Naina Lal Kidwai, Head of HSBC Bank India

When it comes to India, there are a lot of stereotypes. For instance, I get asked time and again about treatment of women in India, often in a wistful, lamenting tone. Granted there is a huge issue of female illiteracy, and every now and then one hears of the tragic stories of female infanticide, but that alone doesn’t tell the whole story. By and large Indian women, unlike their counterparts in neighboring countries like Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan, participate in the society in a very big way, often taking on leadership roles not only in social (eg. Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Movement) and political realm (eg. Indira Gandhi), they also occupy great positions of power in the world of business. So, I am very glad that NY Times decided to do a feature on the success women have achieved in the tony world high finance. Here is a quote…

HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Fidelity International in India are run by women. So is the country’s second-biggest bank, Icici Bank, and its third-largest, Axis Bank. Women head investment banking operations at Kotak Mahindra and JPMorgan Chase and the equities division of Icici. Half of the deputy governors at the Reserve Bank of India are women.

If you would like to read the whole story, simply click on this link. Let us celebrate the success of these Indian women and recognize the Indian society for creating such opportunities. I have two daughters - Jaya and Jiya, and although they live here in US, it is very important to me that they should know of the success Indian women are enjoying within India.

And, oh don’t forget to get your purchases in by the end of the month. As you know, Jaya Teas will donate 25% of the proceeds from all the sales from January 16th to the end of the month to International Red Cross to support our neighbor Haiti’s rebuilding efforts. Read more about it here.

Photo credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh

The most populous democracy on the planet, India, just cast its 15th vote in general elections and the results are a victory to moderation and unity. Congress party, with standard bearer Rahul Gandhi leading the charge, fielded a large number of youth on its ticket and won 205 seats. Since Congress did not win the simple majority it needs in the 543 seat Lok Sabha, Congress will need to negotiate with other parties to form a government. News reports indicate that Congress is leaning towards partnering with a number of smaller parties rather than partner with Communists or Janata Party which are known for their anti-business agenda and divisive politics.

The Indian general election is historic in that all this is happening at a time when India is surrounded by countries that are totalitarian in their outlook. On its west is Pakistan which has had a checkered history in democracy, and is currently fighting for its survival as a democratic nation, and on the east is Burma which has been ruled by military for a number of years. To the North is China, and to the north east is Nepal, which has seen a maoist insurgency come to power and then implode.

So how is it that India continues its democratic march?

In my opinion it boils down to leadership. Ever since the birth of the nation in 1947, even in the most difficult days Indian leaders have insisted in adhering to the path of democracy. Four wars, one Emergency, and countless other incidents could have easily caused Indians to reconsider the value of democracy. Yet, although some times the country has faltered, each time the Indian leaders have put the power back into the hands of people and let them decide. So, 60 years after independence, India remains a beacon of hope for millions along its border. Each year, thousands and hundreds of thousands cross the border of India with Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal to come into India and enjoy fruits of a democratic state. This alone is a testimony to this powerful means of governance where the most illiterate and poor, and the richest and most highly educated citizens have the same right to vote.

Lets hope that the other nations in that neighborhood see the wisdom of following Indian example and developing the system of democracy. For as faulty as democracy seems to be, the world is yet to devise a better system of governance.

You can see some of the most stunning pictures of democracy in action on this Sacramento Bee Weblog

[International Woman’s Day 15% discount* on any purchase on Jaya Teas website. Enter the code “womansday” at check out. Here is the reason why…]

The birth of my second daughter, shortly after Mr. Obama won the election, got me thinking about the future of my two daughters in this country. Mr. Obama’s election made me very optimistic about the chances of my two girls in the United States. A country that reconciles with its past and elects a person of color to the highest office is a exhibiting signs of a maturing culture, and I was happy that my girls would be growing up in such a mature society.

As a child I had read about the struggle of women in the American society for equal pay and equal rights. In India I never felt the need to think about equal pay and equal rights because, although India is a relatively old civilization with conservative values, when it comes to gender equality, I felt like India was leap years ahead of the rest of the world. There were many reasons why I felt this way, starting with the fact that while most countries (including United States) are yet to install a woman as its chief executive, India was one of the few countries in the world where a woman, Indira Gandhi, had held the highest office of the land. Having Indira Gandhi run the country for 17 years made us feel that women could indeed play a significant role in Indian society.

