Archives 2003-08 2008 Fareed Zakaria Pages 03-38 2007 MiraNair Pages 39-71 2006 IndraNooyi Pages 72-91 2005 Bobby Jindal Pages 92-103 2004 Mohini BhardWaj Pages 104-112 2003 SonalShah Pages 113-128 E U S S Zubin Mehta I India Abroad S Lifetime Achievement ’ R Award 2008 O T C E L L O India Abroad C March 27, 2009 Fareed Zakaria India Abroad Person The International Weekly Newspaper of the Year 2008 Jhumpa Lahiri India Abroad Publisher’s Award for Excellence 2008 Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 2 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE O ver the years Fareed Zakaria has Let me start off with a fun question — what did become a fixture in the foreign poli- you think of Slumdog Millionaire’sroaring cy establishment. Whenever objec- success at the Oscars? tive analyzes of the burning policy I loved the movie. It was an amazing- issues of the day needs perfect artic- ly energetic portrayal of Bombay and ulation, he tells it sans any semblance of an ide- captured the energy and vitality of life ological bent while being sensitive to the histor- in Bombay, its complexity and diver- ical, religious and cultural background. sity. Many of his articles in his role as Editor of There was a small amount of NewsweekInternational like the award-winning protest in India, and I know the ‘Why They Hate Us,’ and his best-selling books, director was a little worried. I including his most recent The Post-American explained to him that in India, you World,have clearly given him iconic status like stop the traffic lights, you can get a the leading foreign policy thinkers of the day thousand people assembled for any- from Henry Kissinger to Zbigniew Brzezinski. thing and that it didn’t mean anything, But as much as 2008 was a defining year for but the reality is people in India are excited the United States with the election of the first by the movie. African American president, it was a defining In terms of Mumbai itself, it’s really a shot year for Zakaria too when he began to host his in the arm for the city after the horrific terror own program on CNN – GPS, a Sunday after- attacks. It’s an affirmation of what makes noon fix for all political and foreign policy Mumbai a great city. There are parts of it that junkies. are horrendously poor, and the great task is to He says why it’s particularly important, is try to change that. But one of the amazing because now he’s in control of what he’s trying to things is that even in that poverty, there is so do “to change American attitudes about the much energy, dynamism, vitality, and the world.” movie beautifully captured that. Any Indian Zakaria believes there is such a hunger out who watches it will recognize in that por- there by Americans, after years of sheer trayal of India, that amidst the poverty, parochialism, to understand the world, particu- there is enormous dynamism and larly post 9/11. He believes GPS is doing what energy. journalism really should be doing, which is pub- Just one more (cid:23) 4 lic education. question on Global Soul Each week,Fareed Zakaria brings the world into living rooms across the United States because,he explains to Aziz Haniffa, it is important to understand the world before you can live in it PARESH GANDHI Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 4 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE (cid:22) 2 Mumbai. On GPS, just after Muslim name — Barack Hussein Obama the 26/11 attacks, you were — would all have been major negative (cid:68) From the Editors both angry and emotional traits. and spoke of your ties to Mumbai and also In some ways, they were all positives last the Taj, where your mom has an office. You year because I think Americans under- At the height of the 2008 Presidential campaign, pho- said it was your intention to go to Mumbai stand, we are moving into a new world, and tographers captured Democratic candidate Senator and stay at the Taj as a sign of solidarity. Did it’s a much more equal world —- it’s a post Barack Obama as he stepped off a plane and homed in on you make it over there and stay at the Taj? American world — in a sense and Obama the cover of the book he had in his hand: The Post-American World. Of course. I went there three weeks after has the ability to understand it — to under- Fareed Zakaria’s latest book didn’t need the candidate’s implicit the attack, I visited the Taj and spent some stand these forces within America, these endorsement – it was already enshrined in the New York Timesbestseller list. And time there. I didn’t stay there because my forces of diversity and these forces around therein lay the real surprise: Not that Obama was reading the book, but that mother would never forgive me if I were to the world. America was reading of how the rest of the world was catching up with it. go to Mumbai and not stay with her, any For all of us, who come from — shall we It is a testament to Zakaria’s reputation that he alone of all commentators could Indian will understand that. say — non-traditional ethnic backgrounds have sold such an argument to a nation primed to believe in its global supremacy. But, I went to the Taj, hung out there, to the United States and have non-tradi- Fareed Zakaria has made a career out of telling inconvenient truths: As with his actually spent some money there as a sign tional names, and look funny, he is