On Broome Street, in the heart of Manhattan's fashionable Soho neighbourhood, a Hindu temple dedicated to the elephant-headed deity Ganesha is striving to develop its own "sense of cool". Its location allows it to draw guest teachers, such as spiritual author Deepak Chopra, and famous devotees – or at least influential fans – such as actor Willem Dafoe, who was recently spotted wearing a Broome Street Ganesha T-shirt.
“Here, it’s cool to come to the temple,” says Shruti Bramadesam, the temple’s assistant director. “It’s cool to be spiritual. It’s cool to meditate.”
This week, the 20-year-old temple is celebrating Lord Ganesha in a distinctly New York way, ending the 10-day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, with a visarjan – a ritual that sends Ganesha home by immersing the clay idol into a body of water – in the Hudson River.
Half yoga studio, half mandir
Founded by yoga teacher Eddie Stern in 2001, the Broome Street Ganesha Temple pitches itself not strictly as a Hindu house of worship, but as a sanctuary where passers-by can find a few minutes of peace amid the chaos of New York.
It’s a role churches and synagogues have long filled in the city’s bustle, but where many of Manhattan’s sacred spaces are ornate monuments to their wealthy patrons of years past, the temple’s natural light and minimalist space – half yoga studio and half mandir – imbibe the Soho vibe.
“The temple is rooted in tradition and history, but also caters to the needs of modern Hindus or people who are spiritual,” Bramadesam says, pointing to deities of Ganesha, as well as Sai Baba, Shiva, Krishna and Radha for busy New Yorkers wanting to drop in to worship.
“It pays homage to the traditional temples of India, but in a cool, modern, New York way,” she adds.
It’s also convenient for urbanites who otherwise would have to trek to Queens, where the largest and oldest Hindu temple in New York City is located.
Temple on TikTok
Bramadesam, who works in marketing as well as consulting at the temple, joined the house of worship in December 2021, bringing with her ideas for a full rebrand. She’s also intent on attracting more Gen Z members.
Thanks to her, this is the only temple with an active following on TikTok, while the temple’s Instagram account hosts puja livestreams.
Hinduism is facing a decline among young people who grew up adhering to their family's religious traditions, as are most institutional faiths operating in the US.
But while young people are not attending services as regularly as their parents, they have not given up on religion entirely. In a recent report on Gen Z Americans, the Springtide Research Institute calls this phenomenon “faith unbundled", suggesting that young people construct their faith “by combining elements such as beliefs, identity, practices and community from a variety of religious and non-religious sources, rather than receiving all these things from a single system”.
Root cause
For many young Hindus, Broome Street is a welcome reminder of the home they left behind.
“This would be a really nice place to come after the work week to decompress and have a moment of meditation,” says researcher and Toronto resident Diya Srinivasan. “It’s ultimately a space where there’s a piece of calm.”
Broome Street isn’t only for the young. Gautam Gupta had not found a temple community in his 23 years in Manhattan, and he found it difficult to get his teenage children interested in attending religious services with him. But when he brought his younger daughter to Broome Street this year, the two stayed for almost two hours.
“It was very peaceful,” Gupta says. “No devices!”
To Gupta, and other members of the Broome Street family, the ultimate goal is to build a community in Manhattan for all, no matter where they are in their spiritual journey. “The bigger the community, the more you feel like you belong to it,” he adds.
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
RESULT
Manchester City 1 Sheffield United 0
Man City: Jesus (9')
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
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ORDER OF PLAY ON SHOW COURTS
Centre Court - 4pm (UAE)
Gael Monfils (15) v Kyle Edmund
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Magdalena Rybarikova
Dusan Lajovic v Roger Federer (3)
Court 1 - 4pm
Adam Pavlasek v Novak Djokovic (2)
Dominic Thiem (8) v Gilles Simon
Angelique Kerber (1) v Kirsten Flipkens
Court 2 - 2.30pm
Grigor Dimitrov (13) v Marcos Baghdatis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Christina McHale
Milos Raonic (6) v Mikhail Youzhny
Tsvetana Pironkova v Caroline Wozniacki (5)
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
