SAJAforum

REQUEST: Sources for story about "reverse immigration"

A request from Sandip Roy, an award-winning journalist and SAJA member. Please e-mail him if you know of specific people who can help. If you know of resources, blogs, etc, you want to share, post them in the comments, too, please (do not post individual contacts in the comments section).

I am doing a reporting story on "reverse immigration" following Indians who are returning to/have returned to India after substantial time in the US. Or perhaps they grew up in the US but are now pursuing careers in India. This will be a print/online/radio project for several outlets including New America Media, San Francisco Chronicle, and public radio, and I am looking for some leads for people to interview in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata (though might travel to other cities as well).

I am looking for a diverse array of people, from careers, age groups, raised in US vs immigrants, to be able to capture different aspects of issues faced in moving to India. Any leads for people to talk to would be appreciated.

I am especially interested in people from the Bay Area in California since some of the outlets the story would be published/aired in are California-based. So a California connection would be great but not imperative.

My email is sandiproy[at]hotmail.com

If you know of resources, blogs, etc, you want to share, post them in the comments, too, please (do not post individual contacts in the comments section).

GANDHI: A rare English recording surfaces

In an exclusive story this week, Shankar Vedantam, a staff writer and columnist ("Department of Human Behavior") for the Washington Post, was able to contribute to our collective understanding of Mahatma Gandhi.

According to Vedantam, only two speeches that Gandhi gave in English have been recorded. One was from the 1930s and, as described in "Saying His Peace":

Recently, however, the second speech surfaced in -- of all places -- downtown Washington. It had been lovingly preserved for 60 years by John Cosgrove, a former president of the National Press Club. Cosgrove's copy came from Alfred Wagg, a journalist who recorded the speech in New Delhi and produced four 78-rpm LPs that included both Gandhi's voice as well as Wagg's own commentary about the Indian independence leader. Cosgrove discovered the significance of the recording during a chance encounter with Rajmohan Gandhi, when the author came to the Press Club this past spring to promote his new biography.

Gandhi's speech -- made with the uneven diction of an elderly man who sounds as though he has lost most of his teeth -- had the same themes he visited over and over throughout his life: the importance of nonviolence, the eradication of the caste system in Hindu society, amity between South Asia's Hindus and Muslims, and a world united against violence and exploitation.

"A friend asked yesterday, did I believe in one world?" Gandhi says at one point in the speech. "Of course I believe in World One. And how can I possibly do otherwise? . . . You can redeliver that message now in this age of democracy, in the age of awakening of the poorest of the poor."

Read the rest of the piece here. You can listen to the recording below and then watch his grandson and biographer, Rajmohan Gandhi talk about the recording and about his grandfather.

Asked how get got this scoop, Vedantam told SAJAforum via e-mail: "Serendipity + luck. I happened to be at a dinner table with Rajmohan Gandhi when John Cosgrove came by to introduce himself." And the rest is a piece of recaptured history. Vedantam wrote a guest  "On Faith" column for WP & Newsweek.com.

Listen to the Gandhi recording:

CONV: Amar Bakshi and "How the World Sees America"

Punchy short-form writing, engaging video clips and a strong voice were the recipe for Amar C.  Bakshi’s multimedia blog series "How the World Sees America" for the online editions of the Washington Post and Newsweek as part of a project called PostGlobal.

[ PostGlobal, "a conversation on global issues with David Ignatius [of The Washington Post] and Fareed Zakaria [of Newsweek],"  is a joint effort of the Post and Newsweek and consists of commentary from the two of them, and assorted posting and commentary from other staffers and folks around the world.]

His subjects are varied: a drag queen in Pakistan, a female Lebanese rapper, pageant queens in England, a teacher at an Islamic school in India.

The stories range from prostitution to political leadership but with the common thread of how the global community feels about Americans and the U.S. government.

Bakshi, 24, spent one month in a country, putting a human face on the sentiments and looking beyond the blanket criticisms.
“My value added is bringing a bit of a humanistic, artistic sensibility to more mundane stories that wouldn’t be told,” he told a group at the SAJA convention.

He found his sources by listening to conversations at bus stops, bars and restaurants. Contacts with local journalists and doctoral students also helped him create relationships with compelling sources.
Learning how to narrate their tales came with experience.

