday said the missile test was a “meaningful prelude” to containing the American territory of Guam, adding he will continue to watch the response of the U.S. before deciding on further action.
Trump said in a White House statement Tuesday that “all options are on the table” and that the test increased “the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world.”
Kim guided the firing of the intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket and urged his military to conduct more such launches into the Pacific Ocean in the future, according to a statement from the official Korean Central News Agency.
The missile firing was part of “muscle-flexing” to protest annual military exercises being held between the U.S. and South Korea, KCNA said. North Korea had threatened earlier this month to launch missiles over Japan toward Guam, which prompted warnings of retaliation from American military officials.
It was the first North Korean projectile to fly over Japanese airspace since the regime launched a rocket over Okinawa in 2016, and undermines nascent hopes for dialogue over Kim’s weapons programs. That’s after tensions had appeared to cool following a war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim earlier this month.
In separate calls U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts the test was “was an escalation of North Korean provocations and showcased the dangerous threat posed by North Korea.” The United Nations Security Council said in a statement it “strongly condemns” the launch, the Associated Press reported.
China is working with the security council in response to the tests but doesn’t favor unilateral sanctions against North Korea, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
“China and the DPRK are neighbors, we have a traditionally friendly relationship,” Wang said, referring to North Korea’s formal name. “This is a fact, but at the same time the behavior of the DPRK has violated UN Security Council resolutions and as a member of the security council and a responsible major country…it is necessary for us to make our opposition clear.”
The KCNA report said the launch was the first of its kind from the capital. The missile was fired from Pyongyang Airport, according to The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies North Korea Missile Test Database.
KCNA said that Kim approved the missile test to “make the cruel Japanese islanders insensible on bloody August 29 when the disgraceful ‘Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty’ was proclaimed 107 years ago.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday called the launch “an unprecedented, grave and serious threat,” while Trump reiterated that “all options” are under consideration in response to Pyongyang’s actions. Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed in a call Wednesday to raise pressure on North Korea to the “maximum” level, according to a statement by Moon spokesman Park Su-hyun.
“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday.
Still, the U.S. response to far has avoided the heated rhetoric of earlier this month, when Trump warned of “fire and fury” against the regime if it continued to threaten the U.S. Stocks in Asia rebounded Wednesday after Trump’s statement, while the yen fell against the dollar.
North Korea has shown recent advancements in its technology by testing intercontinental ballistic missiles at high altitudes, reflecting progress toward being able to reach the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead. That has happened despite further international sanctions aimed at squeezing Kim’s economy.
North Korea has said it won’t place its nuclear program on the negotiating table unless the U.S. drops its “hostile” policies. It has strongly protested the military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, saying they are aimed at regime change and could spark an accidental war.
Downtown Houston is seen in rain and clouds on Sunday. Rising water from Hurricane Harvey pushed thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground. CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
HOUSTON – The devastating storm once known as Hurricane Harvey, already the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States, made landfall again Wednesday morning to bring another punishing wave of rain into Texas and Louisiana.
Five days after roaring ashore near Houston – leaving behind disastrous flooding and a mounting death toll that had reached at least 22 people – Harvey made landfall before dawn near tiny Cameron, Louisiana, after drifting back out into the Gulf of Mexico as it churned up the coast.
Now a tropical storm and expected to weaken over land, Harvey’s immediate impact is not expected to pack the same destructive power as when it slammed into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane last week and dropped foot after foot of rain.
But forecasters said the danger was far from over. The National Weather Service warned Wednesday that “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding will continue in and around Houston eastward into southwest Louisiana for the rest of the week.” The service also warned that “expected heavy rains spreading northeastward from Louisiana into western Kentucky may also lead to flash flooding” across those areas, imperiling a new swath of the population.
As Harvey approached, storm-battered Louisiana – where memories of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in the state 12 years ago this week, are still fresh – hunkered down, evacuating hundreds of people and deploying the Louisiana National Guard.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, D, in a news conference Tuesday, urged people to “prepare and pray.” Flash flood warnings were issued across eastern Texas and western Louisiana, areas facing mounting rainfall totals as Harvey continued its onslaught.
Beaumont, Texas, about 80 miles east of Houston, had seen more than 32 inches of rain by Wednesday morning, according to reports released by the National Weather Service. Parts of Interstate 10 near Beaumont were left swallowed by floodwaters – with road signs poking above the wind-driven chop.
A car dealership is covered by Hurricane Harvey floodwaters near Houston, Texas August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
About 60 miles to the east, Lake Charles, Louisiana, had seen more than a foot of rain, and forecasts say the downpours are expected to continue. A storm surge warning was posted across the coast of southern Louisiana, from Holly Beach to Morgan City.
Between 400 and 50 people were evacuated from Calcasieu Parish, Dick Gremillion, director of the parish’s office of homeland security and emergency preparedness, said at a briefing Tuesday night.
“There is high water just about every section of the parish,” he said. “If we get 3 [inches] to 5 [inches] of rain, it’s probably going to be in the entire parish.”
The storm’s path at least appeared to offer a break to New Orleans, which this week postponed Katrina remembrance events due to Harvey. “By the grace of God, this is going to miss us,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told CNN on Wednesday.
