We’ve just found our first clip of Music Masala’s Sunil T on Star One’s Great Indian Laughter Challenge!  Support Houston’s very own Sunil T by tuning into show, which is aired on Star One television. 

If you don’t have access to Star One Television, then go to your cousin Babu’s house and go watch it!  And if your cousin Babu doesn’t have Star One, then you can tune into the SABAsearch Blog to watch his latest clips

Here is Sunil T’s performance in the second round, which aired on July 5th:

Good luck Sunil T, we’re all rootin’ for ya man!!!!!!

The SABAsearch Blog staff is saddened to learn that Vinay Chakravarthy passed away on the morning of June 25th.  Vinay was diagnosed with Leukemia and was the spotlight of a nationwide promotion to get South Asians registered for the National Marrow Donor Program.  Vinay did receive a bone marrow donor and transplant, but unfortunately relapsed and passed away shortly after.   

Vinay’s fight brought inspiration to many South Asians, including our entire blog staff.  His positive attitude and striving personality could clearly be visualized through his blog posts on HelpVinay.org and his dedication to raise awareness for South Asian bone marrow registration was truly amazing.  Sameer Bhatia, who passed away from Leukemia in March 2008, also played a vital role in raising awareness for this cause and served as inspiration for Vinay and his family.

Although we cannot bring Vinay and Sameer back, there is still much that we can and should related to their cause.  There is a deep need for members of the South Asian community to register themselves in the Bone Marrow registry as there are not enough South Asian donors within the program.  Therefore, the program has offered South Asians FREE registration, and we’d be foolish (not to mention selfish) not to take advantage of this life saving opportunity.

Here is a video clip of Russell Peters urging South Asians to register in the National Marrow Donor Program on behalf of Vinay’s struggle:

So at this point, we are calling ALL South Asians to STEP UP to the plate and help save a life.  Here’s how:

The first step is to find out whether you are registered within the Bone Marrow Donor program.  To do so, please click here and fill out the status information form.   The registry will check their records and return a status memo to your email. 

If you are not yet registered for the marrow donor program, there are many ways you can do so.  If you live in Houston, there are many Bone Marrow Donor Drives throughout the year.  Click on the link below to find one near you:

Join the National Marrow Donor Program

You can also go directly to a Donor Center to register.  Please visit the Donor Center Locator Page on the National Marrow Donor Program website to find a donor center near you.

We hope that all of you will take the time to get this done.  

Our hearts go out to the families of Vinay and Sameer.  The impact that both of these men have had on our lives through their strength and smiles will never be forgotten.   

If you have the regular case of the “Mondays”, just remember that July 4th is right around the corner!  In Texas, that means this weekend will be filled with good drinks, good food and good fireworks. 

If you’re looking for a spectacular fireworks show, we recommend you head to downtown for Houston’s traditional Freedom Over Texas celebration.  Here is a little bit more info:

LIGHT UP THE FOURTH
The city’s Fourth of July celebration, Chevy’s Freedom Over Texas, will feature music from country singers Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert and Jo Dee Messina, followed by - what else! - a massive fireworks display.

• When: 4-10 p.m. Friday

• Where: Eleanor Tinsley Park at Buffalo Bayou (Houston,Texas)

• Fireworks: Begin at 9:30 p.m.

• Live broadcast: 7-10 p.m. on KTRK-Channel 13

• Tickets: $5 at the gate until 5 p.m.; $8 after that. No charge for children under 10.

• More information: Purchase tickets online at www.houstontx.gov/specialevents/cfot/index.

If you know about a good party or celebration, post it within the comments section of this blog posting.  Have a happy 4th!

We all know that Indian Desi Weddings and Receptions cost a FORTUNE!  We recently read an article about an Indian wedding in Dallas that costed over $750,000…whoa! 

Nowadays in the US, however, fathers of the beautiful brides are finding, to their dismay, that spending so much money on a wedding reception is not a wise decision…especially because so many Indians and desis are getting divorced!  There goes Daddy’s $750K down the drain…and probably doesn’t leave much room for the next marriage…

Unfortunately, divorce is plaguing the Indian community more than it ever has in the past.  Second generation Indians and Desis are splitting up more than those chapped lips of yours.  So we ask, why spend so much money on an extravagent wedding celebration when you don’t even know if these two brown lovebirds are going to even have brown eggs together?  Receptions and Celebrations should be EARNED, right?

Therefore, we the SABAsearch Blog staff is proposing to install something called the “10 year Later” Wedding Reception into the Indian Desi Community.  If your daughter is about to get married, tell her that she can spend daddy’s hard earned money after 10 years for a wedding celebration under the following conditions:

• She is still happily married to her husband
• She still allows the parents to invite over 1000 brown people that nobody knows…because its the “desi tradition”

Your new wedding invitations would look something like this:

The “10 Year Later” Wedding Reception idea is now available for usage…enjoy!  We have lots of desi wedding coordinators standing by on the SABAsearch Blog hotline to help you get started.

