Breaking news from Petoskey Michigan

Petoskey resident and fashion designer, Anne Selden, will travel to India Dec. 28 for a month-long study of the country's culture and vocational practices as part of a Group Study Exchange program sponsored by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. (Christina Rohn/News-Review)

Petoskey woman heading off to India

By the end of this week 27-year-old Anne Selden of Petoskey will be in India studying fashion design as part of Rotary Foundation's Group Study Exchange program.

Selden, a local fashion designer who is being sponsored by Rotary Club of Petoskey, is one of five young professionals between the ages of 25 and 40, who will leave the United States Dec. 28 and spend four weeks in northern India, returning Jan. 28. 2008.

The group will be staying in Rotarians' homes throughout the month, moving every two to three days, allowing them to experience the way of life, customs and vocational practices of the people of India.

"We're going to get an inside look at India," Selden said. "We're not staying in hotels like tourists would."

Each week the group members will get a chance to meet people in their same industry.

Selden, who has studied textile in Japan and Paris, France, and started her own Web-based business, Sartoria LLC, a year ago, said she is extremely excited about studying fashion in India.

"India sparked my interest because I've always wanted to be exposed to that extreme use of color -- in the U.S. we're more toned down," she said. "Going somewhere different like that is going to totally change what I do and how I view things. I'm looking forward to how it affects my work -- it's going to change everything."

Jeff Hickman, group study exchange chair and member of the Rotary Club of Traverse City, said he believes the trip will be an enlightening experience for all of the participants.

"They (group exchanges) have tended to be life changing experiences for people because they see another culture from the inside, not just from a tourist's perspective," he said. "They get an appreciation for another culture -- a global vision.

"We've had people return from these trips, and it's so enlightening, that it can cause career changes," Hickman said.

Selden said she is already losing sleep, anticipating the trip.

"I'm starting to lose sleep a little bit; I'm wondering what I'm going to put in my bag -- I'm not nervous, I'm excited," she said. "I can't really put a finger on how much it's going to change me. I'm looking forward to finding out -- that's what's exciting."

Noted Bollywood figure dies

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bollywood filmmaker G.P. Sippy, better known as the producer of the cult classic “Sholay”, died on Tuesday at his home in Mumbai. He was 93.

"He passed away yesterday night in his house," a family spokesperson said.

Sippy, who directed his first film “Marine Drive” in 1955, went on to produce a total of 19 films - including “Sholay”.

The 1975 blockbuster, directed by Sippy’s son Ramesh, ran in cinemas for years and is considered India’s best adaptation of a Western.

A Holland Sentinel story from '06 on Rotary/polio

CULTURE: Before Jan. 15, the day when immunizations were given, John Hoekstra had a little time in India to see the sights as a tourist. Top left, an Indian father stands in line to receive a polio vaccination for his daughter.

Holland man travels with Rotary group to bring Polio vaccine to India

By CHERI McSPADEN

You hear that Americans are not exactly welcomed warmly around the world these days, but John Hoekstra didn't experience that on his recent trip to India.

"No, actually it was just the opposite," he said.

Hoekstra is the president of Factory Insite, a Holland business that develops industrial software, but in January, in his capacity as a Rotarian, he was delivering polio vaccines.

"We had amazing press coverage. There were a pile of newspapers with our pictures on the cover," he said. "One camp we were at, near Dhan Pur, they were training college-age women, and I never felt like a rock star before, but they just inundated us, and I signed 40 or 50 things. One said, 'Oh, I don't have any paper -- will you sign my palm?' I said, 'Yeah, but you have to promise to wash it.' And she said, 'Oh no, I'm never going to wash it.' And I thought, 'Oh my goodness.'"

The young women were impressed by the good work done by Rotary International, which, on Feb. 1, eliminated polio in Niger and Egypt.

"In North America, polio is a distant memory for most, but ... the four countries now where polio is still endemic are Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan," Hoekstra said.

Would he go to Afghanistan?

"I would be a little hesitant," he said. "But we spent time in Varanasi (India) and I just read in the Sentinel a few days ago about a bombing in Varanasi that killed 20-some-odd people. I said, 'I was there. I know where that is.'"

In 1985, Rotary International created the PolioPlus program.

"The 100th anniversary of Rotary was last year, so the goal was to eliminate polio worldwide by then. And we didn't quite make it, BUT we're very close. One of my reasons for going to India now was that we may be done with the extraordinary immunization days this year in India and it can become part of the public health infrastructure."

