BY VEENA RAO

Running a newspaper is no child’s play. Unless you have the passion, dogged perseverance, and the willingness to work long hours and take on many roles, chances are that you will wind up in a short time.

NRI Pulse has survived two years. It has been fun. It has been challenging. It has been a learning curve and a period of evolution. Growing from an impulsive idea to a media that is a household name in Atlanta and Alabama in two years is no mean feat!

Why run a newspaper? A newspaper- even a community newspaper- is a potent weapon to effectively influence several thousand readers. It is easy to get major news from around the world. But people are interested in the happenings in their local community, and in their country of residence. That is where we come in.

How powerful even a community newspaper can be, I have learned over the past two years, from the number of partnership requests I have received from successful businessmen. While some offers were indirect and others direct, the most amusing experience involved a respected community member who had once made a “gentleman’s promise to always support NRI Pulse”. Super successful and very soft spoken, the gentleman’s childish sense of entitlement came as a complete shock to me. When I approached him for an ad for our second anniversary special issue, I was rebuked with harsh words that implied: I asked you for partnership in your newspaper and you refused. I am not interested in supporting your paper with an ad.

The gentleman had neither made a direct request, nor do I remember having refused his request. The crabbiness was because I had not understood his hints at acquisition and offered him NRI Pulse on a platter.  Success gives you that sense of entitlement!

But this experience made me realize how strong a weapon a newspaper is, and why some of the movers and shakers of the community want a stake in the local media.

Running a newspaper often involves striking a fine balance between giving in to the client’s whims and holding your own. This has led to all kinds of situations with advertisers. While most advertisers stick to their commitments and are on time with payments, a handful will try to extract maximum mileage in terms of PR articles and then do the disappearing act when it comes to advertising. Some will advertise, but will make you chase them for payments, or insist they have paid- without ever issuing a check.

A free newspaper survives on advertising revenue. There have been times when we have started the month with zero ads. I remember when we lost five ads on the very same day last year! This happened a few days after my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I recall battling dejection at the curve balls thrown my way.  Dad did not survive cancer. But his favorite newspaper has miraculously bounced back each month. We have not only survived, but have grown in terms of circulation and reach.

In spite of all the challenges though, the past two years have been fruitful and satisfying.

The impulse to start a community newspaper gained foothold in my mind in May 2006. The idea was implanted there by a fellow journalist who saw great potential for a free newspaper to service the growing Atlanta South Asian communities.

Armed with the whim, I approached the local businesses and a few prominent people I knew. I had no prototype to show them, nor a business plan to discuss. All I could tell them was, “You know my work as a journalist. Please support me.”

The support was overwhelming. I will always be grateful to the doctors of AAPI, Mark Premji, Suresh Sheregar of Udipi Café, realtor Narender Reddy, attorney Chandler Sharma, Global Mall’s Shiv Aggarwal, Anjan and Dr. Indrani Duttagupta, Gandhi Foundation’s Anthony Thaliath and others for their support through ads and sponsorships in the initial challenging days. I am also indebted to my friend Frances West for her unwavering support through the past two years.

The next step was to put a team together. Sonu Patel, my friend and co-worker from Atlanta Samachar, (the first Atlanta based newspaper that we both worked for, had closed down a couple of years earlier) came on board as designer and art director. Despite a busy schedule and other deadline bound projects to work on, Sonu pitched in bravely and we toiled day and night to put the first issue together. Soon Lopa D. Chowdhury joined NRI Pulse as marketing associate. Now we were a real team!

The editorial department fast grew into a virtual who’s who of the Atlanta community. Journalists Ravi R. Ponangi, Kavita Chhibber, Dr. Mala Chakravorty and Mahadev Desai contributed news reports and reviews. Prominent community members Dr. Narsi Narasimhan, Narender Reddy, Chandler Sharma, and later P.S. Lakshmi Rao and Dr. Arun Misra turned articulate writers.

So far so good. This was fun. Even the challenges were fun. Like finding the right printer. We went from printer to printer, learning along the way that not every printer does newspaper print jobs. We finally found this very accommodating web printer whose quote fit our budget.

