The issue has ramifications beyond California, because the textbook market in this state is so huge that what California decides can become the benchmark for the nation.

Hindus and ancient India is being unfairly maligned, some protesters say, and they are suggesting changes to rectify that. But some of the top South Asia scholars in universities here and in India including Harvard’s Michael Witzel, UCLA’s Stanley Wolpert and Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Romila Thapar have joined in a written warning that there is a hidden agenda behind the protests, and most of their demands have little historical merit.

South Asia scholars Sunaina Maira and Raja Swamy show in our cover story that what is being portrayed as a grassroots community plea for changes in school textbooks is actually a concerted move by Hindutva supporters to promote their own Hindu chauvinist worldview.

A silent but deadly epidemic of heart disease raging in South Asia and people who emigrated from there. Why this killer epidemic is occurring, and what can be done about it?

Chicago cardiologist Enas Enas, MD, has been researching the issue for decades, and has written a remarkably reader-friendly book for the general public that not only draws a detailed picture of how heart disease affects South Asians, but provides a roadmap on how to identify, prevent, control, and even reverse it.

Drawing on years of painstaking medical investigation, epidemiological research, personal observation, and clinical practice, Enas has condensed the most salient information and insights to create a compendium of knowledge on how to win the war against premature, malignant heart disease.

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen’s wide intellectual interests are legendary. In his latest book, “The Argumentative Indian,” he casts an astonishingly wide net. Whether it is his reflections on cultural and intellectual ties between ancient China and India or his ruminations on gender disparity in India, his reasoning is razor-sharp, his tone tempered and civil, and his breadth of knowledge and range of interests breathtaking.

What shines through, most of all, is his passionate belief in plural, democratic values.

“It is a commonplace these days that the West is the home of religious freedom and democracy: when George W Bush talks of bringing these ideas to the Muslim world, he envisages exporting them from the West to the East,” wrote William Dalrymple while reviewing the book in The Times of London.

“It is, therefore, no bad thing to be reminded by Amartya Sen, in this profound and stimulating collection of essays, that the East has its own venerable traditions of public participation in decision-making, of government by discussion, and of religious tolerance. Indeed, as Sen points out, while most of Catholic Europe was given over to the Inquisition, and in Rome Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake for heresy, in India the 16th-century Mogul emperor Akbar was declaring, ‘No man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him.’” We carry a discussion of the book in this issue.

In this issue, we are delighted to look beyond our own ethnic backyard. California is such a mélange of diverse ethnic groups; yet how often well these different communities communicate?

The sad answer is: Not a whole lot. Yet many immigrant communities, particularly people of color, have a lot in common. The struggle to adapt and fit into a new society, balancing Asian and Western values, coping with immigrant life, the sheer socio-cultural challenge of maintaining one’s personal dignity and identity, especially if you are from a Third World country — these are issues that affect all of us, and there is much we could learn from the experience of other communities.

Vietnamese writer Ky-Phong Tran’s searingly honest commentary reflects the reality of not only his culture, but of many ethnic communities in this country. We present his award-winning article for our readers.

We salute three extraordinary personalities from the African American, Chinese American and Hispanic communities who were honored by the New California Media this year. Black Voice News owner Hardy Brown, Chaplain James Yee and Sacramento Bee executive owner Rick Rodriguez: All three of you are sources of inspiration for us.

Do drop us a line with ideas and comments about how we can make Siliconeer better serve you.
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There has been such a hullabaloo over proposed changes in California history textbooks that even mainstream U.S. newspapers are beginning to notice. So what’s the fuss all about?

California state textbooks come up for review every six years. This year, the sixth-grade history and social science texts are under review, and a controversy has arisen over the sections relating to ancient Indian history. Most of these textbooks are inadequate for a number of reasons and have many errors on Indian history. Taking advantage of this inadequacy, two groups: Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation, backed by the Hindu American Foundation— all with demonstrable ideological and organizational links to Hindu supremacist organizations – inserted themselves into the revision process. But instead of just making corrections to erroneous texts, the VF-HEF are pushing through changes that reflect their supremacist and chauvinistic political agendas, seeking to equate the history of India with the history of Hinduism, and the living, diverse religion of Hinduism with a Brahmanical, Vedic religion frozen in time for thousands of years.

The Tail Wagging the Dog: Behind the Facade of Hindu Parents The folks crying foul over the depiction of Hindus and India in California textbooks will have you believe that it’s a grassroots protest of Hindu parents who don’t want their kids to feel bad about being Hindus in school. To be sure, parents are part of the protest, but all the heavy lifting is being done by the Hindu Education Fund, the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu American Foundation. So who are they? The Hindu Education Fund is affiliated with the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh, an American chapter of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, as HEF admitted to the Wall Street Journal. The Vedic Foundation, part of Barsana Dham based in Austin, Texas, works closely with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America and hosts numerous events, including the Dharma Sansad, attended by top RSS functionaries. Hindu Students Council, a VHPA project, holds annual camps at this location. The foundation has its distinctive take of history. In a curious volume issued by its spiritual leader titled “The True History and the True Religion of India,” theology is so seamlessly woven into history that you can’t tell where theology ends and the history begins. “The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is the description of the timeless glory of the Divine dignitaries.”* The author claims that the history of India is 155.521972 trillion years. (In case you didn’t know, that turns archeological evidence on its head, with humans predating dinosaurs.) It gets weirder. In another page the Web site informs: “Bhagwan Ram lived on the earth for eleven thousand years.”** The thought of these folks being arbiters of what kind of Indian history will be taught in California is—to put it mildly—not entirely reassuring. The Hindu American Foundation is a creation of the RSS-front organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America through its star product Mihir Meghani, who co-founded the Hindu Students Council as a student at the University of Michigan. Meghani’s own views of minority rights, available on the BJP’s official Web site deserves mention: “The future of Bharat is set. Hindutva is here to stay. It is up to the Muslims whether they will be included in the new nationalistic spirit of Bharat. It is up to the government and the Muslim leadership whether they wish to increase Hindu furor or work with the Hindu leadership to show that Muslims and the government will consider Hindu sentiments. The era of one-way compromise of Hindus is over, for from now on, secularism must mean that all parties must compromise.”*** Presenting the argument of these organizations as a “grassroots,” “community” protest begs the question: Why are they shy about their Indian RSS affiliation? Is it because the attempt by RSS-supported organizations to rewrite Indian school textbooks was such a disaster that it drew a nearly unanimous outcry from the Indian press and scholars? *http://www.thevedicfoundation.org/bhartiya_history/index.html **http://www.thevedicfoundation.org/do_you_know/2.html *** Hindutva: The Great Nationalist Ideology, Mihir Meghani, http://bjp.org/history/htvintro-mm.html

Promotion of a narrow and sectarian viewpoint within Hinduism as representing the entire religion. According to the edits of HEF/VF, Hinduism is described as a homogenous, monotheistic, brahmanical and revealed religion. This description subverts the pluralistic traditions and diverse viewpoints and attempts to promote only one sectarian viewpoint.