But even more so, in my religion, Hinduism, I saw some of the greatest symbols of woman’s powers exhibited and worshipped out in the open. In Hinduism, the female deity holds incredible power. For instance, Laxmi is the Goddess of Wealth, Saraswati the goddess of knowledge and Durga holds the power to destroy evil. So, if you have the corner on knowledge, wealth and power what else could one want!! India is not perfect by any means, but growing up with such symbols I never felt insecure about my role in the society as a woman.

Yet we know that countries like US and India are islands in a sea of nations where such freedoms are not enjoyed universally by women. In fact, in many of the “old world” countries, women find themselves shackled by the social mores that may have had a place in 15th or 16th century, but certainly have no place in modern society. In many Arabian countries, women are still not allowed to enjoy basic privilages such as driving a car, or taking a job, or going to movies on their own etc. Repressive regimes such as the Revolutionary Government in Iran, or repressive movements like the Taleban in Pakistan and Afghanistan espouse theological views that are directed at denying the basic human rights to women. Even in India, I am sorry to say, recently there have been incidents of self-righteous conservative men attacking women for enjoying a beverage with their male friends.

So, although we are in the twenty first century, on March 8th there is still a strong reason for celebrating the International Woman’s Day. While in the US we may have reached a stage where we are enjoying these rights, we must remember that there are millions around the world that need our encouragement and support in their daily struggle against the tyranny of government rule or social mores that hold them down.

There are many ways to celebrate this day:

• One is to learn more about this holiday by visiting the website of International Woman’s Day.
• Another is to show the women in your life an appreciation for their contributions.
• Take your mother or sister out for dinner, of if you are a man, take your wife out for dinner.
• Blog about this day on your blogs and talk about this day in your churches and social groups.
• If you can, support a woman owned business.

On our side, we are happy to offer everybody a 15% discount* on any of our products. Simply use the phrase “womansday” at the time of checkout to avail of the discount. And yes, you can get this discount even if you are not a woman, but you have to promise to tell some one about the International Woman’s Day!!

*No other offer applies.

For a little girl growing thousands of miles away from the West that gave us St. Valentine, I was very much involved in celebrating the festival with as much gusto as any western woman. Of course I had no clue about why St. Valentine was so important to love, but we girls knew enough to giggle and tease and whisper silly things in each other’s ears about each other’s imagined special one. Unlike here in the US, in Jaipur we didn’t “go out” with some special friend for a night on town - that sort of thing could only be imagined, not done. Instead we would spend the day in company of each other’s best friends, exchange Valentine’s day cards and gossip.

In India, we have a festival to celebrate almost every thing. There is a festival that celebrates the bond between brother and sister called Bhai Duj. There is another festival that reinforces ties between husband and wife - called Karwah Chauth. But for a society that is famous for kinship amongst its women folk, it seems strange that there is no festival to celebrate the bond of friendship between two girl friends. To me, Valentine’s day seemed like so many other Hindu celebrations build around the notion of reinforcing certain ties - viz ties between two friends. So we adopted Valentine’s day as our own festival that celebrated the great love between friends. I still have very fond memories of my school friends even though we are miles apart.

As we grew older, Valentine’s day started to assume romantic notions for us. Indeed, during my college years as soon as February would arrive, notions of romance would infuse the air like the aroma of Jasmine in spring. Of course it was impractical to be romantically involved with some one of opposite sex (only “bad” girls did that). Instead, mostly we spent the Valentine’s day with our best girlfriends day dreaming about “prince charming” and “Mr. Handsome”.

All that ended when I met my husband and moved here to the US. Then, Valentine’s day started to have a special meaning to me and I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would celebrate it. But the opportunity to celebrate it with just my husband was short lived because within two years our first one arrived and being a daughter, now my husband had two girls to help him celebrate the day. This year, the Valentine’s day will be an extra special one in our home because this year we added a new little girl to our family! Jaya has a brand new baby sister - name Jiya. I am just waiting to see what gifts my husband comes up with!!

When it comes to gift, I don’t envy my husband’s position. My birthday in January, so he has to get something for me on that day. Then comes Valentine’s day when he has to get something for the two, now three, of us. Poor man!! Recently I noticed that my husband’s thick head of hair is thinning a bit. I wonder if its the manifestation of age, or if its his predicament on what to buy us girls for the Valentine’s day!

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Ps. We have a special Valentine’s day sale going on - get 10% off on any merchandise on our website. Just use the code “valentine” at the checkout.