Harvey’s movements up the coast also gave Houston a respite from the heavy rains that have pelted the city since the weekend, even as the storm’s true toll remained unknown. More than 50 inches of rain over four days had turned the country’s fourth-largest city into a sea of muddy brown water, as boats skimmed along what had been neighborhood streets in search of survivors.
The impact in the Houston area was staggering. Between 25 and 30 percent of Harris County – home to 4.5 million people in Houston and its near suburbs – was flooded as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the county flood control district. That is an area potentially as large as New York City and Chicago combined.
Even though the heavy rain had departed and glimmers of hope – along with glimpses of the sun – had returned to Houston, officials were still struggling to define the enormity of what had happened.
A police officer wades through the Hurricane Harvey floodwaters in Alvin, Texas August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
At least 22 deaths were blamed on the storm, a number expected to rise as authorities are able to enter flooded homes and cars. The toll includes Sgt. Steve Perez with the Houston Police Department. The 60-year-old veteran officer’s body was found early Tuesday morning, officials said, after he drowned while driving in to work early Sunday morning during the storm’s peak.
“He laid down his life,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said during an emotional news briefing Tuesday.
Other stories of loss, grief and agony began to emerge. Six family members were apparently swept away while trying to escape the storm. Police in Beaumont, Texas, said Tuesday that a woman and her young child had gotten out of their car on a flooded road and were swept into a canal. When authorities found them, the young girl was clinging to her mother and about to go under a trestle, where they would have been lost for good, police said. The mother died, while the young girl is in stable condition.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner imposed a curfew in the city starting Tuesday from midnight to 5 a.m. local time to deter looting of abandoned homes.
“There are some who might want to take advantage of this situation, so even before it gets a foothold in the city, we just need to hold things in check,” Turner said at a news conference.
It was still too early to assess the total number of homes and other buildings damaged, in part because rescue crews were still having trouble even reaching some areas because of flooded or flood-damaged roads, said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“We’re still in the middle of the response,” he said.
A truck carrying generators is stuck in Hurricane Harvey floodwaters near Alvin, Texas August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that it had more than 230 shelters in Texas housing more than 30,000 people, a number that is expected to change. More than 195,000 people have registered asking for federal assistance, a number that is expected to go up, William “Brock” Long, the FEMA administrator, said during a news briefing.
It will take “many, many years” before the full scope of Harvey’s impact is clear, Long said.
“We expect a many year recovery in Texas and the federal government is in this for the long haul,” Elaine Duke, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said at the same briefing Wednesday.
Duke said she had no answer Wednesday regarding whether the Trump administration would accept the Mexican government’s offer to help.
About half a million people will have their homes “impacted in some way” by the storm, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. “500,000 individuals will have to be cared for in some way,” he said Wednesday morning on Fox News.
Thousands have been rescued amid the churning waters, authorities said. These official tallies of rescues are likely low, leaving out the scores of civilians who took to boats in an effort to rescue neighbors, friends and strangers alike.
Carol Headrick said that when waters began to rise to the height of the front desk lobby of her nursing home in Kingwood, Texas, outside of Houston, rescue crews told her to leave and took her out on a pontoon boat before she had time to grab much of anything.
People are rescued by large trucks along Tidwell Road near toll road 8 in Houston. CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
“I never was scared,” said Headrick, 83, as her face shifted from one of feigned outrage at the question to a mischievous smile. Referring to a previous storm, she added: “I’ve got my Bible. And God promised he never was going to do this again.”
Headrick betrayed no sign of worrying about the storm, because she was too busy deciphering the crackle of her old handheld AM-FM radio to be bothered with worry. She had to keep her nursing home mates informed as they sat in a U-shaped group in the Kingwood Bible Church’s multipurpose room, discussing the Louisiana State University Tigers, her favorite team.
She was happy with the sandwiches she was given and grateful for the care from volunteers and to still be among her friends.
“Last week they gave us these special glasses to watch the eclipse and who would have thought we’d be here now,” she said.
Around Houston and beyond, schools and universities were closed, with some unable to say when they would reopen. The storm pushed water to spill over in reservoirs west of downtown Houston.
Across Texas, the storm has shut down 14 oil refineries, causing damage at some that released harmful chemicals. In Crosby, Texas, a fertilizer plant was in critical condition Tuesday night after its refrigeration system and inundated backup power generators failed, raising the possibility that the volatile chemicals on the site would explode.
Arkema, a maker of organic peroxides, evacuated all the personnel from the plant and was attempting to operate the facility remotely. The material must be kept at low temperatures to avoid combustion.
Evacuees take shelter from Tropical Storm Harvey in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, U.S. in this August 28, 2017 handout photo. Texas Military Department/Handout via REUTERS
As scores were forced from their homes, massive venues opened their doors to house people. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, which next month was scheduled to host a concert as well as a “High Caliber Gun & Knife Show,” had taken 10,000 people as of Tuesday morning, double the expected capacity. Houston then opened what the mayor had called other “mega shelters,” turning to the NRG Center, a convention center near the old Astrodome, and the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets basketball team.
About 250 miles to the north, the city of Dallas was preparing to take at least 6,000 evacuees from the Houston area, according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, the county’s top official. There were showers. Phone-charging stations. There was a dining hall manned by volunteers, including the Texas Baptist Men and local Israeli-American and Muslim-American groups.