A one-man show, Bakshi toted his high-definition Sony video camera around with him for hours, familiarizing his sources to the screen. His intention was to have people forget about the camera altogether, and in a few hours they usually did.

“For me it’s discovery,” he said. “Trying to be empathetic, and trying to tell stories that are worth telling.”

He edited the video clips to concise, one- to two-minute segments. Sometimes a voice over accompanies local images, sometimes the screen remains fixed on a subject’s face as they speak.

CONV: Get all your coverage at SAJAforum.org/convention

SAJA is delighted to once again have a team of student bloggers who will be covering the SAJA Convention via text, photos and video. This is a great chance for everyone to learn about what happens at the convention right here via SAJAforum.org/convention and for some students to get some experience and coaching from veteran journalists. This year's editor of the student blog project is Prabha Natarajan of Dow Jones (thanks for volunteering, Prabha!). Now, over to Prabha:

We have picked a talented group of student bloggers to keep you posted on what our terrific line-up of speakers have to say on a diverse range of topics from documentary film-making to being the editor of The Wall Street Journal. For your minute-by-minute feed on what you are missing, go to www.sajaforum.org/convention. We, also, will explore the issue of diversity in the newsroom through a series that asks journalists, editors, recruiters, and academics: "Are we there yet?"

The bloggers for the 2008 SAJA Convention:

• Bibek Bhandari, a rising senior at Texas Christian University who writes for the TCU Daily Skiff and Nepali Aawaz, a bilingual publication in New York City.
• Sneha Pradhan, a recent graduate of Wartburg College (in Waverly, Iowa), who has interned as a videographer at The Waterloo Courier and a reporter at The Waverly Newspapers, and also worked at Channel Nepal Television in Kathmandu.
• Ankita Rao, a rising senior at the University of Florida who has freelanced for several Florida publications and is interning this summer at "Yoga + Joyful Living" magazine
• Kashish Shrestha, a freelance photographer from Nepal who lives in New York, will take photos for SAJAforum under Preston Merchant's direction.

Be sure to send Prabha and her team feedback - nnprabha[at]gmail or via the comments section.

MOVES: Robert Thomson's big WSJ changes include Nik Deogun, Reg Chua others

Robert Thomson, the new managing editor of The Wall Street Journal announced a much-anticipated shakeup in the editors ranks. From the memo below:

At the heart of our new structure will be a National, International and Enterprise Team, a triumvirate which will report directly to me and to whom the bureau chiefs will report. Effective July 7, Matt Murray will become National Editor, overseeing American general and corporate news, and Nikhil Deogun will become International Editor and directly oversee our global network of bureaus and correspondents. Mike Williams will preside over a broadened Page One, being responsible for investigative reporting, as well A-heds and leders. The troika, who will become Deputy Managing Editors, will sit close together in what could prosaically be called a “news hub”, thus streamlining commissioning and editing decisions, and giving them a central role in the production and presentation of copy for the paper and the website.

See full press release below [Thomson will be the opening keynote speaker at the SAJA Convention & Job Fair tomorrow morning.]

This means that SAJAer India-born Nik Deogun (seen here in a SAJA panel photo by Preston Merchant), who was overseeing the "Money & Investing" section, becomes foreign editor, joining three other South Asian foreign editors of legendary publications:

• Nisid Hajari, foreign editor of Newsweek
• Aparisim "Bobby" Ghosh, world editor of Time
• Stephanie Mehta, global editor of Fortune

Asked about his new role, Deogun told SAJAforum: "I'm delighted about my new position and look forward to expanding the Journal's profile outside of the US and providing quality journalism of the highest integrity to our loyal readership." Deogun becomes the second India-born journalist to become deputy managing editor at the Journal. The first was Raju Narisetti, who left the paper two years ago to launch Mint a New Delhi biz daily.

This move is just the latest among a series of high-profile new appointments of South Asians at major U.S. publications in 2008:

• Davan Maharaj named managing editor of the Los Angeles Times 
• Vindu Goel named deputy technology editor of The New York Times
• Stephanie Mehta named global editor of Fortune
• Jyoti Thottam named South Asia bureau chief of Time
• Geeta Anand moves to Mumbai bureau of WSJ

Also spotted in Thomson's memo:

Reg Chua becomes Senior Assistant Managing Editor, and will oversee the Design Team – a new Director of Design will be appointed in coming days - and the development of data resources.

