Christmas
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                                   Christmas is the  most important event in  the Christianity  It was day when the Christ was born to mother Merry. Christ is also considered as the a  son of God .
                                  Christ  was born at the time when people were suffering under ignorance, tyranny  and Blind faith in Rituals.  Roman Emperor were ruling then and they were hostile to Christ teaching.  However Christ birth was the sign of  light and disappearance of darkness.  It was the beginning regarding victory of  virtues over evils.Therefore Christmas is celebrated with Candle lights and with decorated tree.
                               However Christ was crucified by Roman  but he rises again after three days. Thereafter he gave his message to his  main  followers  like Mosses, Peter, Thomas, James ( brother) and others. James spreaded his message to Russia and Peter went to Rome. Roman Emperor Nero was then very hostile towards Peter but Emperor Augustine accepted the Christianity as a state religion.
                               It appears that  lot of violence took place in the transit period. However Christ messages were of Love, Equality, Faith in God and Observance of  Non Violence. They brought lasting peace and joy in the hearts of the people.
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  INDIAN AMERICAN SENIORS IN SILICON VALLEY                                                 
                          BY BHARAT DESAI
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 (In above pictures from top to down 1) Seniors' Ras' Program during 'FOSWL ' celebration regarding completion of 150th session and 2)'Bollywood Dance' Program at 'ICC' Milpitas 3) Seniors at Jain Center, Milpitas 4)Seniors at ICC, Fremont 5) Esteves Jose Mayor of Milpitas addressing the seniors at INSAF, Program at Fremont,6)Seniors performing Dance item at Senior Center, Bay Area Vaishnav Parivar, Milpitas,7) Seniors meeting at' Gujarati senior Mitra Mandal, Fremont temple) 100 members seniors group meeting at Fremont temple 9) Seniors meeting at 'Jain Center', Milpitas, 10) Seniors meeting at 'Saratoga Senior Center, Saratoga)
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                                                I  joined  in the Senior activities at ‘ Indo American Community Service Center at Santa Clara, CA in the year 1999. It was one of the prominent centers then which was serving Indian American Seniors. It was also time when flow of Indian American Seniors was not much as today.  They were running one of the main programs for seniors under’ The  Creative Writing called  as ‘Chhajju Ka Chaubara’. It was forum wherein  seniors  were supposed to  present their articles/poems /songs etc. We use to get nutritious western type  lunch after program. However with the time we  started getting Indian style food in lunch.Some of the seniors along with me took initiative and started few more intellectual programs like ‘Current Events’, ‘Friends on Same Wavelength’. and ‘The Life strategy’.  All those programs increased the interest among seniors
and our attendance also increased. All those programs became very popular and recognized by Medias, Government and Semi government Agencies. The most important thing is that all the programs served the seniors vivid interest very well. However the Indo American Community Service Center, Santa Clara  was merged with India community center where we got better facilities to continued our programs. We were given bigger place with more facilities at Cupertino, CA. It also serves seniors from Palo Alto, Cupertino,Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Santa Clara, and San Jose
                                               India community center  runs  Senior Centers at Milpitas, Fremont  and Cupertino along with other community services. The seniors are entertained at India community center with Intellectual and  Entertainment programs ,along with Yoga Sessions. The  Seniors remains involve from 11.00AM to 1.00 PM. They are served lunch after those programs. The Seniors ‘Rass’ and  Bollywood  Dance Programs at ICC, Milpitas have  also become very popular all over the Valley. 
                                             The  Indian community Center’s  Fremont unit is also managed  by one of the volunteers Gurumukhsing. I observed during my  visit  that several good activities  were going on i.e. like Spiritual talk, Devotional songs etc. I was very much impressed regarding  the presentation of old Hindi movies songs by Ram Ashanani and Spiritual talk by Balram Sharma.
                                               I was also invited by  some of the Indian American  Senior Centers run by  Individual Volunteers or some of the Indian American community organizations. I had generally talk to them regarding ‘Seniors  Health and Happiness’.
