Open Letter to Bharti Mittal...

Dear Mr. Mittal-

I enjoyed the opportunity to meet you and to hear you speak earlier today at the US India Business Council meeting. I wanted to ask a question but the time ran out.

My question pertains to the proverbial "brain drain."

As we know many Indians came to the US over the past 50 years and settled here. Some of them were the best brains and minds from India and the US even produced a couple of Indian Nobel prize winners (Hargobind Khorana and Dr Amartya Sen). Indians have always felt their best contributions could only be made and appreciated outside of India. But listening to you speak, and reading the news reports around, it becomes obvious that the brain drain is about to come full circle: Many top Indian Americans, including entrepreneurs, are going beyond the cozy confines of the U.S. shoreline to pursue opportunities back home in India, the land of their birth, peers or ancestry.

So, my question is: What is your delegation doing to address this? How is your delegation leveraging the Indian American community vis-a-vis bringing their skills back to India where they are most relevant? Are you considering "employment call centers" that would both make outgoing calls and receive incoming calls to/from accomplished, promising, and entrepreneurial Indian-Americans and place them in emerging growth job opportunities, be it in Washington, D.C., or in India?

I run a Desi blog and plan to run your response in that venue. To review my blog, visit: http://www.desihungama.blogspot.com

Thank you,

Starbucks challe India

So, the latest to enter India is Starbucks. Which means every nukkad in India will have a DesiBucks, hmmm. But they're not coming in head-on, but rather Starbucks is conceiving a clever strategy to take a franchise route. We heard Howard Shultz, the brain behind the coffee drain, went to Dubai some time back and happened to walk into a Barista coffee store (the leading coffee chain in India) and he ventured into a Barista store and that's where his fascination with India began. Knowing how much he likes to sell chai drinkers the virtues of coffeidom, he began plotting the I-strategy. Check out what the gossip mills say about this.

Mangoes, anyone?

Capitol Hill will have the privilege of relishing some great aam's (mangoes) kind courtesy of the US-India Business Council. Among those in attendance will be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns; U.S. Trade rep. Susan Schwab; and the Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen. Mango lovers are invited to attend. Send an email to nmehra@uschamber.com.

The original bandit queen

The second part of a trilogy on Britain's Queen Elizabeth I is set for an October release, says the movie's director Shekhar Kapur, in an interview published Wednesday, April 11, 2007. He's got the phirengi version of "Dacoit Queen" figured out, hasn't he? Many Indians (natives back then) would surely have referred to QE as the bandit queen!

The Day After...

More of the ceremonies after the wedding in Tirupathi.

The People's Princess

After Lady Di, Aishwarya Rai (seen here in a fleeting image from her wedding) has quickly catapulted herself to the hearts of Indians globally, and now, everyone will await the news: when is the baby coming? The fourth generation of the Bachchans will be the abhilasha in everyone's minds.

Heck, this is no Prateeksha

Ok, here it is: A rather bored, or unhappy?, Aishwarya Rai after her wedding ceremony, driving away with Abhishek. Seems like a letdown, Ash?