Chua is a long-time friend of SAJA and a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal before moving back to NYC a couple of years ago. Asked about his new role, Chua told SAJAforum: "I'm very excited about taking on these added responsibilities, and especially in helping build up the Journal's
capabilities in using and presenting data."

The full Thomson memo is below. Post your comments below.

BOOKS: Aravind Adiga's "The White Tiger"

[Listen to an hour-long SAJA interview with Aravind Adiga on June 26, 2008. See archive of SAJA webcasts.]

It's not often that a new fictional character is compared to some of the best-known fictional characters of all time, but that's what's happend to Aravind Adiga's creation, Balram Halwai. Here's what the New York Sun had to say, invoking "Lolita" and "The Sopranos":

Like Humbert Humbert – or Tony Soprano, for that matter – Balram proves to be a seriously charming sociopath.”

That's just one of the many positive reviews of Adiga's debut novel, "The White Tiger." Adiga is a former Time magazine correspondent based in NYC; now he's a freelancer based in Mumbai. From the press materials below:

Introducing a major literary talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen.

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

For review copies or interview requests, please contact Jill.Siegel[at]simonandschuster.com. Tell her SAJA sent you - please note, she will only be able to respond to journalists.

Press materials, including a link to an excerpt, below. Post your comments below. [You might also like to read a piece a first-person essay by Adiga about going home to the town of Mangalore; his Time archive is here.]

FATHER'S DAY: Essays about fathers

It's almost 10:30 a.m. on Father's Day Sunday. And like almost every Sunday for a dozen-plus years, I plan to watch - live or via recording - "Meet the Press." But, of course, this will be a MTP unlike any other - the first since its wonderfully engaging host, Tim Russert died on Friday. For those of you not in in the U.S., or who are not political junkies, it's hard to understand the impact of the man or why so much of a fuss is being made about his passing, despite his being on Time list of 100 most influential people in the world and his 48 honorary doctorates. Just reading the 18+ comments on the SAJAforum post about him shows you that he transcended race and nationality (we are also tracking there the South Asians who have appeared on the show).

To a lot of Americans, however, Russert was better known as the author of "Big Russ and Me: Father and Son - Lessons for Life" his #1 bestselling tribute to his dad, who is now in his 90s. The book, a popular Father's Day gift since it came out in time for Father's Day 2004, is back up the Amazon charts since his death on Friday (#3 as of this writing). He followed up that book with "Wisdom of our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons."

Here at SAJA, we have had an evolving Father's Day tradition, starting in 1999. That year, we circulated journalist Peter Bhatia's tribute to his father, Prof. V.N. Bhatia, a dedicated reader of SAJA's mailing lists (Peter, Editor & Publisher magazine's 2008 Editor of the Year, lost his father in 2003). Since that first Father's Day, we have added essays about fathers by SAJA members Indira Somani (who has just joined the journalism faculty of Washington and Lee University) and the late Ron Patel.

Please read all three essays here.

As I wrote last year:

Re-reading the essays as I do each year, I am struck by what they have in common. They are all stories of remarkable men from India who made their lives in America and had a tremendous impact on their journalist children (though Mr. Patel dad died when Ron was just 3). I am sure you will be very moved, just like I was.

UPDATE: In her latest column, Aisha Sultan, one of the only full-time columnists for an American daily, wrote about her Pakistan-born father. Read "Why Dads Matter" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

UPDATE: Ranjit Souri, a comedy writer in Chicago, wrote a 2007 Father's Day essay in India Currents: "Flying Circus as Time Warp."

Do share your thoughts in the comments section of those essays - or below this post. We will make sure Peter, Indira, Aisha and Ranjit see them. Do you have an essay about your father - or father-like figure in your life that's been published elsewhere? Bring it to our attention: saja[at]columbia.edu

MOVES: Geeta Anand moves to Mumbai for Wall Street Journal

Geeta Anand, the New York-based senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal's investigative group, is moving her job to Mumbai for a few years. She's going to be joining the Journal's India team, where she will continue to do investigative work on health, science and the environment (among other stories). She will report to the paper's India bureau chief, Paul Beckett, and joins Peter Wonacott, Eric Bellman and Jackie Range as correspondents based in the country (in addition to stringers and others).