Sanitization of caste and gender inequalities in ancient and present-day India, thus silencing a large number of peoples’ struggles against injustice and oppression. Some of the proposed edits attempt to invalidate the very identity and existence of lower caste “untouchables” (Dalits) in India.

The ahistorical notion that the speakers of the Indo-European languages (Aryans) in ancient India were indigenous to India instead of the currently accepted historical research that gives them a Central Asian origin. The legitimization of this thesis is tied, not to any differing scholarly viewpoint, but simply to a wider contemporary Hindu nationalist political agenda of proving that while Hindus were “indigenous”, the Christians and Muslims who arrived in India later were “invaders.”

As things stand now, the HEF and VF have managed to get the Curriculum Commission to agree to a large number of their suggested changes in alignment with their Hindu nationalist/supremacist ideology know as Hindutva.

The only opposition they faced was a last minute organizing by some Indologists (M. Witzel from Harvard, Stanley Wolpert from UCLA and J. Heitzman from UC Davis with around 50 other scholars supporting them, (http://www.people.fas.harvar
d.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf) and a faculty letter from over 130 South Asian Studies experts and South Asian professors at universities. While these interventions did help prevent the inclusion of many incorrect and potentially harmful suggestions, many other problematic Hindutva changes were accepted by the Curriculum Commission on Dec 2, 2005.

Groups such as Friends of South Asia and Coalition Against Communalism are dismayed by the acceptance of these “edits” by the Curriculum Commission and are petitioning the State Board to reject them. In addition to the factual inaccuracies of the VF-HEF edits, they are also petitioning the State Board to reject the changes approved by the Curriculum Commission on procedural and legal grounds. First, the Curriculum Commission is an advisory body to the State Board, and had been instructed by the board to accept only changes that reflected “factual accuracy,” but chose to ignore the mandate. Second, the Curriculum Commission violated the legally binding California Education Code requirement that sectarian viewpoints not be a part of the curriculum taught in schools. On Jan. 12, the Board announced the appointment of a sub-committee to specifically investigate whether the Curriculum Commission followed its directives in making the recommendations.

By selectively citing one study, the HEF and VF wanted to declare victory and get their claims codified in textbooks for sixth grade students. When the scientific “evidence” is shown to be false the HEF and VF claim that scholars whose research invalidates their claims have motives against Hinduism. Thus they assert that their struggle to overturn current research is part of a struggle by an aggrieved minority community in the U.S. to achieve respect. The shrill anti-intellectual rhetoric of the HEF and VF against individual scholars in the U.S. and India is identical to that meted out to Indian and other scholars by the Sangh Parivar in India. By labeling the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory as racist the HEF and VF, like their counterparts in the Sangh Parivar, deliberately confuse the colonial era versions of the Aryan invasion theory, such as that attributed famously to Max Muller, with the current scholarship on the issue. The available body of research on the Aryan invasion/migration theory is not just massive – it spans more than two-dozen fields of study and constitutes a far more complex range of debates and ideas than those attributed to Max Muller and other colonial historians, Orientalists and Indologists. As for Max Muller’s racial views of the Aryan invasion, historians like Romila Thapar and D.N. Jha have critiqued these long discredited positions decades ago. By making Max Muller into a straw man, the HEF and VF can justify their refusal to accept the mountain of evidence spanning several fields of research and study that points to a Central Asian origin to the Indo Aryans.

Modus Operandi
Antipathy to scholarship is disguised as “community outrage” as if the HEF and VF represent an oppressed minority. This strategy is based on an inversion of the Sangh Parivar’s usual posture of arrogance and contempt towards minorities in India. In order to facilitate this posture’s effectiveness, a slick PR organization called the Hindu American Foundation supports the HEF and VF’s textbook efforts.

While HAF founder Mihir Meghani advises Muslims in India that “Hindutva is here to stay, it is up to the Muslims whether they will be included in the new nationalistic spirit of Bharat,” (See sidebar: The Tail Wagging the Dog), HAF aids the HEF and VF in casting the campaign to rewrite textbooks as an effort to promote Hindu minority rights in the U.S. This inversion reveals the insidious tendency of the Sangh Parivar to exploit anti-racist language to further its goals. It wears the garb of an aggrieved minority in order to appease the multi-culturalist sentiments of the wider American public who are generally oblivious to the politics of Hindutva in the U.S. or in India. Most well-meaning Indians and other Americans would not want to side with white academics against aggrieved Hindus, a sentiment exploited by the HEF and VF. As if this were not enough, these organizations also mimic the legendary viciousness of the Sangh Parivar’s tactics.

S. Kalyanaraman, advisor to the HEF refers to the Indo-Eurasian Research run by Michael Witzel as “a Communist-leaning political list better known for its uncritical beliefs in myths like Aryan Invasion and its negation of historical facts..” This advisor to the HEF also believes that “it is time to attack the ‘secular’. It is a dirty word, a dirty system and should be used as a word of abuse against anyone who does not adhere to Sanatana Dharma…I think secularism should be deemed a negation of Dharma, anti-Dharma, a word of abuse and hence rejected altogether.”

Indeed, many of the textbook “edits” proposed by the HEF and VF center on erasing references to oppressive aspects of the caste system in ancient India. The HEF, for instance, wants this entire sentence deleted: “The caste system is just one example of how Hinduism was woven into the fabric of daily life in India.” This effort also included the removal of references to Dalits. The HEF suggested replacing the following sentence: “In modern India, these people are now called Dalits, and treating someone as an untouchable is a crime against the law.” with this one: “In modern India, treating someone as an untouchable is a crime against the law.” The Vedic Foundation goes even further by claiming in response to a sentence that reads: “Indian society divides itself into a complex structure of social classes based particularly on jobs. This class structure is called the caste system,” that the caste system no longer exists in modern India since the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to equality. The assertion that the caste system no longer exists is especially offensive given the persistence of systematic caste-based violence directed at Dalit communities throughout India.

If the desired erasure of Dalits and the cruel legacy of the caste system from history textbooks represents one type of violence, the hate-speech openly articulated by HEF members and their allies speaks volumes about the propensity for further levels of violence. S. Kalyanaraman, senior advisor to the HEF for example opines about Dalit Christians that: “These converts are not stupid, they are simply empowered by tainted money, the only way they could make a living and a very good one at that. In practice, few of them are employable to actually do a job of work.”

“Calling them ‘dalit’ is an insult to the entire legacy of dharma. It is being increasingly abused as a hate word by proselytizing groups for their nefarious purposes.”

According to this HEF advisor, “(Dalit International Solidarity Network) is a mullah-missionary-Marxist axis.”

Kalavai Venkat, who is listed as an author on the Web site ‘Voice of Dharma’ (a project of the ‘Hindu Mahasabha of America’ run by Vishal Agarwal) has been a fervent proponent of the Hindutva textbook rewrite effort. After the setback faced by the HEF and VF following the Dalit intervention in the textbook issue, Venkat engaged in anti-Dalit outbursts on a Hindutva forum that he moderates.