While there was no business strategy to begin with, I had made up my mind that our product would be a no frills free newspaper in tabloid size with focus on quality content. The overheads would be kept low in order to allow for a maximum 70:30 content-to-ad ratio. I wanted our readers to have real content to read, and not have to flip through pages in a vain attempt to find content.

The next big challenge was in distributing the newspaper. I went from business to business, seeking permission to set up our racks and leave copies of NRI Pulse for patrons to pick up. Within the second month we started getting calls from people, advising us to set up distribution points in new areas. Before we knew it, we were distributing at over 70 locations!

Today, NRI Pulse has expanded its team to include several new members- Mubashra Siddiqui, Jyothsna Hegde, Yesha Malik amongst others. Our team is young, bright and eager to serve. We are the only Indian media to service both Georgia and Alabama.

It is an overcrowded market jostling for attention. There are magazines of all shapes, sizes and languages out there. But I believe we will continue to thrive, simply because we have something to offer to the reader.

If you have suggestions for our improvement, or general comments about the newspaper, write to me at editor@nripulse.com.

BY ARUN MISRA

Why did all republican candidates, falter one after another, in favor of McCain ?  Since they did not belong to the Old Boy’s network. Hence President Bush,  Senior Bush and numerous others have endorsed McCain, so that the ‘Same Ol, Same Ol’  can be continued, no one comes forward to rock the boat, the tax cuts for the rich as well as deployment of troops in Iraq to keep our contractors profitable, stays in place.

Why do so many democrats like Kerry, Kennedy, Lewis are against Hillary Clinton ?

To help McCain get elected, and save the country from the embarrassment of being run by a woman, who is untested and could be unpredictable, may bring troops back home on popular demand.

Do we treat women equally, and will we allow them to get into powerful positions? We should not, as our religion, the literal word of God in the Bible, tells us that women were created from the rib bone of a man, and  are inferior to men and should follow men, not lead them.  Hence the entire democratic party stalwarts are busy embarrassing Hillary, trying to  get her out of  the  race, by supporting Obama.  Why black Obama then,  who has been meticulously trying to hide his middle Muslim initial,  Hussain?  Why are white Christians so generous with their money and support for black Obama ? Do we love blacks, have we changed,  want to provide  them  with equal opportunity ? Are you kidding ?  Do we want Obama in White House ?  An emphatic No. We would have treated Obama like we did to Martin Luther King or to Malcolm X, or are doing to Lois Farrakhan, if we believed that he will win.   Obama is serving a clever purpose, to get Hillary out of  race, so that all whites, who still make the majority of the population will forget their differences, be it democrat  or republican, get  together and vote for their beloved white candidate, John McCain, and save us from the disgrace of having a woman or a black president.  If John Kerry becomes the candidate for Vice President, with republicans, de ja vu, as he had tried to rope in McCain in 2004, things should become very simple. Poor John Edwards, spoke too much against the corporations and bothered them with litigations. He would have befriended the affluent and powerful once elected, but got swayed in impressing the poor and the masses at the cost of the rich. This is why republicans are voting in huge numbers for Obama and against Clinton. The two parties are the same, which was amply proved by Bill Clinton’s period, and is being exemplified by George Bush’s government.  The two parties combine  to put up a great drama to  entertain and fool the public, and succeed very well at it. And the dream ticket of  a woman and a black will be even an easier kill for the conservatives. The ‘country is not ready for it’, but if Hillary does not put Obama on her ticket, the blacks may

mass-boycott the election, as their candidate with so much of votes and delegates was ignored, and  McCain reaps the benefit. On both counts, the clever ploy has put Hillary between a rock and a hard place.

Since I wrote this,  Hillary is already out. My comments were not published, as I am not a political Pundit, but a mere insurance agent, and should confine my thoughts to insurance. How about giving more popular votes to Obama, but more electoral college votes to McCain, and elect the latter as president, without any help of the supreme court judges ?