The Dallas shelter was still mostly empty on Tuesday because the storm was too bad to get evacuees out of Houston.
“The planes are grounded, so we can’t get C-130s in” with evacuees, said Jenkins, D. “The roads are covered with water, so we can’t get buses in.”
Dallas housed 28,000 evacuees after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Jenkins said. He said he’s not sure if that many will come this time.
“We don’t know what we’ll get,” he said, “until the water recedes.”
FILE PHOTO: The Valero Houston Refinery is threatened by the swelling waters of the Buffalo Bayou after Hurricane Harvey inundated the Texas Gulf coast with rain, in Houston, Texas, U.S. August 27, 2017. REUTERS/Nick Oxford
A passenger bus moves through a water-logged road during rains in Mumbai, India, August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
MUMBAI – Two toddlers were among 14 people killed in Mumbai after floods caused by heavy monsoon rains destroyed homes and disrupted traffic in India’s financial capital, police said, but lighter-than-feared rain on Wednesday helped relief efforts.
More than 1,200 people have died across India, Bangladesh and Nepal in the worst flooding to strike South Asia in years. Several villages in the east Indian state of Bihar are still inundated, with people living in makeshift shelters for days amid widespread heavy damage to farmland.
Tuesday’s deluge in Mumbai – nearly a month’s average rainfall in a single day – had halted train services and led to flight cancellations.
More heavy rains had been forecast for Wednesday, forcing the government to order schools and colleges shut, but in many areas the downpours were lighter.
“The city and suburbs received a few showers in the last few hours but rainfall wasn’t heavy like yesterday,” said K.S. Hosalikar, a senior India Metrological Department official.
Commuters walk through water-logged roads after rains in Mumbai, India, August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
“However in the next few hours Mumbai and adjourning areas are likely to get fairly widespread rainfall, which will be heavy in few pockets.”
Officials said train and air services were operating normally late on Wednesday in the city, which is home to India’s two biggest stock exchanges and several major companies.
Police said a 45-year-old woman and a 1-1/2-year-old child, members of the same family, died after their home in the northeastern suburb of Vikhroli crumbled on Tuesday, while a 2-year-old girl died in a wall collapse.
In the neighbouring city of Thane, three people died after being swept away by floods, police added. Some died by falling into open manholes in flooded streets in various suburbs.
Mumbai Police spokeswoman Rashmi Karandikar said seven other people were missing in Mumbai.
A man wades through a water-logged road past a stranded car as it rains in Mumbai, India, August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
In neighbouring suburbs six people were missing, said a police official, who declined to be named.
The deluge revived memories of 2005 floods that killed more than 500 people, the majority of them in shantytown slums where more than half of the city’s 20 million people live.
Unabated construction on floodplains and coastal areas, as well as stormwater drains and waterways clogged by plastic garbage have made the city increasingly vulnerable to storms.
On Tuesday several firms made arrangements to provide food and rest areas for employees stuck in offices, while officials of temples and religious bodies offered help to those stranded on streets.
“Together, we can overcome any ordeal,” the Mumbai Police tweeted. “Thank you all for showing what humanity is in the face of adversity!”
A man rides his motorbike through a water-logged road during rains in Mumbai, India, August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade
Passaic County Freeholder John Bartlett who is running for the U.S. Congress from New Jersey’s 11th District, with his wife Khyati Joshi, and their 13-year old son. (Photo: courtesy John Bartlett)
Passaic County Freeholder John Bartlett of Wayne, a Democrat, recently announced his candidacy for the U.S. Congress from the 11th Congressional District. In a speech announcing his run, Bartlett drew upon his connections to the Indian-American community to garner support.
“I’m the son of a country doctor. He kept his doctor’s bag in the back of his pickup truck, with a chainsaw in case a downed tree ever stood between him and a patient. Dad’s example of commitment and service guides me every day,” Bartlett is quoted saying in a press release. He is married to Khyati Y. Joshi, a full Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she teaches about race and religion in America. “I’m equally inspired by the example of my father- and mother-in-law, Dr. Yogesh and Madhu Joshi, who traveled halfway across the world, and helped build an Indian American community for themselves and their daughters and so many others,” Bartlett added. Khyati Joshi is also co-chair of the South Asian American Caucus of the N.J. Democratic State Committee.
Bartlett stresses the diversity of his interfaith (Christian and Hindu) and inter-racial family. The family attends St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montclair, and are involved with Hindu temples in the area, the press release said.
A Freeholder for the last five years, Bartlett’s highlights his advocacy on behalf of new immigrant communities, particularly Indian and other South Asian communities, while holding that office. He worked to make government information available in Gujarati and Bengali languages, spoken about government services in mandirs and masjids, and engaged volunteers and religious communities in supporting newly-arrived refugees from Syria and elsewhere, his press release says.
When he launched his campaign more than a month ago, he worked with the theme “Leadership starts with listening,” and held “30 coffees in 30 days” – a series of events that took him to several parts of the district for discussions with voters in private homes and diners, including homes of Indian-American constituents, according to his press release.
