Pittsburgh_Patrika_July_2019

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Vol. 24, No: 4 July 2019 

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The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 24, No. 4, July 2019 

The Quarterly Magazine (Jan, Apr, Jul, and Oct) for the Indian Diaspora 

Vol. 24 No. 4 www.pittsburghpatrika.com July 2019 

4006 Holiday Park Drive, Murrysville, PA 15668 

Phone/Fax: (724) 327 0953 e-mail: ThePatrika@aol.com 

“Like” us on Facebook at 

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Highlights in this issue... ... ... 

1 

Page 

India’s Mother of All Elections 

By Deepak Kotwal ......................................................................... 2 

University of Pittsburgh Delegation Travels Throughout India 

By Pitt Global: University Center for Int’l Studies....................... 7 

British Airways Non-Stop Flight to London 

By Premlata Venkataraman .......................................................... 10 

The New York Times and Narendra Modi 

By Kollengode S Venkataraman................................................... 12 

Victory is the Best Sweet Revenge 

By Kollengode S Venkataraman................................................... 14 

Supporters Gathered to Celebrate Modi’s Election Victory 

By Premlata Venkataraman........................................................... 23 

Obituary: V. Udaya Shankar Rao: 1938 to March 26, 2019 

By K.S.V.L.Narasimhan................................................................ 24 

Pazhaya Paadal, Puthiya Aadal! Old Film Songs on 

Bharatanatyam Stage 

By G. Paul Manoharan.................................................................. 26 

High-Protein Low-Carb Idlies 

By K S Venkataraman................................................................... 28 

Ha!! 

..................................................................................................... 30 

On the Cover: — Qingdao is a second-tier metropolitan area in China on 

the shores of the Yellow Sea, an important port city with a shipping yard 

and naval base. The picture shows a suburban downtown area with several 

25-storey upscale apartment complexes. Story in the next issue. •


The Quarterly Magazine (Jan, Apr, Jul, and Oct) for the Indian 

Vol. 24 No 4 www.pittsburghpatrika.com July 2019 

Phone/Fax: (724) 327 0953 

2 

e-mail: ThePatrika@aol. 

India’s Mother of All Elections 

By Deepak Kotwal, Squirrel Hill, PA 

Editor’s Note: Deepak Kotwal, a long-time resident in our 

area, juxtaposes the Indian national elections with our own 

elections in the US. 

The mother of all elections in the world is over and 

the results stunned the Western, and even the urban, 

Indian political pundits. Typically, Western media use 

suave English-speaking Indian interlocutors to interpret 

India for the West. These people are educated in elite 

and exclusive English medium schools, and often have no exposure to 

Indian history, languages, 

culture, ethos and India’s 

hinterland. Their urban and 

anglicized family upbringing 

has made it difficult 

for them to understand the 

complexities of a multilingual, 

multireligious, and 

ethnically diverse India, 

as happened in the 2019 

election season. All their 

projections went haywire, 

with the Bharatiya Janata 

Party getting an absolute 

majority (with 303 seats 

out of 524), even better 

than what they got in 2014 

(282 out of 543). 

As a long-time American 

resident of Indian 

origin living in the US, 

several features contrasting 

The Mindboggling Indian Election 

• India’s population: 1,300 million — Hindus, 

Shias, Sunnis, Sikhs, Jains, Catholics, 

Protestants, Pentecostals, with the Muslims 

and Christians often carrying their Hindu caste 

identities into their faiths. 

• Eligible voters: 900 million; over 600 million 

cast their votes. 84-million first-time voters. 

• Number of Major languages with unique 

scripts: 17 plus English. 

• 464 national and regional parties in the fray. 

• 8500-plus candidate seeking to 545 seats in 

the parliament. 

• Number of polling stations: 1 million 

• Number of officials working to ensure fair 

elections: over 10 million 

• The warmest temperature during election: 

107 F 

• Highest elevation of a polling booth: Over 

15,000 ft in Himachal Pradesh.


The victors at the second inaugural. L to R: Narendra Modi, 

Prime Minister; Rajnath Singh, Home Minister; Amit Shah, the 

BJP President and the architect of political campaign; and Nitin 

Gadkari, a cabinet minister and a confidant. 

the Indian 

and American 

systems 

come to my 

mind. 

• In the 

presidential 

system of the 

U.S., it is 

very difficult 

to remove 

the POTUS 

despite clear 

evidence of 

ethical violations, 

if not crimes, committed by someone holding the highest elected 

office in the nation. In the Indian parliamentary system, if a majority of 

the members of the parliament lose confidence in the PM, he/she can be 

removed by a no-confidence vote. 

• Elections in India are conducted by the Election Commission, 

an autonomous federal body with considerable independence once the 

elections are announced. In the US, the elections are conducted by state 

and local governments which have wide latitude in how they go about 

the process, resulting in 

gerrymandering and voter 

suppression rules in 

many Republican-controlled 

states. In India, 

on the other hand, the 

Election Commission 

goes to great lengths to 

ensure that every eligible 

voter goes to vote. 

Their logistical efforts to 

set up voting stations in 

remote villages for just a 

few voters are legendary. 

The Commission has a 

The vanquished from L to R: Sonia Gandhi, the 

President of United Progressive Alliance, led by 

the Congress Party; Rahul Gandhi, the Congress 

Party’s president; and Manmohan Singh, the twoterm 

UPA prime minister and a Gandhi loyalist. 

hard-earned reputation of integrity, fairness and being nonpolitical, having 

conducted 15 nation-wide national elections and countless elections 

for state legislatures. 

• Voter suppression efforts in the US emanate from its political/ 

Indian Elections... ... Continued on Page 30 

4


5


University of Pittsburgh Delegation Travels 

Throughout India 

By Pitt Global, University Center for International Studies 

This spring, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher 

participated in an aarti puja ceremony on the banks of the Ganga 

in northern India. The ritual held special 

significance for the chancellor and the 

Pittsburgh delegation, as the ceremony was 

directed by the founder and spiritual leader 

of Pittsburgh’s Hindu Jain Temple, Swami 

Chidanand Saraswati, who now leads the 

Parmarth Niketan spiritual retreat center. 

Hundreds of pilgrims and local residents 

watched the chancellor and the group light 

lamps during the daily event. Earlier in the 

day, Muniji honored the group with warm 

words of welcome and support for Pitt’s 

growing investment in the development of 

Indian studies. 

Pitt’s Chancellor Patrick Gallagher 

planted a sapling at the Indian 

School of Business in Hyderabad 

after signing a Memorandum 

of Understanding between the 

school and Pitt. 