___________________________________

* Arun Misra, Ph.D., former professor of biology,  a Financial Planner, lives in Atlanta.

Address: 5005 Johns Creek Court,

GA 30022-5513.

Web : www.arunmisra.com  E-Mail : misrausa@yahoo.com

‘ He is Greg’s new post doc’ said Amy, professor Greg’s wife, in  a party, after being asked about me,   when  I arrived in a sleepy city in the southern United States from a remote place in India,  to conduct research on generating fuels and chemicals from coal.

It sounded to me  like, ‘that’s Greg’s dog’, without a leash.

Then came another revelation, as I was told, that in some  top ranking northern universities, it was a common saying, ‘ how can you win a Nobel prize, if you did not have ten or more Indian post docs working for you for years’, the secret of being Nobel laureate in sciences.

So much of slavery and exploitation at centers of learning was really disgusting. And the story of the top west coast universities, where the senior post docs, expecting to get a letter of recommendation from their professors’ in near future to eventually land a  faculty position in a second  or third rate school, after years of hard work and sacrifice (really academic slavery),  are asked to come to the school  on Saturdays and Sundaysto  check on the new post docs if they are working in the weekends or not, of course without pay. The  illegal Mexican guy is paid  for mowing our lawn, be it weekdays or weekends, but not the post docs working late nights and weekends.

Another shock comes to a bright self-respecting person when he/she hears, ‘ if you are so smart, how come you make so little money ?’ Being smart, intelligent and hard working has to translate in dollars, is foreign and astonishing to people coming from a different culture.

 American dream is not materialism, not home and cars, can be hardly explained to an average American. Smart and noble people arrive here from other countries to achieve more  with  United States of America’s  freedom, abundant resources, quality of life, and the facilities,  to work,  achieve and accomplish more based on their talent, and what they could not do in their native lands.

But the staunch materialistic set up of the society, the cruel capitalism and the rat race to accumulate wealth, toys and gadgets in USA make  the foreigners to abandon their dreams and opt for ‘making money’. No wonder many intellectuals leave the universitiesand end up setting grocery stores, ethnic restaurants,  hotels, gas stations and other outlets to sell stuff to make money. They also divert into white collar jobs selling insurance, real estate, investments and achieve financial success, and  get their children to do more of the same.

Entrepreneurship and being financially savvy ( actually cunning and selfish)is prized so much, while scholarship, knowledge and virtue all acquire a back seat. The few who stay in academia or get into large corporations in the lure of stock options, end up buying apartment complexes and rent them,  purchase businesses as silent partners, or play stock market from the comfort of their office computers to make it big.

   There are exceptions, but the trend  and norm is towards setting up businesses, be it computer programming,  manufacturing  on an assembly line,  doing landscaping etc, and using cheap/slave labor to make more money, use others’ money and generate enormous cash flow.

If this be not accepted as genuine social practice,  why would we have over fifteen million of  illegal immigrants, from the poor post docs on J1, to  the temporary workers on H1, to the visitors on B2, and illegal aliens on a maze of various  visa kinds, slaving  and waiting for years to get a green card, and achieve ‘ the American dream.’

Sunday August 14^th 2006

This Sunday was no different than any other Sunday in my life where dear husband and dearest child nap after a good lunch and I casually open my inbox and reply to all the mails that I received over the week. And also delete the junk that clogs my Inbox. People claiming to have gotten an order for me, people merrily giving away plasma screen TVs and hundreds of dollars for me, for free. People who want to enhance a male organ I unfortunately don’t possess.

While scrolling to find “something” that I might have missed in that junk, I saw an invite. Or rather, an evite. Evites usually don’t come from Donald Trump’s online university or the makers of Cialis. They usually come from the desi gang my kid hangs out with. But then, a month before the evite comes I usually know what day to keep clear on the calendar, and how much gas I would need, and what the other kid wants for the birthday. None of that had happened in the past few days.

Still reeling from the Hari Kunzru’s Transmission after effects, I crossed my fingers and said a silent prayer to Lord Ganesha and opened the evite. No, there was no actress dancing on the screen nor was there any Trojan to be quarantined.

