Mar 21, 2012

Massoud Saidpour Brings Pandit Jasraj to Cleveland

Massoud Saidpour is the Director of Performing Arts, Music and Film for the Cleveland Museum of Art.  According to a Cleveland Museum of Art employee, Mike, Massoud Saidpour is familiar with the work of Pandit Jasraj and has been instrumental in inviting Pandit Jasraj to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Massoud Saidpour was identified as the Most Interesting People in 2010 by Cleveland Magazine. 

Dhanyavad Massoud Saidpour.

Mar 13, 2012

Cleveland Museum of Art Invites The Man With Celestial Voice


Govindam Gokula-nandam, Gopalam Gopi-ballavam,
Govardhano-udharam Dheeram, Tham vande Gomathi priyam.
[Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay]
Narayanam nirakaram, Nara veeram Narothamam,
Narasimham, Naga-natham, Tham vande nara-kanthakam.
[Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay]
Peethambaram, Padmanabham, Padama-ksham,
Purushothamam, Pavithram, Paramanandam, Tham vande Parameshwaram.
[Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay] Raghavam,
Rama-chandram cha, Ravan-arim cha, Rama-pathim,
Rajeeva-lochanam Ramam, Tham Vande Raghu Nandanam.
[Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay] Yogeeswaram yagna-pathim,
Yasodananda dayakam, Yamuna jala sachayam, Tham vande yadu-nayagam.
[Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevay]
Vamanam, Viswaroopam cha, Vasudevam, cha Vittalam, Visweswaram Vibhum Vyasam, Tham vande Veda Vallabham.

While the masses of Asian Indians are satisified with listening to the infinitely inferior crap that Bollywood fartists calls art and music, our Cleveland Museum of Art has invited Pandit Jasraj to perform at Gartner Auditorium.  Further, while renowned instrumentalists such Pandit Ravi Shankar have brought the gift of Indian classical music to the world through their chosen instrument the sitar, Pandit Jasraj has done it through the gift of nature, his voice. He is one of India’s most celebrated cultural ambassadors to the world. Blessed with a soulful and sonorous voice, which traverses masterfully over all four and a half octaves, Jasraj’s vocalizing is characterized by a harmonious blend of the classic and opulent elements projecting traditional music as an intense spiritual expression, at once chaste and sensuous. This gives his music a unique and sublime emotional quality, reaching out to the very soul of the listener.

In his Cleveland appearance he will be accompanied by a five-member ensemble of accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists.  These programs made possible in part by the Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, the P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund, and the Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund. Additional support provided by the Robert D. Hill Foundation.

Mar 10, 2012

Cleveland's Ekal Vidyalaya Fundraiser Announced

Ekal Vidyalaya Cleveland
Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation's Cleveland chapter has organized a fundraiser to support primary education in India.  A program titled Ek Shaam Ekal Ke Naam is slated for Saturday, April 21, 2012 between at 6.30 PM at the Bertram Inn at 600 North Aurora Road in Aurora.   The donation of 50 bucks includes a dinner followed by entertainment by Samir Date and Dipalee Somaiya assisted by Samir Pddar and Sanjeet Birha. 

Coordinators for Ekal Vidyalaya in Cleveland are Sunil Narahari (440) 725-5185 naraharisk@gmail.com Dr. Rammohan (330) 856-1122 and Venu Gopal   (330) 294-0294

Mission of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation


Literate India
While it is making giant advances in software, space, and nuclear power, India is paradoxically still struggling with questions of basic literacy for a large segment of its population. Upon independence, India's literacy rate was a staggering 11 percent. Since then, we have made tremendous advances in educating our people. Still, more than six decades after independence, 65.4% India is still illiterate. Even worse off is the position of tribal India, which has a literacy rate below 30 percent.
The Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2015. To date, Ekal Vidyalaya is a movement of over 34343 teachers, 6,000 (Approximately) voluntary workers, 22 field organizations (scattered in 22 Indian states), and 8 support agencies as on January 2011. With this tremendous human force, the Ekal Vidyalaya movement strives to create a network of literacy centres that will educate and empower children in rural and tribal India.
The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is a charitable trust that initiates, supports, and runs one-teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over the country. With the participation of numerous non-profit trusts and organizations, this program has now become the greatest education movement in the country.

The Paradox
While Indians have succeeded in flexing their intellectual prowess and in establishing entrepreneurship throughout the world, over a third of India's population is illiterate. Tribal villagers who live in remote areas away from major cities are the worst affected. Often unreachable by road and untouched by electricity, the tribal population is often neglected by agencies of development. The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, therefore, has focused its primary education programs on tribals and other underprivileged communities in rural India.

