Diwali at Neasden Temple

I was invited to the BAPS Shri Swaminaryan Mandir, popularly known as the Neasden Temple,  this  week to witness the 19.00 hrs. evening prayer known as arti and to witness its Diwali preparations. Many round the world celebrate the Hindu Festival of Light this weekend.

Security was airport-rigorous. In 2002, 33 temple devotees and visitors were gunned down at the Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar, India by terrorists.

Neasden is a magnificent building and is Europe’s first traditionally built Hindu temple, the first such outside India in some 800 years. The last similar places of worship were built at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. No steel or manmade material has been used, in keeping with Hindu scriptures. One stipulation of the planners was that English oak should be utilised  in addition to the imported Burmese teak. Over 220 oak trees were felled for the temple, and some 2500 saplings were planted in their place . There is now a flourishing oak tree forest in Wiltshire, England.

 Almost 3,000 tonnes of Bulgarian limestone 1,200 tonnes of Italian Carrara marble, and 900 tonnes of Indian Ambaji marble, were hand-carved by more than 1,500 skilled artisans at 14 different sites around India into 26,300 pieces. These were then coded, packed and sent on their final 6,300-mile journey to London where each piece was assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle over two and a half years. 

In the building known as the Haveli, a large hall behind which there is a similar-sized sports space popular with young people, there were peacocks placed around the walls as the Neasden temple Diwali has a peacock theme this year. For the first time in my life, I saw traditional rangoli pattern making being done by young and older ladies. This is an art form of design dating back centuries creating three-dimensional patterns of beauty. Watching the ladies at work on the huge coloured tiles laid out on the carpet was mesmerising and induced a feeling of calm. 

The temple has a fee-paying school attached to it that is in the national top five for points scored at GCSE, according to the Daily Telegraph. 

Neasden temple feeds 2,500 each weekend. The number is likely to jump to several thousand for Diwali.

In the temple complex is a great vegetarian supermarket and a reasonably priced vegetarian  restaurant; Shayona,  with an abundant and delicious menu. I enjoyed pani puri, chaat and masala dosa with a passion fruit drink.

The Mandir is open to everyone. More detail at 

www. Londonmandir.baps.org

  

Happy Diwali, Hindus around the world. 

Hanging out with Indian Movie Stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra

To south London where a millionaire restaurant owner had persuaded Indian megastars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra to set up for meeting with people like me as they launched their latest film Krris 3.

They gave a press conference followed by interviews and so I got to observe the two of them over a whole afternoon at very close quarters.

Their chemistry is great and there was lots of free, fast - flowing banter;  in fact they tended to intercept each others' questions a helluva lot.

They were polite and answered my questions really well. I asked them off diary stuff which will be seen in print next week.

Not only are these two stunning looking and two of the hottest film names in India as well as its diaspora, but Priyanka has broken the notoriously tough US market with her singing. The former Miss World has teamed up with  Pitbull and Will.i.am and told me she is really happy with her twin careers.

Hrithik may be a hot dancer and great looking but his vulnerable side showed yesterday;  aspects of his previous physical challenges surfaced from time to time.

With me, they were both charming and made sure we got a shot of the three of us by shooing everyone else off set.

Rhodes Youth Forum; Standout Speaker; Sandbox's Alex Terrien.

25-year old Alexandre Terrien, Deputy CEO at Sandbox Inc. London, was one of my finds among the  speakers invited by Youth Time to Rhodes 2013.

Educated in Paris, France, and Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, where he read American Protest History, Alex, polite and poised, has a great head on his young shoulders. He will go far.

He gave me an interview the last night we were on Rhodes with no notice and answered every question I asked him frankly and fearlessly.

Alex has a social outlook and is dedicated to community building. He published a book about Harvard when he was there. He led the startup, A Dozen Trees, A Dozen Trees, which he created with another Sandboxer, and led international business development for Harvard professor David Edwards.

Alex currently dashes around the world nursing his Sandbox hubs which exist in Europe, the US, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Through Sandbox, a community of extraordinary young leaders connects for free and receives mentoring, contacts and support. Read more about the company here. It is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Through this peer-to-peer accelerator, primarily embodied by the strong ties between community members, Sandboxers around the world can connect with other extraordinary leaders in a way that accelerates their work, pushes their ideas and helps them grow.

The company, led by Swiss investors, is making the best possible use of social media to build the group and give aid where needed.