Kalavai Venkat: “It is also true that those who call themselves ‘Dalits’ are hate-mongers and racists. They never were oppressed themselves but received benefits of reservation due to vote-bank politics, whereby they deprived a meritorious student of his/her place. All ‘Dalit’ associations in universities/offices are parasitic”

Outrageous declarations of this kind promote a tyrannical and violent image of Brahmanical power, confirming that the Hindutva agenda remains fundamentally a Brahmanic project intent on the continuation of the subjugation of Dalits.

These sentiments are expressed by Jit Majumdar, a member of this forum, who opined:

“You depraved hate-monger, poisoned and caustic minds like yours deserve to be spat and trod upon. You are lowly ‘dalits’ because of your own depraved nature and character. Nobody else have to make you low. You creatures are natural scum with my shoe on your head,”

— Jit Majumder

The sheer crudeness on display above shows that behind the benign garb of ‘education’ lies a supremacist agenda that easily slips into uninhibited rage and hatred for Dalits.

One of the main successes of Hindutva mobilizations is reflected in the way in which the media has been covering this issue in an alarming manner – this “controversy” is consistently framed as a debate between some faculty (who are represented as white and non-Hindus) and a monolithic, aggrieved Hindu community. Posing the conflict along racial lines allows for a complete dismissal of genuine scholarship and the diversity of views within the community itself.

The HEF and VF’s entry into the textbook issue is cast as one impelled by the needs of Hindu students or the concerns of Hindu parents. There is no doubt that the instructional materials up for review in California contain problematic histories and need revision. Some of the statements and images in the textbooks are indeed Orientalist, and there are problematic representations of South Asian culture. But the efforts of the HEF and VF to take advantage of these discrepancies and launch a whole series of changes that have little to do with historical accuracy or the removal of biased representation has to be opposed. Their proposed changes in fact advance the biased and twisted worldview of Hindutva which sees all non-Hindus as outsiders and therefore less deserving of full rights as citizens in India. These proposed edits also erase Dalits from ancient India, whitewash the caste system and falsify the history of gender oppression. This issue is not only about what sixth grade American students will learn in California. It is also not about how well or badly ancient India appears to either students or their parents.

By reducing the study of history to a matter of cheery representations of the past, we fail to provide students with the critical tools necessary to recognize and act upon various forms of oppression in the present. The oppression of Dalits and women in India and South Asia is widespread and current. How are students to be equipped to deal with these contemporary oppressions when their history books, thanks to the HEF and VF, effectively erase Dalits, glorify the caste system and falsify the oppression of women in history textbooks? Is pride to be achieved at the cost of knowledge? And if so, pride in what?

- Sunaina Maira is associate professor of Asian American studies at the University of California at Davis and author of ‘Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City.’
Raja Swamy is a graduate student in the department of anthropology
at the University of Texas, Austin.

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In the early 1990s, when I began publishing articles in cardiology journals about heart disease among Indians, many in the medical community were skeptical that heart disease was any more prevalent among Indians than other populations. Through conducting autopsies and studying disease on the population level, pathologists and epidemiologists had known about these high rates for several decades. Internists, family practitioners, and even cardiologists, in contrast, were largely unaware of the epidemic.

Something was wrong. In response, I decided to set the story straight. For the past 15 years, I have maintained a laser-like focus on this tsunami of heart disease sweeping the Indian subcontinent, drawing attention to it through research, journal publishing, and about 100 speaking engagements a year. Gradually, medical professionals — both Indian and non-Indian — have become familiar with this massive problem. The public, however, still barely knows about it, including the Indian public.

My book, “How to Beat the Heart Disease Epidemic Among South Asians: A Prevention and Management Guide for Asian Indians and their Doctors,” is aimed at stemming and reversing the tide. In paper after paper, I have shown that the data are both undeniable and startling: For example, immigrants from the Indian subcontinent living in the U.S. have a rate of premature heart disease three to four times higher than that of other Americans, regardless of gender or socioeconomic background. More recent studies suggest that heart disease rates among the more than a billion people living on the subcontinent, particularly in urban areas, are as high as, or higher than, the rates observed among Indians in the U.S. Researchers now conservatively estimate that at least one out of ten Indians suffers from heart disease. One out of ten is simply an extraordinary figure. Morally and medically, it is also an unacceptable one.

In the Western world, incidence and death rates from cardiovascular disease continue to decline from their peak in the 1960s, because of lifestyle changes and improvements in treatment. In South Asia, by contrast, these rates are rising. According to data from the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization, in 1985 as many as 145 men per 100,000 and 126 women per 100,000 died from heart disease in India. By 2015, those numbers are expected to hit 295 for men and 239 for women — a doubling of rates over three decades, and this, despite the fact that a large proportion of Asian Indians are non-smoking vegetarians with normal levels of cholesterol, body weight, and blood pressure.

Landmark Publication on South Asian Heart Disease HOW TO BEAT THE HEART DISEASE EPIDEMIC AMONG SOUTH ASIANS: A PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT GUIDE FOR ASIAN INDIANS AND THEIR DOCTORS. By Enas Enas, M.D., and Dr. Sudesh Kannan. Published by Advanced Heart Lipid Clinic. Downers Grove, Ill. It is rare to find a book that combines the solid scholarship of an expert with the evangelical zeal of the true enthusiast. This books fits the bill remarkably well. Enas Enas, M.D.’s scholarship on the issue of heart disease among South Asians is legendary. “Enas has always been a prolific researcher, eloquent speaker and a master teacher,” M.P. Ravindranathan, M.D., editor in-chief of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin Journal has commented. “During the last two decades, he has been in the forefront of the fight for the prevention of heart disease among Indians.” What’s remarkable is how readable this book is. Enas makes a passionate case for tackling the threat of heart disease that stalks South Asians — he calls it “a silent but deadly epidemic.” Chock-full of useful information and organized with the efficiency of a textbook, the tone of the book is conversational and friendly. The book has three parts. The first part presents fundamental concepts of heart disease with special focus on Indians. It highlights what makes heart disease different among Indians and summarizes some of the paradoxical relationships that exist between heart disease, risk factors, and different populations. The second part presents strategies for lifestyle improvements in an easy-to-understand format. Part three discusses the various medications for prevention and treatment of heart disease. Ravindranathan calls this book “the new bible for understanding, managing and preventing heart disease, and living longer, for Indians.” “Can anyone of us afford not to read it?” he asks. “This book is a must read for all South Asians, especially Indians and it certainly must be displayed on the living room table in every Indian house, for ready reference.” Enas has not written a book of gloom and doom, however. “If you are Indian and are reading this, and holding your chest wondering ‘Oh my! I’m in trouble,’ I have good news for you,” writes Enas. “Heart disease is highly predictable, preventable, treatable and even reversible.” The motivational part of the book is one of its most valuable parts. “Unlike a crash diet before a wedding, lifestyle changes such as nutrition and exercise are best approached not as one-time events but as ongoing, lifelong practices,” Enas writes. “Yet how do you initiate, let alone sustain, a fundamental change in orientation over several years or even decades?” To address this, Enas’ section on motivation offers pointers to help readers overcome psychological obstacles in internalizing a lifestyle change and making it a permanent feature of their daily life. “If you start today, you can literally be physiologically younger next year: more healthy, more energetic, more fit, and at lower risk for cardiac disease and diabetes,” he writes. “Indians and non-Indians in both the medical and non-medical communities must work together to make heart disease and diabetes among at-risk populations such as Indians more widely known, and ultimately more rare. My overriding goal in writing this book is to harness everything I know to help you gain greater control over your life and enhance its quality and length. I hope you find it clear, informative, practical, and timely.” We have no doubt that most readers will. The authors can be reached at book@cadiresearch.com. The book can be ordered online at the following Web site: www.cadiresearch.com

Here are six key features:

Prematurity. Heart attacks strike many Indians at a relatively young age (40-60 years). Many Indians know of fellow Indians who suffered their first attack when they were just 35 or even 25.