Something to be proud of, both for himself, and for the Rotary Club of Holland, which has been involved with the polio project for about 20 years.

Hoekstra represented Holland in a massive group of volunteers who manned 1,200 vaccination booths on National Immunization Day, Jan. 15.

"The word booths evokes a totally different picture in my mind. I think of like a carnival booth," he said. "That's not really the case. They use people's porches or schools, or any area where they could set up a table."

The target age is children 5 and younger, since they're at the highest risk to contract polio.

"It's an oral polio vaccine, we squeeze a little nipple and hit their tongue. Two drops," Hoekstra said. "In our district, the goal was 200,000 children.

"We paint the left pinkie of each child who was vaccinated with indelible ink, which lasts about a week. You don't want to waste vaccine on children you've already vaccinated. It doesn't hurt them, but it's just a waste of vaccine. It costs Rotary about 60 cents a shot. That includes publicity and logistics."

The concept of helping people isn't something new to Hoekstra. As he grew up in Kalamazoo, his father was active in the YMCA, which did missionary work, particularly in South America, but also in Asia.

"About the time I was in junior high school, we started traveling internationally. ... We'd go to various areas in the world and stop and visit missionaries, stay with them and do projects."

Hoekstra calls his father a "very intense" traveler, who would pack in a lot. If anyone complained, he'd say, "Well, how many times are we going to get to this area of the world?"

"And we'd say, 'Yeah, OK Dad,'" Hoekstra said, chuckling.

His mother, Marian Dame, grew up in Holland.

"She was the daughter of C.P. Dame, the pastor," he said.

Having traveled so much with his parents, Hoekstra knew a home in India wouldn't be like a home in Holland.

"The Eastern toilets are interesting, just a hole in the ground basically, even in a middle-class home. It's just a porcelain bowl that's set in the ground with pads to stand on. It flushes like a Western-style toilet, but it was what we called a 'squat-upon.'"

And he knew that international traveling meant he'd need several vaccinations.

"Yes, India is one of the last polio-infested areas of the world, but there's also malaria, cholera and hepatitis," Hoekstra said. "I did get cholera one time in El Salvador. That was not fun, but if it's treated right away, it only lasts a few days.

"One of the next big initiatives for Rotary International is clean water ... If we can get enough clean water, we'll start to knock off the other diseases."

our group's call to arms

Here are the individual requests we've made to meet professional counterparts during our trip to India.

Carly Uhlman, Youth Probation Officer: “I am very passionate about my work with Youth Probation and I look forward to being exposed to the operation of India's Justice System. Appropriate work placements for me would include a Probation Office, the Courts, a Correctional facility and a Child Welfare agency.”

Patrick Revere, Journalist: “Among the vast groups of people I intend to meet and to be enlightened by are those who work as writers, producers and editors in the fields of media as well as the more creative, free-form artists of language and communication. I want to understand the issues that shape the past, current beliefs and desires of Indian people from an array of religious and socio-economic backgrounds. I would like to meet decision makers at The Times and families shaping community news start-ups alike.”

Karisa Wilson, Musician: “I'd like to meet musicians who perform for a living, folk/pop music, singers and instrumentalists, or any variation of the above.”

Anne Selden, Fashion Designer: “I am interested in textiles and clothing, both traditional and contemporary. I am also interested in all processes from dyeing, weaving, and manufacturing of saris to the psychology of clothing- what women in India choose to wear, how they wear it, and what that choice implies in today's India. I often draw inspiration from architecture. I look forward to seeing as many buildings, both old and new, in India as possible as the buildings are so completely different from anything I have ever seen before in the west.”

Final in-person planning session

Hello mates. Well, in speaking with our team leader Chris Langlois, it's been determined that this page will evolve from a blog that will update friends and family to a way to communicate with all of Rotary for our district in Michigan and Canada as well as with the clubs we'll visit in Uttar Pradesh. We had our final group meeting this weekend, did fun little things like host a speaker who has traveled to India for Rotary (albeit two decades ago), attaching Rotary patches to blazers and watching a movie, The Namesake, on an Indian family and their new lives as Indian Americans. It was the adaptation of a book by Jhumpa Lahiri (I believe I spelled her name correctly, help me out here Krista!). We went to eat at a fine restaurant called Naya, which has a sampling of all types of international foods. Then we ventured out for some music and played some pool. Quite honestly, Anne and I owned the pool table for much of the night! Go team! Sunday we had some breakfast together, went over each of our presentations for India and dispersed. Next time we meet will be in the GR airport Dec. 28 for our trip to Detroit, through Paris, and on to Delhi. Our trip will begin in earnest Dec. 30 day when we fly to Varanasi and begin travels on the ground for a month. Attached is a photo of the team chatting, sewing patches, and yes, sipping wine.

take a look at this vid

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3353034148321283599&q=india&total=110298&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

It's supposed to be warm!

