A
new branch of DESI at North Carolina
NC-RTP Visit – Talk on River Saraswati and River-Interlinking
project
Bargava Subramanian
When folks in North Carolina-Research Triangle decided to start a new DESI chapter, it was with a sense of deja vu that we went to their first public event. DESI-NC-RTP had organized a talk on River Saraswati and river-interlinking project in India by none other than Dr. Kalyanaraman at the NCSU campus at Raleigh. Dr. Kalyanaraman was a former senior executive at the Asian Development Bank. He took voluntary retirement from the Bank and returned to Bharat, to devote himself to his life-activity of researches on River Saraswati and her connection to the continuity of the Indian Civilization. He has been a mentor to the on campus DESI organization at UMD right from its inception in June 2003. The three of us – Arun, Om and myself set out for the talk. MORE
Navaratri
Kunal Kothari
As the Navaratri season comes to an end a lot of questions must be raised in everyone's minds regarding the festival. What does it signify, why is it celebrated and what is the significance of the various Garba and Dandiya dances associated with it. This article is just an effort to shed some light on some of these questions.
The festival of Navaratri is celebrated all over India to worship Goddess of Shakti, Durga. Mahisasura (buffalo demon), the king of asuras (demons) through his austerities and meditation was granted a boon from Brahma that no man or deity could kill him. Empowered by this, Mahisasura decided to take over all three worlds of earth, heaven and hell. All the deity Gods were constantly harassed by him and in despair under the leadership of king Indra, they approached the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Enraged by the acts of Mahisasura, the three Gods created Goddess Durga, a beautiful female through the union of their Shakti or divine power. Goddess Durga challenged Mahisasura, fought him for nine days and killed him on the tenth day of Vijayadashmi. MORE
Upcoming Events: From roots to Grassroots & Rajasthani Folk Music
Maoists
Gain Momentum in India
by B.Raman
"Ultimately, we will have to fight with the Indian army. That is
the situation. Therefore, we have to take into account the Indian army.
When the Indian army comes in with thousands and thousands of soldiers,
it will be a very big thing. But we are not afraid of the Indian Army."---Prachanda,
leader of the Maoists of Nepal, in an interview to a Maoist journalist
of Latin America.
The Maoists of Nepal see their armed struggle, based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, from three perspectives---the international, the Nepalese and the Indian.
While analysing the international situation, they admit that the proletarian movement all over the world has suffered a set-back, which, however, they consider as temporary, and that China, the birth place of Maoism, has been under the control of a counter-revolutionary group since the death of Mao. They attribute the set-back suffered by the international proletarian movement to international revisionism, modern revisionism, revisionism in China and Russian revisionism.
They are, at the same time, confident that the world would see in the medium term a revival of revolutionary fervour. According to them, the Shining Path guerillas of Peru sowed the seeds of this revival and, though they have suffered a set-back at the hands of the rightist opportunists, the spark of the revolutionary fire has since spread to Nepal and India from where it would set off a new prairie fire. MORE
Rasmalai
Lavanya Deshmukh
Of all the sweets from the east of India the Rasmali is the most amazing melt-in-the-mouth concoction ever tasted. Made of milk and sugar and all that's nice and sweet it is a soft pillow of whipped paneer floating in a heavenly bed of sweetened and flavoured basundi. And so it was with the idea of the delicate Rasmali from the little sweet shop just round the corner on the crossing of MG road and Brigade road in Bangalore, that I ordered the Rasmali in one of the Indian restaurants near College Park, and another restaurant and yet another one. However if one restaurant served it ice cold and ice hard, the other served it rubber like and chewy as a chewing gum might be. Terribly disappointing.
Until one day, when I was invited to a housewarming party by a cousin on my paternal side. She had just bought a spacious town house in the nice part of DC, and being who she was, decorated it beautifully with all the little things that she bought in her travels around the world. And while my husband and I were standing near the fireplace warming our chilly hands and voicing our admiration to the proud new owner, she came up to us with a tray of bowls filled with pale white liquid and fluffy mounds of something bobbing in the middle.
"Rasmalai!!!" I say in joy. "It looks good." I think to myself. I could not wait to bite in but... a little trepidation here, what with the hitherto undesirable experiences with the restaurant Rasmalai's. I lift a spoonful into my mouth, close my eyes and savour the most delicious Rasmalai I have had in the last six years that I have been outside of India. "This tastes great" I demure, making an understatement. "Where did you order it from?" I ask. "I made it myself" she proclaims confidently. I know that's a lie. She is the sweetest person I know but everyone in the family knows she can't cook. "Come on" I insist "tell me or I can always ask your mother". "Ok ok" she says "I discovered it recently, it comes frozen in a pack of 10 and you can buy it in almost any Indian Store."
It took me a week to convince my husband to drive us down to the Indian store. My husband, you see, isn't as bothered by the lack of good Rasmalai as I am. So there it was in the frozen section, in green rectangular packaging. It costs 7.99 dollars and is worth every cent. Its brand name is Nanak. So, try it.