EDITORIAL: Folk Art from India in Silicon Valley
The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles has a new exhibit — Folk Indian Textiles from the Collection of Carol Summers, on view now through April 28.
The exhibit showcases a variety of textiles used in everyday and festive occasions, including richly embroidered kantha cloths from the region of Bengal, shawls, dresses, children’s garments, bags, animal trappings, camel and bull covers and decorations, and a wall-sized banner once used to decorate outdoor festival pavilions.
Santa Cruz printmaker Carol Summers amassed his collection of Indian textiles over the course of many trips between 1974 and 2012. The collection represents the Rabari, Banjara, and Muslim communities, among others Summers has encountered in his travels, writes Julius Berman.
Terror strikes are nothing new to India but over the years people have experienced a steady decline in their faith on a system that has failed to come up with a credible national security strategy other than leaders mouthing old clichés time and again.
While it is impossible for the people to totally depend on government and police against every deadly violent attack, yet the government cannot be absolved of its responsibility for investing in ensuring national security and defense for the sake of human lives and peace.
Even disorganized bands of terrorists manage to assemble commonly available ingredients to make rudimentary bombs and place them in common targets.
India is sandwiched between two nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh, confirmed hotbeds of terror planners who outsource pan-Islamic-ideology-influenced terrorists to India and the West and fuel the outrage among minority sections by feeding their sense of victimhood. Added to the above is India’s own set of internal unresolved grievances that feed fundamentalist sections to unleash a sinister war on its citizens, writes Priyanka Bhardwaj.
India’s fringe elements have asserted themselves again. They have managed to keep away writer Salman Rushdie from Kolkata, held up actor Kamal Haasan’s movie in Tamil Nadu, conveniently misinterpreted a piece written by actor Shah Rukh Khan, virulently attacked sociologist Ashis Nandy’s views about corruption by lower castes and backward communities, and forced an all-girl rock band in Kashmir to quit, writes Siddharth Srivastava.
If globalization is a game, India would seem to be one of its winners. The past decade has seen India record impressive economic growth and move into fast-moving high tech sectors. Nowhere is this transition more apparent than in information and communication technology. While China has made a name for itself making information and communication technology hardware, India is known for its prowess in software. However, the rules are ever changing and India needs to change with it if it wants to stay ahead in the game, opines Andrew B. Kennedy.
President Obama recently issued National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Indian-American scientist Rangaswamy Srinivasan for his work with lasers. Rangaswamy was presented with the award along with James Wynne and Samuel Blum for the discovery of excimer laser ablative photo-decomposition of animal and human tissue, a technology that has helped with LASIK vision correction surgeries for one, writes Evelyn Gilding.
A team of two young entrepreneurs were pronounced finalists in an international business competition. Ruchit Majmudar and Vivek Calambur from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, Calif. are going to Houston, Texas for an Innovation Summit for the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge.
Their team, Warriors for Change, developed a product called TADD that uses cameras and Wi-Fi technology to identify potential drunk drivers and alert the highway patrol to reduce the number of tragic incidents.
Before the 2013 Innovation Summit, the Warriors for Change has one more hurdle to jump, the People’s Choice video contest. From March 18-29, the public is invited to review the profiles of the 20 finalist teams, view their product videos and cast a vote for their favorite video.
Bay Area residents are encouraged to vote for their hometown team by visiting www.conradawards.org/groups. One vote is allowed per person in each challenge category. Public votes provide valuable points in each team’s overall score, writes Carrie Taylor.
You can talk to anyone, a resident of Northern California or someone who has visited and they will all tell you pretty much the same answer: This has to be most beautiful, unique and diverse countryside in the nation. The further north you go the more bucolic and nature-friendly it becomes. On this journey we’re taking you on a serpentine carousel of undulating asphalt. You’re surrounded by the serene green waves of postcard villages, farmland and contented cows munching the grass with lazy insouciance, writes our travel editor Al Auger.
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