TAMIL DIASPORA

M. MANHOHARAN, a Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader, who was released after 18 months in a Malaysian jail, has denied the government's charge of having terror links, saying "ours is a people's struggle, we are not terrorists". 
Manoharan, who is a Hindraf legal adviser, said none of the four others leaders, who too were imprisoned and later released, had any links with Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 
"Ours is a people's struggle, we are not terrorists and neither are the movement's main members — P. Uthayakumar, P. Waythamoorthy, 
S. Ganabathi Rao and 
K. Vasathakumar," he said. 
These leaders were jailed under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA) after they organised a protest rally in November 2007 to voice grievances of the Tamil community like discrimination in jobs and education and desecration of Hindu shrines. 
Tamil Hindus form the bulk of the two million-plus ethnic Indian community that is 7.4 percent of Malaysia's 28 million population. 
Manoharan said his detention over allegations that he was linked to the LTTE was "absurd". "Never have I visited Sri Lanka and our movement has no links with the LTTE. It is a figment of the government's imagination.”

COORGI DIASPORA

SARITA MANDANNA, a US-based Indian author, has created ripples in the publishing world after her "Tiger Hills" received the largest advance Penguin India house has so far paid for a debut novel. The deal is reportedly in seven figures. 
"Tiger Hills", a sweeping popular novel set in India between 1878 and the Second World War, was a cross between an Indian version of 'The Thornbirds' and 'Gone with the Wind'.
Mandanna says: “Someone once told me - ‘Write the book that you simply must write’." I did. Tiger Hills was born of a few unsettlingly vivid images. A tiger hunt. A garden wild with jungle bloom. Herons circling over stripling paddy. There was no denying them nor the process of unpicking the vein that would link them together. Tiger Hills has been almost five years in the crafting and has remained a consuming, intensely personal passion all the while.”
Mandanna was born and brought up in India and worked in Hong Kong before moving to the US. She is a private equity professional now based in New York City. Sarita holds an MBA from Wharton and is an IIM graduate.

MAHARASHTRA DIASPORA

VIKRAM PANDIT, who was named among the worst CEOs in America, is now emerging as the best performer among US companies run by persons of Indian origin.
Citigroup bounced back into profitability in the first quarter of 2009, after five straight quarterly losses of billions of dollars. The company also received $45 billion in bailout packages from the US government. 
In a recent issue Portfolio magazine named Nagpur-born Pandit among the 20 worst ever CEOs in US history.

ANOOP DESAI’S hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill declared Monday May 4 'Anoop Day' in honour of the NRI American Idol finalist. A reception on the campus and a key to the city were given to Desai.
Desai 22, was voted off the show on April 22 . He is a grad student and — and to the horror of his parents — said he plans to leave UNC to pursue a music career.
Anoop, 22, who reached the top seven in the popular TV show American Idol, was voted out, but will soon tour nearly 50 cities across the US with the other performers who made it to the final 10.
Anoop says his voice doesn't suit Bollywood type music, which has influenced him as his parents listen to Lata and Mukesh, but he'd like to do a tour of South East Asia and sing his kind of music.
Anoop's simplicity and lack of flamboyance was singular among his co-contestants. He says being Indian origin was not a drawback, on the contrary it set him apart from everybody else. He said American Idol is that kind of show, you can come from anywhere.

BENGALI DIASPORA

ADITI LAHIRI, professor of linguistics at Oxford University is to receive the Professor Sukumar Sen Memorial Gold Medal from the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
Lahiri is first Chair of the newly formed Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at Oxford. She will be awarded the medal by the governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, for her contributions in the field of philology, linguistics and literature.
She is the fifteenth recipient of the award, the first from Oxford and the first woman to receive the award that is named after the former Khaira Professor of Linguistics, a famous Philologist.