Severity. Among Indians, heart disease tends to be severe, malignant, and diffuse (spread out along an artery instead of in just one or two spots), making it hard to treat with bypass surgery or angioplasty. Many cases are simply inoperable. Even when successfully carried out, such procedures often serve only as temporary fixes. The underlying problem remains — the continuing buildup of plaque in the arteries. This means that, despite repeat surgeries and angioplasties, the blockages often return with a vengeance, leading to premature death.

Equally high rates among women. Until recently, heart disease was considered “a man’s disease.” Unlike in other ethnic groups, however, heart disease rates among Indian men and women are virtually identical, despite relatively low rates of smoking among Indian women.

High rates of heart disease despite low rates of the traditional risk factors. The prevalence of smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, and obesity — the traditional heart disease risk factors — is similar or lower among Indians in the US compared to other Americans. Yet for any given level of cardiac risk factors, Indians are at about twice greater risk of developing heart disease.

Predilection for diabetes. Diabetes is 2-4 times more common among Indians in the U.S. than other Americans. It occurs at a younger age, and even in the absence of obesity. Diabetes and heart disease appear to be strongly interactive among Indians — one leads to the other within a matter of 10-20 years.

A combination of genetic susceptibility and lifestyle factors. Indians seem to be more vulnerable to heart disease because of a genetic predisposition to abdominal obesity, high blood levels of a substance called lipoprotein(a), and a small-particle type of HDL (good) cholesterol that offers less protection against heart disease. These heredity-based risk factors magnify the harmful effects of lifestyle risk factors associated with physical inactivity, urban living, and a high-fat diet.

If you are Indian and are reading this, and holding your chest wondering “Oh my! I’m in trouble,” I have good news for you. Heart disease is highly predictable, preventable, treatable and even reversible.

We now have the technology, diagnostic tests, and medications to help you lower your risk factors substantially.

While your genes may have loaded the gun, it is lifestyle choices that pull the trigger.

Working with your doctor, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease through appropriate lifestyle changes and medications.

As advances in genetics and biotechnology usher in a new era of “personalized medicine,” we can look forward to a time when doctors will be able to offer their patients even more effective combinations of cardiovascular medications and risk-reduction strategies that are custom-tailored to each patient’s unique individual genetic makeup. Yet even today, we have enough knowledge to reduce most people’s heart disease risks to surprisingly low levels — if only more people would grasp the urgency of the need to do this, and translate that urgency into practical preventive action.

If I may offer you a brief but telling example. My co-author, Dr. Sudesh Kannan, had what many would consider a healthy lifestyle. He was predominantly vegetarian. He did not smoke. He exercised 20 minutes three times a week. He was not obese by traditional standards. So it came as a complete surprise when routine blood tests revealed that he had dyslipidemia, meaning that his blood lipids were gravely out of balance.

He had low levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and high levels of LDL (bad cholesterol). His triglycerides, a marker for diabetes, were above 500 mg/Dl — three times the normal level.

With the same perseverance that earned him a doctorate from the University of Virginia, Sudesh decided to attack dyslipidemia, researching it in books and medical papers and looking for advice not only on how to treat it but on how to manage it through a healthy diet and increased physical activity. Then in 1995 Sudesh’s brother, a physician, sent him an article I had published in Clinical Cardiology (vol. 18, 1995) titled “Malignant Heart Disease in Young Indians.”

That article, Sudesh says, marked a turning point in his life. Not only did he regain control over his cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but he went on to run three marathons and complete two 100-mile bike rides.

Today, his energy level is astounding. I can unhesitatingly state that Sudesh’s health is a testament to the proposition that small lifestyle changes can yield major rewards in quality of life. Consider this: In many ways, the human body is constantly trying to heal itself. From T-cells to homeostasis, it has a sophisticated array of self-corrective systems within it that are all designed to do one thing: keep the body in optimal health. Give it the right inputs of daily physical activity, plenty of water, and a healthy diet, and it will respond magnificently — often far better than any medication can get it to do.

Sudesh joined me to co-author my book because he is concerned about one thing: much of what I have uncovered and published in journals over the past 15 years, he says, still remains unknown to the average Indian, and even many physicians. Not only are the prevention and management strategies for Indian heart disease unfamiliar, but the dimensions of the problem itself have not been fully grasped. It remains under the radar. The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 that killed an estimated 290,000 people received extensive 24-hour international media coverage — as well it should. The response was magnificent and appreciated. To put it in perspective, however, heart disease kills more people in the nation of India alone than the tsunami did every three months. That fact does not even make it into the Health Section of most major newspapers, never mind primetime TV news. Yet every three months, more than 300,000 Indians slip away under the waves of coronary artery disease. Heart disease has indeed become the “Silent Scream” among South Asians — snuffing out lives by the thousands every day while others go on with their lives, oblivious to the killer stalking the region.

Over the past 15 years, I have presented and conducted more than 1,000 lectures and seminars to physicians in the U.S. and India as well as Indians living in Chicago on the subject of heart disease. My book distils the extensive feedback I have received from my audiences and seminar participants into a set of practical preventive and treatment strategies. It is intended to serve as a quickly digestible companion to a more professional edition, “Heart Disease among South Asians: Unraveling the Mysteries, Debunking the Myths,” scheduled for release in 2006.

Excerpted from the preface of “How to Beat the Heart Disease Epidemic Among South Asians: A Prevention and Management Guide for Asian Indians and their Doctors” by Enas Enas, M.D., and Dr. Sudesh Kannan.

FAQs
What is it about Indians that makes them so vulnerable to heart disease?
Heart disease has many causes with genetics playing an important role in some individuals. Lifestyle choices can also play a key role. Among Indians, we have problems with both. In other words, genetics loads the gun and lifestyle choices pull the trigger!

Indians indeed have a higher prevalence of high levels of genetically determined cholesterol that is partly responsible for the high rates of heart disease. Among Indians, heart disease strikes hard and at a young age. Indians tend to have heart disease in their 30 and 40s and they tend to have a severe form of heart disease that leads to repeat angioplasty and bypass surgery.

What are some of your key recommendations?
The three key ingredients of addressing any epidemic are Awareness, Acceptance and Action! Over the past fifteen years, Indians have by-and-large become aware of their excess burden of heart disease but to the best of my knowledge, the acceptance has been poor and the action is almost non-existent.

