People from South Asia are at a greater risk for heart diseases than most of the world.

People over 40, and even younger ones if there is a history of coronary diseases in the family, should get their Cholesterol (and Glucose) checked annually. With extraordinary advances that have lately taken place in medical technologies it does not make much sense to die young with a failed heart.
Cut down on meat, eat fruits and vegetables, exercise daily, have a vast social network, and be happy doing what you really want to do instead of putting yourself in some mindless rat race, and there is no reason you would not be blessed with a long, healthy life that would benefit everyone around you.

On its web site, the South Asian Heart Center, describes its mission as:
"The mission of the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital is to reduce the high incidence of coronary artery disease among South Asians, and save lives, through a comprehensive, culturally-appropriate program incorporating education, advanced screening, lifestyle changes, and case management."

South Asian Heart Center
El Camino Hospital, Park Pavilion, Ground Floor, 2400 Grant Road, Mountain View, CA 94040
Phone: 650.940.SAHC (650.940.7242) | Fax: 650.966.9269 | info@southasianheartcenter..org
http://www.southasianheartcenter.org

A fraud about an alleged fraud

The following email message about an alleged swindling scheme at Indian airports has been making rounds on the Internet.

--------------------------------
PASSPORT FRAUD

Important Information. Please pass it on to all you know..


Dear All:

Be careful At the Indian Airports, This is a well-organized conspiracy by Indian Immigration, Police, Customs and Air India staff with networking at all the Indian International Airports. Be watchful whenever you give your passport to Immigration/ Customs/Air India staff. The passport can be easily tampered and can create trouble to you. They have found easy way of making money from NRIs. This is the way it works.At the time of the passenger's departure, if the passenger is not looking at the officer while he is stamping the exit, the officer very cleverly tears away one of the page from the passport. When the passenger leaves the immigration counter, the case is reported on his computer terminal with full details. Now all over India they have got full details of the passenger with Red Flag flashing on the Passport number entered by the departure immigration officer. They have made their money by doing above. On arrival next time, he is interrogated. Subject to the passenger's period of stay abroad, his income and standing etc., the price to get rid of the problem is settled by the Police and Immigration people. If someone argues, his future is spoiled because there are always some innocent fellows who think the honesty is the basis of getting justice in India . Which is wrong...Please advise every passenger to be careful at the airport. Whenever they hand over the passport to the counters of Air India , or immigration or the customs, they must be vigilant, should not remove eyes from the passport even if the officer in front tries to divert their attention. Also, please pass this information to all friends, media men and important politicians. Every month 20-30 cases are happening all over India to rob the NRIs the minute he lands. Similar case has happened with Armco¢s Arifuddin. He was traveling with his family. They had six passports. They got the visa of America and decided to go via Hyderabad from Jeddah. They reached Hyderabad . Stayed about a month and left for the States. When they reached the States, the page of the American visa on his wife's passport was missing. At the time of departure from Hyderabad it was there, the whole family had to return to Hyderabad helplessly. On arrival at Bombay back, the police caught them and now it is over 2 months, they are running after the Police, Immigration officers and the Courts. On going in to details with him, he found out the following: One cannot imagine, neither can believe, that the Indian Immigration dept can play such a nasty game to harass the innocent passengers.
All the passengers traveling to & from India via Bombay and Hyderabad must be aware of this conspiracy. Every month 15 to 20 cases are taking place, at each mentioned airport, of holding the passengers in the crime of tearing away the passport pages. On interviewing some of them, none of them was aware of what had happened. They don't know why, when and who tore away the page from the middle of the passport. One can imagine the sufferings of such people at the hands of the immigration, police and the court procedures in India after that. The number of cases is increasing in the last 2-3 years. People who are arriving at the immigration, they are questioned and their passports are being held and they have to go in interrogations. Obviously, the conspiracy started about 2 to 3 years ago, now the results are coming. Some of the Air India counter staff too is involved in this conspiracy.

KINDLY SEND THIS TO AS MANY AS YOUR FRIENDS ACROSS THE WORLD AND ALSO REQUEST THEM TO CHECK THE PASSPORT AT THE CHECKING COUNTERS AND BEFORE LEAVING THE AIRPORT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis:
Is the above for real?
Probably not. Why? Because:
1. It is poorly written, indicating it not to be from a credible source.
2. The byline is missing. We don't know who wrote it.
3. The language used is typical of spam: "Similar case has happened with Armco's Arifuddin." Remember the letter that foretold the curse that would fall on you if you failed to make copies of the letter and send them to 100 people? It also used the same language: Arif of Bombay ignored this letter; next day his mother died.
[The truth was otherwise. Arif's mother was sick, but instead of taking care of her he went to make copies of the letter and mail them to 100 people. By the time he was done his mother died.;-)]
4. Even if you ignore #1, 2, and 3, the alleged scheme is too elaborate to take place. It requires collusion of too many people, at various levels. Unless there are regular meetings of all personnel working at Indian airports, to get reports, declare 'income', and equitably divide up the booty, the scheme cannot successfully run.

Conclusion:
It is a hoax. Please do not forward "PASSPORT FRAUD" message to anyone. Do your part in keeping the Internet free of spam.

[Photo courtesy of BBC]

Information highway bandits

Saeed Ahmad (not his real name) is a good friend of mine. This morning I got the following SOS message from him.

From: saeed @yahoo.com
Date: Oct 11, 2007 9:21 PM
Subject: Emergency !!!
To: @yahoo.com


How are you today? I went to Australia for a program called (world summittion child labour and child exploitation ).On our way back to our hotel we were robbed by a gang of armed robbers and my wallet and my ATM card and other valuable things like my I.D card was taken including the wallet.

I needed to pay for my hotel bills but do not have anything on me right now and I have contacted every one to be of assistance,please I want you to help and send about $2,500 to help me pay some bills here and get my flight ticket back and I will return the money back as soon as I get back to home by Friday Morning.I am so sad and unhappy about the situation here and I have to visit the Doctor at the Holroyd Private Hospital(villawood) here in Australia which Mrs Tomajina rushed me immediately because I was hurt badly so I want you to help me send some money to pay part of my bills so that I could leave Australia.

Please I need to hear from you soon as you get this email, I will send you the information where you will be sending the money to me through Western Union.But the problem is that I have sent Mrs Tomajina to the Western Union outlet here and she was told that I would not be able to use my international passport to get the money pick up because it is not an Australia Passport,So I have decided to used Mrs Tomajina who has saved my life here in Australia. please you will be sending the money through her information to help me get the money picked up at the Western Union office here in Australia,Please be rest assured that I will pay back the money as soon as I arrive back by Friday Morning,And please understand that your help is much needed right now because I am very stranded here.

Waiting to hear from you.

Thanks for the effort

Regards,
Saeed

-------------------------------------------------------

Obviously, the above message got me very worried. Mindful of spam I sent the following message.

Dear Saeed,
Is it really from you?
Kindly confirm.
Salam
C.

-----------------------------------------------------

Right away, I got a response from Saeed.

Hello,
Thanks so much for the reply and so much concern towards my situation.Please I need your help right now that why I have contact you if you can help me with any amount tangible so that I will be back home.It really me but I wish to explain better but time does not permit me because I am using a public library internet here in Australia that why, I wish you can send me the money and when I get back I will surely pay you back.I will be looking forward to read from you as soon as possible so that I can send the information you will be sending the money to.Looking forward to read from you.
Regards
Saeed

-------------------------------------------------

A bit suspicious, I wrote,


Dear Saeed,
Kindly give me a phone number where I can contact you.
thanks
C.

------------------------------------------------

Saeed responded with,

Hello,
How are you doing? And thanks so much for the reply.I am very sorry I can't provide any phone number right now because my phone can't work here in Australia and the only way I can contact you right now is through mails, and that why I have contact you if you can help me with any amount.Please try and understand me better and I promise when I get back I will surely pay you back.I will be looking forward to read from you so that I can send you the details you will be sending the money.
Regards
Saeed

--------------------------------------------

Being completely satisfied, I wrote


OK
Please give me the name, account number etc. where I
need to send the money to.
regards,
C.

------------------------------------------

Saeed responded with,

Thank so much for helping me but I don't have any account here and the neither the poor widow Mrs Tomajina has but you can kindly send the money through Western Union Money Transfer to her so that she can kindly help me pick the money up at the Western Union outlet office here.Here is her details below:

Recievers Name:TOMAJINA L. SPARTALIS

Add:17 ALCOOMIE STREET, VILLAWOOD
2163-SYDNEY NSW.AUSTRALIA.

Text Question:Who send the money?
Answer:

Please kindly get with the necessary information like MTCN(money transfer control number)and also the address you use and send the money as soon as possible.Looking forward to see that
Regards
Saeed

---------------------------------------

Then I wrote,

Thanks for the information, Saeed.

Let me run to the nearest Western Union. It is late
at night here, but let me find a branch that operates
24 hours.

I have been deeply disturbed ever since I read your
distress email message this morning. In fact I have
been crying.

Saeed, Because of our years of friendship I am not
going to send you $2500 that you have asked for--I am
going to send you $25000. I don't want you to spend
any more time in Australia, looking for a bargain
ticket. If the money I am sending you cannot get you
a charter flight, you can at least come first class on
the next airline flying out of that hellhole.

And please don't think for a moment that I am doing
you any favor. I am merely paying back what you have
done to me through all these years. How can I forget
your help in my hours of crisis? When Michelle, my
first wife, ran away, you started dating her and
provided her support. And innumerable other times you
have proved yourself to be a friend I can truly count
on.

As for the robbery that deprived you of everything, I
have a suspicion that you have been trapped. I won't
be too surprised if I find out that the hotel manager
and robbers are cohorts. I have even nurtured the
thought of Mrs Tomajina being part of the gang--Mrs
Tomajina being hotel manager's mistress. But the fact
that Mrs Tomajina did not disappear after the looting,
and in fact has been helping you, makes me discount
the last part of my theory--or else, the plot is
really thick.

Saeed, I am disgusted by this incident of armed
robbery of an innocent American traveler in Australia.
It has proven beyond doubt that Australia is not safe
for Americans, and in fact is a terrorist country. I
am going to ask President Bush to bomb Australia. In
fact an aerial campaign, to soften enemy positions,
can commence right away--but not before you safely get
out of there.

As for poor widow Mrs Tomajina, kindly thank her on my
behalf. It is great that she is besides you in this
moment of misery. Is she good looking?

Saeed, Let me not make this message any longer. I
know that having lost everything you are checking your
email at a library and libraries limit the time
patrons can use computers--these Australian library
terrorists can especially be ruthless.

Saeed, Let me assure you that with my money and your
charm this ugly episode is coming to an end.

Hope to see you here soon, before the Australian skies
get filled with our Apaches and B-2 stealth bombers.

Love,
C.
-------------------------------------------------

Photo courtesy of Amazon dot com.

"Pressure Tactics"

I came across this news report in Daily Dawn:

http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/02/local20.htm

-----------------------------------------------------------
KARACHI : SHCBA chief's complaint

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, Oct 1: A ditch has been dug in front of Sindh High Court Bar Association President Abrar Hasan's residence in Gulshan-i-Iqbal to make it inaccessible by car, the SHCBA chief told a meeting of its members addressed by presidential candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed on Monday.

Mr Hasan told the meeting that he had been receiving "warnings" for quite a few days. The town municipal administration sent a bulldozer this morning and it cut a trench in front of his house. Fortunately, he had already driven his car out of the house for proceeding to the high court. A truck came soon afterwards and took away the dug-up earth and rubbish, perhaps to prevent early refilling and leveling. He said no pressure tactics would work and he would remain steadfast in the campaign.
-----------------------------------------------------


The first picture is a close-up of the "punishment" trench; the other one shows the ditch from some distance away--that it is only in front of one house.

What do you think of this? Who came up with this idea?
Imagine pro-Musharraf people sitting somewhere, making a list of everyone against Musharraf's presidency and deciding who deserves what kind of punishment.

Digging a ditch in front of your opponent's house may appear amusing to some, but imagine facing inconvenience related to such a punishment when the table is turned and others are strong enough to do that to you.

Mourning the death of Jamal Ashraf Ansari

If every birth reminds us God is still hopeful with humanity, perhaps every death reminds us how little time we have to fulfill that hope.

Jamal Ashraf Ansari died in Karachi today.

Although I had the pleasure of briefly meeting soft-spoken Ansari I did not really know him that well--directly. Indirectly I know a lot about him; the source of my indirect information being Ansari's bright son writer, blogger, activist Sabahat Ashraf, more popularly known by his penname iFaqeer.

1970s were a special time in the history of Pakistan. Middle East ready to exploit vast oil reserves opened its doors to skilled and unskilled labor of the subcontinent. It was around the same time that a lot of teaching positions opened up in Nigeria. Pakistani teachers went to West Africa in hordes. Jamal Ashraf Ansari was one of them. Several years later on returning back from Africa Jamal Ansari started teaching at a Karachi college, and that was when the prefix 'Professor' was added to his name.

Long time ago when as a child I heard the expression of a death leaving a hole I conjured up an image of humanity that is made of various shaped blocks butting each other. Every now and then a hand shows up from nowhere and randomly picks up a block, leaving an empty space. Then the whole humanity jostles and squirms and the movement ends up filling up the absent block's space, but in this process the blocks around the hole change their orientation and the whole frame of humanity does change its shape a bit.
That is exactly what Jamal Ashraf Ansari’s death would do too.

[Photo obtained from http://www.gcmnk.edu.pk/ , Government College for Men's website--Jamal Ashraf Ansari taught at that college.]

FOSA held joint celebration of 60th year of Indian and Pakistani Independence


“Go West, Young man,” they would be advised. They would heed the call, would leave, and on reaching the destination, would forget about the lands they came from. And their forgiveness would be more of a nonelective than a voluntary act. The ‘young man’ settled in the West would have little means to keep in touch with the folks left behind. Not any more. Modern day immigrants—and now they are going everywhere, east, west, north, and south (though a more recognizable stream flows from countries of turmoil to those with stable political systems)—keep well connected, if they wish to, with people they have left. But FOSA (Friends of South Asia, www.friendsofsouthasia.org) insisted that immigrants to Western countries often have a frozen social, political, and environmental image of their ‘homeland’, whereas in reality places are going through continuous change. Keeping up with its tradition of holding a joint celebration of Indian and Pakistani independence days, this year FOSA marked the occasion by holding its fourth annual South Asian literary evening on Saturday, August 25, at Milpitas Library Community Hall. FOSA had invited South Asian writers to reflect on the notion of ‘Revisiting Changing Homelands’ “to recognize and record” changes immigrants see and feel taking place in their ‘homelands.’

Even with a strong desire on the part of FOSA administrators to get submissions in regional South Asian languages, FOSA failed to get much diversity in contributions for the literary evening. Though hard to believe that FOSA’s widely distributed call for submissions, making rounds in the literary groups on the Internet, did not reach people writing in Tamil, Sindhi, Nepalese, and other South Asian languages let alone Bangla (the only South Asian language boasting Nobel Prize in literature), the literary evening featured only two entries in any language other than English--both pieces were in Urdu.

Moazzam Sheikh a writer originally from Lahore and settled in San Francisco moderated the literary evening. Moazzam Sheikh writes fiction in English and Urdu, and translates from Urdu and Punjabi into English. He is the editor of ‘A letter from India: contemporary short stories from Pakistan’ (Penguin Books, 2004).

Amina Kamal Khan a poet and filmmaker living in Washington DC area had submitted a poem for the evening. Amina Khan’s poem ‘Coming home’ was read by Moazzam Sheikh.
Khawaja Ashraf, editor of PakistanWeekly.com, has been writing short stories in Urdu and English since 1973. His Urdu stories have been published in Auraq, Lahore and Shubkhoon, Allahabad. Khawaja Ashraf read a short story titled “A Cup of Tea With Buddha.”


Mohezin (Mo) Tejani, currently residing in Thailand, writes articles, stories, and poetry for various magazines worldwide. A Chameleon's Tale – True Stories of a Global Refugee, the first volume of his globetrotting memoirs, was published in June 2006. “Fruits of Childhood” written by Mo Tejani was read by Saadia Mumtaz.

Rinku Dutta, born in Sanctoria, Bihar, is currently engaged in post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. Ijaz Syed read a piece written by Rinku Dutta--the commentary was titled "54, Chowringhee Lane."

Maheen M Adamson, a research fellow at Stanford University, is interested in film, theater, and Urdu literature. Maheen Adamson read “Aik Ungal Ka Border" (Urdu).

Ahsan Sajjad, a Karachite settled in the heart of Silicon Valley, has been writing songs in the American Folk/blues style. Ahsan Sajjad read "The Origination of The Musical Chair", a satirical piece.
Saqib Mausoof, a writer and filmmaker based in San Francisco is currently working on his feature film ‘Kala Pul’, and his travelogue, Afraid to Shoot Strangers. Saqib Mausoof read his memoir titled “The Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro.”
Wajahat Ali a native Californian of Pakistani ancestry has been writing and producing plays and films since he was a child. His play "The Domestic Crusaders" was performed at various places in the Bay Area and earned accolades from critics. Wajahat Ali's troupe performed staged reading of an excerpt from Ali's play "How to read 'Un-Wholly Warriors.’”

A prevue of the movie Kala Pul and a short film on crossing Wagah border were screened to conclude the literary evening.

Got this email:

Sep 17, 2007 11:34 AM
subject Unauthorized Activity
Dear Bank of America client,

You have received this email because you or someone had used your account from different locations.For security purpose, we are required to open an investigation into this matter.

In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details.

The help speeed up to this process, please access the following link so we ca complete the verification of your Bank of America Online Banking Account registration information.

http://0xcb709527/icons/small/%20/www.bankofamerica.com/sslencrypt218bit/online_banking/


If we do no receive the appropriate account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this Bank of America account is fraudulent and will be suspended.

The purpose of this verification is to ensure that your bank account has not been fraudulently used and to combat the fraud from our community. We appreciate your support and understanding and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

----------------

Look at the ghastly grammatical errors in the message. They make me cry. Can someone kindly offer an 'English writing' class to the spammers? Please!

Pervez Hoodbhoy's keynote speech at NEDians' Convention 2007

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy spoke on "The Power of Ideas." It was a brilliant speech given in a soft tone that would make you fall madly in love with Hoodbhoy's scholarship. You can listen to the speech here:
http://ia341225.us.archive.org/1/items/PervezHoodbhoysSpeechAtNediansConvention2007/PhAtNedian.mp3

Nawaz Sharif landed at Islambad, but was made to leave for Saudi Arabia

News reports suggest Nawaz Sharif went back to Pakistan without thinking too much about the details of the imminent confrontation (for example, when asked to hand over his passport, he and his colleagues did not have a pre-planned strategy to cope with the situation; the entourage was not prepared for how much pushing and shoving it was ready to take, and where to draw the line).
Most importantly, Nawaz Sharif picked up the wrong city to land in to. Not sure why he did not go straight to Lahore, his power base. In Lahore, it could very well be a completely different story. Imagine hundreds of thousands of NS supporters gathering in and around the airport; imagine PML-N local leaders preemptively threatening officials who would be found responsible for turning back NS, etc.

A suit for the contempt of court (in not letting NS in) has already been filed. Let's see what comes out of that.

A review of Shazia Mirza’s comedy stints at NEDians’ Convention 2007

Humor in most parts is about putting very serious things in a most unserious manner. These are the things that you either have great respect for, have strong reservations about, or are normally uncomfortable discussing in public. Consequently, humor banks on poking fun at religion, important government matters, and sexual mores and attitudes.

Shazia Mirza, a UK based comedian of Pakistani ancestry, gave two performances of stand-up comedy at NEDians’ Convention 2007, in San Jose.

The War on Terror being the most serious stuff these days was understandably Mirza’s one domain of humor—she was original, brilliant, and very funny.
[For example,
My grandmother is on a wheelchair. She was stopped at an airport in the US. Looking at her wheelchair, they asked, “Did you make it yourself?”

Pakistani women normally walk five steps behind their husbands.
These men look better from behind.
But now Pakistani men are having their wives walk five steps ahead of them.
Because of the landmines.]

Pakistanis are definitely not at the forefront of sex-related-morality reevaluations. To state the obvious, Pakistanis are conservative in their attitudes towards sex. Comedians performing to Pakistani audiences are expected to pay attention to this little detail, and especially comedians who are from the Pakistani ethnic group. But Shazia Mirza did not display that intelligence. Her jokes on sex at the NEDians’ Convention were devoid of the subtlety and suavity this conservative community is used to in regards to sex-related jokes. Though this aspect of Shazia’s comedy least bothered this scribe, some in the audience did object to her content and the organizers promptly informed Shazia about the objections; she was asked to “tone it down.” The way Mirza acted after this confrontation made it obvious she had come without a B plan. She appeared confused on where to go from there.

One short-phrased thought on Shazia Mirza’s performance that stayed with this correspondent was: one man not laughing. For, in most part Shazia Mirza’s comedy on September 8 was grade-school humor: you pick one person from the group and make him/her the butt of the joke. Everybody laughs their hearts out, everybody but the person everybody is laughing on. Perhaps this kind of humor displayed in comedy clubs to an intoxicated audience that is hell-bent on having a great time, even at the expense of others, is OK but at the NED Alumni convention it was a different story. In NED culture where social status of a student was set by the time they had spent at the University—more senior being more worthy of respect—making fun of people on how they dressed or on their physical appearance did not go well with many in the audience.

The third aspect of Shazia Mirza’s comedy that was most problematic to this scribe was a hint of snobbery in her dealing with the audience. Maybe we were seeing her UK based understanding of her own ethnic group: people who have learned to amass wealth, but otherwise are not too educated. This hint of disdain was obvious in her opening note [that whereas she had been asked to tone down her content she believed she should be giving Pakistanis what she gives to her “White” audience--as if what she gives to her “White” audience is the premier class stuff, and toning down the act would be like giving a second class product to Pakistanis, who, whereas are second-class people still deserve premier stuff] or her questions meant to size up audience’s cultural refinement [for example, if the audience knew about ‘Vagina Monologues']. It might very well be that some of the Pakistanis are not too much into off-Broadway shows, or operas, or NY Times bestsellers, but they definitely don’t need a comedienne from Europe to tell them that.

Amazing how reputable news agencies goof up with editorial comments. Look at this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070711/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_radical_mosque
At least 106 dead at Pakistan mosque

By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Commandos cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of rebel fighters Wednesday, ending a fierce eight-day siege and street battles that left more than 100 dead. The government warned it would not tolerate militancy in any of Pakistan's thousands of religious schools.
Officials found no corpses of women and children, although seven or eight of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition, apparently by the militants' gasoline bombs, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman.
At least 106 people were killed overall since the violence began at the Red Mosque. They include 10 soldiers, one police ranger and several civilians who died in the crossfire // one word in 2002 of the initial street fighting last week.
..............................
-----------

Apparently Sadaqat Jan wrote "cross fire" which the Associated Press editor changed to "crossfire" with the comment 'one word' (not sure about 'in 2002' part; may be the reference is to Word 2002 software) and then everything including the comment was published on the Internet. Yours truly found it at Yahoo.

Starting a Green Literary tradition

Now there is a Green Halqa-e-Arbab- e-Zauq--not green
as in 'green with envy', but green as in kind to our
environment. This Halqa-e-Arbab- e-Zauq, with Dr.
Khawaja Ashraf as its patron, meets on a conference
call. No need to drive to anywhere or make special
arrangements to fit the Halqa program in your busy
schedule; just call in and be part of the literary
conversation. Green Halqa-e-Arbab- e-Zauq's first
meeting took place on Sunday, July 1. Ijaz Syed,
Shahab Riazi, Saqib Mausoof, Khawaja Ashraf, and this
scribe attended the conference. Ijaz Syed read parts
of a Punjabi translation of his short story "Butt
Sahib" (originally written in English). The story,
translated into Punjabi by Narinder Jeet Kaur, has
appeared in Sanjh, APNA's Quarterly Magazine. A
detailed discussion on the story followed the reading.
Green Halqa-e-Arbab- e-Zauq plans to have regular
meetings on Sundays at 10 am, Pacific Standard Time.
Conference call number and access code would be
published at various forums, before each meeting.