Each weekend, the SABAsearch Blog staff will be bringing you a variety of “wee”deos (yes, w/ a “wee”) to help get you in the right mode for the weekend.  Check out the SABAsearch Blog every Saturday or Sunday to get your weekend dose of desi comedy, music and funny video clips from the web. 

Our first episode of Weekend ”Wee”deos features a hilarious clip from the movie Dude, Where’s the Party?  This is an H-town born and bred movie, so naturally, our blog staff is excited to feature this clip to get things started off!

LOL!  Classic Scene!  Have a great weekend!

Over the past few years, SABAsearch.com has grown tremendously within the South Asian community and beyond.  Specifically, SABAsearch.com has become one of the leaders in providing South Asian content via the web for Houston and its surrounding areas.

This month, SABAsearch.com has reached new celebratory milestones.  Today, we officially passed over 1000 business listing accounts within the SABAsearch.com business listing directory, making us one of the most comprehensive South Asian business directory and portal for South Asian business information in Houston!  Earlier this month, we officially passed the 750,000 visitor count, which tell us that our visitors are coming from far and wide to visit our site to see what’s “in the works”.  The continued support from the local community members as well as the hard work of our entire teams have allowed us to become a leader within the South Asian online business community, and we are excited to keep growing and providing more exciting benefits!

What are SABAsearch business listings?
The business listings are offered as tools to our South Asian business owners (or anyone who wants to promote within a South Asian market) for promoting their business via our site and the web.  These listings are designed to help place each South Asian business on the online map.  Our Business Listings also assist business owners in their efforts to easily connect with consumers via the web.   SABAsearch.com has uniquely designed the listings so that each and every business listing is also scrolled by Google and Yahoo, allowing the information within them to appear on the forefront of the major search engines, thus attracting more potential customers.

These same business listings are what attracts most of the loyal SABAsearch.com visitors to the website.  Business listings offer visitors all of the information they need in making informed decisions about South Asian products and services in their area.  THOUSANDS of visitors come DAILY to SABAsearch.com to find their favorite Indian restaurant, desi attorney, or family doctor, etc..  The easy 3-step searching tool within our website allows for quick access to valuable South Asian business information.

————————-

Our Mission
Our mutually beneficial online platform is here for one reason:  To help promote South Asian businesses and services via the web.  We want to promote all of the hard working South Asians who strive every day to become successful in their daily ventures by providing the online tools they need to compete and connect with the consumers that mean so much to them.  This new milestone only puts more flame under our fire, and inspires us to continue our mission to bring South Asian businesses and entrepreneurs to the forefront of the web.  We also aknowledge that this milestone could never be achieved without the continued support of the Houston South Asian community and beyond.  Together, we can continue to increase the awareness for this powerful online tool (both inside the South Asian community and outside), and expand the benefits of SABAsearch.com to South Asians and non-South Asians all over the country. 

The development of this website and online community has also produced a rich byproduct - a ripe platform for advertisers who are looking to connect with a highly valuable South Asian market.  If you are interested in promoting your product or service to our dense South Asian audience via our website, please feel free to contact us for more information.  We would be happy to provide you with additional information. 

We thank you all for your continued support, and we hope that you will join our mission by informing your family and friends about this South Asian community and business website.  We also want to hear how we can improve our site to reach new levels of success, so please feel free to email us at Support@SABAsearch.com with your feedback.

Regards,
The SABAsearch.com Team and the SABAsearch Blog Staff

Houston’s very own Sunil T has been the ONLY individual from North America selected to participate in Star One’s Great Indian Laughter Challenge.  Sunil T, Founder and Host of Music Masala Radio, is one of the 20 contestants chosen from applicants from all over the world.

Indoamerican News was the first to cover the story.  Here is an excerpt from the article posted online:

Sunil T will be adding an international dimension to the humor show dominated so far by the talent in the subcontinent. His selection was based on the comedy routines he submitted last month.

Sunil left Monday for Mumbai to take part in a 10-day camp and shootings scheduled to begin May 25. He is optimistic that he will do well.

“I was not trained in India, I was trained in Houston,” he said. “Everything I have learnt and have, I owe it to the city.”
Sunil said that he came to Houston to study engineering and make a living. It was in Houston that he took the mike for the first time. “My abilities in this field have kind of grown with the city. When I came to the city, I was quite new to all this.”

 

Read more

The SABAsearch Blog staff would like to congratulate Sunil T once again for his dedication to entertainment and comedy in the South Asian community.  Sunil T has built a true character for himself by hosting the Music Masala Radio show, producing the hit comedy Dude, Where’s the Party?, and hosting the famous party boats known as the Masala Cruises. 