Asked why this job at this time, Anand told SAJAforum: "I've always wanted to write about India, and now is the time where it works both for my family and for the Wall Street Journal for me to be there."

She is also the author of 2006 nonfiction book, "The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children," which is scheduled to be made into a movie titled "Crowley" by the producers of "Erin Brokovich." Just this week, Variety reported that this will be Harrison Ford's next movie (as an actor and executive producer and that filming begins in the fall.

Anand, who shared a 2003 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a series of stories on "the roots, significance and impact of corporate scandals in America", is moving with her husband and daughters to the city where she was born and raised. Before moving to the U.S. to study at Dartmouth College and launch her journalism career, she was a top swimmer in India, representing the country in international competition and setting various womens records.

In July 2007 at the SAJA Convention, she was asked by Sonu Munshi about the possibility of working in India:

MOVES: Jyoti Thottam named Time's South Asia bureau chief

UPDATE: Listen to a recording of a webcast with Jyoti Thottam a week before her big move. She discussed her appointment; the current state of newsweeklies; some of what she'd like to cover; and her career.

Jyoti Thottam, former SAJA president and Time magazine senior editor, has been named the magazine's South Asia bureau chief. From a memo by Rick Stengel, managing editor, and Michael Elliott, editor of Time International (see below for the full memo):

Next month, Jyoti Thottam will leave New York and relocate to New Delhi as our bureau chief there. Jyoti was born in India, but raised mostly in suburban Houston. She now lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn. She came to TIME from On magazine/Time Digital, and before that was a newspaper reporter in Queens and in Jacksonville, Florida. (She is the co-author of a play, Interrogations, based partly on her crime reporting in Queens.) Jyoti got her start as an intern at the Wall Street Journal, and her writing has also appeared in the Believer and the Village Voice. She graduated from Yale, where she studied religion and economics, and she also has a master's degree from Columbia, where she studied international affairs and learned Hindi. All those skills were indispensable during the year she spent as a freelancer traveling around India after grad school, and she's looking forward to using them again covering South Asia for TIME.

Asked why this move now, Thottam told SAJAforum: “South Asia is one of the most exciting places in the world right now, and after 10 years in New York City, I was ready to try something new. I can’t imagine a better place to be a journalist, and I’m looking forward to covering the region's stories, big and small.”

She and her family leave in mid-June. Press queries can be sent via saja[at]columbia.edu (subject="for Jyoti Thottam") - click on the photo for a high-rez version.

While at Time, her most high-profile story was her March 1, 2004, cover story on outsourcing, "Is Your Job Going Abroad." She appeared on the PBS show "Charlie Rose" that week to discuss the issue, along with Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwati.

Time HQ has been a very hospitable home for South Asians. Here are just some of the folks there now:

• Romesh Ratnesar, is one of two deputy managing editors, under Rick Stengel
• Bobby Ghosh, world (foreign) editor
• Ratu Kamlani, chief of reporters

Thottam replaces Simon Robinson, who was the South Asia bureau chief since 2006. He now moves to the  London office to be a senior editor there. The memo below also notes that Zoher Abdoolcarim is the new Asia editor of Time International.

BOOKS: Sadanand Dhume's "My Friend the Fanatic"

UPDATE: Listen to a recording of a SAJA webcast with Dhume:

Washington-based journalist, Asia expert and long-time SAJA member Sadanand Dhume has his first book out. It's called "My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with an Indonesian Islamist." It's just been published in Australia (no U.S. edition yet; purchasing info here). From the publisher:

My Friend the Fanatic is a portrait of the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, a land once synonymous with tolerance that finds itself in the midst of a profound shift toward radical Islam. This portrait is painted through the travels of a pair of unlikely protagonists. Sadanand Dhume, the author, is a foreign correspondent, an Indian atheist with a fondness for literary fiction and an interest in economic development. His companion, Herry Nurdi, is a young Islamist who hero worships Osama bin Laden.

Dhume’s quest to understand the ongoing radicalization of Indonesia gives My Friend the Fanatic the contours of a travelogue. His attachment to the country’s fading culture of pluralism and the inherent tension of his friendship with Herry supply the emotional undertow of a memoir. Both strands come together to answer the same question: how does a society go from broad inclusiveness to shrill intolerance in the space of a generation?

