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 Indians win Leadership and Diversity Hammer award
Noted NRI actor and TV personality Meera Syal has been declared winner of this year's Leadership and Diversity Hammer award instituted by a leading bilingual publication in the UK.
Britain's successful 2012 Olympic Bid Team was selected for the Sports personality of the Year award while former TV presenter Floella Benjamin and leading global Parsi community leader Dorab Mistry were named for the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Community Leadership Award respectively.
More than 1,200 dignitaries from different walks of life attended the awards ceremony organised by the Asian Media and Marketing Group, at the prestigious Grosvenor Hotel. The awards celebrate ethnic achievement in diverse fields.
Meera is very proud of her Indian roots and culture and was aware of her racial difference from an early age. At school however, Meera was not a victim of racism, but was picked on because she was ‘mouthy’. “I’d grown up with the lads in the yard, I’d hit anyone if they called me names… we were all at the bottom of the social pile. We had that in common.” Her favourite quote: “I do believe that you have a writing muscle like any other muscle. I think it’s really good to try to write every day, even if it’s crap.”
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 Never Home Alone
At a time when families living together are becoming a rare find, it's hard to believe four generations of an NRI family comprising 70 relatives and 40 servants live together under one roof in Hong Kong.
Fortunately, there are no space constraints. Dr Hari Harilela, OBE, and his family reside in a 100,000 sq ft mansion at Kowloon Tong.
They say that they are never complete in the house because people are away at different times. The girls marry, kids go away for school — (So) they run the place like a hotel.
Originally having 18 bedrooms, the house now has six apartments with 40 bedrooms between them. Each flat measures about 2,500 sq ft — an impressive tally for Hong Kong, one of the most expensive cities in the world. The mansion, which took three years to plan and one year to build came about because of a promise made to Hari's mother — that he and his brothers would always live together. "As we were together in poverty, we should not separate in wealth," says Harilela.
Harilela and his six brothers started off as impoverished food and sundries vendors during the WW II, living with their wives in a one-bedroom apartment. Now, the Harilela holdings includes hotels all over the world, from Holiday Inns in Asia to the W in Sydney and the Sheraton in Belgravia. They also have a seat on the Hong Kong stock exchange and many investments.
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 Searchman is Man of the Year
NRI Nikesh Arora was chosen for the Man of the Year award for the way he led Google in Europe. It is still not clear how the company intends to make money from Google Talk.
Googleducked the question when asked last week. Nikesh Arora, vice-president of Google's European operations, said only that the move recognised "that real-time communication and information exchange are becoming increasingly important in people's lives".
Arora brings 16 years of diverse management experience to Google's expanding European operations and his appointment represents Google's continued commitment to growth in Europe. Arora will join Google in December, 2004, based in London.
In this newly created role, Arora will manage and develop Google's operations in the European market. Arora will also be responsible for continuing to create and expand strategic partnerships in Europe for the benefit of Google's growing number of users and advertisers.
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 Curry King serves up some tikka masala
Kaderbhoy Noon, the uncrowned emeror of packaged ethnic food is wary of making advances into India. At least not yet. In Mumbai, for one of his trinannual jamborees, Noon insisted that catching up with friends is the only thing on the agenda. "I make it a point to keep in touch with my friends and many of them are former school mates," says the man credited with single-handedly winning more converts to chicken tikka than all the curry restaurants in London put together. Though he has now branched out to Thai and Mexican, 75% of the 250,000 meals his factories churn out are Indian. His is a typical rags to riches story. He ran a samll sweet shop before he migarted to London and made it big. "Today we have thre more branches in Mumbai. There are many memories associated with my family business. I will never shut it down."
These days, chicken tikka masala and rogan josh are as much a part of British life as fish and chips. More than 8,000 restaurants now indulge Britons' love of Indian food, generating revenues of around $3 billion a year. Noon, meanwhile, is leading the assault on supermarkets. The market for chilled (not frozen) pop-in-the-oven dinners is one of the British food industry's most explosive sectors, with annual sales approaching $2 billion.
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