THE INTERNATIONAL - International Indian

[ LETTERS ]
Indo-Pak Ties
After flipping through a few pages of The International Indian, while commuting by bus to work, my heart skipped a beat when
I saw the “Indo-Pak Ties” article. I read every single word of those heart-wrenching stories with tears and goose bumps. I am
a victim of this saga. Eyebrows are raised, when I submit my Indian passport as ID, after stating that I was born in Sindh (present
Karachi). After ten years of running around various high courts in Mumbai, I was finally granted a clean chit as an Indian along with
a passport. I’m sure there are many more people like me struggling for either an Indian or Pakistani visa to be able to visit relatives
on either side of the border. It’s a pity that my children who are now in their teens have not been able to visit Pakistan, and meet
their grandfather who’s mentally ill. I’d like everyone to know that I am proud to be Indian, even if I’m not a Hindu. Jai Hind
Henna Sajan, Sharjah, UAE
The Business of Education
Apropos your cover story, we appreciate the way in which GEMS
has created an excellent educational setup in the UAE. I fully
agree with your heading as education is now becoming a business.
We should acknowledge the efforts taken by the group in providing
quality education which obviously comes with a cost.
Teachers at Gems are a wonderful. This I was able to
ascertain within just 14 months of my kid’s presence in their
school. While we agree that teachers need to be paid well to be
retained, we are stunned by the increase in the transportation
costs. We hope that Gems will rethink this and ease our
burdens, because many men are being forced to send their
wives and kids back to India.
Vinodhkumar P, Dubai, UAE
Let there be light
A
s rightly pointed out in the article ‘The Changing
face of Diwali’ there has been a marked deviation in
the manner in which the festival used to be celebrated
a few years back. I remember my childhood days when
diyas made of clay were used to light up the houses. The
glow that they spread with the wick dancing in the wind
gave more warmth than the electric lights of today. The
early morning oil bath, visits to exchange homemade
sweets followed by the rounds of cracker bursting
have all become a thing of the past. Today I miss those
celebrations while I stand in front of the sweet shop to
buy my quota of sweets.
C Sunil Roy, Dubai, UAE
THE INTERNATIONAL
Est. 1992: The region’s oldest, authoritative
magazine of Gulf Indian Society & History
PUBLISHERS
Prof Prabhu Guptara
Santosh Shetty
FOUNDER EDITOR
Frank Raj
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Mona Parikh McNicholas
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Erik Raj Hadden
Prem Kishore
Benjamin Parker
Peter Souri Raj
Vishal Mangalwadi
TRAVEL EDITOR
Shana Raj Parker
PR MANAGER
Christine DeSouza
CORRECTION
The International Indian would like to apologise to Home
Centre and the Landmark Group for a mistake made by
the undersigned in our last issue (TII 15.5) in the article
‘See U at the top’, which was an interview with Mr. Jonathan
Jagtiani, CEO of Home Centre. The wrong pictures were
used by mistake, and therefore the names did not match
the people in two of the photographs carried in the article.
We are sorry that this mistake occurred and are grateful
for the continued support of Home Centre and the grace
with which they’ve accepted our rectification. Here are
the correct pictures with the senior management of Home
Centre and Landmark Group.
Mona Parikh McNicholas
Associate Editor
The International Indian
DESIGN
HB DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHER
J.M. Nicholas
INTERNATIONAL
CORRESPONDENTS
CANADA
SINGAPORE
UK
USA
BAHRAIN
OMAN
QATAR
Rubina Jacob
Amita Sarwal
Rudy Otter,
Sarina Menezes
Prem Kishore
Narang Shah
Rahul Dev
Ada Pillai
(L-R): Jonathan Jagtiani, CEO, Home Centre, Ibrahim Askar,
Vipen Sethi, CEO, Landmark Group, Balaji Sambasivam, GM,
Home Centre and Micky Jagtiani, Chairman, Landmark Group.
(L to R): Ajay Antal, GM (Furniture Buying), Rajan Narayan,
GM ( Household Buying), Bhaskar Venkatraman DGM
(Finance) and Jonathan Jagtiani, CEO, Home Centre
INDIA
Delhi
Chennai
Hyderabad
Mumbai
Vishal Arora
Daniel Benji
Shyamola Khanna
Navin Tauro
The two best letters to the editor will win
these exquisite Liali Jewellery pieces. Write
your thoughts to : The Editor, The International
Indian, by email to: frankraj@eim.ae
DIRECTOR
Raina Raj Hadden
COUNTRY HEAD INDIA
Feroz Shah
6
THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN
Circulation 25,000 copies
(Publisher’s figure)
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Membership Applied For February 2008
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