Please join us in wishing Sunil T all the best for this upcoming competition! 

Do ya’ll remember back in elementary school when you’d play fun games like kickball in the playground?  How come we don’t play that as adults?  Well, a local non-profit organization (HYPF, Houston Youth Pentecostal Fellowship) organized a game yesterday and I was lucky enough to partake in all the fun.  As the day progressed, I realized that I’m getting old… but it was still fun none-the-less!  We should bring back some of those old school games that we used to play as children….  Make our mundane lives a bit more interesting… so I’d like to set out a challenge to all the readers… get a group of friends and set up a game of Dodgeball, Kickball, Ultimate Frisbee or anything!  Just get out there and enjoy!  If anyone wants to check out some pics from the young adult kickball games, check out www.hypf.com and I’m sure they’ll have it posted up in the next few days.

FOKANA, Federation Of Kerala Associations in North America, will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary and yearly convention at the Hilton Americas in Downtown Houston. FOKANA is considered one of the biggest Malayalee events in the nation. The FOKANA convention and celebration will begin on July 1st, 2008 and continue through July 5th, 2008.

Here is a little bit more background on the FOKANA organization:

FOKANA (Federation Of Kerala Associations in North America) is an umbrella organization of Malayalee Associations in United States and Canada. FOKANA’s long history in the United States as an organization fostering the values of Kerala culture and heritage finds its formal beginnings in the early 1980s. The need for an umbrella organization that would unite the increasing number of Kerala Associations throughout theU.S. and Canada was identified far earlier as the number of Indian Americans grew rapidly.

 So, what does this mean for Houston?  Well, it’s gonna be crazy!  FOKANA is filled with various events throughout the 5 day period.  You can count on various seminars to be held during the day, and also events to be held nightly throughout the week/weekend.  The YOUTH organization will also be hosting various competitions, which allow the young FOKANA guests to show off some of their talents in different categories.

To learn more about the FOKANA event, please visit the FOKANA event listing on SABAsearch.com. 

To learn more about the Youth activities planned for the FOKANA event, please visit the FOKANA YOUTH website.

The SABAsearch Blog staff welcomes all FOKANA guests to Houston!  We encourage all FOKANA guests to leave their comments on this blog or leave questions for other FOKANA guests.  See you in H-town!

FOKANA 2008 CONVENTION:  Houston, TX
Location:  Hilton Americas Downtown
Dates:  July 1st, 2008 - July 5th, 2008
http://www.fokanatoday.org

A note from one of our readers:

Dear Sabasearchers-

I am having a hard time finding a real trusting mechanic in Houston. I used to know a couple of them but they have all moved on to bigger and better things. Recently, I have noticed that all mechanics will try to squeeze you for every cent that you have. I own an American car (I won’t make that mistake again) and it has been giving me problems since I first drove it off the lot. I might be exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean. The newest problem with my car is so complicated that after taking it to 2 different mechanics I still have not found the problem, which scares me. It use to be if you dropped off your car in the morning like around 7 or 8 am you were almost guaranteed that the mechanic can diagnose the problem and have the car fixed and ready for you that afternoon.

Definitely not like the old days, when you had to take apart the car to see it with your own eyes. These new cars are all electronically wired, and so advanced that they must go through rigorous tests and check ups, before we can even start taking apart the car. So I just wanted to share this with the other readers on this site. And see what other nightmares that you have had to deal with. Oh yeah, and if you have any recommendations, please feel free to let me know. Thanks!!

Rapper Kanye West is making his way down to the Lone Star State!  For those of you Indians and Desis who don’t know who Kanye West is, here is a little Kanye West 101, provided by Wikipedia.com:

Kanye Omari West (pronounced /ˈkɑnjɛj/) (born June 8, 1977)^[1] is an American rap artist and hip hop producer. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, and his third album Graduation in 2007. His first three albums have received numerous awards (including nine Grammys),^[2][3][4] critical acclaim,^[5] and commercial success. West also runs his own record label GOOD Music.^[6] West’s mascot and trademark is “Dropout Bear,” a teddy bear, which has appeared on the covers of his three albums as well as the singles cover for his songs “Stronger” and “Homecoming.”^[7]

West’s parents divorced when he was three years old, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. He enrolled at Chicago State University but later dropped out to continue pursuing his music career. He later gained fame by producing hit singles for musical artists including Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and Janet Jackson. West’s style of production often utilizes pitched-up vocal samples, usually from soul songs, with his own drums and instruments. Some controversy has also surrounded West, such as an incident during a live telecast of a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief, when he deviated from the script and told the audience, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Here is the schedule for Kanye’s ”Glow in the Dark Tour”April 30th - Austin - Frank Erwin Center

May 1st - Dallas - Superpages Center

May 2nd - Houston - Woodlands Pavilion

Check back next week for our review of the concert. 