a pow- seminal 7,000-word Newsweek cover story in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. of solidarity. What was striking to me about erful symbol — and by the way, I will say Under the title Why They Hate Us, he challenged the assumption that the destruc- being at the Taj and being in Mumbai in this, it’s not just a symbol, Obama really is tion of the World Trade Center owed to Islamic religious fundamentalism. general was the amazing sense of resilience somebody who comes from that world. That defining piece on the meaning of 9/11 provided the platform for his pitch- among Indians. This is not just an accident that his name perfect interpretations of contemporary events. There is much more of a traumatized suggests that. He does understand the Thus, when George W Bush launched his ‘shock and awe’ bombing of Baghdad, feeling among my friends in New York immigrant experience. His father was Zakaria’s response was a Newsweekcover story titled Why America Scares the World about it than the people in Mumbai. In Kenyan, and I mean, if you talk to him, he – in which he critiqued the President for acting unilaterally without an attempt to Mumbai, people feel the way you defeat understands the world at a different level. build international consensus. terrorism is you move on. You don’t let it For him, Kenya, it’s not just another Telling truth to power is proverbially dangerous. When you are a Mumbai-born get you down… African country, it’s a coun- Indian American of Islamic heritage who can tell truth to the fundamentalists of And for you personally, was it cathartic? try which his grandmother (cid:23) 5 the East and the neocons of the West and be respected by both, you are special. I don’t know whether it was cathartic, but lived in, in which he has That special quality marries with another: Zakaria alone of the talking heads on it was very important, because I felt as American television has a global focus or, though I wanted to make sure not to feed as he puts it, he is intimately aware of ‘the into the idea that India was now a problem other 95 per cent of the world.’ He has case — that it was a troubled area. There thus positioned himself as the one author- was something pathological about it, and I itative voice that can speak to global wanted to restore normalcy. So, in that issues, at just that precise moment in time sense, yes, it was cathartic. when America wakes to the realization In Barack Obama’s election, is there a that events in remote corners of the world larger message for us as immigrants who can impact on its wellbeing. are Americans today? And more important- His ability to understand and interpret ly, for our our children, for whom America the world was most visibly manifest in is indeed home without any of the dual loy- 2008 – first, through his best-selling book alties that some of us older guys grapple The Post-American World, in which he with? pointed out that the global story was not It’s even an equally powerful message so much about the decline of America as it actually for non-African Americans, and was about the rise of the rest, and through that’s the significance of Obama. the weekly CNN show GPS– the first time If you were to have said to somebody that that an Indian American has been invited eight years after 9/11, the United States to host a major television program on would elect a Black American as a presi- national and international affairs. dent and that his name would be Barack No event, no issue, has eluded GPS’s Obama, and that his father would have scrutiny: whether it is the meltdown of been a Kenyan and that he has many fami- the global economy or the terror attacks ly members, including his father, who were in Mumbai, Fareed Zakaria is there every Muslim, and he had a step-father who was Sunday, discovering meaning and nuance also Muslim, and that he spent four years in in the defining events of our time. Indonesia, and had actually even attended In troubled times, we seek compelling Muslim schools for a brief period, you voices that can make sense of the seem- would say you are crazy. ingly senseless; voices that can lift us out What I think Obama represents is not of our skins and show us how to live in just about Black America — while it is, of another’s; that can show us our place in course, important — it is about a new this world and the world’s place in our America. It is about America made up of From left: Tasneem lives. Zakaria (now Mehta), many different sources and strands and it is For being the compelling voice that Arshad Zakaria, an America that is much more open to this bridges East and West, fundamentalism Fatma Zakaria, new world that is shaping out there. and liberalism, the United States and the Mansoor Zakaria, If Obama were to have run 10 or 15 years Fareed Zakaria (with world, India Abroad salutes Fareed ago, the fact that his father was Kenyan, the headband) and a Zakaria, and honors him with the Person that his step-father was Indonesian, that he cousin of the Year Award 2008. had lived in Indonesia, that he had in a sense, connections to Islam, that he had a COURTESY TASNEEM MEHTA Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 5 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE I taught English, and I had Fareed in my th th class for two years, the 9 and 10 standards. He belonged to an extreme- ly