The Rishikesh visit was part of the University 

delegation’s extensive travels through 

I n d i a t o 

strengthen 

e x i s t i n g 

partnerships, 

lay foundations for new programs 

and deepen connections with alumni networks.After 

Rishikesh, the delegation 

visited Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and 

Mussoorie for meetings with corporate 

executives, central and state government 

officials and senior leadership from 

educational institutions. 

“W 

e are grateful for the 

opportunity to focus on 

strengthening the intersections between 

India and the University of Pittsburgh 

while advancing key collaborations in 

the areas of innovation and research,” 

Chancellor Gallagher remarked at the 

7 

Chancellor Gallagher and Dr. P Sudhakar 

Reddy, UPMC Professor of 

Medicine with MediCiti staff outside 

Hyderabad.


start of the May travels. 

Indian studies scholar Dr. Joseph Alter, director of Pitt’s Asian Studies 

Center, Dr. Ariel C. Armony, vice provost for global affairs, and Dr. 

Arjang A. Assad, dean of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business 

and College of Business Administration, were among other members 

of the Pitt delegation. 

The University signed three new memorandums of understanding in 

Hyderabad. An agreement with the Indian School of Business (ISB), a 

premier institution at the cutting edge of Asian globalization, will allow 

the institutions to work together to develop programs focused on innovations 

in health care. The agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology 

(IIT) will result in new faculty research collaborations and student 

learning programs focused on inclusive innovation. And a broad-spectrum 

agreement with the Telangana State Council for Higher Education will 

open the door for Pitt partnerships with multiple institutions in the state. 

O u t s i d e o f 

Hyderabad, the 

delegation visited 

MediCiti, an innovative 

medical 

complex serving 

rural communities 

established by 

Dr. P.S. Reddy, 

UPMC professor of 

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher on the banks of the Ganga in 

Rishikesh with Shri Chidanand Saraswati of the Paramartha 

Niketan. 

8 

medicine and chairperson 

of SHARE 

India. 

Three members 

of the Chancellor’s Global Advisory Council, all Pitt alumni, provided 

key assistance in planning the trip throughout India, Mr. Aditya Vikram 

R. Somani, chairman of Everest Tech, Ms. Archana Hingorani, founder 

of Siana Capital Management, and Mr. Abhishek Singh Mehta, founder 

and principal of Blue Lotus Investments. 

Deepening and expanding its ties in Delhi early in the trip, the Pitt 

delegation had productive meetings with senior staff from the Office of 

the President of India and leadership from the American Institute of Indian 

Studies, the U.S.-India Educational Foundation and IILM University. 

A highlight of the Mumbai visit was the chancellor’s speech at the 

prestigious Asiatic Society, where business leaders and scholars heard 

him present from the historic Durbar Hall stage about innovative public/ 

private solutions to cybersecurity challenges.


The trip concluded with a visit to the Hanif Center for Outdoor Education 

and Environmental Study in Mussoorie, where the University runs 

the popular Pitt in the Himalayas study 

abroad programs focused on health, 

leadership and the environment. The 

delegation had an opportunity to hear 

from students who worked beside doctors 

and nurses in outreach mobile clinics 

serving local villages, and others who 

participated in field-based leadership 

Chancellor Gallagher and Indian 

School of Business Dean (and a Pitt 

alumnus) Rajendra Srivastav, after 

signing an MoU between the two 

institutions. 

programs in one of the most important 

regions of the world. 

The 2019 India trip was a success 

by many measures. With the help of 

dedicated faculty and leadership, and with 

continued strong support from the Indian community of Pittsburgh, the 

University of Pittsburgh will build on the momentum of the 2019 delegation 

visit to strengthen its ties within the country. 

To learn more about the University of Pittsburgh’s global partnerships 

and programs, visit www.pitt.edu/global. • 

9


British Airways Non-Stop Flight to London 

By Premlata Venkataraman 

L to R: Christina Cassotis, CEO the Airport Authority; Rich 

Fitzgerald, Chief Executive, Allegheny County; a British Airways 

Official; and Dennis Davin, PA Secretary, Department of Community 

and Economic Development during the inaugural gala. 

On April 2, around 6:30 PM the British Airways’ inaugural flight 

BA-171 (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) landed at Pittsburgh International 

Airport with fanfare 

and English 

paraphernalia 

decorating the 

baggage claim 

area. 

Twenty years 

ago, in the heyday 

of Pittsburgh 

being a USAirways 

hub, British 

Airways had 

a non-stop flight 

from Pittsburgh 

to London-Ghatwick. 

Two decades later, we are getting a 4-days-a-week (Tue, Wed, 

Fri, and Sun) all-year-around nonstop to London Heathrow. The incoming 

flight departs London around 4:00 PM (local time), and lands at PIT 

around 7:20 PM. The returning flight (BA 170) leaves PIT at 9:50 PM, 

landing at London Heathrow at 10:00 AM (local time). 

For getting this nonstop flight, British Airways is getting, (or is extracting, 

depending on your 

viewpoint) $3 million in 

subsidies over two years 

coming from a state economic 

development fund. 

Subsidies to air carriers 

is the norm these days for 

all second-tier cities for 

getting nonstop flights 

The BA’s inaugural Flight at the gate. 

to European and Asian 

destinations. 

The Airport Authority estimates that around 50,000 people travel to 

London annually from our region. It is noteworthy that last September 

Delta ended its seasonal nonstop from Pittsburgh to Paris, probably anticipating 

the British Airways nonstop to London Heathrow. • 

10


11


The New York Times and Narendra Modi 

Kollengode S. Venkataraman 

The New York Times’ editorial bias against the Indian Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi is well known. Its editorials and editorial Board’s consensus 

articles have been anti-Modi. Modi-bashing writers bearing Indian 

names from universities, think tanks, and other literary figures — such as 

Amartya Sen, Salman Rushdie, Pankaj Misha and Arundhati Roy — are a 

staple in the Times’ Op-ed page articles. In 2013, before the last general 

elections in 2015 the Nobel-winning economist, the Bharat Ratna recipient, 

and Harvard professor Amartya Sen said, he does not want Modi to 

become India’s prime minister as he does not have secular credentials. 

Op-ed pages are supposed to accommodate a diversity of opinions. But 

on India’s social, cultural and political issues, not only are the NYT editorials 

are consistently anti-Modi (which is entirely acceptable), but even 

its news coverage and visuals that go with the stories are also anti-Modi, 

and OpEd writers appear to be chosen to echo its editorials. For all the 

freedom of expression the Times professes, often, on India-related articles, 

it shuts off readers’ comments knowing full well the type of response it 

would receive from a wide swathe of Indian-American readers. 