This particular one was from a friend of mine, whom I knew very well. It wasn’t her “milestone” birthday where she would be ready to announce in style that she is thirty at last after five years of vehement denial. It was for a baby shower! I was more than happy to see my friend finally get into shapeless icky yucky pink and white, arm flab revealing, cleavage covering maternity tops after longing for eight long years. I was excited to hold a small baby, and to relive the moments when our kids were that age, and of course, for a new mother who would make us feel like veterans in the field by seeking our advice on everything from how to calm the baby down to getting the father involved in parenting. Babies are exciting, and yeah, pregnancies are worth celebrating.

Curious to know who accepted, and who has rejected and who hasn’t made up their minds yet, I scrolled on the guest list and gasped as I saw a list where everyone in the desi community got a turn to share the joy and happiness my friend’s new arrival would bring in their lives! Most of them “saw” the invite, and yeah, as expected, most remained undecided at the moment. Gone are the good old days where you could tell people that the postman never delivered the invite, or you absolutely didn’t get that particular voicemail because your voicemail likes to eat messages once in a while or even worse, you can claim that you got involved in something else and totally forgot about the invite. Evite sends you an invite, you open it, it sends a message to the host giving the exact time you opened the message and viewed it, and then they actually remind you a day before the event so that your pea brains don’t mess up and forget it!

I know, I know, you think I am over-reacting. For some, it is a 30$ gift and a lunch or dinner out of home so, in the end its’ all justified. And as a plus, you get to hang out with your friends whom you probably didn’t meet for a long time. I can make do with that excuse for the kiddy birthday parties that start in June, peak in November and taper off every December. I can proudly exhibit the dresses and jewelry I got from my last Indian trip, or learn what’s new in fashion by another friend whose mom just arrived with a big suitcase last Sunday, and talk about abusive mothers-in-law who cook, take care of most of the kids while moms work, and dare to ask for sometime with their sons after they come home from work. I mean, how could anyone be so insensible? Girls need time with their moms, and we all want shopping trips, movie trips exclusively with moms, without any interruption from husbands. But mother-in-law wanting to spend time with our dearest possession? That is emotional abuse and she needs to be discussed at all the potlucks and parties happening around that time frame!

My kid gets to enjoy for a few hours without having to worry about cleaning up after her friends are gone at a crowded Chuck-e-cheese’s or at a park with the clowns or characters that uncle-and-aunty got to entertain them for the day. And yeah, mom won’t even know how many pizza slices made their way to the fussy-vege-hater’s little stomach with soda.

My husband and his friends can discuss hypertension, diabetes, tri-glycerides and other problems they will soon face once they are in their forties while sipping their vodka tonics. Of course, they all have opinions about the stock market, housing market, Indian economy and whatever that lets them express their opinions without holding them responsible for it.

On an average, on such occasions, every invitee will spend thirty to forty dollars at Wal-Mart, Toys’r’us or whatever corporation they choose to promote that season. A few like me go to Macys, use their coupons, rewards and what not and pay half of what the sticker shouted out first, and then happily hand over the gift to the child and wait for the thank you from the mom and kid the next day. After all, uncle-and-aunty spent so much to entertain your kid, and it is all but natural that you should repay them with a gift for their child.

Back to the baby shower, this is the first time in my adult life that I got invited for a shower. Not that I don’t have any friends who became pregnant, but they all knew me too well to just let me know in privacy about the arrival or sometimes send a jazzy announcement card where they tell you the due date, the gender and of course the name they have chosen for the baby that you don’t have to be impatient waiting for the next six or seven months. But always, trust me, always, my daughter had been sick, or my husband took me for an impromptu romantic vacation, or my boss asked me to come to work exactly on that day. I know, coincidence, but I always make sure something coincides with any shower that I have to attend. I am more comfortable celebrating the new life in my arms than just congratulating someone on their successful egg-meet-sperm mission and watch those creepy 3D and 4D ultrasound pictures. Even 2Ds make me feel that the babies are aliens waiting to attack earth, but then after seeing mine for hours, I am used to the 2Ds now. I can tolerate them.