bright class, a very high achieving class, and even so Fareed was always definitely a cut above the others. He had a logical bent of mind, understood things very quickly, could reason out a topic and take his argument to a logical conclu- sion, and he stood out for how he pre- sented himself and more importantly, for his views. He always had something to say about everything, and what he had to say was always well thought out. Also, he was a very good speaker, a very good debater. I think that comes through even now, when you watch him on CNN, or you read his articles. When I see him on television, he is just Fareed matured, that’s all – he was like this in school, and he has mere- ly matured, honed himself to a fine point. (cid:22) 4 many relatives. [While] Indonesia, is a coun- I hope that we will see is an Obama who tries to recognize It was always apparent that he would do try he interacted with as a small child. that there are really a variety of Islams and that we are not very well – and today I feel proud that And, for crying out loud, when it comes to at war with all of them. What we are struggling against at a this young man did pass through our India and Pakistan, he even had Indian and Pakistani room- military level is only the small minority of jihadi groups school, and he has acquired the stature mates and not only likes desi food, but can apparently make who are associated with Al Qaeda or groups like it that that he has right now. a mean Daal? want to kill civilians, that want to disrupt civilian life — Precisely. And, he has publicly said that he thinks the call whether in Pakistan or in the West. of the muezzin, the azaan, is one of the prettiest sounds in There are very religious movements which we may not Meera Isaacs, Principal, Cathedral and the world. Can you imagine an American President being like, particularly their attitude towards women, the atti- John Connon School, Mumbai able to be honest and open about the idea that you have this tudes toward education, but we are not at war with them. appreciation of the diversity of human life and the diversi- We are in an argument — a political, cultural argument ty of religion? with them, which I strongly support, and we should be try- Do you see a dissipation of hate for America? Where do ing to educate women and we should be trying to make the you see the Post-American World going? The real world case for secular education. But, we are not going to kill with all its problems still exists — couldn’t this so-called every person who feels that women should wear a veil. return of the love for America post-Obama, be short-lived, Then there are just religious qazis and those are ones because Obama in a sense has got to tow the US foreign pol- who may even be pro-American, but very religious and you icy line vis-à-vis Israel and also the muscular foreign policy see that in Iraq. One of the funny things in Iraq is to notice with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan? that we are allied with some very, very religious Shia mul- That’s a very good question. Obama represents so much lahs in the South. that it is inevitable that people have unrealistic expecta- So, what we need is a foreign policy toward the world of tions and hopes. But they are unrealistic not just because Islam that recognizes these distinctions because otherwise, Obama — after all, at the end of the day is a human being. we are lumping everybody together and anyone who has a They are unrealistic also, because, they in some sense, beard and anyone who talks about piety somehow becomes sometimes assume that these problems will magically go suspect as a potential jihadi. away. That’s where we have to make an adjustment and that’s When I wrote about it in that cover story, Why They Hate where we can hope that Obama will. But, it’s important to Us, one of the things I was trying to get across was that in remember there is still a problem. There are people — the the Arab world, there are deep dysfunctions that have built Al Qaeda and their groups and the radical elements of the up over generations relating to oil, money and dictatorship, Taliban —- who are trying to kill Indians, Pakistanis and and therefore an extreme opposition movement has devel- Sri Lankans and people in London, Madrid and New York oped in these places. and they have not been seduced by Obama. And if you lis- That dynamic still exists, and the country in which actu- ten to al-Zawahiri after the election of Obama, they are as ally you see it the most powerfully now, is not in the Arab bitter and nihilistic. world anymore, it’s in Pakistan, where the dictatorship has With Pakistan as it is today being overrun by militants, bred an intolerant opposition and that of course gives and an economy virtually in ruins being propped up by IMF license to the Pakistani army. funding, etc, a civilian government, which many believe is These are very powerful deep dynamics. Obama being hardly in control, is Pakistan today the most dangerous elected won’t magically make them go away. What one can place in the world and could in a sense implode before too hope is that Obama will take a somewhat more sophisticat- long? ed and nuanced view of this world landscape — which is There is no question Pakistan is the most (cid:23) 6 REUBEN N V not new. dangerous country in the world, and if you Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 6 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE (cid:22) 5 look at what’s happening over the last few weeks in Swat, you can only come to the con- clusion that the government in Pakistan has become helpless. It’s not just that they made this deal, it’s that you don’t even have a sense that the civilian government is speaking with one voice. The government in Peshawar is saying one thing, the government in Islamabad is saying another thing, the military is saying a third thing. You get the feeling that these violent and militant forces are on the rise, the government is on the defense, and this is happening in a country that has large numbers of Al Qaeda Fareed is someone who activists still at large, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al has always looked confi- Zawahiri and is also a nuclear power. You throw that all dent, looked like he can together and it’s a very troubling situation. Pakistan is extremely unstable and there is no path that take on the world. When we one can see that will get it to stability. Unfortunately, this is were younger and all together, the history of Pakistan. The level of instability is such that it he would keep us in splits seems quite plausible that you will have another period of because he was a great military rule. mimic. There’s a big age dif- But, of course, then that sows the seeds for greater long- term instability, because you have again, shut down the pol- ference between us. I remem- itics and the only place where the politics come out is an ber how he used to take my extreme opposition movement, like the Taliban and like Al paint brushes, and I had to Qaeda. chase him around the house. In terms of a long-term prognosis, going by what is happen- He had a great sense of ing with regard to US policy, where do you see the Obama administration’s policy in the next few months going and if humor, was very mischievous. still in a flux, where do you think it should be going? In a What he has grown up into is recent cover story in Newsweek, you spoke about just a very extraordinary Afghanistan being Obama’s Vietnam. human being. He is very sensi- I don’t think this will be Obama’s Vietnam even though tive, a wonderful family man, there were important analogies and parallel comparisons to be made. Primarily, because they are well aware of the dan- he is terrific with his children, ger of a kind of unthinking ratcheting up of troops. has a lovely wife, they are very The troop increases are actually quite sensible because closely knit, he has three they are really trying to secure population centers and trans- delightful children. port routes so that civilian life in Afghanistan can come back He was always very focused, to some normalcy. But, the people I’ve talked to, fundamentally agree with the even when he was very young. central proposition of my article, which is that the He used to edit the school Afghanistan problem cannot be solved without a Pakistan magazine, and was always strategy — that there really is in some sense no Afghanistan very bright in his studies. I’m problem without the Pakistan element. not surprised that he has No Afghan has been involved in a terrorist attack against the United States, or Europe in 10 years, including 9/11. All achieved this level of success. attacks, and certainly, post 9/11, trace back to the FATA — He is a fantastic speaker, an the Federally Administered Tribal Areas — of Pakistan. So, incredible orator. My father RAJESH KARKERA there has to be a concerted strategy toward Pakistan, and the was an incredible orator as Obama people get this. well. Fareed has taken it to the next level – he can talk for an hour on a subject without any I think they are going to try. Now, the problem is, Pakistan is a problem without a solution. So, at best, you can hope to notes and with great clarity, which is a remarkable thing. He says it just comes from years of bandage it. You can hope to ameliorate the conditions that doing it, but I think it also comes from there’s a great sense of being very together. He is just are causing these problems. so very sure of himself and his opinions, in a humble kind of way. The wonderful thing about But, the solution to Pakistan is a total re-orientation of Fareed is there is no arrogance, there is a lot of humility, a willingness to listen and to ask Pakistan’s national interests, for the Pakistanis to under- questions and to learn, and that is very appealing because when you are so recognized and stand that it is not in their national interest to have a weak Afghanistan. To have an India on edge. To have a South Asia yet you can make the other person feel what they are saying is important and that you want that has greater attention. And, that while this may serve the to learn from them, I think that is a quality, a mark of leadership, and that is very clear when short-term advantage of the Pakistani military, it is in the you watch his programs. long-term disadvantage of the Pakistani nation. I have a great sense of pride in the fact that my baby brother is recognized internationally. If Pakistan can understand that, then we have a chance. Wherever one goes, you have people saying they enjoy his writing and have the greatest But, right now, I don’t get the impression that that’s likely. Do you believe the Obama