First and foremost — Indians have to accept that they have a higher risk of heart disease at a given level of cholesterol, blood pressure, body weight and other risk factors. The threshold of intervention and goal of treatment should be different. For example, people with heart disease or diabetes are treated to more stringent cholesterol goals than people without this condition. My recommendation is to treat all Indians without heart disease or diabetes as aggressively as Americans with these conditions.

Who should read this book? How will they benefit from reading your book?
This book is unique — this is a hybrid book –first of its kind- written for the Indian public and their physicians. Many reviewers of the book have consistently recommended that this book must be read by “all Indians and the health professionals who care for them.”

We have special sections in this book for persons who have already been diagnosed with heart disease and who have had coronary angioplasty or bypass surgery. This book is a must read for people who have had these procedures. It discusses at length the strategies for minimizing the need for repeat procedures. Those with family history of heart disease at a young age will also benefit from reading this book because it addresses special tests that focus on such individuals.

What about people suffering from diabetes? Will they find this book valuable?
Indians not only have a three to four fold higher rate for heart disease, they also have an equally high rate of diabetes. Similar to heart disease, Indians develop diabetes 10-20 years younger and with a body weight 40-50 lbs lower than whites. Diabetes and heart disease are inextricably intertwined with one leading to the other in 10-20 years. Nearly 50 % of the Indians with heart disease have diabetes and these persons have the highest risk of repeat heart attack and cardiac death. This book has three specific sections dealing with nuances of diabetes among Indians and what they can do to prevent and reduce the ravages of diabetes.

Can I automatically assume that my family physician is up-to-date on the latest research on Indians and heart disease?
Although we have nearly 50,000 Indian physicians in the U.S., 4 out of 5 Indians are treated by doctors who are not Indians and who may be totally in the dark about the unique aspects of heart disease among Indians. The information in the book can be used by Indian patients to receive more appropriate medical care.

Most Indians I know are vegetarian. Can they be at high risk for heart disease?
There is a myth that Indian vegetarians do not get heart disease. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is true that western vegetarians are largely protected from heart disease because they have a healthy lifestyle particularly in their eating habits. Unfortunately, Indian vegetarians consume as much or more saturated fat and other harmful fats as non-vegetarians. Transfats are more dangerous than saturated fats and raise both LDL and lipoprotein(a). Indians have a penchant for fried foods and snacks and these are loaded with these transfats. You can get a free download of my paper on “Prudent diet and Preventive nutrition” at www.cadiresearch.com

Many Indians are thin. Should they be worried?
While most Indians are not obese in the conventional sense, many of them have obesity limited to their abdomen, the so-called apple type of obesity. Recent studies indicate that all body fats are not created equal. Those located in the hip, as is common in women, is actually protective against heart disease. In sharp contrast, the belly fat is the most dangerous form of fat. Studies in the U.S., U.K. and India have shown that although Indians have the lowest rate of general obesity, they have the highest rate of abdominal obesity rendering them uniquely susceptible for early diabetes and heart attack. In one study, less than 10 percent of Indians had general obesity but more than 50 percent of the Indians, Pakistani and Bangladeshi had abdominal obesity.

- Enas Enas, M.D., a Chicago cardiologist, is one of the
foremost authorities on heart disease among expatriate South Asians in the U.S.

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If there is an overarching message in his extraordinarily varied intellectual peregrinations, it is a passionate belief in plurality, whether in the individual, a nation or in the global comity of nations. His disdain for Johns Hopkins political scientist Samuel Huntington’s notorious “clash of civilizations” thesis is as deep as his dislike of the sectarian national consciousness of Hindutva supporters of the Sangh Parivar. The identities of human beings, and human societies, he is at pains to argue, are too multi-layered to lend themselves to such simplistic classification. Huntington divided the world into various civilizations, earning from Sen the epithet an “intellectual simplifier.”

In taking this peculiarly reductionist view, Huntington’s perspective has to downplay the fact that India has many more Muslims (more than 140 million—larger than the entire British and French populations put together than any country in the world with the exception of Indonesia and, marginally, Pakistan, and that nearly every country in Huntington’s definition of “the Islamic civilization” has far fewer Muslims than Indian has.

In fact, he says this reductive straitjacket impairs understanding of the true nature of India which has resulted from the social and cultural cross-pollination between numerous communities, of which Hindus are but one.

It would be futile to try to have an understanding of the nature and range of Indian art, literature, music, architecture, cinema, theatre or food without seeing the contributions of constructive efforts that have defied the alleged barriers of religious communities. Indeed, interactions in everyday living, or in cultural activities, are not segregated along communal lines. For example, Ravi Shankar, the magnificent musician and sitarist, may be contrasted with Ali Akbar Khan, the great sarod player, on the basis of their particular mastery over different forms of Indian music, but never as a “Hindu musician” or a “Muslim musician” respectively (though one does happen to be a Hindu and the other a Muslim). India’s cultural life does indeed bear the mark of the past, but the mark is that of its interactive and multi-religious history.

Elsewhere in the book, he argues:
Identity is thus a quintessentially plural concept, with varying relevance of different identities in distinct contexts. And more importantly, we have choice over what significance to attach to our different identities.

Sen is a proud Hindu, but his Hinduism is different in approach from the Sangh Parivar’s idea of Hindutva. For him, the Sangh Parivar’s “miniaturization” of India is both flawed and unattractive. His India, and Hindu identity, is more complex, plural and heterodox.

The West and India
Sen makes a convincing argument that the colonial experience deeply influenced how Indians view themselves. He presents three categories of Western approaches: exoticist, curatorial and magisterial.

The exoticist approach concentrates on the wondrous aspects of India, where the focus is on what is different. The magisterial approach is related to the exercise of imperial power, looking at India from a ruler’ viewpoint.

The curatorial approach is the most catholic of the three, and includes noting, classifying and exhibiting diverse aspects of India.

Alberuni’s 11th century Arabic treatise Tarikh Al Hind (History of India) is a good example of the curatorial approach. Alberuni, an Iranian of Central Asian origin, came to India with Mahmud of Ghazni. He mastered Sanskrit, studied Indian texts on mathematics, natural sciences, literature, philosophy and religion and met and conversed with many Indian scholars. Among the Europeans, the redoubtable William Jones of the East India Company brought a similar approach to his study of India. He established the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal which translated a number of Indian classics like the Gita, Manusmriti and Kalidasa’s Sakuntala.

Sen contrasts this curious, respectful approach with the later magisterial approach, exemplified by James Mill, who published a classic book on India in 1817.

Mill’s The History of British India played a major role introducing the British governors of India to a particular characterization of the country. Mill disputed and dismissed practically every claim ever made on behalf of Indian culture and its intellectual traditions, concluding that it was totally primitive and rude. This diagnosis went well with Mill’s general attitude, which supported the idea of bringing a barbaric nation under the benign and reformist administration of the British Empire. Consistent to his beliefs, Mill was an expansionist in dealing with the remaining independent states of the subcontinent. The obvious policy to pursue, he explained, was “to make war on those states and subdue them.”

Mills chastised early British administrators (like William Jones) for having taken “Hindus to be a people of high civilization, while they have in reality made but a few of the earliest steps in the progress to civilization.”