In this background, the Times published this article (May 20, 2019) 

by Jeffrey Gettleman with the title without recognizing the irony: 

“The Choice in India: ‘Our Trump’ or a Messier Democracy,” (www. 

nytimes.com/2019/05/20/world/asia/modi-india-election.html) 

In the article, Gettleman writes: “These days, it’s not unusual to hear 

Indians describe Modi as ‘our Trump,’ which is said in antipodal ways, 

either with pride or scorn.” He should have identified the names and 

affiliations of those who claim Modi as “Our Trump.” 

Gettleman quotes “a well-known political commentator” telling him 

this on Modi: “Trump and Modi are twins separated by continents.” His 

article only mentions the name of “the well-known political commentator” 

without identifying his affiliation. He is Chandra Bhan Prasad. This 

is unusual for the Times, which rarely uses the names of people without 

identifying their affiliations. A Google-search revealed that Mr. Prasad 

is associated with the Center for the Advanced Study on India (CASI) at 

the University of Pennsylvania, This is how the CASI describes Prasad 

in its website www.casi.sas.upenn.edu/visiting/prasad : 

“Chandra Bhan Prasad is widely regarded as the most important Dalit 

thinker and political commentator in India today, advocating on behalf of 

the more than sixteen percent of India’s population who have historically 

been regarded as untouchable by orthodox Hinduism. Mr. Prasad is a 

research affiliate on CASI’s Dalit research program and serves as a key 

12


advisor to the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI). 

He was the first Dalit to gain a regular space in a nationally circulating 

Indian newspaper, more than fifty years after India’s independence, 

quickly attracting national attention and widespread readership … … His 

articles and books are used by South Asia faculty in universities throughout 

the world to question longstanding assumptions about caste and Indian 

society. Prasad studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, where 

he completed his M.A. and M.Phil. His story and writings can be seen at 

his website: www.chandrabhanprasad.com.” 

We acknowledge Mr. Prasad is a commentator with an impressive 

pedigree. Nevertheless, he is a partisan, representing and 

fighting for the Dalits’ causes on a global platform. His erudition and 

rise from humble background are exemplary, and we respect him for his 

commitment to his causes. 

In India, and in all democracies including the U.S., appeasement votebank 

politics are widely practiced by political parties based on a whole 

range of local criteria. In India, appeasement politics is successfully exploited 

by a plethora of pressure groups based on religion, caste, ethnicity 

and locally relevant minority status. India’s Dalit leaders have been 

effectively using the vote-bank politics with a rare blend of finesse and 

muscle power to advance their causes. Good for them. As a Dalit activist 

and political commentator, Mr. Prasad is free and fully entitled to work 

for his causes and air his opinion on anyone, anytime, anywhere. 

But it is deceitful and disingenuous on Gettleman’s and the Times’ part 

not to identify Prasad’s affiliation and background. How often do we see 

the NYT using names in stories without identifying their affiliations? 

Now, with this information on Mr Prasad as a Dalit activist on a global 

platform, and the Dalit leaders’ visceral dislike for Modi, when you read 

Mr. Prasad’s comment that “Trump and Modi are twins separated by 

continents,” you get a better understanding and a different feeling. Incidentally, 

Modi belongs to India’s Backward Caste. 

Contary to Mr. Prasad’s characterization that Modi and Trump are 

“twins separated by continents,” Modi and Trump stand in sharp contrast 

to each other on a whole range of criteria. See the box on Page 18. 

These contrasts aside, Gettleman goes on: “Political analysts say 

[pray, who are they?] there is no shortage of similarities between 

the two, including their combative style, their prolific use of Twitter and 

their talent for stoking nationalism — and spreading fear — to firm up 

their bases.” 

Show me one politician who does not have a combative style. And if 

one is not combative, why should one even seek elective office? Combative 

styles are natural to rulers. There is even a Sanksrit term for it, Rajasic 

New York Times... ... continued on Page 18 

13


Victory is the Best Sweet Revenge 

By Kollengode S Venkataraman 

Narendra Modi won a super-duper majority any which way one 

dices India’s national election results of 2019. And he did this 

despite all projections and a strenuous campaign by media — particularly 

the English media in India and outside India. This English media — not 

the Indian regional languages media — was shocked at the level of widespread 

support for Modi and the total rejection of the combined opposition 

by voters. Finally, the Indian communists, still wedded to Marxism 

three decades after it was abandoned by China and Russia (their spiritual 

masters), received a humiliating body blow. 

Given how complex India is in every social, geographic, economic, 

ethnic, linguistic, religion-based criterion anyone could ever come up with, 

this is a remarkable success with SIX HUNDRED MILLION voters going 

to the polls. In many parts, it was summer, with temperatures over 105 F 

(40 Celsius). It is impossible for most editorial writers of the world sitting 

in air-conditioned rooms to comprehend how diverse and complex India 

is, and how comprehensive Modi’s support was in this election. 

The global and Indian English media, by choosing to selectively listen 

and write to their English-speaking elite audience, completely missed 

the pulse of the ordinary Indian voters living outside the boundaries of 

Mumbai, Delhi and other large cities. Ved Mehta, a well-known English 

writer and editor said something like this on the Indian elitist media: 

They are like corks floating on turbulent waters, believing that they are 

making the waves. 

How did this happen? Let me start with the local. The Post-Gazette 

reprinted Emily Schmall’s AP story with this title: Modi’s Hindunationalist 

BJP heads for a landslide victory in India’s elections. 

Schmall writes, “The victory in India was widely seen as a referendum 

on Mr. Modi’s Hindu-first politics that some observers say have bred 

intolerance toward Muslims and other religious minorities, as well as his 

muscular stance on neighboring Pakistan, with whom India nearly went 

to war earlier this year.” What are the names and affiliations of, at least, 

some of those whom she refers to as “some observers”? 

Incidentally, it is no coincidence that American or UK media, particularly 

print media, always mention Modi with the self-serving and 

self-fulfilling epithets like “Fundamentalist,” “Polarizing,” “Hindu,” 

“Nationalist,” “Right Wing” or other pejorative qualifiers. The Indian 

English media also uses these condescending phrases: “Saffron Brigade,” 

“Cow Belt,” and “Sangh Parivar.” Will they ever dare to routinely use 

14


similar pejorative terms like “Red Brigade,” “Comrade Gang,” “Marxist 

mafia,” and other phrases for communists, and similar phrases for the 

Congress Party? Here are other examples of the mocking use of pejorative 

terms: 

• The Economist, May 2, 2019 article before the elections titled 

Agent Orange — Under Narendra Modi, India’s ruling party poses a threat 

to democracy. It gave this unsolicited advice: “Voters should turf it out, 

or at least force it to govern in coalition.” The phrase Agent Orange in 

the caption is enough to tell The Economist’s bias. For readers who do 

not know, Agent Orange is dioxin, a carcinogenic defoliant the US army 

sprayed extensively all over Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s in its war to 

destroy the thick forests which were the Vietcong’s hold outs. The website 

www.agentorangerecord.com states this on Agent Orange: “While 

scientists debate over who was exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin… … the 

fact [is] that... several million Vietnamese were exposed over a period 

of at least a decade to [dioxin]… …” Thousands of children were born 

with severe birth defects to women who ingested this deadly defoliant. 