                                              ‘The INSAF ‘  which  runs senior programs  twice a month at Senior Center, Lake Elizabeth, Fremont. is doing very well. I was  a guest speaker in  one of their programs. The Indian American Seniors were taking part in the discussions regarding their common problems.  The Mayor of Milpitas Esteve Jose also gave talk on the facilities offered  by City Milpitas to the seniors.  The several seniors presented  talk on spirituality, and on the latest problems faced by them in the said meeting.  Surendra Dalal, President, and Krishnaswmi Narasimhan,Secretary   managed  the said  program very well.
                                                ‘The Gujarati Senior Mitramandal’ also runs Senior program  at Fremont Temple at Fremont. Urmilaben Patel, Ramanbhai Desai, are running the program twice a month. Urmilaben keeps  informed seniors regarding forthcoming programs related to seniors. It was pleasure to watch  the prayer chanted  by Seniors. Sarayubahen Song of Ravindranath Tagore was very melodious. 
                                                 Ramesh Patel also run ‘Hundred Members Group ‘at Fremont Temple twice a month. I visited the center on invitation. It is being run very well. He also gives opportunities to seniors for presenting their talent. Dr Mahesh Raval upcoming writer and poet presented very good Gazals and Shayari. Pragnaben( i.e.Dagalo fame) and Rajubhai Solanki also presented very good musical items which were received very well by seniors. Antani, Pinakinbhai,Mankad,Babubhai, presented songs while one Senior  Sharmaji talked on ‘Rakha Bandhan and its Significance.’ It was very interesting program.
                                                  One of the Senior Centers run by ‘Jain Center’, at Milpitas was very much Spiritual Oriented. Almost all members talked on Jain’s ‘Pajushan Festival’ and its importance for the  inner Developments. Kishorebhai, Niruben,Mahendrabhai,Kokilaben, Dhaneshbhai, and Pravinbhai talks were very thought provoking. Dr Lodha took a Yoga session for few minutes. Sailja Jain also presented poems and shayari which were received very well. Ramnikbhai Gohil and energetic youth Prarnaben managed the program very well.
                                                Vanitaben Mahajani, Arun Phadwekar are also running Senior Center at Saratoga on every Thursday. They also invites Guest Speaker from outside to talk on the Senior’s related Subjects. I was invited through Mercy one of the seniors for taking on ‘ How to remain Happy and Healthy by utilizing maximum time with Healthy Activities’. 
                                               The Senior Center affiliated to ‘Bay Area Vaishnav  Parivar, Milpitas  also invited me for talk and got opportunity to observe their activities. It is very well managed by Manish Patel and Dipikaben. Kalpanaben, a Senior lady had organized  dance session for seniors based on Song of Gujarati poet late Suresh Dalal. It was participated by almost all Seniors. There was a Yoga session taken by Mahendrabhai.
                                               It is common practice that  all senior centers  serves Lunch after program.  The some of the Senior Centers periodically arrange outing for seniors. Thus my visits covered more than 800 seniors in the Bay Area.i.e Silicon Valley.. However it is observed that all those senior centers are helping Indian American seniors to past their time very well i.e. In fellowship and entertainment. 
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Afghanistan
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                                                 Afghanistan has historical ties with India since thousands of years.  The Afghan territory  is spreaded to 250000 square miles in the  mountainous Region.  The Afghanistan was also known as 'Gandhar' in the the  Ancient time. It  is also mentioned in the Indian epic 'Mahabharata '. Shakuni and Gandhari were crown prince and princess of Gandhar recepectivly . Afghanistan has been always silky road of human migration. The Alaxzender the great, Changiskhan invaded through the same way.  It is land of  Gazanvi, Gori , Khilji Mogul who invaded India. Chandragupta Mauriya defeated Greece General Saluclus and spreaded his influence up to Afghanistan. Thereafter budhist influence also reached  there.