By turns disturbing and amusing, My Friend the Fanatic addresses two of the most pressing questions of our times. Is Islam compatible with liberal democracy? Is it compatible with economic development? Is Herry an anomaly or does he in fact represent his country’s future?

"A vividly engaging portrait…a striking social and political travelogue." - THE AUSTRALIAN
"Perfectly timed…elegantly written." - THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW

More on the book, and the author's contact info below. Listen to a live or archived webcast with Dhume here.

MOVES: Patrick Chu's new role at Bloomberg

News about a long-time SAJA supporter and member:

Patrick Chu becomes global managing editor for energy and commodities companies, splitting the beat with Tim Coulter, who will concentrate on markets coverage. Patrick joined Bloomberg in San Francisco in 1997 from the Oregonian and has since been San Francisco bureau chief, managing editor for training in New York, managing editor for the economy in Washington and, since 2003, managing editor for Asia in Tokyo.

Congrats to Patrick, who'll continue to live in Tokyo, but will be spending time around the world, including South Asia.

MOVES: Davan Maharaj becomes managing editor of the LA Times

A little over a year ago, we wrote about Davan Maharaj's promotion to business editor of the Los Angeles Times. Now, he's moved a step higher to managing editor, making him the third-ranking editor at the fourth-largest newspaper in the country (after USA Today, Wall Street Journal and New York Times). From the announcement available below:

As Managing Editor, Davan Maharaj assumes oversight of Foreign, National, Metro, Business, Science and Sports, and will work alongside Stanton and Arthur in directing coverage, deploying journalists and resources and overseeing personnel decisions. The Times Business Editor since February 2007, Maharaj is charged with further integrating the print and Web story pipelines.

Asked for a comment by SAJAforum, he wrote in an e-mail: "I'm humbled to part of the leadership of this great institution. The Los Angeles Times is beloved by the 800,000 people who take it into their homes everyday and we have to keep being relevant to these readers."

From an LAT story about his promotion:

Maharaj, 45, has worked as a reporter for The Times in Orange County, Los Angeles and East Africa. His six-part series "Living on Pennies," in collaboration with Times photographer Francine Orr, won the 2005 Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing and inspired readers to donate tens of thousands of dollars to aid agencies working in Africa.

Read that series, "Living on Pennies," here. Full announcement about the changes below.

Maharaj joins a handful of South Asians at the top of major U.S. news outlets:

• Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The Oregonian (see news of his being named one of E&P's editors of the year)
• Rena Golden is editor of CNN.com (former head of CNN International)
• Bobby Ghosh is world (foreign) editor of Time
• Nisid Hajari is foreign editor of Newsweek
• Stephanie Mehta is foreign editor of Fortune

Post your comments below.

BURMA: Burma Cyclone blog launched

As we learned during the tsunami of 2004, blogs can be particularly helpful in spreading information about major disasters. A group of Columbia Journalism School students who had spent almost eight months documenting the lives of Burmese refugees in New York for their Master's Project [http://FromBurmaToNewYork.com/], have now built a useful blog about the Burma cyclone - the death toll appears to have crossed 100,000 now.

On the blog you will find everything from the latest news to how you can contribute directly to the victims to information about candelight vigils.

Please visit: http://BurmaEmergency.wordpress.com/

You can contact the students, Divya Gupta, Karen Zraick and Lam Thuy Vo, via divyagupta2[at]gmail.com

They are looking for journalists and others to contribute items.

Help them spread the word - and post your comments on their blog or below.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• Coverage of the cyclone by Anup Kaphle

BOOKS: Fareed Zakaria's "The Post-American World"

If you feel like you are being exposed to a lot of Fareed Zakaria these days, it's no accident. Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and host of a new foreign affairs show coming soon to CNN, has a brand-new book, "The Post-American World" (see SAJAforum mention of the book launch, starring Henry Kissinger) and he's everywhere.

UPDATE: The book's publicist, Rachel Salzman at W.W. Norton reports that it debuts at #11 on the NYT bestseller list for the week of May 11. Meanwhile:

• The cover story this week's Newsweek is adapted from the book (click to magnify).
• Video of his conversation with Charlie Rose on May 1 (video below, too)
• Video of his conversation with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" on May 5 (video below, too)
• Video of him talking about the book on Newsweek.com.
• Video of his appearance of the local Fox station in NYC.
• See May 11 SAJAforum roundup of Zakariapalooza.