New Delhi (PTI): Chilly conditions prevailed in many parts of northern India on Monday with areas in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh recording sub-zero temperatures and snowfall even as five deaths were reported in the region.

In Uttar Pradesh, three persons died of the cold wave in Jaunpur and Muzaffarnagar, while one death each was reported from Jammu and Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

Himachal Pradesh capital Shimla witnessed the first snowfall of the season as temperatures plummeted to 0.7 degrees Celsius. Kalpa had a minimum temperature of minus 4.1 degrees.

While Shimla recorded 2 cm of snowfall, Dundi and Solang Nallah in Kullu district recorded 14 cm and 10 cm of snowfall respectively. The tourist spot of Kufri on the outskirts of Shimla recorded about 4 cm snowfall.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the higher reaches of the state experienced snowfall while the minimum temperature at Drass in Kargil sector was minus seven degrees.

The hill station of Mt. Abu was the coldest place in Rajasthan with the mercury dipping to three degrees even as the rest of the state got some respite from the intense cold due to the western disturbances over the northern and southern parts of the state.

The national capital remained foggy as the minimum temperature was recorded at 8.8 degrees. But flights took off as scheduled at the airport here. In Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the minimum temperature rose by about a couple of notches in some parts.

lucknow

a wonderful description of one of the cities my group will visit --
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. It has a population of about 2.6 million. Located in what was historically known as the Awadh region, Lucknow has always been a multicultural city. Courtly manners, beautiful gardens, poetry, music, and fine cuisine patronized by the Nawabs are well known among Indians and students of South Asian culture and history. Lucknow is popularly known as the The City of Nawabs. It is also known as the Golden City of the East, Shiraz-i-Hind and The Constantinople of India. Today, Lucknow is a vibrant city that is witnessing an economic boom and is among the top ten fastest growing non-metropolitan cities of India. The unique combination of its cultured grace and newly acquired pace is its most promising feature that augurs well for the future.

Some much anticipated Indian architecture

I enjoyed taking a look at some of these temples —— http://www.indiantemplesportal.com/north-india-temples.html —— most of which are in areas me and my group will visit next month. That said, the countdown is on — I'm 25 days away from takeoff. I had been hoping we'd get an interesting layover in some European city, like Barcelona or Amsterdam. Not to be. It's a direct flight from Newark (ugh!) to Delhi. Man, how long does that take? But who am I to complain, and I'm sure my travel mates would agree. A month out of West Michigan in January, paid from work, and traveling to and around one of the most exotic places in the world all arranged and sponsored by the Rotarians. We all knew they were good people. All those people spared from polio would testify, but this? So it's a flight to Delhi, where we'll spend a night and recover a bit, then fly to Varanasi. A few days there, then on to places like Gorakhpur, Kushinagar (The Land of Buddha), Lucknow, Barabaki, Lakhimpur, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Allahabad, Satna, Rewa, Renukoot and back to Varanasi and Delhi. Whew! That's a lot in a month, but each of our stays will be four or five days, I'm told. We're also going to try to make to Agra for the Taj Mahal and get to the World Health Organization for a bit while back in Delhi. There will be a day of rest and touring (the day before my birthday and the Islamic New Year) in Lucknow, which is supposed to be a really fascinating city. I look forward to sharing with all of you thoughts and images as I go. Bookmark this page, please, and check often through the month of January.

Lawyers protest bombings

Judicial work came to a standstill with lawyers in Uttar Pradesh, who appear to be the targets of the serial blasts, struck work today.

Courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi, as well as other places have been affected.

Lawyers moved about in groups in the court compounds and raised slogans against terrorism. The government has tightened security arrangements in the courts throughout the state after the terror blasts.

On Friday, 13 people, including at least five lawyers, were killed and many more injured in the explosions that took place inside the premises of the courts.

The lawyers are observing 'Shok Divas' or day of mourning. Security is tight in Lucknow and other parts of the state in view of the strike.