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Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi
Authors website: http://www.jayateas.com
About the author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi is the President of Jaya Teas, LLC. Dr. Pareek grew up in India in a family steeped in tea industry and tea lore. Many of Dr. Pareek’s uncles and cousins are involved in the Indian tea industry and so, although a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Pareek decided to use her family connections for the benefit of US tea customer, by starting a tea company . Jaya Teas, which specialises in teas from India, has been open for business since 2004. Dr. Pareek invites readers to contribute their comments on her blog Chaiwalah, which can be found at http://www.jayateas.com/blog/
You are free to replicate this article else where, but please, leave this box intact! We appreciate the back links!
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My sister Anuradha Flying Kite in Ahmedabad | Photo Credit: Bhadresh Shah |

This morning my mother, who is staying with us for a few months, called out from the kitchen, “Wake up Madhu, today is Sankranti”.

Just the word “Sankranti” brought back memories of my childhood, flying kites. No, it wasn’t kite flying really, it was more like kite fighting!

Kite Fighting or kite running as it is popularly called, is a sport that is enjoyed all over India, but especially so in Ahmedabad where I was born and raised. And Sankranti, which is also called Uttarayan, is a special day when the sky of the city is covered with colorful kites all over.

When I was growing up, me and my sister used to look forward to this day. We would plan for this day many days in advance. One special ritual was the ritual of making “manja”. Manja is the string on which one flies the kite. Typically, manja is a simple thread, but for kite fighting, we prepared a special type of manja, one which could cut the rival’s string bringing the kite down.

My uncle taught me to make a mean “manja”. Recipe is simple, really. All you do is grind up some glass - soda bottle glass is specially preferred - and mix it with cooked wheat flour paste. My job used to be to collect shards of Thumbsup and Limca glass bottles, and my uncle would put them into a mortar and hammer them into fine powder.

Once the paste was cooked up, we would take the ordinary thread, string it between trees, and start applying the wheat flour slurry. When the manja was dry, (it would become rather hard) it had to be rolled onto a spindle, to be taken out on Sankranti day.

Nephew Aman flying a kite | Photo Credit: Bhadresh Shah |

The Kite fighting rivalries in Ahmedabad are legendary. I remember how we used to be puffed up with pride when our kite would “kill” a rival’s kite!! It was almost as if we were some warriors fighting a war! Of course with that “mean” manja, we were prohibited from flying the kite for the risk of cutting our fingers - we could only watch. But once the big battles were over, us kids would fly the kites on normal strings. The kites are small and easy to manuever - like little dancers in the sky, dancing on guidance of my fingers!

I tried to explain all this to my six year old daughter Jaya, but Jaya has grown up in the US and didn’t really understand what I was saying. The only kites she knows are the huge behemoth fabric kites that she gets to fly when we go to Belmar beach in summer. That kite is too hard for a small child to enjoy. To really enjoy kite flying, one has to be in Ahmedabad or Jaipur or Delhi on Sankranti Day.

Ps. My brother-in-law sent us some pictures of kite flying which I am attaching here.

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Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi
Authors website: http://www.jayateas.com
About the author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi is the President of Jaya Teas, LLC. Dr. Pareek grew up in India in a family steeped in tea industry and tea lore. Many of Dr. Pareek’s uncles and cousins are involved in the Indian tea industry and so, although a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Pareek decided to use her family connections for the benefit of US tea customer, by starting a tea company . Jaya Teas, which specialises in teas from India, has been open for business since 2004. Dr. Pareek invites readers to contribute their comments on her blog Chaiwalah, which can be found at http://www.jayateas.com/blog/
You are free to replicate this article else where, but please, leave this box intact! We appreciate the back links!
—————————————-

This email came from Mr. Ashok Trivedi, the Garden Manager of Boisahabi. I quote it in its enterity:

Both ladies are looking into each other - maybe taking a trip down memory
lane! Left is Buddeswari a (garden) worker and the other lady is Joan Stanford whose father was the manager here (Boisahabi Estate) in 1940’s when Joan was a teenager. They lived in the very house in which I am staying today. We are in touch and Joan and her daughter from UK spent sometime here with us in 2005 summer. Joan was born in Assam in 1927. She went on to marry an assistant Manager of Muttuck TE. Now lives in S.Africa. Buddeswari attended the wedding at this bungalow!

We know that tea has been a reason for many a friendships, but when I hear of such stories, it really warms my heart!

