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Dec 07 | Jan 08 |
Feb 08 | Mar 08 |
Apr 08 | May 08 |
June 08 | July 08 | Aug 08 | Sep 08
| June 28th Show |
In Conversation Part 1
In Conversation Part 2
Our hosts Anisha Abraham and
Dinesh Verma have some eclectic
stories for viewers:
- Dinesh Verma’s daughter, Ashna,
recently had the “mundane”
ceremony and he explains
significance of this ceremony!
- Disney’s Girl-Power Singers –
the Cheetah Girls -- travel to
India for on-location filming of
their third movie, “The Cheetah
Girls: One World”
- In the past, the world has
always looked to Hollywood as a
model of entertainment industry.
Now, in a role-reversal,
Hollywood can learn a thing or
two from India’s Bollywood! Anil
Ambani (Reliance Entertainment,
India) is financing Steven
Spielberg and David Geffen to
form world’s largest ($10
billion) entertainment company!
- Financially-independent young
people of India are becoming big
spenders, raking up large credit
card loans; they are being lured
by ads for lavish clothes,
jewelry and cars;
- Lou Majaw in Shillong, India
is a die-hard fan of Bob Dylan…
he has been holding homespun
celebration of Mr. Dylan’s
birthday every year for the last
35 years!
- The first Green Revolution of
India took place 40 years ago
and drove hunger from the
country. Now that India’s growth
has outstripped its agricultural
crops, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh is calling for the second
Green Revolution to meet global
food crisis.
- In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe’s
campaign of terror is
succeeding. Unless US and other
countries intervene, he will
succeed in Presidential
elections. |
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Interviews with 2008
Presidential Scholars
Our host - Anisha Abraham -
who herself was a US
Presidential Scholar in 1986,
interviews South Asian-American
Presidential Scholars. The
entire group of 141 Scholars
were in Washington DC for their
National Recognition Week. The
U.S. Presidential Scholars
Program was established in 1964,
by executive order of the
President, to recognize and
honor some of our nation's most
distinguished graduating high
school seniors. In 1979, the
program was extended to
recognize students who
demonstrate exceptional talent
in the visual, creative and
performing arts. Each year, up
to 141 students are named as
Presidential Scholars, one of
the nation's highest honors for
high school students. During
their stay in Washington, the
Scholars met with the President
and received gold medal from
him, attended many events
organized the US Department of
Education, USDA and other
agencies, and gave a performance
on stage at the Kennedy Center.
Anisha interviews five scholars
to find out about their
achievements, interests and
future plans. They are: Yasmine
Hafiz from Arizona (heading to
Yale University); Mythili Iyer
from New Jersey (heading to
California Institute of
Technology); Ravi Sankar from
Florida (heading to Stanford
University); Ishna Sharma from
Georgia (heading to University
of Miami), and Ruchir Shah from
Rhode Island (heading to Rice
University). |
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June 21st Show |
In Conversation 1
In Conversation 2
Hosts Aastha Verma and
Dinesh Verma (no relation) have
given their tribute to Tim
Russert, Host of NBC’s “Meet
the Press”. As everyone knows,
his sudden demise has been tough
on the world of journalism and
he will be sorely missed.
Other interesting stories
discussed by our hosts include:
- Poll done by the Washington
Post shows that voters are
almost equally divided between
Senators McCain and Obama;
however things are changing
rapidly on the scene of
Presidential elections;
- The US Supreme Court’s recent
decision in favor of the
detainees at the Guantanamo Bay:
host Dinesh Verma (who is a
lawyer by profession) has done a
great job of explaining
intricacies of this decision!
- New York Times’ biographical
story on India’s richest man,
Mukesh Ambani, who is on the
verge of becoming “India’s Bill
Gates” because he is not just
amassing wealth but is also
using it to improve life of
Indian citizens.
- Summer Camps in India are
reviving the ancient language,
Sanskrit, by offering lessons to
kids;
- Manan Shah, a
Washingtonian, recently arrived
at his wedding atop an elephant,
Minnie. He said it was a
childhood dream that came true!
- USIBC’s “Global Partnership”
Summit took place in Washington,
DC last week. There were a
number of “global” invitees to
this summit, who talked about
“global” issues and issues of
interest to India and the US.
Here are a few that are being
discussed by our hosts:
- Ambassador Ronen Sen:
talks about India’s energy needs
and hoped that the US-India
Civil Nuclear Deal will come to
its logical conclusion soon;
- Dr. Henry Kissinger:
discusses need to focus on
US-India relations because no
other country in the world has
basic fundamentals similar to
the US;
- Sunil Bharati Mittal:
envisions that his telecom
company (Bharati Enterprises)
will have a billion subscribers
one day! He is using his wealth
and success to open 500 schools
in villages of India. These
schools will provide free
education, uniforms, books and
food to villagers’ children;
- Minister Kamal Nath:
being interviewed by Moderator
Charlie Rose about his new book,
“India’s Century”;
- Indira Nooyi: Chairman
of USIBC (and of PepsiCo)-
outlines her vision of what
India will be like in the next
15 years. |
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Parody On Hillary Clinton by Dr.
