Letters from Readers
Goldmining our Indian heritage
First, I should express my thanks and admiration to the editor as well as the editorial staff of Khabar magazine for the continued publication of this monthly, which greatly satisfies a dire need of representation of our community at large. We all should be cognizant of the toughest challenge that the publishing industry is facing—with and without the pandemic. Your August 2020 issue, as usual, contains many valuable articles, of which I want to focus on two articles. “10 Gems of Indian Civilization,” by Dr. Paul Fleischman, should serve as a beacon for all-time reference. This article is an extremely well researched piece of writing. It is saddening to see that the contents, although true to their word, refer only to our past, thus illustrating a convenient truth and ignoring the reality of the present. We should not bow out under the pressure of our admiration but face the inconvenient truth that our swamp needs to be cleaned. A frightful, five-foot crocodile coming out from an Indian bathroom (page 70 of the same issue) illustrates symbolically the consequence of an undrained swamp. I suggest that the magazine should also publish abstracts from other non-Indian magazines about our fast deteriorating conditions of climate, water, morality, religious hooliganism, etc. to make us aware of our darker side that needs a prompt and focused attention. The Ten Gems that the author enlists were indeed ours at one time, but it also should warn us how our gems have been stolen and lost. There is an old Chinese saying that even the richest family will have only paupers by its third generation. If old is gold, retain it. Let us raise some unpleasant questions like: how much we now know about Upanishads or how many of us practice the teachings of Bhagavad Gita? We have to be thankful to Dr. Fleischman who has given us a gold standard so that we preserve the gold and learn to recognize that all that glitters is not gold.
“A Voice for Indian-Americans,” the second article, where Sunil Adam (the erstwhile editor-in-chief of India Abroad) is interviewed, makes a good fit for the aforementioned article. It merits a closer study because of the valuable points it makes that are shrouded in a somewhat erudite language. I would choose only one point to discuss therefrom: that the seeming progress of the “model minority” should also draw our attention to the criminal cargo of insatiable greed and disrespect for law that is repeatedly exhibited. Fraud and malpractice are some examples. This imparts a bad name to Indians, tarnishing our image. We also need to examine ourselves such that the progress that we make does not reflect an attitude of rugged individualism, but that we remain sensitive to the growth of the community as a whole. In this instructive interview, I wish Reetika Khanna had reserved one question to gain some information about the personal growth and career development of an illustrious person like Sunil Adam to serve as an example for our younger generation to learn from.
Dr. Bhagirath Majumdar
via email
We too love our yogurt containers
I was very amused by “The Immigrant: For the love of Dahi,” an article by Monita Soni in the August issue of Khabar, wherein she writes that she saves Desi yogurt containers and uses them to store food and condiments. My wife is just like her and saves yogurt containers. She even saves food plastic containers. We never ever waste our money in buying empty plastic containers from Walmart. We not only save leftover food in yogurt containers, but also drink water, soda, or tea from small plastic containers. We are thrifty Indian-Americans! By the way, we are big fans of Dannon and Fargo Greek yogurt and make shikhand from Greek yogurt.
Rajesh Gandhi
Decatur, GA
What’s on YOUR mind?
We welcome original, unpublished letters from our readers. You could either respond to a specific article in Khabar or write about issues relevant to our community. Letters may be edited for length and other considerations. Longer submissions by readers may be considered for the “My Turn” column.
Email: letters@khabar.com • Fax: (770) 234-6115.
Mail: Khabar, Inc. 3635 Savannah Place Dr, Suite 400, Duluth, GA 30096.
Note: Views expressed in the Letters section do not necessarily represent those of the publication.
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