In today’s world, this would have amounted to a war crime. 

And The Economist had the gall to flippantly compare Modi and the BJP 

to Agent Orange. There was not a whimper from the elite Indian English 

media on this outrageous phrase used by the influential UK weekly. 

• Bloomberg News’ Mihir Sharma (May 27, 2019) title: Modi's 

Win Is a Populist Warning to the World, with this opening paragraph: 

“It’s a terrible feeling to discover that your country is full of strangers. 

For some in India, the election of Narendra Modi in 2014, with a majority 

that India hadn’t seen in three decades, was that moment. … It meant 

that far more Indians than imaginable were willing to trust a leader with 

so disquieting a record.” The “some in India” are the India’s anglicized 

elite living in denial in their own exclusive enclaves. 

• The Week magazine’s Damon Linker (May 21, 2019): Democracy 

isn't dying. Liberalism is“ [T]his week, voters… … in EU parliamentary 

elections could deliver a quarter or more of the seats to the continent's 

right-wing populists and nationalists. Meanwhile, exit polls in India suggest 

that Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party will win re-election 

when results are announced on May 23…” 

• Foreign Affairs, April 11, 2019 Gurucharan Das title for the article 

was this: The Modi Mirage. The title alone says it all. 

One wonders if they would dare to routinely use such pejorative 

terms “Fundamentalist,” “Polarizing,” “Christian,” “Nationalist,” 

“Right Wing,” “Bible-Thumping” and others for the GOP, which 

is essentially dominated by right-wing, flag-waving Red-White-and-Blue 

Nationalists, including even those waving Confederate flags. 

Victory’s Revenge... continued on Page 21 

15


New York Times.. ... Continued from Page 13 

temperament, or the temperament of people wielding raw power. 

Which politician is not nationalistic? Politicians all over the world — 

including US Presidents — have used fear to firm up their bases. In our 

own time, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, Bush-43 and Trump effectively 

used fear to firm up their base. Bush-43 even went to a costly war in Iraq 

inciting fear of a nuclear Iraq — a blatantly untrue premise. 

with social media and instant communication, nobody, 

Today, not even those sitting in the ivory towers of tenured jobs in 

• Trump a millionaire’s son; Modi born in a modest home. 

endowed chairs 

in universities, 

• Trump bought his way to earn his MBA; Modi educated or those spending 

himself in the hardest possible way to earn his degrees. 

retirement 

• Trump never held a job; he inherited his dad’s real estate 

years in think 

business; Modi sold tea in a train station to help his 

tanks, have a 

father. 

monopoly over 

data, analysis, 

• Trump declared six bankruptcies in running his business; interpretations 

Modi never ran a business. 

and opinions, 

• Trump ran gambling casinos that go with many disrepu- in political and 

table accoutrements. For a US president and a global social studies involving 

leader of a powerful democracy, no politician anywhere 

races, 

can come anywhere close to Trump on this. Certainly castes, ethnicities 

not Modi. 

and reli- 

• Trump’s personal life is messy with all kinds of misbehavior 

gions. 

towards women; Modi’s is impeccable, at least so far. 

M a n y o f 

these intellectuals 

(this is fast 

• Decades ago, as an RSS pracharak, Modi travelled all 

over India in second class trains; Trump had retainers and becoming a pejorative 

term 

sidekicks around him to pave the way for him. 

• Modi was the popularly elected chief minister for an these days) — 

important state in India for fifteen years winning three both from the 

elections. Trump never held any elected office until he right and left 

became the president. 

— sit far away 

from the fields 

• Modi is fastidious and disciplined in his personal life — he 

of action, in 

even fasts; Trump’s lifestyle is sybaritic and profligate on 

urban centers, 

many measures. 

in touch with 

“like-minded” thinkers living in different time zones, different countries, 

and different cultures. Predictably, people who interact only with 

other “like-minded” people end up in echo chambers in different topics, 

impervious to differing ideas and hypotheses to consider. 

18


Even in the sterile physical and biological sciences, it is painful for 

someone who has built up his/her whole career on axioms and ideas, to 

discard them in the face of mounting evidence against them. It is that much 

more difficult in societal and political studies dealing with class, race, 

ethnicity, poverty and wealth — and in the Indian context, also involving 

languages, castes, and religions. 

Governing India is a task unlike anything that one can comprehend, 

given how complex and diverse India is on every criterion known to 

mankind. India is not like a well-cultivated California vineyard or a 

Florida orchard. It is like a dynamic tropical forest’s complex ecosystem 

that supports and sustains countless species of plants, birds, reptiles and 

animals in perpetual struggle to maintain a semblance of equilibrium. 

Trying to understand other cultures through sterile reports, comparison 

tables, graphs and pie charts, not to speak of GDPs and GDP growth rates, 

per-capita-this and per-capita-that, though necessary, is just not sufficient. 

The global English media, particularly in the US and UK, working on 

deadlines and time- and space-constraints, do not seem to get it. 

The Indian English media’s brown sahebs do not care about what 

the media in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia say on India. These 

brown sahebs’ current obsession with the US media is understandable. 

Today, the U.S. is militarily powerful, economically rich and dynamic, 

technologically innovative, and globally influential on many fronts. And 

nearly 3 million Indians and Indian-Americans live in the US, most of 

them in professional jobs. And among them are the Brown Saheb Indians’ 

classmates, cousins, nephews and nieces, sons and daughters. 

But their fascination with the UK is puzzling. It is just a holdover from 

India’s colonial past. Britain is no more “Great” Britain. And the empire 

collapsed over 70 years ago, and India became a republic 70 years ago. 

In assessing the Indian elections in 2019 the English-speaking West 

(mainly, US and UK), and their surrogates in the anglicized Indian 

English media completely missed what was happening on the ground. No 

wonder they could not recognize the subterranean rumblings. 

In a famous Buddhist parable, ten blind men of Hindustan tried to describe 

an elephant through their tactile experience on the part they touched. 

Today, the media moguls of Englishtan, blinded by overconfidence and 

condescension, sitting in New York, London, and Washington, and their 

deputies in India’s English media houses pass judgement on India based on 

their partial understanding and fixated opinions. They are partially correct; 

but they missed the big picture, as it happened in this elections. 