Krishan Chhabra:
Singer-writer-poet, Dr.
Krishan Chhabra, has written a
hilarious parody on Senator
Hillary Clinton and we know
everyone will enjoy it! The
parody is based on a Hindi song
from famous movie, “Bombay Ka
Babu”. Dr. Chhabra has used his
imagination about what Senator
Clinton could be thinking after
losing Presidential Primary to
Senator Obama.
For those who do not understand
Hindi, we have provided English
sub-titles. |
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June 14th Show |
In Conversation
With the Supreme Court term
coming to an end in June, our
hosts, Ramesh Butani and Sonya
Gavankar, discuss whether the
deliberations by the Supreme
Court Justices be televised or
not. They agree to disagree on
this subject! Other topics
discussed this week include:
- Senator Obama is very popular
in many European countries!
Could it be that he disagrees
with President Bush?! His
ratings (as compared with those
for Senator McCain) are very
high in Italy (70% vs. 15%),
Germany (67% vs. 6%), France
(65% vs. 8%), and Britain (49%
vs. 14%). Overall, Europeans
pick Senator Obama over Senator
McCain by 52% to 15%!
- Criteria for dual citizenship
in EU countries are being eased
to attract Americans who are
finding more promise and
opportunity in Europe. For many
years, dual citizenship was
considered unpatriotic, and
until 1967 it was possible for
the US to revoke American
citizenship for people who voted
in foreign elections.
- Hurt by high driving expenses
and an aging population, Japan
has a new mode of transportation
– it is called “plug-in
bicycles”. These are targeted to
middle-aged people short of
physical strength.
- Fed up with high food prices,
many home owners are cutting out
sections of lawn to grow their
own food.
- Mayor of Bogota, Colombia has
embarked on a radical campaign –
he would like to return streets
from cars to people. He has
shelved the highway plans and
poured money into parks,
schools, libraries and widening
pavements for people and bikes! |
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Interview
Ramesh Butani speaks to John
Palguta, Vice President for
Policy, Partnership for
Public Service. Partnership
for Public Service works to
revitalize federal government by
inspiring a new generation to
serve and by transforming the
way government works. It
conducts outreach to inspire
and educate young people and
other key pools of talent needed
by government. This organization
works directly with federal
agencies to increase their
capacity to recruit and retain
the nation's top talent.
Through outreach campaigns and
legislative advocacy, the
organization works to increase
public support for government
and mobilize stakeholders who
can drive change. For more
information, John Palguta’s
contact is: 202-775-2740;
email:
jpalguta@ourpublicservice.org;
or visit
www.ourpublicservice.org
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| June 7th Show |
In Conversation
Part 1
In Conversation
Part 2
Hosts Ramesh Butani and Aastha
Verma watched “Sex and the City”
movie on its opening day and are
very excited to discuss how the
movie projects lives of
30-something girls in big
cities!
Needless
to say, the movie theatres had
swarms of overexcited,
excessively groomed girls and
our host (RB) was an exception
as he was one of the very few
men taking in the movie on its
opening day!
Other stories discussed include:
- Senator Obama claims
Democratic Party’s nomination
for President; Senator Clinton
has stayed in the race till the
end because “she could accept
losing; she could not accept
quitting”; Issues to be faced by
Senator Obama as he heads into
the general elections - our
hosts discuss elections,
delegates, electoral college,
etc. in great detail;
- Winner of the 2008 Scripps
National Spelling Bee is an
Indian-American, Sameer Mishra –
a 13-year old from Lafayette,
Indiana! It is a matter of great
pride for Indian-Americans kids
since this contest is considered
the “Super Bowl of American
Academia”;
- Fascinating story about using
solar energy – Envision Solar
International. The company is
taking a unique approach to
designing and implementing
renewable energy systems by
transforming parking lots into
power plants!
- Michael Eisner’s latest
production is called, “Foreign
Body” is a low-budget web
series. Viewers can download 50
free videos for their computers
or cell phones. Each episode is
two minutes long;
- Nepal votes to abolish
monarchy and it has become
world’s new republic by ending
240 years of monarchy! It is
also significant because it was
the very last Hindu kingdom!
- Director M. Night Shyamalan’s
latest thriller is “The
Happening”;
- Stardust magazine from India
says Aishwarya Rai is pregnant
but her husband, Abhishek
Bachchan says this news is
untrue. |
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