Reviews are sprouting all over the place (some are below). He's also going to be in several cities during May. See the full tour info below. What do you think? Post your comments and thoughts below.

From FareedZakaria.com:

In his new book, The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria argues that the "rise of the rest" is the great story of our time.

This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.

MEMBERS: Om Malik's Adventures

Om Malik is one of the world's most influential bloggers. As founder of GigaOm.com, a site that's a must-read for Silicon Valley folks, what he and his team say can make or break a company. Millions of dollars in investments are placed, in part, on what Malik says.

The tech-star-studded e-mail I received below, about Structure '08, a new GigaOm conference (it's another major conversation that's part of the GigaOm network, a list that includes NewTeeVee Live, "Television Reinvented"), reminded me that we haven't written about Malik here on SAJAforum.

We haven't been writing about Malik - a co-founder of SAJA with me, M.K. Srinivasan, Dilip Massand, but the New York Times has. Twice just this year.

Om Malik’s blog, GigaOm, regularly breaks news about the technology industry. Last week, the journalist turned blogger broke a big story about himself. Mr. Malik, 41, blogged that he had suffered a heart attack on Dec. 28.

“I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment that night and have been recovering here ever since,” Mr. Malik wrote. “With the support of my family and my team, I am on the road to a full recovery. I am going to be O.K.”

His heart attack — and his blogging about it — raises the issue of what happens when a blogger becomes a name brand.

“The trouble with a personal brand is, you’re yoked to a machine,” said Paul Kedrosky, a friend of Mr. Malik’s who runs the Infectious Greed blog. “You feel huge pressure to not just do a lot, but to do a lot with your name on it. You have pressure to not just be the C.E.O., but at the same time to write, and to do it all on a shoestring. Put it all together, and it’s a recipe for stress through the roof.”

RADIO: NPR looks at Indian-Americans moving to India

A guest post by Arlene Chang, a student at Columbia Journalism School.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One trend the media is covering a lot these days is that of Indians returning home to seek opportunities. Here is a piece that first aired on NPR on March 4, 2008: "India Beckons Indian-American Back with Jobs" by Scott Carney. The story is interesting from the point of view that it is not just first-generation immigrant Indians who are packing their bags to head home, but also second-generation Indians born in the United States who are heading to India for the opportunity it offers and for what NPR calls "a cultural odyssey". Here is what the story says:

For second-generation Indian Americans, returning to their parents' home country can be a cultural odyssey. As the Indian economy booms, however, there are other reasons for American-born Indians to return to their roots. The country that many of their parents fled for lack of opportunity now needs their skills.

In 2006, the Indian government created a new immigration card for what it calls OCI or "Overseas Citizens of India." With it, second-generation Indians can have visa-free entry for life. Since 2006, the government has issued more than 200,000 OCI cards.

The piece goes on to talk about how the "Overseas Citizens of India" card is not just a means for the Indian government to lure second-generation Indians back home for sentimental reasons but instead for their skills.

Brooklyn-born author, Washington Post reporter and former SAJA president, S. Mitra Kalita, is quoted in the piece as saying, "The irony is that India is a country of a billion people, but any manager will tell you that the labor pool that they are faced with is not as educated and experienced as they need to be. These second-generation migrants do a great job straddling both worlds" (Kalita is now a columnist and editor at Mint, a business daily in New Delhi; read her blog about moving to India at HomelandInsecurities.blogspot.com).

THREE QUESTIONS: Vindu Goel becomes NYT's deputy tech editor

Vindu Goel, already one of the most senior South Asian business journalists working in America, is expanding his reach. Until recently, he was a columnist and blogger (Vindu's View from the Valley) for the San Jose Mercury News, where he had been business editor, assistant business editor and a member of the editorial board. In March 2008, the New York Times announced he was coming on board as deputy technology editor. He joins the paper on Monday, April 21, 2008. From the memo, reproduced below:

In this newly created position, Vindu will work with tech editor Damon Darlin and deputy tech editor David Gallagher, as well as Kevin McKenna, deputy business editor for online news, to expand our coverage of technology, particularly on the Web. It's a job that Vindu is particularly well suited to do, given his range of experience in overseeing business and tech coverage, and his passion and vision for Web journalism.

