Anvesh Gehi wins Healthy Baby contest in Dubai

Anvesh Gautam Gehi won the recently held Healthy Baby Contest in Dubai in the 1 year / 2 years category and thereby perhaps became one of the youngest Bhagnari award winner.


Bhagnaris are proud of Anvesh's achievement and congratulate his parents Gautam and Nisha.

Rhea Nasta's article in Journal of Gem & Jewellery Industry

Rhea Nasta recently wrote an article in the Journal of Gem & Jewellery, expressing her thoughts about the use of Coral in her jewellery. Read on..

Renu Sukheja attempts Limca World Record

A world record was attempted for the Limca Book of Records by Renu Sukheja (age 50 year) on an Elliptical Cross Trainer at Helios Fitness Center, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad on March 05, 2010

Bhagnaris are proud of Renu's achievement and extend hearty congratulations to her. The community's best wishes are with her for her next goal of running 24 Hours + on the Elliptical Cross Trainer for the Guinness Book of World Records this year.

The event was witnessed and certified by Mr. Yadaiyah - Asst. Municipal Commissioner of Hyderabad along with 100's of others. A complete video recording of the event along with a certified document witnessed by the Commissioner and Other Credible Witnesses have been sent to Limca for their approval as per guidelines.

Renu, a fitness fanatic wanted to take on the Endurance / Marathon run to prove that physical limitations don't just come by age - physical limitations are more of a mindset. Renu is available for comment and discussion on http://iamwoman.ning.com/ where she would love to meet all the women who think fitness is impossible.

Bhagnari community congratulates Renu on her achievement and wishes her good luck in her attempt to enter into the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Holi Party Organisers

This year's Holi party held in Kataria Colony was a huge success. The organisers of the party had to put in considerable hard work to put together the whole show. They were ably supported by over 40 volunteers, backed up by the panchayat committee members and of course the donors and the sponsors.

The organisers plan to have picnic, drawing competition, sports day, fun-fair, Annual Prize Distribution function, Diwali party and many more cultural events. They will need active support of the youngsters to organise these events. Contact any one of us if you are interested in helping us.

Organisers in the following pictures are - Vishal Gehani, Sagar Nasta, Rhea Nasta, Naresh Nasta, Ramesh Poplay, Lachhu Gehi, Hari Nasta, Dolly Nasta, Dhanika Popley, Deepak Bhagnari, Saanika Nasta and Ashok Lulla

Medical Aid for needy Bhagnaris

Friends,

Recently we had an opportunity to help a Bhagnari lady, who had to undergo an operation on her spine. We approached her relatives in Dubai, who promptly arranged to send the requested amount for the medical treatment. We wish the concerned Bhagnari lady a full recovery from her ailment and also thank her relatives for arranging the financial aid. Thanks are also due to one of our Bhagnari youngster Dr. Satyen Mehta for performing the operation free of charge, which helped to ease the financial burden to a great extent.

Although in the above instance, Bhagnari Welfare Society (BWS) was able to arrange the medical assistance, it is now becoming increasingly difficult to meet the requests received by us. BWS is currently facing an acute shortage of funds and is finding it hard to arrange medical assistance in all the cases undertaken on a day to day basis.

BWS entirely relies on donations from the members of the community. Donations are received either:
- for increasing the corpus or
- for meeting specific requests (similar to the instance narrated above)

The increase in corpus helps us to increase the interest income, which is used for:
- monthly payment to the poor families (Rs. 1,000 is given to 25 families per month)
- medical aid
- educational and vocational loans
- miscellaneous expenses

Due to the increase in the medical costs, it is quite possible that we may not be able to arrange the required medical assistance in future. We therefore earnestly request you to donate generously to Bhagnari Welfare Society and thereby help your poor Bhagnari brothers and sisters. We have recently received suggestions to seek assistance from non-Bhagnari charitable organizations and would sincerely like to stay away from using this option. However, if the current situation continues, we may have to arrange external help also.

Your contributions will be duly acknowledged and appreciated.

We would also like to invite your comments and suggestions on this important matter. Please click on the Comments button below to log your comments.

Bhagnari Welfare Society

WRITTEN BY AMRIT MEHTA

Toronto Canada

Son of Pushpa and Kishore Mehta

Dubai's Hangover

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Friday, November 27, 2009 at 8:39am

Global markets are overreacting to Dubai World's 'delay' in debt repayment

There is nothing understated about Dubai as I learned during a recent visit. It is hard not to be impressed by the ambition and audacity of this growing city. During the last decade or so, Dubai has embarked on large scale real estate development projects that led to the construction of some of the tallest skyscrapers and largest projects in the world such as the Emirates Towers, the Burj Dubai, the Palm Islands and the world's second tallest, and most expensive hotel, the Burj Al Arab. So how did a city of 1.4 million people with a GDP of roughly $40 billion manage to fund these ambitious projects?