A five-member committee, including two retired judges, has been set up to suggest ways and means for improving security in the courts.

Lawyers in at least six other states have joined the strike, these include Karnataka, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.

On their part, Delhi lawyers have decided to strike against the UP serial blasts tomorrow.

Polio, Rotary and India in the news

Rotary and Gates Foundation donate $200 million to eradicate polio
By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON — The global campaign to wipe out polio is getting a $200 million donation from Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at a time when some worry the effort will fail in the final stages.

Monday's announcement by both organizations came after nearly two decades of work against polio, an infectious disease that can paralyze and sometimes kill.

"This investment is precisely the catalyst we need as we intensify the push to finish polio," Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a statement.

Though polio incidence has been slashed by more than 99 percent worldwide since the eradication effort began in 1988, the virus remains entrenched in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Two deadlines to eliminate polio have been missed: 2000 and 2005. More than $5 billion has been poured into the effort, and some experts worry that unless the job is finished soon, the world community's money and patience may run out.

"They're on a heroic task, but money is not the only problem," said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who headed WHO's smallpox successful eradication campaign. "We've got to soldier on. We need more money. Look at all we've accomplished. But how do we get to the endpoint?"

Henderson and other experts worry that major obstacles to vaccinating children will be harder to overcome than filling a funding gap.

In countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Congo, where there are armed conflicts and weak health services, it has been extremely difficult to reach the high vaccination levels needed to wipe out polio. And in India, the vaccine is less effective, due to poor sanitation and the fact that children are often infected with intestinal viruses.

Experts are also concerned about the use of the oral vaccine, which contains live polio virus. In rare instances, the virus can mutate into a dangerous form capable of causing the disease.

The donation from Rotary International and the Gates Foundation, to be paid over three years, will largely go to immunization campaigns, surveillance and public education.

"This amount of money can make quite a big difference," said Nicholas Grassly, of Imperial College, London, who advises WHO on polio issues. "We can build on the gains that have been made this year."

WHO reports significant progress against polio in India and Nigeria, where 85 percent of the world's polio cases occur. Last year at this time, Nigeria had 958 polio cases. This year, only 226 were reported.

Still, the $200 million falls short of the $650 million that WHO says will be needed by 2009. Eradicating polio will ultimately cost $1 billion more, said Dr. David Heymann, WHO's top polio official.

Beneath a Marble Sky

I'm reading this wonderful book, a work of fiction by John Shors called "Beneath A Marble Sky." Its a tale, a love story actually (don't gush girls), about the construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra. I am fortunate that the people who will be hosting our travel group have arranged a visit here. I'm certain it would be an incredible experience in any context, but after reading this seemingly accurate depiction of the thought and labor behind the construction, the visit is sure to be a mesmerizing experience never to be forgotten. Here's an excerpt and a photo of the architectural wonder:

Sunrise over the Yamuna River has often prompted me to think of Paradise. From the broad shoulders of the waterway I have cherished the sights before me as I might the face of my lover. This morning's views are as inspiring as ever, especially after having been away in hiding for so long. To my right sprawls the magnificent Red Fort. Opposite, awash in the sun's blood, stands the Taj Mahal, neither soaring as a falcon might, nor cresting like the sea. Rather, the mausoleum arches upward, strong and noble, a gateway to the heavens. Knowing that the Taj Mahal was built for my mother is among my greatest joys, and my most profound sorrows.

Today, I am not alone. My guardian, Nizam, patiently rows our boat across the Yamuna. Behind our craft's bow sit my granddaughters, Gulbadan and Rurayya. No longer girls, each is a wondrous incarnation of my daughter. Looking at them, I think that time has moved too swiftly, that just yesterday I was stroking the soles of their diminutive, untested feet. My love for my granddaughters is even stronger now than it was then. When I see them I feel as if I'm moving forward into places harboring no regrets, no memories reminding me of my scars, those thick welts upon my mind and body.

Humble beginnings

This is a site dedicated to the pending month-long trip to north india, uttar pradesh, during which i will be traveling with with a business exchange group sponsored by rotary international. We will give presentations about who we are, where we live and how we live. We will meet with professionals in our respective fields -- journalism, music, justice and fashion design. We will visit Delhi, Varanasi, Allahabad and some other wildly interesting places, which escape my infant-like recollection of them. I've been studying with the group, and doing some reading and research (meaning youtube) and will share some of that here, as a matter of practice, before my trip. But when I hit the ground, watch out!