Of these two groups, members of the anglicized Indian media are 

the worst. One can understand the historical biases and prejudices of the 

19


western media, like the Times, Time, and the London broadsheets. But the 

Indian brown sahebs’ unfamiliarity of Indian’s hinterland is inexcusable. 

These Indian brown sahebs are essentially products of upper crust or upper 

middle-class India, living in Mumbai, Delhi and other metro areas. Most 

of them are educated in only-English-medium schools from KG onwards, 

and may have a working familiarity with “vernaculars” like Hindi, Punjabi, 

Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam… And many are further educated in England 

and the U.S., cut off from India’s ethos on many measures. 

With the 2019 elections results going haywire from their predicted 

outcome, they are in disarray and look foolish. Having gone to “Convent” 

schools, they are in a confessional mode now. 

One hopes now that these brown sahebs will liberate themselves 

from the Lutyen mindset of looking at Indian through American 

and British lenses; and as Rajiv Malhotra of the Infinity Foundation has 

said on many occasions, learn to understand India through Indian lenses. 

This will not be easy, and will take time, This would involve some serious 

unlearning and re-learning of their ideas of the Indian subcontinent in all 

its complexities, warts and all. As any addict knows, freeing oneself from 

bad habits or recursive thinking, is difficult. This would involve several 

topics in which they need to learn simultaneously: 

• Learning India’s history through the several regional dynasties 

going beyond the Mauryas, Guptas, Lodhis, Khiljis, and the Mughals. 

For example, learning about Satavahanas, Solankis, Kakatiyas, Cholas, 

Pandyas, Cheras, Marathas, Vijayanagara Empire, and the Sikhs; 

• Familiarizing themselves with Indian’s complex histories in all its 

social, cultural, linguistic and literary transitions; 

• Learning one or two regional languages, not as “vernaculars,” but 

in some depth to understand their histories, literary works and the social, 

ethical, and philosophical ideas they convey; 

• Learning to appreciate India’s pre-Mughal architectural wonders 

by understanding the civil and structural engineering basis of the temples 

that have stood for several hundred years before the arrival of Islam, and 

which are still standing with minimal maintenance; 

• Understanding the basis of India’s unique place in visual arts (sculpting, 

metal casting, and paintings), and pre-Mughal performing arts (music 

and dance). 

If they do this in some seriousness, they would get a better insight into 

their own history and ethos in the years ahead. Otherwise, they will become 

irrelevant in their own time. And what is worse for them, they will become 

a laughingstock for the rest of India, which they have already become at 

least in one measure, as the results of the 2019 elections show. • 

20


Victory’s Revenge ... Continued from Page 15 

Rural, working class, less-educated Christian Fundamentalists and 

Baptists are crucial components in the GOP’s vote-bank political calculus. 

To a great extent, the American Democratic Party is “Nationalist” and 

“Christian” as well, with Catholics, Blacks, Hispanics, newer immigrants, 

and liberal Jews, Asians and Indians forming a big part of its vote bank. 

The fact is, to varying degrees, all political parties all over the world 

create and sustain, and depend on the locally relevant vote banks to win 

elections. The Congress Party in India has mastered the vote-bank politics 

by appeasing minorities, exploiting their insecurities and fragmenting the 

Hindus along caste lines. So, the global media is disingenuous in trying 

to isolate and portray BJP as the only culprit. 

Besides, politicians in the US prominently project themselves on TV 

screens during campaigns as pious Christians going with their spouses to 

Sunday church services. They routinely declare the Christian denominations 

they belong to. The media routinely asks how the candidates’ religious 

beliefs would influence their political decisions if they are elected. 

This places the Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim candidates — not to speak 

of the polytheistic idol-worshipping Hindu candidates — under a cloud, 

forcing them to explain and defend their faith and justify their candidacy 

for elective offices. 

Remember, John F. Kennedy was the first Irish-heritage Catholic US 

president (1961-63), elected 185 years after the republic was formed in 

1776. And it took another 48 years, or 215 years after July 1776 for the 

US to get a Black president in the personage of Barack Obama. 

The US news weekly Time, once a flagship among the US news 

weeklies, barely exists in today’s newsstands. Before the 2019 

Indian election, Time ran a story captioned “India’s Divider in Chief” cynically 

portraying Modi on its cover page, written 

by Aatish Taseer, who was born in London and 

educated in exclusive schools in India before 

moving to the U.S. for his university education. 

His Wikipedia profile says, “He divides 

his time between New Delhi and London.” So, 

I maybe forgiven if I surmise that he may not 

know India’s complexities by living in Delhi 

during his sojourns, nor may he understand the 

UK by living in metropolitan London. 

In the UK’s context, the entire city of London 

is a gated community with exclusive enclaves, where the London elites 

live among the Middle eastern Sheikhs, Chinese/Indian tycoons, Russian 

oligarchs and others. These exclusive Londoners have their own values, 

21


priorities and culture, cut off from the other hoi polloi Londoners, not to 

speak of the those in the UK’s hinterland. 

This prototype exists in every nation’s capital or big metro areas like 

Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Munich... In New Delhi, they are the 

Delhi Lutyens, and lately Delhi’s Khan Market Gang. A ton of their 

exploits are available on the Internet. Today, the Lutyens are no more 

Delhi-specific. The term has become a metaphor for all elite and exclusive 

power-brokers in Indian politics wherever they live. 

Taseer, who wrote the Time article deriding Modi, is the son of Talveen 

Singh, a columnist in The Indian Express and Salmaan Taseer, the Pakistani 

politician and businessman. Talveen Singh, by her own admission (see 

www.tinyurl.com/TalveenSingh-LutyenDelhi), was raised in the Lutyen’s 

Delhi. So, Aatish Taseer has been hopping from one exclusive neighborhood 

in London to another in New Delhi. Obviously, he is no Naipaul. 

Then, to soften the blow and to appear fair, in the same issue, Time 

balanced Taseer’s vitriol on Modi by running another story by Ian Bremmer, 

with the title, “Modi Is India's Best Hope for Economic Reform.“ 

Bremmer is Time’s Foreign Affairs Columnist and Editor-at-Large. 

The Indian Brown Saheb English media (both in print and on TV), as 

expected, lapped up Taseer’s story, giving it wide coverage, implying 

how bad Modi is, now that even Time — yes, goodness gracious, THE 

Time — has given its verdict on him even before the election. The Indian 

English media did not give Bremmer’s story even a tenth of coverage it 

gave to Taseer’s venom on Modi. This is no accident. The Indian English 

media folks have vested interest in cultivating on first-name basis Taseer 

and other writers bearing Indian names (Pankaj Misra, Salman Rushdie, 

Amartya Sen, Tunku Varadarajan, for example) living in London, New 

York, Washington DC, California, and other places. 