It brings us no pleasure to bring you this article published by Houston Chronicle….

AUSTIN — The founder of the Barsana Dham Hindu temple in Hays County
has been arrested in Washington, D.C., and charged with 20 counts of
indecency with a child.

Prakashanand Saraswati, 78, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals
Service on Thursday afternoon at Dulles Airport and was being held in
Alexandria, Va., according to the Hays County sheriff’s office.

“He’s waived extradition, and arrangements are being made to bring him
back to Hays County,” sheriff’s office spokesman Leroy Opiela was
quoted as saying in the Austin American-Statesman on Friday.

The charges stem from an investigation that began in August, sheriff’s
officials said.

According to his indictment, Saraswati, known as “Shree Swamiji” to his
followers, is accused of groping two girls who were under the age of 17
at the time on several occasions between 1993 and 1996.

In a statement, the temple described the allegations as “groundless.”

“Shree Swamiji has dedicated his entire life to serving humanity … No
one who knows him would ever believe he would do anything such as
this,” the statement read.

The Barsana Dham center is located in a rural part of Hays County on
the outskirts of Austin. Society members have been living at the
200-acre spiritual retreat center since 1990, practicing Saraswati’s
philosophy of “divine love consciousness” based on ancient texts common
to Hinduism.

The center’s Web site says Saraswati was born in India and that he
traveled the world before establishing the Hays County temple. It was
designed as a representation of the holy land of Braj in India,
according to the Web site.

Brought to you by the HoustonChronicle.com

In any case, however this may turn out, it’s a bad day for the South Asian community.  Please share your thoughts and feelings about this news.  If you have any additional information regarding this recent news, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Irfan from Seven Seas Promotion is bringing Udit and Aditya Narayan to Houston!  Here is a little bit more info on the event:

 Udit and Aditya Narayan Concert - Houston
Date:  May 2, 2008
Location:  Arena Theater (7322 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX  77074)
Time:  9:00pm  (Add 1 hour for Desi Standard Time )
Tickets: $15, $25, $35, $45 and VIP.

To view more information on the event, or to access the event website to purchase tickets, please view the Udit and Aditya Narayan Concert event listing on SABAsearch.com.

Want FREE Tickets?

If you are a typical desi, and want to go for FREE, you’re in luck!  SABAsearch.com will be giving away 2 FREE tickets to this concert to one of our lucky blog readers!  Please register yourself in the contest by visiting the 2 FREE Tickets - Udit and Narayan Concert Houston promotion page on SABAsearch.com.  The winner of this promotion will be announced next Wednesday, April 30th. 

SABAsearch.com has given away lots of prizes in the past - here are some of the past lucky winners.

Good luck!

***UPDATE***

WIN 2 FREE TICKETS TO THE UNFORGETTABLE TOUR AMITABH CONCERT IN HOUSTON !!!!

The SABAsearch Blog staff is excited to announce that we have posted the promotion to give away 2 FREE tickets to the Amitabh Bachchan Concert (Unforgettable Tour) on SABAsearch.com!  Registration is FREE, and one lucky winner will be awarded the tickets.  Register for the promotion by clicking the link below:

http://www.sabasearch.com/promDetail.asp?promid=45

Good LUCK and Enjoy the Concert!

Rumor on the street has it that Star Promotions is bringing Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwairya Rai to Houston!  Star Promotion’s Rajinder and Hum Tum City’s Rehan Siddiqui are cooperating to bring you the biggest desi concert EVER in Houston.

The concert is part of Amitabh’s final world tour event.  This will be Abishek’s first world tour concert, and he will be performing alongside his wife Ashwairya Rai.

The world tour is set to begin in July of this year, and will make it’s way down to Houston sometime late this summer.

As soon as we get more info, we will be sure to post the event information within the Houston Indian and Desi Events section on SABAsearch.com.

IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED! 

UNFORGETTABLE TOUR - AMITABH, ABHISHEK, ASHWAIRYA IN CONCERT!
AUGUST 2ND, 2008 @ 9:00PM
TOYOTA CENTER
TICKETS:  $65 AND UP
More Info:  Unforgettable Tour Information

Stay tuned into the SABAsearch Blog because we will be giving away 2 FREE Tickets to the concert!  Announcements to be made shortly. 

For all of those folks who waited until the last day to do your taxes…you can try begging these Desi Accountants in Houston to bail you out:

Pradeep Sulhan, PC
12703 Veterans Memorial
#105
Houston,TX 77014
281-583-2993

Sikhander A. Khan
Located in Pearland, Tx
Pearland,TX 77581
832-498-4990

Ajit Thakur, PC
6565 West Loop South
Suite 850
Bellaire,TX 77401
713-668-8007

Looking for one in your area?  Just visit the Money and Finance section on SABAsearch.com to find closest Indian Desi Accountant in your area of Houston.  Good luck!