“Sometimes coffee was coffee, and sometimes – like in Parsippany – ‘coffee’ was chai and nasta,” Bartlett said, brandishing his familiarity with Indian culture and language. “Whatever we were eating and drinking, it was a chance for me to introduce myself and hear what’s on the minds of everyday New Jerseyans.”
His opponent, long time incumbent Republican Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen has been in office since 1995, and the race may be a tough one for Bartlett. District 11 consists of 54 towns in four counties, Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Essex. It covers most of Morris County, west of New York City, as well as some affluent suburbs of Newark and Paterson.
Frelinghuysen is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He has spoken out against racial violence in Charlottesville saying – “The hatred and violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville must be condemned.” Bartlett has accused Frelinghuysen of supporting President Donald Trump’s agenda and is calling for “new voices” to represent constituents on Capitol Hill.
Some Indian-Americans Bartlett met during his campaign are quoted saying favorable things about him. “We hadn’t met John previously, but we came away from the evening impressed by the depth and breadth of John’s knowledge of the issues, his record of results as a Freeholder and his commitment to hear out and respond to all our neighbors’ questions and concerns,” Rob Soni, who hosted a coffee in Randolph along with his wife Rachita, is quoted saying. “He’s a family man, and understands what it’s like to live in our area. Everyone who joined us was struck by his ability to speak to the issues we’re concerned about, and issues affecting families like ours,” Soni added.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Bartlett has a bachelor’s degree with honors from Brown University. According to profile on the campaign website, he was also a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he met his wife. Before law school, he also served as communications director for the national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids in Washington, D.C., and as a barista at Starbucks. He has been recognized with the highest professional rating for attorneys, AV-Preeminent, from Martindale-Hubbell, and was among the New Jersey Law Journal‘s “Forty Under 40” promising young attorneys in 2010. He is a Partner in Murphy Orlando LLC, where his practice includes litigation and counseling for non-profit organizations, election and campaign finance law, and other business and appellate cases.
Indian American, DJ Patil is among several members to resign from a White House cyber-security council last week to protest against President Donald Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville and his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement as well as many other issues.
About eight members of the 28-person National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) signed the resignation letter however, only three have confirmed it.
“I can confirm that I have resigned as a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Critical infra needs to be taken seriously,” Patil tweeted on Aug. 22.
The resignation letter which was published by NextGov, said that the president’s “actions have threatened the security of the homeland I took an oath to protect.”
According to The Verge, the letter further states, that the Trump administration is not “adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview” and that Trump has paid “insufficient attention” to the growing threats that the U.S. faces to its cyber-security.
The letter continues to state that the president has “disregard for the security of American communities” and that “the moral infrastructure of our Nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built, the Administration’s actions undermine that foundation.”
Patil, a data scientist, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in February of 2015 as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy and Chief Data Scientist in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
As Chief Data Scientist, Patil helped shape policies and practices to help the U.S. remain a leader in technology and innovation.
He also fostered partnerships to help maximize the nation’s return on its investment in data and helped to recruit and retain the best minds in data science to join in serving the public.
He also worked on the Administration’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which focuses on utilizing advances in data and health care to provide clinicians with new tools, knowledge, and therapies to select which treatments will work best for which patients, while protecting patient privacy.
As part of the CTO team, Patil worked closely with colleagues across the government, including the Chief Information Officer and U.S. Digital Service.
His work also included data science leadership on the Administration’s momentum on open data and data science.
According to Science Friday, when Patil joined the White House staff, he helped launch its Police Data Initiative, through which police jurisdictions release data collected on their policing, including information about the use of force and traffic stops.
By looking at the data, Patil noticed that a number of negative police encounters occurred just after an officer had responded to a suicide or domestic violence call, which suggested that quickly re-dispatching these officers to their normal beat without giving them time to decompress may have led to the incidents of violence.
Before joining the White House staff, Patil served as the Vice President of Product at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce and has also held positions at LinkedIn, Greylock Partners, Skype, PayPal and eBay.
Prior to his work in the private sector, Patil worked at the Department of Defense, where he directed new efforts to bridge computational and social sciences in fields like social network analysis to help anticipate emerging threats to the United States.
As a doctoral student and faculty member at the University of Maryland, Patil used open datasets published by NOAA to make major improvements in numerical weather forecasting.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California in San Diego and a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland College Park.
He has written many articles and books as well, explaining the important current and potential applications of data science.
Other members of NIAC who officially announced their resignations on Twitter over the weekend include Office of Science and Technology Policy Chief of Staff Cristin Dorgelo and White House Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss.
The NIAC was established in 2001 under an executive order from President George W. Bush and advises the president on critical infrastructure security.
According to a Fortune report, the resignations come after Trump disbanded two business advisory councils earlier, following a wave of resignations by chief executive officers who similarly condemned Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville.
The NIAC issued a report after the resignations saying that dramatic steps were required to prevent a possible “9/11-level cyberattack.”
Mehul Chandubhai Patel, 31, also known as Mike, is a motel owner in Battle Creek, Michigan and according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Verhey, he is being ordered to pay $150,500 in restitution to between 15 and 20 former employees as the last portion of his sentence for lying to Labor Department investigators during a probe of his alleged violation of minimum wage laws.