Beyond Literacy
Ekal Vidyalaya goes beyond mere literacy. Apart from its goal of achieving the national standards of Minimum Level of Learning (MLL) for its students, Ekal Vidyalaya also seeks to empower the village community for its own self-development. Ekal Vidyalaya solicits complete involvement of the local community to achieve this goal.
The donors, supporters and workers of Ekal Vidyalaya are motivated by a commitment to educate our illiterate brothers and sisters. Their unflinching dedication to serve their motherland is the key to our success.

Mar 9, 2012

Asian Indians linked to sex abuse and trafficking

Asian Indians from Clarkstown, New York, Vishal Jagota, Rajani Jagota Parveen Jagota Convicted of labor trafficking and assault charges

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe today announced that three members of a Clarkstown family were convicted of labor trafficking and assault charges for using intimidation, threats and physical violence to force a 20-year-old woman into a life of servitude and sexual abuse.

Vishal Jagota (DOB 01/16/78) of 28 Butternut Drive, New City, New York was found guilty after the bench trial of: One count of Assault in the Third Degree, a class “A” Misdemeanor

Parveen Jagota (DOB 01/04/54) and Rajani Jagota (DOB 12/03/80) of 28 Butternut Drive, New City, New York were found guilty after the bench trial of: Two counts of Labor Trafficking, class “D” Felonies One count of Assault in the Second Degree, a class “D” Felony

“These convictions underscore our serious commitment to prosecuting those defendants who would prey on vulnerable - and in many cases young - victims,” said District Attorney Zugibe. “Human trafficking is a violent
and degrading crime that will not be tolerated. My office will continue to use every tool available under the law to prosecute dangerous individuals like these and to seek justice for victims.”

The victim, now 25-years-old, is an Indian citizen who was brought to the United States through an arranged marriage with Vishal Jagota in January, 2008.

The defendants engaged in a scheme, using intimidation, physical and sexual abuse and manipulation to force the victim to work as a round-the-clock servant, performing a variety of household chores, cooking, child care and other tasks under threats of violence.

When the victim threatened to contact authorities, each of the defendants vowed to concoct wild stories, accusing her of committing various types of crime.

On one occasion, Parveen Jagota and Rajani Jagota burned the victims’ hand with a hot iron in order to “teach her a lesson,” following their displeasure with her laundry skills. Rajani Jagota, the victim’s sister-in-law, and Vishal Jagota are accused of forbidding the victim from receiving medical treatment for the serious burn, telling her to treat the open wound with toothpaste.

On another occasion, Vishal Jagota is accused of biting the victim, causing permanent scarring on her cheek.

The victim was forced to face her captors for nearly three years, from her arrival in Rockland County in 2008, until September, 2010.

Parveen Jagota and Rajani Jagota face up to seven years in state prison when sentenced on May 22, 2012 before the Honorable William K. Nelson.

Vishal Jagota faces up to one year in the Rockland County jail when sentenced on May 22, 2012 before the Honorable William K. Nelson

This case apparently marks the first indictments, trial and convictions under New York State’s new Labor Trafficking Law.

This case was prosecuted by Arthur J. Ferraro, Chief Assistant District Attorney and Amanda Doty, Assistant District Attorney.

Mar 2, 2012

Mumbai, India home to slums and Bollywood

Children on ferris wheel in Dharavi, the largest slum of Mumbai, India
Mumbai has topped the list of cities that are home to a maximum number of slum dwellers in India, Unicef's annual State of the World's Children report said here on Wednesday.

The report with the theme 'Children in Urban World', released here, says India is home to over to 50,000 slums, of which 70 percent are concentrated in five states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

"Nearly 70 percent of the slum population are concentrated in Maharashtra (35 percent), Andhra Pradesh (11 percent), West Bengal (10 percent), Tamil Nadu and Gujarat (7 percent each)," the report noted.

"According to Census 2011, urban population in India is around 377 million (nearly 30 percent). By 2026, this will grow up to 40 percent -- totaling to an estimated 535 million people -- who will be living in towns and cities," the report said.

Of the 377 million, around 97 million are below poverty line, says the Unicef report.
Experts say cities have always been assumed to be romantic in terms of opportunities due to the employment opportunities they carry.

"Urban areas are fast becoming home to people known as 'nowhere people'. This strata works at our houses, lives around us, and is actually the victim of displacement inhabiting urban slums," said S. Parasuraman, director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

"Nearly 60 percent of Mumbai's slum population lives in 8 percent of land. The sanitation conditions, health facilities, infant mortality rate (IMR) is very dismal," Parasuraman added.

According to statistics from the ministry of housing and poverty alleviation, nearly 93 million people inhabit slums in India. Globally, children born in cities already account for 60 percent of the increase in urban population.

A family (a mother and daughter?) lives next to a public garbage bin on a major street in Mumbai, India.  Click photo to enlarge.  Photo credit: Sanjeev Sabhlok at sabhlokcity.com