Agarwal with son (left) and Gawas

After a harrowing year for Shefali Agarwal, Sonia Gawas and others bereaved by the wtc catastrophe, Senator Frank Pallone's new legislation in the US House of Representatives comes as a small consolation. The legislation states that permanent resident alien status be granted to any alien spouse or child of an individual who was lawfully living in the US and who died as a result of a September 11 terrorist attack. This is without regard to the current status of the alien spouse or child. The condition, though, is that they should apply for permanent resident status to the US Attorney General within two years of the time the legislation is enacted. It has brought cheer to the 200-odd survivors, including Indians, who are facing deportation. But for many it may be too little, too late as they have already received notices from the ins to leave American shores.

Portrait of Care

AN artist based in Redbank, New Jersey, came up with her own way of paying tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11. Nancy Gowran offered to do portraits of the departed for free-she normally charges $250. Some of these sketches (left) now claim a place of honour in Indian households. Gowran has done 187 portraits so far and computes that it could well take her 10 years to cover all those who died in the tragedy. "What started as a gift for them has turned out to be a gift for me," says Gowran.

Cricketing Ace

Agarwal with son (left) and Gawas

Any questions pertaining to the commonality between Mark Ramprakash, Graham Thorpe, Chris Lewis, Andrew Flintoff and Usman Afzal would appear a cinch-why, they play cricket for England, of course. Wait, there's more: the cricketers will soon be teaching young blood the intricacies of the gentleman's game at Afzal's Cricketing Elite (ACEe). Says Afzal, "We look forward to bringing to the fore the immense cricketing talent that exists within the UK." And towards that end, ace hopes to select the 15 best cricketers from the clinic-at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on October 5 and 6-to participate in an international tour early next year. Parthiv Patel, watch out.

Day of the Knight

(From left) Hinduja, Noon, Varma and Mittal

All misgivings about G.K. Noon's knighthood seemed a thing of the past at the party thrown by Moni Varma of Veetee Rice. Businessmen (Lakshmi Mittal, brothers G.P. and S.P. Hinduja, and diamond merchant Vijay Shah), politicians (Keith Vaz, Lord Navnit Dholakia and Lord and Lady Bagri) and sport stars (Sunny Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly) gathered to honour Sir Gulam at the Dorchester Hotel. "... He is a pillar of our society, a role model for others, a person we are all most honoured and proud to know," said Varma. Did we hear Jeremy Corbyn-Labour MP who had unceremonious things to say about Noon's knighthood-snigger?

Birth of a Nation

That you can put an Indian out of India but not India out of an Indian is not just a smart play of words but a fact of life whose latest testimony came in the form of the annual Ganesh Chariot Festival on September 8. Organised by the Sri Manicka Vinayakar Temple, the festival of Ganesh, the elephant-nosed son of Lord Shiva, replicated the Indian ethos with thousands of devotees accompanying the chariot barefoot. With the chants of devotional songs and the fragrance of incense and camphor suffusing the air, there was little to suggest that one was not in India but walking along the fashionable streets of Paris.

Faith Gains Currency

What the kar sevaks in India would not give to realise what the denizens of Vedic city-founded by followers of the Transcendental Meditation movement-in Iowa have: Raam currency. Christened by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as Raam, at present about $40,000 worth of the colourful currency of yellows, blues, reds and greens is in circulation, and this, just seven months after its creation. Though the local county officials have rejected the holy currency, participating businesses in Vedic city are willing to fully back it, which ensures that the sterling exchange rates remain rock steady.

Patch of Hope

If you thought struggles were peculiar to Homo sapiens alone, glance at the Asian elephant, whose single biggest threat comes from habitat destruction. But to put things in order, an elephant facility is to be opened on 40-odd acres of the UK's Woburn Park land-the largest tract of land devoted to Asian elephants in Europe-replete with elephant welfare training programmes for keepers and conservation workers, a research centre and an educational visitors' centre. "Saving the Asian elephant is about much more than protecting a single species; it is the most significant religious and cultural icon on earth," says supporter of the project K.T. Lalvani, president and CEO, Vitabiotics. "I believe that the UK's Asian community has an important role to play in assuring the success of this project."