Then after Modi’s landslide victory, the same Time magazine, to recover 

its integrity — and relevance in the English-reading media world all 

around the globe — published another story titled “Modi Has United India 

Like No Prime Minister in Decades,” by Manoj Ladwa, who worked for 

the Modi campaign in 2014. 

But the self-inflicted damage was done both for Time and its surrogates 

running the English media in India. Indian English Media, which only a 

fortnight ago gave wide coverage to the Time’s “Divider in Chief” article, 

made an abrupt U-turn and had a field day berating Time. 

One only hopes that the Indian Brown Saheb English media owners, 

managers, and editors will learn their lesson. But one can never be sure. 

The wannabe Indian Goras’ lack of self-confidence on account of their 

lack of awareness of India’s ethos runs very, very deep. • 

22


Supporters Gathered to Celebrate Modi’s 

Election Victory 

On Thursday, May 23, many admirers of India’s prime minister Narendra 

Modi in our area under the banner NRIs 4 Modi-2019 celebrated 

the totally unexpected 

big reelection 

victory 

of Modi. They 

gathered at the 

Triveni Center 

Banquet Hall 

in Monroeville 

L to R: Dr. Ravi Balu, Satish Shukla Dr. Udaybhan Pandey, Harilal 

Patel and Hitesh Mehta. 

6th PIC-5K Walkathon in Fall 2019 

To Raise Money for the Needy in our Area 

The annual PIC-5k walkathon 2019 is scheduled for Saturday, September 

14 for raising money for the homeless, provide healthcare for 

the needy, and support the emergency responders in our area. Their 

ambitious fund-raising goal for this year is $100,000 

The venue is the Boat House at the North Park. You can run, jog, or 

walk with your friends, and also make new friends. Registration starts 

at 8:00 am at the Boat House in the park, and the walkathon starts at 

9:30 am. For details, visit www.pic5k.org. • 

23 

and replayed his 

election speech. 

For the details 

more details please contact Harilal Patel at harilalp@yahoo.com. — By 

Premlata Venkataraman •


Obituary: V. Udaya Shankar Rao 

1938 to March 26, 2019 

By K. S. V. L Narasimhan, Moorestown, NJ 

Vallabhajosyula Udaya Shankar Rao, known simply as Uday to his 

friends, passed away on March 26, 2019 after stoically living through Parkinson’s 

disease for the last few years. He was 80. He was born on August 

4, 1938 in Vijayanagaram, a small town along the Coastal Andhra Pradesh 

north of Vishakhapatnam. 

With his mother 

passing away when he 

was young, he and his 

two young-er sisters 

were raised by their 

aunt Aadilakshmi, and 

her husband Voruganti 

Lakshmikantham. 

After obtaining a 

Uday, standing extreme right with W. Edward Wallace 

(center), the inventor of modern high-strength magnetic 

materials. Narasimhan is left extreme. (circa 1970s). 

24 

bachelor’s degree with 

honors from Andhra 

University (1958), Uday 

joined TIFR and earned 

a PhD in physics from the University of Bombay (1967). In Mumbai, 

when he was hospitalized briefly, he met his future wife, Cecilia, an 

attending nurse at the hospital. After their marriage in 1966, they came 

to the United States in 1968 with Uday’s postdoctoral fellowship at the 

University of Pittsburgh, where he later became an assistant professor. 

Uday was highly respected among the post-doctoral fellows .His ability 

to break down complex tasks to manageable simple steps helped un-ravel 

the mystery of why rare-earth magnets are so powerful, 

After a short stint at U.S. Steel, he joined the Department of En-ergy’s 

Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center, working on catalysts for converting 

coal to liquid fuels. In 1989 he received an award for his work from the 

Pittsburgh-Cleveland Catalysis Society. He retired in 2006. 

During the early days of Sri Venkateswara temple, Uday was active 

with many of us in assisting Raj Gopal in building the temple for 

Sri Venkateswara. Originally the temple was to be built in Monroeville, 

where the Hindu-Jain temple is today. 

Conflict on the details of the temple resulted in us breaking away to 

the current location in Penn Hills. The separation of the Indian group was 

painful, with Uday, myself, and many others pleading for unity in a meet-


ing where tempers were flying high. With no place even to meet, Uday 

helped us get together in a classroom at the Uni-versity of Pittsburgh where 

the first draft of the letter for the S V Temple was prepared for mailing 

to potential donors. Uday was part of the working committee, executive 

committee and later served as Chairman of the board of trustees. 

Uday always wanted to help the needy. In one of our board meetings 

he wanted the temple to assist a student at Penn State who was wrongfully 

convicted. He proposed sending $30,000 to assist in paying the legal fees. 

The board started debating on the amount rather than on the role of temple 

in these situations. Finally, an amount was sent. The construction of the 

temple consumed most of our lives from 1973 for several years. 

Uday was a great enthusiast of Indian classical performing arts. He himself 

would go on stage and sing on the Aradhana Days at the temple. 

When I moved from Austin, Texas to Pittsburgh to work at the 

University, Uday and Cecilia took care of me to settle down in 

Shadyside. As was common in those days, after work most of us went to 

a pub in Oakland for a few beers. Often spouses joined us as well. Uday 

would stand up on a chair and start singing the Simon and Garfunkel song 

“Oh Cecilia! You’re breaking my heart … …” 

Uday was a great tennis player. Afflicted with Parkinson’s and lying 

in bed still most of the time, when I went to see him, he engaged in conversation 

with a sharp mind. I teased him: “My best chance to beat you 

in tennis is now.” He burst into laughter. 

S.G.Sankar from Bethel Park, a close friend, read Hindu scriptures 

for Uday every week. He found peace in both Hinduism and Christianity. 

Uday helped both his sisters and their families and Cecilia’s family settle 

down in the US. 

Vivek Rao, his son, in the eulogy to his father described Uday aptly: 

“My father was a calm, kind and gentle spirit. He never gossiped, criticized 

others or made them uncomfortable. Although he was not a very outgoing 

person, because of these qualities, he made and kept many friends.” 

Uday leaves behind his wife Cecilia of 50-plus years of mar-riage. He 

is survived by his sisters, Dr. Indira Varanasi and Dr. Meera Rao; his son 

Vivek Rao and daughter-in-law Yesoda Nirujogi Rao, and their children 

Venkat, Jayanth, and Nidhi. 