Before heading east, Goel answered three quick questions from SAJAforum:

• Can you tell us what you expect to be doing at the Times?
• How do you feel about leaving the exciting world of Silicon Valley?
• Can you give our readers some thoughts on why you've taken the editing track for so much of your career? Many young journalists, as you know, pursue reporting over the editing jobs.

See his answers below. And post your comments, please.

For more on Goel, see his answers to questions posed at HighSchoolJournalism.org's "Ask A Pro"
circa 2001. A highlight: "I think in my heart that I always knew I would be in news. I published my first newspaper in the fourth grade with a friend of mine, and I've been drawn to newspapers ever since."

BYLINE WATCH: Vikas Bajaj's two bylines on the NYT front page

Walter Pincus, the highly-acclaimed Washington Post reporter, has been quoted as saying: "The front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times are very important in shaping what people think. They’re like writing a memo to the White House." He's right, and today, Vikas Bajaj wrote two such memos.

He has two bylines, above the fold, in today's paper (click to enlarge): Equity Loans as Next Round in Credit Crisis and Inquiry Assails Accounting Firm in Lender's Fall (see a PDF version of the full frontpage here).

A non-South Asian friend and reader of the NYT for several decades wrote to me early this morning to point this out: "vikas bajaj has two bylined top-head stories side by side on p. 1 tdy. that's rarer than a lunar eclipse on feb. 29."

Just how rare is it exactly? Has anyone seen a reporter get this kind of play before? I often see plenty of reporters get two bylines the same day, and, on occasion, I have seen reporters get two bylines on the front page on the same day. Even Bajaj himself once got two double bylines above the fold in December 2007 (see our item about that achievement). But today's performance has got to be as rare as my friend described.

Earlier on SAJAforum: SAJA CONVENTION: Vikas Bajaj's nonstop hits (June 26, 2007)

See Vikas Bajaj's collection of stories at his Times Topics page. Post your comments below.

TV: Daljit Dhaliwal anchors "Global Watch" Special on PBS

Anchor and reporter Daljit Dhaliwal has a PBS special airing on April 9 online and on TV. From the press release below:

International broadcast journalist Daljit Dhaliwal has been named anchor of GLOBAL WATCH, a half-hour special program currently in production for PBS by KCET/Los Angeles. The announcement was made today by Al Jerome, KCET president and CEO. GLOBAL WATCH is a television and digital media initiative, which explores issues of interest around the world with particular attention to how the United States is perceived abroad. It will air nationally on PBS on Wednesday, April 9 at 10:30 p.m. (Please check local listings.) <snip>

“Daljit has covered international news stories throughout her career as a news anchor, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts in the Balkans and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East,” said Jerome. “She is highly respected and the perfect choice to anchor such an ambitious project.”

“It is extremely gratifying to have the opportunity to anchor and report for GLOBAL WATCH,” said Dhaliwal. “There is a tremendous need for all of us to understand the critical role America plays in the world. Everything from politics to popular culture has an impact on how the rest of the world views the United States.”

Asked to comment, Dhaliwal told SAJAforum:

In this day and age it's impossible to overstate America's global influence. Yet one of the things that's often missing from the media coverage is an examination of how the rest of the world sees us. Global Watch will seek to address those perceptions in a nuanced way.

Dhaliwal, who many of you met at the 2006 SAJA Convention, is really busy journalist. Her full-time gig is anchor of "Foreign Exchange" on PBS. She took overfrom Fareed Zakaria a couple of months ago (Zakaria has joined CNN where he will be hosting his own show soon). She's also a frequent anchor at ABC News Now - ABC's digital platform.

See the full press release below, and post your comments.

These photos are from KCET/PBS and the one above shows NBC correspondent Mark Mullen, doing a live shot with Dhaliwal from Beijing about China's pollution problem.

TV/SCIENCE: Unusual TV hosting opportunity

TV producer and former SAJA board member Anita Shah, sent in an unusual TV hosting opportunity below. Take a look. And when you apply, tell 'em SAJA sent you.

SEEKING COOL DIVERSE SCIENTISTS TO HOST MAJOR NEW SERIES

TV Production company seeks young, dynamic scientists to build shows around for major cable networks including Discovery Channel, Science, History and National Geographic Channels.

