US Presential elections Percent of Blacks,Hispanic and White Delegates for Democrats and Republicans

US ELECTIONS
DEMOGRAPHICS  of Delegates at Conventions
DEMOCRATS
White 65%
Hispanic 11%
Black 23%
See Graphic

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REPUBLICANS
White  93%
Hispanic 5%
Black 2%
(Based on CBS/NY Time Poll at both conventions)
See Graphic

Ganapati Bappa Morya Indian-American org sam rao

GANAPATI BAPPA MORYA
starts WED SEPT 3 ( Bhadraapada Shukla Chaturthi)

One of the more favorite dieties, Ganesha, the elephant Headed god with many names is cherished by many faiths. Ganesha makes an apperance in Budhhism, Sikhism, Jianism etc and is always known as Remover of Obstacles and hence prayed before launch of any venture.
The poojas are interesting and after 10 days there is Visarjana or dunking of the clay idols.  In North America, festivals are postponed for the weekends for convienience and “interestung” shortcuts are taken,

Khel Ratna, arjuna Awards Announce 2007-08 Indian-american Org Sam Rao

ARJUNA AWARDS and KHEL RATNA AWARDS Announced 2007- 2008
The highest civilian awards for Sports in India were announced for 2008, with India cricket star MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI was awarded the KHEl RATNA or officially known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. The Khel Ratna carries a medal, a ceremonial dress, the scroll of honour and a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh (Rs.500,000). His father Pan Singh accepted the honouron his behalf, as MS dhoni was in Sri Lanka

Ms Dhoni  Cricket KHEL Ratna

D. HARIKA Chess Arjuna Award

Arjun Atwal, Golf Arjuna  Award

Arjuna awards were awarded to Chitra K Soman (athletics), Anup Sridhar (badminton), Verghese Johnson (boxing), D. Harika (chess), Arjun Atwal (golf), Prabhjot Singh (hockey), Tombi Devi (judo), Bajranj Lal Takhar (rowing), Avneet Kaur Sidhu (shooting), Alka Tomar (wrestling) and Farman Basha (powerlifting — disabled category). The Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 300,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.
The Dronacharya Award to prominent coaches was given to Jagdish Singh (boxing), Sanjeev Kumar Singh (archery), G. E. Sridharan (volleyball), Jagminder Singh (wrestling) were the four coaches who were honoured with the Dronacharya award for the year 2007.
The Dhaynchand award given to the retired sportsperson and coaches was also given to Hakam Singh (athletics), Mukhbain Singh (hockey) and Gyan Singh (wrestling).
The Tenzing Norgay award - the highest national recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of adventure sports – went to Subedar Neel Chand, Subedar Mohinder Singh, Air Commodore Tushar Kanti Rath, Captain M. S Kohli.

2 great industrial stalwarts die KK Birla and T BATA (shoes) Indian-American Sam Rao

TWO GREAT STALWARTS DIE
K K BIRLA   &     THOMAS BATA (Shoes)

Close on the heels of each other two great Industrialists with India connectionshave died.
One India’s own illustrious KK Birla at age 90 died in Kolkota soon after his wife Manoramadevi who died last month. Birlaji from Pilani was an icon of India and industrialist in sugar, fertilizers, chemicals, heavy engineering, textiles, shipping, newspaper etc. His philantrophy and support of various causes and temples etc are legendary including educational institutions. He was a Rajya Sabha Member of Pariament for 18 years and KK Birla foundation has awards in various fields.

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The Other is Thomas BATA jr, a Shoe Maker Industrialist of Eastern European descent- No he was not Indian!! But No one of Indian origin or from 27 countries that sells BATA shoes could hav missed his brand. The Czechkoslavakian native suffered under Nazis and later under Communists and immigrated to Canada. he went back to Czechkoslavakia. Sales for BATa shoes worldwide are reportedly 300 million per year

INDIA Day Celebrated at SF Giants Baseball Game Unique Historic Indian-american sam Rao

FIA NC & SF GIANT BASEBALL Hold INDIA PRIDE DAY at AT& T Park San Francisco, Tuesday Aug 26, 2008

India Day at SF GIANTS Baseball game- Unique Historic event

CONGRATS!!!
INDIA DAY Celebrated at SF Giants Baseball Game
@ AT&T Park, Tuesday Aug 26, 2008