administration made the cor- respect for him, and that makes me feel very proud. rect decision in appointing Richard Holbrooke as a Special Representative for both Pakistan and Tasneem Mehta, Fareed Zakaria’s sister, an art historian Afghanistan? And, also making sure that he (cid:23) 8 goes to India and in making India a partner in Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 8 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE Fareed, left (cid:132)Born January 20, 1964 in Mumbai, and older India, to politician and Islamic scholar brother Dr Rafiq Zakaria and newspaper editor Arshad Fatma Zakaria. (cid:132)An alumnus of Yale, from where he did his BA, and Harvard, where he got a PhD (cid:22) 6 in political science under luminaries like Samuel P Huntington, acclaimed author ofThe Clash of Civilizations. the regional approach that is being envisaged to tackle this problem. (cid:132)His work on a Harvard research proj- Absolutely. Holbrooke is exactly the right person because you need a very skilled nego- ect on American foreign policy led to his tiator and a diplomat. The mandate is exactly right because there is no distinction really being named managing editor of Foreign between the Afghanistan problem and the Pakistan problem, and yes, you should try and Affairs magazine. In 2000, Newsweek draw in the regional actors. named him editor of its international India is going to have a very important place in all of this, but I do think that at the end edition. of the day, I hope what it does is spend as much as he can on Pakistan, because that is the (cid:132)Besides his seminal columns and cover variable that needs to be changed. That is the area where you need to change the most. stories for Newsweek [including, Factfile Maybe, you can get the Iranians involved a little bit, maybe you can get the Chinese famously, the Why They Hate Uscover involved. But, the key issue is going to be, can you get the Pakistani military to really under- story immediately following 9/11] and stand that it’s not important to just turn off the tap, they have to destroy the plumbing of his writings on, among other things, this infrastructure of terrorism. wine for the online magazine Slate, So far, whenever, they are pressured, they turn off the tap, but they leave the tap so that COURTESY TASNEEM MEHTA they can turn it on the next day. And, the question is, are they willing to break the tap — America, he says, as the rise of everyone destroy the infrastructure — because otherwise, you are just going to play this permanent else. game on the defense against these groups, and the most important thing the Pakistanis (cid:132)A hugely popular television host for his need to understand is, their country is being destroyed by these forces. insights into world affairs, Zakaria has And, not to belabor the point, but is this because a Pakistan that implodes could have hosted the weekly news show Foreign repercussions not just for Pakistan and the region, but for the United States and the entire Exchange with Fareed Zakariaon PBS. world? He has been a news analyst on ABC’s If you look at terror activities in Europe and the United States and Southeast Asia, there This Week with George Stephanopoulos. is only one country that has consistently been involved in almost every one of those plots In June 2008, he began hosting the and that it Pakistan. weekly show GPSon CNN, designed to It has really become a kind of international training spot for all kinds of jihadis. So, bring global thought leaders into there’s that element, which is very powerful. But, there’s the other element, which is not to American living rooms. be forgotten, which is, where Pakistan is located. It is right next to (cid:132)His growing influence in the world of Afghanistan, it’s right next door to China, it’s right next door to India. public policy and global affairs has led to The regional implications of a Pakistani implosion — totally outside of terrorism — are Forbes magazine listing him, in its extremely destabilizing and not to mention the fact that they’ve got nuclear weapons, January 2009 issue, as one of the 25 which we try to keep forgetting about, but it is a very real problem. most influential liberals. Earlier, in 1999, If tomorrow you have a situation where the rings of these Taliban groups — of these Esquirenamed him in its list of the 21 Taliban fighters — come and take over Peshawar, a major, major city in Pakistan, which most important people of the 21stcentu- appears to be possible, where do we stand then, in terms of the viability of the government ry; in 2007, Foreign Affairs magazine in terms of what happens to the sense of panic. had him on its list of 100 most influential So, when we talk about Pakistan imploding, this is not an idle rumination. This is an intellectuals worldwide. actually quite real fear that I hope is keeping both US and Pakistani policymakers up at night. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her first overseas trip to Asia, which included China, but did not include India. Was this a mistake? Zakaria has written three books. From Is there reason for India to be con- Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins cerned in some sense about an of America’s World Role (Princeton, Obama administration, particularly 1998), examined a historical dichotomy: since US-India relations during the Wealthy countries naturally extend their Bush administration was excellent? influence abroad, why then was the In fact, President Obama has made United States strangely quiescent in it clear that he would like India to world affairs in the late nineteenth cen- work with the US to ratify the CTBT tury? In The Future of Freedom, he (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). argued that democracy without liberty is I don’t believe it was a mistake cosmetic, and thus critiques the Bush for Hillary not to go to India. administration’s holding of elections in There are a limited number of Iraq without having first built institu- countries you can go to. This was tions of law and governance. His latest very much a trip not to Asia, but to book,The Post American World,points East Asia, and one of the things we to a game-changing seminal shift in have all got to world affairs: Not so much the decline of The house in south Mumbai where Fareed Zakaria grew up understand is that (cid:23) 9 there is no such COURTESY TASNEEM MEHTA Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 9 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE (cid:22) 8 thing as one Asia. W hen it comes to American Asia is a vast continent, and what she was deal- journalism, India Abroad ing with was, a very specific part of it. She went lution is this program, are you happy the way it to Indonesia for reasons actually that have more to do with has turned out and the way it is progressing? can be proud, and it could- Obama than anything geo-strategic. 2008 was most important for me because of n’t do better, than honoring Fareed I think that the Indo-US relationship has actually achieved a the birth of my daughter — I had a third child. Zakaria. Fareed has established level of depth and maturity that it doesn’t really depend on But also, yes, the birth of my television pro- himself as one of the pre-eminent these kinds of symbols anymore. gram. For me, this is a very important step, foreign policy analysts in America. I am sure there will be a major trip at some point by Obama because what I am trying to do is to change or Hillary to India. I think that right now the relationship is American attitudes about the world, and I His columns and essays in actually operating at so many levels, that there really isn’t any realize that you now have to do it…you have to be a multi-plat- Newsweek are a must read, and I real danger. Now the question that you raised… form provider. congratulate him, and I congratu- And, that India doesn’t see it as a zero-sum game either? You have to be able to do it in various media. You can’t just do late India Abroad for honoring him Exactly. India no longer views these things as zero-sum print, online. And, television is a very powerful medium. – what a great choice! All of us, his games. But the question that you raised regarding the nuclear Despite all the disaggregation of media that’s taken place, there issue, there is a real concern. is nothing like television in terms of capturing people, getting colleagues, are so very proud of It is fair to say that many of the people around Obama were people’s attention, getting them to focus on these issues. And, him, and India should be too. less enthusiastic about the nuclear deal or opposed to it. Bush what I’ve tried to do is really be true to my mandate in my own Congratulations, Fareed, and good pushed it almost single-handedly — the entire nonproliferation sense — my agenda — which is to bring the world to America going! community was opposed to it and I think Bush will always have and make Americans think about the world and understand a special place in India’s heart for that reason. there is a new and different world out there. But I think the Obama people are very practical in recog- What I am most gratified by is that what was started in the Thomas L Friedman, columnist nizing the benefits geo-strategically of having India, both as thought that this was a prestige product and would be kind of an ally, but also having India inside the tent have a great marquee value for CNN, but you know, of course, on the nuclear issues rather than outside. it wouldn’t have good ratings, actually, it’s turned out to have And, secondly, they have already indicated, very good ratings, and what it shows is that there actually is an there is no intention of changing that (the audience for this kind of thing. I am actually, in some ways, try- nuclear deal). Obama, remember, was a ing to both reflecting and building this America that I am talk- Senator, when all this came up in the ing about that elected Obama. Senate, he never even raised an issue, let Journalism is a very important function of public education alone try to oppose it. and we forget it sometimes. But I always try to keep that in What I do think will happen is, that they mind with the show. So, I will not do will ask India to play a more active role on merely what is in the news but what I think the public should nonproliferation issues, which I believe is know about. right. I believe India should play a bigger role Of course, you have to make it engaging and exciting and — on CTBT, India should take a lead — and interesting, otherwise it’s a recipe for boredom. But, you must on Iran, India should be more involved, per- try to embrace the public education function. haps in crafting