Help us cast a group of scientists who defy the “geeky scientist” stereotype!  We’re interested in hearing from scientists of all backgrounds and specialties who would easily be mistaken for artists, rappers, models, or musicians.

We are casting several scientists who embody an “up-to-the-minute” look and who can engage broad audiences by explaining science in lay mans terms.

We’re hoping to reinvent the way that people think about science and scientists.  Maybe you love mollusks as much as your Mohawk. Perhaps you think carbon is as cool as your Converse sneakers.  Or maybe you spend as much time in the science lab as on the slopes. Perhaps you’re even pursuing a modeling career on the side??

Requirements: you must be professionally employed in a scientific field aged between 25 and 45.  You must be energetic, articulate and have an infectious love for all things science!  To apply, please send a photo and a brief description of yourself (including your area of concentration) to: networkcasting[at]gmail.com

This is a major television opportunity for the right people.

BOOKS: Murali Balaji's "The Professor and the Pupil"

Penn State professor and SAJA member Murali Balaji's latest book is "The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson" (Nation Books).

In this work, Murali Balaji chronicles the forty-year friendship between renowned civil rights activists W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. He documents how both evolved into leaders of the American liberal movement after World War II while offering insight into why they became ostracized for their political views by even fellow African-Americans. In examining the lives of both men, Balaji also details the changing social and political conditions around the world that led Du Bois and Robeson to their political epiphanies and
eventually their downfall in the United States.

"This book provides a sharp look into an often overlooked aspect of black history." -- Publisher's Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Murali Balaji is a journalist and instructor at Penn State University. He has worked for several newspapers and is the author of two books, as well as co-editor of two forthcoming anthologies.

If you are interested in scheduling an interview with Balaji or in receiving a journalist's review
copy of the book, please contact Greg Houle, greg.houle[at]perseusbooks.com - please note that he will only be able to respond to members of the working press.  

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 8

Time for another installment in our "The Week in Bylines" series (see earlier editions). On most Sunday nights, we publish a collection of interesting/unusual bylines stories by South Asian journalists in the U.S./Canadian media. Even though it's about bylines, we also highlight work on TV and radio (in front of, and behind, the camera/mic). This is not meant to be a definitive, exhaustive collection. Instead, the idea is to show you the range of work that SAJAers are doing. Send us items you'd like us to consider, including your own: saja[at]columbia.edu (if we miss it one week, we will add it the next).

The Week in Bylines, March 16, 2008:

• Moni Basu, a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is back reporting in Iraq (she's been the several times to cover the war) and has been filing a series of stories. Among them:
  Family Reunion in Iraq: Bond on the Battlefield: March 12, 2008
  GI father, daughter disarmed by tears and love.
  Two Years After Life-Saving Surgery: Baby Noor's Troubling Future: March 9, 2008
  The family knew their baby girl would never walk, and that underneath the smile that melted hearts lay a bitter truth: Noor al-Zahra was destined for hardship. But Noor had been just a baby, cradled in her grandmother's arms, when she came to Atlanta for a life-saving operation more than two years ago. Now, as she grows older, an even harsher reality is revealing itself. 
• Vauhini Vara, a Silicon Valley reporter for the Wall Street Journal, had a big front-page story about one of the hottest tech companies around: Facebook.
  Facebook CEO seeks help as site grows up: March 5, 2008.
  Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Inc.'s 23-year-old chief executive, is finding that he and his company have to grow up at Internet speed. The latest sign: He has poached a top Google Inc. executive, Sheryl Sandberg, to help expand his social-networking company.

BOOKS: V.V. Ganeshananthan in Esquire

That's SAJA VP, V.V. Ganeshananthan on Esquire.com, part of its "Last Line" feature, in which they interview authors about writing and more. The photo is by SAJAforum's own Preston Merchant. She talked about her debut novel, "Love Marriage," which comes out in April.

Her first-person piece, as told to Anya Yurchyshyn, starts this way:

“He would have died, and he thought about this, and he swallowed, realizing the words that had been on his tongue at the moment that misdirected bullet was fired: O God, it's not me, I'm not even Tamil.”

This sentence is from my first novel, Love Marriage. The incident is based on a story that a relative told me long ago. The character, Kumaran, an ethnic Tamil, is riding the bus in Sri Lanka. Soldiers stop the bus because they are looking for someone