Fittin In With The Turban - Photo courtsey Jolly Dutta

The land of hundred cultures that is India, is being buffeted by cultural changes. The land that gave the world Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, is suddenly having to grapple with the new generation of kids embracing and emulating the “modern” and “sexxy” western mores in the guise of progress. Modern technology of high speed internet and satellite radio has brought the western culture right into the living room, and the impact is being felt by all traditional societies within India. Stories abound, of parents of “call center kids” being worried about what goes on at work during the night hours (most call centers operate 24/7, but many Indian call center kids work the night shift when it is day time in the west). But an even more dramatic, and perhaps more visible event in unfolding in the Sikh community of India.

Today’s NY times has a story about how the sikh kids are abandoning the traditional head-dress that has ideintified the Sikh people in India and the world over.

The dwindling numbers of turban wearers reflects less a loss of spirituality than encroaching Westernization and the accelerating pace of Indian life, Jaswinder Singh said.

While I agree that its hardly the loss of spirituality that is leading to this cultural change, the change is “saddening” neverthless because its another example of the homogenization of the world cultures under the pressures of globalization. Naturally, such a dramatic change should produce some contervailing forces, as has this situation - in the form of a “Turban Pride” movement.

Outside the Army of God offices, there is a turban clinic offering free classes for boys — one of a series of Sikh revival programs. Standing before full-length mirrors, an instructor shows teenage boys in baggy jeans and sports shoes how to twist the cloth into neatly layered folds on one side and smooth the pleats into sharp lines with a hooked silver pin, which is then concealed beneath the hair at the back.

A “Smart Turban 1.0” CD-ROM offers step-by-step instructions to create fashionable looks and guides new turban wearers on how to choose the most flattering style according to face shape.

To promote the turban as a fashion item, Sikh leaders have also started holding Mr. Singh International pageants. Contestants are judged by looks, moral character, personality, knowledge of Sikh history and principles, and turban tying skills. The sixth World Turban Day will be celebrated on April 13 with a march through Amritsar by thousands of turban-wearing Sikhs.

It remains to be seen how successful this movement is in turning around a cultural change that is sweeping the great nation of India.

What is tea without a snack. So, today I will share with you a simple recipe which would help your afternoon tea a pleasant one. Todays recipe is called Dhokla.

Ingredients: You can find most of these ingredients in an Indian ethnic food store. If you cannot find them locally, email me, and I will try to help you in sourcing them.

• Two cups of chick pea flour
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds
• Freshly grated coconut - 1/2 cups
• Green chillies - 5 cut lenght wise
• Coriander - one cup chopped
• Eno fruit salt
• Sugar - 4 tsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Make batter of the chick pea flour to the consistency of pancake batter. Add turmeric powder to it, and salt to taste. Prepare a wok for steaming. When the water starts steaming, add Eno fruitsalt, Sugar, and lemon juice to the batter and mix it well. Immediately, pour the batter into a oiled heat resistant plate, and steam the
batter for 12 minutes.

Once the batter is steamed, remove the plate from the wok and allow it to cool. With a knife, cut the dhoklas into small 1 x 2 inch pieces.

Separately, heat three teaspoons olive oil, and add mustard seeds. Continue to heat till the mustard seeds start popping. Remove the oil from heat, and add chopped chillies. Allow the oil to cool. Once it is cool, spread the oil with mustard seeds and green chillies on to the puffed dhoklas. Spread grated coconut & chopped coriander on the dhoklas. Serve with tea.

Well, the interest in Tourism to India continues to grow. Today, WSJ printed an article on Kerala as a potential travel destination. Its a nice article that talks about how the region is coping with the stagnant coconut prices, and converting itself into a tourism haven. Unfortunately, the article is available for subscribers only, so not many will be able to view it. If you get a hard copy of the WSJ, then the article in on P5 of the printed Journal.

For others, there are numerous sources online about Kerala. For starters, there is a Kerala Tourism website, choke full of information about Kerala. There are maps, and tour planners in place to help you, but it will take some getting used to. It would be nice if Kerala Government were to provide a few “pre-planned” trips for newbies to pick.

On the other hand, the government owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation has a very nice website, with exactly that. For tea lovers, the Nilgiris run through Kerala, and there is a great opportunity to go and see the hillstations and tea plantations at the KTDC Hills Resort.

Recently, a few International Airlines (such as Singapore Airlines) have added direct flights to Cochin International Airport which means that instead of having to fly in through Mumbai or Madras airport and take a long drive to your final destination, you can now fly directly to Cochin and take a short ride any where in the state of Kerala.

With its beautiful long beaches, and gorgeous hilly vistas, Kerala has long been a travel destination for Indians. With the expansion of Cochin International Airport and an increased interest in all things India, may be Americans might finally be persuaded to go to the region we call “Heaven” of India.