The order for the restitution was delayed by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney until August to determine if Patel and the government could reach an agreement on the amount which was reached on Friday and announced Monday by Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge, calling for an immediate payment by Patel and no further action by the government to seek back wages from Patel either in criminal or civil court.
According to a Battle Creek Enquirer report, Patel was arrested on Nov. 5, 2015, following a raid at the Rodeway Inn that he owned, by officers of the Battle Creek Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General and the Michigan Department of Corrections and also executed search warrants at the Super 8 Motel in Coldwater which he also owned as well as at the banks where Patel had accounts.
He was then charged with fraud along with operating a prostitution house after police suspected that sex workers were using his motel for their business and he was taking money from them in return.
Although the prostitution charges in state court were dropped Patel was still charged in federal court with violation of minimum wage laws and he pled guilty on Feb. 2, in U.S. District Court to violating a federal statute that prohibits anyone from concealing a material fact from the federal government when obligated to disclose it.
Birge said Patel admitted that, in 2005, the Department of Labor found that he had underpayed his employees and violated the minimum wage laws.
He then signed an agreement promising to repay hotel employees.
He also sent the government copies of checks which showed that he had paid back the wages, but the government said their investigation showed he required the employees to return the money to him after they cashed the checks.
Patel was sentenced to two months in jail and fined $10,000 but the determination of restitution to employees, which had been estimated at $250,000 before the delay.
“Putting Patel in jail for cheating his financially distressed employees was important, but so is making sure they are paid what they are owed,” Birge said in a statement.
“This settlement allows them to be repaid right away, rather than waiting months or years,” he added.
An Indian American cab driver in Idaho, Gagandeep Singh, 22, was stabbed to death by his last passenger, Jacob Coleman.
According to The Spokesman Review, the 19-year-old came to Spokane from Seattle wanting to attend Gonzaga University but was denied entry as the institution had no record of him applying there for admission.
In a statement sent to The Spokesman-Review, Pete Tormey the associate director of community and public relations at the university wrote that an individual matching Coleman’s description was reported to have approached housing officials on campus Monday, but he was not enrolled nor assigned housing.
Coleman told deputies that he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts following the interaction with Gonzaga staff.
He then hailed a cab from Spokane International Airport, which Singh was the driver of, and asked to be driven to a fictitious friend’s house however; his thoughts became increasingly homicidal during the drive.
Coleman then asked Singh to stop at a local store, where he purchased a knife and then re-entered the cab directing Singh to drive farther to look for the nonexistent destination.
Singh soon realized that Coleman did not have a real location in mind and stopped the cab near the intersection of Spokane Street and East Railroad Avenue in Kootenai, Idaho where Coleman stabbed him.
When his mother noticed that Singh wasn’t answering the phone when she called him at around 6 p.m. and he did not check in with the cab company as per normal procedure, they contacted the police who located the vehicle.
Upon their arrival at the scene, Singh was pronounced dead and Coleman was still in the car and even surrendered without incident.
Coleman is currently being held in Bonner County jail and the Courthouse judge has denied him bail.
He has been charged with first-degree murder.
Singh was a former resident of Preet Nagar in Jalandhar, Punjab and he decided to settle in Spokane in 2003 along with his family.
Kamaljit Kaur, Singh’s mother, told the police she called her son who told her he was carrying a “white man” in his taxi.
Kaur said she has even enquired about the behavior of the man to which Singh said he was a “gentleman.”
Singh’s older brother Balgit recalled the moment; “he was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous. That was the last call from our family. So my mom’s like ‘well, if he already paid you just drop him off another ten miles.'”
“He was only 22-years-old. He left us too soon, way too soon. We had a lot of thing planned being in a family. We had a lot of thing planned out. I think God knows best. He left too soon.
As of now we know we’ll be in tears for a long long time because that was the only sibling I
have,” he added.
Brian Campbell, a fellow taxi driver and friend of Singh told KREM.com that he was the smartest person he knew.
“He was developing an app to make it easier for people to get a ride home, or ride from airport or from the bus station. He was writing code to bring us up to the competition,” he said.
He was also the nephew of Jalandhar-based Congress leader Manmohan Singh Raju who said “my nephew became a victim of racial hatred. As the Trump government is now showing exit doors to the Asians due to few job opportunities, Indians and Asians as a whole are becoming the victims of racial hatred.”
Although the investigation still continues, if deemed a racial hate crime, this will be the 13th among the Indian American community this year and ninth on in the Sikh-American community.
In June, Simran Jeet Singh, an assistant professor at Trinity University and a Religion Fellow with the advocacy organization, Sikh Coalition, was attacked with racial slurs on his run from New York University to his home in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
In May, Jagjeet Singh, who was working in a convenience store, was stabbed to death by an unidentified person allegedly after an altercation over cigarettes in Modesto, California.
In April, New York City cab driver Harkirat Singh was racially abused by four unruly and drunk passengers, who also punched him and snatched off his turban off.
Many incidents took place in March including: physician Amandeep Singh who was directly threatened with a text message, a couple in Richland, Washington who found a note on their doorstep wrapped in a diaper with vague threats in it, an attack on a Sikh woman inside a gurdwara in Oregon and a Sikh man by the name of Deep Rai who was shot in the driveway of his house in Kent, Washington.