After a funeral mass in Sts. Simon and Jude Church, the mortal remains 

of Uday were buried at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Carnegie, PA on 

Saturday, March 30, 2019. • 

Note: Uday Shankar and Cecilia Rao supported the magazine after seeing the 

very first issue in October 1995. They gave $20 that I distinctly remember even how 

and I gratefully acknowledge their generosity — K S Venkataraman, Editor • 

25


Pazhaya Paadal, Puthiya Aadal ! 

Brings Old Film Songs to Bharatanatyam Stage 

By G. (Paul) Manoharan, Upper St Claire, PA 

Editor’s Note: For a variety of reasons, Indian classical dance 

teachers have been reluctant to choose in their recitals from the 

classy film songs rooted in pure Indian classical dance traditions. 

Jaya Mani, our veteran dance teacher, breaks this unwritten 

taboo by staging a program entirely taken from films songs. 

On Saturday, May 18th, 2019 at the Sri Venkateswara 

Temple auditorium, twelve senior students of our veteran 

Bharatanatyam teacher Jaya 

Mani presented a unique and enjoyable Indian 

classical dance program titled in Tamil “Pazhaya 

Paadal Puthiya Aadal “ (Old Songs & Modern 

Dance”). The songs were from movies dating back 

to 1948 through 1988 from Tamil movies such 

as Vedhala Ulagam (1948); Manamagal (1951); 

Vanjikottai Vaaliban (1958); School Master (1958, 

Telugu); and Katputli (1957, Hindi). Jaya Mani 

and her students choreographed the pieces, sometimes 

independently and sometimes jointly. 

With Deepa, Jaya Mani’s daughter, co-direct- Jaya Mani 

Standing L to R: Meghna Iyengar, Anwitha Sherigar, Jaya Mani, Deepa Mani, 

Shravani Charyulu , Rashmi Krishnasami, Tanvika Sriram, 

Sitting L to R: Shruthi Shivkumar, Deepika Narayanan, Sneha Hoysala, 

Kavya Suresh, Arpitha Udupa, Rupa Bhashyam, 

26


ing, Subha Sriram emceed the program introducing each piece giving the 

filmi tidbits for each song, such as the lyricist, music director, playback 

singers, and actors. This kept the audience engaged. 

Details of these songs have faded away even for old timers. Many 

youngsters were probably listening to these songs for the first time. But 

the lyrics for the songs by great poets (Subramanya Bharathi, Papanasam 

Sivan, Kannadasan, Udumalai Narayana Kavi and others), the music direction 

by masters (K.V.Mahadevan, G. Ramanathan, Sankar-Jaikishan...), 

and the enchanting voices of M.S.Subbulakshmi, M.L.Vasantha Kumari, 

P. Leela, and Lata Mangeshkar are enshrined in our hearts forever. 

Jaya Mani and her students took us back to the golden era of Indian 

movie classic songs, creatively choreographing the songs to the idioms of 

the Indian classical dance traditions, adding jatis and abhinayams making 

them lively and enjoyable. 

Songs such as Theeratha Vilayattuppillai and Kuravanji dances have 

been part of the Bharatanatyam repertoire for decades, but dances to songs 

such as Ellam inbamayam (Deepika Narayanan and Kavya Suresh, Rupa 

Bashyam and Tanvika Sriram) and Kannum kannum kalandu (Shravani 

Charyulu and Arpitha Udupa) were real treats. 

Jaya and the artistes’ maiden attempt to bring the best of old and new 

together was enjoyable and made us wish for the good old days when we 

could sing along, unlike the contemporary movie songs dominated by beats 

and rhythm with the orchestra overwhelming the human voice. 

All the songs used straight film clips running only 3 or 4 minutes, 

which is necessitated by the time constraints of films. However, there is 

enough scope in these songs to re-record them by adding more jatis and 

swarams to expand them as stand-alone 6-to 8-minute pieces as in padams 

in Bharatanatyam recitals. • 

India Day 2019 Celebrations 

Sunday August 18, 2019 11:00 am to 3:00 pm 

Venue: Cathedral of Learning University of Pittsburgh 

Attractions: 

• Consular Desk * • Parade • Flag hoisting • Kite flying 

• Cultural programs • Henna Clothes • Jewelry • Food 

Contact: Rashmi Koka 412-341-4948 Vandana Kekre 412-963-0589 

Sumedha Nagpal: 412-600-7489 Mahendra Bhalakia 412-367-3732 

* Indian Consulate officers from New York will be provide services 

on site from 9:00 am – 12:00 noon for attestation of documents, preapproval 

of documents for passport/visa/OCI applications, etc. 

27


High-Protein Low-Carb Idlies 

By K S Venkataraman 

Indian dals contain proteins between 15% and 25%. Protein-rich 

dals have low glycemic indexes compared to white rice. The proteins in 

individual dals, made up of amino acids as 

building blocks, do not contain all the nine 

essential amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, 

leucine, lysine, etc.) our body needs. Hence 

vegetarians need a combination of several dals 

plus seeds/nuts, tofu, and milk products to get 

complete proteins. 

I. Ingredients: 

In the list below, broken lentils with the husk/skin intact are given 

because they soak quicker. Unbroken lentils are a better choice, but they 

need longer soaking times. The husk/skin is a good source of fiber. 

1. Chana dal: 1 measure (use any volume measure) 

2. Toor dal: 1 measure 

3. Broken sabut Urad with the husk/skin intact): 1 measure 

4. Broken sabut moong with husk: 1/2 measure 

5. Broken Red Mung Beans: 1/2 measure 

6. Boiled rice (this is not parboiled rice and not cooked rice): 

2 measures. Note: This is a unique South Indian rice available in 

Indian stores. One brand is Ponni Puzhungal Arisi (Boiled Rice). 

7. Options: Red chillies, cumin seeds, black pepper, ginger, to taste 

Note: In the above, rice is only ~33% of the total. In white idly 

batter, rice content is between 60% - 80%. This alone reduces the 

glycemic load in this recipe. 

II. Soaking: In lukewarm water soak all in one vessel for at least 

4 hours if you use broken dals. Unbroken lentils take a longer soaking 

time. Wash the soaked grains in water. 

III. Making the Idly Batter: Go to YouTube to see the consistency 

of the idly batter and for idly making techniques. The common run-ofthe-mill 

kitchen blender is a bad choice for wet grinding since it gets quite 

warm heating up the batter. The rugged high-wattage Vita Mix blender 

may work. Traditional Indian wet grinders are the best. 

Wet-grind the soaked grains until the batter is very smooth. If there is 

too much water, the batter becomes too thin, and is not good for making 

idlies. Transfer the batter into a large vessel. Add salt to taste and mix it 

well. If you added too much water during grinding, you can still salvage 

the batter for making dosai-equivalent. ;--))) 

28


III. Fermenting the batter: This is critical. Keep the wet-ground 

batter at temperatures between 70 F to 80 F for at least 8 hours for it to 

ferment. The batter, when fermented, will rise in the container with tiny 

air bubbles filling the space. That is why you need a large vessel. 