The funny thing, Sen tell us, is that Mill wrote his book without ever having visited India. He knew no Sanskrit, nor any Persian or Arabic, and had no knowledge of modern Indian languages. He also was inclined to summarily dismiss any claims by native scholars.

The exoticist approach of the West towards India was more positive, but it was based less on the reality of India than whatever the European imagination conjured, and so this approach carried with it an almost manic-depressive cycle of joy, pleasure, admiration and then bitter disillusion.

Xuanzang (Hiuan-tsang) returning to China with Sanskrit manuscripts from India in 645 A.D. Ancient China and India had close cultural ties.

India’s Nobel laureate poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore was a victim of this process, Sen said.

One of the most discouraging literary episodes in literary reception occurred early in the century, when Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats and others lead a chorus of adoration at the lyrical spirituality of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry but followed it soon afterwards with a thorough disregard and firm denunciation.

Though quite different, the exoticist and magisterial approach tended to reinforce a Western impression of India that ignored its rationalist aspect and emphasized its mysticism and exoticism.

The nature of these slanted emphases has tended to undermine an adequately pluralist understanding of Indian intellectual traditions. While India has certainly inherited a vast religious literature, a large wealth of mystical poetry, grand speculation on transcendental issues, and so on, there is also a huge — and often pioneering —literature, stretching over two millennia on mathematics, logic, epistemology, astronomy, physiology, linguistics, phonetics, economics, political science and psychology, among other subjects concerned with the here and now.

Democracy and Public Debate
A passionate believer in democratic values, Sen argues that while democracy is historically a relatively young institution, ancient societies, India foremost among them, show an inclination for public debate and a tolerance for dissent that anticipates the democratic temperament.

Sen doesn’t buy the oft-repeated notion in the West that the European enlightenment and subsequent rationalist values was a unique, Western phenomenon. “The West was West long before it was modern,” Samuel Huntington has said.

Sen begs to differ. The notion of civilizational divides never fails to invite his razor-sharp critique. The problem, he says, is that the presence of today’s individual liberties in the West are extrapolated into antiquity with very little evidence. True, some classical Western writings support certain liberties. Aristotle supported freedom and tolerance (for free men, not women or slaves). But there are non-Western supporters of freedom as well.

Emperor Ashoka in India covered the country with inscriptions on stone tablets all over the country in the third century BCE which not only talked about good behavior and wise governance but also included a demand of basic freedoms for all. And unlike Aristotle, he did not exclude women and slaves.

Sen questions the very geographical notion of a Western civilization. The ancient Greeks, he pointedly notes, were far more interested in communicating with evolved civilizations like the Indian or Chinese civilization than the neighboring Visigoths or Huns.

Huntington’s remark that the “sense of individualism and a tradition of individual rights and liberties” to be found in the West to be “unique among civilized societies” draws this response:

There has been support as well as denial of such rights in the history of both Europe and India, and it is hard to see that the Western experience in support of these rights is peculiarly “unique among civilized societies.” For example, when Akbar was issuing his legal order that “no man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him,” and was busy arranging dialogues between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Parsees, Jews and even atheists, Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Rome for heresy, in the public space of Campo del Fiori.

The Indian argumentative tradition, Sen says, goes back centuries and marks a significant sociopolitical milestone for civic rights. These rights mostly rested with privileged men, but they frequently crossed over gender and class barriers. In fact, Sen says it was spokespersons for disadvantaged groups that challenged religious orthodoxy. Counterarguments against class are recorded in the epics.

Much later, medieval poets in the 15th century included exponents influenced by the Hindu bhakti and Muslim Sufi movements. Many poets came from socio-economically humble backgrounds — Kabir was a weaver, Dadu a cotton carder, Ravi Das a shoemaker. Women were part of the movement too, including Meerabai.

The historical roots of democracy in India are well worth considering, if only because the connection with public argument is often missed, through the temptation to attribute the Indian commitment to democracy simply t the impact of British influence (despite the fact that such an influence should have worked similarly for a hundred other countries that emerged from an empire on which the sun used not to set). The point at issue, however, is not specific to India only; in general, the tradition of public reasoning is closely related to the roots of democracy across the globe. But since India has been especially fortunate in having a long tradition of public arguments, with toleration of intellectual heterodoxy, the general connection has been particularly effective in India.

In a separate essay, Sen writes a fascinating account of the encounter of China and India in antiquity and dwells at length on how intellectually and culturally both countries benefited. Being the quintessential Bengali bhadralok, there are separate essays on Tagore and Satyajit Ray. A number of thoughtful essays dwell on the socioeconomic ramification of gender and class inequality.

Unsurprisingly the book has been by-and-large ecstatically received by critics.

In a long, appreciative review in The Times of London, William Dalrymple compares Sen’s celebration of Islam’s complex contribution to Indian culture with the other Indian Nobelist, V.S. Naipaul whose jaundiced view of the Islamic incursion into South Asia has made him an apologist for Hindu nationalism.

“This is an original and provocative book, which will surprise and challenge many middle-class Indians, especially those on the right,” Dalrymple writes. “But whether you stand in Sen’s camp, or that of Naipaul, you will find this erudite and sophisticated collection of essays engaging and thought-provoking. The product of a great mind at the peak of its power, it is one of the most stimulating books about India to be written for years.”

Amartya Sen with former World Bank president James Wolfensohn

However, Gordon Johnson, general editor of The New Cambridge History of India, is less impressed.

“Sen’s own political agenda is clear for all to see and is wholly admirable,” he wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement. “He would like a world that is more egalitarian, where the state is the benign protector of individual rights, balanced by a concern for fairness and equality between ethnic, cultural and social groups, and between the genders and social classes. . . Given the virtue of Sen’s position, to which nearly all of us would subscribe, it is hard to have to say that ‘The Argumentative Indian’ proves on close reading to be a flawed book. This is because Sen does not go beyond stating self-evident truths. . . There is a thinness and superficiality about the whole that displeases.”

Johnson wrote that the essays could use some revision. “Reading the pieces consecutively, one is struck by the repetitions, by the recycling of very limited illustrative material and by the fact that the crucial arguments are not developed from their original brief formulations.

“More seriously, Sen’s history is weak. . .

“My greatest disappointment with this book is that its use of history is as unscrupulous and trivializing as that of those Sen wishes to bring down.”

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- Sally Miller Wyatt is a freelance writer who writes family-oriented auto reviews for newspapers, magazines and the Web.

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Her forehead smeared with vermillion, considered holy in Hindu tradition, Spears and her four-month-old son Sean Preston were spotted at a Hindu temple in Malibu, sitting through elaborate rituals.

Raised as a Baptist, Spears has studied Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, and is now visiting Hindu astrologers for a study into the past and future.

Spears was welcomed at the Malibu Temple by its president Nadadur Varadhan who explained to the pop star the tenets of Hinduism as also the significance of the various rituals.

“She showed a lot of interest in the religion and was quite fascinated by the prasadam (part of food offered to the god),” Varadhan said, adding that the pop queen promised to return to the Malibu temple and made a commitment to conduct more elaborate worship in the near future.