C.J. Singh, a Sikh restaurant owner in Woodland, California, whose restaurant was vandalized in January.
Indian Americans Harnish Patel of South Carolina; Trupal Patel of Brick Township, New Jersey,; Smurti Patel of Sacramento, California and Srinivas Kuchibhotla of Olathe, Kansas, were also victims of hate crimes this year.
Other hate crimes which occurred this year include the burning the Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas in January and the vandalizing of an Indian American family’s home in Peyton, Colorado along with many other incidents as such around the country including the assaults of Ankur Mehta in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Maan Singh Khalsa in Redmond, California last year.
Bolly DanceFit was invited to represent India as part of the Wheeling International Festival 2017 called ‘Passport to the World’ at Heritage Park Performance Pavilion, Wheeling on August 20.
The festival showcased 25 different ethnic and cultural performances representing regions from all over the world such as India, Mexico, Ireland, Brazil, Colombia, and so on.
Bolly DanceFit represented Indian culture by showcasing multiple Bollywood dance performances with more than 60 students. Bolly DanceFit once again put up a show that highlighted the beauty of the Indian dance forms and Indian music to the community with colorful costumes and props.
More than 600 people attended the unique cultural event and enjoyed the richness that is an integral part of India’s art and culture.
Sam Pitroda (center, back), with INOC members, in New York.
NEW YORK – The newly appointed Chairman of the Overseas Congress wing of AICC, Sam Pitroda, addressed The Indian National Overseas Congress USA members in New York, last week.
INOC USA hosted a welcome event for Pitroda at the Cottelion Banquet Hall in New York on August 26. The event was attended by all the chapters of Overseas Congress, the executive committee and National President Shudh Parkash Singh.
The event started with Singh introducing Pitroda as a great patriot and a man who brought revolution in telecom and digital Communication in India working with the complex bureaucracy, a difficult system and obsolete resources in the 1980s.
“Our dynamic leader Rahul Gandhi could not have appointed a better person to lead overseas Congress in my opinion,” said Singh.
In his talk, Pitroda spoke of his journey in transforming digital and telecommunication system in India. He recalled the support he received from the then Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi. He said that he was specifically entrusted to rebuild and energize the overseas Congress by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
Pitroda said he will work on building overseas Congress in many countries around the world.
“Only Congress can build a strong, secular and progressive India due to its inherent ideology,” he said.
Pitroda recalled developments seeds that were sown with his initiatives and during the tenures of Rajiv Gandhi and the former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh that India is now reaping the benefits.
Talking of his health, Pitroda admitted he is battling to stay in shape, with two multiple bypass surgeries and fighting cancer.
“My only mission is to sow more seeds that will build a better India in the future,” he said.
Rajendar Dichpally, the National General Secretary, INOC, spoke on how NRIs can play an important role in developing the Congress Party in India and hoped Pitroda will encourage NRIs to return to India to serve in social and public life.
Other INOC members who spoke at the meeting, included: Senior Vice President Phuman Singh, National VP Kalathil Varghese, Executive VP Ravi Chopra, Vice President Kulwant Deol, Chapter Heads Charan Singh Prempura, Sher Madra, Sushil Goyal, Joby George, Gurmit Singh Mulanpur, and Dr. Rajinder Jinna.
Two veteran leaders from Punjab, KK Bawa and Dakha, also addressed the gathering.
Residents use boats to evacuate flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey along Tidwell Road east Houston, Texas, U.S. August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Nikhil Bhatia, a 24-year-old graduate student from India, died in Houston, after he was rescued and hospitalized after he and a friend nearly drowned in a swollen lake where Hurricane Harvey struck with full force.
Bhatia, a student at the Texas A&M University, was rescued from Lake Bryan, last Saturday, along with another Indian student, Shalini Singh.
Bhatia succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday while Singh continues to be in a critical condition, according to the Consulate officials, who were in regular touch with the family members in hospital and in India.
Bhatia, originally from Jaipur, along with his friend Singh, 25, from New Delhi, was pursuing a masters degree in public health. Both students were both brought to the local hospital in a critical condition, reported PTI.
According to their friends and some witnesses, the two were swimming in the lake. A sudden current of water pushed them deeper. Some other students noticed that they were in distress and flagged down nearby police officers.
Bryan Police officers were able to rescue and provide CPR to the victims until medics arrived, according to Bryan Mayor Andrew Nelson.
It wasn’t immediately clear why they were swimming during severe weather.
The Consulate General of India in Houston has been monitoring their medical needs and situation closely. According to the consulate office, Bhatia’s mother Dr Suman Bhatia has already arrived and was assisted by consulate office amidst devastating flood situations here after receiving her at Dallas airport.
NEW YORK – Celebrity chef and entrepreneur Sanjeev Kapoor will be hosting the annual Varli Food Festival this year, which will take place on Sunday, Sept. 10 at Martinsville Gardens in Bridgewater, New Jersey from 4 to 9 p.m.
In its sixth year, the Varli Food Festival will feature over 40 Indian restaurants, celebrities and chefs from around the world with tasting stations showcasing food demonstrations, cooking techniques, food samples, wine and desserts.
Kapoor is known for his popular TV show Khana Khazana which has aired more than 2,000 episodes on Zee TV in the last 23 years.