Kanchan Dharmani- Chair BoD Anil Yadav- Chair BoT, TAAl Dance group Walnut Creek), Kathak Group- (Shalini Saxena) Manipuri Aavartan Group(Vinita Kumar) Committee Members

FIA NC and NFIA NC and AT&T PARK At the SF GIANTS GAMW WITH INDIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY FOLK DANCE NNJ dancers FLAG HOISTING on FIELD BHANGRA NNJ dancers Singer Alka Bhatnagar. Flaming Fusion (Ajanta Chakraborty)

San Francisco, California:
The Celebration of India’s Independence Day took place at an unique venue as the SF Giants baseball management chose August 26th tio honor the day at the AT&T Park in San Francisco.

The event co sponsored by the Federation of Indo-American Associations of Northern California (FIA-NC) and the National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA) with a lot of community support, drew a large number of community supporters as the showcase was held both art the entrance of the stadium and also on the field before the start of the game.

At the entrance before the game, a large crowd gathered to the beats of rhythmic dhol playing by Master Raju, followed by some songs by Bay area singer Alka Bhatnagar. The FIANC  committee members including President Rajeev Awasthy, Chairwoman Kanchan Dharmani and others introduced the evening gala presentation at the entrance, where a stage and music setup blared the Indian folk and film music.

The outdoor session also featured several local dance troupes like Taal group from Walnut Creek performing Indian movie songs, Aavartan of San Jose performing a fast paced Manupuri folk dance with splendid costumes and Shalini Saxena’s award winning Kathak troupe.   Also performing were Flaming Fusion, a five person fusion dance troupe lead by Ajanta Chakraborty, who danced to a remix of Indian movie, Flamenco and hip hop music.  Well known bay area singer Alka Bhatnagar sang Aye Mere Watan Ke logon, Vande Mataram and couple other numbers to open the ceremonies.

On the field, as the large wide scoreboard screen flashed the dance performances by NNJ dance group, who performed two Indian folk dances with colorful costumes, several kids held aloft the Indian Tri Color flag, which swirled in the stiff breeze at the waterfront stadium.

“The India Independence Day Celebrations at the A T &T Park and SF Giants Baseball game is a great opportunity to proudly reflect the culture and heritage of India to the mainstream, especially as we are very much in USA and our children are definitely part of the mainstream,” said Anil Yadav, Chair Board of Trustees, FIA NC.

In keeping with the cause of promoting cross cultural community, the AT&T Ballpark, the SF Giants have been holding several Community days to reflect their commitment to involve the community-at-large. Along with the India Day celebration, a Irish Day, Jewish Day, Chinese day etc are also planned.

“ We came across this opportunity and thought it was a wonderful idea to showcase our community as part of the mainstream,” said Board member of NFIA Niraj Baxi and added that FIA NC was chosen in Northern California as a recognized partner of the national body. Baxi along with San Diego based Pramod Kamdar, a board member of NFIA who initiated the initiative with Major League baseball.  also said that along with a Southern California venue, others around the nation will also be showcased.  Baxi added that ,”The idea is to keep this as an annual event and involve the Indian community more and also showcase the community to mainstream America.”

“This is a great occasion for the community to be united and come together for our future generations We plan to be part of something which are children should be proud of,” said Anil Yadav, Chairman Board of Trustees and Rajeev Awasty, President of FIA NC.

The event which went off well with the SF Giants management keeping track of time, started when the crowds were sparse, though the showcase was recorded and replayed periodically on the giant scoreboard screen periodically in between innings. The cultural show was limited in time and could only showcase a few dances but surprisingly not a single salute to any Southern or Western Indian culture was noticeable even at the presentation at the entrance.

The game between the San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball teams also had a documentary style slide show highlighting India’s heritage  and definitely interested many in the crowd, along with the thousand or so special commemorative caps handed out with Giants written in Sanskrit Devanagari script.

Along with several volunteers and community support, FIA NC made special mention of Dipak Roy of Fremont Bank, Steve Tyler of Best Buy Corporation and Ashok Sinha, Consul (Community Affairs) of Indian Consulate in San Francisco.