Really. Go figure.
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‘Kaun Banega Crorepati II Shelved
You could weep for Star TV. Here it was, all set to rake in the moolah by dangling Big B on the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati II, the sequel to the smash hit game show that catapulted Amitabh Bachchan (seen here in 'Paheli') back into superstardom after a precarious hiatus.

Well Star TV’s sweet dreams have been dashed by a bellyache—or diverculitis of the intestine, of you want the actual medical term—and the subsequent operation and his illness has precluded continuing the show.

Which is a pity, because this show was going to be DirecTV’s big launch vehicle in the U.S. for Star TV, and it needed it. Dish TV has a head start in terms of bringing in Indian channels.

But Amitabh became ill, and so the remaining 23 episodes of Star TV’s game show have been shelved and the program has been called off as of now after Amitabh told the channel that he would take a longer time than expected to resume the shoots.

Since the channel has run out of episodes from its banks, and with no signs of Amitabh returning to the sets, Star TV has finally called it a day for KBC-Dwitiya.

“No fresh episode of KBC II will be shot... Bachchan, who is in the process of recovering from his illness, has informed us that he will take longer to recover than earlier expected,” Star India COO Sameer Nair said.

The final blueprint with regard to this decision is being worked out and will be declared in the next 3-4 days.

The option of roping in Amitabh’s actor son Abhishek Bachchan, was also thought upon but could not be worked out, due to non-availability of dates with Abhishek, a Star TV official said.
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Bye, Bye Oscars
Not very many people were surprised when India failed to get any place in the nominations for the 78th Academy Awards which were announced Jan. 31. Like most years, Paheli, India’s official entry in the Foreign Language category was a pointless exercise, and even diehard fans weren’t holding their breath. Morning Raga, directed by Mahesh Dattani, which had been entered independently, also failed to make the cut.

Produced by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Paheli is based on Rajasthani author Vijaydan Detha’s story of a woman who falls in love with a ghost and the tricky moral issues that the villagers face when her husband returns after many years.

Directed by Amol Palekar, the movie stars Shah Rukh himself and Rani Mukherjee.

No Indian film has managed to get an Oscar so far.

Reacting to the news, Shah Rukh Khan said: “When I took the film to the U.S., people said it was a nice film but would not win an Oscar as it was a very entertaining film — a perception that is far removed from the people’s perception of the film here, who believed that it was not an entertaining film.”
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London Magazine ‘Unveils’ Kushboo
Poor Kushboo. She hardly had a chance to rest a bit after the brouhaha over her remarks on premarital sex had outraged sanctimonious hypocrites coming out of the woodwork.

She discovered that Maxim, the silly British men’s magazine for those with impaired reading skills (lots of pics, minimal text) has printed a revealing photo of hers in its inaugural Indian edition.

To add insult to injury, the photo isn’t even real. Apparently the wonders of Photoshop have enabled Maxim to come up with a photo of a voluptuous woman in a black bikini and stick Kushboo’s head on it.

Kushboo is livid. Although the London-based magazine Maxim, apologized, it had committed an “unpardonable” act and their offer of apology was not “acceptable” to her, she said.

“Indeed the punishment that is finally meted out to them should be a deterrent against anyone who tries to treat women as a commodity and exploit them as they please. I will not opt for any kind of out-of-court settlement,” she said.

Now to be fair to Maxim, the mocked-up picture that appeared in the magazine’s recently launched Indian edition on a page called “Women you will never see in Maxim - 100% fake,” made it clear it was a goofy joke. In the full-page picture showing Kushboo “posing” in black underwear, it is clear only her head is shown in the shot.
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‘Chingari’ Role Best Performance: Sushmita
Beauty queen-turned Bollywood starlet Sushmita Sen hasn’t exactly had an easy time. Her box office pickings have never been anything to write about, and she has tended to make news more about her off-screen activities than her on-screen performances.

At last that might change, if she is to be believed. Recently she has been telling anybody who would listen that the role of a sex worker portrayed by her in the film Chingari was her best performance so far.

“I have rubbed loads of koyla (coal) and kajal, mixed with oil, on my face and body to look like a natural village girl who is a sex worker. It was not at all easy but with my director Kalpana Lajmi’s encouragement, I managed,” she told reporters.

Sen said she was drained physically and emotionally during the shooting of the film, as she had never portrayed such a complex and true-to-life character before.

“The role of a rural woman and that, too, of a sex worker was unlike the image I have. I was excited about the role and I did not want to miss the bus,” she added.

Denying that Chingari is a statement against prostitution, Sen said: “It is a story from the point of view of a sex worker. I realize what a hard life it must be and I feel all the more for women who are in the same position. The turning point in Basanti’s life comes when she falls in love and gains the respect of a man.”

Sen’s co-stars in the film included Ila Arun, Anuj Sawhney and Mithun Chakraborty. The film has been written by acclaimed music director Bhupen Hazarika.
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Boycott Manisha
She may be a (former) super star in Bollywood, but nobody is waiting with bouquets for Manisha Koirala in her home country Nepal. Student activists there have called for the boycott of her films after she campaigned for a mayoral candidate for the Feb. 8 municipal polls which opposition activists dismiss as stage managed by the king.

Angry activists from eight student organizations affiliated to the pro-democracy parties burnt her photographs in Damauli of Tanhu district and Pokhara of Kaski district and shouted slogans against the actress.

Manisha is the daughter of Nepal’s Science and Technology Minister Prakash Koirala. The activists were upset with her for backing a mayoral candidate in her hometown Biratnagar and for giving an interview on Nepal Television and The Rising Nepal daily newspaper in support of the monarchy and the king-announced municipal polls.

Activists urged the public to boycott Manisha’s films and called upon cinemas across the country not to screen them, Nepal Students Union secretary Indra Karki said.

“We have also warned many other artists not to support monarchy and that they will also have to face the same consequences. The cinema halls screening her films will be responsible for the consequences,” he said.

While star-struck youngsters lined up the road to catch a glimpse of Manisha and asked her to sign autographs, members of the Nepal Students Union shouted slogans against the actress and showed black flags.

The actress was, however, unfazed. “I am not scared of anybody protesting against me. I have come here all the way from Mumbai to get Aryal elected,” she told the gathering.
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Self-destructive
What’s up with Chi Chi? If there is a prize for the most self-destructive star in Bollywood it would surely go to Govinda. His career in politics hasn’t been so hot either, but that’s a different matter.

Insiders are pointing figures at his poor judgment and habit of trying to help out incompetent relatives. Last year, he returned to Bollywood with a vapid family drama. The film was directed by his brother Kirti Ahuja, who has a track record for making dud films. A decade ago, his Radha Ka Sangam bit the dust before you could say “flop.”

But Chi Chi can’t keep away from his family. His new film, Jahan Jaiyega Humein Paiyega, is directed by his nephew Dumpy. And get this—the kid is only 19. Is it any surprise that the film remains unsold in most territories.

As far distributors go, Govinda’s career is over. But some of his associate disagree. “Not so fast,” says Govinda’s leading lady Sakshi in Jahan Jaiyega Humein Paiyega.

“I think he has a long way to go. He is amazingly good. And he has lost loads of weight and is looking as good as before.”