Anyway I had this evite that needed a reply. It was one of the much modern ones where you know the gender, chosen name, due date AND the 3D image of how the baby looks AND blog link where the couple shared everything from pictures of the growing belly to their worries and craven curries. They are very good people. They don’t want you worrying about whom the baby might resemble and gray your hair, or worse lose them in the next six months. I pulled out the list of my excuses for not attending the successful unprotected union of the Mr and Mrs and started working on phrasing something that would look very-very real to the lady in question. Typed in something in the allowed limit of words on evite and before I hit the send button, I saw something…

There was a link to her registry!!! She was a good soul who just wanted to ensure that even if I can’t make it to the party, I don’t have to bite my nails off worrying about how to send the present, or worse, what to send. She had a list of everything she wanted from Evenflo SmartSteps Jump-and-Go Jumper to the Boppy Luxe Pillow - Posies Pink to the Infant Urban Bundle Me - Diva, anything for just 34.99 or 44.99! Isn’t that a convenience? There were choices like some princess mobile for 19.99 and some kind of a princess banner for the bedroom that was cheap too, but you know, experienced people act fast and grab those opportunities before novices like me even figure out what a registry is, and why a well to do couple that could sponsor hundred babies in India will ever have a registry! A thousand hungry people could be fed instead of shoving that cake in our ever-dieting soda and sugar free bodies forcibly.

Are we not happy for you? Yes, we are very happy for you. DO we want to share that happiness through eating with you and buying you gifts that you want us to buy? No.  Instead, we would want you to call us, or send us an email and then tell us the good news and let us be genuinely happy for you, and let us show our genuine happiness with our sweet words of encouragement and support for the upcoming event. Please don’t make us buy gifts for you. Please don’t send us an evite and check on our every move and oblige us into buying something that the baby won’t use or appreciate in its’ lifetime. We don’t really care much if your nursery theme is sage and white, or pink and purple or the blue of the sky. Six months pregnant, I still crave for a party where someone will tell me that it is just a get-together to eat healthy food and anyone who is overwhelmed enough to buy an expensive gift to the host may donate that money to charity…

Recently one of my friends sent me the link to a site with interesting information for the Indian Diaspora. ( http://www.anonymousdesi.com )

Some of these "children" are well into their 30s, still trying to find a “match” that will make themselves AND their parents happy. Ah, well, GOOD LUCK!

What amazes me is the utter lack of communication among the Indian parents here and the sheer helplessness of the children to connect with the parents.

Caught between two cultures, we are all forging a new path in this “forbidden zone” where children growing up here have the SAME (!!) rights that we do! This USA govt, now why did they have to go and do THAT??? J

When we were growing up, we listened to our parents! There was no question about NOT doing EXACTLY what they wanted us to do. For the majority of us, there was really no choice. Although I did have a choice, most of my friends barely got to talk a few sentences with their bridegrooms before they found themselves face to face on the marriage night! EEEK!

Well, the younger generation growing up here are NOT Indians, they are AMERICANS. And they did not see their friends or neighbors marrying just for the sake of getting out of the house or pleasing their parents. They actually believe in falling in “love”, a strange phenomenon the very mention of which makes average Indian parents

tremble!!!

WHAT??? Without knowing the caste, creed, color (“fair and white” is always IN for Indians.. J) education ($$$$) and most of all, class! How can LOVE happen just like that?  THAT’s impossible!

Granted, most people want the life of a loving married couple, respecting each other and willing to die for each other, “until death do us part”..

But wait, think of ALL the marriages in your family.. how many of them are even close to a dream marriage? How many Indian families, women especially, spend day after day, hoping for some improvement in the relationship? How many Indian couples will go to a counselor or accept therapy if needed? After all, in “the land of the thousand sons”, does a woman really have a voice, a choice?