                                               Besides that Afghanistan is also rich of natural resources like petroleum  natural gas, lithium, gold copper,coal and iron ore. It has 34 provinces which has strong influence of Local lords.The Taliban were the political tools of western powers to remove Russian from Afghanistan. However western powers  left Afghanistan in the hands of Taliban.  Taliban flourished thereafter.  Taliban are the master mind behind terrorism which has created problems for the whole world.
                                                However USA  has to intervene in order to free Afghanistan from the Taliban thereafter. The Afghanistan is not having  proper infrastructures. Hence it is very difficult to sustain there for any power from out side. It is literally impossible to win the war in Afghanistan in context of its geographical conditions and very aggressive war minded  people.
                                                USA  has already lost its 2000 young soldiers in the  war of Afghanistan.  America has been fighting this war along with NATO allies since 11 years and that too without much success.  'USA' has now decided to withdraw its troop by 2014.  However meanwhile they are training the local Afghan army of about 380000 soldiers  It is observed that  Taliban has infiltrated in the Afghan army and already killed 42 american and allied soldiers from within.
                                                It is very dangerous and complicated situation. Some of the political Analysts are predicting that there may civil war situation in Afghanistan after American troops leaves' The present authority may be also over run by Taliban.
                                                It is also not certain that USA will go on funding Afghanistan after its exit from it.  In context of  above  situation the  Nato Commander General  \John Allen has come out with a statement that ' We are willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign but we are not willing to be murdered for it' It clearly means we can fight war but we can not tolerate murder of our soldiers from the enemy within. It appears that they want to get out of such situation which cannot be resolved militarily.
                                               It is very unfortunate that  Afghan people who consist of 42% Pashtun and 27% Tasik are suffering terribly after the removal of Monarchy Headed by King Jahirshah. The Pashtun people in India also suffered during the partition of India as they were for 'Pashtunistan' covering Pashtun from Frontier province of india and from Afghanistan which was ignored then. Abdul Gaffer Khan i.e. Sarhad  Gandhi was the saddest person then. He never wanted to join Pakistan instead of that he desired 'Pashtunistan' then. He spent most his life in Jail for such desire.
                                               We hope Afghanistan comes out of all this problems and wish them all the best.'
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Modern Russia
 ======
                                          China has always argued that they will be more cautious before fully opening their market as they do not want to meet the Economic fate of Russia.  It may be convenient argument of China for not fully opening their market. However the Russia is not in bad shape as made out except that the few provinces from Russian federation got separated.  They separated as they were compelled or forcibly kept in the federation since long time.
                                          Russian economy is picking up and it appears that the leadership of Vladimir Putin  is again heading towards democratic authoritarian Rule. Besides that Russia must have fall in terms of economical criteria but militarily it is still strong. The  militarily Russia is more stronger than china and some way stronger than USA.  It has largest Atomic weapons. They  have scores of Multi Rocket Super Bombs.  Russia has very large stock of H-Bombs which can do considerable damage to west. Therefore Russia cannot be under estimated.
                                          Besides that Russia is doing well  under the strong leadership of Putin. It appears that Chanchia problem is now very much under control. Putin has advantage of handling the situation as he has risen from the very important intelligence agency KGB.
                                          Putin is a very expensive leader with  reference to his security as he is moving with the button of Atomic weapons of Russia. It is reported that annually $5 billion is being spent for his security. There are 250000 security men from secret police and other agencies to protect him.                                        
                                          Putin uses  20 palaces, a Villa on Black Sea(i.e. Worth about one billion) and and the yacht (i.e. Valued 50 million). His official Aircraft Cabin is  fitted with 18 million worth of fittings. It can be seen from above facts that he may be more expensive ruler of Russia then Stalin who was Dictator.  The only difference is that Stalin was more secured as all agencies were under his direct control while Putin's securities are managed by  securities agencies independently.
                                          However it is a matter of interest to note that Russia is  progressing steadily.   Its standard of living has gone up.  However it is  strange but fact that 2/3 of its  Multi rocket Super Bombs are targeted towards China not towards West.
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