Kapoor along with Chef KN Vinod will be judging the Varli Cook Off competition where chefs race against time to create the most delicious cuisine and he will also have his own Cooking station at the event.
Excerpts of an email interview with Sanjeev Kapoor:
What made you want to become a chef?
I never really planned to become a chef. I was all geared up to study architecture but destiny had other plans. By a twist of fate I applied at IHM, PUSA and the rest, as they say, is history!
Can you talk about your journey in Khana Khazana?
To be honest, I never really knew I would do Khana Khazana in the first place. I would say that it was my destiny’s strategy that naturally paved the path of my progress. With Khana Khazana I just intended to share my knowledge as a Chef and love for food with people. The motto was to keep things simple and be myself – which I later realised was what worked for Khana Khazana, and it ran for almost 2 decades, making it the longest running show on Indian TV! It helped me reach to the masses and stay in their hearts and brains forever!
How did you decide to start your own channel FoodFood?
The idea for my own food channel had been a long standing dream. For me it was not only an opportunity but also, I feel, it was my duty to come up with a 24X7 channel dedicated to food and lifestyle in India. Thus, FoodFood channel was born in January 2011 and in eighteen months’ time it had become one of the most trusted brands on Indian TV.
As I browsed through your website I saw that you have recipes for every kind of dish. How did you come up with so many?
That’s the fun behind cooking – to keep coming up with something new and exciting every now and then. It is also how my team and I challenge our boundaries in the kitchen at work. There are so many beautiful ingredients, techniques and even equipment in the kitchen. Coming up with new recipes is something I look forward to. Right now, we have more than 15,000 recipes on sanjeevkapoor.com!
I see you have many fusion recipes. What is the idea behind those?
Creating new tastes is the single most aim of fusion cuisine. There are immense number of possible combinations between culinary styles in terms of spices, sauces, fillings and recipe ingredients. And when we combine a number of cuisines in one meal, we cater to the new generation of food choices and this is what the hospitality industry is capitalising on right now. I strongly feel that fusion of two or more cuisines is New World Cuisine and it has encouraged culinary globalisation and has increased cultural interaction through media and travel.
You have been on the Rachel Ray show before. How did that feel?
It was a great experience! We shot some segments for The Rachael Ray Show, where I promoted my cookbooks ‘How to Cook Indian’ and ‘Cooking with Olive Oil.’ Besides this, I did discover that we have a similar style of cooking that is, creating the best and most delicious dishes by keeping it simple. Of course, cannot forget surprising Rachael and the audience by rustling up a one-minute meal! Fun, exciting and an experience of a lifetime!
What was your intention to come to the Varli Food Festival this year?
Since the time of its inception, Varli has been working towards making Indian cuisine popular in America. And that’s quite THE reason for me to be a part of it every year!
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a chef?
Believe in yourself and your dreams. Stay humble, never stop learning and always smile!
Any tips on everyday cooking?
Make sure you enjoy doing it. Don’t make it a chore. Planning your kitchen chronicles goes a long way in making every day cooking fun.
What should we expect to see from you next?
Well, there is a lot on the plate. You will just have to wait and watch!
NEW YORK – Recent statistics from The National Sikh Campaign’s (NSC), We Are Sikhs effort have shown a drastic improvement in helping to educate the American public so they can understand their Sikh American neighbors better.
Although Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, it is the least understood major faith in the United States and because of that, Sikhism and the Sikh American community have had to face a significant number of hate crimes and bullying incidents since 9/11.
Since April, the We Are Sikhs campaign has been holding grassroots events in gurdwaras across the United States and airing ads on CNN & and Fox News nationwide, that show Sikhs as neighbors and proud Americans.
The We Are Sikhs campaign then ran a comprehensive effort in the local media market of Fresno, California, where tens of thousands of Sikhs live and where violence towards Sikh Americans has been occurring frequently in the past few years, including two deaths in the recent months.
To test whether the effort in California’s Central Valley was successful, We Are Sikhs conducted two polling surveys through Hart Research Associates.
One poll was conducted prior to the launch of the digital and television advertising campaign and the other was conducted after the completion of the ad campaign.
The surveys’ highlights included:
59 percent of Fresno residents say they know at least something about Sikhs who live in America.
68 percent saw Sikhs as good neighbors and 64 percent saw Sikhs as generous and kind.
The amount of residents (78 percent) who saw the ads are nearly twice as likely to say they know at least something about Sikhs who live in America than those who did not see the ads (40 percent)
Out of the 78 percent who saw the ads, 57 percent are more likely to associate a bearded man wearing a turban with Sikhism and 67 percent believe that Sikhs believe in equality and respect for all people with 60 percent believing that Sikhs have American values.
The amount of Fresno residents who know nothing about Sikhs decreased, especially among older residents, whites without a college degree and Republicans.
Prior to the campaign less than half of Fresno residents believed that Sikhs believe in equality and that Sikhs have American values.
Thus the campaign was able to successfully establish Sikhism as an independent faith in the eyes of about 58 percent of participants.
A similar nationwide survey was taken in 2015 before the campaign had shown that a solid majority of Americans had no clue about Sikhs or Sikhism and would associate Sikh physical identity with extremism.