To understand how, one has to think about Dubai as a highly leveraged private equity firm. Dubai has very little oil resources of its own, and under the tutelage of its ruler cum CEO, Sheikh Mohamed, it pursued a bold investment-fueled growth strategy focused on tourism, real estate and financial services. During a four-year construction boom, Dubai borrowed $80 billion, or almost 200% of GDP, to fund outlandish projects that transformed the sheikhdom into a regional tourism and financial hub. At one time it was rumored that Dubai had 25% of the world's cranes, quite a feat for a city that was home to 0.02% of the world's population. Dubai's motto was simple: 'Build, and they will come'. Global capital markets were awash with credit pre-Lehman, and Dubai borrowed heavily on generous terms to fund its expansion. Debt service costs were low, and the high growth/high debt, leveraged private equity model worked perfectly.

Post-Lehman, this house of cards built primarily on investor sentiment came crashing down. It is estimated that property prices have fallen almost 50% in Dubai since then. Quite simply, buyers turned into sellers as panic spread through the financial system, exposing Dubai's glut of over-supply. People who bought several properties as investments with the hope of flipping homes at a profit, suddenly found that their mortgages/liabilities far exceeded the value of the homes they owned (sound familiar?). The cycle of borrow-build-sell-build was thwarted, and a sharp drop in revenues resulted in Dubai's high debt levels becoming an albatross.

Clearly, global markets have overreacted to Dubai's inability to make a debt repayment of $3.5 billion due December 14th. Some believe this could be the largest government default since the Argentine debt restructuring in 2001, while others point to contagion given the exposure of global banks to Dubai's debts. There are also fears of similar 'surprises' emanating from different parts of the world.

The facts would suggest that these fears are unfounded. To begin with, Dubai's problems are unique and its scale of potential defaults very small compared to the $1.7 trillion of global write-downs absorbed by banks due to the global financial crisis. To be sure, Dubai has several prized assets and can sell them to fund debt repayments but it is loth to do so. Besides, Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE and Dubai's nemesis, has one of the world's richest sovereign wealth funds with over $600 billion in assets and will not risk a Dubai default. It is most likely going to end up being Dubai's savior, but is currently engaged in a high stakes game of chicken with Dubai's ruler. It will ultimately lend Dubai the money to repay creditors but on its own terms. It will either take large ownership stakes in key Dubai assets & corporations and/or demand a much higher say in running Dubai's affairs. Either way, debts will be repaid and global traders will regain their sanity.

Drunken stupors often lead to prolonged hangovers. This is no different!

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Meet Dr. Sheetal Kanar Kumar, Life-Giver Extraordinaire!

The First Bhagnari Surrogate Mother
A young Bhagnari lady created history, with an extraordinary act of courageous magnanimity.



Dr. Sheetal Kanar Kumar, the doctor-wife of a doctor-husband, Dr. Amitabh Kumar, gave birth to twins, 2 boys on Sept. 16th, 2009 in the USA.



The twins are the children of Shubra (her husband's sister) and Richard . The boys, in a manner of speaking, are not hers. But Sheetal is very much janani, a life giver.

Sheetal acted as a surrogate mother, also known as a gestational carrier, for her husband’s sister who had been unable to carry a pregnancy despite multiple attempts. Sheetal and Amitabh have three small children of their own.

For nine months, from the time she began the process of surrogacy, to the time she delivered the twins, Sheetal nurtured the twin lives in her own womb. This act of giving birth, of bringing new life into the world, is an extraordinary saga that has been exalted by Prophets and Seers. Only in this instance, it is one of the most unselfish act of giving, an act that celebrates life and kinship.

Dr. Sheetal Kanar Kumar is an Obstretician and Gynaecologist, practicing in Stuart, Florida, USA. Her husband, Dr. Amitabh Kumar is a Gasteroenterologist.

Sheetal herself is a vivacious young lady, who is also a high achiever. She has certainly inherited the best from her loving parents Sujata (Saroj) and Gulab Kanar. Naturally, the entire Kanar family, her husband, Dr. Amitabh Kumar and Richard and Shubra, the Surrogate twins’ parents, are delighted with the happy outcome of Sheetal’s surrogacy.

On behalf of the Panchayat, the President of Shree Bhagnari Panchayat has extended his “heartiest congratulations to you, Sheetal and your family for your magnanimity. We Bhagnaris are proud of you.”

Congratulations to the Mother(s), Pere Richard, and Best Wishes to the boys. With such an eventful beginning and a distinguished lineage, one can be sure they will be the cynosure of all eyes.