US Elections Presidnetial Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, Jihn McCain and Sarah Palin Indian-American

DEMOCRATS
BARRACK OBAMA Choses SENATOR JOE BIDEN as VP  for Democrats

Senator Joe Biden

Pres Candidate Obama and VP choice Biden

Senator  Obama chose an “open seret” Biden as his running mate  for the November 2008 US Pres. Elections
Thos shores up Obama’s  perceived lack of foreign policy Experience.
The veteran Senator from Delaware is originally from Pennsylvaia and bring a mix of blue collar mentality and support along with being part of the “system”
Senatior Biden has nbeen in political office since 1972 and also ran unsuccessfuly twice to be President of US He is also a member of the India Caucus and considered a friend of India and Indian-American Community Now is the Time for Republicans GOP JOHN McCAIN Choses VP nominee Ms. SARAH PALIN

GOP= Republican Ticket- Nominees Ms SARAH PALIN (VP) and JOHN MCCAIN (President)

GOP Presidential nominee John McCain, known to be a bit independent minded and a maverick ( although he voted with President Bush more that 95% of the votes) decided to shake up the establishment by bringing in the Governor of Alaska as the GOP’s nominee for Vice President of United States.
With speculation galore on the choice, which McCain had months to ponder- as his nomination was finished much before the Democrats- came up with a selection which is intriguing.
Ms Sarah Palin (44) is no doubt a brilliant person and has very interesting factoids as well. She was a Beauty pageant runner up – a prominent member of Christian athletes society and is a Life member of NRA, who hunts and fishes and even worked in commercial fishing and was also a star point guard in school basketball!
Born in Idaho and then in Alaska most of her life, the city councilor and Mayor was appointee to regulate Alaska Oil and Natural gas and seems to have worked closely with law enforcement and even fingered her own top honchos at the Republican hierarchy in Alaska and got many of these Republican folks convicted and fired for corruption along the way! Yay for Sarah!
The GOP’s VP is married to an Eskimo Yupik native, whom she eloped with and marrried and has five children. she is Anti abortion but pro Contraception and against same sex marriage BUT vetoed a legislation and HELPED Gay couples in Alaska get benefits of common law marraige etc.  Oh apparently she has admitted to smoking Marijuana in school as well!
Sounds Interesting to say the least.

International Kuchipudi conference Guiness Book World Record

CONGRATS! GUINNESS BOOK WORLD RECORD SET with MAXIMUM 318 DANCERS SIMULTANEOUS DANCE PERORMANCE

NOTE: Each Image has a 4 Mpx Hi RES picture available  ( Sam Rao)
NOTE :  Each Picture has a HI RESOLUTION ( ~4 Mpx picture) Available
Call Sam Rao 510-2Two8-6417 or email : click here

Sam Rao Indian American Org Blog Archive

MANNA DEY Live in Concert
see Pix and Write Up

- BLUEPLANEt RUN 2007- 20 runners. 95 days. 24 hours a day.16 countries. 15,200 miles… For water SEE SUNIL JAYARAJ

Indian-American sam Rao Blog Archive

MORE ESSAYS  and PHOTO JOURNAL
=INDIA at the Olympics Beijing 2008 BOXING, WRESTLING and Other VIJENDEr, SUSHIL KUMAR and  AKHIL KUMAR
- Abhinav Bindra Wins 1st Gold Medal for India- 10 meter Shoorting Beijing Olympics 2008
- Let the Games Begin- Beijing olympics 08-08-08
-2 Indian-Americans in US Olympics RAJ BHAVSAR Gymnastics and RAJU RAI- Badminton- Beijing Olympics 2008

-Vigil for Victims of Terror Bombs in India and Elsewhere= San Jose Sat July 26th
-UnforgettableTour 2008
-Amitabh, Madhuri Dixit, abhisekh, Aishwariya rai, Priety Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh and Dancers at the Oakland ORACLE Arena  Sunday July 27th
-CONGRATS ASH KALRA
WINS TOP SPOT But will Face Runoff in City Council Elections in City of San Jose
-India Government Survices No-Confidence Vote. win for Democracy & Us India Nuclear Agreement

-Nominal Results of CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS (Clinton &Obama)    Some WINNERS Qualified as DEMO DELEGATES
-Indian American Leaders
Alkesh Desai elected to SanJose/Berryessa School Board

READ MORE @ www.indian-american.org
READ MORE