“Despite tense race relations and an extremely polarized political environment, the We Are Sikhs campaign has been able to make headway in creating awareness of Sikh Americans, who can commonly be identified by their turbans and beards,” said Geoff Garin, President of Hart Research Associates.
“This effort is a testament to the Sikh community’s commitment to reaching out to people of all faiths to help them recognize that we all have shared values, and that is a ray of hope that proves that understanding can bring people of all walks of life together,” he added.
“This research shows that Sikhs anywhere can successfully create an appreciation of our values of equality, tolerance and service, and consequently an improved perception of our unique articles of faith among all Americans, whether liberal or conservative, young and old,” said Gurwin Singh Ahuja, co-founder of the National Sikh Campaign.
“We have demonstrated that an inclusive position is the best and only way to educate our neighbors on the benefits of diversity and religious freedom,” he added.
“We are thankful to all Sikhs for their confidence in this strategy and a well-planned approach to create awareness about Sikh faith. This is the first time that an immigrant community like ours has reached out to all Americans to create understanding. This is not an end and we must continue on this path,” said Dr. Rajwant Singh, co-founder and senior adviser of the National Sikh Campaign.
The ads showed Sikhs as part and parcel of American society while explaining that Sikhs and turban stands for equality and respect of all religions.
These ads were shown based on the survey and the input received by the focus groups convened by the NSC and they narrate who Sikhs are in a manner to which common Americans can relate to.
Some examples include:
“I’m obsessed with ‘Star Wars,’” says a turbaned man who appears in one of the videos.
“I’ve seen every episode of ‘SpongeBob,’ because that’s what my daughters like to watch,” says another.
Sikhs are also seen as fans of “Game of Thrones.”
The ads were tested before the launch and had shown a significant increase in people having respect for Sikhs.
Thousands of Americans also visited WeAreSikhs.org and left positive notes after watching the ads on TV and many are now following the social media sites of the campaign.
While consumers think that Walmart and Amazon.com are two of the cheapest places to shop, Zifiti.com seems to offer a lower price for the same items, especially Indian groceries.
While internet searches have allowed consumers to compare prices with either the click of a button or by speaking to Alexa and Google Express, the average consumer must be a well-educated shopper in today’s world.
According to an extensive study done by Placed, retailers selling higher ticket items in a one-off purchase are at greater risk of losing sales to Amazon through “showrooming,” the act of investigating an item in a brick and mortar store and then purchasing it for a lower price online.
But for consumers who buy groceries online, comparing prices for everyday products is never a priority instead they just look for the item, add it into their cart and proceed to checkout without even looking at the total as for all they want is their groceries to be delivered to them right at their doorstep.
Zifiti.com is an Indian online portal based in the U.S. and allows Indian Americans to buy Indian products from India and nationwide for a low and reasonable price.
“Our efforts to disrupt the marketplace model is not limited to changing where people shop for Indian groceries, but also how much a household ends up paying to acquire those hard to find Indian items while keeping it easy and convenient,” sadi Zifiti’s CEO Shinu Gupta who went on to present a challenge stating that a shopping trip on his site would result in an overall lower cost than if you purchased those same items on Amazon.
In an effort to reveal the true cost of shopping for household necessities Placed chose a list of items on Zifiti.com that are well known to a typical Indian consumer and ordered them to be shipped to somewhere in Wisconsin and when the purchased was finalized, the total cost ended up being $51.40 with free shipping.
After that was over, Placed conducted a Google search for the same items and were surprised to see the main items appearing in the sponsored “Google Shopping” area where their prices were much higher than that on Zifiti.
For example, Brook Bond coffee, 100 g, was showing as $11.40 at the low end and $19.96 on the high end compared with Zifiti’s $3.99!
Then Placed went to go shop on Amazon and found it dissicult to even find some of the products under the same names such as “Nirav Cream of Rice (Rice Soji) Idli Rawa – 4 lbs” netted zero results so they tried other derivatives such as “Cream of Rice 4 lbs,” and “Nirav Rice Soji” and finally got results with just “Sooji Rava.”
However, there were many results for “Toor Dal,” a more commonly used item and searching by relevance didn’t help, so they searched by price, lowest to highest and found the least expensive option to be $13.99 for the same size as the one they purchased on Zifiti.
As they continued their shopping spree, it took placed at least 10 minutes to find each item to that point that they even Google searched it to find an exact link.
While shopping that way they found the same items on other Indian grocery ecommerce sites for a lower price than Amazon but still higher than Zifiti.
Additionally, some of the items were either out of stock or only available for in store pick up.
After about an hour, they were able to find seven of the nine products on their list and ended up with a grand total of $106.76 after choosing the cheapest form of shipping without having to sign up for an Amazon Prime account.
In short, Placed’s experience with Amazon was more frustrating, slow and expensive than with the Indian Marketplace Zifiti.
Back in 2014, Digital Commerce 360 had already laid claim to the fact that Amazon was choosing to score higher margins on certain products where they determined, scientifically, that price wasn’t a determining factor in consumer choice.
It must be the case that Amazon doesn’t experience much competition in the Indian products marketplace currently, however, as brand awareness for Zifiti grows and supply and availability increase; it will ultimately be the demand of the largest South Asian ethnic group in the US that will drive the need to comparison shop for daily necessities.
