Flushing's temple of trash

Re: Shree Swamanaryian Mandir, 43-38 Bowne St, Flushing

With summer approaching please explain how we get the city to do something about this garbage ! I've contacted Avella's office. This temple puts out between 50 and 100 bags of garbage a week and this spew from the bags as the garbage men put them in the garbage truck. These photos show three different spots on our block this crap has spewed ! Looks like a dinosaur threw up. Thank you. Anonymous

Gabe visits the Sikhs

Worth watching just to see Gabe's headgear at the end...

Mad bomber in Jamaica

From Fox 5:

Police on Monday released surveillance video of a suspect in a string of possible bias-related firebombings in Queens on New Year's Day and announced $12,000 in reward money for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

One clip shows the arsonist tossing a lit Molotov cocktail that spilled its flaming contents onto the lawn in front of a home at 88-20 170th St. that also houses a Hindu temple.

Cops say the firebug is also behind similar attacks that took place at the Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation Islamic center, the 179th Street Deli and a home at 146-62 107th Ave.

All of the incidents took place between about 8pm and 10:15pm on Sunday.

No one was injured, but the 107th Avenue home caught fire and was badly damaged.

Nassau County police are also investigating a similar incident in which a bottle filled with gasoline was thrown at a house on Glafil Street in Elmont around 9:40pm on Sunday.

The suspect in the Queens cases was described as a black man between 25 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches and weighing 200 pounds.

When last seen, he was wearing a black jacket and baseball cap, and he fled the scene in a light-colored, four-door sedan.

Police were looking into whether the fires were hate crimes.

From Nepal to Ridgewood with love

From Crains:

“Ridgewood is going to be a Little Nepal,” said Shree Parajuli, president of the Ridgewood Nepalese Society.

They have a ways to go. So far, aside from the Gyawalis' nail salon and a few delis, Ridgewood boasts few Nepalese businesses—particularly eateries—that might act as magnets. But the society's members make up in energy what they lack in sheer numbers. For the past two years, they have held an annual blood drive and have organized events like street cleanings. But their largest project by far is the plan to erect a temple and cultural center in Ridgewood.

Last month, the society took a major step in that direction, signing a contract to buy a vacant 5,000-square-foot plot for $399,000. The scheduled closing date for the property—at 1647 Hancock St., a block from Myrtle Avenue and across the street from P.S. 75—is Oct. 25.

Construction of the Durga Temple and Nepalese Cultural Center, which will have a pagoda-style roof, should start early next year, according to Mr. Parajuli. With the help of Deen Bandhu Pokhrel, a Nepalese spiritual leader who visited New York for a week last summer, the society raised $537,000. The aim is to raise an additional $1 million to complete its project, a goal brought closer with every new Nepalese arrival in Ridgewood.

“The community has definitely grown a lot,” said Luna Ranjit, executive director of Adhikaar, a 6-year-old Nepalese nonprofit offering English-language classes and other services. While the most recent census counted only 6,000 Nepalese in the entire city, community leaders on the ground in southern Queens reckon that number is actually a between 20,000 and 30,000. More than three-quarters of them, according to survey conducted late last year by Adhikaar, arrived in the past decade. Ridgewood alone now boasts close to 1,900 Nepalese, according to Nepalese Society estimates.

Churches and synagogues closing? Hardly mentioned unless a media-savvy person pushes really hard to stop it.

Jews & Christians = bad
Everyone else = good

People from exotic lands coming here and building a temple? The local media will cream their jeans covering this one! Is this really Crain's type of material?

When Ringling Bros features elephants, they get called out for animal cruelty. When an Indian temple uses them in a special ceremony, the NY Times puts a video of it on their front page as a wonderful example of diversity.

The hypocrisy is enough to make you gag.

Riot at Sikh temple

From the NY Post:

A holy war erupted yesterday at a Sikh temple in Queens -- where worshippers wielding swords and cricket bats interrupted a prayer session to attack their rivals in a vicious power struggle, police and witnesses said.

Rival factions at the Baba Makhan Shah Lobana Sikh Center in South Richmond Hill have been bickering for months over control, authorities and members said.

The dispute reached a bloody climax yesterday when the infighting turned violent, accompanied by screams, taunts and death threats.

The alleged attackers -- armed with at least one sword about 40 inches long, and another sword, according to a witness -- were part of the old guard that had been recently voted out of power but refused to accept the decision, even going to court to challenge the election.

Here's an update from the Daily News.

Hindu priest was a slave

From the Times Ledger:

A Hindu priest finally got some justice Wednesday after being forced to toil for $50 a week in a Corona temple for seven years.

A jury awarded Devendra Shukla more than $2 million after finding during an eight-day trial in federal court in Brooklyn that Sat Prakash Sharma, his wife Geeta and the Vishva Seva Ashram temple were civilly liable for forced labor, involuntary servitude and human trafficking against the 34-year-old Indian immigrant, according to Shukla’s lawyer, Sanjay Chaubey. Sat Sharma is the temple’s director and president and Geeta Sharma sits on its board.

Krishnan Chittur, the Sharmas’ attorney, vehemently disagreed with the verdict, saying it “was contrary to the weight of the evidence” and that the court had provided him with a briefing schedule for proceedings to have the verdict overturned on appeal.

Before Shukla came to America, he was told he would be paid $500 per week and receive free room and board for working as a priest at the temple, located at 104-38 Corona Ave., but when he arrived, he was forced to live in a tiny, cell-like room, and his employers paid him only $50 per week, for a total of $21,000 in seven years, Chaubey said.

He was forced to work days as long as 18 hours, doing all matter of tasks including ministering, construction work, janitorial duties and more, and the Sharmas used fear tactics to ensure he did not go to authorities or flee his situation, according to Chaubey.

Shukla was awarded about $2.8 million by the jury but the amount was lowered by $500,000 because Shukla may have improperly discussed certain details of the case with journalists, according to Chaubey.

Chittur contended that much of the evidence that Chaubey introduced was “fabricated” and that Shukla was free to move about, was paid the full $500 per week, lived in a nice basement room, was running businesses via laptop and that witnesses countered many of his grievances.

We're afraid to ask...

"Is the Bowne St Hindu temple getting crappified?

If they leave the new wall like that, it sure is. Will have to see..." --k.

Um...Frank?