Director David Dhawan also feels his film Partner can bring about a miraculous makeover in his career.

“You mark my word. Govinda has a long, long way to go. My film Partner with him and Salman (Khan) will bring Govinda back in a big way.”

For Chi Chi’s sake, we sure hope to God he is right.
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‘Buniyaad’ to be Back
In a move which may evoke nostalgia among television viewers, Sahara One Television has said it will re-air Buniyaad— the hit serial of the 80s.

The channel will air director Ramesh Sippy’s Buniyaad in a prime time slot, more than 20 years after it was first telecast on Doordarshan in 1985.

“The idea is not just to evoke nostalgia among the viewers, but also to provide quality to the viewers. The kind of serials on air now are less progressive than a Buniyaad in terms of their storyline and even their portrayal of women,” said Purnendu Bose, COO of Sahara Television.

Buniyaad, one of India’s first soap operas, based on the partition of India and its aftermath, had actors like Alok Nath, Kanwaljeet, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Kruttika Desai, all of whom are now accomplished television and film artists.

Elaborating on the channel’s plans for the future, Bose said, “We are looking at consciously staying away from known faces in television, so that our serials do not carry any baggage with them. We will continue to work towards this in 2006 as well.”

“As far as Buniyaad is concerned, we have touched up certain portions of the serial to improve picture quality and also added a title song by Sonu Nigam,” Bose added.
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It’s just his overall personality that almost has a regal aura about it (somewhat tarnished after the breakup of his marriage, admittedly). He works in one film at a time, has a squeaky clean image as far as conduct and public deportment goes, and is remarkably level-headed in an industry notorious for hot-headed behavior where the drama off-screen can beat the drama on-screen hands down.

This reputation can be a double-edged sword. Rumor has it that any film in which Aamir Khan is involved eventually ends up being dictated by Aamir, so meticulous is he in his planning. Bollywood is a fickle place. When a film does well, Aamir’s reputation becomes God-like; when a film falters, the vultures begin to circle and swoop.

So when Lagaan did well, everybody praised director Ashutosh Gowarikar, but many said it had Aamir’s hand written all over it. Of course, Aamir was the producer of the film, but even in Dil Chahta Hai, Farhan Akhtar’s refreshingly different celebration of youth, there were murmurs that Aamir’s hand had played a role in a lot more than acting.

Then came Mangal Pandey, and its sorry record in the box office drew an avalanche of criticism for Aamir.

What now? Rang De Basanti stars Aamir, but it is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and he is certainly no pushover. So we will disregard the buzz that the film has Aamir written all over it — the story is fresh and unusual, production values reflect meticulous care, and the acting is uniformly good — and give credit/blame where it is (officially) due.

Which brings us to Mehra. Before going into the film itself, he gets a round of applause for choosing a story angle that is fresh, thoughtful and eschews the Bollywood masala formula. The story contrasts the patriotism and lofty ideals of yesteryear with the anomie of today’s youth, disillusioned as they are by endemic corruption.

When London-based filmmaker Sue (Alice Patten), stumbles upon the diaries of her grandfather, she discovers that he served in the British Indian Police Service during the independence movement. She finds that although they were on opposite sides, her grandfather was full of admiration for the revolutionaries he incarcerated. The commitment of patriots like Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah and others, their calm in the face of imminent death, impressed the British colonial jailor.

Sue decides to shoot a film on Indian revolutionaries and comes to India and casts five college-going friends in the various roles. But she is in for a shock. DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) and Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) are contemporary youths, jaded in outlook. Patriotism is passé.

Consumerists and hedonists, they initially refuse to be part of the film. Later, though, as they learn more about the sacrifice and courage of the revolutionaries, they begin to come around.

The film-within-a-film format allows Mehra to compare yesteryear’s idealism with today’s cynicism, and as Sue continues to film, the idealism of India’s revolutionary heroes seems to rub off on the youthful protagonists in Sue’s film. They take up a real cause and face danger and violence with courage and commitment, underscoring the point that the well of patriotism and idealism isn’t entirely dry yet.

To Mehra’s credit, what could easily have degenerated into a preachy, boring lecture on patriotism and Gandhian values is handled with a fine sense of nuance and a masterly light touch. The film revels in the light-hearted, irreverent banter of the slick city kids, throwing in a dollop of humor here and there, and the change in their hearts happens almost insidiously.

That also makes the change utterly believable.

The technical values are extraordinarily good, and acting performances of the young buddies are also uniformly good, with Kunal Kapoor’s Aslam and Siddharth’s Karan deserving particular mention.

And what of Aamir? Well, the fact that he can be compelling as a character decades younger speaks volumes of his acting prowess — but he is too old for the role.

The film’s ending has an element of melodrama that is in surprising contrast with the earlier part which is so finely nuanced — and rarely can you say that about a Hindi film.

This is not exactly a masterpiece — the chasm between the film festival circuit and Bollywood remains as wide as ever — but the film has class, style and attitude — all rare in your run-of-the-mill potboiler.

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He’s a convict on death row, having killed some cops who had brought destruction to his family. With uncontrolled hostility against the whole world, and cops in particular, Subramania Siva naturally doesn’t take kindly to senior cop Nandakumar’s suggestion to help them ferret out and eliminate some anti-social elements and traitors. Siva is finally persuaded to cooperate, his death faked, and he given a new identity as Paramasivan.

The hunt begins and while the convict and the cop flush out the traitors one by one, a CBI officer is hot on his trail, not quite convinced by the reported death of Siva.

For Ajith, the film is a suitable comeback vehicle, his sleek, lean mean look and long mane suiting the role. Vasu has projected him suitably, and the actor has improved on his dialogue delivery, and played his role well. It’s in the routine song-dance numbers that he looks a bit out of sorts.

The director has maintained an interesting, racy pace, the situations are slightly different for Tamil audiences, and the fights are well choreographed. Of course, some poetic license is taken, with some graphics helping out in the stunt scenes, like the one where the hero on a hot chase on his mobike zooms in and out of traffic, firing at his enemies!

Is Laila’s character naive or plain silly? Be that as it may, it’s high time she took a break from doing such roles. Prakashraj enacts Nandakumar with panache, while Jairam as the CBI officer has little to do.

Vidyasagar’s music is disappointing, and there is nothing much in the choreography of the dance numbers either.

Ajith is back in the reckoning and the actor’s fans won’t be disappointed with the film.

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• 4 cups puffed rice (available at Indian stores)
  
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 cup potato (boiled and diced)
  
• 2-3 green chillies, chopped
  
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts
  
• 1 tsp red pepper
  
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
  
• 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
  
• 1 tbsp mustard oil
  
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
• 2 cup sev (bhujia)
  

Method
Heat a dry pan and add ½ tbsp oil, turmeric and puffed rice. Stir for a minute and remove.

Take a large bowl. Add everything except puffed rice, mustard oil and sev and a tsp of cilantro. Add puffed rice, oil and and 1/2 cup of sev and mix thoroughly. Garnish with sev and chopped cilantro. Serve promptly, or puffed rice will lose its crispness.

Serves four.

- Seema Gupta is a homemaker.
She lives in Elk Grove, Calif.