a compromise — not neces- You’ve become a fixture in the foreign policy establishment, sarily following the US line. and have your own program. But, if India wishes for people to now see There is also Sanjay Gupta and Ali Velshi on CNN. Then there’s the benefits of India being taken into the tent Governor Bobby Jindal, touted as a Republican presidential — into the nuclear club — they need to start hopeful and there are quite a few Indian-American state legisla- behaving like a responsible nuclear leader. tors too. Indian Americans have moved far beyond the world of Not just saying, we got our special exemption only physicians, engineers, IT entrepreneurs, etc. and we are going to go back to quietly doing Is this a clear manifestation that Indian Americans have whatever we want. No, the whole benefit of arrived in terms of mainstream participation, involvement and having India’s program ratified was that you empowerment? got this emerging great power to be partici- Oh, of course. But it’s important to point out that if not for pating in the rule-making process and rule- those first generation, you wouldn’t have this second genera- setting process. tion… I hope that (Indian Prime Minister) You mean the first generation who could send their children to Manmohan Singh takes a more active role Harvard and Yale and all that… and by the way, my sense of Manmohan Precisely. These doctors and engineers came to this country Singh, is that he would share this view and went to places nobody wanted to go to, and raised their entirely… children to be real Americans — to give them a sense of pride in After all, India was the original sponsor of both the country they came from and the country they’re in. total and universal disarmament — the Rajiv It’s an amazing tribute to that generation of Indians that you Gandhi proposal. now have the second and third generation of Indians who have Precisely. You go back to Nehru, to Rajiv no limits in terms of the fields and the areas they are going to. Gandhi, it’s always been part of the Indian They have no mental limits or any sense of thinking of them- effort to play a leadership role on these selves as having any glass ceilings, completely comfortable both issues, and it couldn’t because it had been in the East and the West, both in India and the US… genera- placed in this situation where it was in a tion of Americans who are hardworking, achievement-oriented, black box. Well, now, it’s out of the black loyal Americans, but with a profound connection to the country box, and I am glad that it will have the they came from – that’s the American Dream in a sense. opportunity. And, in a way, I guess Obama has been catalytic in helping in A personal question — 2008 was a defining that involvement and empowerment too now, going forward? year for you too — you got your own CNN pro- And, they have been catalytic in helping Obama get elected — RAJESH KARKERA gram,GPS. How important in your own evo- I would say the arrow moves in both directions. Brought to you by: India Abroad March 27, 2009 10 COLLECTOR’S ISSUE The literary superstar L ittle Octavio can light up any visitor’s Jhumpa day with his stories. As his mother gets ready for an interview in her Lahiri, Brooklyn home, Octavio is set to amuse the visitor. As his father, jour- winner of the nalist Alberto Vourvoulias, coaxes Octavio to go upstairs, I see daughter Noor spying on me from India Abroad atop the stairs. Publisher's A year after the interview and the publication of Jhumpa Lahiri’s third book, Unaccustomed Award for Earth, the images of her children are alive in my mind. Excellence “You know, both your children could become storytellers,” I tell her recently. “Octavio could be 2008, a more outgoing story teller and Noor, an oblique…” discusses her “We’ll see, we’ll see,” she says with a chuckle. Her parents’ home in Rhode Island is full of craft with books — including foreign versions of her books that have been translated into more than three Arthur J Pais dozen languages. And then there are paintings, many created by her maternal grandfather. (cid:23) 13 In the writer’s Brooklyn home, (cid:68) From the Editors Journalist and editor Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush has a habit: Sunday mornings, he abstracts the New York Times Review of Books section from the main paper and hides it. If he had done that on the second Sunday of April 2008, wife Jhumpa Lahirimight have missed witnessing a phenomenon: Her second collec- tion of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, debuted that week in the best- seller lists – in the number one position. Lahiri’s life reads like one of her own short stories. Born in London to Bengali Indian immigrants, Nilanjana Sudeshna, as she was known before a teacher made her pet name ‘Jhumpa’ official, moved to the United States when she was just three. It was during her stint at Boston University – from where she acquired MAs in English, Creative Writing and Comparative Literature, and a PhD in Renaissance Studies – that the hyphenated life of an Indian-American began to move her creative muse. She began distilling the dilemmas of the immigrant experience into a series of evocative short fiction. ‘What drew me to my craft,’ she has explained, ‘was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to (cid:23) 14 PARESH GANDHI Brought to you by: