Who is Anand Bhatt?

SPOTLIGHT: Bloomington is home of rock star - chicagotribune.com

I must confess that I had never heard of Anand Bhatt before I saw this article - not surprising, since I don't keep up with all the upcoming crossover artists, but in digging deeper, I found a couple of nuggets in his resume - the first Indian American to be inducted in Latin Grammys, and his work with the band Faith No More....and a cook book to boot!

The article describes his love for small town Bloomington, IL, and as he throws casually in there, "...a place reasonably close to his folks..."

Indian-Americans upset at Newsweek's depiction of Obama as a Hindu god

Indian-Americans upset at Newsweek's depiction of Obama as a Hindu god | Mail Online

Here we go again...was Newsweek really insulting Shiva when they published Obama on the cover in the Nataraja pose? haven't we seen enough products like T-shirts with worse poses of Ganesha?

...and as it is, who knows what the merger of Newsweek and The Daily beat will sprout...

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India's Punjab celebrates Nikki Haley's election

India's Punjab celebrates Nikki Haley's election | Fort Mill Times - Fort Mill, SC

A proud moment for Indian Americans, and the residents of Verka, Punjab

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Jim Luce: Meet the Amazing Aroon Shivdasani of NYC's Indo-American Arts Council

Jim Luce: Meet the Amazing Aroon Shivdasani of NYC's Indo-American Arts Council

"In fact, after U.S. immigration laws were changed in 1965, Indians began to immigrate to the U.S. in larger numbers. As a group, they are the most highly educated immigrant community here, with approximately 68% of Indian Americans over the age of 25 possessing a college degree and 36% possessing a graduate degree.

"The initial Indian immigrants were in a lower economic stratum. Today, 90% of Indians in North America have attended the best universities and are a visible, viable minority," Aroon told me. "This country now sees Indians in a whole different milieu."

Two other interesting facts: Indian-Americans are the most religiously diverse immigrant community in the country, comprising of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Parsis, and Baha'is, speaking languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali (16 Indian languages), and have the highest median household income of any group in the U.S., at $83,820..."

Nikki Haley - is she the next Bobby?

So we have all read the press references, her westernization, and her potential to be the next GOP star...but as South Asian Americans, do we accept or support her? 

"She says she's proud of her heritage and of the accomplishments of Indian-Americans - their educational attainment, their income levels, their philanthropy. But that's about as far as she'll go". 

"The fact that I happen to be an Indian female, of course that brings a new dynamic. But what I hope it does is cause a conversation in this state where we no longer live by labels, but we live by philosophies."

I had the opportunity to hear Bobby Jindal speak (not the response for Obama's acceptance speech), and he came across as an articulate and interesting speaker - Nikki Haley apparently is a better speaker than Sarah Palin - so do we really care if her real name was Namrata, or should we focus on the fact that Indian Americans should be proud that one of us is reaching new heights?

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