IV. Making the idlies: If the fermented batter is too thick, add a 

small quantity of water and gently mix the batter using a spatula. Do not 

beat the batter too much. This drives away all the air bubbles. The trapped 

tiny air bubbles make the idlies spongy. 

Pour the batter on the idly-making plate and steam-cook it — NO pressure 

cooking — for 10 minutes minimum. Take out the idly plates from 

the steamer and cool. Scoop out the idlies from the idly plate. 

In the picture shown on p. 28, the regular idlies are in the front and 

the high-protein idlies are in the back. The high-protein idlies are darker 

because of the dals and the husk/skin in the batter. Eat these idlies with 

Molagai Podi (known as gun powder in north India) or chutneys. • 

Red Mung Mung Beans Subut Urad Toor (T) Chana dals (B) 

Fresh whole fish from all over the world 

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Please visit us in the Strip 

where we will be happy 

to assist you. 

Or order online at your convenience. 

We will hand-select your order with the greatest care. 

29 

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Indian Elections... ... Continued from Page 30 

electoral DNA; a country established on land grab, genocide (of Native 

Americans) and slavery. When the US constitution was adopted in 1789, only 

property-owning, tax-paying white males were allowed to vote. In deciding 

how many seats there would be in the Congress, the famous — or infamous, 

depending 

on pers 

p e c t i v e 

— Three- 

F i f t h s 

Compromise 

was 

made. This 

a l l o w e d 

slave-owning 

states 

A typical political rally in India. 

30 

t o c o u n t 

only 3/5th 

of the number of slaves in determining the population, and the number of 

representatives in Congress. It took the Civil War of 1865 and the subsequent 

15th Amendment of 1870 to grant voting rights to African American 

slaves, still only to males. The Civil War took place in a country of only 

two ethnicities (European whites and African Slaves), one language (English), 

and one religion (Christianity). Contrast this with the enormously 

complex India, shown in the box on Page 2. 

• Even though the Confederates lost, subsequent years saw the 

rise of Jim Crow segregation to deny political gains for former slaves. 

Suppression of Black voters and efforts to show that Whites were still in 

charge were strengthened, the symbol of which are the monuments for 

confederate generals installed after the war, even though they lost the 

war. 

• The verb “to grandfather” (to exempt from new legislation or 

rules) arose from these efforts. Since the newly freed slaves were illiterate, 

a new requirement was promulgated that a voter must be able to read 

and write. This would have resulted in disenfranchising all the whites who 

were illiterate. To get around it and to enable the affected whites to vote, 

an exception was carved out — “if your grandfather was allowed to vote, 

then you get to vote.” Obviously, the newly freed slaves’ grandfathers 

were not allowed to vote. Hence the VERB grandfather! 

• Women fought through the Suffragist Movement to get voting 

rights obtained in the 19th Amendment adopted in 1920, 131 years after 

independence in 1776. Only in 1924 were Native Americans allowed to


vote. Voting rights to all was granted in the Indian Constitution at the 

outset of 1950. The vigorous efforts of the Indian Election Commission 

to facilitate all to vote stands in stark contrast to US history, where we 

still are discussing voter suppression efforts. 

An undisputed star of the mechanics of the Indian election is the Electronic 

Voting Machine, each costing about US$250. These are designed 

and built by Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru; and Electronics 

Corporation of India, Hyderabad. They are stand-alone battery-operated 

digital devices not connected to the internet. The same engineers who 

work on India’s atomic weapon systems and ballistic missiles worked on 

designing the EVM. In the US, voting methods vary from state to state. 

Some states still use paper ballots. With these electronic devices in India, 

the election results are out within fifteen hours after the start of the counting 

of over 600 million votes. 

The US likes to bill itself as the beacon of democracy in the world. 

The next time you read a patronizing article about Indian elections in the 

Western press, just be knowledgeable about the history of the mechanics 

of US democracy vs. the Indian one. • 

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For Free Copy in the Mail or for Writing Articles 

The magazine is mailed free every quarter to nearly 2000 homes and 

businesses. To get your copy in the mail, 

send your name and mailing addresses to: 

thepatrika@aol.com 

For enquiries for writing articles on events 

in your neighborhood and on other topics, contact the editor at 724 327 

0953 or e-mail your enquiries to: thepatrika@aol.com • 

31


Ha!! On Predictions by Experts 

In the absence of our own understanding of the science and technology 

behind many inventions, we look for experts in the field to project 

the shape of things to come in the field of their expertise in the implicit 

assumption that they have better insights into the future looking through 

their special crystal balls. How innocent we are in our assumption and 

belief and how wrong these experts have been!. Here is a list culled 

from diverse sources: 

• “Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable 

to breath would die of asphyxia.” — Dr. Dionysius Larder Professor 

of Natural Philosophy, University college of London (1783-1859) 

• ‘The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty — a 

fad.” — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry 

Ford’s lawyer to not invest in the Ford Motor Company (1903) 

• “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, 

British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal 

Society, 1895. The absolute temperature scale (0 Celsius = 273 

Kelvin) is named in his honor!. 

• “The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences 

really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” — Charlie 

Chaplin (20th century.) 

• “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”’ — H.M. Warner cofounder 

of Warner Brothers 

• “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his 

home.” — Ken Olson, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment 

Corporation. 

• “With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the 

Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big share of the 

market for itself.” — Business Week, 1968. 

• “640kB should be enough for anyone.” — Bill Gates, 1981 

• “The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000, at most,” 

— IBM to Xerox in 1959. 

• “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn 

better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.” — Yale professor to 

the founder of FedEx Fred Smith when he was a MBA student • 

32

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Summerset at Frick Park 

With easy access to the Waterfront, downtown, and Oakland, Summerset at 

Frick Park offers luxurious and hassle-free living. Enjoy a neighborhood of 

diverse international residents with close proximity to Pittsburgh’s medical, 

technology, and entertainment hubs. 

Facing east and south, the Schneider Park and Parkview townhomes range 

from 2,110–2,860 square feet, featuring open first floor plans that allow you 

to lay out your home your way. With three bedrooms and three stories, all 

townhomes feature covered front porches, attached garages, private outdoor 

spaces, and professional landscaping. End units include a first floor master 

suite along with third floor bonus loft and flex-space that are customizable to 

meet your needs. Add an in-law suite, an office, or a gym—whatever you want 

in your dream home. 

Summerset at Frick Park. City Living. Redefined. 

Call Melissa Reich Today 412-215-8056 

SummersetAtFrickPark.com

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