There is skill-sharing, peer to peer advice and contact, dinners and fun events like bowling. The youngsters are drawn, many of them, from the brightest and the best in the conventional world, such as the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers. Altruism seems to be a watchword.

I like Alex's personal site. This gentleman travels so much at the moment he has the skill down to a fine art; packing light, and choosing seats that help him to be among the first to egress the plane.

He told me that each of the Sandbox hubs is led an ambassador who happens to be the best leader on the ground. I understand that the community has grown to 900 now and covers 28 cities. I met his Athens group led by the energetic and  personable Konstantina Zoehrer.
After a tough few days of investigation in Athens, I was heartened to see the enthusiasm with which Konstantina and her group are addressing local issues head on, doing what they can to find opportunity amid the Greek financial crisis.

What I really liked about Konstantina, and I believe this reflects the Sandbox  ideology of honesty and helping others, is that she had no desire to thrust her work at this curious journalist; rather she was happy to talk about well established projects that she thought would be good for me to look at.

As I write this, Alex is in the US and doubtless when I next see him he will tell me about all that's been happening there.

Examining Alex Terrien and interacting with other Sandboxers has led me to believe that I need to watch this group so I will be staying in close contact and wish Alex every success.

Rhodes Youth Time Forum; Day Two

Interviewing Dr Yakunin and 25- year old Youth Time founder Julia Kinash today along with other key speakers from around the world helps me to understand the premise and history of this young organisation. Julia is clear in her vision and undoubtedly sincere. Dr Yakunin, while happy to advance Russian interests, is genuine in his international vision. He has a deeply thought out attitude towards encouraging the young and while prepared to help kickstart Youth Time efforts, told me that he expects it to fly with a lot of hard work.
A stand out speaker, apart from the above two, is Dutchman Rob van Kranenburg. A complete technospecialist, he surprised everyone when I asked him about his driver by answering with one word; "Love."

Sobering food for thought today. A shout out for Valeria Bulavskaya who took photos while I was interviewing, and remembered to give me some ice to place on my sprained ankle when I sat still for a while.
Today we are joined by German and Italian journalists; we are now complete.

Rhodes Youth Forum; Day One

100 proactive young people have been brought together from all over the world by theYouth Time organisation based in Prague and Moscow. The journalists; one Dane, one Frenchman, one Russian and I are being ably looked after by Anna Kasimovskaya and her colleagues here and in Moscow. I have identified my target interviewees but the correspondent from L'Opinion and I are both intrigued by and interested in interviewing Vladimir Yakunin, Youth Time patron, founding president of the Russian "Dialogue of Civilizations" and confidant of President Putin.
Why is Mr Yakunin so keen on gathering committed and  interested young people together in the way that he does through Youth Time?
Is this more than soft diplomacy?

Interview with 2013 Law Firm of the Year Taylor Wessing's India Group Co-Chairs

Taylor Wessing's India Group Co-Chairs Laurence Lieberman and Vinod Bange talked to me in their airy 10th floor offices in the City.
They were frank and fearless, and I have written here what was allowed on the record. What they said off the record was fascinating too!

Read the interview here

Sharukh Khan is a Lovely Guy...and Thin.

I was a bit narked at being kept waiting over an hour by the man Newsweek described as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world and consumed an unreasonable amount of delicious chocolate chip cookies while realising that however seasoned we are, it is our subject's prerogative to keep us waiting for interviews.

The more star struck of the youngsters around gazed longingly into his eyes and told him he had her undying love. Outside the Courthouse Hotel in central London fans waited expectantly, pens and paper in hand. I discovered one girl outside my interview room being held back by a security guard and crying her eyes out as she could not meet her hero, despite having come from Paris to see him. It was a bit disconcerting.

Interviewing Sharukh Khan about his latest release Chennai Express I was impressed by his gentle, laid back style and quiet thoughtfulness. He has a stillness about him and told me that he was quite shy about romance.

He gave me all his attention when I asked him my questions and gently corrected any preconceptions my editor and I had formulated while discussing topics around Chennai Express this morning.

There I was, sitting at my screen in my office contemplating private equity when the urgent call came through for this assignment. I've wanted to meet the guy the Los Angeles Times called "The world's biggest movie star" for months despite one of my editors -who put him on a front cover- telling me he was kept waiting for over four hours.

Shar Rukh Khan told me he was fit and enjoyed the action sequences in Chennai Express, and sure enough, when I observed his physique as he got up to leave, he did look really, really slim.