In any situation, compromise or agreements may be reached only if both parties are willing to negotiate fairly. Otherwise, in the situations where Americans divorce and try again, Indian families in trouble just go along, day after day, until they die! L The loss of self-control also makes some women manipulative and cruel to the rest of the women in the family (the mother-in-law syndrome). Unhappy with their lives and yet, treat with contempt the women who have the guts to make decisions on their own!!

A bad marriage certainly maims the children! Surviving abuse in the family and then to be able to carry on a normal relationship with a human being is a farfetched notion. It usually takes years of therapy to deal with violence and its aftermath. Our children learn about relationships by watching us.

So the first thing we as parents need to do is to make our children understand that they are WHOLE by themselves. They do not NEED anyone else to make their life complete. Then, when they are happy and settled, they may share their life with someone who deserves them, someone who will make their lives happier with love and friendship. Only if they DESIRE to, do they need to create children.

We have enough children in the world. Every Indian couple need not have children unless THEY WANT TO. When I was growing up, it wasn’t a choice. Although I wanted children, many of my friends didn’t but were too terrified to speak up. Even now, couples who decide not to have children are looked down upon by Indian society. The newly weds are always asked “Any GOOD NOOOSE?” yeah, the good news is that they are happy together!

Among my Indian friends, I know a couple who is unaware that their daughter is living with a man. Another parent completely denies her daughter’s boyfriend even though she spends a lot of time in his house and even sleeps there. A close friend still beats her 19 year old daughter (on the face!) every time she mentions her boyfriend.

Just like the dangers of the internet that we discuss with the kids and helped them navigate through, we parents have to discuss subjects such as sex, responsibility, morals, differences between love, infatuation, attraction etc while taking care to not shut down communication channels with our biased opinions and judgments. (Yeah, I am still working on that one! J ) The more prejudiced we are, the more we drive the children to unwise choices.

What will make Indian parents open their eyes? No, returning to India is foremost in their minds, but alas, more and more couples in Indian cities are living together rather than even getting married. India is fast absorbing the western way of life as well as the outsourcing dollars that pour in. If a marriage is not based on trust and love, women in India, especially the educated, self-sufficient, city bred ones, are not willing lose themselves in it.

So please talk to your children. Ask them to explain to you why they want things a different way. Remember that they are adults and open up your heart to keep communications alive. You will have a good relationship with your children if you are willing to change with the times. Do not worry about what your Indian friends will think. Believe me; most Indian kids here do the same, on the sly, ANYWAY. Their parents may be clueless, but we need not be!

Let us pray that our children live happily ever after. J

Rashdie, Chibber, Prasad, and Alex Beam. The have all had their say. And here I was, still wordless on Kaavya Viswanathan. Hence, this post.

 Salman Rashdie, who hasn't read her book, says he has little sympathy for the Harvard teenager.

Kavita Chhibber reckons south Asian writers may pay the price for Kaavya's seeming dishonesty. Their books will now come under the scanner.

My friend B R Ramaprasad of Millington, NJ, will give her the benefit of the doubt – 'people do crazy things under pressure' Kaavya, a mere teenager, has a full life ahead of her. Folks here, says Prasad, belong to a forgiving society. He has even suggested a title for Kaavya's next work – ' How I got Pulverized, Then Reincarnated, Proved Everyone Wrong, and Carried on with My Life'

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam cites a friend as saying "today's temporarily disgraced Ivy League child novelist is tomorrow's Hollywood success story". Remember Yale's Jacob Epstein? Whose 1979 novel 'Wild Oats' bore remarkable similarities to Martin Amis' 'The Rachel Papers'. They couldn't care less, at Hollywood; and Epstein became a writer for ' Hill Street Blues;, and executive story editor for 'L.A. Law'

My thoughts are Bollywood might get interested in the kaavya Viswanthan story, if someone isn't already working on it. I have in mind someone such as Karan Johar or Nagesh Kukanoor. Who knows, a movie on Kaavya may help her put the 'Opal Mehta' saga behind her. Title of Kaavya Viswanathan's  tainted work, now off book store shelves, is 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life'.